OUR Great Apostle in this Epistle of his, having answered several Cases of Conscience to the Church at Corinth, in this Chapter, refutes that dangerous Error, that denied the Resurrection of the Dead.

HE founds his Argument for the overthrow of the Error, and the Esta­blishing the contrary Truth, chiefly upon the Resurrection of a buried Jesus. Having prosecuted this from v. 12. with the Intermixture of other Mediums; and also exhortatory Inferences to v. 35. he there states the Adversary's Objection in these Words, With what body do they come again?

THIS Objection he answers shaving rebuked the Objector with the Title of a Fool, v. 26.) from the Nature of Grain thrown by the Sower into the Ground, rising into a Crop of beautiful Corn, pleasant to the eye and useful for food: Fur­ther, shewing and explaining the difference between human Bodies and the Flesh of Beasts, Birds and Fish, and the difference of their Glory from the Terrestrial and Coelestial Bodies, even the difference between Coelestial Bodies themselves in Glory.

HAVING managed this, from v. 36, to 42▪ he there applies it to the case in hand, shewing in v. 42, 43, 44. That the Bodies of the Saints are sown in Corruption but raised in Incorruption. Sown in Honour, but raised in Glory, &c. This he repeats, varying his Phrase, v. 53, 54. And draws in this Inference in the Close of the 54 v. Death is swallowed up in Victory; which Inference he confirms in a way of triumph, in the Words of my Text.

O Death, where is thy Sting? &c.

IN which words you have the Apostle triumphing in the Person of every dying Believer, wherein are contained these Parts.

1. THE Apostles Triumph, in v. 55.

2. THE Cause of it. 1st. laid down negatively, v. 56. The Sting of the Believer's Death being pulled out by the Abolishing of Sin, which is Death's Sting; and the Reign of the Law over him, which is the Strength of Sin, positively laid down in v. 57. viz. A Victory being obtained over Death, through our Lord Jesus Christ; which the Apostle mentions with Thanksgiving to the Almighty.

IN handling these Words, I shall only insist on the Triumph or Ovation in v. 55. and the rather because the Prosecution of the Truth that shall arise from that Verse, will reach and take in the chief Matter contained in the following Verses.

IN these words, you have, as was aforementioned, the Believer's Triumph over Death, and that in a twofold Respect. 1. In respect of his Soul. O Death, where is thy Sting? 2. In respect of his Body. O Grave, where is thy Victory? Without spending further time in opening the Words; they afford us this Doctrinal Ob­servation.

Doct. THAT every true Believer, in the Moment of his Death, can Triumph over Death, and the Grave both in reference to his Soul and Body.

I shall divide this general Doctrine into Two Branches, and speak to each part. The First is this.

THAT a Believer in the Moment of his Death can Triumph over Death in reference to his Soul.

FIRST (as the Lord shall enable me) I will prove this Truth, and then explain and illustrate it.

FOR Proof, I shall only at present give you two places of Scripture.

Rev. 14.13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven, saying unto me, Write; Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their Labours; and their Works do follow them. Where First you have the Truth plainly asserted, — Blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord, or in dying in the Lord. 2ly, The Reasons of it. 1. They rest from their Labours. 2. Their Works follow them, i. e. They will meet with their Prayers and Duties entered on the File for their review as an additional to their eternal Delights. 3. You have here insinuated the Certainty and Importance of this Truth. 1. The Commandment to write, they are weighty things usually committed to Ink and Paper, and that for duration also.— Littera Scripta manet. 2. The Commander, the Spirit. I heard a Voice from Heaven, saying write, &c.

THE second place is, Heb. 4:19. There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of [Page 3]God. Their rest is not in this World but in another; and they enter upon it in the moment of Death; therefore they have then ground of triumphing.

I shall add to these the Experiences of Three Worthies. The first was David's, 2 Sam. 23.5. Althô my House be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure: For this is all my Salvation and all my Desire; althô he make it not to grow. David was now on the brink of Eternity, taking a view of the past and present Disorders of his House and Heart, yet rejoyces and triumphs in the view of the Covenant of Grace, and his Interest in it, and the influence it had on the Eternity he was entring into. The second was that of faithful Stephen, that glorious Proto-Martyr; who when the Stones that dashed out his Brains and Life, flew about his Ears, cryed out triumphantly, Lord Jesus, receive my Spirit, Acts 7.59.

THE last I shall mention, is the Experience of the blessed Apostle Paul, Phil. 1.23. For I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better. But very pat and pertinent to the purpose, 2 Cor. 5.1, &c. He being harrassed with Labours, Perils and Sufferings, at the apprehension of the time of his departure being at hand, triumphs thus, v. 1. For we know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved, we have a Building of God, an House not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens:

HAVING thus, from the Holy Scriptures of Truth, proved the Doctrine, I shall proceed to the explication of it.

'TIS undeniable, That Contraries do the better illustrate one another, as black Spots make a white Skin shine the brighter, and a Black-a-Moor, is a Foil to set off an European: Therefore I shall illustrate this Truth, by another Contrary, that I might the more emphatically explain it; which is this: The triumph of Death over an Unbeliever, and thus lay down the Doctrine to be explained.

DEATH in Death triumphs over the Unbeliever, and the Believer triumphs over Death in dying.

I shall begin with the first Branch, viz. Death in Death triumphs over the Un­believer; and (as the Spirit of the Lord shall assist me) shew you in what respects.

1. DEATH triumphs over the Unbeliever's sensual Pleasures. Where are now (says Death) your vain Pleasures that you wantonly rolled your self in, in your life time? What are become of those jolly, merry frolicksom hours, that you la­vish'd away with your frothy Companions? Where are now your drunken Cups and Glasses, and your riotous Feasts, with which you so often drowned and glutted your sensual Appetite? What do they profit you now? What pleasure do you find now from your former repeated acts of Lusts and Beastliness? What relish now from those brutish tickling of swinish Delights? What does all your vain Merriment avail you now? What fruit have you from those Things, that formerly you reckoned your Heaven and Happiness? Instead of Pleasures, you now shall have your belly full of everlasting Torments. Now your merry Moments are turned into an eternity of Sorrows. Now, instead of swimming in Wine, and luxuriously feeding on Dainties, you shall swim, world without end, in fiery Streams of burning Brimstone. You shall drink your Tears, and feed on your own tortur'd Flesh in endless and never-ceasing Misery. Now, the flame of your Lust is succeeded by a [Page 4]hotter flame, even the flame of divine Vengeance. Now, instead of your frothy Spirit and vain Laughter, you shall have enough of howling, weeping and gnash­ing of Teeth. Nay, you shall carry with you all your Lusts and Corruptions to Hell, not to please you, but to pain you. The same Water that the Fish swims in with delight, if beated over the Fire, will be the Fish's torment.

THE Sins you acted with pleasure in the World, you shall act the same in great measure in Hell, but to your eternal torturing: You shall there act your Revenges, but wound none with its poison'd Arrows, but your own Soul. You shall there have your covetous Desires enlarged, as wide as the Hell you are in; but it will only be your pain and punishment: Your own Lusts there shall be the Flames that will scorch you. Come thou, trembling Wretch, will Death say, to the place of sinning and the place of punishment; and thy very sinning shall be thy punishment. Oh! then will Death insult in the words of the Wise-man, Whatsoever thine Eyes desired, thou keptest not from them: Thou withheldest not thy Heart from any Joy, Eccles. 2.10. And now all will be Vanity and Vexation of Spirit to thee, part of v. 11. And also in those Words as are written, Luke 12.19. Thou hast long said to thy Soul; Soul, take thine ease, eat, drink and be m [...]rry, — But, thou Fool, I am come this Night to require thy Soul of thee, part of v. 20. And to add no more, Death will only change the Moods and Tenses in that portion of holy Writ, Eccles. 11.9. insulting thus; Thou hast rejoyced, Oh! Young Man, in thy youth; and thy Heart has cheered thee in the days of thy youth; Thou hast walked in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine Eyes; but know thou now, thou trembling Wretch, that for these things, I am sent by the God of Justice, to bring thee into Judgment.

CONSIDER this, thou voluptuous sensual Wretch, thou Drunkard, thou Belly­slave, thou unclean Beast, thou Blasphemer, thou Swearer, thou Reveller and Persecuter, consider this, and ponder it in thy Heart, thou must 'ere long come upon a Death-bed; this greisly King of Terrors will stare thee in the Face. The Sting, that now at a distance thou seest not, when he comes near thee with open mouth, thou wilt then see and be dismally affrighted at that fatal Fork. Death and thee must meet 'ere long, and thou knowest not but this dismal meeting may be 'ere a week roles about, and how wilt thou like such an horrid greeting, such a black wellcome, such a terrible language, and bitter insultings as you have heard. How do you relish and savour thus being triumphed over in a dying moment. Oh! consider this, and look out after the Remedy.

2. DEATH triumphs over the Pride of the Soul. The Pride of the Soul is either a Glorying before God, or a Glorying before Men. As it is a Glorying before God, I shall reserve that to speak to under it's proper Head, which is to follow. The Soul before Man prides in its Endowments, either outward or inward, Death will then thus Glory over their Glory. Where are now your aery Honour and bubble Dignities? What is become of your State and Grandeur? Where are now your Crowns, O Kings, your Scepters, O Princes, I have tumbled them in the Dust, and my Spade has le­velled them with the Earth. Could not your Purple, or your Fures, your Swords and Maces and Magistrates, defend you from my Arrest? What signified all your Guards, your Officers and Attendance who would not protect you from me? What [Page 5]a bussel and fluster have you made? How have you set all in a Flame about you, and waded through blood and slaughter, cruelty and oppression, and all manner of villany to attain such a Degree of Honour, and where is it now? My breath has blown it all away. Where is now O Spluttering Monarch, that great Conduct, that deep Policy, wherewith you conquered other Nations and enslaved your own? What could you use none of it to avoid my Attacks? Where is that imperial frown that used to overawe the gaping, cringing croud; I have divested it of all Majesty, and made it now meaner and simpler than the look of an Ideot, so says, the wiseman. A Living Dog is better than a Dead Lyon, Eccl. 9.4. Thou cunning admired Poli­tician in thy Neighbourhood; that madest all thy Neighbours tremble at thy fraudu­lent Wit; that studied'st only how to over-reach, cheat and impoverish, that thoughtest to hook in all to thy self? Why usest thou not some of thy cunningness to deceive me too? Why didst not thou play the Politician with me also? What do all thy Tricks and Artifices now advantage thee? Thou now perceivest that one event hap­peneth to the Wise, and to the Fool, Eccl. 2.14, 15. As it happeneth to the Fool, so it happeneth to the Wise. Go now and try what all thy wisdom and cunning will do in Hell? Consider this you, that are Great and Honourable in the Earth. You that are cunning to deceive in your Neighbourhood, that admire and flatter your self, that you can over-reach your Neighbours in bargaining. There will come an hour of Death; that will efface and tarnish all the Glory of your Honours, Dignities, Wisdom and Policies. There is no over-reaching Death. There is no such thing as being too cunning for the Grave. Death will soon tumble down all the pageantry of your own Dignities and Abilities, that you have set up [...]n your own Conceit. The Fire of God's wrath will soon burn up your Cobweb Policy: For this your Wisdom is your folly. Methinks this should be as cold Water upon all burning Pride, and a check and rebuke to all your glorying, that very few of your Class and com­plexion are chosen out to eternal Life. Your very Wisdom, Parts and Dignities for the most part, mark you out for eternal Misery. This is the Sum of what the Apostle Discourses, 1 Cor. 26.27, 28, 29. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh: not many mighty, not many noble are called, &c. read that portion of the Holy Spirit of Truth, consider it seriously and tremble.

3. DEATH triumphs over the Riches and Possessions of a Man in such Heart-rendring words as these. O where are now, Man, all thy vast Possessions? What signifie thy Heaps of Gold and Silver? Hadst thee amassed together all the Treasures of the Indies; they could not bribe me or buy me off. Eccles. 4.8. Thine eye has not been satisfied with riches in all thy life time. Now thou must carry none with thee to the Grave. Naked camest thou out of thy Mothers Womb, and naked shalt thou return thither.—Job. 1.21. Instead of thy many Fields, Farms and Tene­ments now thou must be content with so much Ground as thy Body can measure out. Now instead of thy many Bags of Gold and Silver thou must rest satisfied, to be wrapt up in grosser Clay. Now farewel, gilded Coaches, fair Palaces, splendid and well Furnished Rooms, stately-Beds, and all other costly Furniture: Now for all the Numerous Troop of cringing attendants; thou shalt be surrounded with an Host of Vermine, and for the very same end with the former attendants, to feed [Page 6]upon thee too. What is become of all thy Glory and Excellency now? 'tis all laid in the Dust. Job. 20.6, 7, 8, 9. Though thy excellency did mount up to the Heavens, and thy Head reach unto the Clouds. Yet, thou shalt perish for ever, like thine own Dung: they which have seen thee, shall say; where is he? Thou shalt flye away as a Dream, and shalt not be found: Yea, thou shalt be chased away, as a Vision of the Night. The Eye also which saw thee shall see thee no more; neither shall thy place any more behold thee, and v. 11. Thy Bones are full of the Sins of thy Youth, which shalt lye down with thee in the Dust. Thus will Death then triumph.

CONSIDER this, thou that forgetest God in the midst of thy plenty and abundance, that notwithstanding thy Pleasures and Treasures and great Possessions, thou must enter to eternity, poor and wretched, miserable and naked, unless thou art cloathed with that Royal Robe of Christ's Righteousness. No riches then will suffice to enrich thee, but the Gold tryed in the Fire, i. e. an interest in Jesus; who was made the perfect Captain of Salvation through sufferings. No Rayment will then so cover thee, as to hinder the Appearance of the shame of thy nakedness like that white Rayment, viz. the Righteousness of God, which is of Faith. And without that Wedding Garment, thou wilt stand speechless at the Bar of God, and then shalt be bound hand and foot, and cast into utter darkness; where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Mat. 22.13.

4. DEATH triumphs over a Man's own Righteousness. Men are apt through the Horrid Pride of their Natures, to trust to their own doings for Salvation; and 'tis but too too common for Sinners in a State of Nature to apply Plaisters of their own making to the Smarting Wounds of their Consciences, and to usurp Christ's Royal Prerogative of speaking Peace to their Souls; whereas, thus says the Lord, Isa. 57.19. I create the Fruit of the Lips Peace; I speak Peace to them, that are a afar off, viz. in a Natural State, and to them that are nigh, viz. them that are made, Eph. 2.13. nigh to my Father by my Blood. But over all such white washed, painted Pha­risees, will insulting Death Glory thus. Thou Pharisaical Fool, thou refusedst Fire from God's Altar, viz. the Lord Jesus, Joh. 5.40. Thou wouldst not come to him, that thou mightest have Life; but thou hast kindled a Fire of thine own; nay like Nadab and Abihu hast brought strange Fire. Isa. 50.11. Thou hast compassed thy self about with sparks. Thou hast walked in the Light of thy Fire, and of the Sparks that thou hast Kindled. This thou shalt have now at God's Hand by my Dart to lye down in a Bed of Eternal Sorrows. Thou wer't for digging to thy self a Way to Heaven; and hast refused the, Heb. 10.2. New and living way, that the God and Father of Christ had consecrated; that is to say the Flesh of Jesus, or his suffering raised, glorified, human na­ture; and though, Isa. 57.10. Thou wast wearied in the greatness of thine own way; and hast often tryed in vain with thine own Doings and Works of the Law, and couldest not; but in spight of thy Teeth, the Fire of Hell that was in thy Conscience, would be often blazng-out, yet saidest thou not, there is no hope; but wouldst be still hoping for Life from the Dead; unprofitable Works of the Law; Thus thou didst sind the Life of thine hands; therefore thou wast not then grieved; but still didst stifle all thy convictions: But now thou shalt grieve, and eternally grieve without intermission; now thou wilt not be able to stifle thy convictions, but they will tend and tear thy Soul with unspeakable horrors for ever and ever.

NOW Psa. 16.4. Thy Sorrous shall be multipled, that didst hasten after other Gods, and other Idol Righteousnesses. Thou leftest no stone unturned, no way of working unessaied to procure warmth and life to thy Soul, Isa. 57.5. Thou didst enflame thy self with Idols under every Green-Tree, and didst let thy Heart run out for Holiness and Salvation upon every Branch of, in it self beautiful morality. Isa. 57.6. Among the smooth Stones of the Stream was thy Portion, they were thy lot, even to them thou hast procured a Drink-Offering, &c. i. e. Thou hast set up thy Duties for Saviours, hast trusted in them, and so fallen down and Worshipped them. Isa. 57.7. Ʋpon a Lofty and High Mountain hast thou set thy Bed: Even thither wentest thou up to offer Sacri­fice. i. e. Thou didst confide in thy splendid towring Profession, and didst make a God and Saviour thereof, The 10. v. of this Chap­ter, is a Key to open the the rest of the Chapter. by laying the whole stress of thy Soul upon thy outward Profession, without Faith in Jesus. Isa. 57.8. Be­hind the Doors also and the Posts hast thou set thy rememberance, i. e. And hast set up a Record within thy self for the Goodness of thy Estate from thy Family, and Closet Prayers; things good in themselves, but be­come Idols of Indignation, when advanced into the Room, and Throne of the Mediator. Isa. 57.8. Thou hast discovered thy self to others, then to Christ, and art gone up; but thou wouldst not come to Jesus, that thou mightest have Life: What are now become of thy Doings, thy Works, and thy Righteousness? Isa. 57.12. I will declare thy Righteousness and thy Works: for now they shall not profit thee. Cry now to thy Morality and Reformation; lift up thy suppliant hands to thy Duties and Profession. Cry aloud to thy Prayers and Tears; thy convictions and thy terrors of Conscience: Fall prostrate to thy wishings, and to thy wouldings, and thy desires to desire to have thy Sin inwardly mortified under the obstinate refusals of Christ and his righteousness. And try these thy Idol Saviours whether they will now hear thee. Isa. 57.13. When thou cryest, let thy companies of Saviours deliver thee; but the wind now carries them all away, and vanity takes them. Hadst thou trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shouldest now have, Isa. 57.13. possessed the Land, and shouldest have in­herited his holy Mountain, even the everlasting Hills in the Highest Heavens. But now thy Mountains of self righteousnesses, which thou wentest up to, to offer Sacrifice to set thy Bed, and to build thy Nests upon; and, which thou thoughtest eternally strong, I thrash them to dust, and my breath blows them away like chass. All thy Pharisaical Doings, do now leave thee; and nothing of them goes with thee to Hell, but the unpleasant rememberance thereof to torment thee, that thou wast such a Madman to set up these instead of Christ the only Saviour; as if thy good Duties, good Professions, good Frames, and good Priviledges had undertook for thee from eter­nity had obeyed the Law for thee with a God-like Obedience, and suffered the cursed death of the Cross for thee, were raised up again, and by the Fathers right hand were exalted to be Princes and Saviours to give repentance and remission of sins, and were now ever living at the Fathers right hand to make intercession for thee. Why callest thou these good Saviours? There is none good in that sense; but he that is God. Thus I say will Death then insult in the dying moment, and glory over, and tread under foot like Dogs-meat, all the ragged Righteousnesses of Men and Wo­men.

THEN consider it seriously, thou, that with the Pharisee in the Gospel, gloryest before the Lord, that thou art not as other Men, an Extortioner, Ʋnjust, an Adulterer, or even as the Publicans and Sinners, and layest hold on this for eternal Life. Thy Conscience is not purged, but choked and bribed with false Counters, of outward Reformation. The unclean Spirit of Debauchery may be has been cast out, and thou thinkest that enough; but the Spirit of the Lord, the Gospel-sanctifier has not been there at work; for he walked through dry places. The Rest and Peace of Conscience thou hast obtained are not right; for 'tis written, he sought for rest, and found none. The House, i. e. Thy Person has been swept by Reformation, and gar­nished with a fine Profession: But 'tis but the strong-hold of wicked Spirits still. 'Tis empty of the Spirit of the Lord. The Holy Ghost has had no in-dwelling there at all; therefore the unclean debauch'd Spirit transformed into an Angel of Light, with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself (not more unclean than himself, but more wicked) a compleat Number of evil Spirits, i. e. the Devil of unbelief and spiritual Pride, two great Legions have returned and entered into thee; and if the Lord does not pity thee, and discover the rotteness of thine Estate to thee, Thy last state will be worse than the first. Ah! deluded Soul: Thou wouldst heal thy Con­science with thine own Medicines, thou wouldst cover thy self with thine own Righteousness, thou wouldst lay thy self down on thine own Bed of eternal Hap­piness; thou wouldst climb up to Heaven by thine own Methods, and find out a way for thy self to eternal Glory. But thou will find in Death, thy Plaisters will not stick, Isa. 28.20. Thy covering will be too narrow for thy Soul to wrap it self in. Thy Bed too short for it to stretch it self upon; thy Ladder, unlike Jacobs, will not reach to Heaven. Thy own way to Glory, how fair soever a Prospect it may have at first, does so wind and turn, that at last it will lead directly, down to the Chambers of eternal Death.

I should have improved this Branch in several uses; but having done somewhat of that under every Head, I shall only now answer a Question, which I suppose some, if not many, may be ready to ask under the Conviction of their miserable and lost Estate by Nature. May be some, now under present awakenings, are en­quiring,

Q. WHAT shall I do to be saved?

Ans. I answer in the Words of the Apostles, Acts 16.31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, &c.

Obj. WHAT, nothing else but believe on Christ? That I do already, and did it ever since I was born, and so do all, that are not Turks and Pagans.

Ans. I answer. First, They that say, they believed ever since they were born; never yet believed at all.

Rea. FOR Faith grows not in Nature's Garden, neither is it born with us, But it is the Gift of God, Ehp. 2.8. and 'tis written, Phil. 1.29. For unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, &c. Whence observe, that to believe on the Lord Jesus, must be given from above: Therefore 'tis not born with us.

Ans. THEY that think Believing an easy thing, I dare engage never yet believed. FOR,

Reas. Nothing less than the Almighty Power of God in Christ, can work this Faith in us; even the same Power that created the World, must be put forth to an Act of Faith: 2 Cor. 4.6. God who commanded the Light to shine out of Dark­ness, viz. in the Creation of the World, Gen. 1.3. hath shined in our Hearts, to give the light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. Whence observe, That to believe is to have a view of the Glory of the Eternal Godhead, especially of the Glory of the Father's Grace and Goodness, shining through Jesus of Nazareth. 2. That this Divine Beam of eternal Light, is infused into the Soul by the same powerful Command, that sent down the creating Light to inform the dark Chaos: God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness, &c. Nay, a greater Power must be put forth to an Act of Faith, than to the World's Creation; be­cause in the World's Creation there was no Opposition, though there was Indispo­sition; but in the sinful Soul where Faith is wrought, there is Indisposition and Op­position too.

Ans. 3. They that do not painfully feel the Evil of indwelling Unbelief, never knew what Faith meant. John 16.7, 8, 9, 10, 11. there when the Spirit is said to convince of Judgment and of Righteousness, he is said to convince of Ʋnbelief too: And where­ever Faith is, the contrary Principle of Unbelief rises always to oppose it, Rom. 7.15, to the end; Gal. 4.22, to the end, chiefly v. 29. where though the Apostle speaks chiefly in both places of the contrary effects of the working Law and the working Gospel, in the same enlightned Conscience, yet the mutual opposition and warring of Faith and Unbelief, is also especially included. I apprehend that to be a typical instance of this, spoke of to Rebeccas, Gen. 25.23. Two Nations are in thy Womb, &c. This is evident, That no sooner a grain of saving Faith is sown in the Soul, but Unbelief, that afore lurked undiscovered in the Soul, rises instantly in Arms to war against it.

Ans. 4. They that are under no influence of the indwelling Spirit, have no Faith; Rom. 8.9. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his; and he that is not in Christ, has not a drachm of Faith. They that have the Spirit, walk after the Spirit, v. 1. and are led by the Spirit, v. 14. they mind the things of the Spirit, v. 5. and their mortal Bodies are quickned, because of the Spirit of Christ that dwelleth in them, v. 11. Now they that are never spiritually, but carnally min­ded, that know nothing what the indwelling of the Spirit means, nor his blessed Influences and Operations; but are so far from knowing all these, that they reproach and blaspheme his blessed Person and Operations, as Whimsies, heat of Brain, Fa­naticism, Enthusiasm, and the like; how can it be said, That such Enemies of the Spi­rit have the Spirit? And if they have not the Spirit, they are not only wholly ignorant of, but utter Enemies to the Grace of Faith.

Ans. 5. Dare the Drunkard, the Swearer, the Blasphemer, the Sabbath-breaker, the prophane, ignorant, carnal, vile Person say he has Faith? His prophanity, en­mity and wickedness always give him the Lye to his teeth, and his sinful practice is an undoubted Test of the badness of his Faith, and that he professes a Lye, when he professes Faith in Jesus. Shew me, says the Apostle, Jam. 2.18. thy Faith with­out thy Works, and I will shew thee my Faith by my Works. The Heart is purified by [Page 10]Faith, Acts 15.9. Nay, Faith sanctifies throughout, Acts 26.18. Faith purifies the Conversation: 'Tis this Grace of God, this great Grace of Faith that teaches us, That denying Ʋngodliness and worldly Lusts, we should live soberly, reghteously, nnd godly in this pre­sent World, Tit. 2.11, 12. Nay, let me tell you, that such have no more Faith in Christ, than Turks or Heathens: They have no more of Christ and his Righteous­ness, than the chiming of Words in their Heads, and the sound of Phrases rolling in their Memories: They have heard of one Jesus Christ, and that is all; but they know him not. As to any Soul, Bellef and Conscience, Persuasion, concern­ing him, his pardoning Grace and his Righteousness, they have as little as the very Heathens, that never heard of his Name: But they are worse than the Heathens, because they abuse his holy Name, to patronize their Lust and wickedness.

Object. 2. BUT I can shew my Faith by my Works: I reform, hear, pray, me­ditate, weep, mourn for Sin, and profess: And have not I Faith then?

Ans. THOU mayst do all these, very commendable in themselves, yet not growing on the root of Faith; and as trusted in, they are an abomination to the Lord. There is a vast difference between the Fruits of Holiness flowing from Faith, and good Works set up instead of Christ the Object of Faith. Thou mayst do all these, and much more, and yet make Saviours of them, and so be void of saving Faith, that looks to Jesus, and him alone at God's Right Hand for Salva­tion; and at last be damned for idolizing thy good Works, as well as others are for wallowing in their Lusts: For all equally refuse the Lord Jesus, and will have none of him for Life and Salvation, but tread with, like scorn and contempt, the of­fered Son of God under-foot: There's not a Dram of Gospel-Holiness, nor one Evan­gelical good Work, but what flows from Faith in the Person and Righteousness of the once-crucified, but now ascended, Jesus at the Father's Right Hand.

Object. 3. BUT for all my Reformation, Duties and Profession, I seek to Christ too.

Ans. THAT is perhaps as the common Proverb runs, You will set the Cart before the Horse. Your Duties and Righteousness shall lead the Van, and Christ and his Righteousness shall bring up the Reer. You will put him to no other use, than to carry the Train of your ragged Robes of Righteousness, to patch up your Rags, and make up what is wanting in your Duties: But the Garment of Christ is seam­less, and cannot be divided; but if it could be, that his new Cloth could be pieced to your old, the rent in yours would be the worse, Mat. 9.16. Perhaps you are sensible of your inability to do, therefore ye look to him for assistance to help you to do for Life: But what says the Lord, The Just shall live by Faith, Rom. 1.17. You would have him be King over you, to subdue your Iniquities, that for your subdued Ini­quities you may get to Heaven. But you must look to him by Faith to be saved, and then mortification of Sin, and Holiness shall be given in unto you. The High Priest under the Law had his Mitre and Crown on his Head, and his Urim and Thummim on his Breast, to typifie that the Lord Jesus executes his Kingly and Prophetical Office, by his Priestly Office; and all whom he instructs and subdues, he does it by shedding in the Faith and Hope, either more or less, of their par­doned estate through his Blood into their Consciences▪ Again, Do not you seek [Page 11]Christ because of your Reformation, Duties and Tears? If so, you bring your own Money in your Hands to buy Christ; and that's quite contrary to the Proclama­tion the Lord makes of Heaven's Market, Isa 55.1. Ho, every one that thirsteth; that is, after the Things of the World, or their own Righteousness; for 'tis such thirsting as v. 2. calls spending Money for that which is not Bread, and labour for that which satisfieth not. These are summoned here to come to the Fair of the Almigh­ty, where glorious Commodities are put to sale, Waters, Wine and Milk. But what price must the Buyers bring? No price at all. They that would speed in Heavens Market, must come without Money and without price, Heb. 12.13. Esau sought to buy Repentance with Tears, but he found no place for it. All buying in the meaning of Christ, is but accepting, and he gives the power to do that too: There­fore come to Christ as poor, blind, miserable, naked, vile, ungodly Wretches, and and he will be Riches to the Poor, Eyes to the Blind, Happiness to the Miserable, Cloathing to the Naked, and Sanctification to the Vile and Ungodly. The voice of the Gospel is for the present time, 2 Cor. 6.2. Now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of Salvation. Heb. 3.15. To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your Hearts. The Gospel does not say, Go home now, and pray, and mourn, and weep, and come to morrow, or next week, or next month, after you have prepa­red and qualified your self with so much praying, mourning, weeping, repenting and reformation, then come to Christ; but come now; now is the accepted time, now is the day and hour of Salvation. But, further, some may be ready to ask me,

Quest. WHAT is believing in Christ, or Faith in him?

Ans. IT would be too tedious now to answer the Question as it ought to be; I shall only briefly thus define it, and then make good my Definition. Faith, as strictly and properly taken, is a powerful Conscience-Perswasion wrought by God, concerning Christ and his Things, their excellency and suitableness to the Soul, and more or less concerning the Souls Interest in them, according to the Word of God. Faith, in the Original, is [...], from [...] to perswade, and really signifies a per­swading. 'Tis phrased in Old Testament-language, in Noah's Prophecy concerning his Children, Gen. 9.17. God shall perswade Japheth, and he shall dwell in the Tents of Shem. And to the same purport 'tis phrased in the New Testament; 'tis said to be, 2 Cor. 4.6. A light shining into a dark Heart; which is a perswasive Knowledge. Cal­led Rom. 1.17. the Righteousness of God in the Gospel, revealed from Faith to Faith. 'Tis named, Rom. 3.21. a manifestation without the Law of the Righteousness of God, v. 25. stiled a declaration of his Righteousness for the remission of Sins; and defined to be, Heb. 11.1. The evidence of Things not seen, which are Christ and his Righteousness, which are wholly without us, not seen by our bodily Eyes, or natural Reason or Under­standing. The Spirit in working Faith, is said to take of Christ and his Things, and shew them to the Soul, John 11.14, 15. God the Father, as the Worker of it, so is said to reveal his Son in the Soul, Gal. 1.16. Which Expressions evidently import a perswasive Knowledge. 2dly, This Perswasion is an inward Conscience-Perswasion, and not only an Head Knowledge, or notional Perswasion, Gal. 1.15. but when it pleased God, &c. v. 16. to reveal his Son in me, &c. 1 John 5.10. He that believeth hath the witness in himself; i. e. a Conscience-Testimony. 3dly, This Con­science-Perswasion [Page 12]is very powerful, for it instantly works a great change on the whole Man, Heart, Lip and Life: 'Tis a creating Power, 2 Cor. 4.6. an exceed­ing great Power, Eph. 1.19. and 'tis the Declaration of the King of Heaven to the Conscience; and where the Word of the King is, there is Power, Eccles. 8.4, &c. And (as Divines say) in this the Soul is wholly passive, like a dark Room, that has light let into it from without. The object of this Faith is Christ, and the Things of Christ, as in that fore mentioned place, John 16.14. He shall glorifie me, for [...]he shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you, v. 15. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shew it unto you. The Rule of Faith is the written Word of God, 2 Pet. 1.19, 20, 21. And this I take to be and Concomitants of this inward revelation of Jesus, which are also called believing, which is the Souls accepting of this manifested Jesus, and his Righteousness, ventu­ring it self upon him, and committing it self to him; which Acts are set forth in Scripture by various phrases; as, Looking unto him, Isa. 45.22. Coming unto him, John 6.37. Casting our selves and burden upon him, Isa. 55.22. Staying upon him, Isa. 5.10. Leaning upon him, Cant. 8.3. Trusting in him, and many more. And thus I have answered this Question with all the brevity and perspecuity I could, as the Lord has enabled me, and as time would give leave. And now, methinks, some are ready to ask in the words of the blind Man, whom Christ had restored to his Sight.

Quest. BUT who is he that I might believe on him, John 9.36. You say he must be seen and ventured on; pray then who is he?

Answ. I shall answer you from the Sermons of the Apostles, preached by them after they were endued with Power from on high. And first the Apostle Peter tells you who he is, Acts 2.22, 23. Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God; him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and Fore-knowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and stain, comp. with 32. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all Witnesses. 33. Therefore being by the right Hand of God exalted, hath received of the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost. Once more, Acts. 5.30. The God of our Fathers hath raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree, 31. Him hath God exal­ted with his right Hand to be a Prinee and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. Add to these, Heb. 12.2. Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith, who for the joy set before him [in the saving of Sinners] enduring the Cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right Hand of God. In short, he that was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh (Rom. 3.) who yet is God over all blessed for ever, Rom. 10.5. That mighty glorious God-Man, who was born of a Virgin, that lived and preached in Judea, Rom 8.38. that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right Hand of God, who also ever lives to make intercession (Col. 1.18.) the first born from the dead (Col. 1.15.) and the first born of every Crea­ture, the despised Jesus of Nazareth (1 Col. 2.9.) in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily: And all the Glory, Excellency, Beauty and Majesty that shines on Jesus of Nazareth. is the Glory, Excellency, &c. of the Godhead. This is he, that blessed Object of your Faith; this is he whom you must believe in. When he [Page 13]lived on Earth, the Faith of his Children was more dark about his God-head than his human Nature, but now he is in Heaven, their Faith is more at a loss about his human Nature, and it is to be lamented that the glorified human Nature, e­ven Jesus of Nazareth, is so little in the Preaching, Profession, Faith and Experi­ence of Gods own Children. But yet this is the Lord, whom we, through Grace, have seen and tasted to be gracious: Will not you too, O Sinners! come and taste and see how gracious he is? Cant. 5.16. This is our Friend, this is our Be­loved, O Daughters of Jerusalem. He is altogether lovely, Cant. 5.10. He is the chiefest among ten thousand. He is able Heb. 7.27. to save you to the uttermost. O come therefore and venture your Souls upon him, commit them to him; O that you would but try him! you have tried his Patience to the utmost by your Rebel­lion and Obstinacy in Wickedness. O that you would but try his boundless Grace, by casting your selves into the Ocean of it! You must venture on his Grace, or you must be damned. Mark 16.16. He that believeth shall be saved, he that be­lieveth not shall be damned. If you accept not of this offered Jesus, you despise this only Sacrifice, and there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation, which shall devour the Adversary, Heb. 10.26.

I am now come to the second Branch, the Believers triumphing over Death.

AND 1. the Believer triumphs over the Sting of Death, and what else does concur to make it.

2. THE Believer triumphs over every thing else in Death that is formi­dable.

First. THE Believer triumphs over the Sting of Death. He then can re­joycingly cry out, O Death, I fear thee not! thou art very harmless unto me. Thou comest indeed like a Dragon, with open Mouth; but where is thy Sting? I dread not that open Mouth, or that wide Throat. I with Joy am swallowed up of it, and pass through it up to the highest Heavens into my Redeemers Arms. Here at this dark Portal, I undress my self of this mortal Flesh, and fly with holy Con­fidence to the Presence of the Lamb upon the Throne, and the Presence of God the Father in him, and the bright innumerable Company above in this full Assurance, that I shall not be found naked. Wellcome Death, to dissolve and pull down this earthly House of my Tabernacle, that so I may go to my House, not made with Hands, the Building of God, eternal in the Heavens, 2 Cor. 5.2. Wellcome sweet Messenger, that comest to fetch me home from this mad, confused, wicked, raging, tottering World, into my Fathers House. I thank thee, O grim Porter! who openest the Gates to eternal Happiness. 'Tis true, the News of thy Approach did terrifie me, as the Report of the Coming of rough blustering Esau, with his armed Men, did Jacob, Gen. 32. But yet now thou art come to me, I can say as he did, I behold thy black and grisly Face, as the Face of the Angel of God, or the Mes­senger of the Lord Jesus Christ. For in thy black Face I see Beauty, in thy grisly Terrors great Glory, In thy Dragons Mouth no Sting at all. O Death! [Page 14]where is thy Sting? Thus the Believer in dying triumphs over the Sting of Death.

2. THE Believer in dying triumphs over those things that go to make up the Sting of Death. And

1. OVER Sin. The Sting of Death is Sin, says the Words of my Text. And 1. In its Guilt. 2. in its Pollution. And

1. OVER the Guilt of Sin. Thus the Believer in dying glories over it: O Guilt of Sin! who in my Life-time, since my Conversion, notwithstanding I was washed with the Blood of Jesus, and he had obtained an eternal Redemption for me, didst often use to sting my Conscience, and thereby to fill me with Dread and Horrour, and so didst weaken my Faith and Confidence in the Lord Jesus; didst strengthen the Hands of my Unbelief, in making me depart from the living God: Didst make me often come in Prayer to God as my angry Judge, and not as to my Father, reconciled to me in Christ. And thereby didst bind up my Soul, fetter my Spirits, so that I had no freedom of Access to God through Christ: Thou didst often deal with me as the Man that went from Jerusalem to Jericho; didst wound me and strip me, and leave me half dead: Didst often force me to en­tertain hard, murmuring and outragious Thoughts against my dear Lord and Ma­ster Jesus, and my reconciled God and Father in him: Didst often make me add Ini­quity to my Sin, and a carnal, loose, vain Conversation to my inward Deadness and Enmity; and when Death approached to bring me to a State of perfection in Glory, didst represent him to me as a dreadful King of Terrors. But now Death is come, and has executed his Office, I welcome him, and laugh thee to Scorn. Free Grace has disarmed him of the Sting that thou wouldst have given him against me. I shall now no more be perplexed with thy Gripes: I shall now plainly see my Re­demption eternal, and always the same, without as much as a Cloud as big as a Mans Hand to interpose. I shall never look off the Lord, my Righteousness, my Sanctification and Covering, but always behold my Fathers reconciled Face in the Face of my beloved Jesus: I shall never depart from him any more: I shall now have perpetual Freedom and Enlargement of Soul before him: I shall never have an hard Thought of him any more, nor ever sin the least sin against him any more. Farewell eternally, O Guilt of sin! thou canst not enter into Heaven, where I am going. Thus I spurn thee now, mounting up into everlasting Glory.

DEATH triumphs over the Pollution of sin, and makes a full End of Corruption and Iniquity. Then may the Believer cry, O filthy sink of Sin! thou shalt defile me no more. How often, even since Conversion, hast thou ravished my Virgin Soul? How oftentimes a day hast thou scattered thy Filth in my Conscience, and left an envenom'd Taint there? How often, when I was going to approach an ho­ly God, didst thou appear in my Soul in thy ugly Colours, to terrify me, and to turn me aside from the living God? Yea, and though I often saw the Righteous­ness of Christ covering me, yet thou often filledst my Conscience with such a Cloud of Filth and Stench, that that glorious Covering was hid from mine Eyes; but [Page 15]now thou shalt blind mine Eyes no more: I shall now have perfect uninterrupted Visions of that spotless beauteous Garment wrapping me round, and that to all E­ternity. Not the least speck of thee shall enter into Heaven; in my Father's House, I am entring into, there's nothing but compleat Purity and Holiness: There is not the least Atom of Dirt in the Streets of the Jerusalem above. Here, thou filthy Load, I finally part with thee, I shall never be defiled any more with thee. Hal­lelujah, Amen. And thus the Believer triumphs over Sin; that is the Substance of the Sting of Death.

Thirdly, THE Believer triumphs over the Law, which the Words of my Text call the strength of Sin; and the Law, or the Covenant of Works, is the strength of sin (though it be in it self holy, just and good) in a twofold Respect. 1. It con­demns the Soul, and tortures the Conscience; so drives the Soul farther from God, and encreases the Enmity against him, and thereby puts the Soul more under the Power of sin, enlarging and strengthening sins Dominion over it, Rom. 6.16. Sin shall not have Dominion over you, for you are not under the Law, but under Grace. Where 'tis evidently implied to be under the Power of the Law, is to be under sins Dominion; and this is exemplified and proved plainly and clearly in the former Part of the seventh of the Romans, which I cannot now stay to open. 2. The Law judicially delivers the Soul up to the Will and Power of sin by way of Punishment. Thus the Son of God is said to come in the Likeness of sinful Flesh, and for sin, or sinning, to condemn sin in the Flesh. Sin, by the condemning Law, has assigned it penally, as Executioner, a Power of sinning in the Soul; from which Sentence, only a cru­cified Jesus can free the Soul. The Law therefore as it is the strength of sin is a sore Exercise to the Believer, and the strength of the old Man, or the Body of Death in his Soul all his life time; but in his Death he may thus glory over it. Thou Covenant of Works, thou Killing Letter in my Conscience, though I was much freed from thee by the Law of Righteousness, which is of Faith, yet thou didst still work there, Gendring unto Bondage, opposing the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Gal. 4.29. Thou that wast born after the Flesh, didst persecute that that was born after the Spirit, Gal. 4.30. But now the Bond-woman and her Son shall be quite cast out. Thou didst all my Life time endeavour all ways to keep up Guilt in my Conscience, and if at any time removed, to do it away by Obedience to thee, by legal Sorrow and Contrition, by Resolutions to amend, and greater Watchfulness for the future. Whilst I was thereby diverted from making first Applications to the Blood of sprinkling, so that my sin was rather oftentimes compounded for, than in Faith washt away, in that Fountain that is opened for Sin and for Ʋncleanness. Whence I was not only diverted from continual Believing into a bleeding Jesus, but had my Conscience rather stupified than healed, my sin made little, harmless and familiar, and rather encouraged, than a real dying unto it, and hence often­times my Soul cast into a deep Lethargy. But now I am absolutely freed from that Yoak of Bondage Mount Sinai in my Conscience, and shall be made for ever, to Gal. 5.1. Stand fast in that Liberty, wherewith the Son hath made me free indeed, [Page 16]John 8.36. Thus will the Believer in Death, triumph over the Law as it is the Strength of sin.

Fourthly, THE Believer in Death may glory over the Justice of God, as it is armed with Vengeance against Sinners. Though Believers are fully delivered in their life time from the stroke of Divine Justice, yet they do oft times not so fully appre­hend it: But after Death, the Believer shall see as he is seen, apprehend as he is ap­prehended; and then be enabled to rejoyce thus. Divine Justice, whilst I lived, though thou wast my Friend in Jesus, yet many times I dreaded thee as mine Ene­my; but now I plainly see thou art my Friend indeed, and that it is just with thee to justifie me in the Lord, my Righteousness. Thy Sword that was pointed at my Breast, and should have now thrust me down to Hell, was received by my cruci­fied Lord into his own Bowels, and I am now made for ever to escape, Being made more than a Conqueror through him that loved me. My dying Saviour in Falling, wrest­ed thy Weapon out of thy Hand, and made his blessed Body a Grove, planted from thy poisonous Quiver, so that there is not an Arrow now left to spend upon me. I now come, O Justice, in the Right of my Lord, to sit for ever down in his heavenly Mansions; to sing Hallelujahs to that righteous and true God for ever and ever.

Fifthly, THE Believer in Death may triumph over Satan. Satan, though a Soul is Translated out of his Kingdom, yet through his restless Enmity, is always seeking to devour. He has Wiles Methods, and cunning Devices of Temptations to ensnare; imperious Suggestions, fierce Assaults, and fiery Darts to terrifie: with these several ways of Attacks is the poor Believer harrassed as long as he lives; but in Death he can insult over all. Thus then can the Believer vaunt it: Satan, thou hast long tortured me with throwing in wicked and blasphemous Suggestions, and then perswadedst me, to my great Terrour, I had sinned the sin against the Holy Ghost. Thou shalt no longer be able to throw in any more of thy fiery Insi­nuations. I am now beyond the reach of any of thy Darts. Thou hast always endeavoured to tempt me to sin, and then to make me question my Interest: But now I shall sin no more, nor question my Interest any longer. I shall not now be tempted any more to Despair on the one hand, nor presume on the other. Thou darest not appear where I am going. Thou vile Satan, I shall be disturbed with thee no longer. I shall have no further Concerns with thee, till I come with my Lord to sit in Judgment upon thee at the great Day.

Sixthly, and lastly, THE Believer can thus triumph over the World, which is the last thing that goes to make up the Sting of Death. Thou empty confused World, that didst use to terrify me with thy Threats, I defy thee and them now; and wast wont to allure me with thy Flatteries: I am above their Undermining now. I scorn thy Rattles, and thy painted Beads, and thy airy Bubbles. I dread not now thy haggard Face; nor shall I any more be moved with thine Enchant­ments. [Page 17]It will add to my Pleasure in my Mansions of Glory, to see thee burnt for thy Witchcraft; I shall no more dread thy mighty Hunters, nor be aw'd with thy grim Tyrants, nor be enslaved in Body, nor Conscience, by thy bloody Laws, now be harrased with brutish Executioners. There are no oppressing Magistrates, no Catch-poles, nor Informers in the place I now enter to. Nay, now I tread un­der foot all in thee, that is enticing; I set Health, Wealth, Pleasures, Honours, Friends, Relations and all in one Scale, and my dear Fore-runner in the other, and that Scale weighs down now to the Ground. I now go to the heavenly Jerusalem, and that better Country, where I shall have better Riches, and more durable Sub­stance, better Honours, better Pleasures, and far better Relations. Thus will the Believer then triumph over Death, and whatsoever goes to make up the Sting of it.

BUT Secondly, The Believer can triumph over every thing else in Death, that is formidable. To instance in one for many, Nature abhors a Dissolution, and the Soul, though it has but a bad Lodging, does not care to be turned out of Doors. Its tenement of Clay it cares not to be dislodged of, though its all over tattered, and needs Repairs. It shrinks back at entring into a new way of acting separate from the Body, when it has all the while been accustomed to act only by such an Organ. It has been used to such a poor Garment, yet as sorry as it is, it knows not how to be undressed of it, and made naked. Whereas now in the Mo­ment of Death, that's over to the Believer: It can cry then like his Master giving up the Ghost, All is finished. It sees a better House to go to, upon its being dis­possessed of this, even the Fathers House, that has many Mansions. And a better Garment to be cloathed with, even his elder Brother's glorious Robe of curious Embroidery: And can triumph in the Words of the Apostle, varying a little the Form of speaking, 2 Cor. 5.1, 2. &c. I now see that my earthly House of this Taber­nacle being dissolved, I have a Building of God, an House not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens. In this I have groaned, earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with my House which is from Heaven. I am sure, being so cloathed, I shall not be found naked. For I, that in this Tabernacle did groan, being burdened, not for that I would be uncloathed, but cloathed upon. And now Mortality shall be swallowed up of Life.

THUS the Believer triumphs over this Terror of Death, and every thing else in Death that is terrible. And thus I have finished the first Branch of my Doctrine, viz. That the Believer, in Death, triumphs over Death, in reference to his Soul. I should pass away now to various Uses, but time will not permit; I shall therefore wind up this Branch with one Word of Exhortation to poor Sinners.

O you poor perishing Sinners, over whom my Bowels yearn! In my Master's Name I beg, that you would suffer a Word of Exhortation. You must needs be all perswaded firmly of this, that you must once die, and you know not how soon: You may perhaps go to bed well, and never see Morning. Would you then in that instant of time avoid being insulted over by Death, and triumph over that cruel Dragon, Death and his fatal Sting; then look up to that brazen Serpent, the blessed Jesus, erected on the Pole of Gods Word, the only Hope, set before you in the Gospel. [Page 18]O fly to it for Refuge! Would you glory over that King of Terrors, and all his Dread, 2 Tim. 2.1. Be strong in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus. Would you die the Death of the Righteous; then you must live the Life of the Righteous; and we are told what that is, Rom. 1.17. The Just shall live by Faith. Believe in the Lord Jesus, the exalted Prince and Saviour, and his God-like Righteousness; and earnestly beg of the Lord for the Revelation of the Righteousness of God to you from Faith to Faith, Rom. 1.17. That so when that Faith is going to be swallowed up of Vision, you may triumph over Death and all its Terrors, in respect of your precious and immortal Soul.

SOME of you may remember, that from the Words opened and Explained, I raised this general Observation.

THAT every true Believer, in the Moment of his Death, can triumph over Death and the Grave, as well in reference to his Soul as to his Body.

I divided it into two Branches; the first whereof was this. That a Believer in the Moment of his Death, can triumph over Death in respect of his Soul, which I have dispatched, and now proceed to handle the second, viz.

THAT a Believer in Death can triumph over the Grave, in respect of his Body.

I judge it most convenient to use the same Method in the Prosecution of this Branch, as I did in the former, viz. to illustrate it by its contrary; and therefore lay it down thus to be spoken to.

THE Grave can triumph over the Unbelievers Body; but the Believer can triumph over the Grave in respect of his Body.

SINNERS are apt to make Gods of their Bodies, honouring them excessively with Food, Rayment, Lodging, and the like; and to glory in the Health, Beauty and Strength of their Bodies; but the Grave will trample upon all these. Instead of delicious Wine, and choice Dainties, the Grave will fill their Mouths and Bellies with Dust: Their Silks, and Laces, and abominable impudent whorish Head dresses, their proud and lofty Crests shall be exchanged for stinking Rottenness, odious Filth, and crawling Maggots. And instead of their stately Houses and Down Beds, they must be content to take up with a dark Hole, and a cold Bed of Clay. The most vigorous Health then is vanished; a little pitiful Vermine can there deal with the stoutest Hector, and the strongest Sampson. The fairest Face will soon prove as dismal [Page 20]there as the foulest Monster. The most exquisite Beauty look as squallid, and as horrid as the ugliest Blackamoor; and none shall be able to see any Difference be­tween the rotten Skull of the one and the other. But having spoken somewhat to these things already, and being desirous to hasten to other Matter, I shall here put a Conclusion to this, and only add three or four things to be considered in. Death, wherein Death and the Grave triumphs over a Sinners Body, but the Believer tri­umps over Death and the Grave, &c. I shall speak to both the Contraries together by way of Antithesis.

1. NATURAL Death to the Wicked is an entrance to eternal Death, Heb. 9.27. And 'tis appointed to Men once to die, but after this, the Judgment. The Righ­teous Law of God has so ordered it for Sinners, that Death, as a Sergeant shall ar­rest and cast their Bodies to the Grave as to a Dungeon, there to be reserved in Deaths Chains to the Judgment of the great Day. But natural Death to the Godly is a Passage to eternal Glory: and Death, like a skilful Chymist, takes their Bodies and puts them into the Alembick of the Grave, and there distils them into pure spiritual and glorious Bodies against the great Day; but more of this hereafter.

2. NATURAL Death to the Wicked, is a part of the penal Sentence of the Law, Gen. 2.17. — For in the Day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. The Law threatned a threefold Death, spiritual, temporal and eternal. The He­braism in the Original is emphatical to the Purpose, dying thou shalt die. To me having this Force dying in thy Body, thou shalt die eternally in thy Soul. 'Tis e­vident, that to the Ungodly, natural Death is a part of that punishment inflicted by the righteous Law of God; and what Death is, the Grave is the same. If one be the Laws Jaylor to the Body, the other is the Laws Prison. But to the Godly 'tis far otherwise: For as Death has lost his Sting to them, so has the Grave: 'Tis not to them penal, but purely natural; the putting off the old Adam, that the second Adam may take possession of the whole Body. The Apostle in 1 Cor. 15. discoursing of the Necessity of the natural Death of Believers, argues thus, That the old Adam had first took possession of the Elect Vessels Bodies. V. 46. That what of the old Adam is there, is earthly, and tends to Earth and Dissoluti­on. V. 47. It being the proper Nature thereof. V. 48. Concludes thus, that the Image of the old Adam on the Body must be wholly laid aside, and that by Death; so that the Image of the second might take sole and full Possession. V. 49. As we have born the Image of the Earthy, we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly.

3. NATURAL Death is a separation of the Body from all Life; and thus it is to the Wicked: Their Dust dwell alone in the Grave, united to nothing, only there reserved by an Almighty Power of God, in an extraordinary way, for the Glory of his Justice hereafter. But the Dust of the Godly in their Graves, are united to the Body of Christ now in Heaven, and there is held still a secret Cor­respondence between their scattered Dust and the Life of Jesus, who in this sence, is the Resurrection and the Life. To make this more evident, 'tis to be considered, 1. That the Person of the Believer, both Body and Soul, in the first act of Faith, is united to the Person of Christ; yea, joyned to the Body of Christ, Rom. 7.4. 2. That by vertue of this Union, the second Adam takes Possession of the Body as [Page 21]well as the Soul, as proved afore from 1 Cor. 15.45, to 50. especially 46. Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual; but that which is natural, and afterward spiritual. Observe that the Apostles Discourse must be here confined to the Bodies of the Saints, for it is the Resurrection of their Bodies he is a proving. 3. The Believer holds his natural Life upon another tenure than he did formerly, even from the second Adam, by vertue of his Implantation into him. The great Apostle Paul, in the 2 Cor. 4. declaring how his Body had been supported in the Work of Christ, under all Perils, Pains, Watch­ings, Labours, Imprisonments, &c. almost insupportable, declares the Cause V. 10. That it was from the Life of Jesus made manifest in his Body, repeating the same in the last Clause of the 11th. Verse, only instead of Body, there he writes mortal Flesh: All which thus explained, does evidently prove, that the Bodies of the Saints derive now their natural Life in great measure from another Root. 4. As an unde­niable Consequence of this, that that Life the Body holds from Christ, does not quite vanish, as that of the first Adam does; but is gathered up into Christ, and re­treats back to him the Root, as the Sap of Trees in Winter Time falls down from the Branches to the Root. And I take that to be the Meaning of that place of holy Writ; or at least I may allude to it, Col. 3.3. Your Life is hid with Christ in God, especially because of the following Verse, when Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in Glory; which Glory respects the Body as well as the Soul. 'Tis to me plain that there is a secret Commerce between the Living glorious Body of an exalted Jesus, and the Dust of a deceased Believer, which may be further proved from Mat. 22.31, 32. The Argument Christ himself uses to prove the Resurrection of the Dead, and the force of his Argument I apprehend to lye here: That God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, though dead: That God is not the God of the Dead, but of the Living, therefore, that though Abraham, Isaac, &c. were dead, yet they were still united to the living God, and by Vertue of those secret Beams of Life from him (the inseparable Ef­fects of that Union) that still corresponded and preserved their mouldered Bodies in the Grave, they should be raised up at the last Day. This sence of the Place seems to be confirmed from the Answer of our Lord Jesus to Martha's Objection against the present Resurrection of her Brother, John 11.34. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day. John 35. Jesus saith unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life, &c. As if he should have said, thou grant­est that I can raise him up at the last Day; but how? Is it not by Vertue of that Union that is between his dead Body, and my living Body? If then I will be his Life, and therefore his Resurrection. I am now his Life, and consequently can be now his Resurrection. I shall add that Argument, the Lord, the Holy Ghost, the Spi­rit of Life abides and dwells in a Believer for ever, in his Body as well as his Soul. 1 Cor. 6.19. What, know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, &c. If it be granted then, that he does still indwell in the separate Soul of the Believer, why not in a sense in the separate Body too? He brooded formerly over the Chaos till it was formed into a beautiful Creation; and why not in like manner over the Dust, till the appointed time of actual Life by the Father comes? but,

[Page 22]4. NATURAL Death tends to an utter Abolition. Natural Death in it self, tends to an utter Consumption of the Body, and that by Steps retrograde to the Methods of the first Creation. First, There was a Chaos created, and then that disposed and disgested into a very beautiful and lovely Frame; but Death deals thus with Man, the Epitome of the Creation, reduces the fair Structure to a Chaos, or Heap of Dust, and then commits it to the Grave to annihilate it. And so would the Bodies of Sinners be annihilated, especially in the universal Conflagration; but that, as has been afore mentioned, the God of Nature by his infinite Power preserves and sits them to be Vessels of Wrath for Destruction, and at last raises them, that they might be for ever miserable Companions to their miserable Souls, on which he might make the Power of his Vengeance known to all Eternity. That as the Body has been a a Companion to the Soul in sinning, so it shall be World without end, in suffering. But as to the Bodies of the Saints, it is otherwise. Death only sows their Bodies into the Ground, that they might be quickned again into more glorious Bodies, 1 Cor. 15.36, 37. compare with 42, 43. &c. And pulls down the old tottering House, that it may be built up a more glorious Fabrick in the Day of Resurrection, and they shall arise then from the refining Alembick of the Grave, with several wonderful Advantages; especially these five,

1. THEN Corruptibility shall put on Incorruptibility, 1 Cor. 15.53. For this Corruptible must put on Incorruption, and when thrown into the Grave corruptible Bo­dies then shall be raised incorruptible— V. 42. Sown in Corruption, raised in Incor­ruption. The Bodies of the Saints shall have no tendency to decay any more; no more shall the Bodies of the Wicked: but here will be the Difference; the Bodies of the Saints will be unpassible, and will not be capable of suffering Pains; but the Bodies of the Wicked, though not apt to decay, yet will be the Seat of eternal Pains and Torments.

2. Then Immortal shall put on Immortality, 1 Cor. 15.53, 54. And the Bodies of the Saints sown mortal, shall rise immortal. There will be no dying in the new Jerusalem above, nor decaying, nor fading; but Bodies as well as the Spirits of the Just being made perfect, shall endure the same in that glorious State to all Eternity. 'Tis true, the Bodies of Unbelievers shall never die more; but their Living and Continuing will be a constant Dying. They will be dying to all e­ternity, but never absolutely die; and happy would it be for them, if they could altogether cease to be. But on the Bodies of Believers, the second Death can have no Power at all. As for instance, The last Enemy that Christ will destroy for them, will be Death, 1 Cor. 15.26. And then Death will be swallowed up in Victory, 1 Cor. 15.54.

3. THEN natural Flesh will put on Spirit, 1 Cor. 15.44. It is sown a natural Body, it is raised a spiritual Body. There is a natural Body, and there is a spiritual Body. Not that these natural Bodies in the Saints shall be turned into the very Essence of Spirits; but they shall come as near their Natures as 'tis possible, for corporeal Sub­stances to come. So says our Lord himself, in answer to the Sadduces Cavil, Mat: 22.30. For in the Resurrection, they neither marry, nor are given in Marriage; but are as the Angels of God in Heaven. i. e. They shall be as near to the Nature of An­gels [Page 23]as is possible. They will be of a purer and more incompound Substance, than the purest Elements of Fire: They will be endued then with wonderful agility and celerity, and their motion surpassing swift; probably they will fly then as swift as Thoughts: We experience that our Thoughts now speed in an instant to the far­thermost Regions of the Earth, whilst the heavy Log of a Body stays behind, and can go no faster than its Legs can carry it, or some more artificial means. But doubtless then our Bodies, that believe will be fitted to keep pace with our glorified Souls, in all their Motions, for the Glory of God in Christ, not hindred by Sick­nesses and Ails, nor made slow with any weakness, imperfection, or mutilation. The Sun is swift in his race; but what is his race compared to that of the glorified Bodies of the Saints then!

Fourthly, DISHONOUR then will put on Honour, and that that is sown in Dishonour will be raised in Glory, 1 Cor. 15.43. Then they will be in part clothed with the Glory that is upon the Body of an exalted Jesus. 'Tis true, there will be difference in degrees, though not in kind: For as there is one Glory of the Sun, another Glory of the Moon; and another Glory of the Stars: For one Star differeth from another Star in Glory. 1 Cor. 15.41. So the Glory on the Body of Christ, will be as the Glory of the Sun; and the Glory of the Bodies of his Children like the Glory of the Stars, all shining in Brightness, Splendour and Majesty, though not equally alike. When Christ appeared with Moses and Elias in the Transfiguration on the Mount, the Glory then on his Body is set forth, as in a Glass: His Face did shine as the Sun, and his Rayment was white as the Light, Mat. 17.2. So will the risen Bodies of the Saints be, shining brighter than the Sun, whiter than the purest Light. That, that is sown in Dishonour, as afore hinted, will be raised in Glory. They that are laid in the Earth little Infants, will be raised in full growth and perfect stature [...]; they that be entombed decrepit, old and deformed, shall rise again well-shaped, vigorous and beautiful. They that drop to the Grave poor, tattered, Servants and Slaves, shall come out from thence rich, free and illustrious, greater than Kings and Emperours: Then indeed in a literal sense the Eyes of the Blind shall be opened, the Ears of the Deaf be unloosned, the Lame shall leap as an Hart, and the Tongue of the Dumb shall sing for Joy, Isai. 56, &c. For the bodies of the risen believers that are now wrapt up in Dishonour, shall be then cloathed with the highest Honour.

Fifthly, THEN Weakness shall put on Strength; and that that is sown in weak­ness, shall be raised in power, 1 Cor. 15.43. Then the Coward shall be valiant, and the Feeble exceeding strong; their Strength and Courage will be very near Ange­lick then. We read, that an Angel destroyed an hundred thousand in one Night; and how great, ineffably great, will be the Strength and Power of the spiritual Bo­dies of the risen Saints in that day! But having spoke of this dispersedly afore under other Heads, I shall now add no more thereunto; nor mention several other Advantages that the Bodies of the Saints shall arise with, that I might insist on: For these are sufficient to evince, that Believers can triumph over the Grave in respect of their Bodies.

THUS having dispatchd the Doctrinal part. I now proceed to the Application, which I briefly intend to finish in three or four Inferences: The two first will par­ticularly relate to the last branch of the Doctrine: The two last will respect the whole Doctrine in general.

1. Infer. THE first Inference is, for the Comfort of Believers against Death. If it be so that their dead Bodies can thus triumph over the Grave, what else is there in their Death that seems terrible? As for their Souls, they are then instantly lod­ged in the Mansions prepared for them above: But if their Bodies are thus also ex­cellently provided for, every thing in Death is to be contemned. Nor need we shrink at the Pangs that usually attend Death; they are but the Cracks of a tatter­ed House, blown up in order to be rebuilt a stately Edifice: or rather a Groan or two at farewel, between two parting Friends that have been long loving Compa­nions together, but now must be separated for a great season, that they might meet again to the greater advantage of both, and these are the Body and the Soul. And Death is no less to be scorned coming by his terrible Messengers, Fire, Sword, Gibbets, Poison, or the like: When he uses Instruments, he is generally more courteous and gentle in his Dealings, and quicker of dispatch. A torrid malignant Feaver, or a Torture of several Weeks or Months by the Stone, Gout, or Stran­gury, have dealt more cruelly with a Body in dissolving it, than the Spanish Rack or Parisian Wheel have done. So that consider Death in all its affrighting Cir­cumstances, it need not be at all frightful to the dying Believer.

2. Infer. THE second Inference is, for the Comfort of Believers, against the tiresome fatigue of Pains, Sicknesses and Infirmities. The comfortable Considera­tion is this: That all Pains and Maladies prepare and hasten the Body for the place of refining; as they are Nature's Sufferings, so they are the effect of Grace mel­lowing the whole Man for Glory: They in whom Grace shines most, are com­monly most infirm in their Bodies; for the Souls that are most on the Wing for God, whose Graces are most vigorous in their Exercise, eat out soonest the Tene­ment of Clay. As the painful feeling of the Body of Death within, is the nailing of the old Man to the Cross by the new Creature, and Corruption painfully felt and odiously seen, is Corruption a mortifying; proved by the Apostle, Rom. 6.5. where he calls the Mortification of Sin, a being planted into the likeness of the Death of Christ; which was a painful and shameful, as well as a cursed Death: v. 6. he calls it the crucifixion of the old Man, and the destruction of the Body of Sin; that of Galat. 2.20, being added thereunto, and compared with Romans 7. from the 15 vers. to the end, particularly vers. 24. compared with vers. 25. From all which places, 'tis evident, that the painful feeling of Unbelief, and the Body of Death within is Unbelief and the Body of Death crucified, and the dying Tyger roaring in the Soul. The inward Blows of that Nature we feel, are Stabs at Heart given to inbred Corruption by the second Adam: So the pains Be­lievers feel in their Bodies are but as so many Blows the second Adam gives there to the first, in order to drive him out, and take up the whole Room for himself. Comfort thy self then with these words, thou sick Believer, under thy tedious ma­lady and sore pains, or with such arguings as these: These Pangs indeed are sharp, [Page 33]but they will after yield peaceable and blessed fruits, for 'tis in order that that which is earthly may be done away; that that which is spiritual may fill up all in all; 'tis for the refining of Flesh and Blood; for Flesh and Blood, as now circumstanced, cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither Corruption inherit Incorruption, 1 Cor. 15.50. I will be patient under my greatest pains then, since their tendency is to eat out Corrup­tion in my Body, so that it might inherit eternal Glory, together with my Soul, in incorruption.

THE other remaining Inferences relate to the whole Doctrine, as laid down in the first Sermon.

1. Infer. THAT the Doctrine is a cogent motive to Holiness in Life and power­ful Godliness in Conversation. If so be that a Believer can triumph over Death and the Grave, in reference to his Soul and Body, then the unspeakably free, rich, glo­rious Grace of God in Christ manifested in him, and believed into, must needs ob­lige the Man or Woman to all manner of holy Conversation. When Men have said all they can, against the Doctrine of Free Grace, impiously branding it with the Names of Antinomianism and Licentiousness; yet this is undeniable from the expe­rience of the most Godly, as well as from the Word of the Lord, that nothing con­strains to all manner of holy Obedience, like the Love of Christ revealed to the Conscience, and the Love of the Father in his Love. All that are most godly, can say what is said of the Woman in the Gospel; they weep much, and do much, as she, Luke 7.44, 47. because they love much; and they love much, because much is frankly forgiven them. This is certain, that the inherent Holiness of the Soul, is the Strength of the Soul, and the Strength or inward Sanctification of the Soul, depends upon looking to, by Faith, that Grace that is in Christ. Thou therefore, my Son, be strong within, [ [...]] 2 Tim. 2.1, 5. in the Grace that is in Christ Jesus, viz. at God's right hand. 'Tis not said, Be strong in the Grace that is in your selves, for that is to seek the living among the dead, a living Christ in our dead Frames, when he is never to be found there, for he is risen, and ever lives at the Father's right Hand, to make intercession for his Children, and a constant steady looking to him there, always interceding, and still full of Grace and Truth; 'tis that will carry on the Work of Sanctification in the Soul. The spiritual Life of a Believer is from Faith, and maintained by Faith. It is written, The Just shall live by Faith, Rom. 1.17. Gal. 3.11. Heb. 10.38. Faith is said to purifie the Heart, Acts 15.9. to san­ctifie, viz. the whole Man, Acts 26.18. and Faith always respects Christ and his Grace. The Blood of Christ, i. e. pardoning Grace in the Blood of Christ, received into the Conscience by believing, is affirmed to purge the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God, Heb. 9.14. The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation, and hath appeared to all Men in the Gospel, but as revealed unto the Consciences of them that believe, teacheth them, that denying ungodliness and worldly Lusts, they should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present World, Tit. 2.11, 12. And the GOD of all Grace in manifesting his Grace to the Soul, that he has called it to eternal Glory by JESUS CHRIST does go on to make perfect, establish, strengthen and settle the Soul: Which Expressions, comprehend all the Work of Sanctifica­tion, in its several parts and degrees, till it arrives to the fulness of the stature of a perfect [Page 26]Man in Christ Jesus. 'Tis apparent from these and several other places of the holy Scriptures, that the Grace that is in us, proportionably rises and falls to the believing Views we have of the Grace that is in the Heart of Christ towards us, and in the Hand of Christ to give us. To draw towards a close in this matter: This is it I am at, that our inherent Righteousness within us, is begun and carried on by Faith in the imputed Righteousness of Christ without us: These two are every way di­stinct, yet so as the former still flows from the latter. The All-wise GOD has so ordered it in the dispensation of his Grace, that his free Grace shall be magnified, and the Righteousness of his Son highly valued and advanced. Were the only use of Christ's Righteousness (and indeed that is a great use of it) to secure eternal Glory for us, we should be tempted to have little recourse to it by Faith; for that being once done, and our state secured, corrupt Nature would be apt to insinuate to us there would be no great need of such frequent viewing that God-like Righteousness without us, wherein we stand, it being that that is so contrary to Flesh and blood. But now our Holiness in every step of it depending upon the Righteousness of Christ being apprehended by the Soul in believing; it must, or it ought, to necessi­tate us to have constant recourse, by continued Acts of believing to this glorious Righteousness all the day long. Since it is thus, that every dram of true Gospel-Holiness flows into the Soul only this way: The Apostle affirms it three times, That now the just shall live by Faith; which Life, 'tis evident, he means to be a Life spiritual, or Life of Holiness here. And 'tis necessary that the Work of Ho­liness be carried on continually and constantly; and therefore that we believe in Christ and his Righteousness always. The reason of all is this: The Lord will have the Righteousness which is of Faith, the imputed Righteousness of his Son always view­ed, believed in, and admired by us. So that hence you may believe the Doctrine of Free-Grace does not tend to Licentiousness (as Satan in various Instruments clamours against it) but the quite contrary. Such undeserved superabounding Grace to pardoned Sinners, being the main motive unto Holiness of Heart, Lip and Life. The Apostle plainly affirms, Rom. 6.14. That the Souls being brought under Grace, breaks Sin's Dominion therein, i. e. the Soul being brought in believing under the powerful influence of that Grace that Reigns through Righteousness unto eter­nal Life, by Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. 5.21.

2. Infer. The second and last use is, for the encouragement of Sinners; yea, the chiefest, worst and vilest to come to Christ from the glorious Grace that is held forth in the Doctrine. The Believers, that thus have, and can, triumph over Death and the Grave, were once Sinners as you; may be some of them as vile as the vilest of you. Come you, therefore, and tast and see how gracious our Lord the Redeemer is, Come you and joyn with us in a perpetual Covenant to serve the Lord. Ac­cept of the peace of the Gospel, and make a venture upon an offered Jesus: Oh come you, the worst of you, and live the Life of Faith like the Just, and you shall die the Death of the Righteous, to triumph over all in Death. What­ever your Objections can be, this astonishing Free-Grace can answer them all. In­finite Wisdom has permitted all along prodigious Mountains of Opposition to rise in the way of Grace, on purpose that that Grace of God may declare it self boundless [Page 27]by triumphing over all. Thus though it was designed from all Eternity, that Free-Grace should have all the Honour in making the Elect happy: Yet a Law for Life was set up, that through the Breaches thereof, Sin might be suffered to enter; Sin, that odious thing that was such an Affront to the whole Godhead, and brought so great an eclipse on his manifestative Glory, was suffered, I say, to enter, that ele­cting Grace might be magnified in mounting above it. And the Law entered once again on Mount Sinai, that so Sin might abound, on purpose that Free Grace might super-abound, and reign and triumph over all. Free-Grace and electing Love does not only, like Jordan, overflow all its Banks, but, like the mighty Deluge, cover the tops of the highest Mountains of Opposition in the World. Therefore what Objections, O Sinners, can you have against bowing down to the Grace offered in the Gospel. O harden not your Hearts, but now hear ye his Voice? Know assu­redly this, That objecting against your acceptance of the Grace of Christ (be your Objections never so specious) is no other but a gain-saying of Christ. O do not rebell and gainsay against the wide-opened and stretcht-forth Arms of eternal Mercy and Compassion that now is extended to you. Be thou the vilest on the face of the Earth, yet as vile as thou has obtained Mercy. There are on Record instances of Sovereign Grace, greater than any of you can be: What think you of Adam? I durst almost engage to answer all thine Objections thou vilest Sinner, from that single Precedent. You say you are the greatest of Sinners; you cannot be greater than he, who was the Arch-Rebel and Traytor, who led his whole Race into an horrid Rebellion against GOD, yet he found Mercy. Ay, but your Sins are great; not greater than his, who, in one Sin, was guilty of the highest Ingra­titude, the most monstrous Unbelief, and the most devillish Pride and Discontent, &c. besides his breaking the whole Moral Law in that one Sin. Yet you may say, My Sins are many. I answer, That first Sin of his was a pregnant Monster, millions of Legions in it. But you'll reply, I sinned against Knowledge: So did he, against the most perfect Knowledge of God and his Will; yes, and against the most perfect enjoyment of God too; that is more than you can do. But you will object, I have sinned grievously. I reply, Adam was reeking hot in his deep-dyed Iniquity, when Mercy stepped in. True, say you, but I have shunned Mer­cy: So did he, when he fled to hide himself in the Garden. But you may again object, I have extenuated mine heinous Sins, instead of abhorring my self for them. Indeed you have done ill; yet though thou hast done as evil as thou couldst, yet do not let that discourage thee from accepting of offered Mercy; which to re­fuse is the greatest Sin of all: So did he, and charged God with it too. The Wo­man thou gavest me, &c. yet he found Mercy; and why not you? Many other things of this nature might be added, but that I am now bound to the greatest brevity. What shall I add, the case of Paul, who was an injurious Person, a Persecu­ter and a Blasphemer, yet he obtained Mercy; or the case of Mary Magdalene, who had seven Devils; of the Woman of Canaan, and the Woman mentioned Luke 7. &c. who were all three notorious Sinners, yet Sovereign Grace was extended to them. Let me add but one instance more, and that is fresh in your Memories; the case of Mr. Bigg, whose late decease gives the occasion to this Discourse, and the [Page 36]present Solemnity. His Death-bed attended with the manifestation of such Sove­reignty of Grace and Power from above, has allarmed the Neighbourhood. And you seem all to be in a surprize, and at a gaze about the things you have seen and heard relating thereunto: I shall therefore give as an exact account of the whole as has come into my Hands, that though he be dead, he may yet speak to you. And though in the Account I shall give, it will be necessary to touch upon his for­mer Life, yet it shall be done with a favourable hand, only so much as may tend to the advancement of that glorious Free-Grace manifested towards him: But ere I begin, I must antidote my Hearers with this Caution; Because it pleased the Lord to magnifie his glorious Grace towards him on his Death-bed, that none of you dare to presume from thence to put of your coming to Christ till a Death-bed season. The voice of this mighty Providence is, Turn now the worst of you, and live, 'Tis not, Defer Believing till a dying time. I durst almost venture to say, That whoever encourage themselves to continue in ways of Impenitency from this example, have breaking forth upon them the black Marks and Tokens of final Re­jection. It was well observed by one, One Thief on the Cross, in his dying Mo­ments, obtained Grace, that none might despair; and but one, that none might presume: So but one Mr. Bigg perhaps in an Age, that none may think when they have lived all their Life-time to Sin, they shall with ease, and at plea­sure, die to Christ. Thus having given this Caution, I now proceed to my Nar­rative.