come to us the Cowards trick indeed who never fighteth but when he thinks his enemy fears to resist him So I may to be sure say on the contrary that as to fear the Devil draws him upon us so not to fear him keeps him off on 's Courage in resistance will put him to flight for he is an absolute Coward to Christ and stout Christians If this be not done I mean if the Devil be not fully resisted all is in vain that man will scarce ever keep his Conscience quiet that tamely suffers the Devil to play the merciless Souldier Sophister Goaler or Executioner with it Master the Devil and then having made thy peace with God thou hast only thy Conscience still to pacifie from time to time with that bloud that hath pacified God Well then take this course do as Christ did in his fighting and you will without doubt fight a good fight of faith and finish your course with joy Thirdly Love not the world or any thing in it that is of it Love not your life too much exercise self denial Did we love God and our selves aright we should not fear Death Perfect love casteth out the fear of Death But imperfect love love divided the love of God and of the world too I mean the comforts pleasures of this life sweet Relations or the like oh this imperfect love instead of casting out doth but hatch and harbour the fears of Death Fear then to love much any thing of this world though never so lawful an enjoyment would you not fear Death There is more in this than Christians will be aware of But doubtless the inordinate love of worldly comforts and the imperfect love of God makes men affraid to dye To this I may add Prize spiritual things above worldly place your sensible dayly yea hourly happiness in spiritual things count them not only your food but feast yea recreation too alwaies reckoning thus to be merry My Meditation of God shall be sweet saies David and I will be glad in the Lord. Let the comfort of your lives your choice constant delight and treasure be heavenly things then you will never fear death For as it is a comfort when an house is on fire to save all the goods especially all the treasure So though the Plague or any death fire the body this our tabernacle of clay yet will it not be a quering comfort that our Treasure is safe And that we have a better house to go to not made with hands in the highest heavens Fourthly Watch. It is Christs direction The uncertainty of the time of death and judgment hath this Use of Exhortation annexed to it by a greater Ecclesiastes then Solomon Christ himself who preached as never man did and spake as never man spake saies he What I say unto you I say unto all watch Mar. 13.37 Job knowing his Redeemer lived knew both his protection and his duty waited all the daies of his appointed time till his change came He was every day at watch looking for his last enemy Death and therefore little feared what he could do therefore he had not so much fear of Death as hope in God though he should slay him Oh! watch watch For you know those that watch in an Army are less affrighted at the approach of an enemy then those that are alarum'd out of their sleep So it is as to the fears of Death we therefore fear it so much because we so little think of it or expect it putting the evil day far from us and so suspecting it not to be near fall to sleep keep no watch and then if on a sudden this last enemy Death approach and seem to be very near us we being alarum'd out of our foolish sleep are affrighted Therefore Solomon deals wisely with the young man Eccles 12. who thinks death farthest off I say he presents the young man with a most lively and unparallel'd description of his latter end puts him in mind betimes of his latter daies that so meditating and expecting such an end of his daies he might not be affrighted at death nor unprepared for judgment Oh! watch watch for certainly Christians familiar thoughts of death if according to Gods Word would breed in us the contempt of Death Fifthly Be faithful in celebrating all Gospel Ordinances of Gods Worship Communion with Christ in them raises a mans ambition above his Cowardice and makes him covet to be with Christ though it be by Death Remember that of David Psal 24.4 Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no ill for thou art with me In the next verse but one he shews where God and he met ver 6. I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Communion with his shepherd especially in holy Worship made him fear no evil that death could affront him with Two Ordinances of the Worship of God and for Communion with him I only hint as expedient to this present purpose because one of them I must speak more to in the Conclusion they are Prayer and the Lords Supper First Prayer The end of all things is at hand be sober and watch unto Prayer 1 Pet. 4.7 Thy end to be sure is at hand watch and pray Watching is of little avail without Prayer If you be wise pray much in faith O Saints have you never found in prayer heavens gate opened to your knocking Do but prevail once in prayer with God himself as Princes and Israelites indeed and you will easily overcome his Serjeant death it self much more its fears They that use in Prayer to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Jesus cannot much fear that Death should at last make them miss their good old way to heaven Secondly Receive the Lords Supper as oft and as worthily as you can Many quiet their Consciences by receiving that Sacrament upon the point of Death But truly solid joyes and the best preparations for death are the result of a godly remembrance of Christs death all along in our life time What quiet can any have from such a practice That is to neglect the Ordinance and duty of remembring Christs death all their life and to remember it only at their death Oh! seeing fears of death are sad associates and Companions of our life even all your daies remember Christs death by vertue whereof you are to be delivered from such troublesome Company as it is clear in the preceding verse to my Text That through DEATH saies the Apostle he might destroy him that had the power of Death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage This is a deliverance you see wrought through Christs death O Saint study it eye it in faith till thou feelest the vertue of it in thy heart easing thee of thy fears of Death Thus Christ undertook thy Deliverance even by his own Death Thus then do thou manage this thy deliverance by due remembrance of
but hope he would trust in him for he knew his Redeemer lived David though he walked in the valley of the shadow of death would fear no ill for God was with him even Christ his great shepherd The three Children feared Death neither before they were cast into the fiery furnace nor after because a fourth was with them in form like the Son of God The Apostle Paul was perswaded that neither Death nor life no not death could separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus and thereupon manifested such freedom from fear that he saies of himself and many others In all these things amongst which were manifold deaths we are more than Conquerours through him that loved us yea and for this purpose gave Christ for us Rom. 8.37 even we though killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter v. 36. yet we in this condition that multiplies other mens fears are more than Conquerours Therefore O Saints see the valour of your fellow souldiers who have no other Captain or weapons than you have Christ is no respecter of persons but able and willing to save you as well as them from the fears of Death But to come to the second part of my Method Secondly I am now to proceed to another most pleasing and satisfactory account and to discover how Christ doth so dwell raign and rule in the Saints hearts as to eject thence these potent enslaving fears the fears of Death how he works them out of his childrens hearts and rids them of such troublesome Guests that when they are found in unregenerate men do as it were lay violent hands on them For the fears of Death in many are one sort of Deaths executioners or at least as Serjeants to arrest them for the Grave and that with such a clap and damp that makes uncontrolable way for death and quite overthrows them Now how doth Christ cast and bar out these killing fears of death Many waies First By Faith a gift flowing as all other grace from Christs fulness of which we receive grace for grace Christians see your strength 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith The world comprehending the miseries arising from a dying life and from death it self yea Devil too for these are the enemies and forces the world breeds maintains and fights us with whilst we are in it But faith is our victory and surely if it makes us Conquerours it makes us not to fear This excellent grace of Faith hath so great a stroke in the Saints conquering that it is called the conquest and victory it self Nay farther Saints in this life are said to be kept by the power of God through FAITH unto Salvation because what ever is done by Gods and Christs power for our Salvation or Redemption from any or all our miseries first and last is accomplished not without our faith Thus Christ applies and conveys to us the merit vertue and power of his conquering death Christ hath shed his bloud but by faith he warms our hearts with it against the cold fears of death This was that which made the Apostle Paul so crow over Death He was perswaded that as not life so neither death could separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus This perswasion was his faith that made him triumph over death without fears of it come when it would Thus is Christ the Author and finisher of our faith unto this particular conquest and victory over Death and over all its horrid fears For Christ is not contented himself thus to conquer unless he makes all his Servants not only that eminent Apostle Paul but also all Believers his Seconds in the encounter that they should conquer as well as he Nay in respect of any expected Death be more than Conquerours Oh! Faith in Christs bloud gives Saints a noble courage against Death I shall urge this with the citation of a truly Heroick and spiritual expression dictated by a most learned and pious Divine of our Protestant Religion which is this Siquis animum pacare non possit mortis contemptu is sciat parum se adhuc profecisse in Christi fide that is saies he If a man cannot quiet his soul or still that turbulent passion of fear with the contempt of Death Let that man know he hath made but little proficiency in the faith of Christ Thus he concerning a Professour too fearful of Death To such an one I think also it may be truly and justly said with a smart rebuke O thou of little faith To this purpose I shall propose a Scripture-passage most worthy of special notice It is that of Christ himself concerning the Apostle Peter Luk. 22.31 32. Simon Satan hath desired saies Christ to have you that he may fift you as wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not How did Satan sift and shake him Truly with fears of suffering death of faring like his Master so that for fear he denied him and swore to boot Thus Satan shook him with strong blasts of Temptations to fear death he blew him like a shaking leafe with his fears Well how did he recover I have prayed saies the Lord that thy faith fail not That was his Case this his cure fear of death cured by faith in him whom he forsook when Death was near Saies Luther Quantò major fides est tantò mors est imbecillior Quanto autem fides minor tantò mors est acerbior That is The greater Faith is the weaker is Death The less Faith is the bitterer is Death Have then a strong faith in Christ and your hearts shall not be troubled with any disquieting fears of Death for these will certainly be too weak to hold your spirits in bondage if your hearts be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation Secondly Christ by putting into and maintaining in our hearts that divine and mighty principle of love a love in our souls for himself doth thereby banish the fears of Death and garrison them out Perfect love saies the Apostle John casteth out fear Joh. 4.18 There is a very eminent Divine of our English Nation that gives us a very rational and remarkable account of the occasion upon which this Apostle writ this whole Epistle or at least that Expression yet truly I conceive the former not hard to imagine inasmuch as the Gnosticks whom that Person saies this Apostle here confuted did hold that Christians in danger to save their lives might under fears of Death deny Christ outwardly so they owned him in their hearts a devillish Notion like that Ye shall not surely dye Therefore the Apostle most pertinently deals with these Gnosticks in many close touches and therefore he speaks so highly of believing in Christ that is professing or confessing openly that Jesus is the Son of God and particularly that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Joh. 5.1 Now we are apt
thy Saviours death which remembrance in the use of the Lords Supper if it be the highest Gospel Ordinance as none doubt it so to be is the most effectual means to subdue as all sin so all fears of death The death of Christ kills sin guilt death and Devil and will it not by faith destroy the fears of Death Surely it will Only take heed to thy self in receiving the Sacrament of the Lords Supper for else thy remedy may prove thy poyson An unbecoming remembrance at that Ordinance of Christs death may cost thee thy life and bring the Plague to thy body as many good Divines are of the opinion that the Plague raged amongst those unworthy Communicants of the Corinthians that were even many of them weak and sickly yea many faln asleep A Plague sure because many fick and many dead Sixthly Maintain a very exact and holy Conversation walk with God in thy Closet and in thy house in a perfect way Who was it that had a desire to be dissolved Who was it That by all means laboured to attain to the resurrection of the dead To enjoy by death the perfection of glory and that without the least fears of Death Was it not that holy man the Apostle Paul who as you find in the same place Phil. 3.13 counted not himself to be already perfect forgetting those things which were behind reaching forth to those things which were before and pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus He prest forward yea would have prest too through Death gladly that he might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead He that hath a Conversation in heaven will least fear his passage thither by Death having in his life time been much used to be above Those that set their minds on things above can look much beyond death and see all clear A holy conversation in heaven is a conversation beyond Death Certainly none fear death more than wicked men whose Consciences are somewhat awakened and none next to them fear death more than careless Saints Strict livers are not only fearless of Death but desirous of it The Apostle Peter speaking of sufferings counsels thus 1 Pet. 4.19 Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator Truly for Saints not only to suffer but to dye as well as others is the appointed will of God Let them then commit the keeping of their souls to God in death or under the expectation of it in well doing as unto a faithful Creator for then they can no more fear Death reasonably then they can Gods faithfulness Seventhly Make a good improvement of all afflictions Conquer them by faith and patience and you will better deal with Death The Apostle Paul triumph't over Death as you have heard because more then Conquerour over tribulations persecutions and the like sorrows Truly overcoming these afflictions he bids a defiance to Death it self let it do its worst he is perswaded that neither life nor death neither the troubles of life nor the pains of Death if not the first sure not the later can separate him from his happiness the love of God in Christ Jesus Therefore you find a remarkable passage in Phil. 1.13 23. near together in the same Chapter first he mentions his bonds in Christ or for his sake in Caesars Palace then quickly mentions his desire to dye to depart this miserable world This is the unspeakable happiness of afflictions when improved they make us not only weary of this life and desirous of the Saints everlasting rest but they harden us and animate us to go on to conquer the remains of death at the last hour None live or dye more couragiously then the most exercised Saints trained up in great afflictions and sufferings for righteousness sake Eighthly Study the great Examples of this Deliverance Scripture Saints and others that have not feared death though subject to the like passions and infirmities that we are as Job David the Apostle Paul and others Example is cogent and their courage as well as patience was recorded for our imitation Now this is the great advantage we have by such examples A poor soul is encouraged to expect the same deliverance by Christ that such Saints before obtained freely seeing as God so Christ is no respecter of persons especially no partial Father to his own children who have all an equal interest in the Common Saviour and Deliverer Consider that seriously and take courage Remember once and again that Heb. 7.25 He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him them that is whosoever come them as well as the Apostle Paul himself Stephen and Apollo's as well as the great Apostles Peter and Paul and the Apostle John's little children as well as himself so long as they be children of God and come to God by Christ As the Apostle Peter speaks God saies he making no difference between them and us even all one in Christ as to the benefits of his death I beseech you consider also your living and dying Saints whose eminent lives are fresh in your memories confider and trace in them the evident footsteps of this glorious deliverance from the fears of Death The great instruction that the life and death of truly Christian friends do teach us is to dye well and comfortably And their evident victory over Death should animate the following files of Christian Souldiers to fall on and that with more courage upon death then death can upon them Ninthly Trust in God Believe in God believe also in Christ we find in Scripture that nothing we can do is a more present remedy against disquiets and fears then a present exercising this heavenly grace of trusting in and cleaving closer to God even when trouble is nigh very nigh Why art thou disquieted O my soul hope in God Again What time I am affraid I will trust in thee and many such instances Well the Devil fights thy soul with the fears of Death Do thou charge him again with thy hope in God Take this armour of God Hope is a proper weapon to fight against fear and the longer weapon too I will assure you It is a proper match for fear and much more valiant through Christ then the fears of Death can pretend to be for and through the Devil Therefore to promote this grace so highly conducing to the design of Christ in delivering his people from the fears of Death or of any dismal misery that can usher in Death to us I shall conclude with a discovery of some things that make for us all many waies as well as for the due Complexion of this needful grace of hope which I confess may blush but never grow pale and wan upon the nearest approach or roughest touch of Death we will leave that dull complexion to the lumpish fears of Death Well to get this
to think that many who do so much and cry Lord Lord Lord have mercy on us yet are not thereupon to be judged in so good a condition and in an unquestionable state of Salvation Therefore I conceive a right understanding of such expressions may be got by taking notice of holy John's palpable intent and the drift of his speech upon the forementioned occasion the Apostle therefore for the better understanding of such mistaken spirits asserts in summe thus much that indeed those only that confess Jesus to be the Son of God and will not deny him in fear of Death or Torment are to be taken for true Christians and happy souls indeed Upon the same account he asserts also That Perfect love casteth out fear that is the tormenting fear of death or danger as Tertullian evinces in his Scorpiacum or Antidote against the Gnosticks speaking thus Johannes negat timorem esse in dilectione quem timorem intelligi praestat nisi negationiâ— authorem i.e. John denies fear to be in love what fear can be better understood then such as is the Author and cause of denying Christ even as the Apostle Peter did for fear of death or suffering He that loves Christ but tolerably aright will not be loath to dye for Christ or to dye and go to Christ That Spouse who is truly sick of love for Christ thinks no Cure of that sickness like Death even to depart and to be with Christ to be ever with the Lord her blessed Bridegroom Thirdly Christ by giving his people that excellent grace of hope kills the fear of death 2 Thes 2.16 There it is plain that good hope through his grace is not only his gift but therewith also or thereby everlasting Consolation which therefore is neither to be interrupted by the fears of Death or discontinued by Death it self yea the same Consolation springing from this grace of hope Heb. 6.18 19. is there called strong Consolation Indeed stronger then Death or the terriblest fears of Death For Christ giving this hope is there said to comfort and establish Saints so that no fear of death as in that place of judgment day can either sadden whom he so comforts or shake and disturb the minds he so establishes for their hearts thus become fixed trusting in the Lord. The Saints grace of hope gets beyond Death before hand and enters into heaven As this Apostle to the Hebrews represents it as entring into that within the vail and by it Saints on earth fit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Now you know hope 's nature is contrary to fear He who hopes for eternal life and for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of the body as it is spoken of Saints hope Rom. 8 23 24 25. He that hath such a saving hope whereby as an Anchor sure and stedfast he hopes for life can never be tost like a wave with any slavish fears of Death Oh then still thy soul by hope in God The Apostle Peter calls the Saints the childrens hope a lively hope Who hath saies he begotten us unto a lively hope Lively hope destroys the exanimating killing fears of Death Puts us beyond death as to fear before it come at us as to feeling for he that hath this lively hope as an Anchor sure and stedfast cannot much fear that he shall at death become a Castaway though he be careful with the Apostle Paul It is Hells pit that is bottomless or fathomless so that the despairing Damned are alwaies tormented with Eternal pains and frights But alas Come the worst of it to the Saints of God this they know that the Graves pit is not bottomless there is enough for their hope to bottom and anchor upon surely and stedfastly The Grave to the wicked is indeed bottomless and though it detains a while the body yet it lets the soul slip into Hell and the body too not long after But Christs Death burial hath so sanctified every of the Saints Graves that at worst their graves will be by so much happier to them then that Grave was to the dead man whom Elisha's buried bones revived even by how much Lazarus his second was or will be better than his first Resurrection Christs Death and Burial hath left somewhat in every Saints grave sufficient at the lowest for his hope to bottom on so that his body when there may be truly said to rest in hope and therefore having this grace of hope he need not unless he will be disquieted with fears before Death Fourthly Christ by giving his people on earth some real foretasts of heaven and of eternal life doth thereby effectually destroy their fears of Death And therefore the Apostle Paul who was next to his Lord and Master the greatest conquerour and triumpher over Death we read of after that he had been Rapt up into the third heaven as he stories it himself in the second Epistle to the Corinthians was ever after most undaunted under the seriousest thoughts of death as is most evident in his other Epistles which were written after those to the Corinthians particularly in that to the Romans where he tells us how little he fears death or a thousand deaths though killed as it were all the day long yet more then Conquerour He had before so sweet a sight of heaven that Death could not fright him so sweet a taste of heavens pleasures that he could never after taste any bitterness in death And thereupon justly longing to be there again he feared not death the only passage into so much bliss Let every true Saint consider this I say every soul that conscionably walks with God and labours to have Communion with God in his holy waies and Ordinances that walks in some measure as that blessed Apostle Paul who lived in all good conscience before God that with holy David tastes and sees that the Lord is gracious that tastes in deed and truth savingly of the heavenly gift the good Word of God and the powers of the World to come O precious Saint dost thou so live How is it possible but thou must long to be filled with these heavenly joyes How canst thou fear that Death that will put thee into actual possession of thy Masters Joy According to that in Rom. 8.28 And not only they viz. the Creatures but we our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit do groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our body See here that a taste of the first fruits of the heavenly Canaan which Gods Spirit from above fetches for and feeds a Saint with makes him not to groan under the fears of dying but rather under fears of not dying O you that taste and rellish heavenly things in Divine Ordinances and have much of the presence of Christ with you in them are you affraid to dye and to be with Christ for ever Is not this better then to live There are three things deservedly to be called first
Faith Heb. 10.22 And truly to comfort Saints Consciences with their attaining less then this except in singular cases and conditions of great relapses and sore desertions is to comfort them with their reproach O ye of little faith Is this to lead sad Saints into paths of pleasantness and peace Or rather to hoodwinck them and so leave them in the dark unto the Devil to fright them Is this to comfort and cure Saints weak hearts Or rather to keep them weak and valetudinary Or is it not to play the Mountebanks with them And by indulging their fears and doubts to take a course to have them alwaies visiting us for our weak Physick when as Christ hath left us and all his mighty strong Consolations and Cordials and that with a Probatum est thereupon the probation and experience of every New-Testament Saint But I will shew you Scripture Divinity and not sparingly neither for what I plead 1 Joh. 1.3 And truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ Vers 4. And these things write we to you that your joy might be full Chap. 2.5 Hereby know we that we are in him Chap. 3.2 Beloved now we are the Sons of God Vers 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the Brethren Vers 19. And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him Vers 24. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us Chap. 4.13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit Vers 16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us Chap. 5.13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal life Vers 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us Vers 15. And if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the Petitions that we desired of him Vers 19. And we know that we are of God and the whole world lyeth in wickedness Vers 20. And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and Eternal life Here is the right description of a New Testament Gospel-Saint and the nature of his confidence which he holds to the end maugre all the terrours of Death or Devil Upon all which let me say thus much for I am labouring to have the Axe laid at the root of all horrid fears of Death do but consider it seriously and then judg whether to comfort souls with puny lazy and easie reflections on that which is sadly short of what those Scriptures speak to be the attainment of Gods Children whether I say it be not to keep souls fully as unholy as truly comfortless for so it is if Eph. 3.17 18.19 do hold out these Doctrines which you will find they do as first That great faith is necessary to the working of a great and an awakened affection in our hearts for God and Christ Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith roots us and grounds us in a sincere and powerful love of God Secondly That such a mighty affection in us for God is necessary to the begetting in us a larger assurance of his love to us For love thinks no ill but expects much good especially from God That ye saies the Apostle being rooted and grounded in love might even thereby be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and know the love of Christ even as all eminent Saints have known it that is his love to us in particular as the Apostle Paul phrases it Gal. 2.20 I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Thirdly That great assurance of Gods love to us is needful unto our perfecting of holiness if so be we would be filled with all the fulness of God Now who that have any fear of God or pity to souls dare use any other method of comforting then God uses Oh let none comfort others or themselves with poor weak tokens of being in a good state and by never urging home an absolute necessity of the full assurance of faith even leave them under perpetual guilt and so unto those fears which make them walk unworthy of the state hope or name of Christians Surely he that delivers from the fears of Death leaves not poor souls to be torn and tost with extream doubtings of his love to them Well I leave this particular Information Behold the possibility of attaining this freedom from the fears of Death with all that appertains to it being clear from the necessity of our duty it being required of us and from the many examples of Saints so freed to encourage us For with Christ the great Deliverer this is possible and it is every childs portion ready purchased and it may be had for going for to him He is both able willing and ready to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him Use 2 Now I come to the second Use and that is of Exhortation in two words First Let every poor soul look to it to get grace to be in the number of real Saints for whom Christ intercedes as before my Text saying Behold I and the children which thou hast given me This Text speaks no comfort to any carnal wicked persons In the time of Pestilence and an hour of sudden Death they have no fence against the Devils fiery darts and the flashes of hell no Antidote against the killing fears of Death But let them flee penitently and believingly to Christ for refuge yea to Christ first for grace for repentance unto life and for faith in his bloud and then for safety and if the Son make you Sons and so free ye shall be free indeed Secondly I beseech you that are Saints Gods children though but a little flock little children yet do not you dread Death I do not say Do not think of Death Alas who can but think of it I do not say neither Be not seriously sensible of it But I beseech you for the sake of Jesus Christ for his honour sake who is your King and your own who are his Souldiers I say quit your selves like men stand to it stoutly sink not under the fears of Death Alas you are not to fear your last encounter if God hath given you any victory over your greatest and truly mortal enemies the World Flesh and Devil Saints at last should be like experienced Souldiers used to encounters and warrisht with spiritual Combates so that they should rather scorn then fear the last and harmlessest enemy Death But
I shall only add That this freedom from the fears of Death is a priviledge Christ hath purchased for this present state for this life NOw what Saint can find in his heart to lose so great a Legacy left by Christ so great a purchase and benefit of his Death So great a Deliverance And foolishly multiply to himself self-willed fears or which is worse self-willed grounds of fear as lust passion worldly incumbrances or worldly mindedness idleness vain frothy foolish actions and carriage or if not so then it may be ignorant suspicions of Gods mercy All these things do but arm Death and thine own Conscience to wound thee oh look to thy self make haste for Death hastens apace O! what true Child of God but would so long to be rid of this disingenuous temper of fearing Death as to be even hourly on his knees begging of Christ this benefit of his gloriously conquering death which if a Child of God receives not in this short and now if ever uncertain life he will altogether miss that which is so goodly a part of the Saints Portion which is proper to and fitted for this present life even before Death comes to encounter us Well abandon these fears with the grounds of them and then though Death come quickly yet through Christ you will grapple well enough with it And oh that men were wise to get from Christ by all constant importunity some of this blessed deliverance from the fears of Death and oh that by a continual carelesness because not presently seized by the Plague or any other mortal sickness they would not desperately venture it and so sadly abandon themselves to the frights of the Devil in an hour of sudden death Now if any be awakened either by Gods Word or Providence to look after this great benefit of Christs death which is to be delivered from the servile fears of their own then let such consider this Counsel which the Scripture gives in the Case First Have a care of harbouring one moment any known or knowable guilt For it receives from the condemning Law strength to arm Death with I wonder not that those Saints who have at any time much guilt upon their spirits do then fear Death If sin be not examined and found out which is not done by many Saints who even justifie themselves in some sins not judging them to be sins nor much caring to examine lest they should prove sins and so to be parted with contrary to a dear humour and so calling good evil and evil good no wonder in such a case that the Woe belonging to such when executed as well as threatned frights them If Saints for want of due consideration and examining themselves do not only commit but continue in sin unrepented of as the Plagued Corinthians no wonder that they are surprized not only with the fears of death but with sudden death it self Oh! shake your Consciences rouze them up to discharge their office faithfully let your heart smite you for the least sin or evil thought and oh harbour not guilt let it not lodge with you one night no not an hour for so long you will be liable to horrid fears of dying It is so and the very truth of many Saints condition Therefore find out that which troubles your peace and provokes God to leave you to the fears of Death finding it out labour for the assistance of Christs Spirit for one look from Christ for one manifestation of Gods love that may break your hearts and make you weep bitterly repent and grieve throughly thus shall not sin come upon you with an afterclap with a repentance to be repented of Weep for sin according to the demand of the Gospel which requires not a little grief though less then sin deserves for it deserves hells weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Do this Believe and Repent Repent and Believe and then you will find in your hearts little or no fears of Death For peace of Conscience will thus become firm and will cast and keep them out yea defend the heart through Christ I say therefore dayly yea hourly exercise faith together with repentance that is to say a vigorous faith which is never forlorn or forsaken of good works and such a faith in Christ will be your victory over all base fears of Death Be not then O souls too hasty in your exercise of faith Believe again and again really and truly presenting to your selves the severity of the last and solemn judgment of God Believe not only till some ease come but till you be willing to dye if the Lord will presently For did you arraign your selves in bitter Confession of sin as before Gods Tribunal indeed No less faith would serve your turn then such as would carry you boldly from your knees through Death to Judgment for you may so examine and judge your selves as to be confident in Christ that you shall never be judged of the Lord. Secondly Resist the Devil I mean these his temptations to fear death resist both him and all his temptations as those to sin to despair of its pardon and to fear its wages Death Have an It is written for him if not to wound him yet to gag him If nothing be readier dart this Text into his foul mouth to stop it this Text managed with faith will fright the Devil more than he can fright you This Text is in this case like Goliahs Sword none like it Take Gods Word for it will wound him and make him run too by the power of the Spirit of Christ Well thus resist the Devil fear him not he is a conquered enemy Christ hath destroyed him that hath the power of death saies the Apostle And therefore I desire you to resist him for two reasons First Because your Captain hath done it It is fit for Souldiers to fight against such as their General Charges It is not fit for you to yield to the Devils temptations to fear Death when as Christ the Captain of your salvation hath overcome him as his and your Enemy destroying him that had the power of Death This were to raise arms with the Devil and to strengthen him against Christ and your own lives too But Secondly I advise this because it is the way of Christ his Method of ridding his children from fear He first destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and all this that he might deliver his people from fear of dying So do you follow Christs Methods of war Would you be delivered indeed by Christ from the bondage fears of Death Then do as Christ resist him that hath the power of Death The Promise you know encourages this stoutness Resist the Devil and he will flee from you which when he doth your fears of Death will flee after him because it is he only that hath this power of Death As one saies Timor attrahit ad se Daemonas Fear or Cowardize invites the Devil to