Sermon at Funeral of Mrs Frances Bedford

To the Reader.

THere are two Points that can never be enough thought upon: our last end, and our great account, the one is liable to sense the other is matter of faith; the one calleth for serious consideration, and the other sound belief, both exceedingly conduce to fortify us in Christian practice and hope: This Text upon which my Reverend Brother hath happily laid out his thoughts treateth of both, and therefore the discussion of such an Argument cannot be unwelcome to a gracious Reader; we need all kind of helps to enforce the remembrance of these grand Truths, a duty so necessary, and so frequently to be revived, that 'tis to be feared our own private furniture, will not yield us plenty enough of savory and affective thoughts, to warm our hearts with these meditations; every help in this kind is a mercy, and accordingly should be entertained.

I doubt not but when thou hast read this Sermon through, thou wilt find thy heart a new set a work upon these Truths, and by thy cheerful acceptance of this piece, encourage the Author, my choice Friend, to publ • sh his very elaborate Meditations on another portion of Scripture, which he hath gone over with much exactness and care, and will not (I hope) conceal it from public use and benefit: Now the good Lord fit us more for our great change, that we may always stand ready with our Lamps burning, and when our Master cometh, he may find us so doing.

To my much esteemed BROTHER Samuel Bedford Esq; Member of the Honorable House of Parliament, and Justice of Peace in the County of Bedford, and Frances Bedford his dear Consort, and my beloved Sister.

MOurning Suits, use to be plain; yet if made fit, are never the less useful: Such was this plain Sermon (preached upon a mourning occasion) seasonable, and, if the Lord give a blessing, it may be profitable both to others (who heard it) and to you, and these Christian neighbors (who desired the sight of it) I have granted your, and their desire, which (in things feasible and coming within the verg of my power) hath the force of a command, though in gratifying it I have denied my self. If I fall under the lash and scourge of any censorious tongue, be it known I have learned not only to do but to suffer for my friends; Love being a passion and the truth of it more discovered by passion than action. It is a small thing to me to be arraigned at the bar of man's judgment, who am in my text cited together with others before the judgment seat of God. I can hazard the being a sufferer for you, who have already been a sufferer with you. And indeed if sympathy which hath wrought very strange effects (as Naturalists observe) had not wrought wonderously in me, I (who never did before) had not now appeared in print. You have the discourse in white and black, the wonted colors of a funeral solemnity. You might have thought paper had been very scarce with me, if I should have withheld from such a dear friend a winding-sheet to wrap up her Name and preserve the Memorial of it. My Notes in transcribing (as is the manner of things in transplanting ) have admitted of some alteration, whether for better or worse judge ye. Solomon saith, Prov. 27.9. Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. Such is that which with the boldness and faithfulness of a friend (standing in a very near relation) I offer unto you in these following Proposals, that have (at least as I conceive) a specialty in them for your direction to a right demeanour under this sad providence wherewith you are now exercised. Lift up the name of God in proper attributes, put yourselves upon the exercise of suitable graces, set upon the performance of seasonable duties which belong to an afflicted condition. Seek of God a sanctified use of this smart dispensation, and then you shall find your loss to prove your gain. You have lost a child, I more than a child, a dutiful child, a child of early hopes; in respect of knowledge and discretion, an aged child; and though I think verily you have lost many children in one, yet consider you have not lost all your children as Job did. Though you have lost your child, yet you have not lost your God. Walk closely with God, and you shall find him at all times your best and at sometimes your only comfort. Labor to taste the goodness of God in all your good things while you have them, and to see enough in the all-sufficiency of God to make a supply when you are deprived of them. Call to mind the scripture discovery of those particular sins (as they were represented to you in a private fast) which cause God to withhold or with-draw these fading comforts, and try your own hearts by them. God at times hath taken away the greater half of the dearest pledges and pieces of yourselves; be the more careful to instruct those that are left behind. As you expect that what you do, should be pleasing to God, let not that which God hath done be displeasing to you. When God doth not bring down his will to yours, bring up your will to his, and you shall have full contentment. In everything give thanks, & say as Jerome adviseth a friend of his in the like case, Thou hast taken away whom thou hadst given me; I grieve not that thou hast taken them, but praise thee Lord that was pleased to give them. What you received joyfully as a token of God his love to you, part with contentedly as a testimony of your love to God. They that part with anything willingly a little sooner than ordinary in a way of duty, which must be once parted with in a way of necessity, shall in no wise loose their reward. Forget not the speech of Christ, he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, Mat. 10.37. Make use of that wisdom which teacheth, when the stream of affection is strong to turn it into the right channel, and to sorrow more for your sins, which are the cause of your sufferings, than your sufferings which are the fruit of your sins, for which end God hath made that Organ the out-let of sorrow which was the in-let of sins. Tears are pearls, do not prodigally cast them before swine; the carnal sorrow of some professors in the want, hath furnished worldlings with an argument to defend their carnal joy in the use of the creature. If Idolaters have sacrificed their sons and their daughters to devils, Pal. 106.37. shall not the true Worshipers much more resign them up to God, whose grace, mercy, love, power is infinite, and can do infinitely more for them than they. Borrow a jewel of an Egyptian, make use of that speech of an heathen, who having but the dim light of natural reason to help him, when the news of the death of his child was brought him said, I know it was born mortal. Another going forth one day and seeing a woman weeping for her pitcher of earth that was broken, and going forth the next day & seeing a woman weeping for her child that was dead, thereupon wondered no more at the dying of a mortal creature, than at the breaking of an earthen pitcher. Apply as a plaster fitted for your sore that of the wise man, Remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity, Eccl. 11.10. Take special notice of the readiness of Abraham, who upon a call from God, Gen. 22.2. rose up early in the morning ver. 3. to offer up with his own hand Isaac his son, his only son, the son of his love, the son of the promise, a son long waited for, and at last obtained when his own body and Sarah 's womb was dead, and surveying the circumstances of the story make the father of the faithful your pattern of obedience and self-denial. Think seriously how that death which hath lopped off the branches, will as certainly lay the axe to the root and hew down the tree. You have been covered with the shadow of death, & it hath come as near you as possibly it could, and yet missed you, that you might never have cause to say it did not give you warning. Admire the goodness of God, who hath clearly revealed the doctrine of the resurrection on purpose, to be an help against excess of grief in the departure of friends, 1 Thess. 4.13, 14 And if you mourn much now, how much more would you have mourned if God had made no promise of a resurrection. God deals but with your child, as sometimes you have done with it; sends it to bed before you, it shall awake and rise again. Though you are deprived of your child's company, yet thousands for their children's good are content to want their company, as when they put them out to school, though they are not with them, they are satisfied with this that they hear they are well: And is not heaven the best school? There is no want in that place which affords the best of everything, and so the best company, a glorious God, a glorious Christ, the spirit of glory, glorious angels, glorified saints, faithful Abraham, devout Isaac, holy Jacob, ancient Patriarchs, blessed Apostles, courageous Martyrs, and other heroical Worthies. Since God hath set prosperity and adversity one over against the other, Eccles. 7.14. and Christ filled the waterpots with wine, Joh. 2.7. and the usual course of providence towards the saints is to make consolations abound according to the rate and degree of their sufferings, 2 Cor. 1.5. and to usher in joys unspeakable, 1 Pet. 1.8. by sighs unutterable, Rom. 8.26. make use of that prayer of Moses the man of God, Psal. 90.15. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us: and the years wherein we have seen evil. Now darkness is round about you, the Lord be a light within you, multiplying glorious manifestations of himself, shining through the shower of the present calamity, shooting forth no less than ten thousand beams of joy to revive and refresh your sad hearts: God that comforteth those that are cast down, 2 Cor. 7.6. cause his comforts in the multitude of your thoughts to delight your soul, Psal. 94.19. So prayeth

Mistress FRANCES BEDFORD her Character.

Upon the death of the early virtuous and hopeful Mrs Frances Bedford; who died of a Consumption Anno aetatis XII.

An Elegy upon the much lamented death of the truly virtuous and most ingenuous Gentlewoman Mrs Frances Bedford, who died in the 12th year of her age, Jan. 18. 1656.

The perusal of an Old Statute concerning Death and Judgment.

WEe read in one of the Evangelists that Jesus took a little child [a living child] and set it in the midst of them, to teach them the doctrine of humility: In like manner we have a little child this day [a dead child] set in the midst of us, to teach us the lesson of our Mortality. He that runs can read it, but it will ask some time to stand still and learn it. Yet such is the temper of God his people, of such teachable spirits are they, that [as it is prophesied of them Isaiah 11. and I may allude to it [ a little child shall lead them. And I may say of our dear sister [as the scripture saith of our brother Abel] being dead she yet speaketh. The language of the present providence speaketh these twelve things.

They rue Adams sin who have not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression.

The day of ones death is better than the day of ones birth, as much as the outgate of troubles is better than the in let to it. It was not Lazarus his rest that Christ wept over, but he wept that Lazarus must come to his conflict again.

There is a time to be born, and a time to die; and the time of life is so short, that the Holy Ghost doth not vouchsafe to mention it, and the experience of some find it to be but a step [à tumulo ad tumulum] from the womb to the grave.

God gives life to whom he will, and he may take away life when he will.

A Babe in Christ is better than a Man out of Christ: it is better to sleep in Jesus than awake to sin; to die in the Lord than to live to yourselves.

If not a sparrow from the house top, surely not such a flower out of ones bosom as a child, can fall to the ground without a providence.

How much better is it to be a ch • lde of God, than to have a child from God? for once a child of God, and forever his.

Dying comforts give up the ghost, but still there is a living God to rest upon.

There is a name better than of a Son or Daughter, an Everlasting name that shall never be cut off: How much better is it to have our name written in heaven, than to have our name propagated in a lineal descent upon earth?

You must not fix your eye upon the worlds moveables, a wandering glance sufficeth when you look upon flitting objects, which you ought to look upon as going as well as coming: When you see how light some it is upon the sun rising, think how dark it will be when the sun sets.

Children are uncertain joys and certain griefs; witness the imposition of the names upon the two first children that ever were born, Eve the mother of all living called her first child Cain, which signifies a possession; yet calleth her next child Abel which signifies vanity.

Some whom God hates [as the wicked] may live long, but it is to fill up the measure of their sins, and to increase their torment in hell, and their misery is to be pitied: Others whom God loves [as the godly] die sooner, and are quickly in heaven, and their happiness must not be envied.

All these things the party deceased while dead yet speaketh: there is one thing more which the party now dead (while living) did bespeak, and that was a Text of Scripture to be discoursed upon by me; yet before I name it, I shall carry you to the consideration of this observable circumstance: I can say of it [as it is in the place of Proverbs concerning Lemuel, mutatis mutandis] The words and the prophesy that her mother taught her: A good pattern for mothers [whose opportunities a e many] to be dropping good instructions betimes into the hearts of their children: It was Timothy 's commendation, that from a child he had known the holy Scriptures. For them that travel into a far country, how beneficial is it beforehand to learn the la • g • age of that country? You train up your children [I hope] for heaven, you intend they should travel to Canaan, be feeding them in state of Infancy with the milk and honey of Canaan, teaching them to speak the language of heaven before they come thither.

The divine Sentence chosen to my hand, and the Oracle at which we are now to consult, is,

THe design of the Apostle in this Epistle is to hold forth Christ in the excellency of his Nature, Person, Offices; chiefly in his Pri • stly Office, as appears by chap. 8. 1. Now of the things which we have poken [or which are to be spoken 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 will bear either] this is the sum [or the he • d, th • c •• t, the •• p of all; so he word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 will signify.] We have such an hig • Pri •• ct, &c. so that the main subj • ct and argum • nt yea the emi •••• a • d the top noti n of the Epistle which he disc • urses, is the priestly Office o • Christ: And of it he speaks largely in this nin •• chapte • , and h • e touch • th • pon it in the contex.

The words in this seven and twen ieth verse being the branch of a similitude, they cannot be re • d with th • full s • ns • o • them, without calling in the following word, v. 28. so Christ was on • e offered, &c. and therefore I sh • ll not so much take the l berty, as submit to the necessity of handling them in this conjunction.

I seeking rath • r to profit than to please and knowing that [aeque mala est & nimi • & • ull • di ••• isio,] m •• cing a text is as bad as not to divide it, shall rest in this plain and •• m • liar division of the words.

Here is,

• 1. A word of connection, And.
• 2. The notes of comparison, As and So.
• 3. The terms of the similitude, It is appointed for men once to die, &c. Christ was once offered, &c.

I shall not dwell upon the connection, nor descant upon the notes, nor spend time in a curious suit • ng and exact fitting the several parts each to other; for a similitude is a tender thing and must not be vexed, and though it suit not in every word and syllable, every letter and punctilio; it suffices if it agree in the main, the drift and scope of it being illustration. Now the Apostle discoursing the sufficiency of Christ his sacrificing himself once for all, shows it by a resemblance, men die once, Christ offered himself once, nothing cometh between man's death and judgment, and no other sacrifice between Christ his offering up himself and his coming to judgment.

I shall gloss upon the letter of the words, and give you what I conceive to be the mind of the holy Ghost in them, and then raise doctrinal conclusions out of them. For the opening of the words, I will propound and answer, These five Queries:

1. Q. What it is to die?

Answ. The Scripture mentioneth, 1. A death in sin, Eph. 2.1. 2. A death to sin, Rom. 6.2. 3. A death for sin, Rom. 6.23. The first is proper to the unregenerate. The second is proper to the regenerate. The last, if you understand it of eternal death, is only the portion of reprobates; if of a temporal death, is the lot both of the wicked and the godly. Spiritual death is the separation of the image of God, holiness and righteousness from the soul; temporal death is a separation of the soul from the body; eternal death is a separation of soul and body from a sight of the face of God forever. The death I shall discourse is temporal or corporal; and thus [as I hinted before] to die is to have the knot untied, the union dissolved between soul and body. As for God to depart from the soul is the death of it; so for the soul to depart from the body is the death of it. Rachel's soul departing, she died, Gen. 35.18.

2. Q. What is meant by appointed?

Answ. The Greek word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rendered statutum est, divine scil. consilio: It is appointed in the Decree of God. The Scripture gives us a copy of that Decree, pronounceth the Statute, and if we search when and where, and upon what the Statute was enacted, we shall find the original Record and Roll is Gen. 3.9. Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return: which was spoken in prosecution of that threatening Gen. 2.17. In the day thou eatest thou shalt die. Both which texts, though primarily spoken of Adam, yet secondarily include us, he being set up as a public person and the representative of all his posterity. Note also, that it is sin that hath brought upon men this necessity of dying; for though Gen. 2.7. it is said, God formed man of the dust of the ground: yet it was not said, Unto dust thou shalt return, till man had fallen by sin. God decreed death as a punishment of sin. Sin grafted death upon the stock of nature. Rom. 5.12. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.

3. Q. What Men are here meant?

A. The expression is indefinite and equivalent to an universal call in the fore-quoted place Rom. 5.12. and hear what mo • e it can say, By one man sin entered, &c. and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Our act being included in Adam 's [with his eyes we saw, with his hands we took, with his mouth we did eat the forbidden fruit] by a just law the sentence of death passed on re • cheth him, all men. If you do not flatter yourselves, in both these glasses God sets before you this day, both of Scripture and Providence, you may see the image of death in your own faces. All of you may look upon yourselves as dead men, the sentence is passed upon you: And such a one is, and is called in law, a dead man that is sentenced, though he be not executed till many days after.

4. Q. What is meant by once dying?

A. Once in Scripture is taken two ways: 1. As opposed to inconstancy and uncertainty of continuance, Psal. 89.35. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. And thus it signifies firmly irrevocably, it shall surely be accomplished. I find a late Commentator of great worth referring the word once in my text to, appointed, reading the place thus, It is once appointed for men to die, and that once shall stand, there shall never be any altering of the Statute, there is no need to make a new law upon the point, God hath once settled it, and it is settled forever. Though this be a truth, yet the letter of the words in the origin • l seem not so m • ch to favor it; for it is not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . 2. As opposed to reap • ition or frequency, to a second time; as in that speech of Abishai, 1 Sam. 26.8. Let me smite him to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time: and thus it signifi s once and no more, once and not again. And so is it taken in this Ep • stle: ver. 26. of this Chapter, once is opposed to oft: ver. 28. it is said that Christ was once offered; which is interpreted Chap 10 10. where he speaks of the offering of the bo • y of Jesus Christ once for all.

Now take the word once either of the ways; both ways doubts may be started concerning some who did not die once, concerning others who are said to die twice. For the former sort, the in •• ances of Elijah and Enoch are urged; the one went up by a whirlwind into heaven, 2 K • ngs 2.11. the other was translated that he should not see death, Hebr. 11.5. But it is answered, These persons were under the obligation of death as well as others: As Adam, though he did not die tha day h • e sin • d, for his life was reprieved till h • e was nine hundred and thirty years old, yet from the moment he sin • d m • rtal • era he was subject to death, and brought himself d wn to • h c •• d i n of mortality. So Elijah and E • och, though the • r soul • and body s were not sep • rated as other men's, but caught up og •• her on a sudden to partake of the glor fie • state, were in just c lvable to • he str • ke of death even whilst mercy ward • d of th • blow. Again, these persons did undergo that which was p • op •• table an logical: this their translation was instead of d a • h; they did suff • r a change, as they that are living at Christ his last coming shall, 1 Thes. 4.17. and w • ich is the m • stery Paul shows us, 1 • or. 15. 51. And he expresses it as his desire [ • t it might be] • o go to heaven on this manner, and takes it for grant that others are as ready to wish it as himself, 2 Cor. 5.4. Not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, [if men might have their choice, who had not rather keep on the clothing of his body and have a new suit of glory put upon it than lay it down] that mortality might be swallowed up of life [of life eternal, then that temporal life should be swallowed up of mortality]. Lastly, these persons who were bound to have paid the debt of na • ure, as well as others if God had strictly held them to it, were freed by the special di • pensation his grace for special purposes of his glory. Much might be said in the gen ral concerning the extraordinary holiness of both these persons, and God as an act of favor taking them up alive to glory, would let the world know how highly he esteems those that walk with him, fear him, love him and obey him in very sinful corrupt times, such as were those in which they both lived. The special reasons assigned are these: For Enochs translation, God hereby [in the very non-age of the world and infancy of the Church] would give the faithful Patriarchs a document of the resurrection and life eternal. It may be thus made out: the first man that died was a martyr, and died for religion; now as in Abel's death they were taught to prepare for sufferings, so in Enochs translation they were taught a lesson of the happiness of the glorified estate which would make amends for all. And you may observe Hebr. 11.4, 5. presently after the Apostles mentioning the death of Abel, he mentions this translation of Enoch, giving notice in both of the different fruit of holiness in respect of God and evil men; by men it is persecuted even to death, by God rewarded even to everlasting life. For Elijah's rapture, this is made a type of Christ his ascension. Elijah was caught up to heaven as he was talking with Elisha. And the Lord Jesus after he had spoken unto them (i. e. Apostles) he was received up into heaven, Mark 16.19. Elisha was an eye-witness of Elijah's rapture, he saw it, saith that text 2 Kings 2.12. And so Acts 8.1. Ye shall be witnesses unto me — but what witness • s? eyewitnesses too, ver. 9. When he had • poken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, &c. For the other so • t of Instances, concerning those that are laid to be twice dead, Epist. Jude ver. 12. I answer the Apostle here speaks of a spiri • ual death, of hypocrites that were dead in th • ir natural condition, a • d dead after profession. Simulata pietas duplex iniquitas: dead originally in the first Adam, dead actually in their own personal transgressions. Twice dead (i. e. according to some) thoroughly dead, finally and irrecoverably dead: dead not only in reality but in appearance, as it followeth, plucked up by the roots, plainly discovered to be such as had no vital influence from Christ. And for those proper and pertinent instances concerning Lazarus, who had died once and then was raised again, John 11.44. and the bodies of oth • r Saints which arose cut of the grave, Mat. 27.52. the note of Beza upon my text may be of use to untie the knot, loquitur Apstolus de consueta & naturali hominum conditione, nam quod Lazarus & alii aliquot bis mortui sunt, extraordinarium fuit. Though it be otherwise in the ordinary course of providence, yet room must always be left for God to make use of his prerogative when and where and how he pleases. Particular exceptions do not destroy a general rule. Exceptio firmat regulam in non exceptis.

5. Q. What is meant by Judgment, and what Judgment is here meant, whether general or particular?

A. I shall not run through the various acceptation of the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the New Testament, I shall take it as Verbum forense, and so Judgment imports a judiciary scanning and trying of causes and persons, and accordingly pronouncing and executing a sentence upon them either of absolution or condemnation. Now judgment thus taken in my text may be understood both of particular and general judgment, of little and great dooms-day; which two admit of these differences. The particular is at the end of man's life, the general at the end of the world: the particular is of some particular persons; the general is of all that either have been or shall be [called therefore the Judgment of the great day, because of the great appearance]: the particular is hidden and secret, known to the person judging and the party judged, not so to others; the general shall be public and manifestative, sinners shall be openly shamed, and saints openly honored. In the particular judgment and moment of death, the soul knows what it shall hold to, being sentenced and accordi gly conveyed to a state of happiness or misery. At the general judgment and resurrection of the body, soul and body being united shall together partake either of the joys of heaven or torments of hell.

The Doctrines are these:

• It is appointed for men to die.
  • 1. Death is a stated appointed business.
  • 2. First or last death shall be every man's case.
• But after this cometh judgment.
  • 3. That which makes death so considerable is somewhat that comes after.
  • 4. As death leaves men judgment finds them.

5. Meditation of Christ and his death will sweeten thoughts of death and judgment to us. The Apostle weaves Christ into the discourse [and I would not leave him out] making him the other branch of the similitude, So was Christ once offered to b • a • the sins of many, &c.

I assume these in order:

1. Doctr. Death is a stated appointed business. Job 14.5, 6. seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass. Turn from him that he may rest, till he have accomplished as an hireling his day. Not only because man's time is full of travel and labor, but because he works for a set time, he is likened to an hireling. Our death, the time of our death, the kind of it, the manner of it, that we shall die, when we shall die, how we shall die, how long we shall be dying; whether we shall be taken off the stage in infancy, youth, or old age by a natural or violent death; whether we shall take a short step to our long home, or walk through a long and dark entry of tedious sicknesses and lingering diseases to the black hall of the king of terrors, all these fall under the decree and appointment of God.

Inferences from the point are these:

1. Inf. We should reckon upon death, the decree of God carries all before it. Job 30.23. I know that thou wilt bring me death, and to the house appointed for all living. Those indeed that by men are appointed to die, God by the greatness of his power can preserve, Psal. 79.11. and loose, Psal. 102.20. but if God hath appointed one to die at such a time, all the men up, on earth cannot rescue him. Philip King of Macedon had a young monitor that came every day and saluted him with this antheme of mortality, Philippe mortalis es, Philippe mortalis es. Our days are numbered with God, and let us say as Psal. 90.12. Teach us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. True wisdom of improving our days begins at numbering our days, and this wisdom is not learnt but by God his teaching. God keeps reckoning for us, but we should in a spiritual way be reckoning of them our s lves on this manner, I cannot live always, I shall not live long. O let me live well. Job 16.22. When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return; not return by any power of nature, not return again to the state of nature.

2. Inf. We should not be overwhelmed with immoderate sorrow, when we see • his Statute, Law and Ordinance of heaven executed upon any of our nearest relations, husband, wife, father, mother, child, brother, friend, &c. all this was set down beforehand in the Kalendar of God his eternal decree. Under affliction we must be dumb, Psal. 39.9. I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it: but not deaf, Micah 6.9. Hear the rod and who hath appointed. The rod hath a voice, when you feel the smart of it, hear the voice of it: What doth it say? this comes by God his appointment. Job 23.13, 14. We are of many minds, off and on in our resolves and purposes; but he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireths even that he doth; for he performeth the thing that is appointed for me. That I may speak briefly and fully to the present case, I shall descend to particulars: 1. 'It is lawful to lament the loss of our friends. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her, Gen. 23.2. Grace doth not come to destroy nature but to rectify it. 2. To be insensible of the hand of God in it is sinful. It is an heathenish sin to be without natural affection, Rom. 1.31. and it is a charge drawn up against Ephraim, Hos. 7.11. he is like a silly dove, without heart. Only the dove laments not when her young are taken away. God will not hold them guiltless to whom the loss of a child in the house is no more than the loss of a cow in the yard: They have the less to provide for (think they) and yet through the curse of God upon their stupidity are as worldly as ever; like the hen that now looses one chicken, then another, till the kite hath snatched away almost all her brood, and yet she followts her scraping still. 3. If you keep up the lawfulness of the thing, and keep out the sinfulness of it, your care must be, that natural affections do not hinder the exercise of gracious dispositions. We must not weep out the eye of faith, nor sorrow without hope, 1 Thess. 4.13. you may water your plants but not drown them. They wept, yet said, The will of the Lord be done, Acts 21.13, 14. 4. Yet sometimes the affections of the best Saints have been too strong for their judgments, and strangely overflow'd all banks and bounds of reason and moderation. When Jacob, upon a sight of the bloody coat, supposed an evil beast had devoured Joseph,— he refused to be comforted, and he said, I will go down into the grave unto my son, mourning, Gen. 37.33, 35. So though time was when David could bear war and blood, the fireing of Ziklag, the captivating of his wives, and still encourage himself (as the text saith) in the Lord his God [1 Sam. 30.6.] yet when God struck him on the weak side, he changed his behavior, and in the business of Absalom carried himself like a very puny, or baby; he wept, and as he went thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom: would God I had for thee, O Absalom my son, my son, 2 Sam. 18.33. 5. The great cause of inordinate grief is inordinate love. If our love be too much, our grief will be overmuch. The excess of one affection turns into the excess of another, [as the sweetest wine degenerates into the sharpest vinegar]. Jacob doted too much upon Joseph. David was too fond of Absalom. It is the Apostles rule, that they that have wives [and it holds as true of children] be as though they had none, 1 Cor. 7.29. We must use perishing things with perishing affections, love them as always about to leave them. Outward things must hang loose, like outward garments which we can soon lay aside. If the heart was but weaned, and we had buried our friends alive [that is acted over their deaths afore-hand in our own thoughts] it would be such an amazing astonishing thing to part with them when God calls for them. 6. Having pointed at the cause, I will attempt the cure of this distemper, by laying down a few Considerations that may calm our discontents and quiet our minds, when God shall take away the sweetest flower out of the nose-gay of our creature comforts. 1. He doth it that best may. Why dost thou strive against him, for he giveth not account of any of his matters? Job 33.13, 2. He taketh away nothing but what he first gave. 3. When he giveth anything to us, he doth not relinquish his own right. 4. Is so he may call for his own when he pleases. 5. He takes away nothing but what he will again restore, and that a hundred-fold, if not in kind, yet in worth, making it up some ways in something else that is better for thee. 6. God may take anything away from me in love but his love. 7. Earthly things are but indifferent things, and why should not I be indifferently affected to them? Here a little joy and a little sorrow is enough. They that rejoice must be as though they rejoiced not; and they that weep as though they wept not, 1 Cor. 7.30. 8. It was God that did comfort me by the creature, and God is able to comfort me without it. I lived upon God alone in the use, and can I not live upon God alone in loss of the creature? My child, my friend dies, but the Lord liveth, and blessed be my rock, &c. Psal. 89.46.9. These worldly comforts are uncertain, but O my soul thou art interested in covenant-mercies, that are the sure mercies of David. Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, in all things ordered and sure: for this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow, 2 Sam. 23.5. 10. Blush O Christian and be ashamed, if a principle of the grace of God in thee, do not cause thee to do that in obedience to God, which length of time will do; for that will wear off the greatest cross. 11. Lastly, whensoever the Lord removes any comfort, if we find ourselves ready to say to the instrument, as did the Owners of the colt, what do you loosing it? you should be silenced, though not with that answer which was returned by the disciples to them, the Lord hath need of it; yet with this, the Lord sees it needful for us that thus it should be. It was said of Reuben, he went up to his fathers bed, and so the creature intercepts and way-lays the respects due to God, and then the cistern shall be broken, to bring us to the fountain. If a child have that room in the parents affection which is peculiar to God, though it be a very hopeful child, God uses to remove it. As if a wife come once to love a servant better than her husband, though he be other ways a most useful servant, yet the master will turn him out of doors. If in the fullness of creature-enloyments we wax wanton and insolent against God, death brings a voider, and God bids take away those abused comforts, Ezek. 24.21. — When I take from them the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters. If you set your mind upon a thing, and the heart once grow to it, look for an unsettlement. You may hug a creature so long till you kill it with kindness. You may soon wither your best flowers by smelling too oft on them. God takes away that from us, which had first taken our hearts from him.

3. Inf. This doctrine teaches us a lesson of patience: God's appointment must be man's quietus est. God hath set down before hand how many tedious days and wearisome nights thou shalt have, ere the bright morning of eternity dawn out upon thee; how long thou shalt lie upon a sick-bed, before it prove thy death-bed. Job 7.3, 4. I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro until the dawning of the day. Though the time appointed b • long, Dan. 10.4. yet At the time appointed the end shall be, Dan. 8.19. Compare Job 7.1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? with Job 14.14. All the days of my app • inted time will I wait, till my change come. Job 's condition was sad and sorrowful, but he believed a change, and he resolved to wait to the uttermost. Though for the present God show you hard things, yet wait upon God who hath ordained better things for you. In due time you shall have deliverance, in the mean time exercise patience. Till then, mercy must not be bestowed, and it would be no mercy in comparison, if patience be not tried. Certainty countervails all delays. And withal remember, the weights and plummets of man's restless impatience cannot make the clock of God's appointed time to strike one minute sooner than he hath set it.

4. Inf. This discovers the sinfulness of sudden rash wishes for death before our appointed time is come. This is in effect to ask God to alter his own purposes: And such persons do but as it were call for death in jest; if it should come in good earnest, they would be loath to give it entertainment. As the old man in the fable, casting down his burden called for death, but when it appeared in its horrid shape, he desired it to help him to take up his burden, &c. To wish for death, only to be freed from the troubles and afflictions of life is very sinful [which was the infirmity of Elijah, 1 Kings 19.4. and Jonah chapt. 4.8.] And absolutely to wish for death, though it be to be with Christ in glory, is not lawful; [therefore Paul, when he was in a straight betwixt two, by submission to the pleasure of God for the time made a fair escape, Philip. 1.22, 23, 24, 25.] We must not live how we list, nor think to die when we list. None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself: whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's, Rom. 14.7, 8. If the removal (saith one) of the ancient bounds and land-marks which our fathers have set be a sin frequently prohibited, how heinous a thing is it to attempt a violation of the ancient boundary of our days fixed by the decree of God himself? All the time you would live beyond, and all the time you would die before that, is of your own appointment.

5. Inf. This consideration that it is appointed [in the D • cree of God] to men to die, should make men willing to die [which is to make a virtue of a necessity]. 'It is an excellent thing to be a Volunteer in death, when it can be said, the soul was not hailed and pulled out of the body, but came out surrendering and resigning itself to God. That familiar discourse that Jacob had with death, and his cheerful entertainment of it without dismayment, is admirable; Gen. 48.21. chap. 49.29, 33. And Israel said, beh ld I die: I am to be gathered unto my people: He gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost. They who died for the Lord [as the blessed Martyrs] did, and they who die in the Lord [as all Believers do] should, die willingly. Very notable is that speech of Hilarion, Go out my soul, why art thou afraid? Go out, why lingerest thou? thou hast served Christ well nigh sixty years, and dost thou now fear death? If Christians will die as Christ did, let them have that in their eye which Christ had. He became obedient unto death, 2 Philip. 8. he willingly offered up himself, John 10.18. No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself, [and he laid it down in conformity to the pleasure of God, as it follows] this commandment have I received of my father. He died in contemplation of the decree of God, was slain and crucified according to the determinate counsel of God, Acts 2.23. Paul saith of himself, 2 Tim. 4.6. I am now ready to be offered up, &c.

6. Inf. This doctrine informs us, that no man can out-live, and every man shall live out God his appointment. For the first branch: looking upon thy body and finding it in good plight [fish-whole, as sound as a ro • ch] thou sayst thus to thyself, Death shall not take me yet, the grave shall spare me a while longer, but know thy Covenant with death shall be disanulled, and thy agreement with the grave shall not stand, Isai. 28.18. There was one, Luke 12.19. who promised himself many years, when he had not days to live: And the spirit of God throws the fool in his face for it, ver. 20. God said unto him, Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. Man cannot add a cubit to his stature, nor a minute to the time God hath assigned him. If God call for it, thou canst not keep thy breath in thy body a moment longer. 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, Eccl. 8.8. For the second branch: Though it be said of some men over-much wicked, they die before their time, Eccl. 7.17. yet is it thus to be understood, They die 1. before the time they made account of; 2. before the time they might have reached unto, in the course of nature; 3. but not before the time God had appointed. Psal. 31.15. My times are in thy hand: not in the hands of my friends to lenghthen them, not in the hands of my enemies to shorten them, not in my own hands to dispose of them as I please, but in a better hand, in God his hand, who determined the time of my entrance into, and departure out of the world, and that by an immutable decree, saying, Hitherto thou shalt come and no further.

2. Doctr. First or last death shall be every man's case. It is appointed to men to die, of what sort, rank or degree soever. What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Psal. 89.48. hence death is called, Josh. 23.14. the way of all the earth, Eccles. 9.5. The living know that they shall die. The longest day hath its night. He died: this is mentioned eight times in the fifth of Genesis, and added there to the relation of the long lives of the ancient Patriarchs [when one man was as many men had many ages now] to show the immovable certainty of that threatening of death against the disobedience of our fi • st parents. In the third chapter o • Job [upon your perusal of it you may see it] there is an elegant particular enumeration of the several conditions of men, and it is shewn how death seizes upon all sorts, Kings and Counsel rs of the earth, ver. 14. Rich men and Princes that had houses full of gold and silver, ver. 15. Children whether abortives, or perfection of nature, ver. 16. Oppressors and oppressed, prisoners and those that imprison them, small and great, master and servant, ver. 17, 18, 19. The Grave is one of those four things that are never satisfi • d, it saith not it is enough, Prov. 30.16. when it hath had the husband, it gapes for the wife: [ Mat. 22. ver. 26, 27. there was a woman that had out-lived seven husbands; and, says the text, last of all the woman died also ] when it hath had the child, it gapes for the parent [witness David his Funeral meditation, when the child was dead, he said, 2 Sam 12.23. Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me ] when it hath had one generation, it gapes for another. [Eccles. 1.4. One generation passes away and another generation cometh. ] The latter crowds the former out of the world; one goeth away to make room for another. But I come to particulars: Excellencies of the Body [as beauty and strength] of the Mind [as wisdom and knowledge] Worldly excellencies [of riches and honor, power and authority] are no protection against the arrest of death. For the first, strength and beauty, Job 21.23, 24. One dies in his full strength, his breasts are full of milk, his bones moistened with marrow. Beams of bodily beauty are soon eclipsed by sickness [ Psal. 39.11] wholly darkened by death. Isaiah 40.6, 7. All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the slower fadeth, &c. Pluck up the flower by the roots, and what then becomes of the goodl ness of it? Man is compared to a flower and a shadow, Job 14.1, 2. and beauty is but the shadow of a shadow, and the goodliness of the flower which oft decays before it, always with it. Lucian brings in the skeleton of Narcissus, showing his bones and bare skull, wondering what was become of his beauty? Let the beauteous Galate • 's, beloved Dinah's, enamouring Bathsheba's of the world, that have so many roses blown and lilies displayed in their youthful cheeks know, that ere long their lips must kiss the dust, the filth o • the grave shall ascend the very throne of beauty, worms shall crawl between their fair eye-lips, and eat out those wanton windows of lust. For the second: Wisdom excels folly as far as light excelleth darkness, yet wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person, &c. Psal. 49.10. Abraham is dead and the Prophets, J • h. 8.52. For the third: Wealth cannot here raise a ransom Luke 16.22. It came to pass that the beggar died, the rich man also died. Wherefore should I die being so rich? said that wre ch • d Cardinal Henry Beauford Bishop of Winchester in He • ry the Sixths time. F • e, quoth he, will not death be hired? will money do nothing? Lastly, a title of honor is no shield against the stroke of death, and a scepter of power cannot give a man a dispensation from the grave. This short account is given of those Kings o • Edom they reigned and died [Gen. 36.32. to 38.] Princes are likened to twofaced pictures; if you look on the one side of them, they are God's; if on the other side, they are Men, and shall die like men, saith Psal. 82.6, 7. Upon Cyrus his tomb was written this Epitaph,

And Psal. 146.3, 4. several arguments are brought to take off our confidence in Princes, because 1. They are men, 2. helpless, 3. mortal, 4. corruptible, 5. not only in the frame of their bodies but projects of their minds. And the order of the words is so set, that the members following are either a reason or some confirmation to what went before: Trust not in Princes, why? because they are the sons of men; why not in the sons of men? because there is no help in them; why is there no help in them? because when their breath goeth forth, they return to their earth; what if their flesh be corrupted? nay their thoughts also perish. I, and your great sword-men too, Alexanders and Caesar's, lie down in the slimy valley, and after all their co • q • ests of others, yield themselves up as conque • ed by death, which bears this motto, Nulli cedo: while living they aspired in their desires after great Territories on earth; but dead, a little measure of ground for length and breadth will suffice to bury their bodies in: Behold, great and victorious Hercules, the subduer of the monsters of the world, when he was dead, and his body resolv • d into ashes, scarcely filled an earthen pitcher. Saladine the great Turk provid • d to have no solemnity at his funeral, and ordered that before his co • ps a black cloth should be carried on the top of a spear, and this proclaimed, Saladine the Conqueror of the E • st hath nothing left him but this black shirt to att • nd him to the grave. I ha • e read of a famous Library that hath the Globe of the world set at the one end of it, and a Skeleton at the other, to teach if a man was Lord of the whole world, yet he must die. And let me add, the grave puts no d fference between Monarchs and Vassals: As Diogenes told Alexander, he could not in the grave distinguish between the bones of King Philip and other m • ns bones. Who can see a difference between the ashes of a tall Oak and an humble Shrub? The grave-dust of beautiful Vashti a Queen, will smell no sweeter than that of the blackest Egyptian b • nd woman.

Appl. If death shall be every man's case, then let every man think of, prepare and provide for death. Ashes keep fire alive, and thoughts of our dissolution into dust and ashes will keep the spa • ks of God's grace alive in us. What place can a man be in, what action can a man go about, what creature can a man behold o • make use of, but it may put him in mind of death? Eglon was slain in his parlor, Saul in the field, Ishbosheth upon his bed, Zen • charib in the Temple, Joab at the very altar. Jobs sons and daughters were taken away in the midst of their Feasting; the old world in the midst of their building and planting, marrying and giving in marriage; some have died of grief, o • hers of joy; some have been consumed by fire, others drowned with water; others torn in pieces by wild beasts, &c. though there be but one way of coming into the world, yet I had almost said, there are as many ways of going out of the world as there are men in the world. I have read of some Ph • losophers that had their graves always open befo • e • heir gates, that going out and coming in they might consider their latter end. Think of death in the midst of your purchases. Abraham bought of the sons of Heth a burying-place for his dead, Gen. 23.14, 15. Think of death in the midst of your pleasures. Joseph of Arimathea built his Sepulcher in a garden, Joh. 19.38, 41. Let me tell thee, death looks for thee every whe • e, do thou look for it everywhere. Every step we take is toward the grave, how careful should we be that every step we take be in the way to heaven? How safe is it for you to look into the grave before you drop into it? It is said, he that sees the Basil • sk before he be seen of it, avoids the poison: He that with an eye of preparation sees death before it comes, shall not feel the sting of it when it comes. You that will confidently look for life in death, must seriously think of death in life. Some look for death and cannot find it, but O how sad is it when death finds men before they look for it! Since you came into the world, how many have come into the world and gone out of the world too? Have you seen so many going before you, and will you not think of following after? Away with such brutish stupidity amongst men as is in a herd of fatting cattle, where the Butcher cometh today and fetcheth away one, tomorrow and fetcheth away another, &c. and the rest that are left behind neither miss their fellows nor dread their own desti • y. Physicians better their knowledge and gain experience, and shall not we mend our lives, by the death of others? Shall the Christian only be unskillful in his profession, which is to live religiously and die comfortably? The Sun knows the time of his going down O that the children of men were but as wise! Rise in the morning, as those that know not whether ever they shall go to bed again, unless in the grave: Entertain every day with such as this, Art thou the last, or lock I for another? Close your eyes to sleep at night, as those that know not whether ever they shall open them again till the morning of the resurrection. As soon as we begin to live, we begin to die; and how much the longer time we have lived, so much the the shor • er time we have to live. Let us live as those that are always dying, a • d yet as s • ch that are ever to live in another world. T • die is a work that never any of us yet did, but to provide for death is a work we should be doing every day of our life. Th •• we must die, is a thing generally known and granted by all, but 〈◊〉 live as those that veril • believe they must die once and may die speedily, is a thing that most • re altogether strangers unto, and none are so well aq • ainted with as they should. 'It is appointed to men once to die, we had need look to it that we die well, because we are to die but once: We have most reason not to err at all, where it is not possible to err a second time. As one well observes upon the place, actually to err twice is most sinful, but not to have a possibility of erring again is most dangerous. As the Heathen man said, He would be C • oesus while he lived, but Socrates when he died: so saith the wicked man with Balaam, Let me die the death of the righteous; but if so, you must live the life of the righteous. If you mean to be happy, you must be holy. If you expect happiness, as an host should give you good entertainment when you come to your journeys end, you must take holiness for your companion while you are in the way. If you hope to see the face of God in heaven, you must hear the voice of God on earth. To die in your sins is damnable, and to live in your sins but one day longer is very hazardous. If you will hearken to counsel [as it will be worse for you if you will not] take this advice [it is God that sends it, though by the mouth of a worm] repent of your sins, believe on Christ, that your sins being pardoned, your persons justified, you may live in God's sea • , and die in his favor, rest in his peace, and be raised by his power, and so partake of everlasting glory.

3. Doctr. That which makes death so considerable, is somewhat that comes after. As that which makes life so considerable is somewhat that comes after, and that is death. — the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead, Ecles. 9.3. so there is somewhat that comes after death which makes it so considerable: And if you ask what is that? I answer, Judgment, the Resurrection, Eternity. The one is of the Soul, the other of the Body, the last is of Soul and Body.

1. Judgment, I mean the particular judgment [the general I shall touch upon in the next point] which is an instating of the soul immediately after death in a condition of weal or woe. Christ said to the penitent thief, To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise, Luke 23.43. And Judas dying went to [hell which is called] his own place, Acts 1.25. Death in comparison was no death if judgment followed not. Immediately after absence from the body follows presence with the Lord, 2 Corinth. 5. verse. 8: And the Sodomites are suffering vengeance, &c. Epist. Jude ver. 7.

2. The Resurrection. Man being arrested by death for a debt of nature, is laid up in the grave, from which common prison there is no bail or main-prize, yet may we hereafter sue out an Habeas corpus, which the Judge of all the world will not deny us at the general Assize, that we may make our corporal appearance, at which time there is to be a Gaol-delivery of all deaths prisoners. There is a shadow of this truth in nature, The body not being cast away, but sown like corn that being buried for a time under the clods, afterward appears above ground: But the substantial proofs of it must be fetched out of the scriptures of old and New Testament. Isaiah 26.19. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise: Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust, &c. That text Mat. 22.32. proves two things; the souls immortality, and the bodies resurrection: Our Savior proves Abraham to be living, because God long after the death of Abraham had said, I am the God of Abraham; so that death is not an utter extinction, for God is not the God of the dead but of the living: He was alive then as to his soul, and as to his body it should live and rise again; for God is the God of Abraham, and it is not the soul only, but the conjunction of the body and soul together that makes up the person There are types of it in the blossoming of Aaron's dry rod, and in Ezekiel's dry bones which in a vision he saw moving one toward another, till they were tied together by sinews, and covered with flesh, and received the breath of life, and stood up like an army. There is a certain demonstration of it from the power of God, who can as easily raise the dead, as he did at first c • eat them. Therefore Mat. 22.28, 29. Christ tells the Sadducees which say there is no Resurrection, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God: That almighty power of God which made the Whale after its swallowing of Jonah to cast him upon dry land again, shall one day make the grave (this great eater and devourer of our bodies) to disgorge and vomit them up again. The earth shall cast up her dead, Isaiah 26.19. God will say to the sea, Give up , and to the earth Restore, and all the creatures in the world that have swallowed man's flesh, shall find they have eaten morsels of too strong and hard a digestion for their weak stomachs. Herein man differeth from a beast; in dying they are alike, not so in rising again. And for such who think it shall be with them but as w th the beasts after death, they carry themselves but as • ruit beasts in their life-time. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ep •• sus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die, 1 Cori •• h. 15 32. Christ is risen, therefore we shall rise; he arose a • the first-fruits, as a second Adam, 1 Cor. 15.16, 20, 21, 22. If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. But now is Christ ris • n from the dead, and be me the first fr its of them that sl pt 〈…〉 by man came death; by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Ch •• ist shall all be made alive. There are instances of such as have been restored t • l •• , and raised out of the grave [as the S 〈…〉 s ch • ld • , the Rulers daughter, Lazarus &c.] and that which ha • h been may be; for the hand of God is not withered, nor his power lesssened, nor the difficulty of the thing increased. The Resurrection of the body is called a mystery, 1 Cor. 15.51, 52. and it is one of those flowers in the garland of our Creed, properly an Article of Faith, and therefore no wonder though reason do so much b • g • le at it. The Philosophers dreamed of a transformation of bodies [into new shapes] and a transmigration of souls [into new bodies] but the resurrection of the body [to be united to the same soul again after a long separation] was a point they understood not, and therefore derided it, Acts 17.18. Certain Philosophers said, What will th b • bler say? because he preached unto them the resurrection. The Funeral solemnities of the Jews about the de • d in their imbal nings [ Gen. 50.26.] and washings [ Acts 9.37.] shown they expected a resurrection, which is called the hope of the twelve tribes, Acts 26.7, 8. The very same body that dies, shall rise again. Th •• plac • is express, Job 19.25, 26, 27. I know that my Redeemer liveth, an • tha • he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And thou • h after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not another, &c. And there is a great emphasis in that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. • 3. This mortal shall put on immortality. This, not another. Tho • gh the • ame body for substance shall be raised, yet there shall be an alteration of in r • g •• d of these qualities: 1. Immortal • ty, 2. Incorruptibility, 3. Spirituality, 4. Pow r, 5. Glory. You have an enum • ration of all these, 1 C • r. 15.43, 44.53. A clock grown rusty is t • ken asunde • and d ••• o ••• d wheel fr m wheel, pin from, in, not to b • lost but re •• sh • d • : Death lays us in the grave where limb • rem limb, join • from joint, memb • r f • om member, not t be just but set tog • t er again in a more glorious manner. H nce •• e tim of the ••• u ••• ction is called the regen • ration, Mat. 19.28 •• cause th • • ll sh • ll be pe • f • ctly renewed agai • . In Scr p • u • e we g • t t ••• • l • mp • es of the be • u • y of a glorify • body: 1. in Moses's •• c, Exod. 34.35. which • one so that it d • zled the p oples eyes to behold it. 2. In St • p •• en 's cou • tenance, Acts 6.15. which was as • f he had been • he c • untenance of an Angel. 3. In Christ's • an figura • ion, Ma. 17.2. when his fac • d •• shine as the sun. H • s • o • y • s th • st • ndard • o which ours shall be conform • d, Phil. 3.21. who shall change our vile body, that it may b • fashioned like unto h • s glorious body. Th • bodies both of good • n • b • d shall be raised, Acts 24. ver. 15. — there shall be a res • rrection of the dead, both • f the just and u just. Bod • es as we l as souls of men are now instruments of sin or service, we • pon • of unrighteousness or holiness; and therefore justice • eq •• es that hereafter th • y should be suitably punished or reward • d, and be v • ssels of wrath or glory. Christ shall raise th • bodies of the s • ints as an Head [Coloss. 1.18.] of the wick • d only as a Judge • [J • hn 5.25 27.] In the resurrection there sha • l be an or er kept [1 Cor. 15 23.] and the saints sh • ll rise first [1 Th • ss. 4.16.] Though all shall rise, yet with a differen • s ••• or even, J •• n 5.28, 29. All that are in • he graves shall hear his voice, and shall c • me forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurr ction of damnation. As Pharaohs servants came both out of prison but with d • ff • re • t success; the one was restored to his place, the other w • s h • nged. So Dan. 12 2. amongst them that sleep in the dust of the ea •• h, some sha l awake to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting con • empt In the Creed the resurrect on of th • body s placed b •• w • en the remission of sins and eve • lasting l • fe. Then only the resu • rection is a benefit when remission of sins goeth before and eternal life followeth after.

3. Eternity. It is observed that most of other creatures live long, but dying perish all to nothing: Therefore let them, who complain nature hath given too long a life to a raven & too short to a man, consider that though man be short-lived here, yet dying he liveth elsewhere eternally. After death men's conditions are cast forever. Mercy hath made an eternal provision of happiness to entertain all God his holy ones in heaven: Justice hath prepared eternal torments for all ungodly ones in hell. A word of each. For the former, see 2 Co • . 5.1. For [this is argumentative and brought in as a sweet support under bitter suffering mentioned in the fore-going chapter.] We [this glorious privilege belonged not to Paul alone, but to other sa nts with him] know [not only conjecturally but certainly] that if our earthly house of this tabernacle was dissolved [death is but the dissolution of the parts whereof man is composed, and taking asunder the soul from the body: as a tent or tabernacle, to which Paul a tent-maker elegantly compares the body, is destroyed not by consuming • he p • rts but taking them asunder. The other words are emphatical too: The body is but an house, and houses will be out of repair, houses will fall in time: An earthly house, a piece of earth neatly made up, which may and must be resolved into its first principles: It is the earthly house of this tabernacle, which was a moveable house pitched into the ground, fastened with a few cords and pins easily removed] We have a building of God [so celestial glory is represented in Scripture under t • e notion of a city whose builder is God, Hebr. 11. All that rich worldlings can say when they die is this, We know when this house of our body is taken down, we have a stately tomb or s • pulchre framed by the skill of a cunning artificer; all which is but terrestrial glory, and amounts but to the building of man.] An house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens [mark the opposition, an house in the heavens, by way of contra-distinction • o the earthly house: Not made with hands, so differing from those houses that are set up by carpenters and masons, which are man's handy-work, in framing of which they make use of their hands: Eternal, and so most unlike a tabernacle that is presently dissolved.] For the latter, see Mat. 25 41. Then [the when to this then you have ver. 31. when the son of man shall come in his glory and all the holy Angels with him, and he shall sit upon his throne of glory, then] shall he say [Christ shall at that day judge not only as God but as man, John 5.27. Acts 17.31. hence you read of the sen • ence of his mouth what he shall say] to them on his left hand [ungodly men now give every base lust the right hand of Jesus Christ, then Jesus Christ will set ungodly men at his left hand, which is a place of disrespect, as the right hand at which the godly are set, ver. 33. is a place of dignity] d part from me [the wicked now say to Christ, depart from us, Mark 5.17. and then will Christ return their own words upon them, depart from me: Oh but bless us before we go, No, d • part] Ye cursed [and whither are these cursed ones sent? the next words tell you] into everlasting fire [so the wrath of God and pains of the damned are set out by fire, because of the tormenting nature of it. Dives said, Luke 16. I am tormented in this flame. H ll fire burns the soul as well as the body; though it burns both, yet it consumes neither; bodies and souls of those wretched cast-aways shall be incorruptible immortal, that so their pains may be endless, as well as easeless and remediless. Hence you read of unquenchable fire, Ma • . 3.12. the vengeance of eternal fire, Epist. Jude v. 7. these shall be punished with everlasting perdition, 2 Thess. 1.9. these shall go into everlasting punishment, Mat. 25.46. This present world shall have an end, the covenant of day and night shall be changed, the stars shall finish their course, summer and winter shall have an end, but the prisoners of hell shall never be released.] [Object] Now if any shall question how it can stand with the justice of God to inflict upon men eternal punishments for temporal transgressions: [Answ.] Let them consider 1. Though the sins of men are finite in respect of the time, yet being committed against God an infinite majesty, they are infinitely heinous, and why may not the punishment then be infinitely lasting? 2. The sins of the wicked are infinite in intention peccantis, in regard of their inward d • sposition of mind: If they should live etern • lly, they would with full purpose of heart set themselves to sin against God eternally. 3. Upon the damned reprobates there ever remains guilt, and therefore it is not against justice they should ever suffer punishment. 4. Some add, not only doth there remain upon them the guilt of all their sins committed on earth, but there is a continual addition of new guilt by sins committed in hell [this is asserted by some, though controverted by others]. 5. The damned are clap'd up prisoners in hell in order to satisfaction: And because they can never satisfy God, they must never be set free: N • man that comes there comes forth till he hath paid the uttermost farthing, and not satisfying to the uttermost, he must be tormented to the uttermost, which is the undergoing of an infinity of torments. Add but eternity in any good, it makes it infinitely good: Oh the bottomless Ocean of sweetness in the word ever, when it is joined with being with the Lord! it is (saith one) like the faggot bond that binds all the scattered parcels of heavens blessedness together, and keeps them from dropping out. And so on the other side, add but eternity to any evil, it makes it infinitely evil. Eternity amazes me to speak of it, and it may astonish you to hear of it, especially you wretched sinners, the smoke of whose torment with fire and brimstone shall ascend for evermore. When as many thousands of years are passed over as there are hairs on your head, as many millions of years as there are sands on the seashore, as many ten thousand mill • ons passed as there are drops of water in the Ocean, yet these will not reach eternity. Which is described to be an unbounded possession of life which is perfect and altogether. Time is fluid, but Eternity is a standing moment.

Appl. I shall improve the point, By way 1. of instruction to All, 2. of comfort to the Godly, 3. of terror to the Wicked.

1. Use of Instruction to all in two branches: And it teaches, 1. Not to judge of the happiness or misery of men by their present condition in this pres • nt world, but by what cometh after in another world. He cannot be miserable in this world, that shall be eternally happy in the next world; nor c • n he be truly happy in this world, th • t shall be eternally miserable in another world. Luke 16.25. Re • ember that thou in thy l fe time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art tormented. I have read of a stubborn refractory sinner that is brought in saying on this wise: I will drink, I will swear, I will swagger, I will do what I list, and what then? I will quarrel, I will kill, and I will care for no man, and what then? why then conscience is brought in wispering on this manner, Ah couldst thou say, I will go to heaven, I will be saved, I will be happy hereafter; this was something, but thou must die, thou must come to judgment, and must h • ld up thy hand at the tribunal of that just God that will render to everyone according to his doings. 2. Not to suffer yourselves to be wedged down to the present things of this life, but to look beyond life to death, beyond death to judgment, beyond the particular to the general judgment, and so to Eternity. Look beyond life to death, Eccles. 11, 8. If a man live many years and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness for they shall be many. Look beyond life and death to the particular judgment, Rejoice O young man in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou that for all th • se things God will bring thee into judgment. A woeful Irony: as if he had said, Tumble down the hill as fast as thou wilt, but be sure thou shalt break thy neck. Take thy fill of thy lusts, but remember thereby thou wilt damn thy soul. Look beyond the particular to the general judgment, Rom. 14.10. We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And think of eternity, 2 Cor. 4.18. We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal. Your bodies are mortal [like a Venice-glass goodly beautifu • l , and f • ail, brittle, soon broken] but your souls are immortal [and must triumph eternally in the joys of heaven, or fire eternally in the flames of hell] therefore labor for the true treasure of grace, that you may have somewhat in you immortal b • sides your souls. Oh s • ek after such excellen • spiritual good things as may stand you instead when soul and body shall part at the moment of death, and when s • ul and body shall meet again at the time of the resurrection mutually to partake of an everlasting condition. A wicked rich man is compared to a sumpter-horse that bears much treasu • e on his back all day, but is eased of it at night a • d • urned into the stable with his back full of galls and bruises. A greedy Woe • ldling is also likened to the hedge-hog that by rolling and tumbling up and down scrapes together a great deal of world • y pelf, but is forced to leave it behind him when he creeps in at the narrow hole of the grave. F • r we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out: But they that will be rich fall into a snare, &c. 1 Tim. 6, 7, 9. Earthly things forsake men [a • Absalom his mule that went from under him] in the time of extremity, but spiritual blessings will stick to us when the world shall leave us and we must leave the world. I have sometime met with a story of a man that had a suit, and when his Cause was to be heard, he applied himself to three friends to see what they would do for him: One answered him, he would bring him as far on his journey as he could. The second promised him to go with him to his journeys end. The third engaged himself to go with him before the J • dg and to speak for him, and not to leave him till his Cause was heard and determined. These three are a man's riches, his friend, and his graces: His riches will help him • o comfortable accommodations while they stay with him, but they may take wings and fly away from him before he die. His friends and kindred will go with him to his journeys end, bring him to the grave, and interr his body, and then leave him. But his grac • s go further, and accompany the soul when it goes befo • e God, and do more for him tha • both the other can do. Life is fading, but there is somewhat better than this life which is lasting, 1 Tim. 6.18, 19. — That they do good, that they be rich in good works, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. Isaiah 51.8. The moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool, but my righteousness shall be forever, &c.

2. Use of Comfo • t to the godly. There is somewhat after death that make • it a blessed thing to you. R • vel. 14.13. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, that they may r • st from their labors, and their works do follow them, v • z. in the glorious rewards and recompenses that free grace h • th allotted to them. D • ath • o the saints is an out-let to sin and an in let to happiness: so that looking upon death in the consequence of it, they may say as J • c • b, Surely this is n • ne other but the gate of heaven. Since no man can see the face of God and live, why should not you be willing to die, that you may see the face of God? O Believers this is you • priv l • dg; things to come are yours, 1 Cor. 3.22.

3. Use of Terror to • h • wicked, because the wor • t is yet behind; the end of their days shall be the beginning of those sorrows which shall never have end. They have no true comfort in life, no hope in death, but a fearful expectation of punishment after death. D • ath will • u • a period to all the pleasures of sin, and like a trap-door let them down to hell where nothing will remain but the worm and the fire. The grave and hell have the same word in the Hebrew , and to a • ungodly man they are in a manner the same thing: His body cannot be so soon in the grave, but his soul w ll be as soon in hell. Revel. 6.8. Behold a pale horse, and his nam • that sat on him, was death, and hell followed with him. The wicked live as if they bad no souls, as if there was no God no judgment to come, no hell, but in another world they shall k • ow all this to their torment: There are m • ny jolly Atheists on earth, but none in hell.

4. Doctr. As death leaves men judgment finds them. I spake before of the particular, and I might now enter in • o a discourse of the general Judgment but the point is obvious, the field large, and therefore I shall confine myself to these three things: 1. To give dem • nstrations that th • re shall be a d • y of judgment, 2. prove the doctrine, 3. apply it. Of these very briefly. For the first, amongst others I will n • me three argumen • s of a day of judgment: 1. The inwaard tribunal erected in men's private consciences, showeth there is a supreme power to which they must be accountable [ • s petty Sessions fore-tell the great Assizee]. Rom. 2.15, 16 — their consciences hearing witness, and their thoughts the mean w • ile accusing or excusing one another: th • n the n xt thing we hear of is, the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, &c. 2. Since there are so many unrighteous proceedings of men in their courts of Judica ure, the justice of God r • quires that they should app a • at a higher bar, where things being called over again all shall be set right and streigh • . [Many a • unjust Judge that now sits confi ent • y upon the bench, shall then stand trembling at the bar] R • m 2.5. it is called the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, in opposition to the unrighteousness of men, as it followeth ver. 6. Who w • ll render to every man according to his deeds. 3. The decree of God stands firm for a day of judgment. Acts 17.31. He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world, &c. Death and judgment are appointed [death prevents judgment amongst men, yet shall one day give up • ts dead to the judgment of God]. For the second: con ult Eccles. 11.3. If the tree fall toward the South, or toward the North in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. As trees must down, so men must die. Trees being cut down, some fall toward the South, some toward the North: When men are cut down by death, some go to heaven, others to hell, which two are as far distant as North and South. The bent and bias of men's desires and actions in the course of their lives will show whither they are like to go at last. whether to God or the Devil: As where the boughs are most, and greatest, and on which side the tree leans while it stands on that side, no doubt it will fall. The tree once fallen bears no fruit forever: so death deprives men of further opportunities of doing good. You had need up and be doing, and so while lasts lay hold upon eternal life, least when death comes eternal death lay hold upon you. The harvest is the end of the world, Mat. 13.39. And Gal. 6.7. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. When seed-time is over, it is in vain for them that have sown bad seed to look for a good crop. For the third: This point discov • rs [Appl.] 1.The reason why Satan so bestirrs himself at the last cast, and then stickles to purpose to seduce and pervert to deceive and delude a soul because he knows after death he shall never be suffered to do it more. Expect a shrewd p • rting pull, a terrible storm from the Prince of the Air at the hour of death, which is the hour of temptation: A besiegers l • st on-set upon a castle is most furious, dying beasts b te sore. The D • vil must now roar or hold his peace for ev r; if he let go a soul now, it is forever out of his gun-shot; if he get a soul now, he gains it forever. 2. The excellency of a good conscience and walking before God with an upright and perfect heart, such a one need not be afraid in health to think of sickness, in life to think of death, in death to think of judgment, but with confidence and come ort may brea he forth his last breath into the bosom of him from whom he r • ceived his first breath, because though as death leaves men, judgment shall find them, yet neither death nor judgment shall find him out of Christ. Which leads to the next point.

5. Doctr. Meditation of Christ and his d • ath will sweeten thoughts of death and judgment to us. See how the point rises pag. 9. For my method in handling it, I will give you 1. Meditations of Christ, 2. of the death of Christ, 3. of Christ as Judge of the world, 4. Apply it.

Three Meditations of Christ

.

1. Christ hath delivered the Saints from the power of the grave and f • om the dominion of death. Hos. 13.14. I will ransom them from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from death. O death I will be thy plagues. O grave I will be thy destruction. And the Apostle with a little variation app • ies this to Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 15.55.57. Death is not the same thing to the godly and the wicked, Psal 49.14, 15. Like sheep they are laid in the grave, death shall feed on them, &c. but God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. Death the King of terrors [Job 18.14] is so far • subdued by Jesus Christ the King of saints [Revel. 15.3.] that though it may touch it shall never hurt any of his servants. As in the saints though sin remain, yet the dominion is taken away: so though death remains, the ghostliness, the evil, the horror of death is removed and taken away by Jesus Christ. But in regard of the wicked it is still in its fu l force and strength, and it is said, the first-born of death shall devour them, Job 18.13. and they are killed by death, Revel. 6.8.

2. Christ hath so ordered it, that as death shall not hurt any, so i shall befriend all his servants, and be so far f • om doing them an injury, that it shall do them a courtesy. Christians complain not so much of the death of the body as of the body of death, corruption which they carry abou • with them; now I may say to all such at the day of death as Moses • o the Israeli • es conce • ning • he Egyptians, The enemies [your lusts] whom you see t day you shall see them again no more forever. You l • ok upon sins being in you as your greatest misery, and your being with Christ as your greatest happ • ness; now in both these regards, death is put into your jointure or th • charter of your p • iviledges by Christ, 1 Cor. 3.22, 23. All things are yours, &c life and death for ye are Christ's. But how is death yours? did you not hear in the second doctrine, that in a sense death is every man's? but it is yours [O Christians] in a peculiar manner as subservient to your happiness. If there was no dissolution, how could you come to be with Christ in glory? A d again, the Leprosy of sin hath so eaten the walls of the house, that it will nev • r wholly be gotten out, till the house itself [I mean of this earthly tabernacle] be plucked down, as it is exactly shadowed out Levite. 14.43, 44, 45. But Rom. 6.7. He that is dead is freed from sin.

3. Upon Ch • ist are founded all a Christians hopes for glory and everlasting life [no argument being sound in heaven any further than it proves men to be in Christ] Christ in you the hope of glory, Col. 1.27. If in this life only we had hope in Christ, we were of all men most miserable, 1 Cor. 15.19. But now we are of all men most happy, for the righteous hath hope in his death, Prov. 14.32. What hope, but that of Eternal life which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ? Rom. 6.23. Christ hath delivered his, from the second death, Rev. 20.6. Hence it is said, Our Savior Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, 2 Tim. 1.10. Christ saith, Rev. 1.18. I have the keys of hell and of death. None of his can be fetched out of this world by the pursuivant of death, but he must first open the door, much less can any go to hell without his warrant: What need we fear death and hell when Christ our redeemer hath the keys of both? And how comfortable is it to think that Christ also hath the keys of the kingdom of heaven Mat. 16.19. to open to whom he will? The space between heaven and earth is wondrous great [the comparison is used to set forth the sublimity of God his thoughts above man's, Isaiah 55.9.] many hundred thousand miles as Astronomers say, yet is there one ladder by which we may climb up, Jesus Christ, who is the true Jacob's Ladder [Gen. 28.12. John 1.51.] the bottom of which toucheth earth in his humanity, the top reacheth heaven in his divinity. The first Adam th ew us down, the second Adam helps us up again; the one cast us out of, the other lets us into Par d se [Gen. 3.23. Luke 23.4 • .]

Three Meditations of the Death of Christ

.

1. As by the death of Christ the hypostatical union was not dissolved, nor the human nature separated from the divinity: so by the death of saints the mystical union is not dissolved, neither bodies nor souls are separated from Christ: The very dust of the saints is still in Christ his keeping, and though n a most mysterious manner, yet both souls and bodies are united unto him. Hence they are said to sle • p in Jesus, 1 Thess. 4.24. to be d • ad in Chr st, 1 Thess. 4 16. and their souls to be under the Altar, Rev l. 6.9. Christ is the Sacrifice, the Priest, and the Altar.

2. The grave [that otherwise affords but a noisesome smell] is perfumed ever si • ce the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys lay in it. This dark hole is m • de lightsome ever since the true light [eclipsed for a time] shone out of it. Sampson found an honey-comb in the Li • ns cark • sse: Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, from whose death we may suck abunda • c • of sweetness. His Se ulchre is the sweetest knot in all Josephs garden. Your thoughts cannot be died into a richer color than the meditation of Christ crucified. As Paul did always bear about in the body [so do you in your mind] the dying of the Lord Jesus. The pale face of death looks ruddy when the blood of sprinkling is upon it: Look upon it in the red glass of Christ's blood, and you may see it changing its visage, altering its complexion, putting off its deformity and putting on beauty; Deaths courage is cooled ever since it ran through the veins of Christ: The edge of its sword i • abated, since it was sheathed in Christ his side. Our combat is facilitated by his conquest, who by dying conquered and disarmed death, and so beat it at its own weapon. Christ died ( •• ith the Apostle Rom. 14.9.) that he might be Lord of the dead: And exercise Lordship over death too, Rom. 6 9. Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him, nor over us who have an interest in him. The Be stinging a dead body takes no harm, but stinging a l ving body oft looses both sting and life. So long as death stung mortal men dead in sin [which is said to be the sting of death, 1 Cor. 5.56.] itself was in no dang • r, but going to sting Christ [who is the resurrection of the life, John 11.25.] it lost both sting and strength and is become a dr • ne.

3. The ends and intendments of Jesus Christ in his death were such as may be a comfortable support to us in our death. He died for these ends, 1. To make up the breach that sin had made between God and us. Sin bred a distance between God and man, Christ died upon this account, to remove that out of the way which hindered their frindly closing, and so to bring God and man together. He suffered once the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, 1 Pet. 3.18. He suffered as a public person, as the representative of God's elect, as a surety of Believers, as a sacrifice, to satisfy God and justify us sinners. Hence he is said in scripture to be a propitiation for sin, to bear our sins in his own body on the tree, to be our peace, to make our peace through the blood of the Cross: the places are known. I will urg but that Rom. 5.10. where we are said to be reconciled to God by the death of his son. 2. To make sure all the promises to us which are our great cordials of comfort. I will name one that takes in all, and that is the promise of heaven, Heb. 9.15. He is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance. As sin is the strength of the Law and all the threatenings thereof: so the satisfaction of Christ in his death is the strength of all the promises in the Gospel. 3. To put the devil out of office, who is the accuser of the brethren, and to take away those slavish fears of death that might arise from our own guilty consciences. Heb. 2.14, 15. — that through death he might d • stroy him that had power over death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life subject unto bondage. How had Satan power over death, but as the hangman over the gallows, or an executioner over the prisoner; now if a Judge set a prisoner free, what hath an under-officer to do with him? That blood of Christ which satisfies God his justice, may answer all the quarrels of Satan, and satisfy all the scruples of our own conscience. We all standing indebted to the Moral Law; herein lay the devils power over us, that he could boldly accuse us and sue our bond, but Christ by his death hath taken away this power [paying the debt and cancelling the bond] so that Satan is now not an accuser but a slanderer. It is very observable how Old Testament Saints did decline and deprecate death, saith David Psal. 39.13. O spare me a little, that I may rec • ver strength before I go hence and be no more. And Psal. 102 24. O my God take me not away in the midst of my days, &c. So when it was told him that he must die, how lamentably doth he take on, and what pitiful moan doth Hezekiah make? Isaiah 38. v. 2, 3. He turned his face to the wall and wept sore. v. 10, 11, 14. I am deprived of the residue of my years: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. Like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove. Whereas on the other side New Testament Saints welcome their departure and wish for their dissolution. Saith Simeon Luke 2.29. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, &c. Saith Paul Philip. 1. ver. 23. — having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. You may see a difference, now the reason followeth. The faithful before the coming of Christ had not so manifest and clear a light concerning the future resurrection, concerning the joys of heaven, concerning the happiness of the everlasting state, concerning the pardon of sin, the freeness of grace, and the abundance of mercy that was revealed by Jesus Christ when he actually made our atonement by the blood of the cross. I do not say that the faithful before the coming of Christ were ignorant of these things, but that their knowledge in these things was not so clear and full as the knowledge of the faithful after the coming of Christ; hence their hearts did more recoil upon them, their servile fears more prevailed, and they could not throw themselves with such confidence into the jaws of such a devourer as death.

Three Meditations of Christ as Judge of the World

[for so ver. 28. the Apostle mentions not only Christ and his death, but his second appearance] to sweeten thoughts of judgment to the saints.

1. There are many sweet relations in which Christ standeth to the saints that is a comfort; our friend, our brother, our husband, our head shall be our Judge, and he will not endure to have his own members cut off. Think of these relations , and the affections of them, and the effects of those affections amongst fellow-creatures, and look upon them all but as so many shadows of Christ, whose alliance to us being so near, and his heart so constant, that no glory or advancement of his shall make the least alteration of any respect or office of love which such relations call for at his hand. Greatly comforting and refreshing (saith one) must the thoughts of Christ's appearance be to us, when we think of beholding him to be the great Judge of the world, who hath took on him our flesh, who hath given us his spirit, upon whom we fixed our expectation of happiness, for whom we suffered from this vile world, whom we always looked upon as our treasure and portion, and for whose c • ming we have so groaned and longed.

2. Christ the Judge will take the saints as joint-assessors with him in he work of judgment, that is an honor, Matth. 19. v. 28. — When the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The saints are said to be the glory of Christ, 2 Cor. 8.23. And it is sa • d he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them th t believe • 2 Thess. 1.10. This is part of the revenue of glory tha shall c • me to him by you in that day, not a sentence shall pass wit • out your votes. And is not this a thing to be admired, that a company of poor contemptible saints [that formerly were vilified and scorned] should when Christ appears appear with him in glory? Col. 3.4. And not only so, but be advanced to such height of glory and dignity as to be admitted into an honorable ass • ssourship with the Lord Christ, in sitting with him upon the Bench and about the throne of Jud ca • ure, and having all th ir enemies stand before them to be justly judged by them whom here they judged unjustly? And which is yet more, they shall in that judgment appear with Christ trampling not only upon the pride and malice of men out devils all o, consenting to and approving the sentence which Chr • st shall pass on evil men and evil angels. 1 Cor. 6.2, 3. Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world: Know ye not that we shall judge angels?

3. Though a sentence of absolution shall be passed up • n the saints, yet Christ will not pass • on them a sentence of condemnation, that is their safety. I know it is doubted by some, whether at the last day the sin of the saints shall come into the judgment of discussion and discovery, but if the r sins be brought forth, they sh ll b • br • ught forth but as a cancelled bond, a • d that they themselves shall escape the judgment of condemnation, is clear, Joh. 5.24. He that believeth shall not come into con • emnation: and it is uttered by Ch • ist for the comfort of bel evers upon that foregoi • g speech ver. 22. where he said All judgment was committed unto him. When mention is made Rev. 20.12. of the books being op • n d, the next words are these, and another b ok was opened which was the book of Life. Shall not Christ save those from death for whom he suffered death? H shall come to judge the saints who came to be judged for them. They shall never be condemned, for whom Christ was sentenced, condemned & executed. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ J. Rom 8.1.

Appl. I shall imp ove the point by way of 1. Instruction, 2. Exhorta ion, 3. Consolation.

1. Use of Instruction serves to discover the miserable condition of people out of Christ. Ephes. 2. ver. 12. At that time ye were without Christ having no hope, &c. S n and the Law, the curse and wrath of God, death, hell, devil, and eternal condemnation, as so many f ll lions roar upon them, and with open mouth gape for them and threaten their ruin. Such lie open to all danger, have no guard nor shelter. Death gripes them and stings them to the very soul, carries them away us God's executioner, seizes on them as a merciless officer, takes them by the throat as that cruel servant in the Gospel. There is no special shield against death and judgment, but only an interest in Christ. Lewis the Eleventh charged those about him that they should not name that terrible word death. But you must hear of it, I and there is a dr • adfull clause in the statute of dying [as my text tells you] after thi • the judgment, and there is no armor of proof will keep the arrow from the quick, but only faith in Christ. You that live in your sins, and love your sins, and sli • ht and contemn that Jesus who alone can save you from your sins, instead of disa ming death and judgment, you put a sword into their hand and arm them both against you. 'It is storied of a Christian King of Hungary, who being on a time marve l us sad and heavy, his brother that was a resolute Courtier would needs know what he a led, O brother (saith he) I have been a great sinner against God, and I know not how I shall app ar before him when he comes to judgment: These are (saith his br • there) melanc • oly thoughts, and made a toy of them as Gallants use to do: The King replies nothing for the present, but the custom of the Country was, that if the Executioner of Justice came and sounded a trumpet before any man's door, he was presently to be led to execution. The King in the dead time of the night sends his deaths-man and causes him to sound his trumpet before his brothers door; who hearing and seeing the m • ssenger of death, springs in pale and trembling into his brothers presence, and beseeches the King to let him know wherein he had offended? O brother (replies the King) thou hast loved me and never offended me, and is the sight of my Executioner so dreadful to thee, and shall not I so great a sinner fear to be brought to judgment before Jesus Christ? If your consciences tell you that you are sinners and not saints, no friends but enemies to Jesus Christ, I must tell you J. Christ is an enemy to you, and what a fearful thing must it needs be for a man to think that his enemy shall be his judge?

2. Use of Exhortation stirs up all true Christians to three things, to thankfulness, diligence, watchfulness.

1. To thankfulness, blessing God above all for Jesus Christ. He is called the gift of God, John. 4.10. and shall we not say as 2 Cor. 9.15. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift? Presently after Paul had said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, his heart was full, he could not hold, he must have a vent, he adds his doxology, Now unto the King eternal be glory, &c. 1 Tim. 1.15, 17. Judah [out of which tribe it is evident our Lord sprang, saith the Apostle Hebr. 7.14.] signifies confession, praise, celebration, implying [as some have observed] that God is principally to be praised for Christ, who being the only begotten Son of God was the choicest love-token that ever was bestowed upod the sons of men. To calm the sea of God his wrath Christ our Jonah was cast into it. When the floods of vengeanc • are rising, Christ is out Ark, 1 Pet. 3.20, 21. when the avenger of blood is pursuing, Christ is our City of refuge, Hebr. 6.18, 19.20. when the Angel is destroying, Christ is our Passover, 1 Cor. 5.7. A leaf plucked from the tree of Life is the only plaster for a bleeding soul. No rest for the wearied soul, till it sit down on the cr • sse of Christ, and there it must sit and sing, Bless the Lord O my soul, and all that is within me, &c. In and through Christ all losses are recompensed, all wants supplied, all curses removed, crosses sanctified, promises accomplished, sins pardoned, corruptions subdued, the grave sweetened, death destroyed, life merited, Satan conquered, hell shut up, heaven opened, in a word, all blessings procured. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord J. Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. Eph. 1.3. Christ the blessing of blessings calls for a song of songs

2. To diligence in a daily bearing Christ in your thoughts & heeding him in your whole course. Where should a Christian dine but in the grave of Christ? where should he sup but in the wounds of Christ? where should he lodge at night but in the arms of Christ? what work hath he to do all day but to walk with & exalt his crucified Lord? for the father will be glorified in the son, Joh. 14.13. This is to glorify God in a gospel way, in a higher way than Adam in innocence glorified him, and now it is the only way of honoring God; for Joh. 5.23. he that honoreth not the son honoreth not the father. Marvel not that I press you to make room for Christ in your meditations, since hereby the comfort of your life will be much sweetened, the bitterness of death allayed, and the evil of death wholly removed. For Christ is your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, 1 Cor. 1.30. your peace, Eph. 2.14. your strength, P • il. 4.13. your hope, 1 Tim. 1.1. your delight, Cant. 2.3. your riches, Eph. 3.8. your honor, 1 Pet. 2.7 : your glory, Luke 2.32. your life, Col. 3.4. natural life, Joh. 1.3.4. All things were made by him, in him was life and the was the light of men: Spiritual life, Joh. 5.21. The Son quickeneth whom he will. Eternal life, Fp. Jude v. 21. looking for the m rcy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. In a word, your All, Col. 3.11. Christ All and in All. So all in all to the Church, that the Church is call • d Christ, 1 Cor. 12.12. As the body is one and hath many members, &c. so also is Christ .

3. To watchfulness against all such doctrines as derogate from the honor of Christ: Remember, all your comfort in life and all your hope in death depends upon Christ, • s the vesse • s of a house hang upon a nail fastened in a sure place. Oppose with all your might such as deny Christ in his person, natures, offices. Oppose Judaism, Arianism, Socinianism, Papism. Oppose the Jews that wholly deny Christ's person, calling him the deceiver, disowning him for the promised Messiah. Oppose such who deny either the Godhead or the Manhood of Christ, or deny the personal union of the two natures in Christ. Oppose the Socinians, who falsely teach that Christ did not die as a surety in our place and stead, and so deny Christ in his priestly office. Oppose the Papists, who deny Christ's prophetical O • fice, while they set up the Pope as the infallible judge of controversies, and deny Christ in his priestly Office, while they mingle the blood of Martyrs with the blood of Christ, and make the Mass a propitiatory sacrifice, as if the sacrifice of Christ was imperfect, and deny Christ in his Kingly office, while they give the Pope a power to make laws to bind the consciences of people & set him up as universal Bishop & head of the Church. Let me leave this note with you, great and fundamental truths are to be maintained with much boldness and strength of resolution. Epist. Jud. v. 3. Contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered to the saints: for the doctrine of faith contained in the Gospel that holds forth to you the incarnation, l • fe, death, resurrection, ascension, intercession, whole work of the r • demption of Jesus Christ.

3. Use of consolation to all believers, to whom to live is Christ, and to die is gain, Phil. 1.21. To such death is not so much a punishment as an emolument, not so much a loss as an advantage, a postern to let out temporal a fore-door to let in everlasting life, the grave not not a prison but a b d Isaiah 57.2. and the time of the last judgment a time of refreshing, Acts 3.19. That Christian that hath oft parlied with death, in the meditations of the death of Christ, and in the contemplat • on of the cons • quences of his own death cannot but rejoic • in death, if he know but what the death of Christ means, and what follows on his own death which he hath m • ditated upon. The day of a Christians death may be called his marriage-day with Jesus Christ, his ascension-day to glory, his coronation-day, the birth day of eternity. And i • Sc ipture it ss called a sleep Acts 7 60. a sleep in I • sus, 1 Thess. 4.14. a gathering to our fathers, 2 Kings 22.20. a change, J • b 14. ver. 14. a departure, 2 Tim. 3.6. The nature of death to you is altered, and therefore the name of it is changed. When Tiribazus a noble Persian was arrested, at first he drew his sword and defended himself, but when they charged him in the Kings name and informed him th • t they came from the King to carry him to the King then • e yielded himse • f willingly. So when death claps • n arrest upon a Christian at first he startleth and struggleth [as a man at fi • st putting his feet in • o cold water shrinks] but when he r • collects his though • s and conside • s that death is sent as a mess • ng • r fr • m Jesus Christ to bring him to Jesus Christ, then he embraces it, and his soul go • th as readily as ever Rebekah did with Abraham's servant to meet Isaac. Though heathens ( • s mythologists observe) made death (the d • ughter of the night) a goddess, yet they gave her no divine honor, nor Templ • , nor Pri • st, nor Altar, nor Sacrifice, nor festival days as they gave to other gods; they had no hope in death, as thinking it did ut • erly destroy them, or bring them to endless punishments and torments due to a bad life: But a Christian may wish for it [rath • r than fear it] as putting a period to sin, sorrow, misery, and leading him by the hand to eternal happiness and the rewards annexed to a holy life: As that Martyr said, It is but winking and you are in heaven.