Part 37
There is also an account, in the life and death of Mr. John Janeway, of the great assurance and joy which he had in his last sickness, in which he expresses himself to this purpose; “I am, through mercy, quite above the fears of death, and am going unto him whom I love above life. O that I could let you know what I now feel! O that I could shew you what I see! O that I could express the thousandth part of that sweetness which now I find in Christ! you would all then think it worth the while to make it your business to be religious. O my dear friends, you little think what a Christ is worth upon a death-bed! I would not, for a world, nay, for millions of worlds, be now without Christ and a pardon. O the glory! the unspeakable glory that I behold! My heart is full, my heart is full; Christ smiles and I cannot choose but smile. Can you find in your heart to stop me, who am now going to the complete and eternal enjoyment of Christ? Would you keep me from my crown? The arms of my blessed Saviour are open to embrace me; the angels stand ready to carry my soul into his bosom. O did you but see what I see, you would all cry out with me, How long dear Lord, come Lord Jesus, come quickly? Or why are his chariot-wheels so long a coming?” Much more to the same purpose may be found in the life of that excellent man, which is exceedingly affecting.
And there is another who does not come short of him in his death-bed triumphs;[114] who says concerning himself, “Death is not terrible, it is unstinged; the curse of the fiery law is done away: I bless his name I found him; I am taken up in blessing him; I am dying rejoicing in the Lord; I long to be in the promised land; I wait for thy salvation; how long! Come sweet Lord Jesus, take me by the hand; I wait for thy salvation, as the watchman watcheth for the morning; I am weary with delays; I faint for thy salvation: Why are his chariot-wheels so long a coming? What means he to stay so long? I am like to faint with delays.” After that he said, “O Sirs, I could not believe that I could have born, and born cheerfully this rod so long: This is a miracle, pain without pain. And this is not a fancy of a man disordered in his brain, but of one lying in full composure: O blessed be God that ever I was born; O if I were where he is! And yet, for all this, God’s withdrawing from me would make me as weak as water: all this I enjoy, though it be a miracle upon miracle, would not make me stand without new supply from God; the thing I rejoice in is, that God is altogether full; and that in the Mediator Christ Jesus, there is all the fulness of the Godhead, and it will never run out. I am wonderfully helped beyond the power of nature, though my body be sufficiently teazed, yet my spirit is untouched.” Much more to this purpose we have in the latter part of his life, which I shall close with one thing that is very remarkable. When he was apprehensive that he was very near his death, he said, “When I fall so low that I am not able to speak, I’ll shew you a sign of triumph, when I am near glory, if I be able;” which accordingly he did, by lifting up his hands, and clapping them together, when he was speechless, and in the agonies of death.
Many more instances might have been given to illustrate this argument, whereby it will evidently appear, that God is pleased, sometimes, to deal familiarly with men, by giving them extraordinary manifestations of his presence, before he brings them into the immediate enjoyment of himself in heaven; which may be well called an earnest or prelibation thereof.[115] And it may serve as a farther illustration of an argument before insisted on,[116] to prove that assurance of God’s love is attainable in this life, from the various instances of those who have been favoured with it. This assurance, as it may be observed, is accompanied with the lively acts of faith, by which it appears to be well grounded; so that, as the apostle says, _The God of hope_ is pleased to _fill them with all joy and peace in believing_; whereby they _abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost_, Rom. xv. 13. in which respect it may be said, to use the prophet’s words, that _they joy before thee, according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil_, Isa. ix. 3. This is like the appearing of the morning-star, which ushers in a bright and glorious day, and gives a full discovery to themselves and others, that there is much of heaven enjoyed in the way to it, by those whom God delights to honour. Thus concerning the communion in glory, which the members of the invisible church sometimes enjoy in this life; which leads us to consider,
II. The miserable condition of the wicked in this life, when God is provoked, as a sin-revenging Judge, to fill them with a sense of his wrath; from whence arises horror of conscience, and a fearful expectation of judgment; which is the beginning of those torments which they shall endure after death, as it is observed in the latter part of this answer. We have many instances in scripture, of the punishment of sin in this world, in whom God is said _to reprove and set_ their iniquities _in order before their eyes_, Psal. l. 21. which fills them with horror of conscience,[117] and leaves them in utter despair. They who once thought themselves in a prosperous condition, concerning whom it is said, _Their eyes stand out with fatness, they have more than heart could wish_, Psal. lxxiii. 7. yet their end was terrible, when it appears that they were _set in slippery places_, being _cast down into destruction, brought into desolation as in a moment, and utterly consumed with terrors_, ver. 18, 19.
We have a sad instance of this in Cain, after he had slain his brother, and fell under the curse of God, whereby he was sentenced to be a fugitive and vagabond in the earth. He separated himself indeed from the presence of the Lord, and the place in which he was worshipped; but could not fly from the terrors of his own thoughts, or get any relief under the uneasiness of a guilty conscience; which made him fear that he should be slain by the hand of every one that met him; and complain, _My punishment is greater than I can bear_, Gen. iv. 13.
And some understand that expression of Lamech in the same sense, when he says, _I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven-fold_, Gen. iv. 23, 24. The wrath of God was also denounced against Pashur; as it is said, the _Lord hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib; for thus saith the Lord, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends_, Jer. xx. 3, 4.
And Judas, after he had betrayed our Saviour, was filled with the terrors of an accusing conscience, which forced him to confess, not as a believing penitent, but a despairing criminal; _I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood_; after which it is said, _He departed, and went and hanged himself_, Matt, xxvii. 4, 5. Nothing is more terrible than this remorse of conscience, which renders sinners inexpressibly miserable. This is a punishment inflicted on those who sin wilfully, presumptuously, and obstinately against the checks of conscience and rebukes of providence, and various warnings to the contrary, who treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath; who are _contentious, and do not obey the truth_; that is, they are so far from obeying it, that they persecute and oppose it; and, on the other hand, _obey unrighteousness_: to these belong, as the apostle says, _indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish_, Rom. ii. 5, 8, 9. This not only waits for them, as _laid up in store, and sealed up among God’s treasures, to whom vengeance belongeth_, Deut. xxxii. 34, 35. but they are made to taste the bitterness of that cup, which shall afterwards be poured forth without mixture. In this world _their eyes shall see their destruction, and_ afterwards _they shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty_, Job xxi. 20. This is a most affecting subject; how awful a thing is it to see a person surrounded with miseries, and, at the same time, shut up in darkness, and left destitute of hope! With what horror and anguish was the soul of Saul filled, when he uttered that doleful complaint; _I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me_, 1 Sam. xxviii. 15. much more for a person to apprehend himself fallen into the hands of the living God, who is a consuming fire; and having nothing left but the fearful expectation of future judgment, and an abyss of woes that will ensue hereupon. These are the evils that some endure in this life; which is no less terrible to them than the comfortable foretastes of the love of God are joyful to the saints.
From the different view of the end of the wicked, and the righteous, many useful instructions may be learned.
1. When we consider the wicked as distressed with the afflicting sense of what they feel, and with the dread of that wrath which they would fain flee from, but cannot, we may infer,
(1.) That a state of unregeneracy, whatever advantages may attend it, as to the outward blessings of common providence, is a very sad and deplorable condition, far from being the object of choice to those who duly consider the consequences hereof. The present amusements that arise from the enjoyment of sensual pleasures, from whence the sinner concludes himself to be happy, is the most miserable instance of self-deceit, and will appear to be so, if we consider the end thereof, or that _the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment_, Job xx. 5. and after that, nothing shall remain but what wounds his spirit, and makes his misery intolerable.
(2.) When we meet with instances of persons sunk in the depths of despair, and tormenting themselves with the fore views of hell and destruction, let this be a warning to others to flee from the wrath to come. I would not be peremptory in passing a judgment on the state of those who apprehend themselves to be irretrievably lost, and feel those terrors in their consciences which no tongue can express. A person can hardly read the account of the despair of poor Spira, soon after the reformation; and how much his sentiments concerning himself, resembled the punishment of sin in hell, without trembling: he was, indeed, a sad instance, of the wrath of God breaking in upon conscience; and is set up as a monument to warn others, to take heed of apostacy; and in this, and suchlike instances, we have a convincing proof of the reality of a future state of misery; or, that the punishment of sin in hell is not an ungrounded fancy: nevertheless, it is not for us to enter into those secrets which belong not to us, or to reckon him among the damned in another world, because he reckoned himself among them in this. And as for any others that we may see in the like circumstances, we are not so much to pass a judgment concerning their future state, as to infer the desperate estate of sinners, when left of God, and to bless him that it is not our case. And on the other hand, let not unregenerate sinners think that they are safe, merely because their consciences are quiet, or rather stupid, since that false peace, which they have, is no better than _the hope of the hypocrite_, which _shall perish_, and be _cut off_; and his _trust shall be as a spider’s web_, if he continue in his present condition.
From what has been said concerning the happiness of the righteous, in the enjoyment they have of the first fruits of the heavenly glory, we may learn,
(1.) That this may afford farther conviction to us, that there is a state of complete blessedness reserved for the saints in another world; since, besides the arguments we have to prove this taken from scripture, we have others founded in experience, so far as it is possible for any to attain to the joys of heaven before they come there. Though the instances we have here given thereof are uncommon, yet this inference from them is just, and may afford matter of conviction to those who are wholly taken up with earthly things, and have no taste of, nor delight in things spiritual, that religion has its own rewards attending it, and consequently that a believer is the only happy man in the world.
(2.) This may serve as an encouraging motive to induce Christians to hold on their way. Whatever difficulties or distressing providences they may meet with in this life, if they have the earnest and foretastes of heaven at any time, this will make their afflictions seem light; inasmuch as they work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And if they are rather waiting and hoping for them, than actually enjoying them, let them adore and depend on the sovereignty of God, who dispenses these comforts when he pleases: and if they are destitute of the joy of faith, let them endeavour to be found in the lively exercise of the direct acts thereof, trusting in Christ, though they have not such sensible communion with him as others have; and let them bless God, (though they have not those foretastes of the heavenly glory, which accompany a full assurance thereof,) if they have a quiet, composed frame of spirit, and are not given up to desponding thoughts, or unbelieving fears, and have ground to conclude, that though their state be not so comfortable as that of others; yet it is no less safe, and shall, at last, issue into the fruition of that felicity of which others have the first-fruits here on earth.
(3.) Let them who are at any time favoured with this privilege of assurance, and the joy that arises from it, walk very humbly with God, as being sensible that this frame of spirit is not owing to themselves, but to the quickening and sealing influences of the Holy Ghost; and if, by neglecting to depend on him for the continuance thereof, we provoke him to leave us to ourselves, we shall soon lose this desirable frame, and be left in darkness: since as without him we can do nothing, so without his continued presence we can enjoy none of those privileges which tend to make our lives comfortable, and give us an anticipation of future glory.
Footnote 109:
_See Quest._ lxxxvi. xc.
Footnote 110:
Reflecting as mirrors, or beholding as by mirrors.
Footnote 111:
_Vid. Dauberi orat. Funeb. ad front. & Hor. Noviss. ad calc. Tom. 3. Riveti operum: in which he is represented as saying, Nolite mei causa dolere, ultima hæc momenta nihil habent funesti; corpus languet quidem, at anima robore & consolatione plena est, nec impedit paries iste intergerinus, nebula ista exigua, quo minus lucem Dei videam. Atq; exinde magis magisque optavit dissolvi & cum Christo esse. Sufficit mi Deus exclamabat subinde, sufficit, suscipe animam meam: Non tamen moram impatienter fero. Expecto, credo, persevero, dimoveri nequeo, Dei Spiritus meo spiritui testatur, me ex filiis suis esse. O amorem ineffabilem! id quod sentio, omnem expressionem alte transcendit. Veni Domine Jesu, veni, etenim deficio, nan quidem impatiens Domine, sed anima mea respicit te ut terra sicca. Preces & votum, ut Deus Paradisum aperiret, & huic fideli servo suo faciem suam ostenderet; his verbis supplevit; cum animabus justorem sanctificatis; Amen, Amen. Exinde lingua præpedita verbo affirmare; mox ad vocem adstantium, ipsum jam visione Dei frui, annuere; paulo post sub mediam decimam matutinam placide in Domino obdormiit._
Footnote 112:
_See Fleming’s Fulfilling of the Scripture, in fol. Part 1. page 287._
Footnote 113:
_See Dr. Goodwin’s Works, Vol. 5. in his life, page 19._
Footnote 114:
_See the Memoirs of the Life of Mr. Halyburton, Cap. 6._
Footnote 115:
_See this argument improved by Mr. Fleming_, _in his Fulfilling of the Scripture_, _Edit. in Fol. page 394_, & seq. _in which he takes several remarkable passages out of Melchoir Adam’s Lives, and gives several instances of that extraordinary communion which some have had with God, both in life and death; whose conversation was well known in Scotland; so that he mentions it as what is a matter undeniably true: and he relates other things concerning the assurance and joy which some have had; which has afforded them the sweetest comforts in prisons and dungeons, and given them a foretaste of heaven, when they have been called to suffer death for Christ’s sake._
Footnote 116:
_See Page 252, ante._
Footnote 117:
_See Vol. II. page 151._
Quest. LXXXIV., LXXXV.
QUEST. LXXXIV. _Shall all men die?_
ANSW. Death being threatened as the wages of sin, it is appointed unto all men once to die; for that all have sinned.
QUEST. LXXXV. _Death being the wages of sin, why are not the righteous delivered from death, seeing all their sins are forgiven in Christ?_
ANSW. The righteous shall be delivered from death itself at the last day, and even in death are delivered from the sting and curse of it; so that, although they die, yet it is out of God’s love, to free them perfectly from sin and misery; and to make them capable of farther communion with Christ in glory, which they then enter upon.
In these answers we have an account,
I. Of the unalterable purpose of God, or his appointment that all men once must die; which is also considered as the wages of sin.
II. It is supposed, that death has a sting and curse attending it with respect to force.
III. It is the peculiar privilege of the righteous, that though they shall not be delivered from death, yet this shall redound to their advantage: For,
1. The sting and curse of it is taken from them.
2. Their dying is the result of God’s love to them; and that in three respects,
(1.) As they are thereby freed from sin and misery.
(2.) As they are made capable of farther communion with Christ in glory, beyond what they can have in this world.
(3.) As they shall immediately enter upon that glorious and blessed state when they die.
I. God has determined, by an unalterable purpose and decree, that all men must die. Whatever different sentiments persons may have about other things, this remains an incontestable truth. We have as much reason to conclude that we shall leave the world, as, at present, we have that we live in it. _I know_, says Job, _that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living_, Job xxx. 23. and upon this account the Psalmist says, _I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were_, Psal. xxxix. 12. And if scripture had been wholly silent about the frailty of man, daily experience would have afforded a sufficient proof of it. We have much said concerning man’s mortality in the writings of the heathen; but they are at a loss to determine the origin or first cause of it; and therefore they consider it as the unavoidable consequence of the frame of nature, arising from the contexture thereof, as that which is formed out of the dust must be resolved into its first principle; or that which is composed of flesh and blood, cannot but be liable to corruption. But we have this matter set in a true light in scripture, which considers death as the consequence of man’s first apostacy from God. Before this he was immortal, and would have always remained so, had he not violated the covenant, in which the continuance of his immortality was secured to him; the care of providence would have prevented a dissolution, either from the decays of nature, or any external means leading to it. And therefore some of the Socinian writers have been very bold in contradicting the express account we have hereof in Scripture, when they assert that death was, at first, the consequence of nature;[118] for which reason man would have been liable to it, though he had not sinned; whereas the apostle says, _By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned_, Rom. v. 12.
We have a particular account of this in the sentence God passed on our first parents immediately after their fall; when having denounced a curse upon the ground for their sake, he says, _Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return_, Gen. iii. 19. And it may be observed, that as this is unavoidable, pursuant to the decree of God, so the constitution of our nature, as well as the external dispensations of providence, lead to it. This sentence no sooner took place, but the temperament of human bodies was altered,[119] the jarring principles of nature, on the due temperament whereof life and health depends, could not but have a tendency by degrees to destroy the frame thereof; if there be too great a confluence of humours, or a defect thereof; if heat or cold immoderately prevails; if the circulation of the blood and juices be too swift or slow: or if the food on which we live, or the air which we breathe be not agreeable to the constitution of our nature, or any external violence be offered to it; all these things have a necessary tendency to weaken the frame of nature, and bring on a dissolution. David includes the various means by which men die, in three general heads, speaking concerning Saul, _The Lord shall smite him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle, and perish: the Lord shall smite him_, 1 Sam. xxvi. 10. denotes a person’s dying by a sudden stroke of providence, in which there is the more immediate hand of God; and his _falling into battle_, a violent death by the hands of men; in both which respects men die before that time which they might have lived to, according to the course of nature; and what is said concerning his _day’s coming to die_; that is, a person’s dying what we call a natural death, or when nature is so spent and wasted that it can no longer subsist by all the skill of the physicians, or virtue of medicine; and then the soul leaves its habitation, when it is not longer able to perform the functions of life.
We might here consider those diseases that are the fore-runners of death, which sometimes are more acute; and by this means, as one elegantly expresses it, nature feels the cruel victory before it yields to the enemy. As a ship that is tossed by a mighty tempest, and by the concussion of the winds and waves, loses its rudder and masts, takes water in every part, and gradually sinks into the ocean: so in the shipwreck of nature, the body is so shaken and weakened by the violence of a disease, that the senses, the animal and vital operations decline, and, at last, are extinguished in death.[120] This seemed, so formidable to good Hezekiah, that he utters that mournful complaint, _Mine age is departed and removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver, my life; he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night, wilt thou make an end of me. I reckoned till the morning, that as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me_, Isa. xxxvii. 12, 13.
We might here consider the empire of death as universal; as the wise man says, _One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh_, Eccl. i. 4. and then they pass away also, like the ebbing and flowing of the sea. Death spares none; the strongest constitution can no more withstand its stroke, than the weakest; no age of man is exempted from it. This is beautifully described by Job; _One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet: his breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow: and another dieth in the bitterness of his soul; and never eateth with pleasure: they shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them_, Job xxi. 23-26.