time Balaam through fear of God displeases and angers Balak because he will not disobey God and curse his people And Peter at the voice of a soâ—râ— Damsel denies his Master Christ yea with swearing and cursing himself disowns him yet both being overborn by fear neither of their actings are reckoned to them Not Balaamâ— for good because it was not out of love to God and his people that he blest them but out of fear and constraint he durst do no otherwise Nor Peter's for evil for it was not out of hatred or ill will to his Master but meerly as one overborn by fear and therefore also they both repented them as it appears for he that acts but out of fear when that fear is over will recoyle and not endure to the end Balaam it seems looking back to that honour he deprived himself of though he durst not curse Israel yet gave bad counsel against them and therein spake and did beyond what God bade him as is evident in Numb 31.16 Rev. 2.14 having an eye therein to the reward or wages of unrighteousness as is said 2 Pet. 2.15 16. Jud. 11. and Peter when Christ looked back upon him looking back upon the disservice done his Master went out and wept bitterly and afterwards boldly confessed him Act. 4.10 11 12. Luc. 22.62 so that it s not good to be hasty to judge good or evil of men by some present actings but the end is to be attended But besides those effects in and upon Balaam before mentioned what excellent rapture had he and what excellent things speaks he of Israel whereas many an honest heart can speak little of or for God and Christ or the priviledges of his people and may never meet with a trance or rapture all their dayes but go mourning and are afflicted from their youth up as Heman saith of himself Psal 88.15 How various herein are Gods dealings with men how unsearchable his judgments and his wayes are past finding out But why this surely 1. To instruct us not to rest in desires wishes fear of offending God and incurring his displeasure resolutions and such like operations as sure evidences of our good estates or conditions with God or as things that so accompany salvation as that we perswade our selves we cannot therefore miss of it because such things be found in us for these are insufficient to justifie us or declare us to be righteous Men may have these and not be in Christ out of whom we have not life whatever we may have by and through him either dispensed to us or wrought in us Balaam had these and yet was a wicked man and perished in his wickedness Had he indeed followed on through this desire to seek to know the God of Israel and to be made one with Israel and so to have been brought in to Christ that he might have had his hope and rejoycing in him and been renewed by him he might have done well and become a good man He had advantage given him for that and something effected of tendency to that but not heartily yeilding up to it but looking back to the wages of unrighteousness that were in his eye all his fruit was blasted and withered like grass upon the house top his desires languished and brought not forth an hearty effectual endeavour after what was desired and his resolutions were lost while his subtlety undermined what his fear had led him to namely his blessing of Israel And all his raptures and visions were but like to flashes of lightning in a dark Night which though at present they make all things in the Room visible yet are presently gone again and leave the Room as dark or darker than they found it not like the morning light that abides and encreases more and more unto the perfect day as the way of the the upright is Prov. 4.18 It s the being in Christ and so of the Circumcision and Israel of God the worshipping God in spirit and truth rejoycing in Christ Jesus and having no confidence or glorying in the flesh which renders us of the blessed people and in a happy condition Philip. 3.3 not the being inlightned into and having abilities to discourse of them and their excellencies nor our having bare desires and some languid wishes and endeavours to dye like them and have share with them 2. To instruct us not to take up in raptures revelations Aliqui donâ—… Spiâ—…tu Sancti â—…er meritâ—…m sed peâ—…fâ—…us fortiâ—…tur sicut sunt prophetiâ— cuâ—t â—…es c. â—…nc est quod Balaam pâ—pulo Dei beneâ—… c. Beâ—n in â—oen Dom. excellency of knowledge expressions c. seeing these may be where the heart is not right not subdued to be of the Israel of God It is not every one that hath such visions raptures trances much less none but they that shall inherit the Kingdom and enjoy the blessing but every one that hears the Word of God and doth it though he never meet with any such things all his dayes Men may have such things and be hurt by them thence the Apostle tells us it was doubtless not expedient for him to glory in such things yea that God was pleased to give him a Thorn in the flesh a Messenger of Satan to buffet him to prevent the hurt he was in danger to fall into by them 2 Cor. 12.7.8 Lest I should saith he be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given me a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet me left I should be exalted above measure He goes twice over with it to signifie the certainty and greatness of the danger of it and the great care and faithfulness of Christ to prevent it these therefore are not the things to be so much gloryed in much less rested and relyed upon but rather and only the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ even the knowledge of Christ and of him Crucifyed Gal. 6.14 1 Cor. 22. But I pass on and come 2. To consider the matter of the Text in particular the thing desired Let me or my soul dye the death of the Righteous or upright ones and let my latter end be like his Wherein These truths are contained seen and confessed by Balaam That Obs 1 death is common both to righteous and wicked ones and they have both a latter end an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or after part Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my latter end be like His. That Obs 2 there is a very desirable excellency in the Death and latter end of the righteous above that of other men especially the wicked such as even wicked men that care not to live their life and to have their beginning and progress yet desire to have their death and latter end like theirs These are both of them truths and never the less truths for coming out of Balaams mouth but rather the more evident and observeable truths because confessed by Balaam also
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
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
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
for that went to the grave but of the spirit which Paul proved either out of the body or in the body he knew not whether to be wrapt up into the third Heavens or into Paradise while he was not yet taken away by death but survived many years after 2 Cor. 12.6 7. otherwise called Abrahams Bosom Luke 16.22 Or to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 Or else to be disposed of to prison or a state of hell and doleful misery 1 Pet. 3.20 Luke 16.23 Yea and beside this men after bodily death differ from the beasts also in that 2. There shall be a state of Resurrection unto them when the dead and deceased shall both in body and spirit reunited be brought to a living state in union together as the Scriptures abundantly testifie a Resurrection both of the just and unjust Act. 24.15 For all that are in the grave whether good or bad righteous or wicked shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth saith our Lord Jesus himself John 5.28 Yea the Sea shall give up her dead and Death and Hell shall give up the dead in them Rev. 20.13 And this in order to their being all brought before him as the Great and Soveraign Lord and Judge of all bath quick and dead For 3. There shall be a state of Judgement wherein all men being raised from the dead shall be brought to appear before the Tribunal or Judgement-seat of Christ to give account of themselves to him and receive of him rewards according to the things done in the body by them whether good or evil and then shall properly be the reward full recompence and end of every man good or bad according to his works 2 Cor. 5.10 Rom. 2.11.16 14.9 10. in which both they that have done good and they that have done evil shall be everlastingly disposed of by Jesus Christ in a way of infinite equity and righteousness therefore also it is called both The righteous Judgement of God Rom. 2.5 6. because of his righteousness in judging and disposing rewards and recompences and the eternal Judgement Heb. 6.2 because of the lastingness of that Judgement as to the rewards and recompences therein ordered and the state of man according to it that shall succeed and follow upon it And all these three may be included here in the latter end The grounds of this latter end Now that there shall be such a latter or after-part or end for men good and bad stands as upon the will and pleasure of God so upon that as manifested in Christ Jesus and his undertakings and performances I cannot say that if he had not come in the flesh and dyed for us there should have been nothing to man after death but an annihilation being made both in soul and body like the beasts that perish What manner of death or dying man must have sustained with the curse in it I cannot say but doubtless it would have been very miserable and what the state of the soul would have been after it is not expressed Something of it may be conjectured if not certainly known from the agonies in Death and the Hell into which Christ descended at or upon his Death in which his soul was not left in hell yet that it came into it is there implyed in that it is said it was not left in it as ours must have been had not his come into it or had it been left in it And what is writ in Psalm 18.4 5. 116.3 4. is applicable to Christ The sorrows of death compassed me about and the pains or pangs of hell took hold upon me I found wo and sorrow But sure it is that the after-state of man should not have been the same as now it will For as by Man came death so by Man also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die so in Christ all shall be made alive 1 Cor. 15.21 22. It is by vertue of Christs having been made flesh for us and suffering in the flesh for us the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God therein giving himself a ransom or price of redemption for all and by Death destroying Death and him that had the power of Death the Devil and so buying us all into his own Lordship and dispose and being filled with the fulness of the Spirit and Power of God and so made a quickning Spirit able by his Word and Spirit both to quicken dead souls that listen to him and hear his voice and to quicken and raise up dead bodies too that he is become the Resurrection and the Life and so having abolished death will raise up and revive all men from under the Sentence and Judgement of it and present them before himself to be judged by him as their proper Lord and Savior to whom they owe their life and ought to have lived and by whom they should have sought for salvation looking to him for it as in whom alone there is righteousness strength and salvation for them 1 Pet. 3.18 1 Tim. 2.6 Heb. 2.9 14. 2 Tim. 1.10 1 Cor. 15.45 John 5.21 22 26 28. 11. 25 26. 2 Cor. 5.10.14 15. Isa 45.22 23 24. Acts 4.11 12. Yea the dispose of men by him both in the state of death and separation of soul from body and in the state of resurrection depend upon and springs from his being Lord and Judge both of quick and dead through his having died risen and revived Acts 10.40.42 43. Rom. 14.9 10 12. that he may be honored and glorified in all and so the Father in him and to that purpose that his power wisdom mercy justice holiness love and other glorious Attributes might be most brightly displayed and glorified and he be admired in all his Saints c. Philip. 1.10 11. Isa 49.4 5. 2 Thes 1.8 9 10. for the greatness of his power will be gloriously displayed in his raising all and bringing them before him and executing Judgment on them His wisdom justice mercy goodness love and holiness c. in the final sentencing and disposing of them and in all the vertuousness and preciousness of his cross blood and sacrifice with God for men As Lord and Judge of the Dead it appertains to him and he will dispose of the dead and take care of them that none of them be lost as to their bodies but that they be forth coming and raised up by him at the last day John 6.38 39. and of their spirits that they be disposed of to Paradise or prison to Heaven with Christ or to hell torments till the last day as is noted before And as Lord and Judge of the living it appertains to him to and he doth order and dispose of all here in this life as he sees good And when he pleases puts an end to the lives both of good and bad and being raised again give them their rewards according to their works in equity and righteousness For which that there
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
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
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
the services and carry through all the sufferings he calls to Thence those frequent expressions of respect to the reward had and exercised by the Saints as the Patriarchs Heb. 11.9 10 13 14 15 16. Moses Vers 25.26 27. the Apostles 2 Cor. 4.12 14 16 17 18. and 5.1 Philip. 3.12 14. Yea Christ himself as man Heb. 12.2 and the frequent mention and proposal of it to others to animate and hearten them on as in 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Cor. 6.17 18. with 7.1 Heb. 6.10 11 12 13. and 10.35 36 37. Rev. 2. and 3. and God is just to perform his bargaine having given also an earnest of it to his servants Eph. 1 13 14. Such the grounds and reasons of this so happy a Death and after-state which yet we have hitherto considered only absolutely it will be yet more manifest contraries being set off and illustrated the more by their contraries to be desirable if we veiw the contrary condition of the Death and after-part of the unrighteous and wicked The after-part or latter end of the wicked and so veiw it Comparatively Comparing it with the portion of the wicked and see how it excels that But who can express either of them to the life either the excellency of the End of the righteous or the misery of the End of the ungodly and wicked the Psalmist tells us The End of the transgressors shall be cut off Psal 37.38 Eli tells his Sons it will be bitterness in the End 1 Sam. 2.26 Yea the Apostle Peter implies it to be inexpressible bitterness bitterer than wormwood as is said of the End of the whorish woman Prov. 5.3 4. when he saith what shall the End be of those that obey not the Gospel as wanting words to express the bitterness and badness of it 1 Pet. 4.17 18. We might shew it to be in all things contrary to the End of the righteous or upright both as to their state in dying and as to their after-state both in the time of their being dead and in and after their Resurrection But I shall but hint at it because I would not be too tedious And so In Death 1. Whereas Death to the righteous is an End to all their miseries sorrows and troubles on the contrary Death to the wicked is an End to all their good Thou in the life time saith Abraham to the rich man received'st thy good things Quis sâ—it an adjâ—nt hodicâ—nae crastina sumâ—ae Tempora Dii superiâ— Hor. Luc. 16.25 All in this life time nothing after and alas this life time is very short and uncertaine very momentany and hidden at all times as to the length and duration of it in continual dangers and jeopardies of being cut off It s so in Gods hand that he can cut it off as a weaver his thred when he will and that 's very easily So that their good is as Job saith not in their hand Isa 38.12 Job 21. 16. and that very consideration takes off exceedingly from the sweetness of their present portion that they know not how soon or suddenly they shall loose it all but loose it all it is certain and they cannot but know it they must for the living know that they must die and they see wise men even those that are wisest for this world die also and the bruitish and foolish persons perish and leave their wealth their houses and lands and so all the comforts they have here to others Psal 49.10 Yea and besides the knowledge of the uncertainty of the good things they have here there is a deal of mixture of vanity and vexation of spirit with them very frequently but what ever good or sweet they have with that mixture Death when it comes sweeps it all away their silver gold houses lands wives children pleasures honors gay cloths dainâ—y fare c. Yea though Crowns and Kingdoms all goes at Death and then they must have no more good for ever Were there nothing else to be said of their portion or after-part but that in their death they loose and part with all comfort for ever and have no more any good thing befal them it were enough to render their part and lot very inconsiderable and despicable Yea though it might be had in the amplest surest manner here and for many yeares continuance in comparison of that of the righteous But alas this is but the least piece of its worthlesness and wretchedness For 2. Death is the inlet to them to infinite and endless miseries for they die out of Christ and have no share in him or in the blessings in him and so they are accursed both in soul and body It s true the body as we said before may be more honorably interred than the righteous mans but yet it s the body of a wicked man that hath no part in Christ and therefore dies in his sins which are all chargeable upon him both soul and body and the punnishment hangs over him and begins now to seize upon him Being not in Christ he is not in Gods favor and acceptance nor under any promise of any good mercy or blessing but under all the threatnings of curse and misery his hope is perished what ever he had in the world it s gone with the world and if he had any hope in God upon account of his birth parentage profession works goodness in his own eyes it s blown all away with his breath which he breathed our when he gave up the ghost If he plead it in the resurrection it will not stand Math. 7.22 23. there is no hope for him of any good for ever his body is reserved in the grave against the day of evil and vengeance and shall then be brought forth from it there being no darkness or shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves from punishment Job 34.22 So that their bodies are in far worse case than the bodies of the beasts and his spirit is disposed of by God to a restless unquiet miserable case like that of the damned spirits or evil Angels that are as it were prisoners in chaines of perpetual darkness reserved to the Judgment of the great Day 1. Pet. 3.19 20. and 2 Pet. 2.4 And then 3. Their resurrection and raised state is still worse than their death and dead-state for as that is not in the first resurrection In and after the Resurrection the resurrection of the just on the raised wherein the second Death shall have no power Luc. 14.14 Rev. 20.5 6. so when it comes it s not as of Christs members and by his spirit in dwelling in them but by his terrible and powerful voice forcing them will they nill they out of their graves and several receptacles to appear before him as their dreadful angry and impartial Judge in bodies indeed immortal and uncapable of dying any more as to a dissolution of them and separation of them from their souls as before which will be 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
the son of Beor answered unto Balak That they might know the righteousness of the Lord. That is his faithfulness to his people Mich. 6.5 So Sauls prophecying was that David might escape him Vse And this commends the goodness of the Lord both as he is the Savior of all men and as especially of those that believe though it condemn the badness of men that abuse his goodness who could not abuse his goodness were he not so good to them and would not abuse it and rest short of his gracious good end in extending it if they were not so bad 2. It instructs us as not to receive every word that good men may say for sin and corruption in them and Satan getting advantage thereby may sometime mis-lead them to speak amiss as Peter to our Lord in Math. 16.23 〈…〉 Whence the Apostle next to his direction Not to despise prophecying adds Try all things and hold fast that that is good And thence also good men sometime un-say what they have foresaid and vary from it as Austin had his Book of Retractations So also not to reject all that may be said by evil men because evil men at least not to reject Gods savings and good counsels from them though no body would wisely go to seek the Lord or enquire after his minde by them when better means are afforded The Scribes and Pharisees saith our Saviour sit in Moses Chair all therefore whatsoever they bid you do namely as holding forth and setting forward Moses Law that observe and do Math. 23.2 3. And its observable that after our Savior had testified against Judas John 13.19 he immediately adds Verily verily I say unto you he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me As implying that what Judas had preached by his Mission of him was never the less to be regarded by others though he himself miscarryed Gods words are Gods words and in themselves have the same truth and holiness though in a wicked mans mouth nor doth he disown his Statutes though an evil man declare them but onely the evil man that declares them Psal 50.16 17. Even as Christ saith not he never knew his Name when evil men prophesied in it and thereby cast out devils but he knew not the men though doing such things therein that wrought iniquity and abode in evil Math. 7.22.23 St. Paul cites sometimes the sayings of Heathen Poets and hath made them Canonical Scripture by his citing them and it cost a good man his life that he neglected to hear counsel from God by a heathen 2 Chron. 35.22 Josuâ—h was slain in battel not hearing or hearkning to the words of Necho King of Egypt from the mouth of God Bern. de 206 Disâ— 3. Audivit Balaam sermones Dei visâ—â—â—s omnipotentis intuiâ—â— est sed cadebâ—t opertis coeulis sic multos videtis had estudentes Seâ—s â—atâ— c Again let no man lift up himself in having knowlegde and ability to preach and speak Gods word and give good language to or of Gods people seeing that 's a gift a bad man may have and be never the better but the worse for it Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall inherit the Kingdom but he that doth the will of God that hears the word of God and keeps it Better to be but a hearer and a doer than a Preacher and no doer of the word of God As many might help to build Noahs Ark that not entring it perisht in the Flood So it is here Mat. 7.21 22. 2. As to the matter of the words in general They are a wish a good wish or desire such a wish as a good man may wish Thence note 1. Gods dispensations to men may beget good things in them that yet are not made good by them So here what God said and shewed to Balaam produced in him an enlightned understanding an apprehension and perswasion that Israel was a righteous and a good people and that continuing so they should have a good Death and a desirable End and therefore he also commends and blesses them as a happy people and had good desires that his soul might dye their death and his latter end be like to his Yea this note is further confirmed if we view other expressions of what was begot in him as a resolution to obey God and an actual obedience too in many things when God said Thou shalt not go with them the Messengers of Balak thou shalt not curse the people for they are blessed though it made him not good yet he was so far obedient that he did not go with them nor do the evil God forbad him Numb 22.12 13. and when Balak sent more and more honourable Messengers with proffers of greater honours and rewards he had such an awe of God upon his spirit that he tells them Though Balak would give him his house full of Silver and Gold he could not go beyond the word of the Lord his God both calling God his God and protesting his adâ—aering to his word And when he see the Angel standing in the way against him because his way was perverse before God yet he so far submits himself as to say if it displeased him he would go back again and God permitting him to go on he told Balak the word that God put in his mouth that should he speak vers 38. and Chap. 23.12 Must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put into my mouth and justifying himself against Balak angry with and faulting him for not curring but blessing Israel he saith Told I not thee that all that the Lord speaketh that I must do all that and nothing but that What obedience and constancy in his obedience is here and Chap. 24.12 13. Spake I not to thy Messengers which thou sent est to me saying if Balak would give me his house full of Silver and Gold I cannot go beyond the Commandement of the Lord to do good or evil of mine own mind but what the Lord saith that I will speak as resolving and holding fast his resolution to obey God whatever honour and preferment he thereby lost though a house full yea Balak's house full of Silver and Gold and Balak being a King his house sure was a great house a Palace I fear a few handfuls of such metal would tempt many now adays to revile the fearers of God and to turn Men-pleasers therein especially if such men as Balak was Yet Balaam stood so to his tackling that he will not be tempted by a house full of Gold and Silver Yea he makes Balak stamp and clap his hands at him and bad him flee to his place he thought to have promoted him to great honour but now the Lord had kept him back from honour Chap. 24 10 11. How far may a man go and yet be a bad man a false Prophet for all that Balaam seemed here to outstrip St. Peter at some
2 Cor. 4.4.17 18. Rom. 8.18 6. To moderate their affections to and endeavors after these earthy worldly things that so they may be the more given up to seek and serve the Lord seeing the time is but short and uncertain that we shall or can be here to enjoy them or want them 1 Cor. 79.2 30. 1 Joh 2.16 17. The world passeth away the lust of it 3. He orders it to give us more abundant sence and perception of the odiousness of sin to him and so to admonish us not to sin against him but to stand in awe of him while we see and find that notwithstanding all that Christ hath done for our Reconciliation and Restauration into his favour yet he will have such things pass upon us still in our persons and be sustained by us for Death is the wages of Sin Rom. 6.23 and if for our sinning once in Adam God will have such a punishment lye upon us all in all generations though Christ also hath interposed between God and us what may we not fear will befall us if we dare still in our persons to sin again and again against him 4. He orders it to occasion in us a deeper sense of the love of God and Christ to us of God in abasing Christ and of Christ in abasing himself for us so low as to dye for us while we have the experiments of it and of the things that tend to it in our selves though without the curse and sting in it which our Lord by suffering them took away we are aptly minded to consider what it was to him that endured it as the curse of the Law and so with its sting and venom in it and so how great love that was that led him so to do for us 5. He orders it to be an end or put an end to our sorrows labours temptations and exercises here that we may rest from them all and be at quiet from molestations from men and Devils for there the wicked cease to trouble and there the weary be at rest they hear not the voice of the Oppressors Job 3.17.18 they enter into peace and rest in their beds c. Isa 57.1 2. 6. To conform us to his blessed Son in sufferings and death and so in exercising such faith in God and submission to him in resigning our selves to his merciful dispose as he also exercised in resigning up his spirit to him depending upon him to dispose of it and in due time to raise him Rom. 8.29 30. Luc. 23.46 with Psal 31.5 7. To give them advantage of their more abundantly testifying their love and obedience to God and Christ in laying down their lives for him as he may call any of them thereto and so to magnifie him in their deaths as Philip. 1.20 It is the desire of Lovers to have some advantages or occasions given them to shew the greatness and reallity of their love to them they love whence that What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits Psal 116.112 and it s some satisfaction and rejoycing when such advantages are given them Now herein Christ gives us a possibility of such advantage of that desireable satisfaction of love to him that we may sometimes shew it in dying or exposing our lives to dangers of it for him Rev. 12.11 8. To shew forth more abundantly the excellency of his power and glory in the Resurrection in raising them up again from the dead For his power is made manifest in weakness and is perfected in infirmities how much more when we are so altogether under the power of death and the grave that it may seem impossible to be revived or brought up again If the greatness of the power of God was seen in raising up Christ from the dead sure the greatness of the power and glory of Christ will be seen in raising up his people again and making them therein conformable to himself Eph. 1.19 20. Philip. 3.20 21. this will be such an evidence of his power as shall make them indeed to know how infinitely great he is and how true and faithful in his promises Thence it s said I will open your graves oh my people and cause you to come out of your graves and ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves O my people and brought you out of your graves and put my spirit into you and ye shall live then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it and have performed it c. Ezek. 37.12 13 14. To such purposes and for such like good holy and gracious and glorious ends doth God order death upon the righteous also and indeed in all this chiefly to magnify the greatness and glory of the Lord Jesus and his own in him and for the benefit and profit of us Whence it s said that death also is ours the believers not they its but it theirs their advantage mercy and priviledge 1 Cor. 3.21 22. and according to these several considerations might we apply it And especially To provoke us to consider our mortallity that we must die and Vse 1 therefore submitting our selves to the will and appointment of God therein through Jesus Christ which we may the better do because it s ordered through Christ as the Mediator of God and us and so in love and faithfulness to us for our profit and commodity to live and pass our times here as those that know and believe that we must die So little setting our hearts and affections upon this life and world either to seek or delight in the enjoyment or grieve for the want and loss of the things thereof as they that know that they and our enjoyments or wants of them are but very momentany and as having better things in Christ prepared for us to be the more earnest and diligent in seeking after them in seeking his face and favour and serving him in our generation being so much the more earnest therein as we know our times here are short and uncertain and not giving way to our hearts to wander after vanity and iniquity lest he putting an end suddenly to our lives we be found wandered from him out of the way of understanding and so miss of his salvation 2 And seeing we must die and death will put an end to our present sufferings temptations and afflictions stablish we our hearts in the way of God to hold fast the profession of our faith and the practice of godliness firm without wavering to the end as knowing that our sufferings here will not nor can be everlasting Yet a little while and Christ will put us to bed in the grave where we shall rest from all our labours and sorrows and be out of the reach either of Satan to tempt us or of the world to persecute or oppress us The worst that men can do against us is but to kill our Bodies and our Bodies must die though we do not yeild them up to the Lord
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
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
of them and of all life and blessing for all other men for his name is called The Lord our Righteousnesse Jer. 23.6 1 Cor. 1.30 But no man I think would wish to die such a death as he dyed so as to be a curse in dying no it cannot be understood of him as to that clause the word Righteous or Vpright being of the plural number also and including more though as to the latter end or reward rendred in the singular number like his it may be meant of him as to the infinite portion of life and happiness he hath received in the nature of man for us upon the account of his Death and sufferings or it may signifie like the latter end or after-part of him that is Israel or any one of them righteous or right ones whom we must find also plurally That we may make our Doctrine come up to the language of the Text and so find that there are other persons diverse or many persons righteous and so there are but all in him the righteous and just One the righteousness of God for us and root of righteousness to us And so we find that by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous Rom. 5.19 And I say unto you Many righteous men and Prophets have desired to see the things ye see c. Math. 13.17 To shew how this comes about and wherein they are righteous observe 4. That God having provided such a righteousness as his Son and that in his Son for us even for the justification and salvation of us sinful men in general now it is his will that we close with come to and believe in the name of this his Son the righteous One seeking in him and in the faith of him as evidenced and made known to us remission of all our sins justification and acceptation of our persons the holy Spirit of God and his heavenly gifts and blessings wisedome righteousness holiness redemption and in a word all things pertaining to life and goddness To which purpose he declares and proclaimes him to men in the Gospel teaches the knowledge of him and therein draws to him so as every one that hears and learns of him the Father comes to him and believes in him 1. Joh. 3.23 Joh. 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent And this is his commandement that ye believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another Therefore also he calls Behold my servant whom I uphold mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my holy Spirit upon him and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles Isa 42.1 And this is my well-beloved Son hear ye him Math. 3.17 and 17.5 And Christ also calls us to himself Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest and if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that believeth on me as the Scriptures have said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters Math. 11.28 Joh. 7.37 38. and many the like In which he inclusively promises the gift of righteousness that he will make such righteous with God there being no rest or satisfaction to any without that Now then all they that by the gracious call of God and Christ are overcome or prevailed with to come to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Saviore being righteousness it self is pertook of by the righteous Oâ—ig in Câ—ls lib. 6 look to and believe in him upon the account of what he hath done and suffered for them in himself and of the fulness of that provision made ready in him and his readiness and faithfulness as he hath also promised to communicate it to them and in a word through the grace discovered in the call to them to them Christ is made righteousness and they are justified and acquitted of their sins in him and accepted as righteous persons and Christ also is faithfull to wash sanctifie and frame them to his minde leading them from all their Idols former evils and abominations unto God in himself to behold his glory and glorious grace love him depend on him yeild up to him to worship serve and obey him and to love one another and to seek the good of all to their capacities and so to write his law in them these I say as looked upon in Christ in whom and for whose sake they are accepted even in his spotless and perfect righteousness are righteous in the sight of God and doers of righteousness in as much as they are led by and follow the Spirit of God who makes it his business to glorifie Christ to them and lead them into him and after him and so to confirm them in him and conform them to him In a word they are righteous that are in Christ Jesus and walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 that are the Israel of God the Circumcision cut off from all hope and confidence in themselves their fleshly birth breeding wisdom righteousness or conceits of holiness as seeing an emptiness and insufficiency in them all and as seeing an excellency in the knowledge of Christ and of the grace of God in and through him and so they come off from all carnal Mosaical or much more devised worships and much more as to seeking life or putting righteousness life or holiness in them to worship God in the Spirit rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh in which their being made in Christ and brought to have their dependance upon and rejoycing in him they are of the seed of Abraham and heires according to promise such as Isaac was and not as Ishmael who was born after the flesh as those be that trust they are Christs because of their fleshly birth or indeavours or priviledges that from such things conjecture and hope they are of those that Christ dyed for and are the children of God And yet as Isaac also had two sons Jacob and Esau the one a simple-hearted man the other a cunning hunter that sold his birthright for a mess of pottage so of those that come to God by Jesus Christ and rejoyce in his goodness and graciousness to sinners there are some that abuse this grace and turn it into wantonness saying Let us do evil that good may come thereof sin that grace may abound or because we are not under law but under grace and so in some eager pursuit of some worldly lust honour riches or fleshly lust after wine women c. sell their birthright in the Gospel These as Esau are rejected too as well as those that are of works like Ishmael and are not righteous though they may be sons of the Church and in a sort of God as to repute But those that being brought into Christ baptised into his name and made the Sons of God by faith in him do also mind the grace of God and so effectually receive
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
Garden such as God at first planted and put Adam and Evah into Gen. 2. and so it signifies that it is in a state of exceeding pleasure and delight yea it is mentioned I think as equivolent to the third heavens 2 Cor. 12.2.4 and why not seeing it is expresly said to be with Christ Luc. 23.43 Philip. 1.23 which is said to be far better than to be here in the flesh though in Christ and under the favour of God here also Again it s said to be when absent from the body at home with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 so as a child at home with his Father or a Wife with her Husband now as the condition of the child is more safe comfortable and desirable when at home with a loving tender vigilant rich and careful Father than when its absent and abroad from him though provided for by him and supplyed in its wants and much more the state a wife with her husband loving tender and every way able to maintaine her to be at home with him and in his bosome is more sweet and contentful then to be though the same mans wife at distance from him in a travel or pilgrimage yea though therein cared for too and provided for by him so also is the state of the soul or Spirit returned to God and at home with Christ A blessed state and so it s said They are comforted Luc. 16.25 such the happy state of the soul then Yea its happiness herein is more then we can in mortal bodies comprehend for when this earthy house of this Tabernacle is dissolved it hath then and is in possession of a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens so the Apostle implies when he saith not we shall have but we have an house not made with hands c. 2 Cor. 5.1 And yet this is not all the after-state desirable it s yet incompleat while thus and in a state of desire and patient waiting still in respect of its having the fellowship of its body in its happiness and full victory over and revenge of all enemies and fruition of the Kingdom promised as is implyed in that cry under the Altar and the answer to it Rev. 6.10 11. There is therefore besides all this a further state 2. The after-state in respect of the Reunion of soul and body 2. Branch In the Resurrection or Resurrection from the dead for they shall be raised againe and so shall the unjust and wicked as we see before Christ having dyed and given himself a ransome for all and thereby abolished the death that upon our first Fathers transgression came upon all so as to have obtained the keyes of hell and death into his hand for the raising up all from death and grave and out of the hell in which they are detained till the time of the Resurrection and their appearing before him to be finally judged by him but yet the righteous shall differ from others in the Resurrection as well as in the glory that shall follow for they the righteous shall be more excellent than their neighbour then more apparently Prov. 12.26 For 1. They the righteous the dead in Christ shall be first raised 1 Thess 4.16 they shall have the praeheminence therein as to the order and time of their being raised for Christ who is risen already before his members and people and is become the first fruits of them that sleep is the first therein then afterward they that are Christs at his coming that is they that are his in a peculiar sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dein ceps postea his people flock members his in union with him they shall rise first at his coming and then afterwards shall the end come when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even his Father 1 Cor. 15.23 24. for he shall reign namely at his coming 2 Tim. 4.1 till he have put down all authority and power even the last enemy too which is Death but the righteous shall be raised up to the injoyment of the Kingdom and reigning with him in his manhood and Mediatorian capacity before he deliver it up for they live and reign with Christ a thousand yeares saith Rev. 20.4.6 and that before the rest of the dead be raised Ver. 5. which namely the raising of the rest will be at the end when the thousand yeares are ended when or somewhat before he shall deliver up the Kingdom for he must reign till he have put down all authority and power the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death which he shall destroy in the raising up all the dead even those not raised till the thousand yeares be ended and in his casting death and hell into the lake that burnes with fire and brimstone in the great and last Judgment as in Rev. 20.11 14. for good and bad first and last shall be raised and judged by him Joh. 5.28 29. but the good the dead in Christ shall be raised first and then in the same moment in the twinkling of an eye the living surviving believers shall be suddenly changed and all of them both the raised and the changed shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the ayr 1 Thess 4.16 2. They the righteous in the Resurrection also shall have a glorious and joyful manner of rising (a) Ingenti Angelorum jubilo acclamatione Aret. both as it shall be accompanied with a mighty shout probably and as some think of the Angels greatly rejoycing or also of the Spirits of the just coming with Christ as triumphing that that time is come or of Christ by the voice of the Archangel and trump of God (b) Vox Domini hortantis ut experrecti properent Eâ—as in 1 Thes 4.15 exhorting the dead Saints awaking to make haste to meet him and by that voice inabling and exciting them thereto as when raising Lazarus he said Lazarus come forth Job 11.43 and as coming down in their spirit with Christ those that sleep in Jesus shall Christ bring with him 1 Thes 4.14 And the Lord my God shall come and all the Saints with thee Zech. 14.5 and so on a sudden enlivening their bodies when in a wonderful joyful and glorious state being caught up to meet the Lord they shall come down to the earth together and be ever with him as noted before 1 Thes 4.16 3. They the righteous shall be raised up as in Christ as members of Christ in union with him and so by the Spirit of God and Christ as the Spirit that now dwelleth in them as Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodyes by the Spirit which dwelleth in you And therefore also 4. To a more excellent state even fellowship with Christ their Head Lord and Husband briefly called the Resurrection of life Joh. 5.29 which leads us to the third Their
after-state when raised 3. Branch The raised state and that shall be exceeding excellent and most desireable both in respect of the body and of the soul or spirit and so of the whole person yea their whole company society or fellowship 1. In respect of their body raised In respect of the body It shall be in a very happy and glorious state fashioned saith the Apostle Philip. 3.21 to the likeness of Christ glorious body whose body was so glorious in its appearing to Paul for he was last of all seen of him in his raised state after he was ascended and glorifyed 1 Cor. 9.1 and 15.8 that he tells us the light that shone about him from him was brighter than the Sun in brightness above the Sun though at midday Act. 26.13 freed from all its former bondage to corruption either of sin or mortallity yea from all its former infirmity in the living state of it in the flesh and much more from all the putrefaction and rottenness that it lay under in its dead state in the grave or dust All those things shall he totally shaken off from it and the contrary most heavenly and glorious properties and endowments shall then cloth it it shall not be flesh and blood as now it is for flesh and blood a natural body shall not nor can inherit the Kingdom of God though it be the same body that is now flesh and blood as to its essence or substance yet it shall not be then flesh and blood as now a body so nourished and kept up by the continual supply or maintenance of its blood in which is now its life Neither shall corruption that now is inseparable from its natural state inherit incorruption 1 Cor. 15.50 but though sown in corruption it shall be raised in incorruption though sown in dishonour it shall be raised in glory though sown in weakness it shall be raised in power though sown a natural body it shall be raised a spiritual body such as in which we shall bear the image of the heavenly even as now while natural we bear in it the image of the earthy Adam 1 Cor 15.42 43 44 45. an exceeding happy state of the body possessed of incorruption and immortallity so as to be incapable of corrupting putrifying or decaying any more or of dying or turning again to dust or of any thing tending thereto Ver. 53 54. Yea on the contrary clothed with unchangeable and most excellent beauty and glory In respect of their Spirit 2. The Spirit or soul also then shall be possest of this glorious body and have it a companion in all its glory and an instrument or organ of all its spiritual and heavenly service of God and the Lamb in the Kingdom for his servants shall serve him Rev. 23.3 as here it was a companion in its sufferings and labours in this mortal state of corruption and it shall also be perfect in its spiritual capacities its knowledge and perception of things and its injoyment and love of God and Christ and one another therein as the Apostle says 1 Cor. 13.10 12. when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away now we see darkly as through a glass but then face to face now know I in part but then shall I know even as also I am known and then that shall be perfectly fulfilled that they shall no more need to prophesie and to say one to another as teaching one another know the Lord for they shall all know that is discern acknowledge like worship me from the least of them to the greatest of them Heb. 8.11 And so In respect of the whole man 3. In their whole person they shall be made compleat and perfect perfectly conformed to the Lord Jesus it doth not yet appeare what we shall be that exceeds all that we can know and understand now fully and distinctly yea the Apostles in mortal bodies though exceedingly gifted and filled with the Spirit knew it not which is an intimate commendation and magnifying the glory and happiness of that state but we know that when he appeares we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is he saith not only we shall be like the Angels of God though that our Savior tells us we shall be equal unto them the children of God and children of the Resurrection so as neither to need marrying nor giving in marriage nor in a capacity to die or to have soul and body separated any more as now they are by death and so in a state as far above the necessities and refreshments of this life as the Angels of God Luc. 20.35 36. but that 's not all but we shall be like him even like to Christ and so both in the resurrection put into an immediate capacity of the heavenly and eternal glory and being raised be actually put into and possessed of it 1 Joh. 3.2 4. As to the whole Body and Society of the Church of God and members of Christ in that raised and changed state In respect of the whoâ—e Church they shall be 1. Perfectly united being freed from all sin ignorance and enmity in every individual and so of all that might tend to disunite and divide the hearts and affections of one from another any more as now we are too apt to be disunited no more envyings and swellings no more grudgings and prejudices one against another then no more judgings and despisings of one another The envy of Ephraim shall cease and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off Ephraim shall not envy Judah and Judah shall not oppress Ephraim any more Isa 11.13 2. They shall be ever with Christ their Head 1 Thes 4.16 being al I caught up into the ayr to meet the Lord we shall be ever with the Lord and so in and with him as a city compacted and at unity in it self the holy city the new Jerusalem and so represented in Rev. 21.2 10. with Psal 122.3 no rent or breach therein no cord to be loosed or stake to be pulled up or taken down for ever Isa 33.20 and the portion of them all together in and from Christs presence with them exceeding happy for there he the glorious Lord will be to them a place of broad rivers and streames wherein shall go no Gally with oares nor shall gallant ship pass thereby for the Lord is their Judge the Lord shall be their Law-giver the Lord is their King and he will save them Isa 33.22 Thence also 3. They shall be for ever quiet and free from all external molestation from men or devils or from any hand or stroke of God upon or against them for all their enemies shall be cut off and consumed all that watch for iniquity c. Isa 29.20 and they shall dwell safely then when Gods everlasting armes shall have raised them up from under all adversities or sufferings and thrust out the enemy and shall say Destroy Deut. 33.27 28.
is God himself the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End and he is all good and perfectly perpetually endlesly and eternally Good and he is their Portion and their Exceeding Great reward Whence this happy state Psal 16.5 6. and 73.26 Gen. 17.1 The strength of their hearts here and their PORTION FOR EVER But Quest why or whence is it that the Death and End of the Righteous is such and so good as is said and above all that can be said Ans Negatively 1. Not from themselves nor from the desert of their righteousness they being in themselves earthly frail and sinful creatures could not possibly do or act any such goodness or righteousness much less of our selves as should deserve or render them worthy of such an end and recompence nor could a finite obedience of a finite creature be commensurate with an infinite reward in its worth and vertue and therefore neither shall they make themselves the burthen of their endless rejoycings and everlasting songs but rather shall say Not unto us Not unto us give we glory It is true that righteousness is better in it self than wickedness and God is just to difference them in his retributions but neither is their righteousness that he rewards of themselves or their owne righteousness but their righteousness is of the Lord Isa 54.17 Nor is that righteousness so perfectly embraced and walked in by them but that in many things they offend and sin so as should God enter into jugdment with them and be strict to observe what they do amiss they could not stand or be justified in his sight as themselves have acknowledged Psal 130.3 4. and 143.2 they could have no salvation or deliverance from wrath and the portion of the ungodly much less reward and much less yet such a reward for their works but through the forgiveness of their sins Luc. 1.77 and therefore also when God promises his people what he will do for them in the last days in their restauration the great substance of which is the glory to be injoyed in the Kingdom of Christ he puts in such a Caution against ascribing it to themselves Not for your sakes do I do these things Not for your sakes be it known to you oh house of Israel be ashamed and confounded saith the Lord Ezek. 36.22 32. even as Moses did before upon their first entring the Land of Canaan the type and figure of this promised inheritance Speak not in thime heart after that the Lord thy God hath cast out these nations saying for my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land not for thy righteousness nor for the uprightness of thine heart dost thou go to possess this Land c. Deut. 9.5 6. and yet it is the reward of righteousness that God will give and that wherein he will testifie his great love to righteousness and to the righteous As it is said Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom for I was hungry and ye fed me naked and ye clothed me c. Math. 25.35 36. rendring that as the reason of their receiving that reward As also the Apostle saith God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love c. Heb. 6.10 11. It is true therefore that God doth and will reward the righteous and with respect to their righteousness and not the unrighteous otherwise it would be no motive or incouragement to righteousness But true it is also that neither is that righteousness of themselves nor deserves it those rewards as it is in and from them But positively 2. It is from God himself He is as the End Ans Affirmatively so also the beginning of their welfare as the Last end of their desires and injoyment so the First cause spring and original whence it all had its rise and issue He is the Alpha as well as the Omega of all their felicity Isa 41.4 and 44.6 and 48.12 and to him they must acknowledge it and will sing Hallelujahs or praise ye the Lord To thy Name be the glory Rev. 19.1 4 6. Psal 155.1 For 1. It springs from his good pleasure this love and good will to man whom as he created in his own image and likeness at first by and for his only begotten Son the express character of his own Majesty so he so loved him as both to prepare an infinite reward for him being righteous or for such or so many of them as should be found righteous before him for the manifestation of the riches of his grace and glorious bounty and goodness to him and also when he fell from his primitive and created righteousness in which he made him he made his Son the increated image of his person and of his essential righteousness to be in the image and likeness of the fallen man in the likeness of sinful flesh and under sin and curse and condemnation only without sin in him that he being clothed as it were with mans unrighteousness as imputed to him and swallowing up the sin and curse might himself become his perfect righteousness and conforming him to himself in holiness and righteousness might make him also the subject in and with himself of that infinite reward prepared for the righteous even that infinite glory and inconceivable happiness which he had before the world prepared for them as it is said Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from before the foundations of the world Math. 25.35 and Fear not little Flock it is my Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luc. 12.32 Thence the Praedestination to the adoption of children and to the obtaining of the inheritance is said to be according to the good pleasure of his will and according to his good purpose Ephes 1.5 11. 2. It springs from his love to righteousness even to the righteousness of faith or to his only blessed Son made in the vertues of his abasement obedience and sufferings righteousness to them as his love and pitty to man led him to give his Son to ransom him from his unrighteousness and to be his righteousness so his love to righteousness even to his Son made mans righteousness leads him so to love man as found therein as to think nothing too good or great for him even himself and all his fulness of grace and glory to be his portion in life and death but most fully and manifestly in the life to come Thence the care of the Apostle to be found in Christ in order to his apprehending that for which he was apprehended of Christ and to his obtaining the price of Gods high calling in him Philip. 3.8 9 12 14. God loving them that love Christ because they love Christ with this manner of loving of them whence he so rewards them Joh 16.27 28. whence also their election though before the foundation of the world is said to be in Christ and their praedestination to the adoption of children to be
and so come to the Application And so 1. Whereas Balaam in wishing or desiring thus implies that he thought it possible though not certain that it would be so that he might dye the death of the righteous Whether a wicked man may die a righteous mans and that his latter end might be like his being in a manner a prayer and men use to pray for what they think possible Thence it may be queried Whether is it possible that a wicked man as Balaam was Quest 1 may obtain to dye the death of the righteous and to have his latter end like his To which I shall answer by distinction That a wicked man abiding a wicked man Ans 1. Not abiding wicked can by no means have such a death and after-part as the righteous and upright ones Except your righteousness saith our Saviour exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharasees ye can in no wise enter the Kingdom of God Math. 5.20 that is except men be truly righteous they cannot enjoy Gods Kingdome which is the end and portion of the righteous Reasons of it and the reason is because 1. It is against the purity and holinesse of God to admit wickedness and so wicked men abiding and continuing such into such nighness with himself and so into his favour and affection as the righteous be for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness Psal 11.8 and the righteous Psal 146.8 but he is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness evil may not dwell with him fools may not stand in his sight he hateth all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.4 5. He is of purer eyes than to behold evil and iniquity Hab. 1.13 and therefore cannot admit wicked men as and while such to come into his Kingdom and have part with the righteous 2. That would make void all the ends and intents of the Death of Christ and all the whole work and business of his undertakeing for if men might be saved and enjoy God in their sins then they might have been saved without Christs coming and suffering for them for why should Christ come to take away sins and wash and make us clean from them if God can endure them in his sight and presence unwashed away from men yea and why then was God angry with men for sinning yea and Christ should then fail of his undertaking if undertaking to bring men to God clean and pure from their sins he should bring them in their uncleanness to him in vain is a costly Bath prepared for washing and healing men if they may be well without it Christs coming therefore on purpose to take away our sins in order to our enjoyment of happiness is an evident demonstration that we may not be happy in them Thence our Saviour saith to St. Peter Except I wash thee thou hast no part with me Joh. 13.8 Yea 3. That stands cross to all the purposes declarations and threatnings of God in the Scripture which cannot be broken God cannot lye but he hath purposed said decreed and declared that no unclean or unrighteous thing shall inherit his Kingdome 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Ephes 5.3 4 5. either then we must cease to be wicked or else no part with the righteous for the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the just Psal 1.4 5. Yea 4. They being an abomination each to other the sinners to the righteous much more to the most holy and righteous God how shall they endure to live together and enjoy the same end reward and portion Prov. 29.27 Yea and lastly 5. God should not be just should he reward wickedness as he doth righteousness and God forbid that the Judge of all the earth should do unjustly Rom. 3.5 6. Gen. 18.25 But Answ 2. They may if they become righteous as they may It is very possible that wicked men may by the grace of God cease to be wicked and be converted to righteousness and so they maybe brought to enjoy the same end with the righteous And of the truth of this Manasses Mary Magdalen Paul the malefactor on the Cross that but there beginning to confess Christ found mercy and was that day with him in Paradise Luke 33.40.43 and many more are evident proofs and instances Yea this is clearly signified and held forth throughout the Scriptures that wicked men may be converted from their wickedness and being converted they become one in way and end with the righteous For Reasons of that answer 1. This was the end of Christs coming into the World and dying for all men even the ungodly and sinners suffering the just for the unjust or unrighteous that there-through he might both remove the curse from off the nature of man and obtain power and spirit into himself as man so as he might both by his power and spirit call and quicken men being ransomed from under the curse unto the knowledge of God and faith in himself and also when so to forgive and justifie them washing them in his own blood and renewing them also by his own Spirit into his own image and likeness from glory to glory To which end 2. God in and by him and he in the power of God hath ordered repentance and forgiveness of sins to be preached in his Name amongst all Nations for the obedience of faith Luke 24 47. in and by which he is calling commanding and encouraging all men the wickedest as well as others every where to repent because he hath appointed a day to judge the World c. Act. 17.30 31. Yea he is calling sinners to repentance and causing his servants whom he hath saved from their sins and reconciled to God to teach sinners the way that transgressors might be turned unto him while it is a day of Grace an accepted time Math. 9.13 Psal 51.14 15. 2 Cor. 6.1 2. with 5.19 20. In which time also 3. He is by his spirit accompanying his calls bringing his word nigh to men even to their hearts and mouths that they might receive it believe and be saved So as the Kingdom of God is therein and there-through made nigh to men which kingdome is righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 10.8 9. Luke 9.9 10. Rome 14.17 the holy Spirit in the means vouchesafed striving with or judging in men reproving and convincing them of sin righteousness and judgment opening the eyes that they might see and their eares that they might hear so that they might understand with their hearts and be converted and Christ might heal them Gen. 6.3 Joh. 16.9 10 11. Math. 13.15 Yea so nigh doth God bring his word to men that Satan is said to take it out of the hearts of those that are in their hearing and receiving it compared but to the way-side Math. 13.19 Luke 8.12 4. They that do in hearing hear and in seeing see that is when God by his Spirit is bringing light and salvation to them shewing them his truth
and teaching them his way they that then wink not with the eye stop not the eare nor harden their heart against his discoveries calls and operations but listen and look to him in the power and grace preventing them and so turn at his reproofs and be converted they come to Christ and to God in and by him and are translated from a state of sin to a state of righteousness and from the power of Satan unto God to receive remission of sins and inheritance among the sanctified by faith in him Isa 42.18 19 and 45.22 23. Math. 13.16 16. Prov. 1.23 Joh. 6.44 45. Acts 3.19 and 26.18 Joh. 5.28 29. and these are all justified from all things from which they could not be justifyed otherwise and abiding in that grace into which they are called they shall have their portion among the Saints and righteous ones Act. 13.38 39. 1 Cor. 6.9.11 1 Joh. 2.24 25. 5. And for as much as this grace in Christ is prepared for all men and is in the Gospel declared and tendred to all he being the propitiation for the sins of the whole world and all invited and called to attend and listen to him that they might in the receit of this grace be saved there is a Doore opened and during the day of grace held open unto all so as by the grace afforded through Christ any man yeilding up to the calls of God and seeking and following on to know him may be brought into Christ and be justified and saved Isa 25.6 Rom. 3.22 23 24. and 5.18 1 Joh. 2.1 2. Isa 45.22 and 55. 1 2 6 7. Rev. 22.17 In a word 6. There is in Christ through his pretious Death and Sacrifice such plenteousness of redemption even forgiveness of sins and he so liveth for ever and makes such powerful intercession for transgressors and is so loving to man and patient toward sinners and God so loath any should perish having no delight in the Death of the wicked that as he calls such also and extend by and through Christ his holy Spirit to enable them to obey his calls so any wicked man obeying his call is by the blood of Christ washed from his sins and by his powerful intercession with God for him in coming to God by him who will in no wise cast out him that comes to him is accepted of God and saved Psal 130.4 7. Col. 1.14 Heb. 7.25 Isa 53.12 Ezek. 33.11 2 Pet. 3.9 15. Joh. 6.37 1 Cor. 6.11 These things considered it is not a vain thing for men even wicked men to wish desire seek and endeavour so as they submit to seek in the right way and in good earnest striving to enter the strait gate while it is yet open and not shut against them Luc. 13.24 25. to attain this end Deut. 3â— 46 47. But for men to wish and would desire and crave and yet be slothful and refuse to strive or to strive and labour in a wrong way rejecting the grace of God and his truth in the evidences and operations thereof or to wish to have the portion end and reward of the righteous and yet continue and keep on in the ways of errour and sin this is foolish absurd and bootless Such as Balaams wishing was who therefore notwithstanding this wish was slain by Israel and dyed the Death of and among the wicked Numb 31.8 The fluggard wishes and desires but hath not because his hands refuse to labour Prov. 13.4 and 21.25 and many in such ways as are wrong or when too late seek to enter and shall not be able Luc. 13.24 25. Rom. 9 30 31 32. But Seeing the wicked sometimes seeing the goodness of the death and latter end of the righteous in some measure desire them Que. Why do any wicked not endeavour it whence is it they become not righteous or walke not in the way to them To this many things might Ans Reasons of it be said I shall but touch upon some of them As to say 1. They see something of their end but not so fully and prevailingly as to make them love and like the way they walk in thereto because they wink with the eye and follow not on to know light comes upon them sometimes more than they desire but they desire not to minde much the light that comes upon them that they might get a further light into what it shews them They see and hate Joh. 15.24 and that because 2. They are sensual and love to please and satisfie their senses in present injoyments indeed because they apprehend sweetness and pleasure in the latter end of the righteous they desire them but because they feel and finde sweetness in the world and present ways of sin they love them and retaine them and being more affected with present sweets then futures the ways to which also would deprive them of much of what 's present they hold fast what they have or endeavour so to do though with hazzarding the loss of the other Nay because the light that discovers the end of the righteous reproves their ways and would deprive them of the pleasures of sin they therefore hate the light and put it from them or turn from it and so come not so to see as to be converted by it Joh. 3.19 20. Job 24.13 14 17. Math. 13.15 3. Winking with the eye and not abiding in or following the light Satan gets more power upon them to blind and harden them as 2 Cor. 4.4 stealing out the light or seed of life from their hearts Luk. 8.12 and so moving them to doubt of or disbelieve again what they have seen Gen. 3.1 3 4. or also filling them with strong delusions to believe lies 2 Thess 2.10.11 12. as perswading them 1. That they may have their present pleasures of sin and the future good things prepared for the just and righteous ones too Deut. 29.19 2. That they may repent soon enough hereafter Pro. 6.10 3. That God is gracious and will forgive their sins though they live in them upon the account of some outwardly religious injoyments or services or priviledges Jer. 7.4 5. Isa 28.14 15. and 66.1 3. Math. 3.7 8 9. Joh. 8.33 34. Math. 7.21 22. 4. Sometimes that there is no hope for them and that therefore they had as good sit still as strive to enter to no purpose Jer. 18.11 12. Or 5. That they are in the way already to that good end when they are not but quite out of it Pro. 30.12 Rom. 9.31 32. Rev. 3.14 15. and many such like deceits which God justly leaves them to for their having pleasure in unrighteousness and not receiving the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thes 2.10 12. 4. Their pride oftimes hinders them from seeking after God or accepting of his salvation and submitting to the simplicity of his ways as Hos 5.5 and 7.10 Psal 10.4 Joh. 9.25 26 40. they love the praise of men more than the praise of God Job 5.44 and 12.43
bond of peace building up our selves in the most holy faith praying in the holy ghost keeping our selves in the love of God and waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life avoyding and keeping far from the contrary thereunto Prov. 6.7 and 13.18 20. and 15.31 32. and 29.15 Eph. 4.3 4. Jude 20.21 Rom 12.2 2 Cor. 6.14 15. and 7.1 considering 1. That these are the great concernments of our souls Motives the matters of eternity in which if we obtain we are happy for ever and miserable for ever if we miss as all abovesaid in opening and explicating the end of the righteous and of the wicked evinces And as it is said Deut. 32.46 47. it is not a vaine thing for thee for it is thy life c. Now the greatest things and of greatest concernment to us are chiefly to be regarded by us were they other mens concernments and not our own yet in some cases being weighty and of great concernment to them they ought not to be negleded or carelesly looked after by us it would be unfaithfulness and uncharitableness in us especially if put upon us but how much more should we take care of these things seeing it is our selves that are here concerned and not others only Indeed it might be for the great furtherance of others also that we be thereby made good examples to them fitted for their helpfulness and filled with charity to help them but it s not so much others as our selves and sure we are nearest to our selves and especially in things not of light moment but of greatest weight were they matters of our estate we would be industrious in them if they lay at the stake or were under question but how much more may the concernments of our persons immediately challenge our care and industry Vivitur exiguo meliuâ— Horat. the things of this world lye without us and men with a little may live comfortably and many do so yea more comfortably than others with abundance and therefore losses in the world might not so pinch us if reason and much less if grace rule us but our persons cannot be ill but the paines and evils will touch and grate upon us yet were they but matters of body as our health ease liberty c. we are careful there and would count it folly and madness to be neglectful of them though yet men may be comfortable in those things too in their spirits the spirit of a man will sustain its infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear Prov. 18.14 Yet if all these should press us here they may do so and be but for a season and be over and at an end when Death comes But these are the great matters of our souls and for ever which if we miscarry in render all other things to no profit or advantage and our selves miserable for ever the loss and misery of our soulâ—â—eing insuperable neither to be born with patience no◠〈…〉 ways bought off or to have end or mittigation What will it profit us as our Saviour saith Math. 16. 26. to win the whole world and loose our own souls or what shall be given for exchange or recompence what will the rich mans full bags or full barns do him good what his beautiful wife or pretty children what the multitude of freinds and lovers that may wail the loss of him or joy in their inheriting what he leaves behind him yea what is any thing what are all things to him when his soul in the depth of hell and misery is stript of all things and can now receive no ease or comfort from any of them As on the contrary what harm is it to the poor man that he endures or hath endured pinching poverty and grinding griefs the scorns of the proud and the contempt of the covetous that he leaves no estate to others but only his children perhaps to God and his providence who also accounts the seed of the righteous as included in his blessing what if his name be cast out on earth and no man here miss or desire him if his soul while here be accepted of God and when taken hence be in the bosome of Abraham and in the embraces of Christ never to grapple with sorrows or sufferings any more for ever what hurt is all that to him our own interests here then if any where should excite our earnestness and quicken our affections to diligence in these things Mot. 2. Again how earnest zealous and industrious hath God and Christ and the holy Spirit been and yet are for us to bring us to this happiness and prevent our miseries when God made us at first how much did he how great works wrought he that we might be well provided for and feel no misery The frame and fabrick of heaven and earth and all variety of creatures therein and his not resting from his works till he had provided us of all things that might give us rest do abundantly testifie But when we had by our sin forfeited all these benefits see how our miseries rather added to his diligence and increast the workings of his love and pitty toward us then any whit abated them we had made him more work and he disdained it not He looked out for a ransome for us and found it when neither men or Angels could have invented one He rested not in the ministry of Angels to us nor institutions of Laws and Ordinances pointing us out a way of righteousness that the man that doth them might live therein but finding a defect in all those sacrifices and appointments and that our misery was such as no Law could provide against it no work of ours remedy us in it he spared not his own Son but sent him forth for us made him flesh and sin and a curse delivered him up for us to Death and therein laid upon him the iniquities of us all raised him up for our justification exalted and glorified him filled him with all his fulness for us made him the great High-Priest to plead for us and make reconciliation for our sins Our Prophet to instruct and guide us in the way to life our King to command govern and rule us to save protect and honor us the Lord of all to controul all enemies and evils and order all creatures as may be best for us our Physician to heal us c. He declares him calls to him draws us by his love and its cords his bounty goodness forbearance inviting us to repentance his corrections tend to drive us from our Idols and force us to seek after him that we may live Christ also he hath been and is as zealous of our good and spared no paines or cost to do us good and help us He accepted his Fathers will came down from heaven to do it did it with cheerfulness delighted to do it was incarnate acted and did good suffered sorrowed dyed and therein bare our sins and carryed our sorrows rested
exhort and provoke all that are in the way of righteousness and following after it to hold on their way and be not turned aside by any means from it seeing it hath such an end and reward at last in death and after death Cast not away your confidence which hath a great recompence of reward but we have need of patience that after we have done the will of God we may receive the promises for yet a while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry Now the just shall live by faith but if any man yea if he draw back my soul saith God shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.35 36 37 38. as good not at all as not to the end better never to know the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment 2 Pet. 2.20 21. and therefore Rule 1. Abide in Christ in the minding and eyeing him and the grace given us in him and so in the likement of him and well pleasedness with him by that grace affected in us take heed of a decay of our first love or a leaving it but be diligent and daily in the consideration of him and the grace given us in him 1 Joh. 2.28 Joh. 15.4 5. Rev. 2.3 4 5. Heb. 3.1 2.7 and 12.2.15 and Rule 2. Let Christs word abide in us forget not nor let slip that which we have heard and received concerning him and from him they will admonish instruct and direct us every where yea they will strengthen and frame us to abide in the faith and likement of him and dependance on him for the Gospel of Christ is the power of God to Salvation for the preservation and keeping from falling of every one that believes Joh. 15.4 1 Joh. 2.24 25. Heb. 2.1.3 Col. 3.16 Rom. 1.16 and 16.25 26. Rule 3. Hold fast the ordinances traditions or observances delivered to us by the Apostles for our edifying our selves and one another in the faith of Jesus such as be our Christian communion and fellowship in the Gospel not forsaking the assembling of our selves together But exhorting one another while it is yet called to day and therein provoking one another to love and good works praying in the holy Ghost both by our selves and together with and for one another and for all Saints breaking bread or observing the Lords Supper and whatever ordinances of the Gospel the Apostles having received them of the Lord delivered to us for our helpfulness growth and preservation in grace 2 Thess 2.14 15. 1 Cor. 11.2.23 Col. 2.5 Heb. 3 12 13. and 10.24 25. and 13.1 Jud. 20 21. Eph. 6.11.18 19. Beware of Rule 4. watch and pray against all that may harm us and occasion our turning aside plucking out the right eye and cutting off the right hand or foot to that purpose where they offend us lest by retaining them they prejudice us mis-lead and undo us Mark 9.43.48 Math. 26.41 and so 1. Beware of false Prophets that under fair and specious pretences commend somthing as right or as righteousness to us Cant. 1. which is not so to deprive us of our reward in Christ by corrupting us from the simplicity in him the belief of his doctrine and of the sufficiency thereof and of the grace in him for us in all things directing us to some other law doctrine or observation as necessary for us beside him and what he proposes to us or as rendring something in and of him doubtful needless or vain for us Math. 7.15 16. and 24.4 5.23 24 25. 1 Joh. 2.18 19. and 4.1 2.6 2 Joh. 7.8 9. Gal. 1 8.9 Cease to hear the instructions that cause to erre from the words of knowledg Prov. 19.27 and go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lip of knowledg Prov. 14.7 Cant. 2. Beware of eyeing and looking upon our own attainments abilities or seeming excellencies and fulness and so of being there-through puffed up with pride and becoming high-minded pluck out that right eye and cast it away for it s exceeding dangerous for pride goeth before destruction and an haughty mind before a fall Be not high minded therefore but fear as knowing thou standest not upon thine own goodness but by faith in Christ Prov. 6.13 and 16 18 19. and 18.12 Rom. 11.20 21. Cant. 3. Beware of eyeing and looking upon the pomp and splendour of the world and their present portion power policy multitude and strength for oppressing the truth or on the contrary on the low estate persecutions troubles and afflictions that the seekers and followers of the Lord are here exposed to or that thou thy self meetest with or art threatned with and in danger of or likelihood to fall into for thereby some have been turned aside and have fallen from the way of righteousness Thus Asaph had like to have stumbled and to have turned aside therefore pluck out thy right eye here too and cast it from thee minding the Teâ—â—imony of God which declares the sad end of the wicked notâ—ithstanding all their enjoyments and the good end of the Lord â—â—ward the righteous in ordering their tryals and afflictions and 〈◊〉 good end he will make with them in the conclusion Psal 73 â— â—3 12 13 14 c. Cant. 4. Beware of the love of this world and the things of this world as its favour friendship flatteries and the like lest thy heart be snared with them either so as through lust after them if not had or through content taking in them or cares about them if enjoyed or griefs about them if mist or lost to have thy heart choked and the love of God eaten out of thee or to have thy heart surfeited and drunken with them or carried away with foolish and noysome lusts after and unsober use of any of them to thy destruction Love not the world nor the things of the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Joh. 2. 15 16 17. and he that will be a friend of this world is an enemy of God Jam. 4.4 See also Math. 13.22 1 Tim. 6.9 10 11. Luke 31.34 35 36. if riches increase set not your hearts thereon Psal 62. 9 10. Cant. 5. Beware of poreing too much upon thine own barrenness deadness sinfulness unworthiness or the little profiting by the means of grace or by Gods dealing with us or the afflictions crosses temptations desertions thou meetest with from God in the hidings of his face or the like or what of that nature may and as they tend too discourage in thy attending to and following after him but cast away those weights that press down and consider what Christ sets before thee in Isa 51.1 2 3. c. Hearken unto me saith he ye that follow after righhteousness that seek the Lord. Look to the Rock out of which ye were hewn the hole of the pit out of which ye were digged Look to
Abraham your Father and Sarah that bare you for I called him alone and blessed and encreased him Where by the Rock out of which ye were hewed may either be meant Christ and by the hole of the pit out of which we were digged the low estate of his abasement and sufferings out of which we were begotten of God to seek him and follow after righteousness or else the low estate out of which he digged or pulled us And then its the same with that in Heb. 12.2 Look to Jesus the Author and finisher of the faith and that in Eph. 2 11 12 13. Remember what you were before saved by grace and yet how by his grace and sufferings ye were saved Or else the next words explain the former namely Consider Abraham the father of us all as believers and Sarah our Mother the Type of the heavenly Jerusalem the Mother of us all Rom. 4.16 Gal. 4.26 how dry his body how barren her womb how alone they were and how likely so to have remained in respect to fruitfulness when God called them and yet his call and blessing upon them made them increase And so God will comfort Sion and will comfort all her waste places and make her wilderness like Eden and her desart those of her that are most desolate forsaken and forlorn in following after righteousness and seeking the Lord like the Garden of God Joy and gladness shall be found therein the voice of thanksgiving and melody And verse 4. His righteousness even the accomplishment of his promises is near his salvation or deliverance for saving is gone forth is on the way to you and draws nigh so that hold but on a little longer and you shall obtain them Beware of too wiâ—â—eying and looking upon the faults and offences pride slightings weaknesses and miscarriages of brethren Cant. 6 or of such as make profession and worship with us they may sometime occasion stumbling and turning aside If thy right eye offend thee there pluck it out and cast it from thee putting on charity which covers a multitude of offences 1 Pet. 4.7.8 Beware of evil company and fellowship with vain Cant. 7. empty and sinful persons Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers either as to marriage with such or as to holding great correspondency and intimacy or making leagues with them The Canaanites drew away Israel by such means from God A companion of fools is in danger to be destroyed Prov. 13.20 Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly nor stood in the way of sinners nor sate in the seat of scorners Be not therefore amongst wine-bibbers among riotous eaters of flesh a companion of Harlots or vain persons or bound up in friendship with angry furious persons lest they prove a snare to thee and undo thee 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16 17. Psal 1.1 Prov. 1.10 11.15 and 22.24 25. and 23.21 22. and 24.1 2. Lastly beware of the receiving the Grace of God in vain Cant. 8. or overly for that 's a great or main ground of and way to the failing in all the other particulars and in time of temptation and sufferings for the Gospel causes or occasions a falling off therefore give we diligence that we fail not of the Grace of God lest any root of bitterness spring up c. Math. 13.5 6.20 21. 2 Cor. 6.1 Heb. 12.15 16. But I shall forbear any further particulars only add some considerations over and besides what is said in the fifth Caveat for further helpfulness Consider the wonderful encouragement thou hast in God and Christ Help â— and the engagement thou hast thence to continue in the faith and obedience of him It may be seen in diverse particulars as 1. Consider what he hath already done for thee to manifest his love and goodness to thee and sufficiency to help and save thee Did he not devise and find out a way to help and save thee when thou wast wholly lost and his own Word Truth and Law stood against thee and it was above the reach of men and Angels much more of thine own power and wisdom either to help thee or to find out a way whereby God might help thee He was both infinite in wisdom and understanding to find out the way and in power to be able to bring it about and hath actually devised and made the way for thy welfare in his giving his only Son for and to thee as before hath been noted and Christ hath come forth suffered and dyed for thee to ransom thee from curse by being made a curse for thee and to obtain blessing for thee and give it to thee Now he that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all while sinners and ungodly how shall not be also freely give us all things with him that may further conduce to our welfare and salvation 1 Rom. 8.32 if he hath reconciled us to himself being enemies by the Death of his Son how much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life Rom. 5.10 and Christ having laid down his life and shed his blood for thy redemption and justification what mayst thou not hope in him that he will do for thee and what art thou not obliged to do for his service and glory where is there any that so loves us and hath so done for us that we should turn from him to them had any paid a great debt for thee and freed thee from prison and taken thee home to him to maintain thee when else likely to have perished wouldst thou not be very confident of his after-freindship to thee and think thy self greatly ingaged to love him and be ready to do him service 2. Consider again what fulness and sufficiency is in him for us to help and succour us all along and in all tryals and temptations to save us from all enemies and bring us to the inheritance Among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord nor are there any works like thy works saith David Psal â—â— 8 In Christ God hath provided all things for us pertaining to life and godliness all things are there ready Math. 2â— 4. in him it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell yea all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him as in our Head and Saviour and in him we are compleat Coll. 1.19 and 2.9 10. Against the guilt of our sins there is in him through his blood plenteousness of redemption even forgiveness of sins that the conscience of them might not drive us by despair from him but that confessing them and repenting we might seek and obtain mercy in and by him Psal 130.4 7. 1 Joh. 2.9 and 2.1 2. Eph. 1.7 through that plenteousness of redemption in him thou maist oppose to the greatness of thy sins the greatness of his mercy and grace Psal 145.8 Eph. 2.4 5. against the multitude of thy sins the multitude of his mercies Psal 5.7 and 51.1 to all such
many years and of noted zeal and fervency in what she apprehended to be the truth and right way of God walking for diverse years with and of good note among some people called Independants amongst whom her love and liberality zeal and diligence in seeking after God according to their principles were conspicuous and her yet remaining works for them and their entertainment speak yet for her But it pleased God in process of time to open her understanding in the Scriptures of truth and righter way of the Lord in giving her to perceive his Grace in Christ to all mankind according to the received doctrine of the Church of England and freeness to impart it to all and interest any of all there-through in his everlasting Covenant in coming to him and to bring her into acquaintance with a people believing and walking therein Chiefly I think by means of her son in law Mr Jeremy Coleman Minister of Hethersest in Norfolke a man of a sweet and excellent spirit and usefully precious in his generation who some years before her though young was taken away as a chastisement to many yet surviving How readily she received the Testimony of the Grace of God in its extent and how well she relisht it and retained it and how blamelesly and uprightly she walked in it for divers years before her decease and untill her decease I suppose many can Testifie And so that she was so far as men may judge a truly righteous person because seeking and accepting of the Lord Jesus Christ only to be her righteousness in her generation to her capacities which were none of the meanest Her constancy in the faith of Christ her love to it her charity and liberality her blamelesness c. yet live in the memories of diverse though she be dead now some time since and long may they there live A woman she was that had a close therefore better than his that died unlamented and indeed worthy to be lamented in respect of others though to be rejoiced in in behalfe of her self The loss many have and will have of her is to be bewailed by us for as she was good and useful to many while she lived so now being dead that usefulness cannot but be missed Chiefly her onely son hath a loss of her whom she had a most motherly and affectionate care of being as yet in his minority and a little too much indulgence for his sake and to have seen him well disposed of and much more truly well disposed she could have been glad if God had pleased to have lived here yet a little longer otherwise for her self content to be dissolved and to be with Christ How gravely and graciously as I was informed I being then not there she did instruct and admonish him when her sickness began to seize on her and she thought death approached some yet can well rememberâ— and I pray God he himself may not forget it but may follow her good admonitions advise and practises as long aâ— he lives A loâ—â— the town and neighborhood had of her who may w◠〈◊〉 lament that one so useful to and among them 〈…〉 The good relief the poor had and the good 〈…〉 and matters of health the sick and 〈…〉 the good opportunities such as would had and more also might have had for receiving instructions in the Gospel and truth of God for their souls by her means as a countenancer and promoter thereof speak for lamentations upon her death her freinds and relations have the want and loss of her company and acquaintance (a) Chiefly her ouâ— Daughter 〈…〉 of Yaâ—moâ—h but she we trust is above the reach of loss and wants as to her self In many respects therefore her Death is greatly to be lamented but in respect of her death it self and in respect of her self in and by death cause of gladness and much rejoycing That she did well while she lived and lived so long as she did considering her weak body much craziness and often infirmities to do so much good as she did and that she dyed in the faith of Christ and hope of his glory to be revealed upon her and injoyed by her at the appearing again of the Lord Jesus these are matters to be rejoyced in and for Her righteous doing here is at and end but her righteousness in which she was righteous and which in that righteousness she did endureth for ever for she was righteous in that sense of righteousness too as it is taken for mercy and almsdeeds so that it might be said of her she dispersed and gave to the poor her righteouâ—ness endureth for ever and therefore her hâ—rn shall be exalted with honor Psal 112.7 The consideration of the goodness of her life but much more of the happiness of her death and of her state as dead put me in minde of what Balaam wisht and put me upon explicating it in order to the consideration of the desirableness of what he wished and desired Well she is gone and gone to the best place we trust that she could go to even to the presence of the Lord Jesus in whom and through whose grace she and what she did had allowance and acceptance and with whom she is above our wishing and praying for any thing more for her except that Gods Kingdom may come and therein the accomplishment of hers and all our happiness Being a woman that feared God and wrought righteousness as she was accepted of God so she may be praised of men for favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised and though I cannot say of her in all things as was said of that unparalel'd woman Prov. 31. yet we may say in her commendations she was doubtless among the daughters that did vertuously though I will not say that she eâ—â—elled all the rest Prov. 31 30 31. Let us also imitate whatsoever was truly praise-worthy in her giving diligence that we may die the death of the righteous by living their life that our latter end may be like hers ADieu adieu dear Friend that state possess Wherein the upright Souls have endless bless What others but desired thou hast gain'd What we yet pray for thou hast now obtain'd Freed from all earthly dross and worldly cares Thou hast that peace now which nothing impairs Thy righteousness which here thou followdst after Like Sarahs womb hath brought forth only laughter For nought but joy and happiness attends The Soul that on the Lord alone depends Who trusting in him doth what 's good how well He speeds at last no mortals tongue can tell But thou in part injoyst what we below Can see but glimmerings of not fully know Thy Race is run thy Goal's obtain'd and thou Art far above the reach of danger now Oh happy Soul But blest for ever be That precious Lamb of God that made thee free Free him to close with and believe on here Free now from sin