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A44678
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A funeral sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson the late wife of Henry Sampson, Dr. of Physick, who died Nov. 24. 1689 / by John Howe ...
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Howe, John, 1630-1705.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing H3026; ESTC R19694
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24,476
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33
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flesh that messenger of Satan that did buffet him 2. Besides compassion may appear by this kind of dispensation it self It may not only carry that with it but in it which may shew good will If long continued affliction may be supposed to proceed from compassion it doth much more consist with it It may proceed from compassion and bear the relation to it of an effect to the cause We find it expresly so said in Scripture and who can so truly speak Gods mind as himself He afflicts in very faithfulness and as many as the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives Prov. 3. 12. quoted Heb. 12. 5 6. Rev. 3. Affliction must be the effect of his real and most sincere good will and compassion tho' of long continuance if it be apt and intended to do you good in higher and in greater regards than those wherein you suffer or if the good your affliction does you or is fitly design'd to do you be of a nobler and more excellent kind than that whereof it deprives you it must be understood not only to be consistent with kindness and good will but to be produc'd of it For the same principle that intends the end must also intend the proper means that serve to effect it Now the kind of this good is thus to be estimated You read Psal. 103. 5. As a father pities his children so the Lord pities them that fear him As a father The relation he is in to them is that of a father to his children But we must understand under what notion he is so related and we are told Heb. 12. 9 10. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence Shall we not then much rather be in subjection to the father of our spirits and live For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness We have here an account where the relation terminates and see both the object of his more special kindness and good will which accompany the relation and the end of it He is the father of their spirits whence therefore we may collect the object of that love which goes with the relation must be their spirits also the end of it is their spiritual advantage to make them partakers of his own holiness His holiness is a lofty word and carries the matter high Understanding it soberly as we may be sure it was meant it must signifie the holiness which he hath himself imprest and the impression whereof is the lively resemblance and image of his own And is not this a good of a nobler and more excellent kind than we can lose by a sickness better than the case of this vile flesh that was made out of dust and tends thither The object is their spirits for there the kindness that belongs to the relation must terminate where the relation terminates How much more shall we not be subject to the father of our spirits and live The father of our spirits is there contradistinguisht from the fathers of our flesh God is not the father of our flesh but the father of our spirits He is the Creator of our flesh too our flesh is his creature but not his off-spring There must be a similitude and likeness of nature between a father and a child which there is not necessarily between a maker and the thing made In respect of our spiritual part we are his off-spring and he is so a father to us both as the Souls of men in common bear his natural Image and if they be regenerate as they bear his holy Image too And the case may be so that the suffering of our flesh is necessary for the advantage of our spirits Our flesh may suffer so as that the spirit shall be the better for it and then pity it self compassion it self must not only permit but cause and produce such a course of dispensation as whereby that end shall be attained the making us partakers of his himself so the Apostle speaks of his own case Though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4. 15. Though our outward man perish We are compass'd about with Deaths that are continually beating down the Walls of this outward man they are beating upon it and are likely to infer it's perishing and if it perish let it perish I am not follicitous q. d. about that If it must come down let it come down in the midst of all these outward assaults our inward man is renewed day by day gathers a fresh and increasing strength and vigour whilst this outward man is tending to dissolution and dust And several ways such continued afflictions upon the outward man may make for the advantage of the inward man in the best kind 1. As they withdraw and take off the Mind and Heart from this World a debasing and defiling thing and which transforms the Soul that converses too much with it into a Dunghil fills it with ill favour But what doth all this World signifie to a sickly pained Person 2. As it engages them to be much in Prayer Nothing is more sutable than that an afflicted Life be a Life of much Prayer Is any man afflicted let him pray Jam. 5. 13. Much affliction hath a natural aptitude to incline men this way In their affliction they with seek me early Hos. 5. 15. It is dictate of nature even when Grace as yet hath no possession but which through Gods blessing may by this means help to introduce it For it urges the Soul Godward who is the God of all Grace obliges it to converse with him whereby somewhat better may be gained than is sought In their afflictions they will be submissive and lye at my feet saith God they will seek me early from whom otherwise I should never hear it may be all their Life long Oh! that you would understand the matter so when God afflicts in such kinds so as his hand touches your very bone and flesh this is the design of it to make you pray to bring you upon your knees to put you into a supplicating posture if he can upon any terms hear from you tho' you seek him but for bodily ease and refreshing it may be a means of the greatest advantage to you e're God have done with you when once he has brought you by this means to treat when he has got you into a more tractable disposition there is hope in the case If thus he open your ear to Discipline and be to you an interpreter one of a thousand to shew you his Righteousness he may seal instruction to you and save your Soul from going down to the Pit having found a ransom for you Job 33. 15. c. But for those that have a real Interest in God and Union with Christ that which occasions much Prayer is likely to be the
God reserving it to after-significations of his pleasure to mark out and signalize this or that day as he should see fit And our Saviour having told us expresly the Sabbath was made for man i. e. as men not for Jews as Jews These considerations taken together with many more not fit to be here mentioned do challenge a very great regard to the day which we have cause to think it is the will of God we should keep as our Sabbath 6. That there is somewhat of priviledge due by gracious vouchsafement and grant to the children of Abraham to Abrahams seed i. e. to speak by Analogy to the children of covenanted Parents Abraham is considerable here as being under that notion a father whosoever of you therefore are the children of such as were of the faith of Abraham and you are now come to that adult state wherein you are capable of transacting with God for your selves and wherein the transitus is made from minority to maturity if now you own the God of your fathers if you will now say My fathers God shall be my God he keeps mercy for thousands of them that love him and keep his commandments i. e. if there were a thousand generations of such generations being spoken of so immediately before viz. that he would visit iniquity upon them that hate him to the third and fourth generation but shew mercy to them that love him and keep his commandments unto a thousand generations i. e. to never so many If you will not when now grown up disavow your fathers God if you will avow and own him and devote your selves to him he will be your God as well as theirs Here is now the priviledge due to Abrahams children or to the children of covenanted parents God has an early preventive interest in them upon which they may lay their claim to him as their God if they will but now give up themselves to him and stand to his covenant But if you will not do so but slight and reject the God of your Fathers then your birth priviledge can signifie nothing to you then think not to say with your selves We have Abraham to our father in that 3d. of Matthews Gospel for God will never want children he is able of stones to raise up children to Abraham q. d. rather stones than you And then indeed upon a true account Abraham is none of your father as our Lord Jesus tells the Jews If you were Abrahams children you would do the works of Abraham You do so and so thus did not Abraham Joh. 8. 39 40. Pray consider what Abraham was and how he lived on earth like an inhabitant of heaven as an heir of the heavenly Country his business was to seek the better country that is the heavenly wherefore God was not ashamed to be called his God as in that 11th to the Heb. 16. ver But if you will go from day to day grovelling in the dust of the earth this did not Abraham If you will spend your lives in the pursuit of vanity and trifles this did not Abraham There is a great priviledge belonging by Gospel grant unto the children of covenanted parents if they do not forfeit it by neglecting and practically disavowing their fathers God 7. But I further infer hence that since this compassion has a real tho' not a principal hand in the release that is given to them that belong to God in whatsoever way they are releast from all their infirmities and ails and afflictions in this world It very much becomes and much concerns all the children of Abraham patiently to wait for it in Gods own way Patiently I say in Gods own way wait for it The children of Abraham shall be loosen'd sooner or later and in one way or other tho very long tho so many years bound by such and such afflicting distempers You have a great instance of this kind in that daughter of Abraham whom God hath called away from us In all that long exercise the main thing she was ever wont to insist upon was that in all this affliction she might gain patience submission and instruction And in her later time when she drew nearer to eternity was more in view of it that was the great subject wherewith she entertained her self and was conversant much with somewhat more lately written upon that subject as by Mr. Shower now known to most of you and by another Author And her last entertainment as I have been told as to helps from creatures in any such kind was the repetition of what some of you have heard concerning the Emmanuel wherewith she formerly pleased her self as being 't is likely much habituated in the temper of her spirit to the thoughts of him that having by agreement with her pious consort been their Motto at their first coming together Emmanuel God with us 8. I shall only add one instruction more to shut up all that since our Lord Jesus hath such an agency and even with compassion in the release of those that do belong to him from their afflicting infirmities we should all of us labour with a due and right frame and disposition of spirit to behold any such releasment It is a great matter to be able to behold instances of that kind with a right frame of mind and spirit If one be released by recovery into ease health and strength in this world 't is easily and readily made matter of joy Is one recovered out of a long and languishing sickness friends and relations behold it with great complacency and gladness of heart But if a Godly friend be relea'd by dying truly we can hardly make our selves believe that this is a release or so valuable a release so much are we under the government of sense so little doth that faith signifie with us or do it's part that is the substance of what we hope for and the evidence of what we see not No! This is to go with us for no release We look only upon the sensible i. e. upon the gloomy part of such a dispensation when such a one is gone releast set at liberty as a bird out of the cage or the snare We can hardly tell how to consider it as a release We will not be induc'd to apprehend it so There are no dispositions no deportments commonly that suit such an apprehension And Oh! how unbecoming and incongruous a thing when Christ is in that way about releasing such a one to have an holy soul just upon the confines of a glorious blessed eternity compassed about with sighs sobs tears and lamenations How great an incongruity I have many times thought with my self the love and kindness of friends and relations is very pleasant in life but grievous at death It is indeed in some respects a very desirable thing if God shall vouchsafe it to die with ones friends about one It may be one may need some little bodily relief in those last hours besides that some proper