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A28856 No home but heaven A sermon, preached at the funerals of the right worshipful the Lady Sybilla Anderson, in the Church of Broughton, in the county of Lincoln. Octob. 30. 1661. By Edward Boteler, sometimes fellow of St. Mary Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge, and now rector of Wintringham, in the county of Lincoln, and chaplain to His Majesty. Boteler, Edward, d. 1670. 1664 (1664) Wing B3803; ESTC R217243 26,996 74

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under the shadow of the Almighty Psal 89.22 The Enemy shall not exact upon him nor the Son of wickedness afflict him Psa 91.4 He shall cover him with his feathers and under his wings shall he trust his truth shall be his shield and buckler When the Saints shall take possession of this City it shall be with ovation and triumph Isa 26.1 In that day shall this song be sung we have a strong City Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks Salvation must needs make strong walls and that City cannot but be inexpugnable where God undertakes the fortification A City there 's Fortitudo that 's a second 3. A City there 's Plenitudo Cities are places of opulency and fulness Locuples copiis civitas Cic. Neighbouring Towns and Villages pour in their store to encrease and furnish them Such this City and in such an allusion does the Holy Ghost speak Rev. 21.24 v. 26. The Kings of the Earth do bring in their glory and honour into it They shall bring the glory and honour of the Nations into it Look how the lesser Towns and Vicinages do bring in their wealth and provision contribute to the plenty and abundance of the Cities so shall the uncessant confluence of all that is rich and glorious advance the flourishing estate of the new Hierusalem The Author of this Epistle tells us Chro. 11.16 God hath prepared for them a City Guess if you can what plenty there is like to be where God himself makes preparation There you shall find what the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 3.8 the unsearchable the impervestigable riches of Christ There we shall see with enlightned understandings what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Annot. in Eph 1.18 Mat. 6 20. or in the holy places as the Italian Diodati gives it us out of his own language There are those Treasures where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt nor Thieves break through and steal Luke 12.33 There are those Bags which wax not old whose summs would pose all telling could we cast accounts with the Starrs Psal 50.2 In the perfection of beauty there God shineth Psal 84.1.2 How amiable are those thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts My soul longeth yea even fainteh for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God How have all the servants in our fathers house bread enough and to spare Luke 15.17 and we stay here and perish for hunger A City there 's Plenitudo that 's a third 4. A City there 's Unitas It is a Town incorporate an union of several members in one body Such our City here what was said of the old may much rather be said of the new Hierusalem Psal 122.3 It is builded as a City that is at unity in it self There is 1. Unitas oris an accord of voices All tongues are tuned to praise They do all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Pauls phrase 1 Col. 1.10 speak the same thing And St. John tells us what it is Blessing honour Rev. 5.13 glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever The whole Chorus of Heaven and Earth joyne in this Song 2. Unitas Cordis an onenesse of heart and affection They shall be perfectly joyned together in the same mind 1 Col. 1.10 and like those believers in the Acts of the Apostles of one heart Ch. 4 3● and of one soul Here our affections straggle and run out divers waies there they shall all come in concenter and take up in God Here we differ in Diameter contest sharply and like Paul and Barnabas dispute our selves asunder there we shall consent and be all composure and harmony and love Ep. 5. ad Marcel and joy and peace For this is a City where Rex est veritas Lex est charitas modus aeternitas in Saint Augustines language A City there 's Unitas that 's a fourth 5. A City there 's Immunitas Cities are infranchised and priviledged places they have many freedoms above other Towns and so in the Apostle's words Hierusalem which is above Gal. 4 26. is free which is the mother of us all The priviledges of a City among many others are these two The Seat The Safetie 1. The Seat It is a prime priviledge to be the Royal Seat the Chamber of Kings the Residence of Majestie It is much for the honour of Hierusalem Psal 122.5 that there are set Thrones of Judgement the Thrones of the house of David And it is the glory of Heaven Heb. 12.22 to be the Seat of the Eternal Majesty The City of the Living God The Residence Royal of the great King The Lord hath chosen Zion Psal 132.13 14. he hath desired it for his habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it This Citie shall have a name above every name and overtop the world with this Title Ezek. 48.35 Jehovah Shammah the Lord is there That 's the first priviledge the Seat 2. The Safety The securitie it affords its Denizons and Inhabitants which in this Citie are great and matchlesse for here is freedom From the Impositions of Sin the Oppositions of Satan the Assaults of Time and Violence 1. The Impositions of Sin For this Citie makes every inhabitant Sin-free It will disinslave him from the arbitrary power of commanding corruption and those lawlesse lusts which were wont to impose upon him are for ever kept out there the City gates are shut upon them Rev. 21.27 and there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth 2. The Oppositions of Satan a priviledge that never Citie yet had We of this Kingdom have cause to count this a priviledge indeed for we can remember how busie Satan was in our Cities at the beginning of the late Commotions what storms be raised among giddie and tempestuous people His manner was to transform into an Angel of light get into a Citie set up some Simon or other whom the bewitched people of that City cried up as the great Power of God Acts 8.9 10. And the plot took so effectually that we groan under the sad successe of it to this day But this Citie of the Text is fortified against Satan as Hierusalem sometime was against Senacherib with a Dicit Dominus 2 Kings 19.32 Rev. 12.7 8 9. Thus saith the Lord He shall not come into this Citie The Dragon fought and his Angels and prevailed not neither was their place found any more in Heaven He was cast out and he comes no more there The caelestial Paradise will admit no Serpent 3. The Assaults of Time and Violence Heb. 11.10 and therefore it is called a City having foundations as if other Cities had no foundations at least they are next to none such as Job
scant it is that to waste any of it in Apology or Preface were to discover a greater want than I am begging pardon for I shall cast my self therefore upon your charity and fall next way upon my Text A Text one part whereof I have discoursed to this now happy Lady's ear and the other I come here to dedicate to her Exequies It is written Hebr. 13.14 But we seek one to come CRazy and sickly times are as a great warning Piece discharged from Heaven to startle the secure world whose soules for the most part lie open to a surprizal like that people in the Prophet Jer. 49.31 having neither Gates nor Barrs and dwelling without care When diseases grassat and grow epidemical they come upon more than an ordinary errand and it will not be enough that we take up that common discourse of being minded of our mortality unlesse we consult our immortality too This verse furnisheth us with an Admonition of both Of our Mortality We have here no continuing City Of our Immortality We seek one to come Or if you please the deceased Lady and I will divide the verse betwixt us She is a legible Sermon upon the former part shewing you we have here no continuing City Let me give you an Audible one upon the latter part perswading you to seek one to come There 's a word in our way would not be pass'd by or leap'd over we must do it the right to speak to it But. But we seek one to come It is a particle of Discretion Gramarians tell us and so it is here in the best sense speaks the greatest Discretion in the world when the transiency of our present conditiō makes us drive on immortal designs and the reflecting upon that pitiful minute share we have in this inch of time influenceth so effectually upon us as to put us upon all possible provisions for eternity And that 's the force and purport of the particle that brings in the Text to make us being discharged our houses of flesh and like to turn out e're long provide our selves of a Mansion an abiding place a seat of some certainty where we may fix dwell and take our rest We have here no continuing City but we seek one to come Come we to the words and observing St. Paul's Rule to preach absque eminentia sermonis 1 Cor. 2.1 without flash or flourish I shall spend my discourse upon these three plain parts 1. A Description of a Christian's Inheritance It is a City 2. His Estate in it it is a Reversion only It is to come 3. His Demeanour towards it till it comes to his hands he seeks it We seek one to come For the title first A City Sometimes it is called An House but of admirable work a rare Structure the true Architecture 2 Cor. 5.1 we have an House 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Sometimes it goes under the name of a Countrey Via and Patria distinguist the Worlds This life is our way that other our Countrey Cicero Patria est ubicunque est benè and that 's no where on this side Heaven Heb. 11.13 14. They confessed saith our Apostle that they were strangers and pilgrims on the Earth and declared plainly that they seek a Countrcy Sometimes no less than a Kingdome will serve to expresse it Matth. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world Thus Heaven like the Bread of Heaven will fit every palate gratifie the relish of every soul as Saint Origen conceives of the Manna Here 's House and Kingdome and Countrey and City it is any it is all these Seek it and you 'll find it so We seek one to come But we 'll keep to the Metaphor of the Text A City Heaven is the City of the Saints So it is called often and borrows the name of Hierusalem the Metropolis of Judea Thren 1.1 The City that was great among the Nations and Princesse among the Provinces Psa 48.1 2. The City of God the Mountain of holinesse Beautiful for scituation the joy of the whole Earth Rev. 21.10 He shewed me that great City the holy Hierusalem descending out of Heaven from God Hence they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ortus civicum Philip. 3.20 as that word which our rendring gives Conversation doth rightly signifie And they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cives conscripti Fellow Citizens with the Saints Eph. 2.19 and of the houshold of God Please to see this City a while and I hope it will raise you higher than Hierusalem did the Kings of the Earth of whom it is said They saw it Psal 48 5. and so they marvelled 1. A City there 's multitudo It is a place of great receit and entertainment It is next to incredible the number that were found in Hierusalem without wedging when the seditious within and the Leaguer of Titus from without had so thin'd them in the day of their desolation Such the City in the Text Joh. 14.2 In my Fathers house are many Mansions sayes our Lord as if Heaven was parcell'd and made all out into dwellings for the everlasting reception of the Saints God sayes to St. Paul of Corinth Act 18.10 I have much people in this City but what myriads of millions hath he here Nations are little enough to expresse them Rev. 21.24 The Nations of them that are saved he calls them that best knows their number When the Angel had sealed the thousands of Israel after this saies St. Rev. 7.9 John I beheld and loe a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and Kindreds and People and Tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb cloathed with white Robes and Palmes in their hands Though Gods Flock be little in comparison of that great Hord and those Droves of the damned yet shall they be numerous when he shall send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather his Elect together from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other A City there 's multitudo That 's a first 2. A City there 's Fortitudo Cities are places of strength Gen. 4.17 Willet Hexapl. in Gen. Cain thought the first builder of a City did it for his defence in his fear when he thought every bush a man and every man a slayer Thus we read of Cities of Refuge of walled Cities great and fenced up to Heaven Psal 48.12 Walk about Zion and go round about her tell the Towers thereof Much more may it be said of Zion in the Antitype the City in the Text v. 3. God is known in her Palaces for a Refuge Job 3.17 Here the wicked cease from troubling here the weary are at rest Psa 91.1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide
speaks of whose foundation is in the dust light Job 4.19 volatile unstable dust as the word is there observed to signifie Foundations that cannot stand the shock of an Earthquake which force may undermine and blow up or if they escape these time will assuredly bury in their own Ruines Not a Citie besides this of the Text but we may say of it as our Antiquary doth of Rheban Camd. Brit. Ireland p. 86. it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Citilesse Citie We read in the Ecclesiastical History of Simeon the Anchorite who lived in the time of Domnus Bishop of Antio●ch that before that terrible Earthquake which shook in pieces Phoenicia he whipp'd the pillars which stood in the Market-place crying Evagr. Schol. l. 4. ca 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stand fast ye are like to dance shortly Upon such Pillars stand all sublunary buildings their foundred footing shakes their lofty tops It stains their glory and takes down their height to think that sad fate in the Prophet attends them Thorns shall come up in their Palaces Isa 34.11 13. Nettles and Brambles in the fortresses thereof and it shall be an habitation of Dragons and a Court for Owls And he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptinesse Babylon is now the glory of Kingdoms Isa 13 19. the beauty of the Caldees excellency but presently shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah Nineveh the ranting Metropolis of Ashur the City of three dayes journey Jon. 3.3 who multiplyed her Merchants above the stars of heaven Nah. 3 16. Cap. 2.10 she is now empty and void and waste and the heart melteth and the knees knock together Tyre the joyous City whose antiquity is of antient dayes the crowning City whose Merchants are Princes whose Traffiquers are the honourable of the Earth Isa 23.7 8. She must not cannot stand for her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn Zion only cannot be moved but standeth fast for ever Her foundation is in the holy mountain Psal 87.1.3 5. Glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God The Highest himself shall establish her Urbs aeterna a title once given to Rome is the due of this City in the Text of none but this the Eternal Citie Here are those Gates that lift up their heads above all and here are those everlasting doors for the King of Glory and his Saints to enter in Blessed are they that do his Commandments Rev. 22.14 that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the Gates into the Citie For as we have heard so shall we one day see in the City of the Lord of Hosts in the City of our God Psa 48.8 God will establish it for ever And be that enough to have spoken to the first part of the Text the title of a Christians Inheritance It is a City Proceed we to the second The Estate a Christian hath in that Citie it is a Reversion It is to come We seek one to come Not as if the Saints were quite out of possession here for till they can come to their estate it is often coming to them in the glimpses and foretastes of it Heb. 6.4 5. They taste the heavenly gift and the powers of the world to come They have an Heaven upon Earth by communion with God 1 Joh. 1.3 by fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ But it is to come because the sweet and sweight of it lies in the promises what they have now is very little compared with that full free and un-interrupted possession a soul shall be put into when he enters the everlasting gates of the City of the great King You are come to the City of the Living God saies the Apostle What come to it already and yet to come Yes saies St Augustine Credendo venisti sed nondum per venisti You are in the Suburbs but not yet in the City for that 's to come We seek one to come Our happinesse consists not in what we have but what we hope for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basil speaks blessings reposited and stored in Promises And therefore the Holy Ghost in the Scriptural Deeds and Conveyances of a Believers estate makes so frequently use of phrases of futurition Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous Sown it 's but growing and coming on Adhuc mea messis in herba Psa 31.19 O how great is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee It is great goodnesse but it is laid up Eph. 1.14 The Apostle calls what we have now Pignus only the Pledge and Earnest that Redemptio acquisitionis is yet behind possession is in reserve and but coming We seek one to come Nor have we any cause to suspect the hand of Providence as over-close or reproach our Father with unkindness for keeping our estate so long from us there 's a threefold good intended us by this deteinure the thoughts of which may be useful 't will keep a good understanding betwixt us and Heaven for thereby our Graces are rendred active our Affections ardent our Possession welcome 1. It will keep Grace in action Many Graces are now set on work and imployed by this respite of happiness that would be idle that would not be at all were we in possession of it There are three notable Graces that live best that only live upon reversion and futuritie 1. Faith precious Faith That argumentum non apparentium Heb. 11.1 the evidence of things not seen so it is called by that Apostle who came nearest this Citie of any that retreated into pilgrimage The promises are Pabulum Fidei Faith lives wholly and solely upon hereafter She sees best when the object is furthest off Videbo cum sed non modò I shall see him but not now Num. 24.17 I shall behold him but not nigh Had God given Abraham Canaan in present where had been work for that vigorous faith of his whose quick eye saw through the thick distance of four hundred years Gen. 15.13 and whose long arms reach'd a promise over the heads of so many intervening Generations Give in hand and take away Faith For Fides est credere quod non vides cujus merces est videre quod credidisti so St. Augustine 2. Hope which is inconsistent with possession Ro. 8.24 For hope that is seen is not hope As Faith advanceth to sight so Hope shall commence fruition Heb. 6 19 Hope is the Anchor of the soul It is serviceable whilst abroad in the storm the Harbour will not need it Enjoyment supersedes hope it is one great purpose of God in keeping his people and their possessions asunder that they may learn to live in hopes of them 1 Pet. 1.13 hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to them at
receptacle of the Soot and Ashes and so betokening a low and abject condition and this will mis-represent him if you will see him in his proper colours and complexion look at what follows Yet shall ye be as the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her feathers with the yellowness of pure Gold It is utterly the fault of Christians to measure themselves by the standard of the world and value their estate by the rate-book of creatures for so whilst they inventory what Goods they have they are alwaies poor whereas would they look only at what they hope for they could see no end of their riches If you would take a right survey of your estats look at them in promises A Believers life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth but in the assurance of the things which he expecteth Expectation is the great riches of a Believer My soul Psa 62.5 wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him The mercies we have in expectation are transcendently beyond whatever the hand of Heaven will give or the arms and bosome of the Earth can possibly receive in present It was high that of Alexander who being asked when he was dealing whole Lands and Lordships among his Commanders if he meant to give all away replied It is nothing I give away for I keep Hope to my self It is a gracious gallantry and becoming a Christian when he sees the Earth cut out among the great possessors of it to raise his spirit high as his expectation Alas Col. 1.5 these are nothing I have hope laid up in Heaven for me These estates are all going mine is coming We seek one to come Value your selves by this estate that 's the second improvement 3. Live sutably to this estate And one thing is you cannot live above it the ordinary mischief of estates here below for the more you live upon it the faster it comes in the more you have of it It is not so like the Widow of Zarepta's Barrel of Meal that wasted not 1 Kin. 17.16 Met. 15.37 as the miraculous Loaves in the Gospel that multiplied by being fed upon all the danger is of living under it the too familiar practice of those that pretend at least a title to it and to look for it How do men live as if there were no life but this pursue estates in this world as if they had neither hopes nor desires of another Exod. 16.3 preferring Flesh-pots and Onyons before Quails and Manna the very Brick-Kilns of Egypt before the glorious stones of the new Hierusalem Possessions in houses of clay before the reversions of the City of God If thy treasure be in Heaven why is not thy heart there also If thy hopes be laid up then what dost thou poring here below Heu regni rerumque oblite tuarum Consult the credit of thine estate and hopes do nothing unworthy such pregnant expectation let thy designs be taller than subcoelestial evidence thy aims to be above the world proceed in mortification and self-denial Confess thy self a stranger and pilgrim on the earth Heb. 11.14 they that do so declare plainly that they seek a Countrey that they have here no continuing City but seek one to come Which is the third way of improvement of this estate in reversion Live sutably to it And that for the second part of the Text the estate which a Believer hath in the heavenly City it is a Reversion only a City it is but that City is to come We seek one to come The third now only remains The demeanour of a Christian towards that Reversion till his estate comes into his hands he seeks it We seek one to come I shall contract and so speak of seeking that we lose no time It is observed the simple word imports Ardorem studium a more than ordinary earnestness in seeking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 7.7 and is therefore joyned with words and actions of importunity so that in composition as it is here used the force being augmented it denotes the highest and most eager aspirations of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expetimus as some have rendred it we seek effectually and come up to the object in pursuit we seek with invincible purposes not to come short or be taken off not to be baffled with any difficulties but to seek till we find thus We seek one to come Briefly Seeking speaks Quaerendi sedulitatem Inveniendi difficultatem Diligence in seeking and difficulty in finding them two 1. Novarin in Matth. Diligence in seeking Ingentem voluntatis propensionem notat it shews heart and good will the engaging and setting on all the powers of the soul It expresseth a painful endeavour and excepteth against a cool and faint velleity Lud. de vita Chri. p. 1. c. 40. Non enim potest fieri sine conatu magno quod homo terrenus fiat Civis in coelo A right of Citizen is not so easily obtained in the new Hierusalem none that 's there division'd but upon the chief Captains terms with a great sum not of silver and gold Act. 22.28 but with the precious blood of Christ obtained I this freedom and 't will cost him pains besides ere he find it It 's no seeking as the woman sought in the Poet tanquam quae vincere nollet but as the woman sought in the Parable She lights a Candle Luk. 15.8 sweeps the house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and seeketh exactly acurately solicitously Luk. 16.3 diligently till she find it The Steward in the Gospel that was to seek for a place could not dig and to beg he was ashamed but he that seeks the City in the Text must do it in Wisdome's mode and method who dispenseth with neither A man must both beg and dig for her and well he can compasse her so too He must beg If thou cryest after knowledge Prov. 2.3 and liftest up thy voice for understanding v. 4 And he must dig too if thou seekest her as silver Et sicut the sauros effoderis illam and diggest for her as for hid treasures It must be a labour like that of men in a Mine where desire sets industry on work and makes Diligence indefatigable Diligence in seeking that 's the first impost 2. Difficulty in finding If it were easily come to what need endeavours if obvious why such seeking Saint Augustine tells us of a threefold book for the guidance of Travellers to this City Naturae Scripturae Creaturae and yet all will not do a number misse the way for all these Directors There are four things make this difficulty 1. Via Arcta 2. Civitas ignota 3. Impugnantium vis 4. Ducentium varietas 1. Via arcta The way is norrow it is not easie to find and so no wonder the Prophet tells us of a Nescierunt Isa 59.8 They have not known the way of peace and the Psalmist complains