(3.) The body, which scemeth most to suffer, hath much advantage ; a shed is taken down to raise up a better structure. ' It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body,' &c., 1 Cor. xv. 44. Here it is not capable of high enjoyments ; it is humbled with diseases, un- fit for duties. Again, ' It is sown a corruptible body, it is raised an incorruptible body.' Here it is liable to changes, there it may live for ever without change and decay. If we love long life, there is eternal life. It is carnal self-love that maketh us willing to abide in the flesh ; if we did but love ourselves, but love our own flesh, we would not be afraid to die ; for to die is to be perfected, to have body and soul free from sin and corruption.
[2.] The hurt of it is prevented. As you are chosen and sanctified in Christ Jesus, it cannot hurt you. I say again, death may kill you, but it cannot hurt you, it hath no power over the better part. Like a serpent, it feedeth only upon your dust ; nay, and for your bodies, that which dieth as a creature, is sure to live as a member of Christ. The Lord Jesus is our head in the grave ; your bodies have a prin- ciple of life within them ; believers are raised by the Spirit of holiness ; the same Spirit that quickeneth them now to the oflSces of grace shall raise their mortal bodies. So Kom. viii. 11, 'He shall quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.' The Holy Ghost can never leave his old mansion and dwelling-place. How many grounds of comfort have we against the mortality of the body ! Christ is united to body and soul, and he will not let his mystical body want one sinew or joint. In the account that he is to make to the Father, he saith, he is to ' lose nothing,' John vi. 39. Mark, he doth not say none, but nothing. Christ will not lose a leg, or a piece of an ear. Again, God is in covenant with body and soul ; when you go dow^n to the chambers of death you may challenge him upon the charter of his ow^n grace. God is the God of Abraham's dust, of a believer's dust; though it be mingled with the remains of wicked men, yet Christ will sever it, Mat. xxii. 32. Christ proveth the resurrection of the body by that argument, that ' God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' The ground of the argument is, that God made his covenant not only with the souls of the patri- archs, but with their whole persons. Again, Christ hath purchased body and soul ; so much is intimated in that place, 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your bodies.' Christ hath paid price enough to get a title to body and soul, and therefore he wdll not lose one bit of his purchase ; the Lord will call the grave to an account. Where is the body of my Abraham, my Isaac, my Jacob ? It is said, Kev. xx. 13, ' The sea gave up her dead, and the grave gave up her dead, and hell gave up her dead.' Let me note that hell is there taken for the state of the departed, or else what is the meaning of that passage that followeth afterward, ' and death and hell were cast into the lake that burneth ' ? &c. Well then, all the dead shall be cast up ; as the whale cast up Jonah, so the grave shall cast up her dead. The grave is but a chest wherein our bodies are kept safe till the day of Christ ; and the key of this chest is not in the devil's hands, but Christ's. See Kev. i. 18, ' I have the keys of death and hell.' When the body is laid up in the cold pit it is laid up for
448 THE saint's triumph over death. [1 Cor. XV. 57.
nnother day. God luath an especial care of our dust and remains ; when our friends and neiglibours have left it, Christ leaveth it not, but kcepoth it till the great and glorious day.
[3.] \Ve are eased from the terrors and horrors of death. Death is terrible, as it is a penal and natural evil, as I distinguished before. (1.) As it is a natural evil. Death in itself is the greatest of all evils, ^ojSepcou (po^epcoTUTov, said an heathen (Aristotle), which, in Job's language, may be rendered, ' The king of terrors,' Job xviii. 14. We gush to see a serpent, much more the grim visage of death. Moral I)hiloso]ihy could never find out a remedy against it. Heathens were either desperate, rash, stupid, or else they dissembled their gripes and fears ; but Christ hath provided a remedy, he hath delivered us not only from the hurt of death, but the fear of death : Heb. ii. 14, ' To deliver them from the fear of death, that all their lifetime were sub- ject to bondage ;' by his k^pirit he filleth the soul with the hopes of a better life. Nature may shrink when we see the pale horse of death approaching, but we may rejoice when we consider its errand, it is to carry us home ; as when old Jacob saw the chariots come from Egypt, how did his heart leap within him, because he should see his son Joseph. Death, however we figiu'e it with the pencil of fancy, is sent to carry us to heaven, to transport us to Jesus Christ. Now, who would be afraid to be happy ? to be in the arms of our beloved Jesus ? Let them fear death that know not a better life. A Christian knowetli that when he dieth he shall ' not perish but have everlasting life,' John iii. 17. The world may thrust you out, but you may see heaven alluring, ready to receive you, as Stephen saw heaven opened. Acts vii. 5G. There is an intellectual vision, or persuasion of faith, which is common to all tlie saints, though every one hath not such an ecstasy and sensible representation as Stephen had ; yet usually in the hours of their departure faith is mightily strengthened, and acted so that they are exempted from all fear and sorrow. (2.) As it is a penal evil. It is sad when death is sent in justice, and clothed with wrath, and cometh in the quality of a curse. You know what was said before, ' The sting of death is sin ;' they die indeed that die in their sins ; death is a black and gloomy day to them, they drop down like rotten fruit into the lake of fire. Now Christ hath taken away the sting, the dolours and horrors of it ; he hath taken away death as he hath taken away sin ; he hath not cast it out, but cast it down, taken away the guilt and power of it, though not the being of sin : so the hurt, the sting is gone, though not death itself ; it is like a serpent disarmed and unstinged, we may put it into our bo.soms without dan- ger. There are many accusations by which Satan is apt to perplex a dying soul ; these make death terrible and full of horrors ; but ' they overcome by the blood of tlie Lamb,' Kev. xii. 11, and get the victory of the.se doubts and fears ; when sins are pardoned fears vanish. Luther said, Fan, Donwie,/cri, ahsolutus sum apcccalis mcis — Strike, Lord, strike ; my sins are pardoned.