The fountain of life opened, or, A display of Christ in his essential and mediatorial glory wherein the impetration of our redemption by Jesus Christ is orderly unfolded as it was begun, carryed on, and finished by his covenant-transaction, mysterious incarnation, solemn call and dedication ... / by John Flavell ...

Corollary 4.

From this Funeral of Christ results the purest and strongest consolation and incouragement to believers,* 1.1 against the fears of Death and the Grave. If this be so, that Jesus hath layen in Grave before you; let me say then to you as the Lord spake to Iacob, Gen. 46.2, 3. Fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will go down with thee, and will surely bring thee up thence. So here, fear not believer to go down to the Grave, for God will be with thee there, and will surely bring thee up thence. This

consideration that Jesus Christ hath layen in the Grave himself, gives manifold encouragement to the people of God, against the terrors of the Grave.

First, The Grave received, but could not destroy Jesus Christ. Death swallow'd him, as the Whale did Ionah his Type; but could not digest him, when it had swallow'd him but quickly de∣livered him up again. Now Christ lying in the Grave, as the common head and representative of believers, what comfort should this inspire into their hearts. For as it fared with Christs personal, so it shall with Christs mystical. It could not retain him, it shall not for ever retain them. This Resurrection of Christ out of his, is the very ground of our hope for a Resurre∣ction out of our Graves. Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept, 1 Cor. 15.20.

Secondly, As the union betwixt the body of Christ and the di∣vine nature was not dissolved; when that body was laid in the Grave; so the union betwixt Christ and believers is not, can∣not be dissolved when their bodies shall be laid in their Graves. It's true the natural union betwixt his soul and body was dissolved for a time, but the Hypostatical union was not dissolved, no, not for a moment. That body was the body of the Son of God when it was in the Sepulchre. In like manner, the na∣tural union betwixt our souls and bodies is dissolved by death, but the mystical union betwixt us and Christ, yea betwixt our very dust and Christ, can never be dissolved.

Thirdly, As Christs body when it was in the Grave, did there rest in hope, and was assuredly a partaker of that hope. So it shall fare with the dead bodies of the Saints, when they lay them down also in the dust. My flesh also shall rest in hope, saith Christ, Psal. 16.9, 10, 11. In like manner, the Saints commit their bodies to the dust in hope. The righteous hath hope in his death, Pro. 14.32. And as Christs hope was not a vain hope, so neither shall their hope be in vain.

Fourthly, And lastly, Christs lying in the Grave before us, hath quite changed and altered the nature of the Grave. So that it is not what it was. It was once a part of the Curse, Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, was a part of the threa∣tening and curse for sin. The Grave had the nature and use of a prison, to keep the bodies of sinners against the great Assizes; and then deliver them up into the hands of a great and terrible

God. But now it's no prison, but a bed of rest. Yea, and a perfumed bed, where Christ lay before us. Which is a sweet consideration of the Grave indeed. They shall enter into peace, they shall rest in their beds, Isa. 57.2. O then let not believers stand in fear of the Grave. He that hath one foot in heaven, need not fear to put the other into the Grave. Though I go down to the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, Psal. 23.

Indeed, the Grave is a terrible place to them that are out of Christ. Death is the Lords Serjeant to arrest them. The Grave is the Lords Prison to secure them. When death draws them into the Grave, it draws them thither as a Lion doth his prey into the den to devour it. So you read Psal. 49.14. Death shall feed (or prey) upon them. Death there raigns over them in its full power, Rom. 5.14. And though at last it shall render them again to God, yet it were better for them to lie everlast∣ingly where they were, than to rise to such an end. For they are brought out of their Graves, as a condemned Prisoner out of the Prison, to go to execution. But the case of the Saints is not so. The Grave (thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ) is a priviledged place to them while they sleep there, and when they awake, it will be with sing∣ing. When they awake, they shall be satisfied with his like∣ness.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Cor. 4.