command was not frighted to behold the Sun go down although he was in the midst of an open field Gen. 28. but he laid himself down in peace and slept sweetly having no other Bed but the Earth no other Pillow but a Stone no other covering than the Heavens nor other Curtains than the dark shadows of the night Likewise a Soul sanctified by the Spirit of God that walks in all the Commands of his Heavenly Father shall never be astonished for wheresoever his Sun goes down wheresoever Death Arrests him he will look upon himself as in another Bethel he will sleep quietly in the Lord Jesus in the most cruel death he will feel unspeakable and glorious joys and a Peace of God which passeth all understanding Acts 23. We may take notice of this blessed disposition in the Apostle St. Paul who had behaved himself with a good conscience towards God and towards Man 1 Cor. 15. He had labor'd more in his Ministry than all the other Apostles therefore he stands in no fear of deaths approaches but rather we may see him full of expectation and desires to pass through Death into Glory and Eternal Felicity This disposition is no less remarkble in Stephen the first Martyr of Christ Acts 6. in the midst of his most grievous torments he had a countenance shining as that of an Angel which was a certain testimony of his inward peace of Conscience and of the extraordinary joy of his Soul for as the Wise man informs us A merry Heart maketh a chearful Countenance Prov. 15. From the same wisdom proceeds this other Oracle that foretels unto every one what shall happen unto him The wicked is driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14. Eccl. 1. Unto this is agreeable the excellent saying of Jesus the Son of Syrach It shall be well at the last with him who fears God he shall sind favor at the day of his death This life is but a moment that flies away apace and yet it determines our Eternal Estate it raiseth us to the highest Glory of Heaven or else it casts us headlong into the deepest Abysse of Eternal Misery for what Man soweth that shall he reap he that soweth in the flesh shall reap of the flesh corruption but he that soweth in the Spirit shall reap of the Spirit Eternal Life If you are afraid of a cruel and unhappy death keep your selves from an evil and a prophane life for commonly as Man's life is so is his death The most part of those who live in foul Lusts and Prophaness dye in hardness of heart or in grievous despair God's patience wearied out changes it self into a just resentment and fury Commonly God leaves at the hour of death such as have left him in the course of their lives he is inexorable to the cryes and sighs of such as have shut their Ears and Hearts to his Holy Word and his Fatherly Instructions he laughs at the horrid fears and most sensible torments of those that trample upon his sacred Commands according to his own words Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh King Ahab was desirous to hear a pleasing Prophecy of happy things of the victory over the Syrian Army nevertheless he did continue in his Impieties and Tyranny therefore the Prophet Micah was not afraid of his displeasure but tells him boldly of the approaching Judgments of God which did hang over his guilty Head likewise some sinners desire to be flatter'd and soothed up in their extravagancies they expect notwithstanding their crimes declarations of Joy and Prosperity but we should be false Prophets possessed with a lying Spirit if we did not foretel to such people that a most lamentable and miserable death hastens apace upon them we should have a cruel charity for them if we did not labor to save them by fear as out of a fire if we did not shew them Hell with its jaws open ready to swallow them up and the Eternal Torments wherewith God will punish all impenitent and hardened sinners Knowing what God's vengeance is we must perswade Men to embrace Faith and Righteousness and if we did fail in this our duty their Blood should be required at our hands To what purpose have the Heathen Philosophers discoursed so Learnedly of the shortness of our life To what purpose have many of their Princes entertain'd things on purpose to mind them of their mortal condition Such kind of thoughts did fly in their fancy but they reapt but little benefit from them because they did not oblige them to an Holy and Reformed Life and by consequence they did not prepare them to a blessed Death It was also to no purpose that Balaam desired so passionately to dye the death of the Righteous and that his last end might be like a just man's Numb 23. for because he lived the life of a sinner and continued in his Abominations and Idolatry Numb 31. therefore he died as they and was comprehended in their punishment as he was a partner in their crimes it was but just and reasonable that he should share in their calamities and be a partaker of their torments To abandon Vice and Sin is to take from Death its Venom and all its fiery Darts It is to pluck from this furious Beast its Teeth and Claws it is to break the Cords and Chains by which the Devil drags us into Eternal damnation It is to destroy the Monsters that fright us and stifle the Furies that pursue us In short it tends to change Hell and its grievous Torments into an Heaven and its Glory There was never yet any person that lived an Holy and Religious Life but he died happily in the favour of his God Now that the Lord knocks open unto him the door of your hearts and at the hour of Death he will open unto you the Gates of Heaven present and give unto him whiles you are alive your Bodies and Souls and doubtless he will accept them and confirm the Gift with his own Seal here below he will enrich you with his Graces and crown you at last with his Glory Blessed are they that dye in the Lord but to dye in the Lord we must live to the Lord that we may be able to say with St. Paul Whether we live we live to the Lord whether we dye we dye to the Lord whether we live or dye we are the Lords To perswade us to this Religious Duty we must consider in the first place the Command that he gives us of loving him fearing him of repenting of our sins and of walking in his Holy ways unto this he exhorts us in the Holy Writings of the Old Testament as in the 6 of Deuteronomy Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
and with our Daughters with our Flocks and with our Heards there shall not an Hoof be left behind Exod. 10. Thus we in an Holy Confidence may talk with Death maugre thy Rage and Fury we will go up to Heaven to sacrifice unto our God immortal praises we shall get out of thy slavery We our Wives our Children our Brothers and Sisters our Parents and Friends all the People of God whom thou dost at present keep in a close restraint notwithstanding the infernal attempts of thine inhumane power there shall not remain so much as an handful no not so much as the least grain of our Ashes behind us When the Son of God shall appear in his Glory from Heaven he shall consume all Death's Trophies and Monuments with irresistable Flames so that it shall happen to this imperious Enemy of Mankind as it happened to the Kings of the Amorites mentioned in the Israelitish History Josh 10. for as Joshua suffered them to live until he was returned from his victory and then when he had perfectly overcome all his Enemies he Commanded them to be brought forth and gave order to his Captains to tread upon their necks and then with his own sword he dispatcht them cast them into a Cave and caused great stones to be rowled at the entrance of it Thus shall our true and Celestial Joshua deal with Death he suffers it to reign while he is gone to pursue his Enemies for the last Enemy that shall be destroyed by him is Death when he shall have perfectly subdued all other Enemies he will then conclude all his victories with a glorious end and accomplish the Churches Triumph by causing us to trample upon Death that shall be cast into the bottomless pit whereof the entrance shall be shut up for ever Rev. 10. then shall be accomplisht this glorious Prophesie Death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 15. for the Spirit of God assures us in express words That Death shall be no more By what we have said it may easily appear what is become of the Rope thrice twisted by the Devil with an intent to strangle therewith all Mankind for the Son of God hath cut in pieces the first of these unhappy ties by his Almighty power by the Spirit of Sanctification he loosens the second by degrees and by the last he draws us to himself and then he burns and consumes it altogether therefore we have no reason to fear an Eternal Death nor to tremble when Hell opens wide its mouth If we resist the Devil he flies away from us Jam. 4. at last we shall trample him under our feet Rom. 16. It is true that the sad and doleful effects of the Spiritual death do commonly draw out of us many a sad Groan and Tear whilst our Soul remains in this sinful Flesh we are already got out of the Tombs of Corruption and Sin but yet bear about us as it were our Winding-sheet and some odd Reliques of our natural Misery But we have this consideration to comfort our drooping spirits That Christ will shortly give the same order from Heaven for us as he did for Lazarus Loose him and let him go Joh. 11. So that instead of the corruption of our Nature that is so incommodious to us he will invest us in Estate of Glory Incorruption Immortality and perfect Happiness for the Corporal Death we may justly say That our Lord and Saviour hath freed us from all the fears that it might beget in us so that it is my judgement that we may not only affirm that we have not the least apprehension of it but expect it with assurance for if we be truly of the number of the faithful and Gods adopted Sons we hope desire and hasten Deaths arrival by our most carnest and most passionate wishes What I have already declared in this Chapter might satisfy any Christian Soul and furnish it with sufficient considerations to strengthen it against all apprehensions of Death But as one that is wont to buy Stuffs in a Shop when he cheapens such as are slight and of a small value he casts his eye only upon a piece or a pattern and by that judges of the rest but when he intends to purchase a rich Tapestry of great value he desires to visit and consider every part one after another and make an estimation of the value and beauty of every corner So I judge that the Wise and Religious Reader will desire now that I have discover'd to him in gross the Body of Consolations against the fears of Death that I should in the next place unfold these hidden Excellencies produce every part of them by degrees to his contemplation and with my Pen make him take notice of all the Rarities CHAP. 6. From whence proceed the fears of Death AS a wise and discreet Physitian usually examines with care the causes of the Disease before he prescribes a Remedy and as an experienced Chirurgion searcheth the wound before he claps the Plaister to it Thus I judge it necessary to seek with diligence from whence the fears of death proceed before we shall appoint the Remedies to the faithful Souls for when we shall have perfectly understood the nature of the Disease and its principal Causes we shall without difficulty be better able to assign a convenient Remedy when we shall have searcht the wound and washt it clean we will with Gods assistance pour into it the true Balm of Gilead First we have just reason to accuse our selves of too much unmindfulness of Death we don't meditate so often as we should upon the misery and frailty of our poor and despicable nature we acknowledge it I confess with our tongues that our life is but a breath in our Nostrils a vapor that soon disappears a shadow that quickly vanishes away but in the mean time we flatter our selves in our hearts with more pleasant thoughts and desire as Herod that Men should look upon us as so many little Gods Acts 12. We suffer our selves to be deceived by the flattering insinuations of our corrupted Flesh and by the artificious suggestions of the old Serpent that whispers to us as to our first Parents You shall not dye Gen. 3. 2. We commonly affirm that Death is inexorable without Ears nevertheless we live as if we had concluded an agreement with Death and had secret intelligence with the Grave Is 22. Death approaches with Feet of Wooll without noise we imagine therefore that it will never come near us as that wicked servant of the Gospel Matth. 24. that gathered from his Masters delays of coming that he would not come at all We hate and abominate the sight of all those things that represent to us any appearance of Death or that calls into our minds its remembrance if at any time its Image comes in our way we turn from it our Eyes and banish out of our fancy all imaginations of it as of a most odious and deceitful illusion Death seizeth upon us
the Nurse leaves sometime the Child to his Legs and suffers it to fall that it might know its own strength and learn to hold faster by the Hand Thus God withdraws from us the assistance of his Grace to humble us and to cause us to implore more earnestly the help and favourable succors of his Holy Spirit When St. Peter felt the Sacred Flames of that Holy Zeal that was kindled in his Heart and that sincere love that he had for Christ he rejoyced and imagined himself to be strong enough to resist all the powers of Hell and to frustrate all the fiery Darts of the Devil This good opinion that he had of himself and of his own ability transports him to that confidence as to contradict our Saviour Christ and to protest Although all should be offended in thee yet will not I be offended and when I should dye with thee yet will not I deny thee This was he who trembled at the voice of a Damsel so that his Fall and Apostacy was as notable as his Confidence was great therefore it warns such as stand that they should take heed of falling into misfortune Rom 11. There is no good natured Child but is vexed to live amongst such as Curse and Reproach its Parents and if we should happen to be concerned unawares in the offence or to occasion the death of him from whom it had its being it will feel an Eternal displeasure Now it is certain that whilst we live in this world we must spend our time amongst those that blaspheme the Holy Name of God and abuse the Glory of his Eternal Godhead Moreover Vice and Corruption are so universal that we our selves offend this Father of Mercies and Compassions we add sin to sin and heap up our iniquities together Let us therefore conclude from hence Believing Souls that Death is not to be feared as an Evil or a Misery but that it is rather to be desired as an Advantage and a Blessing For seeing that it is to be wished for because it frees us from all the calamities and sufferings of the World It is far more desirable because it closeth our Eyes and conveys out of our sight all the sins and abominations that abound in the World and because it stops our Ears and hinders us from hearing the Impieties and the filthy Discourses that infect the Air. Seeing that Death is to be embraced with joy because it delivers our Bodies from the diseases that torment them and our minds from the cares and displeasures that vex and afflict them It deserves to be welcomed with greater expressions of Gladness because it delivers us from all remains of sin and puts a period to our natural corruption so that it is to be esteem'd and look'd upon as the Death and Destruction of the Old Man rather than the Death of a true Believer Sampson rejoyced in his Death because he knew that in dying his mortal Enemies should dye also and be destroyed with him we have more cause to rejoyce at our Death and to give God thanks at that time seeing that in dying or rather in passing from Death to Life we may see the Destruction of all the dangerous Enemies of our Salvation Who are more dreadful to us than the Philistins were to Sampson All the most cruel and barbarous Men of the World are not so much to be feared as the Lusts of our filthy Flesh that put out the Eyes of our understanding that cause us to be the Devil's sport and to worship many false Gods We commonly run out with haste from a place infected with the Plague and should not we make as much speed by our Vows and Prayers to get out of the World seeing that Vice is so Infectious and Universal all over it that so many thousand Souls are therewith miserably spoiled Seeing the World is as a Babylon where all manner of Debauchery Vice and Vertue are mixed together where Unjustice and impiety Reigns have we not greater cause to be transported with Joy when God delivers us from our woful Captivity than the Children of Israel had when it pleased him to call them out of Babylon should we not sing unto him when the Lord returned back and restored them of Sion that came back from their Captivity we were as those that dream though our Mouths were full of Laughter and our Tongues with Songs of Triumph In short as the Lord Jesus when he had restored Lazarus to life and taken him out of his Grave he had compassion of him and could not see him any longer wrapped up in his Winding Sheet and tied with a Napkin therefore he commanded Loose him and let him go Likewise this Merciful Lord who hath made us to be partakers of the first Resurrection and called our Souls out of the noisom Grave of our Lusts is moved with compassion for us when he sees these wretched Souls drag about them the reliques of Sin and some Remains of that Corruption in which they were wrapped Therefore he will cause them to hear this sweet and comfortable voice Loose them and let them go Let them go to the Eternal Mansions to the City of the living God to the Heavenly Jerusalem to the Glorious Companies of Angels and to the Church and Congregation of the First-born whose Names are Written in Heaven A Prayer and Meditation for a true Christian who comforts himself with this Consideration That Death shall deliver him from Sin that Reigns so much in the World and from all Remains of his wretched Corruption O Most Gracious High Priest Holy Innocent separated from sinners exalted above all the Heaveâ—â— who art now shining in Light and Glory look upon mâ— from thy Sanctuary and Compassionate my wretched Estate Thou understandest well the cause of my grief O Lord who searchest the Hearts and readest my most Secret Thoughts Thou knowest O my God that I grieve to see so much Injustice and Impiety reigning this day in the World to see Vice Prophaness Superstition and Schism committing so many disorders in thy Holy Church But that which chiefly increaseth my pain and aggravates my displeasure is to see my self guilty and spotted with the general corruption and to feel my Flesh warring and strugling against the Spirit The Lusts of the Flesh do not only disturb me but they get many times the victory and insult upon my infirmities Sin shews not only it self to me in all its Hellish deformity so that I am thereby ashamed of my self but I also acknowledge to the praise of thy Grace that all that is best in me cannot endure an exact Inquisition of thy Justice Alas my God how imperfect is my Piety How languishing is my Devotion I worship thee too much for custom and in a very slight manner I often praise thee with my Tongue and Honour thee with my Lips whilst my Heart is far from thee The Love that I bear to thee is not pure and enflamed and my Charity instead of being
more That if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a terrible expectation of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries for our God is a consuming fire Chap. 10. And in the Revelations it is not only said that in the Holy Jerusalem there shall no unclean thing enter or that committeth Abomination or a Lye and that God will shut out the Dogs the Witches the Fornicators the Murderers the Idolaters and whosoever doth love or do a lye Chap. 2.22 But the Spirit of God assures that the timerous that is such as are more afraid of Man than of God the Unbelieving the Execrable and Murderers the Fornicators and Witches the Idolaters and Lyers shall have their portion in the Lake that burnes with Fire and Brimstone which is the second death Chap. 13. 6. When we should speak the language of Angels when we should give all our Goods to nourish the Poor and when we should give our Body to be burn'd if we have not charity we are but like the sounding Brass and like the thinkling Cymbal When we should be able to perform Signes and Wonders if we be not cloathed with Innocency and Holiness if we be not adorned with Meekness and Love Christ will at last treat us as the foolish Virgins with a Depart from me I know you not When we should be able to cast the Devil out of other Men it will avail us nothing unless we can cast him out also of our own hearts with all the wicked Lusts that he nourisheth there To what purpose shall such cry out at the great day Lord Lord have not we prophesied in thy name have not we cast out Devils in thy name have not we done many miracles in thy name Jesus will return them this sad answer Depart from me ye workers of iniquity 7. Consider that whatsoever be your share of the advantages of this life when you shall come to dye you shall not carry away with you your Riches your Honors nor your Pleasures but if you be rich in Faith and good Works if you be cloathed with Holiness and crowned with Righteousness If Piety and the service of God be your delight you shall carry away out of the World this Spiritual Treasure this Celestial Glory and this Angelical Satisfaction It is what the Holy Spirit teacheth when it tells us Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them 8. Let us always have before our eyes the blessed examples of so many Saints who have traced us the way to Heaven by their Piety and good Works they are enter'd into the Paradise of God and the Glory of his Kingdom It is reported of a Painter that when he had a designe to represent an accomplished Beauty he borrowed from divers Objects the Excellencies and Perfections with which he was to adorn his Picture from the Lillies he took their whiteness from the Roses their red tincture from another Object the wonder of the Eye from another the coral of the Lips and so of the other parts Likewise to restore in our Souls the Image of God defaced by sin we must borrow the Vertues and Excellencies of former Men for example Represent always to your selves Abel's Innocency Henoch's Holy life Noah's Justice Abraham's Faith Lot's Hospitality Isaack's Obedience the Faithfulness of Jacob the Chastity of Joseph the Patience of Job the Meckness of Moses the Zeal of Phineas the Constancy of David the Wisdom of Solomon the Piety of Josias the Prayers of Daniel the Tears of Jeremiah the Fastings of Hester the Holy Earnestness of the Woman of Canaan the Devotion of Cornelius the Charity of the Samaritan the Alms of Dorcas and of the poor Widow the Publicans Humility the good Thiefs Repentance the Tears of Mary Magdalen the Weepings of Peter the undaunted Courage of St. Paul and his indefatigable disposition and the glorious Martyrdom of St Stephen and of so many noble Souls of all Ages and Sexes who have gone to the torments with as much joy as to Feasts and to Triumphs and who have sealed with their Blood the truth of the Gospel with an undaunted resolution Seeing therefore that we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us pursue with constancy the Race that is set before us 9. Chiefly Let us look to Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith for he hath left us an example that we might follow his footsteps All the Vertues that we admire in these faithful Souls are but like so many little beams of the Sun of Righteousness and a weak Image of his Glory There is no Fire so perfect but it sends up a Smoak nor Righteousness so accomplish'd but hath its Imperfections whiles we are cloathed with this weak flesh The behaviour of the most Holy and Perfect is defiled by many infirmities but our Lord and Saviour is the Lamb without spot or blemish in whose Mouth there is no guile for it was necessary that we should have such an High Priest who is Holy Blameless separated from Sinners The perfect image of all Vertues was never found in any mortal Man on Earth but Jesus Christ is the fairest amongst the Sons of Men his Lips are full of Grace in him alone we have a perfect model of all Vertues and of all Perfections that we can imagine Therefore when the Apostle had perswaded the Romans to renounce the Lusts of the Flesh Drunkenness Anger Envy and such like sins instead of making an enumeratiun of the Vertues opposite to these Vices he thinks it sufficient to propose Christ's Holy example Put on the Lord Jesus Christ saith he to teach us that all the Vertues and Graces do enter and meet in the Sacred Person of our Saviour Jesus Christ in the highest degree of perfection 10. We are so much the more obliged to imitate Jesus Christ and to imprint in our hearts his Holy Image because that he is not only our Father our Lord and our King but he is also the blessed Head of that Body whereof we are Members It is not just to unite defiled and profane Members to an Head so Glorious and so Holy Whosoever gives himself over to his Lust and Delights in the corruption of sin maimes as much in him lies the Sacred Body of the Son of God This consideration drew from St. Paul this expression Shall I take the Members of Christ for to make them the Members of an whore 11. The Divine Spirits dwelling in our Hearts is a great obligation to Holiness of life know you not that you are the Temple of God and the Holy Ghost dwelleth in you Ezek. 8. Shall we be so base as to uncover our filthy and dirty thoughts before so Holy and Divine a Guest Shall we be so bold as to erect upon his Altar Idols that may provoke him to jealousie His eyes are so
into the twigs and branches they wither at last and are cast into the fire The rarest Meats and the most delicious Drinks can never make our Bodies become Immortal Death snatcheth away the Brother from the Brother the Father from the Child and the Wife from her Husband The stroke of a Sword can separate a Body from the healthiest and strongest Head nay without any such violence the Head dies as well as the Body and the Spirits that run in our Ve ns are far from hindring the corruption of our Bodies for they corrupt of themselves and vanish away In short the strictest Unions of Nature and Art are dissolved by time so that all things under the Sun are subject to vanity and unconstancy But the Spirit of the Lord Jesus is the principle of an eternal Life and the Seed of an uncorruptible glâ—ry whosoever is united to him by this Spirit nothing can separate him from Christ neither Life nor Death neither Hell nor the World nor things present nor things to come Therefore because our Blessed Saviour could find nothing here upon Earth nor amongst all the Creatures worthy and able to represent this perfect and unseparable Union he seeks an Image of it beyond all natural beings in the holy Trinity in that unchangeable Union which was which is and which shall ever be between him and God the Father As we may see in his excellent Prayer John 17. Father I pray for them all which shall believe on me that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that they may be one ever as we are one Banish therefore from your Souls all apprehensions and fears O believing Souls for all the Three persons of the most holy most glorious and most wonderful Trinity are engaged for your Salvation and to bring you to your eternal happiness The Father by his infinite wisdom hath found out a means to reconcile us unto himself to satisfie his offended Justice and to declare the riches of his unparalleld Mercies The Son hath purchased for us this great Salvation by suffering the shameful Death of the Cross and by spilling his most precious Blood for the forgiveness of our Sins and the holy Spirit by incorperating us into Jesus Christ makes us partakers of the infinite Merits of his Sufferings Revel 2. That is the true Hysop that sprinkles the Divine Blood of the Lamb without spot or blemish to cleanse our Souls It is he that gives to our Souls the white Stone where the new name of Elect and Believers is written Heb. 12. which none knows but he that hath it He gives us to eat of the hidden Manna and of the food of Angels Iohn 4. which the World knoweth not It is instead of a precious Ring or Jewel by which our spiritual Bridegroom promiseth and confirms unto us his conjugal Faith It is the Seal of the Living God that Seals unto us the Covenant of Grace and the promises of Glory and Happiness made unto us in the Gospel as the Apostle himself tells us Eph. 2. that now having believed the Gospel of our Salvation we have been Sealed by the holy Spirit of promise Therefore he exhorts us Eph. 4. not to grieve the holy Spirit of God by whom we have been Sealed for the day of Redemption Finally this is the Spirit that witnesseth with our Spirits that we are the Children of God If we be children we are Heirs Heirs of God and joynt Heirs with the Lord Iesus Christ Rom. 8. Think not Christian Souls that I labor to perswade you that this holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus shall come and whisper in your ears or cry unto you from within that you are the Children of God as the extravagant Quakers amongst us imagine the Testimony that he gives to our Spirits is a real and an effectual testimony if I may so speak for he regenerates us and makes us become new Creatures he gives us a more certain assurance of our adoption then if he did declare from Heaven Thou art my Child and thy name is written in the Book of Life As the Seal imprints its Image in the wax thus the Spirit of the Lord Jesus imprints in our Souls the Image of Holiness and all Divine Vertues now as the Figure that remains upon the Wax makes us judge without dispute what manner of Seal did print it likewise when you find Gods Image imprinted in your Hearts acknowledge the finger of God and the Vertue of his holy Spirit to have been there for none can have that blessed Image but he must needs be the Child of God The holy Spirit that gives it to our Souls kindles in us the blessed flames of holy Love and produceth in us Tongue of fire he makes us speak to God with boldness as to our Father and lift up our eyes to Heaven with joy and gladness as to the place of our Inheritance All the goods of this present life may be nay will be lost at last Pro. 23. Riches take wings and flie away like an Eagle Honor vanisheth away as a smoak carried away with the wind Earthly Delights and Pleasures hast away as a Torrent or the waters of a River that slide along the Banks and they end at last in a Sea of bitterness and sorrow If by chance these vanities continue with the Worldlings while they remain on Earth Ps 49. they can continue no longer for they cannot carry beyond and the Grave their Riches their Honours are not Buried with them and all their unsetled delights fly away with their Breath but Death hath no power upon this Spirit of Life which is our true Treasure our glory and everlasting delight Moreover the true and living Faith that embraceth Jesus Christ our Saviour shall cease and hope that considers the advantages to come shall one day be abolished Whilst we are in this earthly Pilgrimage we walk by Faith and not by sight and while we are tost up and down upon this dangerous Sea of the World Heb. 6. we have need of the Anchor of our Hope and to expect with patience the fulfilling of that we hope for Rom. 8. but when we shall come to our heavenly Country we shall neither need a staff to walk with nor a shield to defend us and to quench the fiery darts of the Devil when we shall be secure in the Haven of Eternity we shall have no occasion to make use of this Anchor for our hope shall be changed into a perfect Fruition When we shall be in Paradice we shall need no Wings to carry us up to God but only to fly about his Throne as the Seraphims In short we need no looking glass to see the glory of God for we shall behold face to face All that we believe at present without seeing we shall then see and believe no more But the Spirit of the Lord Jesus whom the World knoweth not and cannot receive he
conformable to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born amongst many Brethren Now the Soul and the Body of this onely begotten of the Father that were separated by Death have been joyned again in his glorious Resurrection and received into Heaven therefore our Soul that departs out of the World to enter into Paradise must return again to its Body that we may ascend up to Heaven both in Soul and Body All the difference that appears between Christ and us is that the precious Body of our noble Chieftain could not be subject to corruption but was raised again as soon as it fell because of that strict and personal Union between his Humanity and Divinity whereas the most part of all other bodies are corrupt and reduced to Ashes Sixteenth We have the same holy Spirit and Divine vertue dwelling in us which was in our Lord Jesus Christ the efficient cause of his Resurrection although not in the same measure and degree therefore it will produce in us the same effect and raise our bodies also from the dust St. Paul makes use of this Reason in the 8 of the Romans if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Seventeenth The dead body that touched the bones of the Prophet Elisha revived again on a sudden We have more cause to expect the Resurrection of our bodies because our bodies don't onely touch Jesus Christ dead and risen again but we are become one body with him flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone I am said he the Resurrection and the life he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die and he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Eph. 5. John 11. Eighteenth God hath imprinted upon our bodies his own Signet and the marks of his love he hath given to them visible and palpable assurances of their future blessedness Under the Old Testament believers carried the Seal of the Covenant of God in their flesh for Circumcision was the Seal of the righteousness obtained by Faith and hope of a blessed immortality they did also eat the flesh of the Paschal Lamb which was a type of Jesus Christ the true Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World Likewise under the New Covenant God consecrates to himself our Bodies by the Waters of Baptisme and by the Bread and Wine of the Lords Supper So by this means he assures them of a Joyfull and glorious Resurrection For if by eating of this Bread and drinking of this Wine we eat and drink spiritually the flesh and the Blood of Jesus Christ it is an infallible assurance that this Divine Saviour will raise us up again at the end of the World as he himself promiseth Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day St John 6 54. Nineteenth The body of believers endures many assaults and evils for Christs sake and for his holy profession it is often exposed to the most shamefull and most cruel torments and partakes on the same sufferings as he did on Earth therefore it is just that it should partake in his triumphs glory and eternal happiness It is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also raign with him We always bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh 2 Tim. 2. 2 Cor 4. Twenty There is nothing that God doth in vain he never bestowes upon us useless desires therefore to what purpose hath he kindled in us such an earnest desire to see this wretched Body out of the misery and corruption into which sin hath enthralled it and the fruition of glory and immortality As St. Paul tels us in these words The creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God He adds immediately after For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now and not onely they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groane within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body Rom. 8. Finally Seeing that whatsoever God hath appointed in his eternal Councel must be fulfilled in time and that all things in the World attain to those ends for which he made them and seeing that he created our Souls not to be alone but to live in the company and fellowship with the Body therefore this Body which falls down by Death must needs rise again at the Resurrection that the immortal Soul might return to and dwell with it for ever To say that the Resurrection of our bodies is impospossible is the greatest and most abominable Atheism in the World 'T is to deny with impudency the infinite power of God and the sacred History of the Worlds Creation For if things are in their beings as they are in workings and if their operations are correspondent to their natures we must of necessity conclude That if there be a God of an infinite being he must needs have a power answerable to his being And by consequence that this Almighty God may without difficulty raise the dead If thou believest that God calls the things that are not as if they were Wherefore dost thou not also believe that this same God will also call the things that have been already to restore them that being which they have formerly enjoyed from his Almighty Hand If thou believest that God hath fashioned Eve out of one of her Husbands ribs that he made Man of the dust and created this dust out of nothing canst thou not also believe that God is able at the day of the Resurrection to make again thy body of that dust into which it is reduced by Death If thou believest that God hath breathed into Adams Nostrils the breath of Life that he hath created thy Soul and infused it into thy Body where it was never before How canst thou question his power of returning one day the same Soul into the same Body where it formerly made its abode In short if thou believest that the holy Ghost by moving upon the Waters hath caused so many beautiful and noble Creatures to appear and that he hath made light to shine out of darkness canst thou not be also perswaded that this same holy Ghost can shew his Power amongst the Graves and fetch thy Body out of the dark shadows of Death to introduce it â—nto the light of the living Thou seest by experience that every day a new House 〈◊〉 built up