The Faith of Dying Jacob, Part 1
Juvat in immenso spatiantem vivere coelo.
Israel had eat and drank at natures table so fully, that he desired not a morsel or draught more. His sun did not set at noon: Many as early Blossoms drop away, much corn is stryed in the green hose; many roses pluck't in their green cups: Some have but short warning; the last month treads on the heel of the first, but Israel had fully compleated his journey, had many warnings, that now he had nothing to do but to die.
2. He had a satiety and fu… of spirituals, enrich'd with graces, comforts, & heavenly experiences: He had long sailed from port to port, till richly laden with the spoils of the East, knowing what 'twas to be transfer'd from nature to grace, he longed to be transfer'd and transformed from grace to glory, from glory to glory: The delicate dainties he had tasted at Gods table, and sweet draughts, he had been revived with in his wine-cellar, made him long for the immediate fruition of that fullness of joy, that is in the Lords presence, and pleasures that are for evermore: The warm rays, through the crevise of holy duties, made him long to see the Sun, the refreshing streams made him thirsty for the fountain: Domine, moriar ut te videam. The Gauls having tasted the Vines of Italy, were unquiet till they possessed the whole Land. Moses from the promise of an Angel to go with him, grows upon God for his own presence, and yet unsatisfied cries, Lord, shew me thy glory: Paul, ravished into the third Heavens, breaths out his, cupio dissolvi, I desire to be dissolved; the few hours he had in Heaven, made him desirous of that immediate vision that should never end, never be intermitted or interrupted, and made him think the time passed away slowly, finding his passage delayed. The Child filled is willing duplicate page duplicate page to be undressed, after a full meal that does not rise in their stomach, Saints are free to die, to go to bed▪ A full stomach hinders natural rest, not Spiritual: The fullness of the Earths things, makes unwilling to die, but the fullness of spirituals makes unwilling to live. The break-day of glory appearing, the delicious foretasts, the joyful prospects, the precious handsels, and waffs of joy, the delighting feelings, and fixed preconceived hopes of eternal felicities, make holy Souls impatient to be gone, and ready for the first ship that will transport them to that other world, à deliciis ad delicias: The sight of divine glory breeds a strange alienation of mind, from superintending the trivial matters of this world, and enflames with ardent transports of flaming affections, to be where all shall be consummate: Claudimini, claudimini oculi mei, nihil jam pulchrius amplius videbitis: O my eyes, be ye closed, you have seen the best on Earth, hasten to see the best in Heaven: 'Tis good, say the Disciples to be here, but 'tis best being above: foreign, Phil. 1. 23. Though to the Martyrs Life was sweet as to others, though nature was sensible of pain, how much unconcern'd were they with sensitive comforts or pains, having the feelings of the joys of another world, to the vexation of their torturers, and enliv'ning of their followers? When evidences are clear, experiences fresh, and full, frequent communion sincerely maintained, and their work is dispatched, their cry is, Arise, let us go hence.
6. 'Tis the voice of one taking his leave, and last farewell of his dear Relations, leaving a place he should know no more, going to a long home, whence he should not return, Job 7. 10. 14. and …2. Death is a departing, and that once for ever, not to be multiplyed by a fancyed Transmigration of Souls, Heb. 9 27. Job 17. last. The Body goes down to the bars of the pit, there all are barr'd, and locked up fast, the Spirit returns to God that gave it. Sinners depart leaving all their good things behind them, their down beds, their rich b…gs, and costly buildings, carrying only their sins with him: Hîc divitias amittunt, peccata portant: The Seive lets go the Flower, and keeps the Bran. Saints depart, leaving all their evil things behind, shaking off their vipers, and carrying their good things, their good works and graces with them: Some graces go formally as love and joy, 1 Cor. 13. last; others vertually: acts are transient, but the vertue is eternal, Luke 16. 9. that with open arms receive into everlasting habitations. O joyful exchange. Felix mutatio, uberrimus quaestus ubi pro mundo coelum, to leave Earth for Heaven; witness Mrs. Drakes Divine transport, having a bright morning after a long night of gloomy desertion, after Mr. Dods prayer, she cries out, O, O, O, what is this? I am undone, undone undone, I cannot stay, let me be gone, Father, Mother, Husband kiss me, and let me take my farewel, Angels stay for me, the Crown is ready, he is come, he is come, weep not, but rather rejoyce.
2. The reasons why Gods Israel, or the godly must die.
1. Israel must die because there is sin, that cries for the fulfilment of the antient threatning, In the day, thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die: Sin and death are couples, go chained together: Death had lain asleep for ever, if not enlivened by sin: The Sithe had had no Edge, if sin had not set it on: It had been unborn for ever; The Sword had never been drawn out of its Sheath, Rom. 5. 12. James 1. 14. Pelagians and Socinians to evade original sin, will not have it the punishment of transgression, but naturalis conditionis consequens, the consequent of mans natural condition, as made of mortal, brittle materials, tempered with elementary, fading qualities: True 'tis, what God made he can unmake, he can unpin the Tabernacle he sets up; yet his own Almighty will, who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, could have preserved these contrary elements from quarrelling upon Earth, as he did in the body of Christ after his Resurrection. Man at first was neither absolutely mortal or immortal, though mortality lay in the condition of nature, yet death was only on the supposition of sin. Man had a posse peccandi & moriendi. As he might sin, he might die: Humane Nature in Adam contracted a debt, and all must be arrested for it: The Blood was tainted to the dammage of the whole Family, though not for satisfaction, yet for the illustration of deserved justice: Where the garment is stained and sented with the blood of the murtherer, the Blood-hound will fasten▪ Death found sin on a sinless Saviour, and pull'd him down to the grave: All in a measure, though for other ends, must hold conformity to him, and by tasting of death, learn to prize him that came to deliver from death and wrath to come: By this the benefit of Christ is enhaunced; nature that attends self-preservation abhors it, and fears the viper though the sting be out, and if not for a Saviours interposure, it had remained as at first an enemy and passage to Hell.
2. The righteous dye that sin may not live. O happy Death! That killest thy self and sin at once. Goliahs head is cut off with his own Sword. Hîc praeceptum non peccare, ibi praemium. 'Tis Heavens precept that here we sin not; 'tis Heavens promise and reward that there sin shall be no more, it can't riggle into that heavenly paradise: The Law Vessels were not clean till broke to shivers: The People were unclean till even: The wall was pull'd down to destroy the Leprosy, and the fig-tree Epiphanius speaks of incorporated into its joynts. Death is the Red-Sea, where the Egyptians are drown'd, never to be seen more. Pia proles quae devorat matrem, sin was the mother of death, the Daughter buryeth the Mother full sore against her own, and the Devils will. Sin comes in at the Marriage of Soul and Body, and departs at their divorce: It doth Saints the kindness to rid them of what they would give worlds to be rid of immediately; on dissolution there is impeccability and impassibility to the Soul, it shall never sin nor suffer more. The Persians had an hunting day call'd vitiorum interitum, for the killing of venemous creatures. Death takes away a sinners Soul, and a Saints sin. Peccatum erat obstetrix mortis, & mors est sepulchrum peccati. The Death of the Body delivers from the Body of Death. Per quod potestatem habuit victum est. Death is welcome, not as the end of trouble, but as the end of sin: Filthy Garments put off, and White Robes put on. 'Tis sin makes life uneasie: Old Mr. Cowper said, I have sought death with tears, not from impatience, or perturbation, but as weary of sin, and afraid of falling into it. A Gentlewoman trembl'd at her reviving from deaths sentence, because returning to a world where she should sin again. The Grave to the Body shall be as the Fullers Sope, to wash out its stains; and as the Dyers fat to strike in an Orient Dye, into the Souls bridal apparel; in this withdrawing room it shall be new turken'd, and fashioned, fitted for an Eternal Marriage with the Soul and with the Lamb.
3. The godly die, that being godly may not hinder them of their chief desires, and truest happiness: Days here are few and evil, 'tis deaths kindness to shorten them: If hope were only in this Life, of all, the Saints were most miserable, because, besides the calamities that are the common appendages of humane nature, they are under special consignations to the Cross for Jesus sake, exposed to the keenest malice, of Men and Devils, because they are Christians. Hence death is put into a Christians inventory of goods, inter peculia, 1 Cor. 3. 21. Happy they would be; without this that gives delivery and seizin, they cannot be. Blessedness bears date from dying in the Lord, Rev. 14. 13. dying days are the foreign, natalitia, birthdays of holy Souls: Now Saints are happy, but then all is pure, fixed, and consummate; all is now mixed Wine dashed with Water; Chaff mixed with Wheat, Smoak with Fire, Unbelief with Faith, their Pillar is Cloud and Fire, their day made up of Morn and Even. Ambigendo confidunt, & confidendo ambigunt, they doubt and believe; believe and doubt: The Tide is coming and going; The Sun rising and setting: But then all shall be glorious and unalterable without shadow of change: The change from Nature to Grace is marvelous, I was a Persecutor, I was a Blasphemer: But the change from Grace to Glory is far greater, when Saints shall be so unlike themselves and what they were, that they shall stand amazed at themselves in their new dress, as if they were not the same persons. Religion will do none so much harm as to keep them long under severe Tutors, Governours and Harsh Taskmasters; or as to keep them long from their gloous Inheritance, and the Bosom of Christ: The greatest demonstration of divine love would be wanting, 'twould for ever dishearten from godliness, if men should fare the worse because they are better than others.
4. The godly die, that the Seas of mutual interchangeable loves may meet in one stream, that the Partition Wall 'twixt two Lovers may be broken down. Christ and his dear Spouse Love one another too much to be long asunder: The Spirit saith, come, the Bride saith, come, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Davids Bowels Yern for Absolom, and he longs to see his Fathers Face; a Mediatrix may easily bring both together. Blessed Jesus raiseth desires and expectations in holy hearts to enjoy him; his death and prayer in Heaven, is, that they may live together, John 17. 24. Father, I will that those that thou hast giv'n me be with me; so saith the Omnipotent Son to the Omnipotent Father, I will. He went to Heaven as their foreign, Heb. 6. 20. and representatively, they sit in heavenly places in him. In Heaven he is to prepare a place for them; shall all this cost and care be lost? Abraham rescues his Brother, David his Wives; will not the Redeemer rescue his afflicted Spouse? Hath he brought an Inheritance for himself and his Heirs; bequeathed it in his Testament; does he live to be his own Executor, and will he not possess his Children with it? The Saints have left all for him, the world is an enemy to them for his sake, their superlative esteem is, Whom have we in Heaven but thee? their cry is, Lord how long, why stay thy Chariot Wheels so long? Lord thou hast made us for thee; and our heart is unquiet till with thee: We can put into no other harbour, when shall we appear before thee? Surely nothing shall long keep apart these dear and Ardent Lovers, where the exile of either is a wound to both.
5. The godly must die to make room for godly successors. There is not room enough on the narrow table of this world at once for Gods Plate to stand upon: Many are to Act their part on the Stage, and some must go off. Many Stars are to arise and Shine, some must set. One generation passeth, and another cometh, Eccles. 1. 4. all Gods Children can't be hudled up in one room. One shall not do all the work, nor bear all the glory, or golden pennies; some are to come in at the third, others at the sixth, at the ninth, at the eleventh hour. One shall not fight all the Lords Battels, and carry away the triumph: Ferdinand said, How had I been Emperour if my Ancestors had not died? And I must die to make room for others. The Lord orders that some of Moses honour should be put upon Joshua, Num. 27. 19, 20. Elijah ascends out of sight, and drops his Mantle on Elisha, David prepares and makes room for Solomon, John admits a veil that Christ might shine, abates his trade and leaves his Customers to a worthier hand: Princes call home one Embassadour to send out another: Christ himself steps aside to make way for the Spirit. Saints shall go Sharers in Work and Wages, that all may rejoyce together, and one without the other may not be perfect, John 4. 36. Heb. 11. 40.
6. Israel, the godly must die to reap the harvest of Christs and their own labours. Shall the great price of Christs blood be shed in waste? Shall he make preparations in Heaven, & in the heart, to make meet for a blessed estate, in vain? John 14. 3. 2 Cor. 5. 5. Col. 1. 12. Shall a Mother endure hard labour, and not have the pleasure to fill her arms with her Child, and to dandle it at her Breasts? What will become of the Fathers promise, he shall see of the Travel of his Soul and shall be satisfyed? Shall he plant a Vineyard, and not Eat of the Fruit? Tread the Olives and not be anointed with Oyl?
Shall Christians labour in vain? Plough and sow in tears, and not reap the sheaves of joy? Shall they sigh and not sing? Pray and not Praise? Shall Corn be sown and shule in the Fields?