when he comes we may be found in him and so may be ever with him 1 Thes. 4. 17. This is the first qualification of the Subject for deliverance to be Mortui tui the Lords dead men 2. The next is that it is Cadaver meum 1 Mine as the words of Christ being my body they shall surely rise 2 Mine as the words of the Church Every member of my dead body shall rise in the unity of the whole 1 Then my dead body being members of an Head that lives for ever and hath the Keys of Hell and the Grave shall certainly rise His life is the Foundation of ours Because I live ye shall live also John 14. 19. If death had held him it would much more have held us But because in him the Mercies of David are sure therefore his Resurrection is an assurance of ours Act. 13. 34. Christ will not be incompleat and the Church is his fulness Eph. 1. 23. The feet under water are safe when the Head is above it Christ is said to be the first that rose from the dead Act. 26. 23. the first begotten the first born from the dead Rev. 1. 5. Col. 1. 18. For though some were raised before him yet not without him but by the Fellowship of his Resurrection As though light rise before the Sun yet it doth not rise but from the Sun The Mace goes before the Magistrate but it doth so only in attendance upon him He the only Conquerour of Death and as the first fruits did sanctifie the whole Mass Rom. 11. 16. so Christ by his Resurrection did consecrate all such as dye in the Lord to be a kind of first fruits and first born Jam. 1. 18. Heb. 12. 23. and therefore it is said that they shall rise first 1 Thes. 4. 16. His Resurrection is unto all his members 1 Arrha a pledge and earnest of theirs He having paid our debt death cannot detain us in prison for it His Resurrection hath justified us against the claim of death and will glorifie us against the power of death What he did purchase by the merit of his death is made applicable to us by the power of his Resurrection Rom. 8. 34. 2 Exemplar His the pattern of ours He taken not only from prison but from judgement death had no more to do with him Isal. 53. 8. Rom. 6. 9. In like manner we shall rise Victors over death never any more to be subject unto it This the Apostle calleth the Image of the Heavenly Adam 1 Cor. 15. 49. Phil. 3. 21. 3 Primitiae The beginning of the future Resurrection for he rose not barely in a personal but in a publick capacity though it were a damnable Heresie of Hymeneus that the Resurrection was past 2 Tim. 2. 18. yet it is a truth to say that it is begun He first then we at his coming 1 Cor. 15. 23. By what is past in the Head we are assured of what is expected in his Members 2 All the particular Members of the Church shall rise in the unity of one body as mystically joyned unto one Head and as one Family Eph. 3. 15. and all one in Christ Gal. 3. 28. not barely the persons singly considered but as a Church and Body shall rise 1 Then be careful to be found in Christ at his coming for though all men shall rise yet with a great difference The wicked potestate judicis as malefactors are brought out of prison to the Judge to be condemned The godly virtute capitis the life of Christ shall be manifested in their bodies 2 Cor. 4. 10. 2 A Christian must not onely believe Thy dead men shall live but furth 1 My dead body shall arise too Herein is the Life of Faith in bringing down general promises to our own particular cases interests and comforts 2 Cor. 4. 13 14. Joh. 20. 28. Gal. 2. 20. 3 Since we shall all rise as one we should all live as one As we have all one Head one Spirit one Faith one Hope one Inheritance one common salvation so we should have one heart and one soul Act. 4. 32. Love as brethren have the same care as fellow members one of another weep with them that weep rejoyce with them that rejoyce That our life of faith on earth may in some measure expresse our life of vision in heaven and since we shall agree there not to fall our in our way thither Eph. 4 1. 6. Phil. 2. 1 2 3. Col. 3. 12 13. And thus much of the dispositive cause qualifying the subject of this deliverance 2 The Efficient follows The word and command of God being like dew to the tender herbs to revive them when they seem dead Whence we observe 1 The facility of the last Resurrection in regard of God to whom miracles are as easie as natural operations A Miracle being nothing but a new creation It is as impossible to us to cause raine as to raise a dead body He therefore who we see doth cause the one we may believe on his word that he will the other We finde Raine and dew used as Arguments to prove the omnipotency and greatnesse of God Psal. 147. 5 8. Job 5. 9 10. ler. 14. 22. Zach. 10. 1. And this teacheth us a very useful point to observe the wisdome and power of God in the Ordinances of heaven and course of nature and from thence to argue for the setling of our faith in such things as exceed the course of nature for there is no lesse omnipotency required to govern natural causes then to work those that are supernatural He therfore that keepeth his Law and sheweth his power in the one will do so in the other too The Lord strengthneth our faith by the consideration of natural things the bow in the clouds Gen. 9. 12. Isa. 54. 9. the stability of the mountains Isa. 54. 10. the multitude of starres Gen. 15. 5. the highth of the heavens Psal. 103 11. the beauty of the Lilies Mat. 6. 28 30. the Ordinances of the Moon and Stars ler. 31. 35 36. the Covenant of Day and Night ler. 33. 20 21. Thus the Lord teacheth us to make use of the rudiments of nature to confirme our faith in him I go quietly to bed and am not frighted with the horror of the night I know the day will return It is Gods Covenant I put my seed into the ground in the Winter I know it will grow into an harvest the Sun will return it is Gods Covenant And why should I not trust him as well in his Covenant of Grace as of Nature why should I not believe that that power which quickens dead corn can quicken dead men and can provide as well for my salvation as for my nature The truth is all unbelief doth secretly question the power of God Things past and present all can believe because they are seen But things promised when they pose reason and transcend the course of natural causes and the contrivances and projections
that shall be revealed Rom. 8. 18. 6. Proportioned to our need 1 Pet. 1. 6. and to our strength 1 Cor. 10. 13. If we will come to glory we must go the same way unto it as Christ did the way of holinesse and the way of sufferings Act. 14. 22. and surely if there be enough in a womans child to recompence the pains of her travel John 16. 21. There will certainly be enough in the glory to come to recompence all our pains either in our obedience or in our afflictions II. We might here note That even Gods own servants in time of trouble calamity are very apt to betake themselves to their own conceptions and contrivances for deliverance they are big oftentimes with their own counsels and in pain tobring forth and execute their own projections in order to the freeing of themselves from trouble Abraham when he was afraid of Pharaoh and Abimelech dissembled his relation unto Sarah David fearing Achish the King of Gath fained himself mad 1 Sam. 21. 11 12 13. when he feared the discovery of his adultery he gave order for the killing of Uriah 2 Sam. 11. 15. one sin is the womb of another When Asa was in danger from Baasha King of Israel he bought his peace with the spoils of the Temple 2 Chron. 16. 1 2. when Jonah was afraid of preaching destruction to Ninive he fled unto Tarshish from the presence and service of the Lord Jonah 1. 3. when Peter was afraid of suffering with Christ he flies to that woful Sanctuary of denying and forswearing him Mat. 26. 69 74. thus the fear of man causeth a snare Prov. 29. 25. This therefore is a necessary duty in time of fear and danger to look up as the Church here after disappointment by other refuges doth with a victorious and triumphant faith unto God and to make him onely our fear and our dread not to trust in fraud and perversenesse or to betake our selves unto a refuge of lies Isa. 30. 12. 28. 15. but to build our confidence upon that sure foundation on the which he that believeth shall not need make hast If we lean not upon our own understanding nor be wise in our own eyes but in all our ways acknowledge him and trust in him and fear him and depart from evil we have this gracious promise that he will direct our paths Prov. 3. 5 7. the more we deny our selves the more is he engaged to help us But when we travel with our own conceptions and will needs be the contrivers of our own deliverance it cannot be wondred if the Lord turn our devices into vanity and make our belly prepare wind and deceit Job 15. 35. as it here followeth We have brought forth wind we have not wrought any deliverance all our endeavours have been vain and succeslesse III. Carnal Counsels and humane contrivances are usually carried on with pain and end in disappointment and do obstruct the progress and execution of Gods promises unto us If we would go on in Gods way and use the means which he hath directed and build our faith and hope upon his promises we have then his Word to secure us his Spirit to strengthen us his Grace to assist us his Power and fidelity to comfort us we have him engaged to work our works for us and his Angels to bear us in our Wayes But when we seek out diverticles and inventions of our own when we will walk in the light of our fire and in the sparks which we have kindled Isa. 50. 11. and be wise in our own conceit Rom. 12. 16. and walk after our own thoughts Isa. 65. 2. no wonder if we be disappointed and made ashamed of our own counsels Hos. 10. 6. when we sow the wind it is not strange if we reap the whirle-winde Hos. 8. 7. And therefore it is our wisdom to cease from our own wisdom as the wise man exhorteth Prov. 23. 4. in as much as the Lord hath pronounced a curse upon those that are prudent in their own sight Isa. 5. 21. whom usually he disappointeth Job 5. 12. We have considered the Churches complaint her anguish her disappointment Now in her Triumph we are first to view her deliverance and then the causes of it In the deliverance is a Gradation both in the misery from which and in the condition unto which they are restored For the former 1. It extends unto dead men whom to quicken exceeds the power of nature But we do not use to give men over and lay them out for dead as soon as their breath fails them some diseases look like death therefore the deliverance goes further unto Cadaver meum my carkasse which the remainders of vital heat have forsaken laid out carried away severed from the living hastning to putrefaction But death makes yet a further progresse this carcasse must be had out of sight lodged in the bowels of the earth and there dissolved into dust his house must know him no more Job 7. 10. and yet even here when death hath carried a man to the end of his journey and landed him in its own dominion so far shall the deliverance extend The Damsel whom Christ raised was mortua though yet in the house amongst the living Mark 5. 35. The widows son gone a little further into the Region of death coffin'd up laid on the Biere carried out from the House a Carcasse Luke 7. 14. Lazarus in deaths den Inhabitator pulveris as far as death could carry him yet raised up John 11. 38 44. so there is a gradation in the Terminus à quo of this deliverance There is likewise a gradation in the Terminus ad quem the condition unto which they are restored 1. They shall Live and this is a favour though one stay in prison 2. They shall Rise their life shal be to an exaltation the wicked shall live again but it shall be to die again but these dead shall live and rise their life shall be an advancement to them 3. They shall Awake like a man out of sleep refreshed and comforted Psal. 17. 15. 4. They shall sing as victors over the grave never to return thither more So we have here 1. The sad condition of the Church 2. The great mercy and power of God to them in that condition Their sad condition in the former of these two gradations 1. They are dead men in a condition of death their whole life a conflict with mortality And though this be not a calamity peculiar to them for death feedeth equally upon all and though there be a great alleviation in their being Mortui tui The Lords dead men yet in some respects we finde the weight of mortality on the Churches side Wicked men meet many times with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 live in pleasure and then die in ease spend their days in wealth and jollity in vanity and folly and go suddenly to the grave die onely once and together Job 21. 13. whereas
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.