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
and all the beauty and glory thereof as the Flower in the field Can you feel the Air move and the Wind beat in your faces and not consider the breath of man is in his nostrils The strongest tenure of his life is but a puff of wind Can you shoot in the fields and not consider as the arrow flyeth in the air so swiftly doth your life pass away As Jonah's Gourd was soon come and soon vanished Jon. 4.6 so man is soon born and soon dead This World is as a Stage Man as an Actor when he hath plaied his part he is gone Our lives shorten as if the Book of our Dayes was by the pen-knife of Gods Judgments cut less Our sins call for new plagues We may observe that neither the planets above nor the plants below yield us expected comfort God for our impieties doth cause the Heaven to be Brass and the Earth Iron and the Air with the Winds to be tempestuous Deut. 28. So almost every thing which was erected for mans use is become his enemy and all because we unthankfully turn all things to Vices corruption which out of mercy were given for Natures protection And therefore what we have diverted to wickedness God hath reverted to our revenge We are sick of sin and the world is sick of us how soon doth the Sand run down the Hour-glass how quickly doth the Sun set So speedily doth our time pass away Future things are always beginning present things always ending and things past are dead and gone While we live we die and then we leave dying when we leave living better is it therefore to die to life than to live to death because our mortal life is nothing but a living death and life continually flieth from us and cannot be with-held and death hourly comes upon us and cannot be withstood No wisdom shall appease it no policy prevent it no riches bribe it If all perils spare our life yet time and age in the end will consume and annihilate it S. August speaking upon those words of St. Paul Rom. 8.2 Christ hath made me free from the Law of sin and death saith thus Lex peccati est ut quicunque peccarit morietur Lex mortis terra est in terram reverteris The Law of sin is whosoever offends shall die the Law of death is dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return We are all going to our long and last home to the house of eternity Eccles 12.5 Man goeth to his long home How doth he go He goeth swiftly always in motion night and day sleeping or waking labouring or loytering this Post hastens time and tide stays not Again He goeth insensibly he doth not discern or perceive how his precious time doth flie from him the shadow on the Dial passeth from one hour or figure to another from the Suns rising to its setting though its speedy transcendent motion is not observed or considered So man passeth from one year to another till he come to old Age and the Grave and we take little or no notice of it so insensibly doth our time pass away There was never Orator so lerned or eloquent that could perswade Death to spare him or prolong his days never Hector so valiant or Monarch so mighty that could resist him We must all submit and fall down at Deaths feet if he commands we must obey if he calls we must away no tears no intreaties no threatnings will serve the turn or release us at that time so strong so stubborn so implacable and inexorable is Death No man nor ways no means can oppose it no not length of years nor wisdom nor riches nor honours nor beauty nor strength no nor that excellent grace and gift of Holiness and Piety Nay if age if vertue if pity if innocency charity or godliness could work any relent or compassion in Death from embrewing his cruel hands in mortal blood See where age where vertue where pity where charity where innocence and godliness lies entomb'd wholly defaced clouded eclipsed and over-shadowed with death Oh Death how ir-relentful is thy heart how bloody are thy hands how impartial thy stroak how general is thy arrest The Ancient Fathers and Patriarchs before the Deluge lived to vast years to a great and miraculous age some 700 some 800 some 900 years and more yet at length of all and every one it is said he died Sampson was endowed with extraordinary and wonderful strength at one time he slew 1000 with the Jaw-bone of an Ass and yet he died Judg. 16.3 Solomon was a wise King the wisest that ever was he knew the nature and the vertue of all Simples from the meanest Herb to the biggest Cedar therefore if any surely he above others might have preserv'd and kept himself from Death and yet of him in the end it is said he also died 1 Kings 11.43 Abraham the Father of the Faithful Noah a Preacher of Righteousness David a man after Gods own heart and many more dear and precious in the sight of God of whom the Scripture saith They died The Prophets were endowed with a greater measure of sanctification than their brethren yet the Prophet Zechary joyneth them altogether in one condition Zech. 1.5 Your Fathers Where are they and do the Prophets live for ever But what speak I of the Prophets Patriarchs or Ancient Fathers Christ Jesus our Holy and Blessed Saviour the Son of God his only Son in whom he was well pleased more Wise than Solomon more Mighty than Sampson and more Righteous than Noah and all the Prophets who did no wrong who knew no sin in himself yet assuming and taking the burthen of our sins upon him became subject to the same doom of mortality with us and he died also Nay Sarah in my Text though she lived 127 years and was Wise Chast Beautiful and Innocent yet neither he Wisdom Chastity Beauty or Innocency could defend her in this case for saith the Text Then Sarah died There have been and there are ways and means discovered and found out to subdue and make gentle the most cruel and savage Creature to break and mollifie the hard Flint yea the hardest thing in the world but not any thing to asswage and mitigate Deaths fury Resistitur ignibus resistitur nudis resistitur ferno resistitur regibus resistitur reguis imperiis venit una mors quis ci resistat Fire Water and the Sword may be resisted Kings Kingdoms and the greatest Empires may be resisted but when Death comes that is invincible and who can resist it Non miseretur inopum Death pittieth not the Poor respects not the Rich feareth not the Mighty spareth not any Man goeth irresistably neither Men nor Angels Physick or Physicians can keep him here for here he hath no abiding place it stands him in hand therefore to look for one to come It is as easie to obstruct the Course of Nature or to hinder Gods Covenant of day and night Man
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