Thu'dhf, This covenant is not only well ordered in all things, but siwe : the mercies contained in it are called, " the sure mercies of " David,'' Isa. Iv. 3. Now how sweet, how seasonable a support doth this consideration give to God's afflicted under the rod ! you lat^y made yourselves ^wre^of that creature-comfort which hath for- saken you. It may be, you said of your child, which is now gone, as Lamech said of his son Noah, Gen. 5. 29. " This same shall com- *' fort us concerning our work, and toil of our hands." Meaning, that his son should not only comfort them, by assisting them in the
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work of their hands, but also, in enjoying the fruit of their toil and pains for him.
Probably such thoughts you have had, and raised up to j^our- selves great expectations of comfort in your old age from it ; but now you see you built upon the sand, and where were you now, if you had not a firmer bottom to build upon ? But blessed be God, the covenant-mercies are more sure, and solid ! God, Christ, and heaven, never gtartor fade, as these things do.
The sweetest creature-enjoyments you ever had or have in this world, cannot say to you, as your God doth, " I will never leave *' thee, nm' forsake thee.'' You must part with your dear husbands, how well soever you love them ; you must bid adieu to the wife of your bosom, how nearly soever your affections be linked, and heart delighted in her. Your children and you must be separated, though the}'^ are to you as your own soul.
But though these vanish away, blessed be God there is something that abides. ' Though all flesh be as grass, and the goodliness of it *^ as the flower of the grass, though the grass v/ithereth, and the *' flower thereof fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth *' upon it ; yet the word of our God shall stand for ever," Isa. xl. 6, 7, 8. There is so much of support contained in this one con- sideration, that could but your faith fix here, to realize and apply it, I might lay down my pen at this period, and say, the work is done, there needs no more.
Consideration 9. The hope of the I'csuri^ection should powerfully restrain all excesses qfsorrozo in those that do profess it.
Let them only mourn without measure, who mourn without hope. The husbandman doth not mourn when he casts his seed-corn into the earth, because he sows in hope ; commits it to the ground with an expectation to receive it again with improvement. Why thus stands the case here, and just so the apostle states it, 1 Thess. iv. 13, 14. " But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning '' them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which '' have no hope ; for if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, " even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him."
Q. d. Look not upon the dead as a lost generation ; think not that death bath annihilated, and utterly destroyed them : O no, they are not dead, but only asleep ; and if they sleep, they shall awake again. You do not use to make outcries and lamentations for your children, and friends, when you find them asleep upon their beds. Why, death is but a longer sleep, out of which they shall as surely awake, as ever they did in the morning in this world.
I have often wondered at that golden sentence in Seneca *, " My " thoughts of the dead (saith he) are not as others are ; I have fair " and pleasant apprehensions of them ; for I enjoyed them as one
* Habui enim illos tanquam andssurus, amisi tanquam habeam, Seneca, Lp. 63.
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*' that reckoned I must part with them; and I part uith them as " one that makes account to have them."'
He speaks, no doubt, of that enjoyment of them, which his pleasant contemplations of their virtuous actions could give him ; for he was wholly unacquainted with the comfortable, and heart-supporting doctrine of the resurrection. Had he known the advantages which result thence, at what a rate may we think he would have spoken of the dead, and of their state ; But this you profess to believe, and yet sink at a strange rate. O suffer not Gentilism to outvie Christianity; let not Pagans challenge the greatest Believers, to out-do them in a quiet, and cheerful behaviour under afflictions.
I beseech thee, reader, if thy deceased friend have left thee any solid ground of hope that he died interested in Christ, and the cove- nant ; that thou wilt distinctly ponder these admirable supports which the doctrine of the resurrection affords.
First,, That the same body which was so pleasant a spectacle to thee shall be restored again ; yea, the same numerically^ as well as the same spec'ificaUy ; so that it shall not only be ivhat it was, but the wlw it was. " These eyes shall behold him, and not another," Job xix. 27. The very same body you laid, or are now about to lay in the grave, shall be restored again : Thou shalt find thine o^vn husband, wife, or child, or friend again : I say the self-same, and not another.
Secondly, And farther, this is supporting, that as you shall see the same person that was so dear to you ; so you shall know them to be the same that were once endeared to you on earth in so near a tie of relation.
Indeed you shall know them no more in any carnal relation, death dissolved that bond : But you shall know them to be such as once were your dear relations in this world, and be able to single them out among that great multitude, and say, this was my father, mother, husband wife, or child ; this was the person for whom I wept and made supplication, who was an instrument of good to me, or to whose salvation God then made me instrumental.
For we may allow, in that state, all that knowledge which is cumu- lativeandperfective, whatsoever may enlarge and heighten our felicity and satisfaction, as this must needs be allowed to do. Luther''s judg- ment in this point, * being asked by his friends at supper the even- ing before he died, replies thus. What (saith he) befel Adam ? He never saw Eve, but was in a deep sleep when God formed her ; yet when he awaked and saw her, he asked not what she was, nor whence she came ? But saith, she was flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone. Now, how knew he that ? He being full of the Holy Ghost, and endued with the knowledge of God, spake thus : after the same
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* Melchior Adam, in the life of Luther.
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manner we also shall be in the other life renewed by Christ, and shall know our parents, our wives, and children.