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A00426
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A learned and godly sermon preached on the XIX. day of December, anno Dom. MDCXXXI. at the funerall of Mr. Robert Bolton Batchelour in Divinity and minister of Broughton in Northampton-Shire. By Mr. Nicolas Estvvick, Batchelour in Divinity, and sometimes fellow of Christs College in Cambridge, and now minister of Warkton in Northampton-Shire. Revised and somewhat enlarged by the author, and now at the importunity of some friends published
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Estwick, Nicolas.
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1639
(1639)
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STC 10558; ESTC S122205
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46,169
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72
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Christian that desires to have all his sinnes unbowelled and discovered shall find the losse of a gracious soule-searching Minister he that would have rules to avoid particular sins and to make progresse in all vertues shall find the losse of a copious and experienced directour he that is wounded in conscience shall find the losse of a skilfull Surgeon who in that art was one of a thousand to restore righteousnesse the vertuous rich and humble poore Christians that feared GOD shall find the losse of a loving friend and a gracious supporter those that are in wants and truly religious shall find to my knowledge the losse of a liberall reliever and comforter nay poore condemned Christians shall find the losse of a charitable instructour and what shall I say more the whole Land shall find the losse of a zealous pillar and of a powerfull prevailer with GOD for the continuance of our happinesse so that all had cause to pray not as the dresser of the barren fig-tree but as for a fruitfull tree LORD let it stand one yeare nay many yeares longer but the greater our losse is of him the greater is the gaine unto himselfe and as he is crowned with glory in heaven so his remembrance to many of us will be like that of Iosias to the Jewes It is sweet as honie in all mouthes and as musicke at a banquet of wine This consideration may be of good use for GODS people First that they would set a high price on good Ministers and afford them a singular measure of love as to spirituall fathers GOD honouring them so highly as joyning them with himselfe as co-workers in the regeneration and salvation of his people against whom Satan and his instruments are most enraged towards such let the affections of GODS people be most enflamed though their persons may be contemptible yet in regard of their high calling as they are CHRISTS Ambassadours they are venerable they are deare unto GOD you cannot contemne nor reverence them but this reacheth unto heaven and in the last resolution reflects on CHRIST himselfe CHRIST is interessed both in the contempt and in the respect you shew towards them Secondly it should teach them another duty to pray heartily to GOD for them that GOD would give his Vrim and his Thummim to his holy ones this was the prayer of Moses for the Tribe of Levi think of them as Saint Iames said of Elias That they are men subject to like passions that you are conceive us not to be of Laodicean temper to stand in need of nothing we are no better nor so good as Saint Paul and yet good Saint Paul is frequent in his exhortations to the people to pray for him brethren we had need of your prayers none more need then we something it is that Saint Paul in his prayer for the Churches useth this forme Grace be unto you and peace but when he writes to Timothy and to Titus separated for the service of GOD he prayes for Grace Mercy and Peace for them They in speciall manner it seemes do stand in need of GODS mercy pray for such then and for their continuance that they may live be guides to the blind lights to them that sit in darkenesse Instructors of the ignorant and by a godly life examples to the flocke over which the LORD hath made them Over-seers Get now all the good you can from profitable Ministers while you enjoy them heare them every LORDS day as though it was the last day you should heare them whiles the yeares of plenty last store up with good Ioseph provision which may preserve your lives if a dearth should come like the shel-fish sucke in that moisture while you are in the waters which may preserve you on the dry land When Nilus over-flowed the bankes the Egyptians were so wise to dig pits to retaine the water to serve their turne when the water of the river returned into its channell Doe thou so for thy soule in regard of the waters of life store now thy selfe with the bread of heaven least thou finde to thy griefe the greatnesse of a benefit in the losse thereof unwise they are that know not the true worth of blessings but by wanting them which wisemen had rather learne by keeping them O carry thy selfe towards them as Saint Irenaeus did towards that blessed Martyr Polycarpus many yeares after he did keep fresh in memory the disputations of Polycarpus his goings out and commings in his manner of life the shape of his body his Sermons to the people how he conversed with Saint Iohn the Apostle and with others which saw the LORD he could recite what he reported as spoken by them c. such a deepe impression in his soule there was left many yeares after Polycarpe was a glorious Saint in heaven and I beleeve that this our brothers unaffected gravity his wise carriage and many of his gracious speeches are written with the pen of an adamant in some Christians which will be legible in them so long as they live Lastly let us of the Clergie while we live do all the good we can and put forth our selves with all laboriousnesse before the day of harvest the gifts of the Spirit are given to profit withall Gods gives these ministeriall talents to this end and let us imploy our talents to attaine this end while we continue in this Tabernacle let us not cease to put men in mind of their duty as Saint Peter professed he would doe let us pity the case of all disobedient persons let other fishers if they thinke good fish for riches or for vaine applauses but let our chiefe aime be to deliver a sinner from the pit of destruction and rather to speake five words in compassion to save a soule then five thousand for any sinister end whatsoever the soule of the poorest man is very pretious and the losse of it cannot be redeemed with a world it is sinne that looseth the soule O how unhappy are all sinners how miserable which would make GODS servants shed rivers of teares if they thought advisedly thereof and mourne over them as our Saviour did over Ierusalem when he beheld their present security and foresaw their future ruine If thou hadst knowne these things that concerne thy peace how happy hadst thou then beene let us then be faithfull and laborious and so much the rather now ought we to be laborious to make up this breach for the losse of our brother if GOD enables us the LORD himselfe is the heavenly teacher of this lesson by a just proportion in a like case Moses my servant is dead now therefore arise Ioshuah be strong and of a good courage this our brother GODS servant is dead let us therefore who doe by the goodnesse of GOD remaine yet alive in a better degree then formerly be faithfull in our callings let us be more industrious
in mercies bestowed upon us not by a mortall man but by our JESVS not from temporall servitude but from the power of the divell if then our cries and acclamations be to our JESVS constantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as theirs were to their deliverers and we can joyfully sound forth S. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O death where is thy stingthankes be to GOD who hath given us victory through JESVS CHRIST our LORD this is a good signe of a blessed man and if these are in you I do assure you that your estate is now good and by perseverance in them shall be farre better hereafter and these will comfort you when all the comforts of the world will faile What will all friends riches and pleasures profit when you are on your death-bed unlesse you have this foresight of joy in CHRIST you live for ought you know under GODS curse the curse both of the Law and the curse of the Gospell and you can have no solid joy in any thing under the Sun no more then a condemned man can have in his wealth fore-passed honour but have and keep these fruits of the holy Spirit and when death shall come to thee and take thee as it were by the hand thou hast no cause to shrinke for feare but maist say with Babylas slaine by Decius that persecutor in the words of the Psalmist Returne unto thy rest O my soule for the LORD hath beene beneficiall unto thee now my griefes farewell all my wrongs adieu and now my soule be glad for now commeth thy rest thy sure rest thy sweet and never fading rest and that which comforted Hezekiah on his supposed death-bed Remember LORD how I have walked before thee with an upright heart that also was a great comfort to this our deceased brother that he could say to mee in his last sicknesse when I visited him that he had walked in sincerity and performed his Ministeriall duties setting humane unavoidable defects aside with an upright heart and so I doubt not but GOD sent his Angell to waite at his beds head to carry his soule when it parted from the body into Abrahams bosome You have heard beloved what was Saint Pauls desire that was to die and a reason implied of his desire for then he should be with CHRIST hearken with the like Christian attention to Saint Pauls judgement or censure of that estate of being with CHRIST this is saith he far the better or as some expound the words which is best of all which occasions a Question Whether is it better to be with CHRIST in his humane nature then to be with GOD whose beatificall vision is said to be the chiefe object of happinesse To which I answer that the Apostle doth not compare these together I meane the enjoying of GOD and CHRIST as though his chiefe happinesse did consist rather in beholding the body of CHRIST then the face of GOD but his being with CHRIST and that estate in glory is compared to his being in this present world and he mentioneth CHRIST because he in his humane nature had purchased this great happinesse for him which consisteth principally in the vision of divine excellency our happinesse is chiefely in GOD but by CHRIST his merit do we not thinke that many poore exiles stripped out of their inheritance and banished out of their native soile do desire to see that day and that blessed man that should bring them out of their captivity and settle them in their former habitations and rejoyce in him as the author of their happinesse hence I note A life in heaven with CHRIST is farre better then a life on earth with men It is better for the wife to be with her husband then in other company and is it not much better for the Spouse of CHRIST to be with her LORD whom she worthily esteemeth as the chiefe of ten thousand this present life of nature is good the life of grace is far better but the life of glory is best of all it is good to be a babe in CHRIST it is better to be a strong experienced Christian but to raigne with CHRIST is best of all it is good to sigh and sob for sin it is better to mortifie and to prevaile against it but it is best of all to be perfectly sanctified and purged from it We know that Absolon recalled from exile and not admitted to see his fathers face in Court was impatient of all delayes and so are GODS children after they are called to GODS favour long to see their Saviour which is far better which may further appeare by these differences betwixt these two estates Is it not far better to have the wayward old man in our bosome the most spitefull enemy and false friend I meane all the remainders of corruption the leprosie and poison of sin quite abolished then to have them still in us while we live they will be in us do what we can we shall find much ignorance of GOD and all his waies much folly which keepeth us from taking any thing to heart which respecteth GOD or our selves much uncircumcision of heart which makes us that we cannot be holily poore in spirit though conscious of innumerable motives which should induce us hereunto much drosse of selfe-sufficiency which will not let us perceive what need we have of GODS presence for the quickning strengthening comforting directing and prospering of us in all our wayes though the breath of our nostrils be not more necessary for our naturall being then his grace is for our spirituall welfare and comfort these evils do renue their assaults on us every day and notwithstanding we renue daily our indeavouring against them yet cannot we get that full conquest over them If we could assemble all the Saints together and aske them whether they were without sin what do we thinke would they answer whither that which Pelagius saith or that which Iohn the Apostle saith How great soever their excellency was if they could be asked they would cry out with one voice If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us and would they perhaps say so more humbly then truly GOD placeth not the commendation of humility in any part of falsity and therefore if they spoke this truly they had sin because they humbly confessed it and the truth was in them if they said they had sin when they had none at all they did lie and so did sin in lying and the truth was not in them but when we are in CHRIST all our sins are quite abolished and not till then and therfore to be with CHRIST is far better Secondly is it not far better to be in such a condition where we shall be freed from all troubles miseries diseases and discontents then to live in poverty debts diseases disgraces discontents and infinite crosses even those things often