even by such as are not the Children and lovers of the truth Let us veiw them briefly and in order Point 1. Death is common to the righteous and the wicked and both of them have their latter end There be two branches of this proposition Death common to good and bad and both branches are implyed fairly Balaam being an unrighteous man a Diviner and Enchanter sees and acknowledges he must dye and have a latter end or an after part else no ground for his wishing so to die as or that his latter end might be like that of the righteous and it is clearly implyed and taken for granted by him that the righteous hath his death and his latter end or after part Both have them therefore though it is implyed that they are not the same to both nor indeed the one like to the other for if they were there was no ground for wishing or desiring a likeness of them This is common to both they shall dye and they shall come to an end or after part that 's the substance of the first point or proposition the inequality and unlikeness between them belongs to the second Consider we first the former in both Branches and so first That they must both dye Death is common to all men Bran. 1. Good and bad must dye yea it is the way of all flesh and the Grave the house appointed for all living Josh 23.14 Job 30.25 The way of all the earth we see saith the Psalmist wise men dye likewise the fool and the brutish man perish Psal 49.10 Abraham is dead and the Prophets are dead and so be the Apostles and all generally that have been before us and now are not except Enoch and Elias one of which was translated and the other taken alive into heaven but all else generally have dyed and all that come after us shall dye in like manner except those believers that shall survive to the coming of the Lord Jesus who shall not dye as others so as to sleep or rest in death as the Apostle witnesses saying Behold I shew you a mysterie we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last Trump for the Trump shall sound and the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed so also 1 Thess 4.16 17. though in the change shall be something exceeding suddainly answering to Death and Resurrection in a moment but for all others they do and must look to dye that is to have their breath and spirit taken from them their Souls and Bodies separated each from other and that necessarily as in 1 Sam. 14.14 Reasons why Dâ—â—th iâ— commoâ— Reâ— we must needs all dye and we are as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again neither doth God respect any persons c. For righteous and wicked be both men partakers of the same humane nature one as other and this Death we now speak of the bodily Death which the proposition is intended of is that that pertains to men as they are partakers of the nature of man and that neither the righteous put off by being righteous though they partake also of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 2.4 Nor the wicked by his being wicked though he therein become also of the wicked one 1 Joh. 3.12 Righteousness and wickedness make a difference of the state of men toward God and of the frame of heart and the way of conversation and life but makes not an alteration of the common nature or humanity so as to cause it to cease in either party It is appointed to men once to dye Heb. 9.27 to men namely in the capacity and consideration of men not to the righteous only nor to the wicked only as such but to men and that also because Reas 2 Both righteous and wicked sinned against God in the first man for by one man sin entred into the world and Death by sin and so death passed over all men because all sinned Rom. 5.12 and that was the Original cause of Death the wages oâ— sin is death Rom. 6.23 now not only they that â—â—w are wicked and ungodly sinned in Adam but all men eveâ—â—ich also as are now made and become righteous in and by Jesus Christ for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Heb. 2. â—â— Rom. 3.23 where all is expressed none is excluded from it The Prophet putting in himself with all his Brethren saith We all like sheep have gone astray we have turned every man to his own way Isa 53.6 And the Apostle If we say we have not sinned we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us 1 Joh. 1.10 And because of this sin Reas 3 Both those that are righteous and those that are wicked were condemned to dye the judgment that passed upon Adam in the day he sinned passed upon him not only as a single particular person but also as the root of all Mankind and their inclusive Father in whose loyns seminally all were and so when it was said to him Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return death in and by vertue of that Sentence was denounced and passed upon all men Gen. 2.17 with 3.18 Rom. 5.12 16. only by special favour and prerogative through Christ God exempted one or two as instances of immortallity and of such a change as in which he will exempt those that are alive at Christs appearing in the faith of him as we said before This is included in what the Apostle speaks of when he saith The judgment was of one offence to condemnation and through the offence of one judgment came upon all to condemnation Rom. 5.16.18 in which it was appointed of God to men once to dye whereupon Reas 4 Man all men generally is become flesh Flesh and blood infirm weak like other earthly creatures even like the bruit beasts that perish as is said Psal 49.12 Man in honour abideth not he is like the Beasts that perish in respect of the frailty and diseasedness of his body and outward man and lyableness to be penetrated pierced wounded killed dye of hunger thirst cold or the like whence that of Solomon Eccles 3.18.19.20 I said in my heart concerning the state of the sons of men that God might manifest them or that they might clear God and see that they themselves are beasts For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them As the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath their breath in all of them is in their nostrils now so that a man hath no preheminence that is in respect of the temper of his body and its mortality and lyableness to death above a beast for all is vanity Both man and beast of a vanishing momentany continuance in this life all go unto one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again For all flesh is
grass as well that of men as that of beasts or birds or fishes and all the goodliness of man is as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bleweth upon it that is his anger whence the Sentence of Death proceeded surely the people is grass Isa 40.6 7. Now then in as much as the righteous as men are flesh as well as the wicked they are also both subject and lyable to death True it is that Christ hath died for all Reason 5 and given himself a ransom for all to ransom and redeem all from under that sentence of death and condemnation deserved by us and due to us but that was not to this end that the bodily death should not come upon us or any of us but to redeem us from under the state of obligation upon the account of that our sin and fall to eternal death or a perishing from Gods presence and also from being left under the power and tyranny of Satan and his absolute dispose of us and doing his will with us upon the account aforesaid that we might be under the hand power and dispose of a man even of the Lord Jesus Christ who died rose and revived that he might be Lord Ruler and Disposer of both quick and dead and that we might being under him be in a possibility and capacity of salvation and so in coming to him at his Heavenly Call and yielding up our selves to him to hope in his grace and to obey and follow him we might receive forgiveness of our sins and be justified and acquitted of all things from which we could not be acquitted by the Law of Moses and consequently no other way and so that we might by him be brought back again to God and be made partakers of eternal life And that he having power as Lord and Judge over all men even over those also that obey not his Calls or believe not in him might raise and judge them according to his good pleasure Of which further by and by Now these being the ends of Christs dying for men his death is no hinderance to dying men For God pronounced the sentence of Death upon men after the interposure of the Mediator as appears Gen. 3.15.18 He first provided and promised that the Seed of the Woman should bruise the head of the Serpent and then afterward notwithstanding that sentenced both the man and the woman and in them all of us to die and return to dust out of which we were taken Now that sentence that was pronounced after the promise of Christs coming and dying for us is not letted and prevented by his dying onely as the promise of Christ to die laid a foundation of our hoping in him to have this Death abolished so as that we might not be hurt of it or kept out from obtaining and receiving the blessing of God by it so accordingly his actual dying was the bringing forth that foundation and ground of hope in him into act that we might die in hope also of that better life that he hath promised us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Reason 6 Nor doth the justifying the Believer through the faith of Christ or the giving him divine life in his Spirit making him alive to God hinder the bodily death as experience shews The body is still dead or under Death because of sin though the Spirit be life for righteousness sake Rom. 8.10 The justification received in believing on Christ being but as to his state toward God to the freeing him from his wrath and from lyableness to the eternal Death in the second Judgement that shall be in the end of the world the wrath to come and to the admitting him into fellowship with him and with the Saints and Holy Ones in his Spirit and inward man as to his being accepted and accounted as righteous with God in Christ and an Heir of the Promises of God here and hereafter but it exempts not from the bearing the sentence of the bodily Death through which he also must pass as well as Christ Reasons of Gods ordering Death to the Righteous that he may enter into glory with and through him Yea there be divers reasons why God orders that his people shall lye under the Sentence of Death though righteous and pass in their due times through it As to say 1. To shew that he is the Lord and disposes of his creature as he pleases And seeing he hath in his great and infinite wisdom and by his righteous will pleased so to order it that both the righteous and sinners shall submit to that Sentence we being the clay and he as the Potter over us it s meet that we be all silent before him and subject to him practising obedience even in so suffering 2. That we might have the thought and remembrance of it as a spur to stir us up and provoke us to many excellent and profitable duties and exercises As for instance 1. To seek him more earnestly and apply our hearts to wisdom in the knowledge of him in Christ Jesus seeing our times for that are not always Whence that Prayer Psalm 90.11 Teach us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom 2. To quicken us to serve him in our generations in doing good knowing that our time is but short to be plying our business for glorifying him here and laying up for our selves a good foundation against the time to come That we might do what our hand findes to do with all diligence because in the Grave whither we go there is no work no praising God c. Eccles 9.10 Psalm 115.17 3. To make us alwayes more watchful and fearful to offend God seeing our time is limited here and is in his hand and if we take liberty to wander from him we may in the mean while be taked hence and so it may go ill with us To this purpose are those sayings of our Savior Watch for you know not what hour your Lord comes Math. 24.42 44. Luke 21.34.36 4. To exercise Faith in the truth power and faithfulness of God in Christ for the bringing us to glory notwithstanding Death and Grave John 11.25 26 40. 2 Cor. 4.13 14 15 16. 1 Thes 4.14 15. 1 Cor. 15.2 3 4 12.58 5. To comfort us and perswade us to patience under our sufferings here and make us the willinger to chuse to under go them rather than to sin agaiast him and turn from him Seeing Death will come and put an end to them and give us as it were a discharge from them all we may the better hold out to the end because it will not be long to it this life being but a vapor that appears a little while and then vanishes Jam. 4 13 14. The Apostlâ—s thus comforted themselves in their sufferings partly in the consideration of the momentaniness of them they being but the sufferings of this present time which Death will finish
groan under it and seek to God through Christ for his further increase of grace in it and conformity to God and his will thereby and in sight of aberrations and swarvings from the ways of God and his grace to seek diligently for pardon and healing in the blood of Jesus and that the heart and soul may be turned in to Gods testimonies waiting upon God in his word and ordinances and so cleansing the heart and washing the hands in innocency not approving themselves in any wickedness and way of iniquity Prov. 28.13 1. Joh. 1.7 8 9. and 2 1 2. Psal 119.59 60. and 73.13 2 Cor. 7.1 And they that so believe in Christ and walk after the Spirit of God are indeed upright men and righteous ones and such as Balaam wisht he might be like in his Death and latter end 2. What is meant by the Death of the Righteous here A proper Death of the righteous 1. There is a Death of the righteous that is so properly their Death as it is not common to any else with them and its a Death properly of their soul too and possibly Balaam might mean here of that though if he did he took nor the course to obtain it but only rested in the desire and wish of it and that is a Death unto sin and self and world through the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ of which the Apostle speakes in 1. Pet. 2. 24. Mentioning it as 1. A Death unto sin as we translate or read it Christ himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin may live to righteousness Wicked men are dead in sin Eph. 2 1 5. and the righteous die to sin Thence in Rom. 6.2 How shall wee that are dead to sin live any longer therein And reckon your selves dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord ver 11. And this is effected by the discoveries of the grace of God in Christ towards the soul and the abundance of the grace brought unto it in him causing the soul so to love God and like the injoyment of his love and favour and so the ways leading to it and in which it is to be perfected and maintained as therefore to abandon and hate every false way every way of iniquity and sin either as to judgment or conversation as in Psal 119.104 and 97. 10 11. so as to be as dead to the allurements and inticements thereof and lively apt and ready to the Lord and his service and so to every good way and work for his sake 2. A Death to self as ceasing through the same grace discerned to have or look to have its rejoycing from its self its hope confidence or spiritual life in and from its own fleshly excellencies or priviledges that iâ—sometime in the state of ignorance of Christ it hath finding the life of its owne hand as is said Isa 57.10 This is that the Apostle saith Gal. 2.29.20 I through the Law am dead to the Law that I might live to God I am crucifyed with Christ yet I live yet not I but Christ that liveth in me c. And Philip. 3.3 We rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh When for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the soul parts with and yeilds up that confidence and rejoycing it had in its owne works frames righteousness after the Law or in any thing of the flesh as seeing an emptiness and insufficiency therein and lives upon Christ and the fulness in him And herein is a Death to the Law also 3. A Death to the world when through the perception of the same grace and hope of glory and reception of the same it is taken off from having its glorying or rejoycing in the Worlds injoyments love favour fellowship friendship riches honours approbation principles and rudiments as also from all indeavours with purpose of heart thereafter contenting it self with the approbation love and fellowship of God in Christ and with his care provision and protection being as a crucified thing or person to the world through the cross Gal. 6.14 1 Cor. 15. 31. And this Death in each of these branches is a desireable Death though not to the flesh and carnal minde yet to the illuminated understanding as Balaams was or might be at this time when he saw the visions of the Almighty and had his eyes open 〈◊〉 â—um est illud Euâ—â—â—ides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To 〈◊〉 is to dâ— and tâ— dy is to live in these things for this Death leads to a Divine and heavenly life to and in God and Christ and in the faith of his grace and love whence also the stable peace safety and satisfaction of the soul springs up it is kept in perfect peace stayd upon the Lord delighted in and satisfied with him for the great disturbances and dangers of the soul are from its love of and living to sin its love of and living in or desiring to have its life and peace and comfort in its self and in the injoyments of the world for all these things being either full of mutability and vanity in themselves as the life of a mans own hands or his fleshly self-righteousness and the things of the world or else being directly opposed by the law of God and the discoveries of wrath and curse there against as in all ways of sin the soule can there have no setledness or peace But now being dead in its affections to and dependences on such things and having the heart set upon and confiding in Christ and God in Christ it is established and fixed so as not to be moved and lives because Christ lives Joh. 14.20 Who cannot cease to live and who lives to obtain life for and maintaine life in the soul Psal 112. 6 7 8. And this living in and to the Lord here leads assuredly to the injoyment of eternal life for ever a most blessed and desirable state but yet The Death of the righteous as to the natural Death better then that of the unrighteous 2. Though this would stand well enough with the words and possibly might be in Balaams sense yet it s most usually otherwise understood and there is more certainty or probability at least that he rather desired to die as the righteous in respect of his departing hence by bodily Death and so we carryed it all along in the former pro position and cannot exclude but must include it here as being that which without peradventure Balaam and many a wicked man hath desired and yet do nor may the Hebrew word that signifies my soul let my soul die the Death of the righteous inforce us to understand it in the former sense at least not in that only for both the word Soul is diversly used in the Scripture and oftentimes is put for the person indued with a soul as when it s said Gen. 2.7 man became a
living soul it s all one as a living man or person And so it s evidently meant when it s said So many souls came out of the loines of Jacob as in Gen. 46. 15 18 22. and 12.5 Exod. 1.5 and 12 4. and many other places yea sometimes it s used to signify the body as a dead soule according to the Hebrew reading is used to signify a dead body in Levit. 19.28 Numb 5.2 and so it s rightly enough read here Let me die c. But then 3. Wherein is the death of the righteous in this sense Desirable that any wicked man should desire to die it Wherein its better negâ—lively answered Surely 1. Not as to the outside the sensible part of it as to the way of the separation of soule and body and what is sustained by them therein for the Scriptures imply that the Death of the wicked is more desirable in that respect then the Death of the righteous And therefore we find a good man envious at the wicked upon that account because they have no bands in their Death nor are in plagues as other men Psal 73.3 4. And at the best all things happen alike to all Eccles 9.12 so that it befalleth to them that feare God as to them that feare him not sometimes God gives them that feare him a quiet peaceable and easie death as he did to Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph Moses and many others And so it often befals evil men too and sometimes the one and the other die with much pain and bitterness but more often the Death of the righteous is in this respect less desirable and chusable then other men because God judging them here for their sins that they may not perish hereafter with the world Either 1. Lays his hand often more heavily upon them here filling them with paines aches yea the multitude of their bones with strong paines Job 33.16 17 18. as Lazarus Luk. 16.21 22. Yea sometimes with pestilence famine and the like as many of those that fell in the wilderness or rather those in the seige of Jerusalem in which there were some righteous judged with the wicked as is implyed Ezek. 21.3 4. Yea some Interpreters think those mentioned as fallen asleep in 1 Cor. 11.29 30. dyed of the pestilence 2. But more especially he often gives them into the hand of sinners to whip and scourge them by bodily and bloody persecutions so as they dy greivous deaths in the sight of men being put to sorrow shame reproach and manifold abuses as may be seen in the Lord himself who was taken with the wicked hands of the Jewes crucified and slain after many scornes and scourges and abusive carriages towards him so as with reproach to break his heart Psal 69.20 besides the hiding of Gods face from him and many bitter agonies in his soule for our sins sake in which God sometimes for tryal and exercise of his servants faith and patience and for correction for their sins may conform some of his servants to him as also is seen in what befel diverse of the Saints of God put to cruel sufferings by blood-thirsty men as both the Histories of the Scriptures and of the primitive times of the Churches after the Apostles testify To this purpose is what we read Heb. 11.35 36 37. Others were tortured not accepting deliverance others had tryals of cruel mockings and scourgings yea of bonds and imprisonments in which also we find by reading that many Martyrs have dyed they were slaine with the sword they wandred about in sheep-skins and goats-skins being destitute tormented and afflicted Many such persons good and upright men both in the primitive and later persecutions suffered such things they were stoned they were sawn asunder they were tempted or as some read it were burnt with hot irons some dyed in the waters some in the fire some rosted on grid-irons some pulled in pieces devoured by wild-beasts and sustained any cruelty the wit or malice of men and Devils could devise Daniel prophesied also that many such should fall that is die or be slain by the sword and by flame and by captivity and by spoile Dan. 11.33 And surely these are in themselves no desirable ways of dying nor the thing Baalam wished for or desired Men generally both good and bad desire rather if God see it good to die easier Deaths and indeed the wicked do ordinarily die as the righteous or better in this respect some of them too die by the sword some by famine some by flame some by pestilence some by the halter or gibbet c. and multitudes of them of a natural and quiet Death even as also many of the righteous do so that this could not be the meaning of Balaam nor doth the preciousness of the Death of the righteous stand therein But affirmatively 2. In that which is less visible that that appeares in the sight of God as is said Psal 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints Psal 72.14 And so as to the soul in his dying or departing this life its leaving the body and ceasing therein to reside and live and give life to it and that is it that Balaam respected Not that his body simply might die as the righteous mens bodies but that his soul might die or depart this life or body so as the righteous or upright ones And that is desireable both in respect of 1. The state of the soul and so of the person in dying or in Death 2. The advantages accrewing to them by their Death 1. The death of the righteous or the dying of their soul as it signifieth its departing this life or body is very excellent and precious in regard of their state in their death or dying For 1. They die in the Lord the Lord Jesus Christ who is Lord of all Rev. 14.13 Act. 10.36 and so they are said to die because 1. In the faith of him as it is said of the Patriaks all these dyed in the faith Heb. 11.13 and also because 2. Inclosed in and compassed about as it were with the vertues of his death sacrifice and mediation which gives infinite safety and security against what might harm and powerful title to what he hath thereby purchased and obtained 3 In his favour also beloved of him as he was of his Father as he saith himself in Job 15.9 And 4. In him as united with standing and abiding in him as a Root in the soyl Col. 2.6 7. or as a Branch in the vine Joh. 15.1 14. or as a Member in the body 2 Cor. 12.27 and so interested in the fatness of the soyl or stock the good things that are Christs and so in all the safety honour and welfare of the Head And by vertue hereof 2. They die in a state of choice and peculiar favour with God Christ in whom they are being his beloved one owned accepted and justified however otherwise accused and condemned here of men and
to glorifie him in the life and death of them And if men do oppress and afflict us till we die yet then have they no more that they can do against us in which they may afflict or trouble us Math. 10.28 Jam. 5.8 Reasons of Death in respect of the wicked As for the wickeds dying they living in their sins and wickedness and not repenting thereof they must needs die as being 1. Not justified from their sins the wages whereof is death Rom. 6.23 2. Yea they besides the sin of Adam upon the account whereof the first Death was pronounced and passes upon all by their personal sins and wickednesses oftentimes provoke God to cut them off signally insuch times and wayes as else they might not have died in For though Pharaoh Saul Haman Judas c. as men and as sinners must have dyed yet they needed not nor might haved dyed at such times and in such wayes as they did had they not been guilty of such hainous personal wickednesses as they were otherwise such their deaths should not have been punishments to them for such their sins as it is certain they were * See Psal 55 23. Yea sometimes Gods people also by some sinful wayes or acts pull upon themselves untimely and exemplary deaths God chastening them and making them examples and admonitions to others in such wayes in which he also may prevent the perishing of their souls as is evident in 1 Cor. 11.29 30. For this cause many are sick and weak and some are fallen asleep But 3. Besides God in mercy to men even such as are wicked hath ordered Death to them that the consideration of it might awake them to repentance while a day of grace is vouchsafed to them that ceasing to be wicked they might not die for ever Isa 55.7 Ezek. 33.12 4. And for the sake of the righteous and in mercy to them that they persisting in their wickedness and not turning therefrom the world might not be alwayes pestered with them nor they be alwayes a vexation and mischief to them that walk with God and fear him But that the yoke may be broken sometimes off their necks and Gods anger against his people cease in their destruction as Iâ—a 10.25 and as we have instances in the Deaths of Pharoah Haman Ahitophel Saul and divers others from whose wrath malice and mischeivous madness God gave his servants deliverance by cutting them off by Death in his due time Yea 5. For the benefit of the world too and such as yet are ignorant of and opposite to God and his truth Partly that they might be delivered from such teachers of and provokers to wickedness by their evil examples counsels compulsions and withholding from them the wayes and means of life And partly that they might by Gods exemplary judgments upon them in their deaths and destructions be awakened and made to see the evil of wickedness and the truth of Gods words and goodness of the wayes of righteousness as Psal 58.11 Psal 9 16. Seeing the wicked also shall die it may instruct us 1. Not to be afraid of the fury of the oppressor so as to turn Vse 1 aside from God to avoid that For besides that the arms of Christ do judge the people and he can by his strong arm put by the most stout hearted cruel Tyrants and oppressors from their desires and purposes of oppressing and harming his followers and can gather his Children with them and keep them safe from those that would hurt them their time also will come to die as David said of Saul in his persecuting him 1 Sam. 26.10 and then he shall cease from all power of troubling and molesting us in the day that the wickeds breath goeth out of his nostrils all his thoughts purposes or intentions for evil against us shall perish With this the Lord Jesus comforts his followers and people the Nation that knows his righteousness and have his Law in their hearts in Isa 51.7 8.12 13. Fear ye not saith he the reproach of the people neither be ye afraid of their revilings for the Moth shall eat them up like a Garment and the Worm shall eat them like wooll But my righteousness shall be for ever and my salvation to all generations And again Who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die and of the son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy maker and hast feared all the day â—ing because of the fury of the oppressor And where is the fury of the oppressor when God doth but take away his breath and life from him as he will at some time or other and may at any time when he will what becomes then of all his rage and wrath his Cruel Threatnings Bloody Laws and Decrees Unjust Oppressions or the like Surely they shall all vanish with him 2. It may instruct us also not to envy their prosperity and reprove such as so do To that purpose is that in Prov. 23.17 18. Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long Upon this account for there shall be an end namely to thy suffering from them and of their lives and power to put thee to suffering as also of their enjoying those their enjoyments for which thou art apt to envy them As it is more evident in that parallel Counsel Psal 37.1 2. Envy thou not because of evil doers for they shall soon be cut off as the Grass and wither as the green Herb c. 3. It may also admonish the wicked to cease from his wickedness and from his priding in himself in or pursuing after those things for and by which he is made wicked and hardened in his wickedness Seeing he must die and then all his glory and what he prefers before God and his ways must be at an end with him yea he also must give an account and be judged after that for all his wickedness too But that leads us to consider Bran. 2. Both have a latter end The second Branch of this point viz. That both righteous and wicked have or shall have their end We have this asserted of both in Psal 37.37 38. Mark the perfect man and consider the upright for the End of that man is Peace But transgressors shall be destroyed together the End of the wicked shall be be cut off There is the End both of the upright and of the wicked But Object it is said in 1. Joh. 2.17 That he that doth the will of God shall abide for ever How is it then that he hath an end how shall we understand it Again it is said of both righteous and wicked That these the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment and the righteous into everlasting life Math. 25.46 How then can either of them be said to have an end seeing the one is everlastingly punished and the other lives everlastingly Yea it would be an happiness
to the wicked to have an End for then he should not be everlastingly punished And a loss and exceeding dammage to the righteous to have an End for then should not he be in a state of Eternal life or Endless happiness Those sayings have reference to the state of the good and bad Ans as to the favour or displeasure of God towards them and the effects and products thereof especially in the life or world to come And so he that doth the will of God in believing the Gospel and so in Christ Jesus and obeying him and his holy Spirit in his heavenly instructions and counsels abides for ever That is is evermore in the favour of God and hath therein and therefrom a state of happiness that is not terminated by Death or ends not with this present world and the enjoyments lusts or desires thereof But even in the time and state of Death they are blessed and shall be raised up from death and shall enter into an eternal life or everlasting state of happiness with Jesus Christ And that because Jesus Christ himself the great Doer of the will of God in what he appointed him to in his incarnate state as made man for us abides for ever Though he did once die for our sins yet he is alive for evermore and lives to intercede for and help and bless those that in and through him do the will of God in an hearty believing on him and obeying his heavenly doctrine Because I live saith he ye shall live also Joh. 14.20 That is ye shall abide and enjoy the favour of God and therein live for-ever But those that are disobedient to God and Christ evil and wicked and so persist they are under the wrath of God and that abides upon them in life and death And though they also by vertue of Christs having died for them as men being risen again and his being Lord and Judge of them What meant by their latter end and all men shall be also raised again from death and grave yet it shall be to an eternal state of wrath and misery But now the End here spoken of 1. May be meant of their latter end as to this life and their being here in this world And so both the good and the bad have an end here neither of them shall be here in this world and mortal state alwayes but as to that shall have an end an Exitus or going away hence so as to be no more here seen Psal 39.13 Their place shall know them no more neither shall they either the one or the other of them return to it again Job 7.10 10.21 16.22 Neither shall the wicked live here always to sin and do mischief oppress and grieve the righteous c. Neither shall the righteous live here always to do good or to suffer evil among an untoward crooked and wicked generation And so death and the day of it is the latter end to them both and the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double expression of the same thing Or else the word rendred latter end 2. May signifie otherwise In the Hebrew it hath its derivation from a word that signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after and so may be rightly rendred after-part or after-state And indeed because the end is after the beginning and middle of a thing therefore the word is sometime translated the latter end As also because our posterity succeed and be after us and are sometimes called them that come after therefore speaking of them it is sometime rendred posterity And because the reward is after the work and usually at the end of it therefore it is sometime understood to signifie and so is rendred the reward and in any of these three senses it may be here translated either Let my end or latter end in the sense above given the end of my life or days here be like his Or else Let my posterity be like his for the seed of the righteous are in the blessing Psa 37.26 They are the blessed of the Lord their offspring with them Isa 65.23 Psal 115.14 5. and exceeding great happiness is promised to the posterity of Israel in the latter days when God will save them and they shall bud and blossom and fill the earth with increase Isa 27.5 6 7. Or else and that I rather pitch upon and think to be the sense Let my reward my after-part namely that that follows the thing last before mentioned that is my death let that that follows that or is after it be like his And so it signifies that both the wicked and the righteous have a state or part after death a state in which shall be their rewards and recompence for what they have done here in this life And that agrees well enough with the Scriptures above objected and is an evident truth Not therefore to be judged a truth upon Balaams authority because he saith it but because they were the words of God in his mouth and that which thence issued forth and because the sayings of Gods testimony every where do attest or assert it And so we may say it was a truth manifest also to Balaam though he was wicked For the Scriptures frequently tell us that 1. As there is a state of Grave after Death to the body in which that returns to the earth whence it was taken so the Spirit also hath its state in which it shall go to God Eccles 12.7 which the Wise-man speaks of man indefinitely not of either the righteous onely nor the wicked onely but of man whose dust goeth to the earth his spirit shall go up to God to receive its doom and disposal by and from him As the like is also implyed Eccles 3. 21. where Solomon having said that man dies as the beast dies all are of the dust and all go to the dust again in respect of the body and the mortality come upon all by sin both are alike immediately adds as an exception as to the spirit or inward part of the man or beast that there is great difference Who knows that is or may be considers mindes or takes notice of the spirit of the sons of men that it geeth upward and the spirit of the beast that it descends or goes down to the earth The spirit or breath of the beast goes out with the body and goes to the earth as the body doth in a sort it survives not the body But it is not so with the spirit of the sons of Adam or man That goeth upward or ascends to God that gave it as the other Proof saith that so it might be judged or disposed of by him as Heb. 9.27 The Judgement is appointed unto men indefinitely after death so as the soul or spirit is placed either in Paradise or in a state of Rest as our Lord said to the Malefactor that confessed him To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise which could not be said of the body
be an aftertime is requisite and necessary and that it shall be so is most certain For 1. The righteousness and stedfastness of his Law and Doctrine his love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity and his righteousness in rewarding vertue and punishing sin and wickedness must be declared 2 Thes 1.4 5 6. Heb. 6.10 11. He is the righteous Lord that loveth righteousness Psal 11.7 And He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. pâ— Ajax Flag but hates all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.4 5 6. And therefore hath in his Law and Doctrine promised and proposed great rewards and blessings to the righteous and threatned great wrath and punishment to the wicked Levit. 26. Deut. 28. But 2. This Time is not the time in which these things are sufficiently manifested and fulfilled This is but the time of workings not of recompencing and rewarding All the time of this life is a time of work and labor and therefore there must be another time of reward For here neither are the righteous evidently rewarded with or enjoy the promised blessings Heb. 11.13 nor the wicked punished according to their wickedness so as may either sufficiently evidence Gods love and faithfulness to the one or his wrath and hatred against the other the truth of his threatnings True it is that God doth give some rewards or rather encouragements to goodness here in inward peace and comfort and oft-times in outward and signal preservations and deliverances from dangers and benefits conferred Especially to Societies and Companies of men as Cities and Nations doing righteously and cleaving to it For otherwise there would be no encouragements here to serve God and walk in his wayes that might induce the world thereto or such as are chiefly yet sensual But his service must needs be a sad and uncomfortable exercise and especially in communities or common bodies as Kingdoms Cities and Common-wealths as such which as one well observes shall never be restored into their publick capacities again to be as such rewarded Nor would it be known by experience or rationally thought that the giving such benefits here appertained to God or that he takes notice of mens righteous or evil doings if God should give such mercies to none that ask or desire them or that fear and serve him And again on the other hand true it is that some wicked men and especially Nations and Common-wealths for the reason above noted are punished here with severe and smart judgments for their wickedness as Egipt De civ Dei lib. 1 cap. 8. Si nulium peccatum nunc punires aperte diviniâ—as nulla esse divina providentia crederetur Babilon Jerusalem Pharaoh Saul Haman c. otherwise as St. Augustine also notes men would believe no Divine providence nor have sufficient evidence of Gods anger against wickedness to move them to beware of it and fear the judgements further threatned But yet neither are the encouragements here given to the righteous persons especially in their personal considerations such as either answer or evidence the greatness of Gods love to them or come up to such promises as The meek shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in the abundance of Peace Psal 37.11 that they are blessed of the Lord and shall endure before him for ever And many the like nor are they common or general to all of them as to such at least as are outwardly and visibly testifyed Many of them in the eye of the world and to their own sense as some of themselves oftimes complain being plagued all the day long and afflicted every morning Mala corporis bona sunt anim Lact lib. 5. cap 7. So as they are ready to say and others to think that they in vain cleanse their hearts and wash their hands in innocency Psal 73.13 14. being as the Scripture saith else where oftimes killed all the day long and made as Sheep for the slaughter Rom. 8.36 Yea seem to the world to die miserably and receive no reward here for their love to righteousness and to God and Christ testified in their death As on the other hand the wicked oftimes prosper all their lives become old and grow great in power have none or no remarkable wrath testified against them either in their life their houses being safe from fear and they prospering in the world or in their Death having no bonds therein as Psal 73.3 4 5-12 Job 21.6 7 8 c. Yea and they of them that are punished here are not punished beyond what some one of their innumerable sins may deserve nay little more than what lays upon all good and bad commonly befalls them For what had Pharoah more than Josiah in being Drowned or Saul in being killed in the Battel or Haman in being hanged more than ordinarily is felt in men dying except the suddainness the frightfulness publickness and shame therein or some such concomitant making their falls exemplary and testimonies of vengeance Many a man that dies on his bed of the Colick or Stone or Strangury endures more torment yea and many righteous persons endure as suddain violent and shameful Deaths even for righteousness as many Martyrs and those mentioned Heb. 11.35 36 37. St. Lawrence on the Gridiron endured as much for Christ as Ahab and Keliah for Idolatry and Adultery whom the King of Babylon roasted in the Fire Jer. 29.22 23. as to what was visible Here all things happen to the outward eye promiscuously and to all alike as to the evil so to the good as to him that feareth the Lord so to him that feareth him not God now causing his Sun to shine on good and bad and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5.45 he desiring the Death of none no not of the wicked invites them by his goodness long-suffering and forbearance to repentance And some of them doubtless are led to repent thereby though others harden their hearts there-against and in their impenitency treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelations of the righteous judgment of God Matth. 11.21.23 and 12.41 Rom. 2.4 5. and on the other side God often corrects both good and bad that he might exercise the faith of the one and more purifie and prepare them for his glory making them therethrough partakers of his holiness and that he might admonish and awaken the other to repentance that his soul might be kept from going down to the pit c. Job 33.29 and some are awakened thereby to repentance though some when Gods hand is lifted up will not see Deus non exclusit mala ut ratio virtutis constare posset Lact. Isa 26 9 10. though indeed the righteous have the greatest share of troubles and evils here for the greater evidencing and adding worth and luster to their faith and obedience And also for the preparing them for and magnifying or inhancing their after-rewards Their light and momentany
this is signifyed by the white robes to be given them Rev. 6.11 whether they die a natural death and quietly in their beds or a violent sharp or shameful death all is one dying in Christ they die in Gods love and favour even as he did Thence it was the great desire of the Apostle Paul to win Christ and be found in him Philip. 3 8 9. knowing that otherwise it could not be well with him but in him he should be found of God in peace and without blame before him 2 Cor. 5.9 2 Pet. 3.14 15. Coll. 1.22 23. 3. They die in Covenant with God for Christ is given for a Covenant to the people an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure Isa 42.6 7. and 49.8 and 55.3 2 Sam. 23.5 and so he is still their God even in death Psal 48.14 God having ingaged himself to Christ and to all in him to be their God and to own them for his peculiar ones and to do good to all in Christ according to the greatness of his love and mercy for Christs sake They that are Christs are Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise or to the Covenant made with Abraham the summe whereof was that he would be his God and the God of his seed after him Gal. 3.29 Gen. 17.7 Covenant and promise signifying one and the same thing with the Apostle Gal. 3.15.16.29 and the being Christs is a consequent of being in the faith of Christ and of having thereby put on Christ Ver. 26 27 28 29. So as that dying in Christ or in the faith of him they must needs be in the Covenant of God 4. They die in hope or have hope in their death Prov. 14.32 the righteous hath hope in his death by vertue of Christ Jesus who is our hope the heir of all the promises and blessings of God and the Covenant of them to us dying in him heires of God and his promises there must needs be great hope for them even of the injoyment of all the good that is promised and by Christs death and mediation assured and secured which respect the state after death and in the life or world to come for also in Christ 5. They are holy to God he being made holiness to them 1 Cor. 1.30 they are Gods portion as well in death as in life his Saints Psal 116.15 and God is not ashamed to be called their God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in their dying as well as in their living and therefore from and in all these 6. They are blessed in their Death Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Rev. 14.13 that is they are happy they are delivered from their sins for blessed the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Psal 32.1 2. they have nothing to be charged further upon them nay all blessing is theirs a happy and most desireable state 2. Exceeding great too are their advantages thereby as to say 1. Their fight is fought their labour and work finished and their race run they have now no more to do that may be looked upon as any condition to be performed by them upon which the promises of God and their injoyment of happiness is in any wise suspended while we live here there is yet an If upon us some thing to be done by us upon which our happiness is in a sort suspended so as in failing therein we may pull judgment upon our selves as in Coll. 1.22 23. Christ will present you blameless if you continue in the faith rooted and grounded and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel Heb. 3.6 whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm to the end 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that ye may obtain If we die with him we shall live with him if we suffer with him we shall reign with him 2 Tim. 2.11 12. But now when death comes and passes upon the righteous they may say with Christ it is finished or as Joh. 17.4 I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do or as the Apostle Paul I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth no more work to do but only to go to God and the Crown is reserved and laid up for them to be given them at the day of Christ 2 Tim. 4.8 their labour is at an end their warfare accomplished and they go to rest And so 2. Their sufferings and sorrows are at an end too here they have laboured and suffered reproach and many afflictions are while they are here endured by them through much affliction and tribulation we must enter the Kingdom Act. 14.22 Ye shall weep and lament saith our Saviour to his Disciples and ye shall have tribulation Joh. 16.20 21 22 33. This is their seed-time when they go forth weeping bearing forth their precious seed Psal 126.6 now they are in heaviness through manifold temptations if need be 1 Pet. 1.7 grapling sometimes with their own corruptions Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this Death the Law in their members warring against the Law of their mind Rom. 7.23 24. they have lusts warring against their souls that they must abstain from and strive against 1 Pet. 2.11 Heb. 12. 3 4 sometimes with Satan winnowing tempting buffetting and every way playing their adversary 1 Pet. 5 8. Eph. 6.12 13 14. Luc. 22.31 2 Cor. 12.7 8. Sometimes with the world frowning threatning opposing persecuting them in sundry and divers sorts Joh. 15.16.19 1 Joh. 3.2 2 Tim. 3.12 13. Sometimes under the righteous and merciful hand of God afflicting and rebuking and sometimes more sharply scourging and filling with bitterness Heb. 12.6 7. Pro. 3.11 12. Job 19.21 Many are the afflictions of the righteous here Psal 34.19 But now in their death all these are at an end they then are delivered from the evil so as no more to be under the grief or vexation thereof Isa 57.1 neither evil men nor evil spirits shall any more afflict or exercise them nor will Gods hand go any further upon them to afflict them They rest from their labours in both senses even from their labouring under pains taking and sorrows too and hear the voice of the Oppressor no more Job 3.17 18. 3. Their dangers are now all past they are past the danger of sinning offending and provoking God to displeasure which they are in so long as they live there is need of watching and praying alwayes till that day be come Luc. 21.36 but in their yeilding up their spirits to God they are past those snares that before they were among then the Devil hath no more power to tempt them nor are they any more in danger to be tempted by him or overcome of him or of any of the flatteries or threats of the world the persons or things therein their
exceeding misery for now they cannot be made senseless of pain and misery as they were while in their graves but everlastingly united with their spirits that both bodies and spirits that sinned together may be cast into destruction together and suffer together an everlasting punishment Math. 25.46 both body and soul being cast into hell fire Math. 10.28 To which purpose Christ whom they have sinned perpetually against despising his counsels slighting his instructions hating him and his reproofs and ways and truths and people and whose love and blood and all the grace thereby procured for and held forth to them they set at naught he shall come in flaming fire to render vengeance on them and gathering them before him the heavens shall reveal their iniquities and the earth shall rise up against them Job 20. 27. and all their sins and wickednesses shall be ript up in the sight and veiw of God and Angels and men with all their ugliness aggravations circumstances and then they shall by him be adjudged to and undergo that terrible sentence Depart devil and his Angels Math. 25.41 whereby they shall be for ever thrust out from God and Christ and from all his holy Ones with infinite shame reproach and ignominy never to taste of their happiness or felicity being everlastingly accursed of God and thrust away with most dreadful miserable and damned spirits whose company and counsel they here liked and followed after into a state of darkness or uncomfortableness distress and anguish in the sense and feeling of the most severe wrath and vengeance of God poured out like fire and burning for ever upon them without end Quanta satius est pro perpetuis bones maela brevia pensare quam pro brevibus ac caducis bonis mala perpetua sustinere Loct lib. 6. ease or intermission their worm never dying nor their fire ever quenched there shall be weeping wailing and gnashing of teeth Lo such is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed of God for him Job 20.29 Oh dreadful heavy and infinitely wretched portion infinitely worse than the worst condition that any man is or can be here in and therefore how much more than that of the righteous in which are all things infinitely happy and glorious But I shall say no more to it this brief hint may suffice Why the unrighteous and wicked have so sad a death and latter end The reason of the sad end of the wicked divers reasons might be given reduceable to two heads I shall mention but a hint to either that is to say 1. It is of themselves only as to desert for though Satan tempt and the world allure and corruption move to disobedience and rebellion against God yet through the grace of God afforded they might resist and complying with the light truth and grace afforded might be helped but putting the fear of God from them they choose to walk after sin and Satan stubbornly persisting therein and refusing to turn at wisedoms reproofes or having begun to turn returned back again with the Dog to his vomit and to the Sow that is washed to wallow in the mire till death seized on them and therefore their sin being theirs their punnishment and destruction too is of themselves Prov. 1.20.24 25 26 c. Hos 13.9 Rom. 1.18 19 20 21. c. and their punnishment and misery is so great horrible and inexpressible 1. Because their sins are innumerable and every one of them exceeding great as there is therein a slighting or contempt of God and his authority power and goodness which is infinite a slighting also or contempt of Christ and all done and suffered by him for them and all his love therein testified and all the good there-through done and extended to them a grieving also and rejecting of the love and loving calls reproofs and strivings of the holy Spirit with them and withall making no account either of Gods favour to seek it or of his wrath to endeavour to avoid it an abuse of all his mercies and good things here bestowed and slighting all corrections used for their amendment and a careless despising all the glory and happiness by him tendered which things being against an infinite Deity and his infinite Attributes put an infiniteness into the demerits of their sins and so pull upon them an infinite punishment And then 2. Because they dying in their sins dye out of Christ and shall rise again our of him they have no forgiveness of their sins through him and so must answer for them and bear the punishment of them themselves which being not otherwise to be infinitely endured but in the infiniteness of their time of sufferings will occasion their endlesness to them 2. It is of God as to the decreeing sentencing and inflicting it as a most just and righteous Judge and the most unspeakably injured and provoked Majesty who will herein shew forth his righteous judgment Rom. 2.6.11 and therein 1. Testifie his infinite holiness and purity in his perfect hatred of sin and iniquity Isa 6.3 Apoc. 11.3 Prov. 1.24 25 26 29. 2. Avenge his own despised authority power love and goodness laws counsels c. slighted and contemned by them 3. Avenge the injuries done to Christ in their slighting all his love Psal 2.3 4. sorrows sufferings for them and Grace therein declared and tendered to them and therein also 1 Pet. 2 7 8 4. Magnify and glorify his Son and the infinite preciousness of his blood and sacrifice despised by them in taking such an unspeakable vengeance of their injuries to him upon them Zech. 7.11 12. 5. Avenge the abuses and slightings of all the addresses of the holy Spirit to them and gracious patient waiting upon them 6. Avenge the abuses of and unthankfulness for the Ministry and service of his holy Angels about them and of all other mercies in all his creatures afforded to them Rom. 2.4 5 6 11. 7. And in a word all their abuses of themselves and one another but chiefly of his Sion his people and servants sent to or living amongst them and deserving better use from them this last is particularly mentioned Math. 25.41 42 43 44. No marvail now if a wicked man enlightned to see any thing of these matters wisht to die the death of the righteous and to have his latter end like to his The latter part of the point considered in answer to two questions about which having spoken to the first and main business of the point about the excellency of the Death and latter end of the righteous or upright ones it remains that we speak a little as in the latter part of the Point we added that they be such as that even the wicked that care not to live their life or to have their beginning and progress yet understanding them desire to have their Deaths and latter ends like theirs Concerning which I shall only propound and speak to a Question or two
for him and shall then say with shouting Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save This is the Lord whom we have tarryed for we will rejoyce and be glad in his salvation Isa 25.9 And on the contrary the sad end of those that have not waited for him but hasted from him and turned aside to crooked paths they shall have sorrows multiplyed upon them then being led forth with the workers of iniquity Psal 16.4 and 125.5.6 whose doleful end we have before mentioned Let these things be considered and they may be useful through Gods blessing to perswade us to cleave to Christ and persevere to the end with him Vse 3 Disswades from envying the wicked A third use is to discover the causlesness that the righteous have to envy and fret at the prosperity and portion of the wicked surely they have no cause so to do if they consider either the happiness of their own estate as to the end or after-part thereof especially or the misery and wretchedness of the state and condition of the wicked especially as to their end that hastes apace See to that purpose Psalmes 33. and 73. throughout as also Prov. 3.31 and 23.17 18. Let not thine heart envy sinners but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long for there is an end Consider that both thine own and the goodness of it the end that death will put to thine afflictions and sufferings and the reward and recompence that will be after which is thine expectation that shall not be cut off as also the sad and calamitous end of the wicked thine enemies See also Prov. 24.1 2 19 20. Vse 4 Reproof to our feares of death It may also reprove and check any fearfulness of Death or loathness to die found and given way to in and by believers Why should we fear death seeing Christ hath abolished Death for us and made it to all in him without doubt better than the day in which they were born Eccles 7.1 2 Tim. 1.10 the out-let to sorrows and miseries and in-let to all happiness a passage to rest and peace and freedom from all evils and to the nearer and fuller injoyment of Christ and of the happiness given us in him The Apostle was not afraid but desirous to be dissolved and to be with Christ and sure if we knew and loved Christ as well as he and loved the world as little we should be so too and though David had some risings of fear in the veiw of it yet see how he checks them in Psal 49.5 Why should I fear in the days of adversity when the iniquities of my heels do compass me about seeing none can escape it and the Lord will redeem my soul from the power of the grave or of hell and will receive me saith he Vers 15. The consideration of the end or reward of the righteous which we have in some measure been veiwing as it should provoke us to diligence in seeking to be found in Christ as our righteousness so being so to incourage us to lay down our lives when he calls for them from us and especially in a way of suffering for him with as much readiness as a childe to leave some poor cottage where he did sojourn to go to his Fathers full and stately house or a wife to leave some place of pilgrimage and hardship to go to live with her loving rich and tender husband But how much do we generally both live and die more by or according to sense than by or according to faith and yet as it is a mercy to live out our days to be serviceable in them to God and men that fulfilling our work we may receive the fuller reward or having through wandring weakned our selves to live to recover strength and not be taken away in the midst of our days in wrath and Judgment so the Saints have been and we may be loath to die and submissively desire to be spared of God so as we may come to our graves as a Rick of Corn fully ripe Psal 39.13 and 102.24 Job 5.26 Phil. 1.24 Isa 38.3 4. It may also incite and provoke wicked men to consider with themselves the sad and doleful state and way they are in Vse 5 Exciting wicked man to repâ—â— and to awaken betimes while yet they may and there is yet a day of grace and mercy afforded them to repentance that so they may not know what the death of the wicked is and the after-part that will follow but that that sad and endess misery may be prevented from them it speakes aloud to all such in the language of the holy Ghost in Isa 55.7 not only to wish and desire and pray as Balaam here did Oh let me die the Death of the righteous and let my latter end be like his but to forsake their ways and let go their vain and evil thoughts and turn to the Lord who is gracious and to our God who will multiply to pardon and who hath said and sworn as he lives he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but rather that he turn and live and therefore calls Turn ye turn ye why will ye die Ezek. 33.11 There is all the reason in the world that a wicked man should turn from his wickedness and not go on in it for if he go on there is a gulf before him into which he will fall and wherein he will certainly perish for ever all the word of God stands against him yea all the love and mercy of God and the sufferings blood and purchase of Christ thereby will come in and plead against him and ly upon him and aggravate his misery if he turn not in time his peace prosperity and comforts will all flee away and vanish ere long as smoke in the wind and his miseries and sorrows will come thick and threefold upon him and crush him in peices for ever And on the other side if he repent and turn the word and promise and oath of God the sufferings blood sacrifice and mediation of Christ and the holy Spirit in and with all are for him and assure him of a gracious intertainment with God of washing cleansing forgiveness and healing by Christ and of an everlasting happy portion his death than will be good and his resurrection better and his after-state best of all He shall have what Balaam here wisht to have his soul shall die the death of the righteous and his latter end shall be like his Vse 6 Reproof to the wicked not turning and to such as backslide It proclaims the desperate folly and madness of wicked men that will yet persist in their wickedness notwithstanding such a discovery of the end of those that so do but much more the desperate madness of such as having been through the grace of God brought into the way of righteousness do for any occasion or upon any account either of discontent with their owne way
and portion or coveting after the way and portion or injoyments of any other turn from the way of righteousness these do as those who being brought safely out of the dangers of the seas and of perishing there by some storm and being set safely on a rock on the shore should because the wind blows cold upon them or because they see some little fishes play or rather some perishing men float on the waves throw themselves headlong thereinto to their destruction but indeed far worse If I say to a righteous man saith God thou shalt surely live if that righteous man trusting in his righteousness commit iniquity he shall surely die Ezek. 33.13 If we turn from God we must needs go after vain things and things that profit not 1 Sam. 12.21 but that 's but an easie and soft expression in comparison of what the holy Ghost hath elsewhere as when he saith Thou wilt destroy all those that go a whoring from thee Psal 73.27 And they shall be destroyed with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power that obey not the Gospel 2 Thes 1.7 8. and they are said not to obey the truth that abide not in it Gal. 3.1 Vse 7 Instruction to moderation in mourning for deceased believers But lastly it may instruct us to moderation in our mourning for the death of such as are righteous and die in the Lord that we should not mourn for them as those that are without hope either of or for them or of our enjoyment again of them there is no cause of so mourning for them nay but as our Saviour said to his Non est lugendus qui ante cedit sed plane desiderandus profectio est quam putas mortem Ter. de patien 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Gâ—aec est mori Disciples mourning at their hearing of his leaving them If ye had loved me ye would have rejoiced because I said I go to my Father for my Father is greater then I Joh. 14.28 So in respect of such persons when taken away by death we have rather cause of joy and gladness than of lamentation and sadness for they are gone to a better place and state as to their spirits which is the main of them and their bodies too are more at ease than they were before they dying in the Lord as we have seen are blessed at the present and they shall come again in their personal and bodily capacities after a while with Christ to the enjoyment of his Kingdom yea so as the living Saints shall not prevent them as is said 1 Thess 4.13 14 15 16 17 which words we have to comfort one another with in this case left on record for our instruction indeed some cause of mourning and in some regard of great lamentation we may have sometime as Abraham is said to have sorrowed for Sarah Jacobs sons for him and the people of Israel for Moses and divers others but the Jews write the middle letter of the word used of Abrahams weeping very small to signifie they say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his moderation in respect of his belief of the resurrection but it s said Act. 8.2 That devout men carried Stephen to his burial and to have made great lamentation for him When persons are very useful among people and a great blow breach or loss comes to the Survivers by their removal then there is ground for great lamentation in respect thereof and especially upon those that it falls so heavy upon as for the loss of our society with them and their useful company or the loss others have of them but in regard of themselves there is cause of rejoycing singing and making merry for that theiâ— race is run their dangers past their cares and labours are at an end their goal obtained and their reward ascertained And it seems the Jews did apprehend the same truth as Balaam here that the death of the righteous was a desireable thing and matter of gladness for when they who accounted themselves the righteous nation died they had musick and melody upon their departing as appears by that passage of our Saviours finding Minstrils at the house of Jairus when his daughter was dead Math. 9.23 and sure by how much the more the grace of God is unfolded by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and his Spirit opening the grounds ends and vertues of it in and by the Gospel to us so much the more gladness when righteous persons die in their righteousness It 's that that good men have desired before they attained it as the Apostle Paul Phil. 1.23 I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ which is â—etter And it 's that that bad men have wished they might have the happiness of obtaining as appears in the Text Let me die the death of the righteous and let my latter end c. Now when any attain that which is desireable on all hands and especially when they have lived to a good old age and have filled up the number of their days and served their generation by the will of God should we mourn for them without rejoycing or should we mourn so in respect of our own losses as not to qualifie and take up our selves with the consideration of their gain If a heathen man could comfort himself over the death of his deceased daughter Non a nissa sed praemissâ— Cic. with the consideration that she was not lost but only gone or sent away before how much more may we Christians when we may say it with this addition that they are gone before to heavenly and happy mansions to the bosome of Abraham nay to the presence and enjoyment of the Lord Jesus in their spirits and that they shall come again with him and though their bodies now lie covered up in earth and ashes or dust yet they also shall be raised up again in honour when Christ appears and then both body and soul shall appear in glory with him and enjoy so happy a portion as exceeds all expression And now I have finished what I had to say to my Text but yet not my discourse without a word of Application of it upon this last account to that which occasioned my thoughts of it which was the death and interment of a good and vertuous Gentlewoman Mrs. Barbara Whitefoote of Hapton in the County of Norfolke A woman well known in the Country not so much for her outward greatness as to estate in the world though God gave her a good sufficiency there too as for the good she did in the world and especially to the places and people near her Her profession and practice proclaimed her a Christian more then in name only a follower after righteousness and a seeker of the Lord one that we judge to have sought first Gods Kingdome and his righteousness and therefore we question not but she hath now obtained A woman of a good report
sufferings here working for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 As also because they have all their punishment here none hereafter As the contrary may be some reason of the wickeds more prospering here Luc. 16.26 and so as Austin well observes * Tam patientia Dei ad poenitentia invitat males sicut flagellum Dei od patientiam erudit bones Itemâ— misericordia Dei fovendos amplectitur bones sicut severitas Dei pnniendos corripit malos c. Ang. de ci vit Dei lib. 1. cap. 8. the patience of God invites the wicked to repentance and the Rod of God nurtures the good to patience Sometime again the mercy of God embraces the good that are to be cherished and the severity of God chastens the wicked that are to be punished Again God would have these temporal matters common to both That good men might neither greedily covet what good things they see to be but the portion of the wicked here nor shamefully avoid such troubles as they see for the most part befall the good Here then evident it is is neither the time nor place of the full manifestation of Gods righteous judgment on either And therefore 3. It remains that seeing God hath said he will punish all the workers of iniquity and reward all that are righteous and patiently persevere in well doing that there must be another an aftertime and state in which his word that must not pass or fall to the ground shall be accomplished and his righteousness both to the one and the other and his love to righteousness and hatred of iniquity be fully manifested Rom. 2.5 which must therefore be after Death But then again 4. Seeing in the state of Death and separation of the Body and Soul though indeed there is a different dispose of their Souls as aforesaid and as will after appear and be more cleared yet what is done then to the Soul or Spirit by way of reward or punishment is neither of the whole guilty or praise-worthy subject The Body having sinned also and been active in the wickedness of the wicked and on the other hand hath wrought what is good and suffered injuries and wrongs for Christ and righteousness sake in the righteous and it s but right and reasonable that the whole that shared in the work should share too in the wages though the soul in both being the principal agent and mover of the body it s not unreasonable that both in the one and the other it have the precedency and so have what is allotted in the separated state while the body lies dead and sensless as also seeing what happens to the soul or spirit is not openly evident to the world if evident to those spirits that partake of like state and its meet that Gods righteousness be as openly and evidently seen in the world to men angels as mens works have been as his Law and Doctrine have which they therein kept or broke as also the Promises and Threatnings therein As also many things in the spirits and bodily actings too of men have been here hid as also much of the reason of Gods dealings here and he hath promised open-rewards therefore it follows that it is necessary that there be a resurrection and reviving both of good and bad from the dead and the bringing them to a publike visible open and manifest Judgement so as God and Christ may be openly and manifestly glorified And the good and bad receive open and manifest recompences for their works So as both the good may be openly honoured and rewarded in the veiw of those that have derided and reproach'd them and from and amongst whom they have suffered for and practiced righteousness And the wicked be openly judged amongst and by and punished in the veiw of those over whom they have here gloryed and triumphed and whom they here falsly judged and condemned Such the grounds and reasons for this after-state The Vse consideration of which as thus far carried on by us or rather as so to be carried on by Christ may put us upon a more serious consideration of our Mortallity and Death and seeing that our life here is so momentany and uncertain so as it is compared in the Scriptures to most flitting things as a shadow Job 8 9. and 14.2 a vapour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shadow of smoke And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dream of a shadow in Sâ—pa and Pindar Jam. 4.14 a post swifter than a post Job 9.25 or a Weavers shuttle Job 7.6 and the like as some of the heathen have compared them to a shadow or smoke or a dream or the dream of a shadow and man himself to an image or shadow and so we know not how soon we may be at that after-part therefore to be more serious passing the time of our present so journing in the fear of God 1 Pet. 1.17 Remembring our Creator in the dayes of our youth or choise while yet Life and Death are before us and either of them may be chosen by us Not to live like because as to our Bodies we are mortal and must die as the Beasts or like the Epicures that say Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die as if there was nothing for us after death either to enjoy or suffer and as if the old Verse of the Epicures were true viz. Ede bibas ludas post mortem nulia voluptas Let us eat drink and play for in the Grave Or after Death no pleasure men shall have So making the consideration of our Death an argument to provoke us to mind and follow after the fading pleasures and enjoyments only of this fading life banishing the remembrances of God out of our hearts as those wicked ones in Job 21.13 14. and 22.16 17. that say to God Depart from us we desire not not the knowledge of thy wayes What can the Almighty do for us But seeing there is something after Death good or bad to be reaped by us according to our lives here it should stir us up to live as men endued with principles of understanding and reason and so capable of knowing and improving those truths concerning us minding and thinking on him who in creating and making us and all other creatures preferred us before and above them and prepared another and a further life for us beyond what he gave or gives them that in calling to mind what he hath done for and to us both in the first Adam and in our own persons as in and from him in making us men indued with his image and likeness and capable of higher happiness than the Beasts of the earth over which he also gave us dominion and also and especially in the second Adam our Lord Jesus in whom he hath ransomed us from the Death we fell into in the first Adam and bought us into his own merciful and righteous Lordship and dispose and given us eternal life a
far better portion and happiness than either what we may have in this life and world or might have had in and from Adam considering also that he hath appointed a Day of Death for us and after that a Judgment by him that died for us and rose again whereof also he hath given assurance * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or faith to all men that he hath raised him from the dead Act. 17.31 we may set our selves to seek him the knowledge of him and of his will which we may find in his revelations of them to us by Jesus Christ that so knowing and yeilding up our selves to him to the obeying and doing his will wherein we shall be reputed righteous we may be well mercifully and comfortably disposed of by him in the after-state avoiding and abandoning all those things that might withdraw us from him and from the obedience of his will and following after or yeilding up our selves to what may further us therein But the further opening and improvement of this Use will better fall in after and upon our consideration of the second point viz. Point 2. The excellency of the Death and end of the righteous That there is a very desirable excellency in the Death of the Righteous and in his latter end above that of other men especially of such as are wicked So as even the wicked that care not to live their life and to have their beginning and progress yet understanding it desire to be like them therein Tartus est pietatis â—ructus tanta justitiae merces ut ne ab ipsis â— quid â—nin desâ—rari quâ—at impiis injustis It is in a manner St. Bernaca's observation upon the words For saith he such or so great is the fruit of piety and such the reward of righteousness that it cannot but he desired of the wicked and unrighteous Bern. in Ps 91. Ser. 7. This doth suppose and imply the second Branch of what we noted in our entrance to discourse of the former Proposition viz. That the Death and end of the righteous Hâ—â—e the Scriptures mâ—â—n 〈◊〉 the woâ—d wicked are very different from those of the wicked c. of any that are not righteous which I only distinguish from the wicked as the Scriptures usually by the wicked understand men not only ignorant of and out of Christ unjustified persons but also evilly affected towards and opposite to Christ and the truth of God and his grace in the discoveries and teachings of it so as to act contrary and in opposition to it against light and knowledge and that with stubbornness and wilfulness and often to the endevouring the mischief of the righteous and suppression of the truth of God Now that the righteous mans Death and after-end or part differs from that of the unrighteous and wicked so as to be far better we shall make evident through Gods help and assistance in what we shall speak thereof 1. Positively as considered in themselves and then also a little 2. Comparatively as comparing them with the sinners and wickeds 1. In speaking positively of them we shall consider 1. Who are the Righteous whose Death and latter end are so commendably excellent and how they come to be so or wherein their righteousness standeth 2. What is the Death of the Righteous that is so desireable And 3. Wherein or upon what accounts it is desirable 4. What the after-part or latter end of the Righteous and the desirableness thereof VVhâ—â—e the Righteouâ— 1. Who be these righteous ones and upon what account or wherein any is so To which let us mind 1. That the righteous are denominated from righteousness so as they are righteous in whom righteousness is found or they in it and by whom it is practised Now righteousness is in it self an exact and perfect straightness or rightness so as to be without blame fault or crookedness in every thing or respect and so it s absolutely in God in the first place and he both Father Word and Holy Spirit is called the Just God or the righteous Lord Psal 119.137 Jer. 12.1 Job 17.27 Zeph. 3.5 Deut. 32.4 yea the most just or upright Job 34.17 Isa 26.7 because righteousness is essential to him and he and his will the most perfect rule of righteousness but he liveth and dieth not nor of him can we understand the words who is eternal and without beginning end or reward 2. That we have to speak of righteous men and righteousness as found in or upon man and so we may say generally that Righteousness is a conformity in man to the wiil and minde of God and they are righteous that are so and so are right and straight according to Gods minde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And such is the signification of the word here translated Righteous Vpright or Right And so 1. God made man Jashir upright suitable to his minde not crooked or perverse bending from him or faulty before him Eccles 7.29 And that was mans primitive original created state called also His likeness or similitude but according to this righteousness or uprightness there is no man found while here living upright in himself man having found out many inventions Eccles 7.29 For all have sinned and swerved from that first creered uprightness and integrity and have failed of the glory of God Rom. 3 23. But God still abides just and righteous though man be fallen from him and that rightness and uprightness that he gave or made us in his acts doings ways words and works are all righteous and there is no iniquity in him And 2. He gave a righteous just and holy Law as a perfect Rule of righteousness according to which he that should do should live and enjoy his favor and blessing but he that swerves therefrom and continues not in all things contained therein is crooked and unjust unrighteous and condemned by it to die yea accursed and blasted of God in his most holy and righteous Sentence But this coming in upon fallen man and being proposed to him as a Rule to measure himself by and square his heart and actions after findes him so desperately crooked and distorred by his fall that it altogether pronounces against man and condemns him And while man would set himself to conform himself to it in heart and way he is thereby convinced that he is wrong and unrighteous For by the Law is the knowledge of sin yea sin taking occasion by it it is more awakened and stirred up to exert and act forth it self when it findes the Law its enemy to forbid restrain and curb it and strives to bear it down before it or else secretly to elude it And so man in stead of being made just and righteous by it is discovered to be more vile and sinful yea occasionally is made so as the Apostle saith Rom. 5.20 the Law entred that sin might abound And in Chap. 7.5 8 9. The motions or passions of sin that were