THE CHURCH'S TRIUMPH OVERDO DEATH. Opened in a SERMON Preached Septemb. 11. 1660. at the Funeral of the most Religious and ver. tuous Lady, The Lady MARY LANGHAM. By EDWARD REYNOLDS D. D. now Bishop of NORWICH. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 1 Cor. 15. 55. LONDON, Printed by Tho. Ratcliff, for John Baker at the sign of the Peacock in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1662. To his ever Honoured and most worthy Friend Sir James Langham K. SIR, IT hath not been without a special providence of God, that this Sermon preached above a year and an half since, at the Funeral of your most religious Lady, should now by your earnest desire, come abroad unto public view. For hereby a just Account is given to the world of those deep and permanent Impressions of Love, Sorrow and Honour, which the memory of so matchless a Consort have made upon your soul, when a wound so long since inflicted, doth not yet cease to bleed afresh upon the continually recurring thoughts of so inestimable a loss. I have read in the Civil Law, That if a woman married again before the expiration of ten months after the death of her former Husband, she did Subire maculam Infamiae: But after such a space of time, it was presumed she might overcome the pressures of so great a sorrow, and yet still retain her Honour. You have passed over double that time, and yet not at all out of an unmanly softness, but out of a just and most judicious esteem of those eminent graces, which did so beautify the soul, and perfume the name of that excellent Lady, you do, not without redoubled Honour, often resume the view and sense of that divine stroke whereby you were deprived of so unvaluable a Treasure. Nor am I myself without a special Advantage acrewing unto me by this Publication, having so good an opportunity to let the world know that great debt of Honour, Love and Thankfulness wherein I stand bound to your noble Father, yourself, and all the branches of that worthy Family for those many Favours, those real and great bounties, which ever since I have had the Honour of an acquaintance with you, have been, and yet are enmulated upon me: I have no other way of paying back the Tribute which I owe to you all, then by beseeching the God of Grace to make all his Grace abound towards you all, and plentifully to supply you with the choicest ●f his heavenly Treasures, according to his Riches in Glory by Jesus Christ, which is the unfeigned prayer of Your most faithful Friend And Humble Servant, Ed. Norvic. THE CHURCH'S TRIUMPH OVERDO DEATH. ISAIAH XXVI. 18, 19 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind, we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise: awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. THe holy Prophet having in the foregoing Chapter set forth many gracious Evangelical promises, doth here in this celebrate them with a song of solemn and public thanksgiving, blessing the Lord for his salvation to his Church, and his severity against the enemies thereof. Whereupon we find the Church entertaining many holy Resolutions, as fruits and expressions of that her joy. She resoves to trust in the Lord for ever, in regard of his strength and fidelity towards his people, and of his power and jealousy against their enemies, ver. 4, 5, 6, 7. She resolves to wait upon God in the midst of judgements, upon the remembrance of that Name of his, whereby he made himself known to his people in Egypt, Exod. 34 6, 7. as a God able to give being to every promise, and by his truth and power to perform what his mercy had covenanted to do for her, Micah 7. 20. ver. 8, 9, 12. And this confident waiting upon God in trouble is commended ab opposito by the contrary disposition of wicked men, whom favours and mercies cannot persuade to learn righteousness, ver. 10, 11. She resolves to submit to God's fatherly Government alone, and to renounce all other usurping and tyrannical Lords, who had exercised domination over her, in rearguard of God's judgements executed on them, and his mercies renewed to his people, v. 13, 14, 15. She resolves to pour out her prayer unto God in the midst of all present troubles, acknowledging her own impotency, and the miscarriage of all her own carnal counsels and contrivances, and thereupon trusting no longer in herself, but in God which raiseth the dead, ver. 16, 17, 18, 19 Lastly, after all these pious dispositions and noble resolves, she concludeth her song with a triumphal Epinition and insultation over all her enemies, and with an assurance that as they should die and not live, fall and not rise, their persons and their memories should perish, ver. 14. so she should live, and rise and sing, and flourish, as the herbs buried in the Earth, when the dew of Heaven falls on them to refresh them, ver. 19 Some refer the words to the Babylonian Captivity, wherein they were as dead bones in a grave, Ezek. 37. 11, 12. without any strength, wisdom, or visible hope of being ever delivered. Some to the afflicted state of the Church under the Gospel, and the Rest or Sabbath which the Lord would give them at the last, out of all their labours and sufferings, Heb. 4. 9 Rev. 20. 2. Some to the last Resurrection and the faith of the Church touching that. And there is nothing more usual then for the Church and holy men therein to support their hearts above their incumbent afflictions, and to secure to themselves, the comfort of promised deliverance, notwithstanding all the seeming improbabilities thereof, by the general doctrine of the Resurrection. See Job 19 25, 26, 27. Isa. 66. 14. Host 6. 2. 2 Cor. 1. 9 Irenaeus lib. 5. cap. 15. 30. Tertul. de Resurrect. c. 32. Hieron. & Cyril in loc. Whatever was the particular state of the the Church then, certain it is, that in the general the words extend to the Resurrection of the faithful, and are so interpreted by the Ancients, Irenaeus, Tertul. Hierom, Cyril, Augustine, Aug. de Civ. dei lib. 20. cap. 21. Calvin Institut. l. 2. c. 10. sect. 21. l. 3. c. 25. sect. 4. and by learned moderns Expositors. The sore affliction here of the Church is compared to the pangs of a woman in travel, who earnestly cryeth out, and striveth to be delivered; a frequent allusion to express any exquisite pain by, Isa. 13. 8. Jer. 13. 21. She had in this her sore distress, cried with strong groans and cries unto God to be delivered, but all in vain, she brought forth nothing but wind, pain without profit, Jer. 12. 13. Wind is an usual expression, whereby the Scripture describeth frustraneous events, Jer. 5. 13. Host 8. 7. 12. 1. the womb of the Church miscarried, and brought forth, flatum pro faetu, they looked for salvation and deliverance, but they were totally disappointed, they had the pains of a travelling woman but not the comfort of a child born, John 16. 21. when they looked for deliverance from one calamity, they fell into another; or as some render it, instead of bringing forth a child, or working any deliverance, they were delivered of their own spirit, or gave up the Ghost. The next words are a literal explication of the metaphor, We have not wrought any salvation or deliverance. All our conceptions and cries end in vanity and disappointment. All our Hopes touching the ruin of our enemies, ver. 14. are come to nothing, they are not fallen. But we are dead men, very carcases, we dwell in the dust, we are as low as calamity can make us. Now above all this misery the Church by faith lifteth up her head, in the assurance of a glorious Resurrection. She turns away from the view and sense of her own sufferings, from the conceptions and parturitions of her own Counsels, and carnal contrivances, and with a triumphant. Apostrophe turns to God. Thy dead men shall live] The pronown is very emphatical, for they are the words of the Church to God, as appears by the continuation of the context, from ver. 16. so it is not meant of all, but of God's dead men, whether figuratively in any desperate clamity, or really in their graves, For the words will extend to both. Shall live] or do live, are prisoners of hope, have a seed of life in them, even in the grave. It is the Apostles similitude and illustration, 1 Cor. 15. 36, 37, 38. With my dead body] In the Original it is thus. My dead body, They shall live; by an usual Enallage of the number, every one of my dead bodies shall live. Some make it an expression of the Prophet's faith, applying to himself the comfort of that common salvation, Calvin. preaching nothing to them which he was not in his own particular assured of. Sasbout. Some take it as an Answer of Christ to the Church's faith, as if it related to that, Mat. 27. 52, 53. I conceive them to be the words of the Church still, comforting herself in the assurance of God's mercy to every one of her mystical members, which assurance is expressed by a kind of Hypotyposis, calling the dead to come forth out of the dust, and to rejoice for her deliverance. For thy dew is as the dew of Herbs] Thy divine word, power, and promise is able to do unto us as due unto herbs, though they seem outwardly dried up and dead, yet having a vital Root, they do by the fall of the dew send forth their Leaves and beauty again. Now God hath more care of us then of herbs, and his spirit more efficacy than the dew, and therefore however we may be withered and consumed with calamity and death, yet he will raise us up again, and clothe us with beauty and glory. Thus the Scripture often argues from natural to supernatural things, Jer. 31. 35, 36. Jer. 33. 20, 21. Psal. 89. 36, 37. 1 Cor. 15. 36. And this similitude of dew reviving and refreshing decayed herbs we frequently meet with, Prov. 19 12. Isa. 66. 14. Host 14. 5, 6. And the earth shall cast out the dead] as a woman doth an untimely birth. The Grave shall be in Travel with the dead, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. the Apostle seems to point at such a Metaphor, Acts 2. 24. and shall be delivered of them. Another version thus, Thou shalt cast the Giants in the earth. They who here as Giants did trample on the Church, and were formidable unto her, shall then fall and perish, when thy people shall awake and sing, as ver. 14. so elsewhere, They shall take them captives whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors, Isa. 14. 2. the sons of them that afflicted them shall come bending unto them Isa. 60. 14. 65. 13, 14. In the words we observe two general parts 1. The Church's complaint under very great calamity and disappointment, ver. 18. 2. Her triumph over all her enemies and sufferings, ver. 19 The complaint being expressed by the metaphor of conception and parturition intimateth. 1. The Greatness of their affliction. 2. The Contrivances they used to procure deliverance from it. 3. The disappointment of them all; we have brought forth wind, as elsewhere ye shall conceive chaff, and shall bring forth stubble, Isa. 33. 11. In the Triumph we may consider, 1. The Matter of it, Deliverance from the lowest to the best condition, from death to life, from a carcase to a Resurrection, from corruption to glory, from dust to singing. 2. The Reasons of it, 1. In regard of the subject, Mortui tui, God's dead men, Cadaver meum, the Churches dead body. 2. In regard of the Author and virtue whereby it should be effected, the Word, the Power, the Spirit of God metaphorically expressed, Ros tuus, Thy dew is as the dew of herbs. From the first general the Prophet's complaint we may observe three things. 1. That the Lord exerciseth his own people, yea his whole Church sometimes with sore and sharp afflictions, with the pangs and throws of a woman in travel. Sometimes we find them in a house of bondage in Egypt; sometimes in a Grave in Babylon; often oppressed with Philistims, Midianites, Canaanites, Ammonites, Edomites, Syrians, under the tyranny of the four great Monarchies of the earth. So the Christian Church first under the persecutions of the Heathen Emperors of Rome, and then under persecutions of Antichrist & her witnesses prophesying in sackcloth 1260. years. Rev. 11. 3. 12. 6. As Christ first suffered & then entered into glory, Luk. 24. 26. so must his Church, Rom. 8. 17. Christ hath a double Kingdom, that of his patience, and that of his power, we must be subjects under the Kingdom of his patience, before we come to that of his power. The Church must pass through the Sea and the Wilderness to Canaan, they must be in a working and suffering condition, before they come to the Rest or Sabbath which remaineth for them, Heb. 4. 9 David's militant Reign must go before Solomon's peaceable Reign. Our sins must this way be mortified. Our faith, hope, love, patience, humility, Christian courage and fortitude be exercised. Our conformity unto Christ evidenced. The measure of the wickedness of the enemy filled. The glory of God magnified in supporting them under, in delivering them out of all their afflictions, and raising them up when they are at lowest. Therefore we should not esteem it strange when we fall into divers temptations, or see the Church of God in the world in a suffering or dying condition, 1 Pet. 4. 12, 13, 17. Jam. 1. 2. If we will have Christ for our husband, we must take him for better for worse. 1. His afflictions are short, and but for a moment, Isa. 54. 7. 2 Cor. 4. 17. 2. Sanctified by the Spirit of glory and of God resting upon us, 1 Pet. 4. 13, 14. 3. Seconded with grace and the power of Christ to support us under them▪ 2 Cor. 12. 9 4. Operative unto peace, righteousness and glory, Rom. 8. 28. Heb. 12. 11. 5. Not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed, Rom. 8. 18. 6. Proportioned to our need, 1 Pet. 1. 6. and to our strength, 1 Cor. 10. 13. If we will come to glory we must go the same way unto it as Christ did, the way of holiness, and the way of sufferings, Act. 14. 22. and surely if there be enough in a woman's child to recompense the pains of her travel, John 16. 21. There will certainly be enough in the glory to come to recompense all our pains, either in our obedience or in our afflictions. II. We might here note, That even Gods own servants in time of trouble & calamity are very apt to betake themselves to their own conceptions and contrivances for deliverance; they are big oftentimes with their own counsels, and in pain tobring forth and execute their own projections, in order to the freeing of themselves from trouble. Gen. 12. 13. Abraham, Gen. 20. 2. when he was afraid of Pharaoh and Abimelech dissembled his relation unto Sarah; David fearing Achish the King of Gath feigned himself mad, 1 Sam. 21. 11, 12, 13. when he feared the discovery of his adultery, he gave order for the kill of Uriah, 2 Sam. 11. 15. one sin is the womb of another. When Asa was in danger from Baasha King of Israel, he bought his peace with the spoils of the Temple, 2 Chron. 16. 1, 2. when Jonah was afraid of preaching destruction to Ninive, he fled unto Tarshish from the presence and service of the Lord, Jonah 1. 3. when Peter was afraid of suffering with Christ, he flies to that woeful Sanctuary of denying and forswearing him, Mat. 26. 69— 74. thus the fear of man causeth a snare, Prov. 29. 25. This therefore is a necessary duty in time of fear and danger, to look up (as the Church here after disappointment by other refuges, doth) with a victorious and triumphant faith unto God, Isa. 8. 13. and to make him only our fear and our dread, not to trust in fraud and perverseness, or to betake ourselves unto a refuge of lies, Isa. 30. 12. 28. 15. but to build our confidence upon that sure foundation, on the which he that believeth shall not need make haste. If we lean not upon our own understanding, nor be wise in our own eyes, but in all our ways acknowledge him, and trust in him, and fear him, and depart from evil, we have this gracious promise that he will direct our paths, Prov. 3. 5, 7. the more we deny ourselves, the more is he engaged to help us. But when we travel with our own conceptions and will needs be the contrivers of our own deliverance, it cannot be wondered if the Lord turn our devices into vanity, and make our belly prepare wind and deceit, Job 15. 35. as it here followeth. We have brought forth wind, we have not wrought any deliverance, all our endeavours have been vain and successless. III. Carnal Counsels and humane contrivances are usually carried on with pain, and end in disappointment, and do obstruct the progress and execution of God's promises unto us. If we would go on in God's way, and use the means which he hath directed, and build our faith and hope upon his promises, we have then his Word to secure us, his Spirit to strengthen us, his Grace to assist us, his Power and fidelity to comfort us, we have him engaged to work our works for us, and his Angels to bear us in our Ways. But when we seek out diverticles and inventions of our own, when we will walk in the light of our fire, and in the sparks which we have kindled, Isa. 50. 11. and be wise in our own conceit, Rom. 12. 16. and walk after our own thoughts, Isa. 65. 2. no wonder if we be disappointed, and made ashamed of our own counsels, Host 10. 6. when we sow the wind, it is not strange if we reap the whirlwind, Host 8. 7. And therefore it is our wisdom to cease from our own wisdom, as the wise man exhorteth, Prov. 23. 4. in as much as the Lord hath pronounced a curse upon those that are prudent in their own sight, Isa. 5. 21. whom usually he disappointeth, Job. 5. 12. We have considered the Church's complaint, her anguish, her disappointment. Now in her Triumph we are first to view her deliverance, and then the causes of it. In the deliverance is a Gradation both in the misery from which, and in the condition unto which they are restored. For the former, 1. It extends unto dead men, whom to quicken exceeds the power of nature. But we do not use to give men over, and lay them out for dead as soon as their breath fails them, some diseases look like death; therefore the deliverance goes further unto Cadaver meum, my carcase, which the remainders of vital heat have forsaken, laid out, carried away, severed from the living, hastening to putrefaction. But death makes yet a further progress, this carcase must be had out of sight, lodged in the bowels of the earth, and there dissolved into dust, his house must know him no more, Job 7. 10. and yet even here when death hath carried a man to the end of his journey, and landed him in its own dominion, so far shall the deliverance extend. The Damsel whom Christ raised was mortua, though yet in the house amongst the living, Mark 5. 35. The widow's son gone a little further into the Region of death, coffined up, laid on the Bier, carried out from the House, a Carcase, Luke 7. 14. Lazarus in death's den, Inhabitator pulveris, as far as death could carry him, yet raised up, John 11. 38, 44. so there is a gradation in the Terminus à quo of this deliverance. There is likewise a gradation in the Terminus ad quem, the condition unto which they are restored. 1. They shall Live, and this is a favour though one stay in prison. 2. They shall Rise, their life shall be to an exaltation; the wicked shall live again, but it shall be to die again; but these dead shall live and rise, their life shall be an advancement to them. 3. They shall Awake, like a man out of sleep refreshed and comforted, Psal. 17. 15. 4. They shall sing, as victors over the grave, never to return thither more. So we have here, 1. The sad condition of the Church. 2. The great mercy and power of God to them in that condition. Their sad condition in the former of these two gradations. 1. They are dead men, in a condition of death, their whole life a conflict with mortality. And though this be not a calamity peculiar to them, (for death feedeth equally upon all) and though there be a great alleviation in their being Mortui tui, The Lords dead men; yet in some respects we find the weight of mortality on the Church's side. Wicked men meet many times with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, live in pleasure, and then die in ease, spend their days in wealth and jollity, in vanity and folly, and go suddenly to the grave, die only once and together, Job 21. 13. whereas holy men have complained of dying daily, 1 Cor. 15. 31. of being in deaths often, 2 Cor. 11. 23. of being compassed about with death, Psal. 18. 4. The wicked have no bands in their death, Psal. 73. 4. they are at an agreement with it, have as it were hired it not to disquiet them, Isa. 28. 15. they put it far from them, Amos 6. 3. whereas good men have their souls often drawing nigh to the grave, Psal. 88 3. Dead, then here they are, 1. Quoad mortis praeludia, all the forerunners and harbingers of death common to them with all others, sorrows, sicknesses, distresses, and infirmities of all sorts. 2. Quoad vitae exitum, they end their days in the same manner as other men; the wise man as the fool, Eccles. 2. 16. Psalm 49. 10. thus in common, good men and bad. But godly men 3. Are dead quoad affectus, Their affections and meditations are upon death. Wicked men feed and fat their lusts, fetch out all the sweetness that sin hath in it. Whereas holy men mortify their earthly members, crucify the flesh with affections and lusts, are ever dying to sin and the world, Rom. 6. 11. 4. They are dead, quoad seculum, crucified to the world, Gal. 6. 14. and therefore hated by it, John 15. 19 nothing to be looked for from it, but persecution and tribulation, John. 16. 33. as men have done to the green tree so they will to the dry, Luk. 23. 31. suffering belongs to the essence and calling of Christians, 1 Pet. 2. 21. they are hereunto appointed, 1 Thes. 3. 3. They are in his sense properly Mortui tui, the Lords dead men; for worldlings are not sufferers by calling and profession as true Christians are. They are not in trouble as other men, Psalm 73. 5. Job 21. 7— 13. II. From Mortui tui, it proceeds to Cadaver meum; and such they are not only by dissolution after death, but by condition before it; used like a dead carcase, exposed to contempt and dishonour, as the refuse and offscouring of men, Lam. 31. 45. 1 Cor. 4. 13. trodden under foot, Isa. 63. 18. Psal. 119. 51. had in derision, Jer. 20. 8. Jer. 20. 8. filled with contempt, Psal. 123. 3. made as the ground and as the street for proud men to go over, Isa. 51. 23. thus the righteous is an abomination to the wicked, they loathe him as a man would do a dead carcase, Prov. 29. 27. III. From dishonour they proceed to a kind of despair; They are Habitatores pulveris, they dwell in the dust, they are not only dust by constitution, Gen. 3. 19 and by dissolution, making the Grave their House, and their bed in darkness, Job 17. 13. but further by estimation, they judge so of themselves, abhorring themselves, and putting their mouths in the dust, Job 42. 6. Lam. 3. 29. they are valued so by others, Isa. 10. 6. as the mire of the streets. This is the sad condition of the Church sometimes in this world under persecution and captivity, so they were in Babylon as dead bones in a grave, Ezek. 37. 11, 12. By all which we learn what to look for in the world when we give our names to God. The usage not only of strangers and enemies, but even of dead carcases, to be buried in contempt and dishonour. The way to life lies through the country of death, as the way to Canaan through a sea and a wilderness; no scorns, no graves must deter us from a godly life, if ever we hope for a blessed resurrection. Neither may we think it strange when we meet with troubles in the world which are but the preludes and prefaces unto death, nor when one evil is over, may we sing a requiem to our souls as if all were passed, but look for vicissitudes and successions of sorrow, for clouds after rain, till we are landed in the Country of death. And since our tenure in this world is so obnoxious both to encumbrance and uncertainty, we should die to the world while we are in it, as those who are very shortly to be translated from it, and having no abiding station here, be careful to look after that City which hath foundations, and so to acquaint ourselves before hand with death by meditation on it, and preparation for it, that it may not come as a messenger of wrath, but as an Harbinger of glory, that in our death we may be Mortui tui, The Lords dead men, and prisoners of Hope, the Spirit of Christ in us being the earnest and seed of a Resurrection unto life. We have considered the sad condition of the Church expressed by our Prophet in that Emphatical Climax, Dead men, a Carcase, Inhabiters of the dust. Let us next take a view of the mercy of God in her deliverance, a deliverance not only commensurate to her troubles, but victorious over them, dead indeed, but she shall live; a carcase, but she shall arise; asleep, but she shall awake; in the dust, but she shall sing. So there is mercy fully answerable to the misery, no temptation without an issue, no calamity without an escape. 1. Vivent Mortui, or as others read it, Vivant. True both. They do live, They shall live. They have life in death, and that life shall work them out of death. 1. They do live in death. Wicked men are dead while they live, 1 Tim. 5. 6. dead in Law under the sentence of the curse, as Adam was legally dead by guilt and obnoxiousness the same day that he did eat the forbidden fruit. Dead in conscience under the pain of that sentence, and under the bondage of deserved and denounced wrath, Heb. 2. 15. Heb. 10. 27. dead in sin, under the power of Lust, Eph▪ 2. 1. Psal. 14. 3. their throats Sepulchers full of rotten words, Rom. 3. 13. their hearts Sepulchers full of unclean affections, Matth. 23. 27, 28. their lives Sepulchers full of dead works, Heb. 6. 1. But mortui tui, the Lords dead men live even in the Kingdom and Country of Death. 1. They live in praeludiis mortis, in all the forerunners of death; in the greatest calamities they bear up their hearts in the favour of God, which is better than life, Psal. 63. 3. 2 Cor. 6. 9 In these things, all these things; we are Conquerors, more than conquerors, Rom. 8. 37. 2. They live in Regno mortis, in the Kingdom and Country of death; when death hath possession of them, they live still: you are dead, and your life is hid, Col. 3. 3. The death of a Christian is not the taking away of life, but the laying up of life; as a Parent takes the Child's money, and keeps it for him: He that believeth shall live, though he die, John 11. 25. As Abel being dead, yet speaketh, Heb. 11. 4. Yea, their very bodies, though dead to them, do live to God, for he is the God of the living, Mat. 22. 32. therefore the Jews call their burying places Domus Viventium. 1. They live in the Promise and Power of God, Mat. 22. 29. 2. They live in the Life of Christ their Head; whether we wake or sleep we live together with him, 1 Thes. 5. 10. as we are risen with him, and sit with him in heaven, Col. 3. 1. Eph. 2. 6. 3. They live in the Seed of the Spirit of Holiness, whose Temples they are, which is in them a pledge and seminal virtue of Resurrection, Rom. 8. 11. compared with 1 Cor. 3. 16. 6. 19 In which respect the Apostle compareth the bodies of the faithful unto Seed, I Cor. 15. 42. to note, that by the Inhabitation and Sanctification of the Spirit, there is a vital virtue in the body to spring up and awake again. Thus even in the state of death, we have vitam Absconditam, Col. 3. 3. hidden out of our sight and sense, as seed in the Furrow, as a jewel in the Cabinet, as an Orphan's estate in the hand of his Guardian, hidden with Christ the first fruits, and in God the Author and Fountain of Life. Thus vivunt, they do live. And further, vivent, they shall live; for our life in Christ is not a decaying, but a growing and abounding life, Joh. 10. 10 therefore it will break forth into the similitude of Christ's glorious Body, in whom it is hid, as the Corn groweth into the likeness of that seed wherein it was originally and virtually contained, Joh. 12. 24. Col. 3. 4. Phil. 3. 21. 1 Joh. 3. 2, 3. Of natural life we cannot say, I live, and I shall live, for natural life runs into death, as Jordan into the dead Sea: But of Christian life we may say, I live, and I shall live; it is a life which runs into life, though through the way of death; as the waters of the Caspian Sea are said through subterraneous passages to have communion with the great Ocean. It comes from heaven, Christ the Fountain and Centre of it: and it goes back unto heaven: As a piece of earth falls to the whole earth, so every piece of heaven will find the way to its whole. 2. Resurgent: With my dead body they shall arise, their life shall be given them for their advancement: wicked men shall live again, that they may die again, and shall rise, ut lapsu graviore ruant, that they may be thrown deeper. Pharoahs' Butler and Baker came both out of prison, the one to his office, the other to dishonour, the one to be advanced, the other to be executed: So mortui tui, and mortui seculi, shall both come out of their graves, the one from a prison to a Furnace, the other from a prison to a Palace: In which respect Believers only are called, children of the Resurrection, Luke 20. 36. It is a Resurrection of life to the one, of condemnation to the other, Joh. 5. 29. And therefore to distinguish them from the other, it is added: 3. Expergiscimini. They shall awake as a man refreshed with sleep, which puts a great difference between the deaths and Resurrections of the godly and the wicked. 1. The death of the godly is but asleep: 1. In regard of the seeds of life abiding in them. A man in sleep ceaseth from the acts of sense, but the faculties he retaineth still: So an holy man, though he lose in death the acts of life, yet the seed and root he hath not lost, he lives to God still. 2. In regard of his weariness of the world, and fullness of days: A man wearied with labour lies down willingly to rest: Abraham d●ed full of days, he was satiated, and desired no more, Gen. 25. 8. the Apostle had enough of the world, when he desired to depart, and to be with Christ, Phil. 1. 23. whereas a wicked man, how old soever, is not said to die full of years, or satisfied with life: He may be loaded, but not replenished; he knows not whither he is going, and therefore he would fain stay in the world still. But it may be said, Have not wicked men brought death upon themselves, as Achitophel, Saul, Judas, and godly men been sometimes unwilling to die, as Hezekiah? Isai. 38. 1, 2. True both, yet neither the one out of the love of death, nor the other out of love of the world: wicked men are impatient of present anguish, and inconsiderate touching future terrors, and therefore rush upon the one to avoid the other: But godly men are weary of the body of sin, and believe the favour of God, and glory of Christ's presence, and that makes them desire to depart, and to be with him: Nor did Hezekiah decline death out of a servile fear, being able to plead unto God his uprightness, but out o● a desire to live to complete the Reformation of the Church which he had begun, and that he might have a Successor to derive the Line of the Royal Seed unto. So then death to the godly is but a sleep, in regard of the rest it giveth them, Rev. 14. 13. from sins, f●om sorrows, from labours, from enemies, from temptations, from fear, from evils to come; and therefore Job calls the grave his bed, Job 17. 13. and so the Prophet, They shall lie down in their beds, Isa. 57 2. 2. This awaking makes a great difference between the Resurrection of the godly and the wicked: the one riseth refreshed, as sleep repaireth the decays of Nature, so that a man riseth vigorous and recruited; therefore the time of the Resurrection is called the time of refreshing, and of restitution of all things, Acts 3. 19, 21. The other riseth affrighted, as a man awakened with a Thunderclap, or whose house is in a flame about him; the one awakes to his work, the other to his Judgement; it is morning and everlasting day to the one, it is horror and darkness to the other; and therefore it is added: 4. Cantate, when they awake they shall sing: as David when he awaked, calls on his Lute and Harp to awake with him, Psal. 57 8. In their graves, at Bobylon, they hung their Harps on the Willows, no music then, Psal. 137. 3. but they go out of their graves, as Israel out of the Red Sea, with Victory and Triumph over Death and Hell, and so shall sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb. Dust and Ashes, in the Scripture phrase, are ceremonies of mourning, Job 2. 12. Mic. 1. 10. but here they who inhabit the dust, are called upon to put off their prison garments▪ and to shake themselves from their dust, Isai. 52. 1, 2. to awake unto singing and triumph; when they awake they are satisfied, Psalm 17. 15. Thus we see the deliverance of the Church, is fully as large as their distress. From all which we learn: 1. The true cause why Death and the calamities leading thereunto, do still remain after Christ's Victory over them; to wit: 1 To exercise our Faith and Hope in God's Promises, for the righteous hath hope in his death, Prov. 14. 32. 2 to conform us unto Christ, as well in the way to life, as in the end, 1 Pet. 4. 13. 3 To wean us from the love of the world, which both useth us ill, and passeth away, 1 John 2. 15, 17. John 15. 19 4 To increase our desires of glory, that we may with good Jacob, wait for the salvation of the Lord, Gen. 49. 18. 5 To commend our love to Christ, which makes us willing to be dissolved, that we may go to him, as a stone is contented to be broken in moving towards its centre, Phil. 1. 23. 6 To commend the power of Righteousness, which is not afraid of the King of Terrors, nor to go to Christ, though there be a Lion in the way, Act. 21. 13. Rom. 8. 35-37. 7 To show the sweetness and virtue of the Death of Christ, which makes a Bed of a Grave, an Antidote of a Serpent; hath brought sweetness out of the strong, and meat out of the Eater; hath bound Death with her own Grave clothes, and set a Guard of Angels over the bodies of the Saints; hath rolled away the heavy st●ne from the graves of his people, and made it a place of ease and refreshment; hath made our Graves like a Garden, that our bodies like herbs might spring out again; hath slain Death as Benaiah did the Lion, in its own pit, and hath made it sick of the bodies of his people, and travel in pain like a woman with-Child, till at last it be delivered of them. 2 We should by Faith and Hope in this Doctrine comfort ourselves against all other calamities, and encourage ourselves against Death itself, which is but a depositary, and shall be an accountant unto God for every member of his Church, though it hath swallowed them, as the Whale did Jonah, it shall cast them up again: though to the wicked it be a Trap-door which lets them down to Hell, and so keeps them in the midst of laughter sorrowful, in the midst of plenty and pleasures fearful, in the midst of hope doubtful, when they remember the days of darkness, for they be many, and the days of torment, for they be more: Yet to Believers it is a Bed, a Rest, a Sleep a Friend, when it shuts the door between us and the world, it opens a door between us and heaven: Pardon of sin, and peace with God, makes us bold to play with the hole of the Asp and with the Cockatrice den, Isai. 11. 8. We have thus far considered the Church as dead, buried in the dust; as quickened, raised, awakened, delighted in God: We are III. To take a view of the causes of this deliverance, which are 1 Dispositive, in regard of the Subject. 2 Efficient, in regard of the Author. The dispositive causes qualifying the Subject for this deliverance, are in the two Pronowns, Tui, and Meum: thy dead men: my dead body. These mercies are not promised generally unto all dead men, but unto the Lords dead men, whom he hath chosen and form for himself, Psalm 4. 3. Isai. 43. 21. If he say thou art mine, neither water, nor fire, nor East, West, North, South, Egypt, Ethiopia, nor any other Enemy shall keep us back from him, Isai. 43. 1, 2, 6. 1. His we must be, if we will not be lost in death. 1 His by Consanguinity; for Christ having taken upon him the Nature of Adam, and the Seed of Abraham, and so vouchsafing to call Believers Brethren, Heb. 2. 11. by that means God is become our Father, John 20. 17. and therefore in the deluge of desolation, he will bring us into his Ark, as Rahab, when she was delivered herself, called together her Kindred to share therein with her, Josh. 6. 23. 2 His by purchase; there was a dear and precious price paid for us, we were bought with no less a price then the Blood of God, Act. 20. 28. and therefore he will vindicate his Claim and Title unto us; no man will lose what he hath paid for, if he be able to rescue and recover it out of the hands of unjust possessors: Christ having bought us, Death shall not withhold us from him, the Redeemed of the Lord shall return, Isai. 51. 11. 3 His by Covenant; thy Maker is thy Husband, Isai. 54. 5. and being married to her, he will make her return, Jer. 3. 14. Any loving Husband would fetch back his Wife from the Dead, if he were able to do it. 4 His by Dedication, Inhabitation, Consecration, as a Temple, 1 Cor. 6. 19 If Death destroy his Temple, he will raise it up again, John 2. 19 The Spirit that dwelleth in us, will quicken our mortal bodies, Rom. 8. 11. 2 His dead men we must be; we must die to sin, because he died for it; we must kill that which killed Christ; we must be dead unto sin, if we will live unto God, Rom. 6. 11. His dead men, his perseverantly until death, Rev. 2. 10. His patiently, even unto death, Heb. 10. 36. Nothing must separate us from his love. His ultimately, whether we live, we must live to the Lord, or whether we die, we must die unto the Lord, Rom. 14. 8. that he may be glorified in our mortal bodies by life, or by death, Phil. 1. 20. And being thus His dead men: 1 We are sure Death comes not but with a Commission from him, his providence sendeth it, his power restraineth it, his love and wisdom guideth and ordereth it to our good; it is his Officer, it shall touch us no further than he gives it authority, John 19 11. He hath muzzled and chained it; he saith to Death, as to Satan concerning Job, He is in thine hand, but touch not his Soul, meddle not with his Conscience, or with his Peace; and for his Body, thou shalt but keep it, thou shalt not destroy it, thou shalt be accountable for every piece of it again. 2. Being His dead men, he hath always an eye of compassion upon us, our sorrows and sufferings he esteems his own, Isai. 63. 9 Col. 1. 24. Act. 9 4. and if they be his, he will certainly save us from them, and conquer them as well in us, as in himself, for unto him belong the issues from death, Psalm 68 20. 3 As ever therefore we look for blessedness in death, or deliverance from it, we must labour both living and dying, to be the Lords, that he may own us when the world hath cast us out, that we may be precious in his sight, when we are loathsome to the world; jewels to him, when dung to men, that our Graves may not only have worms in them to consume us, but Angels to guard us. If we die in our sins, and be Satan's dead men, we shall never rise with comfort, rottenness will feed not on our bodies only, but on our names, we shall have worms in our consciences, as well as in our carcases: But when we can say, Lord, I am thine, thou art mine, we may thence infer, we shall not die, Hab. 1. 12. We have a life which death cannot reach, Col. 3. 3. this therefore must be our special care, to be Mortui tui, to die to the Lord, to fall asleep in Christ, 1 Cor. 15. 18. that when he comes we may be found in him, and so may be ever with him, 1 Thes. 4. 17. This is the first qualification of the Subject for deliverance, to be Mortui tui, the Lords dead men. 2. The next is, that it is Cadaver meum: 1 Mine, as the words of Christ, being my body, they shall surely rise: 2 Mine, as the words of the Church; Every member of my dead body shall rise in the unity of the whole. 1 Then my dead body being members of an Head that lives for ever, and hath the Keys of Hell and the Grave, shall certainly rise: His life is the Foundation of ours, Because I live, ye shall live also John 14. 19 If death had held him, it would much more have held us: But because in him the Mercies of David are sure, therefore his Resurrection is an assurance of ours, Act. 13. 34. Christ will not be incomplete, and the Church is his fullness, Eph. 1. 23. The feet under water are safe, when the Head is above it: Christ is said to be the first that rose from the dead, Act. 26. 23. the first begotten, the first born from the dead, Rev. 1. 5. Col. 1. 18. For though some were raised before him, yet not without him, but by the Fellowship of his Resurrection: As though light rise before the Sun, yet it doth not rise but from the Sun. The Mace goes before the Magistrate, but it doth so only in attendance upon him: He the only Conqueror of Death; and as the first fruits did sanctify the whole Mass, Rom. 11. 16. so Christ by his Resurrection did consecrate all such as die in the Lord, to be a kind of first fruits, and first born, Jam. 1. 18. Heb. 12. 23. and therefore it is said, that they shall rise first, 1 Thes. 4. 16. His Resurrection is unto all his members 1 Arrha, a pledge and earnest of theirs; He having paid our debt, death cannot detain us in prison for it: His Resurrection hath justified us against the claim of death, and will glorify us against the power of death: What he did purchase by the merit of his death, is made applicable to us by the power of his Resurrection, Rom. 8. 34. 2 Exemplar; His the pattern of ours: He taken not only from prison, but from judgement, death had no more to do with him, Isal. 53. 8. Rom. 6. 9 In like manner we shall rise Victors over death, never any more to be subject unto it: This the Apostle calleth the Image of the Heavenly Adam, 1 Cor. 15. 49. Phil. 3. 21. 3 Primitiae: The beginning of the future Resurrection; for he rose not barely in a personal, but in a public capacity, though it were a damnable Heresy of Hymeneus, that the Resurrection was past, 2 Tim. 2. 18. yet it is a truth to say, that it is begun. He first, than we at his coming, 1 Cor. 15. 23. By what is passed in the Head, we are assured of what is expected in his Members. 2 All the particular Members of the Church shall rise in the unity of one body, as mystically joined unto one Head, and as one Family, Eph. 3. 15. and all one in Christ, Gal. 3. 28. not barely the persons singly considered, but as a Church and Body shall rise. 1 Then be careful to be found in Christ at his coming; for though all men shall rise, yet with a great difference. The wicked potestate judicis, as malefactors are brought out of prison to the Judge to be condemned. The godly virtute capitis, the life of Christ shall be manifested in their bodies, 2 Cor. 4. 10. 2 A Christian must not only believe, Thy dead men shall live, but forth 1 My dead body shall arise too. Herein is the Life of Faith in bringing down general promises to our own particular cases, interests and comforts, 2 Cor. 4. 13, 14. Joh. 20. 28. Gal. 2. 20. 3 Since we shall all rise as one, we should all live as one. As we have all one Head, one Spirit, one Faith, one Hope, one Inheritance, one common salvation, so we should have one heart, and one soul, Act. 4. 32. Love as brethren, have the same care as fellow members one of another, weep with them that weep, rejoice with them that rejoice, That our life of faith on earth may in some measure express our life of vision in heaven, and since we shall agree there, not to fall our in our way thither, Eph. 4 1. 6. Phil. 2. 1, 2, 3. Col. 3. 12, 13. And thus much of the dispositive cause, qualifying the subject of this deliverance. 2 The Efficient follows. The word and command of God, being like dew to the tender herbs, to revive them when they seem dead. Whence we observe, 1 The facility of the last Resurrection in regard of God, to whom miracles are as easy as natural operations, A Miracle being nothing but a new creation. It is as impossible to us to cause rain as to raise a dead body. He therefore who we see doth cause the one, we may believe on his word that he will the other. We find Rain and dew used as Arguments to prove the omnipotency and greatness of God, Psal. 147. 5, 8. Job 5. 9, 10. ler. 14. 22. Zach. 10. 1. And this teacheth us a very useful point, to observe the wisdom and power of God in the Ordinances of heaven and course of nature, and from thence to argue for the settling of our faith in such things as exceed the course of nature; for there is no less omnipotency required to govern natural causes, then to work those that are supernatural. He therefore that keepeth his Law, and showeth his power in the one, will do so in the other too. The Lord strengtheneth our faith by the consideration of natural things, the bow in the clouds, Gen. 9 12. Isa. 54. 9 the stability of the mountains, Isa. 54. 10. the multitude of stars, Gen. 15. 5. the height of the heavens, Psal. 103 11. the beauty of the Lilies, Mat. 6. 28, 30. the Ordinances of the Moon and Stars, ler. 31. 35, 36. the Covenant of Day and Night, ler. 33. 20, 21. Thus the Lord teacheth us to make use of the rudiments of nature to confirm our faith in him. I go quietly to bed and am not frighted with the horror of the night. I know the day will return, It is God's Covenant. I put my seed into the ground in the Winter, I know it will grow into an harvest, the Sun will return, it is God's Covenant. And why should I not trust him, as well in his Covenant of Grace as of Nature? why should I not believe that that power which quickens dead corn, can quicken dead men, and can provide as well for my salvation as for my nature? The truth is, all unbelief doth secretly question the power of God. Things past and present all can believe, because they are seen. But things promised, when they pose reason, and transcend the course of natural causes, and the contrivances and projections which we can forecast, we many times stagger and falter about. Israel confessed what God had done, and that omnipotently, He smote the rock and the waters gushed out, and yet in the same breath they question his power, can he furnish a Table in the wilderness? can he give bread also and provide flesh for his people? Psalm 78. 19, 20, 22. Moses himself staggered, when the Lord made a promise which seemed to exceed the power of ordinary causes, Numb. 11. 21, 22. And therefore when God will confirm the faith of his servants, he draweth them off from viewing the greatness and strangeness of the promises in themselves, to the consideration of his power. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Gen. 18. 14. I am the Lord, the God of all flesh, is there any thing too hard for me? Jer. 32. 27. If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in mine eyes, saith the Lord of Hosts? Zach. 8. 6. And therefore in all cases of difficulty, when sense and reason, flesh and blood, dictate nothing but despair, we should by faith look up to the truth of God promising, and to the power and name of God giving being to his promises, whose ways are higher than our ways, and his thoughts then our thoughts, Isa. 55. 8. 9 So did Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 20. 12. so David, I Sam. 30. 6. so the Prophet, Ezek. 37. 3. so Abraham, Rom. 4. 19, 20, 21. so Peter, Luke 5. 5. so we should all do when we walk in darkness and have no light, still trust in the Name of the Lord, and stay upon our God, Isa. 50. 10. 2 We hence learn the Original of the Resurrection, it is an Heavenly work, as due which comes from heaven to revive the grass. The Lord resolves the lineage and genealogy of corn into Heaven, Host 2. 21. takes it to himself to be the father of the dew, Job 38. 28. It comes from him whose body did shed drops of heavenly dew in the garden, and by them did slay death, and revive he herbs of the grave. We must labour therefore by an heavenly conversation to have our Body's Temples of the holy Spirit, that this Heavenly virtue, when it hath drawn us out of our graves, may then carry us to Heaven; for as that which is earthly, when it is out of its place, never leaves descending till it goes to Earth: so that which is Heavenly, will never cease rising till it get to Heaven. Earthly vapours may be drawn up, but they fall again in rain and wind. Wicked men, though raised, will fall again. Any thing of heaven will go to heaven, any thing of Christ will go to Christ. Concerning this dear and worthy Lay, though my custom be to be very sparing in Funeral Eulogies, yet many things were in her so remarkable, that the mentioning of them cannot but tend to the Edification of others. I shall not mention her mere Exterrals. The worth, credit and dignity of her family. The gentleness and sweetness of her disposition, and all amiable accomplishments which rendered her lovely to those that knew her; nor set forth the proportion between her and the present Text. I shall only name such things as commended her to God as well as to men. She looked after Heaven very young: would frequently bless God for the Religious Education which she had under her parents. She was even then assaulted with Temptations unto Atheism, and to think that there was no God. But took the best course to repel and resist them, that the most experienced Christian could have directed her unto. Immediately betaking herself by prayer unto that God whom she was tempted to deny. She was a woman mighty in the Scriptures, read them over once a year, and searched after the sense of difficult places out of the several Annotations before her. She was as it were a Concordance directing usually to the Book and Chapter where any place of Scripture mentioned in discourse, was to be found. She was constant in reading substantial Authors, of dogmatical and practical Divinity, and by that means grew greatly acquainted with the whole Body of wholesome doctrine. She was unweariedly constant in the performance of private duties, in so much that it is verily believed by him, who had best reason to know it, that for twelve years together she never intermitted her morning and evening addresses unto the Throne of Grace. When she was suddenly surprised with the pangs of this last child, she ran into her closet to be first delivered of her prayer, and to pour out her soul to God, before she was delivered of her child. She had a singular delight in the public Ordinances, and was a most constant frequenter of them, with very serious and devout attention, calling her memory to an account when she came home, and if any particular slipped from her forgotten, she would inquire of her husband in bed to recover it for her. She left behind her in her closet a paper book, wherein with her own hand she had collected divers general Directions for an holy spending of the day, with several particular means for the faithful observance of those General Rules. She highly honoured Holiness in the poorest and meanest persons, and would frequently with some decent and modest excuse get off from unprofitable & impertinent discourse, that she might have her fill of more edifying conference with such, in whom she had learned of David, to place her delight. For divers months before her death she was wonderfully improved heavenward, as those about her observed, not regarding the world, nor letting any vain word drop from her; and her countenance many times after her coming out of her closet, seemed to have strange impressions of her conversing with God shining in it, as some conversant with her have professed to observe. She was greatly adorned with Meekness, Modesty and Humility, which are graces in the sight of God of great price. When one wished her joy with the Honour lately come to her, she answered, That there was a greater Honour which she looked after, which would bring with it more solid joy. She always expressed much Honour and Reverence to her parents, in all comely and dutiful comportment towards them, which much endeared them unto her. Full of conjugal affection to her dear husband revoking with an ingenuous Retraction any word which might fall from her, which she judged less becoming that Honour and Reverence which she did bear to him. When he was engaged upon public concernments, and more particularly when he crossed the seas to wait on his Sacred Majesty, she daily put up such ardent and heavenly petitions unto God for him, as caused those about her to conclude it impossible that the husband of so many prayers and tears should meet with any miscarriage. Wonderful watchful over his Bodily health; and spying out distempers in him before he discovered them himself. Earnestly desiring what is now come to pass, that he might survive her, that she might never know the wound of a deceased Husband. She had a more than ordinary care in the Education of her children, holding them close to the reading, and committing to memory both Scripture and Catechism, wherein by her diligence they made a very strange progress, a pregnant instance whereof to speak nothing of her children yet living, was her eldest son, who went to heaven in his childhood, about the age of five or six years, of whose wonderful proficiency in the knowledge of God, an exact account is given by a grave and godly Divine in the printed Sermon, which he preached at his Funeral. She was very affable and kind to her servants, specially encouraging them unto holy duties, who have professed themselves very much benefited in their spiritual concernments by the discourses which she hath had with them. She was very charitable and ready to do good to poor distressed persons, specially those of the household of faith, visiting, edifying, and comforting them, and with her liberality relieving their necessities, acknowledging Gods free and rich mercy in allowing her a plentiful portion of outward blessings, and that she was not in the low condition of those whom her charity relieved: In her sickness and extremities of travel and other pains, she earnestly pleaded God's promises of healing, of easing, of refreshing those that were weak and heavy laden, acknowledging herself so to be, not in body only, but in soul too, and was full of holy and servant ejaculations. Yea, when the disease affected her head, and disturbed her expressions, yet even then her speeches had still a tincture of Holiness, and savoured of that spirit wherewith her heart was seasoned. She advised those about her to set about the great and one necessary work of their souls while they were in health, assuring them that in sickness all the strength they had would be taken up about that. She desired her husband to read to her in her sickness Mistress Moor's Evidences for salvation, set forth in a Sermon preached by a Reverend Divine at her Funeral, meditating with much satisfaction upon them. And when some cloud overcast her soul, she desired her husband to pray with her, and seconded him with much enlargement of heart, and blessed God for the recovery of light again. Thus lived and died this excellent Lady, a worthy pattern for the great ones of her sex to imitate. Such works will follow them into another world, where none of the vanities of this, no Pleasures, no Pomp, no Luxury, no Bravery, no Balls, no Interludes, no Amorous or Complimental discourses, or other like Impertinencies of the world will have any admittance. The more seriously you walk with God, and ply the concernments of your immortal souls, living as those that resolve to be saved, the greater will be your treasure of comfort in your death, and of glory in another life; whereas all your other delights and experiments for content will expire, and give up the Ghost in Solomon's vanity and vexation of Spirit. The Lord make us all wise unto salvation. FINIS.