A SERMON PREACHED at the Funerall of that worthy Knight Sr. GEORGE DALSTON of DALSTON in Cumberland September 28. 1657. By I. T. D. D. LONDON Printed for Iohn Martin Iames Allestrye and Thomas Dicas 1658. 1 Cor. 15. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable WHen God in his infinite and eternal wisdome had decreed to give to man a life of labour and a body of mortality a state of contingency and a composition of fighting elements and having design'd to be glorified by a free obedience would also permit sin in the world and suffer evil men to goe on in their wickedness to prevail in their impious machinations to vex the souls and grieve the bodies of the righteous he knew that this would not only be very hard to be suffered by his servants but also be very difficult to be understood by them who know God to be a Law-giver as well as a Lord a Iudge as well as a King a Father as well as a Ruler and that in order to his own glory and for the manifestation of his goodness he had promised to reward his servants to give good to them that did good therefore to take off all prejudices and evil resentments and temptations which might trouble those good men who suffered evil things he was pleased to do two great things which might confirme the faith and endear the services and entertain the hopes of them who are indeed his servants but yet were very ill used in the accidents of this world 1. The one was that he sent his son into the world to take upon him our nature and him being the Captain of our salvation he would perfect through sufferings that no man might think it much to suffer when God spared not his own son and every man might submit to the necessity when the Christ of God was not exempt and yet that no man should fear the event which was to follow such sad beginnings when it behoved even Christ to suffer and so to enter into glory 2. The other great thing was that God did not only by revelation and the Sermons of the Prophets to his Church but even to all mankinde competently teach and effectively perswade that the soul of man does not die but that although things were ill here yet they should be well hereafter that the evils of this life were short and tolerable and that to the good who usually feel most of them they should end in honour and advantages And therefore Cicero had reason on his side to conclude that there is to be a time and place after this life wherein the wicked shall be punished and the vertuous well rewarded when he considered that Orpheus and Socrates Palamedes and Thraseas Lucretia and Papinian were either slain or oppressed to death by evil men But to us Christians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as Platoes expression is we have a necessity to declare and a demonstration to prove it when we read that Abel died by the hands of Cain who was so ignorant that though he had malice and strength yet he had scarce art enough to kill him when we read that Iohn the Baptist Christ himselfe and his Apostles and his whole army of martyrs died under the violence of evil men when vertue made good men poor and free speaking of brave truths made the wise to lose their liberty when an excellent life hastened an opprobrious death and the obeying God destroyed our selves it was but time to look about for another state of things where justice should rule and vertue finde her own portion where the men that were like to God in mercy and justice should also partake of his felicity and therefore men cast out every line and turned every stone and tried every argument and sometimes proved it well and when they did not yet they believed strongly and they were sure of the thing even when they were not sure of the argument Thus therefore would the old Priests of the Capitol and the Ministers of Apollo and the mystic persons at their Oracles believe when they made Apotheoses of vertuous and braver persons ascribing every braver man into the number of their gods Hercules and Romulus Castor and Pollux Liber Pater him that taught the use of Vines and her that taught them the use of Corne For they knew that it must needs be that they who like to God doe excellent things must like to God have an excellent portion This learning they also had from Pherecydes the Syrian from Pythagoras of Samos and from Zamolxis the Gete from the Neighbours of Euphrates and the inhabitants by Ister who were called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Immortalists because in the midst of all their dark notices of things they saw this clearly {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that vertuous and good men do not die but their souls do go into blessed regions where they shall enjoy all good things and it was never known that ever any good man was of another opinion Hercules and Themistocles Epaminondas and Cicero Socrates and Cimon Ennius and Phidias all the flower of mankind have preached this truth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The discoursings and prophesyings of Divine men are much more proper and excellent then of others because they do equal and good things until the time comes that they shall hear well for them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And this is the sign that when we die we have life and discerning because though the wicked care not for believing it yet all the Prophets and the Poets the wise and the brave Heroes say so they are the words of Plato For though that which is compounded of elements returns to its material and corruptible principles yet the soul which is a particle of the Divine breath returns to its own Divine original where there is no death or dissolution and because the understanding is neither hot nor cold it hath no moisture in it and no driness it follows that it hath nothing of those substances concerning which alone we know that they are corruptible There is nothing corruptible that we know of but the four elements and their Sons and Daughters nothing dies that can discourse that can reflect in perfect circles upon their own imperfect actions nothing can die that can see God and converse with spirits that can govern by laws and wise propositions For fire and water can be tyrannical but not govern they can bear every thing down that stands before them and rush like the people but not rule like Judges and therefore they perish as tumults are dissolved {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}
{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Aristotle But the soul only comes from abroad from a Divine principle for so saith the Scripture God breathed into Adam the spirit of life and that which in operation does not communicate with the body shall have no part in its corruption Thus far they were right but when they descended to particulars they fell into error That the rewards of vertue were to be hereafter that they were sure of that the soul was to survive the calamities of this world and the death of the body that they were sure of and upon this account they did bravely and vertuously and yet they that thought best amongst them believed that the souls departed should be reinvested with other bodies according to the dispositions and capacities of this life Thus Orpheus who sang well should transmigrate into a Swan and the soul of Thamyris who had as good a voice as he should wander till it were confined to the body of a Nightingal Ajax to a Lion Agamemnon to an Eagle Tyrant princes into wolvs and Hawks the lascivious into Asses and Goats the Drunkards into Swine the Crafty Statesmen into bees and pismires and Thersites to an Ape This fancy of theirs prevailed much amongst the common people and the uninstructed amongst the Jews for when Christ appeared so glorious in miracle Herod presently fancied him to be the soul of Iohn the Baptist in another body and the common people said he was Elias or Ieremias or one of the old Prophets And true it is that although God was pleased in all times to communicate to mankind notices of the other world sufficient to encourage vertues and to contest against the rencontres of the world yet he was ever sparing in telling the secrets of it and when St. Paul had his rapture into Heaven he saw fine things and heard strange words but they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} words that he could not speak and secrets that he could not understand and secrets that he could not communicate For as a man staring upon the broad eye of the Sun at his noon of Solstice feels his heat and dwells in light and loses the sight of his eyes and perceives nothing distinctly but the Organ is confounded and the faculty amazed with too big a beauty So was S. Paul in his extasy he saw that he could see nothing to be told below and he perceived the glories were too big for flesh and blood and that the beauties of separate souls were not to be understood by the soul in Conjunction and therefore after all the fine things that he saw we only know what we knew before viz. that the soul can live when the body is dead that it can subsist without the body that there are very great glories reserved for them that serve God that they who die in Christ shall live with him that the body is a prison and the soul is in fetters while we are alive and that when the body dies the soul springs and leaps from her prison and enters into the first liberty of the sons of God Now much of this did rely upon the same argument upon which the wise Gentiles of old concluded the immortality of the soul even because we are here very miserable and very poor we are sick and we are afflicted we do well and are disgraced we speak well and we are derided we tell truths and few believe us but the proud are exalted and the wicked are delivered and evil men reign over us and the covetous snatch our little bundles of money from us and the Fiscus gathers our rents and every where the wisest and the best men are oppressed but therefore because it is thus and thus it is not well we hope for some great good thing hereafter For if in this life only we had hope then we Christians all we to whom persecution is allotted for our portion we who must be patient under the Crosse and receive injuries and say nothing but prayers we certainly were of all men the most miserable Well then in this life we see plainly that our portion is not here we have hopes but not here only we shall goe into another place where we shall have more hopes our faith shall have more evidence it shall be of things seen afar off and our hopes shall be of more certainty and perspicuity and next to possession we shall have very much good and be very sure of much more Here then are three propositions to be considered 1. The Servants of God in this world are very miserable were it not for their hopes of what is to come hereafter 2. Though this be a place of hopes yet we have not our hopes only here If in this life only we had hopes saith the Apostle meaning that in another life also we have hopes not only metonymically taking hopes for the things we hope for but properly and for the acts objects and causes of hope In the state of separation the godly shall have the vast joyes of a certain intuitive hope according to their several proportions and capacities 3. The consummation and perfection of their felicity when all their miseries shall be changed into glories is in the world to come after the resurrection of the dead which is the main thing which S. Paul here intends 1. The servants of God in this life are calamitous and afflicted they must live under the Crosse He that will be my Disciple let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me said our Glorious Lord and Master And we see this Prophetic precept for it is both a Prophecy and a Commandment and therefore shall be obeyed whether we will or no but I say we see it verified by the experience of every day For here the violent oppress the meek and they that are charitable shall receive injuries The Apostles who preach'd Christ crucified were themselves persecuted and put to violent deaths and Christianity it selfe for three hundred years was the publick hatred and yet then it was that men loved God best and suffered more for him then they did most good and least of evill In this world men thrive by villany and lying and deceiving is accounted just and to be rich is to be wise and tyranny is honourable and though little thefts and petty mischiefs are interrupted by the laws yet if a mischief become publick and great acted by Princes and effected by armies and robberies be done by whole fleets it is vertue and it is glory it fills the mouths of fools that wonder and imployes the pens of witty men that eat the bread of flattery How many thousand bottles of tears and how many millions of sighs does God every day record while the oppressed and the poor pray unto him worship him speak great things of his holy Name study to please him beg for helps that they may become gracious in his eyes and are so and yet never
from that trouble who had so often rescued them from hunger He was of a meek and gentle spirit but not too soft he knew how to do good and how to put by an injury but I have heard it told by them that knew his life that being by the unavoidable trouble of a great estate ingag'd in great suits at law he was never Plaintiffe but always upon the defensive part and that he had reason on his side and justice for him I need alledge no other testimony but that the sentence of his Judges so declared it But that in which I propound this good man most imitable was in his religion for he was a great lover of the Church a constant attender to the Sermons of the Church a diligent hearer of the prayers of the Church and and an obedient son to perform the commands of the Church He was diligent in his times and circumstances of devotion he would often be at Church so early that he was seen to walk long in the Churhyard before prayers being as ready to confess his sins at the beginning as to receive the blessing at the end of prayers Indeed he was so great a lover of Sermons that though he knew how to value that which was the best yet he was patient of that which was not so and if he could not learn any thing to improve his faith yet he would finde something to exercise his patience and something for charity yet this his great love of Sermons could not tempt him to a willingness of neglecting the prayers of the Church of which he was a great lover to his dying day Oves meae exaudiunt vocem meam says Christ my sheep hear my voice and so the Church says my sheep hear my voice they love my words they pray in my forms they observe my orders they delight in my offices they revere my Ministers and obey my constitutions and so did he loving to have his soul recommended to God and his needs represented and his sins confessed and his pardon implored in the words of his Mother in the voice and accent of her that nurs'd him up to a spiritual life to be a man in Christ Jesus He was indeed a great lover and had a great regard for Gods Ministers ever remembring the words of God keep my rest and reverence my Priests he honoured the calling in all but he loved and revered the persons of such who were conscientious keepers of their depositum that trust which was committed to them such which did not for interest quit their conscience and did not to preserve some parts of their revenue quit some portions of their religion He knew that what was true in 1639. was also true in 1644. and so to 57. and shall continue true to eternal ages and they that change their perswasions by force or interest did neither believe well nor ill upon competent and just grounds they are not just though they happen on the right side Hope of gain did by chance teach them well and fear of loss abuses them directly He pitied the persecuted and never would take part with persecutors he prayed for his Prince and serv'd him in what he could he loved God and lov'd the Church he was a lover of his Countries liberties and yet an observer of the laws of his King Thus he behaved himself to all his superior relatives to his equals and descendants he was also just and kinde and loving He was an excellent friend laying out his own interest to serve theirs sparing not himself that he might serve them as knowing society to be the advantage of mans nature and friendship the ornament of society and usefulness the ornament of friendship and in this he was known to be very worthy He was tender and carefull of his children and so provident and wife so loving and obliging to his whole family that he justly had that love and regard that duty and observance from them which his kindness and his care had merited He was a provident and carefull conductor of his estate but farre from covetousness as appeared toward the evening of his life in which that vice does usually prevail amongst old men who are more greedy when they have least need and and load their sumpters so much the more by how much neerer they are to their journeys end but he made a demonstration of the contrary for he washed his hands and heart of the world gave up his estate long before his death or sickness to be managed by his only son whom he left since but then first made and saw him his heir he emptied his hands of secular imployment medled not with money but for the uses of the poor for piety for justice and religion And now having devested himself of all objections and in his conversation with the world quitting his affections to it he wholly gave himself to religion and devotion He waken'd early and would presently be entertained with reading when he rose still he would be read to and hear some of the Psalms of David and excepting only what time he took for the necessities of his life and health all the rest he gave to prayer reading and meditation save only that he did not neglect or rudely entertain the visits and kinde offices of his neighbours But in this great vacation from the world he espied his advantages he knew well according to that saying of the Emperor Charles 5. oportet inter vitae negotia diem mortis spatium aliquod intercedere there ought to be a valley between two such mountains the businesses of our life and the troubles of our death and he stayed not till the noise of the bridegrooms coming did awaken and affright him but by daily prayers twice a day constantly with his family besides the piety and devotion of his own retirements by a monethly communion by weekly Sermons and by the religion of every day he stood in precincts ready with oyle in his lamp watching till his Lord should call And indeed when he was hearing what God did speak to him of duty he also received his summons to give his account For he was so pertinacious an attendant to Gods holy word and the services of the Church that though he found himself sick he would not off but stay till the solemnity was done but it pleased God at Church to give him his first arrest and since that time I have often visited him and found him alwayes doing his work with the greatest evennes and indifferency of spirit as to the event of life and death that I have observed in any He was not unwilling to live but if he should he resolved to spend his life wholly in the service of God but yet neither was he unwilling to die because he then knew he should weep no more and he should sin no more He was very confident but yet with great humility and great modesty of the pardon of his sins he had indeed lived
up and down in white Revel. 3. 4 5. 14. 13. that is as candidates of the resurrection to immortality And this allegory of the Garden of Eden and Paradise was so heartily pursued by the Jews to represent the state of separation that the Essens describe that state by the circumstances and ornaments of a blessed garden {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a region that is not troubled with clouds or shours or storms or blasts {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but a place which is perpetually refreshed with delicious breaths This was it which the Heathens did dream concerning the Elysian fields for all the notices {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} concerning the regions of separate souls came into Greece from the Barbarians sayes Diodorus Siculus and Tertullian observes although we call that Paradise which is a place appointed to receive the souls of the Saints and that this is separated from the notices of the world by a wall of fire a portion of the torrid zone which he supposes to be meant by the flaming sword of the Angel placed at the gates of Paradise yet sayes he the Elysian fields have already possessed the faith and opinions of men All comes from the same fountain the doctrine of the old Synagogue confirmed by the words of Christ and the commentaries of the Apostles viz. that after death before the day of judgment there is a Paradise for Gods servants a region of rest of comfort and holy expectations And therefore it is remarkable that these words of the Psalmist Nerapias me in medio dierum meorum Psal. 102. v. 25. Snatch me not away in the midst of my dayes in the Hebrew it is Ne facias me ascendere Make me not to ascend or to goe upwards meaning to the supernatural regions of separate souls who after death are in their beginnings of exaltation For to them that die in the Lord death is a preferment it is a part of their great good fortune for death hath not only lost the sting but it brings a coronet in his hand which shall invest and adorne the heads of Saints till that day comes in which the Crown of righteousness shall be brought forth to give them the investiture of an everlasting Kingdome But that I may make up this proposition usefull and clear I am to adde some things by way of supplement 1. This place of separation was called Paradise by the Jews and by Christ and after Christs ascension by S. Iohn because it signifies a place of pleasure and rest and therefore by the same analogy the word may be still used in all the periods of the world though the circumstances or though the state of things be changed It is generally supposed that this had a proper Name and in the Old Testament was called Abrahams bosome that is the region where Abraham Isaac and Iacob did dwell till the comming of Christ But I suppose my selfe to have great reason to dissent from this common opinion for this word of Abrahams bosome being but once used in both the Testaments and then particularly applied to the person of Lazarus must needs signifie the eminence and priviledge of joy that Lazarus had for all that were in the blessed state of separation were not in Abrahams bosome but only the best and the most excellent persons but they were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with Abraham and the analogy of the phrase to the manner of the Jewish feastings where the best guest did lye in the bosome of the Master that is had the best place makes it most reasonable to believe that Abrahams bosome does not signifie the general state of separation even of the blessed but the choicest place in that state a greater degree of blessedness But because he is the father of the faithful therefore to be with Abraham or to sit down with Abraham in the time of the old Testament did signifie the same thing as to be in Paradise but to be in Abrahams bosome signifies a great eminence of place and comfort which is indulged to the most excellent and the most afflicted 2. Although the state of separation may now also and is by S. Iohn called Paradise because the Allegory still holds perfectly as signifying comfort and holy pleasures yet the spirits of good men are not said to be with Abrahams but to be with Christ and as being with Abraham was the specification of the more general word of Paradise in the old Testament so being with Christ is the specification of it in the New So S. Stephen prayed Lord Iesus receive my spirit and S. Paul said I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which expression S. Polycarp also used in his Epistle to the Philippians {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} they are in the place that is due to them they are with the Lord that is in the hands in the custody of the Lord Jesus as appears in the words of S. Steven and S. Paul So S. Ierome Scimus Nepotianum nostrum esse cum Christo sanctorum mixtum choris we know that our Nepotian is with Christ mingled in the quires of Saints Upon this account and it is not at all unreasonable the Church hath conjectur'd that the state of separate souls since the glorification of our Lord is much better'd and advanc'd and their comforts greater because as before Christs coming the expectation of the Saints that slept was fixed upon the revelation of the Messias in his first coming so now it is upon his second coming unto judgment and in his glory This improvement of their condition is well intimated by their being said to be under the Altar that is under the protection of Christ under the powers and benefits of his Priesthood by which he makes continuall intercession both for them and us This place some of the old Doctors understood too literally and from hence they believed that the souls of departed saints were under their material Altars which fancy produced that fond decree of the Councel of Eliberis Can. 3. 4. that wax lights should not by day be burnt in coemeteries inquietandi enim spiritus sanctorum non sunt left the spirits of Saints should by the light of the diurnal tapers be disquieted This reason though it be trifling and impertinent yet it declares their opinion that they supposed the souls to be neer their reliques which were placed under the altars But better then this their state is described by S. Iohn in these words therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him night and day in his Temple and he that sits upon the throne shall dwell among them with which general words as being modest bounds to our inquiries enough to tell us it is rarely well but enough also to chastise all curious