be the last that she shall sleep for when awaked she shall sleep no more for ever And yet is this the Body that thou thus bewailest and for this dost thou thus Night after Night break thy sleep and when she sleepeth quietly in the Lord and dreameth not of any of the things that are done in this World canst not thou rest nor sleep in thy Bed without dreaming of her that is so unconcernedly sleeping in the Bed of the Grave Let her quiet and resting Body rebuke O my Soul thy unquiet and restless thoughts Moreover consider O my Soul whose State thou hast more reason to lament and bewail thine own or the state of the Soul of thy Relation that was converted and sanctified that did repent and believe before Death made the separation betwixt thee and her or betwixt her Body and her Soul Dost thou not believe that her Soul being absent from her Body is now present with the Lord and being so is perfectly freed from all sin sorrow Temptation Inclination to sin and from a possibility of sinning and is possessed of all good filled with all Joy perfect in the Knowledge of God and Christ and in Love to and Delight in all the Persons in the to us unsearchable Trinity Whilest thou thy self art grieving groaning under the Burden of remaining sins conflicting with Satan and the Powers of Darkness clogged with the Flesh and ensnared with the Allurements and Affrightments of this evil and deluding World Thou in a state imperfect and Militant the Soul of thy Relation in a state perfect and Triumphant Is it not thy frequent Doubts and Fears whether thou lovest God and whether God loveth thee with a differencing special and peculiar Love Are they not thy often Complaints that thou hast but little Enjoyment of God and Communion with him in his Ordinances and sometimes none at all That thou seekest God but canst not see him and searchest for him but câ—nst not find him That thou goest from Meditation to Prayer from Praying to Hearing from Hearing to attending upon â—im at his Table and after all thy sorroâ—ful saying is I sought him whom my Soul loveth and longeth for I sought him but I could not find him That thy Sin had interposed betwixt thy God and thee and caused him to hide his Face from thee Were not these the Complaints also of thy Relation while with thee and didst not thou endeavour to satisfie her grieved and disconsolate Spirit by reason of Gods frequent withdrawings from her Soul and labouredst to resolve her Doubts to remove her Fears and to answer all the Objections she did make about the Sincerity of her Love to Christ And is her separated saved glorified Soul now above all these Doubts and Fears and Jealousies Is it now above Hope and Desire because possessed of what it hoped for and desired after Is it now perfectly Loving and delightfully Praising of its Lord and Saviour Is it now constantly beholding of Him and rejoycing in Him and can doubt no more and question his Love to it and its Love to Him no more for ever because it feels and is filled with the lively sense of both And dost thou sit here Mourning whilest it is eternally Rejoycing Cease sorrowing for her whose Soul is perfectly happy and triumphant and save thy Tears to bewail thine own Hazards Dangers and Sins in this Imperfect state and to pour them out before God in fervent Prayer that thou when separated from this Body mightest be received into that place of Light and Life and Love into that glorious Kingdom of the Ever-living God and all-sufficient Saviour to which her Soul is gone before and is now singing rejoycing and triumphing in But above all O my Soul why art thou troubled and disquieted most of all for what hath befallen the Body of thy dear Relation Why dost thou sit in thy Chamber where thou sawest her breathe her last Breath and give up the Ghost and â—use how thou sawest her pale and didst handle her cold Face when layd in her Coffin And while thou sittest here thy thoughts so often run unto the Grave and coâ—siderest how the Body is mouldring and consuming and turning into Rottenness and dust And while thou sayâ—st For this here is my sorrow let me ask theâ— in the mean time where is thy Faith Hast thou an Eye to see how the Body lyeth in the Grave and hast thou not another Eye to see how it shall be raised up Canst thou not look beyond the Coffin and the Grave to a joyful glorious Resurrection Wake O my Faith awake that I may firmly and steadfastly believe this great and comfortable Article of the Resurrection to Life Everlasting and joy more that it shall rise again than be cast down because it is cast into the Grave and for a while is lodged there Hast thou not O my Soul solid Foundation for thy Faith in this particular Doth not thy Lord that is infinite in Wisdom know where every one is buried or where the Body doth consume Doth not he know which Bones and Skull and Dust belong to this Body and which to that If this be knowable doth not he know it Or else is not his Knowledge limited and finite Knowledge because not extended to every thing that may be known And hath he not Almighty Power and so can do all acts of Power all things possible to be done Cannot he that made this great World and yonder larger Heavens out of Nothing out of something make these dry Bones to live Cannot he that formed the Body of Man at first of the Dust of the Ground and caused it to live New-make these Bodies tho turned into Dust Or doth this seem incredible to thee that God should raise the Dead Cannot he do what he hath done Did not he raise Lazarus and the Son of the Widow of Naim and Jairus his Daughter and himself when he had layn for a time in the Grave And as he can so hath he not declared that he will How often hath he spoken it How frequently hath he promised it Is not this the Fathers Will that sent his Son that of all that he had given him he should not lose any one but raise them up at the last Day And O my Soul dost thou not believe that the Son hath and will do the will of his Father in every point and particularly in this when he so often hath said he will raise them up at the last Day O be not Faithless but Believing and so cease thy excessive sorrowing Blessed Lord increase my Faith that my immoderate sorrow may decrease I have shewn my Unbelief by my excessive sorrow Now help me Lord to shew my Faith by my abating of my grief for my Dead because tho Dead yet shall certainly Live again Lord confirm my Faith in this That as sure as Christ is risen from the dead so surely shall my dead and all others be also raised because I read in
judge the impenitent Transgressors of his Law 2. Some understand it figuratively alluding to the manner of Men who sound a Trumpet to gather Assemblies together Num. 10.2 God spake to Moses saying make thee two Trumpets of Silver that thou mayest use them for the calling of the Assembly and for the journeying of the Camp So when the year of Jubilee came the Trumpet of the Jubilee was to sound throughout all the Land Levit. 25.9 The Day of the coming of Christ and of the raising of them that sleep in Jesus will be to all Believers their Jubilee and the Trumpet shall sound throughout all the World 3. Some conceive this last Trumpet shall be Christs own audible Voice Calling and Commanding the Dead to arise and come forth of their Graves And they give these Reasons 1. The express Letter of the Word Joh. 5.28 The Hour is coming when all that are in the Graves shall hear his Voice and shall come forth The Lord Jesus shall utter his Voice and the Dead shall hear it and come at his Call 2. In raising of particular dead ones he usually used his Voice Luk. 7.14 And he said Young Man I say unto thee arise Joh. 11.43 And he cried with a loud voice Lazarus come forth At the last day when Christ shall say Arise all ye dead arise come forth they shall all hear and come out of their Graves But others say what the Sound of the Trumpet shall be no man can tell and so do not determine whether it shall be the one or the other but say The Lord himself coming down in his visible Humanity from Heaven shall call the World together as men call Assemblies by shout by Voice or by a Trumpet so shall Christ by his unknown way called the Voice of the Archangel and the Trumpet of God But when the Trumpet is sounded and the dead are raised the holy Angels of God shall be employed concerning them For they do not only come along with Christ as his Attendants to set forth the Greatness of his Majesty as Lords and Dukes and Earls waiting upon an Earthly King but also to execute Christs Commands concerning those that shall be raised for as they did attend them at their Death and were the Convoy of their separated Souls into the place of Rest and Joy so they shall also be serviceable to them at their Restoration unto Life I. In gathering the Elect of God together They died and were buried in distant places far remote each from other some in one part of the World and some in another and lie scattered far and near but God shall use the Ministration of Angels to gather them together Mat. 24.31 And he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his Elect from the four Winds from one end of the World to the other If you have one godly Relation dieth in England and another in the East and another in the West-Indies trouble not your thoughts hereat how shall they be brought together at last if some die at one end of the World and some at another God by his Angels will find out where they were buried and bring them together Mar. 13.27 And then shall he send his Angels and shall gather his Elect together from the four Winds from the uttermost part of the Earth to the uttermost part of Heaven None shall be lost or left behind this might be a stay and support to some that are mourning for their dead Relations with this Aggravation We know not where they died nor where they were buried Thô you do not God will find them tho they died in the uttermost parts of the Earth II. In separating those that died in the Lord from those that died in their sins Wâ—â—◠〈◊〉 buried promiscuously in common Bâ—â—â—-â—â—ces where the Bodies of the Worst aâ—â— Bâ—â— are laid together sometimes in one comâ—â— Grave and in succession of time a Wiâ—â— mans body laid in the same Grave where 〈◊〉 body of a Believer before was buried 〈◊〉 these are raised together shall not thâ— one be mistaken for the other No grouâ—d of such Fears for the Angels shall 〈…〉 â—he one from the other Mat. 13.49 So sâ—â—â— it be at the end of the World the Angels shaâ—â—â—â—â—e forth and sever the wicked from among thâ—â—ast But if thoughts arise in your Hearts tho Angels be perfect in Knowledge yet it is finite they are not the Knowers and the Searchers of Hearts and how can they distinguish an Hypocrite from one that was sincere You may be fully answered That God hath wayes that we know not of to direct them in making this separation However to remove all doubting thoughts we are assured that Christ himself that is God as well as Man and knows what every Man was as surely and as easily as a Shepherd knows a Sheep from a Goat doth he know an Hypocrite from one sincere he shall see and will take care that there be not one Impenitent person among all the Company of the holy Ones and that there shall not be one sanctified Person left among the great multitudes of Impenitent sinners that stand trembling to hear the Sentence of Condemnation to be past upon them Mat. 25.31 When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the Throne of his Glory 32. And before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from his Goats Weigh all this and try what Comfort it will yield you When you hear the Sound of the Passing Bell and what others may ring on the Funeral Day the hearing of your Ear fills your Heart with Sorrow think then that the Sound of the Trumpet shall be heard for the raising of those that are lodging in the Dust and let that moderate your Grief especially when you consider your Dead heareth not the one and is not grieved at the sound thereof but He or She shall hear the other and hearing rejoyce When you see the common Bearers letting down their Corpses in a common Burial-place remember tho the Wicked were laid on every side yet when they shall be raised they shall be severed and those that slept in Jesus shall all be set at his right Hand without the mixture of one ungodly Person amongst them all And is it no Comfort to you that yours shall be amongst them III. May not the Priviledge that those that sleep in Jesus shall have above those that shall be found alive at the Coming of Christ be some alleviation of our Sorrow Why else doth the Apostle alledge it as a ground and Reason against excessive Sorrow when he designedly treats upon this Subject and doth Preface so solemnly before he delivers this Doctrine as ground of Comfort Ver. 15. For I say unto you by the Word of the Lord that which I am to say are not my words but
What do you call it Natural Sorrow Sorrow of Men as Men But where is your Christian Sorrow And the Sorrow you should have as renewed sanctified Men Or should tend by the spiritual Improvement of the Death of your Relation to make you such Should you not say Is my Child dead and my Soul not mended by its Death My Heart as hard and as worldly as before Hath God been smiting me and cannot I feel Hath God been correcting me for my Sin and cannot I yet grieve and groan weep and sorrow for my Sin Hath Death separated me and my Relation and do I sorrow for that And hath not Sin separated God and me and do not I sorrow for this Do I sit and sorrow because I shall enjoy the company of this Relation no more and have I no grief and sorrow that by my Sin I have forfeited the enjoyment of God for ever Is not God better than the Creature and the Enjoyment of God better sweeter than the Enjoyment of the Creature and the lose of God a greater and more bitter loss than the loss of my Relation And yet have I so many Tears for the loss of the lesser and not one for the loss of the greater Good Did I take the Creature for my God that I sorrow more for the loss of it than I do for the real loss of him that is indeed the only True Living and Eternal God Hath God been laying Gall and Wormwood on the Creatures Breast to wean me from the Love of this present World and do not I improve his stroke to call off my Affections from it When my Children did live I then pretended that my worldly Cares was to make Provisions for them hath God taken them away and do my worldly care still remain as much as when I had them to provide for May I not see the deceitfulness of my heart and turn my sorrow from mourning for my Dead to mourning for making no better Improvement of their Death Did I give that Love to them which was due to God and now I have not them to lâ—ve should not God have my love and more of it Did I place so much comfort in their Life and should not I seek my comforts now from God when I find my Creature-comforts thus do fail me Did I take delight in conversing with them and now that delight is ceased and gone should not I improve this disappointment in seeking and endeavouring after and labouring for more Communion with God And if I cannot find this Affliction sanctified to me should not I sorrow less for the loss of my Relation and cease mourning so much as I am a Man and turn my mourning into sorrowing far want of an holy Improvement of my loss and at lost begin to sorrow as a Christian man in this case should sorrow 5. When you sorrow more for their Death than that you are yet so much unprepared for your own And that you have improved your time and means of Grace no more to get ready for Death and Judgment after Death and Heaven after Judgment Your Father or Mother Husband or Wife died with well-grounded hopes of Heaven on their Dying-bed conquered the Fears of Death and rejoyced in the hope of the Glory of God expressed their thankfulness to God that they had had that Communion with God the experience whereof did so much then delight them that they would not have been without for all the Riches of the World And you are yet under doubts and fears afraid to think of Death because you do not know whether then you shall be damned or saved because you cannot tell whether you have believed or repented and yet you sorrow for them as men go sorrow because of your own Fears and Dangers you are in 6. When you sorrow more for your own loss than you do for your discontent and impatient murmuring at the Hand of God because of your loss and do not sorrow for your excessive Sorrow Natural Sorrow when it is vitiated with the acting of corrupt Nature will soon work up to discontent and impatience to repining and harbouring of hard thoughts and sometimes blasphemous Thoughts against the blessed glorious God If God did love me why hath he dealt thus with me If he had a kindness for me why hath he taken his kindness from me If God govern the World by his Wisdom why doth he take away those that are a comfort to their Relations and continue those that are a cross and a curse and a plague unto them Forbear say no more think no more these Thoughts but if in your Sorrow you have such things unworthy of God arising in your mind cease sorrowing for your Dead and speedily begin and hold on to lament and bitterly bewail such abominable Motions in your hearts and spare your Tears to mourn for this great Wickedness and pray That these Thoughts of your heart may be forgiven you For should God's afflicting hand lay you down at his Foot and doth your corrupt heart let fly such sinful Actings in his Face Or will you mourn for your Affliction by the Instigation of natural Affection as a Man and not at all grieve and groan sigh and sob lament and bewail the Exorbitancy of your Passion tho it work to so great a Provocation of a Just and Powerful God and by such discontent risen to such an height shew your self a corrupt Man and by not sorrowing for these sinful workings of heart shew your self to be no Religious Man 7. When you sorrow more for your outward worldly loss by the Death of your Relation than you do for your distrust in the Promises and Providence of God to provide for you A Wife had a dependency upon her Husband and Children on their Father under God He dies and their trust in God dieth with him What shall we do now for a maintenance For supply of our wants Who shall give us Bread to eat and Raiment to put on Is not this to mourn more like an Heathen than a Christian Can God provide for you no way but one By no other means than by him that was an Husband or a Father to you You are short in your Christian Sorrow while you are excessive in your Turbulent Sorrow 8. When you sorrow more for the dead Body of your Relation than you do for the want of greater Faith and Hope and quieting thoughts of a joyful Resurrection which should be the Fruit of that Faith and Hope You see the dead Corps in the Coffin laid in the Grave thither your Thoughts run daily when you do not to mourn over them in the Grave fixing your thoughts how they putrify and rot how they consume and moulder away and this pierceth your heart But you do not meditate as one that believes they shall live again and be glorious Bodies and in this your sorrow is defective as you are a Christian CHAP. VII The Second Doctrine and the general Method propounded