was to the world and how we should use it to strengthen our faith p. 129 The Lords day honourable p. 130. Use 10. How earnestly we should pray for the second coming of Christ though Death be terrible p. 134 Some imitable passages of the Life of Elizabeth late Wife of Mr. Joseph Baker whose Funerals occasioned this discourse p. 144. 1 Cor. 15. 26. The last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death DEATH is the occasion of this days meeting and Death may be the Subject of our present Meditations I must speak of that which will shortly silence me and you must hear of that which will speedily stop your ears and we must spend this hour on that which waits to cut our thred and take down our glasse and end our time and tell us we have spent our last But as it hath now done good by doing hurt so are we to consider of the accidental benefits as well as of the natural evil from which the heavenly wisdome doth 〈…〉 them Death-hath now bereaved a body of its Soul but thereby it hath sent that 〈◊〉 to Christ where it hath now experience how good it is to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. It hath separated a faithful wife from a beloved husband but it hath sent her to a husband dearlier beloved and taught her now by experience to say That to be with Christ is best of all Phil. 1. 23. It hath deprived a sorrowful husband of a wife deprived us all of a faithful friend but it hath thereby brought us to the house of mourning which is better for us than the house of teasting a Paradox to the flesh but an undoubted truth for here we may see the end of all men and we that are yet living may lay it to our hearts Eceles 7. 2 3. Yes it hath brought us to the house of God and occasioned this serious address to his Holiness that we may be instructed by his Word as we are warned by his Works and that we may be wise to understand and to consider our latter end Deut. 32. 29. It s like you 'l think to tell men of the evil or enmity of Death is as needlesse a discourse as any could be chosen For who is there that is not naturally too sensible of this and who doth not dread the name or at least the face of Death But there is accidentally a greater evil in it than that which nature teacheth men to fear And while it is the King of terrours to the world the most are ignorant of the greatest hurt that it doth them or can do them or at least it is but little thought on which hath made me think it a needful work to tell you yet of much more evil in that which you abhor as the greatest evil But so as withall to magnifie our Redeemer that overshooteth death in its own bow and causeth it when it hits the mark to miss it and that causeth health by loathsome medicines and by the dung of our bodily corruption manureth his Church to the greater felicity Such excellent skill of our wise Physician we find exprest and exercised in this Chapter where an unhappy errour against the Resurrection hath happily occasioned an excellent discourse on that weighty Subject which may stablish many a thousand souls and serve to shame and destroy such heresies till the Resurrection come and prove it self The great Argument which the Apostle most insisteth on to prove the Resurrection is Christs own Resurrection where he entereth into a comparison between Christ and Adam shewing that as Adam first brought death upon himself and then upon his posterity so Christ that was made a quickening 〈◊〉 did first Rise himself as the first-fruits and their at his coming will raise his own And as in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive And this Christ will do as our victorious King and the Captain of our salvation who when he hath subdued every enemy will then deliver up the Kingdom to the Father And the last enemy which he wil subdue is Death therefore our Resurrection is his final conquest The terms of the Text have no difficulty in them The Doctrine which they expresse must be thus unfolded 1 I must shew you that Death is an Enemy and what is meant by this expression and wherein its Enmity doth consist 2 I shall shew you that it is an Enemy to be destroyed though last and how and by what degrees it is destroyed And then we shall make application of it to your further Instruction and Edification 1. That you may know what is meant by an Enemy here you must observe that man being fallen into sin and misery and Christ having undertaken the work of our Redemption the Scripture oft speaketh of our misery and recovery Metaphorically in military terms And so Satan is said to take us captive and we to be his slaves and Christ to be the Captain of our Salvation and to redeem us from our bondage and thus our sin and misery and all that hindereth the blessed Ends of his undertaking are called Enemies Death therefore is called an Enemy to be destroyed that is a â—â—â—al evil to be removed by the Redeemer in order to our recovery and the glory of his grace 1. It is an Evil. 2. A punishment procured by our sin and executed by Gods Justice 3. It is an Evil that hindereth our felicity These three things are included in the Enmity That Death is an Enemy to Nature is a thing that all understand but all consider not how it is an Enemy to our Souls to the exercise of grace and consequently to the attainment of glory I shall therefore having first spoken briefly of the sormer insist a little longer upon the latter â— How great an Enemy Death is unto Nature doth easily appear in that It is the Dissolution of the Man It maketh a Man to become No Man by separating the Soul from the Body and dissolving the Body into its principles It pulls down in a moment a curious frame that Nature was long building and tenderly cherishing and preserving The Mother long nourishes it in her bowels and painfully brings it forth and carefully brings it up What 〈◊〉 doth it cost our Parents and our selves to make provision for this Life and death in a moment cuts it off How careful are we to keep in these Lamps and to maintain the Oyl and Death extinguisheth them at a blast How noble a creature doth it destroy To day our parts are all in order and busie about their several tasks our Hearts are moving our Lungs are breathing our Stomacks are digesting our Blood and Spirits by assimilation making more and to morrow death takes off the poise and all stands still or draws the pins and all the frame doth fall to pieces We shall breath no more nor speak nor think nor walk no more Our pulse will beat no more Our eyes
dangerous Incision what a striving doth it cause between the contrary passions the love of life and the love of ease the fear of death and the fear of suffering Could we but come to Heaven as easily as innocent Adam might have done if he had conquered what wings would it add to our desires Might we be translated as Henoch or conveyed thither in the Chariot of Elâ—â—â— what Saint is there that would not long to see the face and glory of the Lord Were it but to go to the top of a Mountain and there see Christ with Moses and Elias in a glimpse of Glory as he did the three Disciples Who would not make haste and say It is good for us to be here Matth 17. 1 4 But to travel so chearfully with Abraham to the Mount of Moriah to sacrifice an only Son or with a Martyr to the flames is a harder task This is the principal enmity of death it deterreth our desires and thoughts from Heaven and maketh it a far harder matter to us to long after God than otherwise it would be Yea it causeth us to flie from him even when we truly love him And where Faith and Love do work so strongly as to overcome these fears yet do they meet with them as an enemy and must fight before they overcome 2. And as this Enemy dulleth our Desires so doth it consequently cool our Love as to the exercise and it hindereth our hope and much abateth the complacency and Joy that we should have in the believing thoughts of Heaven when we should be rejoycing in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. the face of death appearing to our thoughts is naturally an enemy to our joy When we think of the grave and of dissolution and corruption and of our long abode in the places of darkness of our contemned dust and scattered bones this damps our joyful thoughts of Heaven if supernatural grace do not make us Conquerours But if we might pass from Earth to Heaven as from one room to another what haste should we make in our desires How joyfully should we think and speak of Heaven Then we might live in the Joy of the Holy Ghost and easily delight our selves in God and Comfort would be our daily food 3. Moreover as our Natural Enemy doth thus occasion the abatement of Desire and Love and Joy so also of our Thankfulnesse for the Glory that is promised us God would have more praise from us if we had more pleasing joyful thoughts of our Inheritance We should magnifie him from day to day when we remember how we shall magnifie him for ever Our hearts would be turned into thankfulnesse and our tongues would be extolling our dear Redeemer and sounding forth his praise whom we must praise for ever if dreadful Death did not draw a veil to hide the heavenly glory from us 4. And thus the dismal face of Death doth hinder the heavenlinesse of our Conversation Our Thoughts will be diverted when our complacency and desire is abated Our minds be willinger to grow strange to Heaven when Death still mingleth terrour in our meditations Whereas if we could have come to God in the way that was first appointed us and could be cloathed with glory without being stript of our present cloathing by this terrible hand how familiarly should we then converse above How readily would our Thoughts run out to Christ Meditation of that glory would not be then so hard a work Our hearts would not be so backward to it as now they are 5. Faith is much hindered and Infidelity much advantaged by Death Look either to the state of soul or body and you will easily perceive the truth of this The state of a Soul incorporated we know by long experience what kind of apprehensions volitions and affections belong to a soul while it acteth in the Body we feel or understand But what manner of Knowledge Will or Love what Joy what sorrow belong to souls that are separated from the Bodies it is not possible for us now distinctly and formally to conceive And when men find themselves at a loss about the manner they are tempted to doubt of the thing it self The swarms of irreligious Infidels that have denied the Immortality and separated existence of the Soul are too full a proof of this And good men have been haunted with this horrible temptation Had there been no death we had not been liable to this dangerous assault The opinion of the sleeping of the soul till the Resurrection is but a step to flat Infidelity and both of them hence receive their life because a soul in flesh when it cannot conceive to its satisfaction of the being state or action of a separated soul is the easier drawn to question or deny it And in regard of the Body the difficulty and tryal is as great That a corps resolved into dust and perhaps first devoured by some other body and turned into its substance should be re-united to its soul and so become a glorified body is a point not easie for unsanctified nature to believe When Paul preached of the Resurrection to the learned Athenians some mocked and others turned off that discourse Acts 17. 32. It is no easier to believe the Resurrection of the Body than the Immortality or separated Existence of the Soul Most of the world even Heathens and Infidels do confess the latter but few of them comparatively believe the former And if sin had not let in Death upon our Nature thâ—â— perilous difficulty had been prevented Then we should not have been puzled with the thoughts of either a corrupted Body or a separated Soul 6. And consequently by all this already mentioned our Endeavors meet with a great impediment If Death weaken Faith Desire and Hope it must needs dull our Endeavors The deterred discouraged soul moves slowly in the way of life Whereas if Death were not in our way how chearfully should we run towards Heaven our thoughts of it would be still sweet and these would be a powerful Spring to action When the Will goes with full Sails the commanded faculty will the more easily follow We should long so earnestly to be in Heaven if Death were not in the way that nothing could easily stop us in our course How earnestly we should pray How seriously should we meditate and confer of Heaven and part with any thing to attain it But that which dulls our Desires of the End must needs be an Enemy to holy Diligence and dull us in the use of means 7. This Enemy also doth dangerously tempt us to fall in love with present things and to take up the miserable Portion of the worldling when it hath weakened faith and cooled our desires to the life to come we shall be tempted to think that its best take such pleasure as may here be had and feed on that where a sensual mind hath less discouragement Whereas if Death did not stand in the way and darken
Heaven to us and turn back our desires how easily should we get above these triftes and perceive the vanity of all below and how unworthy they are to be once regarded 8. Moreover it is much long of this last Enemy that God is so dishonoured by the Fears and droopings of believers They are but imperfectly yet freed from this bondage and accordingly they walk Whereas if the King of terrours were removed we should have less of Fear and more of Love as living more in the sight and sense of Love And then we should glorifie the God of Love and appear to the world as men of another world and shew them the faith and hope of Saints in the heavenly chearfulness of our lives and no more dishonour the Lord and our Profession by our uncomfortable despondencies as we do 9. Moreover it is much long of this last Enemy that many true Christians cannot perceive their own sincerity but are overwholm'd with doubts and troublesome fears lest they have not the faith and hope of Saints and lest the Love of God abide not in them and lest their hearts are more on Earth than Heaven When they find themselves afraid of dying and to have dark amazing thoughts about eternity and to think with less trouble and fear of earth than of the life to come this makes them think that they are yet but worldlings and have not placed their happiness with God when perhaps it is but the fear of death that causeth these unjust conclusions Christian I shall tell thee more anon that God may be truly loved and desired by thee and Heaven may be much more valued than Earth and yet the natural fears of death that standeth in thy way may much perplex thee and make thee think that thou art averse from God when indeed thou art but averse from Death because yet this Enemy is not overcome 10. Lastly this Enemy is not the smallest cause of many of our particular sins and of the apostacy of many hypocrites Indeed it is one of the strongest of our temptations Before man sinned none could take away his life but God and God would not have done it for any thing but sin So that man had no temptation from the malice of enemies or the pride of Conquerours or the sury of the passionate or the power of Tyrants to be afraid of death and to use any unlawful means to scape it An avoidable death from the hand of God he was obliged moderately to fear that is to be afraid of sinning lest he die else God would not have threatned him if he would not have had him make use of a preventing fear But now we have an unavoidable death to fear and also an untimely death from the hand of man by Gods permission And the fear of these is a powerful temptation Otherwise Abraham would not have distructively equivocated as he did to save his life Gen. 20. 11. and Isaac after him do the same when he sojourned in the same place Gen. 26. 7. If the fear of Death were not a strong temptation Peter would not have thrice denyed Christ and that after so late a warning and engagement nor would all his Disciples have forsaken him and fled Matth. 26. 56. Nor would Martyrs have a special reward nor would Christ have been put to call upon his Disciples that they Fear not them that can kill the body Luke 12. 4. and to declare to men the necessity of self-denyal in this point of Life and that none can be his Disciple that loves his Life before him Matth. 16. 39. Luke 14. 26. He is a Christian indeed that so Loveth God that he will not sin to save his Life But what is it that an hypocrite will not do to escape Death He will equivocate and forswear himself with the Jesuite and Familist He will forsake not only his dearest friend but Christ also and his Conscience What a multitude of the most hainous sins are daily committed through the fears of death Thousands where the Inquisition ruleth are kept in Popery by it And thousands are kept in Mahometanism by it Thousands are drawn by it to betray their Countries to deny the truth to betray the Church and Cause of Christ and finally to betray their souls unto perdition some of them presume to deny Christ wilfully because that Peter had pardon that denied him through surprize and through infirmity But they will not Repent with Peter and die for him after their repentance He that hath the power of an Hypocrites life may prescribe him what he shall believe and do may write him down the Rule of his Religion and tell him what changes he shall make what oaths he shall take what party he shall side with and command him so many sins a day as you make your horse go so many miles Satan no doubt had much experience of the power of this temptation when he boasted so confidently of it against Job 2. 4. Skin for skin and all that a man hath he will give for his life And its true no doubt of those that love nothing better than their lives Satan thought that the fear of Death would make a man do any thing And of too many he may boldly make this boast Let me but have power of their Lives and I will make them say any thing and swear any thing and be for any Cause or Party and do any thing against God or man When lesser matters can do so much as common sad experience sheweth us no wonder if the fear of death can do it In brief you may see by what is said that Death is become an Enemy to our Souls by being first the Enemy of our Natures The Interest of our Bodies works much on our Souls much more the Interest of the whole man The principle of self-love was planted in Nature in order to self-preservation and the government of the world Nature doth necessarily abhor its own destruction And therefore this destruction standing in the way is become an exceeding great hinderance to our affections which takes them off from the life to come 1. It is a very great hinderance to the Conversion of those that are yet carnal imprisoned in their unbelief It is hard to win their hearts to such a state of Happiness that cannot be obtained but by yielding unto Death 2. And to the truly godly it is naturally an impediment a great temptation in the points before expressed And though it prevail not against them it exceedingly hindereth them And thus I have shewed you that Death is an Enemy further than I doubt the most consider of If the unbeliever shall here tell me that Death is not the fruit of sin but natural to man though he had never sinned and therefore that I lay all this on God I answer him that Mortality as it signifieth a posse mori a natural capacity of dying was natural to us in our innocency or else Death could not be threatned as a
shall see the light no more Our ears shall hear the voice of man delightful sounds and melody no more we shall taste no more our meat or drink Our appetite is gone Our strength is gone Our natural warmth is turned into an earthly cold Our comeliness and beauty is turned into a ghastly loathsome deformity Our white and red doth soon turn into horrid blackness Our tender flesh hath lost its feeling and is become a senseless lump that feeleth not whether it is carried nor how it is used that must be hidden in the earth lest it annoy the living that quickly turns to loathsome putresaction and after that to common earth Were all the once-comely bodies that now are rotting in one Church-yard uncovered and here presented to your view the fight would tell you more effectually than my words do what an Enemy Death is to our Nature When corruption hath finished its work you see the earth that once was flesh you see the bones you see the skulls you see the holes where once were brains and eyes and mouth This change Death makes And that universally and unavoidably The Prince cannot resist it by his Majesty for he hath sinned against the highest Majesty The strong cannot resist it by their strength For it is the Messenger of the Almighty The Commanders must obey it The Conquerours must be conquered by it The Rich cannot bribe it The Learned Orator cannot perswade it to pass him by The skilful Physician cannot save himself from the mortal stroke Neither fields nor gardens earth or sea affordeth any medicine to prevent it All have sinned and all must die Dust we are and to dust we must return Gen. 3. 19. And thus should we remain if the Lord of Life should not revive us 2. And it is not only to the Body but to the Soul also that Death is naturally an Enemy The Soul hath naturally a Love and Inclination to its Body and therefore it feareth a Separation before and desireth a Restauration afterward Abstracting Joy and Torment Heaven and Hell in our consideration the state of Separation as such is a natural evil even to the humane Soul of Christ it was so while his Body remained in the grave which separated state is the Hades that our English calleth Hell that Christ is said to have gone into And though the Soul of Christ and the souls of those that die in him do passe into a far more happy state than they had in flesh yet that is accidentally from Rewarding Justice and the Bounty of the Lord and not at all from Death as Death the separation as such is still an evil And therefore the Soul is still desirous of the Bodies Resurrection and knoweth that its felicity will then be greater when the re-union and glorification hath perfected the whole man So that Death as Death is unwelcome to the soul it self though Death as accidentally gainful may be desired 3. And to the unpardoned unrenewed soul Death is the passage to everlasting misery and in this regard is far more terrible than in all that hitherto hath been spoken Oh could the guilty soul be sure that there is no Justice to to take hold on it after death and no more pain and sorrow to be felt but that man dieth as a beast that hath no more to feel or lose then Death would seem a tolerable evil But it s the living Death the dying Life the endless woe to which death leads the guilty soul that makes it to be unspeakably terrible The utter darkness the unquenchable fire the worm that dieth not the everlasting flames of the wrath of God these are the chief horrour and sting of death to the ungodly O were it but to be turned into Trees or Stones or Earth or nothing it were nothing in comparison of this But I pass by this because it is not directly intended in my Text. 4. The Saints themselves being sanctified but in part are but imperfectly assured of their Salvation And therefore in that measure as they remain in doubt or unassured Death may be a double terror to them They believe the threatenings and know more than unbelievers do what an â—sufferable 〈◊〉 it is to be deprived of the celestial glory and what an unspeakable misery it is to bear the endless wrath of God! And therefore so far as they have such fears it must needs make death a terrour to them 5. But if there were nothing but Death it self to be our Enemy foreknowledge of it would increase the misery A Beast that knoweth not that he must die is not tormented with the fears of death though nature hath possessed them with a self preserving fear for the avoiding of an invading evil But man foreknoweth that he must die He hath still occasion to anticipate his terrors that which will be and certainly and shortly will be is in a manner as if it were already And therefore fore-knowledge makes us as if we were alway dying We see our Graves our weeping Friends our sore-described corruption and dismal state and so our life is a continual Death And thus Death is an enemy to Nature 2. But this is not all nor the greatest Enmity that Death hath to the godly It is a lamentable hinderance to the work of Grace as I shall shew you next in ten particulars 1â— The fears of Death do much abate our Desires after God as he is to be enjoyed by the separated soul Though every believing holy soul do love God above all and take Heaven for his home and therefore sincerely longeth after it yet when we know that Death stands in the way and that there is no coming thither but through this dreadful narrow passage this stoppeth and lamentably dulleth our desires And so the Natural Enmity turneth to a Spiritual sorer enmity For let a man be never so much a Saint be will be still a Man and therefore as Death will still be death so nature will still be nature And therefore death as death will be abhorred And we are such timerous sluggards that we are easily discouraged by this Lyon in the way The ugly Pâ—â—er affrighted us from those grateful thougâ—â— of the New Jerusalem the City of God the heavenly Inheritance which otherwise the blessed object would produce Our sanctified affections would be mounting upwards and holy Love would be working towards its blessed object but Death standing in the way suppresseth our desires and turns us back and frighteneth us from our Fathers presence We look up to Christ and the Holy City as to a precious Pearl in the bottom of the Sea or as to a dear and faithful Friend that is beyond some dreadful gulf Fain we would enjoy him but we dare not venture we fear this dismal enemy in the way He that can recover his health by a pleasant medicine doth take it without any great reluctancy But if a Leg or an Arm must be out off or a stone cut out by a painful