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.
We might also consider the body after death, as a prey for worms, the seat of corruption; and lodged in the grave, the house appointed for all living; and then an end is put to all the actions, as well as enjoyments of this life; and, as the Psalmist speaks, In that very day all their thoughts perish, Psal. cxlvi. 4. Whatever they have been projecting, whatever schemes they have laid, either for themselves or others, are all broken: as the historian observes concerning the Roman emperor, that when he had formed great designs for the advantage of the empire,[121] death broke all his measures, and prevented the execution thereof.
We might also consider it as putting an end to our present enjoyments, removing us from the society of our dearest friends, to a dismal and frightful solitude. This was one of the consequences thereof, that was very afflictive to Hezekiah, when he says, I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world, Isa. xxxviii. 11. It also strips us of all our possessions, and the honours we have been advanced to in this world, as the Psalmist speaks, When he dieth he shall carry nothing away, his glory shall not descend after him, Psal. xlix. 27.
We might also consider the time of life and death as being in God’s hand. As we were brought into the world by the sovereignty of his providence, so we are called out of it at his pleasure; concerning whom it is said, Our times are in his hand, Psal. xxxi. 15. So that as nothing is more certain than death, nothing is more uncertain to us than the time when. This God has concealed from us for wise ends. Did we know that we should soon die, it would discourage us from attempting any thing great in life; and did we know that the lease of life was long, and we should certainly arrive to old age; this might occasion the delaying all concerns about our soul’s welfare, as presuming that it was time enough to think of the affairs of religion and another world, when we apprehend ourselves to be near the confines thereof; and therefore, God has by this, made it our wisdom, as well as our duty, to be waiting all the days of our appointed time, till our change come.
From what has been said under this head, we may learn,
1. The vanity of man as mortal. Indeed, if we look on believers as enjoying that happiness which lies beyond the grave, there is a very different view of things; but as to what respects the world we have reason to say as the Psalmist does, Verily, every man at his best estate is altogether vanity, Psal. xxxix. 5. We may see the vanity of all those honours and carnal pleasures which many pursue with so much eagerness, as though they had nothing else to mind, nothing to make provision for but the flesh, which they do at the expence of that which is in itself most excellent and desirable: We may also infer,
2. That this affords an undeniable and universal motive to humility; since death knows no distinction of persons, regards the rich no more than the poor; puts no mark of distinction between the remains of a prince and a peasant; and not only takes away every thing that men value themselves upon, but levels the highest part of mankind with common dust: They who boast of their extract, descent, and kindred, are obliged, with Job, to say, to corruption, Thou art my father; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister, Job xvii. 14. Shall we be proud of our habitations, who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust? chap. iv. 19. Are any proud of their youth and beauty? this is, at best, but like a flower that does not abide long in its bloom, and when cut down, it withers. The finest features are not only spoiled by death, but rendered unpleasant and ghastly to behold; and accordingly are removed out of sight, and laid in the grave.
3. From the consideration of man’s liableness to death, and those diseases that lead to it, as the wages of sin, we may infer; that sin is a bitter and formidable evil. The cause is to be judged of by its effects. As death, accompanied with all those diseases which are the forerunners of it, is the greatest natural evil that we are liable to; sin, from whence it took its rise, must be the greatest moral evil; we should never reflect on the one without lying low before God in a sense of the other. The Psalmist, when meditating on his own mortality, traces it to the spring thereof; and ascribes it to those rebukes with which God corrects men for their iniquities, that they die, and their beauty consumes away like a moth, Psal. xxxix. 11. And elsewhere, when he compares the life of man to the grass, which in the morning fourisheth, and groweth up; and in the evening is cut down and withereth, he immediately adds; thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance, Psal. xc. 6, 8. And when Hezekiah had an intimation of his recovery, after he had the sentence of death within himself, he speaks of his deliverance from the pit of corruption, Isa. xxxviii. 17. as that which was accompanied with God’s casting all his sins behind his back. And since we cannot be delivered from these sad effects of sin, till the frame of nature is dissolved, and afterwards rebuilt; it should put us upon using those proper methods whereby we may be freed from the guilt and dominion thereof; and accordingly it should have a tendency to promote a life of holiness in us.
4. From the uncertainty of life, let us be induced to improve our present time, and endeavour so to live, as that, when God calls us hence, we may be ready. And therefore, we ought to pray with the Psalmist, So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom, Psal. xc. 12. that by this means, that which deprives us of all earthly enjoyments, may give us an admission into a better world, and be the gate to eternal life. This leads us to consider,
II. That death has a sting and curse annexed to it, with respect to some. Thus the apostle expressly says, The sting of death is sin, 1 Cor. xv. 56. As sin at first brought death into the world; so it is the guilt thereof, lying on the consciences of men, which is the principal thing that makes them afraid to leave the world; not but that death is, in itself, an evil that nature cannot think of without some reluctancy. And therefore the apostle Paul, although he expresses that assurance which he had of happiness in another world, which he groaned after, and earnestly longed to be possessed of; yet had it been put to his choice, he would have wished that he could have been clothed upon with the house which is from heaven, 2 Cor. v. 2. that is, had it been the will of God, that he might have been brought to heaven without going the way of all the earth, this would have been more agreeable to nature. But when the two evils of death meet together, namely, that which is abhorrent to nature, and the sting which makes it much more formidable, this is, beyond measure, distressing. In this answer, the sting and curse of death are both put together, as implying the same thing. Accordingly, it is that whereby a person apprehends himself liable to the condemning sentence of the law, separated from God, and excluded from his favour, so that death appears to him to be the beginning of sorrows; this is that which tends to embitter it, and fills him with dread and horror at the thoughts of it. Which leads us,
III. To shew that it is the peculiar privilege of the righteous, that though they shall not be delivered from death, yet this shall redound to their advantage. That they shall not be exempted from death is evident; because the decree of God relating hereunto, extends to all men. We read, indeed, of two that escaped the grave, viz. Enoch, who was translated that he should not see death, and Elijah, who was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot; but these are extraordinary instances, not designed as precedents, by which we may judge of the common lot of believers. And the saints that shall be found alive at Christ’s second coming, shall undergo a change[122], as the apostle speaks; which though it be equivalent to death, it cannot properly be styled a dying; inasmuch as he opposes it thereunto, when he says, We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 1 Cor. xv. 51. and he speaks of it as a future dispensation of providence, which does not immediately concern us in this present age. Therefore we must not conclude that believers are delivered from the stroke of death; nevertheless, this is ordered for their good, as the apostle says, with a particular application to himself, For me to die is gain, Phil. i. 21. And when he speaks of the many blessings that believers have in possession or in reversion, he says, Death is yours; as though he should say, it shall redound to your advantage; and this it does if we consider,
1. That the sting of death is taken away from them. This is the result of their being in a justified state; for since a person’s being liable to the condemning sentence of the law is the principal thing that has a tendency to make him uneasy, and may be truly called the sting that wounds the conscience; so a sense of his interest in forgiveness through the blood of Christ, tends to give peace to it; such an one can say, who shall lay any thing to my charge? It is God that justifieth; or though I have contracted guilt, which renders me unworthy of his favour; yet I am persuaded that this guilt is removed; and therefore iniquity shall not be my ruin; and even death itself shall bring me to the possession of those blessings that were purchased for me by the blood of Christ, which I have been enabled to apply to myself by faith; and with this confidence he can say with the apostle, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Cor. xv. 55.
2. Their dying is an instance of God’s love to them. As those whom Christ is said to have loved in the world, he loved unto the end of his life; so he loves them to the end of theirs, John xiii. 1. And as nothing has hitherto separated them from this love, nothing shall be able to do it. There are three instances wherein the love of God to dying believers discovers itself.
(1.) In that they are hereby freed from sin and misery; this they never were, nor can be till then. As for sin, there are the remainders thereof in the best of men, which give them great disturbance, and occasion for that daily conflict which there is between flesh and spirit, as has been before observed. But at death the conflict will be at an end, and the victory which they shall obtain over it, compleat. There shall be no law in the members warring against the law of the mind; no propensity or inclination to what is evil; nor any guilt or defilement contracted; which would be inconsistent with a state of perfect holiness. And as it is a state of perfect happiness, there is an entire freedom from all those miseries which sin brought into this lower world. These are either internal or external, personal or relative; none of which shall occur to allay, or give any disturbance to the saints’ blessedness after death. But more of this will be considered under a following answer; in which we shall be led to speak of the happiness of the righteous at the day of judgment, both in soul and body[123]; and therefore we proceed to consider,
(2.) That the death of a believer appears to be an instance of divine love, in that hereby he is made capable of farther communion with Christ in glory. Persons must be made meet for heaven before they are admitted to it. Though our present season and day of grace is a time in which God is training his people up for glory; and there is an habitual preparation for it, when the work of grace is begun; which is what the apostle intends when he speaks of some who are made meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, Col. ii. 12. when they were first translated into Christ’s kingdom: nevertheless this falls very short of that actual meetness which the saints must have when they are brought to the possession of the heavenly blessedness. Then they shall be made perfect in holiness, as will be observed in the next answer; otherwise there can be no perfect happiness.
And besides this, the soul must be more enlarged, that hereby it may be enabled to receive the immediate discoveries of the divine glory, or to converse with the heavenly inhabitants, than it can be here. The frame of nature must be changed; which is what the apostle intends, when he says, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption, 1 Cor. xv. 50. accordingly he adds, ver. 53. This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality; whereby he intimates, that frail, mortal, and corruptible man, is not able to bear that glory which is reserved for a state of immortality. Therefore the soul must be so changed as to be rendered receptive thereof; and in order thereto, all its powers and faculties must be greatly enlarged; otherwise it can no more receive the immediate rays of the divine glory, than the weak and distempered eye can look steady on the sun shining in its meridian brightness. In this world our ideas of divine things are very imperfect, by reason of the narrowness of our capacities, and God condescends to reveal himself to us in proportion thereto; but when the saints shall see him as he is, or have a perfect and immediate vision and fruition of his glory, they shall be made receptive of it; this is done at death; whereby they are rendered capable of farther communion with Christ in glory.[124]
(3.) At death believers immediately enter upon, and are admitted into the possession of this glory. At the same time that the soul is enlarged and fitted for the work and enjoyment of heaven, it is received into it; where it shall have an uninterrupted communion with Christ in glory; which is the subject insisted on in the following answer.