9odJ Munificence. 3 3 7 fumed he lived frill in the world naturally , he continued living many years af- ter. I anfwer,notwithftanding all this Adammaybe laid to die a natural death as loon as he fnntd,beeaufeby the guilt ofhis fn he then prefently became fubje& to itiand Godftraight-way denouncedupon him the fentence ofdeath, therefore it maybe Paid, he ftraight -way died. As a condemnedperfdn is called a deadman though he be rcfpited for a time. Befdes the Meffengers and Sergeants of death prefently took hold of him, and arreftedhim for fn, as hungerand thirft,an_d cold, and difeafes, daily waftingof the natural mature to the quenchingof life. IndeedGod flattered him that the fen- tence was not pretend), executed, fo to commend his ownpatience, and to give to Adam occafionof falvation,the promifeofChrift beingafter made,and he called tb repentance,by that. means to attain a better life byChrift,than he loft by fin. It isobje&ed again, Chrift redeemedus fromall fin, andall thepunifhmeut there. of ; but he didnot redeemus from bodily death,from temporaldeath : for the faith- ful we fee die frill even as others do : therefore it isconcluded by fome that tempo- raldeathis not thenagea of/in ; for then when we were free from fin by Chrift, we fhouldbe freed from that. Ouranfwer tò thisis,that Chrift bath freed all his ele&,notonly from eternal,but ,en frotn temporal death, though not fromboth in the fame manner. From temporal death firít, in hope ofwhich, the Apostle (peaking , sCor. s. raith, The latji enemy that'hallbedeflroyed is death, meaning temporal death, at lait then it /hall be deftroyed, mortal/hall paton immortality, as the Apostlefpeaks: but in the meantime it is deftroyed in hope,though it remain indeed,andmutt be under- gone, even of the faithful in this life. Howbeit to them Chri&.hath changed the natureofit, and now they no longer undergo it as the wage of/in, butfor other caufes. As firlt; the exercifeoftheir graces, their faith, andhope, and patience, and the reit: all thefe are exercifed (as in other affli&ionsfo even) inthe death ofGods Children. Secondly, the total remoValand riddance of the reliques offin from which they eke. not freed in this life : but when they die, then all ftn is takèn away for as at the firft fin broughtdeath into the world, fo to the faithful now death tarries it out again. Thirdly their entrance int&heaven,and to beat honewith theLbrd, from whom *e are abfent as longas we are at home in thefebodies. Fourthly, to prepare their bodies for miming at the laic day, that is done by death : for as decayed Imageor (tatue muff firft be brokenthatit maybe new caft, fo thefe bodies ofours muff be broken by death, that theymay be raft into a new Mould ofimmortality atthe general refurre&ion. $ut here as fouie fin remains, fo death remains, though we be in Chrift, yet we are ftill in that eftate wherein, it re appointed to all men once to die. Thus even temporal death is left to the Childrenof God to be undergone,before theycome to heaven. It is left to them I fay, and that ¡ùftly in refpeat of the rem- nantsof fin, yet they undergo it no other way, but for their own good and benefit: However temporal death in itsown nature to an unbeliever, is the Wages offin. And as temporal, fo eternal death : for whenGod told 'man that in the day he finned befhoülddie thedeath,he meant not only temporal but eternal death,he meant that principally,as I (hewed before,in that the Apostle oppofeth it to eternal life in the next clank of the fentence : NowChrift bath freed all believers a&ually from eternal death. But how eternal death fsoùld be the wages ofin, maybe doubted : becaufe be- tween the work and the wages thete muff beTome proportion,that feeins not to be between fin and eternal death: for fin is a finite, a temporal thing committed in a íhort time, and that death is eternal, Now to punifh a temporal fault, with an eternal punifhment, it teems that it is to make the punifhment to exceed the fault, and that is againft juftice. But for anarifwer to thisdoubt,we molt know,that howeverfin confideredin the X x a&, Anfo. How .setem died a natural death, as Soon as he finned. l)bieEl. Anfn: Row Chrifliii aria freed horn temporal death. Chriflians un dergo tempo. tal death,tihÿ. Sinüle. z.Eternal death. eiAnfm.
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