〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR The Saints worthinesse AND The worlds worthlesnesse Both opened and DECLARED IN A SERMON preached at the Funerall OF That Eminently Religious and highly honoured Knight Sr. NATHANIEL BARNARDISTON Aug. 26. 1653. By SAMUEL FAIRECLOUGH Pastor of the congregation at KETTON Pro. 12.26 The righteous is more excellent then his neighbour But the way of the wicked shall deceive him 1 John 5.19 Wee know wee are of God But the whole World lieth in wickednesse Aug. Epist 45. ad Arment Laudandi sunt atque praedicandi qui non sunt dignati etiam cum mundo florenâ—e florere London Printed by R. D. for Tho. Newberry at the Three Lions in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1653. Qui obiit a 4 Decemb. 1677 Aetatis 84. F. H. Van Houe Sculp To the right worshipfull and truly honoured Lady the Lady JANE BARNARDISTON As also To the right worshipfull S. Tho. Barnardiston Knight Mr. Nathaniel Barnardiston and Mr. Samuel Barnardiston Merchants in London Mr. Pelatia Barnardiston and Mr. William Barnardiston Merchants in TURKEY Mr. Arthur Barnardiston Merchant in LONDON Together with the most vertuous Ladies the Lady Anne Barnardiston the Lady Anne Rolt Mrs Jane Brooke Mrs Elizabeth Barnardiston and M rs Thomasin Barnardiston MADAM IF any one who is a stranger to your Family shall upon the sight of these eleven Names subscribed under your own inquire as Esau once did when he beheld the very same number following his brother Gen. 33. and shall aske with him who are these with thee Your Ladyship may answer either as Jacob then did These are the children which God of his grace hath given me they being all of them pledges of Gods grace unto you as also heirs of the covenant of grace by you and many of them approved vessels of grace in themselves and patternes of grace to others or you may use the words of that incomparable Lady Cornelia when shee presented her sons to the Common-wealth and answer with her Haec sunt mea Ornamenta These are my Jewels these are my Ornaments Gracious children being the Crown of 〈…〉 rents whilst like pure pleasant streams they shew the purity and excellency of that fountain front whence they did arise spring But if your self Madam shall inquire of me why I thus subscribed them my answer shall be this That I was very sensible of that deep wound which the Lord hath at this time made in your sorrowful and mournfull heart and withall I was convinced what great care cautelousness was to be used in applying comforts unto it least ungentle handling thereof in stead of a cure should cause it to bleed afresh I also knew that cordialls can never be more tenderly and acceptably presented to any parents bleeding heart then when they are brought by the gentle and officious hand of their dearest children And for this reason have I annexed their names to yours in this dedication that with one and the same cast of your eye you may discerne the matter of your joy and sorrow joyned both together In this manner I observe the Lord himself comforting his Orphan Church Psal 45.16 In stead of parents shall be thy children whom thou maiest make princes in all the earth Thus likewise doth the Lord Jesus comfort his disconsolate and sorrowful Mother Joh. 19.26 VVoman behold thy son speaking of the beloved disciple Yea so does the same son disciple comfort his own heart in all his sufferings and afflictions 3 Joh. 4. I have no greater joy then this to see my sons walk in the truth Madam you have the same cause of joy I doubt not but that if your Ladyship would seriously consider of Gods love to you in this mercy of your posterity I doubt not but that as there is no joy so great but the thought of one gracious child does much exceede it so there is no sorrow so bitter but that the consideration of so much pietie and obedience as your Ladyship may discerne in so many of your children would abundantly sensibly sweeten allay it If you therefore worthy Gentlemen and vertuous Ladies shall further demand to what end your names are thus inserted give me leave to answer you by relating to you what I have read in Aristotle that great Philosopher who tells us of Archilochus who being desirous to give some prevalent effectual counsel and advice to Lycambes whose father was dead did while he was writing his admonitions by an elegant prosopopoeia bring in his Father so put his pen into his Fathers hand that Lycambes might receive those instructions from one who by his verie relation was much more probable to prevaile then himself I have also met the like passage in Cicero that prince of Oratory and eloquence as the former was of Philosophie that he being to read a lecture of modestie and temperance to his friend Clodia raised up her father Appius Cajus from his grave and in his name delivered his directions to his daughter Both of these in this practise of theirs intimating that neither the wisdome of the one though the deepest Philosopher nor the eloquence of the other though the choicest Orator is so effectual in the hearts of children as the voice of a parent which is much more perswasive and powerful then any other argument or Rhetorick Upon this consideration it was that being by all your earnest and conjoyned importunity overcome to give you a copie of that counsel admonition which I delivered at your Fathers funeral I have chosen first to present it to your dearest Mothers hand and thereby to reach and hand it unto you that so it may be entertained with authority efficacy that as in times past you obeyed your Fathers instruction according to the command of God Pro. 1.8 so now for all times to come you may fear to forsake your Mothers teaching being thus conveyed unto you Instructions that are onely spoken with the tongue are transient and for the most part are terminated with the glasse but directions that are written are much more permanent and many times while thy receive and take one Impression they also make and leave another Last of all as to my self this conjoyned dedication appeares not at all arbitrarie but necessarie for as the incitation to publish them was from the sollicitation of you all so the end intended therein was the service of you all and the obligation necessitating my consent thereunto was the united love of you all For I must and alwayes shall acknowledge that that God of my mercies who granted me to find so great so large a portion of love and favour in the heart of him whom the Lord ha's now taken into his own bosome and also in the heart of you his dearest Lady hath likewise inclined the spirits of all you his children and posterity to manifest a singular and extraordinary affection unto me which although I acknowledge my self altogether unworthy to receive
then all in the ship with him and Noah better then all in the Ark or in all the world besides in as great degree as the richest diamond doth excell in dignity ten thousand pebbles Unbelievers are not worth one farthing in Gods esteem nay they are worse then nought or a meer non-entity for it had been good for them if they had not been born take them at their best in all worldly excellencies and perfections and if the Lord may set the price of all he tells you they are digni damnatione worth no more then damnation Now then seeing they are so vile and the meanest believer so worthy by reason of imputed and imparted worth into him may not the Lord in equity and justice preferre the meanest Saint before a world of them there being a greater distance in respect of worth and dignity between the meanest and poorest believer in the world and the worldling what confluence of parts honours and other enjoyments soever he enjoyeth then there is between the most glorified Saint in heaven and the weakest believer on earth because the difference between the believer is onely graduall every believer in time will grow up to be such but the difference between the former is essentiall and so they differ in nature and kinde All that now remains is the application and improvement of this truth upon out selves sutable to our present occasion which that I may the better perform I shall first apply it in relation to the person whose Funerall this day we desire to solemnize and then to the rest of the auditory here met on this occasion Use 1 First I shall apply it in relation to that person of eminent worth deceased which that I may do I shall premise as an introduction three things by way of inference 1. If it be so that the meanest Saint is of more worth then all the world thence it follows necessarily that the losse of one of them is a greater losse and more to be lamented then the losse of a thousand others how great soever they be in other respects If the daughters of Israel must weep for Saul 2 Sam. 24.16 well may David say wo is me for thee my brother Jonathan if there be cause to let fall a drop for the one surely there is cause that our eyes should gush forth in a floud for the other 2. If this be one evidence that the Lord values his Saints namely that he honours them and remembers their faith and other graces to their praise many hundred yeares after they are dead and asleep in their graves then surely it is a duty which we also owe to all Saints after they are dead to speak good of their names and to perperuate the memory of their worth and graces in the hearts and eares of others that survive them The anointing of dead corps preserves them from putrefaction a good name is this precious ointment wherewith God hath anointed the corps before us above others and doth therefore call us all forth and warrant me especially to bring true and honourable testimony of his worth this day 3. If God so values the meanest Saints how much more did he esteem this honourable person whose graces made him not onely more worthy then all unbelievers in the world but also more conspicuous and eminent then the greatest number of true believers in the church whereof if any doubt or hath hitherto been ignorant he will now certainly be convinced and assured if he shall please to remember with me 1. His honourable birth 2. His gracious life 3. His blessed death But before I enter the relation of either of them I have a double petition to present to the Auditory And my first addresse is to his Right worshipfull mournfull A petition 1. To his Lady and her children and lamenting Lady with her children who have called me to a work so difficult and so farre above my power as to delineate and represent the effigies and beauty of his life and conversation which indeed was in heaven whilest he was here on earth This must be the work of some divine Apelles and not mine for how can the Sun be inlightned by a starre or the fountain be watered by its own stream And therefore I humbly petition your worships to expect no such thing from me as that I should give either your selves or the Auditory satisfaction in declaring either the greatnesse of your losse or the excellency of his desert Alas you your selves neither do not can yet conceive or understand your own losse much lesse the want which the Church of God will find of him many yeares hereafter And for the expression of his deservings whence is it that when your selves begin to remember and make mention of one or two of them you presently stop and forbear to proceed and after a long pause in the midst of your discourses looking one upon another conclude with sights and sobs and tears in all your eyes but onely to signifie with these gestures what you cannot utter with your words Years I confesse are the best Oratours at Funeralls and speak much more effectually then any verball language can expresse yet you having joyntly expressed what you can thereby still confesse all of you come short in the proportion to his deserts how think you then that 't is possible for me alone to satisfie both you and the whole Auditory also by my words especially considering that it is one property that belongs to things that deserve admiration that they cannot be expressed All that I hope to effect herein is to manifest by what I shall speak that I really intended his honour though I actually perform no more then he that undertook to represent the beams and body of the Sun onely by making a prick or dot of gold with his pen in a fair sheet of paper or that Limner who having undertaken to draw a most beautifull picture finding his skill insufficient cast a vail over the face of it to cover his own ignorance as well as the beauty of the piece My second petition is to the rest of the Auditours 2 2. To the Auditory the summe whereof is that they would not receive the testimony I shall deliver concerning him as arising onely from the strength of mine affection to his person but rather from the conscience of that duty which I owe to the glory of God and the good of his peoples souls therein for although I must ever acknowledge him to have been the Lords great instrument of good to me and all mine and therefore do desire all of you that ever have received any benefit by my poor labours in this place to joyn with the in thankfulnesse to the Lord for him as the chief instrument thereof yet rather then I would speak one syllable in this place which I did not either know to be true on mine own knowledge or believe it to be so from the testimony of unquestionable witnesses
holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our lives or with Paul Acts 24.16 living alwayes with a clear conscience both toward God and man you shall find his life a copie or counterpane of them all As first In duties of piety for duties of piety to God whether you instance in secret or publick exercises of Religion he did so earnestly devote himself unto them that for my part amongst persons of his quality I think he hath left very few supersours therein behind him if any equalls I remember I have read it related to the everlasting praise of the Lord Harrington so famous for piety that it was his course to pray twise every day in secret twise with some choice friends and servants besides his Family duties But I am assured by those that seriously observed this gracious Knight 1 1 Private that it was his practise to humble his soul before the Lord in secret thrise every day and sometimes oftener if he could gain oportunity beside Family duties and other dayes of extraordinary humiliation which he greedily laid hold on when occasion was offered This I can testifie from mine own experience that for many yeares together when I was first acquainted with him I seldome visited him or he me but if any convenient place could be found we might not part except we had prayed together Nor was he more frequent in secret prayer then constant in secret reading the Scriptures but never without prayer before and after for the blessing of the Lord thereon afterward he read other choice Authours of which he had store but of late he took singular delight in reading Mr. Baxter his Treatise of the Saints everlasting rest and preparation thereunto which since his death I perceive was nothing else but the gracious event of divine providence sending it as a guide to bring him more speedily and directly to the possession of that rest For the sanctification of the Sabbath so was it his delight that for the most part he arose the first in the family that day 2 2 Publick and then would call his children and others up that they might have time to prepare themselves for a more reverent attendance upon the Lord in his publick ordinances and for himself he ordinarily spent much time upon his own heart every Sabbath morning before he came to the congregation And for his estimation of and constant attendance upon the ministration of the word publickly dispensed it was so eminent and reverent Ministry of the word that I verily believe whoever in the congregation have been loosers by his death we of the minislery have the greatest losse if the hearers put on blacks the preachers have cause to mourn in sackcloth for the godly ministers had not a more faithfull and cordiall friend and well-wisher of his quality in the land none so earnestly and frequently prayed for them none so highly prized their calling and labours as he did he was fully of his mind who openly professed he had rather fall with the Ministery of England then stand in greatest power with their enemies When some talked of mortall bloudy times and dark black dayes coming upon us he replied that those would be dark black dayes indeed when the lights of the ministry were extinguished then the shortest life would be accounted the best This made him so exceeding cautelous and serious when any place belonging to his presentation was vacant that he would spend many dayes in fasting and prayer to be directed therein professing many times solemnly unto me that his spirit did more tremble to set his hand and seal to a Presentation then to any other writing or deed whatsoever lest said he I should thereby bring the losse of the peoples souls to be required of me or my posterity through my negligence therein And therefore when by all his own care and advice of friends such an one could not be procured that for his sufficiency and abilities could give his own conscience satisfaction then he left it wholly to the better sort of the people in that place to choose their own Minister and Pastour In his personall attendance upon the word taught what the Apostle James requires in a blessed hearer was his punctuall practice for he was swift to hear he could never satisfie his own conscience if he were not present to joyn with the congregation before there was one word spoken or one petition sent up to the Lord his constancy in this course is notoriously known to you all After the congregation was dismissed the first thing which he did usually after he came within his own doors was immediately to betake himself to his closet to begge a blessed dew from heaven to water the seed sown in his heart that day And he that exceeded others in his diligence and reverence in other duties of piety Sacrament did exceed himself in his conscientious preparation unto and fruitfull improvement of the Lords Supper for the most part he would spend a fortnight never lesse than a week before the Sacrament in his closet in reading praying and examination of his spirituall estate with other duties of preparation tending thereunto and what he practised himself in this kind he constantly called upon others under him to do the like Neither did this his singular piety in the things of God Duties to man make him as it is in very many others the more remisse or regardlesse in the performance of the duties of equity or charity in his deportment to men but on the other side rendred him much more exact and accurate in them all for consider him in his carriage towards others in their severall relations to him and you shall have cause to conclude his life as gracious in performing the duties of righteousnesse unto all his relations as it was in the exercise of holinesse and the worship of God and all acts of immediate communion with God Consider him as pater-familias Relative graces Master of family the governour and master of a family and it may be truely affirmed of him whilest he was a house-keeper which the prophet David professeth of himself Psal 101.5 6. That he walked in his integrity in the midst of his house he permitted to known profane person to stand before him or wait upon him but his eyes were ever fixed upon those that were faithfull in the land that they might serve him He had at one time tenor more such servants of that eminency for piety and sincerity that I never yet saw their like at one time in any family in the nation whose obedience joyned to their governours care produced so rare an effect that truely they made his house a spirituall church and temple wherein were dayly offered up the spirituall sacrifices of reading the Word and prayer morning and evening of singing Psalmes constantly after every meal before any servant did rise from the table the chiefest of them did usually after every Sermon they heard call
the sight of God and their betters 3. Lastly there was in him a blessed conjunction of those things that rarely meet in any other I mean both an admirable facility easinesse to be intreated with a great yieldingnesse of spirit even to inseriours when any good might be done thereby and yet also a strong resolute unmovablenesse and stedfastnesse of mind in opposing all evil in whomsoever superiour or other in the cause of the Lord so that he was truely that which is reported of Athanasius Magnes Adamas Nazianzen a loadstone for his sweetnesse in drawing on good an adamant for his courage and stoutnesse in suppressing evil In regard of the former I may say as it is said of Titus he was delicia humani generis the delights of mankind and in respect of the latter he was Nathaniel a true Israelite without guile The observation of these things in him rendred him not onely to me but to all that were intimately conversant with him like Chemnitius caput Veneris gloria Christianorum Melchier Ad in zira chem the beauty of grace and the glory of Christianity which as so many precious jewells adorned him and presented him gracious and honourable to all men whilest he lived and being dead as so many redolent flowers stuck upon his herse give such a pleasant and odoriserous savour in the nostrill of all spectatours that the memory of them shall ever remain in the hearts and mouths of all future generations who shall understand thereby how the Lord was pleased to honour him first with a spirituall birth and after with a gracious life and last of all with a most blessed death which now in the next place falls under our consideration And surely if their death be blessed that die in the Lord and rest from their labours their works following them Revel 14. if it be a blessed death to depart in peace with Simeon Luc. 2. our eyes beholding the salvation by Christ if it be a blessed death to die as Paul did Phil. 4. having finished our course and kept the faith or with Jacob blessing our children in the arms of our dearest Joseph then the consideration of the particulars following which attended his death will manifest to all that his death was as blessed as his life was gracious or his birth honourable The first whereof was his carefull preparation thereunto His death blessed for the space of two years before when he made his last will and testament and writ it with his own hand upon this very ground as he there expresses it that after he had so set his house in order he might have nothing in the world to look after or look upon but his blessed Saviour and Salvation by him In which last Testament of his he expresseth so much assurance and confidence of the Lords everlasting grace and love unto him as if at the same time with Simeon he had imbraced the Lord Jesus in his arms In the disposall of the severall portions to his posterity he doth withall annex and twist in so many heavenly counsels and precious instructions tending to their everlasting inheritance that it rather resembled our Saviours Testament conveighing the legacies of the covenant of grace or a heavenly Sermon then any politicall instrument to dispense onely earthly possessions A second observable thing in his death was his gracious welcome of the messenger of it As soon as ever there appeared on his side a small swelling in which none but himself conceived any danger Gracious courage in sicknesse he taking me to walk with him presently fell into discourse of the worth and immortality of the soul of the manner of its subsistence and actings when it was separated of the joyes of the other world and the vanity and emptinesse of all things in this as the things most sutable to his present condition and herewith he was so deeply and spiritually affected that at our parting he expressed himself in this manner unto me Sir I now much wonder that any man that fully believes these things to be realities and not mere notions being in my condition should be unwilling to die for my own part I will not be so flattered with any carnall content as to be desirous to live longer in this world where there is little hope left that the Lord hath any more work or service for me to do except it be to suffer for keeping a good conscience in witnessing against the apostasies and impieties of the times and therefore now it is a great favour of God to be sent for speedily Which passage I note because it was one of the last I had with him before his removall to London and also because I have certain intelligence he made the same profession to others after he came under the Physicians hands Where another thing is remarkable for his pains and infirmities growing so fast upon him that he was thereby debarred the benefit of publick ordinances He one Sabbath morning observing the persons in the Family were he lodged preparing themselves to joyn with the congregation of that place fell into a great passion of sorrow and wept very sore and with David poured out his very heart because he had gone with the multitude and led them to the house of God but now was necessitated to want the benefit of that which his soul so much thirsted for Hereupon he gave himself so much the more earnestly to the exercise of secret reading the Scripture meditation and prayer so long as his strength would hold out but one wave followed another so fast that he was disable thereby to be so frequent and constant in those secret duties of communion with the Lord as he desired for which he made many complaints to his sonnes and others as they came about him The week before he died he was perswaded in respect of the extremity of his pain once or twise to go to bed before Family prayer but the night following being again perswaded to it he told them he would not be intreated to do so any more for he said he was sure that he slept the worse those two nights for the want of it spiritually using that proverb whet it no let The day before his death his children being about him as Jacobs were he blessed them all with his prayers for them and gave these his last counsels unto them First he admonished them to take heed of worldlinesse and vain-glory shewing what a vast difference there was between a gracious humble man and a proud gracelesse man both in the estimation of God and man Secondly perswaded them to live in love and unity together yet so as they should ever count it their duty to watch over one another and never be afraid to tell one another of their faults lovingly and not to be mealy-mouthed as his expression was Thirdly that they should take heed of timorousnesse and shirking from the truth by reason of the oppofitions of the
from this truth to you of his nearest relation Exhortation you have heard it proved that the Lord setteth a higher price upon the meanest believer then all the world besides you have the experience of it in the Lord his honouring your father in his life and death and I believe you esteem it none of your least honours that you are descended from also honourable a root and that upon very good ground for to be heirs of so many promises and prayers which he paâ— up to the Lord for you is an invaluable treasure and portion Moses when it was put to his choice whether he would deny his Hebrew pedegree and he reputed an Egyptian even the son of Pharaoh's daughter and thereby have hopes of a kingdome or on the other side lose all the riches of Egypt by declaring himself of the posterity of Abraham saw cause enough to make choice of the latter rather then the former in like manner I am perswaded you see more ground to glory that you are descended from your fathers loins who was so gracious then if you had been born heirs to the greatest Potentate of the earth if he were gracelesse O therefore that now it might be your great care to see that your behaviour in the world may be worthy of so good a father Beware you do not degenerate from his practise or principles but le your conversation to God and mad be such that you may be a crown to his head that was so great a glory to yours Robora parentum referunt liberi as sickly children argue the parents weaknesse so a gracious posterity like pure streams demonstrate the purity of the fountain from whence they are derived Childrens grace and piety is not onely a comfort to parents whilest they live but also a glory unto them when they are dead so was Eliakim of whom you may reade Isa 22.22 where the Spirit of God affirm that he was a throne of glory to his fathers house I saw a letter which one of you since your fathers death wrote from London to your brother in the countrey wherein was this expression viz. that he ballancing his fathers gain and glory which now he injoyed in heaven against the greatness of his own losse by his death on earth he professed that if he might have him alive again with a wish he durst not desire it I liked the expression exceeding well because it preferred his fathers glory above his own content And therefore as you rejoyce in the increase of your fathers glory in heaven so labour the augmentation of it in earth in being with Eliakim a throne of glory to your fathers house Which you shall effect if with the Rechabites you shall strictly and punctually observe and follow all his holy commands and blessed examples after his departure in so doing both the Lord himself and all his people shall do to you as the Lord Isaiah 22. promiseth they should do to Eliakim viz. hang the glory of his fathers house upon him Abraham was a good father and the Jews did much glory in him but Abraham could not glory in the Jews as his children because they did no the works of Abraham their father In like manner you had an honourable father and you justly glory in him O let him also have cause to glory in you whilest the world may take notice that you both walk in the steps of his faith and do also his works Let me therefore exhort every one that hath any of his bloud in his veins and beareth his name before the world that you would become his representatives the world that he being dead in his own body yet he may live and walk in you Collect the jewells of his graces set them in rows on the breast-plate of your heart and so carry his image about the world in your lives that all spectatours that knew your father when they behold your conformity to him may say Surely this is that renowned Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston or one very like him All this I speak unto you in this day of the sad obsequies of your father that I may ingage you all who are the branches of this noble vine to become fruitfull boughs loaden with such clusters the fruit whereof may glad the heart of God and man And for that end I commend unto you next after the reading of the Bible above all other books the reading and remembrance of the history of your fathers life and graces the volume of his counsels and directions written in your hearts use all diligence in the daily observation of the solid principles and divine rules legible in his example and practise Boleslaus the fourth King of Poland used to hang his fathers picture in a plate of gold about his neck Cromerus lib. 5. and when he was to speak or act any thing or importance did usually pull it out view and kisse it wishing he might do nothing unworthy of his name The like do you in bearing his name for a remembrance before the world untill the reflection on his perfections as so many rich diamond casting forth their beauty upon your actions cause you to answer those great expectations of piety and sincerity which your birth education and profession have raised in the hearts and minds of all spectatours Conceive I beseech you that every one that looks upon you doth speak unto you as the people of Rome used to speak at the creation of their Consuls praesta nomen tuum make good your name By this course you shall in some measure make up the couatreys great losse in the death of your father and make way for your friends to comfort those sorrowfull hearts that mourn for his death Ambros in obit Theo. As Ambrose in his Funcrall oration for Theodosius thus cheared up his mourning subjects my friends said he let his comfort you in the death of Theodosius the father because he lives in his son Honorias so I may say Let this comfort thee O Suffolk in the losse of his worthy Patriot that his graces yet survive in his sonne Nay if you shall severally and joincly second your fathers piety integrity and zeal for the cause of God and your countrey I may then adde that consolation to your lamenting neighbours which Eusebius reports of Constantines children after their fathers departure they lived so holily that the people said they had now may Constantines for one before they had Constantine multiplied so we also hereby may say we have may Sir Nathaniels for one or Sir Nathaniel multiplied and inlarged whilest his children that inherit his lands and estate do also succeed him in his virtues and graces who account it he highest honour of their family that Religion be continued in a succession and multiplication therein And truely Gentlemen if it was esteemed the great honour of the Family of the Curii in Rome Aeliax lib. 3. that there arose out from that stock three excellent Oratours one succeeding