against the Affaults of Death. Therefore we do not only endeavour to preserve this earthly Lodge that God hath let and fet to us for a Term, and to mend up the continual Dilapidations that happen in it: But at the very Sight of Death, when it gives us the Affault, we do then alfo advance our fpiritual Building, and labour to bring it to Perfection. So that we may fay as the Apoftle St. Paul, If our outward Man decays, the inward Man is renewed Day by Day, 2 Cor. iv.

To speak right, Death meddles with nothing but with the exterior Part of Man. For our principal Fort, and chief Bulwark, hath no cause to fear to be undermined nor fapt, nor to be won by Affault; for 'tis rais'd above the Heavens, and built upon the Rock of Eternity. It cannot be batter'd: For as the Thunderbolts, the Storms of Hail and ill Weather cannot prejudice the Sun-Beams, because they are of a fpiritual Nature: so all the Fury of the World, all the Powers of Hell, and the Rage of Death, can never wrong the Soul, that is of a fpiritual and immortal Nature. This Caftle can never be famished, for God furnishes it with Manna from Heaven; and from the Rock upon which 'tis built, there runs a Source of living Waters, that rifeth to everlasting Life. In a Word, as the Serpents crawl only upon the Duft, Death hath no Power but upon the earthly Part of Man; therefore our Lord Jefus Chrift adviseth his Apostles, not to fear them that kill the Body, but cannot kill the Soul.

At the very Inftant of our Soul's Separation from the Body, Death feems to have a great Advantage upon us; but when I confider all, I find that it hath no Cause to boast of the Victory. When a valiant Captain marches out of aTown almost destroy'd,to another more fecure, and better fortify'd, with his Weapons in his Hand; we fay that he hath quitted his Station, and not that he is overcome. Thus when this wretched Body decays, and that our Souls depart well arm'd with Faith and Hope, to lodge in a more fecure Place in the highest Heavens; no Body cay fay, or speak pro

perly,

perly, that we have been overcome. And it happens to fuch as fail on the Ocean, when a violent Storm threatens them with Shipwrack, they think themfelves very happy if they can quit their Veffel, leave it to the Mercy of the Winds and Waves, and efcape to Land with their Riches and Lives fafe: Thus 'tis with us who fall upon this tempeftuous Sea of the World; when Death raifeth its moft cruel Storms, we think our felves happy if we can leave this miferable Body, which feems as a Ship to our Souls; and if we can fecure our fpiritual Life and our heavenly Riches. Therefore we may juftly fay to the Faithful that are frighted when they fee Death threatning to drown them in its Depths, as St. Paul to his Ship's Company, who trembled for Fear at the Sight of roaring and fwelling Waves; Take good Courage, my Brethren, for laffure you, in the Name of the living God, that your Lives are fecure, and that you fall lofe nothing but this Ship, A&. xxvii. We may yet furnish them with ftronger Comforts; for thefe good Mariners loft their Ship without any hopes of recovering it again; but we are affured that God will one Day gather up every piece of the broken Veffels of our Bodies, and will join them together in a more perfect Eftate.

Therefore Death doth not carry away our Bodies by Violence, but we leave them willingly; we do not ftay for its Summons, but we do prevent Death, and give it a Licence; when we have packt up our Bag and Baggage, we are ready to depart out of this wretched Abode where we endure all manner of Calamities; for in this Houfe, Defluxions fall down,Vapours arife, the Pillars and Foundations tremble, the Joints open, the Windows are darkned, and the burning Fevers, like violent Fires, confume it.

I must not forget, that the Faithful name their Death not only a Removal of their Lodging, but a Removal from a Tabernacle. This teacheth us, that we must depart from hence with as much Joy and Readinefs, as a Soldier doth out of his Tabernacle, at the End of

a la

a laborious and bloody Warfare; and with as much Pleafure as the Children of Ifrael did out of their Camps in which they had remain'd in the Defart, to enter into the sweet and comfortableDwellings of the Land of Canaan.

Not only that Body is like to an hired House, or to a Tabernacle tranfported up and down; but 'tis by Sin become to our Soul a woful Prifon. Therefore Death may be compared to the Meffengers fent by King Pharoab, on purpofe to take Jofeph out of his Dungeon, and bring him to his Palace. The Body that was cre ated to be a noble Pavilion of Joy and Honour, is become, to our Soul, a wretched incommodious Prifon and Death is like to the Furnace of Babylon, that burnt and confum'd the Bands of the three Children, without prejudicing their Perfons or Attire, Dan. iii. For it deftroys the natural Bands that detain our Souls enflav'd to the Earth; but meddles not with its Ornaments, with its Righteoufnefs and Sanctification. Tis like the Skin that enclofeth the Child in his Mother's Womb, or like the Shell where the Chicken is form'd: For of Neceflity it must be broken before we can enter into immortal Life. In fhort, we may fay, That the Body which was given to the Soul, to its Palace, is become, by Sin, its Grave, and loathfome Sepulchre, far more noifome than that of Lazarus; and that Death is like the Voice that calls upon us, Lazarus, come out. Faithful Souls, you fee then, that as Sampfon carried away the Gates of the City of Gaza, and tranfported them to the top of the Hill; fo hath Jefus Chrift, our true Sampfon, tranfported and carried the Gates of Death to the highest Pitch of Glory: Therefore, whereas before we lookt upon it with Horror, at the Entrance of Hell; now we may behold it with Confidence and Joy, faying as Jacob did of Bethel, This is the Gate of Heaven.

Seeing therefore, that this is the Nature and Condition of Death, I find, that Men give it too much Advantage; for we thould not offer to fay, that fuch are dead whom God hath admitted into eternal Life; because the Qualification fhould be deriv'd from the

.I

chief

chief and nobleft Part: As 'tis in Nature, there is no Generation without Corruption; and we commonly fay, That 'tis a Generation, when the thing engender'd is more excellent than the thing corrupted; on the contrary, that 'tis a Corruption when the thing corrupted excels the thing that is engender'd. For this Reason, our Change and Removal out of this World fhall rather be ftiled a Life than a Death: Tho' our Body dies and rots in the Earth, our Soul revives and mounts up to Heaven; and this mortal Life which we leave with the World, is nothing in Comparison of that Life that we shall enjoy with Chrift and his holy Angels. God is named the God of Abraham, of Ifaac, and of Jacob. Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, Exod. iv. Mat. xxii.

I may alfo without any Figure affirm, That Death, in refpect of the Body, is no real Death, but a kind of Sleep; as 'tis faid in the Prophet Daniel, Many fleep. in the Duft of the Earth, Chap. xii. And in Ifaiah, that the Just fleep in their Beds. Therefore our Saviour fpeaking of Jairus's Daughter, declar'd, The Child is not dead, but fleepeth, Mat. ix. And of Lazarus his Friend, Lazarus our Friend fleepeth, and I go to awake him. Beloved, if thou art of the Number of fuch as Chrift loveth, thy Death will be but a kind of Sleep of a fhort Continuance, and of a few Days; the Lord will raise thee up again: For the Hour cometh, and is already, that the Dead fhall bear the Voice of the Son of God, and they that fball hear, fhall revive, Joh. v. During this Life, the Affaults of Death are no better than light Skirmishes, the moft fenfible and moft dangerous Blow that it ftrikes, in Appearance, is when it feparates the Soul from the Body; but the last and most final Encounter, that will put an End to all Difputes, will be at the Day of Judgment, when Jefus Chrift will appear from Heaven with the Hoft of all his immortal Angels and Saints, to encourage us to the Encounter. He will come with an encouraging Voice of an Archangel, and the laft Trumpet fhall found. Then Death will endeavour to

keep

keep us ftill in its black Prisons, and our Bones will be found without Life or Motion; but the Spirit of God fhall breathe upon thefe dry Bones, and will cause 'em to revive. As when the Prophet Jonas was three Days and three Nights in the Belly of the Whale, God commanded the Fish to vomit him up again upon the Ground; thus, when we shall have made fo long our Abode in our Graves, as God hath appointed in his Wisdom, Death fhall be forc'd to restore all that it hath fwallow'd. And as Daniel came out of the Lion's Den by break of Day, thofe favage Beasts having done him no harm; thus at the Break of the laft Day, at the rifing of the Sun of Righteousness, we shall all go out of Death's deep Dens; and, as if God had fent an Angel on purpose to shut the Mouth of this old Lion, we fhall then find that it hath done us no harm. Instead of devouring us, it will prove a faithful Keeper of our Bones. The Faithful then may fpeak to Death in the Language of the Prophet Micah, Rejoice not against me, O mine Enemy, when I shall fall I fhall rife, when I fit in Darkness, the Lord fhall be a Light unto me, Michah vii. 8. As Mofes faid to Pharoah, We will go into the Wilderness to facrifice unto our God, we will go out of thine Egypt with our Young and with our Old, with our Sons and with our Daughters, with our Flocks and with our Herds, there fhall not an Hoof be left behind, Exod. x. Thus we, in an holy Confidence, may talk with Death,maugre thy Rage and Fury, we will go up to Heaven to facrifice to our God immortal Praises; we fhall get out of thy Fetters. We, our Wives, our Children, our Brothers and Sifters, our Parents and Friends, all the People of God, whom thou doft at present keep in a clofe Reftraint. Notwithstanding the infernal Attempts of thine inhuman Power, there fhall not remain fo much as an Handful, no not so much as the least Grain of our Afhes behind us.

When the Son of God fhall appear in his Glory from Heaven, fhall confume all Deaths, Trophies, and Monuments with irrefiftible Flames; fo that it

fhall