Grave and exchanged all his glorious State for Worms and Putrefaction The Worm is spread under thee and the Worms cover thee In short Death separates Men from all their admired charming Vanities 2. Death is fearful in the apprehension of Conscience as 't is the most sensible mark of God's Wrath that is heavier than Death and a summons to give an account of all things done in this Life to the righteous Judg of the World 'T is appointed to all Men once to die and afterward the Judgment The Penal Fear is more wounding to the Spirit than the Natural When the awakened Sinner quietly expects the Citation to appear before the Tribunal above where no excuses no supplications no privileges avail where his cause of Eternal Life or Death must be decided and the awards of Justice be immediately executed O the Convulsions and Agonies of Conscience in that hour when the diseased Body cannot live and the disconsolate Soul dare not die what Anxieties surround it This redoubles the terrors of Death that the first transmits to the second that was figured by it O the dismal aspect of Death riding on a pale Horse with Hell the black Attendant following This Fear surprised the Sinners in Sion Who among us can dwell with devouring Fire who among us can remain with everlasting burnings This made a Heathen the Governor of a Province to tremble before a poor Prisoner While Paul discoursed of Righteousness Temperance and Judgment to come Foelix trembled 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who lives for ever and can punish for ever None is so powerful as God nothing so fearful as the guilty Conscience 3. The degrees of this Fear is exprest by Bondage This Passion when regular in its Object and Degree is excellently useful 't is a wise Counsellor and faithful Guardian that plucks off the Mask from our Enemies and keeps Reason vigilant and active to prevent a threatning Evil or to sustain it in the best manner 'T is observable in the brute Creatures that the weak and fearful are most subtile and ingenious to secure themselves and supply the want of strength with artifice But when Fear is inordinate 't is a tyrannous Master that vexes the weary Soul and hinders its free and noble Operations Caesar chose rather to be expos'd to suddain death than to be continually harrast with fears how to avoid it The Greek word implies the binding of the Spirit that causes an inward slavery And in the Apostles Writings the Spirit of Fear and the Spirit of Bondage are equivalent Ishbosheth when Abner provok'd by the Charge about Saul's Concubine imperiously threatned to translate the Kingdom to David was struck with such a fear that he could not answer Abner a word 2 Sam. 3. 10 11. The suddain passion stifled his replie and reduc'd him to a defenceless silence Now the fear of Death as 't is remiss or vehement such are the degrees of bondage from it 1. It embitters the enjoyments of the present Life and makes the most prosperous in the World even in the fulness of their sufficiency to be in straits Tho' the senses are pleased with the quick sweetness of Change from one Object to another yet the Soul cannot have a delightful undisturbed fruition foreseeing that the stream of Pleasure will issue into the dead Sea Truly Light is sweet and 't is a pleasant thing to behold the Sun But how short is this Life with all its pleasures in comparison of the days of darkness that follow Now tho' 't is our best wisdom and truest liberty to rejoice in this World as if we rejoiced not and frequently to meditate on the cooling Doctrines of Death and Judgment to repress the transports of the voluptuous appetite yet since the Comforts of this Life are liberally indulged to us by the Love of God to be the motives of our grateful and affectionate Obedience to sweeten our passage to Heaven we may with tranquillity of Spirit make a pure and chearful use of them in his service and 't is an oppressing bondage when the disquieting anxious fears of Death hinders our temperate enjoyment of his Favours and Blessings 2. The fear of Death oppresses the Souls of Men under a miserable Bondage to the Devil for his Dominion is maintain'd by the Allurements and Terrors of the World Tho Men do not explicitly acknowledg his Soveraignty yet by voluntary yielding to his pleasing temptations they are really his Slaves And the apprehension of temporal Evils especially of Death drest up in a frightful representation with its bloody pomp is the strongest snare to the Soul The faint-hearted prove false-hearted in the time of trial For the timerous Spirit being wholly intent how to avoid the incursion of a present Evil forgets or neglects what is indispensibly to be done and thinks to find an excuse in the pretended necessity How many have been terrified from their clearest Duty and resolved Constancy To escape Death they have been guilty of the most insufferable impieties by renouncing God their Maker and Saviour and worshipping the Devils for Deities Every Age presents sad spectacles of many that chuse iniquity rather than affliction that relinquish their duty and by wicked compliances save their Lives and lose their Souls Carnal Desires and Carnal Fears are the Chains of Hell that retain Men Satan's Captives But what folly what madness is it for the avoiding the impotent fury of the Creature to venture on the powerful wrath of God that exceeds all the terrors that can be conceived by fear This renders them more bruitish than the Horse that starting at his Shadow springs over a desperate Precipice The fearful are excluded from Heaven and cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone for ever 3. The extream fear of Death and Judgment dejects and discourages the Soul from the use of means to prevent eternal misery and induces a most woful Bondage Fear anticipates and exasperates future Evils for as knowledg excites fear so fear encreases knowledg by the uncessant working of the thoughts upon terrible Objects The fearful mind aggravates the foreseen Evil and distils the Poison from all the circumstances and consequences of it And when the Evil is apprehended as insuperable and indeclinable all endeavours to escape are cut off What a Philosopher observes of an Earthquake compared with other destructive Evils is true in this case There may be a safe retreat from Fire from Inundations from Storms from War from Pestilence but an Earthquake astonishes with so violent a perturbation that stops our flight from the imminent danger So the vehement impressions of fear from the approaches of death and the severe executions upon the Sinner after it distracts the mind and disables from flying from the Wrath to come These Fears are more heavy by the suggestions of Satan who represents God so terrible in his Majesty
ordained Means and sacramental Pledg For God unchangably loves his own Image and tho' by his Sovereignty and absolute Power he may resume the Being he gives yet his Goodness and Covenant were a sacred assurance that Man's happy Life should run parallel with his perseverance in his Duty This Immortality was not the singular privilege of Adam's Person but had been the Inheritance of all his Progeny But he soon revolting from his just Obedience of Immortal became Mortal and according to the original establishment of Propagation transmitted his Nature with the guilt and poison of Sin to all his Posterity Thus by one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned As his Obedience had been rewarded so his Rebellion is punisht in all that naturally descend from him From hence it is that so numerous a part of Man-kind are cut off before the commission of actual Sin Death enters into the Forge of Life and destroys the Conception that newly began to live And what is more righteous than that Man when he disobeyed the Author of Life should forfeit his Life and Blessedness The Soul voluntarily lost the spiritual Life by forsaking God therefore unwillingly loses the natural Life by expulsion from the Body The Apostle declares the Wages of Sin is Death not only that of the Body but the Death of the Soul which is a dreadful Concomitant of it And from hence we may discover the false Philosophy of the wisest Heathens in their Opinion of Death They judged it to be the primary necessity and condition of Nature fixt by irresistible Fate and not understanding the true and just reason of its coming into the World they could not apply a sufficient Remedy against its Evil. 2. As the Effect of the divine Decree respecting Sin This is discovered by revelation in the Word of God and by the real execution of it It is appointed to Men once to die This Decree is universal and unrepealable One Generation passeth away and another Generation cometh like the ebbing and flowing of the Sea in its stated Periods Nothing can interrupt or frustrate this appointment There are divers Conditions of Men and various ways of living in the World some are high in Dignity others are level with the Earth some walk in a Carpet-way smooth and easy others in a thorny and troublesom some walk on the golden Sands others on the Mire but the same uncontroulable necessity of dying involves all And what-ever the way be whether pleasant or doleful yet every one passes in it with equal steps measured by the same invariable spaces of Hours and Days and arrive at the same common end of Life Those who are regarded as visible Deities amongst Men that can by their Breath raise the Low and depress the Lofty that have the Lives of millions in their Power yet when the ordained time is come as they cannot bribe the accusing Conscience for a minutes silence so neither delay Death I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like Men. 3. Death is to be considered as the Sentence of the Law The reasonable Creature was made under a Law the Rule of his Actions The moral Law directed him how to continue in his holy and blessed State To which was annext the Precept of not eating of the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil only as a mark of his Subjection and for the trial of his Obedience This Precept had an infallible sanction by the most high Law-giver In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Man did not keep this Command of so easy observation and justly incurr'd its doom As Sin is the violation of the Law so Death is the violation of the Sinner in his Nature and Felicity retorted from the Law The deaths of Men are very different in their kinds and are comprised in the words of David concerning Saul The Lord shall smite him or his Day shall come to die or he shall descend into the Battel and perish Sometimes they are cut off by the immediate flaming hand of God for the more exemplary revenge of Sin sometimes by surprising Accidents sometimes by bloody Contentions sometimes consuming Diseases But tho' Death be not uniform yet 't is always the execution of the Law upon Offenders As of those who are condemned by Humane Justice some suffer a more easy and honourable Death others a more disgraceful and torturing some are Beheaded others are Crucified yet all die as Malefactors Thus some die a natural Death others a violent some by a gentle preparing sickness without reluctation others die upon the Rack by sharp pains some die attended with their Friends and all supplies to sweeten their Passage others forsaken of all Comforters yet Death is the same Sentence of the Law upon all Men. And this if duly considered makes it terrible in whatever shape it appears II. The next thing to be considered is What the fear of Death includes and the bondage that is consequent to it This I shall explain and amplify by considering four things 1. The nature of Fear in general as applicable to the present Subject 2. The particular Causes that render Death so fearful 3. The degree of this Fear exprest by Bondage 4. How it comes to pass that men are not always under the actual fear of Death but subject to the Revolutions of it all their lives 1. I will consider the nature of Fear in general as applicable to the present Subject Fear is a passion implanted in Nature that causes a flight from an approaching Eye Three things are requisite to qualify the Object and make it fearful 1. The Evil must be apprehended Knowledg or at least suspicion excites Fear by representing an Evil that is likely to seize upon us Till the mind discern the danger the passions are unmoved and imaginary Evils by the mere apprehension are as strongly fear'd as real 2. The Evil must be future For the naked theory of the most pernicious Evil does not wound the Soul but the apprehension of falling under it If reason can open an expedient to prevent an Evil this Passion is quiet And Fear precisely regards its Object as to come Present Evils induce grief and sorrow past Evils by reflection affect with joy and give a quicker relish to present felicity Approaching Evils alarm us with fear 3. The Evil must be apprehended as prevalent to make it fearful For if by comparison we find our strength superior we either neglect the Evil for its levity or determine to encounter it and resistance is the proper effect of Anger not of Fear But when an impendent Evil is too hard for us the Soul shrinks and recoils from it Now all these Qualifications that make an Object fearful concur in Death 1. 'T is an Evil universally known The frequent Funerals are a real demonstration that speaks sensibly to our Eyes that
Death reigns in the World 2. 'T is certainly future All the wretched Accidents of this Life such as concern us in our Persons Relations Estates and Interests a thousand Disasters that a jealous Fear and active Fancy will extend and amplify as they may so they may not happen to us And from this mixture of contrary possibilities from the uncertainty of event Hope that is an insinuating passion mixes with Fear and derives Comfort For as sometimes a suddain Evil surprises not fore-thought of so often the Evil that was sadly expected never comes to pass But what Man is he that lives and shall not see Death Who is so vain as to please himself with an imagination of Immortality here 3. 'T is a prevalent Evil from hence the proverbial Expression Strong as Death that subdues all cruel as the Grave that spares none 'T is in vain to struggle with the pangs of Death No Simples in Nature no Compositions of Art no Influence of the Stars no Power of Angels can support the dying Body or retain the flitting Soul There is no Man hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit neither hath he power in the day of Death and there is no discharge in that War The Body sinks in the Conflict and Death feeds on its prostrate prey in the Grave 2. I shall consider more particularly the Causes that render Death so fearful to Men. 1. In the apprehension of Nature 2. In the apprehension of Conscience 1. In the apprehension of Nature Death hath this Name engraven in its forehead Ultimum terribilium the supreme of terrible things upon several accounts 1. Because usually sickness and pains languishing or tormenting make the first changes in the Body and the natural Death is violent This Hezekiah complained of with a mournful accent He will cut me off with pining sickness from day even to night thou wilt make an end of me I reckoned till morning that as a Lion so will he break all my Bones A Troop of Diseases are the forerunners of this King of Terrors There is a preceding encounter and sometimes very fierce that Nature feels the cruel Victory before it yields to this Enemy As a Ship that is lost by a mighty tempest and by the concussion of the Winds and Waves loses its Rudder and Masts takes in water in every part and gradually sinks into the Ocean So in the shipwrack of Nature the Body is so shaken and weakened by the violence of a Disease that the senses the animal and vital Operations decline and at last are exstinguish'd in death 2. Death considered in the strictest propriety as destructive of the natural being that is our first and most valuable good in the order of Nature is the just object of Fear The union between Soul and Body is very intimate and dear and like David and Jonathan they part unwillingly Nature has a share in the best Men and works as Nature St. Paul declares we would not be uncloathed not finally put off the Body but have it glorified in conjunction with the Soul Our blessed Saviour without the least impeachment of the Rectitude and perfection of his Nature exprest an aversness from Death and with submission to the divine Will desired a freedom from it His Affections were holy and humane and moved according to the quality of their Objects 3. The natural consequents of Death render it fearful Life is the foundation of all natural enjoyments and the loss of it induces the loss of all for ever 'T is from hence that such Evils that are consistent with Life and deprive us only of some particular content and pleasure are willingly chosen rather than Death The forfeiture of Estate the degrading from honour the confinement to a perpetual Prison the banishing from our native Country are less Penalties than Death There is a natural love of Society in Man and Death removes from all The Grave is a frightful solitude There is no conversation in the territories of darkness This also Hezekiah in his apprehensions of death speaks of with tears I shall see Man no more in the Land of the Living As in the Night the World is an universal Grave all things are in a dead silence Palaces Courts of Justice Temples Theaters Schools and all places of publick Conversation are shut up the noise and rumour that keeps Men in continual observation and action ceases Thus when the Sun of this present Life is set all the Affairs and Business all the vain joys of Company Feasting Dancing Musick Gaming ceases Every one among the Dead is confined to his sealed obscure Cell and is alone an entertainment for the Worms The Psalmist saith of Princes Their breath goeth forth they return to the Earth in that very day their thoughts their glorious compassing thoughts perish This the Historian observes was verified in Julius Caesar After his assuming the Imperial Dignity he thought to reduce the numerous Laws of the Romans into a few Volumes comprising the substance and reason of all to enrich and adorn the City of Rome as was becoming the Regent of the World to epitomise the Works of the most learned Grecians and Romans for the publick Benefit And whilst he was designing and pursuing these and other vast and noble things Death surprised him and broke off all his Enterprises At the terrible Gate that opens into Eternity Men are stript of all their Honours and Treasures and as naked as they come into the World go out of it Be not thou afraid when one is made rich when the glory of his House is encreased For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away his glory shall not descend after him Death equally vilifies makes loathsom and ghastly the Bodies of Men and reduces them to sordid Dust. In the Grave the dust is as precious and powerful of one as of another Civil distinctions are limited to the present time The prodigious Statue in Nebuchadnezzar's Vision Dan. 2. 32 33 34 35. While it was upright the parts were really and visibly distinct The head was of fine gold the breast and arms of silver the belly and thighs of brass the legs of iron the feet part of iron and part of clay but when the stone cut out without hands smote the Image upon the feet then was the iron the clay the brass the silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the Chaff the wind carries away Who can distinguish between Royal Dust taken out of magnificent Tombs and Plebean Dust from common Graves Who can know who were Rich and who were Poor who had power and command who were Vassals who were remarkable by Fame who by Infamy They shall not say this is Jezebel not know this was the Daughter and Wife of King The King of Babylon stiled Lucifer the bright Star of the Morning that possest the first Empire in the World was degraded by Death humbled to the
Death the Soul is strongly excited by the Call of God to review its state and make solemn preparation to be found of him in Peace But 't is not in a strict sence the malediction of the Law and divine Revenge upon them The Serpent is turn'd into a Rod of Correction in the hands of our Heavenly Father for their good As the Apostle speaking of some that for their profaning the Lord's Table were fallen asleep adds that when we are judg'd we are chastened of the Lord that we way not be condemned with the World A Believer shall not be hurt of the second Death From hence it is that in the Book of Life the Scriptures the death of the Saints is called a sleep St. Paul argues If we believed that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 'T is observable how the Apostle varies the expression Jesus died and the Saints sleep in him for he sustained death with all its terrors that it might be a calm sleep to his People They enjoy as perfect a rest in the Beds of Dust as ever in the softest Down Stephen in the midst of a showr of stones fell asleep Believers die in peace The Righteous is taken from the Evil to come he enters into peace Being reconciled to God through the Blood of Christ they are not terrified at his Call but with sweet tranquillity resign their Souls unto him Lord now let thy Servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation There is a vast difference in God's account between the Death of Righteous and the Wicked As the Tabernacle in the Wilderness was taken down with care upon their change of station and delivered to the Levites Charge in order to the raising of it again with honour but the House incurably infected was pluck'd down with violence and thrown into an unclean place with execration thus the death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord their Bodies are kept in the bosom of the Earth to be raised in Glory and the death of the Wicked is accurst In short as the Wood that Moses cast into the Waters of Mara by a miraculous virtue sweetned them so the Cross of Christ has taken away the malignity and bitterness of Death 2. Death is a blessed advantage and enriching Gain to a Believer it brings him to the possession of that Good that incomparably exceeds the Evil that remains in it For the Death of a Saint is not total but as in the Ceremony of Purification from Leprosy one Bird was killed and the other let fly in the open Air the mysterious shadow of the Lepers being restored to a state of Liberty thus when the Body dies and returns to the Earth the Spirit returns to God the Father of Spirits and Fountain of Life Our Saviour told the Jews I am the living Bread that came down from Heaven if any Man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread that I will give is my Flesh that I will give for the Life of the World The Heavenly Divine Life that is communicated by the Spirit of Christ to Believers remains entire when the sensitive life is lost The natural order is There is a time to be born and a time to die the supernatural is there is a time to die and a time to be born The death of a Saint is a new Birth the pains of the dying Body are as Throws whereby the ripen'd Soul is delivered into the Land of the Living The happiness of a Saint after Death more particularly will appear by considering 1. The place to which he ascends the highest Heaven This inferiour World is fram'd with exquisite Order the Earth is full of the Glory of the Lord yet 't is but the sediment of the Creation the habitation of Birds and Beasts nay of rebellious Sinners and by this we may raise our thoughts to conceive something of the seat of Life and Blessedness Above 'T is for its amplitude and excellency called the Heaven of Heavens which is the highest comparison to instruct and astonish us with the Glory of the place The shining Firmament with all the Luminaries that adorn it are but the Frontice-piece to it All the lustre of Diamonds the fire of Carbuncles and Rubies the brightness of Pearls are dead in comparison of its Glory 'T is called by our Saviour his Fathers House and he is the God of Glory 't is his Temple wherein his sacred Presence is fully exhibited His Throne wherein his Majesty is revealed in the most illustrious manner For pleasantness 't is called Paradise in allusion to the delicious Garden planted by the hands of God himself for Adam his Favorite whilst innocent There is the Tree of Life indeed and Rivers of Pleasure ever springing from the Divine Presence 'T is the Inheritance of the Saints in Light to signify literally and allegorically the glory and joy of the Place For Light gives splendor to things and conciliates chearfulness and is a fit Emblem of both As on the contrary Hell is described by the blackness of darkness for ever to signify the sadness and despair of the Damned and because in that centre of misery a perpetual night and invincible darkness increases the horror of lost Souls Heaven for stability is called a City that has Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God The present World is like a Tent or Tabernacle set up for a time and with all its perishing Idols shall shortly fall all this beautiful Scene shall be dissolved But the supreme Heaven is a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Our Saviour tells us In my Father's House are many Mansions to signify the amplitude and durableness of it 2. In that blessed Place there is a freedom from all afflicting Evils that are numberless here The present World is a labyrinth of Thorns in every state we meet with something to vex us You may as well count the Waves of the Sea when inraged by a Tempest as the troubles to which in this mortal open state we are expos'd Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble A short life and many miseries O our unhappy capacity the Body is liable to as many Diseases as there are Members and the Soul to as many perplexities as passions How often are the scenes and habits chang'd in the time of one Man He that lives in pleasures must act the Mourner's part Our sweetest comforts have hidden stings and whatever is most pleasing may occasion bitter grief And usually holy Men have a greater portion of afflictions here sometimes by the malignity and violence of the wicked as under the Law the Lamb and the Dove were Sacrifices the Emblems of Innocence and Purity and Meekness whilst the Vulture and the Lion the greedy devourers escap'd This the Apostle declares of the Elect They are
predestinated to be conform'd to the Image of God's Son who trac'd out the way to Heaven in his own Blood and by the Cross ascended to the Throne Sometimes more immediately Divine Providence afflicts them to preserve their Spirits from the tainted pleasures of the World and other Holy Ends but there is a rest for the People of God in Heaven Besides there are Reliques of Sin in the best of the Saints here Indeed Sin is depos'd from sovereignty and rule the imperious Lusts are crucified but not quite expir'd As those that were nail'd to the Cross in their hands and feet the parts least vital and most sensible died a painful lingring death Still the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh As there is a complexion of Humours in humane Bodies always jarring when they are in the soundest health and where there is not this active contrariety either the Body is without a Soul a mere Carcass or a glorified Body in Heaven So where there is not this internal Combat between Grace and Sin either the Man is wholly Carnal dead in sins and trespases or wholly spiritual reigning in Heaven And there is nothing more works on the tender affections of a Saint than to find in himself what is displeasing to God that still he is under a sad necessity of sinning What is said concerning an old Man wasted and decayed in his drooping Years that the Grashopper is a burden to him is true of the new Man in a Christian the sins that are counted light in the valuation of the World are a heavy weight to him Vain Thoughts idle Words irregular Passions unprofitable Actions are motives of heart-breaking sorrow Now Death is to a Believer a universal Remedy against all the Evils of this Life it frees him from all Injuries and Sufferings and from Sin in all its degrees from all inclinations and temptations to it He that is dead ceaseth from Sin Death is the passage from this Wilderness to the true Canaan the rest Above that flows with better Milk and Hony with Innocence and Happiness for ever There nothing can disturb the Peace or corrupt the purity of the blessed 3. Besides the privative advantage the freedom from all the effects of God's displeasure and the resentments of it there is the highest positive Good obtained by Death The Spirits of just Men are made perfect in Heaven The Soul is the Glory of Man and Grace is the Glory of the Soul and both are then in their exaltation All the Faculties of the Soul are rais'd to the highest degrees of Natural and Divine Perfection In this Life Grace renews the Faculties but does not elevate them to their highest pitch it does not make a mean Understanding pregnant nor a frail Memory strong nor a slow Tongue eloquent but sanctifies them as they are But when the Soul is releas'd from this dark Body of Earth the Understanding is clear and quick the Memory firm the Will and Affections ardent and vigorous And they are enrich'd with divine Light and Love and Power that makes them fit for the most noble and heavenly Operations The lineaments of God's Image on the Soul are first drawn here but then it receives his last hand All the Celestial Colours are added to give the utmost life and lustre to it Here we are advancing but by Death we arrive at Perfection We shall in Heaven be join'd to the Assembly of Saints and Angels our best Friends Love is the Law of that Kingdom and Perfectly obeyed there Now how charming is the Conversation of one that is wise and holy especially if the sweetness of affability be in his temper How pleasantly does time slide away in the company of our beloved Friends We are not sensible of its flight But what dear satisfaction is it to be united to that chosen consecrated Society Above who love one another as themselves Tho' the Angels and Saints have different degrees of Glory yet every one is perfectly happy and pleased As the strings of an Instrument differ in the size and sound some are sharp and high some grave and deep others a mean and from that variety results the Harmony and Musick so that if every string had Judgment and Election it would chuse to be what it is so from the different degrees of Glory in Heaven the most amiable and equal Order of the Divine Wisdom appears that satisfies every one We shall be in the glorious presence of God and Christ where is fulness of joy and infinite pleasures for ever 'T is said of Abraham He rejoic'd to see the day of Christ two thousand Years before his coming When by Faith he saw the incarnation of the Son of God in order to the redemption of Men it put him into an extasy Yet then our Saviour was born to Sorrows and Miseries But how ravishing is the sight of our Redeemer set down on the right hand of the Majesty on high having purged our Sins by himself and accomplish'd our Salvation Now we are absent from God yet in believing his infallible Promises we rejoice with a Joy unspeakable and glorious But how much more joyful is the fruition of them Here the Divine Goodness is derived to us through secondary means that weaken its efficacy but in Heaven the consolations of the Creator are most purely dispensed and his immediate Excellencies are made known This Blessedness exceeds all our thoughts and explicit desires and requires the eloquence and experience of an Angel to set it forth The bright sum of it is this We shall see God in his Glory face to face in the most perfect manner the sight of his Glory shall transform us into his Likeness we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is This shall produce in us the most pure and ardent Love and Love shall be attended with inexpressible joy and that with the highest praises of the blessed God whose influxive presence is the Heaven of Heaven And that which crowns all is that the Life above is Eternal This satisfies all our Desires and excludes all our Fears for unchangeableness is an inseparable Attribute of perfect felicity The Blessed are in full communion with God the Fountain of Life and Christ the Prince of Life Because I live saith our Saviour ye shall live also What can interrupt much less put an end to the happiness of the Saints The Love of God is immutably fix'd upon them and their Love upon him Here their love is subject to decays and gradual alienations as the Needle in the Compass tho' it always has a tendency to the North Pole yet sometimes it declines and has its variations But in Heaven the love of the Saints is directly and constantly set upon God The light of his Countenance governs all their Affections 'T is as impossible to divert their desires from him as to cause one that is inflam'd with thirst to leave a clear flowing Spring for a
noisom Puddle In short Heaven is filled with eternal Halelujahs for there is no appearance of Sin no shadow of Death there all miseries are vanish'd and all that is desireable is possess'd by the Saints the Circle of their Employment is to enjoy and praise the Divine Goodness for ever Now is not the blessed exchange a Christian makes of the present Life for that which is infinitely better sufficient to make Death not fearful nay desirable to him And this Happiness was purchas'd for us by the everlasting Treasure of our Saviour's Blood The satisfaction of his Sufferings was meritorious as the Merits of his active Obedience was satisfying Before I proceed to the third Head I shall resolve a Question How it comes to pass since Believers are freed from the sting of Death that they die and remain in the state of Death for a time For this there are several Reasons 1. By this means all the sinful Frailties that cleave to the Saints in this Life are abolish'd The Body is dead because of Sin And what is more becoming the wise and holy Providence of God than that as by Sin Man was at first made subject to Death so by Death Sin dies entirely for ever Thus as in Sampson's Riddle Out of the Devourer comes Meat and our worst Enemy is conquer'd by his own Weapons 2. Death is continued to the Saints for the more eminent exercise and illustration of their Graces for the Glory of God and in order to their future reward Faith and Love and Patience are declared in their most powerful Operations in our encounter with Death If every Saint were visibly and entirely translated to Heaven after a short course of holy Obedience if the Wicked did visibly drop down quick into Hell Faith would be resigned to sight here This would confound the Militant state of the Church with the Triumphant Therefore now Death happens to the Good as well as to the Wicked In the next state they shall be separated by a vast Gulph and an amazing Difference Now Faith what-ever the kind of Death be that a Christian suffers sees through the thickest Clouds of Disgrace and Misery the glorious Issue As the illustrious Confessor who was crucified with our Saviour proclaim'd his Eternal Kingdom in the midst of insulting Infidels And our love to God then appears in its radiancy and vigour when we are ready for the testimony of his Truth and advancing his Glory to suffer a violent Death or when it comes in a gentler manner for 't is even then terrible to Nature we are willingly subject to dissolution that we may be united to God in Heaven And our patience has never its perfect work and is truly victorious till this last Enemy be subdued Death is the Seal of our Constancy Perseverance Now the Righteous Rewarder will crown none but those that strive lawfully and are compleat Conquerors And how wise and sweet is the Oeconomy of the Divine Providence in this that the frailty of our Nature should afford us a means of glorifying God and of entitling our selves by his most gracious Promises to a blessed Reward 3. Our Saviour by his unvaluable Obedience and Sufferings has procur'd for Believers a Celestial Divine Life of which the natural Body is not capable The Apostle saith Flesh and Blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The exigencies and decays of the sensitive Nature require a continual relief by food and sleep and other material supplies but the Life above is wholly spiritual and equal to that of the Angels Therefore till this earthly animal Body be reformed and purified 't is not capable of the Glory reserv'd in Heaven This is so absolutely requisite that those Believers who are found alive at the last Day shall in the twinckling of an Eye be changed that they may be qualified for it Now herein the Wisdom of God is wonderful that Death which by the Covenant of Works was the deserved penalty of Sin by the Covenant of Grace should be the Instrument of Immortality That as Joseph by a surprising Circuit was brought from the Prison to the Principality so a Believer by the Grave ascends to Heaven This the Apostle in his Divine Disputation against Infidels proves in a most convincing manner Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die As the rotting of the Corn in the Earth is necessary to the reviving and springing of it up so we must die and the Image of the Earthly Adam be abolish'd that we may be transformed into the Image of the Heavenly One And to the other part of the Question Why the Saints remain in the state of Death for a time there is a clear Answer The Resurrection of the Saints is delayed till Christ's coming to Judgment partly for the Glory of his Appearance For what an admirable sight will it be that the Saints of all Ages shall at once arise glorified and immortalized to attend upon our Saviour in the last act of his Regal Office and then to make a triumphant entry with him into Heaven And partly that the establish'd order of Providence may not be disturbed for the changing of our Nature into Glory in a suddain and inexplicable manner cannot be without miraculous Power and if every Believer presently after Death were in his glorified Body translated to Heaven the World would be always filled with Miracles which were to cease after the sufficient Confirmation of the Gospel by them But how long soever the Interval be to the Resurrection it shall be with them that sleep in Jesus as 't is with those that awake out of a quiet natural sleep to whom the longest night seems but as a moment so when the Saints first awake from Death in the great Morning of the World a thousand Years will seem no more to them than to God himself but as one day I now come to prove the third Thing That our Saviour will abolish the Dominion of Death over the Saints Whilst the Bodies of the Saints remain in the Grave they seem to be absolutely under the power of Death The World is a Golgotha fill'd with the Monuments of its Victories And it may be said to this our last Enemy in the words of the Prophet to the bloody King Hast thou killed and taken possession But we are assur'd by an infallible Word that the power of Death shal be abolish'd and the Bodies of the Saints be reviv'd incorruptible and immortal The Resurrection is a Terra incognita to the wisest Heathens a Doctrine peculiar to the Gospel some glimmerings they had of the Soul's Immortality without which all Vertue had been extinguish'd in the World but no conjecture of the reviving of the Body But reason assists Faith in this point both as to the Will of God and his power for the performing it I will glance upon the natural Reasons that induce the considering Mind to receive this Doctrine and more largely shew how
what he has done to what he is able to do the Consequence is clear The Apostle tells us He will raise our vile bodies and change them like unto his glorious Body by that Power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Our Redemption will then be compleat and all the bitterness of Death past The Redemption of the Soul is accomplish'd from Sin and Misery immediatly after Death but the Redemption of the Body is the last in order and reserved to crown our Felicity at the Great Day Then Death shall be swallowed up in Victory abolish'd for ever And O the joyful reunion of those dear Relatives after such a Divorce when the Body that was so long detained in the loathsome Grave shall be reformed with all glorious Perfections and be a fit Instrument for the Soul and partaker with it in Blessedness and a consummate Immortality 'T is said that those that wear rich Clothing are in Kings Houses but what are all the Robes of costly Folly wherein earthly Courtiers appear to the Brightness and Beauty of the Spiritual Body wherewith the Saints shall be clothed to qualify them for the Presence of the King of Kings and to be in his House for ever But O the miserable Condition of the Wicked in that day Death now breaks their Bodies and Souls into an irreconcilable Enmity and how sad will their Conjunction be the Soul will accuse the Body to have been Sins Solicitor continually tempting to sensualities and the body wil upbraid more than ever it allur'd the soul for its wicked Compliance Then the Sinner shall be an entire Sacrifice burning but never consumed Now from the assurance of a blessed Resurrection by Christ the forementionâ—d fear of Death is conquered in Beleivers If the Doctrine of the Transmigration of Souls into other Bodies the invention of Pythagoras inspired his Disciples with that fiery vigour as to encounter the most present and apparent dangers being fearless to part with the Life that should be restored how much more should a Christian with a holy confidence receive Death knowing that the life of his Body shall not be finally lost but renewed in a blessed Eternity The fourth General to be considered is the Persons that have an interest in this blessed Priviledg This inquiry is of infinite moment both for the awakning of the secure who vainly presume upon their interest in the Salvation of the Gospel and for the confirming and encouraging the Saints And we have an infallible rule of trial declared by St. John He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life All the excellent and comfortable Benefits procur'd by our Saviour are communicated only to those who are united to him Particularly with respect to the present subject Justification that great blessing of the Gospel the compleat pardon of Sins that disarms Death of its sting is not common to all that are Christians in title but is a priviledge with a limitation There is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus vitally as their Head from whom are derived spiritual influences and judicially as their Advocate in Judgment and such are described by this infallible Character who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit The blessedness after Death that is assured by a Voice from Heaven is with this precise restriction exclusive of all others Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord they rest from their labours and their works follow them The glorious Resurrection at the last Day when the Bodies of the Saints that now rest in Hope shall be incorruptible and immortal is the consequence of union with him Thus the Apostle declares As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive As all that were naturally in and from Adam the corupt fountain of Mankind are under the sentence of Death so all that are in Christ the Head of the Regenerate shall partake of his blessed Life Others shall be raised by his Power as their Judg but not as their Head rais'd to be more miserable than Death can make them not be transform'd into his glorious Resemblance made capable of suffering an ever-dying Death not revived to eternal Life Now the bond of our union to Christ is the holy Spirit derived from him as the Head of the Church and is the inward powerful and lasting principle of Holiness and new obedience in Believers He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit that is by the Spirit of Holiness has a real participation of his Life is both quickned and united to him When the Prophet Elisha by the outward applying the parts of his Body to the dead Child inspir'd life into him there was no real union between them but Christ is by his Spirit so intimately united to Believers that he lives in them and they in him The sanctifying Spirit renews the directing and commanding faculties the fountains of moral actions enlightens the Understanding with saving Knowledge rectifies the obliquity of the Will purifies the Affections and reforms the Life so that the same mind is in Christians as was in Christ and as his Conversation was such is theirs in the World This divine Change is not wrought by natural Reason tho assisted by the most powerful Arguments The breath of a Man may as easily dispel a Mist or thaw a Frost as humane directions and motives to Vertue can renew the Mind and Heart and produce a holy frame of Soul towards God Renewed Christians are said to be in the Spirit illuminated inclin'd and enabled by the Spirit to do God's Will and the Spirit of God to dwell in them by his peculiar and eminent operations They live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit An Angel may assume a Body and act by it but the humane Soul enlivens it and performs sensible operations by it And such a principle is the holy Spirit to the Soul gives it spiritual life activity and power for good Works By what application of the Spirit 's power this is produc'd is mysterious and inexplicable but as the Apostle speaks of his rapture into the third Heavens that he knew it was real and heard unutterable things tho how it was performed whether in the body or out of the body he could not tell thus when a natural man the current of whose thoughts and affections was to the things of this World becomes spiritual when the carnal appetite is subdued and sanctified Reason has the Throne when he feels such strong and sweet impulsives to holiness as engage the Will when the stream of his desires ascend to the things above and his Life becomes holy and heavenly he feels and knows this wonderful change tho the manner how it was wrought he cannot tell I will shew more fully this sanctifying work of the Spirit that we may the better understand our state The Spirit of God is
pass and the Rocks we must avoid Faith is the Compass that directs the Course we must steer Love is the Rudder that governs the Motion of the Ship Hope fills the Sails Now what Passenger does not rejoice at the discovery of his Country where his Estate and Heart is and more at the near approach to the Port where he is to land Is not Heaven the Countrey of the Saints is not their Birth from above and their tendency to their Original and is not the blessed Bosom of Christ their Port Oh what joyful thanksgivings are due to God when by his Spirit and Providence they have happily finish'd their Voyage through such dangerous Seas and are coming into the Land of the Living How joyful was to Noah the coming of the Dove with an Olive Branch to shew him the Deluge was asswaged and the time was come of his freedom from the troublesom company of Animals and from the straitness and darkness of the Ark to go forth and possess the World How joyful should Death be to a Saint that comes like the Dove in the evening to assure him the Deluge of Misery is ceas'd and the time is come of his enlargement from the Body his deliverance from the wretched sinful society here and his possessing the Divine World Holy Souls are immediately transported by the Angels to Christ and by him presented to his Father without spot or wrinkle compleat in Holiness and prepared for Communion with him in Glory How joyfully are they received into Heaven by our Saviour and the blessed Spirits they are the reward of his Sufferings the precious and dear purchase of his Blood The Angels that rejoice at the Conversion of a Sinner much more at the Glorification of a Saint and the Church of the First-born who have before us enter'd into Glory have a new accession of Joy when their younger Brethren arrive to the undefiled immortal Inheritance And is it not very becoming Believers joyfully to ascend to the Seat of Blessedness to the happy Society that inspires mutual Joys for ever For our encouragement there are numerous instances of Believers that have with peace and joy tho in various degrees past through the dark Valley to the Inheritance of Light Some have died with more Joy than they lived and triumph'd over the last Enemy with the vocal Praises of God others with silent affections have quietly commended their Spirits into his hand Some have inward Refreshings and support others exuberant Joys and Ravishments as if the Light of Glory shined into them or the Veil of Flesh were drawn and their Spirits were present with the invisible World Some of the Martyrs in their cruellest Sufferings felt such impressions of Confidence and Alacrity that as in the House of Lamech there was accorded at the same time two discordant Callings by the two Brothers Jubal the Inventer of the Harp and Organ and Tubal-Cain the first Artificer in Brass and Iron the one practised on Instruments of Musick breathing harmonious sounds and melodies the other used Hammers Anvils making noise and tumult So in some persons whilst the heaviest strokes fell on their Bodies their Souls were ravish'd with the sweetest Joy and Exultation Indeed 't is not thus always with the Saints for tho Sin be pardoned yet the apprehensions of Guilt may remain When a Stream is disturbed it does not truly represent the Object When the Affections are disordered the Mind does not judge aright of a Christian's state A Serpent may hiss when it has lost its sting Death may terrify when it cannot hurt us I doubt not but some excellent Saints have been in anxieties to the last till their Fears were dispell'd by the actual fruition of Blessedness As the Sun sometimes sets in dark Clouds and rises in a glorious Horizon We reade our Evidences for Heaven by the Light of God's Countenance his Image is made visible in our Souls by the illustration of his Spirit and he exercises Prerogative in the dispensation of his Comforts 'T is his pleasure to bestow extraordinary Favours on some and deny them to others that are as holy But every Penitent Believer has just cause of Joy in Death for Jesus Christ has reconciled God destroyed Satan and conquered Death and the last day of his Life is the first of his Glory FINIS Errata of the Sermons on Death PAge 8. line 19. for should r. might P. 25. l. 18. f. lost r. tost P. 32. l. 19. f. quietly r. guiltily P. 92. l. 12. f. impassibility r. impossibility The Sermons on Judgment P. 11. l. 21. dele only l. 22. r. not only the Angels P. 19. l. 23. f. attaque r. attach SERMONS UPON Eternal Judgment BY WILLIAM BATES D. D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazen Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1683. SERMONS UPON Eternal Judgment Acts 17. 31. Because he hath appointed a Day in the which he will judg the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he raised him from the dead SAint Paul had this Title of Honour eminently conferred upon him the Apostle of the Gentiles This Office he performed with persevering diligence diffusing the Light of Life to those that sate in darkness and in the shadow of Death In this Chapter we have recorded the substance of his Sermon to the Athenians wherein his admirable Zeal and Prudence are remarkable in the Matter and Order of his Discourse to convince and perswade them to receive the saving Truth of the Gospel He first lays down the Principles of Natural Religion to prepare them for the more easy belief of supernatural revealed Religion The depravation of the Minds of Men was in no instance more prodigious than in their vilifying Conceits of the Deity They attributed his Name and Honour to various Idols and ascribed to him their own Figure and which was infinitely more unworthy and dishonourable their own Passions and Vices They adored their own vain Imaginations The Idols of their Hearts were erected on their Altars Venus was a Goddess because impure Love reigned in their Brests Bacchus had Religious Rites because sensual Pleasures as sweet as Wine intoxicated their Spirits These Errors as gross as impious were universal the Philosophers themselves were not exempted from the Contagion The Apostle therefore makes use of the clearest Arguments to give Authority to the plain conspiring Voice of Nature that had so long in vain recall'd them from Idolatry to the Worship of the only true God He therefore declares that the Divine Maker of all things the Father of Spirits could not be represented by corporeal and corruptible things but was to be acknowledg'd and ador'd in a manner becoming his spiritual and infinite Perfections That he made all Nations of one Blood tho' distinguish'd in their Habitations and Times that they might seek and serve the one universal Creator And though
He will not only reign in our hearts but be honoured with our lips and in our conversations We usurp the title of Christians unless we adhere to our Duty in despite of all opposition The temptations that usually withdraw Men from confessing and glorifying Christ are such as work upon the passions of Fear and Shame And the consisideration of the last Judgment will fortify us against both 1. Sometimes Religion exposes the Professors of it to the loss of all temporal enjoyments and of Life it self And when the Honour of our Saviour requires such a Service of us when that Confirmation is necessary to recommend Divine Truth to the belief affections of others when our chearful and couragious Example in suffering would animate those that are fearful to constancy of Confession then from Cowardise to withdraw our Testimony is to betray him again When our Duty is attended with extream Dangers then the sincerity and perfection of our Love to Christ is brought to the strictest trial As true Carbuncles are discovered in the night for the darkness redoubles their splendor so the fidelity of Christians is evident in Persecutions that enflame and excite their Zeal to magnify the Name of Christ unto the Judgment of the World There is no Fear in Love but perfect Love casts out Fear But Fearfulness hinders the expressing acts of Love to Christ and betrays to Apostacy For as every Passion is a Perturbation so especially Carnal Fear that blinds and disturbs the mind and hinders the serious consideration of the reasons of our Duty and those motives to persevere in it that are the fountains of our strength From hence the timerous are often treacherous and Faith lies buried under the cold pale Ashes of Fear Now the irregularity of this Passion is best cured by directing it to the most powerful Object As the Rod of Moses swallowed up the Rods of the Magicians so a stronger Fear will subdue that which is in a weaker degree Our Saviour therefore threatens those that for the fear of Men who can but kill the Body dare not own and defend his Truth and Cause that he will renounce them before his Father in the great Day the immediate consequence of which will be the destruction of Body and Soul in Hell If Earthly Potentates had a Jurisdiction over Heaven if Men were to be tried by their Laws at the last Day if their Power extended to Eternity they might exact unlimited Obedience to their Wills but Conscience is a more desirable Friend and terrible Enemy than Caesar and all temporal Tribunals are subordinate and accountable to the Supream and Eternal there is one Lawgiver and Judg who is able to save and to destroy for ever It is the worst Perdition to secure our selves by the neglect of our Duty when we ought to perish for the Glory of our Saviour He that saves his Life shall lose it 2. Shame wounds deeper the Breasts of some than Violence Zedekiah would rather expose his Kingdom and Life to the fury of the Chaldean Armies than be himself exposed as an object of derision by surrendring it And Satan who understands the temper of Mens spirits suits his temptations accordingly The Purity and Holiness of Religion exprest in the actions of the Saints is by the scurrilous Reslections and bitter Sarcasms of prophane Persons made contemptible This is as foolish and malicious as if a slave should reproach the Son of a King that he was like his Father in his Countenance and actions for by how much the resemblance of God's Holiness appears with more evidence and eminence in their lives their divine relation is more certainly and justly to be acknowledged Yet how many are ashamed of this Glory And Zeal to vindicate the Honour of Religion is traduc'd and vilified either as the effect of designing Faction or of the indiscretion and rashness of a weak Judgment and strong Passions In every Age the faithful Servants of God are by scornful titles despised We are accounted saith the Apostle the off-scouring of the World But a generous Christian looks upon disgrace for the sake of Christ as his honour The Apostles rejoyced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his Name 'T is said of the Baptist he was not that Light but came to bear witness to that Light intimating as if that were the next degree of dignity to it And our Saviour speaking of the Proofs of his divine Mission reckons up the Witnesses of such dignity that 't is not possible for sacred Ambition to aspire to higher Honour than to be in Conjunction with them they are John the Baptist his Miracles his Father and the Scriptures Let us appeal then from the light depraved Fancies of carnal Men to the wise and faithful Judgment and Authority of the Son of God He will at the last Day in the presence of his Father and all the Court of Heaven give an incomparable Crown to all that have despised Shame for his sake But those vile Spirits whose Courage of Straw is quell'd by vain opinion and the reproaches of Fools and have deserted the Cause of Christ shall then be clothed with Confusion for this we are assured by our Judge that whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels If the unnatural Brothers were astonish'd when the Governor of Egypt told them I am Joseph whom ye sold how much more will false Christians when the Lord of Glory shal tell them I am Jesus whom for base shame ye denied How will it confound those abject Wretches to be a spectacle of abhorrence and scorn before that Universal Glorious Confluence They would chuse rather to be covered under the ruins of the World If we value and desire the approbation of the King of Angels if we fear a final rejection from him to obtain the one and avoid the other we must entirely adhere to his Interest without any respect to the eyes and esteem of the perverse deceived World 6. A cordial beneficent Love to the Saints is a requisit qualification of our Acceptance in the Day of Judgment Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World For I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me The union and endearments betwixt Christ and his People are mutual and reflexive as they are extreamly tender of his Glory so he is concern'd in all that is done to them And tho the perfection of Love consists more in the affection of the heart than
inexorable in his Justice and dreadful to Death that all hopes of obtaining his favour are lost As the Egyptian Darkness was not meerly from the absence of the Sun but from feculent Vapours condensing the Air that it might be felt So these dark and fearful expectations of the Divine Wrath are not only from the withdrawing the Light of God's Countenance but from the Prince of Darkness that foul Spirit And as we read of the Egyptians that no Man arose from his place for three days as if they had been buried in that darkness and deprived of all active power and motion so the despairing Soul sits down mourning at the Gates of Death totally disabled from prosecuting the Things that belong to its peace 'T is Hope inspires and warms us with alacrity encourages our Endeavours Despair is without edg and industry The Soul suffers the hardest Bondage and the condition is inexpressibly sad under the tyranny of this Fear O how enthralled how desolately miserable for despair doth meritoriously and effectually ruin the Soul For whereas there is no Attribute more Divine no clearer Notion of the Deity than Love and Mercy this Passion disparages his Mercy as if Sin were more omnipotent than his Power to pardon and all the Tears that flow from it are so far from expiating that they encrease Guilt and whereas the believing view of Christ would as compleatly and presently recover the Soul-wounded Sinner as the Israelites were by looking to the ordained visible Sign of their Salvation Despair turns away the Eye from our Deliverer and fixes it upon misery as remediless and final 4. How comes it to pass that Men are not always under the actual fear of Death but subject to the revolutions of it all their Lives The Seeds of this Fear are hid in the guilty Breasts of Men and at times especially in their Calamities break forth and kindle upon them In their leisure and Retirement intercurrent thoughts of Death and Judgment sting them by fits and make them uneasy The flashes of Conscience like moments of Lightning startle them but they relapse into their habitual stupidity And the account of it will be clear by considering the following Particulars 1. Men are apt to flatter themselves with the hopes of long Life and look upon Death at a great distance Tho' there be a dying disposition in the youngest and strongest Persons tho' we live in a world of Casualties and Death lie in ambush to surprize us every day yet we are secure because Evils affect us according to their apprehended nearness A Petty Constable that is troublesom and vexatious is more fear'd by his Neighbours than the Grand Signior with all his Executioners As remote Objects though of vast bigness are lessen'd to our sight so through the supposed interval of many years Death is lookt on with a diminution of its Terror But when Death presents it self before Men ready to dispatch them how formidable is its appearance Saul tho renouned for his Valour yet when he understood by Revelation that to morrow he and his Sons should be in the state of the dead there was no strength in him but he fell straight-way all along on the Earth struck through with fear before he was wounded by the Arrows of the Philistins Belshazzar in the midst of his luxury and jolity attended with a thousand Lords and his herd of Concubines inflam'd with Wine and therefore less capable of fear yet upon the sight of the fatal Hand writing on the Wall a few unknown Characters which his guilty Conscience before the Prophet Daniel came interpreted to be the sentence of present Death How fearfully was his Countenance changed pale as a Carcass How suddainly did his Blood congeal and his warmest quickest Spirits die in his Heart His whole Body was seized by such a vehement trembling that his joints were loosed and his knees smote one against another This is a representation of those who bid defiance to Death at a distance but when the fatal Hour is come and they hear the Sentence decreed against them God has numbred thy days and finish'd them thou art weighed in the ballance all thy words and Actions thy Thoughts and Affections and art found wanting and thy Soul shall be divided from thy Body the one sent to Hell to suffer the undying Worm of Conscience the other to the Grave to be a prey to the Worms of Corruption how are they overcome with horror 2. The continual succession of the Pleasures and Business of the World divert the mind from the attentive strong contemplation of Death and the consequences of it Pensive thoughts are unwelcome and we studiously endeavour to cancel the memory of such things as afflict us 'T is said of the Wicked that God is not in all their thoughts The consideration of the Holy Inspector and Judg of their Actions is tormenting therefore they fill their minds with earthly Imaginations to exclude the Divine Presence We read of those who to put far away the evil day chaunted to the sound of the Viol and drank Wine in Bowls They are rock'd asleep with the motion of phantastick Vanities And sleep takes away Fear but gives no safety 'T is recorded of Marius that after his overthrow by Scylla he was always in consternation as if he heard the sound of the Trumpets and the noise of the victorious Army pursuing him And his Fears were no longer quiet than whilst charm'd with Wine and Sleep He therefore was continually drunk that he might forget Himself his Enemy and his Danger Thus Men make a pittiful shift to forget their latter End and whilst they are following either secular Affairs or sensual Pleasures are unconcerned for what is to be hereafter But this diversion will shortly be at an end for in their languishing hours when the wasted Body fails the carnal Mind and sensual Desires fail the Man then Conscience that spoke with a low Voice before is loud and terrible and like the rigid Exactor in the Parable that took his Debtor by the throat requires them to pay what they owe. 3. Some are so hardned in Infidelity that the Powers of the World to come make no impression on their hearts They mind but little and are less affected with invisible things They fortify themselves with gross thoughts that the Spirit of Man vanishes with his Breath that Death is the end of this Life and not the beginning of another and feed without fear Place one in the midst of destructive Evils but unseen or not believed and he is as fearless as a blind Person walking on the brink of a deep Pit Indeed there are none less disturbed with the terrors of Death than the eminently good or the extremely bad for the one sort have a blessed hope that Death will be to them an entrance into Life and live like the Angels with a joy unspeakable and glorious The others are as sensual and secure as the Beasts that perish
the Resurrection of the Just is assured by our Redeemer 1. The Divine Laws are the Rule of Duty to the entire Man and not to the Soul only and they are obeyed or violated by the Soul and Body in conjunction Therefore there must be a resurrection of the Body that the entire Person may be capable of Recompences in Judgment The Soul designs the Body executes the Senses are the open Ports to admit Temptations Carnal Affections deprave the Soul corrupt the Mind and mislead it The love of Sin is sounded in bono jucundo in sensible pleasures and the Members are the Servants of Iniquity The Heart is the Fountain of Prophaneness and the Tongue expresses it And the Body is obsequious to the holy Soul in doing or suffering for God and denies its sensual appetites and satisfactions in compliance with Reason and Grace The Members are the Instruments of Righteousness It follows then there will be an universal Resurrection that the rewarding goodness of God may appear in making the Bodies of his Servants gloriously happy with their Souls and their Souls compleatly happy in union with their Bodies to which they have a natural inclination and his revenging Justice be manifest in punishing the Bodies of the Wicked with eternal torments answerable to their guilt And of the possibility of the Resurrection the circular and continual production of things in the World is a clear demonstration of the Power of God for that effect There is a pregnant Instance that our Saviour and the Apostle made use of as an Image of the Resurrection A grain of Corn sowed in the Earth corrupts and dies and after springs up entire its death is a disposition to life The essays of God's Power in the Works of returning Nature Flowers and Fruits in their season instruct us how easily he can make those that are in the dust to awake to life If the Art of Man whose power and skill 〈…〉 â—â—rrow and limited can refine Gold and Silver to such a luster as if their matter were not Earth digged out of the Mines If from black Cinders it can form Chrystal Glasses so clear and shining how much more can Omnipotency recompact our dust and reanimate it with a glorious life Death that dissolves our vital frame does not abolish the matter of our Bodies and tho' 't is corrupted and chang'd by a thousand accidents yet 't is unperishing and under whatsoever Colours and Figures it appears God perfectly discerns and will seperate it for its proper use More particularly I will shew how the Resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the Resurrection of Believers to Glory As our Surety he was under the arrest of Death it becoming the holy Majesty of God and conducing to the ends of his Government not to derogate from the dignity of his Law but to lay the penalty upon his Son who interposed for us Now having finish'd the work of our Redemption by his sufferings his Resurrection was the just consequent of his Passion And 't is observable that his Resurrection tho one entire act is ascribed as to himself so to his Father by whose consent and concurrence he rose again Therefore 't is said Whom God raised up having loosed the pains of Death since it was impossible he should be holden by it 'T was naturally impossible upon the account of the Divine Power inherent in his Person and legally impossible because divine Justice required that he should be raised to Life partly to vindicate his innocence for he was reputed and suffered as a Malefactor and principally because he had fully satisfied God Accordingly the Apostle declares he died for our Sins and rose again for our Justification Having paid our Debt he was releas'd from the Grave and the Discharge was most solemnly publish'd to the World 'T is therefore said the God of Peace raised him from the dead the act is most congruously ascribed unto God invested with that title because his Power was exerted in that glorious Work after he was reconciled by the Blood of the Covenant Briefly Our Saviour's Victory over Death was obtained by dying his Triumph by rising again He foil'd our common Enemy in his own territories the Grave His Death was a Counter poison to Death it self as a bruised Scorpion is a noble Antidote against its Venom Indeed his Death is incomparably a greater Wonder than his Resurrection For 't is apparently more difficult that the Son of God who originally possesses Immortality should die than that the humane Body united to him should be raised to a glorious Life It is more conceivable that God should communicate to the humane Nature some of his Divine Perfections Impossibility and Immortality than that he should submit to our lowest Infirmities Sufferings and Death Now the Resurrection of Christ is the argument and claim of our happy Resurrection For God chose and appointed him to be the Example and Principle from whom all divine Blessings should be derived to us Accordingly he tells his Disciples in a fore-cited Scripture because I live ye shall live also Our Nature was rais'd in his Person and in our Nature all Believers Therefore He is called the first fruits of them that sleep because as the first Fruits were a pledge and assurance of the following Harvest and as from the condition of the first Fruits being offered to God the whole Harvest was entitled to a Consecration so our Saviour's Resurrection to the Life of Glory is the earnest and assurance of ours He is called the first-born among the Dead and owns the race of departed Believers as his Brethren who shall be restored to Life according to his Pattern He is the head Believers are his members and therefore shall have communion with him in his Life The effect is so infallible that now they are said to be raised up together and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus If his Victory over our Enemies had been imperfect and he had saved himself with difficulty and hazard as it were by Fire in the Apostle's expression our Redemption had not been accomplish't But his Passion was triumphant and is it conceivable that he should leave the Saints his own by so many dear titles under the power of Death If Moses the Deliverer of Israel from the Tyranny of Pharaoh would not suffer any thing of theirs not an hoof to remain in the House of Bondage will our great Redeemer be less perfect in his Work Shall our last Enemy always detain his Spoils our Bodies in the Grave This would reflect upon his Love and Power 'T is recorded to confirm our hopes how early his Power was displaid in forcing the Grave to release its chained Captives And many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many What better Earnest can we have that the strength of Death is broken From
the end and perfection of their Lives shall dispose their states for ever that he who esteems every act of their Charity and Kindness done to his Servants as done to himself shall dispense the blessed Reward Then the King will say to them plac'd on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World O the transports of joy to hear those words from his Life-breathing Lips The Prophet breaks forth in an Extacy How beautiful are the feet of the Messengers of Peace those that bring glad-tidings of Salvation but how much more beautiful is the face of the Author of our Peace and Salvation O how full of Serenity and Clemency and Glory The expectation of this makes them languish with impatience for his Coming Tho the Preparations of that Day are so dreadful when the Sun shall be darkned and the Moon turned into Blood and the Stars fall like leaves in Autumn yet 't is stiled a Day of Refreshment to the Saints But how dreadful will his Coming in Majesty to Judgment be to the Wicked They shall see him whom they have pierced and with bitter lamentation remember the indignities offered to him What Excuses can they alledg why they did not believe and obey the Gospel Our Saviour revealed high Mysteries but confirm'd them with great Miracles He requir'd strict Holiness but offer'd divine Grace to enable Men to do his Will He poured forth his Spirit upon them but their hearts were as hard as the Rocks and as barren as the Sands Then he will reproach them for their undervaluing neglect of the great Salvation so dearly purchased and so freely and earnestly offered to them for their obstinacy that the Purple streams that flow'd from his Crucified Body that all the Sorrows and Agonies of his Soul were not effectual Perswasives to make them forsake their Sins for their preferring the Bramble to reign over them Satan the Destroyer of Souls and ungrateful rejecting the true Vine the blessed Saviour who by so many miraculous mercies sollicited their love and deserved their service this will make the sentence as just as terrible and the more terrible because just This will exasperate the anguish that the Gospel shall be a savour of Death to them and the blessed Redeemer pronounce them cursed and dispatch them to everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels for ever The Judgment of the Redeemer will be more heavy than that of the Creator For all the riches of his goodness which they despised shall be the measure of their guilt and woes All the means of Grace used for their conversion but frustrated by their perversness shall rise up in Judgment against them Justice will revenge the abuse of Mercy Do they hope to soften the Judg by Submissions and Deprecations alas he will be inflexible to all their Prayers and Tears The Lamb will be then a Lion arm'd with terrours for their destruction Or can they appeal to an higher Court to mitigate or reverse the Sentence No his Authority is supream and confirm'd by the immutable Oath of God Or do they think to resist the execution of the sentence Desperate Folly The Angels notwithstanding their numbers and strength could not for a moment escape his revenging hand The whole World of Sinners is of no more force against his Wrath than the light dust against a whirl-wind or dry Stubble against devouring Fire Or do they think by a stubborn Spirit to endure it Self-deceiving Wretches If the correction of his Children here tho allayed and for their amendment make their beauty and strength consume away as a moth how insupportable will the Vengeance be on his obstinate Enemies Who knows the power of his Anger who can found the depths of his displeasure 7. The Consideration of eternal Judgment should be a powerful Incentive to prepare our selves for it 'T is the Inference the Apostle makes from the certainty of our appearing before the righteous Judge Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent in this or the next life we may be accepted of him This was his great Design his chief Care his Duty and his Glory Never did any person more ardently aspire and ambitiously endeavour for the obtaining a Kingdom than he did to secure his own Acceptance with the Lord. In order to this I will lay down the Rules of our Acceptance in that Day and conclude the Argument 1. Unfained Faith in the Lord Jesus is absolutely necessary that we may be accepted This is such a belief of his all sufficient Merits and his merciful inclination to save us that the guilty and self-condemned Sinner entirely consents to the terms of the Gospel as well as to the priviledges of it with a reliance upon his Merits and a resolution to obey his Precepts He is a Priest on a Throne a Prince and a Saviour and so must be acknowledged and received Upon this condition his Righteousness is freely imputed to us for our Justification unto Life without which we must perish in our Sins For 1. The best Saints are guilty and deeply obnoxious to the Law and the Judgment of God is invariably according to Truth so that appearing in their Sins they will be cast for ever God's Tribunal like that of the severe Roman Judg is Reorum Scopulus a Rock that dashes in pieces all the Guilty that come to it Therefore the Psalmist so earnestly deprecates Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified And the Aposte tho' a transcendent Saint devests himself of his own righteousness that he may be entirely covered with the righteousness of Christ and renounces all things that he may be found in him as his Surety in that Day of Accounts and obtain Pardon by virtue of his Satisfaction for Sin We cannot perfectly obey the Commands nor appease the Displeasure of God but the expiatory Sacrifice of Christ propitiats the Divine Justice This alone can make us stand in Judgment before the fiery Law and the fiery Tribunal and the Judg who is a consuming Fire to all the Guilty that appear in their Sins before him The Blood of the Mediator has sprinkled the Throne of God in Heaven and our Consciences being sprinkled with it by a purifying Faith we may appear before God the Judg of all with an humble confidence and enter into the Holy of Holies the Celestial Sanctuary with joy 2. Not only the pardon of our Sins but the acceptance and rewarding of our services with eternal Glory is upon the account of our Saviour's compleat Righteousness There are defilements in the persons and defects in the works of the Saints Their most holy and fervent Prayers are perfum'd by the Incence of his Intercession and so become grateful to God Our best Vertues are mix'd and shadowed with imperfections but in him all Graces were conspicuous in