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
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
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
dying will be cautious and circumspect in his doing And not like those careless souls who spend their daies their months their years nay their whole time in sin and wickedness not considering what will befall them in the end Now let me fasten two Reasons upon you why you should consider that you must die and to confirm you in the truth delivered First if men seriously did consider that they are mortal and must die and shortly appear before the Tribunal of the just and great Judge it would prove an absolute and soveraign antidote to expel the greatest evil sin and the dreadful consequences of it and a means to avoid the greatest loss the loss of our immaterial Spirits those excellent beings and the way to procure the greatest good Heaven and eternal blessedness What is the reason and cause of that inundation of prophaness and wickedness and those prodigious sins as Treasons Murders Uncleaness Rebellion that are now in the world and in this Kingdom and in all places in most families and persons of all qualities and degrees but this their not duly and effectually considering that they are mortal and must die and come to Judgment This is the reason if not one main ground of sin and of the neglect and omission of all sacred duties For did they believe and remember they must die and come to Judgment and that their naked Souls and their naked crimes and sins must shortly be manifested and stand before the dreadful Bar of the most tremendous Judge of all mankind who will render unto every man according as his work shall be no doubt it would impede and hinder their constant and desperate course of sinning But alas it is the foolishness and unhappiness of most that they defer and put of the consideration of death till they feel and find they can no longer live Secondly Did ye believe that ye must die and answer for all ye have done in the body whether good or evil this if any thing would make you serious diligent zealous and constant in the worship of God and to work while it is day before the night cometh wherein no man can work For this world is for duty the other for glory this for repentance the other for recompence Hic locus luctae ille coronae This is the place of combating that of crowning this of working that of rewarding this for thy mourning that for thy consolating The Apostle exhorts us to consider one another to provoke to love and good works Heb. 10.24 25. And so much the more as we see the day approaching Our work is great and weighty Diversions are various and many Adversaries potent and subtle thy strength is weak and small thy time is short and uncertain thy account is large and great death and judgment are at the door therefore be sluggish and loiter no longer but be active and vigilant now or never Surely did you in the depth of your serious thoughts cogitate of your apparent and inevitable danger that would incite and stir you up to duty To seek the Lord while he may be found Esa 55.6 to call upon him while he is near While God gives you life opportunity peace strength and liberty to seek him before the gate of life be shut God with-drawn and mercy quite gone for ever Were prophane sinners truly sensible of their peril they would pray more ardently more deeply more affectionately more effectually than ever they have done This Consideration of Mortaliry put holy Job upon Prayer Job 7.21 Why do'st thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity for now shall I sleep in the dust Chap. 14.13 O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave until thy wrath and indignation be past that thou would'st appoint me a set time and remember me David when the sorrows of Death compassed him and the pains of Hell gat hold upon him Then said he Psal 116. I called upon the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul I might also give you the example of Hezekiah Jonah Paul and Silas with many others but I hasten to the Uses and Application yet let me tell you a through affecting Meditation of your Dissolution and Change would make you speedy in prosecuting your known necessary and religious duties which God requires at your hands Therefore let me beg of you before the Decree bring forth Eccles 9.10 before the day pass as the chaffe before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you prepare for Death for how shall ye escape if ye neglect so great salvation Now let me improve and apply it in a threefold Use the first is for Exhortation the second for Reprehension the third for Consolation Is it so that Life is short and Death certain both which have been sufficiently cleared and proved This then calls and cries aloud unto all those that have made no provision for Death and Judgment to admire at the unwearied patience the matchless and amazing mercies of the infinitely good and gracious God Be exhorted therefore to stand upon your guard and watch and be in a prepared readiness Luke 12.40 For the Son of Man will come at an hour when ye think not All Estates are exhorted to prepare and be furnished Old and Young Male and Female Rich and Poor Noble and Ignoble for the danger is great if men be found unprovided As Death leaveth them so Judgment will find them If it leave them in a state of Damnation it will find them in a state of Damnation So if it leaves them in a state of Salvation it finds them in a state of Salvation As Ishbosheth being found asleep 2 Sam. 4.7 was killed by Rechab and Baanah so if we be sound asleep in Sin and unprepared for the Lord we shall be killed by Sathan that roaring Lion that goeth about seeking whom he may devour Because the Man that was not prepared came to the Wedding Matth. 22.13 he was cast into outer darkness As he is left behind that is unprovided when the wind serveth and the Ship under sail even so he is left in Damnation that is not prepa ed for Christ when Death cometh Many Men make all the provision they can for this Life which is uncertain and forget Death which is certain The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night 2 Pet. 3.10 in which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat the Earth also and the Works that are therein shall be burnt up The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night A Thief as well for stealing on us as stealing from us he comes in the dark when no body seeth watcheth an hour which no body knoweth It may be he will come when thou art revelling or banqueting as on the Old World Luke 17.27 or when thou art drunk as on Belshazzar Dan. 5.25 or when thou art lying as on Ananias or when thou art committing
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