The King of Terrors

For Explication.

[Explication 1] Quest. What is it that sleeps in a Believers death?

Sol. 1. Negatively. Not his Soul. As the soul cannot die, so it doth not sleep, i. e. after its dissolution from the body, it lies not still without any motion or operation; True indeed, such acts of the soul as are merely Organical, i. e. such as the soul cannot exert but by the help of the body, as seeing, hearing, tasting, &c. these indeed do, and must needs cease. But then there are other acts, which are inorganical and immaterial, which the soul can put forth of itself, without the least commerce with or assistance from the body. These cease not. As appears;

1. By the Light of Nature. Natures dim eyes have been clear enough to see this truth. Hence the Platonists resemble the souls being and acting after death, to the distinct being of the Wagoner after the Coach is broken. To the swimming out of the Mariner when the Ship is wracked To the creeping out of the Snail when the shell is crushed.

2. By the Light of Reason. What hinders me to conclude the being, the quick and lively acting of the soul (that pure, immaterial, and immortal substance) in the Air, in the Heaven, or elsewhere, as well as in the compass of my body? Why should not that soul, that existed without the body before it was created, inspired, infused, as well exist and act after the union of it with the body is dissolved?

3. By daily, constant Experience. Do we not find and feel the soul, even whilst in the body, to have its motions, passions, tempers, quite different from, and independent on the body? Is not the soul often cheerful, when that is in pain? Does not the soul often sing, when the body sighs? Have not innumerable Martyrs triumphed in the midst of flames and tortures? Does not holy Baynam tell the Papists, that his flames were no more to him then a bed of Down or Roses? Again, in the deepest and deadest sleep, when sleep with its strongest cords has most strongly bound up all our senses, has not the soul its nimble workings, and most rational discourses then? To say nothing of divine Raptures and Extasies, when the body is as it were laid by as useless and uninstrumental to the soul; as appears in paul 2 Cor. 12.2, 3, 4. when Paul's soul had an ear to hear such words as his body could not find a tongue to express: And in John, Rev. 1.16. In a word, in sickness, yea in death itself, when the soul walks in the very valley and shadow of death, in the very act and article of its dissolution, what a fresh vigor does the soul many times put on? How does this divine flame blaze in the very socket? How does it crect and rouse itself, and plainly tells us, that it means not to fall with the body, but only to leave it, as an Inhabitant a ruinous house, till it be repaired? as a Musician to lay aside his Lute, whose strings are cracked, till it be new strung.

4. By the Light of Scripture. The souls which were under the Altar were not asleep, though their bodies were; for they cried with a loud voice, &c. Rev: 6.9, 10. In death, the body, that handsome Pile of dust, returns to the carth as it was, but the spirit, the soul, Ista Divinae aurae particula, returns unto God who gave it, Eccles. 12.7. and to the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. 12.23. Had the soul of the penitent Thief slept, how could it have been truly said to have been with Christ in Paradise, Luke 23.43. With Christ in Paradise, i. e, in the highest Empyrean Heavens, Acts 3.21. beholding his face in light and glory, John 17.24. Had Paul but dreamt of the souls sleep, he would never have groaned so earnestly to be clothed upon with his house from heaven, 2 Cor. 5.1, 4. Nor to have had the union of his soul and body dissolved, and the communion with God which he then enjoyed, interrupted at least, if not broken off, had he not been sure, that immediately on that dissolution, he should be with Christ, Phil. 1.21, 23.

Thus Negatively. The soul sleeps not.

2. Affirmatively. The body sleeps, Matth. 27.52. Or, if you will, the state of a Believers death much resembles that of sleep: which leads me to the second thing I promised: viz.

2. Confirmation.

Now I shall prove this point, generally and particularly.

1. More generally. Sleep is the image of death, and death is more then the image of sleep. Lighten mine eyes least I sleep the sleep of death, i. e. least I die, Psal. 13.3. Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, John 11.11. Our Savior interprets his own words; Lazarus is dead, v. 14. Many are sickly among you, and many sleep, i. e. are dead, 1 Cor. 11.30. An usual phrase among the Hebrews for being dead, was this, They slept with their Fathers, 1 King. 11.43. 2 King. 20.21. Luke retains the Hebrew form, and tells us, that Stephen and David gave up the ghost and fell asleep, Acts 7.60. and 3.36.

And hence it is that the Saints graves are called their beds: They shall rest in their beds, Isai. 57.2. When a Believer dies, he is but gone to bed; gone down from a bed of ivory to a bed of earth; from a pillow of down, to a pillow of dust.

Hence also both the Greeks and Latins style the places where the dead are laid up and buried, sleeping places:

Thus more generally. But

2. More particularly. By spreading before you the Analogy, proportion, resemblance, parallel, that is between sleep and death. A Believers death runs parallel to sleep, in its Antecedent, Concomitant, Consequents.

1. In its Antecedet; or that which usually goes before sleep, and that is Vestium Depositio. When a man goes to sleep, he usually uncloaths, dismantles, disrobes himself. In like manner Peter calls his death, 1 a putting off of his tabernacle, 2 Pet. 1.14. Paul stiles it a dissolution of our earthly house of this tabernacle, 2 Cor. 5.1. An uncloathing: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 v. 4. When a Believer dies, he lays aside, not only the garment spotted with, but even that which is made of flesh. Thus Jubentius and Maximinus—We are ready to lay off the last garment the flesh.

2. In its Concomitant; Or that which accompanies and attends on sleep: and that is, Quictis tranquilitas, Sweet Rest and Repose. When a man goes to his sleep, we say he goes to his rest. So Job 3.13. Now should I have lien still and been quiet; Now should I have slept, I should have been at rest. 'It is true, rest is more then sleep; Sometimes a man sleeps, when he doth not rest, but is troubled in his sleep; But when rest is join'd with sleep, this is perfect sleep.

In death a Believer enjoys a perfect rest: A state wherein Believers lie quietly in their beds of earth, and have not so much as one waking moment, or distracting dream. Here indeed, those Doves, find no rest for the soles of their feet; but no sooner are they lodged in the Ark of death, but they are at rest. They shall rest in their beds. Now there is a five-fold rest which a Believer enjoys in and by his temporal death: From labor, from trouble, from infirmities, from sin, and from temptations.

1. From labor and toil. No working in the Grave: There the servant is free from his master, The poor Israelite from his Egyptian Task-master. No tale of bricks demanded there. There the weary with labor is at rest, Job 3.17, 19. This life is the day of the Saints working. They, as well as their Master, must work while 'tis day. Death is the night of the Saints resting. When the Sun of our Life ariseth, we go forth to our labor until the evening of death, Psal. 104.23. and no longer, for then, they that die in the Lord rest from their labors, Rev. 14.13. This life is a continual motion; death a perpetual rest. Our life is a stormy passage, a tempestuous Sea-voyage, death brings us to a peaceable Port.

2. From troubles, miseries, calamities: And these either public or private.

1. Public and National. No wars, famine, pestilence, no bloody battles, no garments rould in blood, no sodding of the Babe, to satisfy the hunger of the Mother, in the Grave. If a Cloud of blood hover over a Nation; If an Angel on a red Horse be ready to mount and march through a Kingdom; If commission be given to the Sword to eat flesh and to drink blood; the death of a Believer houses him before the storm. Josiah dies in peace, and sees not all the evil which God will bring on Jerusalem, 2 King. 22.20. The Righteous man is taken from the evil to come, Isai. 57.1. A Believers grave is nothing else but one of God's privy Chambers, where he is hid from the indignation to come, Isai. 26, 20.

2. Private and Personal. No trouble, no oppression, no persecution, no racks, no strappado's in the Grave, The voice of the oppressor is not heard there, Job 3.18, This life indeed is a cloudy, blustering passage to God's Jonahs, but death is that Whale, which doth not so properly swallow them up, as carry and convergh them, 'tis indeed, both their Ship and Pilot, to conduct them safe to shore. Poor Saints, here, they are usually the worlds Gally-slaves: this lower Orbe is to them, but a larger kind of Tunis of Argier, but they are manumitted there. Their death ransomes them. Here they are at the foot of every bloody Bonner, Gardener, Nero, Trajan, Dioclesian, Julian: but death sets them out of gun-shot. The rod is taken off their backs, and a palm put into their hands, Rev. 7.9, 14. There Peter no more fears the Cross, Paul the Axe, James the Sword, Isaiah the Saw, Elijah Jezebel, the noble Army of Martyrs, the Cole-house, Dungeon, Halter, Faggot, Flames. Hence Cyprian when dying, God be thanked for this Goal-delivery: And I. Buisson Now shall I have a double Goal-delivery, one out of my sinful flesh, another out of my loathsome dungeon.

3. From all bod • lie weakness, infirmities, pains, griefs, passions, miseries. By reason of these, Saints, whilst here, are subject to panting hearts, moistened eyes, blubbered cheeks: Here usually ashes are their bread, and tears their drink. Here the Saints life is usually so miserable, that 'tis an observation of Jerome, and the resolution of an ancient Council, concerning Jesus his weeping over Lazarus, John 11.31. That it was not so much a grief for Lazarus his death, as the consideration of his raising again to a miserable life, that drew those tears from our Savior's eyes.

But now, Death wipes every tear from a Believers eye, Rev. 7.17. sorrow and sighing do then fly away, Rev. 21.4. Death is the great Catholicon, panacea, salve for all sores; the real and lasting cure of all the Saints diseases, maladies, infirmities. So that good man Laverock comforted his fellow Martyr John ap Rice: Come, saith he, be of good comfort Brother; for my Lord of London is our good Physician; He will soon cure thee of thy blindness, and me of my lameness, this day.

4. From sin: He that is dead, is freed from sin, Rom. 6.7. From their own sin, and from the sins of others.

1. From their own sin; and that both as to its guilt and silth.

1. From the guilt: I mean the sense and apprehension of guilt. Poor Believers, whilst here, many times lie under the stabs and throws of a wounded Con • cience: their souls stricken through with God's venomous Arrows, and made as it were dizy with the wine of astonishment. As they are forced to lie down in sorrow, so they fear they shall rise up in Flames; This was the case of Heman, Asaph, &c. Many, very many of the children of Light, whilst here, walk in such darkness, Isa. 50.10. But now Death delivers them from this midnight darkness, brings them into the face and presence, sets them under the beams of the Sun of righteousness, which shall never more be clouded; Not a wrinkle more now forever to be seen on God's face, not the least frown on God's forehead, Every score quite blotted out, every debt cancelled, and they no less fully, the freely acquitted and discharged, Jeremiah, 31.34.

2. From the raging power; yea, from the polluting, pestring presence of sin. Poor Saints here labor under the intolerable burden of a corrupt heart, and sinful life. How was Paul pressed, oppressed, with that weight, that mountain, the law of his members warring against the law of his mind. This makes him cry out likea forlorn Caitif, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 O wretched man that I am, Rom: 7.24. Paul that could rejoice in tribulation, could not but mourn under corruption; This was that made the good man cry out, Libera me a malo; hoc est, a me ipso, Domine. This made holy Bradford bewail himself, as the living Christians of old, when tied to dead carcasses.

But now when once death comes, it soon knocks off these shackles: takes off these weights, that so easily beset us. As the Martyrs formerly cheered themselves against the rage of their bloody persecutors. Oh brethren, said they, our persecutors are sending of us thither, where we shall never offend God more. Death spares not one Agag alive. Every Canaanite slain. Every Egyptian drowned. Those corruptions they have seen today, they shall see them no more forever. Death presents them without spot or wrinkles, Eph. 5.27. Totally frees them not only from the power, but presence of sin. The end of their living, is nothing less then the end and period of their sinning.

2. From the sins, and corruptions of others. Here the sinfulness and pollution of the times and places, wherein Saints live, ( specially of persons nearly related to them,) makes their lives grievous, and is as it were a Coloquintida in the pot of their sweetest comforts. Lots righteous soul vext with the Sodomites, 2 Pet. 2.8. Rebekah weary of her life, because of the daughters of Heth, Gen. 27.46. Woe is me, saith David, that I must dwell in Mesech, Psal. 120.5. Oh that I could leave my people, saith weeping Jeremy, Jer. 9.2. But now, 'tis not the least part of our happiness by death, that it brings us there, where there are no ill neighbors. There shall enter in nothing that defiles into those holy Mansions, Rev. 21.27. Corrupt flesh and blood shall not, cannot enter into the Kingdom of God: 1 Cor. 15.50.

5. From temptations, Satan's winnowings, buffetings, solicitations to sin. Here, ever and anon a messenger sent from Satan to buffet Saints, 2 Cor. 12.7. Anakims to fight them, Midianitish women to allure them, Satan going about like a roaring Lion seeking whom, and how he may devour, 1 Pet. 5.8. Here God's Adam's never without an Eve and a Serpent. In this Egypt Christ's Joseph's always dog'd with the suggestions of a Potiphar's wife. But now the death of Saints Brings them into that heavenly Paradise, where there is no Serpent. The great Dragon, the Accuser and Tempter of the Brethren is cast down thence, and never to be admitted more, Rev. 12.9.16. Here the Saints always wrestling, not only with flesh and blood, but principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickednesses in nigh places, Eph. 6.12. Here, though they ate never totally overcome, yet are they stoutly charged and assaulted: and though 'tis the Saints honor to conquer, yet is it their trouble to conflict: yea, but now death puts the Saints into such a condition, that they are not only without a foil, but without fighting too.

Thus in respect of its concomitant, Rest, the death of Saints may well be resembled to sleep.

3. In its Consequents: which are two: Excitationis facilitas: & Virium reparatio.

1. Excitationis facilitas. Awaking or rising from sleep. Natural sleep is not perpetual: we sleep and awake again: Psal. 3.5. I laid me down and slept, I awaked. So that though the body lies for a time in the grave, yet it shall awake and rise again. Many, i. e. all of them that sleep in the dust shall awake: Dan. 12.2. Psal. 17.15, Isai. 26.19. John 5.28. Job 19.26, 27. Hos. 13.14. Rev. 10.13. A time coming when the loud Trump shall awaken the sleeping ashes, and those old friends, soul and body, meet and embrace, and never part more.

2. Virium reparatio, renovatio, restitutio. The body, that was sown in weakness, shall be raised in power. It was sown a natural body: it shall be raised a spiritual body; endowed with impassibility, subtlety, agility, clarity. It is sown in dishonor, it shall be raised in glory, 1 Cor. 15.42, 43, 44. It shall be like unto Christ's glorious body, Phil. 3.21. shining forth and sparkling like the Sun in its midday-glory, Matth. 13.43.

And thus we have dispatched the parallel betwixt a Believers death and sleep. The third thing promised, was the Application and Improvement of the whole; to which we now address ourselves.

3. Application.

[Application. 3] By way of Information, Exhortation, Dehortation, Consolation.

[Information. 1] 1. For the Information of our Judgments in four Corollaries.

1. If a Believers death be a sleep, then that Aphorism of the wise Man appears to be a great truth, Eccles. 7.1. The day of death is better then the day of ones birth. Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward, Job 7.5. Sparks have a principle in themselves, by which they ascend, they need no directing, they fly upward naturally. So 'tis a natural course for man, as soon as he is born, to verge to sorrow. Our birth is nothing else but a launching forth into a deep Ocean of sin and sorrow, an intrat to act our parts in a Scene of iniquity and misery: Yea, but now a Believers death is his happy Exit and Epilogue; his calm Port, and safe Harbor, after all his tollings and tempests. Of this truth, that Mirrour of her Sex, the Lady Jane Grey, discovers a clear conviction, who, being requested by the Lieutenant of the Tower to write her Symbol in his book, before her beheading, wrote thus: Let the glassy condition of this life never deceive thee: there is a time to be born, and a time to die, but the day of death is better then the day of birth.

2. If a Believers death, &c. Hence learn, The infinite power, wisdom and goodness of God, in that he is able and willing to turn the worst of evils, into so great a good: out of the deadliest poison to make the most sovereign Antidote: to turn a Moses Serpent into a Rod, and with that Rod to work wonders: to fetch honey and sweetness out of the carcass of a Lion: nay, to turn the Eater into meat, Death into sleep; to make that, which in it self is the greatest loss, to become so great a Gain, Phil. 1.23. to render the King of Terrors, Job 18.14. most amiable, yea most useful: to make that so sweet a blessing, which was threatened, as the saddest curse: to turn an Esau's malice into courtesy and salutes, his intended stabs into tears and kisses. Verily this is the Lord's doing, and it ought to be marvelous in our eyes.

3. If a Believers death, &c. Hence see, the vast difference between an Unbeliever and a Believer in their death. Death to an unbeliever is Poena peccati; so threatened, Gen. 2.17. so inflicted, Rom. 5.12. Their end is destruction, Phil. 3.19. Death comes fiercely to them, pulls them by the threat, like a grim Serjeant, arrests and summons them to hell, where after ten hundred thousand years scorching and yelling in flames, their pain is never the nearer to its period. No time gives them hope of abating; yea time hath nothing to do with this eternity; where they shall be ever dying, but never die: where Devils, who were here ready to tempt them, when graceless, to sin, are as ready to pursue them, now damned, with torments. 'It is true, their bodies sleep indeed for a while, but 'tis as Sampson in Delilah's lap, ready to be given up as a prey to the Philistines: as Sisera in Jaels Tent, the hammer and nail ready to be set to the Temples: or as Peter slept between his cruel Keepers: bound they are and locked up in their graves, as in a strait and loathsome prison, a doleful, disconsolate dungeon, where they lie reserved in the chains of darkness, until the judgment of the great day, Jud. 6.7.

But now the death of a Believer is quite another thing. To them 'tis instar dulcis somni. Death comes mildly and sweetly to the m, like an humble Page, with a courteous invitation to a feast of glory, and proffers its service to lead and conduct them to it: Be not afraid, saith death, though my countenance be stern, my hand is soft, though my pangs seem grievous, yet the rest I bring is sweet. To others I am death, to you only a sleep, and such a sleep as God gives his Beloved, Psal. 127.2. That which is a Grave to others, is a Bed to you, Isai. 57.2. where your bodies shall lie, as Christ did in his grave, with a guard of Angels, John 20.12. Believers are delivered from the sting, though not from the stroke of death: If death be a Serpent, to Saints 'tis a Serpent without a sting: it has left its sting and teeth and all in the sides of Christ. Hence it is that we hear the Apostle sounding out his Io triumph, and find him treading on the neck of his vanquished enemy, playing on the hole of this Asp, and with an holy kind of Sarcasm, flouting at it: Oh death where is thy sting? 1 Cor. 15.55, 56, 57.

Thus we see a vast difference; the unbeliever dies howling; the Believer singing: the one takes death for a gulf of sorrow, the other for a port of safety. The one sighs because stripped for a scourging, the other sings, because he lays off his clothes to go to bed and sleep after his toil.

4. If a Believers death be a sleep in Jesus: Hence conclude, That even death itself dissolves not the strict union that is between Christ and a Believer. All the faithful, though dead, are yet the living members of Christ Jesus. As in Christ's death his soul and body, though severed each from other, remained united to the Deity; so in death, Believers souls and bodies still remain united unto Christ, Rom. 8.38, 39. Though Abraham, Isaeac, Jacob die, yet God is still their God, Matth. 21.31, 32. The Relation of God to them, is as strong when dead, as when living. Though dead to men, yet they were not dead to God. Sleep, though it chains up the senses for a time, yet it dissolves not the union between soul and body; Nor does the sleep of the Spouse break the marriage knot, between her and her Bridegroom: the union that is betwixt Christ and Believers out-lives death. Death indeed may and doth triumph over the natural union betwixt body and soul, but cannot in the least either dissolve, or weaken the mystical union betwixt the soul and Christ. Let Believers live, and they live, from, for, and in Christ: and let them die, they do but sleep in him. Thus for Information.

[Exhortation. 2] 2. Exhortation.

Is a Believers death no more then a sleep? Then Believers,

1. Be not afraid of death. Your death, Believers, is a sleep, a sweet sleep, Eccles. 5.12. and should the laboring man be afraid of a sweet sleep? No, but rather resolve with David, though you walk in the valley of the shadow of death, yet there to fear no evil, Psal. 27.3. I dissuade not from a natural, or from a spiritual fear of death. The one is allowed, the other necessary. He is no man that doth not fear death. Beside the pain, Nature must needs shrink at the thought of parting; and he acts not the Christian that doth not so fear death, as to mind and prepare for its certain, and yet most uncertain On-set. I only dissuade from that base, cold, cowardly, carnal fear of death, which makes the whole life, nothing else but a living death, which kills men daily, because they must once die, and keeps them under perpetual slavery and bondage, Heb. 2.15. To drive this Naile home I would only offer these few Considerations.

1. Such a slavish fear, better becomes a Pharaoh and his Magicians, then Israclites and Believers. 'It is no wonder to see their courage fall, when once the cry of death is in their Houses, Exod. 12.29, 30. This Basilisk may well affright those Enchanters and Mountebanks: But a Moses, an Israelite indeed, may take it by the tail, handle it, and turn it into an harmless wand, yea into a rod, budding with glory and immortality.

'It is true, the Chaldean Tyrants face may look pale and grisly, stam'd with the color and fear of death: Those hands, which not long since lifted up his massy Goblets in scorn and desiance of the God of Israel, may well hang down, when death writes him a letter of summons, to appear that night, before a most strict and supreme Tribunal. I do not wonder at Lewis the eleventh his strait charge to his servants, when once they saw him sick, never once to name that bitter word Death in his ear. Well may these fear Death, that know him but as a Pursuivant sent from Hell. But that is not your case Believers.

2. Consider: How cheerfully have God's people, your fellow soldiers, looked death in the face. Paul so far from fearing, that he earnestly pants and longs after a dissolution, Phil. 1.28. How sweetly doth good old Simeon chant out his Swan-like song; his Dom ns nunc dimittis? Luke 2.29. How familiarly doth holy Moses hear of his end: 'tis no more betwixt God and Moses, but go up to Mount Nebo and die, Deut. 32.50. Had he been invited to a feast, it could not have been in a more sweet compellation. No otherwise then to other Prophets, Go up and eat, or sleep. It has been no harsh news to God's Children, to hear of their departure. To them death hath lost its horror through Acquaintance. That face, which at first seemed ill-favored, by often viewing is grown out of dislike. Saints that have had such entire conversation with God, are not afraid to go to him. Hence that of Ambrose: I have not so lived, that I am ashamed to live longer, nor yet fear I death, because I have a good Lord: And that of Hilarion to his soul: Egredere, Anima, egredere: Get thee out my soul, away, thou hast seventy years served Christ, and art thou now afraid of death?

3. Whilst there lurks in the breast this slavish fear of death, the least piece of this leaven is enough to sour the whole lump of all our joys and comforts. The least dram of this Coloquintida will mar the relish of all our sweets, and make us cry out, there is death, death, death, in the pot. This little fly, will soon taint, our whole box of Ointment. On these and such like Acceunts Believers may be strongly armed against the uncomely, slavish fear of death. But that is not all. This truth calls yet for a more raised and noble temper; screws up Believers to an higher Cue. Viz.

2. Is your death, Believers, a sleep, so sweet a sleep, 'tis not enough for you not to fear, it becomes you to be willing to die, to desire to be dissolved, Phil. 1.23. To groan earnestly to be unclothed, that you may go to rest, 2 Cor. 5.1, 4. Let it not be said of you that you are dragged and hailed to your graves, as of the foolish rich man, Luke 12.20. This night, thy soul shall be taken from thee. Go not as a Swine, but as a Lamb, to the slaughter. Resign thy soul without a forcible entry, Be a Voluntier in death. Be not pressed to it. Death, which is the Atheists fear, should be the Christians desire. Yet here observe, this desire of death must not spring from a pet or passion, merely out of a taedium of living; as a sick man desires to change his bed, merely out of weariness of, and discontentment with his present condition. Death may not, must not be desired, out of impatience under, or distrust of God's Providence, Job 3.3.7.15. Jer. 20.74. Jon. 4.3. No nor yet to avoid the labor and duty of our callings. To be weary of living on such accounts, argues not Christianity, or a more raised frame, but pride, peevishness, cowardliness, slug gishness of spirit.

But, (this grand condition always understood, viz. with submission to the will of God) it hugely becomes a Christian, considering the weight of his sins here, and of his glory hereafter, that death delivers from the one, and ushers into the other, with Paul, to desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ.

And that on a double account.

1. There is nothing here, that can invite or defer our stay. Alas what is there here but darkness of ignorance, distempers of passions, complaints of estates, fears and sense of evil, hopes and doubts of good, ambitious rackings, covetous toylings, envious underminings, restless desires, all vanity and vexation of spirit, Eccles. 1.1. many worlds of discontent in one. Why then should we linger and han ker after a continuance in this Baca of tears, and not desire rather to enter into our Rest? Shew me a man that ever truly knew, what life was, and was loath to leave it, and ile in him show thee, a prisoner, that blesles himself in his fetters, a slave that likes his chains and gally.

2. There is all that in a Believers death, that may tempt and inflame his desires. 'It is that to a Believer, which a night of rest is to the weary Labourer, 2 port to the weather-beaten Mariner, freedom to the fetter-gal'd Prisoner, the marriage -day to the loving Spouse, the day of coronation to the king. Why then should not a Saint conclude with Vid Bressius: Oh that my soul had the wings of a Dove, to fly and make hast to that mountain of God, and Paradise of eternal pleasures: Or with that aged Father in Austin, who when his friends, endeavoring to comfort him on his bed of sickness, told him, they hoped he should recover, answered: If I shall not die at all, well: but if ever, why not now? Oh then, Believers, pant after an holy and an happy dismission: never cease tutoring and screwing up your souls, till, in God's strength you can resolve, that if you might die today, you would not choose to live till tomorrow. Never think your souls in an hail condition, so long as you are 10th, to think of dying. Take this only comfort, from the prolonging of your days, not that you live long, but that you are in a sphere of doing your own and others souls more good, and bringing your God more glory.

And because the quelling of the slavish fear of death, and rendering of a Believer willing to depart, is a business of such grand concernment, give me leave to prescribe a direction or two: viz.

1. If ever you desire, that death should not be your fear, but gain, and so desirable: be sure to make Christ your life. This was Paul's method, Phil. 1.21, 23. He that would sleep in Jesus, must live to him. Labor to be acted by the Spirit of Christ, and the immediate fruits thereof, viz. faith, love, filial fear, as thy principle, Rom. 8.14. Gal. 2.20. steer by Christ's word, as your Compass, your Rule, Canon, Gal. 6.16. Level at Christ's glory, as your highest end, 1 Cor. 10.31.

Our life, as it gives way to death, so it must make way for it. As the tree falls, so it still lies: and as it stands, so usually it falls. If ever we hope to sleep sweetly in death, we must walk fruitfully in life. 'It is the sleep of a laboring man that is sweet, Eccles. 5.12. To live holily is the only way to die happily. Mark the upright man, and behold the just, for the end of that man is peace, Psal. 37.37.

2. Fix your eyes on the death of Christ. Christ by his death hath wholly routed, yea conquered death. Christ precious body lying in the grave hath sweetly perfumed that house of corruption. Christ by his death hath cut off all deaths succors. Whereas death borrowed its sting from sin, its strength from the law, and curle of God, Christ hath disarmed them all of their destroying, killing power, 1 Cor. 15.56. So that now, as he falsely, thou mayst say truly, the bitterness of death is past.

3. Act and exert Faith to the uttermost. Quartan Agues are not so much the shame of physic, as the fear of death is of all natural skill and valor. This is Faiths proper evil, Faith alone professes this cure, undertakes it, and performs it thoroughly.

Faith is that, that can turn fears into hopes, sighs into songs, tremblings into exultings. Faith singles out this Giant as her chief prize, and grapples with him, not as a match, but as a vanquished underling, sets her foot on the neck of this King of Terrors. Faith concludes, that a Christ hath taken all the poison out of the cup of death, and made it an wholesome potion of immortality to his people: so that now their death, is nothing else but the funeral of all their sins, cares, and sorrows, and the Resurrection of their true joys and comforts.

3. Is a Believers death a sleep? Be exhorted to that high and Honorable duty, of serving your generation before you fall asleep. So did holy David, Acts 13.36. write after his Copy.

4. Is a Believers death no more then a sleep? Adore and bless the infinite mercy and goodness of the Lord Jesus, who by his death hath quite plucked out the sting of death, and soaltered both its name and nature. That which was once, a grim death, is now to you nothing more then a sweet sleep.

5. Is a Believers death a sleep? Oh then prepare for death. Sleep steals, and creeps upon us unawares, so does death. To day therefore, while it is called today. Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth, Prov. 27.1. Thou wilt repent tomorrow! But what if this night thy soul should be taken from thee? Luk. 12.20. Hast thou not heard of fishes taken in an evil net, and of birds that are caught in a snare? so are the sons of man snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them, Eccles. 9.12. To this end

1. Live in a constant and serious meditation of approaching death. This was that which Meses so earnestly plies the Throne of Grace for. Psal. 90.12. So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Plato's Philosophy in this was true Divinity, The whole sum of a wise man's life is the commentation on his death. Not every sleet and stitting flash, but a frequent, deep, and fixed Contemplation. This was that, which saved the soul of the young Prodigal, who for several days, an hour together, sixth his eyes and thoughts on the ring with a deaths-head, given him by a friend on that condition. Ortelius reports of some people, that they thought this duty so necessary, that they used the bones of dead men, instead of money: that death might be continually in their eye. Those sunera Pacuri are of remark in story. He was used every night to be carried to his chamber, as to his grave: and the word at the close of the solemnity was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

2. Look not on death at a distance; as that that shall come certainly, but as that, that may comesuddenly. Look on every day as thy last. Do not as those, that have set days of truce and peace, in which they hang up their Arms a rusting, and do not watch their beacons. But rather as those, that live in perpetual hazard of war, and of the enemies inroad. Have all things in daily readiness for service, at half an hours warning, on the least alarm. Stand as it were sentinel; with musket loaded, match lighted, piece cockt, ready to discharge. Live not one hour in insidelity, or impenitency. Dare not to sleep a minute, who can tell, but then the Bridegroom may come and take thee, as he did the foolish Virgins, napping, Matth. 25.5, 6, 13. Thy Lord comes, not only in a day, but in an hour thou thinkest not of, therefore watch always, Matth. 24.44, 50.

[Dehortation. 3] 3. By way of Dehortation. Is a Believers death only a sleep? Then mourn not immoderately for them that are fallen asleep in Jesus. Remember, I beseech you, you near Relations of our now deceased Friend, mourn not immoderately, she is fallen asleep in Jesus. This is our Aposiles great drist in the Text, to dissuade his Thessalonians from immoderate grief for their dead Relations, and that on this account, because they were only fallen asleep in Christ.

It is indeed an indispensable duty, to be really affected with, and afflicted for, the death of holy men; who knows no what lamentations were taken up for good old Jacob, Gen. 50.16. for holy Hezekiah, 2 Chron. 32.33. for precious, hopeful Josiah, 2 Chron. 35.24, 25. Who hath not heard of Elisha 's Epitaph, my father, my father, the Horsemen of Israel, and the Chariots thereof, 2 King. 13.14. Nurse Deborah buried under Allon-Bacuth, an oak of weeping, Gen. 35.8. and charitable Dorcas covered with tears, as she covered others with clothes. Act. 9.39. Tears for the dead are their just dues. If ever grief be seasonable, it becomes a funeral.

Grieve then we may, and must, but not immoderately; our sorrow must have its just check, and due temper, and that on these accounts.

1. Such an immoderate grief, would give too great an occasion to the Gentiles to traduce us. When they see us bewail those as utterly lost, whom we profess to live with God. Spei nostra, ac fidei prevaricatores sumus. Simulata, ficta, fucata videnter esse, quae dicimus. Cypr.

2. Such an immoderate grief is contrary to the example of our holy predecessors. Saints that have gone before us have set us bounds to their sorrows. So did Abraham for his dearest Sarah, Geu. 23.2, 4. So did Josoph and his brethren for their father Jacob. True, they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation, but then it lasted but ten days, Gen. 50.10. Though the Egyptians indeed mourned for him seventy days, v. 3. Not that the Israelites were less kind, but more Christian-like in their sorrows. And David too, though a man as it were made up of strong affections, sets limits to his griefs, 2 Sam. 12.23, 24. Though in Absalom 's case he forgot himself. Which yet Austin endeavors to excuse.

3. Such an immoderate grief is direclly contrary to God's Revealed-will. The Israelites might not cut themselves, not make any baldness between their eyes for the dead. Both, testimonies of the Heathens immoderate sorrow, Deut. 14.1. and our Savior intimates his dislike of the Jewish Minstrels, which were used for the increase of sorrow, at funerals, Matt. 9.23, 24. as knowing that, in that case, our affections needed not so much a spur, as a bridle.

4. Such an immoderate grief is thwart and contrary to the blessed estate and condition of Saints departed. Is it fit to grieve immoderately for those that are preferred hence to heaven? Suppose them, whilst here, as well as earth could make them, what is earth to heaven, gold to glory, the enjoyment of the whole creation, to the fruition of a Creator? Why then should we blubber our cheeks, and say of them as Jacob of Joseph, They are devoured, when as they are gone to be Lord's in Egypt. Non Lugendus qui moritur, sed desiderandus, Tert. Saints departed, are fitter objects for our desires, to be with them, then of our sorrows, for being for a while deprived of them. Too deep a black becomes not us below, while we consider, that they walk in whites above. If it was our joy to see them sanctified, it should be our triumph to know them saved.

[Consolation 4] Lastly, by way of Consolation. How does this Doctrine drop like the dew, or rather like an Honey-comb. You hear, Believers, that your death is a sleep. Nothing more. Hold up therefore your hands that hang down, strengthen the feeble knees. Remember,

1. Your death is a sleep. Whilst here you are very apt to complain of many a vexing day, of many a restless night. O know there is a time shortly coming, when you shall lie down quietly in your beds of earth, and not be disturbed in the least, either with one waking moment or distracting dream. When once the curtains of darkness are drawn about you, you shall never open your eyes more till the morning of Eternity dawn, and break forth in luster on you. Behold, to your everlasting comfott, death itself is even embalmed to you, and clothed in such soft language, that you may scent a perfume, and discover a beauty in it, and 'tis no more a death, but a sleep only to you.

2. 'It is a sleep, that is accompanied with rest and quietness: An undisturbed Rest. A port, an haven of Rest, and how welcome should that be to a sea-sick weather-beaten Seaman? How dessrable, how acceptable should death be to a soul long tost in the waves of this world, sick of its own sinful imaginations, and tired with external temptations. Here alas, there is no Palace so high, or Tower so strong, that can keep diseases and infirmities from your bodies, cares, fears, temptations from your souls: yea but your death puts you into such a Cittadel, whose walls are so many cubits high, that no Sennacherib can shoot an arrow into it; its strong gates and bars exclude all enemies, all annoyances. None from without can storm it, none from within can betray it. 'It is such a Castle as affords a perfect tranquility to all within it, Rev. 14.13.

3. 'It is a sleep in Jesus: To whom departed Saints are still united; and whilst Christ your Head is above water, you need not fear a drowning. When you depart hence from your Friends Arms, you do but ascend to your Savior's more close embraces. No sooner shall your souls lay down the clay of your body, but they shall be seated under his Altar, Rev. 6.9. Under his special protection, which is such a perfect Sanctuary, as no Avenger of blood, can there either arrest, or disturb you.

4. 'It is a sleep, and that in Jesus, and therefore you shall and must rise again. If Christ the head be risen, the body shall not always sleep. 'It is the Apostles grand comfort in the Text, and his Argument, 1 Cor. 15.20. These bodies of yours in death, are not lost, but laid up only, Job 19.26, 27. and as man lies down in weakness, sleeps and riseth up in strength, like a Giant refreshed with wine. So a Believer, like a grain of corn, dies indeed, but 'tis that he may spring up in more luster, beauty, fruitfulness. John 12.24 As by sleep our bodies are refreshed, so by death our bodies shall be resin'd. These bodies of yours, which are laid down in corruption, shall be raised in glory. That skin which is now wrinkled, shall one day shine; this dust shall be glorious, this base and vile body shall be transformed and made conformable to that glorious Standard, viz. Christ's Body. These course materials, this lump of red earth, shall be laid to mellow in the earth, till it be fit to be made more then a China-dish, even a vessel fit for the great Masters use, a Cabinet fit to receive a glorified soul. Think not therefore much to loose a little vermilion red, a mixture only of flegm and sanguine, for this, you shall gain a radiant and resplendent luster; in comparison whereof, the most accomplisht beauty on earth would look but like a mere deformity. Death will not so much consume, as calcine your bodies: sever the dross from the silver, the ore from the gold, 1 Cor. 15.42, 43. when you fall, it shall not be said of you as of him. Died Abner as a fool? or as a Beast? No, but as a Phenix, out of whose very ashes there springs another more lively and vigorous. Wherefore comfort one another with these words,

And be not ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, &c.