Contentment Leading a Christian, Treatise 1 · Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII. Of death, and its terrors, and Contentment therein.
THe fifth personall evill is death, Grounds of Contentment in the approach and terrors of death.which of all evils is most fearefull and dreadfull to nature, because it is the extinction of it, and in it selfe a curse of sinne, a passage to hell. But godlinesse leaveth not the heart destitute of true content and comfort, even in this great combate, but stayeth the mind thus.
First, it lifteth up the eye of the soule unto God, of whom we first …had our life, and in whose hands our life is. We had not our life by chance, nor part with it by chance, but by the gracious disposition of God. Hee saith to Moses, Goe up into the mountaine and dye: and Psal. 90. 3. hee saith, Returne againe Psal. 31. 15.yee sonnes of man: and saith David, My times are in thine hands. Againe, looking up to God, it seeth how precious to him is the death of all his holy ones, Psal. 116. 15. And further, in that by death the godly soule is more neerely united unto God, and commeth to the fruition of that pure, chiefe, and immortall good, it can be contented to commit it selfe unto him to keep, as Paul, I know … Tim. 1. 2he will keep what I have committed unto him.
Secondly, it looketh to Christ, and 3seeth in him.
1 Death changed and qualified Christ qua … … for us. … …. 15. 55 … vitam …ors, ut à …ita … …etu… mors, Aug.by Christs death, being in it owne nature a curse and the very suburbes of hell: now it is disarmed, and the sting of death pulled out. It is a fiery serpent, stinging deadly, but a looke toward the brazen serpent is a ready cure Immoderate feare of death is a daughter of ignorance; it being with us as with children, who are frighted with the name of terrible things, and at the sight of some disguised person, but when they come to riper age, and yeares of discretion, contemne them. Wee are frighted as the Midianites, with the sound of broken pitchers, voyces, and lamps, and cowardly fly before we see any apparent danger.
2 It seeth the death of Beleevers, sanctifies it:not onelyonly altered, but sanctified by Christs death: that it becomes of a curse a blessing, and as a stage whereon a Christian manifesteth his faith, fortitude, love, patience, and constancy, and openly triumpheth over death, as his Head hath done before him.
3 It seeth Christ in Heaven, in and takes us by it to himselfe.glory, who is our Head and Husband, from whom while wee live here, we are strangers and pilgrims, separate from that happy society which wee shall enjoy with Him, and all our fellow members in the Kingdome of Heaven. Whereupon it doth desire his presence, and is not onelyonly contented, but willing to bee dissolved and bee with Christ. Paul considered, that he was now absent from the Lord, and desired to bee present. Simeon having Christ in his armes, said, Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace. Steven in the middest of the stones saw the Heavens open, and the Son of man standing at Gods right hand, and so slept quietly.
A sweet death, if Christ be in sight. Let him feare death, that would not goe to Christ.
So of the second ground.
3 It looketh upon death it selfe, 3and seeth in it:
First, the necessity of it. It is appointedThe necessity of dying. for all men once to dye, a statute-law of Heaven, inevitable, Heb. 9. 27. And seeing it knowes it to be so, it rather fits it selfe cheerefully to beare it, then fearefully to decline it.
Quest. How may that bee done?
Answ. 1 We must deal with this With preparation the…eunto, what.Giant and mighty Sampson, who slayes heapes upon heapes, as the Philistims did with him:
1 Sift out where his strength lyes, and finding it lye in his lockes, cut them off. The strength of thy death Si tantum de deferēd… morte satagitur, quā … de au f…exda laborandum est? Aug.is thy sinne, these are his strong lockes, cut them off by repentance, and death shall be too weak to hurt thee.
2 Labour to dye in faith, as the Saints, Heb. 11. 13. all these dyed in faith. Let thy faith fasten upon Christ, as himselfe did in his extreme agony, fixe his confidence upon his Father, saying, My God, my God, and, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.
Another necessity of death is, because without it wee can never attaine immortality and eternall life. The seed is not quickened, unlesse it dye first: neither can eternall life be had, but by the passage of this wicket. Wee have here no abiding City: our houses are rather Innes in which wee sojourne: our bodies Tabernacles, ready for removall and shifting: And the condition is, that when this earthly house shall bee dissolved, wee shall have a building eternall in the heavens.
Secondly, godlinesse seeth the advantage and gaine by death: that The utility of dying.it is no detriment to the faithfull, but a gaine, as saith the Apostle, Christ is my life, and death is to mee advantage, Phil. 1. 21. And it is a great gaine in two respects:
1 Because it is an end of all evils and wretchednesse.
2 Because it is a beginning of heaven and happinesse.
For the former:
1 It is an end of misery, sorrowes, 1 An end of all misery 4 wayes.cares, feares, teares: an end of sicknesse, paine, poverty, shame, persecution, and the like: for in death attended with teares, God wipeth away all teares from the eyes of his children: and then shall bee no more death, neither sorrow, nor wecping, nor paine, Rev. 21. 4.
2 It is an end of temptations by Satan. The soule in this world is in the bonds and snares of temptations: and the law of sinne in the members ministreth strength to Satan against our selves. But in death the soul is loosed from that bondage, and the body ceaseth to be an instrument either active or passive in sin. What a gaine is it never to sin more against God, yea to be wholly out of danger of sinning?
3 It is an end of wicked mens molestation: for death delivers the godly out of this evill world, … Lot out of Sodome, whose righteous soule was vexed amongst them day by day. They are safe from seducers and deceivers, who in these last ages come so armed, as, if it were possible, they would deceive the very Mat. 24. 24.Elect. They are got without the reach of Persecutors, and those enemies their eyes shall never see more.
4 It is an end of our owne pilgrimage, Psal. 119. 19 Heb. 11. 13.and absence from the Lord, wherein wee stand in so doubtfull and dangerous a battell, not onelyonly with enemies without us, but within our owne bosome, our owne covetousnesse, wrath, ambition, voluptuousnesse, lust, envy; and not a head can bee cut off from this Hydra, but another riseth in the roome: and no watch can be sufficient against them.
Now what man being absent from his owne house doth not long to dispatch his businesse, so to returne home? And thus the Saints, 2 Cor. 5. 2. Wee sigh, desiring to bee clothed with our house which is from heaven. It is our haven, and an end of our dangerous voyage upon the troubled sea of this world: a passage from corruption and mortality to immortality and incorruption: a sweet sleepe after our travell and labours, and an end of all the toyles of our lives, Ioh. 11. 11. our friend Lazarus sleepeth.
But more then this: It is a beginning 2. A begin ning of heavenly happiness.of happinesse, the entrance to Heaven, the Evening wherein the Labourers receive the penny of perpetuall joy and glory, a repossessing of Paradise lost by the first Adam, won againe by the second. By it wee come to the company of Saints, and the first borne written in heaven:
Wee come into the bosome of Abraham, even to our deare friends, who are gone before us to Heaven. But above all, wee come to Iesus Christ the Mediator, into the house of our heavenly Father, wherein he…e hath prepared us mansions, whither the forerunner is for us entred in, Even Iesus, Heb. 6. 20. And wee have boldnesse to enter into the holy place, by the new and living way which hee hath prepared for us through the vayle, that is, his flesh, cap. 10. 20. And by Iesus Christ wee come to behold the face of God, being made like unto Christ in holinesse and honour, and shall for ever with him inherite the Kingdome prepared from the beginning of the World.