saints be complete, until the building of the church be finished, and until our great Joshua hath introduced us into his eternal rest, and put us in possession of the incorruptible inheritances reserved for us in heaven. Then we shall not need to fight, but to enjoy peaceably the fruits of our victories, and to rest forever from our labours. We shall have no cause to offer to God prayers and supplications; but our business shall be to sing unto him praises and eternal thanksgivings.

The more considerable reason, in my judgment, of our destiny, is, that God hath predestinated us to be conformable to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren; he will have us to be baptized with his baptism, and drink in his cup, and enter into bliss by the same gate, through which he hath already passed. Through shame and disgrace he is arrived to glory, and through death he is entered into life. He hath drunk the cup of the bitter waters, before he tasted of the river of celestial joys; and he went down into the grave before he would mount up to the right hand of God.

Although it is appointed unto all men once to die, Heb. ix. I dare affirm, that death has no cause, to triumph, because the chief advantage is not on that side. We read in the book of Esther, that king Ahasuerus would not recal the proclamation that he had sent forth against the Jews, but he gave full liberty to take up arms to defend themselves, to attack their enemies, and to make them suffer all the mischief they intended against them. I find something like unto this proceeding, for God would not call back the sentence of death pronounced against mankind in the garden of Eden, nevertheless he allows us, nay, he commands his true

Israel, to take up arms against death, to conquer and trample it under feet.

In the first place Jesus Christ, our head, hath encountered with death and overcome it; he hath pursued it unto its trenches, and baffled it in its own fortification; death thought to have devoured him, but it hath been devoured itself. As the fishes are taken by the hook that they think to swallow; and as the bees hurt those whom they sting ; but do greater harm to themselves; for they break their stings, and lose thereby their lives; thus death by fixing its sting in the humanity of Jesus Christ, hath put him to a great deal of pain for a time, but it hath thereby lost all strength and vigour for ever.

The men of Judah, to satisfy the enraged Philistines, delivered into their hands Sampson bound with ropes. When they saw him they gave several joyful shouts ; but the spirit of God came upon him in such a manner, that he tore in pieces the two ropes wherewith he was bound, and overcame them by whom he was to be led away prisoner, and killed a thousand of them. Thus the miserable Jews, for fear of the Romaus, delivered unto them our Lord Jesus Christ, their brother, according to the flesh, bound like a malefactor. When hell saw him nailed to the cross, and afterwards laid in the grave, it did wonderfully rejoice; the devil, and his angels began to sing songs of triumph. But it was altogether impossible, that the Prince of Life should be detained in the prisons of death. He hath not only broken out of the grave by his infinite power, but hath also trampled under feet all his most furious enemies, and overcome millions of infernal fiends. And to declare how life and death, were in his power, he baffled death, when he was, as it were, a prisoner, shut up in his dungeon. He

hath broken open the gates of this black prison, and torn in pieces all his fetters: for when he was yet in the grave, he raised to life many that were dead, who were seen in the holy city; and yet at present he holds in his hands the keys of death and of hell. Therefore, as children rejoice at their father's victory, and as the subjects are concerned at the prosperous proceeding of their king, and as the members are the better for the glory and honour of their head; thus we may justly glory in the most notable victories and famous triumphs of Jesus Christ, who is our father, king, and head. We may also justly glory, that we are lords of death, and that we have overcome it in the person of our great God and Saviour. In saying this I speak with the Apostle, who affirms, That God hath quickened us together, and raised us together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Eph. ii. 5, 6.

Moreover, as our Redeemer hath once overcome death for us, so he continues to subdue it in us, and by us. He suffers us not to encounter with our enemies unprovided, nor deserts us in our time of need; but as, in the day of battle, a wise and provident general has his eyes on every side, and encourages, by his voice and gestures, all those whom he perceives to be engaged with the enemy; such as behave themselves valiantly, he animates with praises and promises; the weak he assists; and to such as are overborne he sends a reinforcement: so our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the great God of Hosts, who sits in triumph in the heavens, beholds with attention all our combats; and when he perceives the fight to be unequal, lest we should sink beneath the assaults of such a powerful and dreadful enemy, on the one hand he clothes us with his holy

spirit, and furnishes us with his own armour, as Jonathan did David, when he gave him his mantle, his bow, his sword, and his belt; and on the other, he disarms death of all his most dangerous weapons, and wrests from him all his darts.

As the strength and power of Sampson was lodged in the hair of his head, which the Philistines could never have imagined; so the strength and power of deathr consists in such things as the world least thinks of. The most terrible weapons with which it assaults us, are the thunderbolts and curses of the law, and our sins are the poison in which it dips its arrows, or rather they themselves are the fiery darts with which it wounds our souls. Now, Jesus Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, when he was made a curse for us, Gal. iii. 13. He bare our sins in his own body on the tree, 1 Pet. ii. 24; and like the he goat Hazazel, hath carried them away into an uninhabited wilderness, Lev. xvi. 22. He hath removed them from before the face of God, as far as the east is from the west, Psal. ciii. 12. He hath cast them into the depths of the sea, Mic. vii. 19, and hath drowned them in his own blood. So that we may now see fulfilled what was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, The iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, ch. 1. 20.

Therefore having put on the grace of God, and being armed with the strength of his holy spirit, let us be valiant with a holy valour, and give a brave defiance to death; let us look it in the face without dread, laugh at all its menaces, and encounter it without fear. For it is now like a boasting soldier, who threatens without weapons; like an angry bee without a sting; an old lion

that roars, but which hath lost its claws; or like a snake that would instil its poison, but whose teeth have been all pulled out by him who hath bruised the serpent's head, Gen. iii. 15.

If we look no farther than the exterior of death, and only consider his ghastly visage, its frightful eyes, its meager body, its iron hand, and its inevitable scythe, we can perceive no difference between the death of God's children and that of the wicked; but if we lift up its mask and take away its deceitful veil, we shall find as much difference between them, as there is between heaven and earth, the paradise of God and hell.

As the brazen serpent which Moses set up in the desert, had all the form and appearance of a fiery serpent, but nothing of the poison and fire, Numb. xxi; so the death of the faithful appears, to external view, as the death of other men, but hath none of the deadly and pernicious consequences. For it is not only a sign of his grace, and a testimony of his favour, but the beginning of our deliverance, and the cure of all our diseases. When Moses had cast of the tree into the waters of Marah, they still retained their colour, but not the same bitterness and unpleasant relish; so the death of God's children retains the same tincture and appearance as it had before; but the cross of Jesus Christ hath taken away all its agonizing terrors, and hath changed its insupportable bitterness into a sweetness like the sweets of heaven.

Like Pharoah, with all his hosts, was drowned in the waters of the Red-sea, but the children of Israel passed safely through them into the promised land, and being arrived the other shore of that dreadful sea, sang upon

unto God songs of triumph and thanksgiving, Exod.