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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41017	Thrēnoikos the house of mourning furnished with directions for the hour of death ... delivered in LIII sermons preached at the funerals of divers faithfull servants of Christ / by Daniel Featly, Martin Day, John Preston, Ri. Houldsworth, Richard Sibbs, Thomas Taylor, doctors in divinity, Thomas Fuller and other reverend divines.	Featley, Daniel, 1582-1645.	1660 (1660)	Wing F595; ESTC R30449	896,768	624

they may avoid the punishment when being incouraged by the promise of a reward they performe the actions of obedience do they not herein seek themselves they seek the avoyding of evil to themselues and the obtaining of good for themselves and doing thus they live to themselves To this we Answer We must consider our selves two wayes First in subordination to God Secondly in competition with him or oppositon against him Consider a mans self in subordination to God so a man may seek himself that is he may seek his own good though not as the uttermost end wherein his thoughts rest yet he hath this incouragement Self-love is a plant of Gods own planting in the heart of man and he will not have any man root out that that he hath planted Grace drieth not up the fountain of nature It doth but turn the stream into a new channel it guides it the right way When a man is renewed by grace and sanctified he is the same man in his faculties he doth his actions better then he did before and all that he did before he doth them to a better end It is impossible that the will of man should incline to any thing but as he conceiveth it good and good for me now there is no man can conceive a thing as good for him but he must conceive it as good and sutable to him sutable to his welfare and condition The law of God forbiddeth not this but establisheth it and commendeth it if it be rightly ordered Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soul and with all thy strength that is the cheif notwithstanding thou shalt not hate thy self thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self subordinate to the love of a mans self must be the love of his neighbour and subordinate to his love of God must be the love of himself Thou maist love thy self but in a degree inferiour to God Thou must love thy self in God and seek thy good in God and not in thy self therefore it is that God in the Scripture hath set promises and threatnings one opposite to the other Now it is lawful for a man to be drawn to obedience or driven from sin by any argument that God useth in his Word When God threatneth punishment shall not men be awakened the Lyon roareth and the beasts of the Forrest tremble When God promiseth here is the act of faith to receive this promise and to believe it Herein Jesus Christ the Author and finisher of our faith is set as a patterm for us he set before him the joy It is lawful for a Christian herein to imitate Christ I speak this for their sakes to allure them by incouragements from the Word that howsoever the avoyding of sin by threatnings is an action of self-love without the love of God yet these two may stand together in a due subordination one to another a mans love to himself and love to God to love God more then himself and so to seek all good in God and in the way leading to him Secondly take man as he standeth in competition and opposite to God in matter of will and desire In this case a man must not love and seek himself but God When a man seeks good to himself in a way displeasing to God herein he must not seek himself for he must live to God and not to himself when his thoughts and desires and affections are carried for himself principally this is against the rule this is not the state of a Christian of a beleever thus to seek himself in any thing contrary to God or in any thing above him Thus you have the opening of it And it shall appear to be a truth by these reasons For a man to live to himself that is to do the actions of life with respect to himself not to others and to God It is First a dishonour to God Secondly injurious to Christ Thirdly dangerous and hurtful to a mans self Eirst I say it is dishonourable to God It is the greatest dishonour the creature can do to the Creatour to exalt himself to make himself his end in the actions he doth It is to make a mans self a God and to make God an Idol For what is that incommunicable glory that God will not give to another but this to make himself his end It is a glory proper only to God He made all things for himself Prov. 16.4 Mark how these two agree well together that that that is the efficient cause should be the final cause too that as God is the maker so he should be the end of all things and as that that giveth Being to the creature it is our of it self so likewise that that should quicken and act the creature should be out of it self When a man therefore propounds himself as his end he is said in that to make himself God Those false Apostles Phil. 3.20 it is said of them that they made their belly their God because this they propounded as their end how they might advantage themselves in the world how they might feed and delight themselves and exalt themselves and serve not God This is to bring God below a mans self making God an Idol and himself God I say therefore it is the highest dishonour that the creature can do to God Secondly it is the greatest injury that he can do to Christ to live to himself Christ may say truly and more properly and fitly to us then Saint Paul could say to Philemon thou owest thy self to me We owe our selves to him by all rights especially by that great right ofpurchase he bought us to himself he redeemed us to himself You are bought with a price saith the Apostle therefore glorifie God in your spirits and bodies for they are Gods They are his and not your own because he bought them bought them when you were slaves and had inthralled your selves therefore you owe your selves to him he hath purchased you to himself In the old Law the rule was that if a man had bought another either out of captivity or the like he was to demand all the work and service that this man could doe all his time and strength belonged unto hm that bought him for he was his money therefore he might exact of him the uttermost he could do for his service for he bought him Much more Christ that hath bought us from a worse slavery from a slavery under the power of darkness and bought us with the greatest price even with the effusion of his own bloud He hath redeemed us saith Saint Peter not with silver and gold but with his own precious bloud a price far above that if a man should give all his wealth Now when Christ hath bought us for himself we are become not his money but his bloud therefore all that we have and are is due to him because we are his If we have any good in the world in things present

for for as I said his disease seized on him with such violence and extremity that he had no space for any thing but to pray us to pray with him and for him That which we may learn from such examples as these is this That we therefore be good Stewards in the time of our life We know not what violent sicknesse may seize upon us and how it may dis-inable us to expresse our selves to men or to set our reckonings even with God Be serious therefore in the point while you have health and strength All of you are now called to a reckoning by the preaching of the Word and Gospel if this will not prevail expect another calling by sicknesse by terrours of conscience by death You are not sure but that the next calling may be by death as it was with this our brother let me put this therefore as a remembrance to every one of you that you behave your selves as dying daily Remember thou art a Steward and must give an account of thy Stewardship Alexander had his Remembrancer Saint Jerome had another Remembrancer Whether I eat or drink saith he or whatsoever I do me thinks I hear the voyce of the last trumpet and of the Arch-Angel Arise you dead and come to Judgment Let me now be thy Remembrancer Remember thou art a Steward and that thou must be called to an account of thy Stewardship When thou art in holy duties remember thou must give an account with what strength thou servest God When thou art in business in thy family remember thou must give an account how thou hast walked toward thy servants toward thychildren toward them that God hath given the. Thou that hast an estate remember that thou must give an account to the great Lord of the gitting and of the spending of that estate Thou that art in places of authoritie over others remember thou must give an account how thou comest to them how thou hast behaved thy self in them Let every one remember that he must give an account of what service he hath done to his Master of what use he hath been unto God and what to others The more God hath been glorified and others benefited th● more shall our souls be comforted at that great day of appearance when the lea●● smile of GODS countenance will be worth a thousand worlds and the testimony o● a good conscience will be preferred before all the treasures of the Eearth THE PRAISE OF MOURNING OR MOURNING Preferred before MIRTH. SERMON II. ECCLESIASTES 7.2 It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to the House of Feasting for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it to his heart IN the former Chapter the Wise Man had been shewing the vanity and insufficiency of all earthly things to make a man happy and how much the World is mistaken in seeking happiness in any thing here below In this Chapter and those that follow he cometh to direct men in the right way to find it and sheweth them where they should seek it and where they should find it First he telleth them of a good name in the first verse A good name is better than pretious ointment The second means is a good death the day of death is better than the day of ones birth The third is a right mourning it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting Afterward he proceedeth to other particulars But this he bringeth in upon the former to prevent an objection that some might make for having said that the day of death is better then the day of ones birth some might object What goodnesse can there be in death as for those that are dead they cease to be and they that are alive reap no benefit by it but mourning and there is little good little happinesse in this to exercise a mans thoughts about mournful objects Yes saith he it is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of feasting for the living will lay it to his heart And upon this he spendeth some time because naturally we are exceeding backward to beleeve that it is good for a man to be mourning upon earth Others make the dependance of the words thus That Solomon having before shewed the vanity of riches he doth in the six former verses of this Chapter prefer even death it selfe before wealth and abundance And he sheweth wherein it is better First in the Adjuncts The Adjunct of death is mourning the Adjunct of wealth and abundance is feasting yet mourning is better then feasting And because it seemeth a Parradox to every natural man he cometh to confirm and prove it By the Effects In the third verse Sorrow is better then laughter for by the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better Sorrow can do that for us that wealth cannot it makes the heart better By the different subjects in which they are That same worldly mirth is in the heart of fooles In the fourth verse the heart of fooles is in the house of mirth but this mourning it is in the heart of the wise the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning By the Efficient cause One cause of mourning is the rebukes of the wise In the fifth verse It is better to hear the rebukes of the wise then for a man to hear the song of fools And then in the sixth verse by a Prolepsis he prevents an objection that some might make For whereas he had said that mourning was better then joy some might say It seemeth otherwise there is delight in joy there is none in mourning He telleth them that that delight it is but a very short delight but as the cracking of thorns under a pot it is but vanity As the cracking of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of a fool this also is vanity We will not stand much about the matter So many severall men as handle this book do severally connect and joyn the words together according to their own conceits and opinions of them It is evident that in this verse that I have now read to you the Wise man speaks of such a mourning as is occasioned by the death of freinds And he saith of that mourning that it is better then to be in the house of feasting That he speaks of such a mourning appears by that which followeth first he saith that that is the end of all men he speaks therefore of such a mourning as is upon the end of men upon the departure of men out of this world and secondly he saith the living will lay it to his heart he speaks of such an end of men as is opposite to the life of men In a word By the house of mourning he meaneth a house wherein some one is dead which giveth occasion to the parties that dwell there of sorrow and mourning for their departed friend It is better to go to

therefore he cannot but with amazement and fear continually tremble before God and he desires if it were possible that there were no God at all that he might never be called to account for his doings But now the child of God a faithful Abraham that is in covenant with God he may in the middest of all evils lift up his head with joy and comfort even when wicked men are at their wits end and know not whether to turn themselves It is I say a point needful to urge in these times wherein we hear abroad of wars and rumors of wars and so many distractions and what they feel we have cause to fear but now it is seasonable at this time when we see the King of fears act his part before our eyes he that the Philosophers call the most terrible of all terribles that is Death that tends to the extirpation and abolition of nature in regard of our being here I say there cannor be a better argument treated of then somewhat that may fence us against the fear of this evil Now for the opening of this point First consider what fear is And then what fear a Christian should be freed from And then how it comes to pass that a Christian is exempted from all slavish and inordinate fear And then come to make some Use of it to the present occasion First that we may know the point the better let us consider what fear is in general And fear beloved is such An affection or passion of the soul that is stirred up with a through apprehension of some future evil that is very difficult to be resisted by the party or patient It is an affection or passion of the soul for it makes a real transmutation in the man It is such an affection as is stirred up with the apprehension of evil for evil is properly the object of fear we do not primarily fear any thing that is good axcept the loss of it and it is ill to lose any good thing Again it is evil future for if the evil be present we grieve and not fear And it is such an evil as is difficult and hard to resist an overcome with patience for if it be a small evil that is easily conquered you contemn it you fear it not You see then what fear is in general Is all fear prohibited Not the fear of God c. Fear is oft commanded in Scripture know then there are divers kinds of fear First natural fear and that is called natural either in regard of the material or efficient cause When the party that doth fear is phlegmatick or melancholly and so is naturally inclined to fear this may be called a natural sear Or in regard of the object when there is somewhat in that which is destructive to nature and therefore the fear of death it is natural to man and so whatsoever may prejudice nature Now this natural fear is an affection that Almighty God concreated with the soul it is naturally good it is morally neither good nor evil but according as it is determined by circumstances Again there is a carnal evil fear namely when a man fears the evil of punishment more then the evil of sin a corporal evil more then a spiritual a temporal more then an eternal He is afraid of losing something he enjoyes or of not getting something he desires c. In either regards there may be a carnal fear as I shall explain it to you more anon and this so far as it is carnal is ever to be condemned Thirdly there is a servile fear and this is such a fear as looks at the punishment only and not at the sin when a man is afraid of the judgements of GOD and never fears sin that is the cause of it And so withal when this fear is only servile and is retained in the heart that man desires still to sin there is a love of sin a wishing that God would give him leave to sin and let loose the reins to him that if it were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor Hell that he might sin were possible there were no God no Devil no Heaven nor hell that he might sin freely And if he abstain from sin at any time the cause is that there is this punishment that is the consequent of sin and not out of love to God or obedience to his commandements Now this servile fear though in it self it be not savingly pleasing to God yet it is a thing that is good as S. Austin observes for that man that fears servily he doth that which is good though he doth it not well because that is a thing that depends upon the disposition and will of him that doth the thing though the thing be good as far as it goes It is good for the restraining of evil men from outrages in the world and it is a preparative in the way to conversion as it is Act. 2. Lastly there is a filial son-like fear that ariseth out of the consideration of the greatness and especially of the goodness of God whereby a man so hates punishment as he hates sin also the cause of it Now there are divers degrees of filial fear One degree we call innitial fear in this World And a degree of perfection in the world to come In this world the fear we have hath one eye upon the punishment and another eye upon the commandement or love of God And here many make a doubt whether they are to do that which is good having an eye to the recompence of reward or to abstain from evil out of the fear of punishment For answer briefly And thing almighty God hath made a motive to us to incourage us to do well or to deter us from evil we may make a motive to our selves and as long as we do so we do well It was so with Adam in Paradice this was propounded as a motive In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die Then to abstain from the forbidden fruit partly out of fear of punishment If Adam did so he did well So every one of us in regard of any evil we may have an eye to the punishment that will be the consequent of the thing for Christ urgeth this to his own Disciples Fear not him that can kill the body c. And to do things meerly without any respect to punishment at all I know no reason why any man should aspire to that perfection For God while we are here hath given us these motives to stir us up to avoid evil and it is well if we can heartily and truly out of love to God do it by all the motives that God hath propounded To have a fear meerly for punishment and still to retain the love of sin and no respect or love to the commandement of God this is not acceptable to God in a saving manner but to have an eye to God and to abstain from sin

in the subject too not only a certainty that those that are in Christ shall live but it is certain to you make account of this make this conclusion for your selves build on it know it for your selves as he said to Job it is certain if you be in Christ you are dead with Christ and you shall live with Christ make account of this Lastly the efficient cause of this great change exprest in these terms it is Jesus Christ our Lord make account of this if you be in Christ there comes a vertue from Christ an effectual working of Christ by his spirit in your hearts such a powerful work as will conforme you to Christ dead and to Christ risen that you shall be dead to sin and alive to God not by any sttength in your selves or any excellent endowment in your own natures not by any natural inclination and ability but through the vertue and power of Jesus Christ our Lord working in you Thus you have the Text opened We will speak first of the Analogy and proportion the agreement between the metaphors here used and the things exprest by them That which the Apostle would express is that there is a marvellous spiritual real change in all those that are in Christ from what they were before Now let us see how sitly it is exprest in these words that he saith you are dead to sin and alive to Ged that he chuseth to express it by life and death Had it not been fit to have said thus much you are changed in your dispositions in your inclinations in your intentions in your actions you are changed in your conversations you are other kind of men in the inclination of your hearts you bring forth other fruit you lead other lives then you were wont to do But he expresseth it here yet more fully that is by that that includes all these and if there be any thing more may be added it includes that too ye are dead and alive Then we will consider First generally how death and life express the state of them that are in Christ Secondly consider them in their particular application how death expresseth the first part of a mans change in sanctification and life the second part First we take them in general and let this be the point that A man that is indeed effectually changed by vertue of his union with Christ he hath such a change wrought in him as in a dead and living man as in life or in death Now first take it in general you know life and death they imply first a general change when a man is alive or when a man is dead there is not a change in some part only but in the whole So it is here when a man is effectually changed from what he was by vertue of his union with Christ A member may be dead and yet nevertheless the man alive but if the man be dead there is a general change that goes throughout it possesseth every part every member so that now there is no member of him but death rules in it then he is a dead man So it is in this when a man is dead spiritually there is not a change in some particular actions only in some particular opinions only there is not an alteration of some of his old customs only but it is a general change so it goes through the whole man It is a change in the understanding he judgeth things otherwise then he was wont to do And there is a change in the will the inclination of it is to other objects then he was wont to be inclined to And thence there is a change in his intentions he propounds other ends to himself then he was wont So there is a change in respect of the whole the Word is the rule of all a mans actions There is a change from particular evils from one as well as another that when any thing is discovered to him to be a sin to be a transgression of the rule he is turned from it So likewise when any thing is discovered to him to be a duty agreeable to the rule according to the will of God revealed in his Word he is a vessel of honour prepared for it and that is it the Apostle especially means when he compares them to vessels and he describes them thus they are vessels of honour fit for the service of their Master prepared for every good work So that now as the Apostle saith there remaineth no more conscience of sin That is there remains not now any sin to cleave to the conscience to defile it to cleave to the conscience so as a ruling enemy would do that would take away all true and perfect peace all boldness and access to the throne of Grace there is no such conscience of sin This making conscience of every sin is that that frees conscience from being defiled in that sence with any sin so much for the first Well secondly it is expressed by death and life to shew the orderliness in the proceeding of this change When a man is changed by the efficacy and working of Christ to whom he is united it proceeds in such a manner as the change in death or life You know death or life begin within first it begins in the inward man in the heart first And as in natural death or natural life there is a dying first of the root and a quickning first at the root So likewise in spiritual death or life it is an orderly proceeding it begins first within Our Saviour Christ gives this direction First make the inside clean and then all will be clean against the hppocrisie of the Scribes and Pharisees that looked more to outward actions So this change it is not only a meer civilizing of a man a conforming of him to that society he converseth with in outward actions but renewing of a man in the spirit of his mind Rom. 12.2 So the change begins from within Hence it is that first he is good and then he doth good according to the speech of Christ make the tree good and then the fruit will be good we will not stand upon it you see the Analogie and agreement holds between these two in general Now we come to take them apart more specially First how this being dead to sin agrees with that change that is in a man that is in Christ from sin Reckon this saith the Apostle make account of this that you are dead to sin that is now there is such a change and turning from your evil courses from whatsoever it is that is truly and properly called sin in Scripture you are changed from it Now in whatsoever sence a man may be said to be dead in that sence a man in Christ is changed from sin there is somewhat in his change expressing that death Now there is a threefold death A Civil Death A Judicial Death A Natural Death We begin with the judicial first