Dead that shall so surely live and be with him Doth not some other Frame and Temper more become thee Dost thou believe the future happy State of their Bodies whose present death thou dost bewail yet canst thou not abate thy sorrow nor turn it yet into the actings of some other Affections nor into the exercises of some Grace which if thou dost will it not more tend to the Glory of God to thine own Comfort and to the Encouragement of thine own Relations which yet do live with thee and to the setting off the Power of the Christian Religion when thou shalt believe the Promises and Principles thereof and behave thy self as one that is endued with such Faith and hast such firm Foundation for thy Faith Blessed Lord by thine assistance now I can and by thy helping Spirit now I will endeavour that I might no longer sorrow as if I had no hope when the sincere dying Christian hath hope in his Death and after he or she is dead the Living have such grounds of hope that the Dead by Christ shall conquer Death and that the day will come when if they be looked for in the Grave there they shall not be found but may be said they are not here but are risen come see the place where they did lye but are not here but gone to meet the Lord and to be for ever with him in the highest Heavens Then Lord I will no longer droop but hope Awake my Hope and let my Sorrow give place to thee Hope Oh how sweet is this how pleasant and delightful If my Sorrow was as bitter as Gall this Hope is as sweet as Honey And this I do begin to feel the more lively is my Hope of their joyful glorious Resurrection the more my Sorrow doth abate tho now for the present they be the captives of Death Indeed had it not been that I had got this Hope my Heart would break with Grief but through Grace I have obtained this good hope and by it my Spirit is revived my Sorrow is more moderate And having this Hope my Sorrow is turned into desire and longing for the Day and Coming of my Lord that all that sleep in Jesus might awake and their Immortal Souls be cloathed with Immortal glorious Bodies Oh how much better do I find it to groan with desires that they might live and come up out of their Graves than to groan thro grief that they are dead and cast into them O Time make haste and flye with greater speed that this day of the Coming of the Lord and rising of the Dead may come It is approaching it is approaching it is nearer by every Day by every Night by every Hour that comes and passeth away As time doth wear away so let my Sorrow as to its excess wear off and that by my desiring instead of sorrowing Yet thou must wait patiently O my Soul tho thou dost so earnestly desire it and tho this Morning might not dawn before the night of Death doth overtake thy Body yet wait while thy Life doth last and leave thy Body in hope that thine and theirs that be already dead shall surely live again in a Glorious Blessed and Eternal Life For doth the Husbandman cast his Seed into the Ground and know that it shall rot yet patiently wait till it rise out of the Ground and grow untill the Harvest when it shall be gathered in with great advantage and canst not thou O my Soul be patient and wait for the Redemption of those Bodies that are rotting in the Grave till the Harvest-day shall come and they be gathered with so great Advantage into the Kingdom of their God And while thou dost desire and wait thou mightest also O my Soul rejoyce and be exceeding glad because that what thou waitest for and dost desire thou hast such well-grounded Hopes that it will surely be And tho the Object of Desire and Hope is good as absent and the Object of Joy is good as present and enjoyed yet let thy Faith make that as present which is yet to come that thou mayest rejoyce therein as if it were already present O Lord notwithstanding all my Sorrow while my Faith and Hope were sleeping yet now by thy good Spirit of Grace they are awake my Sorrow is turned into Joy thou hast put off my Sackcloth thou hast turned my Weeping into Hoping Desiring and Rejoycing in the firm Belief that my Dead shall rise to Glorious Life and being not ignorant of this Lord pardon my Sin that hath been in my Sorrow and let me sorrow no more as one that hath no hope FINIS Books printed for and sold by Thomas Cockeril at the Three Leggs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market London 1. THE Morning Exercise at Cripplegate or several Cases of Conscience Resolved by sundry Ministers In Quarto 2. The Supplement to the Morning Exercise at Cripplegate being sundry more practical Cases of Conscience Resolved Quarto 3. Speculum Theologiae in Christo Or a View of some Divine Truths which are either practically Exemplified in Jesus Christ set forth in the Gospel or may be reasonably deduced from thence Quarto 4. Christus in Corde Or the Mystical Union between Christ and Believers Octavo 5. Precious Faith considered in its Nature Workings and Growth In Octavo These three last by Edward Polhill of Burwash in Sâ—ssex Esquire 6. A Discourse of Regeneration Faith and Repentance Octavo 7. A Discourse of Christian Religion in sundry Points Octavo 8. The Incomprehensibleness of Imputed Righteousness for Justification by Humane Reason till enlightned by the Spirit of God Twelves These three last by Thomas Cole Minister of the Gospel in London 9. A succinct and seasonable Discourse of the Occasions Causes Nature Rise Growth and Remedies of Mental Errors Whereunto is added 1. Vindiciarum Vindex Being an Answer to Mr. Cary about Infant Baptism 2. A Synopsis of Antinomian Errors 3. A Sermon about Unity In Octavo 10. The Reasonableness of Personal Reformation and the Necessity of Conversion 12o. 11. The Remains of Mr. John Flavel being Two Sermons one on the Day of Coronation of their Majesties K. William and Q. Mary the other at a Meeting of Minisâ—ers With some Account of his Life Octavo 12. An Exposition of the Assembly's Catechism with Practical Inferences from each Qâ—estion Octavo These four last by Mr. John Flavel late Minister of the Gospel at Dartmoutâ— Devon 13. A Practical Discourse of Gods Soverâ—ignty In Octavo 14. Instructions about Heart-work By Mr. Richard Allein Octavo 15. The Evidence of things not seen A Scriptural and Philosophical Discourse conceâ—ning the State of Good men after Death Oâ—tavo 16. A Discourse of Closet or Secret Prayer Twelves 17. Poems in Two Parts Twelves Both by Samuel Slaâ—er 18. Love to Christ Necessary for all By Thâ— Doolittle M. A. In Octavo 19. The Righteous Mâ—n's Hope at Death By Samuel Doolittle
our Sorrow for our Dead Spiritually defective tho it be naturally abundant Or when is it too little as we are Christians be it never so much as we are Men Ans 1. When we sorrow for the breach of the Relation made by death we sorrow as men tho in great abundance for so an Heathen may do but do not sorrow for Sin as Sin committed against God in the neglect of our Relative Duties while the Relation was continued for so only Christians can do Tho our Natural Sorrow doth abound in the first respect it is spiritually defective in the latter respect Two things taken for granted 1. Here it is taken for granted That the most Loving Relations may Sin and fail in their Relative Duties one to another for as much as we cannot yield perfect Obedience to any one of the Ten Commandments among which the Fifth contains Relative Duties And who can say tho I have transgressed all the rest yet this I have perfectly fulfilled I have heard that some have asserted that they have lived Twenty or Forty years in a Conjugal Relation without an angry word or unkind act betwixt them if so might not we say O peaceable Spirits that were in these O rare Example and seldom found But be it so is there no other Sin in these Relations but anger and angry words What! Did they pray also daily together or as much one for another as they ought and as fervently as they should Did they by all ways and means appointed by God help each other in their Spiritual Concerns as Duty did require Were there never no sinful Thoughts in their Minds one against another there is one can tell you his sinful Thoughts against some Related to him hath filled his Heart with more sorrow his Eyes with Tears and his Mouth with secret Confessions to God and cost him more Sighs and Sobs and Groans in pleading for Pardon for the Sin of his Thoughts tho resisted than any angry Words or unkind Actions ever did For the one might be more easily prevented than the other because we have a more absolute government over our Tongues and Hands than over our Thoughts What! Can any Persons in any Relation suppose Husband and Wife Parents and Children say they did never Love too much or at no time too little never did take too much care or never too little for their Relations but had that just proportion and measure of Love to them and Care for them as the perfect Rule requires So much as God commanded and no more than God allowed For my part my Prayer shall be Lord forgive my Relative Sins whilst others boast and bless themselves and say O God I thank thee I am not in this as other Men be nor as this Man And Lord let not me be as Blind as that Man that can see no Relative Sins to confess to thee or to be humbled for at thy Throne of Grace when thou wilt find some to judge him for at the Bar of thy Justice 2. The reigning Sins or Sins of Infirmities what they were or are in their kinds degrees frequency and all Aggravations committed in our respective Relations must be left to the scrutiny of every man's Conscience or to God that was an Eye-witness if Conscience was fallen asleep and will be an Impartial Judge if Conscience for the present perform not its Office of Witness Accuser and Judge These being granted that your Father or Mother Husband or Wife or Child is dead you sorrow and grieve you weep and wall you lament and mourn there is your Humanity and Natural Passion because your Relation is broke but where is your Christianity in this sorrow when you had not one Tear amongst so many for the Sins against God and them while you stood in that Relation And yet do not you see while your natural sorrow is abundant your Spiritual sorrow is defective or none at all in this respect Where are your Tears for your disobedience to your Father or Mother when alive Where is the Husband's sorrow for undue and unjust grieving of his Wife sadning her Heart and sending her by his unkindness to her Knees in secret to open her Case and pour out her Tears and Soul before God in Prayer Did you without cause make her weep when alive and shall not this in all your sorrow for her when dead make you sorrow for sinning against God and her before she died According as your Relative Sins were more or less greater or smaller when the Relation held it 's time it 's high time to sorrow for them when by death it is broke and so shew your self a Christian as well as a Man in sorrowing for your dead And do this now if you have not hitherto tho your Father or Mother Husband or Wife or Child be long since dead and turned into dust their rotted Flesh and dry Bones and bare Skull in the Grave do cry to God against you Therefore while you sorrow for their dead Bodies sorrow also for your own sinful Souls because you sinned so much against them in their Life-time 2. When you mourn for the loss of that comfort and delight that you had in loving of them and in being beloved by them be your Sorrow never so much you sorrow only as Men for so an Heathen might do but you sorrow not for the Displeasure of God by reason of those Sins which Conscience doth justly and truly charge you with committed in that Relation your Sorrow is defective as you are Christians You sinned as you were an Husband and for your sin God was displeased you sinned as you were a Father or a Mother and God was displeased for your Sin you sinned as you were a Son or a Daughter and for your Sin God was displeased and God hath by Death taken away your Wife your Child your Father or Mother you Sorrow because they are dead with great Sorrow and herein you do no more than a Man or Woman as such might do but you do not Sorrow that God is displeased which is not so much as a Christian should do You Sorrow because you are afflicted but where is your Sorrow because God is displeased You have many Tears for the loss of your Creature-comforts but have you dropped one for the loss of that Comfort that should arise from the sense of the Love of God unto your Soul You mourn for the smarting Rod that lies upon you Nature Flesh and Blood will make you feel the smart and cry out because of it but you do not grieve that by the Sin in your Relation you grieved the Spirit of God that Grace must inable you to do Are not you herein like unto a Child that is scourged by his Father he cries aloud he weeps and sobs he groans but what is it for Not because his Father is displeased this he is not troubled at but because of the smart and pain that the Rod doth make him so sensible of Do
presentiate them unto us tho yet they are future that it may be the substance or subsistence or as it were the ready presence of such things hoped for and the evidence or convincing demonstration of things not yet seen as if we did now behold them with our Eyes which is the nature power and working of a lively Faith Heb. 11.1 then should we now wipe tears from our Eyes in the fore-believing views thereof as God will do then when we shall actually behold them then our Sorrow would now be turned into Joy and our Heaviness into Rejoycing now we know and say they are dead and therefore Sorrow filleth our Hearts but let us believe what is revealed concerning them that they shall be raised and what great and glorious things shall then be done to them and for them and let the Faith of the one make us as joyfull as the Knowledge of the other at present makes us sorrowfull These Remedies for the asswaging of our sorrow may be reduced to these five general Heads But remember it is not the bare Notion of them nor cursory talking of them nor superficial thinking of them but our serious pondering and powerful practical Believing of them and the Spirits effectual applying and laying them warm to our Hearts that must he the Cure to those that are deeply sorrowfull for their Dead 1. The Lord Himself will descend from Heaven to fetch them out of their Graves v. 16. 2. The Solemnity of his Coming and his Attendants waiting upon him and the Call that shall then be given to them to awake arise and come forth out of their Graves For he shall come with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and of others and with the Trump of God v. 16. 3. The Prerogative of those that sleep in Jesus above those that then shall be found alive the Dead shall have the precedency of the Living that the Dead shall be raised before the then Living shall be changed V. 15. For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the Coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep V. 16. the Dead in Christ shall rise first 4. The Dead in Christ being raised first and after that the Living changed both shall be caught up together in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air. v. 17. Are our Hearts almost dead with sorrow Where is our Faith Here is the Word of the liâ—ing faithful God declaring Wonders that shall be done for the Dead in Christ but where is our Faith Here is our sorrow but where is our Faith Behold the Lord comes down from Heaven behold the Dead come up out of their Graves behold they that long lodged and slept under ground are caught up and carried from off this Earth into the Air where their Lord and they do meet O happy joyful meeting not only Bodies and Souls do now meet after so long a parting but which is more their Lord and they do meet after so long sleeping Lord here is our Faith and our sorrow is abated 5. The eternal Enjoyment of God and Christ in the highest Heavens V. 17. and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now we see where they that are Lodged in the Grave sleeping in Jesus shall at last be Lodged rejoycing in Jesus and therefore now let us be the less sorrowfull And that our Faith concerning these may be encreased and thereby our sorrow may be diminished let us take them up and view them again I. Is it nothing for the asswaging of our sorrow that our Lord will come himself from Heaven to raise them up out of their Graves If you say Who can cause these dry Bones to live and cloath them with flesh and cover them both with skin and bring them out of these deep and dark sleeping places the Answer is ready the Lord can He can but the Question is whether he will he hath declared and promised that he will He will While he was on Earth he raised some but now he is gone to Heaven and there he doth abide and except he come from Heaven the Dead must abide in their Graves Say you so weep not for he HIMSELF will come and he will surely have them forth Did he at his first coming die for their Bodies as well as for their Souls and will he be content to have their Souls only with him in the Heavens and their Bodies to lie always in the Grave Did he purchase their Bodies as well as their Souls with the price of his own most precious Blood and will he for ever lose such a part of his purchase Are not the Bodies as well as the Souls of Believers Christs own by right of Redemption 1 Cor. 6.20 and will he lose his own so dearly bought for want of looking after them Hath he redeemed them from Sin and Hell and will not he redeem them from the Grave And is not the deliverance out of the Grave called the Redemption of the Body and do his People and Redeemed ones while they live wait believe and hope and like a Woman in Travel groan for Deliverance and long for the Blessed Inheritance and full possession of the Blessed State above both in Body and Soul at the Resurrection and will he suffer them to be disappointed Are they Adopted hereunto as well in their Bodies as in their Souls and did they here receive the Spirit of God as the Pledge and Earnest and First-fruits of Glory and shall he let them be for ever without it Rom. 8.23 Were they Sanctified in their Bodies as well as in their Souls and Spirits 1 Thes 5.23 and shall not their sanctified Bodies be glorified Bodies at the coming of Christ Did their Bodies partake with their Souls in the serving of their God in Hearing Praying and Religious Fasting and shall not they partake with the Souls in the heavenly and Eternal Reward thro' the Riches of his Grace Did they present their Bodies when alive a Living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God giving up their Bodies wholly to him to do and suffer what he did call them to tho' it were to Death Rom. 12.1 and will he suffer them to remain for ever as Prisoners of Death and not call them from thence to be partakers of Eternal Life Did both parts serve and yield Obedience to him and shall one only be saved and rewarded by him He was the Redeemer and Sanctifier of both and he will be the Saviour of both And if Angels sent from Heaven cannot deliver them out of their Graves he will come HIMSELF and bring them out When he would redeem Israel from the Bondage of Egypt he sent Moses but to Ransom Redeem and set the Bodies of those that died in him from the bonds of Death with which they are tyed hand and foot it being a Work too great for any meer Creature he will come himself and break these bonds that tho'