A SERMON PREACHED IN S. George's Church SOVTHWARK AT THE FUNERAL OF THAT Pious and Worthy Gentlewoman Mrs FRANCES FENN By R. SPARKE of NEWINGTON M. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by T. James for Joseph Collyer and are to be Sold at his Shop at the Angel on London-Bridge a little below the Gate 1679. Imprimatur C. ALSTON Novem. 30. 1678. TO THE Right Worshipful AND His Honoured Friend JOHN TREGONWELL Esq And his Vertuous LADY UPon Request I have assumed the Confidence to Expose this following Sermon to Publick View and if it meet with a kind Reception and a candid Interpretation which I question not from your Self and your worthy Family it is all I beg As for Others if they be truly Learned they will be Civil If Critical and Captious I say to them in the words of Catullus Non vident id manticae quod in tergo est Let it be sheltred under your Protection it is enough and the greatest Ambition the Author aims at I am happy it hath so Noble a Patron I shall not trouble you with a prolix or tedious Discourse of this nature And therefore desiring the Great God to Shadow You your Pious Lady and invaluable Stems under his Almighty Power and establish You and Yours not onely on Earth but in the highest Heavens is the Prayer of Your most Obliged Servant ROBERT SPARKE A Funeral Sermon The Text is in GENESIS the XXIII the first Clause of the 2. Verse Then Sarah died THat silent Witness of Mortality presents the sad Occasion of our Assembly to Celebrate the Funeral of Mrs. Frances Fenn and for a Mournful Meeting what more convenient and necessary than Psalms Sighs and Tears of Sorrow and Lamentation Discourse with Matter Matter with Action Action with Affection Affection with Opportunity Opportunity with Occasion should concur and concord together Suitable for which occasion I have elected and chosen out this Text which speaks of Death a sad and doleful Messenger and end of all And whilst I apply to this sad Spectacle apply your Hearts to Sorrow your Eyes to Tears and your Selves to Mourning If not for her that is dead and gone for she is happy and acquiesceth from her Labours and her good Works shall follow her yet for your own sins which will cause you Volens nolens will you nill you the Lord knowes how soon to follow her But to my Text Then Sarah died Was Sarah the first that ever died Was not Grandmother Eve with many more dead long before If dead why not recorded in Sacred Writ What was eminent what was admirable What was remarkable or singular in her or in her death that she above all her Sex above Eve her self should merit the first Memorial Then Sarah died Certainly I know no other reason can be rendred but this That as Abraham was the Father so Sarah was the Mother of the Faithful and therefore the Holy Ghost confers that upon her which he denies to other Women even a Noble and Honourable mention both of her Age how long she lived and of the time of her death when she died When Sarah was 127 years old so long she lived Then Sarah died Sarah though the Mother of the Faithful though a holy and religious Matron though a Saint and dear Child of God yet Sarah died Whence observe Obs The General and Universal condition of all Mankind and that which the holy Apostle hath many hundred years since abundantly confirmed Statutum est omnibus semel mori It is appointed for all men once to die Appointed and decreed it is and that by Elohim the Mighty God who hath the disposing ordering and appointing of all things and whose Decrees and Appointments are like those of the Medes and Persians they shall not they cannot be altered or changed All must drink of Sarahs Cup the Cup is full of one and the same Liquor the Liquors drawn from one and the same Spring now the Spring it self is poysoned and if the Spring be corrupted the streams will be disturbed too if the Root be cankered the branches will wither and die and if the Head be out of order the whole Body will be indispos'd also Now the head and the root as of Sarah so of all Mankind was Father Adam But Adam disobeying his Creator and transgressing the Law of his God sinned not only in his own person but in his humane nature and so incurred the wrath and displeasure of his good and gracious God and purchased the punishment of sin which is death not only unto himself unto his own person but also to all his Posterity To this I may add that of the Apostle Rom. 5.12 By one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin entred also By one Adam one Eve two in Sex but one in Nature one in offending one in disobedience the Woman seduced by the Serpent the Man induced by the Woman sin entred into the World and Death by sin entred also so death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Adam at first might have lived freely fully happily and plenteously eating of all the Trees in Paradise except one Now having tasted of that one a necessity is laid upon him and he must die The cause of his death was the breach of diet God forbad him the fruit of one Tree this he hungreth for and taste it he will though it cost him his life S. Augustine bringeth in our first Parents thus disputing in a Dialogue concerning that fruit If this Fruit be good why may I not eat of it If it be not good why groweth it in Paradise Demine dedisti hortum negasta pomum Lord hast thou given us the Garden and denied us the Apple Therefore saith he God hath given thee the fruition and benefit of Paradise that thou mayest know his beneficence his bounty and goodness towards thee but hath denied this one fruit that he may find thy Obedience and Duty to him This Duty and Obedience neglected by our Grandfather Adam Death the Lodge of every mans life cometh with insensible degrees upon the Children of Men. So that now assoon as Man begins to live he begins a continual Voyage unto death and there is none but is nearer death at the years end than at the beginning to morrow than to day to day than yesterday by and by than just now and now then a little before each part of time if time may be said to have part that we may divide it divides and cuts off so much of our life and the remainder still decreaseth Veniente pueritia saith S. Aug. in Psalm 127. moritur infantia veniente adolescentia moritur pueritia veniente juventute moritur adolescentia veniente senectute moritur juventus veniente morte moritur omnis aetas When childhood approacheth or cometh on infancy dyeth when adolescence cometh childhood dyeth when youth cometh adolescence dyeth when old age cometh youth dyeth but when Death the
King of Terrors cometh all and every age dieth Look how many degrees of ages we covet to live so many degrees of death we desire to die After an Old man where is his Infancy where is his Childhood where is his Adolescence where is his Youth Shall he not truly speak if he answers All these are dead and gone What speak I of ages every year month day and hour of our lives that we have lived in this vale of misery is dead to us and we are dead with them What therefore is our life but a gradation unto death What is every minute thereof but a motion to our graves Quotidie morimur saith Seneca Lib. 3. Epist 24. We die daily every day we lose somewhat of our life and the more it increaseth the more it dedecreaseth the more it is lengthen'd the more it is shortned and the longer we live the nearer we approach unto death Excellent to our purpose is that of Job Job 30.27 I know assuredly thou wilt bring me unto death which is appointed for all the living as a Harbour or Haven for all Shipping It may be when a Ship cometh within sight of land or near its harbour a sudden and violent gust or blast of wind may repel and drive it back again into the vast Ocean but thither after it hath been tossed with boistrous waves it will arrive at last So must we after many tryals crosses and afflictions at the gates of death Omnes una manet mors calcanda semelvia lethi Saith a worthy Author Death is the end of all and once the way of Death is to be trod of all As a River that riseth in the Forrest passeth by many Rocks runneth and tumbleth and maketh a noise yet in the end entreth into the Sea so fareth it with mans life He cometh into the world with pain and beginneth his course with pitiful cries and is daily molested with sickness and never ceaseth running till in the end he falls into the Sea of Death As every man hath his Genesis so he must have his Exodus and as we are born to live so we are born to die and our dying on earth is but the taking our journey to Heaven Why are we unwilling to lose that which cannot be kept The good Pilot sits at the Stern to guid his Ship and a good Christian to direct his life must think on Death Death is the door whereby we go out of Bondage and Christ is the door of Liberty Therefore as he that is in Prison taketh great comfort to sit upon the Threshold that when the door is opened he may the sooner get out so we must always have our hearts and minds fixed upon death for die we must We are all travelling unto one home the habitation or house of death which the Prophet in a proverbial manner calleth the way of all the earth Josh 23.14 Thus as death is certain so it is as certain our life is short which daily experience fully demonstrates It is compared to a shadow Psal 102.11 My days are like a shadow that fadeth and I am withered like grass and Hosea the 13.3 it is likened to smoke that vanisheth to a bubble that is dissolved to a Weavers shuttle for swiftness Job the 7.6 My days are swifter than a weavers shuttle and they are spent without hope and this he speaks in respect of the brevity of mans life which passeth without hope of returning in consideration whereof he desireth God to have compassion on him To a spiders web which is soon swept away To a cloud that goeth away Job 7.9 As the Cloud vanisheth and goeth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more that is shall no more enjoy this mortall life To a vapour that is soon disperst James 4.14 Ye cannot tell what shall be to morrow for what is you life It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and afterwards vanisheth away Remember my life is but a wind saith Job 7.7 No wonder if when the wind bloweth the Leaf falleth if when death cometh the day ends Is our life so uncertain so full of inconstancy and of so short a being upon earth better than is it to die than to live and the day of death better than the day wherein one is born Eccles 7.3 The day of death is not a perishing but a parting the soul is not lost to the body but only sent before it unto joy If the soul be carefully and painfully laid off it is joyfully and happily laid up Per nativitatem ad stadium per mortem ad praemium pervenimus Through our nativity we come to the race through death to the reward through birth to a sea of sorrow through death to the Heaven of Comfort through birth to the Combate through death to the victory through birth to labour through death to rest by birth to mourning by death to rejoycing by birth to a life which is full of misery by death to a life eternal free from all sorrows Death is rather the flight of sin than the detriment of man dying because to the Righteous death is not the end of nature but of sin As a father saith To leave this world and inherit a better should seem nothing Death is a passage from sin and corruption to glory and immortality from this Earth to Heaven from the company of Sinners to the company of Saints from sorrow to solace from pain to peace from sickness to safety from persecution to triumph from the bondage and slavery of Pharaoh to the liberty and freedome of the children of God When we are born we are mortal but when we shall rise again we shall be immortal We are alive in the Womb to die in the World but dead in the Grave to live in Heaven Our life is not compared to any thing that is permanent but to those things that are momentary and of no long continuance The date of our life is threescore years and ten Psal 90.10 and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flee away The Kingly Prophet could say it was but a span long Moses and Solomon called it a life dayes But what need we these Memento's or Remembrances seeing we can turn our selves no way but something there is which may put us in mind of our mortality Can you look upon your Watch and not consider that as the hour passeth so doth your life Can you sit in the chairs by the fire side and see a great quantity of wood or coals converted into smoke and ashes and not consider with the Poet Sic in non hominem vertitutur omnis homo So man no man will suddenly become Can you walk forth into the pleasant fields and see how some grass is coming some already withered and some quite sprung up Esay 40.6 and not consider with the Prophet All flesh is grass
may as well restrain the Sun from rising the Sea from flowing and ebbing and the Wind from blowing as keep Man from dying and going to the place appointed for all living for this condition as the wise man saith is the condition of all times and continueth still thou shalt die the Death for this is an universal truth of all men to be received and believed and duly and truly pondered It is appointed unto men that they shall once die Now having cleared and proved the Doctrinal part That Death is the general condition of all men let us consider how nearly it doth concern us to bethink our selves of this and to fit our selves for Death to take care for another Life a more glorious and eternal Life and seeing we must die therefore let me perswade you to take three or four considerations with you which may serve as incentives to encourage and stir you up to the execution and performance of this Duty 1. Be moved to consider That when you come to die all earthly and worldly things will fail you and forsake you for ever All your terrestrial and natural Endowments external and outward Enjoyments your excellent Parts great Parentage noble Birth and Breeding your ingenious Wit wonderful Wealth stately Crowns vast Kingdoms invaluable Pearls costly Diamonds magnificent Houses fruitful Lands dear Wives loving Parents sweet Children and precious Friends when Death comes all these are gone Prov. 27.24 Riches are not for ever neither doth a Crown endure to all Generations The glittering Sun of all earthly glory and pomp will certainly set which your own experience and Scripture evidence doth sufficiently evince Prov. 23.5 Riches have wings and they flie away 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. The fashion of this world passeth away 1 Tim. 6.7 We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we shall carry nothing out What was there that the World was able to afford to delight the heart of man which Solomon wanted Surely nothing He had stately and glorious Buildings fruitful and pleasant Vineyards Orchards Gardens and what not all manner of excellent Trees rare Fruits variety of Servants a vast Exchequer ravishing Musick Men and Women Singers and whatsoever his Eyes desired yet when he had taken a serious view of all things his conclusion is All is vanity Eccl. 2.11 It is strange to see how men here toil themselves beat their Brains tire their Spirits break their Sleep perplex their Thoughts rack their Consciences ingulf and drown themselves in Cares and Troubles hazard their Souls thinking to eternize their Names and Mansions and when they have done all like the poor silly Silk-worm die in their Work Therefore let not Riches and Honours lift up your hearts and prompt you to Pride which is too too common and if Riches increase set not your hearts upon them for they are mutable and uncertain and cannot satisfie the capacious soul of man nor profit him in the day of trial but will perish and that for ever O then think of your precious souls and dying bodies and provide in time for death for die you must and what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul 2. Seeing if to die is the general condition of all men consider with your selves whether you are going to Heaven or to Hell O beloved I do heartily wish that all that hear me at this time would truly ponder this and effectually apply it to their own souls That there is one place for the Just another for the Unjust one place for Believers another for Unbelievers one place for Saints another for impenitent Sinners one place for the Sheep another for the Goats A dreadful Night or a glorious Day endless Torments or endless Pleasures a perpetual Happiness or a perpetual Infelicity an eternal Life or an eternal Death a glorious Heaven or a dreadful Hell Now my dear friends stop here and consider unto which you do belong Have you any certainty of a blessed and glorious Estate that Heaven and not Hell will be your place and inheritance A man that knows he must resign his habitation in a short time is very unwise and unprovident if he takes no care or order for another So will it be with us that inhabit these Houses of Clay Job 4. We are sure we shall leave them how soon we know not perhaps to morrow peradventure to day it may be presently we are therefore silly and imprudent if we take no care for the future What said Saint Bernard de Eccles to his Soul Adhuc domum quidem habes O anima sed certum est quoniam in brevi casura est domus tua nisi tu provideris aliam eris pluviae vento frigori exponenda O my Soul thou hast yet a House to dwell in but be assured thy House will shortly fall and moulder away to dust and unless thou provide thee before-hand of some other place of abode captive forlorn and naked shalt thou be exposed unto the wind the rain and the cold Alas Who can stand in this stormy tempest Happy therefore thrice happy and for ever happy shalt thou be my soul if then thy conscience tell thee thou canst say unto thy self in faith and full assurance Egredere anima mea Egredere Go forth my soul go forth I know that if my earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God 2 Cor. 5.1 That is an house not made with hands but eternal in the heavens Let us therefore look about us and make it our business to search and try our selves prove our own hearts examine our selves whether we are in the Faith for whatsoever we sow we shall undoubtedly reap and in the place where the tree falleth there it shall lie Eccles 11.13 If it falleth to the West it lieth to the West if it falleth to the East It lieth to the East if you live and die towards Heaven Heaven will be your place and habitation but if you live and die towards Hell Hell will be your place and home for according to your works and actions in this world will be your sentence and portion in the world to come 2 Cor. 5.10 And is it not sad and dreadful to believe that you have precious and immortal souls and do not know nor consider whether they shall be saved or damned stand or fall live or die everlastingly yet this is the case of millions of men and women in this terrestrial Globe that are making post-haste to Hell and think and hope they are in the way to Heaven Let us therefore believe and repent and amend our lives that Heaven that glorious place and not Hell the place of terrors may be our Countrey and Inheritance 3. Consider when Death comes to strike the fatal blow your conditions are stated your places of abode are determined without mutation to all eternity then your immaterial souls are for everlasting joy or endless sorrow for an everliving life or
a never dying death for eternal glory or eternal ignomy Oh therefore all ye that are careless and remiss know and call to mind in time that if ye be found without faith and repentance and holiness but a moment after death ye are miserable and undone for ever for Ab infernis nulla redemptio After death all ways all means all hopes and helps fail there is no wisdom no work or device in the grave Eccl. 9. God will then be implacable and irreconcileable thy self unpardonable heaven not attainable and your souls lost irrecoverably There is no repenting in the Grave nor working out of Salvation with a filial fear and trembling no Prayers no Sermons no Ministers there It is in the time of Life that you are to labour and make preparation for Death and know that delays breed danger Take heed it is a fearful thing to neglect the offers of Grace and the sweet invitations of Divine Love and Mercy Remember prophane Esau who for one morsel of Meat sold his Birth-right but afterwards when he would have inherited the blessing he was rejected for he found no place of Repentance though he sought it carefully with tears Heb. 12.17 So the foolish Virgins through their procrastination lost their admission into the Bride-chamber and fruition of the Bride-groom when the door was shut then they knockt crying Lord Lord open unto us but it was too late for said the Bridegroom I know you not Mat. 25.12 It was procrastination that did undo them Delay is the Rock the Shipwrack the Destruction of many Souls No doubt but there are many in Hell which had a meaning in their life time to receive Christ to believe in him and to honour him as their Saviour but God in his justice hath cut them short and deprived them of that which when they might they refused to accept of It is reported of the Prophet concerning the People that neglected the re-edifying of the Temple Hag. 1.2 The People say that the time is not come that the Lords House shall be builded So many think it is not yet time for them to look Heaven-ward youth must have its course the covetous bag must be filled the pleasures of the flesh must be fully tasted ambition must come to its height then it will be time to retire then it will be time to look towards Heaven to repent of sin and to prepare for death Nam mora damnosa est Deferring is dangerous Qui non est hodie cras minus aptus enit He that is unfit to day makes himself the more unfit to do it on the morrow by his procrastination The more the Sun declines to the West the less we feel the heat of it for as the Sun sets the Air cooleth So the nearer an Unbeliever draweth to his Grave the more his heart freezeth and the beams of Grace have less power and force upon his Soul Oh therefore that we would be wise to take our time and not neglect those blessed opportunities which God affords us There is a time coming and we do not know how near it is in which many shall seek to enter into the Kingdom of God and shall not be able Oh what woful yelling what pitiful crying and earnest knocking there will be then at the Gates of Heaven with Lord Lord open unto us when that heavy doom Depart from me I know you not shall be their portion Behold now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 Say not therefore anon anon or to morrow we will repent and believe why not to day why not even now seeing now is the appointed time Let me desire you to be up and be doing while it is day The night will come when no man can work Joh. 9.4 Then to your Christian task with all speed industry and dilgience work out your salvation with fear and trembling while your Candle is burning your Sun shining Will you loiter and see your Glass running your selves dying and your souls perishing Are you resolv'd to seek and secure the Kingdom whilst ye have time or will you bestow nothing but the infirmities and imperfections of decayed old age upon God and your immortal souls Oh that ye were careful in this your day to know the things that belong unto your peace before they be hid from your eyes 4. The fourth and last consideration to move us to prepare for death seeing it is the general condition of all men is to consider that it is the most dreadful astonishing spectacle on this side Hell to see a graceless wretch an unbelieving and prophane worlding breathing out his last There are many lamentable and sad sights in the world as to see a man starving and languishing for want of food or in violent pains for want of a Physician or Chirurgeon or drowning for lack of a Boat or some other help to receive him or to see a dead carcase a body without a soul Ah but how sad unutterrable and amazing sight is it to behold a wicked non-repenting sinner in his cold sweats and dying groans with his precious and invaluable soul standing on his pale cold and trembling lips O miserable case when suddenly the senses fail the body languisheth when thou shalt feel the sting of thy sins tormenting thy soul and see the flames of Hell flashing in thy face thy heart-strings ready to burst asunder and the ghastly apprehensions of speedy and hellish horrour shall dog thy conscience Death at thy elbow to prey upon thee and the infernal Lake wide open and ready to swallow thee up Who in this estate would not value a minute of repentance to a Monarchy of wealth O woful condition of those godless men and women whose belly is their god whose Heaven is their pleasure whose cursed jollity is but a feeding up to an eternal slaughter The day is coming wherein every minute of their sinful unsatisfying joys shall be repayed with a Thousand thousand Millions of years frying in that unquenchable fire and when the damned Ghosts shall forth of their incessant flames see the celestial and glorious reward and remuneration of the penitent and pensive Souls which they have despised and unworthily abused then shall they gnash their teeth and tear themselves and horridly utter that too too late recantation We fools thought their lives madness and their end without honour but now they are accounted among the Children of God and have their portion amongst the Saints but we with demoniacal and hellish spirits Let me therefore beg of you all to exempt your selves from all supine and carnal security And seeing you must die and your time short and that a thousand chances may every day bereave you of your lives make such conscience of all your ways words and works as if you were presently to give up your accounts to him that lives for ever Qui consider at qualiter erit in morte pavidus providus erit in operatione He that considers always of
uncleanness as on the Israelitish Man and Moabitish Woman Num. 25.8 Or when thou art coveting as on the Rich Man in the Gospel Luk. 12.20 O Fool this night will they fetch away thy Soul from thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Which with so much wrack of Conscience so much breach of Charity so much wrong to Humane Society thou hast scrapt together No Thunder now can beat into them a dread or fear of that which then no power shall ease them of We know Christ will come let us prepare for his welcome You are yet through mercy on this side the Grave and not gone down into that place of Torment You enjoy many gracious opportunities for your spiritual advantages and are daily exhorted to relinquish and to leave your sins and turn to God to accept of Christ to think on Death and Hell that you may never see it nor feel it for there is much more in the Pains of Hell and Wrath of God than ever you heard or is possible for you to imagine Be therefore perswaded to redeem the precious time which you have lost in the well managing that little time which through the Grace and Goodness of God you may enjoy Seeing our time draweth nigh and that Death will be the portion of us all What manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy and godly Conversation How careful should we be in fitting our selves for our Change How vigilantly to stand upon our Guards and Watch that we may not be unprovided when Death comes to summon us to appear before our Creator Secondly This reprehends all those that slight and neglect this great and saving Duty that do not prepare themselves for Death knowing that they are mortal As the audacious Atheist and impenitent Sinner who put the evil day far from them saying Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die They will satisfie their lusts walk in the ways and imaginations of their own hearts but hereby they make the breach wider and themselves seven-fold more the Children of Sathan and at last sit down in everlasting woe and sorrow for did they believe that they must die and be judged and that they must appear in a very little time before the dreadful God who will in no wise clear the guilty surely they would quickly change their courses Nevertheless these Vipers these Devils Incarnate these Monsters in the shape of Men trisle away their time and think that they are wise when indeed they have no understanding Wise they are Jer. 4.22 but it is to do evil to cavil and spurn against the truth dispute against Religion and a Life of Piety but to do good they have no knowledge Is it not lamentable to consider how that Men that know they must die and leave all behind them should be so lethargical and mad as not to mind Death in many days it may be in many moneths together yea scarcely to entertain a serious cogitation of Death or of Judgment at a House of Mourning but in the very sight of the Dead they can laugh and quaff and be vain drink feast and discourse of Prophane and idle Stories It may be some may seem more religious than their Brethren but as soon as the Dead Corps is removed and the Grave and Coffin out of sight Death is no more remembred Oh! how sad is it to think how quickly the thoughts of Mortality do pass away notwithstanding Death is at your very heels and before your eyes Whither can you direct your eyes and not behold that which preacheth or representeth Death All the Winter Death is on the Trees in your Gardens on every Flower at your Tables every day You feed on the Flesh of dead Creatures to tell you that you must die And is not Death in your Beds every night What is Sleep but the picture and image of cold Death and your Beds are the representations of your dark Graves and yet for all this the greatest part of the World foolishly and unadvisedly spend their precious time not considering that they shall die This is a sin not only that the prophane World are guilty of but some too many that profess the Name of God and covet to be called Christians They conclude upon a fitness and preparedness for Death upon every slender and unwarrantable ground They have a name to live as it is said of the Church of Sardis but it is to be feared that they are dead therefore in this great Soul-business let none be so fool-hardy as to trust without examination But let every man as the Apostle saith Gal. 6.4 5. prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another for every man shall bear his own burden And so I pass to the third and last Use and I have done Thirdly If it be so that to die is the general condition of all men this must needs consolate and comfort those that are prepared for it for Revel 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. They are blessed in three respects I. In respect of the Place II. In respect of their Society III. In respect of their Condition All which must needs comfort them First In respect of the Place which is Heaven For if we rightly consider the World wherein we live it is a Vale of Misery a Prison or place of Ignominy Vexation Afflictions and Trouble as the Apostle saith Rom. 8.22 We know that every Creature groaneth and travelleth in pain together until this present time but Heaven is a place of Joy of Rest of Comfort This World is of short and no continuance but Heaven is a place of continuance it is permanent and everlasting It is a glorious Place the Holy Word of God admirably demonstrates it by those excellent things to which it is compared or by which it is called 1. It is called Regnum a Kingdom for there such as are prepared for Death and die in the Lord shall enjoy great Liberty Honour Power Pleasure and all good Things whatsoever 2. It is called Regnum Dei Christi Eph. 5.5 The Kingdom of God and of Christ because that Jesus Christ having overcome Death Hell and Damnation together with all the Enemies that did oppose us in the way to Heaven doth there govern his Church Triumphant with heavenly peace and everlasting tranquility 3. It is called by the name of Paradisus Luk. 23. in respect of the plenty of all good and delighful things which such as die in the Lord I mean the Just can either wish or possibly desire 4. It is called by the name of Coelum tertium The third Heaven 2 Cor. 12. Which is called Coelum empyreum id est igneum Not in respect of Fire but in respect of the glorious Light that shineth therein for as one saith it is Situ altissimum quantitate maximum natura purissimum Luce plenissimum capacitate amplissimum High in scituation
great in quantity pure in nature full of light and exceeding large able to receive Ten thousand times more Persons than there are drops of Water in the Sea or Sands lying on the Sea-shore 5. It is called Sancta Civitas The Holy City built with most precious Pearls because the company that dwell therein are holy and pure shining in Holiness and glistering in Purity and Righteousness 6. It is called Summa Beatitudo Inestimable Blessedness because the Saints enjoy the full and glorious presence of the Blessed Trinity wherein true Blessedness consists 7. And lastly It is called Vita Eterna Life Eternal because there shall be no more Death nor Lamentation no more Weeping nor Sorrow but the prepared for Death shall enjoy these blessed Joys so long as God shall be God which is everlasting This is the reward promised to all that die in the Lord a large reward and no man knoweth it but he that enjoyeth it Adeo magna est quod nequit numerari adeo pretiosa quod nequit comparari adeo diutina quod nequit terminari So great as it cannot be numbred so precious that it cannot be valued so lasting as it is everlasting so great so precious so lasting is the Reward promised and prepared for them that die in him Secondly In respect of the Society for here we live amongst prophane wicked and sinful men but there we shall have the happy fruition of innumerable Angels Heb. 12.22 and have the Society of Saints Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and the rest and we shall enjoy their Fellowship after an undefiled manner with all purity amity and everlasting concord Where also we shall enjoy God our Creator a God of so wonderful Might Majesty Excellency Beauty Glory Love as cannot be imagined and Christ his only and dear Son and our dear and precious Saviour If a man had the enjoyment of all other things yet without this all would be but misery and accursedness This will be the Society of those that are called from Earth to Heaven Thirdly In respect of their Condition They are Blessed for they rest from all their Labours For they which are prepared for Death die in the Lord and they that die in the Lord are with the Lord saith St. Paul Phil. 1.23 My Soul desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ Death considered in Christ and joyned with a holy Conversation to Believers is an advantage saith the Apostle Phil. 1.21 Christ is to me both in life and death an advantage Death is nothing else but a Bridge over this Tempestuous Sea the World to Heaven Gods Grace and Mcrcy made it so not by making Death in it self good but an instrument of good to the Godly Death cannot separate them from God that live a pious life but maketh them draw near to God for then do we approach near to God and your heavenly Place that excellent Society and shall enjoy that Blessed Condition to rest from our Labours and to have our good Works follow us in glorious Recompences when we die in the Lord. And now the great and glorious God direct and enable us all so to live and so die that when the Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be raised and we shall be changed we may with joy and rejoycing and to our unspeakable consolation hear that soul-ravishing Saying Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom c. And now Beloved give me leave before I dismiss you to speak something by way of an Encomium upon our Worthy Patroness deceased the Relict of Mr. Robert Fenn formerly Alderman of London Should I be altogether silent I should undoubtedly be prodigiously unjust to her who merited more than I am able to express Now what came you forth to see or Hear Of a Reed shaken with the wind of one clothed in rich and glorious Apparel Behold a Pillar in the Temple of our God to whom it is given to shine in white and glorious linnen which is the rightousness of the Saints Altogether superfluous it were to strew Rhetorical Flowers upon that Herse which covereth an inclosed Garden In regard of her Candour Innocency Goodness and Integrity She was a Lilly among the valleys Though amongst Thorns yet was a Cedar in Libanus That House of Darkness the Grave is to receive the Earthen Vessel of an Heavenly Treasure till time shall be no longer Her blessed Soul possesseth the Inheritance of the Saints but this House of God must be filled with the Savour of her good Name which is a precious Oyntment now to be powred forth and most deservedly in this place For here she was built up to be an Holy Temple to the Lord. Her heart and her joy was here fixed She Loved Lord the habitation of thine House and the Place where thine Honour dwelleth She was desended of a very good Family and her Education was every way answerable to one of such a Quality But I shall omit this being as I humbly conceive more proper for a Herauld than a Minister to give an account of For my Discourse must take notice of her from her Second Birth by which she became a Child of the Most High and rejoyced thather Name was Written in Heaven not by way of Ostentation but as a ground of her Consolation She was holy just and good holy in her life just in her ways good and courteous to all Her Life was a Looking-glass wherein all Ladies and Gentlewomen might see to dress themselves and attire their Conversation This Pious and Religious Matron was exceeding charitable and made it her business in imitation of her blessed Saviour in the time of her life so long as strength would permit to go about doing good Her House was an Eleemosinary or if you will an Apothecaries Shop where the Wounded and Diseased Poor might have Therapeuticks Sanatives Healing and Curing Medicines without Price or Money She was a second Dorcas who delighted in Clothing the Naked feeding the Hungry relieving the Oppressed visiting the Sick and in administring to the necessities of the Saints Her Ambition was terminated in the bounds of Moderation that being good to the Poor she might be rich in good Works Discretion the Vertue of Vertues waited on her and that Grace by which she so much undervalued her self in that she most shined The Vassal of all other Graces Humility for you might behold in her when living the most beautiful condescention in the bosome of magnitude and make of her Manners a Censure of Vices and of her Life Examples of Piety But these are external signs of inward holiness Her Heart panted after God the Seal of Wisdom was upon her Lips and she washed her Feet in Innocency She turned away her Eyes from beholding Vanity she considered her own ways and turned her feet to Gods Testimonies That so now they who will prepare Statues or Monuments for Vertue may boldly plant the Basis in her Foot-steps which you shall imprint or erect Many lament her many desire her but all do miss her She trampled the World under her Feet where Inconstancy is everlasting and Glory but momentary where Men live by Opinion sin by Precepts and amend not through impotency of offending and as it were never die but by sudden surprizal She was a Directory in her Family directing them in the fear of God and in the ways of his Commandments Vertue is a rare thing and so is a Vertuous Woman a rare Jewel hard to be found yet not so rare but may be found for lo here is one and therefore She may challenge the Character of the Wise-man Her price is far above Rubies The World was not worthy of her Let not any envy at Gods Grace upon her Many Daughters have done well but thou exceedest them all She was zealous for the Lord the Zeal of Gods House did even eat her up She was fervent in Prayer fervent in Reading She followed the exhortation of St. Paul not in putting on of Hair and Broidered Apparel and the insolent impiety of these times but in putting off of Apparel The Ornament she had was in the hidden man of the heart a meek and quiet Spirit She was no scornful and curious Dame but of a gentle humble and affable Disposition and one that powered out her heart unto the Lord. She lived a Saint she died a Saint and precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of Saints Her works shall praise her in the Gates and shall follow her with happy rewards In a word She hath fought the good Fight She hath run her Christian Race with a good Conscience She hath wrought out her Salvation with a filial fear and trembling Therefore no doubt but her Soul is translated or metamorphosed into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God and her Heavenly Creator and her Body at the Great and General Resurrection shall be re-united to her Soul and shine like the Sun in the Firmament nay it shall be made like unto the Glorious Body of Christ which in glory exceedeth and excelleth all And if her Body shall be so glorious how glorious shall her Soul be it is altogether impossible to imagine But I must be silent and put a period to my Discourse for I want words to express her Worth FINIS