the drop is swallowed up in the ocean and the small dust in the huge mountaine so shall the short moment of this present life be forgotten when the bright morning of eternal joy shall break upon your souls and the righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father This is that life and immortality which is brought to light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 Wherfore gird up the loynes of your mind be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ unto whom ye are hastening waiting for the day of your departing hence that ye may be with Christ which is far better Thirdly How doth the death of the Saints bring them immediatly to Christ a their departure in what manner doth the soul depart The Apostle joyneth his departing and being with Christ together by a small copulative particle as if the soul were as soon with Christ after dissolution as we can speak so short a word even in the next moment which is the third general head to be handled In the explaining whereof I shall take it for granted that the soul is immortal and dyeth not with the body but immediately appeareth before God according to the apprehension of St. Paul in my text who therefore desired to depart that he might be with Christ For were not the soul immortal and that in Pauls perfect judgement it had been far better for him to have lived then dyed for to him to live was Christ but in case he had dyed he could not have been with Christ according to his desire had not his soul survived his body Therefore subscribing to the judgement of so great an Apostle I shall wave the needless controversie and proceed to the explication of this last question in hand the truth and manner whereof will appear in these following demonstrations I. Demonst First the Souls of the Saints are spiritually and inseparably united unto Christ He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 The spirit of Christ dwelleth in beleivers and though the body be dead or mortall because of sin yet the spirit is life because of righteousness Rom. 8.10 11. The spirit of Christ in the soul is a principle of eternal life by conjunction of the soul with Christ whereby we are quickned together with him through which both our spiritual and eternal life is secured the union of the soul with Christ being inviolable Therefore our life is said to be hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 * Cum Christ in Deo est exira periculum esse Calv. and is out of all danger of ever being separated for who or what shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. latter end I am perswaded saith Paul neither life nor death c. As the hypostatical union of the Godhead and humanity of Christ could not be separated by his death so neither the mystical and spiritual union between Christ and the soul by the death of the Saints For he is the head of his body the Church whereof every true believer is a living member unto whom they are so really spiritually and immediately united that no state condition or power whatsoever can sever or dis-joyn them And though every unfruitful branch may and shall be taken away and cut off from Christ the true vine by final Apostasie Ecclesiastical censure or the judicial sentence that shall pass upon every hypocrite when God shall require and take away his soul every true and living branch shall abide in him for ever through the skill and care of the Father the great husbandman And if we consider the relation which Christ standeth in to all the Saints of a husband to his spouse contracted together by an everlasting covenant betrothed in loving kindness and faithfulness and joyned together by the eternal spirit of grace through which they enjoy the sweet embraces and mutual expressions of their conjugal union and affections how can it be imagined that the Spouse of Christ or any particular Christians should by their dissolution be deprived of so near a relation and firm union for the soul being a spirit and uncapable of suffering the least alteration in its essence by the death of the body from which it is only separated as the life thereof it must of necessity retaine and still possess its spiritual beauty and all supernatural and heavenly priviledges in and with Christ whereof it is far more capable and that more fully and perfectly to receive being separate then in the present body II. Demonstr Secondly the souls of believers are by a natural force and necessity detained from their desired presence with Christ while they are present in the body and thus the death of the Saints bringeth them to Christ by releasing their souls from the tyes and bonds of an absented estate Therefore are we alwayes confident saith the Apostle knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. The body is the Saints natural home wherein by a natural necessity they are kept absent from Christ and yet a forced absence in regard of their desires to be with him and to change their bodily home for an eternal house The Philosophers called the body animae carcerem pistrinum the prison and gaol of the soul if so how welcome should death be to the righteous that setteth this prisoner free and enlargeth the souls confinement But how the soul being set at liberty and delivered from the natural bond and relation to the body is immediately present with Christ I shall explain with what clearness and brevity I can for the making good of this second Demonstration First the soul and body in the Godly as in all other men are joyned together by the God of nature in the creation of them as essential parts of one person the humane nature consisting of body and soul which God himself breathed into the humane and organical body and whereby man became a living soul Gen. 2.7 It is also a received maxime in natural science that in the propagation of the humane nature the soul of man is immediately created and that not out of the body but in the body into which it is infused in the very creation of it and so one man is said to beget another not that he doth generate the soul but the body and the union of both God concurring as the first and universal cause with the secondary and particular causes in their natural acts and motions Which union of the soul and body being natural as of two essential parts of the whole though the soul being a spirit hath a subsistence being separate from the body by dissolution yet it is but a separate part and remaineth as a part during the time and
cannot but glorifie himself vindicate his holiness the justice of God in the execution of his infinite unsatiable displeasure can no longer be suspended but stirreth up his fury as fire to prey upon the soul Thus fitted for destruction The day of patience is now over wherein the Lord waited upon this soul in the ministery of the Gospel in the use of all means to gain it in wooing it by tenders of grace mercy warning it by foretelling this present misery What fair opportunities rich advantages hath all wicked ungodly wretches to prevent this condemnation and to escape the wrath of God while the glorious Gospel of the great God is preaching to them wherein grace is upon the knee and mercy stretcheth forth her hands Christ standeth knocking at their hard hearts and his messengers cry aloud to their deaf ears No wonder therefore if now patience abused turn into fury mercy slighted stir up indignation and contempt of favour heighten displeasure and hereby wrath is treasured up against the day of wrath Rom. 2.4 5. Or despisest thou the richer of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God God is a consuming fire to all such dry and combustible souls seizing upon them as straw and stubble in their approach unto him like Nadab and Abihu when they offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not Lev. 10.2 And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord. O that the sinners in Zion were afraid and that fear might surprise the hypocrites Consider who among you shall dwell with the devouring fire and who among you shall dwell with everlasting burnings The wrath of the Lord is the lake of fire and brimstone of which the Scripture so often speaketh this is hell it self wherein God himself is the tormentor who by his wrath kindleth those unquencheable flames Isa 30.33 For Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared he bath made it deep and large the pile thereof is much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone kindleth it In this Scripture the Lord denounceth hell to King Sennacherib in describing whereof the Prophet alludeth to the fires in the valley of Hinnon wherein those Idolaters burned their children in sacrifice to Moloch and that the parents might not hear the cry of their children they beat up their taâ—rets or drummes and from the name of Toph or drum the place was called Tophet So in hell there shall be no pitty or compassion of God to the cryes of burning souls And this is the punishment of old ordained not only for Sennacherib but all the ungodly which is said to be deep and large As the dimensions of Gods love to his people in heaven are highth length depth and breadth in all which love passeth knowledge so are the dimensions of his wrath to the damned in hell which we are not able to conceive the heat whereof is intollerable as of a fire made with much wood and eternal through the stream of wrath for ever flowing forth from God the fountaine of wrath to the wicked the hot breath of whose mouth kindleth and bloweth up the everlasting flames of their endless sorrow and torments Fifthly the soul under this consuming wrath of God lyeth down in everlasting despair of ever being released or in the least measure releived or eased Eternity in torments maketh them unsupportable though in themselves they were not so heavy and burthensome how much more intollerable will that punishment be that is both in nature as well as duration so insufferable And if the paines of wrath but for one hour in hell cannot be recompensed with all the wealth of the world who would venture the eternity thereof for the pleasures of sin which are but for a season The damned in hell apprehend the endlessness of their torments by the immortality of the soul the demerit of sin and the unchangeableness of God from whom they suffer If the soul could be consumed or annihilated by its torments if sin could be expiated by any measure of sufferings or if God could repent or be moved to compassion there might be hope in hell but all these are impossible For God changeth not guilt diminisheth not the soul wasteth not therefore the worm never dieth and the fire is never quenched Mark 9.48 And to seal up this bottomless pit upon such miserable souls we may add that if there might be any help in this case either Christ must suffer once more to expiate Gospel disobedience as he suffered for legal or time must be called back again for these tormented ones to enjoy once more the Gospel which they refused But neither of these can be imagined Christ will no more leave the bosom of his Father and his glory having offered one sacrifice for ever and being set down at the right hand of God from hence expecting that all his enemies should become his footstool Heb. 10.12 13. For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries verses 26 27. And who can call time again that is past If God should bring the Sun back upon the dial by a contrary motion through all those minutes of time it hath gone from the beginning of the creation and of its motion in the firmament time would still goe forward by the Suns going backward and it would measure succeeding time by its retrograde motion So that to call time again that is past is one of those impossibilities which God himself cannot doe because it implyeth a contradiction Therefore this shall aggravate the misery of the soul under the wrath of God that the sufferings are easeless endless and helpless wherein the wicked shall bewail their lost seasons never to be regained and their precious time never to be redeemed Despair is written upon the gate of hell whence there is no returning Omnia te adversum spectantia no prints appearing of the feet of any that have come from thence Sixthly the Soul of a wicked man thus desparing under the implacable wrath of God shall stir up it self against God through malice and despite in sin to curse and blaspheme him to his face For the soul being an immortal spirit cannot be only passive but active under its intollerable sufferings the object whereof being God and sin and punishment or God punishing it for sin and all the acts of the soul being purely evil and sinful without the least mixture of good the soul must of necessity be so far from an humble acknowledgement confession and godly sorrow as to
discover and act all manner of vexation fretfulness reluctancy and opposition under the anguish of its hopeless condition And this may be demonstrated if one consider the nature of a carnal heart and spirit and the tendency thereof which doth naturally end in this degree of sin 1. There is a natural enmity in every carnal soul against God which remaineth for ever in it where grace doth not subdue and mortifie it The carnal mind is enmity to God Rom. 8.7 And it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be So that this enmity is discovered in this life by acts of sin and wicked workes done by carnal men against the holy and righteous will of God and consequently abiding in the soul after death it will in like manner manifest it self to eternity the Soul being wholly void of all sanctifying and renewing grace Secondly This enmity will more fully act after dissolution by the total withdrawing of the spirit of God whereby in this life it was limited and restrained God setteth bounds to carnal men in this life to keep the world in some degree of peace for the more quiet habitation of his people without which their lives on earth would be altogether disquiet and uncomfortable through the rage and fury of the wicked But in hell there is not so much as restraining grace to dam up the fountain of corruption from breaking out and flowing forth in its full strength and liberty Thirdly the greatest sufferings whatsoever have no power to suppress or destroy corruption and carnal enmity as in themselves considered It is a sanctified affliction through the love of God that purgeth and taketh away sin from his children who by his chastisements are made partakers of his holiness But the torments of hell are the execution of the fierce wrath of God wherein there is not the mixture of one dram of love God intending the destruction and not the salvation of the soul in taking vengeance upon it So that the sinful habits and habitual enmity of the soul are increased and blown up to the highest degree of malice by despair under eternal punishment Fourthly To this we may also add that to be given up to sin is one of the greatest Judgements of God and therefore may be a part of or at least an adjunct to the torments of the damned God sometimes punisheth sin with sin by hardning the heart for its hardness and searing the conscience for its senselessness and giving up to believe a lye for not receiving the love of the truth as also he gave up those Idolaters who imprisoned the natural light and knowledge of God to uncleanness vile affections and a reprobate mind Rom. 1. Now the highest degree of sin God giveth up a carnal man unto in this life is the sin against the holy Ghost which is to sin with malice and to doe despight unto the spirit of grace Heb. 10.29 When a reprobate heart shall grow to that hardness in sin as to sin under conviction and to revenge it self upon God and the spirit of God by committing sin upon the account of sin or because it is sin otherwise it cannot be a wilful sinning after receiving of the knowledge of the truth This being the highest degree of sin upon earth the formality whereof is malice and revenge we may easily be perswaded to believe that hell is full thereof where this malice is more stirred up by despair under these torments then it can be in this life and where the souls of the wicked vent their malice against God by blaspheming and cursing him to his face which is the proper discovery of it as desperate malefactors sometimes in their torments curse both Judge and Executioner And foâ— the proof of this I shall only argue thâ— the case from two or three Scripture instances First of Job whom Satan supposed to be but a hypocrite and temptâ—… God to afflict him with this confidence that he should curse him to his face Joâ— 1.11 The Devil well knew what over whelming afflictions would work upon carnal and sinful heart even to curse Goâ— to his face and had not Jobs sinceritâ— through the power of God upheld anâ— preserved him the Devil had had his design and Job had cursed God as well aâ— the day of his birth Another is of thosâ— wicked ones of whom the Prophet â—…saiah speaketh Isai 8.21 And thâ—â— shall pass through it hardly bestead anâ— hungry and it shall come to pass that wheâ—… they shall be hungry they shall fret themselves and curse their King and their God anâ— look upward Whence it appeareth thaâ— when God upon earth punisheth a people for their wickedness with some extream calamity under which they despair looking upwards and seeing no help the wickedness of their hearts will through madness and malice break out into cursing of their King and their God whether true of false Which appeareth yet more clearly in the prophesie of the powring forth of the vials of the wrath of God upon the Antichristian party in several plagues and punishments for their final ruine and overthrow Rev. 16.9 And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God which hath power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory And verse 11. They blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their paines and their sores and repented not of their deeds Likewise verse the last They blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great Much more will a sinful soul blaspheme in hell where despair is the torment of those torments Which Christ himself seemeth to put out of all question speaking of the sufferings of hell when he saith There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Math. 8.12 and 13.42 50. That is against God through fretfulness and malice for so the phrase of gnashing the teeth is taken in other Scriptures Psal 37.12 The wicked plotteth against the just and gnasheth upon him with his teeth So the Jews did upon Stephen Acts. 7.54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and gnashed on him with their teeth So that as the Saints in heaven bless God with Praises and Hallelujahs so the damned in hell howl under pain and curse him and thus in hell sin shall be perfected as well as grace in heaven every wicked and graceless soul shall sin under suffering while it is suffering for sin Lastly Hereupon the wrath of God is further provoked and heightned by the actual sin of a wicked and desperate soul under its torments So that to make this everlasting punishment of a damned soul in hell unspeakable miserable the sufferings thereof are not only eternal as they are the just reward of sin committed in this life against an infinite God whose justice can never be fully satisfied but by the eternity of the punishment but they are also for ever increased and renewed by enraging provocations of malice and
what a night may bring forth or whether thine eyes shall see the light of another day Compose a while thy wandring unsetled thoughts and if thou canst be serious at such a solemn assembly and sad occasion tell me if thou canst venture this night thy eternal condition to be determined upon thee by a sudden dissolution Art thou ready to be uncloathed and to lye down in the dust of death or dost thou not tremble at the thoughts of it as a poor sinful creature amazed distracted and confounded in thy self through the fear of death and hell that followes it Oh cast not away so precious a soul though thou hast hitherto made it a servant to sin and a drudge to Satan If thou knewest the worth of an immortal spirit thou wouldest not barter it away to the Devil for such short and empty pleasures nor expose it to the rapine of vain lusts to be defiled and deflowred but on the contrary by all means and unwearied paines seek the deliverance and salvation thereof from eternal misery and everlasting ruine which shall be inevitable without true and unfeigned repentance That I may now catch thee in thy fall and pull thee out of the fire and through compassion save a soul from death for knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men oh resist not the counsell of God to thy destruction but accept of direction from an unworthy labourer in the Lords vineyard who shall rejoyce to become an instrument of bringing thee in to God that thou mayest be translated from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of his dear Son First Search the Scriptures and make them the impartial judge of thy condition Examine thy heart and wayes by the infallible touchstone of the word of God and try the rectitude or declination of thy soul by this line and plummet The word of God is the true standard and exact ballance of the Sanctuary by which if thou wouldest not be deceived thou mayest know thy present and consequently thy future estate to eternity Therefore open this booke and in obedience to this present call of God unto thee take and read and judge thy self that thou mayest escape the final condemnation and judgement of God when this book with the rest of those bookes mentioned by Saint John in his Revelation shall be opened Rev. 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the bookes were opened and another booke was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the bookes according to their workes Friend God will not judge thee by another law and rule then what he hath revealed unto thee for he is righteous in judgement And though the heathen that have not this law of God revealed unto them shall be judged without it even by the light of nature and the law of their own consciences whereby they are a law unto themselves yet they that have it shall be judged by it Rom. 2.12 13 14 15. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law c. And think not to plead ignorance in that day for that will be but to plead guilty also where God hath afforded so much meanes of knowledge For God hath not cast thy lot and habitation in a land of darkness but of light and under the plain and powerful ministery of the Gospel under which thou canst not be ignorant unless thou shuttest thine eyes against the truth and lovest darkness rather theu light that thou mayest sin more securely Therefore supposing through charity that thou art not wholly ignorant and unacquainted with the mysteries of the Gospel and the rule of righteousness contained in the holy Scriptures let me engage thee to a self examination by them as being able to make thee wise unto salvation But give me leave however to put that question to thee which Paul put to King Agrippa Acts 26.27 King Agrippa beleivest thou the Prophets Beleivest thou the Scriptures if thou beleivest why tremblest thou not at the wrath of God proclaimed and his judgment denounced against sin and sinners But how canst thou beleive and still persevere in prophaneness and a wicked and licentious conversation Suppose thou shouldest see one of thy old acquaintance and companions in iniquity now in torments arise out of his grave and hear him relate with trembling and astonishment the miserable estate of the damned in hell and the unexpressible paines they endure there and withal falling prostrate at thy feet with cryes and teares beseech thee to repent and accept of the riches of mercy now offered unto thee in the Gospel that thou mightest not perish in the same condemnation and destruction would not this scare and affright thee or worke in thee a serious reflexion upon thy sinful condition Now hath not the eternal God and Jesus Christ the faithful and true witness declared the same unto thee by the word of truth which cannot be broken or changed and dost thou remain still secure and obstinate It is to be feared if thou beleivest not the report of God that thou wouldest not beleive the report of man though God should miraculously call up the dead to warne thee As Abraham told the rich man in hell intreating him to send Lazarus from the dead unto his Fathers house to his five brethren to testifie unto them least they should come to that place of torment Luke 16.29 31. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them and if they hear not Moses nor the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Hearken therefore not only to Moses and the Prophets but to a greater then Moses to Christ and his holy Apostles by whom the counsells of God and his good and perfect and acceptable will are sufficiently made known unto the Sons of men For the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thessal 1.8 Let every soul then enquire after God and examine the evidences of his salvation the grounds of his hope the fruits of repentance the signes of regeneration and the Scripture markes and characters of a sound and saving faith in Christ Jesus For without faith it is impossible to please God without holiness no man shall see him and without repentance and regeneration no salvation Therefore be not deceived but search the Scriptures daily whether these things be so or no. Secondly set the fear of God and his wrath before your eyes continually Consider O ye Sons of men in whose presence ye are at all times yea when ye are most retired from the eyes of men who can strike you dead in the act of sin though never so secretly committed stand in awe therefore and
peace Balaam 's wish strongly confirmeth it Numb 23.10 Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his And to add no more quotations in so plain a case Paul in my Text appropriateth this priviledge to himself and such as he was real Christians true Saints and unfeigned believers I am in a straight betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ and to me to live is Christ and to dye is gain Therefore look what we are living such we are dying Death is but the term of life and changeth not the state of the person but the degree of that state Grace must be wrought here but perfected hereafter in glory which is grace consummate and if no grace here no glory hereafter for as the tree falleth so it lieth But if I should draw the curtaines that are about these dying Saints and consider how they die that come to Christ by death I would propose it unto you briefly in two or three expressions for the discovery of it and your information in it according to the Scripture The Godly die in the faith of Christ believing in him and all the promises of God which in him are yea and amen Heb. 11.13 These all died in faith not having received the promises they die in the interest of Christ and they are Christs in death as well as life Rom. 14.8 Whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we dye we dye to the Lord whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords Yea they die in union with Christ Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord Rev. 14.13 This is that death and the death of such as these are is that departure whereof Paul speaketh in my Text and how desirable it is beyond this present life it self will further appear by the several and sutable acceptations of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the original which we translate to depart in which word as an alablaster box the Apostle hath inclosed precious spikenard to annoint the Saints against their funeral by which we shall understand the gainful advantage of death to the godly as it looketh back to this present life as the terminus a quo or the bounds from which they depart First the word is used to loosen the cables of a ship solvere rudentes a metaphor taken from mariners who sail from one Banke or Port unto another it importeth a flitting or sailing from the state of this present life to our heavenly country Afflictions in the Scriptures are compared to waters and the world is a troublesome sea to the Saints over which they sail through many stormes till they come to shore For through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14.22 Many are the afflictions of the righteous and in the world ye shall have tribulation saith Christ to his Disciples John 16. last And all that will live godly in Christ Jesus saith Paul shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 But the death of the Saints is the end of their sorrowes and if we suffer with Christ we shall be glorified together Rom. 8.18 Then all tears shall be wiped from their eyes and sorrow and mourning shall flee away when they shall arrive at the land of promise the Cape of good hope Heaven is the Saints fair haven it is called the bosome of Abraham Luk. 16.23 Which Gregory Nyssen expounds to be like a bay or bosome of the Sea into which a godly man sayling from hence putteth in his soul as a haven free from danger and tempest where it shall receive the fulness of all good things Secondly The word is translated reverti to return Believers are sent forth to labour in this world and they are Christs factors upon earth for the advancement of his glory and kingdom and the heavenly gain of their own eternal happiness They trade for heaven by which their conversations are said to be in heaven Phil. 3.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our City life or commerce or our conversation is in heaven whence we look for the Lord Jesus Christ to come They are citizens of heaven but they trade from home in a far countrey as merchants seeking the pearl of great price Mat. 13.44 Which having found they returned home richly laden with the treasure of the Gospel Death is the souls return to God Eccles 12.7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return to God who gave it Job saith he shall return thither Job 1.21 Naked came I out of my mothers womb and naked shall I return thither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greek Scholies expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto God How joyful is the return of the Saints to their heavenly home and their happy rest after their laborious travail and restless pains in the works of their salvation attended with all the fruits of holiness and righteousness as an evidence of their faith and testimony of their obedience Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord even so saith the spirit for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them Rev. 14.13 As the wagons which Joseph sent for his Father Jacob and his houshold brought them to the land of Goshen and to the full plenty of Joseph's provision so death bringeth the Saints to their joyful rest and to Christ their heavenly Joseph Death is the unharnessing of the Saints at their final return to their full peace and everlasting inheritance * Solvunti◠sarcina vincula Thirdly the word is applyed sometimes to the loosing of the cords of a tent * Solvere sunos tobernaculorum Beleivers in this life and while they are in the body dwell as in tents and tabernacles in an unsetled and changeable estate as pilgrims and strangers having no continuing City and therefore often remove their tents like the Patriarchs of old Heb 11.9 10. Where the Apostle speaking of Abraham saith that by faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange countrey dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he looked for a City which had foundations whose builder and maker is God Al the faithful are heirs of eternal promises how mean and contemptible soever they seem in the eyes of the world as a gazing-stock unto them among whom they sojourn for a time As they are not of the world so they have little favour and respect from it for therefore the world hateth them John 15.19 No wonder therefore the people of God have alwayes accounted themselves strangers here Psal 119.19 I am a stranger in the earth saith David hide not thy commandements from me And Peter writing to the Jews 1 Pet. 2.11 I beseech you saith he as pilgrims and strangers abstain from fleshly lusts which warre against the Soul How welcome then is that dissolution that looseneth the cords of those tents and pulleth
gracious person to desire to depart and to be with Christ Who among all the heires of promise doth not desire the possession and enjoyment of his hopes in Christ his deliverance from sin sufferings and sorrow and the full fruition of all the glory and happiness of his heavenly portion and inheritance Let the spiritual ecchoes and silent answers of all true born Israelites resolve this question whose hearts are enlarged to rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God unto which they are begotten by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead This maketh the greatest afflictions of the Saints in this world so light unto them while they look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 And therefore reckon with Paul That the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in them Rom. 8.18 Hence are those earnest groanes and longing desires of the righteous to be uncloathed and cloathed upon with their house from heaven wherein they symbolize and sympathize with the whole creation which desireth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God Rom. 8.23 And not only they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body Use 3. Use of inquiry If it be the desirable priviledge of the Saints to be brought immediately unto Christ by their death then it may be profitable and useful for us to inquire into the causes why many Christians are so far from desiring it chearfully submitting unto death as that they tremble at it and seem to slye from it What is the reason that they are still in bondage to the fear of death notwithstanding the sting thereof is taken away by the destruction of sin and the grave perfumed as a bed of spices by Christ's lying therein Now therefore for satisfaction to this case and withall to remove and cure this uncomfortable distemper I shall lay down briefly some of the chief causes whence this fear may arise First it may arise from a natural principle of self-preservation For God hath planted this instinct of nature in every part of the creation to labour to preserve its being and secure it self from dissolution Hence it is that nature abhorring avacuity or emptiness in any part of the universe because it tendeth to destruction for the preservation thereof causeth in the creatures motions contrary to their inclinations causing the air to descend to fill up vacuities in the earthly element and the water to ascend contrary to its nature to supply the room and absence of the forced air which we see in several experiments and ordinary inventions And this principle appeareth in every particular creature naturally avoiding whatsoever threatneth or tendeth to its destruction But to come nearer to the case of humane dissolution We naturally shun whatsoever we apprehend may offer violence to us and are subject to sudden passions at the approach of cruelty yea nature put in mind of a weakness in any part of the body maketh strongest reparations and fortifieth that place where a breach was made a broken bone well set becometh stronger then before And hence it is that through fear we decline any eminent danger and labour to preserve our natural beings resisting dissolution as the greatest natural evil Therefore the Philosopher called death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most terrible of terribles and Job the King of terrors Job 18.14 This natural fear was in Christ himself as he was man when he approached his death and sufferings who through a conflict of nature desired to be delivered from them Mat. 26.39 O my Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me And yet there was no sin in it because it was a natural desire and that for a moment suddenly overcome by reason and deliberation or a short suspension quickly subdued by a voluntary submission and firm resolution the spirit being willing but the flesh weak in Christ himself But grace doth not only teach to deny self but is also powerful to subdue our natura wills and inclinations to the will of God as it was also in Christ nevertheless not my will but thine be done Secondly It may proceed from immoderate love and inordinate affections to the world and the things of this present life And there is a great proneness in believers themselves to â—ive too much liberty to earthly and worldly affections and to take too much delight and content in the good things of this life which are but bona corporis the goods of the body These things are snares unto us in our life and as stocks to the feet of the soul at the time of departure How loth are we to let go our tenure and hold of these delights upon a sick bed to take our last farewell and shake hands with near and dear relations to have our eyes closed and no more to be opened upon these visible comforts and to suffer the pillow to be drawn away from our heads that we may yield up our spirits to a more easie and free passage Certainly if we were more crucified to the world and strangers in it we should far more willingly leave it whereas through the love of it we are still hoping for a longer time and continuance in it and that God would still add either more yeares to our dayes or at least more dayes to our years Were not the stakes of our worldly delight drove so deep and strongly fastned in the earth our earthly tabernacles would more easily be dissolved The creatures in themselves are good and life is not only sweet in it self but as it is also ratio possidendi our tenure of them they are but for one life without renewing the lease thereof Therefore for the loosening of these cordes and stakes consider how much better one Christ is then all the creatures and one God then a thousand worlds and the glory of heaven then the superficial varnish and beauty of the whole earth If ye be Christians and risen with Christ take the Apostles counsel Col. 3.1 2 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth for ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Therefore saith he mortifie your members which are upon the earth inordinate affections evil concupiscence and covetousness which is Idolatry Christians take heed of fastning your affections here it may be Christ may require you should testifie your love to him by suffering for his sake and the Gospel and that unto the death and if worldly affections discompose
some of us are come to this place at this time as Abraham at the cave of Machpelah to bury the dead out of their sight and are mourning for the departure of a near relation I shall speake a few words unto them before I come to direct and counsel Christians in general And I shall only exhort you freely to resign your relation to Christ and not to mourn as those that have no hope which was Saint Pauls counsel to the Thessalonians in the like case 1 Thess 4.13 14. which he presseth with a strong argument for saith he if we beleive that Christ died and rose again even so them also which beleive in Jesus will God bring with him which implieth that they are with God and Christ It becometh all that fear the Lord to be silent in submitting to every providence of God It is recorded of Aaron when his two Sons were slain by an immediate hand of God and the fire of his displeasure that after Moses had declared the mind of God unto him he held his peace Levit. 10.3 When David understood the death of his child for which he mourned so exceedingly during the time of its sickness he rose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and went into the house of the Lord and worshipped 2 Sam. 12.20 The patience of Job is set forth in Scripture for an example to all beleivers who when he had heard out the relation of the evil tidings which his sad messengers brought unto him of his great losses in estate and also of the sudden death of all his children glorified God under all Job 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. How then should Christians not only labour to submit but willingly and chearfully satisfie and quiet their spirits when they part with Relations upon such Comfortable terms that no sooner they are out of their sight but they are immediately with Christ It is true nature is strong in her affections and loth to let go the possession of any present comfort and therefore cannot but discover her passions when she is bereaved of near enjoyments And this seemeth to be the ground of sorrow in the breach and dissolution of natural bonds even a long continued absence or an imagination of never seeing departed friends any more if not a conceit of annihilation and that the dead are not as ignorant persons are ready to entertain strange notions thereof But however natural men may immoderately mourn upon such apprehensions of the state of the dead or which we may add of the greatness of their own loss in such a case who know not how to value or prize a creature comfort with any moderation because they mind not a greater and better portion yet where nature hath been at school and under the teaching and instruction of grace in those who understand and are acquainted with the truths of the Gospel and the mysteries of Christ how should all such manifest a more noble and heavenly principle ever the grace they have received in adorning their profession and justifying the truth and worth of religion by a comely gracious solid and sweet behaviour and demeanure of themselves under such providences The faithful part with their spiritual Relations at their dissolution upon the grounds of heavenly promotion wherein they should be more free then those that can take a joyful farewell of their nearest friends for the greatness of earthly preferment Let the Godly husband therefore rejoyce under his sorrow and rather weep for joy that the wife of his bosom is translated into the bosome of Abraham and taken into the presence and embraces of Christ her heavenly head and husband now knowing her no more after the flesh but in Christ in whom all natural relations are spiritualized by the medicinal union of fellow membership in his body which is the church and the spouse of Christ And let the off-spring and children of such aparent no longer look with teares upon the womb that bare them the papps that gave them suck and the tender bowels of her that now ceaseth to care for them but unto the Lord with whom the fatherless find mercy and the orphans succour and releif when they put their trust in him and cast their cares and burthens upon him How soon would tears dry upon our cheeks and our sighs and sobbs turn into songs could we see the heavens open and not only Christ standing at the right hand of God but our dear and godly relations departed at the right hand of Christ having put off the weedes raggs of mortality and temporal misery and being clothed with the garments of praise and robes of immortality and glory Such a sight the eye of faith can see which periceth the heavens and seeth things invisible Therefore let us not think that the Saints departed are less happy because we are uncapable of beholding their heavenly advancement like Jacob deluded by Josephs brethren and his coat of many colours which they presented unto him as torn by wild beasts whence he concluded that he was not though yet alive and in the way to be advanced to be Lord of Egypt and the next unto Pharaoh in the Kingdom Our godly relations though dead are yet alive and we shall shortly goe to them though they return not to us I shall say no more in this case but what Christ said unto those who followed him towards his death lamenting him Luke 23.28 Weep not for me but weep for your selves your children So weep we not forthe dead in Christ but let us weep for our selves and mourn over our dead hearts and their corruptions that sin still dwelleth in us and we cannot honour Christ as we desire nor doe that which we would the flesh lusting against the spirit and withall let us follow Christ on earth and the faith footsteps of those who are with him that when we depart we may also be with Christ which is far better Thus I come at length to lay down some spiritual directions and counsels to Christians in general in reference to their comfortable and joyful departing unto Christ at their dissolution Direct I. Labour to rejoyce in beleiving and so to exercise and act faith upon Christ as spiritually to rejoyce in him This is a duty incumbent upon all beleivers though all doe not at all times attain nor keep up and maintain this heavenly frame and sweet temper of spirit but walk mournfully and disconsolately depressed by fear and doubtings concerning their state and condition in grace dejected by corruption of nature and the motions and strivings of the flesh the cause either of sinful falls of distracting infirmities or else darkned and clouded by spiritual desertions and withdrawings of the gracious presence of God formerly enjoyed and the light of his countenance sometimes lifted up upon them vexed also by Satan troubling their peace by his strong and powerfull temptations who envying their
comfortable and chearful estate endeavoureth what he can to disturbe them though he cannot destroy them besides the weighty and burthensome afflictions where withall many gracious hearts are sometimes ready to be overwhelmed had they not secret supports under their oppressing tryals To these and to all Christians the Apostles exhortation is to rejoyce in the Lord Phil. 3.1 And to rejoyce in the Lord alwayes and again to rejoyce Chap. 4. verse 4. who layeth it down as a character of the true spiritual circumcision to rejoyce in Christ Jesus as well as to worship God in the spirit Phil. 3.3 Joy is a fruit of the spirit as much as love faith and other graces among which it is numbred Gal. 5.22 And it is essential to the kingdom of heaven and the state of grace in the soul which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.17 How then should all that are justified by faith and have peace with God through Christ Jesus rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God by Christ and in Christ himself the hope of glory Who is there among all the people of the Lord that is not ashamed to say he doth not love Christ and doth not so far at least testifie his faith as to declare his desires to beleive in him Beloved doe ye love the Lord and beleive in him and can ye not also rejoyce in him Oh that I could say of all beleivers as Peter of the beleiving Jews and the greatness of their joy in the incorruptible inheritance and in Christ 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love and in whom though now ye see him not yet beleiving ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Chear up your spirits and lift up your heads and hearts ye drooping Christians for your departure unto Christ is at hand and your salvation is nearer then when ye first beleived And ye that are rich in faith and heires of the kingdom look unto the hope set before you and endure a little shame here yea glory in your tribulations and rejoyce in your sufferings for your redemption draweth nigh Know ye not in whom ye have beleived who is able to keep what ye have committed to his charge and to save you to the uttermost And rejoyce that ye are made partakers not only of the sufferings of Christ but of his glory who is ready to receive you into his bosom and to give you possession of a glorious inheritance prepared reserved and secured unto you having made you sons and heires and appointed you to be Kings and Priests unto Christ and his Father Secondly for the furtherance â—nd help of your joy in the Lord make your calling and election sure For hereby an entrance shall be administred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.10 11. It is an uncomfortable state for a Christian to hang between heaven and hell and in a moving ballance betwixt hope and fear therefore we ought to give diligence in the searching our hearts and examining our hopes that our evidences may be clear and our hopes lively through the assurance of hope and understanding Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith know ye not that Christ is in you except ye be reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 They that beleive have the evidence and witness in themselves the spirit it self bearing witness with their spirits that they are the children of God Rom. 8.16 But we must not expect the witness of the spirit of God without the preceeding witness of our own spirits whereby our evidences are first signed and afterwards sealed by the spirit of promise For hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his spirit 1 John 4.13 Unto which knowledge we attain by our reflexion upon the fruits of the spirit within us as an earnest of the purchased possession for us So that our evidence ariseth and appeareth by a diligent scrutiny and inquisition into the work and principles of grace within us and that by bringing the word to the heart and judging the heart by the word by comparing truths with experiences and experiences with truths from which premises the enlightened and sanctified conscience draweth the sweet conclusion of life and peace And were we not too much strangers to our selves and guilty of neglect and careless presumption in the matter of our assurance we might raise our comforts to a higher pitch and maintain a better grounded joy and confidence then we doe who are ready to content our selves with naked desires weak and staggering hopes or at most with a questionable probability of our salvation yea how many professors are there who by the difficulty of the work of gaining assurance either discourage and cool their affections to it or else by a conceit of an impossibility thereof voluntarily and totally neglect it But ye Beloved build not your hopes and comforts upon slight and shallow foundations but stirre up your selves and by all unwearied paines resolve to clear and ballance your accounts for eternity especially making your calling sure and your evidence sound concerning the truth of conversion and regeneration This will be the strongest hold under Christ's protection in the time of temptation to retire unto and to preserve and releive your hearts and hopes when Satan shall beat you out of all other Forts and outworkes of defence and confidence cause you to retreat to your main-guard of conversion evidence To this end call to mind the birth day of grace wherein you suffered the pangs and throws of the new birth and recount the experiences of Gods first love to you and your first love to Christ How discernable was your change when God turned you from dismal darkness to his marvellous light and raised you from the jawes of death and hell unto the joyes of heaven and salvation when he comforted you in your despair and anointed you with joy and gladness in the time of your sorrow and mourning when your imprisoned and confined hearts were enlarged and the Devil bound up from torturing holding you captive under his tyrannical and malilicious power when the day of light and understanding dawned in your hearts and the glorious Sun of righteousness arose with healing to your wounds and health to your souls But take heed of satisfying your selves with this that you have been converted to the Lord but for the strengthening of your confidence in him and clearing your interest in his love bring forth of the treasury of your hearts things new as well as old for the more testimonies the stronger evidence anst the surer comfort Therefore trace the foot-steps of Christ's spiritual and powerful dispensations towards your souls in the process and continued course of mercy and his preventing assisting and supporting grace and reveiw the pillars and monuments you have set up in your hearts for remembrance of special kindness and remarkable
such fruitful seasons Nevertheless lift up the hands that hang down the feeble knees up and be doing the worke of the Lord shall prosper in your hands gird up the loynes of your minds and so run that ye may attain being swift to hear not slothful in business fervent in spirit continuing instant in prayer that God would fulfill in you all the good pleaof his goodness and the work of faith with power Fifthly That ye may better redeem the present time of grace and mercy exercise your hope with all sobriety in the use of temporal comforts and enjoyments Take heed of surfeiting your selves with the sweetness of creature delights lest your hearts should say it is good to be here and you sit down ready to take your lot on this side of heaven But be sober and hope unto the end for the grace and salvation that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.13 Ye that are the children of the day watch and be sober and with Paul whose example is imitable in this case labour to beat down your bodies and to bring them into subjection that ye be not cast away 1 Cor. 9.21 It is better to starve lust then by pampering the body to make provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Therefore study contentment in a mean condition in this world having but food and rayment to supply the bare necessities of this present life A little will serve for your passage though all the world should not content you for your portion because ye are heirs of precious promises and of a rich and glorious inheritance whereof ye shall shortly take possession in the life that is to come and in the enjoyment of God himself in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Wherefore if by Christ the world be crucifyed unto you and you unto the world and ye overcome the world by the victory of faith live above the vanity and emptiness of fading and withering comforts and look not at the fashion of the world which passeth away but use the world as if ye used it not because all these things perish in the using dye in the hand and the beauty thereof corrupteth and vanisheth while your eyes are set upon them And let your moderation be known to all men in respect of your care and contention for the things of this life for the Lord is at hand who if you cast your burthens upon him will sustaine you for he careth for you Content your selves to live at his allowance in your minority and think not hardship unsutable to your present state whereas if you were full ye might forget the Lord and less mind your home and your Fathers house But if the Lord hath enlarged your present estate upon earth content not your selves in being rich unless you are rich towards God and deny your selves in what is in your power to use and possess that ye may doe good in your generation and lay up for your selves a good foundation against the time to come Direct VI. Sixthly For the maintaining of a holy sobriety of spirit act faith upon eternal promises and the unseen glory of heaven Nothing doth more support and bear up the hearts of the Saints then to live by faith and to look over the pale of time to the things which are eternal This will make afflictions light suffering easie the world contemptible and the hardest labour and work for Christ and the Gospel comfortable While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 While faith feedeth upon the promises of life and glory and eyeth the great reward of happiness and perfection the soul fainteth not under its burden neither is discouraged at the greatest difficulties in the way of its hopes but becometh more lively and undaunted in contending with opposition that it may break through and passe to the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Yea how fully is the soul satisfyed in beholding the incomprehensible riches of eternity that when it is taken up with the thoughts and meditations thereof it is ready to forget that it is still in the body as being transported above the sphear of sensitive objects This made David cease to envy the prosperity of the wicked when his heart was raised to a sight of God in the Sanctuary which so ravished his soul that he brake out into that expression Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee And this will ween your affections desires from earthly contentments did ye often by faith visit your heavenly mansions and keep your thoughts upon Christ and his preparations for you which the eye hath not seen nor the ear heard neither hath the heart conceived and yet not beyond the reach of faith as it is the evidence of things not seen Seventhly and lastly Labour after a complying heart with the will of God under every dispensation of providence towards you in this earthly tabernacle Be willing to live or dye to doe or suffer following every call of God whose infinite wisdom disposeth of your conditions and whose gracious power is present to assist and streng then Acknowledge the Lord in all your wayes and he shall direct your paths and commit your way to him and he shall give you the desire of your hearts Take heed of self-will and sinful will in opposition to the will of Christ but lye prostrate at his feet with a holy and an humble resignation of your selves to his will and pleasure And let nothing move or terrifie you neither count your lives dear unto you that ye may finish your course with joy Be contented with any condition which the Lord shall allot unto you in your present pilgrimage and travails homeward and let the consideration of your approaching ascension unto Christ in the highest heavens sweeten every bitter cup which providence shall put into your hands lighten every burden which God shall lay upon you knowing that your sufferings are only temporal but your joyes will be eternal and that ye have all your evil here but your good things are to come O forget not that your treasure is in heaven and where your treasure is there let your hearts be also that for the joy that is set before you ye may endure every cross and despise the shame of all your sufferings for Christ counting the sufferings of this present life not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in you when ye shall depart hence unâ—o Christ which is far better Not only better then the present straights troubles tribulations and afflictions which attend the Gospel the profession of Christ and the state of Grace but better then the best and most honourable and comfortable condition which the Saints of God have ever enjoyed or can expect to partake of while the foundations of the earth remain Which I shall only add by way of motive to what hath been said by way of counsel that to depart and be with Christ is far better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in comparison with the three degrees o excellency attainable in this earthly state First it is better then life and all the comforts of life which the world can afford in pleasure profit or honour For all these things are short and uncertain and at least but created delights and creature enjoyments which Saint John describeth by the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life 1 John 2.15 And laboureth to take off our affections from them by an argument drawn from the love of God And if the loving kindness of God to his people here be better then life it self Psal 63.3 How much more the fulness of his love communicated without measure in the life that is eternal Secondly it is better then all the service which the Saints can doe for God and Christ in their most perfect obedience here below Yea though we could say with Saint Paul to us to live is Christ yet to dye and be with Christ were gain and far better and though in keeping of his commandements there be great reward and the godly have great peace therein yet their happiness hereafter shall be the crown of their holiness here and their reward with Christ shall exceed all their labour and worke for him Lastly It is better then the most uninterrupted fellowship the Saints are capable of with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ in their nearest and most spiritual approaches in the purest ordinances or most heavenly meditations and that by how much the immediate and glorious presence of Christ God himself in heaven surpasseth the clearest discovery manifestations of God to his chosen and precious faithful people upon earth Therefore leâ— all the Sons of God wait with joy for the day of their ascension when they shall depart unto Christ who is ascended far above all things that he might fill all things And that your hearts may be filled with joy and that ye faint not implore his spiritual presence with his love-sick Spouse Cant. 2. last Vntill the day break and the shaddowes flee away turne my Beloved and be thou like a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountaines of Bether FINIS