was great upon the earth and if it prepared for that great destruction of the universal deluge Should men live now but to the age of three hundred or four hundred years I fear it would so tempt them to over-value the world and so embolden them to delay repentance that one would be as a Wolf to another and the weak but be a prey to the strong and wickedness would overwhelm the world despising the reins and bearing down Religious and Civil opposition But when we stand over the grave and see our friends laid in the dust how mortified do we seem how do we even shake the head at the folly of ambitious and covetous worldlings and are ashamed to think of fleshly lusts So far are men from owning their vanities when that silent teacher standeth by It is Death that helps to humble the proud and abate the arrogancy and obstinacy of the wicked and make them regard the messengers of Christ that before despised them and their message It is Death that allayeth the ebullition of destracting thoughts and passions and helpeth to bring men to themselves and fixeth giddy discomposed minds and helps to settle the light and the unsettled and to restrain the worst As we are beholden to the Gallows for our purses and our lives so are we to the grave and hell for much of the order that is in the world and our peace and freedom procured thereby But it is a greater good that it procureth to believers If you ask How is all this to be ascribed to Christ I answer many wayes 1. It is he that hath now the Keys or power of Death and Hell even he that liveth and was dead and that liveth for evermore Rev. 1. 18. and therefore is to be feared by the world 2. It is he that hath by his Blood and Covenant brought us the Hope of Everlasting life which is it that gives the efficacy to Death Without this men would be but desperate and think that it is better have a little pleasure than none at all and so would give up themselves to sin and desperately gratifie their flesh by all the wickedness they could devise 3. And it ls Christ that teacheth men the right use of Death by his holy Doctrine having brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel 4. And it is Christ that sendeth forth the holy Spirit which only doth so illuminate the mind and quicken and dispose the heart that Death may be savingly improved The poyson is our own but it is his skill and love that hath made a Soveraign Antidote of it And let our bodies dye so our sin may dye If the foresight of Death destroy our sin and further our sanctification and the hour of Death doth end our fears and enter us into the state of glory though we will love Death as Death never the better for this much less the sin that caused it yet must we admire the love of our Redeemer And it is not only the Peril but also the Terrous of Death that we are in part delivered from Though Christ himself was in a bloody sweat in his Agony before his death and cryed out on the Cross My God why hast thou forsaken me because he bore the sins of the world yet Death is welcome to many of his followers that drink of his cup and are baptized with his Baptism For they taste not of these dreggs which he drunk up and they are strengthned by his supporting grace He that doth comfort them against sin and Hell doth also comfort them against Death So great is the glory that he hath promised them and so great is his comforting confirming grace that dreadful Death is not great enough to prevail against them As it was too weak to conquer Christ so is it too weak to conquer his Spirit in his peoples souls Without Christ we could not live and we durst not die but through him we can do and suffer all things and can boldly pass through this dark and shady vail of death yea we can desire to depart and to be with Christ as best for us for to Live is Christ and to die is gain Phil. 1. 21 23. For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens And therefore sometimes we can earnestly groan desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven And we are alwayes confident knowing that whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and therefore labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him For we walk by faith and not by sight and it is God that hath wrought us for the self same thing who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit 2 Cor. 5. 1 to 10. Though we long not to dye yet we long to see the face of God And though we lay down our bodies with natural unwillingness yet we lay down our sin and sorrows with gladness and spiritual delight And though our hearts are ready to faint as Peter's when he walked to Christ upon the waters yet Christ puts forth his hand of love and soon recovereth us from our fear and danger Melancholy and Impatience may make men weary of their lives and rush upon Death with a false conceit that it will end their sorrows But this is not to conquer Death but to be conquered by a lesser evil and it is not an effect of fortitude but of an imbecillity and impotency of mind And if a Brutus a Cato or a Seneca be his own Executioner they do but chuse a lesser evil in their conceits even a Death which they accounted honourable before a more ignominious Death or a Life of shame and scorn and misery But the true believer is raised above the fears of Death by the love of God and the hopes of Glory and Death though ungrateful in it self is welcome to him as the way to his felicity Let Tyrants and Souldiers take it for their glory that they can take away mens lives that is they have the power of a Serpent or of Rats-bane as if it were their honour to be their Countries pestilence and a Ruler and a Dose of Poyson were things of equal strength and use But it is the Glory of Christ to enable his Disciples to conquer Death and bear the fury of the most cruel persecutors The Martyrs have been more joyful in their sufferings than the Judges that condemned them in their Pomp and Glory When we are pressed above strength and despair of life and have the sentence of Death in our selves we are then taught to trust in the Living God that raiseth the dead 2 Cor. 1. 8 9 10. the saints by faith have been tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection
and live not in a wounded state The face of Death will waken conscience and cause it to speak much lowder than it did in health and in prosperity And then sin will seem another thing and wrath more terrible than it did in your security Conscience will do much to make your burden light or heavy If Conscience groundedly speak peace and all be sound and well at home Death will be less terrible the heart being fortified against its enmity But to have a pained body and a pained soul a dying body and a scorched Conscience that is afraid of everlasting Death this is a terrible case indeed Speedily therefore get rid of sin and get your Consciences throughly cleansed by sound repentance and the blood of Christ For so much sin as you bring to your death-bed so much bitterness will there be in Death Away then with that sin that Conscience tells you of and touch the forbidden fruit no more and kindle not the sparks of Hell in your souls to make the sting of Death more venemous As it will quiet a believing soul through Christ when he can say with Hezekiah Isa 38. 3. Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and it will be our rejoycing if we have the testimony of our Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world 2 Cor. 1. 12. So will it be most terrible to dye in the fears of unpardoned sin and to have Conscience scourging us with the remembrance of our folly when God is afflicting us and we have need of a well-composed mind to bear the troubles of our flesh A little from without is grievous when any thing is amiss within Get home therefore to Christ without delay and cease not till you have peace in him that Death may find your Consciences whole DIRECTION VI. REdeeming time is another means to prevent the hurtful fears of Death When we foreknow that it will shortly end our time let us make the best of time while we have it And then when we find that our work is done and that we did not loyter nor lose the time that God vouchsafed us the end of it will be less grievous to us A man that studieth his duty and spareth for no cost or pains and is as loath to lose an hours time as a covetous man is to lose an hundred pound will look back on his life and look before him to his Death with greater peace and less perplexity than another man But the thoughts of Death must needs be terrible to a man that hath trifled away his life and been an unthrift of his time To think when you must dye that now you are at your last day or hour and withall to think how many hours you vainly lost and that you knew not the worth of time till it was gone will make Death more bitter than now you can imagine What else is Deaah but the ending of our Time and what can be more necessary to a comfortable end then faithfully to use it while we have it DIRECTION VII ANother help against the Enmity of Death is the Crucifying of the flesh with its affections and lusts and the conquest of the world by the life of faith and crucifying it by the Cross of Christ and dying daily by the patient suffering of the Cross our selves When we are loose from all things under the Sun and there is nothing that entangleth our affections on earth a great part of the difficulty is then removed But Death will tear the heart that is glued to any thing in this world Possess therefore as if you possessed not and rejoyce as if you rejoyced not and use the world as not abusingit for the fashion of this world doth pass away 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. It is much for the sake of our flesh that must perish that Death doth seem so bitter to us If therefore we can throughly subdue the flesh and live above its pleasure and desires we shall the more easily bear its dissolution Shut up your senses then a little more and let your hearts grow stranger to this world and if you have known any persons relations accomodations after the flesh from henceforth know them so no more How terrible is Death to an earthly-minded man that had neglected his soul for a treasure here which must then be dissipated in a moment How easie is Death to a heavenly-mind that is throughly weaned from this world and taketh it but for his pilgrimage or passage unto life and it hath made it the business of his dayes to lay up for himself a treasure in Heaven He that hath unfeignedly made Heaven his end in the course of his life will most readily pass to it on the hardest terms For every man is willing to attain his end DIRECTION VI. IT will much help us against the enmity of Death to be duly conformed to the Image of God in the hatred of sin and love of holiness and in special in the point of Justice When we hate sin throughly and find it so incorporated into our flesh that they must live and dye together it will make Death the more easie to us because it will be the dath of sin even of that sin which we most hate and that God hateth and that hath cost us so dear as it hath done When we are in love with holiness and know that we shall never be perfect in it till after Death it will make Death the more welcome as the passage to our desired life When the Justice even the castigatory and vindictive Justice of God is more amiable in our eyes and we are not blinded by self-love to judge of God and of his wayes according to the interest of our flesh we shall then consent to his dissolving stroke and that see the bitterness of Death proceedeth from that which is good in God though from that which is evil in our selves Doubtless as Justice is one of the blessed Attributes of God so should it be amiable to man there being nothing in God but what is lovely It is the prevalency of self-love that makes men so insensible of the excellency of Divine Justice while they speak so respectfully of his mercy So far as men are carnal and selfish they cannot love that by which they smart or of which they are in danger But the soul that is got above it self and is united unto God in Christ and hath that Image of God which containeth the impress and effect of all his Attributes hath such an habit of impartial justice in himself and such a hatred of sin and such a desire that the honour of God should be vindicated and maintained and such an approbation of the Justice of God that he can the more easily consent or submit to the dissolving stroke of Death He hateth his own sin
what it is that sin hath done and consequently how vile and odious it is and how we should esteem and use it Sin hath not only forfeited our Happiness but laid those impediments in the way of our recovery which will find us work and cause our danger and sorrow while we live And Death is not the least of these impediments O foolish man that still will love such a mortal Enemy If another would rob them but of a groat or defame them or deprive them of any accommodation how easily can they hate them and how hardly are they reconciled to them But sin depriveth them of their lives and separates the soul and body asunder and forfeiteth their everlasting happiness and sets death betwixt them and the Glory that is purchased by Christ and yet they love it and will not leave it Though God have made them and do sustain them and provide for them and all their hope and help is in him they are not so easily drawn to love him And yet they can love the sin that would undo them Though Christ would deliver them and bring them to everlasting blessedness and hath assumed flesh and laid down his life to testifie his Love to them yet are they not easily brought to love him but the sin that made them enemies to God and hath brought them so near to everlasting misery this they can love that deserves no love A Minister or other friend that would draw them from their sin to God and help to save them they quarrel against as if he were their enemy but their foolish companions that can laugh and jest with them at the door of Hell and clap them on the back and drive away the care of their salvation and harden them against the fear of God these are the only acceptable men to them O Christians leave this folly to the world and do you judge of sin by its sad effects You feel if you have any feeling in you in some measure what it hath done against your Souls The weakness of your faith and love the distance of your hearts from God your doubts and troubles tell you that it is not your friend You must shortly know what it will do to your bodies As it keeps them in pain and weariness and weakness so it will ere long deliver them up to the jaws of death which will spare them no more then the beasts that perish Had it not been for sin we should have had no cause to fear a dissolution nor have we had any use for a coffin or a winding-sheet nor been beholden to a grave to hide our carkasses from the sight and smell of the living But as Henoch and Elias were translated when they had walked with God even so should we as those shall that are alive and remain at the coming of Christ shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall they ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 17. Use sin therefore as it will use you Spare it not for it will not spare you It is your murderer and the murderer of the world Use it therefore as a Murderer should be used Kill it before it kills you and then though it kill your bodies it shall not be able to kill your souls and though it bring you to the grave as it did your Head it shall not be able to keep you there If the thoughts of death and the grave and rottenness be not pleasant to you let not the thoughts of sin be pleasant Hearken to every temptation to sin as you would hearken to a temptation to self-murder And as you would do if the Devil brought you a knife and tempted you to cut your throat with it so do when he offereth you the bait of sin You love not Death Love not the cause of Death Be ashamed to stand weeping over a buried friend and never to weep over a sinning or ungodly friend nor once to give them a compassionate earnest exhortation to save their Souls Is it nothing to be dead in sins and trespasses Ephes 2. 1 5. Col. 2. 13. Yea it is a worse Death than this that is the wages of sin and the fruit which it brings forth Rom. 6. 21 23. and 7. 5. Surely God would never thus use mens bodies and forsake them soul and body for ever if sin were not a most odious thing What a poyson is this that kills so many millions and damneth so many millions and cannot be cured but by the blood of Christ that killed our Physician that never tasted it because he came so near to us O unbelieving stupid souls that smart and sin and groan and sin and weep and lament our bodily sufferings and yet sin still that fear a grave and fear not sin that have heard and seen and felt so much of the sad effects and yet sin still Psal 78. 32. Alas that murderers should be so common and that we should be no wiser when we have paid so dear a price for wisdom SECT V. Use 3. FROM the Enmity of Death we may further learn that Man hath now a need of Grace for such exceeding difficulties which were not before him in his state of innocency Though Adam was able to have obeyed perfectly without sin and had Grace sufficient to have upheld him and conquered temptations if he had done his part which by that Grace he might have done yet whether that Grace was sufficient to the works that we are called to is a doubt that many have been much troubled with It is certain that he was able to have done any thing that was suitable to his present state if it were commanded him And it is certain that much that is now our duty would have been unsuitable to his state But whether it belonged to his perfection to be able and fit for such duties that were then unsuitable to him on supposition they had been suitable and duties this is the difficulty which some make use of to prove that such works cannot now be required of us without suitable help because we lost no such grace in Adam But this need not trouble us For 1 Though Adam was put on no such difficulty in particular as to encounter death yet the perfect obedience to the whole Law required a great degree of internal Habitual holiness and to determine the case Whether our particular difficulties or his sinless perfect obedience required greater strength and help is a matter of more difficulty then use For 2. It is but about the Degrees of Holiness in him and us and not about the Kind that the difficulty lyeth For it is the same End that he was created for and disposed to by Nature and that we are redeemed for and disposed to supernaturally But yet it is worthy our observation what a difficulty sin hath cast before us in the way of life which Adam was unacquainted with that so we may see the nature of our works
and follow Christ so heavily and sadly into life But all this is long of the enemies that now molest our peace Indwelling sin and a flattering world and a brutish flesh and interposing death are our discouragements that drive us back But all these enemies shall shortly be overcome Fear not Death then let it do its worst It can give thee but one deadly gripe that shall kill it self and prove thy life as the Wasp that leaves its sting behind and can sting no more It shall but snuff the Candle of thy life and make it shine brighter when it seems to be put out It is but an undressing and a gentle sleep That which thou couldst not here attain by all our preaching and all thy prayers and cares and pains thou shalt speedily attain by the help of death It is but the messenger of thy gracious Lord and calleth thee to him to the place that he hath prepared Hearken not now to the great Deceiver that would draw thee to unbelief and cause thee to stagger at the promises of God when thou hast followed him so far and they are near to the full performance Believe it as sure as thou believest that the Sun doth shine upon thee that God cannot lye he is no Deceiver it was his meer love and bounty that caused him to make the promises when he had no need for himself to make them and shall he be then unfaithful and not fulfil the promises which he hath freely made Believe it faith is no delusion It may be folly to trust man but it is worse than folly not to trust God Believe it Heaven is not a shadow nor the life of faith and holiness a dream These sensible things have least reality These grosser substances are most drossy delusory and base God is a Spirit who is the prime Being and the cause of all created Beings And the Angels and other celestial Inhabitants that are nearest to him are furthest from corporeity and are spirits likest unto God The further any thing is from spirituality the further from that excellency and perfection which the creatures nearest God partake of The earth is baser than the air and fire The drossy flesh is baser than the soul And this lumpish dirty visible world is incomparably below that spiritual world which we believe and wait for And though thy conceptions of spirits and the spiritual world are low and dark and much unsatisfying remember still that thy head is there and it belongeth to him to know what thou shalt be till thou art fit to know it which will not be till thou art fit to enjoy it Be satisfied that thy Father is in Heaven and that thy Lord is there and that the Spirit that hath been so long at work within thee preparing thee for it dwelleth there And let it suffice thee that Christ knoweth what he will do with thee and how he will employ thee to all eternity And thou shalt very shortly see his face and in his light thou shalt behold that light that shall fully satisfie thee and shame all thy present doubts and fears and if there were shame in Heaven would shame thee for them Use 9. FRom the Enmity of Death and the necessity of a Conquest we may see what a wonderful mercy the Resurrection of Christ himself was to the Church and what use we should make of it for the strengthening of our Faith It was not only impossible to man to conquer Death by his own strength and therefore it must be conquered by Christ but it was also beyond out power to believe it that ever the dead should rise to life if Christ had not risen as the first fruits and convinced man by eye-sight or certain testimony that the thing is possible and already done But now what a pillar is here for faith What a word of Hope and Joy is this that Christ is risen With this we will answer a thousand Cavi's of the Tempter and stop the mouth of the enemies of our faith and profligate our infidelity As unlikely as it seems to flesh and blood shall we ever doubt whether we shall rise again when the Lord came down in flesh among us that he might die and rise again himself to shew us as to our faces that we shall rise This is the very Gospel which we preach and by which we must be saved that Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures and was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures and that he was seen of Cephas then of the Twelve and after that he was seen of above five hundred Brethren at once of whom the greater part remained alive when Paul wrote this who was the last that saw him 1 Cor. 15. 1 2 3 4 5 6. Read over this Chapter again and again where our Resurrection is proved by the Resurrection of Christ No wonder therefore that the Church in all ages ever since the very day of Christs Resurrection hath kept the first day of the week as a holy festival in remembrance of it wherein though they commemorated the whole work of our Redemption yet was it from the Resurrection as the most glorious part that the Spirit of Christ did chuse the day This hath been the joyful day to the Church this 1625 years or thereabouts in which the ancient Christians would assemble themselves together saluting one another with this joyful word The Lord is risen And this is the day that the Lord hath blessed with the New-birth and resurrection of millions of souls So that it is most probable that all the six dayes of the week have not begot half so many souls for Heaven as this blessed day of the Lords Resurrection hath done Let Infidels then despise it that believe not Christs Resurrection but let it still be the Churches joyful day This was the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made we will be glad and rejoyce therein Psal 118. 23 24. In it Let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to him with Psalms Psal 95. 1 2. Every day let us Remember the Lords Resurrection but on this day let the joyful commemoration of it be our work We may see by the witness of the Apostles and their frequent preaching the Resurrection of Christ as if it were the summ of all the Gospel that this is a point that Faith must especially build and feed upon and that we must make the matter of our most frequent meditations Oh what vigour it addeth to our faith when we are encountred by the sight of Death and of a grave to remember seriously that Christ is risen Did he take flesh purposely that he might dye and rise and shew us how he will raise his members and will he after all this break his