world which both useth us ill and passeth away 1 John 2. 15 17. John 15. 19. 4 To encrease our desires of glory that we may with good Jacob wait for the salvation of the Lord Gen. 49. 18. 5 To commend our love to Christ which makes us willing to be dissolved that we may go to him as a stone is contented to be broken in moving towards its center Phil. 1. 23. 6 To commend the power of Righteousness which is not afraid of the King of Terrours nor to go to Christ though there be a Lion in the way Act. 21. 13. Rom. 8. 35-37 7 To shew the sweetness and virtue of the Death of Christ which makes a Bed of a Grave an Antidote of a Serpent hath brought sweetness out of the strong and meat out of the Eater hath bound Death with her own Grave Cloaths and set a Guard of Angels over the bodies of the Saints hath rolled away the heavy stâ—ne from the graves of his people and made it a place of ease and refreshment hath made our Graves like a Garden that our bodies like herbs might spring out again hath slain Death as Benaiah did the Lion in its own pit and hath made it sick of the bodies of his people and travel in pain like a woman with-Child till at last it be delivered of them 2 We should by Faith and Hope in this Doctrine comfort our selves against all other calamities and incourage our selves against Death it self which is but a depositary and shall be an accomptant unto God for every member of his Church though it hath swallowed them as the Whale did Jonah it shall cast them up again though to the wicked it be a Trap-door which lets them down to Hell and so keeps them in the midst of laughter sorrowful in the midst of plenty and pleasures fearful in the midst of hope doubtful when they remember the dayes of darkness for they be many and the dayes of torment for they be more Yet to Believers it is a Bed a Rest a Sleep a Friend when it shuts the door between us and the world it opens a door between us and heaven Pardon of sin and peace with God makes us bold to play with the hole of the Asp and with the Cocatrice den Isai. 11. 8. We have thus far considered the Church as dead buried in the dust as quickned raised awakened delighted in God We are III. To take a view of the causes of this deliverance which are 1 Dispositive in regard of the Subject 2 Efficient in regard of the Author The dispositive causes qualifying the Subject for this deliverance are in the two Pronowns Tui and Meum thy dead men my dead body These mercies are not promised generally unto all dead men but unto the Lords dead men whom he hath chosen and formed for himself Psalm 4. 3. Isai. 43. 21. If he say thou art mine neither water nor fire nor East West North South Egypt Ethiopia nor any other Enemy shall keep us back from him Isai. 43. 1 2 6. 1. His we must be if we will not be lost in death 1 His by Consanguinity for Christ having taken upon him the Nature of Adam and the Seed of Abraham and so vouchsafing to call Believers Brethren Heb. 2. 11. by that means God is become our Father John 20. 17. and therefore in the deluge of desolation he will bring us into his Ark as Rahab when she was delivered her self called together her Kindred to share therein with her Josh. 6. 23. 2 His by purchase there was a dear and precious price paid for us we were bought with no less a price then the Blood of God Act. 20. 28. and therefore he will vindicate his Claim and Title unto us no man will lose what he hath paid for if he be able to rescue and recover it out of the hands of unjust possessors Christ having bought us Death shall not with-hold us from him the Redeemed of the Lord shall return Isai. 51. 11. 3 His by Covenant thy Maker is thy Husband Isai. 54. 5. and being married to her he will make her return Jer. 3. 14. Any loving Husband would fetch back his Wife from the Dead if he were able to do it 4 His by Dedication Inhabitation Consecration as a Temple 1 Cor. 6. 19. If Death destroy his Temple he will raise it up again John 2. 19. The Spirit that dwelleth in us will quicken our mortal bodies Rom. 8. 11. 2 His dead men we must be we must dye to sin because he died for it we must kill that which killed Christ we must be dead unto sin if we will live unto God Rom. 6. 11. His dead men his perseverantly until death Rev. 2. 10. His patiently even unto death Heb. 10. 36. Nothing must separate us from his love His ultimately whether we live we must live to the Lord or whether we die we must die unto the Lord Rom. 14. 8. that he may be glorified in our mortal bodies by life or by death Phil. 1. 20. And being thus His dead men 1 We are sure Death comes not but with a Commission from him his providence sendeth it his power restraineth it his love and wisdome guideth and ordereth it to our good it is his Officer it shall touch us no further then he gives it authority John 19. 11. He hath muzled and chained it he saith to Death as to Satan concerning Job He is in thine hand but touch not his Soul meddle not with his Conscience or with his Peace and for his Body thou shalt but keep it thou shalt not destroy it thou shalt be accomptable for every piece of it again 2. Being His dead men he hath alwayes an eye of compassion upon us our sorrows and sufferings he esteems his own Isai. 63. 9. Col. 1. 24. Act. 9. 4. and if they be his he will certainly save us from them and conquer them as well in us as in himself for unto him belong the issues from death Psalm 68 20. 3 As ever therefore we look for blessedness in death or deliverance from it we must labour both living and dying to be the Lords that he may own us when the world hath cast us out that we may be precious in his sight when we are loathsome to the world jewels to him when dung to men that our Graves may not only have worms in them to consume us but Angels to guard us If we die in our sins and be Satans dead men we shall never rise with comfort rottenness will feed not on our bodies only but on our names we shall have worms in our consciences as well as in our carcasses But when we can say Lord I am thine thou art mine we may thence infer we shall not dye Hab. 1. 12. We have a life which death cannot reach Col. 3. 3. this therefore must be our special care to be Mortui tui to dye to the Lord to fall asleep in Christ 1 Cor. 15. 18. that
16. 21. when they looked for deliverance from one calamity they fell into another or as some render it instead of bringing forth a child or working any deliverance they were delivered of their own spirit or gave up the Ghost The next words are a litteral explication of the metaphor We have not wrought any salvation or deliverance All our conceptions and cries end in vanity and disappointment All our Hopes touching the ruine of our enemies ver 14. are come to nothing they are not fallen But we are dead men very carcasses we dwell in the dust we are as low as calamity can make us Now above all this misery the Church by faith lifteth up her head in the assurance of a glorious Resurrection She turnes away from the view and sense of her own sufferings from the conceptions and parturitions of her own Counsels and carnal contrivances and with a triumphant Apostrophe turns to God Thy dead men shall live The pronown is very emphatical for they are the words of the Church to God as appears by the continuation of the context from ver 16. so it is not meant of all but of Gods dead men whether figuratively in any desperate clamity or really in their graves For the words will extend to both Shall live or do live are prisoners of hope have a seed of life in them even in the grave It is the Apostles similitude and illustration 1 Cor. 15. 36 37 38. With my dead body In the Original it is thus My dead body They shall live by an usual Enallage of the number every one of my dead bodies shall live Some make it an expression of the Prophets faith applying to himself the comfort of that common salvation preaching nothing to them which he was not in his own particular assured of Some take it as an Answer of Christ to the Churches faith as if it related to that Mat. 27. 52 53. I conceive them to be the words of the Church still comforting her self in the assurance of Gods mercy to every one of her mystical members which assurance is expressed by a kind of Hypotyposis calling the dead to come forth out of the dust and to rejoyce for her deliverance For thy dew is as the dew of Herbs Thy divine word power and promise is able to do unto us as dew unto herbs though they seem outwardly dried up and dead yet having a vital Root they do by the fall of the dew send forth their Leaves and beauty again Now God hath more care of us then of herbs and his spirit more efficacy then the dew and therefore however we may be withered and consumed with calamity and death yet he will raise us up again and cloath us with beauty and glory Thus the Scripture often argues from natural to supernatural things Jer. 31. 35 36. Jer. 33. 20 21. Psal. 89. 36 37. 1 Cor. 15. 36. And this similitude of dew reviving and refreshing decayed herbs we frequently meet with Prov. 19. 12. Isa. 66. 14. Hos. 14. 5 6. And the earth shall cast out the dead as a woman doth an untimely birth The Grave shall be in Travel with the dead the Apostle seems to point at such a Metaphor Acts 2. 24. and shall be delivered of them Another version thus Thou shalt cast the Giants in the earth They who here as Giants did trample on the Church and were formidable unto her shall then fall and perish when thy people shall awake and sing as ver 14. so elsewhere They shall take them captives whose captives they were and they shall rule over their oppressors Isa. 14. 2. the sons of them that afflicted them shall come bending unto them Isa. 60. 14. 65. 13 14. In the words we observe two general parts 1. The Churches complaint under very great calamity and disappointment ver 18. 2. Her triumph over all her enemies and sufferings ver 19. The complaint being expressed by the metaphor of conception and parturition intimateth 1. The Greatnesse of their affliction 2. The Contrivances they used to procure deliverance from it 3. The disappointment of them all we have brought forth winde as elsewhere ye shall conceive chaffe and shall bring forth stubble Isa. 33. 11. In the Triumph we may consider 1. The Matter of it Deliverance from the lowest to the best condition from death to life from a carcasse to a Resurrection from corruption to glory from dust to singing 2. The Reasons of it 1. In regard of the subject Mortui tui Gods dead men Cadaver meum the Churches dead body 2. In regard of the Author and vertue whereby it should be effected the Word the Power the Spirit of God metaphorically expressed Ros tuus Thy dew is as the dew of herbs From the first general the Prophets complaint we may observe three things 1. That the Lord exerciseth his own people yea his whole Church sometimes with sore and sharp afflictions with the pangs and throws of a woman in travel Sometimes we finde them in a house of bondage in Egypt sometimes in a Grave in Babylon often oppressed with Philistims Midianites Cananites Ammonites Edomites Syrians under the tyranny of the four great Monarchies of the earth So the Christian Church first under the persecutions of the Heathen Emperors of Rome and then under persecutions of Antichrist her witnesses prophesying in sackcloth 1260. years As Christ first suffered then entred into glory Luk. 24. 26. so must his Church Rom. 8. 17. Christ hath a double Kingdom that of his patience and that of his power we must be subjects under the Kingdom of his patience before we come to that of his power The Church must passe through the Sea and the Wildernesse to Canaan they must be in a working and suffering condition before they come to the Rest or Sabbath which remaineth for them Heb. 4. 9. Davids militant Raign must go before Solomons peaceable Raign Our sins must this way be mortified Our faith hope love patience humility Christian courage and fortitude be exercised Our conformity unto Christ evidenced The measure of the wickednesse of the enemy filled The glory of God magnified in supporting them under in delivering them out of all their afflictions and raising them up when they are at lowest Therefore we should not esteem it strange when we fall into divers temptations or see the Church of God in the world in a suffering or dying condition 1 Pet. 4. 12 13 17. Jam. 1. 2. If we will have Christ for our husband we must take him for better for worse 1. His afflictions are short and but for a moment Isa. 54. 7. 2 Cor. 4. 17. 2. Sanctified by the Spirit of glory and of God resting upon us 1 Pet. 4. 13 14. 3. Seconded with grace and the power of Christ to support us under them 2 Cor. 12. 9. 4. Operative unto peace righteousness and glory Rom. 8. 28. Heb. 12. 11. 5. Not worthy to be compared with the glory
in the Life of Christ their Head whether we wake or sleep we live together with him 1 Thes. 5. 10. as we are risen with him and sit with him in heaven Col. 3. 1. Eph. 2. 6. 3. They live in the Seed of the Spirit of Holiness whose Temples they are which is in them a pledge and seminal virtue of Resurrection Rom. 8. 11. compared with 1 Cor. 3. 16. 6. 19. In which respect the Apostle compareth the bodies of the faithful unto Seed I Cor. 15. 42. to note that by the Inhabitation and Sanctification of the Spirit there is a vital virtue in the body to spring up and awake again Thus even in the state of death we have vitam Absconditam Col. 3. 3. hidden out of our sight and sense as seed in the Furrow as a jewel in the Cabinet as an Orphans estate in the hand of his Guardian hidden with Christ the first fruits and in God the Author and Fountain of Life Thus vivunt they do live And further vivent they shall live for our life in Christ is not a decaying but a growing and abounding life Joh. 10. 10 therefore it will break forth into the similitude of Christs glorious Body in whom it is hid as the Corn groweth into the likeness of that seed wherein it was originally and virtually contained Joh. 12. 24. Col. 3. 4. Phil. 3. 21. 1 Joh. 3. 2 3. Of natural life we cannot say I live and I shall live for natural life runs into death as Jordan into the dead Sea But of Christian life we may say I live and I shall live it is a life which runs into life though through the way of death as the waters of the Caspian Sea are said through subterraneous passages to have communion with the great Ocean It comes from heaven Christ the Fountain and Center of it and it goes back unto heaven As a piece of earth falls to the whole earth so every piece of heaven will find the way to its whole 2. Resurgent With my dead body they shall arise their life shall be given them for their advancement wicked men shall live again that they may dye again and shall rise ut lapsu graviore ruant that they may be thrown deeper Pharoahs Butler and Baker came both out of prison the one to his office the other to dishonor the one to be advanced the other to be executed So mortui tui and mortui seculi shall both come out of their graves the one from a prison to a Furnace the other from a prison to a Palace In which respect Believers only are called children of the Resurrection Luke 20. 36. It is a Resurrection of life to the one of condemnation to the other Joh. 5. 29. And therefore to distinguish them from the other it is added 3. Expergiscimini They shall awake as a man refreshed with sleep which puts a great difference beâ—ween the deaths and Resurrections of the godly and the wicked 1. The death of the godly is but asleep 1. In regard of the seeds of life abiding in them A man in sleep ceaseth from the acts of sense but the faculties he retaineth still So an holy man though he lose in death the acts of life yet the seed and root he hath not lost he lives to God still 2. In regard of his weariness of the world and fulness of dayes A man wearied with labour lies down willingly to rest Abraham dâ—ed full of dayes he was satiated and desired no more Gen. 25. 8. the Apostle had enough of the world when he desired to depart and to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. whereas a wicked man how old soever is not said to die full of years or satisfied with life He may be loaded but not replenished he knows not whither he is going and therefore he would fain stay in the world still But it may be said Have not wicked men brought death upon themselves as Achitophel Saul Judas and godly men been sometimes unwilling to die as Hezekiah Isai. 38. 1 2. True both yet neither the one out of the love of death nor the other out of love of the world wicked men are impatient of present anguish and inconsiderate touching future terrours and therefore rush upon the one to avoid the other But godly men are weary of the body of sin and believe the favour of God and glory of Christs presence and that makes them desire to depart and to be with him Nor did Hezekiah decline death out of a servile fear being able to plead unto God his uprightness but out oâ— a desire to live to compleat the Reformation of the Church which he had begun and that he might have a Successor to derive the Line of the Royal Seed unto So then death to the godly is but a sleep in regard of the rest it giveth them Rev. 14. 13. from sins fâ—om sorrows from labours from enemies from temptations from fear from evils to come and therefore Job calls the grave his bed Job 17. 13. and so the Prophet They shall lye down in their beds Isa. 57. 2. 2. This awaking makes a great difference between the Resurrection of the godly and the wicked the one riseth refreshed as sleep repaireth the decays of Nature so that a man riseth vigorous and recruited therefore the time of the Resurrection is called the time of refreshing and of restitution of all things Acts 3. 19 21. The other riseth affrighted as a man awakened with a Thunder-clap or whose house is in a flame about him the one awakes to his work the other to his Judgement it is morning and everlasting day to the one it is horrour and darkness to the other and therefore it is added 4. Cantate when they awake they shall sing as David when he awaked calls on his Lute and Harp to awake with him Psal. 57. 8. In their graves at Bobylon they hung their Harps on the Willows no musick then Psal. 137. 3. but they go out of their graves as Israel out of the Red Sea with Victory and Triumph over Death and Hell and so shall sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb. Dust and Ashes in the Scripture phrase are ceremonies of mourning Job 2. 12. Mic. 1. 10. but here they who inhabit the dust are called upon to put off their prison garments and to shake themselves from their dust Isai. 52. 1 2. to awake unto singing and triumph when they awake they are satisfied Psalm 17. 15. Thus we see the deliverance of the Church is fully as large as their distress From all which we learn 1. The true cause why Death and the calamities leading thereunto do still remain after Christs Victory over them to wit 1 To exercise our Faith and Hope in Gods Promises for the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14. 32. 2 to conform us unto Christ as well in the way to life as in the end 1 Pet. 4. 13. 3 To wean us from the love of the
which we can forecast we many times stagger and falter about Israel confessed what God had done and that omnipotently He smote the rock and the waters gushed out and yet in the same breath they question his power can he furnish a Table in the wildernesse can he give bread also and provide flesh for his people Psalm 78. 19 20 22. Moses himself stagger'd when the Lord made a promise which seemed to exceed the power of ordinary causes Numb 11. 21 22. And therefore when God will confirm the faith of his servants he draweth them off from viewing the greatnesse and strangeness of the promises in themselves to the consideration of his power Is any thing too hard for the Lord Gen. 18. 14. I am the Lord the God of all flesh is there any thing too hard for me Jer. 32. 27. If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these dayes should it also be marvellous in mine eyes saith the Lord of Hosts Zach. 8. 6. And therefore in all cases of difficulty when sense and reason flesh and blood dictate nothing but despaire we should by faith look up to the truth of God promising and to the power and name of God giving being to his promisâ—s whose ways are higher then our wayes and his thoughts then our thoughts Isa. 55. 8. 9. So did Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20. 12. so David I Sam. 30. 6. so the Prophet Ezek. 37. 3. so Abraham Rom. 4. 19 20 21. so Peter Luke 5. 5. so we should all do when we walk in darkness and have no light still trust in the Name of the Lord and stay upon our God Isa. 50. 10. 2 We hence learn the Original of the Resurrection it is an Heavenly work as dew which comes from heaven to revive the grass The Lord resolves the lineage and genealogie of corn into Heaven Hos. 2. 21. takes it to himself to be the father of the dew Job 38. 28. It comes from him whose body did shed drops of heavenly dew in the garden and by them did slay death and revive he herbs of the grave We must labour therefore by an heavenly conversation to have our Bodies Temples of the holy Spirit that this Heavenly vertue when it hath drawn us out of our graves may then carry us to Heaven for as that which is earthly when it is out of its place never leaves descending till it goes to Earth so that which is Heavenly will never cease rising till it get to Heaven Earthly vapors may be drawn up but they fall again in rain and winde Wicked men though raised will fall again Any thing of heaven will go to heaven any thing of Christ will go to Christ. Concerning this dear and worthy Lay though my custom be to be very sparing in Funeral Elogies yet many things were in her so remarkable that the mentioning of them cannot but tend to the Edification of others I shall not mention her meere Exterrals The worth credit and dignity of her family The gentlenesse and sweetnesse of her disposition and all amiable accomplishments which rendred her lovely to those that knew her nor set forth the proportion between her and the present Text. I shall onely name such things as commended her to God as well as to men She looked after Heaven very young would frequently blesse God for the Religious Education which she had under her parents She was even then assaulted with Temptations unto Atheisme and to think that there was no God But took the best course to repell and resist them that the most experienced Christian could have directed her unto Immediately betaking her self by prayer unto that God whom she was tempted to deny She was a woman mighty in the Scriptures read them over once a year and searched after the sense of difficult places out of the several Annotations before her She was as it were a Concordance directing usually to the Book and Chapter where any place of Scripture mentioned in discourse was to be found She was constant in reading substantial Authours of dogmatical and practical Divinity and by that means grew greatly acquainted with the whole Body of wholsome doctrine She was unweariedly constant in the performance of private duties in so much that it is verily believed by him who had best reason to know it that for twelve years together she never intermitted her morning and evening addresses unto the Throne of Grace When she was suddenly surprized with the pangs of this last child she ran into her closet to be first delivered of her prayer and to poure out her soul to God before she was delivered of her child She had a singular delight in the publick Ordinances and was a most constant frequenter of them with very serious and devout attention calling her memory to an account when she came home and if any particular slipt from her forgotten she would enquire of her husband in bed to recover it for her She left behind her in her closet a paper book wherein with her own hand she had collected divers general Directions for an holy spending of the day with several particular meanes for the faithful observance of those General Rules She highly honoured Holinesse in the poorest and meanest persons and would frequently with some decent and modest excuse get off from unprofitable impertinent discourse that she might have her fill of more edifying conference with such in whom she had learned of David to place her delight For divers months before her death she was wonderfully improved heavenward as those about her observed not regarding the world nor letting any vain word drop from her and her countenance many times after her coming out of her closet seemed to have strange impressions of her conversing with God shining in it as some conversant with her have professed to observe She was greatly adorned with Meeknesse Modesty and Humility which are graces in the sight of God of great price When one wish'd her ioy with the Honour lately come to her she answered That there was a greater Honour which she looked after which would bring with it more solid joy She alwayes expressed much Honour and Reverence to her parents in all comely and dutiful comportment towards them which much endeared them unto her Full of conjugal affection to her dear husband revoking with an ingenuous Retraction any word which might fall from her which she judged lesse becoming that Honour and Reverence which she did bear to him When he was ingaged upon publick concernments and more particularly when he cross'd the seas to wait on his Sacred Majesty she daily put up such ardent and heavenly petitions unto God for him as caused those about her to conclude it impossible that the husband of so many prayers and teares should meet with any miscarriage Wonderful watchful over his Bodily health and spying out distempers in him before he discovered them himself Earnestly desiring what is now come to passe that he might survive her that she might never know the wound of a deceased Husband She had a more then ordinary care in the Education of her children holding them close to the reading and committing to memory both Scripture and Catechisme wherein by her diligence they made a very strange progress a pregnant instance whereof to speak nothing of her children yet living was her eldest son who went to heaven in his childhood about the age of five or six years of whose wonderful proficiency in the knowledge of God an exact account is given by a grave and godly Divine in the printed Sermon which he preached at his Funeral She was very affable and kind to her servants specially encouraging them unto holy duties who have professed themselves very much benefited in their spiritual concernments by the discourses which she hath had with them She was very charitable and ready to do good to poor distressed persons specially those of the houshold of faith visiting edifying and comforting them and with her liberality relieving their necessities acknowledging Gods free and rich mercy in allowing her a plentiful portion of outward blessings and that she was not in the low condition of those whom her charity relieved In her sicknesse and extremities of travel and other pains she earnestly pleaded Gods promises of healing of easing of refreshing those that were weak and heavy laden acknowledging her self so to be not in body onely but in soul too and was full of holy and servent ejaculations Yea when the disease affected her head and disturbed her expressions yet even then her speeches had still a tincture of Holinesse and savour'd of that spirit wherewith her heart was seasoned She advised those about her to set about the great and one necessary work of their souls while they were in health assuring them that in sicknesse all the strength they had would be taken up about that She desired her husband to read to her in her sicknesse Mistris Moores Evidences for salvation set forth in a Sermon preached by a Reverend Divine at her Funeral meditating with much satisfaction upon them And when some cloud overcast her soul she desired her husband to pray with her and seconded him with much enlargement of heart and blessed God for the recovery of light again Thus lived and died this excellent Lady a worthy patterne for the great ones of her sex to imitate Such works will follow them into another world where none of the vanities of this no Pleasures no Pomp no Luxury no Bravery no Balls no Enterludes no Amorous or Complemental discourses or other like Impertinencies of the world will have any admittance The more seriously you walk with God and plie the concernments of your immortal souls living as those that resolve to be saved the greater will be your treasure of comfort in your death and of glory in another life whereas all your other delights and experiments for content will expire and give up the Ghost in Solomons vanity and vexation of Spirit The Lord make us all wise unto salvation FINIS Irenaeus lib. 5. cap. 15. 30. Tertul. de Resurrect c. 32. Hieron Cyril in loc Aug. de Civ dei lib. 20. cap. 21. Calvin Institut l. 2. c. 10. sect 21. l. 3. c. 25. sect 4. Calvin Sasbout 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 11. 3. 12. 6. Gen. 12. 13. Gen. 20. 2. Isa. 8. 13. Psal. 119. 51. Jer. 20. 8.