for your own sufferings or the sufferings of others, Ps. xxxviii. 18; 2 Cor. vii. 11; Ps. cxix. 136; Neh. i. 3, 4. Now, it may be, one shall seldom find you but with tears in your eyes, or sorrow in your heart; Oh, but now death will be the funeral of all your sorrows, death will wipe all tears from your eyes, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away,' Isa. li. 11. But,

Fourthly, Death will free you from all those troubles, calamities, miseries, mischiefs, and desolations, that are a-coming upon the earth, or upon this place or that, Isa. lvii. 1; Micah vii. 1-7. A year after Methuselah's death, the flood came and carried away the old world. Augustine died a little before the sacking of Hippo. Luther observes that all the apostles died before the destruction of Jerusalem; and Luther himself died a little before the wars brake forth in Germany. Dear lady, death shall do that for you, which all your physicians could never do for you, which all your relations could never do for you, which all ordinances could never do for you, nor which all your faithful ministers could never do for you. It shall both instantly and perfectly cure you of all sorts of maladies and weaknesses, both inward and outward, or that respects either your body or your soul, or both. O my dear friend, is it not better to die, and be rid of all sin; to die, and be rid of all temptations and desertions; to die, and be rid of all sorts of miseries; than to live, and still carry about with us our sins, our burdens, and such constant ailments, as takes away all the pleasure and comfort of life? Here both our outward and inward conditions are very various; sometimes heaven is open, and sometimes heaven is shut; sometimes we see the face of God, and rejoice, and at other times he hides his face, and we are troubled, Lam. iii. 8, 44, 54-57; Ps. xxx. 7; 1 Thes. iv. 17, 18; Isa. xxxv. 10. Oh, but now death will bring us to an invariable eternity. It is always day in heaven, and joy in heaven.

[6.] Sixthly and lastly, You shall gain a clear, distinct, and full knowledge of all great and deep mysteries, 1 Cor. xiii. 10, 12. The mystery of the Trinity, the mystery of Christ's incarnation, the mystery. of man's redemption, the mysteries of providences, the mysteries of prophecies, and all those mysteries that relate to the nature, substances, offices, orders, and excellencies of the angels. If you please to consult myString of Pearls, or the Best Things Reserved till Last,' with sermon on Eccles. vii. 1, 'Better is the day of death than the day of one's birth;' which is at the end of my Treatise on Assurance'-both which treatises you have by you there you will find many more great and glorious things laid open that we gain by death; and to them I refer you.1 But,

my

6. Sixthly, Look upon death as a sleep. The Holy Ghost hath phrased it so above twenty times in Scripture, to shew that this is the true, proper, and genuine notion of death.2 When the saints die, they do but sleep: Mat. ix. 24, 'The maid is not dead but sleepeth.' The same phrase he also used to his disciples concerning Lazarus, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth,' John xi. 11. The death of the godly is as a

1 For the 'String of Pearls,' see Vol i.: for the other Sermon, Vol. vi.-G. * 1 Cor. xi. 30, and xv. 51; John xi. 12; Mark v. 39. The Greeks call their churchyards dormitories, sleeping-places; and the Hebrews Beth-chaiim, the house of the living.

sleep; Stephen fell asleep, Acts vii. 60; and David fell asleep,' Acts xiii. 36; and 'Christ is the firstfruits of them that sleep,' 1 Cor. xv. 20; 'Them that sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him,' 1 Thes. iv. 14. The saints of God do but sleep when they lie down in the grave. That which we call death in such, is not death indeed; it is but the image of death, the shadow and metaphor of death, death's younger brother, a mere sleep, and no more. I may not follow the analogy that is between death and sleep in the latitude of it, the printer calling upon me to conclude. Sleep is the nurse of nature, the sweet parenthesis of all a man's griefs and cares. But,

7. Seventhly, Look upon death as a departure: 2 Tim. iv. 6, 'For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.' He makes nothing of death. It was no more betwixt God and Moses, but go up and die, Deut. xxxii. 49, 50; and so betwixt Christ and Paul, but launch out, and land immediately at the fair haven of heaven: Phil. i. 23, 'For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.' Paul longed for that hour wherein he should loose anchor, and sail to Christ, as the Greek word avalúoal imports. It is a metaphor from a ship at anchor, importing a sailing from this present life to another port. Paul had a desire to loose from the shore of life, and to launch out into the main of immortality. The apostle, in this phrase, ȧvaXúoal, hath a reference both to his bonds and to his death; and his meaning is, I desire to be discharged and released, as out of a common jail, so also out of the prison of my body, that I may presently be with Christ my Saviour in heaven, in rest and bliss.1 After Paul had been in the third heaven, his constant song was, I desire to be with Christ.' Nature teacheth that death is the end of misery; but grace will teach us that death is the beginning of our felicity. But,

8. Eighthly and lastly, Look upon death as a going to bed. The grave is a bed wherein the body is laid to rest, with its curtains close drawn about it, that it may not be disturbed in its repose: so the Holy Ghost is pleased to phrase it, 'He shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds, every one walking in their uprightness,' Isa. Ivii. 2. As the souls of the saints pass to a place of rest and bliss, so their bodies are laid down to rest in the grave, as in a bed or bedchamber, there to sleep quietly until the morning of the resurrection. Death is nothing else but a writ-of-ease to the weary saints; it is a total cessation from all their labour of nature, sin, and affliction, 'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labours,' Rev. xiv. 13, &c. Whilst the souls of the saints do rest in Abraham's bosom, their bodies do sweetly sleep in their beds of dust, as in a safe and consecrated dormitory. Every sincere Christian may, like the weary child, call and cry to be laid to bed, knowing that death would send him to his everlasting rest. Now you should always look upon death under scripture notions, and this will take off the terror of death; yea, it will make the king of terrors to be the

1 'Avaλúσai, solvere anchoram. Or it may be rendered, to return home, or to change rooms. It is a similitude taken from those that depart out of an inn to take their journey towards their own country.

king of desires; it will make you not only willing to die, but even long to die, and to cry out, Oh that I had the wings of a dove, to fly away, and be at rest!' At death you shall have an eternal jubilee, and be freed from all incumbrances. Now sin shall be no more, nor trouble shall be no more, nor pain nor ailments shall be no more. Now you shall have your quietus est, now the wicked shall cease from troubling, and now the weary shall be at rest,' Job iii. 17, now 'all tears shall be wiped from your eyes,' Rev. vii. 17, now death shall be the way to bliss, the gate of life, and the portal to paradise. It was well said of one, so far as we tremble at death, so far we want love. It is sad, when the contract is made between Christ and a Christian, to see a Christian afraid of the making up the marriage. Lord, saith one, [Austin,] I will die that I may enjoy thee; I will not live, but I will die, I desire to die, that I may see Christ; and refuse to live, that I may live with Christ. The broken rings,1 contracts, and espousals contents not the true lover, but he longs for the marriage day. It is no credit to your heavenly Father for you to be loath to go home. The Turks tell us that surely Christians do not believe heaven to be such a glorious place as they talk of; for if they did, they would not be so unwilling to go thither. The world may well think that the child hath but cold welcome at his father's house, that he lingers so much by the way, and that he does not look and long to be at home. Such children bring an ill report upon their father's house, upon the holy land; but I know you have not so learned Christ, I know you long with Paul, 'to be dissolved, and to be with Christ,' Phil. i. 23; and with old Simeon, to cry out, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace,' Luke ii. 29. That God whom you have long sought and served will make your passage into that other world safe, sweet, and easy. Now to the everlasting arms of divine protection, and to the constant guidance and leadings of the Spirit, and to the rich influences of Christ's sovereign grace, and to the lively hopes of the inheritance of the saints in light, he commends you, who is, dear sister, yours in the strongest bonds,

'An old English betrothal custom.-G.

THO. BROOKS.

THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD

WITH HIS PEOPLE,

IN THEIR GREATEST TROUBLES, DEEPEST DISTRESSES, AND MOST DEADLY DANGERS.

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.'-2 Tim. iv. 17.1

IN

In my text you have three things that are most remarkable:

First, You have Paul's commemoration of that singular experience that he had of the favourable presence of Christ with him, and of his strengthening of him, 'Nothwithstanding the Lord stood with me,' or Tаρéσтη, by me, and assisted me,' Acts xxiii. 11; though I was deserted by men, yet I was aided and assisted by Christ, 2 Tim. iv. 16; though all men left me to shift for myself, yet the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me with wisdom, prudence, courage, and constancy, in the want of all outward encouragements, and in the face of all outward discouragements, 2 Tim. i. 15.

Secondly, Here is the end for which the Lord stood by him, assisted, strengthened, and delivered him, viz., that he might preach the gospel to the nations, Rom. xi. 13; Phil. iv. 22, that he might have more time, and further opportunity, to spread abroad the everlasting gospel among the Gentiles, whose apostle he was. Rome, at this time, was the queen of the world, and in its most flourishing condition; people from all parts of the world flocked to Rome. Now when they should hear and see Paul's prudence, courage, constancy, and boldness, in professing of Christ, and in preaching and professing the gospel, even before that grand tyrant, that monster of mankind, Nero, they could not but be wrought upon, and the fame of the glorious gospel could not but by this means be spread all the world over.

Thirdly, Here is the greatness of the danger from which he was delivered, viz., ' from the mouth of the lion.' Some authors [Calvin, Estius, &c.] do conceive these words, and I was delivered from the mouth of the lion,' to be a proverbial speech, noting some eminent, Preached in March and April 1675.

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present, devouring danger; 'I was delivered from the extremest hazard of death,' even as a man rescued out of a lion's mouth, and pulled from between his teeth. Others 1 more genuinely and properly, by the mouth of the lion,' do understand Nero's rage and cruelty, who, for his potency in preying on the flock of Christ, is here fitly compared to a lion, which devoured and destroyed the flock of Christ. This cruel lion Nero put a world of Christians to death, and made a bloody decree, that whosoever confessed himself a Christian, he should, without any more ado, be put to death as a convicted enemy of mankind. Tertullian calleth him the dedicator of the condemnation of Christians.2 This bloody monster, Nero, raised the first bloody persecution. To pick a quarrel with the Christians he set the city of Rome on fire, and then charged it upon the Christians, under which pretence he exposed them to the fury of the people, who cruelly tormented them as if they had been common burners and destroyers of cities, and the deadly enemies of mankind; yea, Nero himself caused them to be apprehended and clad in wild beasts' skins and torn in pieces with dogs; others were crucified; some he made bonfires of to light him in his night-sports. To be short, such horrid cruelty he used towards them as caused many of their enemies to pity them. But God found out this bloody persecutor at last, for being adjudged by the senate an enemy to mankind, he was condemned to be whipped to death, for the prevention whereof he cut his own throat.

The words being thus briefly opened, the main point I shall insist upon is this-viz.,

That when the people of God are in their greatest troubles, deepest distresses, and most deadly dangers, then the Lord will be most favourably, most signally, and most eminenly present with them.

The schoolmen say that God is five ways present-(1.) In the humanity of Christ, by hypostatical union; (2.) In the saints, by knowledge and love; (3.) In the church, by his essence and direction; (4.) In heaven, by his majesty and glory; (5.) In hell, by his vindictive justice.

Hemingius saith, There is a fourfold presence of God:-(1.) There is a presence of power in all men, even in the reprobates; (2.) A presence of grace, only in the elect; (3.) A presence of glory, in the angels, and saints departed; (4.) A hypostatical presence of the Father with the Son. But, if you please, you may take notice that there is a sixfold presence of the Lord :

1. First, There is a general presence of God, and thus he is present with all creatures: Whither shall I flee from thy presence ?'3 Ps. cxxxix. 7. Empedocles, the philosopher, said well, That God is a circle, whose centre is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere. God is included in no place, and excluded from no place, saith another: Non est ubi, ubi non est Deus. They could tell us that God is the soul of the world; and that as the soul is Tota in toto, et tota in qualibet parte, so is he; his eye is in every corner, &c. To which purpose they so pourtrayed their goddess Minerva, that which

1 Beza and A-Lapide. Vide Euseb. Hist., lib. ii. cap. 22. [Cf. Sibbes i. 315, and note h 334.-G.] 2 Dedicator damnationis Christianorum.-Tertullian. * Nusquam est Deus, et ubique est.— Chrysost. in Col. ii. hom. v.

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