Casuistical morning-exercises the fourth volume /

To this I shall return an Answer: First, By showing you what Christ hath already done; and then, Secondly, What he continues still to do in order to this end.

To this I shall return an Answer: First, By shewing you what Christ hath already done; and then, Secondly, What he continues still to do in order to this end.

1. I shall show you, what Christ hath already done to deliver or free the Children of God from the fear of Death: He himself in his own Person hath suffered or tasted death for them. This is every where declared in the New Testament, and 'tis hinted to us in the Text. Christ by death, that is, by his own death, hath delivered the Children from the fear of death. The death of Christ hath made Death to look with another face than formerly it had: As the Wood that Moses cast into the waters of Marah did alter their property, so the Death of Christ hath altered the property of Death, and taken away the bitterness and formidableness thereof; hence 'tis that the death of Believers in Scripture is called a Sleep: It is said of Stephen when he dyed, (though it was by a violent death) That he fell asleep: ¹And the Apostle Paul says, 1 Thes. 4.14. That as Jesus dyed and rose again, even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. It is well observed by some, that the Apostle doth seem purposely to vary the Phrase, he says, that Jesus dyed, and that the Saints sleep in Him; and the reason is, because that he sustained Death with all its terrors, that so it might become a calm and quiet sleep unto the Saints. The Death of Christ must needs sweeten the fore-thoughts of death to the Children and Chosen of God, because that he died in their stead; he did not only dye in their Nature, but in their Room; not only for rheir good, but also in their stead. You know how it was with the Sacrifices of old, they were put to death in the room of the Sacrificers: So it was with Christ, the truth of those Sacrifices, he was put to death in the room of Sinners, and they died in him as their Representative. Now this serves to free them from an enthralling fear of Death; why should they fear that, which Christ hath undergone in their place and room.