John Flavel · 23 of 34

Sermon 5. Heb. 12:23 · Part 9

The case standing thus, it is no more than needs, to urge an sorts of arguments upon our timorous and unsteady hearts; and it is like to prove a hard and difficult task to bring the heart but to a quiet and unregretting submission to the appointment of God herein, though submission be one of the lowest steps of duty in this case.

If it be hard to fix our thoughts but an hour, on such an unpleasant subject as death, how hard must it be to bring over the consent of the will? If we cannot endure it at a distance, in our thoughts, how shall we embrace and hug it in our bosoms? If our thoughts fly back with distaste and impatience, no wonder if our will be obstinate and refractory: we must first prevail with our thoughts to fix themselves, and think close to such a subject, before it can be expected we cheerfully resign ourselves into the hands of death. We cannot be willing to go along with death, till we have some acquaintance with it; and acquainted with it we cannot be till we accustom ourselves to think assiduously and calmly of it. They that have dwelt many years at death’s door, both in respect of the condition of their bodies, and the disposition of their minds, yet find reluctancy enough when it comes to the points.

Object. But if separation from thc body be (as it is) an enemy to nature, and there be no possibility to to extuingish natural eversation; to what purpose is it to argue and persuade where there is no expectation of success?

Sol. Death is to be considered two ways s by the people of God:

1. As an enemy to nature.

2. As a medium to glory.

If we consider it simply in itself as an enemy to nature, there is nothing in it for which we should desire it: but if we consider it as a medium, or pasage into glory, yea, the only ordinary way through which all the saints must pass out of this into a better state; so it will appear not only tolerable, but desirable to prepared souls. Were there not a shore of gloryon the other side of these black waters of death, for my own part, I should rather choose to live meanly than to die easily. If both parts were to perish at death, there were no reason to persuade one to be willing to deliver up the other; it were a madness for the soul to desire to be dissolved, if it were so far from being better out of the body than in it, that it should have no being at all. But Christians, let me tell you, death is so far from being a bar, that it is a bridge in your way to glory, and you are never like to come thither, but by passing over it: Except, therefore, you will look beyond it, you will never see any desirableness in it. "I desire to be dissolved (says Paul) and to be with Christ, which is far better." To be with death is sad, but to be with Christ is sweet; to endure the pains of death is doleful, but to see the face of Christ is joyful; to part with your pleasant habitations is irksome, but to be lodged in the heavenly mansions is most delightful; a parting hour with dear relations is cutting, but a meeting hour with Jesus Christ is transporting; to be rid of your own bodies is not pleasing, but to be rid of sin, and that for ever, what can be more pleasing to a gracious soul?

You see, then, in what sense I present death as a desirable thing to the people of God: and therefore seeing nature teaches us (as the apostle speaks) to put the more abundant comeliness upon the uncomely parts; suffer me to dress up death in its best ornaments, and present it to you in the following arguments, as a beautiful and comely object of your conditional and well-regulated desires. And,

Arg. 1. If upon a fair and just account, there shall appear to be more gain to believers in death, than there is in life; reason must needs vote death to be better to them that are in Christ, than life can be; and consequently, it should be desirable in their eyes.

It is a clear dictate of reason, in case of choice, to choose that which is best for us. Who is there that freely exercises reason and choice together, that will not do so?

What merchant will not part with an hundred pound’s worth of glass beads and pendants for a ton of gold? A few tinsel toys for as many rich diamonds? Mercatura est amittere, ut luceris; that is, true merchandise, to part with things of lesser, for things of greater value.

Now, if you will be tried and determined by God’s book of rates, then the case is determined quickly, and the advantage appears exceedingly upon deaths side. Phil. i. 21. "To me to live, is Christ; and to die, is gain."

Object. True, it might be so to Paul, who was eminent in grace, and ripe for glory; but it may be loss to others, who have not attained the height of his holiness or assurance.

Sol. The true and plain sense of the objection is this, whether heaven and Christ, be as much gain to him that enjoys them, though behind others both in grace and obedience, as it is to them who are more eminent in grace, and have done and suffered more for their sake? And let it be determined by yourselves. But if your meaning be, that Paul was ready for death, and so are not you; his work and course was almost comfortably finished, and so is not yours; his death, therefore, must needs be gain to him, but it may be loss to you, even the loss of all that you are worth for ever.

To this I say, the wisdom of God orders the time of his people’s death, as well as all other circumstances about it: And in this, your hearts may be at perfect rest, that being in Christ you can never die to your loss, die when you will. I know you will reply, That if your union with Christ were clear, the controversy were ended; but then you must also consider, they are as safe who die by an act of recumbence upon Christ, as those that die in the fullest assurance of their interest in him.

And beside, your reluctancies and aversions to death, are none of your way to assurance; that such a strong aversion to sin, and such a vehement desire after, and love to Christ, as can make you willing to quit all that is dear and desirable to you in this world for his sake, is the very next door or step to assurance; and if the Lord bring your hearts to this frame, and fix them there, it is not likely you will be long without it.

But to return: Paul had here valued life, with a full allowance of all the benefits and advantages of it; "To me to live, is Christ;" that is, if I live, I shall live in communion with Christ, and service for Christ, and in the midst of all those comforts which usually result from both. Here is life, with the most weighty and desirable benefits of it, laid in one scale, and he lays death, and probably, a violent death too, (for of that he speaks to them afterwards chap. ii. 17.) in the other scale. Thus he fills the scale, and the balance breaks on death’s side; yea, it comes down with a πολυς μαλγον χρεισσον, a far, far better.

But here falls in (as an excellent person observes) a rub in the way: there are in this case two judges, the flesh and the spirit, and they cannot agree upon the values, but contradict each other. Nature says, It is far better to live than to die, and will not be beaten off from it. What then? I hope you will not put blind and partial nature in competition with God also, as you do life with death. But seeing nature can plead so powerfully; as well as grace, let us hear what those strong reasons are that are urged by the flesh on life’s side, and what the soul has to reply and plead on death’s side, (for the soul can plead, and that charmingly too, though not by words and sounds) and then determine the matter, as we shall see cause: but be sure prejudice pull not down the balance.

And here the doleful voice of nature laments, pleads, and be moans itself to the willing soul.

‘O my soul, what do you mean by these desires to be dissolved? Are you in earnest, when you say you are willing to leave your own body, and be gone? Consider, and think again, ere you bid me farewell, what you are to me, and what I have been, and am to you; you are my soul, that is, my prop, my beauty, my honour, my life, and indeed all that is comfortable to me. If you depart, what am I but a spectacle of pity, an abhorred carcass in a few moments? a prey to the worms, a captive to death? If you depart, my candle is put out, and I am left in the horrors of darkness.’

‘I am your house, your delightful habitation, the house in which you have dwelt from the first moment of your creation, and never lodge one night in any other: every room in me has, one way or other, been a banqueting-room for your entertainment, a room of pleasure; all my senses have peen purveyors for your delight, my members have all of them been your instruments and servants to execute your commands and pleasure. If you and I part, it must be in a shower: you shall feel such pains, such travailing throes, such deep, emphatical groans, such sweets, such agonies as you never felt before: for death has somewhat of anguish peculiar to itself, and which is unknown, though guessed at by the living. Besides, whenever you leave me, you leave all that is, and has been comfortable to you in this world: your house shall know you no nature, Job vii. 10, your lands, your money, your trade, which have cost you so many careful thoughts, and yielded you so many refreshments, shall be yours no longer; death will strip you of all these, and leave you naked.’

‘You have also, since you became mine, contracted manifold relations in the world, which I know are dear unto you: I know it by costly experience: How have you made me to wear and waste myself, in labours, cares, and watchings for them? But if you will be gone, all these must be left exposed, God knows to what wants, abuses, and miseries! for I can do nothing for them, or myself, if once you leave me.’ Thus it charms and pleads; thus it lays, as it were, violent hands upon the soul, and says, ‘O my soul, you shall not depart.’ It hangs about it much, as the wife and children of good Galeacius Caracciolus did about him, when he was leaving Italy, to go to Geneva, (a lively emlem of the case before us). It says to the soul, as Joab did to David, "You have shamed your face this day, in that you love your enemy, death, and hate me, your friend. ‘O my soul! my life! my darling! my dear and only one! let nothing but unavoidable necessity part you and me.’ All this the flesh can plead, and a great deal more than this, and that a thousand times more powerfully and feelingly, than any words can plead the case. And all its arguments are backed by sense; sight and feeling attest what nature speaks.

Let us, in the next place, weigh the pleas and reasons, which notwithstanding all this, do over-power, and prevail with the believing soul to be gone, and quit its own body, and return no more to the elementary world.

And thus the power of faith and love enables it to reply:

‘My dear body, the companion and partner of my comforts and troubles, in the days of my pilgrimage on earth, great is my love, and strong are the bonds of my affections to you. You have been tenderly, yea, excessively beloved by me; my cares and fears for you have been inexpressible, and nothing but the love of Jesus Christ is strong enough to gain my consent to part with you; your interest in my affection is great, but as great as it is, and as much as I prize you, I call shake you off; and thrust you aside, to go to Christ.’

‘Nor may this seem absurd, or unreasonable, considering that God never designed you for a mansion, but only a temporary tabernacle to me: it is true, I have had some comfort during my abode in you; but I enjoyed these comforts only in you, not from you; and many more I might have enjoyed, had you not been a snare and a dog to me.

‘It is you that has eaten up my time, and distracted my thoughts, ensnared my affections, and drawn me under much sin and sorrow: however, though we may weep over each other, as accessories to the sins and miseries we have drawn upon ourselves; yet in this is our joint relief, that the blood of Christ has cleansed us both from all sin.’

‘And therefore I can part the more easily and comfortably from you, because I part in hope to receive and enjoy you in a far better condition than I leave you. It is for both our interests to part for a time, for mine, because I shall thereby be freed and delivered from sin and sorrow, and immediately obtain rest with God, and the satisfaction of all my desires in his presence and enjoyment, which there is no other way to obtain, but by separation from you: and why should I live a groaning, burdened, restless life always, to gratify your fond and irrational desires? If you love me, you would rejoice, not repine at my happiness. Parents willingly part with their children at the greatest distance, for their preferment, how dearly soever they love them; and do you envy, or repine at mine? I have lived many months a suffocating, obscure life, with you in the womb, and neither you nor I had ever tasted or experienced the comforts of this world, and the various delights of sense, if we had not struggled hard for an entrance into this world. And now we are here, alas! though you are contented to abide; I live in you, but as we both lived in the womb, an obscure, uneasy, and unsuitable life; you can feed upon material bread, and delight yourself amidst the variety of sensitive objects you find here; but what are all these things to me? I cannot subsist by them; that which is food to you, is but chaff, wind, vanity to me: if I stay with you, I shall be still sinning, end still groaning; when I leave you, I shall be immediately freed from both, and arrive at the sum and perfection of all the hopes, desires, and whatsoever I have aimed at, and laboured for, in all the duties of my life. Let us therefore be content to part.’

‘Shrink not at the horror of a grave; it is indeed a dark and solitary house, and the days of darkness may be many; but to you, my dear companion, it shall be a bed of rest, yea, a perfumed bed, where your Lord Jesus lay before you: and let the time of your abode there be never so long, you shalt not measure it, nor find the least tediousness in it; a thousand years there shall seem no more in the morning of the resurrection, than the sweetest nap of an hour seemed to be when I was wont to lay you upon the bed to rest.’

‘The worms in the grave shall be nothing to you, nor give you the thousandth part of that trouble that a flea was wont to do; and though I leave you, Jesus Christ shall watch, in the mean time over my dust, and not suffer a grain of it to be lost. and I will return assuredly to you again, at the time appointed: I take not an everlasting farewell of you. but depart for a time, that I may receive you for ever. To conclude, there is an unavoidable necessity of our parting; whether willing or unwilling, we must be separated: but the consent of my will to part with you, for the enjoyment of Jesus Christ will be highly acceptable to God, and greatly sweeten the bitter cup of death to us both.’

This, and much more the gracious soul has to say for its separation from the body; by which it is easy to discern where the gain and advantage of death lies to all believers, and consequently, how much must it be every way their interest to be unbodied.

Arg. 2. To be weary of the lady upon the pure account and reason of our hatred to sin, and longing desires after Jesus Christ, argues strongly grace in truth, and grace in strength; it is both the test of our sincerity, and measure of our attainment and maturity of grace, and upon both accounts highly desirable by all the people of God.

It is so great an evidence of the truth of grace, that the scriptures have made it the descriptive periphrasis of a Christian: so we find it in 2 Tim. iv. 8. the crown of life is there promised to all them that love the appearance of Christ, i. e. those that love to drink of it, that delight to steep their thoughts in subjects belonging to the other world, and cast many a yearning look that way: and 2 Pet. iii. 12. they are described to be such as are "looking for, and hastening to the coming of the day of God." Their earnest expectations and longings do not only put them upon making all the haste they can to be with Christ, but it makes the interposing time seem so tedious and slow, that with their most vehement wishes and desires, they do what they can to accelerate and hasten it. As Rev. xxii. "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." Lovers hours, says the proverb, are full of eternity. ‘O. said Mr. Rutherford, that Christ would make long strides! O that he would fold up the heavens as a cloak, and shovel time and days out of the way!’ Such desires as these can spring from none but gracious and renewed souls; for nature is wholly disaffected to a removal hence, upon such motives and considerations as these: if others wish at any time for death, it is but in a pet, a present passion, provoked by some intolerable anguish, or great distress of nature: but to look and long, and hasten to the other world, out of a weariness of sin, and a hearty willingness to lie with Christ, supposes necessarily a deep rooted hatred of sin, abhorring it more than death itself, the greatest of natural evils, and a real sight of things invisible by the eye of faith, without which it is impossible any man’s heart should be thus framed and tempered.

And as it evidences the truth, so also the strength and maturity of grace; for alas, how many thousands of gracious souls that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, are to be found quite below this temper of mind! O it is but here and there one among the Lord’s own people, that have reached this height and eminence of faith and love. It is with the fruits of the Spirit, just as it is with the fruits of the earth; some are green and raw, others are ripe and mellow: the first stick fast on the branches, you may shake and shake again, and not one will drop; or as those fruits that grow in hedges, with their coats and integuments enwrapping them, as nuts, &c. you may try your strength upon them, and sooner break your nails, than disclose and separate them: so fast and close do their husks stick to them: but when time and the influences of heaven has ripened and brought them to perfection, the apples drop into your hands without the least touch, and the nut falls out of its case of its own accord. So much more does the soul part from its body, when maturated, and come to its strength and vigour.

Arg. 3. It may greatly prevail upon the will and resolution of a believer, to adventure boldly and cheerfully upon death, that our bodies, of which we are bereaved and deprived by death, shall be most certainly and advantageously restored to us by the resurrection. The resurrection of the dead is the encouragement and consolation of the dying; the more our faith is established in the doctrine of the resurrection, the more we shall surmount the fears of dissolution. If Paul urged it as an argument to reconcile Philemon to his servant Onesimus, ver. 15. "That he therefore departed for a season, that Philemon might receive him for ever", the same argument may reconcile every believer to deaths and take off the prejudice of the soul against it. You shall surely receive your bodies again, and enjoy them for ever.

Now the doctrine of the resurrection is as sure in itself as it is comfortable to us; the depth and strength of its foundation fully answers to the height and sweetness of its consolation. Be pleased to try the two pillars thereof, and see which of them may be doubted or shaken. Mat. xxii. 29 "You err (says Christ to the Sadducees, who denied this doctrine) not knowing the scriptures, and the power of God." This is the ground and root of their error, not knowing the scriptures, and the power of God: q. d. did you know and believe the scriptures of God, and the power of God, you would never question this doctrine of the resurrection, which is built upon them both. The power of God convinces all men that know and believe it, that it may be so and the scriptures of God convince all that know and believe them, that it must be so. As for his power, who can doubt it? At the command and fiat of God, the earth brought fourth every rising creature after his kinds Gen. i. 24, 25. At his command Lazarus came forth, John xi. 43. And was there not as much difficulty in either of these, as in our resurrection? By this power our souls were quickened, and raised from the death of sin and guilt to the spiritual life of Christ, Eph. i. 19. And is it not as easy to raise a dead body as a dead soul? But what stand I arguing in so plain a case, when we are assured this mighty power is able to subdue all things to itself, Phil. iii. 21.

And then, for his promise that it shall be so, what can be plainer? See 1 Thess. iv. 15, 16. "This we say unto you by the word of the Lord,", &c. i.e. in the name or authority of the Lord, and by commission and warrant from him. He first opens his commission, shows his credentials, and then publishes the comfortable doctrine of his resurrection, and the saints’ pre-eminence to all others therein.

Well then, what remains in death to fright and scare a believer? Is it our parting with these bodies? Why, is it not for ever that we part with them; as sure as the power and promises of God are true, firm, and sufficient to accomplish it, we shall see and enjoy them again. This comforted Job, chap. xix. 25, 26. over all his diseases, when of all his enjoyments that once he had, he could not say, my friends, my children, my estate; yet then he could say, my Redeemer. when he looked upon a poor wasted, withered, loathsome body of his own, and saw nothing but a skeleton, an image of death, yet then could he see it a glorious body, by viewing it believingly in this glass of the resurrection. So then all the damage we can receive by death, is but the absence of our bodies for a time; during which time, the covenant-relation between God and them, holds good and firm, Mat. xxii. 32. He therefore will take care of them, and in due time restore them with marvellous improvements and endowments, to us again, divested of all their infirmities, and clothed with heavenly qualities and perfections, 1 Cor. xv. 43, 44. And in the mean time, the soul attains its rest, and happiness, and satisfaction in the blessed God.

Arg. 4. The consideration of what we part from, and what we go to, should make the medium, by which we pass from so much evil to so great good, lovely and desirable in our eyes, how unpleasant or bitter soever it be in itself.

No man desires medicine for itself. There is no pleasure in bitter pills and loathsome potions, except what rises from the cud, viz. the disburdening of nature, and recovery of health; and this gives it a value with the sick and pained. Under a like consideration is death desired by sick and pained souls, who find it better to die once, than groan under burdens continually.

Death certainly is the blest physician. next, and under Jesus Christ, that ever was employed about them; for it cures radically and perfectly, so that the soul never relapses more into any distemper. Other medicines are but anodynes, or at best they relieve us but in part, and for a time; but this does through the world, and perfects the cure at once. Methinks that call of Christ which he gives his spouse in Cant. iv. 8. (Come with me from Lebanon, (my spouse) with me from Lebanon: and look from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards) scarce suits any time so well as the time of death. Then it is that we depart from the lions’ dens, and the mountains of leopards, places uncomfortable and unsafe. More particularly at death the saints depart.

1. From defiling corruptions into perfect purity. 2. >From heart-sinking sorrows into fullness of joy. 3. From entangling temptations into everlasting freedom. 4. From distressing persecutions into full rest. 5. From pinching wants into universal supplies. 6. From distractible fears into highest security. 7. >From deluding shadows into substantial good.

1. From defiling corruptions into perfect purity. No sin hangs about the separated, though it do about the sanctified soul. They come out of the body suitable to that character and encomium, Cant. iv. 7. "Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee." It dies that for the saints; which all their graces and duties, all their mercies and addictions, could never do. Faith is a great purifier, communion with God a great cleanser, sanctified afflictions a refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap; these have all done their parts, and been useful in their places: But none of them, nor all together, perfect this cure till death come, and then the work is done, and the cure perfected.

All weeping, all praying, all believing, all hearing, all sacraments, all the means and instruments in the world, cannot do what death will do for you. One dying hour will do what ten thousand praying hours never did, nor could do. In this hour the design of all those hours is accomplished; as he that is dead by mortification, is at present freed from sin, in respect of imputation and dominion, Rom. 6:7. So he that is justified and mortified, when dead naturally, is immediately freed from the very indwelling and existence of sin in him. We read of the washing of the robes of the saints, in Rev. vii. 14. The blood of the Land, cleanses them from every spot; but it does it gradually. The last spot of guilt indeed was fetched out by one act of justification; but the last spot of filth is not fetched out till the time of their dissolution; when they are come out of the agonies of death (which the scripture calls great tribulation) then, and not till then, are they perfectly cleansed. Sin brought in death, and death carries out sin.

Oh! What a pure, lovely, shining creature is the separated spirit of a just man? How clear is its judgment, how ordinate its will, how holy, and altogether heavenly are all its affections now! And never till now it feels itself perfectly well, and as it would be.

2. From heart sinking sorrows, into fullness of joy. The life we now live is a groaning life, 2 Cor. v. 2. where is the Christian, that if his inside could be seen, and his heart laid naked, would not be found wounded from many hands? From the hand of God, of enemies, of friends, of Satan; but especially by the hands of its own corruptions? Christ our head was styled a man of sorrows, from the multitude of his sorrows; and it is the lot of all his to be in a state of sorrow in the body. "In the world (says he) you shall have troubled". When I consider how often the candle of sorrow is held to the thread of life, I justly wonder how it is protracted to such a length. What friend, what enjoyment had we ever in this world, from which no sorrow, nay, many sorrows have not sprung up to us? And if the best comforts bring forth sorrows, what do the worst things we meet with here bring forth? I suppose there are many thousands of God’s people this day in the world, that have as much reason to assume the same new name that Naomi did, and say, Call me Marah. Look, as day and night divide all time between them; so do our comforts and our sorrows, only with this difference, that our nights of sorrow, like winter nights, are lone, cold and dark; and our days of comfort short, and frequently overcast.