ISA. XXV. 7, 8.] BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH. 473
What is now done in his person, shall be done in his members. In the mean time, faith is our victory, his conquest over death our victory; his victory over all our spiritual enemies is our victory. Every one that be- lieveth is a conqueror of death, though he die, because he sees it conquered in Christ his head ; and as it is truly conquered in him, so Christ will con- quer it in all his members. For as Clu-ist in his natural body is gone to heaven, there to appear in our behalf, so shall mystical Christ be wholly in glory. He will not leave a finger. We shall all triumph over all our spi- ritual enemies. As Christ's natural body is glorious in heaven as our head, so shall also his mystical body be.
You see then how death is swallowed up by Christ as our surety, as the second Adam upon the cross ; and truly swallowed up in him. And by faith this victoiy is ours, and time will come when in our own persons it shall be swallowed up in victory.
This might be enlarged, but I haste to make use of it.
Mark, I beseech you, how death is swallowed up by Christ in his own person for our good. He gave a great way to death, for death seized on him upon the cross. Death severeth soul from body. Death had him in his own cabinet, his grave, for three days. Nay, this great king and tyrant death, had a great conquest over Chi'ist himself. But here was the glory of this victoiy ! When death, this great conqueror of the world, had Christ upon the cross, and in his own dominion, in the grave, where he rules and reigns, consuming and swallowing up all, death was fain to give up all ; and Satan thought to have had a great morsel when he devoured Christ, but there was an hook in his divine power that catched him, that when he thought to have swallowed up Christ, was swallowed up himself. His head was then broken. He never had such a blow, as by Christ on the cross, when he was overcome, being a scorn of the world visibly, yet invisibly in God's acceptation of that sacrifice, and in a spirit of faith. Chi'ist triumpheth over Satan. Death was subdued even in his own kingdom, and that makes the victory great.
Death by seizing on Christ without right, Christ hath freed us from the evil of death when it had right to us. Death hath lost all its right by fasten- ing on Christ, and so is become as a di'one* without a sting. So the great swaUower of all is swallowed up itself at last by Christ.
Une 1. Now for comfortable use of it. First, let us consider that God oftentimes gireth a great deal of iray to his greatest enemies. God useth a stratagem of retiring ; he seems to retire and give liberty to his enemies, but it is to triumph and trample upon them with greater shame. He will tread them to dust afterward. Christ gave death a great deal of liberty. He was crucified and tormented, then liadf to the grave, and there he lay. And this was to raise a greater triumph over this great prevailer, over the world and death itself.
It is continued so in the church. Doth not he give way to the enemies of the church ? They may come to say, Aha, aha, so would we have it. Now the poor children of God are where we would have them, but then comes sudden destruction. God, to make his victory more glorious, and more to discover their cruelty, comes upon them when they be in the top of pleasure, and the church in the bottom of abasement. Then God swal- loweth up all in victory, as Christ did death when it seemed to have been itself victorious.
This is a very comfortable consideration, for if death be overcome when * That i3, the ' drone' bee. — G. X That is, ' taken.' — G.
474 THE MARBIAGE FEAST [SeRMON IV.
it seemed to overcome Christ, wliat need we fear any other enemy ? Christ hath broken the net, as an eagle or great bird, and the rest escape by him.
You may enlarge this in your own meditations. He will swallow up death in victory. This is said for the time to come, he will swallow up death. But Paul saith it is also past, and swallowed up already. Faith saith it is done ; and so it is in our head. Were it not comfortable now to all true-hearted Christians, to hear that the church fareth better, and that the enemies were swallowed up, for they be but the instruments of this in- ferior death ? Let us get the spirit of faith, and see them all conquered, for certainly they shall have the worst at last. He that hath swallowed up death in victory, will swallow up all that be the cause of death. And there- fore the Scripture speaks of these things as past, ' Babylon is fallen, as a millstone cast into the bottom of the sea,' Rev. xviii. 21.
Get a spirit of faith, and we shall never be much troubled with Babylon ; for all the enemies of Christ, and adherents to that man of sin, must down, and partake of the judgments threatened in the Revelations. Heaven hath concluded it, and all the policy of Rome and hell cannot disannul it. The\'' be already swallowed up to faith, and Christ will rule till he hath put them all under his feet, Ps. ex. 1 ; which shall be done, not only to destroy them, but to raise himself higher, in giving them up to their confusion.