these miseries yea in every prayer what do we else but confess them and lament them and groan for help and for deliverance And yet shall we fear our day of freedom and be loth that death should bring us news that our prayers are heard and our groans have reached up to heaven and that the bonds of flesh and sin shall be dissolved and we shall have need to watch and strive and fear and complain and sigh and weep no more Shall the face of death discourage us from desiring such a bessed day When we have so full assurance that at last this enemy also shall be destroyed The Lord heal and pardon the Hypocrisie of our complaints together with the unbelief and cowardliness of our souls Do we speak so much and hear so much and seem to do so much against sin and yet had we rather keep it still then be stript of it together with the rags of our mortality and yet had we rather dwell with sin in tempting troubling corruptible flesh then lay them by and dwell with Christ O Lord how lamentably have we lost our wisdom and drowned our minds in flesh and folly by forsaking thee our light and life How come our reasonable souls to be so bewitched as after all our convictions complaints and prayers to be still more willing of our sickness then of the remedy and more afraid of this bitter Cup then of the poyson that lodgeth in our bowels which it would expell and that after all the labour we have usâ—d we had yet rather dwell with our greatest enemy then by a less to be transmitted to our dearest friend and had rather continue in a troublesome weary restless life then by the sleep of death to pass to Rest And this sin in others also is our trouble though not so much as in our selves It maketh those our bitter enemies whose good we most desire and endeavour and causeth the unthankfull world to requite us with malicious usage for telling them the ungratefull truth and seeking their salvation it makes our friends to be but half-friends and some of them too like our enemies It puts a sting into the sweetest friendship and mixeth smart with all our pleasures It worketh us grief from precious mercies and abateth the comfort of our near Relations So that our smart by the pricks is often greater then our pleasure in the sweetness of the Rose No friend is so smoothed and squared to the temper and interest of another but that some in equality and unevenness doth remain which makes the closure to be less near and stedfast Even family relations are usually so imperfectly jointed and cemented that when the winds of tryal are any thing high they shake the frame and though they are but low they find an entrance and cause such a coldness of affections as is contrary to the nature and duty of the relations Either a contrariety of opinions or of natural temperature and humours or else of the dispositions of the mind Sometime cross interests and sometime passions and cross words do cause such discontents and sowrness such frowns or jealousies or distances that our nearest friends are but as sackloth on our skins and as a shoo too strait for us or as a garment that is unmeet which pinch and trouble us in their use and those that should be to us as the Apple of our eyes are as the dust or smoak to them that vex or blind them And the more we Love them the more it greiveth us to be crossed in our love There is scarce any friend so wise so good so suitable to us or so near that we can alwayes please And the displeasure of a friend is as gravell in our shoos or as Nettles in our bed oft-times more grievous then the malice of an enemy There is no such doing as this in heaven because there is no such guest as sin We shall love each other far more then we do here and yet that Love shall never be inordinate nor in the least divert our love from God but every Saint and Angel in the Society shall be loved with most chaste and pure affections in a perfect subordination to the love of God and so as that God himself in them shall be the chiefest object of that love It is there that our friends being freed from all their imperfections do neither tempt us to a carnal Love nor have any thing in them to discourage the love that is spirituall and pure We have here our passionate friends our self-conceited friends our unkind unthankfull selfish friends our mutable and unfaithfull friends our contentious friends that are like to enemies and who have used us more hardly then our friends But when we come to God we shall have friends that are like God that are wholly good and are participatively turned into Love and haveing left behind them all that was unclean and noysome and troublesome to themselves they have also cast off all that could be troublesome to us Our love will be there without suspicions without interruptions unkindnesses and discontents without disappointments frustrations and dissatisfactions For God himself will fully satisfie us and we shall love his goodness and glory in his Saints as well as immediately in himself Our friends are now lost at the turning of a straw the change of their interest their company their opinions the slanders of back-biters and mis-representations of malicious men can cool their Love and kill their friendship But Heaven is a place of constant Love The Love of Saints as all things else is there eternal And yet it declineâ—h not with age It is a world of Love that we are hasting to It is a life of love that we must there live and a work of love and perfect love that we must be there employed in for ever If here we have a pure a dear a faithful friend that is without false-heartedness and deceit that loveth us as his own soul how quickly is he snatcht away by death and leaves us melted into tears and mourning over his earthly relicts and looking upward with grieved hearts as the Disciples did after their ascending Lord Acts 1. 9 10 11. We are left almost as lifeless by such friends as the body is left by the departed soul We have nothing but grief to tell us that we live and that our souls are not departed with them we are left in greater lamentation then if we had never known a faithfull friend And alas how quickly are they gone when once God sees them ripe for heaven when Droans and Dullards live much longer If we see a Saint that 's clear of judgement and low in humility and naked-hearted in sincerity and that abounds in love to God and man that 's faithfull and constant to their friend and is above the pride and vanities of this world and doth converse by a life of faith above and is usefull and exemplary in their generation alas how soon are they
of death as it is said of the world 1. John 5.4 5. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith who is he that overcometh but he that believeth c. For greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 The believing Soul foreseeing the day when Death shall be swallowed up in Victory may sing beforehand the triumphing song O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy Victory 1 Cor. 15.54 55. For this cause we faint not though our outward man perish our inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction though it reach to death which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternall weight of glory while we look not at the things that are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporall and therefore not worthy to be looked at but the things that are not seen are eternal and therefore more prevalent with a believing Soul then either the enticing pleasures of sin for a season or the light and short afflictions or the death that standeth in our way 2 Cor. 5.16 17 18. Heb. 11.24 25 26. 2. A second Antidote against the Enmity of Death that is given us at the time of our Conversion is The Pardon of our sins and Justification of our persons by the blood and merits of Jesus Christ When once we are forgiven we are out of the reach of the greatest terror being saved from the second death Though we must feel the killing stroke we are delivered from the damning stroke Yea more then so it shall save us by dâ—stroying us It shall let us into the glorious presence of our Lord by taking us from the presence of our mortal friends It shall help us into Eternity by cutting off our Time For in the hour that we were justified and made the Adopted sâ—ns of God we were also made the Heirs of Heaven even Coheirs with Christ and shall be glorified with him when we have suffered with him Rom. 8.17 As Death was promoting the Life of the world when it was killing the Lord of Life himself So is it hastening the deliverance of believers when it seems to be undoing them No wonder if Death be that mans terror that must be conveyed by it into Hell or that imagineth that he shall perish as the beast But to him that knows it will be his passage into Rest and that Angels shall convey his Soul to Christ what an Antidote is there ready for his faith to use against the enmity and excess of fears Hence faith proceedeth in its triumph 1 Cor. 15.56 57. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Let him inordinately fear death that is loth to be with Christ or that is yet the heir of death eternall Let him fear that is yet in the bondage of his sin and in the power of the prince of darkness and is not by Justification delivered from the curse But joy and holy triumph are more seemly for the Justified 3. A third Antidote against the Enmity of death is the Holiness of the soul By this the Power of sin is mortified and therefore the fears of death cannot actuate and use it as in others they may do By this the Interest of the flesh is cast aside as nothing and the flesh it self is crucified with Christ and therefore the destruction of the flesh will seem the more tolerable and the fears of it will be a less temptation to the Soul By this we are already crucified to the world and the world to us and therefore we can more easily leave the world We now live by another Life then we did before being dead in our selves our life is hid with Christ in God and being crucified with Christ we now so Live as that it is not we but Christ Liveth in us the life which we Live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God that hath loved us Gal. 2.20 The things that made this life too dear to us are now as it were annihilated to us and when we see they are Nothing they can do nothing with us Sanctification also maketh us so weary of sin as being our hated enemy that we are the more willing to die that it may die that causeth us to die And especially the Holy Ghost which we then receive is in us a Divine and heavenly Nature and so inclineth us to God and Heaven This Nature principally consisteth in the superlative Love of God And Love carryeth out the soul to the beloved As the Nature of a prisoner in a dungeon carryeth him to desire Liberty and light so the Nature of a holy Soul in flesh inclineth it to desire to be with Christ As Love maketh husband and wife and dearest friends to think the time long while they are asunder so doth the Love of the Soul to God How fain would the holy loving Soul behold the pleased face of God and be glorified in the beholding of his glory and live under the fullest influences of his Love This is our conquest over the Enmity of death As strong as Death is Love is stronger Eccles 8.6 7. Love is strong as death the coales thereof are coales of fire a most vehement flame which will not by the terrible face of death be hindered from ascending up to God Many waters cannot quench Love neither can the floods drown it if a man would give all the substance of his house for Love that is to bribe it and divert it from its object it would utterly be contemned If the Love of David could carry Jonathan to hazzard his life and deny a Kingdom for him and the Love of David to Absalom made him wish that he had dyed for him and the Love of friends yea lustfull love hath carryed many to cast away their lives no wonder if the Love of God in his Saints prevail against the fear of death The power of holy Love made Moses say Else let my name be blotted out of the book of life And it made Paul say that he could wish that he were accursed from Christ for his brethren and kindred according to the flesh Rom. 9.3 And doubtless he felt the fire burning in his breast when he broke out into that triumphant challenge Rom. 8.35 36. to the end Who shall separate us from the love of God Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written For thy sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as Sheep to the slaughter Nay in all this we are more then Conquerours through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to
for that great destruction of the universal deluge Should men live now but to the age of three hundred or four hundred years I fear it would so tempt them to overvalue the world and so embolden them to delay repentance that one would be as Wolf to another and the weak but be a prey to the strong and wickedness would overwhelm the world despising the reins and bearing down Religious and civil opposition But when we stand over the grave and see our friends laid in the dust how mortified do we seem how do we even shake the head at the folly of ambitious and covetous worldlings and are ashamed to think of fleshly lusts So far are men from owning their vanities when that silent teacher standeth by It is Death that helps to humble the proud and abate the arroganâ—y and obstinacy of the wicked and make them regard the messengers of Christ that bâ—fore despised them and their message It is death that allayeth the ebullition of distracting thoughts and passions and helpeth to bring men to themselves and fixeth giddy discomposed minds and helps to settle the light and the unsettled and to restrain the worst As we are beholden to the Gallows for our purses and our lives so are we to the grave and hell for much of the order that is in the world and our peace and freedom procured thereby But it is a greater good that it procureth to believers If you ask How is all this to be ascribed to Christ I answer many wayes 1. It is he that hath now the Keyes or power of death and hell even he that liveth and was dead and that liveth for evermore Rev. 1.18 and therefore is to be feared by the world 2. It is he that hath by his Blood Covenant brought us the Hope of everlasting life which is it that gives the efficacy to death Without this men would be but desperate and think that it is better have a little pleasure then none at all and so would give up themselves to sin and desperately gratifie their flesh by all the wickedness they could devise 3. And it is Christ that teacheth men the right use of death by his holy doctrine having brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel 4. And it is Christ that sendeth forth the holy Spirit which only doth so illuminate the mind and quicken and dispose the heart that Death may be savingly improved The poyson is our own but it is his skill and love that hath made a Soveraign antidote of it And let our bodies die so our sin may die If the foresight of Death destroy our sin and further our sanctification and the hour of death doth end our fears and enter us into the state of glory though we will love death as death never the better for this much less the sin that caused it yet must we admire the love of our Redeemer And it is not only the Peril but also the Terrors of Death that we are in part delivered from Though Christ himself was in a bloody sweat in his agony before his death and cryed out on the Cross My God why hast thou forsaken me because he bore the sins of the world yet death is welcome to many of his followers that drink of his cup and are baptized with his baptism For they taste not of these dregs which he drunk up and they are strengthened by his supporting grace He that doth comfort them against sin and Hell doth also comfort them against Death So great is the glory that he hath promised them and so great is his comforting confirming grace that dreadfull â—eath is not great enough to prevail against them As it was too weak to conquer Christ so is it too weak to conquer his Spirit in his peoples souls Without Christ we could not live and we durst not die but through him we can do and suffer all things and can boldly pass through this dark and shady vale of death yea we can desire to depart and to be with Christ as best fâ—r us for to Live is Christ and to die is gain Phil. 1.21 23. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we hâ—ve a building of God an house not made with hâ—nds eternal in the heavens And therefore sometimes we can earnestly groan dâ—siring to be clothed upâ—n with our house which is from heaven And we are alwayes confident knowing that whilest 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 and therefore labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him For we walk by faith and not by sight and it is God that hath wrought us for the self same thing who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5.1 to 10. Though we long not to die yet we long to see the face of God And though we lay down our bodâ—â—s with natural unwillingness yet we lay down our sin and sorrows with gladness and spiritual delight And though our hearts are ready to faint as Peters when he walked to Christ upon the waters yet Christ puts forth his hand of love and soon recovereth us from our fear and danger Melancholly and impatience may make men weary of their lives and rush upon death with a false conceit that it will end their sorrows But this is not to conquer death but to be conquered by a lesser evil and it is not an effect of fortitude but of an imbecillity impotency of mind And if a Brutus a Cato or a Seneca be his own Executioner thâ—â— do but choose a lesser evil in their conceits even a death which they accounted honourable before a more ignominious death or a life of shame and scorn and misery But the true believer is raised above the fears of death by the love of God and the hopes of Glory and Death though ungratefull in it self is welcome to him as the way to his felicity Leâ— Tyrants and Souldiers take it for their glory that they can take away mens liver that is they have the power of a Serpent or of Rats-bane as if it were their honour to be their Countreys pestilence and a Ruler and a Dose of poyson were things of equal strength and use But it is the Glory of Christ to enable hâ—s Disciples to conquer Death bear the fury of the most cruel persecutors The Martyrs have been more joyfull in their sufferings then the Judges that condemned them in their Pomp and glory When we are pressed above strength and despair of life and have the sentence of death in our selves we are then taught to trust in the living God that raiseth the dead 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. The Saints by faith have been tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection they have had tryall of cruel mockings scourgings yea moreover of bonds
know not whether I have part in Christ or no Answered to satisfie the doubts and further the assurance of the trâ—ubled Christian p. 173 Use 9. What a mercy the Resurrection of Christ was to the world and how we should use it to strengthen our faith p. 199 The Lords day honourable p. 201 Use 10. How earnestly we should pray for the second coming of Christ though Death be terrible p. 207 SOME imitable passages of the Life of Elizabeth late Wife of Mr. Joseph Baker whose Funerals occasioned this discourse p. 225 ERRATA 1 Cor. 15.26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death DEATH is the occasion of this dayes meeting and Death must be the Subject of our present meditations I must speak of that which will shortly silence me and you must hear of that which speedily will stop your eares and we must spend this hour on that which waits to cut our thred and take down our glass and end our time and tell us we have spent our last But as it hath now done good by doing hurt so are we co consider of the accidental benefits as well as of the natural evil from which the heavenly wisdom doth extract them Death hath now bereaved a Body of its Soul but thereby it hath sent that Soul to Christ where it hath now experience how good it is to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 It hath separated a faithful wife from a beloved husband but it hath sent her to a husband dearlyer beloved and taught her now by experience to say that to be with Christ is best of all Phil 1.23 It hath deprived a sorrowful husband of a wife and deprived us all of a faithful friend but it hath thereby brought us to the house of mourning which is better for us then the house of feasting a Paradox to the flesh but an undoubted truth for hâ—re we may see the end of all men and we that are yet living may lay it to our hearts Eccl. 7.2 3. Yea it hath brough us to the house of God and occasioned this serious address unto his Holiness that we may be instructed by his Word as we are warned by his works and that we may be wise to understand and to consider our latter end Deut. 32.29 It s like you 'l think that to tell men of the evil or enmity of Death is as needless a â—iscourse as any could be chosen For who is there that is not naturally too sensible of this and who doth not dread the name or at least the face of Death But there is accidentally a greater evil in it then that which nature teacheth men to fear And while it is the King of terrors to the world the most are ignorant of the greatâ—st hurt that it doth them or can do them or at least it is but little thought on which hath made me think it a needfull work to tell you yet of much more evil in that which you abhor as the greatest evil But so as withall to magnifie our Redeemer that overshooteth death in its own bow and causeth it when it hits the mark to miss it and that causeth health by loathsome medicines and by the dung of our bodily corruption manureth his Church to the greater felicity Such excellent skil of our wise Physician we find exprest and exercised in this Chapter where an unhappy error against the Resurrection hath happily occasioned an excellent discouâ—se on that weighty Subject which may stablish many a thousand souls and serve to shame and destroy such heresies â—ill the Resurrection come and prove it self The great Argument which the Apostle most insisteth on to prove the Resurrection is Christs own Resurrection where he entereth into a comparison between Christ and Adam shewing that as Adam first brought death upon himself and then upon his posterity so Christ that was made a quickening spirit did first Rise himself as the first-fruits and thâ—n at his coming will raise his own And as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive And this Christ will do as our victorious King and the Captain of our salvation who when he hath subdued every enemy will then deliver up the Kingdom to the Father And the last enemy which he will subdue is Death and therefore our Resurrection is his final conquest The terms of the Text have no difficulty in them The Dâ—ctrinâ— which they express must be thus unfolded 1. I must shew you that Death is an Enemy and what is meant by this Expression and wherein its Enemy doth consist 2. I shall shew you that it is an Enemy to be dâ—stroyed though lâ—st and how and by what degrees it is destroyed And then we shall make application of it to your further Instruction and Edification 1. That you may know what is meant by an Enâ—my here you must observe that man being fallen into sin and misery and Christ having undertaken the work of our Redemption the Scripture oft speaketh of our misery and recovery Metaphorically in military terms And so Satan is said to take us captive and we to be his slaves and Christ to be the Captain of our Salvation and to redeem us from our bondage And thus our sin and misery and all that hindereth the blessed Ends of his undertaking are called Enemies Death therefore is called an Enemy to be destrâ—yed that is a penal evil to be removed by the Redeemer in order to our recovery and the glory of his grace 1. It is an Evil. 2. A punishment procured by our sin and executed by Gods Justice 3. It is an evil that hindereth our felicity These three things are included in the Enmity That Death is an Enemy to Nature is a thing that all understand but all consider not how it is an Enemy to our Souls to the exercise of grace and consequently to the attainment of glory I shall therefore having first spoken briefly of the former insist a little longer upon the latter 1. How great an Enemy Death is unto Nature doth easily appear in that 1. It is the Dissolution of the Man It maketh a Man to become No man by separating the Soul from the Body and dissolving the Body into its principles It puls down in a moment a curious frame that Nature was long building and tenderly cherishing and preserving The mother long nourisheth it in her bowels and painfully brings it forth and carefully brings it up what labour doth it cost our Parents and our selves to make provision for this Life And death in a moment cuts it off How carefull are we to keep in these lamps and to maintain the oyl and Death extinguisheth thâ—m at a blast How noble a creature doth it destroy To day our parts are all in order and busie about their several tasks our Hearts are moving our Lungs are breathing our Stomacks are digesting our Blood and Spirits by assimilation making more and to morrow death takes off the
to love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 and to look for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2.13 The Spirit and the Bride say Come Come Lord Jesus Come quickly is the voice of faith and hope and love Rev. 22.17 20. But I find not that his servants are thus Characterized by their desires to die It is therefore the presence of their Lord that they desire But it is Death that they abhor And therefore though they can submit to death it is the coming of Christ that they Love and long for and it is interposing death that causeth them to draw back Let not Christians be discouraged by mistakes and think that they love not God and glory because they love not this enemy in the way nor think that they are graceless or unbelieving worldlings because they are afraid of death as death But perhaps you will say that if grace prevail not against the fears of death then fear is predominant and we are not sincerâ— To which I answer that you must distinguish between such a prevailing as maintaineth our sincerity and such a prevailing as also procureth our fortitude and joy If grace prevail not to keep us upright in a holy life renouncing the world and crucifying the flesh and devoting our selves entirely to God though the fear of death would draw us from it then it is a sign that we are not sincere But if grace do this much and yet prevail not against all fears and unwillingness to die but leave us under uncomfortable hideous thoughts of death this proves us not to be unsound For the soul may savingly love God that is afraid of death And he may truly love the End that fears this dark and diâ—mall way Yet must there be so much to prove our uprightness as that in our deliberate choice we will rather voluntarily pass through death either naturall or violent then lose the happiness beyond it Though we love not death yet we love God and heaven so well that we will submit to it And though we fear it and abhor it yet not so much as we fear and abhor the loss of heaven Let not poor Christians therefore wrong themselves and deny the graces of the Spirit as if they had more mind of earth then heaven and of things temporal then of things eternal because they are afraid to die All suffering is grievous and not joyous to our nature Paul himself desired not to be unclothed but clothed upon with our house which is from heaven that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.2 4. it â—eing better to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Even Christ himself had a will that desired that the Cup might have passed from him if it had been agreeable to his Fathers will and the ends of his undertaken Office Mathew 26.41 42. Raise therefore no unjust conclusions from these natural fears nor from the imperfection of our conquest but praise him that relieveth us and abateth the enmity of death and furnisheth us with his Antidotes and will destroy this enemy at last SECT VIII Vse 6. FRom the Enmity of Death we may further learn to study and magnifie the victorious grace of our Redeemer which overcometh the enemy and turneth our hurt into our benefit and maketh death a door of life Though death be the enemy that seemeth to conquer us and to destroy and utterly undo us yet being conquered it self by Christ it is used by him to our great advantage and sanctified to be a very great help to our salvation The suffering of Christ himself was in the hour of his enemies and the power of darkness Luke 22.53 which seemed to have prevailed against him when yet it was but a destroying of death by death and the purchasing of life and salvation for the world So also in our death though sin and Satan seem to conquer it is they that are conquered and not we who are supervictors through him that hath loved us Rom. 8.37 They destroy themselves when they seem to have destroyed us As the Serpent bruised but the heel of Christ who bruised his head so doth he bruise but our heel who in that conflict and by the means of his own execution through the strength of Christ do bruise his head Gen. 3.15 And this is upshot of all his enmity against the womans holy seed Though Death was unsuitable to innocent man and is still a natural enemy to us all yet unto sinners it is an evil that is suitable and fit to destroy the greater evil that did cause it and to prevent the everlasting evil The fore-knowledge of our certain death is a very great help to keep us humble and disgrace all the seducing pleasures of the flesh and all the profits and honours of the world and so to enervate all temptations It is a singular help to quicken a stupid careless sinner and to waken men to prepare for the life to come and to excite them to seek first the Kingdom of God and to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure to consider seeing all these things must be dissolved what manner of persons they ought to be in all holy conversation godliness looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.11 12. When we drop asleep the remembrance of death may quickly awake us when we grow slack it is our spur to put us on to mend our pace Who is so mad as wilfully to sin with Death in his eye or who so dead as with death in hâ—s eye to refuse to live a godly life if he have any spiritual light and feeling Experience teâ—leth us that when health and folly cause us to promise our selves long life and think that death is a great way off it lamentably cools our zeal and strentheneth our temptations and duls our souls to holy operations and the approach of death puâ—s life into all our apprehensions and affections It is a wonderfull hard thing to maintain our lively apprehensions and strâ—ng affections and tenderness of conscience and self-denyal and easie contempt of earthly things when we put far from us the day of death We see what a stir men make for the profits and honours of this world and how fast they hold their fleshly pleasures while they are in health and how contemptuously they speak of all and bitterly complain of the vanity and vexation when they come to die And if our lives and the world be brought hereby into such disorders when men live so short a time on earth what monsters of ambition and covetousness and luxury would men be if they lived as long as before the flood even to eight hundred or nine hundred years of age Doubtless long life was so great a temptation then to man in his corrupted state that it is no wonder if his wickedness was great upon â—he earth and if it prepared
and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword Heb. 11.35 36 37. Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15.57 They overcome by the blood of the Lamb and love not their lives unto the death Rev. 12.11 They fear not them that kill the body and after thâ—t have no more that they can do Luke 12.4 They trust upon his promise that haâ—h said I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeem them from death O death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction Hos 13.14 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Psal 116.15 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14.13 SECT IX Vse 7. MOreover from the Enmity of Death we may be directed which way to bend our cares and seeing where our difficulty most lieth we may see which way our most diligent preparations must be turned Death cannot be prevented but the malignant influence of it on our souls may be much abated If you let it work without an Antidote it will make you live like unbelieving worldlings It will deter your hearts from heaven and dull your love to God himself and make your meditations of him and of your Everlasting Rest to be seldom and ungratefull to you And it will make you say It s good to be here and have sweeter thoughts of this present life then of your inheritance It will rob you of much of your heavenly delights and fill you with slavish fears of death and subject you unto bondage all your lives and make you die with agony and horror so that your lives and deaths will be dishonourable to your holy faith and to your Lord. If it were meerly our own suffering by fears and horrors or meerly our loss of spiritual delights the matter were great but not so great But it is more then this For when our joyes are overwhelmed with the fears of death and turned into sorrows our love to God will be abated and we shall deny him the thanks and cheerfull praises which should be much of the employment of our lives and we shall be much discomposed and unfitted for his service and shall much dishonour him in the world and shall strengthen our temptations to the overvaluing of earthly things Think it not therefore a small or an indifferent matter to fortifie your souls against these malignant fears of death Make this your daily care and work your peace your safety your innocency and usefulness and the honour of God do much lie on it And it is a work of such exceeding difficulty that it requireth the best of your skill and diligence and when all is done it must be the illuminating quickning beams of grace and the shining face of the Eternal Love that must do the work though yet your diligence is necessary to attend the spirit and use the means in subserviency to grace and in expectation of these celestiall rayes And above all take heed lest you should think that carnal mirth or meer security and casting away the thoughts of death will serve to overcome these fears or that it is enough that you resolve against them For it is your safety that must be lookt to as well as your present ease and peace and fear must be so overcome as that a greater misery may not follow Presumption and security will be of very short continuance To die without fear and pass into endless desperation which fear should have wakened you to prevent is no desirable kind of dying And besides resolving against the Terrors of death will not prevent them When Death draws neer it will amaze you in despight of all your resolutions if you are not furnished with a better Antidote The more jocund you have been in carnal mirth and the more you have presumptuously slighted death its likely your horror will be the greater when it comes And therefore see that you make a wise and safe preparation and that you groundedly and methodically cure these fears and not securely cast them away Though I have given you to this end some Directions in other writings in the Saints Rest and in the Treatise of Self-denyal and that of Crucifying the world yet I shall add here these following helps which faithfully observed and practised will much promote your victory over death which conquereth all the strength of flesh and glory of this world DIRECTION I. IF you would overcome the danger and the fears of Death Make sure of your Conversion that it is sound and see that you be absolutely devoted unto God without reserves Should you be deceived in your foundations your life and hopes and joyes would all be delusory things Till sin be mortified and your souls reconciled to God in Christ you are still in danger of worse then death and it is but the senslesness of your dead condition that keepeth you from the terrors of damnation But if you are sure that you are quickâ—ed by renewing grace and possessed by the sanctifying spirit and made partakers of the Divine nature you have then the earnest of your inheritance Eph. 1.14 2 Cor. 1.22 5.5 and the fire is kindled in your breast that in despight of Death will mount you up to God DIRECTION II. TO Conquer the Enmity of Death you must live by faith in Jesus Christ as men that are emptied of themselves and ransomed from his hands that had the power of death and as men that are redeemed from the curse and are now made heirs of the grace of life being made his members who is â—he Lord of life even the second Adam who is a quickning spirit The serious believing study of his design and office to destroy sin and death and to bring many sons to glory and also of his voluntary suffering and his obedience to the death of the Cross may raise us above the fears of death When we live by faith as branches of this blessed Vine are righteous with his righteousness justified by his blood and merits sanctified by his Word and Spirit and find that we are united to him we may then be sure that death cannot conquer us nothing can take us out of his hands For our life being hid with Christ in God we know that we shall live because he liveth Col. 3.3 John 14.19 and that when Christ who is our life appeareth we shall also appear with him in glory Col. 3.4 And that he will change our vile bodies and make them like to his glorious body by his mighty power by which he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3.20 21. In our own strenâ—th we dare not stand the charge of death and with it the charge of the Law and of our Consciences How dreadfully should we then
be foiled and non-plust if we must be found in no other righteousness but what we have received from the first Adam and have wrought by the strength received from him But being gathered under the wings of Christ as the chickens under the wings of the hen Mat. 23.37 and being found then in him having the righteousness which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith we may boldly answer to all that can be charged on us to our terrour If we know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings and are made conformallâ— to his death Phil. 3.9 10. if â—e are dead with him to the world and risen with him to a holy life if we have believingly traced him in his sufferings and conquest and perceive by faith how we participate in his victories we shall then be able to grapple with the hands of death and though we know the grave must be for a while the prison of our flesh we can by faith foresee the opening of our prison doors and the loosing of our bonds and the day of our last and full Redemption It strengtheneth us exceedingly to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God When we consider what he endured against himself we shall not be weary nor faint in our minds Heb. 12.2 3. DIRECTION III. LIve also by faith on the Heavenly Glâ—ry As one eye of faith must be on an humbled crucified Christ so must the other be on heaven on a glorified Christ and on the glory and everlasting Love of God which we shall there enâ—oy This is it that conquereth the fears of death when we believe that we shall pass through it into everlasting life If a man for health will take the most ungratefull potion the bitterness being short and the benefit long and if he will suffer the Surgeon to let out his blood and in case of necessity to out off a member how light should we make of death that have the assured hopes of glory to encourage us what door so streight that we would not pass through if we could to our dearest friend What way so â—owl that we would not travail to our beloved home And shall death seem intolerable to us that letteth in our souls to Christ Well might Paul say To die is gain Phil. 1.21 When we gain deliverance from all those sins that did here beset us and all those sorrows that sin had bred We gain the accomplishment of our desires and the end of our faith the salvatiâ—n of our souls We gain the Crown that fadeth not away a place before the Throne of Christ in the Temple of God in the City of God the New Jerusalem to eat of the hidden Manna and of the Tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2. 3. We gain the place prepared for us by Christ in his Fathers house John 14.1 2. For we shall be with him where he is that we may behold his glory John 17.24 We shall gain the sight of the glory of God and the feeling of his most precious love and the fulness of joy that is in his presence and the everlasting pleasures at his right hand Psal 16.11 And shall we think much to die for such a gain we will put off our cloaths and welcome sleep which is the Image of death that our bodies may have rest and refuse not thus to die every night that we may rise more refreshed for our employments in the morning And shall we stick at the uncloathing of our souls in order to their everlasting Rest Set but the eye of faith to the Prospective of the promise and take a serious frequent view of the promised Land and this if any thing will make death more welcome then Physick to the sick then uncloathing to a beggar that puts on new or better cloaths Shall a poor man cheerfully ply his labour all day in hope of a little wages at night and shall not a believer cheerfully yieâ—d to death in hope of everlasting glory so far as heaven is foundly beâ—ieved and our conversations and hearts are there the fears of Death will be asswaged and nothing else will well asswage them DIRECTION IV. MOreover if you will conquer the enmity of death do all that you can to encrease and exercise the love of God in you For love will so incline you to the blessed object of it that Death will not be able to keep down the flame Were God set as a seal upon our hearts we should find that Love is as strong as death and the coals thereof are coals of fire â—nd the flame is vehement many waters cannot quench it nor can the flâ—ods drown it Cant. 8.6 7. If carnal Love have made the amorous to choose death that they might passionately express it especially when they have heard of the death of their beloved and if naturall fortitude and love to their Countrey have made many valient men though Heathens to contemn death and readily lay down their lives and if the love of fame and vain glory in a surviving name have caused many to die through pride how much more will the powerfull love of God put on the soul to leave this flesh and pass through death that we may see his face and fully enjoy the object of our love So much as you love God so much will you be above the terrors of the grave and pass through death for the enjoyment of your beloved Perfâ—ct Love casteth out fear and hâ—â—hâ—t feareth is not made perfect in lâ—ve in death and judgement we shall have boldness if our love be perfect 1 John 4.17 18. This makeeth the Martyrs cheerfully lay down their lives for Christ and love is glad of so precious an opportunity for its exercise and manifestation Love is a restless working thing that will give you no rest till your desires are attained and you be with God Nothing is so valiant as Love It rejoyceth when it meeteth with difficulties which it may encounter for the sake of our beloved It contemneth dangers It glorieth in sufferings Though it be humble and layeth by all thoughts of merit yet it rejoyceth in sufferings for Christ and glorieth in the Cross and in the participation of his sufferings and in the honourable wounds and scars which we receive for him that died for us DIRECTION V. TO overcome the terrors and enmity of death it is necessary that we keep the Conscience clear from the guilt of wilfull sin and of impenitency If it may be see that you wound it not If you have wounded it presently seek a cure and live not in a wounded state The face of death will waken conscience and cause it to speak much lowder then it did in health and in
prosperity And then sin will seem another thing and wrath more terrible then it did in your security Conscience will do much to make your burden light or heavy If Conscience groundedly speak peace and all be sound and well at home death will be less terrible the heart being fortified against its enmity But to have a pained body and a pained soul a dying body and a scorched Conscience that is afraid of everlasting death this is a terrible case indeed Speedily therefore get rid of sin and get your Consciences throughly cleansed by sound repentance and the blood of Christ For so much sin as you bring to your death-bed so much bitterness will there be in death Away then with that sin that Conscience tells you of and touch the forbidden fruit 〈◊〉 more and kindle not the sparâ—s of Hell in your souls to make the sting of death more venemous As it will quiet a believing soul through Chrâ—st when he can say with Hezekiah Isa 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and it will be our rejoycing if we have the testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1.12 So will it be most terrible to die in the fears of unpardoned sin and to have Conscience scourging us with the remembrance of our folly when God is afflicting us and we have need of a well composed mind to bear the troubles of our flâ—sh A little from without is grievous when any thing is amiss within Get home therefore to Christ without delay and cease not till you have peace in him that death may find your consciences whole DIRECTION VI. REdeeming time is another means to prevent the hurtfull fears of death When we foreknow that it will shortly end our time let us make the best of time while we have it And then when we find that our work is done and that we did not loyter nor lose the time that God vouchsafed us the end of it will be less grievous to us A man that studieth his duty and spareth for no cost or pains and is as loath to lose an hours time as a covetous man is to lose an hundred pound will look back on his life and look before him to his death with greater peace and less perplexity then another man But the thoughts of death must needs be terrible to a man that hath trifled away his life and been an unthrift of his time To think when you must die that now you are at your last day or hour and withall to think how many hours you vainly lost and that you knew not the worth of time till it was gone will make death more bitter then now you can imagine What else is Death but the ending of our Time and what can be more necessary to a comfortable end then faithfully to use it while we have it DIRECTION VII ANother help against the Enmity of Death is the Crucifying of the flesh with its affections and lusts and the conquest of the world by the life of faith and crucifying it by the Cross of Christ and dying daily by the patient suffering of the Cross our selves When we are loose from all things under the Sun and there is nothing that entangleth our affections on earth a great part of the difficulty is then removed But death will tear the heart that is glued to any thing in this world Possess therefore as if you possessed not and rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world doth pass away I Cor. 7.29 30 31. It is much for the sake of our flesh that must perish that death doth seem so bitter to us If therefore we can throughly sudue the flesh and live above its pleasure and desires we shall the more esily bear its dissolution Shut up your senses then a little more and let your hearts grow stranger to this world and if you have known any persons relations accomodations after the flesh from henceforth know them so no more How terrible is death to an earthly-minded man that had neglected his soul for a treasure here which must then be dissipated in a moment How easie is death to a heavenly-mind that is throughly weaned from this world and taketh it but for his pilgrimage or passage unto life and hath made it the business of his dayes to lay up for himself a treasure in heaven He that hath unfeignedly made heaven his end in the course of his life will most readily pass to it on the hardest terms For every man is willing to attain his end DIRECTION VIII IT will much help us against the Enmity of death to be duly conformed to the Image of God in the hatred of sin and love of holiness and in special in the point of Justice When we hate sin throughly and find it so incorporated into our flesh that they must live and die together it will make death the more easie to us because it will be the death of sin even of that sin which we most hate and that God hateth and that hath cost us so dear as it hath done When we are in love with holiness and know that we shall never be perfect in it till after death it will make death the more welcome as the passage to our desired life When the Justice even the castigatory and vindictive Justice of God is more amiable in our eyes and we are not blinded by self-love to judge of God and of his wayes according to the interest of our flesh we shall then consent to his dissolving stroke and see that the bitterness of death proceedeth from that which is good in God though from that which is evil in our selves Doubtless as Justice is one of the blessed Attributes of God so should it be amiable to man there being nothing in God but what is lovely It is the prevalency of self-love that makes men so insensible of the excellency of Divine Justice while they speak so respectfully of his mercy So far as men are carnall and selfish they cannot love that by which they smart or of which they are in danger But the soul that is got above it self and is united unto God in Christ and hath that Image of God which containeth the impress and effect of all his Attributes hath such an habit of impartial justice in himself and such a hatred of sin and such a desire that the honour of God should be vindicateed and maintained and such an approbation of the Justice of God that he can the more easily consent or submit to the dissolving stroke of death He hateth his own sin and loatheth himself for all his abominations and is possessed with that Justice that provoketh him to self-revenge in an ordinate sort and therefore doth love and honour
Mortality as it signifyeth a posse mori a natural capacity of dying was naturall to us in our innocency or else Death could not be threatened as a penalty And if I grant as much of a naturall disposition in the Body to a dissolution if not prevented by a Glorifying change it will no whit advantage their impious cause But withall man was then so far Immortall as that he had a posse non mori a naturall capacity of not dying and the morietur vel non morietur the actuall event of Life or Death was laid by the Lord of Life and Death upon his obedience or disobedience And man having sinned Justice must be done and so we came under a non posse non mori an impossibility of escaping death ordinarily because of the peremptory sentence of our Judge But the day of our deliverance is at hand when we shall attain a non posse mori a certain consummate Immortality when the last Enemy Death shall be destroyed And how that is done I shall next enquire SECT II. YOU have seen the ugly face of Death you are next to see a little of the Love of our great Redeemer You have heard what sin hath done you are next to hear what Grace hath done and what it will do You have seen the strength of the Enemy you are now to take notice of the victory of the Redeemer and see how he conquereth all this strength 1. The Beginning of the conquest is in this world 2. The perfection will not be till the day of Resurrection when this Last Enemy shall be destroyed 1. Meritoriously Death is conquered by Death The Death of sinners by the Mediators Death Not that he intended in his Meritorious work to save us from the stroke of death by a prevention but to deliver us from it after by a Resurrection For since by man came death by man also came the Resurrection from the dead I Cor. 15.21 Forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himsâ—lf likewise took part with them that he might destroy him through death that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage Heb. 2.14 15. Satan as Gods Executioner and as the prosperous tempter is said to have had the power of death The fears of this dreadfull Executioner are a continuall bondage which we are lyable to through all our lives till we perceive the deliverance Which the Death of the Lord of Life hath purchased us 1. By Death Christ hath satisfied the Justice that was armed by sin against us 2. By Death he hath shewed us that Death is a tolerable Evil and to be yielded to in hope of following life 2. Actually he conquered Death by his Resurrection This was the day of Grace's triumph This day he shewed to Heaven to Hell and to Earth that Death was conquerable yea that his personal Death was actually overcome The blessed souls beheld it to their Joy beholding in the Resurrection of their Head a virtual resurrection of their own Bodies The Devils saw it and therefore saw that they had no hopes of holding the Bodies of the Saints in the power of the grave The damned souls were acquainted with it and therefore knew that their sinfull bodies must be restored to bear their part in suffering The Believing Saints on earth perceive it and therefore see that their bonds are broken and that to the righteous there is hope in death and that our Head being actually risen assureth us that we shall also Rise For if we believe that Jesus dyed and Rose again even so them also which steep in Jesus will God bring with him 1 Thes 4.14 And as Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him So shall we Rise and die no more This was the beginning of the Churches Triumph This is the day that the Lord hath made even the day which the Church on Earth must celebrate with joy and praise till the day of our Resurrection We will be glad and rejoyce therein Psam 118.24 The Resurrection of our Lord hath 1. Assured us of the consummation of his satisfaction 2. Of the truth of all his Word and so of his promises of our Resurrection 3. That Death is actually conquered and a Resurrection possible 4. That believers shall certainly Rise when their Head and Saviour is Risen to prepare them an everlasting Kingdom and to assure them that thus he will Raise them at the last A bare promise would not have been so strong a help to faith as the actual Rising of Christ as a pledge of the performance But now Christ is Risen and become the first fruits of them that sleep 1. Cor. 15.20 For because he Liveth we shall live also John 14.19 3. The next degree of destruction to this Enemy was by the gift of his Justifying and Sanctifying grace Four special benefits were then bestowed on us which are Antidotes against the Enmity of Death 1. One is the gift of Saving Faith by which we look beyond the grave as far as to eternity And this doth most powerfully disable Death to terrifie and discourage us and raiseth us above our Natural fears and sheweth us though but in a glass the exceeding eternal weight of glory which churlish Death shall help us to So that when the eye of the unbâ—liever looketh no further then the grave believing souls can enter into Heaven and see their glorified Lord and thence fetch Love and Hope and Joy notwithstanding the terrors of interposing death The eye of Faith foreseeth the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time and causeth us therein greatly to rejoyce though now for a season if need be we are in heaviness through manifold temptations And so vicâ—orious is this Faith against all the storms that do assault us that the tryal of it though with fire doth but discover that it is much more precious then Gold that perisheth and it shall be found unto praise and hoour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having never seen in the flesh we Love and though now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with unspeakable glorious joy 1 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8 9. and shall shortly receive the end of our Faith the salvation of our souls Thus Faith though it destroy not Death it self destroyeth the malignity and enmity of death while it seeth the things that are beyond it and the time when death shall be destroyed and the Life where death shall be no more Faith is like Davids three mighty men that brake through the host of the Philistines to fetch him the waters of Bethlehem for which he longed 2 Sam. 23.15 16. When the thirsty soul saith 0 that one would give me drink of the waters of Salvation Faith breaks through death which standeth in the way and fetcheth these living waters to the soul We may say