an heavy sense of divine vengeance and fill us with such unspeakable horror shame tortures of mind and regret as will render our condition there infinitely sad and dismal Matt. 24.51 represented in Scripture under the direful expressions of Weeping and gnashing of Teeth Mar. 9.48 the stings of a never dying Worm and a burning in unquenchable fire 2. But I pass on to a second thing observable in the words of the Text where from the time when they that dye in the Lord are said to be blessed it may be observed that they who dye in Christ do immediately after their departure out of this life enter upon a blessed state 't is not said they that dye in the Lord shall be blessed but they are blessed or blessed are they and 't is not said they are blessed hereafter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from henceforth from the time of their departure and so forward for ever And their works that is the joyful sense and reward of their good works do follow or rather accompany with them All which expressions methinks do shew that holy separate souls do immediately upon their separation from the body enter upon a blessed state Hence Christ tells the penitent Thief that that day he should be with him in Paradise Luk. 23.43 Because that day he was to dye in Christ and the Apostle makes no middle state betwixt the dissolving our Earthly House of this Tabernacle and an having a building of God 2 Cor. 5.1 an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens nor betwixt departing hence and being with Christ Phil. 1.23 But immediately upon the finishing of this course says that henceforth is laid up for him a crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. But what should hinder any that dye in Christ from being immediately blessed not the guilt of sin for that we are told is so done away upon our unfeigned Repentance that it shall not be so much as once mentioned Ezek. 33.16 Not the habits and customs of Sin for the same time that God forgives Joh. 1.9 he cleanses also from all unrighteousness Acts 15.9 and the grace of faith which God gives to all that are saved Hebr. 9.14 is said to purifie the heart and Christs blood is said 1 Joh. 1.7 to purge the Conscience from dead works and to cleanse us from all sin And therefore there needs no purging by an I know not what Purgatory fire But is it satisfaction for sin which the soul must yield by suffering certain pains after it is out of the body that hinders it from an immediate entrance upon a blissful state That cannot be for Jesus Christ hath in his own person made a sufficient and compleat satisfaction to Gods justice for our sins insomuch that he is in an eminent manner said to be 2 Joh. 2.2 The propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world He hath paid the full price of our Redemption by suffering the value of that in our stead which we should have suffered to all Eternity And upon this account we that are in Christ Rom. 3.24 are said to be justifyed freely through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ and if freely then there is no satisfaction to be yielded by our sufferings 1 Tim. 2.6 Heb. 9.12 For Christ hath given himself a ransom and obtained an Eternal Redemption for us by his own blood or sufferings So then if none of these things can hinder holy souls from an immediate entrance upon a blessed state after death then nothing else can But though from this very Text much more might be said of this matter yet lest I should turn a Funeral Sermon into a Polemical Discourse I shall crave leave to say no more of it here but shall now proceed to the last thing observable about the the nature of that bliss which they that dye in Christ shall immediately be partakers of And from hence we may observe Thirdly That the blessed state of those that dye in the Lord consists in their being freed from the labours and evils which in this life they underwent and in enjoying the good things which God hath promised and declared are and shall be the reward of all the good works they have done Now in the handling of this observation I shall give a brief account 1. Of the evils and labours Holy Souls rest â—â—â—n 2. Of the good they enjoy 1. As for the evils and labours which pious souls rest from after their death they are such as these following 1. They are freed from the burthen of sin and rest from all those fears and horrors which sin in this life is often the occasion of good men are grievously troubled here for offending God in any thing and under this grief and trouble they a long while labour till being by Death translated to that blessed condition wherein they are no longer in danger of sinning and then they happily rest from these sad labours 2. They are freed from the grief and trouble of seeing others sin which like righteous Lot they are grievously vexed with here 2 Pet. 2.7 8. Revel 21.27 For no sumer or wicked person can breath in those Regions to which the souls of those that dye in the Lord are by death immediately transplanted 3. They are freed from the labours and toils of their Callings and Employments in which all persons in this world are in some degree or other continually and necessarily engaged 4. They are freed from all bodily infirmities pains and distempers under which many persons groan a long time in this world without relief these no longer trouble the pious soul in its separate state because it 's then freed from the Body by its strict union with which it only became capable of being so affected 5. They are freed from all those crosses and afflictions that cruelly perplex the mind here because after death they are out of that imperfect condition where such things only are afflicting 6. They are freed from all Satans temptations and from all his cruel injections with which pious souls are much disquieted in this life For there is a great Gulph fixed betwixt Satan and the Spirits of just men made perfect Luke 16.26 which keeps that infernal Spirit from being able to molest any in those blissful habitations where holy separate souls are 7. Lastly They are freed from all fears despondencies and doubts about the love and favour of God which create great labours and troubles of mind in this imperfect state 1 John 3.2 for they shall see God as he is and consequently be perfectly sensible of his love and favour And thus all those tears of grief which in the body pious souls laboured under Rev 7.17 shall be wiped away from them in their separate state And so I pass on from the labours and evils pious souls rest from at death
he commands them and continue in his word calling them his Friends and Disciples indeed Secondly And having thus briefly shew'd who 't is that dye in the Lord I come next to shew what rational grounds we have to be perswaded that such are blessed after their death and they are these following 1. It should be considered that all the promises and declarations of bliss recorded in Scripture are made to such as so live and dye Acts 3.19 for we read The Sins of those that Repent shall be blotted out Psal 32.1 or forgiven And blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven and whose sin is covered Matt. 5.8 Mar. 16.16 1 Pet. 1. v. 3 4. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God They that believe and are baptized shall be saved That is as the Apostle speaks are begotten to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for them who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation All these places of Scripture to which many more might be added sufficiently shew that there is for certain an happiness provided for those that dye in Christ who are therefore said to be blessed and saved so that they may with the Apostle say 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2. Consider we next that the fervent desires of pious souls after a future happiness do prove there is one for them Pious souls nauseate all those shadows of felicity that are here offer'd to them and are soon cloy'd with the fulsomness of these worldly enjoyments but in the mean time 2 Cor. 5.3 4 5. they thirst after and groan for something more satisfactory So the Apostle Rom. 8.23 Phil. 1.23 desires to depart and be with Christ which in his esteem is far better than to be here And what do these desires of pious souls after a future happiness declare else but that really there is one For God who is so wise as to make nothing in vain is also so good as not to plant desires in the hearts of his faithful servants after a future happiness without providing for them suitable objects for their satisfaction 3. It should also be considered That the dignity of the soul is such that 't is very unreasonable to imagine there should be no other happiness fitted for pious souls than what consists in these temporal enjoyments The soul of man is of a Divine original a spiritual substance Gen. 2.7 the breath of God breathed into the nostrils of man 't is that which makes a very notable difference betwixt Man and all other earthly Creatures upon which account 't is that Elihu says Job 34.11 God hath taught Man more than the Beasts of the field and made him wiser than the Fowls of the Heaven that is hath put him in an higher station than they Now since the dignity of the humane soul is so high above all earthly Creatures next in order to the blessed Angels Who can with any reason think it should be placed in so high and noble a rank of Creatures and yet have no other happiness than what it enjoys in the body in common with Bruits an happiness that consists only in sensitive satisfactions which is as much below the soul to take pleasure in as sense is below reason or as Bruits are inferior to Men. And if there be another happiness fitted for rational souls than what in the body they enjoy in common with Bruits this happiness must be had in a future state for 't is evident by matter of fact it is not and hath not been so much as pretended to be perfectly enjoyed here So that then if we think it reasonable to allow Man a dignity above a Bruit 't is but reasonable to allow him also a felicity suitable to that dignity and if we allow the rational soul a felicity suitable to its high nature above that of Bruits we must allow a time and season for pious souls to enjoy it in a more perfect manner than here they can and what does this else but lead us to the owning of a future Bliss for holy souls 4. But lastly if pious souls survive the body as no doubt they do otherwise they that dye in the Lord cannot be pronounced blessed nor can their works be said to accompany with or follow them and if they do survive the body they must needs be in an happy state for they will not meet with any of those evils in their separate state which grieve and trouble them here no spiritual evils will afflict them there Ephes 1. for their sins being pardoned and quite done away by Jesus Christ all those evils that are the fruits and consequences of sin will be done away also and no corporeal evils can vex separate souls for they have no bodies or external senses that can be affected with joys or griefs till the Resurrection from the dead And as pious souls that died in Christ can meet with nothing in their separate state to afflict and grieve them so they must needs have enough and abundance to delight rejoyce and make them happy for they carry with them a joyful sense of the good they have done the very reflexion on which even in this disturb'd life affords unspeakable satisfaction and pleasure to the mind and therefore much more in a separate state Besides there is no question to be made but holy souls in their separate state will have a clearer knowledge of God and a fuller sense of divine love and favour than here they had for there they will see God face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 and know even as they are known And this cannot but afford them rivers of pleasures and raptures of joys and all without interruption because they will have neither guilt nor external senses to divert them So then now 't is to be hoped we see and are perswaded that good men don't perish vanish into the soft air and so are lost in the dark abyss of non-existence when they dye but the nobler and better part of them their Immortal souls live in bliss and peace which as it should comfort us against the fears of Death so it should perswade us to make it our business to fit and qualifie our selves for the participation of this future bliss by living so piously and holily and parting so entirely with every sin which is the main thing that debars our souls from this felicity as that when we come to dye we may truly dye in the Lord and then blessed are we But if we do not live so as to dye in the Lord we cannot be blessed in our separate state but rather must be eternally miserable for we shall carry that guilt with us thither and those vile unmortified affections and inclinations which will draw upon us
which is but the negative part of their bliss to consider the positive part of it viz. the good they enjoy and here we shall find that 1. They enjoy a ravishing sense of Divine love and favour an enjoyment saith the Psalmist Psal 63.3 better than life 1. They enjoy a sweet calm and peace in their own breasts which is indeed but a necessary result from the former enjoyment for he that is in God's love and favour and is at peace with him cannot but have a sweet peace and calm in his own mind 3. They are filled with a joyful sense of the good works which through Grace they have been enabled to do for they will reflect with infinite satisfaction upon the vertuous and pious actions of their lives the sense of which even in this world fills the soul with some glimpses of ravishing joy and therefore will be likely much more to do so in the next where they see and know things more clearly than here they can 4. They enjoy also that peculiar reward which God hath promised to all that love and fear him and keep his Commandments which is shadowed forth to us in Scripture under divers parabolical expressions John 14.2 call'd mansions in our heavenly fathers house Jam. 1.12 a crown of life which the Lord hath promised to those that love him Heb. 11.26 Matth. 25.21 the recompence of the reward the joy of our Lord and to mention no more 't is called by the Apostle the Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 which upon the finishing of his course he was sure was laid up for him and not for him only but for all them also that love Christ's appearing These are in brief the good things which are immediately enjoyed by those that dye in the Lord besides that exceeding eternal weight of glory which when soul and body are united at the general resurrection of the dead they will be partakers of For though they who dye in the Lord immediately enter upon a blessed condition as soon as their souls are separated from their bodies yet they are not then compleatly happy only they enjoy so much bliss as in a separate state they are capable of which though imperfect will be infinitely satisfactory But the perfect consummation of all bliss both in soul and body will be entered upon at the resurrection only and so be enjoyed thenceforward for ever 1 Pet. 5.4 For when the chief Shepherd shall appear viz. to judge the world then shall we receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away that is an eternal perfection of all bliss in both natures Thus then blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works do follow them And now having done with the Subject matter of the Text I have hereby made way for what I have further to say on the Subject of this sad occasion Where because what hath been said concerning that future blessedness which they immediately enter upon that dye in the Lord affords matter enough of comfort to alleviate our griefs for the decease of any of our Friends that so dye I shall therefore take an occasion to consider and represent that only in this noble Lord deceased which may as well provoke us to follow his steps as tend to the comforting of us and moderating our sorrows under so great a loss A loss of such a nature and so considerable to all sorts of persons as well publick as private that if we will but look a little into it we shall quickly see how great a need his Relations his Neighbours yea and the three Kingdomes have of something to keep their sorrow upon this account within due bounds for the admirable endowments of mind with which this Excellent Person was above his Fellows blest and by which he became every way publickly useful and the care and excellent courses he took to employ his honours places of trust interest and endowments for the honour of God and the good of his Majesty and these Kingdomes were things he was so eminent for that they all seem to conspire together to make his death a much lamented loss to all his Survivers So publick a spirited man was he that all those abilities and opportunities of doing good which God and the King vouchsafed him were always carefully employed by him for the publick weal of Church and State in doing which every one knows he was so faithful and industrious that as his sacred Majesty was far enough from repenting of the trust and honour he had bestowed on him so we may have reason to believe the great Majesty of Heaven and Earth to whom all the world must bow and obey did not repent of the gifts and abilities his Divine Goodness had conferred on him For that infirmity of Body which he so long laboured under though it deprived him at last of the free use of most of his limbs yet it did not take away from him the use of his head and hands by which he had been and was to the death eminently serviceable in the world Neither did the Divine Providence let him fall into any of those crimes that might justly have occasioned his rejection nor did it permit his reputation so much to suffer under the black mouth'd Obloquy of malicious tongues as to occasion his removal from all capacities and opportunities of doing good But through the good hand and Providence of God he was to the last kept firm in the sincere profession and practice of all Christian Duties and loyal Principles and consequently was preserved in an unfeigned repute in the World and that notwithstanding the attempts were made by his enemies to fully his innocence with those black crimes which nothing but his own integrity and Parts could wipe off before the severest and highest Tribunal of the three Kingdoms the Parliament of England These things may make us think God did not repent of the gifts and abilities he was pleased to bestow on him only now our sins and the sins of these Kingdoms may possibly have done us the prejudice to provoke the Divine Majesty to remove him from us as not deserving any longer so useful a Person among us and that too at the very nick of time when there is most need of such men who by their prayers and counsels and by their interest with God and men may be fit to stand in the Gap as he did So that now indeed we may see what reason we have with the most brinish tears to lament our loss in his decease and our sins as the main cause of it And now also we may apprehend the necessity of having something to set bounds to and alleviate our just sorrows And here as there was enough in him to provoke us to a just grief for the loss of so excellent and useful a Person so we shall find enough in him also that being considered with a respect to what is contained