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III General Head: And here are two things to be infifted upon.

First, The Nature of their Death who die united to Chrift; 'tis represented under the foft Character of a Sleep.

Secondly, The great Advantage that follows their Death; fuch as fleep in Jefus will God bring with him.

First, The Nature of their Death who are united to Christ, 'tis call'd a Sleep; Those that fleep in Fefus will God bring with him. An Dr. Bates. excellent Author on this Text obferves

how the Apostle varies the Expreffion: "Jefus died, but the Saints fleep in him; "for he fuftained Death in all its Terrors, "that it might be a calm Sleep to his Peo"ple."

Under the Old Testament we find the Death of the Saints frequently fet forth by this foft and gentle Character. David and Solomon, Fehoshaphat and Hezekiah are reprefented at their Death to be fallen asleep.

And under the New Teftament our Lord uses this Phrase upon the death of one whom Joh. 11. 11, he lov'd, Our Friend Lazarus fleepeth. And 'twas St. Paul's ufual Idiom to call Death a Sleep, as appears from the Scriptures in the 1 Cor. 15. Margin *. Some indeed have been fo weak as to imagine that this Sleep did equally seize Soul and Body, and have afferted, that at death the Soul paffes into a ftate of Inactivity, and fleepeth with the Body till the Refurrection; an Opinion fo repugnant to the true Principles of Philofophy and Divine

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Revelation, that 'tis feldom efpous'd by any but Atheists, Socinians, and very ignorant Pretenders to Religion.

Our Souls are of an immortal nature, they neither die nor fleep, but immediately upon the death of our Bodies return to God that gave Ecclef. 12.7. 'em, and are fix'd in a state of Happiness or Mifery. Had not the Apostle believ'd this, we cannot imagine that he would have efteem'd Death to be gain to him; or that he would have been in any ftrait to determine and fix his choice, for present Death or longer Life: for the latter would have been much more eligible, if he had believ'd that his Soul at death would have been as infenfible and unactive as his Body; and no doubt but he would rather have defir'd to continue in this World, where he had enjoy'd Communion with Chrift, and often feen him by a fteddy eye of Faith, than to be hurried out of it by Death, and render'd utterly incapable of any enjoyment of his Redeemer till the Refurrection. But 'tis yet more evident from another Expreffion of our Apostle, that he was very far from the Opinion, or rather Dream of the Soul's fleeping with the Body till the Refurrection: His words are thefe; We are confident, I fay, and willing ra- 2 Cor. 5.8. ther to be abfent from the Body, and to be prefent with the Lord. q. d. We have good courage, and are well arm'd against the fears of Death, being well affur'd that we shall have upon our Diffolution an immediate admittance into the Prefence of our glorified Lord: for the Apostle fuppofes not only that the Soul is capable of exifting while feparated from the Body, and of exercising her Faculties and

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Powers in fuch a state; but that fo foon as the leaves the Body, fhe fhall enter into the prefence of Chrift, and behold his Glory.

But I pafs on, and fhall briefly represent the force of the Apoftle's Arguments against immoderate Sorrow for the dead.

The first of which is taken from the Nature of their Death who die in the Lord; 'tis defcrib'd by the foft Character of a Sleep, which, as you have heard, refers only to the Body. Now the Death of the Righteous may be thus fet forth on the following accounts.

1. Because the Body is then eafed of all its Pains, and freed from all Fatigue and Toil to which it was expos'd while animated with the Soul; and therefore as Death is compar'd to Sleep, fo the Grave is compar'd to a Bed, a. 57. 2. where the righteous are faid to reft. In this Life the best of Men are frequently made uneafy by acute Diftempers and corroding Pains; and Death is frequently fought for, because Life is a burden. You that have frequently visited the Chambers of the fick, cannot furely have forgotten the fighs of thofe Prifoners who have groan'd upon Beds of Down, as if every part of their Bodies had been violently extended on a Rack. It would be endless to reckon up the vast number of Diseases that affect the Children of God in this World: for being tainted with original Sin, as well as the vileft of the People, they may expect the fame Distempers; and tho they tarry here but a few days, they are ordinarily full of trouble, and if their Bodies are not often indifpos'd, yet thro the Malice of Enemies, and the Miferies and Unkindneffes of their Friends, they are frequently made to bow to

wards

wards the Grave before they drop into it. For indeed the best of our earthly Comforts have their hidden ftings, but they fhall give us no more pain and uneafinefs after we are fallen asleep in Jefus: For in the Grave the Job 3. 17, wicked ceafe from troubling; there the weary at reft: there the Prisoners reft together, they hear not the voice of the Oppreffor.

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2. In Sleep no labour is expected from the Body; fo when Believers are overtaken with a mortal flumber, Chrift expects no Service from their Bodies, While the Soul continues united to the Body, we are oblig'd to yield the Members of the one, as well as the Faculties of the other, as Inftruments of Righ- Rom. 6. 13. teousness unto God. But in a ftate of feparation there is expected neither Service nor Suffering from the Body. So that while we continue on the Stage of this World, the Advice of the Wife-Man is very proper: What- Ecclef.9.10. foever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, for there is no Work, nor Device, nor Knowledg, nor Wifdom in the Grave whither thou goeft. All our vital and animal Operations fhall ceafe when our Spirits return to God, and our Bodies are reduc'd to Dust. The one is fix'd in an unalterable state of Happiness or Mifery, and the other put into an incapacity for Action.

A middle place betwixt Heaven and Hell for departed Spirits is a groundless Imagination; for it could not be faid with truth, that fuch as die in the Lord reft from their Rev. 14.13. Labours, if they were to país into a refining Fire, equally tormenting in degree, but not in duration with that of Hell, as those of the Roman Faction affert, Therefore let us rather

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rather attend to the words of our Lord, and Joh. 9. 4. follow his Example: I must work the Works of him that fent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no Man can work.

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3. Death to the Righteous is difarm'd of its fting; and being alter'd in its nature, it may futably be fet forth by the notion of 1 Cor. 15. Sleep. St. Paul tells us, that the fting of Death is Sin, and the strength of Sin is the Law. Death receives its deftroying Power from Sin, and Sin from the Law; Sin being a Tranfgreffion of the Law, which discovers its odious nature, and denounces Damnation for it. But Death approaches Believers without its fting, Chrift having yielded an indefective Obedience to the Law, and fuffer'd the penalty of it in the room and ftead of Believers. Hence fays the Apostle, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Chrift Jefus Chrift hath redeem'd 'em from the Curfe of the Law, being made a Curfe for them. And the Apostle reprefents Believers as triumphing over Death in fuch terms as thefe; O 1 Cor. 15. Death, where is thy Sting? O Grave, where is thy Victory? Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jefus Chrift. Christ has remov'd the fcandal of Death by dying, and perfum'd the Grave by lying in it, and paffing through it.

Rom. 8. 1.

Gal 3. 13.

55. 57.

4. The Death of the Righteous is compar'd to a Sleep, on the account of what shall follow thereupon: for as men do awake after Sleep, fo they fhall revive after Death, as we are affur'd by a very remarkable Prophecy and Hof. 13. 14. Promife; I will ransom them from the Power of the Grave, I will redeem them from Death: O Death, I will be thy Plagues; O Grave, I