436 Chap. z . 412 Expofittonupon theRook of Jas. Vert. >< 5° dead is paft hope, he path for ever done trailing and believing, For when a man is flain and dead, he eithergoes to heaven or tohell : If tohell, there's no hope : if to heaven, there's no need of hope; what, fhould a man hope for that which he en. joies, or trufl when he is in poffeffion? 1 anfwer, firft, All flaying in Scripture fence is not to bodily death it notes fometimes only a civil death, or the putting of aperfon totallyout of all his former power or prefent comforts: So the flayingof the witneffes is interpreted, Revel, r s. Take flaying fo, and then, to trufl when we are{lain, is no more then todepend upon God for deliverance in extremell dangers. Secondly, Though a man who is aaually flain, cannot be faid to hope ; yet a man may fay I will hopeor tr.,(l though I am flain : For fo this trufl is the a&of a livingman concerning fomewhat which he (hall enjoy or be after death: So any believer dying, whether it be by a natural or a violent death, may fay, ThoughI die yet I will truf'r in God : Fìrer, For the falvation of my foul : Secóndly, For the refurreaion of my body : Thirdly, For the eternal ref} bothof foul' and body together inglory. But what was it that fob was thus refolved to truff God for ? Take flaying in theGrfl fence, for greateraffiiaions than any he had yet felt, and then, Iwill :Tuft in him, is firfl , a ferions profeffion of his fai thfulnefs and adhering to God and his wales what ever God {mould do withhim, or how great difcourage- ments foever God fhould put upon him. So we may well ex- pound jobby that admirable proteftationof the Church, Pfala 44,17, 18, i9. All this iscome upon us, yet have we notforgotten thee, neither have wedealt falfly en thy covenant, our heart ss not turned back, neither have ourflepr declined from thy way, though thou haftfore broken us in the placeof dragons, and coveredus with thefhadow of death. Trailing in God, in a large fence, is putfor the whole compafsof our duty to him;efpecially inevil times. Or lecondly, I will truft him, is a high profeflionof his faith, that God wo:'id give remedy to the wort of his prefent, or poffible outward evils, and raife himupOr reflore him again,howlow foe- ver he fhould b° brought. Take flaying in the lecond fence,for death, and then his mean ing. is, that though God fhould take away this life, yet he had a Lope laid up beyond this life : and this X conceive aloft proper here'
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