Jefus Chrift the great God of Hofts, who fits above in the Heavens in Triumph, and beholds all our Combats and Encounters. When he perceives us too weak, that we might not be overcome by our dreadful Enemies, he furnishes us with his Holy Spirit, and his own Armour, as Jonathan did David, when he delivered to him his Cloak, his Bow, his Belt and Sword. Befides, this merciful Saviour difarms Death of its moft hurtful Weapons, and takes away all its Arrows and Darts.

As the Strength and Power of Sampfon lodged in the Hair of his Head, which the Philistines could never have imagined; fo the Strength and Power of Death confists in fuch things as the World leaft dreams of. The most dreadful Weapons with which it terrifies and beats us, are the Thunderbolts and Curfes of the Law, and our Sins are Poison in which it dips its Arrows, or rather our Sins are the fiery Darts with which it wounds and deftroys us. Now Jefus Chrift hath redeemed us from the Curfe of the Law, when he became a Curfe for us, Gal. iii. He hath carried our Sins in his Body upon the Cross, 1 Pet. ii. And as the He-goat Harazel, hath transported them away into an uninhabitable Defart, Levit. xvi. He hath removed them from the Eyes of our God, as far as the Eaft is from the Weft; he hath caft them to the Bottom of the Ocean, and drowned. them in his Blood; fo that we may now fee fulfilled, what was foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah, The Iniquity of Ifrael fhall be fought for, and there fhall be none, and the Sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, Ch. i.

I

Therefore being befriended with the Grace of God, and armed with the Virtue of his Holy Spirit, let us fhew our Courage and defy Death; let us look it in the Face without Fear, laugh at all its Threats, and encounter it without Dread, for it is now like an infolent Soldier without Weapons; it is like a Bee without its Sting; it is like an old Lion that roars, but hath lost all his Claws; it is like a Snake that would convey its Poyfon, but hath no venomous Teeth left, having

been

been pulled out by him, who hath bruised the Serpent's Head.

If you confider nothing but Death's Exterior, its Face and fearful Appearance, its frigid Eyes, its meager Body, its ironed Hands; you cannot perceive any Difference between the Death of God's Children, and that of the moft wicked Varlets. But if you lift up the Masque, and examine the Death of the one, and of the other more exactly, you will meet with as great Difference as betwixt Heaven and Earth, the Paradise of God and Hell. For as Mofes's brazen Serpent, which he lifted up in the Defart, had the Form and Appearance of a burning Serpent, but nothing of the Poifon and Fire: Thus the Death of the Faithful appears as the Death of other Men, but hath not the deadly and pernicious Confequences. For it is not only a Sign and a Teftimony of God's Grace and Favour, but the Beginning of our Deliverance, and the Cure of all Diseases. As Mofes when he had caft Wood into the Waters of Marah, they had the fame Colour, but not the fame Bitterness, and unpleasant Taste : Thus the Death of God's dearest Children hath the fame Tincture and Appearance as before; but Chrift's Crofs hath taken away the Danger, the Trouble, and extracted out of it diftafteful Bitterness, and changed it into unspeakable Sweetness. As Pharaoh was drowned with all his Army, in the Waters of the Red-fea, but the Children of Ifrael found a fecure and pleasant Paffage into the Promised Land; when they were arrived upon the other Shore of that dreadful Sea, they fung unto God Songs of Triumph and Thanksgiving: Thus Death opens its Jaws to devour the Reprobates; it is an Abyss where they can find no bottom; but unto the Children of God it is a favourable Paffage into an eternal Bliss; as soon as they are gone through, they are arrived at the Place of Affurance, Joy, and Reft, where God furnishes them with Songs of Triumph and Thanksgiving to the Lamb, Rev, i. 15,

Balaam

Balaam the Prophet was called to curfe the People of God, but he blessed them, contrary to the vain Expectation of Balak, King of Moab. Thus Death hath been brought into the World by the Devil, to deftroy and utterly abolish the holy Seed; but God by his infinite Goodness and Wifdom hath changed it into Salvation and Bleffing. Let us therefore not be any longer puzzled to find out the Meaning of Sampson's Riddle, Out of the Eater came forth Meat, and out of the Strong came forth Sweetness, Judg. xiv. For the Church of God, unto whom Chrift hath difcovered the moft excellent Secrets of his Kingdom, teaches us to feek the fweetest Comforts out of the Belly of this old Lion.

It is not poffible to judge of Mufick by a single Note, or of an Oration by a Period, nor of a Comedy by a Scene. So we muft not judge of a Battle by the firft Affault, nor of a Wrestling by the first Embraces and Efforts of the Wreftlers. For fome in the Begining of the Battle turn their Backs, who nevertheless at laft often win the Victory; and fome in Wrestling are foiled at the beginning, who nevertheless fupplant their Enemy, and caft him upon the Ground. Therefore that we may better understand the great and notable Advantages that we have over Death, we must examine it all along until the End of the Encounter; we must take Notice of every Affault that we give unto this irreconcileable Enemy.

As foon as the Taper of our Life begins to burn, Satan fends forth his Blafts to extinguish it. Death labours to undermine this poor Dwelling from the first Moment that it was built, befieges it on all Sides, makes its Approaches, in time it faps the Foundation, it batters us with feveral Diseases and unexpected Accidents, every Day it opens a Breach, and pulls out of this Building fome Stones. But if Death labours to demolish on his Part, we on ours labour to repair: And as those who built the Walls of Jerufalem held with one Hand the Trowel, and with the other a Sword to fight; fo we defend ourselves, as well as we are able, against

against the Affaults of Death. Therefore we do not only endeavour to preferve 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 fpeak 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 or fapped, not to be won by Affault; for it is raised above the Heavens, and built upon the Rock of Eternity. It cannot be battered: 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 famifhed, for God furnishes it with Manna from Heaven; and from the Rock upon which it is built, there runs a Source of living Waters, that rifes 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 Apoftles, 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 Caufe to boast of the Victory. When a valiant Captain marches out of a Town almost destroyed, to another more fecured and better fortified, with his Weapons in his Hand; we fay that he has quitted his Station, and not that he is overcome. Thus when the wretched Body decays, and that our Souls depart well armed with Faith and Hope, to lodge in a more fecure Place in the highest Heavens; no Body can fay, to speak properly,

perly, that we have been overcome, And it happens

to fuch as fail on the Ocean, when a violent Storm" threatens them with Shipwreck, they think themselves very happy if they can quit their Veffel, leave it to the Mercy of the Winds and Waves, and escape to Land with their Riches and Lives fafe: Thus it is

us who fall upon the tempeftuous Sea of this Wh

when Death raifeth its moft cruel Storms, we think ourfelves 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 1 affure you, in the Name of the living God, that your Lives are fecure, and that you shall lofe nothing but this Ship, Acts 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 Estate.

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 packed 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 House, 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 Readiness, as a Soldier doth out of his Tabernacle, at the End of a laborious