The Fading of the Flesh and Flourishing of Faith, Chapter 20
CHAP XX. Comfort to ſuch as have God for their portion.
FOurthly, The Doctrine may be uſeful by way of Conſolation: It ſpeaketh much comfort to every true Chriſtian; God is thy portion; thy portion is not in toyes and trifles, in narrow limited Creatures, but in the bleſſed boundleſs God: He cannot be poor who hath my Lord Maior to his Friend, much leſſe he that hath God to his portion: A portion ſo precious and perfect, that none of the greateſt Arithmeticians ever undertook to compute its worth, as knowing it impoſſible; a portion ſo permanent, that neither death, nor life, nor the world, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things preſent, nor things to come, can part thee from it. This cordial may enliven thee in a dying eſtate. None can part thee and thy portion. The winter may freeze the ponds, but not the Ocean. All other portions may be frozen and uſeleſs in hard weather, but this portion is ever full and filling. Hagar, when her bottle of water was ſpent, wept becauſe ſhe did not ſee the fountain that was ſo near her. The abſence of the creatures need not make thee mourn, who haſt the preſence of the Creator.
Thou mayſt have comfort from thy portion in the moſt afflicted condition. Do men plunder thee of thy eſtate? thou art rich towards God, and mayſt ſuffer the ſpoiling of thy goods joyfully, knowing that thou haſt a more enduring ſubſtance, Hebr. 10.34. Do they caſt thee into priſon? though thy body be in fetters, thy ſoul enjoyeth freedome; no chains can ſo faſten thee to the earth, but thou mayſt mount up to heaven upon the wings of meditation and prayer. Do they take away thy food? thou haſt meat to eat which they know not of, and wine to drink which makes glad the heart of man, Iſai. 32.24. Is thy body ſick? thy ſoul is ſound, and ſo long all is well; The inhabitants ſhall not ſay, I am ſick; the people that dwell therein ſhall be forgiven their iniquities. Is thy life in danger? If thine enemies kill thee, they cannot hurt thee; they will do thee the greateſt courteſie; they will do that kindneſs for thee, for which thou haſt many a time prayed, ſighed, wept; even free thee from thy corruptions, and ſend thee to the beatifical viſion. When they call thee out to die, they do but (as Chriſt to Peter) call thee up to the Mount, where thou ſhalt ſee thy Saviour transfigured, and ſay, Let us build Tabernacles; O 'tis good to be here. Though Saul was frantick without a Fidler, and Belſhazar, could not be chearful without his cups, yet the Philoſopher could be merry (ſaith Plato) without muſick, and much more the Chriſtian under the greateſt outward miſery. What weight can ſink him who hath the everlaſting armes to ſupport him? What want can ſadden him who hath infinite bounty and mercy to ſupply him? Nothing can make him miſerable who hath God for his happineſs. Bleſſed is the people whoſe God is the Lord. O Chriſtian, thou maieſt walk ſo, that the world may know, thou art above their affrightments, and that all their allurements are below thy hopes.
In particular, the Doctrine is comfortable againſt the Death of our Chriſtian Friends, and againſt our own deaths.
Firſt, It is a comfort againſt the death of our friends. God is a godly mans portion, therefore they are bleſſed who die in the Lord without us; and we are happy who live in the Lord without them.
Its a comfort that they are happy without creatures; what wiſe man will grieve at his friends gain? In the ceremonial law there was a year of Jubile, in which every man who had loſt or ſold his land, upon the blowing of a trumpet had poſſeſſion again. The deaths-day of thy believing relation is his day of Jubile, in which he is reſtored to the poſſeſſion of his eternal and ineſtimable portion. Who ever pined that married an Heir in his minority, at his coming to age, and going to receive his portion? Their death is not paenall, but medicinal; not deſtructive; but perfective to their Souls. It doth that for them which none of the ordinances of God, nor providences of God, nor graces of the Spirit ever yet did for them. It ſends the weary to their ſweet and eternal reſt. This Serpent is turned into a rod with which God works wonders for their good. The Thracians wept at the births of men, and feaſted at their funerals; if they counted mortality a mercy, who could ſee death only to be the end of outward ſufferings, ſhall not we who beſides that ſee it to be the beginning of matchleſs and endleſs ſolace? A wife may well wring her hands, and pierce her heart with ſorrow, when her Husband is taken away from her, and dragd to execution, to hell; but ſurely ſhe may rejoyce when he is called from her by his Prince, to live at Court in the greateſt honours & pleaſures; eſpecially when ſhe is promiſed within a few days to be ſent for to him; and to ſhare with him in thoſe joyes and delights for ever.
Some obſerve that the Egyptians mourned longer (for they mourned 70 dayes) for old Jacobs death, then Joſeph his own Son; and the reaſon is this, becauſe they had hopes only in this life, when Joſeph knew that as his fathers body was carried to the earthly, ſo his Soul was tranſlated to the heavenly Canaan. I would not have you ignorant concerning them which are aſleep, that ye ſorrow not even as others that have no hope. 1 Theſ. 4.12.
As they are happy without us, for God is their portion; ſo we are happy without them. We have our God ſtill; that ſtormy wind which blew out our candles, did not extinguiſh our Sun; Our Friend when on his or her death-bed, might beſpeak us, as Jacob his Sonnes. I die but God ſhall viſit you, I go from you, but God ſhall abide with you. I leave you, but God will find you, he will never leave you nor forſake you. Reader, If God live, though thy friends dye, I hope thou art not loſt, thou art not undone. May not God ſay to thee, when thou art pining and whining for the death of thy relations or friends, as if thou wert eternally miſerable, as Elkanah to Hannah, Am not I better to thee then ten Sons? Am not I better to thee then ten Husbands, then ten Wives, then ten thouſand worlds? O think of it and take comfort in it.
2. Its comfort againſt our own deaths.Secondly, It is comfortable againſt thy own death. God is thy Portion, and at death thou ſhalt take poſſeſſion of thy vaſt eſtate. Now thou haſt a freehold in law, a right to it; but then thou ſhalt have a freehold in deed, make thy entry on it, and be really ſeiſed of it: Its much that heathens who were purblind and could not ſee afar off into the joys and pleſures of the other world (the hopes of which alone can make death truly deſireable) ſhould with leſs fear meet this foe then many Chriſtians. Nay 'twas more difficult to perſwade ſeveral of thoſe Pagans to live out all their daies, then 'tis to perſwade ſome amonſt us to be willing to die when God calls them. Codrus could throw himſelf into a pit,Plut. in vit. Vtic. Ca. that his Country might live by his death. Cato could againſt the intreaty of all his friends with his own hands open the door at which his life went out. Platinus the Philoſopher held mortality a mercy, that we might not alwaies be lyable to the miſeries of this life. When the Perſian King wept that all his army ſhould die in the revolution of an Age, Artabanus told him, that they ſhould all meet with ſo many and ſuch great evils, that they ſhould wiſh themſelves dead long before. Lyſimachus threatened to kill Theodorus, but he ſtoutly anſwered the King, that was no great matter; the Cantharides a little flie could doe as much. Cleombrotus having read Plato of the Souls immortality, did preſently ſend his own Soul out of his body to try and taſte it. The bare opinion of the Druides that the Soul had a continuance after death made them hardy in all dangers (ſaith Ceſar) and fearleſs of death.C…ſ. lib. 6. de bell. 6.
Chriſtians ſurely have more cauſe to be valiant in their laſt conflict; and its no credit to their Father that they are ſo loth to goe home. The Turks tell us, that ſurely Chriſtians do not believe Heaven to be ſo glorious a place as they talk of; for if they did, they would not be ſo unwilling to goe thither. It may make the world think the child hath but could welcome at his Fathers houſe, that he lingers ſo much a broad; certainly ſuch bring an ill report upon the good land.
Chriſtian, what is it in death that thou art afraid of? Is it not a departure, the Goal delivery of a long priſoner, the ſleep of thy body, and a wakening of thy Soul, the way to bliſs, the gate of life, the portall to Paradiſe? Art thou not ſure to triumph before thou fighteſt, by dying to overcome death, and when thou leaveſt thy body, to be joyned to thy head? The Roman general in the encounter between Scipio and Hannibal, thought he could not uſe a more effectual perſwaſion to encourage his ſouldiers then to tell them that they were to fight with thoſe whom they had formerly overcome, and who were as much their ſlaves as their enemies. Thou art to enter the liſt againſt that adverſary whom thou haſt long agoe conquered in Jeſus Chriſt, and who is more thy ſlave then thine enemy. Death is thine, 1 Cor. 3.30. thy ſervant and ſlave, to help off thy cloaths, and to put thee to thine everlaſting happy reſt.
Is it the taking down of thine earthly tabernacle which troubles thee? Why, Doſt thou not know that death is the workman ſent by the Father to pull down this earthly houſe of mortality and clay, that it may be ſet up a new, infinitely more laſting, beautiful and glorious? Didſt thou believe how rich and ſplendid he intends to make it (which cannot be unleſſe taken down) thou wouldſt contentedly endure the preſent toyl and trouble, and be thankful to him for his care and coſt. He takes down thy vile body, that he may faſhion it like to the glorious body of his own Son, which for brightneſs and beauty excels the Sun in its beſt attire, far more then that doth the meaneſt Star.
Is it the untying of the knot betwixt body and ſoul which perplexeth thee? It is true they part; but as friends going two ſeveral wayes ſhake hands till they return from their journey; they are as ſure of meeting again, as of parting; for thy ſoul ſhall return laden with the wealth of heaven, and fetch his old companion to the participation of all his joy and happineſs.
Is it the rotting of thy body in the grave that grieves thee? Indeed Plato's worldling doth ſadly bewail it: Woe is me, that I ſhall lie alone rotting in the earth amongſt the crawling Wormes, not ſeeing ought above, nor ſeen! But thou who haſt read it is a ſweet bed of ſpices for thy body to reſt in, all the dark night of this worlds duration, mayſt well baniſh ſuch fears. Haſt thou never heard God ſpeaking to thee as once to Jacob, Fear not to goe down into (Aegypt, into) the grave, I will go down with thee, and I will bring thee up again. Gen. 16.4.
Beſides, thy Soul ſhall never die. The heathen Hiſtorian could comfort himſelf againſt death, with this weak cordial, Non omnis moriar, All of me doth not die; though my body be mortal, my books are immortal. But thou haſt a ſtronger julip, a more rich cordial to clear thy ſpirits; when thy body failes, thy ſoul will flouriſh; thy death is a burnt offering; when thy aſhes fall to the earth, the celeſtial flame of thy Soul will mount up to Heaven. Farther, death will eaſe thee of thoſe moſt troubleſome gueſts, which make thy life now ſo burdenſome; as the fire to the three children, did not ſo much as ſinge or ſear their bodies, but it burnt and conſumed their bands: ſo death would not the leaſt hurt thy body or ſoul, but it would deſtroy thoſe fetters of ſin and ſorrow, in which thou art intangled:Nazian. Orat. Beſides the ſight of the bleſſed God (which is the only beatifical viſion) which at death thy ſoul ſhall enjoy. Popiſh Pilgrims take tedious journeys, and are put to much hardſhip and expence to behold a dumb Idol. The Queen of Sheba came from far to ſee Solomon and hear his wiſdom; and wilt thou not take a ſtep from earth to Heaven (in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, thy journey will be gone, and thy work be done) to ſee Jeſus Chriſt a greater then Solomon? Haſt thou not many a time prayed long, and cried for it? haſt thou not trembled leaſt thou ſhouldſt miſs it? hath not thine heart once and again leapt with joy in hope of it? and when the hour is come, and thou art ſent for, doſt thou ſhrink back? for ſhame, Chriſtian, walk worthy of thy calling, and quicken thy courage in thy laſt conflict. As the Jewes when it thunders and lightens, open their windowes, expecting the Meſſias ſhould come: O when the ſtorm of death beats upon thy body, with what joy mayſt thou ſet thoſe caſements of thy Soul, Faith and Hope wide open, knowing that thy deareſt Redeemer who went before to prepare a place for thee, will then come and fetch thee to himſelf, that where he is, there thou mayſt be alſo, and that for ever!
FINIS.
Some Scriptures that are occaſionally opened.
1 Sam. 30.6. p. 106. 2 Sam. 23.5. p. 64.
Eſter 7.6. p. 47, 48. Job 7. ult. p. 67.
Pſal. 11.6. p. 133. Pſal. 16.5, 6. p. 161. Pſ. 17. ult. p. 164.
Pſal. 27.5. p. 111. Pſal. 91.4. p. 112. Pſal. 121.4. p. 110.
Pſal. 142.5. p. 110.
Eccleſ. 1.2. p. 160. Eccleſ. 8.8. p. 34. Eccleſ. 9.12. p. 136.
Iſai. 25.10. p. 111. Iſai. 27.11. p. 111. Iſai. 27.3. p. 110.
Iſai. 40.6, 7. p. 14.
Zachar. 2.5. p. 110.
Habak. 3.16, 17. p. 124.
Matth. 6.21. p. 138.
Rom. 15.19. p. 114, 115.
1 Cor. 15.57. p. 65, 66.
2 Cor. 1.3. p. 123.