exulting Victors and Strength enough to hold them in its Dungeon till the Resurrection This Mouth of Infidelity is presently stopped Here follows A justifying Reason such as clears the Triumph from the Charge of Absurdity It is confessed if Death were but it self and not Pars minima sui it would be unworthy of the Honour of being insulted over it would be an Insect of an inconsiderable Sting if not a perfect Drone An Enemy too despicable to be triumphed over with Harp and Psaltery nor would Christians blow a Trumpet for the Overthrow of a Wasp But Death's Name is Legion and as it 's an Host of Enemies in one it is a formidable one The Sting of Death is Sin q. d. Sin is the whole Element of Evil it is all the Evil of Doing Nothing beside is Evil essentially or meritoriously This Hell of Sin being infused into Death makes it like it self even the whole Element of Misery and all the Evil of Suffering where then if not here shall be found a Trophy for Faith Here in Death envenomed by Sin By Sin whereof a Spark made Devils of the most blessed Creatures And no more than the imputed Guilt made the ever-living God to sweat Blood Seems this to be a Paradox Hear then The Strength of Sin is the Law q. d. No wonder that Sin is so pernicious a thing for the Curse of the Divine Law is on it And who can think what is God's Power or his Law 's Terror His Law must be like himself as in its Precepts and Promises so in its Threats The Punishments of so great a King must necessarily be great The Breach of his Law 's Duty can deserve no less than Extremity and Eternity of Misery and the Curse laid upon it is no less No marvel then that Sin 's Guilt maketh a Hell of Death being the Law 's Curse maketh Sin a worse thing than Death or Hell an Evil that Hell it self must have all Eternity to punish But over both Law and Sin God giveth us the Victory As fiery as this Law is Christ's Blood quencheth it As boiling a Furnace as it makes of Sin it cannot make Sin to be the Death of a Believer's Soul These the worst of Enemies are first slain For upon our first believing Christ's Righteousness is imputed and by that Imputation the Law 's Curse and Sin 's Condemnation are removed Over them we have Triumph sounded Rom. 7.4 Ye are dead to the Law by the Body of Christ And ver 24 25. Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death's Dominion is therefore at an end though its Power to kill the most holy Body and to detain the most sacred Dust for a time be not taken from it In short the Grace of Christ hath made Sin a broken Enemy the Law a kind Friend and Death a useful Servant Doth the Saints Triumph therefore precede or exceed Victory let the Wise judg When Israel was brought through the Red Sea what Songs of Praise were straitway sung though they had a howling Desart to be passed through and were not presently in Canaan Their Songs injected Terror to the Dukes of Edom and the mighty Men of Moab Yea the Greeks no sooner heard the Articles of Peace purchased for them by Titus Flaminius but they cried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour a Saviour Plutarch in vit T. Flam. And with such Shouts of Joy as made the Air to ring and the Birds to drop down astonished A deep Lethargy it is that maketh Christians Joy to be less while their Reason for it is infinitely more That restrains them from such Triumph as would make the Infidel World to tremble But O where shall Offerings and whole Burnt-offerings be found For this Victory this Inchoate one Lebanon is not sufficient or the Cattel upon a thousand Hills But as Jehoshaphat in Berachah the Saints throughout the Earth do bless the Captain of their Salvation and Conquest The next Verse and Breath is An holy Gratulation A lovely Heaven of it in a little Globe of Words Thanks be to God! To the Father Son and Spirit our One God be all holy Obedience Whereof Gratitude is the principal Part that which contains and animates all Laws bind to Obedience and Benefits unto Thankfulness But God our Law-giver is in all things our Benefactor His very Laws all are Benefits To him be therefore all Obedient Thankfulness and all Thankful Obedience To him Who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Of his Saints Victory we publish the Truth We declare his Gift of Grace to be the Original We testify the Limitation of this Gift unto Believers only and the Extent of it unto all Believers As well to Babes in the Cradle of Christianity as the oldest Mnason's in God's Kingdom We proclaim the never to be forgotten Purchaser of it the Lord Jesus Christ Whose Death gave the Angel of Death his mortal Wound Whose Resurrection certified and exemplified Believers Whose Righteousness by Faith received instateth them in the Power of an endless Life Whose Sanctifying Spirit mortifieth sinful Lusts which be not the least Stings of Death Whose Comforting Spirit takes out the Pain and Anguish that Sin sticketh into our Souls And whose Glorious Appearing one day will fulfil his old Word to a tittle O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction Waving all others the Argument I take hence is this Holy Believers on Christ do rejoice in their Victory over Death Truly Righteously and Holily they rejoice in their Salvation by Christ They sing O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory c. The Plural Number in which he speaks may assure us that the Apostle sung in Consort Thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory And it shall be shown that this Text is all the Holy Catholick Church's Song Which while Militant is so far triumphant We may say of Death and of all Enemies in Combination with it as St. John saith of the World Whosoever is born of God overcometh them And this is the Victory that overcomes them even our Faith Consequently he that overcometh and shall not be hurt of the second Death must take it for his Duty and make it his Practice to joy in the Lord and rejoice in the God of his Salvation But lest with the Dogs I should shut Children out of the Church-Doors and wound any that have already the Arrows of the Almighty sticking in them I must premise two things Obstructions are allowed for It is not affirmed that all or any Believers do always rejoice Full oft they are hindred by Bodily Maladies by Mental Mistakes by Satan's Buffetings and by Divine Desertions Under which their Harp is turned to Mourning and their Organ into the Voice of them that weep And Secondly Degrees be wondrously different Of them that sing Triumph the Voice of some is as Thunder which all
State of Grace but verbis mentalibus by secret spiritual Words by internal mysterious Whispers testifying unto them that they are in that blessed State For the Matter of Witnessing is more than Enabling a Person to read his Evidence In Westminster-hall he would not be taken for a Witness who should do no more than hold a Candle to one reading his Evidence But the Holy Ghost the Comforter is expresly named a Witness to Believers of their being taken into the Number and being bless'd with all the Privileges of the Sons of God Ordinarily therefore I say that Believers do know the Cause of Joy that they have Though as hath been foresaid Times of Desertion there are in which they know it not And it is most certain the heavenly Comforter doth not at all times comfort Nor is joyful Assurance of the very Essence of justifying saving Faith But by reason of fore-named Obstructions Children of Light may sit all their days in the Dark and in the Deeps And ascend to Heaven at last in a thick Cloud Otherwise we do all generally believe and teach that the Spirit of Adoption being given unto Sons as Sons of God he is given unto every Child of God And commonly they do know themselves Conquerors who are in Christ and are not reprobate unsound Christians This being admitted they must be dead and not lively Stones as St. Peter calls them if they Rejoice not They must cease to be Men if they become not joyful Ones They must be stupified as soon as Justified and Adopted For the Humane Nature hath an inseparable Instinct and Power which on good Tidings heard doth transport Minds and Bodies into Expressions of Gladness Diffusing Spirits and by them sending forth the News trying as it were by communicating to multiply it Gaudio cogendi vis inest The Roman Orator says and all Men feel it Joy enters with a Violence and with a grateful Violence that we are not able to resist breaks forth from us Who thinks that David was able to forbear his Dance before the Ark Or that the healed Cripple could contain himself from Running Leaping and Praising God We have read of them who have died of Joy and it is true which one saith Should Believers have the Degrees of Assurance which imprudently they do sometimes desire they must presently Die for Joy or be kept Alive by Miracle In short then Believers must put off Nature if they rejoice not in Christ's Grace They must be without natural Affection if they be without any spiritual Consolation if ordinarily they be so Secondly Believers are wise Men And it is Wisdom to rejoice in such Felicity as Victory over Death In the Day of Prosperity Nature necessitates Joy and Reason enforces it For Happiness is a Feast made for Mirth and how monstrous a Folly must it be to frustrate so kind a Design upon us Wisdom is a true Gust and right Relish of things Sapit cui res sapiunt ita ut sunt But how far be they from it who taste no Sweetness in the Milk and Honey that flow in this Victory Hearts delighting not themselves in Substances do most certainly delight themselves in Shadows And what a Delusion is that what a gathering together of all Folly and a very Sea of it The Laughter of Wretches laden with Irons or standing on the Ladder ready for Execution seems not greater Madness than the Disconsolateness of them when they are both pardoned and advanced Should the Saints and Angels in Heaven cease rejoicing it were to be asked What Wisdom is in them They would be to be charged with extreme Folly Unreasonable it would be for them to give over Rejoicing as it would be for Devils and damned Ghosts to begin And yet it is most certain that Justified and Adopted Believers have as true Cause of Joy as Angels and glorified Spirits are in a State only in Degree less blessed consequently have as true Reason to sing Hosannah's here below as they to sing Hallelujah's above and cannot but hold on Songs of Joy in the House of their Pilgrimage without first becoming sensless of their Conquest Joyful Praise is comely for them Nor is Triumph on the way to Hell more unreasonable than on the way to Heaven it is discreet In a word To think that Saints did ordinarily incur and indulge the Guilt of its Neglect would be to think them what the World stiles them Men besides themselves This Guilt would be a dead Fly in their Ointment and make it to send forth so stinking a Savour of the most loathsom Folly Thirdly Believers are Righteous Men and it is their Justice to be glad and triumph in their Victory over Death Justice witholds not what is due when it is in the Power of its Hand to repay To repay Vengeance to Evil-doers and Praise to them that do well Death and its Complices the Law Sin Satan and Hell are Enemies that have tragically used Believers made them to bear God knows what shamed them and tempted them to curse the Day of their Birth held them subject to Bondage through Fear all the time that they laid under their Power A holy Revenge is now owing to Sin and to Satan and now that through Christ they are taken out of those cruel Hands they are able to pay it able to expose them and put them to open Shame to shew abroad how they themselves have been used by one mightier than they how the Law as damning is abolished Sin is condemned Satan's Head is bruised Death is plagued the Grave is destroyed and Hell hath its Mouth stopp'd On the contrary there is no finding out to Perfection the Breadth and Length the Depth and Height of God's Grace The Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord passeth all Vnderstanding His Grace and his Gift by Grace unto Believers are ineffable infinitely free without Merit in us or any Motive Astonishingly rich while we were Enemies most defiled and deformed ones and equally without Power to resist damning Justice and without the Prudence to ask Saving-Mercy Angels our Elders and Betters were not pitied but irreversably doomed to Destruction More than Angels and all the Creation was worth was given to redeem us even as much more than they are worth as God by Essence exceedeth the mere Creature Christ is God by eternal Essence and yet God spared not that his Son but gave him up to redeem Rebels whereat Hell envies and Heaven wonders A vast Tribute of Praise must hence rise due so due that if Believers be silent the Stones must needs cry out Believers that now are no longer Mutes have the dumb Devil expell'd and their Mouths opened for Praise their Tongues touched with a Coal from the holy Altar and qualified to lift up the Name of their Redeemer But what save Triumph in their Victory through him can render to Death the things that are Death's or to Christ the things that are Christ's If Faith doth not now play
Gift so suted to a Creature 's Need as Believer's Victory is Herein being in themselves dead in Christ they are made alive Being blind they receive their sight Being weak they are made strong Being miserable they are made blessed Being mutable they are eternally established Joh. 6.57 As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me shall live by me They must therefore die for Joy who joy too much for their Victory And scarcely could that it self be called too much Fourthly So Sumptuous an One All the World rates high what is bought dear But was there ever such a Purchase as the Believer's Conquest It astonished the Angels Our Saviour mentions it not without Wonder Joh. 3.16 The Price was the very Blood of God And only the Mind of God can comprehend the Worth of the Blood of God Wherefore of the most triumphant Joy herein it is boldly to be asked Is there not a Cause Fifthly So Rare a Blessing Rarity doth extremely enhanse Value Diamonds would be no Idols if they were no Rarities Yea what would Crowns be if every Head wore one It is what few attain that all do admire Now of Believers Victory who knows not how little there is of Commonness to take away from the Comfort Alas of the Many called to it how Few are chosen how Few will come to Christ for it And of the lapsed Angels not so much as One recovered his Fall Believers highest Joy is then surely unblamable if Rarity makes good things delectable and adds Sweetness to Hony it self Sixthly So Present an One It is most true absent Good is the Object but of Desire it must be present before it can be embraced with Delight Infidels ask therefore of Believers Are they not mad Mad to pretend their Souls filled with the Marrow and Fatness of things far from them But they are to be told Believers are not drunken as they suppose It is in things present that they exult Present though to the World invisible And real though every where spoken against as very Chimera's The Glories of their Victory are present in the Eye of Faith seeing them in the Hand of Faith receiving them in the Mouth of Faith tasting them Or to speak more to the Capacities of Infidel Objectors it must be said that the Blessing wherein they rejoice is in their Minds in daily Contemplation is in their Hearts in constant Expectation is in their whole-Man in sweet Fruition And how are the things in which they themselves do triumph any more or otherways present to them Do natural things incur their natural Senses As truly do spiritual Ones incur the spiritual Senses of Believers Whose spiritual Sight and Taste do therefore make their Exultations as just No more Candles shall be lighted in this Sun I proceed to evince that the Souls so joyful and thankful are holy that §. 3. Believers do triumph Holily over Death Their Laughter is not Madness If it be asked of their Mirth what doth it it must be answered It doth on Earth what Saints and Angels Mirth doth in Heaven It gives Praise and Thanks to God and to the Lamb For O Death where is thy Sting never goes before but Thanks be to God follows fast after Thankful Repentance thankful Faith Hope and Love thankful New-Obedience Blind Seers are the Romanists and others who teach otherwise And would bear us in hand that Assurance of Victory over Death is a Wine too strong for the Head of any Viator any living Believer Such whose Mirth would be Madness and the Joy of it turn the Grace of God into Wantonness Dispose us to nothing but Sloth and Security Pride and Presumption But what do the Arguings of Men so sensual and void of the Spirit of Faith avail It is true there are Wretches of slight and frothy Spirits who will be boasting of a false Gift a Cloud without Water Proclaim their wondrous Joy and speak swelling words though their Cloven-feet do manifestly confute their flaming Tongues And not walking in the Fear of the Lord it is sure they do not walk in the Joy of the Holy Ghost No small stumbling Block this hath been to Men of Senses not exercised to discern But these following Particulars will convince or confound all Gain-sayers First The Efficient Worker of the Joy and Triumph we speak of is the Holy Ghost Expresly it is named his Whose Operations no doubt are holy and make for Holiness His comforting Work tending as much to sanctify as his sanctifying Work tendeth to comfort us A contrary Thought would be Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and plainly make him a Minister of Sin Secondly The Law of this Joy is the Holy Gospel Believers Joy is as surely by the Gospel's Warrant as by the Spirit 's Work For he never speaketh of his own never as a Judg speaks Life and Joy to any but those to whom the Gospel as the Law of Grace and Peace doth assign it There is a perfect Consent between Christ's Spirit and his Word The Joy given by one is given by both And to think that the Joy by them given is a Servant of Sin were fearfully to blaspheme both belying them with a Brow of Brass Thirdly The End of this Joy is holy Conversation Whereby is our heavenly Father glorified but by our bringing forth much Good Fruit Or what doth he either constitute in his Word or dispense by his Spirit but for the End that he may thereby be glorified If we imagine that this Joy of Believers so constituted and so dispensed for this End is no apt Means for it but for the contrary how foolishly must we charge him who is only wise Fourthly The Means whereby this Joy is wrought are holy Ordinances and vigorous Exercise of Grace therein The holy Spirit useth not to lift Souls out of the Hell of their Fears much less to lift them up to the Heaven of triumphant Joys but in this Way And is it likely that the Effect should be an Enemy to its Causes That the Believer's Joy like a Viper should be Death to its Parents That Communion with God should beget such a Delight in him as should make us by and by weary of him Fifthly The Subjects of this Joy are holy Souls others are uncapable of it nor need we say what Use they would make of it who make the worst use of all the Grace objective and subjective that they do receive Most sure it is the holy Spirit first worketh Grace then witnesseth it to be in a Man and so comforteth him and causeth him to triumph in his State of Grace Christ is formed in the Soul before the Soul rejoiceth in Christ and it is then a prepared Subject for Joy is it not And who can believe that then like a Dunghil it will be made the fuller of Stench and noisom Fumes by the Shines of Heaven on it and not like a Garden have its Spices flow forth the more
not that thou art none of his Plants because others do vastly excel thee in all Christian Vertues and out-do thee in all the Works of Righteousness One Rose upon a Bush though but a little one and though not yet blown proveth that which bears it to be a true Rose-tree Look well to thy Sincerity and to thy sincere Labour for Proficiency Then know that neither God or Men do cut down good Trees because small or despise unripe Flowers and Fruits if they be ripening A sorry Speaker may be a most excellent Wrestler Milo had not the Tongue of Cicero Moses that greater Prevailer with God was a Man of a very slow Utterance Do not say you cannot pray because you cannot speak much or well or long Praying is Wrestling with God The Heart is the Wrestler Holy Faith is the Strength of it If by Means of this Strength thy Heart be a good Wrestler though thou art ever so Tongue-tied thou wilt be a Prevailer Rhetorick goes for little in the heavenly Court but sincere Groans have a kind of Omnipotence A Mine of Gold may be a long time unknown The Heat of the Sun may make it many a Year before the Light of the Sun doth discover it It is long before the Spirit doth witness to some what he works in them A King is not the less a King for dreaming himself a Beggar Suppositio nil ponit in esse Victorious Believers are most truly so when they are not sensibly so The most bruised Reed maketh no little Melody to the Lord. Our compassionate Saviour tells his affrighted Dove when driven into the Clefts of the Rock that her Voice was sweet Cant. 2.14 The little Specks in the milky way be as real Stars as the Sun We must not argue that we are Darkness it self because we are not the most burning and shining Lights The crying Child is alive as sure as the laughing one If whatever stole away our Joy did steal away our Faith also where would Faith be found upon Earth The World and Church will be soon at an end when all shall kill that maketh to cry It doth often rain and shine together in the Heart of a Believer His Soul hath the Joy that is his Duty and shines with Grace acted in Desires and Endeavours to triumph When as yet it hath not the Joy that is the Largess of God's Bounty by which its Clouds must be chased away no but is lamenting after the Lord for it Dolet de dolore gaudet Joyfully it laments after him for it singing our renowned Gataker's most delectable Lamentations I thirst for Thirstiness I weep for Tears Well pleas'd I am to be displeased thus The only thing I fear is want of Fears Suspecting I am not Suspicious I cannot chuse but live because I die And when I am not dead how glad am I Yet when I am thus glad for sense of Pain And careful am lest careless I should be Then do I grieve for being glad again And fear lest Carelessness take care from me Amidst these restless Thoughts this Rest I find For those that rest not here there 's Rest behind And as for sinful Sorrow it self be it observed A Believer may gloriously conquer even when he is miserably conquered And he doth so when tho Sin strikes him down it cannot make him yield Positive Nolition is Conquest of Sin Of the unconsenting and out-crying Virgin over-powred by the Strength of a Ruffian God did pronounce that there was no Sin in her worthy of Death By resisting she made the Destroyer flee even then when she could not make the Defiler flee The Believer that resists is not struck down under the Wrath of God when he is struck down into the Mire of Sin Glory be to God in the highest Fight against Sin though it be upon our Knees is Conquest And therefore Lastly Rahab is in Heaven as sure as Abraham St. James saith that Dwarf in Faith was justified by it as well as this Giant And it 's sure if justified is glorified Now Whoso is wise and will observe these things they shall to their Joy understand the Loving Kindness of the Lord. My next Exhortation is §. 2. To those that have formerly sung Triumph over Death but have lost that Voice of Joy and Gladness All such are to be thus exhorted First Despise not your Loss For it 's a Loss of more than all the World is worth It 's a Loss of Heaven upon Earth A Loss that was to David as a Sword in his Bones And cannot but be grievous to a Heart that is not perfectly senseless Unto any other to joy in Christ's Love is sweeter than Life and to have that Joy taken away must be more bitter than Death Yet Secondly Despair not under this Loss You are not the first that have faln under it David lost his Joy and cried O spare me Jeremy was afraid to die Jer. 37.20 Hezekiah turned to the Wall and wept at the Tidings of Death Holy Latimer told his Ridley that sometimes he could run into a Hole for Fear A Balm in Gilead there was for them and a Physician that restored them Nor is there any reason why your Wound should be presumed to be incurable It is surely your Duty to pray for the Cure And it were a fond Conceit that you might not look for the things you are bound to pray for Thirdly Enquire how you came by your Loss Whether Pride were not swelling in you and made needful this Loss to keep you from being exalted above measure Or whether Earthly-Mindedness got not into you for as in Nature it cannot be Night till the Earth interpose between the Sun and us so I question whether ever a very dark Night fall on the Face of a Soul but by some earthly things interposing between Christ and it The Achan that is the Troubler must be stoned e're you are like to be quiet To which purpose you are to make diligent search after it Fourthly Blame not God for your Loss Justify God as David did and to your selves take all the Blame and Shame To be sure your own Sin was all the culpable Cause And this know till a Job let 's go his hard Thoughts of God and abhors himself in Dust and Ashes his Captivity is not to be turned But then it is presently turned and his Comforts be forthwith multiplied Fifthly Conceal not your Loss Hide it not from those to whom God saith Comfort ye comfort ye my People Peace and Joy are created by God but they are ministred by his Servants Whom not to consult in your Troubles is to despise And whom to despise is to despise Christ and him that sent him Sixthly Consent to God's Terms for the Repair of your Loss With a thousand Thanks go and enter a-new the Covenant of his Grace He cannot in honour make the Terms thereof any lower But if you humble you as low as the Gospel demands you will be seasonably