Chap. IV. Of DEATH. Death Sin dies entirely for ever. Thus, as in Sampfom Riddle, Out of the Devourer comes Meat; and our worft Enemy is conguer'd by his own Weapons. . 2 • Death is continued to the Saints, for the more eminent Exercife and Illuftration of their Graces, for the Glory of God, and in order to their future Reward. *Faith and Love, and Patience, are declared in their moft powerful Operations in our Encountet· with Death. If every Saint werevilibly and entire. ly tranOated to Heaven, after a fhort courfe of Holy Obedience; if the Wicked did vifibly drop down quick into Hell, Faith would be refigned to Sicrht here. This WOllid confound the Militant State of the Church with th~ Triumphant. 'Therefore now Death happens to the Good as well as to the Wicked. In the next State they fhall be feparated b) a vajl Guiph, and an amazing Difference. Now Faith, whatever the kind of Death be that a Chriftian fullers, fees through the thickeft Clouds of Difgrace and Mifery, the glorious Iffue. As the illuftrious Confeffor, who was crucified with our Saviour, proclaim'd his Eternal Kingdom in the midft of infulting !~i;'r~r t~en~~fi[~~~eo}0!~0~r~~~ aap~"!dsv~nn~~~:~~~i~fJ;y~n~o~~~~~~·v:l~~~ ;.~:1;~ or when it comes in a gentler manner,for 'tis even then terrible eo Nature, wearewillmgly fubjefr to Diffolution, that we may be united to God in Heaven. And our Patience has never its ferfefJ Work, and is truly vifrorious, till this !aft Enemy be fubdued. Death is the .Seal ot our Conjlancy an~ Perfeverance. Now the righteous Rewarder will crown none but thofe tlutt ftritve l~twfui!J, and are cornpleat Conquerors. And how wife and fweet is the Oe... 'f:xerci[ia noconomy of the _Diyine Providence in th_is,_ that the Frailty of.our Nature_01ould a~Ord us ~~e~da~toa~ a means of glonfymg God, and of enntlmg our felves by hiS moft graciOus Prom1fes to a ni~ fonirublcJfed Reward? duus glonam:. 1· Our Saviour by his unvaluable Obedience and Sufferings, has procur'd for Believers ~~~f~f~01.; a Celeftial Divine Life, of which the natural Body is not capable. The Apoftle faith, Flejb ' ' '" •d "''"'· and Blood cannotenter into tht I(jngdom of Heaven. The exigencies and decays of the fenfi. d'" c~pr •. tive Nature require a continual Relief by Food and Sleepand other material Supplies : but ' ~ l~1;i[~~~~~'b~~~r,;~~~~~d ;~~~~;'.~ist~~~ ~~;!'b't~~r~k~ G~~~;r,~re~:~~~t~h~;:~~~ This is fo abfolutely requifite, that thofe Believers, who are found alive at the laft Day, fhall in the twmk/ing of an Eye be changed, that they may be qualified for it. Now herein the Wifdom of God is wonderful, that Death, which by the Covenant of Works was the deferved Penalty of Sin, by the Covenant of Grace fhould be the lnftrument of Immortality : That as 'Jofeph by a furprifing Circuit was brought from the Prifon to the Principality ; fo a Believ,er by the Grave afcends to Heaven. This the A poftle, in his Divine Difpu. tation againft Infidels, proves in a moft convincing manner ; Thou Fool, that which thou fowejl, i1 not quickned except it die. As the rotting of the Corn in the Earth is neceffary to the reviving and fpnnging of it up: fo we muft die, and the Image of the Earthly .A dam be abolifh'd, that we may be transformed into the Imageof the Heavenly One. And to the other part of the Q!!eftion, Why the Saints remain in the ftate of Death for a time? there is a clear An( wer. The Ref?rrefrion of the Saints is delayed till Chrii1's coming to Judgment, partly for the Glory of hiS Appearance: For what an admrrable Srght will it be, that theSaints of all Agesfhall at once arife glorified and rmmortalized, to attend upon om Sav1our mthe la it Afr of hrs Regal Office1 and then to make a mumphant Emry with hrm IntO Heaven? And partly, that theeftabhfh'd order of Prov1dencemay not be difturbed: for t~echanging of our Nature into ~lory, in a fudden and inexplicable manner, cannot be Without m1raculous Power ; and 1f every Behever prefently after Death, were in hrsglonlied Body tranOated to Heaven, the World would be always filled with Miracles, which were to ceafe after the fufficient Confirmation of the Gofpel by them. Bm how long foever the Imerval be to the Refurrefrion, it fhall be with them that jlup in 'Jefus as 'tis with thofe that awake out of a quiet Natural Sleep, to whom the longeft Nigh; feems but as a Moment : fo when the Samts firft awake from Death, mthe great Morning of theWorld, a thoufand Years will feem no more to them than to God himfelf, but as one day. I now come to prove the third thing, That our Saviour will abolifl1 the dominion of Death over the Saints. · Whilft the Bodies of the Saints remain in the Grave, they feem to be abfolutely under the Power of Death. The world is a Goigotha, fill'd with the Monuments of its Villories. A~d it may be faid to this our !aft Enemy, in the words of the Prophet to the bloody Kmg, Haft thou killed, and taken pof!effion? But we are affm'd by an infallible Word, that the Power of Death fhall be abolifh'd, and the Bodies of the Saints be reviv'dincorruptible and immortal. The
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