A Comfortable Corroborative Cordial OR A Sovereign Antidote against And Preservative from the Horrours Harms of DEATH Affording a Direction how to Live and Die so as to be fortified and fenced against the grearest fears and sharpest sense of that KING of TERROURS Represented in some Observations made upon Rev. 14.13 Upon occasion of the late Death and Burial of Mrs. REBECCAH JACKLER Late Wife of Mr. John Jackler of Kings-Lynn in Norfolk Woollen-Draper who deceased Octob. 5. and was buried Octob. 7. 1671. By John Horn Sometime Preacher of Gods Word in Lynn-Alhallows in the same Town Useful to be considered by all men living in this state of Mortality Because there is no man living but must certainly Die Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like to his Numb 23.10 For The righteous hath hope in his Death Prov. 14.32 Quanta est felicitaes eorum quam immensa latitia qui nimirum tripl ei gaudie De recerdatione transacta virtutis De exhibitione pro entis quieâ—â—s De certa expectatione sutura consummationis exultant Bern Serm. 2. in festo omnium Sanctorum LONDON Printed by Tho. Ratcliffe and N. Thompson for B. Southwood at the Star next to Serjeants-Inn in Chancery-lane 1672. To the READER Reader SEeing it is a thing generally known acknowledged whereof none can plead ignorance that it is appointed for men once to die for the living know that they must die Eccles 9.5 And seeing the time of death is generally to men most uncertain and the Word of God assures that after Death there will be a Judgment in which every man must give an account of himself to God and receive according to the things done in the Body whether good or evil Heb. 9.27 2 Cor. 5.10 Seeing also further that the same infallible word of the living God who hath given us life and breath and all things and hath us and our breath in his hands declares to us that He of his great mercy hath devised and made a way though not to escape this bodily Death yet whereby we may stand in the Judgment and receive the doom and Sentence of an everlasting and most blessed life which way if it be neglected there will insue an everlasting state of wo and misery It must needs follow that it is of greatest moment and concernment to All to enquire after and set their heart to that way and device making it their greatest work and business whatever else is neglected that they may lay hold on that eternal life and avoid that misery Yea and forasmuch as the time of this uncertain life is the whole of the time allotted for our preparing for the Judgment it behoves every man to take heed of mispending it and to be careful to redeem it and diligently improve it to make sure of Happiness in Eternity not procrastinating to seek after God nor presuming upon Gods patience and longer continuance in the Land of the living Which things being considered it must needs be by all thought and acknowledged that Discourses of this nature are always seasonable and if any thing well done worthy acceptance Discourses I say upon such a Subject as I here propound to present thee with namely such as shew the Happiness to be enjoyed notwithstanding Death and the way how we may be brought to the enjoyment thereof and to be secured against the Fears of Death or what harms or mischiefs will otherwise be occasioned by it to us I cannot I confess commend the worthiness of my performance upon so serious and weighty a Subject which deserves a far larger and more pressing Treatise and hath also obtained it by some more Reverend and Learned hands What I here present was not in the least intended in my first consideration of it or writing upon it for the Press onely to satisfie the desire of a loving Friend concerned mainly in the occasion of its consideration I have indeavoured to make it publick And such as it is commend it to Gods blessing and thy perusal Praying it may be both for my own and thy future and eternal benefit and resting a servant to thee and all men for Jesus sake John Horn. February 8. 1671 2. A Comfortable Corroborative Cordial Or A Sovereign Antidote against and Preservative from the Horrours and Harms of DEATH Rev. 14.13 And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them OUr Lord Jesus Christ having after many other things of great concernment to his Churches shewed by his Angel to his servant John in the twelfth Chapter the oppositions of the Dragon or Devil and Sathan first in the Roman Pagan Empire against Christ and his Church and his dejection or casting down from Heaven from his state of being worshipped as a Deity and after that in his stirring up a flood of errours and heresies to carry away the Church with and how God preserved her against them And in the thirteenth Chapter the troubles and persecutions that Sathan would further raise against his Church by a two-fold Antichristian persecuting power called Beasts setting up and managing a corrupt Worship and persecuting its refusers In this Chapter shews him divers things tending to animate his servants in their constancy against them As to say 1. Vers 1. He shewed him the Lamb Christ himself standing safe and unmoved for all his enemies upon mount Sion where God had set him as King Psal 2.5 a place which cannot be moved but stands fast for ever Psal 125.1 and 11.4 and with him in the same sure state an hundred fourty four thousand the number of the sealed in Chap. 7. having his Fathers name not the Beasts either Authority or Doctrine written in their foreheads as openly and boldly avowed yet by them 2. Vers 2. And made him hear a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters as loud evident and certain as if many peoples nations and languages compared to many waters Isa 17 12. and Rev. 17.15 had attested the things spoken as eye-witnesses thereof and as the voice of a great thunder signifying their boldness in Christ and dreadfulness to their enemies and a voice of harpers harping with harps as rejoycing in their victory over their enemies as was the custome in Israel to solemnize their Victories with musical instruments as in Exod. 15.20 1 Sam. 18 6. 2 Chron. 20.28 3. Vers 3. And they sung a new song as such songs of praises upon escapes of dangers and upon victories are stiled Psal 40.3 and 98.1 before the Throne and before the four living creatures was badly translated Beasts that is in short before God and his Church And no man could learn that song but the hundred fourty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth either from the love of earthly things through the efficacy of Gods grace
selves dead to sin c. Rom. 6.11 And this kind of Dying may be taken in here inclusively as that that foreruns and makes way for this dying in the Lord and they are blesed that in such sense Dye in or through the Lord or the knowledge of him For if we be dead with him we shall also live with him 2. Tim. 2.11 But that which is properly meant here is that those that are in Christ may dye as to the bodily death the being in Christ and the Bodily death are consistent otherwise Dying and blessedness could not consist together as we shewed they do for there is no blessedness out of Christ And that a bodily in Christ may stand together with bodily death is further clear in that as Christ â—…e not to prevent and keep men from bodily death by his dying but to obtain a resurrection out of it so neither doth men â—â—ing in Christ prevent or annull 〈◊〉 the deriving life from Christ is not such 〈◊〉 deriving life as puts by the Body from dying For it is not derived upon the Body but from and so after its Death It is appointed for men once to Dye and that appointment was made after the promise of Christ and of his defeating the Devils Plot the bruising his head and therefore is consistent with it Christ can can and will defeat Sathans plot for keeping man out everlastingly from God though they dye as to the Body Heb. 9.27 with Gen. 3.15 16. Christ indeed being believed on gives forth his divine Spirit and life for quickening our spirit and expelling Death out of that raising it up to a lively hope in God but it expels not Death out of the body till the Resurrection of the dead The body is still dead under the Sentence of and in the way to Death because of sin that yet remains in it but the Spirit or inward man is life for righteousness Rom. 8.10 thence we see wise men dye Psal 49.11 and as was mentioned before Abraham is dead and Moses 〈◊〉 the Prophets are dead in respect of 〈◊〉 outward man though they were brought into and lived and abode in Christ and 〈◊〉 must others fare also And this God orders for divers good causes as I have shewed in 〈◊〉 Balaams wish as to keep us always loâ— and humble in our selves and dependanâ— on God and mindful of our latter end and so more heedful to the instructions of wisdome and that God and Christ might be glorified in raising us up from the Dead But now to dye in the Lord in this sense signifies and hath in it 1. A continuance in Christ even in the Faith and Obedience of him till Death and in Death so as that we lay down our lives or give up our breath holding fast the Faith and grace of Christ as it is said of the Patriarchs that they all dyed in the Faith so as retaining and not going out from the Faith when their spirits left and went out of their bodies yet they went not out from Christ from believing and hoping in him Heb. 11.13 And there may be further in it 2. A spending and laying down the Bodily life in an exercise of Faith and Hope in Christ and walking in the Spirit vertues and service of Christ so as that the dying is in a sense the effect and product to the Flesh of believing and walking in him as the Apostles that so walked in Christ as that they spent themselves and strength and life as it were in the flames of his love to them and zeal for him thence springing being offered up as a Sacrifice as it were upon the sacrifice and service of the Faith Phil. 2.17 offered or pouered out as a drink-offering as the word signifies in 2 Tim. 4.6 and in some cases and times as those before mentioned under the cruelties of the Beast and false Prophet it takes in 3. A Dying in the Cause of Christ and for his sake as Martyrs put to Death for bearing witness and testimony to him as those beheaded for the witness of Christ and the Word of God and for not worshipping the Beast c. Rev. 6.9 and 20.4 We may put them together and say that when men are and continue in the Faith of Christ and so in the love and vertues of Christ too and in death Rev. 2.10 and by the force of that they have in and from Christ lay down or spend out their lives either in serving or suffering for Christ then may they be said to dye in the Lord and all that so dye dye in the Lord. But yet further they that in any such sense dye in the Lord may be said also in another sense which pertains to and is the immediate spring of their blessedness to dye in him viz. 4. In the love of the Lord as being the objects of his favourable acceptance and so enclosed as it were in his arms in his vertues as being encompassed about with the vertues of his Sufferings and Sacrifice and so in his Covenant and Promises and thence They all they that so Dye in what way soever as to the outward way of dying they dye whether by a fair Death on their Beds or by any violent Death inflicted on them whether by a more easie or more sharp and painful death yea though they dye of Poverty or are full of Sores as Lazarus yet they are Blessed though in the sight of men they seem most miserable yet they are in a happy state and condition Which we are nextly 3. To enquire into and shew what that Blessedeess is and how they are blessed we may say Blessedness stands in exemption or freedom from what 's evil and harmful and in having interest in and enjoyment of good to content and satisfaction and they that dye in the Lord are in such a state even while dead and needs they must be so For 1. In Christ there is all that may free exempt or deliver a man from evil and there is all that may do good and make content and satisfied and so all that may make one both privatively and positively Blessed 1. In him is freedom and deliverance from evil not onely for himself but so as it may be for the freeing of others not onely sin hath no dominion over or place in him though he was made sin and bare our sins for us yet having dyed for it and being raised again in him is no sin no sin now on or imputed to him but also there is freedom from it for us forgiveness of it and justification from it as is said Be it known to you that in this man is preached to you forgiveness of sins Acts 13.38 And there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Psal 130.4 yea and not onely is he clean from it but with him is cleansing too He hath made a purgation of our sins Heb. 1.3 opened a fountain for washing and cleansing us Zech. 13.1 and in both respects he is
yea in him they have the Adoption of Sons and are honoured with that near relation to God where through they become his Heirs joynt-heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 And if the Lord being their shepherd they shall not want Psal 23.1 How shall they want then God being their Father Christ their Brother and they joynt-heirs with him these are the fearers of the Lord that are blessed and the very fear of the Lord is such a Blessing to them as tendeth to life so as they shall abide satisfied with it and shall not be visited of evil Psal 112.1 Prov. 19.23 Well may it be said of every such one as is said of Asher whose name signified Blessed that his bread or portion is fat Gen. 49.20 or as of Nepthali that he is and shall be satisfied with favour Deut. 33.23 and of them all as is said of Israel Happy art thou O Israel saved by the Lord the Eternal God is thy refuge or mansions and underneath thee even when thou fallest lowest are the everlasting arms who is like unto thee who hast the Lord for the shield of thy help and whose sword is thy excellency c. Deut. 33.17.29 Object If it be said This is indeed the portion of them that are in Chirst while alive here but here we are to speak of those that are Dead dying in Christ I answer 1. This is the Portion of men in Christ at all times whether alive or dead as to the Body or Flesh yea it 's rather their Portion that Dye in Christ then of others for if men be in Christ when they live here and before they dye turn out from him and so dye not in him they loose and forfeit all this Blessedness for Blessedness is so the Portion of Christ who onely hath purchased and obtained it into himself by his onely perfect and most acceptable righteousness that though he have it not for himself onely but for us yet there is no interest in it nor enjoyment of it to be had out of or apart from him that being also true that he that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 Joh. 5.11 12. He therefore that transgresseth and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God and so not life for God there answers to Father and Son in the next Clause which Son is the life and hath the life given of God to us in himself 2 Joh. 9. The just shall live by Faith but if he or any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him Nay he that draws back draws back to perdition Heb. 37.38 39. so as to loose all this Portion and his Soul in the loss of it But while any man is in Christ alive or dead he is in a full and most accomplisht treasury of all bliss and happiness and in the dispose and favour of one perfectly Faithful to communicate and give forth of his fulness according to his Promises all the Promises of God are in him yea and Amen And he that is in him is in him an heir of them and abiding in him shall not fail to inherit them though they as to the body dye 2 Cor. 1.20 Gal 3.29 For 2. Death this bodily death doth not make any alteration as to mens being in him it is not the going of the Soul out of the Body that is its going out of Christ they that dye in the Lord are in the Lord in the time and act of his dying laying down their lives or breathing out their Spirits in the Faith and in the Spirit of him they are yet in him inclosed in his Arms in his favour and love and Covenant with him whence he is still even in Death as we noted before stiled their God for though Dead men and as to bodily life yet they live to him and in respect of their spirits see no Death Prov. 12.28 Joh. 8.51 their hearts shall live for ever Psal 22.26 this Death is called a sleep they that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with him 1 Thes 4.14 And as the bodily sleep makes no alteration in relation or Covenant-engagements no more doth the bodily Death in relation to God and Christ and interest in the Covenant and Promises of his blessing a Child is the Fathers Child as well when asleep as when awake and is nevertheless an Heir to an Estate given by deed of gift or by the Fathers Will and Testament Nor is a Wife the less the Wife and in the marriage-covenant when she lies fast asleep in her Husbands bosom then when she is most awake and active and therefore is in as happy a condition if happy in her Marriage then as at other times yea we may say of the man asleep in Christ or which is all one Dead in the Lord that his state is better then before as we shall shew God willing in what follows for as the Dead that dye in the Lord are blessed both privatively as they are exempted from secured against evil and positively as they are interested in Christ in all the good that is in him and to be communicated by him So also they are 3. Comparatively Blessed more blessed in divers respects then divers others or then themselves in former times 1. Comparatively to other men they be happy whether they be 1. Those that Dye and are dead out of the Lord they are happy in respect of them howsoever they dye it may be in the appearance of men sinners that dye in their sins are happier in their Death then they as having no bands in their death as is said Ps 73.4 they may lye and dye in stately Rooms and soft Beds encompassed about with their Friends and Kindred feel little pain dispose of great estates to their Children friends they may possibly express no fear of Hell but hope they shall go to heaven Mat. 7.22 23. They may when dead have costly Funerals stately Monuments c. when as those that dye in Christ may dye grievous Deaths in the sight of men of sharp Diseases full of Sores and Boyles in Prisons Dungeons yea on Racks or Gibbets as it is said of those Saints of whom the world was not worthy that they were some Tortured others Stoned others Sawn asunder others slain with the Sword that they were destitute of succour namely Friends means of helpfulness and the like Afflicted Tormented Heb. 11.37 38. and yet for all this great difference as to the way and outward manner of Dying Yea though we add also that they being tempted may cry out as forsaken of God as our Lord Jesus on the Cross yet these that dye in the Lord are infinitely Blessed above the other nay rather Blessed and not at all the other let them dye as desirably otherwise they can yea though also they when Dead have their Names cryed up of men as if they were Worthy Gallant Honourable persons and those that dye in the Lord be
in more especial manner of labours There is a man whose Labour is in Wisdom and in Knowledge and Equity Eccles 2.21 and in such things the Saints and holy men do labour too they labour in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 But here the word used signifies a toilsome labour yea as some note of it a painful wearisome spending labour Yea sometimes variety of Tribulations Calamities and Crosses so as sometimes to threaten Death And so we find the word Labour often joyned with Toil or words of Affliction as in Gen. 5.19 the Work and Toil of our hands are joyned together as Work and Labour here and toyl of the hands may well answer to labour here in Gen. 31.42 Jacob saith God hath seen my affliction and the labour of my hands when he speaks of that troublesome labour in which the Drought by day consumed him and the Frost by night and the sleep departed from his eyes vers 40. And the like is used of the rigorous and afflictive Service and Labour which the Israelites were put to in Egypt when they were made to grone under their Burthens so as their lives were bitter with hard bondage in morter and brick and in all manner of service in the field when all their Service that they served was with rigour Exod. 1.13 14. with 2.24 Of this Moses instructs them to say the Lord looked on our affliction and on our labour and oppression Deut. 26.7 and in Psal 90.10 it 's joyned with sorrows when it is said of men that if by reason of strength we attain to fourscore years yet then is our strength labour and sorrow where Labour cannot so properly signifie work and service for alas then men are past that but rather toil and exercise as Solomon joyns together Labour and vexation of heart Eccles 2.22 and Jeremiah complains Wherefore came I out of the womb to see Labour and sorrow Jer 20.18 And that which we read in the Text Trouble is in the Margin according to the Hebrew Labour Job 5.7 And surely especially in times of great Persecution there is labour and sorrow more abundantly to exercise them as both in Jeremiah's and the time here spoken of Yea labour and business is generally with exercise grief and trouble the portion here of them that will live godly in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. 3.12 both in respect of civil and outward concerns for the body weaknesses infirmities sickness pain and in respect of the labours griefs and travails of the Soul for themselves and others temptations also from Sathan persecutions from men and much care and exercise of spirit that they might obtain the grace and favour of God with Christ and be found in him and serve their generation according to his will In which sense also 2. Labour first goes before and then Eating Rest or Reward follows after no injoyment of the blessed state of Rest but for the labourers 1 Cor. 9.10 The husbandman first labouring must be partaker of the fruits 2 Tim. 2.6 Six days shalt thou labour goes before the seventh is the Salbath of the Lord thy God the rest appointed by him namely for thee to rest in Exod. 20.9.10 there is Labour that we may be found in Christ or be accepted of him whether present or absent 2 Cor. 5.9 and labour in the Lord to be performed and undergone 1 Cor. 15.58 Through much affliction we must enter the Kingdom of God Acts 14.22 Service to God and sufferings to be undergone both for and from God and the will of God in all to be done before we receive the Promise the recompense of reward Heb. 10.35 36. yea and there must be faithfulness in this too to the Death else no blessedness they that endure temptation and patiently continue in well doing are the blessed that shall have Everlasting life receive the crown kingdom Luke 22.28 29 30. Jam. 1.12 Rom. 2.7 But then it is spoken out plainly that 3. They that endure and are faithful to the Death and especially in such sad times of tryal so as to dye in the Lord they are blessed in this that they Rest from their Labours God is a merciful righteous God and he hath prepared and there remains a rest for his people Heb. 4.9 He that would have a Sabbath or day of rest for Servants and Cattel now one in every seven days that they might rest Deut 5.14 He will certainly give rest to his wearied tired toild People Children and Servants that have laboured and had no rest here He calls us to himself to give us rest for our Souls and to give us rest too with himself from our Labours Matth. 11.28 29. and his rest is glorious Isa 11.10 Rest from their sorrow and fear and hard Bondage wherein they were made to serve saith Isaiah 14.3 Rest with the Apostles when they that are at rest and ease here shall be disquieted even the Inhabitants of Babylon and the Persecutors 2 Thes 1.5 6 7. with Jer. 50.34 then shall they receive their sad things in tribulation that now trouble Sion when the Beast-worshippers shall have no rest day nor night then shall Christs faithful worshippers have perfect and perpetual rest with Christ Rev. 14.11 13. yea they that dye in the Lord thenceforth shall be herein especially blessed as their labours and troubles thenceforth are greater and sharper their dangers fears and griefs more abundant now they shall be eased of them all and by how much their Sufferings were sharper and their Labour more toilsome and grievous by so much will their Rest be more sweet and welcome and the greater the blessing Death in general puts an end to the exercises of this life as well as to its enjoyments to men whether they be good or bad as they be properly the exercises of this life though not always as to the kind in general they that joy in God here shall joy much more then as to their spirits and they that fear and grieve in their consciences for fear of Hell here dying in their sins shall much more fear and feel horrour in their Consciences then But as to bodily Pains and the Fears and Labours of this Life and pertaining thereto Death puts an end to them both to good and bad but yet not so to the Wicked as to give them rest or make them therein blessed they being reserved by it as in a Prison unto far worse miseries afterward and tormented at the present with restlessness and fears or horror not having Christ to be their rest But they that dye in the Lord are generally at rest And as to be out of and at rest from greater sorrows and sufferings is more desirable welcome and beneficial then to be out of smaller so they that from that time dye in the Lord shall be in their resting from their labours more happy and blessed then others But all that dye in the Lord in the proper sense before explicated enter into this rest for they are at home
of men are the happiest men in the world their portion better than any other mens the Heritage of Jacob to be preferred before all the enjoyments of the great Princes of the Earth Isa 58.14 So as it may well be said the righteous they that are in Christ Jesus walking not after the Flesh but after the Spirit are more excellent then their neighbours Prov. 12.26 however Poor Meane Illiterate Afflicted and Despised the Righteous be And however Rich Learned Honoured or otherwise adorned and qualified their neighbours that be not righteous are Yea well it may be said Happy art thou O Israel a People saved by the Lord the shield of their help and sword of their Excellency thine enemies shall be found lyars to thee and thou shalt tread upon as despising their high place Deut. 33.29 O Lord of hosts blessed is the man that putteth his trust in thee Psal 84.12 Blessed at all times blessed in Life more blessed in Death but most blessed in and after the Resurrection of the Dead 3. To commend Piety and Godliness and the exercise thereof to us which hath the Promise of all this great blessedness both of the life that now is and that that is to come 1 Tim. 4.8 6.6 4. To condemn the blind judgment and practice of the world that sleight hate and persecute these things accounting those that are and that dye in Christ especially in a way of persecution to be unhappy and their portion despicable which things I onely mention But besides 5. It directs us whither to flee for shelter and refuge against the fears and feelings horrours and harms of Death the King of Terrours namely to Christ Jesus our Lord who hath both abolished or destroyed its destructive power by his Death and destroyed him that had the power of it the Devil 2 Tim. 1.10 Heb. 2.14 and also hath the keys of Hell and Death Power and full Authority over it and over the dead having dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living Rom. 14.19 as he hath that sharp Sickle in his hand so he can cut off with it high or low rich or poor and he can keep it off or back during his pleasure and order the state of it and the persons in it as seems good in his sight And in him there is deliverance from the horrour and harms of it as he is the forgiver of the sins both that occasioned it and that might render it as an inlet into a worser state then it simply of it self containeth and hath both Authority and proclaims himself ready graciously to do it even both to raise out of it and in the interim to secure from harm and mischiefs by it yea and to make it greatly useful and advantagious to us to make the day of it better then the day wherein we were born Eccles 7.1 a Chamber of ease rest and safety to us from the evils either fore-afflicting us or further threatening and abiding the yet dwellers on the Earth or abiders in the land of the living Isa 26.20 57.2 an outlet to our cares fears labours and temptations to sin or toils by such temptations and an inlet safe Port or entrance into peace and security the end of our exile and banishment and beginning of our actual admission in our spirits into our Fathers presence and glorious fruition of our blessed Saviour that wonderful one the unparall'd lover of our Souls and Paragon and Pattern of all divine and heavenly vertue and excellency the Lamb that had mercy on us and dyed rose again and lives for ever for us the Lord Jesus He is that Sun that shining into our hearts the light of the knowledge of himself and of the glory of God in him and being believingly beheld by us will drive out and expel all that darkness of our ignorance and errour that in the night of our unbelief obscures our minds and fills us with frightful fears of Death and its consequents and chases away all those mists and vapours arising out of the muddines of our hearts to the sadding us at the thoughts of its approches and by his warming influences as streaming forth by his Holy Spirit in the Gospel the beams of his love and favour in the forgiveness of our sins and interesting us in his Righteousness and precious promises of blessing and everlasting Life and Happâ—ness and so the lively hope of his Salvation and Glory to be injoyed by us he can and will so chear and comfort us as to make the grim visage of Death amiable to us and the passage through it very desirable Philip. 1.21 22 23. yea and give us hope and joy in Death as the best hour that ever came upon us And he is that and such a shield too that encompassing us about with his favour and defence interposing himself between us and our enemies even Death and all its train and power secures us against their fiercest assaults and sharpest darts being the Death of Death the Destruction of the Grave and Hell Hos 13.14 we being in him and incompassed about with his arms of love nothing shall be able to approch us to hurt or harm us He is such a Fountain of living waters that whosoever drinks of him receiving his Doctrine into his heart and retaining and keeping it there shall not die of thirst Such a Heavenly Medicine being Gods Salvation or saving health that whosoever takes him down and tastes the sweetness of his Love and Grace and keeps it or the relish of it upon his palace shall not taste Death Joh. 4.14 8.51 52. Yea those Waters he gives and the Medicine he affords will spring up and effect in the receiver and taker down thereof Life in Death even Eternal Life The Tree of Life that was in the first Paradise and which being eaten of would have preserved the life of Man for ever is lost and there is no recovering it again Gen. 3.22 23 24. Nor can all the Physicians in the world find out or compose a Medicine that can keep us from Dying But our Lord Jesus Christ and his heavenly Wisdome and Doctrine is that Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God that Sovereign Antidote of Gods own finding out making and propounding which being eaten and taken down will secure us against all the Poison of the old Serpent the evil of this natural Death and carry us safely through it and bring us certainly out of it to immortality and eternal Life Prov. 3.18 Rev. 22.2 3 14. He will both make the Soul live and be happy in Death and raise up the Body to an immortal state of bliss Isa 55.3 Joh. 11.25 26. 2 Cor. 4.14 In vain do men weary themselves and spend their Estates to find out a Philosophers stone that may turn all things into Gold Here is that true Elixir that will turn all to Good and as he hath reconciled all things in himself that are in
evidenced in the blood of Christ or also taken from the earth by Death Peculiar services sufferings and successes against Gods enemies have their peculiar joyes not common to others Then shewing 4. Vers 3. What ones these redeemed ones were he adds These are they that were not defiled with women with the Congregations and Assemblies of corrupt Teachers Idolaters and their corruptions in Doctrine and Worship compared to women or harlots Prov. 9.13 and 14.1 Rev. 17.5 for they are virgins chast and single to Christ his Faith and Worship these follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth that is they cleave in all things to Christ and his word and commands and are not moved therefrom by any false pretences of the false Prophet or two-horned Beast and his false and lying miracles nor by the greatness and dreadfulness of the seven headed and ten-horned Beast and their contrary commands for these were redeemed powerfully through the grace of God believed by them brought out unto Christ from among men from the idolatrous and wicked world to be holy to God being the first fruits most desirable and pleasing Mic. 7.1 to God and to the Lamb. 5. Vers 4. And in their mouth was found no guile they were upright and orthodox Christians not dissembling with men to avoid persecutions for they are without fault before the Throne of God Nathaniels or Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile believers in Christ and walkers after his Spirit and so in the light as God is in the light directing and strengthning them and therefore there is no condemnation to them but the blood of Christ cleansing them from all sin they have fellowship with God Rom. 8.1 1 John 1.7 The trusters in God and unmovable as mount Sion Psal 125.1 But let none imagine that Christ died onely for these and such like because called redeemed ones but mind that he adds 6. Vers 4. I saw another Angel flying in the midst of heaven most openly having the Everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on not yet redeemed from the earth and to every nation kindred tongue and people As the Angels sometime appeared clothed in linen like the Priests in the Temple as in Dan. 10.5 Rev 15.6 So the holy Priesthood or Gospel Preachers may be here denoted by Angels and here is Gospel preached to others besides those redeemed ones even to all people but there is no Gospel for any for whom Christ died not and for whom in him no help or salvation therefore Christs death is not to be limited to or measured by such expressions as those in the foregoing verses or that in Chap. 5.9 The sum of the Gospel to be preached is that in 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. that God wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth for there is one God and one Mediatour of God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransome for all a testimony or this is the testimony in due times whereunto the Apostle saith He was ordained a Preacher and Apostle c. vers 7. the Everlasting Gospel and therefore Gospel in all ages as well as then Other expressions of the sum of the Gospel see in 1 Cor. 15.2 3 4. 1 Tim. 1.15 The being redeemed from the earth and from among men is a further business at least an effectual product of the grace of God believed in mens hearts and consciences as is fore-hinted but this Angel in Preaching the Gospel said with a loud voice what the whole Gospel loudly speaks to be the duty of all men viz. 7. Vers 7. Fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come not unlike that in Matth. 3.8 10. Acts 17.30 31. though it may here have some special eye at the ruine of Babylon presently predicted and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters expressions like those which the Apostle saith was the sum or end of their preaching in Acts 14.15 but after this follows 8. Vers 8. And another Angel followed saying Babylon is fallen is fallen the doubling expression implies its certainty and speediness and the joy of Gods holy ones at it Gen. 41.32 Rev. 18.20 that great city the opposite to Jerusalem the holy City or true Church of God because she made all nations drink of the wine of her fornications Babylon is the then ruling City over the kings of the earth Rev. 17.18 which was Rome and so denotes that idolatrous Church called the Whore for her being corrupted from Christ and the sincere Faith and worship of him forsaking her fidelity to him to follow after and prostitute her self to the Kings of the earth seeking and loving their favour riches gifts honour defence c. and yet as Harlots use to do with their Paramours Jud. 16.6 20. ordering and ruling them as she lists pretending that she is the Lady and Queen of Heaven that onely Catholick Church from whom they must receive all their Faith Worship and Religion and it may be noted that her downfal and so of all Idolatry Heresie and false worship either is and will be the effect not of Seditions and Rebellions but of the sincere and bold Preaching the Gospel of Christ with its instructions by holy living or Angel-like persons not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord Zech. 4.6 or will otherwise joyn and follow after it 9. Vers 9 10 11. After these Christ shewed him a third Angel that followed and warned of the danger of worshipping the Beast especially after the Gospel preached and the fall of Babylon denounced saying with a loud voice If any man worship the Beast or his Image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever And they have no rest day nor night who worship the Beast and his Image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name A dreadful Sentence that might awaken all to enquire what this Beast and his Image Mark and Name are and what the worship thus threatened and carefully avoid all things thereof I shall onely here say it 's the preferring some other powers above Christ and so is the same in substance with that Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and his heart departeth from the Lord Jer. 17.5 but that that time will be sad is signified in the following exclamation whether of the Angel or Evangelist which saith 10 Vers 12. Here is the patience of the Saints here at this time most eminently tried and exercised Here are they emphatically that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and
the sense of the words here Thence note Note 1. That bodily Death and Blessedness may be consistent men that dye and are dead may be blessed Not onely those that are dead to the Law by the Body of Christ delivered from the curse of that and from being under it as the Covenant of Life or that are dead to sin or rather persons not onely dead in those considerations but also that are bodily dead may be happy in a very good safe and desirable condition so as that their state may worthily be commended as very excellent They may have their sins forgiven and blotted out and they that are in that condition are blessed Psal 32.12 They may have the favour of God and be accepted and beloved of him and they that are so are blessed Prov. 8.34 35. and which includes both the former they may have God to be their God and to own them as his people as it is said of Abraham Isaac and Jacob long after they were dead and buried I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Exod 3.6.15 And blessed are the people whose God is the Lord Psal 144.15 And forgiveness of sins and the favour of God are both implied to be the portion of those Souls seen in vision under the Altar even the Souls of those that had been slain for the Word of God and for the Testimony that they held in that there were white Robes given to every one of them as a token both of their free and full acquittance from sin and their being owned of God as righteous ones and also of their being highly honoured and favoured of God Rev. 6.9 10 11. And this not a little takes off the dreadfulness of this bodily Death that it may consist with Blessedness and that it is not of it self able to hinder and deprive us thereof Men may be happy notwithstanding its power and force That 's the dreadful Death that men cannot be happy in or under such as the death in Sin the spiritual death of the Soul under the guilt and power of sin committed and continued in and therefore that is threatened as a very sad evil to be shunned To be carnally minded or the minding of the flesh is death Rom. 8.6 a state not to be continued in where it is nor by any means to be run into where men are delivered therefrom As also The second Death the separation of the Soul or of the whole man rather from God in Soul and Body for ever the everlasting fire or lake burning with fire and brimstone the portion of the Devil and his Angels Matth. 25.41 Rev. 20.14 This is a sad and dreadful state indeed namely this of the second Death While men are spiritually dead in sin their sins are imputed and they have no fellowship with God but yet while alive in the body they are in a possibility of being called and made alive to God to him that 's joyned to all the living there is hope Eccles 9.6 But in the second Death is nothing but misery without hope of remedy or redemption This this is the Death then with all diligence to be shunned and therefore care is to be taken to awake out of sin also by repentance for death in sin continued in brings the second Death inevitably upon men But as for this bodily Death that 's not so dreadful in it self men may do well for all that and the reason is because Christ hath died for us and is risen again This death indeed as it was in its first threatning and as upon our desert incurred by us in the Fall of our first Parents deprived us of all Blessedness and would inevitably have done so for ever had not God provided a deliverer and deliverance from it had not he graciously devised a device that his banished might not be expelled for ever from him 2 Sam. 14.14 But blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath raised up an Horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David that by him we might be saved from our enemies that hath given his onely begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins that we might live through him Luk. 1.68 69 70. 1 Joh. 4.9.10 And blessed be the Son of God that willingly took upon himself in compliance with his Fathers will to suffer and die for us that we through his stripes might be healed of that deadly wound wherewith in our listning to the Serpent we were wounded by him he having givâ—n himself the ransome for all and tasted Death by the grace of God for every man hath abolished or taken away the destructive power of this Death and destroyed through his Death him that had the power of it that is the Devil and being raised again from the dead he hath obtained even all redemption of all mankind from out this Death so as none of them shall finally perish therein but be all raised out thereof for as by man Adam came death even by man even the man Christ Jesus comes the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive 1 Tim. 2.6 Heb. 2.9 2 Cor. 5.14 2 Tim. 1.10 Heb. 9.2 1 Cor. 15.21 22. He is the resurrection and the life and through him there is an open passage now made through this death and all the precedents concomitants and consequences of it to life and immortality even to eternal life in which is and stands the onely true blessedness In Christ there is given us even 〈◊〉 mankind generally considered eternal life 1 Joh. 5.11 in him the righteousness of God is for or unto all Rom. 3.22 and the free gift unto all men for the justification of life Rom. 5 18. In him is forgiveness of sins and plenteousness of Redemption through his blood Psal 130.4.5 Coll. 1.14 and therefore by means of him men may be brought back to God and enjoy him his favour and Kingdom notwithstanding this death yea in the very state of it and while actually dead they may be blessed Bless we God for this gracious Device and doing of his for us in and by Christ and bless we Christ Jesus our Lord that he hath so acted and wrought through his Cross for us and imbrace we the glad tidings of it with all acceptation and thankfulness 2. But yet In that the Holy Spirit stopt not there at Blessed are the Dead but adds a restrictive distinctive qualification saying The Dead that die in the Lord. Learn we thence Note Secondly That though this bodily death blessedness may stand be together yet all that die this Death or are dead in it are not blessed No we cannot say so there be many that dye and are dead in the Body that shall never meet with blessedness though blessedness may be met with notwithstanding this death We read of two men that dyed this Death the one blessed and the other cursed the Rich man and
they repent of their deeds vers 22. so slow is God to anger and so lothe to exclude men from bliss and happiness and so ready to shew mercy and to forgive and so agreeable are Gods dealings to his Word and Oath wherein he saith and sweares to it that as He lives he hath no pleasure none at all secret or revealed in the Death of the wicked but rather that he turn and live Ezech. 33 11. To him that is joyned to all the living there is hope Eccles 9.4 And Christ Dyed for all that they that live while yet they live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that Dyed for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5.15 But now when Death seizes on a man and cuts him off then the door is shut upon him and should he now stand without and knock it is too late the answer from within is I know you not Depart from me ye workers of iniquity No opening then nor any admission Luke 13.25 26 27. the Feast sleighted shall not then be tasted of for ever by them Luke 14.24 thence the Gulf is for ever fixed so that there is no coming of any from Heaven to help them nor no going from their state of Misery to a state of Salvation Luke 16.26 in the Grave whither we go there is no work nor device no knowledge or wisdom for the helpfulness of any that have here neglected Gods work and device declared to them and the knowledge and wisdom here offered them Eccles 9.10 Now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation now is the day for men to hear in and to work the works of God in but if this be sleighted and men harden their hearts now and will not hear Gods voice the night comes and will come upon them wherein no man can work after which there will be no more day except an everlasting Judgment upon them And therefore in the state of Death they that dye in their sins are so far from being happy and blessed that they are far more wretched then then before for though they are not blessed while here because their sins are not blotted out yet there is a possibility they may be so and there is yet such a mercy held forth to them as obtainable by them for if the wicked man will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all Gods statutes and do that which is lawful and right if he will listen to and believe on Christ Jesus and not walk any longer after the Flesh but after the Spirit there shall be no longer any Condemnation to him He stall surely live he shall not dye namely the second Death Rom. 8 1. Ezek. 18.21 all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned to him c. vers 22. But when dead in his sins then there is no more hope or possibility of being happy He who was miserable before under a possibility of mercy is now endlesly and remedilesly miserable without that possibility Oh! therefore how doth it behove every one now to strive to enter in at the strait gate Luke 13.24 to do what his hands find him to do with all his might for seeking mercy and favour with God seeking the Lord while he may be found and calling upon him while he is nigh at hand Isa 55.6 Eccles 9.10 while it is yet said or called to day not hardning the heart but hearkening to Gods voice Psal 95.7.8 Heb. 3.7 8 15. making haste and not delaying to keep Gods Commandments Psal 119.59 60. hasting to escape as the Angels said to Lot when they brought him and his Family out of Sodom Gen. 19.17 as for our lives or souls not looking back staying or lingring in all the Plain of this World but escape to the mountain of the Lord left we be consumed giving diligence to know win and be found in Christ Jesus and being brought in to him to abide in him and be faithful to him to the Death and then no danger of being miserable for ever For Blessed are they that dye in the Lord from henceforth And so we come to the Substance of the Words and their plain and full import viz. That Note 3. All they that Dye in the Lord are Blessed from henceforth where we shall enquire and shew 1. Who is meant here by the Lord. 2. What it is to Dye in the Lord or who they are that may be said so to dye 3. Wherein they are blessed or what and whence that blessedness is that is asserted of them 4. What is the meaning of that additional word henceforth and what it may import 1. By the Lord here is without all doubt meant Jesus Christ for He is Lord of All Acts 10.36 for though there are that are called Lords many yet to us saith the Apostle there is but one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him 1 Cor. 8.6 and we find like phrases as this expresly mention him as He in whom the believers on him dye thus in 1 Cor. 15.18 they are fallen asleep in Christ. And in 1 Thes 4.14.16 Them that sleep is Jesus will God bring with him and the Dead in Christ shall rise first He then is here meant by the Lord yet not so as to exclude but include the Father and Holy Spirit who are in and upon him and He may well be stiled the Lord For 1. As God the Word with God in the beginning who was God so all things were made by him and He was and is by that right and stile as one with the Father who made all things by him and with the holy Spirit by whom or which he gave them their Formes Virtues and Beings the Lord of All Joh. 1.1 2. Col. 1.16 17. Heb. 1.2 3. 2. As man also taken into unity of person with the eternal word he must needs be and so was and is Lord the Manhood by that assumption into that personal union being advanced into interest in and communion with him in that his Dignity and Authority And so the Angel that came to declare to the Shepherds his Nativity called him while he lay in the Manger Christ the Lord Luke 2.10.11 so the Evangelists speak of him too in his state of Ministery and service very often as the Lord appointed seventy Luke 10.1 the Apostles said unto the Lord Lord incrase our Faith Luke 17.5 and himself bid the man out of whom he cast a Legion of Devils Go and shew how great things the Lord hath done for thee Mark 5.19 yea and even in his dead state as to his Body the Angels sent to declare his Resurrection call him Lord as to his Body laid in the Sepulchre saying Come see the place where the Lord lay Matth. 28.6 But especially 3. As Mediatour and Immanuel in his exalted and glorified state he is made of God the Father and so declared to be Lord and Christ as the fruit and reward of his