Right to redeem them by his Alliance and Propinquity for he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all one and that he might undergo Sufferings even to death for the price of their Redemption and the remedy of their Infirmities Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of Flesh and Blood he also likewise took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Lives subject to Bondage The Devil is said to have the Power of Death 1. Because he induces Men to commit Sin that meritoriously renders them liable to Death He tempted the first Man cum effectu and was a Murderer from the beginning 2. In that he inspires them with furious Thoughts and inflames their Passions from whence proceed Strifes and Wars that efficiently cause Death He is supream in all the Arts of Mischief and always intent upon Evil. 'T is by his Instigation that Men become like raging Beasts animated and bent on mutual Slaughter 3. Because he is many times the Executioner of God's Wrath and inflicts Death upon rebellious and incorrigible Sinners 'T is recorded by the Psalmist That God cast upon the Egyptians the fierceness of his Anger Wrath Indignation and Trouble by sending evil Angels Those Princes of the Air the Instruments of the Thunder and fiery Storm of Hail that destroyed them 4. Because he makes Death more formidable to Sinners by heightning their guilty Fears of God's Tribunal The false Spirit tempts Men to sin by many Blandishments but afterward he is a severe Accuser of them to God and to themselves Lastly This Title may signify his tormenting Sinners with unrelenting Cruelty in Hell which is the second Death Now these Evils being the penal Consequence of Sin our Saviour by his Death appeas'd the injur'd Justice of God and thereby destroyed the cruel Tyranny of the Devil As the Lamb of God in the notion of a Sacrifice he overcomes our spiritual Enemies Sin Satan and Death lie vanquish'd at the foot of his Cross. Besides our Saviour having felt such Sorrows and Infirmities as are usual to his People by that correspondence and resemblance between them is compassionately inclin'd to relieve them I shall now insist upon the blessed Priviledg of Believers set down in the Text viz. That Jesus Christ by his Death frees his People from the servile tormenting fear of Death In prosecuting the Point I shall 1. Consider the Account the Scripture gives of Death's entrance into the World 2. Shew what the fear of Death includes and the Bondage consequent to it 3. How the Death of Christ frees us from the thraldom of that Fear 4. Who are partakers of this blessed Priviledg And then apply it I. The Scripture gives an account of Death's entrance into the World in a threefold Respect 1. As the Desert of Sin 2. As the Effect of the divine Decree 3. As the Sentence of the Law 1. As the Desert of Sin The first Design of the Creator was his own Glory in conjunction with the Happiness of Man He was made accordingly holy in Perfection placed in Paradise and his State contained all the Ingredients of Felicity proper to his Nature He was capable of dying as sad Experience proves yet no Accident from without no Distemper from within had impair'd his Vigour and made him actually subject to Death without Sin Whilst innocent he was immortal not from everlasting Principles of Nature but by Divine Preservation of which the Tree of Life was the ordained Means and sacramental Pledg For God unchangeably loves his own Image and though by his Sovereignty and absolute Power he may resume the Being he gives yet his Goodness and Covenant were a sacred assurance that Mans happy Life should run parallel with his perseverance in his Duty This Immortality was not the singular Priviledg of Adam's Person but had been the Inheritance of all his Progeny But he soon revolting from his just Obedience of Immortal became Mortal and according to the original Establishment of Propagation transmitted his Nature with the guilt and poison of Sin to all his Posterity Thus by one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned As his Obedience had been rewarded so his Rebellion is punish'd in all that naturally descend from him From hence it is that so numerous a part of Mankind are cut off before the commission of actual Sin Death enters into the Forge of Life and destroys the Conception that newly began to live And what is more righteous than that Man when he disobeyed the Author of Life should forfeit his Life and Blessedness The Soul voluntarily lost the spiritual Life by forsaking God therefore unwillingly loses the natural Life by expulsion from the Body The Apostle says the Wages of Sin is Death not only that of the Body but the Death of the Soul which is a dreadful Concomitant of it And from hence we may discover the false Philosophy of the wisest Heathens in their Opinion of Death They judged it to be the primary necessity and condition of Nature fix'd by irresistible Fate and not understanding the true and just reason of its coming into the World they could not apply a sufficient Remedy against its Evil. 2. As the Effect of the divine Decree respecting Sin This is discovered by Revelation in the Word of God and by the real execution of it It is appointed to Men once to die This Decree is universal and unrepealable One Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh like the ebbing and flowing of the Sea in its stated Periods Nothing can interrupt or frustrate this Appointment There are divers Conditions of Men and various ways of living in the World some are high in Dignity others are level with the Earth some walk in a Carpet-way smooth and easy others in a thorny and troublesom some walk on the golden Sands others on the Mire but the same uncontroulable necessity of dying involves all And whatever the way be whether pleasant or doleful yet every one passes in it with equal Steps measured by the same invariable spaces of Hours and Days and arrive at the same common End of Life Those who are regarded as visible Deities amongst Men that can by their Breath raise the Low and depress the Lofty that have the Lives of Millions in their Power yet when the ordained Time is come as they cannot bribe the accusing Conscience for a minute's Silence so neither delay Death I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like Men. 3. Death is to be considered as the Sentence of the Law The reasonable Creature was made under a Law the Rule of his Actions The moral Law directed him how to continue in his holy and blessed State To which was annex'd the Precept of not eating of the
the Soul to Eternal Vengeance for the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a Season 3. Let us stedfastly believe and frequently consider that Eternal Death is the Wages of Sin that we may renounce it with the deepest Abhorrence and forsake it for ever We are assured from the Wisdom and Compassion of our Saviour that 't is a powerful Means to mortify the Inclination to sin and to induce us to prevent and resist all Temptations The subtile Tempter cannot present any Motives that to a rectified Mind will make Sin eligible Let the Scales be even and put into one all the Delights of the Senses all the Pleasures and Honours of the World that are the Elements of Carnal Felicity how light are they against the Heavenly Glory Will the Gain of the World compensate the Loss of the Soul and Salvation for ever If there were any possible comparison between deluding transient Vanities and the Happiness that is substantial and satisfying for ever the Choice would be more difficult and the Mistake less culpable but they vanish into nothing in the Comparison According to the Judgment of Sense would any one chuse the enjoyment of the most exquisite Pleasures for a Year and afterwards be content to burn in a Furnace for a Day much less to enjoy them for a Day and to burn for a Year What stupid Brutes are they who for momentany Delights incur the fiery Indignation of God for ever Try but the Finger with the Flame of a Candle you will soon discover your weakness Will the remembrance of sensual Delights allay the Torments of the Damned When Carnal Lusts are most inflamed and Objects are present Pain will extinguish all the Pleasure of the Senses And if actual Enjoyment cannot afford Delight when the Body is under a Disease will the Reflections upon past Pleasures in the Fancy and Memory refresh the Damned in their extream Torments No the remembrance will infinitely increase their Anguish that for such seeming and short Pleasures they brought upon themselves Misery intolerable without Ease or End O that Men would strip Sin of its disguises and wash off its flattering Colours and look into its odious Nature and to the consequential Evils of it in the next World O that they would consider they hang by slender Strings a little Breath that expires every Minute over the bottomless Pit and that within a little while nothing will remain of the Pleasures of Sin but the undying Worm and the ever-living Flames This would be a means to raise and preserve in them an invincible Resolution and Reluctancy against all temptations to sin and provoke God But how hardly are Men induced to exercise their Minds on this terrible Object They think least of Hell who have most reason to consider it To this I must add that the meer fear of Hell and the judicial impression upon Conscience from it is not sufficient to convert Men to God For that servile Affection though it may stop a Temptation and hinder the eruption of a Lust into the gross Act yet does not renew the Nature and make Men Holy and Heavenly There may be a respective dislike of Sin with a direct Affection to it Besides that Religion that is the meer Effect of Fear will be according to the Nature of its Principle with resistance and trouble wavering and inconstant for tormenting Fear is repugnant to the humane Nature and will be expelled if possible In short the fear of Hell may be only a natural Affection that recoils from what is painful to Sense Therefore 't is the great Design of the Gospel by the fear of Hell as a powerful Preparative to make way for the Love of God who offers Pardon and Indempnity to all returning Sinners and for the Hope of Heaven the blessed Reward promised to them No Offers of Mercy will prevail to make Sinners to yield themselves till they are storm'd by the Terrors of the Lord. But when the fear of Hell has made a Breach Divine Grace enters and takes possession As the Virtue of the Loadstone when encompass'd and arm'd with Iron is increas'd and draws a far greater weight than when 't is naked and single thus the Attractives of Heaven are more powerful to move the Hearts of Men when enforced from the Terrors of Hell Now the Love of God and the Hope of Heaven are spiritual Affections and the Obedience that flows from them is voluntary from the intire consent of the Soul and persevering Lastly From the consideration of the Punishment determin'd for Sin we may understand how dear our Engagements are to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Rector and Judg of the World would not release the Guilty without a Ransom nor the Surety without Satisfaction and the Son of God most willingly and compassionately gave his precious Blood the Price of our Redemption He obtain'd the Spirit of Holiness to illuminate our Minds to incline our Wills to sanctify our Affections without whose Omnipotent Grace neither the Hopes or Fears of things Spiritual and Future would ever have cleansed and changed our Hearts and Lives We are naturally as senseless as the Dead as to what concerns our everlasting Peace blind and brutish and without fear should plunge our selves into Destruction if the Spirit of Power and of a sound Mind did not quicken us and direct us in the way to everlasting Life O that we might feel our dear Obligations to him who has delivered us from the Wrath to come and purchast for us a Felicity perfect and without end I would not lessen and disparage one Divine Work to advance and extol another but 't is a Truth that shines with its own Light and is declar'd by our Saviour that our Redemption from Hell to Heaven is a more excellent Benefit than our Creation in as much as our Well-being is better than our Being and eternal Misery is infinitely worse than mere not being Our Saviour speaks of Judas It had been better for him if he had never been born How engaging is the Love of Christ who rais'd us from the Bottom of Hell to the Bosom of God the Seat of Happiness If his Perfections were not most amiable and attractive yet that he died for us should make him the Object of our most ardent Affections To those who believe he is precious to those who have felt their undone Condition and that by his Merits and Mediation are restor'd to the Favour of God that are freed from tormenting Fears and revived with the sweetest Hopes he is and will be eminently and eternally precious Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever FINIS Books writ by William Bates D. D. and sold by B. Aylmer THE Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ Or Discourses wherein is shewed how the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness Power and Truth of God
For the clearing this we are to consider that Sin Satan and Death are Enemies in combination against Man in his mortal State and the destructive Power of Satan and Death is from Sin When Man renounced his Creator and natural Lord he was judicially given up to Satan as the Executioner of Vengeance and to the Power of Death Such is the Order rather the Confusion in the World by Sin The Empire of Satan and Death is built on the Ruins of our Innocence Now the Son of God came from his Throne in Heaven to deliver us And whereas there are two ways of obtaining freedom from Captivity either by Ransom or by Power and Rescue in both respects our deliverance from Bondage to these Capital Enemies is ascribed to the Death of Christ. 'T is called our Ransom and that in its strict Notion has a respect to Captivity There is one God and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all His Life was the full price of our Liberty and Salvation God does not pardon Sin and release from Punishment by a pure absolute Act of his Will and Authority as a Creditor forgives a Debtor but in such a way as to preserve the Rights of Justice inviolate Therefore when Man was devoted to Death our Redeemer exchang'd Conditions with him and offer'd up his precious Blood as our Ransom to God in the quality of the King and Judg of all Such was the Dignity of his Person that the entire World the Heavens and the Earth with all their Inhabitants are of less value to him than the basest Dross to refined Gold Such was the greatness of his Sufferings in which the highest degree of Obedience and the lowest degree of Humility were conspicuous as to be a valuable Compensation to obtain eternal Redemptâ—â—â— for us Now when God the supreme Judâ—â— satisfied Satan forfeits the right he 〈◊〉 to torment us and is divested of hâ—â— Dominion over our Wills which thâ— justly permitted was an usurpation upon God's Right in Man that can neveâ— be extinguish'd 'T is said by the Apostle that our Saviour blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his Cross He abolish'd the use of the Ceremonial Law that was an Evidence and Enditement of their Guilt who performed it and the Curse of the Moral Law It follows and having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Our Saviour died victoriously the Tree of Infamy on which he suffered was the Trophy of his Conquest His Death disarm'd Satan of his Weapons whereby he subdued Us Sin the Law and Death for though his actual Triumph was in his Resurrection and Ascension to Glory yet it is justly ascribed to his Death for that meritoriously open'd the Grave at his Resurrection and Heaven at his Ascension And here by the way 't is most worthy of observation that our Deliverance from our spiritual and most deadly Enemies is equally righteous as admirable and glorious for our suffering Saviour appeas'd the Wrath of God and broke the Powers of Darkness The Wisdom and Love of God had their Designs in his Death as well as the Malice and Rage of Satan as Lines that are opposite in the Circumference meet in the Centre And as from the Tyranny of Satan so the Death of our Redeemer is our redemption from Death as to the Curse and final Dominion of it nay has made it a blessed Advantage to us 1. The Curse is removed Death considered as the Wages of Sin is all sting and poison the consequent of the spiritual Death and the introduction to eternal Death The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law Death hath its wounding Power from Sin and Sin from the Law that forbids it that discovers its Nature and enhanses the measure of its Guilt and denounces condemnation for it Now our Saviour having in our stead subjected himself to Death the penalty of the Law for Sin There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Death inflicted on the Saints has not that relation to the guilt of Sin as to be properly satisfaction to revenging Justice There are no petty payments to be made by our Sufferings after his compleat Satisfaction to God The Lord laid on him the Iniquities of us all 'T is indeed still a declaration of God's holy Displeasure against Sin for that originally open'd the way of its coming into the World and sometimes by the immaturity or manner of it 't is a chastisement upon good Men for Sin that is to make them renew their Repentance and mortify their carnal Affections that fasten them to the World For though after the last act of Expiration there is no place for Repentance yet in the approaches of Death the Soul is strongly excited by the Call of God to review its State and make solemn preparation to be found of him in Peace But 't is not in a strict sense the malediction and vengeance of the Law executed upon them The Serpent is turn'd into a Rod of Correction in the hands of our Heavenly Father for their good As the Apostle speaking of some that for their profaning the Lord's Table were fallen asleep adds that when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World A Believer shall not be hurt of the second Death From hence it is that in the Book of Life the Scriptures the Death of the Saints is called a Sleep Saint Paul argues If we believed that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 'T is observable how the Apostle varies the expression Jesus died and the Saints sleep in him for he sustained Death with all its Terrors that it might be a calm Sleep to his People They enjoy as perfect a Rest in the Beds of Dust as ever in the softest Down Stephen in the midst of a shower of Stones fell asleep Believers die in Peace The Righteous is taken from the Evil to come he enters into Peace Being reconciled to God through the Blood of Christ they are not terrified at his Call but with sweet tranquillity resign their Souls unto him Lord now let thy Servant depart in Peace for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation There is a vast difference in God's account between the Death of the Righteous and the Wicked As the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was taken down with care upon their change of station and delivered to the Levites charge in order to the raising of it again with honour but the House incurably infected with the Leprosy was pluck'd down with violence and thrown into an unclean
most solemnly publish'd to the World 'T is therefore said the God of Peace raised him from the Dead the Act is most congruously ascribed unto God invested with that Title because his Power was exerted in that glorious Work after he was reconciled by the Blood of the Covenant Briefly Our Saviour's Victory over Death was obtained by dying his Triumph by rising again He foil'd our common Enemy in his own Territories the Grave His Death was a Counter-poison to Death it self as a bruised Scorpion is a noble Antidote against its Venom Indeed his Death is incomparably a greater Wonder than his Resurrection For 't is apparently more difficult that the Son of God who originally possesses Immortality should die than that the humane Body united to him should be raised to a glorious Life It is more conceivable that God should communicate to the humane Nature some of his Divine Perfections Impassibility and Immortality than that he should submit to our lowest Infirmities Sufferings and Death Now the Resurrection of Christ is the argument and claim of our happy Resurrection For God chose and appointed him to be the Example and Principle from whom all Divine Blessings should be derived to us Accordingly he tells his Disciples in a fore-cited Scripture Because I live ye shall live also Our Nature was rais'd in his Person and in our Nature all Believers Therefore he is called the first-fruits of them that sleep because as the first Fruits were a pledg and assurance of the following Harvest and as from the condition of the first Fruits being offered to God the whole Harvest was entitled to a Consecration so our Saviour's Resurrection to the Life of Glory is the earnest and assurance of ours He is called the first-born among the Dead and owns the Race of departed Believers as his Brethren who shall be restored to Life according to his Pattern He is the Head Believers are his Members and therefore shall have Communion with him in his Life The effect is so infallible that now they are said to be raised up together and made to sit in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus If his Victory over our Enemies had been imperfect and he had saved himself with difficulty and hazard as it were by Fire in the Apostle's expression our Redemption had not been accomplish'd But his Passion was triumphant and is it conceivable that he should leave the Saints his own by so many dear titles under the power of Death If Moses the Deliverer of Israel from the Tyranny of Pharaoh would not suffer any thing of theirs not an hoof to remain in the House of Bondage Will our great Redeemer be less perfect in his Work Shall our last Enemy always detain his Spoils our Bodies in the Grave This would reflect upon his Love and Power 'T is recorded to confirm our Hopes how early his Power was displayed in forcing the Grave to release its chained Captives And many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many What better Earnest can we have that the strength of Death is broken From what he has done to what he is able to do the Consequence is clear The Apostle tells us He will raise our vile Bodies and change them like unto his glorious Body by that Power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Our Redemption will then be compleat and all the bitterness of Death past The Redemption of the Soul is accomplish'd from Sin and Misery immediately after Death but the Redemption of the Body is the last in order and reserved to crown our Felicity at the Great Day Then Death shall be swallowed up in Victory abolish'd for ever And O the joyful reunion of those dear Relatives after such a Divorce when the Body that was so long detained in the loathsome Grave shall be reformed with all glorious Perfections and be a fit Instrument for the Soul and partaker with it in consummate Blessedness and Immortality 'T is said that those that wear rich Clothing are in Kings Houses but what are all the Robes of costly Folly wherein earthly Courtiers appear to the Brightness and Beauty of the Spiritual Body wherewith the Saints shall be clothed to qualify them for the Presence of the King of Kings and to be in his House for ever But O the miserable Condition of the Wicked in that Day Death now breaks their Bodies and Souls into an irreconcileable Enmity and how sad will their Conjunction be The Soul will accuse the Body to have been Sin 's Solicitor continually tempting to Sensualities and the Body will upbraid more than ever it allured the Soul for its wicked Compliance Then the Sinner shall be an entire Sacrifice burning but never consumed Now from the assurance of a blessed Resurrection by Christ the forementioned Fear of Death is conquered in Believers If the Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls into Bodies the invention of Pythagoras inspired his Disciples with that fiery vigour as to encounter the most present and apparent Dangers being fearless to part with the Life that should be restored how much more should a Christian with a holy Confidence receive Death knowing that the Life of his Body shall not be finally lost but renewed in a blessed Eternity The fourth General to be considered is the Persons that have an Interest in this blessed Priviledg This Inquiry is of infinite moment both for the awakning of the Secure who vainly presume upon their Interest in the Salvation of the Gospel and for the confirming and encouraging the Saints And we have an infallible rule of trial declared by St. John He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life All the excellent and comfortable Benefits procur'd by our Saviour are communicated only to those who are united to him Particularly with respect to the present Subject Justification that great Blessing of the Gospel the compleat Pardon of Sins that disarms Death of its Sting is not common to all that are Christians in title but is a Priviledg with a limitation There is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus vitally as their Head from whom are derived spiritual Influences and judicially as their Advocate in Judgment and such are described by this infallible Character who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit The Blessedness after Death that is assured by a Voice from Heaven is with this precise restriction exclusive of all others Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them The glorious Resurrection at the last Day when the Bodies of the Saints that now rest in Hope shall be incorruptible and immortal is the consequence of Union with him Thus the Apostle declares As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made
partaker of the Divine Nature and elevates him above himself This holy Change is wrought by Divine Power Our Saviour tells Nicodemus Except a Man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God The Analogy of a new Birth signifies that 't is entirely the Work of the sanctifying Spirit that conveys a Principle of Life in order to the Functions of it 'T is the living Impression of God the sole Efficient and Exemplar of it the Fruit and Image of the Divine Vertues 'T is exprest by the new Creature The production of it is attributed to God's Power displaying it self in a peculiar excellent way even in that precise manner as in making the World For as in the first Creation all things were made originally of nothing so in the second the Habit of Grace is infused into the Soul that was utterly void of it and in which there was as little preparation for true Holiness as of Nothing to produce this great and regular World And altho there is not only an absolute privation of Grace but a fierce resistance against it yet creating invincible Power does as infallibly and certainly produce its Effect in forming the new Creature as in making the World From hence it appears that preventing renewing Grace is so intirely the Work of God as his forming the humane Body from the Dust of Earth at first But with this difference the first Creation was done without any sense in the Subject of the efficiency of the Divine Power in producing it but in the new Creation Man feels the vital Influence of the Spirit applying it self to all his Faculties reforming and enabling them to act according to the quality of their Nature And by the way we may observe the admirable Grace shewed to Man in the renovation of his corrupted Nature In the composition of his Being are united a Spirit like the Angels and a Body like terrestrial Animals by which he partakes of the spiritual and natural Life but he has peculiar Favours conferred upon him For whereas his Soul sinn'd with the Angels and his Body dies with the Beasts yet God is pleased to restore them by his glorious Power An Angel after Sin never repents and is therefore incapable of Pardon and irrecoverably disinherited of Heaven a Beast after Death never revives but though Man sins and dies yet his Soul may be renewed by Divine Grace and his Body shall be raised in an incorruptible Glory Now the indispensable necessity of this holy Change is evident from the Words of our Saviour for he speaks universally Except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God He does not simply declare that an unregenerate Man shall not but with the greatest Emphasis cannot to signify an absolute impossibility of it The Jews highly presumed of the priviledg of their carnal Birth they sprang from the pure and noble Blood of Abraham God's Friend they had the Seal of the Holy Covenant mark'd in their Flesh and hence it was proverbial amongst them that every Israelite should have a part in the World to come But our Saviour overthrows this vain conceit and tells them that the supernatural Birth entitles to the supernatural Inheritance Circumcision then and Baptism now without real Grace is an ineffectual sign of no avail to Salvation In the quality of Sons we are Heirs of God's Kingdom And that honourable Relation we have upon a double account by Adoption and Regeneration Divine Adoption is not a meer change of our state a naked Declaration that one shall be dignified with the Title of God's Son but a holy Nature is always infused into the Person whereby he is made like to God in his Excellencies In this it differs from humane Adoption that gives the Name and Arms the Honour and Estate of the Adopter to a Person without conveying any of his intellectual or moral Endowments Whom God adopts he begets to a Divine Life Besides our Saviour purchased this high Priviledg for us God sent his Son made of a Woman under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons By Union with him we receive the investiture of this Dignity Now whoever is in Christ is a new Creature For the quickning Spirit that is to the Soul what the Soul is to the Body the principle of Life and Strength of Beauty and Motion and an active purifying Faith that is influential upon all other Graces are the Band of that vital Union So that as all in Adam are universally corrupt by the first Birth all that are in Christ are made holy by a new Birth But of this I shall speak in the next Chapter more fully under a distinct Head Briefly the Spirit of Grace that sanctifies is the Spirit of Adoption that seals our Right to that Kingdom Now the Reasons why this Change must be in order to our obtaining of Heaven are these 1. There is an exquisite Wisdom shines in all God's Works in disposing them for the ends to which they are appointed and is it not monstrously absurd to imagin he will admit into his Presence and Kingdom those that are absolutely unqualified for its Blessedness and opposite to its Purity 2. His invariable Justice excludes for ever all unholy Persons from Heaven For in the last Judgment God will be glorified as a Governour in the distribution of Rewards with respect to the Obedience and Disobedience of Men. 'T is worthy of observation that the Actions of God on the reasonable Creatures are of two sorts Some proceed from his soveraign good Pleasure of which there is no motive or reason in the Subjects on which they are terminated Thus by a free and insuperable Decree when all Mankind laps'd and miserable was in his view he chose some to be Vessels of Mercy and by priviledg separated them from the rest that finally perish Now what induc'd him to place a singular Love on the Elect There was nothing in them to incline his Compassion being equally guilty and depraved with the rest of the Progeny of Adam This difference therefore is to be resolved into his unaccountable and adorable Will as the sole cause of it Thus God declares it to be his glorious Prerogative I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion on whom I will have Compassion And this is no unjust acceptance of Persons For as a Benefactor he may dispense his own Favours as he pleases A Gift from meer and arbitrary Bounty may be bestowed on some and not on others without injustice But there are other Actions of God for which there is an evident reason in Men on whom they are terminated Thus as the supreme Judg without respect of Persons he will judg and reward every Man according to his Works The Evangelical Law as was toucht on before is the rule of eternal Judgment and gives a right from the gracious
Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil only as a mark of his Subjection and for the trial of his Obedience This Precept had an infallible Sanction by the most high Law-giver In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the Death Man did not keep this Command of so easy Observation and justly incurr'd its doom As Sin is the violation of the Law so Death is the violation of the Sinner in his Nature and Felicity retorted from the Law The Deaths of Men are very different in their kinds and are comprised in the words of David concerning Saul The Lord shall smite him or his Day shall come to die or he shall descend into the Battel and perish Sometimes they are cut off by the immediate flaming Hand of God for the more exemplary revenge of Sin sometimes by surprising Accidents sometimes by bloody Contentions sometimes by consuming Diseases But though Death be not uniform yet 't is always the execution of the Law upon Offenders As of those who are condemned by humane Justice some suffer a more easy and honourable Death others a more disgraceful and torturing some are beheaded others are crucified yet all die as Malefactors Thus some die a natural Death others a violent some by a gentle preparing Sickness without reluctation others die upon the Rack by sharp Pains some die attended with their Friends and all Supplies to sweeten their Passage others forsaken of all Comforters yet Death is the same Sentence of the Law upon all Men. And this if duly considered makes it terrible in whatever shape it appears II. The next Thing to be considered is What the fear of Death includes and the Bondage that is consequent to it This I shall explain and amplify by considering four Things 1. The nature of Fear in general as applicable to the present Subject 2. The particular Causes that render Death so fearful 3. The degree of this Fear express'd by Bondage 4. How it comes to pass that Men are not always under the actual fear of Death but subject to the Revolutions of it all their Lives 1. I will consider the nature of Fear in general as applicable to the present Subject Fear is a Passion implanted in Nature that causes a flight from an approaching Evil. Three things are requisite to qualify the Object and make it fearful 1. The Evil must be apprehended Knowledg or at least Suspicion excites Fear by representing an Evil that is likely to seize upon us Till the Mind discern the Danger the Passions are unmoved and imaginary Evils by the mere apprehension are as strongly fear'd as real 2. The Evil must be future For the naked Theory of the most pernicious Evil does not wound the Soul but the apprehension of falling under it If Reason can open an Expedient to prevent an Evil this Passion is quiet And Fear precisely regards its Object as to come Present Evils induce Grief and Sorrow past Evils by reflection affect with Joy and give a quicker relish to present Felicity Approaching Evils alarm us with Fear 3. The Evil must be apprehended as prevalent to make it fearful For if by comparison we find our Strength superior we either neglect the Evil for its levity or determine to encounter it and resistance is the proper effect of Anger not of Fear But when an impendent Evil is too hard for us the Soul shrinks and recoils from it Now all these Qualifications that make an Object fearful concur in Death 1. 'T is an Evil universally known The frequent Funerals are a real demonstration that speaks sensibly to our eyes that Death reigns in the World On every side Death is in our view and the shadow of it darkens our brightest Days 2. 'T is certainly future All the wretched Accidents of this Life such as concern us in our Persons Relations Estates and Interests a thousand Disasters that a jealous Fear and active Fancy will extend and amplify as they may so they may not happen to us And from this mixture of contrary Possibilities from the uncertainty of event Hope that is an insinuating Passion mixes with Fear and derives Comfort For as sometimes a sudden Evil surprizes not forethought of so often the Evil that was sadly expected never comes to pass But what Man is he that lives and shall not see Death Who is so vain as to please himself with an imagination of Immortality here Though Men are distinguish'd in the condition of Living yet all are equal in the necessity of Dying Humane Greatness in every kind Nobility Riches Empire cannot protect from the sudden and Sovereign Hand of Death that overthrows all The most conspicuous difference in this World is between the Victorious and the Vanquish'd prostrate at their Feet but Death makes them equal Then the wretched Captive shall upbraid the proud Conqueror Art thou become weak as we Art thou become like us The Expressions of Scripture concerning the frailty of Man are often literally and precisely verified He is like the Grass in the morning it flourishes and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth Death is a prevalent insuperable Evil hence the proverbial Expression Strong as Death that subdues all cruel as the Grave that spares none 'T is in vain to struggle with the pangs of Death No Simples in Nature no Compositions of Art no Influence of the Stars no Power of Angels can support the dying Body or retain the flitting Soul There is no Man hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of Death and there is no discharge in that War The Body sinks in the Conflict and Death feeds on its prostrate Prey in the Grave 2. I shall consider more particularly the Causes that render Death so fearful to Men 1. In the apprehension of Nature 2. In the apprehension of Conscience 1. In the apprehension of Nature Death hath this Name engraven in its forehead Vltimum terribilium the Supreme of terrible things upon several accounts 1. Because usually Sickness and Pains languishing or tormenting make the first Changes in the Body and the natural Death is violent This Hezekiah complained of with a mournful accent He will cut me off with pining Sickness from day even to night thou wilt make an end of me I reckoned till morning that as a Lion so will he break all my Bones A Troop of Diseases are the forerunners of this King of Terrors There is a preceding Encounter and sometimes very fierce that Nature feels the cruel Victory before it yields to this Enemy As a Ship that is tost by a mighty Tempest and by the concussion of the Winds and Waves loses its Rudder and Masts takes in water in every part and gradually sinks into the Ocean So in the shipwrack of Nature the Body is so shaken and weakned by the violence of a Disease that the Senses the animal and vital Operations decline and at last are extinguish'd in Death
2. Death considered in the strictest propriety as destructive of the natural Being that is our first and most valuable Good in the order of Nature is the just object of Fear The Union between Soul and Body is very intimate and dear and like David and Jonathan they part unwillingly Nature has a share in the best Men and works as Nature St. Paul declares we would not be unclothed not finally put off the Body but have it glorified in conjunction with the Soul Our blessed Saviour without the least impeachment of the Rectitude and Perfection of his Nature express'd an averseness from Death and with submission to the divine Will desired a freedom from it His Affections were holy and humane and moved according to the quality of their Objects 3. The natural Consequents of Death render it fearful Life is the foundation of all natural Enjoyments and the Loss of it induces the loss of all for ever 'T is from hence that such Evils that are consistent with Life and deprive us only of some particular Content and Pleasure are willingly chosen rather than Death The forfeiture of Estate the degrading from Honour the confinement to a perpetual Prison the banishing from our native Country are less Penalties than Death There is a natural love of Society in Man and Death removes from all The Grave is a frightful Solitude There is no Conversation in the Territories of Darkness This also Hezekiah in his apprehensions of Death speaks of with Tears I shall see Man no more in the Land of the Living As in the Night the World is an universal Grave all Things are in a dead Silence Palaces Courts of Justice Temples Theaters Schools and all Places of publick Conversation are shut up the Noise and Rumour that keeps Men in continual Observation and Action ceases Thus when the Sun of this present Life is set all the Affairs and Business all the vain Joys of Company Feasting Dancing Musick Gaming ceases Every one among the Dead is confined to his sealed obscure Cell and is alone an entertainment for the Worms The Psalmist saith of Princes Their Breath goeth forth they return to the Earth in that very day their Thoughts their glorious compassing Thoughts perish This the Historian observes was verified in Julius Cesar After his assuming the Imperial Dignity he thought to reduce the numerous Laws of the Romans into a few Volumes comprising the Substance and Reason of all to enrich and adorn the City of Rome as was becoming the Regent of the World to epitomise the Works of the most learned Grecians and Romans for the publick Benefit And whilst he was designing and pursuing these and other vast and noble Things Death surprised him and broke off all his Enterprises At the terrible Gate that opens into Eternity Men are stripp'd of all their Honours and Treasures and as naked as they come into the World go out of it Be not thou afraid when one is made rich when the Glory of his House is increased For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away his Glory shall not descend after him Death equally vilifies makes loathsom and ghastly the Bodies of Men and reduces them to sordid Dust. In the Grave the Dust is as precious and powerful of one as of another Civil Distinctions are limited to the present time The prodigious Statue in Nebuhadnezzar's Vision Dan. 2.32 33 34 35. while it was upright the Parts were really and visibly distinct The Head was of fine Gold the Breast and Arms of Silver the Belly and Thighs of Brass the Legs of Iron the Feet part of Iron and part of Clay but when the Stone cut out without hands smote the Image upon the Feet then was the Iron the Clay the Brass the Silver and the Gold broken to pieces together and became like the Chaff the Wind carries away Who can distinguish between Royal Dust taken out of magnificent Tombs and Plebean Dust from common Graves Who can know who were rich and who were poor who had Power and Command who were Vassals who were remarkable by Fame who by Infamy They shall not say this is Jezebel not know this was the Daughter and Wife of a King The King of Babylon stiled Lucifer the bright Star of the Morning that possess'd the first Empire in the World was degraded by Death humbled to the Grave and exchanged all his glorious State for Worms and Putrefaction The Worm is spread under thee and the Worms cover thee In short Death separates Men from all their admired charming Vanities Now considering Man merely in the Order of Nature what Reflection is more fearful and tormenting than the necessity that cannot be over-ruled of parting for ever with all the Delights of Life Those who have ascended to the Throne that are arrived at the height of Temporal Happiness what a melancholy Prospect is before them of Death and the dark Grave When all things conspire to make Men happy here the sensitive Faculties and their Fruitions are ebbing and declining till then sink into Death the Whirlpool that will shortly swallow them up for ever This renders the Thoughts of Mortality so frightful and checks the freest enjoyments of carnal Pleasures 2. Death is fearful in the apprehension of Conscience as 't is the most sensible mark of God's Wrath that is heavier than Death and a Summons to give an account of all Things done in this Life to the righteous Judg of the World 'T is appointed to all Men once to die and afterward the Judgment The Penal Fear is more wounding to the Spirit than the Natural When the awakened Sinner presently expects the Citation to appear before the Tribunal above where no Excuses no Supplications no Priviledges avail where the Cause of eternal Life or Death must be decided and the awards of Justice be immediately executed O the Convulsions and Agonies of Conscience in that hour when the diseased Body cannot live and the disconsolate Soul dare not die what Anxieties surround it This redoubles the Terrors of Death that the first transmits to the second that was figured by it O the dismal aspect of Death riding on a pale Horse with Hell the black Attendant following This Fear surprized the Sinners in Sion Who among us can dwell with devouring Fire who among us can remain with everlasting burnings This made a Heathen the Governor of a Province to tremble before a poor Prisoner While Paul discoursed of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Felix trembled 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God who lives for ever and can punish for ever None is so powerful as God nothing so fearful as the guilty Conscience 3. The Degrees of this Fear are express'd by Bondage This Passion when regular in its Object and Degree is excellently useful 't is a wise Counsellor and faithful Guardian that plucks off the Mask from our Enemies and keeps Reason vigilant
and active to prevent a threatning Evil or to sustain it in the best manner 'T is observable in the brute Creatures that the Weak and Fearful are most subtile and ingenious to secure themselves and supply the want of Strength with Artifice But when Fear is inordinate 't is a tyrannous Master that vexes the weary Soul and hinders its free and noble Operations Cesar chose rather to be expos'd to sudden death than to be continually harrass'd with fears how to avoid it The Greek word implies the binding of the Spirit that causes an inward Slavery And in the Apostle's Writings the Spirit of Fear and the Spirit of Bondage are equivalent Ishbosheth when Abner provok'd by the Charge about Saul's Concubine imperiously threatned to translate the Kingdom to David was struck with such a fear that he could not answer Abner a word 2 Sam. 3.10 11. The sudden Passion stifled his Reply and reduc'd him to a defenceless Silence Now the fear of Death as 't is remiss or vehement such are the degrees of Bondage from it 1. It embitters the enjoyments of the present Life and makes the most prosperous in the World even in the fulness of their sufficiency to be in straits Though the Senses are pleased with the quick sweetness of Change from one Object to another yet the Soul cannot have a delightful undisturbed Fruition foreseeing that the stream of Pleasure will issue into the dead Sea Truly Light is sweet and 't is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun But how short is this Life with all its Pleasures in comparison of the Days of Darkness that follow Now though 't is our best Wisdom and truest Liberty to rejoice in this World as if we rejoiced not and frequently to meditate on the cooling Doctrines of Death and Judgment to repress the transports of the voluptuous Appetite yet since the Comforts of this Life are liberally indulged to us by the Love of God to be the Motives of our grateful and affectionate Obedience to sweeten our passage to Heaven we may with tranquillity of Spirit make a pure and chearful use of them in his Service and 't is an oppressing bondage when the disquieting anxious Fears of Death hinder our temperate enjoyment of his Favours and Blessings 2. The fear of Death oppresses the Souls of Men under a miserable Bondage to the Devil for his Dominion is maintain'd by the Allurements and Terrors of the World Though Men do not explicitly acknowledg his Soveraignty yet by voluntary yielding to his pleasing Temptations they are really his Slaves And the apprehension of temporal Evils especially of Death dress'd up in a frightful representation with its bloody Pomp is the strongest snare to the Soul The Faint-hearted prove false-hearted in the time of trial For the timerous Spirit being wholly intent how to avoid the incursion of a present Evil forgets or neglects what is indispensably to be done and thinks to find an excuse in the pretended necessity How many have been terrified from their clearest Duty and resolved Constancy To escape Death they have been guilty of the most insufferable Impieties by renouncing God their Maker and Saviour and worshipping the Devils for Deities Every Age presents sad Spectacles of many that choose Iniquity rather than Affliction that relinquish their Duty and by wicked Compliances save their Lives and lose their Souls Carnal Desires and carnal Fears are the Chains of Hell that retain Men Satan's Captives But what folly what madness is it for the avoiding the impotent fury of the Creature to venture on the powerful Wrath of God that exceeds all the Terrors that can be conceived by Fear This renders them more brutish than the Horse that starting at his Shadow springs over a desperate Precipice The Fearful are excluded from Heaven and cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for ever 3. The extream fear of Death and Judgment dejects and discourages the Soul from the use of means to prevent eternal Misery and induces a most woful Bondage Fear anticipates and exasperates future Evils for as Knowledg excites Fear so Fear encreases Knowledg by the uncessant working of the Thoughts upon terrible Objects The fearful Mind aggravates the foreseen Evil and distils the Poison from all the Circumstances and Consequences of it And when the Evil is apprehended as insuperable and indeclinable all endeavours to escape are cut off What a Philosopher observes of an Earthquake compared with other destructive Evils is true in this case There may be a safe retreat from Fire from Inundations from Storms from War from Pestilence but an Earthquake astonishes with so violent a perturbation that stops our flight from the imminent Danger So the vehement impressions of Fear from the approaches of Death and the severe executions upon the Sinner after it distracts the Mind and disables from flying from the Wrath to come These Fears are more heavy by the suggestions of Satan who represents God so terrible in his Majesty inexorable in his Justice and unchangeable in his Threatnings that all Hopes of obtaining his Favour are lost As the Egyptian Darkness was not meerly from the absence of the Sun but from feculent Vapours condensing the Air that it might be felt So these dark and fearful expectations of the Divine Wrath are not only from the withdrawing the Light of God's Countenance but from the Prince of Darkness that foul Spirit And as we read of the Egyptians that no Man arose from his place for three days as if they had been buried in that Darkness and deprived of all active Power and Motion so the despairing Soul sits down mourning at the Gates of Death totally disabled from prosecuting the Things that belong to its Peace 'T is Hope inspires and warms us with alacrity encourages our Endeavours Despair blunts our edg and industry The Soul suffers the hardest Bondage and the Condition is unexpressibly sad under the tyranny of this Fear O how enthralled how desolately miserable Despair does meritoriously and effectually ruin the Soul For whereas there is no Attribute more Divine no clearer Notion of the Deity than Love and Mercy this Passion disparages his Mercy as if Sin were more omnipotent than his Power to pardon and all the Tears that flow from it are so far from expiating that they encrease Guilt and whereas the believing view of Christ would as compleatly and presently recover the Soul-wounded Sinner as the Israelites were by looking to the ordained visible Sign of their Salvation Despair turns away the Eye from our Deliverer and fixes it upon Misery as remediless and final 4. How comes it to pass that Men are not always under the actual fear of Death but subject to the revolutions of it all their Lives The Seeds of this Fear are hid in the guilty Breasts of Men and at times especially in their Calamities break forth and kindle upon them In their Leisure and Retirement intercurrent thoughts of
Death and Judgment sting them by fits and make them uneasy The flashes of Conscience like moments of Lightning startle them but they relapse into their habitual stupidity And the account of it will be clear by considering the following Particulars 1. Men are apt to flatter themselves with the hopes of long Life and look upon Death at a great distance Tho there be a dying disposition in the youngest and strongest Persons though we live in a World of Casualties and Death lie in ambush to surprize us every day yet we are secure because Evils affect us according to their apprehended nearness A petty Constable that is troublesom and vexatious is more fear'd by his Neighbours than the Grand Signior with all his Executioners As remote Objects though of vast bigness are lessen'd to our sight so through the supposed interval of many years Death is look'd on with a diminution of its Terror But when Death presents it self before Men ready to dispatch them how formidable is its appearance Saul though renowned for his Valour yet when he understood by Revelation that to morrow he and his Sons should be in the state of the Dead there was no strength in him but he fell straitway all along on the Earth struck through with fear before he was wounded by the Arrows of the Philistines Belshazzar in the midst of his luxury and jolity attended with a thousand Lords and his Herd of Concubines inflam'd with Wine and therefore less capable of fear yet upon the sight of the fatal Hand writing on the Wall a few unknown Characters which his guilty Conscience before the Prophet Daniel came interpreted to be the Sentence of present Death how fearfully was his Countenance changed pale as a Carcass How suddenly did his Blood congeal and his warmest quickest Spirits die in his Heart His whole Body was seized by such a vehement trembling that his Joints were loosed and his knees smote one against another This is a representation of those who bid defiance to Death at a distance but when the fatal Hour is come and they hear the Sentence decreed against them God has numbred thy days and finish'd them thou art weighed in the ballance all thy Words and Actions thy Thoughts and Affections and art found wanting and thy Soul shall be divided from thy Body the one sent to Hell to suffer the undying Worm of Conscience the other to the Grave to be a Prey to the Worms of Corruption how are they overcome with horror 2. The continual succession of the Pleasures and Business of the World divert the Mind from the attentive strong contemplation of Death and the Consequences of it Pensive Thoughts are unwelcome and we studiously endeavour to cancel the memory of such things as afflict us 'T is said of the Wicked that God is not in all their Thoughts The consideration of the holy Inspector and Judg of their Actions is tormenting therefore they fill their Minds with earthly Imaginations to exclude the Divine Presence We read of those who to put far away the evil Day chaunted to the sound of the Viol and drank Wine in Bowls They are rock'd asleep with the motion of phantastick Vanities And Sleep takes away Fear but gives no safety 'T is recorded of Marius that after his Overthrow by Sylla he was always in consternation as if he heard the sound of the Trumpets and the noise of the victorious Army pursuing him And his Fears were no longer quiet than whilst charm'd with Wine and Sleep he therefore was continually drunk that he might forget himself his Enemy and his Danger Thus Men make a pitiful shift to forget their latter End and whilst they are following either secular Affairs or sensual Pleasures are unconcerned for what is to be hereafter But this Diversion will shortly be at an end for in their languishing hours when the wasted Body fails the carnal Mind and sensual Desires fail the Man then Conscience that spoke with a low Voice before is loud and terrible and like the rigid Exactor in the Parable that took his Debtor by the throat requires them to pay what they owe. 3. Some are so hardned in Infidelity that the Powers of the World to come make no Impression on their Hearts They mind but little and are less affected with invisible things They fortify themselves with gross Thoughts that the Spirit of Man vanishes with his Breath that Death is the end of this Life and not the beginning of another and feed without Fear Place one in the midst of destructive Evils but unseen or not believed and he is as fearless as a blind Person walking on the brink of a deep Pit Indeed there are none less disturbed with the Terrors of Death than the eminently Good or the extremely Bad for the one sort have a blessed Hope that Death will be to them an entrance into Life and live like the Angels with a Joy unspeakable and glorious The others are as sensual and secure as the Beasts that perish having extinguish'd the fear of eternal future Evils which is the proper passion of Reason The Apostle declares That knowing the Terror of the Lord we perswade Men to be reconcil'd to him before the Season of Mercy be expired But those who have suppress'd the natural Notions of Eternal Judgment as they think it beneath their Wisdom to be perswaded by the Promises of Heaven so beneath their Courage to be terrified with the Threatnings of Hell and triumph over the Ruines of Conscience But though wicked Infidels slight the Threatnings they shall not escape the Vengeance of God We read of Noah That being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear he prepared an Ark for the saving of his House His Fear was the native issue of his Faith But the profane World in whom Sense was predominant that despised the Oracle and trembled at no Judgments but what were acting on the visible Stage they ate and drank married and were given in marriage till swept away by the unfeared Inundation We read that Lot being certified by an embassy of Angels that a Deluge of Fire would in a few hours pour down from Heaven upon Sodom he most earnestly sollicited his Sons-in-Law Arise depart out of this Place for the Lord will destroy this City but they entertained his compassionate Advice with derision he seemed to them as one that mocked and were surprised by those fearful Flames that dispatch'd them from a Temporal Hell to that which is Eternal Thus 't was prophesied That in the last days there shall come Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the Promise of his coming But let them blaspheme and scorn the most sacred and terrible Truths let them perpetuate their excess of Riot and wild Mirth while they live Death will come and Judgment as sure as Death III. I now come to shew how the Death of Christ frees us from the tormenting fear of Death
place with execration Thus the death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord their Bodies are kept in the bosom of the Earth to be raised in Glory and the death of the Wicked is accurs'd In short as the Wood that Moses cast into the Waters of Marah by a miraculous virtue sweetned them so the Cross of Christ has taken away the malignity and bitterness of Death 2. Death is a blessed Advantage and enriching Gain to a Believer it brings him to the possession of that Good that incomparably exceeds the Evil that remains in it For the Death of a Saint is not total but as in the Ceremony of Purification from Leprosy one Bird was killed and the other let fly in the open Air the mysterious shadow of the Lepers being restored to a state of Liberty Thus when the Body dies and returns to the Earth the Spirit returns to God the Father of Spirits and Fountain of Life Our Saviour told the Jews I am the living Bread that came down from Heaven if any Man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread that I will give is my Flesh that I will give for the Life of the World The Heavenly Divine Life that is communicated by the Spirit of Christ to Believers remains entire when the sensitive Life is lost The natural Order is There is a time to be born and a time to die the supernatural is there is a time to die and a time to be born The Death of a Saint is a new Birth the pains of the dying Body are as Throws whereby the ripen'd Soul is delivered into the Land of the Living The happiness of a Saint after Death more particularly will appear by considering 1. The freedom he obtains from all afflicting Evils that are numberless here and from Sin the worst in its nature and the cause of all the rest The present World is a Labyrinth of Thorns in every state we meet with something to vex us You may as well count the Waves of the Sea when inraged by a Tempest as the Troubles to which in this mortal open state we are expos'd Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of Trouble A short Life and many Miseries O our unhappy Capacity the Body is liable to as many Diseases as there are Members and the Soul to as many Perplexities as Passions How often are the Scenes and Habits chang'd in the time of one Man He that lives in Pleasures must act the Mourner's part Our sweetest Comforts have hidden Stings and whatever is most pleasing may occasion bitter grief And usually holy Men have a greater portion of Afflictions here sometimes by the malignity and violence of the Wicked as under the Law the Lamb and the Dove were Sacrifices the Emblems of Innocence and Purity and Meekness whilst the Vulture and the Lion the greedy Devourers escaped This the Apostle declares of the Elect They are predestinated to be conformed to the Image of God's Son who trac'd out the Way to Heaven in his own Blood and by the Cross ascended to the Throne Sometimes more immediately Divine Providence afflicts them to preserve their Spirits from the tainted Pleasures of the World and for other holy Ends but there is a Rest for the People of God in Heaven Besides there are Relicks of Sin in the best of the Saints here Indeed Sin is depos'd from Sovereignty and Rule the imperious Lusts are crucified but not quite expir'd As those that were nail'd to the Cross in their Hands and Feet the parts least vital and most sensible died a painful lingring Death Still the Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh. As there is a complexion of Humours in humane Bodies always jarring when they are in the soundest Health and where there is not this active contrariety either the Body is without a Soul a meer Carcass or a glorified Body in Heaven So where there is not this internal Combat between Grace and Sin either the Man is wholly carnal dead in Sins and Trespasses or wholly spiritual reigning in Heaven And there is nothing more works on the tender Affections of a Saint than to find in himself what is displeasing to God that still he is under a sad necessity of sinning What is said concerning an old Man wasted and decayed in his drooping Years that the Grashopper is a burden to him is true of the new Man in a Christian the Sins that are counted light in the valuation of the World are a heavy weight to him Vain Thoughts idle Words irregular Passions unprofitable Actions are motives of heart-breaking Sorrow Now Death is to a Believer an universal Remedy against all the Evils of this Life it frees him from all Injuries and Sufferings and from Sin in all its degrees from all inclinations and temptations to it He that is dead ceaseth from Sin Death is the Passage from this Wilderness to the true Canaan the Rest above that flows with better Milk and Hony with Innocence and Happiness for ever There nothing can disturb the Peace or corrupt the Purity of the Blessed 3. Besides the privative advantage the freedom from all the Effects of God's Displeasure and the resentments of it there is the highest positive Good obtained by Death The Spirits of just Men are made perfect in Heaven The Soul is the Glory of Man and Grace is the Glory of the Soul and both are then in their Exaltation All the Faculties of the Soul are rais'd to the highest degrees of Natural and Divine Perfection In this Life Grace renews the Faculties but does not elevate them to their highest pitch it does not make a mean Understanding pregnant nor a frail Memory strong nor a slow Tongue eloquent but sanctifies them as they are But when the Soul is releas'd from this dark Body of Earth the Understanding is clear and quick the Memory firm the Will and Affections ardent and vigorous And they are enrich'd with Divine Light and Love and Power that makes them fit for the most noble and heavenly Operations The Lineaments of God's Image on the Soul are first drawn here but then it receives his last Hand All the Celestial Colours are added to give the utmost life and lustre to it Here we are advancing but by Death we arrive at Perfection We shall in Heaven be join'd to the Assembly of Saints and Angels our best Friends Love is the Law of that Kingdom and perfectly obeyed there Now how charming is the Conversation of one that is wise and holy especially if the sweetness of Affability be in his Temper How pleasantly does Time slide away in the company of our beloved Friends We are not sensible of its flight But what dear satisfaction is it to be united to that chosen consecrated Society Above who love one another as themselves Though the Angels and Saints have different degrees of Glory yet every one is
twinkling of an Eye be changed that they may be qualified for it Now herein the Wisdom of God is wonderful that Death which by the Covenant of Works was the deserved Penalty of Sin by the Covenant of Grace should be the Instrument of Immortality That as Joseph by a surprising Circuit was brought from the Prison to the Principality so a Believer by the Grave ascends to Heaven This the Apostle in his Divine Disputation against Infidels proves in a most convincing manner Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die As the rotting of the Corn in the Earth is necessary to the reviving and springing of it up so we must die and the Image of the Earthly Adam be abolish'd that we may be transformed into the Image of the Heavenly One And to the other part of the Question Why the Saints remain in the state of Death for a time there is a clear Answer The Resurrection of the Saints is delayed till Christ's coming to Judgment partly for the Glory of his Appearance For what an admirable Sight will it be that the Saints of all Ages shall at once arise glorified and immortalized to attend upon our Saviour in the last Act of his Regal Office and then to make a triumphant Entry with him into Heaven And partly that the establish'd order of Providence may not be disturbed for the changing of our Nature into Glory in a suddain and inexplicable manner cannot be without miraculous Power and if every Believer presently after Death were in his glorified Body translated to Heaven the World would be always filled with Miracles which were to cease after the sufficient Confirmation of the Gospel by them But how long soever the Interval be to the Resurrection it shall be with them that sleep in Jesus as 't is with those that awake out of a quiet natural Sleep to whom the longest Night seems but as a Moment so when the Saints first awake from Death in the great Morning of the World a thousand Years will seem no more to them than to God himself but as one day I now come to prove the third thing That our Saviour will abolish the Dominion of Death over the Saints Whilst the Bodies of the Saints remain in the Grave they seem to be absolutely under the Power of Death The World is a Golgotha fill'd with the Monuments of its Victories And it may be said to this our last Enemy in the Words of the Prophet to the bloody King Hast thou killed and taken Possession But we are assur'd by an infallible Word that the Power of Death shall be abolish'd and the Bodies of the Saints be reviv'd incorruptible and immortal The Resurrection is a Terra incognita to the wisest Heathens a Doctrine peculiar to the Gospel some Glimmerings they had of the Soul's Immortality without which all Vertue had been extinguish'd in the World but no conjecture of the reviving of the Body But Reason assists Faith in this point both as to the Will of God and his Power for the performing it I will glance upon the natural Reasons that induce the considering Mind to receive this Doctrine and more largely shew how the Resurrection of the Just is assured by our Redeemer 1. The Divine Laws are the Rule of Duty to the entire Man and not to the Soul only and they are obeyed or violated by the Soul and Body in Conjunction Therefore there must be a Resurrection of the Body that the entire Person may be capable of Recompences in Judgment The Soul designs the Body executes the Senses are the open Ports to admit Temptations Carnal Affections deprave the Soul corrupt the Mind and mislead it The Love of Sin is founded in bono jucundo in sensible Pleasures and the Members are the Servants of Iniquity The Heart is the Fountain of Prophaneness and the Tongue expresses it And the Body is obsequious to the Holy Soul in doing or suffering for God and denies its sensual Appetites and Satisfactions in Compliance with Reason and Grace The Members are the Instruments of Righteousness It follows then there will be an universal Resurrection that the rewarding Goodness of God may appear in making the Bodies of his Servants gloriously happy with their Souls and their Souls compleatly happy in Union with their Bodies to which they have a natural Inclination and his revenging Justice be manifest in punishing the Bodies of the Wicked with eternal Torments answerable to their Guilt And of the Possibility of the Resurrection the circular and continual Production of things in the World is a clear Demonstration of the Power of God for that effect There is a pregnant Instance that our Saviour and the Apostle made use of as an Image of the Resurrection A Grain of Corn sowed in the Earth corrupts and dies and after springs up entire its Death is a disposition to Life The Essays of God's Power in the Works of returning Nature Flowers and Fruits in their season instruct us how easily he can make those that are in the Dust to awake to Life If the Art of Man whose Power and Skill are very narrow and limited can refine Gold and Silver to such a Luster as if their matter were not Earth digged out of the Mines If from black Cinders it can form Chrystal Glasses so clear and shining how much more can Omnipotency recompact our Dust and reanimate it with a glorious Life Death that dissolves our vital Frame does not abolish the matter of our Bodies and though 't is corrupted and changed by a thousand accidents yet 't is unperishing and under whatsoever Colours and Figures it appears God perfectly discerns and will separate it for its proper use More particularly I will shew how the Resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the Resurrection of Believers to Glory As our Surety he was under the arrest of Death it becoming the holy Majesty of God and conducing to the ends of his Government not to derogate from the dignity of his Law but to lay the penalty upon his Son who interposed for us Now having finish'd the Work of our Redemption by his Sufferings his Resurrection was the just consequent of his Passion And 't is observable that his Resurrection tho one entire Act is ascribed as to himself so to his Father by whose consent and concurrence he rose again Therefore 't is said Whom God raised up having loosed the Pains of Death since it was impossible he should be holden by it 'T was naturally impossible upon the account of the Divine Power inherent in his Person and legally impossible because Divine Justice required that he should be raised to Life partly to vindicate his Innocence for he was reputed and suffered as a Malefactor and principally because he had fully satisfied God Accordingly the Apostle declares he died for our Sins and rose again for our Justification Having paid our Debt he was releas'd from the Grave and the Discharge was
great Distance and since he cannot lessen the Certainty of Death in Mens Belief he removes the Image of it out of their Memories to weaken the Impression that it is capable to make on their Affections they dare not venture to die as they live careless of Salvation and unprepared for their Accounts with God therefore they suspend the Workings of Conscience by a seeming Compliance they resolve at random to convert and reform hereafter but will not determine at present to forsake their Sins The Tempter insinuates there will be a long Interval between the present time and the last hour that shall decide their State for ever that it will be a convenient season to prepare for the other World when they have done with this as if Repentance were best at last when there are no Temptations and therefore no Danger of retracting it And the Heart of Man is a great Flatterer very subtile to deceive and ruin him with vain Resolutions of a devout Retirement and becoming seriously religious hereafter and thus by an easy Permission he gratifies the present Desires of the Flesh and goes in a Circuit from one Vanity to another till Death surprize the Presumer 'T is very applicable to this purpose what is related of Alcaeus the Poet who from every season of the Year took Arguments to give a new Title to his Intemperance The Spring he said required liberal drinking in Sign of Joy for the Renovation of Nature the Summer to temper our Heat and refresh our Thirst 't was due to Autumn that is dedicated to the Vintage and Winter required it to expel the cold that would congeal the Blood and Spirits Thus he pleaded for the Allowance of his Excess And so Men in the several Ages of Life that are correspondent to the Seasons of the Year frame some Excuses to delay Repentance and give some colour to their Rebellion against God who commands us to hear his Voice to Day obediently and immediately upon no less Penalty than being excluded from his blessed Rest for ever Yet the self-deceiving Sinner preaches another Gospel to himself and thinks the Vanities of Childhood the Pleasures of Youth the Business of Middle-Age and the Infirmity of Old Age are plausible Pretences to put off the serious Work of Repentance O that such would duly consider the desperate Uncertainty upon which Men build their Hopes of a future Repentance and Divine Acceptance 1. Men delay Repentance upon the Presumption of a long Life But what is more uncertain 'T is the Wisdom and Goodness of God to conceal in his impenetrable Counsels the time of our Sojourning here For if Men though liable to Death every hour and therefore should be under just Fear lest it surprize them unprepar'd yet against so strong a Curb run with that exorbitant vehemence after the present World how much more licentious would they be if secured from sudden Death But none can promise to himself one Day Death comes not according to the order of Nature but the Decree of God How many in the Flower of their Youth and Strength thought themselves at as great a Distance from Death as the East is from the West when there was not the space of an Hour between them and Death between them and Hell The Lamp suddenly expires by a Blast of Wind when there is plenty of Oil to feed it The rich Man pleased himself with Designs of sensual Enjoyments for many years yet did not see the dawning of the next Morning Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee This Sentence is pronounced in Heaven against thousands that are now alive conversant in the Vanities and Business of the World Eating and Drinking Playing and Trading and all unconcerned as to dying yet shall breath their last before to Morrow and their unwilling Souls be rent from the Embraces of their Bodies In various manners Men die from inward and outward causes an Apoplexy an Imposthume a Flux of Rhume stopping Respiration kills the Body without any presaging Signs of Death As if the Roof and all the Chambers should fall within the House while the Walls are standing entire And how many unforeseen Accidens and therefore inevitable put a sudden Period to Life Is it not our truest Wisdom by an early Repentance to prepare for Death when the Season is certainly short and but uncertainly continued and the Omission is irreparable 2. Suppose Life be continued yet Sinners that delay Repentance can have no rational hopes that they shall sincerely repent in time to come For 1 st Saving Repentance is the Gift of God and is it likely that those who have been insensible of the loud and earnest Calls of the Word inflexible to the gracious Methods of his Providence leading them to Repentance should at last obtain Converting Grace The Gales of the Spirit are very transient and blow where he pleases and can it be expected that those who have wilfully and often resisted him should by an exuberant Favour receive afterwards more powerful Grace to over-rule their stubborn Wills and make them obedient To expect Divine Grace and the powerful Workings of the Spirit after long resisting his Holy Excitations is both unreasonable and unrevealed 'T is written as with a Sun-beam that God will graciously pardon repenting Sinners that reform their Lives but 't is no-where promised that he will give Saving-Repentance to those who securely continue in Sin upon a corrupt Confidence they will repent at last Our Saviour threatens to him that neglects the improving the Grace that is offer'd That which he hath shall be taken away Yet Men unwilling at present to forsake their Sins of Pleasure and Profit vainly hope they shall obtain Grace hereafter without any Promise from God and against the Tenor of his Threatnings God has threatned that his Spirit shall not always strive with rebellious Sinners and then their State is remediless This may be the case of many in this Life who are insensible of their Misery As consumptive Persons decline by degrees lose their Appetite Colour and Strength till at last they are hopeless So the Withdrawings of the Spirit are gradual his Motions are not so strong nor frequent and upon the continued Provocations of the Disobedient finally leaves them under that most fearful doom He that is filthy let him be filthy still He that is unrighteous let him be unrighteous still and thus punishes them on this side Hell as he does the Damned by giving them over to Sin 'T is a bloody Adventure for Men to indulge their carnal Appetites as if they had infallible Assurance that they should not die in an impenitent State The Delayer does not regularly trust but tempt God 2 dly Suppose the Holy Spirit be not totally withdrawn yet by every Day 's Continuance in Sin the Heart is more hardned against the Impressions of Grace more averse from returning to God and Repentance more difficult and hazardous The last guilty Disposition
who has lived an obstinate Sinner dies a penitent Believer is very rare and extraordinary What our Saviour said concerning the Salvation of rich Men is justly applicable to this Case That it was as easy for a Camel to go through the eye of a Needle as for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This so astonish'd the Apostles that they cried Who then can be saved To mitigate the Difficulty he remembers them of the Divine Omnipotence All things are possible with God Thus for one who has been hardned in a long course of Sin and making himself meet for the Company of damned Spirits in Hell to be at last suddenly prepared and received into the pure and glorious Society above is possible but possible only as Miracles are by the Efficacy of Infinite Power and we cannot reasonably expect such Miracles And are Heaven and Hell such trivial things as to be left to an Uncertainty Are not Men concern'd in another manner in the Affairs of this World How careful to prevent the Sentence of Death of Imprisonment of Banishment How diligent to obtain some temporal Advantage Yet how neglectful in things of highest importance It may be says the secure Wretch God will give me Repentance at last as he did to others Remember you speak of that that most nearly concerns your Soul and dare you venture the Salvation of an immortal Soul upon a naked possibility of receiving Grace What reasonable Person would neglect a Disease that may prove deadly and rely on extreme Remedies And can you be guilty of such a cruel Indifference such a desperate Carelessness as to leave eternal Salvation and Damnation to a peradventure 2. Consider how many thousands have died in their Sins and of them great Numbers cherish'd fallacious Hopes of repenting at last Diagoras the Atheist that denied a governing Providence of things in this lower World the Sphere of Mutability when one for his Conviction shewed him in the Temple of Neptune many votive Tables containing the grateful Acknowledgments of those who by Addresses to the Gods in dangerous Storms had arrived safe at their Ports and ask'd him Whether he had observ'd those numerous Testimonies for Divine Providence He replied I see them but how many having invocated Neptune yet perish'd in the Ocean and never came to pay their Vows for Deliverance 'T was Impiety in him to argue so against God's disposing Providence but it may be justly said to those who neglect their present Duty presuming upon some Examples of his glorious Goodness on those who were converted and saved in their approaches to Death How many have finally miscarried in shooting that Gulph to one that has arrived safe at Heaven How many that presume upon their Youth and Strength to delay Repentance are suddenly cut off the first Symptom of their Sickness is Death And what the Angel with such solemnity declar'd that Time should be no more is verified concerning them by an unexpected Dissolution How many when sick hope either by the Vigour of Nature or the Virtue of Medicines to overcome the Disease and this Hope is cherish'd by the mortal Kindness the cruel Deceit of Friends who are unwilling to discover their Danger lest their Spirits should sink under the apprehension of it And thus deluded many never see Death till they feel it and perish for ever in their Impenitence How many that are guilty and graceless when distant from Death and Hell but a few hours yet from Atheism are secure as Jonah who slept in the midst of a Tempest at Sea The Tenour of their Lives discovers this to be Divine Vengeance they are seiz'd by a Spirit of Slumber and pass without fear into the State of everlasting Desperation How many are deceived with the appearance of Repentance and mistake a false Peace for a true and asswage the anguish of Conscience by palliating Remedies Their Sorrow for Sin their Prayers their Resolutions of Reformation are the product of servile Fear that is ineffectual to Salvation And as 't is with crafty Tradesmen that take up much upon Trust when near breaking so they are very liberal of the Promises of Amendment when they are near dying From hence they vainly presume that God is reconcil'd to them whose all-discerning Eye sees the inward Spring of their Sorrows and the Principle of all their religious Resolutions is the guilty fear of eternal Judgment Now a false Tranquillity is more terrible than the Storms of a troubled Spirit for those who hope upon deceitful grounds are in the most hopeless State neglecting what is requisite in order to Salvation Thus innumerable pass in a Cloud of Delusion to the Kingdom of Darkness And how many who have lived in careless Security as if they had made a Covenant with Death when Conscience is awaken'd and looks into the depth of their Guilt when they see Death before them attended with Judgment and Judgment with an everlasting Hell as we read of Sisera who from extream Fear pass'd to extream Security so on the contrary these Self-deceivers from Security have fallen into Despair Then Truth and Conscience that were so long under unrighteous Restraints break the Fetters and terribly charge the Sinners Then innumerable Acts which they thought to be innocent appear to be Sins and Sin that they made light of to be infinitely evil and in the highest degree hateful to God And sometimes by the Suggestions of the Enemy of Souls they are overwhelmed with Despair and their last Error is worse than the first The Devil makes his advantage of the timerous Conscience as well as of the seared Solitude is his Scene as well as the noisy Theatre and by contrary ways either Presumption or Despair brings Sinners to the same end He changes his Methods according to their Dispositions the Tempter turns Accuser and then such who had but a dim sight of Sin before have an over-quick sight of it and are swallowed up in an abyss of Confusion The Condition of such is extreamly miserable 'T is observed of those who are bitten with a mad Dog that their Cure is extream difficult if not impossible for being tormented with Thirst yet are so fearful of Water that the sight of it sometimes causes sudden Convulsions and Death This is a significant Emblem of a despairing Soul For when inraged Conscience bites to the quick the guilty Person fill'd with Estuations and Terrors ardently thirsts for Pardon yet fearfully forsakes his own Mercies Whatever is propounded to encourage Faith in the Divine Promises he turns to justify his Infidelity Represent to him the infinite Mercies of God the unvaluable Merits of Christ sufficient to redeem the lost World it increases his Despair because he has perversly abused those Mercies and neglected those Merits The most precious Promises of the Gospel are killing Terrors to him as the sweet Title of Friend wherewith our Saviour receiv'd Judas when he came to betray him was the most
is an happy means to render Death comfortable to us Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity of sudden Surreption and Surprize the best Men are not freed from in the present State and being the daily motive of our Grief and serious circumspection to prevent them are consistent with the regular Peace of Conscience and the Friendship and Favour of God But great Sins in their matter being so contrary to natural Conscience and supernatural Grace or Sins presumptuous in the manner of their commission such as proceed from the choice of the perverse Will against the inlightned Mind whatever the matter or kind of them be are direct Rebellion against God a despising of his Command and provoke his pure Eyes and make the aspect of Death fearful The Spirit seals our Pardon and Title to Heaven as the holy Spirit his Testimony that we are the Children of God and Heirs of Glory is concurrent with the renewed Conscience and distinguish'd from the ignorant Presumptions blind Conjectures and carnal Security of the Unholy As the sanctifying Spirit he distinguishes true Christians from the lost World appropriates them to God confirms their present Interest in the Promises of the Gospel and their future Hopes Briefly Grace is the most sensible effect and sign of God's special Favour the fruit of Election and the earnest of Glory and the Truth of Grace is most clearly and certainly made evident by the continual Efficacy of it in the Conversation The observation of our Hearts to suppress unholy Affections and of our Senses to prevent them a constant course of Holiness in our Lives though many Frailties will cleave to the best is usually rewarded with great Peace here God has establish'd a connexion between our Obedience and his Comforts Those that keep themselves pure from the Defilements of the World have the white Stone promised the bright Jewel of assurance of God's pardoning and rewarding Mercy We read of Enoch that he walk'd with God was a Star shining in a corrupt Age the tenour of his Life was holy and he was translated to Heaven without seeing Death Though this was an extraordinary Dispensation yet there is a peculiar Reward analogical to it for those who walk circumspectly they shall not see Death with its Terrors but usually have a holy Chearfulness a peaceful Joy in their passage through the dark Valley to Heaven But presumptuous Sins against external and internal Restraints the convincing Law of God and the Directions of Conscience to which even the Saints of God are liable here as appears by David's earnest Prayer to be preserved from them such Sins grieve the holy Spirit and wound our Spirits and if continued sequester us from the comfortable Priviledges of the Gospel and render us unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven And when they are retracted by Repentance yet there often remains a bitter Remembrance of them as deep Wounds though cur'd yet are felt in change of Weather And sometimes a Spring-tide of Doubts and Fears breaks into humble penitent Souls in the last Hours though Death brings them safely yet not comfortably to Heaven 3. The zealous Discharge of the Duties of our Place and Calling the Conjunction of our Resolutions and Endeavours to glorify God and do good according to our Abilities and Opportunities of Service sweetens the Thoughts of Death to us For the true End and Perfection of Life is the Glory of God and when with Fidelity it is employed in order to it Death brings us to the blessed Rest from our Labours Our Saviour when he was to leave the World address'd himself to his Father I have glorified thee on Earth I have finish'd the Work thou gavest me to do And now Father glorify me with thy self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was A Christian that imitates and honours Christ and with Diligence perseveres in well-doing may with an humble Confidence in the Divine Mercy expect the promised Reward The Reflection upon a well-spent Life is joyn'd with a joyful Prospect of God's Favour and Acceptance above But to the careless and remiss to those who are wilfully negligent of their Duty how fearful is Death that summons them to give an account of their Talents to the Righteous Lord 4. A holy Indifference of Affection to present things makes it easy to part with them and Death less fearful to us David though a King declares he was a Stranger on Earth not only with respect to his transient Condition but his inward Disposition and that he was as a weaned Child from the admired Vanities of the World Chrysostom in a Letter to Ciriacus who was tenderly sensible of his Banishment wrote to him You now begin to lament my Banishment but I have done so for a long time for since I knew that Heaven was my Country I have esteemed the whole Earth a place of Exilement Constantinople from whence I am expell'd is as distant from Paradise as the Desert to which they send me But when our Affections are set upon external things and we are irregular in our Aims intemperate in our Use and immoderate in our Delights how sensible and cutting is the Division from them How bitter is Death that deprives a carnal Wretch of all the Materials of his frail Felicity What a Storm of Passions is raised to lose all his good things at once for 't is a Rule in Nature What is possess'd with transporting Joy is lost with excessive Sorrow As the Ivy that twines so closely about the Tree and is intimately fastned by so many Roots as there are Branches cannot be pluck'd away without rending the Bark with it so when the World that was as it were incarnated with the Heart is taken away the Heart it self is grievously rent by the violent Separation And the Infelicity of carnal and worldly Persons is heavily aggravated in that the Guilt in procuring or abusing those Treasures and Delights that they leave here with so great Sorrow will cleave to them and give Testimony against them before their Judg. But when the Affections are loose to the World and set upon Heaven our leaving the Earth is no Loss but Gain and our Separation from the Body of Flesh is with that Alacrity as the putting off a vile Garment to be clothed with a Royal Robe 'T was the wise Counsel of Tertullian to the Women of the first Ages of the Church not to value and love the Jewels and Ornaments of Gold that they might be more ready and resolved to obtain by Death Martyrdom and by Martyrdom Eternal Glory And that we may disentangle our Souls from those voluntary Bands that fasten us to present things we must have a sincere uncorrupted Judgment of their Meanness The Apostle exhorts Christians to Moderation in their Temper and Conversation with respect to the Business and Enjoyments here that they who have Wives be as though they had none that those that rejoice be as though they rejoiced not and they
and the Son of God ready to receive him with what Courage and Constancy did he encounter the bloody Rage of his Murderers Faith supplies the want of Vision it pierces the Clouds opens a Window in Heaven sees the Crowns of Righteousness prepared for the Saints and sweetens the bitterest Passage to it But if our Faith be weak and wavering our Courage will decline in the needful Hour 'T is with Christians in their last Passage from Earth to Heaven as with Saint Peter walking upon the Waters to Christ whilst his Faith was firm in Christ he went upon the Waves as on the firm Land but upon the rising of a Storm his Faith sunk into Fear and he sunk in the Waters till our Saviour upon his earnest Prayer Lord save me took hold of him and rais'd him with that compassionate Reproof O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt The last Use is to excite the Saints to die with that Courage and Chearfulness as becomes the Gospel of Christ. The Encouragement of Joshua to the Israelites against the Giants that terrified them from entring into the Land of Canaan the Type of Heaven Be not afraid of them they are Bread for us we shall obtain an easy Conquest over them is applicable to this purpose Do not fear Death the Enemy that interposes between us and the true Canaan for our Conflict shall be the means of our Victory and triumphant Possession of the holy and blessed Land above This is very honourable to our Redeemer and recommends Godliness to the Judgment Affections and Practice of others St. Basil tells of a Custom to annoint the tops of Doves Wings with some fragrant Liquor that mixing in company with other Doves they might by the Sent allure them to follow to the Dove-houses Thus when holy Persons live and die with peaceful Joy those that converse with them are drawn by that Fragrance of Paradise to apply themselves to serious Religion 'T is the Apostle's consolatory Advice to Believers Not to be sorrowful for those that sleep in JESVS as those that are without hope When Jacob saw his beloved Son's Coat rent and stain'd with Blood he abandoned himself to desperate Sorrow and continued mourning for his Death when Joseph was advanc'd in Authority and Dignity next to Pharaoh in the Kingdom of Egypt Thus when we see the Garment of Mortality rent by Diseases we mourn for departed Saints as if Death had absolutely destroyed them when their Souls are reigning in Glory This immoderate Sorrow is an Heathenish Passion suitable to their ignorance of the future happy State but very unbecoming the plenary Assurance the Gospel affords us of it Indeed for the Wicked to die with fears and palpitations of heart to be surrounded with impendent horrours when such a precipice and depth of Misery is before them is very just and reasonable but for the Saints to die uncomfortably under inordinate Fears is a disparagement to the Blessed Hope establish'd upon the Revelation of Life and Immortality by the Gospel Now in three things I shall propound the Duty of dying Christians 1. To submit to the Divine Pleasure with resigned Spirits as to the Means the Manner and Time of Death God has a Sovereign Right and Dominion over us The present Life is his most free Favour and he may justly resume it when he pleases His Will should be the first and last Rule of ours Whether he gently untwines the Band of Life or violently breaks it we must placidly without reluctation yield up our selves By what Means soever Death comes all second Causes are moved by an impression from above in what Age of Life soever all our Times are appointed by the divine Counsel and a Saint ought with that readiness and meek submission receive it as if he heard an express Voice from Heaven calling him to God and say in his heart with Samuel Here I am thou didst call me This is the last act of our Obedience and very pleasing to God We read of the marvellous Consent of Abraham and his Son Isaac the Father to offer up his Son and the Son his Life that were both the Gifts of God in compliance with the divine Command and from Heaven he declared his high approbation of it This is to make a Vertue of Necessity and turn Nature into Grace But discontent and reluctancy as if our Lives were our own and taken from us unjustly or unseasonably is Rebellious Unthankfulness unbecoming a Creature much more a true Christian who exchanges a perishing Life for that which is eternal 2. To receive Death not only with Patience but earnest desires to be with Christ. I know Death is naturally unwelcome Our Saviour tells St. Peter When thou art old another shall bind thee and lead thee where thou wouldest not signifying his Martyrdom The Circumstance when thou art old is remarkable and intimates the natural unwillingness to die when there was little time to live But his rational sanctified Will was superiour and prevalent The universal desire of the Saints is to be happy in the Presence of God for the divine Nature communicated to them is intelligent and inclining towards its chief Good and if the obtaining it were not by being unclothed but clothed upon by an immediate Translation to Heaven how willingly would they leave this World But there is a bitterness in Death that makes it unpleasant and many holy Souls that desire the Glorious Liberty in Heaven yet are loth to leave their Prison Now there are so many Arguments to make the Saints desirous of dying that methinks since Life is chiefly valued and dear to them as it is the way to Heaven when they are come to that blessed end it should not be longer desirable What is this lower World that chains us so fast 'T is the Devil's Circuit wherein he ranges seeking whom he may devour 'T is the Theater of Contentions The Low aspire to rise the Exalted fear to fall The Poor envy the Rich and the Rich despise the Poor 'T is a foreign Country to the Saints and as Pilgrims and Strangers they are liable to Reproaches Injuries and hard Dealings from the Wicked the Natives of the Earth What is the present momentany Life that so enamours us 'T is surrounded with Temptations oppress'd with Fears ardent with irregular Desires and continually spent in Vanity or Vexation In Adversity 't is depress'd and melancholy in Prosperity foolish and proud 'T is a real Infelicity under the deceitful appearance of Felicity But above all other Motives the evil of Sin from which we cannot be clearly exempted here should render Death desirable The best suffer internal Divisions between the Law of the Flesh and the Law of the Mind as Rebecca felt the Twins Esau and Jacob repugnant in her Womb. How hard is it to be continually watching the Heart that Corruptions do not break out and the Senses that Temptations do not break in How difficult to order
the Affections to raise what is drooping and suppress what is rebellious For they are like the People of whom the Historian speaks qui nec totam servitutem pati possunt nec totam libertatem How many Enemies of our Salvation are lodg'd in our own bosoms The Falls of the Saints give sad evidence of this If the Body were unspotted from the World as in the Creation of Man there might be a just Plea of our unwillingness to part with it but since it is the incentive and instrument of Sin we should desire to be dissolved that we might be perfectly holy Death is the final Remedy of all the temporal and spiritual Evils to which we are liable here And the Love of Christ should make us willing to part with all the Endearments of this Life nay desirous to enter into the Celestial Paradise though we must pass under the Angels Sword the stroke of Death to come into his Presence He infinitely deserves our Love for we owe our Salvation and Eternal Glory to the merit of his Humiliation and the power of his Exaltation With what earnest affections did St. Paul desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Love gave Wings of Fire to his Soul ardent desires mounting to Heaven How valiant were the Martyrs in expressing acts of Love to Christ How boldly did they encounter Death that interpos'd between them and the sight of his Glory Their Love was hotter than the Flames that consumed them They as willingly left their Bodies as Elias let fall his Mantle to ascend to Heaven And how does it upbraid the coldness of our Love that we are so contented to be here absent from our Saviour That the Moles of the Earth who never saw the Light of the Sun and feed on bitter Roots are pleas'd in their dark Receptacles is no wonder but if Birds that are refresh'd with his chearful Beams and feed on sweet Fruits should willingly be consin'd in Caverns of the Earth it were unnaturally strange Thus for Pagans and those who are so in Heart though different in Profession that are so short-sighted and depraved that they only perceive and affect present sensible things for them to be unwilling to die is no wonder for then all that is valuable and delightful to them is lost for ever but for those who are inlightned by the Revelation of God so clearly concerning the state of Glory and have tasted the Goodness of the Lord and know the incomparable difference between the mean and frail Felicity here and the inestimable immutable Felicity hereafter for them to be unwilling to leave this World for that which is infinitely better is astonishing Such was the Love of our Saviour that his personal Glory in Heaven did not fully content him without the Saints partaking of it with him Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory If our Hearts do not answer his 't is a sad indication that we have not an Interest in him for the application of his Merits is always join'd with the imitation of his Vertues and the reflection of his Love The Lovers of Christ will join with the inflamed Spouse Draw us and we will run after thee O loosen our Affections from this World that we may readily ascend to thee they will renew the Sighs of holy David in his Banishment O when shall we come and appear before God! Lastly To die with Thanksgiving and Joy 'T is usual to compare this Life to a Voyage The Scripture is the Chart that describes the Coasts we must pass and the Rocks we must avoid Faith is the Compass that directs the Course we must steer Love is the Rudder that governs the Motion of the Ship Hope fills the Sails Now what Passenger does not rejoice at the discovery of his Country where his Estate and Heart is and more at the near approach to the Port where he is to land Is not Heaven the Country of the Saints Is not their Birth from above and their tendency to their Original And is not the blessed Bosom of Christ their Port O what joyful Thanksgivings are due to God when by his Spirit and Providence they have happily finish'd their Voyage through such dangerous Seas and are coming into the Land of the Living How joyful was to Noah the coming of the Dove with an Olive-Branch to shew him the Deluge was asswaged and the Time was come of his freedom from the troublesom company of Animals and from the straitness and darkness of the Ark to go forth and possess the World How joyful should Death be to a Saint that comes like the Dove in the evening to assure him the Deluge of Misery is ceas'd and the time is come of his enlargement from the Body his deliverance from the wretched sinful Society here and his possessing the Divine World Holy Souls are immediately transported by the Angels to Christ and by him presented to his Father without spot or wrinkle compleat in Holiness and prepared for Communion with him in Glory How joyfully are they received into Heaven by our Saviour and the blessed Spirits they are the reward of his Sufferings the precious and dear purchase of his Blood The Angels that rejoice at the Conversion of a Sinner do much more at the Glorification of a Saint and the Church of the First-born who have before us enter'd into Glory have a new accession of Joy when their younger Brethren arrive to the undefiled immortal Inheritance And is it not very becoming Believers joyfully to ascend to the Seat of Blessedness to the happy Society that inspires mutual Joys for ever For our encouragement there are numerous Instances of Believers that have with Peace and Joy though in various degrees past through the dark Valley to the Inheritance of Light Some have died with more Joy than they lived and triumph'd over the last Enemy with the vocal Praises of God others with silent Affections have quietly commended their Spirits into his Hand Some have inward Refreshings and Support others exuberant Joys and Ravishments as if the Light of Glory shined into them or the Vail of Flesh were drawn and their Spirits were present with the invisible World Some of the Martyrs in their cruellest Sufferings felt such impressions of Confidence and Alacrity that as in the House of Lamech there was accorded at the same time two discordant Callings by the two Brothers Jubal the Inventer of the Harp and Organ and Tubal-Cain the first Artificer in Brass and Iron the one practised on Instruments of Musick breathing harmonious Sounds and Melodies the other used Hammers and Anvils making noise and tumult So in some Persons whilst the heaviest Strokes fell on their Bodies their Souls were ravish'd with the sweetest Joy and Exultation Indeed 't is not thus always with the Saints for though Sin be pardoned yet the apprehensions of Guilt may remain When a
denied How will it confound those abject Wretches to be a spectacle of Abhorrence and Scorn before that Universal Glorious Confluence They would chuse rather to be covered under the Ruins of the World If we value and desire the Approbation of the King of Angels if we fear a final rejection from him to obtain the one and avoid the other we must entirely adhere to his Interest without any respect to the eyes and esteem of the perverse deceived World Sixthly A cordial beneficent Love to the Saints is a requisite Qualification of our Acceptance in the Day of Judgment Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World For I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me The Union and Endearments betwixt Christ and his People are mutual and reflexive as they are extreamly tender of his Glory so he is concern'd in all that is done to them And though the Perfection of Love consists more in the Affection of the Heart than in outward Offices yet our Saviour most congruously produces in Judgment the conspicuous Effects of Love to them the supplying their Wants allaying their Sorrows owning them when obscured and deprest by Afflictions and injuriously treated by others This love of Service that is directed and exercised towards the Saints for the Image of God shining in them because they are the Children of God and Members of Christ and therefore extended to all in whom the reason of that Love appears shall be gloriously rewarded for he interprets what is done upon his Account to those who are his own by so many dear Titles as done to himself And what is more becoming his excellent Goodness than to reward the Works of Mercy with saving Mercy But those who when Christ presents himself to them in his poor distressed Members and sollicits their assistance to protect them from Injuries to refresh their Sorrows to support them in their Exigencies those that have Ability but want Affection to do them good and incompassionately neglect the suffering Saints shall be sentenc'd to be tormented with the Apostate Angels for ever What Indignity is it to the Son of God that those for whom he shed his most precious Blood should be in less value and regard with many than the Dogs and Horses maintained for their pleasure And if those on the left hand shall be condemned to eternal Fire for the coldness of their Love how terrible will the Judgment be of those that from the heat of their Enmity outragiously persecute the Servants of Christ for his sake in their Persons Estates Reputations that with a worse than barbarous inhumanity seek their ruin Is there any Sin of a more mortal Guilt The infernal Furnace is seven-fold heated for the punishing such Wickedness To conclude this Argument let us observe the Command of our Saviour To watch and pray always that we may be counted worthy to stand before the Son of Man These are Duties of universal Influence into our Lives the one prevents Carelesness the other vain Confidence in our selves and the consideration of Judgment to come is the greatest Motive to them and the first Principle of Holiness This should work more powerful in us considering the Day of Death is equivalent to the Day of Judgment to every Person for then a particular Sentence decisive and irrevocable passes that shall be publish'd at the last Day Methinks the Terrors of the Lord should engage our Souls and Senses to a continual preparation for his Coming 'T is represented so as to affect the Eye and keep it vigilant Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all Behold he comes in the Clouds and every Eye shall see him And to call the Ear and make it attentive The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with the Voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God How circumspect should we be in all our Ways since every Action shall be reviewed by our Judg St. Peter strongly infers from the dissolution of the World as a most cogent Argument that we should be exactly and universally Holy Seeing then all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness But the consideration of the eternal Judgment immediately succeeding the destruction of the World O how powerful should it be upon Conscience and the Affections to regulate the whole course of our Lives with a final respect to God's Tribunal In short That which we read of the success of the Apostle's preaching to the Athenians upon the present Subject the Immortality of the Soul comprised in the Resurrection of the Body and the future Judgment is the same in all times and places And when they heard of the Resurrection of the Dead some mocked and others said We will hear thee again of this matter and others believed There are three Differences of the Hearers of this Doctrine of so great importance some deride it as an extravagant Fancy some believe it and yield up themselves entirely in obedience to it others do not absolutely reject it as the first nor accept it as the second but have a Conjecture or slight superficial Opinion of it or a speculative Assent as to a history of things that do not concern them and defer the serious consideration and applying of it to themselves And of this third sort O Grief are the most of those who are Christians in Name They delay till Death the solemn reflecting upon the final Judgment and the inevitable Consequence of it a blessed or miserable Estate for ever And whereas the Apostle who had infallible assurance of God's Love did with an holy severity and self-denial abstain from all carnal Complacencies that might hazard the never-fading Crown I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection lest by any means when I have preached to others I should be a Cast-away Yet the most live and die in a secure state without preparation to appear before the Presence of his Glory FINIS OF HEAVEN BY WILLIAM BATES D.D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1691. OF HEAVEN Psalm 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life in thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore THE Divine Wisdom and Goodness was pleased before and during the legal Dispensation by various Predictions and Types to delineate the Person of our Redeemer and the Work of Redemption to prepare the Minds of Men for his Reception at his coming into the World All the Evangelical Prophecies recorded in the Old Testament as
neglect their Duty and defer their Happiness They think it too soon to live for Heaven before the evil Days come wherein they shall have no pleasure when they cannot sin and vainly presume they can repent The danger of this I have consider'd in the Discourse of Death and shall therefore proceed to the next Head Thirdly Our Choice of Heaven must be constant and lasting The two principal Rules of the Spiritual Life are to begin and end well to fix and establish the main Design for everlasting Happiness and from a determinate Resolution and ratified Purpose of Heart to pursue it with firmness and constancy to live for Heaven and with readiness and courage to die for it if the Glory of God so require Perseverance is indispensably necessary in all that will obtain the Eternal Reward For the clearing this most important Point I will First Represent from Scripture the Idea of Perseverance that is attended with Salvation Secondly Consider why 't is so strictly required First Saving Perseverance includes the permanent residence of Grace in the Soul 'T is composed of the whole Chain of Graces the union of holy Habits that are at first infused into a Christian by the sanctifying Spirit When Eternal Life is promised to Faith or Love or Hope 't is upon supposal that those Graces being planted in the Heart shall finally prosper He that is faithful to the Death shall inherit the Crown of Life 'T is Love that never fails that shall enter into Heaven 'T is Hope firm unto the End that shall be accomplished in a glorious Fruition If Grace be disseised by a usurping Lust Apostacy will follow and the forfeiture of our right in the Kingdom of Heaven 2. Grace must be continually drawn forth into exercise according to our several states and duties and the various occasions that happen in our course through the World Those who are light in the Lord are commanded to walk as Children of the Light to signify the excellency and purity of the Christian Life Those who live in the Spirit must walk in the Spirit that is by a conspicuous course of Holiness declare the vigour and efficacy of the divine Principle that is communicated to them Paulum septultae distat inertiae celata virtus Vertue that breaks not forth into visible Actions is not worthy of the Name The meer abstaining from evil is not sufficient but all the positive acts of the holy Life are to be constantly done In discharging both these parts of our Duty compleat Religion is exprest and the power of Grace consists 3. Perseverance includes not only continuance in well-doing but fervour and progress towards Perfection There are two fix'd States the one in Heaven the other in Hell The blessed Spirits above are arrived to the height of Holiness The Devil and damned Spirits are sunk to the lowest extremity of Sin But in the middle state here Grace in the Saints is a rising growing Light and Sin in the Wicked improves every day like Poison in a Serpent that becomes more deadly by his Age. We are injoined not to remain in our first Imperfections but to follow Holiness to the utmost issue of our Lives to its intire consummation For this end all the dispensations of Providence must be improved whether prosperous or afflicting And the Ordinances of the Gospel were appointed that in the use of them we may be changed into the divine Image from Glory to Glory 4. Preseverance is required notwithstanding all Temptations that may allure or terrify us from our Duties what ever affects us one way or other while we are clothed with frail Flesh. 'T is the fundamental Principle of Christianity declared by our Saviour If any Man will come after me that is be my Disciple and Servant let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me even to be crucified with him rather than wilfully forfeit his Integrity and Loyalty to Christ. He must by a sacred sixt resolution devest himself of all things even the most valued and desirable in the present World and actually forsake them nay entertain what is most distasteful and resist unto Blood rather than desert his Duty 1. He must with unfainting Patience continue in doing his Duty notwithstanding all Miseries and Calamities Losses Disgraces Torments or Death it self which wicked Men and greater Enemies the Powers of Darkness can inflict upon him To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Eternal Life is promised He that endures to the End notwithstanding the most terrible Sufferings to which he is exposed for Christ's sake shall be saved In this a Christian must be the express image of his Saviour who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of God Disgrace and Pain are Evils that humane Nature has a most tender sense of yet the Son of God with a divine generosity and constancy endured them in the highest degrees He was scorn'd as a feigned King and a false Prophet He suffered a bloody Death and by the Cross ascended to Glory And we must follow him if we desire to be where he is 2. But this is not the only trial of a Christian. Prosperity is a more dangerous Enemy to the Soul though Adversity be more rigorous Saevior armis Incumbit luxuria For the Spirit is excited by Perils and Difficulties to seek to God for Strength and with vigilant resolute Thoughts unites all its Powers to oppose them but 't is made weak and careless by what is grateful to the sensual Inclinations It keeps close the Spiritual Armour in the open encounter of Dangers that threaten its ruin but is inticed to put it off by the caresses and blandishments of the World It does not see its Enemies under the disguise of a pleasant Temptation Thus Sin insinuates its self and by stealing steps gets into the Throne without observation A Man is wounded with a pleasant Temptation as with the Plague that flies in the dark and Grace is insensibly weaken'd From hence it is that Adversity often reforms the Vicious and Prosperity corrupts the Vertuous Now Perseverance must be of proof against Fire and Water against what ever may terrify or allure us from our duty 5. Saving Perseverance excludes not all Sins but total Apostacy and final impenitency which are fatal and deadly under the New Covenant If the Righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the Abominations that the wicked Man doth shall he live all his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his Trespass that he has trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned he shall die If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him saith the Lord. These Threatnings imply there is a possibility of the Saints falling away considered in themselves but not that
reasonable Creature which though sought with Sincerity and Diligence may not be obtained or of which without his own consent he may be deprived But civil distinctions and qualities are of no value and consideration with respect to the obtaining or excluding from Heaven The rich and honourable that are in an exalted State have not a more easy ascent and entrance into the Kingdom of God than those who are in the lowest degree The Stars appear with the same bigness to him that stands in the deepest Valley as on the highest Hill Is there any difference between the Souls of the rich and great in the World and the Souls of the poor and despised Are they not equally the Off-spring of God and equally ransomed by the most precious Blood of his Son Are they not equally capable of Eternal Rewards Are not the Promises of the heavenly Kingdom equally addrest to every one that has an immortal Soul that is faithful to his Duty and Covenant with God This should inspire all with flaming Desires and draw forth their utmost Industry and make them stedfast and unmoveable always to abound in the Work of the Lord knowing our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. I know the Carnal Will is impetuous and impatient of delay and earnest for what is present with the neglect of the future Glory But the unreasonableness of this is evident to all for 't is not a new and strange thing to sow in hopes of reaping a Harvest for Men to be industrious and active on Land and Sea for future Advantage Nay 't is the constant practice of the World The Merchant the Husbandman the Student the Souldier and every Man in the Circle of his Calling are visible Instances of this and tho many times the most flourishing Hopes are blasted they are not discouraged And is it not a sight full of wonder to observe Men chearful in Labours and Hardships in the Service of the World to carry it so lightly as if they had Wings and all for a poor and uncertain Recompence and to be slow and languid in their Endeavours for a Reward as great and as sure as God is glorious and true How many ambitiously strive to please a Prince and wait long in his Service who is but a Man and therefore variable in his Temper and State sometimes is not willing to do what he can and sometimes cannot do what he would to reward his Servants And is there not infinitely more reason we should labour to please God who is the most liberal and rich and certain Rewarder of all that seek him 3. Consider how gracious the Terms are upon which Heaven is promised in the Gospel Our Saviour's Laws are so holy just and in their own Nature so good to Men even in their present performance that their own Excellence and Equity and Sweetness is sufficient to recommend them without a respect to the glorious Reward of Obedience For what can be more desirable than conformity to the Nature of the blessed God What Pleasure is comparable to that which springs from a pure Conscience from a godly righteous and sober Conversation How joyful is the performance of that Service which more immediately is directed to the honour of the Divine Majesty In Prayer and other sacred Actions we draw near to the Fountain of Felicity and receive from his Fulness In the affectionate Praises of God we are Companions of the Angels And is not Integrity and Honesty in our dealings with Men more easy and comfortable than Fraud and Oppression Is it not troublesome to be always under a Mask to use arts and disguises to avoid the reproach and revenge that attends unjust Actions when discovered Are Temperance and Chastity as hurtful to the Body as Luxury and Lasciviousness the essential parts of Carnal Felicity How miserably distracted is Man when the Heart is rent with numberless Vanities the Affections divided between various Objects how quiet and composed when the Heart is united to God as the supreme Good and the Affections joyfully conspire in his Service Can it then be pretended that the Yoke of Christ is heavy and his Law hard Or are his Promises uncertain and his Reward small No his Commands are not grievous in the keeping them there is a great Reward a present Paradise Religion will make us happy hereafter in the enjoyment of God and happy here in Obedience to his Holy Will Such is his Goodness that our Duty and Happiness are the same But it will be said That the Gospel requires us to pluck out the right Eye and to cut off the right Hand and to take up the Cross of Christ that is to mortify the dearest Lusts and to submit to the sharpest Sufferings for his Honour that we may be eternally Happy To this I answer 'T is true the humane Nature in this depraved State only relishes such Objects as pleasantly insinuate with the Carnal Senses and 't is bitter as Death to bind up the Affections from them But Grace gives a new divine Nature to the Soul and makes it easy to abstain from fleshly Lusts. To make this more clear by a sensible Instance Suppose a diseased Person whose Stomach is oppress'd with corrupt Humours and his Throat and Mouth so heated with Choller and continual Thirst that he thinks it impossible though for his Life to abstain from immoderate Drinking If a Physician by some powerful Medicine cleanses the Stomach and tempers the internal Heat he then can easily restrain himself from Excess Thus a Carnal Man that is full of false Estimations and irregular Desires while there are Pleasures without and Passions unsubdued within though his Salvation depends on it thinks it impossible to restrain the exorbitant Appetites of Flesh and Blood The Gentiles thought it strange Christians did not run with them to the same excess of Riot But divine Grace so clarifies and enlightens the Mind so purifies and elevates the Affections that 't is not only possible but easy to abstain from unlawful Pleasures St. Austin before his Conversion was astonish'd that many in the vigour of Youth and in a frail World lived Chastly and reflecting upon himself was encouraged by this Thought that which such and such observe why shall it be impossible to me to observe and upon serious trial by the prosperous influence of Heaven was a Conqueror over all carnal Temptations Nay after his holy Change the withholding his Heart from vitious Delights was inexpressibly more sweet than his former enjoying of them And are there not many visible examples of holy heavenly Christians to whom grosser sensual Pleasures are unsavory and contemptible You may as well tell the number of the Stars as of those who have practised Religion in its strictness and purity and by their enlightned Conversations directed us in the way to Heaven And are their Bodies taken from the Vein of a Rock and not composed of Flesh and Blood as well as others Are their
Reply to all the pittiful Shifts that are made use of to elude the plain meaning of the eternal Judgment that will pass upon the Wicked Shall mortal Man be more just than God shall a Man be more pure than his Maker The Reprobates have now some bold Advocates that plead those things for favour to them which they will not dare to plead for themselves at the last Day The Holy Judg will then cut off all their Excuses and reduce them to a defenceless silence before he cuts them off God will be justified in his Sentence and overcome when he is judgeth The Righteousness of the Proceedings at the last Day in determining the Wicked to a state of everlasting Torments has been consider'd in the Discourse of Judgment and will farther appear by the following Considerations 1. The Wisdom of God requires that the Punishment threatned in his Law as it must be so firmly decreed that all obstinate Rebels shall of necessity undergo it so it must incomparably exceed all temporal Evils to which Men may be exposed for their Obedience to the Divine Commands otherwise the Threatning would not be an effectual restraint from Sin For the propinquity of an Evil makes a strong impression upon the Mind and a present Fear makes a Person sollicitous to avoid the incursion of what is ready to seize on him without forecasting to prevent an Evil look'd on at a distance Therefore that the Sanction of the Divine Law may preserve the Precepts Inviolable that there may be a continual reverence of it and a fixed resolution in the Hearts of Men not to transgress the Penalty threatned must be in its own Nature so terrible that the fear of it may conquer the apprehension of all present Evils that can be inflicted to constrain us to sin Therefore our Saviour warns his Disciples Fear not them that can kill the Body make that part die that is mortal but fear him that after he has killed has power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him Now if the threatning of an everlasting Hell through Infidelity and Inconsideration be not effectual in the Minds of Men to restrain them from Sin if temporary Torments in the next State were only threatned which are infinitely more easy and tolerable carnal Sinners would follow the swinge of their corrupt Appetites and commit Iniquity with greediness this would seem to reflect upon the Wisdom of the Lawgiver as if he were defective in not binding his Subjects firmly to their Duty and the Ends of Government would not be obtain'd 2. God as the Sovereign Ruler of the World has establish'd an inseparable Connexion between the Choice and Actions of Men here and their future Condition for ever The promised Reward of Obedience is so excellent and eternal that all the Allurements of the World vanish in comparison with it and there is such an infallible Assurance of this Reward in the Word of God that all and only those who sincerely obey his Commands shall enjoy it in the future State that a serious Believer who ponders things cannot be diverted from his Duty by present Temptations Besides by a Chain of Consequences sinful Pleasures are linked with eternal punishment threatned in the Divine Law and he that will enjoy forbidden Pleasures binds himself to suffer all the Pains annexed to them Now when God has from his excellent Goodness and undeserved Mercy assured Men of the Glory and Joys of Heaven that are unspeakable and eternal upon the gracious Terms of the Gospel and upon their despising it threatned Eternal Misery if Men obstinately neglect so great Salvation how reasonable is it they should inherit their own Choice There is no middle State in the next World no tolerable mediocrity but two contrary States yet alike in this that the Happiness and Misery are equally Eternal and 't is just that all who neglect eternal Life should suffer eternal Death for 't is the natural and necessary Consequence of their Option Therefore Sinners are charged with extream madness to wrong their own Souls and to love Death 3. It will appear how unqualified the Damned are for the least favour if we consider their continual hatred and Blasphemies of God The Seeds of this are in wicked obstinate Sinners here who are stiled haters of God but in the Damned this enmity is direct and explicit the Fever is heightned into a Frenzy the blessed God is the Object of their Curses and eternal Aversation Our Saviour tells us that in Hell there is weeping and gnashing of Teeth extream Sorrow and extream Fury Despair and Rage are the proper Passions of lost Souls For when the guilty Sufferers are so weak that they cannot by Patience endure their Torments nor by Strength resist the Power that inflicts them and are wicked and stubborn they are irritated by their Misery and foam out Blasphemies against the righteous Judg. If their Rage could extend to him and their Power were equal to their Desires they would dethrone the most High Hatred takes pleasure in Revenge either real or imaginary and although God is infinitely above the transports of their Fury and all their rancorous Imprecations are reflexively pernicious to themselves like Arrows shot against the Sun that fall down upon their Heads that shot them yet they are always venting their Malice against the just Power that torments them 'T is said of the Worshippers of the Beast that they gnawed their Tongues for Pain and blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their Pains The Torment and Blasphemies of those impenitent Idolaters are a true representation of the state of the Damned From hence it appears they are the proper Objects of revenging Justice How can we reasonably conceive that God in favour to the Reprobates should cross the established order of Creation For two Ranks of Beings were made the Material of perishing Principles the Spiritual of an immortal Duration And will God withdraw his Conservative Power of the guilty Soul in its Immortality and to put an end to its deserved Misery and self-tormenting Reflections annihilate it If a Criminal were justly condemn'd to a severe Punishment and should contumeliously and fiercely reproach the Prince by whose Authority he was condemn'd could it be expected there should be a mitigation of the Sentence And is it a Thought consistent with the reasonable Mind that the righteous Judg of the World will reverse or mitigate the Sentence against the Damned who blaspheme his Majesty and Justice and if they were as omnipotent to effect as they are malicious to desire would destroy his Being 'T is true the Divine Threatning does not bind God to a rigorous execution of it upon Sinners he has declar'd if Sinners will turn from their evil ways he will repent of the Evil he purpos'd to do unto them but when Threatnings are part of the Laws whereby Men are govern'd it is congruous to the Wisdom and Justice of the Law-giver to execute them
God causes the Hatred of Sin and therefore 't is against all Sin not only to prevent the Exercise of it but to eradicate it out of the Soul All the fearful consequences of Sin do not render it so odious to a gracious Spirit as its own proper Idea and intrinsick Evil as 't is contrary to the holy Nature and Law of God Love unites the Soul to God and turns the Thoughts continually to him and the lively sense of his Majesty and Presence who is so pure that he cannot behold Iniquity causes an aversion from all that is displeasing to his Divine Eyes And from hence it is that a zealous Lover of God is frequent and strict in reviewing his Heart and Ways and upon the discovery of sinful failings renews his Repentance which is the exercise of Grief and Love and renews his purposes of more care and circumspection for the future Love aspires to be like God in all possible degrees of Purity for it inflames our Desires after his Favour as that which is better than Life and all the sweetest enjoyments of it and Holiness is the powerful attractive of God's delightful Love to us Love is the Principle of free ingenuous and joyful Obedience 'T was our Saviour's Meat and Drink to do the Will of his Father For Love is the fountain of Pleasure it moves the Soul with Election and Liberty and makes every thing grateful that proceeds from it Therefore the Apostle declares that the Law is not made for a righteous Man that is as it is enforc'd by terrible penalties to constrain rebellious Sinners to Obedience for Love is an internal living Law in the Heart and has an Imperial Power over his Actions And this also distinguishes the renovation of one sanctified by the Spirit from the imperfect Change that is made in the Unregenerate They may stop the eruption of corrupt Nature but are Swine that being wash'd have an inclination to wallow in the Mire they may by strong impressions of Fear be urged to do many good things but in this they are like a Bowl that is thrown with such violence as controuls the drawing of the Bias and makes it run contrary to it But Love enclines the Soul to obey the holy Motions of the Spirit with facility as the Wheels in Ezekiel's Vision turned every way with readiness as the Spirit moved them And with holy Love there is a spiritual Power communicated that both the natural averseness and impotence to what is good may be healed By the virtue of the sanctifying Spirit the Soul that was dead absolutely unable to perform spiritual and supernatural Acts is revived to a kind of Omnipotence it can do all things required by the Evangelical Covenant by the new Law that is in the hands of our merciful Mediator for Salvation 'T is true there are relicks of Sin in the best and the Flesh and Spirit are repugnant Principles warring against one another but the holy Spirit will make no capitulation or composition with Sin but is so predominant that Sin is gradually subdued and does not so freely and frequently break forth as it does from the unrenewed By the accession of his Strength we are enabled to mortify the Deeds of the Body to crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lust thereof And to perform holy Duties with freedom alacrity and zeal in such a manner as is acceptable to God In short saving Grace is distinguish'd from that which is common to the Unregenerate by its prevalency and constancy There may be a declination in the Saints tending to a downfal but the Seed of God that supernatural Grace that remains in them will by the Power of the holy Spirit recover the Supremacy Others may be enlightned and feel some good Motions and transient Touches as Saul had his rapture among the Prophets but they are not truly entirely and perseveringly converted to God they are not proof against the allurements or Terrors of the World They make a fair Profession till they are tried by Temptations Congealed drops of Water appear like solid Chrystal till the warm beams of the Sun dissolve them and discover the hypocrisy of the Chrystal False Jewels may seem to have the lustre of Diamonds till they are broke by a fall and discovered to be Glass Thus the Riches the Honours and Pleasures of the Flesh melt some and temporal Evils break the Resolutions of others and make it evident they were not sincere Converts But where the holy Spirit savingly works he is said to dwell he is not like a Passenger or a Tenant at will that neglects the House and suffers it to fall into ruine but as the Proprietary and Owner he keeps perpetual residence in true Christians and by his continual Influence preserves them from final Apostacy Now from hence we may judg whether we have an Interest in Christ and his Benefits For the Apostle clearly tells us That if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his By this sacred Signature we are appropriated to Christ and visibly distinguished from the World For though the secret and pure Influences of the Spirit in the Soul are only known to the Person that feels them yet his active Inspirations are declarative of his Presence and Power in the outward Conversation As the Wind that is of so thin and subtil a nature that 't is invisible in it self but we certainly know from what Point it blows by the course and way that the Ship makes thus the Spirit of God who is compared to the Wind is discovered by an infallible Indication his Fruits and Effects in a holy Life And those who have communion with Christ by his Spirit have a share in his Victories and may with confidence meet the last Enemy Death For we are assured If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal Bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in us A preparative conformity to Christ in Grace will be followed with a consummate in Glory But those who never felt the sanctifying efficacy of the Spirit in their Hearts and Lives though they are Christians in profession yet they have no other Union with Christ than a dead Branch with a Tree that receives no sap and virtue from it or an artificial Member joined to the Body that may have the outward clothing and ornaments proper to that part but derives no Life and Sense from it Whoever is in Christ is a new Creature And only those who partake in the first Resurrection from Sin shall be exempted from the Power of the second Death and upon just grounds are freed from the Terrors of the first To apply this Point let us 1. Consider our dear Obligations to our blessed Saviour who to free us from the sting and enslaving fear of Death submitted to it with all its Terrors from God and wicked Men. He felt a
Sadness to an Agony in his Soul and suffered the equal extremities of Ignominy and Torment in his Body The Favour of God was intercepted from him that it may shine upon us in that gloomy hour And all his terrible Sufferings though foreknown by his enlightned Mind could not weaken his determined Will to undergo them for us But when Peter regarded with a more tender eye his Life than our Salvation he was repell'd with indignation Unparallel'd Love no less than Divine transcending all the Instances of humane Affection The highest kind and excess of Love amongst Men is to die for another and the highest degree in that kind is to die to save an Enemy and of this our Saviour is the singular Example Love incomprehensible it passes knowledg and all understanding but his who express'd it His Love was equal to the heighth of his Glory from whence he descended and the depth of his Sufferings that he sustained in our stead By washing us from our Sins in his Blood he makes us Kings dignifies us with spiritual Soveraignty over not only defiling but disturbing Passions The freest and most confident Sinner in the World that rebels against the Divine Laws without restraint is a Slave not only under the Chains of his imperious Lusts but in that he is liable to the scourgings of Conscience when ever awaken'd and to the servile fear of Death every day But the sincere Christian has a clear and sweet Peace a blessed Tranquillity from the tormenting apprehensions and fears of Death that are the just consequents of Guilt One of the ancient Romans highly celebrates the Astronomers who discover'd the true Causes of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and freed the World from the double darkness of Ignorance and Fear for before that Discovery Men believed the obscuring of those great Lights were the fainting fits of Nature and mortal Symptoms threatning an universal Calamity But what Praise and Blessing is due to our Saviour who hath given us infallible assurance that the Death of the Righteous is not as the Heathen World imagin'd an irreparable loss of Life but a short eclipsing of this low and mean Light that is common to sensitive Creatures to be restored more excellent and permanent in Heaven where those Stars shine in the Divine Presence for ever Thanks be to God which gives us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This should render him infinitely precious to us and inflame our Hearts with Desires equal to our Obligations to serve him 2. Let us make it the main Business of our Lives to remove from our Souls the just Fears of Death 'T is one of the solemn Follies of the World to fear where there is no cause As if a Sentinel should mistake Gloworms in the Night for lighted Matches and give a false Alarm but 't is a worse Folly though pleasing not to fear when there is the greatest Reason to excite it And 't is so in the present Case for the most are without the Fear of Death that should make them serious in preparing for it nay to maintain their Security are as unwilling to hear Conscience declare the Wretchedness of their Condition with respect to Eternity as Ahab was the Prophet Micaiah who always foretold evil things to him 'T was the chief Design of the Philosophers by Principles of Reason to fortify themselves against all frightful Accidents and with a masculine Mind with an Heart ardent and with generous Spirits to encounter this inevitable Evil. When one of them was threatned by the Emperor Antigonus with present Death he boldly replied Threaten this to your dissolute Courtiers that are softned and melted by sensual Pleasures and easily receptive of terrible Impressions not to a Philosopher to whom Death is contemptible in any Appearance This was a piece of affected Bravery for Pagan Philosophy could never furnish them with Armor of Proof against the Dart of our last Enemy But the Gospel assuring us that Death is an Entrance into Immortality makes that to be the Reality of a Christian that was a vain boast of the Philosophers Now that we may be establish'd in that blessed Tranquillity that Death cannot discompose the following Directions are infinitely useful 1. We must give all Diligence to be in a State of Reconciliation with God The things requisit to that are as the Apostle declares Repentance towards God and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance includes a Godly Sorrow for Sins past with a Detestation and forsaking them sincerely without Hypocrisy and entirely without Partiality in the Heart and Conversation 'T is call'd Repentance from dead Works the proper Name of our Sins that deserve Eternal Death By Repentance we return to Obedience that is due to God our Maker and Lawgiver Faith respects the Redeemer who by his Blood shed on the Cross and pleaded in Heaven reconciles God to penitent Sinners The Belief of his merciful and powerful Mediation for our Acceptance and Pardon Works by Love and constrains us to dedicate our selves in a devoted Propriety to his Glory and Service and to live according to that Dedication These two are absolutely necessary to the vital and salvifical State of a Christian. And as soon as a Person sincerely repents and believes he is justified before God and if he dies will certainly obtain eternal Glory This should be the early and most speedy Work of our Lives for the Delay of Repentance and Neglect of securing the Favour of God arms Death with more Stings and Terrors The infinite Danger of this I will unfold to awaken the Careless and Secure The Devil is a Sophister in Perfection and his ordinary and successful Artifice to elude the force of present Conviction and wrap Men in Sin and Damnation is to induce them to delay the great Work of the Soul till afterward He is not so foolish to tell them as he did our first Parents Ye shall not die for the Temptation is so palpable that it could deceive none Though the Evidence and Certainty of supernatural Truths that disturb the Security of Sinners is sometimes obscur'd by affected Doubts yet there is no Artifice that can resist the full and strong Conviction in Men that Death is inevitable Though Nature recoils from it with Abhorrence yet this sad Truth is so visible that it forces an Assent from all Those who are titular Gods the greatest Princes are not so vain as to pretend to an Exemption by Priviledg from that fatal Necessity they cannot fancy to be imbalm'd alive and that Nature may be made incorruptible by Art The Palace is as near the Grave as the Cottage therefore the Devil cherishes in Men fond hopes of a long Life As some optick Glasses deceive the Sight and make a superficial Representation in Colours on a Wall but two or three Steps distant appear a long deep Gallery Thus the Tempter by a dangerous Deceit presents to the Imagination the fatal term at a