cloathed with a glorified Body as for other holy Ones tho they see Death yet they are translated too carried from Earth to Heaven from Creatures to God The Body must descend into the Grave and there lye putrifying corrupting crumbling until it return to Dust as it once was but the Spirit returns to God that gave it I desire you all frequently to call this to mind and consider it with the greatest seriousness and see that you have sanctified Souls Souls rightly prepared brought into such a frame as may be fit to appear in so glorious a Presence and converse with so pure and holy a Majesty that when they return to God they may be welcome to him and being come into his Presence for ever dwell and abide there and not afterwards cast out and banisht as the Object of his loathing Thirdly Holy Souls may very well be willing yea glad to go to God As a Bride is to go to her endeared Husband and as a Child at School under severe Discipline is to go to his most affectionate and tender Parents from whom instead of hard Blows he shall meet with soft Embraces Some Saints upon record in Scripture we find were in such a frame Good old Simeon was in haste and prayed for his Dismission Luke 2. 29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Having seen Christ he would sain see the Father too Having got Christ in his Arms he would have the World on his back He reckon'd that he had liv'd long enough here and would needs be gone He had now got his full freight and therefore desired to set up his Sail for the other World Having beheld so great a sight as the Lord of Glory tho but in his Infancy and Swathing-bands he was loath that his Eyes should be embased with the beholding of earthly Vanities any more Paul likewise had the same thing in his desire so he told us in Phil. 1. 23. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ. He would go from all that he may go to him and leave all that he might be with him and he understood himself and acted rationally in this desire for it is saith he in the next words far better Heaven is inconceivably better than Earth when it is in the greatest Peace when it expresseth the greatest Kindness He very well knew what he said he was a competent Judge having been an Eye-witness of the Felicity and Glory above taken up into Paradice into the Third Heaven And tho others have not been partakers of that Priviledge not so rapt as Paul was yet they are of the same Judgment and have the same Desires working in them therefore he speaks of it as a Spirit and Disposition common to all the Saints while they are in this Tabernacle Their hearts stand Heavenward as the Needle doth to the North-Pole when it hath been once touch'd with the Loadstone as you may see in 2 Cor. 5. 2. In this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven They had not only some small Inclinations that way and languid faint Desires but earnest Groans And again verse 8. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. We are willing not only out of necessity because this is a thing must be but out of choice we had rather leave the Body that we might go to God But now we are to enquire why it is thus And you will find there is sufficient yea abundant reason for it if you do consider these four following Particulars First In going to God they go to their Father This was the comfort and joy of our Saviour's heart with this he comforted himself and with this he comforted his Disciples looking upon it as a Cordial strong enough for them all John 20. 17. Go to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Mine by Nature yours by Adoption I am now going to one that I am most nearly related to and most fully interested in And in Iohn 17. we find him insisting and dwelling upon this as that which he took singular delight in and suckt a great deal of sweetness from verse 1. Father the hour is come Verse 5. O Father glorify thou me with thine own Verse 11. I come to thee Holy Father Verse 21. Thou Father art in me and I in thee Verse 24. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am Verse 25. O righteous Father the World hath not known thee but I have known thee c. It is certain that when wicked Men the worst and vilest of them dye they go to God Did I say Go Rather they are forc'd and drag'd against their will they cannot help it It is to a God that many of them did not believe but laboured with all their might to obliterate the Notion of his Being because troublesome and tormenting to them Psalm 14. 1. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God It is to a God that none of them cared to know and be acquainted with Job 21. 14. They say unto God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways Neither of his ways nor of himself They go to God as their Righteous Judge but not their reconciled and gracious Father They are brought before his Tribunal as Malefactors to receive their Doom but they do not enter into his Kingdom as Children to take Possession Whereas those that are truly gracious go to him as a Father as a Father of Mercies yea and as their Father in Christ to him as a God yea and to their God in Covenant to a God and Father by whom they were begotten of whom they were born whose Spirit they have received and whose Image they bear Wicked Men go to God to give an account of what they have done in the Body and when once Sentence is past upon them and they adjudged to their Place and eternal State they go to Devils Matth. 24. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels You followed his Conduct you did his Drudgery now take your Wages with him Where he is there shall his Servants also be When the Saints go to God they go to stay and to take up their everlasting abode with him Rev. 3. 12. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall 〈◊〉 no more out As they shall be exalted so fixed their Happiness shall never be abated their Glory never eclipsed Once in Christ and ever in Christ there is no total and final falling from Grace they that are indeed planted in the house of the Lord shall never be pluckt up and so in the present case once in Heaven and in Heaven
A Funeral Sermon Occasioned by the DEATH OF Mr. WILLIAM RATHBAND An Aged and Learned Servant of Christ AND Preached Octob. 13. 1695. at Highgate By Samuel Slater M. A. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Thomas Cockerill Sen r and Jun r at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCXCV To the much Esteemed Mrs. SARAH RATHBAND In HIGHGATE Dear Sister THat stroke which the wise God lately gave to 〈…〉 Family did and yet doth as I doubt not sma 〈…〉 on your back and pain you at the very heart The wresting of a loving Husband out of the bosom of an affectionate Wife is not much unlike tearing the flesh from the bones Where indeed there is unsuitableness and discontent a galling yoke between persons so nearly related Cohabitation is more uneasy than Dissolution They are not like to grieve much for parting who were a mutual vexation and torment But I am persuaded there was between you Conjugal Love Kindness and Delight and walking together as Heirs of the grace of lise whereupon separation by Death cannot but be a sore Affliction to you who are left behind Yet a reflection upon such a life and the blessed consequences of that Death which was the period of it may very well prove a sovereign Cordial to you carrying along with it strength and sweetness support and comfort God hath been graciously pleas'd to carry him through those difficulties which he did encounter in his way and to employ him in that honourable work of the Ministry which he lov'd and faithfully did notwithstanding there were many Adversaries and but very small encouragement he received from the hands of men who will give more to their Houshold servant than to an Embassador of Christ and he continued him in the world and in his work to a good old age When at last he had finished his day and his work together he entered into peace and rest And now while he rejoiceth in Fruition do you rejoice in Hope Long it will not be ere he that shall come will come and carry us away too to our eternal home therefore instead of an impotent mourning over our dead Relations and Friends it is our main wisdom and interest to prepare our selves for Death that we may be found in a fitness for a better life in a meetness for the inheritance of the Saints in light Hearing it was my dear Brother's desire upon his Death-bed that I would preach the Funeral Sermon I did most readily apply to the work and your self afterward desiring that what had been preached might be printed I complied therein also notwithstanding multitude of business lying upon my hands here you have it in the following sheets The good Lord accompany it with his Spirit and blessing upon you and others that heard or shall read it and thereby my desire and design will be accomplished Your self I commend to the good will of him that dwelt in the Bush. May the Ever-living and Ever-blessed God be your Husband Comforter and Portion DEAR SISTER Novemb. 8 1695. I am yours in the best Bonds SA SLATER JOHN XVII 13. And now come I to thee IN the thirteenth Chapter of this Holy Gospel we find our Lord Jesus in whose heart it was to fulfil all righteousness had celebrated the Passover with his Disciples at which Iudas having received the Sop went out immediately leaving Christ and them behind him but carrying the Devil in him It was Night and therefore as he thought a fit season for that Work of Darkness the betraying of his Lord and Master into the hands of his Enemies who thirsted for his Blood The Traitor being thus of his own accord withdrawn and gone and our Saviour having none about him but those whom he knew to be his faithful and fast Friends preached unto them this his last most sweet and excellent Sermon wherein his Lips dropt as an Honey-comb beginning it at the Fourteenth Chapter and continuing it to the end of the Sixteenth Therein he unbosoms himself to them and speaks his very heart in the Language of Love affording to them precious and strong Cordials for the bearing up of their hearts under his own departure from them which he well-knew would be sorely afflictive to their Spirits and also under those many and great Tribulations they would during his absence meet with in the World being sent as a little Flock of Sheep among a company of ravenous Wolves that would be set for fleecing and devouring them The Sermon being ended which he delivered that in him they might have Peace knowing they had to do with a conquer'd Enemy the World being overcome by him we have him in this Chapter putting up a Prayer to his Father wherein he first asked something for himself ver 9. That his Father would glorify him with his own self with that glory which he had with him before the world was He desires the manifestation of that Glory which he had before the World was and his having it before the World was speaks his Subsistence or Being before the World was and by consequence his being from Eternity and therefore God He also prayed for his People both those that did at that time believe in him and likewise those that should afterwards believe in him through their Word The things he asked for them were 1. That they might be sanctined through the Truth and while in the World kept from the Evil. 2. That they might be united and made One yea perfect in One. And 3. That at last they might all be with him where he is and behold his Glory taken up to the beatifical Vision to a constant and close Communion to a full and perfect Fruition of him And the reason of these his Desires is because he himself was to be no longer with them in the World by his bodily Presence verse 11. Now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee The Work that he came into the World for was at that time almost finished and the Work which he had to do elsewhere viz. in Heaven called him away I am saith he no more in the world The World and I cannot agree It is a vain empty sinful wicked and a malicious World it refuseth to be mended and it cares not to be saved and I have been long enough in it since we cannot agree we will part It is weary of me and I am as weary of it yea and more weary too I never tasted of its Pleasures and I care not for its Profits that Work which my Father gave me to do being done I will be gone I come to thee with whom it is best being for in thy Presence there is fulness of Joy and at thy Right-hand Pleasures for evermore To thee with whom I was from everlasting rejoycing always before thee and being daily thy delight having a mutual Delight and compleat Satisfaction each in other To thee with whom I desire
but as comfortable as they can But alas how short is their Arm how many outward and inward Troubles are there which their skill and power cannot reach But it must be granted all that which they can do is not comparable to that which God doth for his People nor to be named in the same day with it All that own a God must acknowledge he is infinitely beyond the greatest of men in power infinitely above the highest and best of Creatures in love What is a broken Cistern that will hold no water to the Well of Salvation the Fountain of living waters What is a pitiful little Drop but one remove from nothing to the boundless bottomless Ocean of Being and Goodness Suppose there were ten thousand thousand worlds and put them all together what would they all be to one God And then though the enjoyment which the Saints have of God now doth far exceed all the sinful and sensual enjoyments of carnal and profane Worldlings which was the reason why Moses did esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt and rather chose to suffer affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and made that Noble Italian Marquis Galeaceus say Cursed be that man who counts all the world worth one hours enjoyment of Iesus Christ. Yet compare the best and fullest and sweetest of the Saints enjoyments here with those in the mansions above and they fall exceeding short of them for what is sitting under the shadow of Christ to the beholding of his glory what is the joy of Faith to that of sight what is a love letter or message of peace or kind token from God now and then to a lying in his bosom to a being and continuance in his joy what is seeing of his power and glory in the Sanctuary to the beatifical Vision what is seeing in a glass darkly to a seeing face to face seeing as we are seen and knowing as we are known what are the first-fruits of the Spirit to the whole harvest what some Praelibamina foretastes to a sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in that Kingdom of God at the feast of glory and there taking the fill of love to all eternity while the Saints are present in the body they are absent from the Lord and a state of absence neither doth nor can afford satisfaction the holy Soul during that will with the enamoured Spouse be longing and crying Make haste my Beloved and be thou like a Roe or young Hart upon the mountains of spices It is only in the glorious presence of God that such an one will find a fulness of joy and at his right hand those pleasures which are for evermore Let us now come to the improvement of this Point in a way of Application and the first Use shall be for Information in three things If it be just matter of rejoicing to holy Souls that at death they go to God then from hence First We may learn the folly and misery of those who do now depart from God whose lives are nothing else but a continual departure from him Yea in the very Acts of Worship when they draw nigh to him with their lips their hearts are estranged and far from him running after their covetousness The folly that is in this course of life is very apparent and the misery that certainly attends it will be one day no less sensible but there are too too many among us guilty hereof some through the principle and power of Unbelief their not giving credit to the reports of the Word neither to its dreadful Threatnings nor to its sweet and gracious Promises Do you I beseech you look carefully to it that there be not in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Others yea and the same persons too make this departure from God out of love to the world for if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him And it is no wonder to see men going from that place and company where and with whom they do not love to be have a care of the world therefore let it not bewitch you While ye live in it be ye not devoted to it but weaned from it If you do set your hearts upon the world you will turn your back upon God Demas saith the Apostle hath forsaken me and in forsaking him he forsook Christ what was the reason of it but his embracing this present world 2 Tim. 4. 10. How powerful and prevalent are these two things unbelief and love of the world with the generality of men what a vast multitude of persons do they carry away from God! What is there that in a moral way he could have done more than that which he hath done He hath frequently and loudly called them by messenger after messenger he hath most graciously invited them most lovingly and sweetly allur'd them and used variety of means and arguments to conquer their aversness to convince their judgments to gain their hearts and bring them to him yet after all he hath cause to complain Ye will not come to me that ye may have life Nay in stead of coming to him they are running further and further from him as if they thought they could never be at too great a distance whereas they have no cause to run from God for in so doing they run from life and rest and happiness and into the mouth of ruin and destruction and are too far removed from him already They are already without God in the world Ephes. 2. 12. They were born with their backs upon God were Transgressors from the womb going astray speaking and seeking Lyes and so they continue to do for every wilful Sin is a step from God Now I would desire such to consider and that seriously whether this their way be not their folly The Scripture doth expresly tell us They that are far from him shall perish Psal. 73. 27. and that he hath destroyed all them that go a whoring from him And as he hath done so he will go on to do for he is in one mind and in this case Repentance shall be hid from his eyes And to this add one Consideration more You must appear before him at the last whether you will or no though you should call to the rocks to cover you and the mountains to fall upon you and hide you from the wrath of the Lamb and from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne yet you must appear Now you will not be invited to him as a Saviour then you shall be dragged before him as a Judge Suppose you should then beg and plead Lord Lord open to us what answer can you look for at his hands but this Depart from me for I know you not And how do you think he should know you since as long as you liv'd you would never acquaint your selves with him Oh
things are not so much to be insisted upon Were they Holy and Gracious Were they born twice before they died once Were they partakers of the Holy Ghost in his renewing Influences Was their Walk with God and their Motions toward Heaven Did they carry Grace along with them into the other World and leave good ground of Hope in this concerning them Then keep your Grief within its due bounds You may yea you ought to be sensible of God's hand and of your own loss and of the Nations and Churches loss God would not have his Children stupid he allows not in them a Stoical Apathy Paul doth not forbid all Mourning upon this account but would not have yours like that of theirs who mourn without hope You may be sensible but not sink drop some Tears over such an o 〈…〉 s Herse but not be drown'd in Sorrow While by your Sorrow and Tears you express the dearness of your Affection to your deceased Friend be sure that by your patient Submission and humble Silence you do equally manifest your Faith and Hope And to that purpose I offer these Four following Particulars to your Consideration First Your departed Relations and Friend◠are gone to him that loved them best and that both can and will do most for them To him that is all Love and hath all Power To him who hath Earth with all its fulness Heaven with all its Glory at his own dispose and is himself alone better than both They are gone indeed and shall not return their Places here will know them no more Oh! saith one my Husband is gone and he was my Guide and my Support He lived with me as a Man of Knowledge and helped me on in the way everlasting And saith another My Wife is gone and she was a suitable Yoke-fellow a delightful Companion the desire of mine Eyes And saith another My Child is gone and it was a pleasant One the Child of my Hopes but now that is gone that Bud is nipt and those Hopes are blasted And say others Our Shepherd is gone who led us by the skilfulness of his Hands brake to us the Bread of Life and sed us with sound Knowledge and Understanding These are gone and gone for ever and they will not return any more and you say true for they cannot Job 14. 14. If a man dye shall he live again Yes in another World Iob did not question that but rejoyced in the Faith of it but not again in this World The most holy Persons that lived best and pleased God most cannot return to live again here and indeed as they cannot so they would not if they could they would not For remember this as they are gone from hence and from you so they are gone to God and to Heaven They are gone but it is from their Labour to their Rest to an undisturbed and everlasting Rest after a wearisome and tedious Life They are gone but it is from the Work of their Lord in which they were faithful and industrious to the Joy of their Lord which nothing shall imbitter neither can any take it from them God will not Enemies shall not They are gone but it is from a life of Conflicts which they had with the Corruptions of their own Hearts and the Temptations of Satan to maintain an everlasting Triumph with the Lord Jesus the Captain of their Salvation In short They are gone but it is out of the Wilderness which was over-run with pricking Briars and vexing Thorns and full of Beasts of prey Lyons roaring and Serpents hissing the Devil and his Instruments creating them all the trouble they can and now they are entred into the Coelestial Canaan a Land flowing not with Milk and Honey but unspeakably better Enjoyments infinitely purer and higher Delights Do but you tread in their Steps and follow them in their Faith and Holiness considering the end of their Conversation and then you shall meet them again and that meeting shall be with Joy Secondly Tho they be gone yet their time of going was first come The Apostle Paul speaks of a time of departure 2 Tim. 4. 6. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand The time which God in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness had ordained and prefixed by an eternal and unalterable Decree They liv'd till the last Sand in their Glass was run out till they had reached those Bounds which they could not pass There is one thing which some surviving Relations do most unreasonably afflict and torture themselves with notwithstanding all the care they have taken it is this they think if this or that had been done their deceased Relation might have been still alive but that is a foolish Fancy and I am apt to think it a Suggestion of the Devil who thereby would pour Vinegar into that Wound which Providence hath made for if this and that and an hundred nay a thousand things more had been done they all would not have kept them here It is indeed unquestionably our Duty to be in the diligent use of all lawful means for the preservation of Health the cure and removal of Diseases and the continuance of our own and our Relations Lives and a known wilful neglect of any doth bring guilt with it and may breed a painful sting in the Conscience but all the means that can be used cannot possibly hinder the accomplishment of any of the divine purposes Who hath resisted his Will and who can resist it Will you consider this and work it upon your hearts by repeated thoughts such Friends and Relations of yours are gone but not before they were sent for God bid Moses go up to Mount Nebo and die there the same God in whose hand our times are did also bid them lie down upon such a Bed and die there Death was God's Messenger he commission'd it and gave it his order its work was to cut off the thread of their lives and fetch them home and that work must be done how unacceptable and afflictive soever it is to any yea and it must be done at that very time too Tho in other things God exerciseth admirable patience waiting that he might be gracious and being exulted that he might have mercy upon sinners yet in this case he will not stay nor is it at all fit that he should nor is it lawful for any to desire it What reason can be given why Infinite Wisdom should give way to humane weakness and folly or why God should in the most minute and smallest Circumstance act counter to his own most Holy Will and Purpose for the gratifying of our humour and imprudent desires let us leave God to chuse and order as being best able and learn our selves to submit and accept and since Death must and will do its work at its time let us be before-hand and do our work in our time since Death will not stay for us nor any body let us so prepare and
and long to be Father I come as soon as ever I have drunk off that Cup which thou hast given me to drink of I come and how am I straitned till that be accomplished and glad I am at my very heart that thereupon I come to thee Now I come it will be but a little while first and the sooner the better I am willing to leave all for thee to leave the World for thee yea to leave my dear Disciples for thee tho they be my Friends the Men of my Choice the Purchase of ray Blood the Members of my Mystical Body yet do I freely leave them for thee Only Father I consider where I leave them in a World that hates me and will be sure to hate them for my sake and therefore while I leave them for thee I would leave them with thee I put them into thy hand let that uphold and defend them I shelter them under thy Wing let that secure and comfort them I have kept them while I was with them when I shall be gone do thou undertake and be Surety for them for good that they may be safe in the midst of Enemies and stedfast in the midst of Temptations and Assaults yea and chearful too in the midst of Sufferings and Troubles having my Joy fulfilled in themselves And now come I to thee The Doctrine which from hence I shall observe and speak to in the following Discourse is this Doct. An Holy Soul is and very well may be willing yea heartily glad to leave the world because when it doth so it will go to God I look upon the words of the Text as the Words of one rejoycing the Language of one whose heart did even leap within him of one whose Soul was upon the wing of holy Desires longing to be at its home Now come I to thee and when I once am with thee I shall be where I would be and with whom I would be in the best place and with the best Company what suits me most and therefore must needs please me best Now I come to thee whom I like abve all being infinite in all Perfections and whom therefore I love and prefer before all Now I come to thee who art mine Eternal Father and wilt be my Eternal Satisfaction Our Saviour had before told his Disciples in John 14. 28. That if they loved him they would rejoice because he said I go to my Father because that his departure would be glorious to himself and advantagious to them but whether they through want of a judicious Love would rejoyce in it or no he himself would perfectly understanding how things were and would be Now come I to thee Once I came from thee to do thy will and that was pleasing to me I delight to do thy Will O my God thy Law is within my heart Now I come to thee to enjoy thy Presence and that will be to me incomparably inexpressibly sweet Thus it was with our dearest Lord and Saviour this was the frame these the actings of his Spirit and thus likewise it ought to be with all his People who were predestinated to be conformed to his Image and who ought to have the same mind in them that was in him for he acted and suffer'd he liv'd and died leaving us an Example that we should tread in his Steps In the Doctrine which I have laid down there are three things which we ought to take notice of First That Gracious and Holy Souls must leave this World The World to come will be their Eternal Habitation but in this present evil World they will have but a short stay Those that have the largest share of its good things those that are most useful in it and live to the best purpose serving their Generations according to the Will of God must leave it Their loving Father never intended this for the place for their constant Residence nor the Comforts and Enjoyments here for their Portion The highest Heaven in his Throne the Habitation of his Holiness and Glory and he was always resolved to have his Children about him there This World is but your School to learn in during your Minority your House to work in till you have finished what was given you to do your Tyring-room to dress in that you may be ready for the Marriage of the Lamb a Stage to act your Part upon see that you so quit your selves as to be at last found to Praise and Honour but it is not to be your rest because it is polluted God hath too much of the heart of a Father and loves his Children too well to keep them always in a Vale of Tears where they shall be frequently Suffering and Sighing Complaining and Groaning always in a Wilderness that is over-run with Briars and Thorns and an innumerable company of Beasts of Prey the wicked of the World are their irreconcilable Enemies and implacably hate them therefore they shall not always have them to wreak their Malice and Rage upon They will for ever envy and gnash their Teeth at them because of their happiness in Heaven but they shall not for ever exercise their Patience and disturb their Peace upon Earth Often O Saints repeat in your thoughts that this World is but the House of your Pilgrimage therefore let not any of you love it too well but while you live in it be you weaned from it remembring there is a better place prepared and taken up for you whither the forerunner even Jesus is entred an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens whose builder and maker is God Secondly Whensoever Gracious and Holy Persons leave this World they go to God The decayed and crazy Body doth no sooner cease to be any longer capable of housing so noble and excellent a Guest as the Soul and the Soul doth no sooner dislodge and leave that once-beloved Structure but that it doth immediately take its flight and mount up with a swift and speedy Motion and a direct tendency without the least and shortest Digression to its great Creator even to him who alone is the Father of Spirits It cares not for any further Converse with things below being intirely set for Communion with him by and for whom it was made and on this side of whom it is and cannot but be resiless and unquiet Gen. 5. 24. Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him i. e. he took him home he took him to himself into the presence of his Glory into the bosom of his Love And thus it hath been is and will be with all those who walk as Enoch did who tread in the same Steps and keep up the same Communion tho indeed they do not all go the same Way yet they go to the same Place and to the same God Enoch was translated that he might not see death Hebr. 11. 5. He was presently carried up to Heaven having his Soul purified and his Body freed from Corruption He was soon