indeed an Essential part of man yet it is the less principal part since the Soul can act and live as well out of it as in it And therefore it is from the Original of the Soul that the birth of man is chiefly to be reckoned rather than from the formation of the body Now if accordingly we compute the birth of a Saint we are led to a Threefold Birth which results from the Consideration The 1st is by Creation when the Soul of Man is at first created and placed in the body Which indeed carries along with it the formation of the body also for we can't conceive the body to be formed as to its due perfection with respect to union with the Soul till the moment of the Souls infusion therein if with the Schools I may be admitted to use such a word who tell us of the Soul that creando infunditur insundendo creatur But that the Soul derives its original from Gods immediate creating it and not ex traduce I speak with all deference to learned and worthy Persons of another judgment may seem plain if it were but from that one Scripture Zech. 12. 1. especially if we duely consider its connexion with what precedes I say then that the first birth of man to speak properly is to be reckoned from the union of the Soul and body in the womb which as to priority of time seems to be instantaneously upon the Creation of the Soul rather than from the Egress of the child from thence But since we are most taken with what is most sensible to us I shall not contend about words if the thing be understood Especially seeing the Scripture is so calculated in its Expressions as to use words commonly in use understood by the lowest form of Christians Only howsoever we use words I am confident to say that the Birth of Man may very well be reckoned from the Vnion of Soul and Body in the womb For whatever hath these two constituent parts of man can be assign'd to no other class but that of Mankind The 2. Birth of Man according to the Soul is in Regeneration or Conversion Of which Christ speaking Joh. 3. Calls it the birth of a man from above v. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 3. Birth is in Glorification And this admits of a Twofold Period viz. 1. As to the Soul only at Death when it separates from the Body and becomes from that moment perfectly freed from sin and misery and admitted to the enjoyment of true happiness above For the Souls of just persons even then are said to be made perfect Heb. 12. 23. 2. As to Soul and Body when re-united at the Resurrection which is called the Adoption and Redemption of the Body Rom. 8. 23. Now from all this we may arrive to make some tolerable Estimate of that which we commonly call the Birth and Death of a Saint For 1. that which we commonly call Birth is nothing else but mans Egress from the womb and his Ingress into the Society of Mortals here Now what is this but a kind of Death since we being our selves Mortal see and converse only with Mortal Objects as all things external here are Whence it is that all mans time on earth even from the Evening of the Worlds Creation to the Morning of the Resurrection is esteemed but as one Night as is imported Psal 49. 14. When the Resurrection is Emphatically Termed the Morning both with respect to the night of time preceding and the day of eternity about to succeed And hence also our Life on earth is called a Sleep wherein we rather dream of things than really apprehend them and out of which we are first thorowly awaked by Death We may see this plainly hinted Psal 17. 15. Whereas 2. that which we call commonly Death is nothing else but the unpinning our mortal Tabernacles and the manumitting us into the immortal Regions of Light Love and Liberty Of which the great Saints in Scripture speak no otherwise than in the familiar Dialect of putting off a suit of old Apparrel for new and more glorious ones Thus Paul calls it a being unclothed as to the Body and clothed upon by having Mortality swallowed up of Life 2 Cor. 5. 4. And Peter calls it a putting off this his Tabernacle 2 Eph. 1. 14. Again 2 let us consider Death the right notion whereof will become more facile to our apprehensions by what we have said of Life All therefore that I shall say of it is that besides that which we commonly call so there is a Twofold Death in a Spiritual sense which falls under consideration here The 1. is a Death in Sin which is entered into at our Birth into the world For then it is that we come to enter upon the Stage of a sinful world We are shapen in sin and conceived in iniquity And our Birth into the world is rather a kind of Death than Life since we are exposed thereby to sinning and suffering to vanity and vexation of Spirit The 2. is a Death to Sin which is entered upon at the dissolution of the tye between Soul and body upon which account it is called Death But tho' it disunite soul and body for a time yet it may rather be called the Birth of the Soul in as far as it translates it from all manner of sin and misery It is true indeed as was said before Regeneration is a kind of new Birth to the Soul in as far as it delivers us from the death of sin in a great measure Yet since that is but a deliverance in part therefore it is by death only that we come totally to dye to sin Tho' I grant that this death to sin comes to be more illustriously display'd at the great period of the Resurrection When the last enemy Death comes to be Totally destroyed and swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 54. So that from hence we may see that our Birth into this world is a Death in Sin whereas our Dissolution or the separation of soul and body is properly a Death to Sin or a manumission and freedom given us both from Sin and misery Wherefore from all that hath been said in the Premises as to both these Terms of Birth and Death we may not injustly invert the notion of them with respect to the Saints and say That the day of our Birth into this world was the day of our Death in sin ignorance vanity and misery Whereas the day of our Death may be justly reputed to be the day of our Birth into the world of purity knowledge light and rest But 2dly I come now to consider what that thing we call Life is which the two Periods of Birth and Death enter us upon and with respect to which we can only pass a right judgement of the preferableness of either of them And truely as to this matter we are very much in the dark taking that to be life which hath little more of
both relative and personal as she was to be constant and serious in attending upon Ordinances there seeking the appointed food of your Souls where she both often sought and found it to dedicate some part of your Pretious Time every day to reading the Scriptures and other good Books devout Meditation and secret Prayer which you know was her constant Course as long as her health and strength would permit in a word to make serious Religion your main business as it was most manifestly hers And if you will hearken to this Call in conjunction with the Calls of GOD's Word and that Monitory Providence that you are now under so as heedfully to tread in your pious Mothers steps as Dear Children following her in those things wherein shew was a follower of God and persisting in this Course to the end of your Life Then let me tell you for your Comfort that altho' Death hath at present made a separation between her and you it shall be but for a short season and then you shall again live together in the glorious and bright Mansions of Heaven and in the beatifick Vision and Fruition of God and Christ for ever and ever Amen FINIS A Funeral Sermon By Robert Fleming V. D. M. Preach'd in the Afternoon Eccles vii 1. Better is the Day of Death than the Day of ones Birth AS all the Faculties of Mans Soul are become miserably depraved and corrupted by reason of Sin So in particular the leading and directive Faculty the Mind or Intellect is signally so For besides the blindness and ignorance of men in things natural there is nothing more apparent than that universal darkness and stupidity which they are under as to their apprehensions of things spiritual and eternal For altho' there seems to be remanent upon the minds of all men naturally some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or imperfect râ—dera of the true impressions of good and evil and some secret Perswasions of a soveraign Being to which all things owe their original and continuance yet alas what sad Conceptions do men entertain of things of an immaterial and and spiritual nature as appears not only from the Writings of the more learned and ingenious Heathens but from innumerable and dayly Instances even in the midst of the Meridian Light of the Gospel So that constant Experience doth in this matter sufficiently confirm Scripture-Testimony that the natural man knows not the things of the Spirit of God as requiring a subjective as well as objective spiritual Light to discern them by However this is one of God's ends in Revealing his Word to us that we may thorow his Blessing upon pains and industry attain to rectified Notions and Idaeas of things so excellent in themselves and so momentous to be rightly known by us And as this is the scope of the whole Scripture to bring Life and Immortality to Light unto us so particularly of this Book of the wise and in quisitive Solomon who having undertaken a speculative Journey into all the Regions of sublunary Enjoyments returns an experienced Ecclesiastes or Preachers of those things that he thought might be of universal use to be known And therefore having rubbed off the fine Varnish and gaudy Paint of Earthly Objects with which they insinuate themselves at first view as beautified to our vain imiginations he here represents them impartially to our Reason as they are in their own natures and usefulness to us Of this we might adduce many instances if need were But we go no farther than the Words before us wherein we may observe a Rectification of a twofold Mistake that we are apt to fall into For first whereas men usually prefer Riches to a good Name we are here instructed that a good Name is better more valuable than precious ointment i. e. than the fatness of the world and the affluence of all earthly wealth and riches For thus I take the word according to Prov. 22. 1. which seems to be a comment on this or a plain account of what is here figuratively imported For precious ointment was esteemed of old amongst the most valuable things of the Treasures of Princes as we see Isa 39. 2. And hence it is that Prov. 15. 30. A good name is said to make the bones sat And again whereas Men generally prefer Life to Death Solomon here tells us that we are greatly mistaken in the Case for that upon the contrary the day of Death is much to be prefer'd to the day of ones Birth According to which Position he goes on to shew that the house of Mourning is better than the house of Feasting and sorrow preferable to Laughter v. 2 3 c. It is the second of these only that I am directed to consider at this time viz. That the day of Death is better than the day of ones Birth A strange Paradox and enough to amaze the minds and thoughts of all such as mind earthly things and who have not attained to have their interior Senses spiritually exercised to discern spiritual things Nay I am apt to think that many even serious Christians may find it difficult to reconcile their thoughts to this Doctrine And therefore on all hands I foresee Objections What! will the Atheist and Antiscripturist say is it better not to be than to be Is it possible will the carnal Philosopher and Rationalist object that the destruction of nature it self should be preferable to its Being and Continuance Nay even many poor Christians will be ready to tell me that it seems very strange to them to prefer Death which owes its Original to Sin and is our enemy and the last to be destroyed to prefer I say this to Life it self wherein we have opportunity to serve God and do good to our selves and others And methinks I hear a multitude cry out at the hearing of this and many such Worldlings there are What! Death better than Life Here 's strange Doctrine indeed What! Leave all our Earthly Comforts Friends and Possessions and that for Death and the Grave who can have Faith to believe such Doctrine as this Well Friends here 's that which may silence all your Doubts and answer all your Questions as to this matter if you will give ear to God himself that Death is preferable to Birth But I must supersede the satisfying you as to your particular Scruples in this matter till I shall have come to the Improvement of the Doctrine which I must now lest I act preposterously previously inquire into And here though the Words are in themselves so very plain that I see no momentous Variation among Criticks in the translating of them Yet I find some considerable difference in the Sentiments of Expositors as to the meaning of them For some understand the Text of all Mankind with respect only to this present Life laying aside all Consideration of the future State as many Passages in this Book are undoubtedly to be understood And if so then the meaning only is That
it than the very shew and appearance Life is a more noble thing than we imagin when considered in its right notion and idea We talk of a vegetative and sensitive Life But if in Philosophy these must needs creep in as distinct species thereof Yet Divinity will refine our thoughts of it a little further For since Life is one of the glorious Attributes of the supreme Being who designs himself oft-times the Living God we must needs conceive somthing high and sublime therein And as God is the fountain of all Life to others so it is only in him that We live So that to speak properly we have no life in our selves our breath being in our nostrils and we depending every moment on God for new supplies thereof Therefore we find it the Property of God only to have Life in him-self yea and such a Property as is only communicable to Christ Joh. 5. 26. For as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself And therefore this is spoken of with respect to Christ with a special mark of Observation Joh. 1. 4. In him was Life But I shall not run further than the Text for the Ground of my notion of Life For we may plainly perceive by the very Terms of Birth and Death in the words that there is some Life here imported with respect to which as plainly and necessarily presupposed these periodical terms are made use of Now this Life herein presupposed must either be the present Life or that which is to come If it be the present Life then it is apparent that Solomon had very mean and low thoughts of it since he prefers the destruction of it by Death to the commencing it at first by Birth And those very mean thoughts which he hath of it are a plain Indication that it doth not deserve the noble designation of Life as being rather a shadow thereof than the thing it self But if it be the Future Life that is here imported then it presents us with a noble Idea of true Life indeed as inclusive of true Happiness and Felicity and lets us see with what good Reason Death is here preferred to Birth But tho' this last sense gives us the fairest prospect of Life and the most solid ground of the wise Solomons determination of this case yet I think we are to include both these sorts of Life as presupposed clearly in the Text. For as Solomon runs the parallel expresly between Birth and Death So his doing thus doth manifestly presuppose that he had run the parallel also between the Present and Future Life for except the Periods of Birth and Death have respect to these they must be reckoned to stand as Cyphers here without any significancy But tho' it is indubitable that Solomon runs the parallel here between Life Present and Future Yet we are not to imagine that he compares them as being both included in the true notion of Life and so as species under the same Genus but rather as two Opposites so as to consider that which we call the present Life under the notion of a kind of Death or state of Death and so to vendicate the notion of true Life to the future only For as I said before when I explained the terms of Birth and Death that our Birth into this world was rather our Death in Sin and Misery Whereas our death out of this world is more properly our Birth into Happiness and felicity So I say now of the Present and Future Life that the Present Life is rather the state of the dead that we die into when we are born Whereas the Future Life is that only which deserves the name of Life as being that state that we are born into when we come to that period which we call death And tho' this invertion of Terms may seem strange at first to such who are so immersed in sense as not to reflect on things as they are indeed in themselves Yet if once we come to entertain genuine conceptions of time and eternity and what concerns these we will see sufficient reason for such a rectification of vulgar opinions wherein men are oft detain'd contrary to reason it self from a misapplication of meer words Wherefore since I take Life for that which either is proper to God or which derivatively is communicated to subjects capable of it I mean made so by himself it is therefore to be laid down as the basis of our ensuing reflections that Life and Happiness are the same thing tho' the words express this differently to us But it is only the consideration of true Life or Perfection as peculiar to the Saints that I am here to consider Which that it may the more distinctly appear it may not be amiss to run the Parallel a little between the present and future Life as we call them that we may the more easily admit of the Conclusion here in the Text as to the preferableness of the latter to the first Which methinks the Apostle expresses well when he calls the future Life by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Life assigning to the present Life the designation of Mortality only 2 Cor. 5. 4. And in doing this I must first consider what those Qualifications of Life are that denominate it excellent happy and desirable And as to this I shall express my self in words common and known to all that the impressions may be the more clear and cogent And now as to this matter I cannot think of any Conveniency or true Qualification of Life wanting where these seven Things Concur viz. 1. Perfect Health 2. Full enjoyment of all Good 3. Vnmixed and undisturbed Peace and Joy 4. The most pleasant place of abode 5. The most excellent Company 6. An untainted Good Name 7. The perpetual Duration of all these Wherefore let us consider these Qualifications or Properties of Life with respect both to the Present and the Future that we may see whether our Passage by Birth into the one or by death into the other be to be preferred 1. Perfect Health By this we understand perfect rectitude both of Soul and body and all the faculties and powers of them And if so our Inquiry must be where this rare Jewel is to be found without which all our other comforts are insipid and tastless Surely it cant be acquired in this miserable World either as to Mind or Body For as to our Minds how uncultivated are our judgments as to our apprehensions of spiritual things How vain are our thoughts How perverse our wills How irregular our affections How treacherous our memories And how lame and defective are our actions and performances even to the most spiritual duties And as to our Bodies do we not carry about with us the Principles of Diseases and the seeds of death it self And what innumerable pains and maladies are we here subject to every day to most bringing along with it some new exercise or other
and infinitely the best company There we shall be admitted to lean our heads on Christs bosom and tell him all our most concerning secrets and have him to be our dear friend and companion for ever There we shall be equal to the Angels and become their fellow-servants and fellow-worshippers And there shall we enjoy the company of all the glorified Saints the Patriarchs Kings Priests Prophets Apostles Evangelists Martyrs and eminent Ministers and Christians that as bright clouds of witnesses have got to heaven before us And there among others we shall meet with endeared Embraces our loving and dear Friends and Relatives that were so acceptable to us on earth We shall all meet together in the Celestial Regions and in the streets and Mansions of the new Jerusalem and as we shall be ever with the Lord so shall we be ever also with one another 6. An untainted good Name This is yet another blessing that attends the true life For to be exposed to reproaches and to underly calumnies and evil reports is inconsistent with the notion of this tho' I grant God can turn this as other evils to the advantage of his own But alas this is one superadded misery to the many that we meet with here that we are tossed to and fro with the various censures of men Even the Apostles themselves were so far from escaping this Contagion that they were esteemed as the dross and refuse of mankind as the very vilest of miscreants by a blind mad world Fame hath been for a long time the Goddess of ambitious and high Spirits But it is the greatest nonsense to talk of perpetuating ones name here since the furthest that the fame of any can go is but to the limits of time and space Fame and good name then are Jewels of the Eternal Crown of Happiness wherewith God doth adorn such only as he admits to the everlasting enjoyment of himself He then that conquers the Vniverse hath but the shaddow of true Fame which God bestows only on such who have thorow grace attained to overcome sin Satan and the world And he also who hath left his name behind in the frontis-piece of an hundred learned Volumns hath yet fallen short of a perpetual fame except he hath also attained to have his name ingraven and inrolled in the eternal Registers and Records of Heaven 7. The Perpetual Duration of all these Had we all the forementied Qualifications of true and perfect Life yet if we did but admit of a suspition in our thoughts as to their continuance and permanency This one suspicious thought would be enough to dump all our satisfaction with respect to so many blessings And therefore to make Life every way happy and perfect this superadded Qualification of the Eternity of all must of necessity come in And therefore we are hence led to see that there is no true Life here since all our comforts and enjoyments are transitory and fading as being momentary and confin'd within the narrow limits and precincts of years days hours and minutes And no wonder since even that which we call Life here is it self but a vapour that appeareth for a little and then vanisheth away yea such a vapour as has not so much a being as the shew and appearance thereof For to this purpose doth James ch 4. v. 14. Point it forth very expressively when he says it is a vapour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But on the other hand this adds to all the happiness of the future Life that all the enyoyments and blessings there are permanent and eternal No rust doth there corrupt them nor Thief steal them nor age wast them nor death devour them They that once enter upon the actual fruition of such Enjoyments do ever retain their possession of them And thus I have run thorow the Qualifications and Properties of true Life as briefly as I could Which since they only quadrate with the future Life of perfection I suppose it is easy to conceive what Reason we have to conclude with Solomon that Death to a Saint is far preferable on all accounts to his Birth or to speak it in his very words Better is the day of such a ones Death than the day of his Birth The Improvement In the next place I come to bring home the Doctrine to our selves by a serious Improvement thereof Which I design shall be Judgment and Regulative of our Practice with respect to our Duty as to both 1st The Information of our Judgments Although all that hath been said was with this design to rectifie our thoughts as to the Doctrine which is the subject matter of the Text Yet there are these things farther that we may rationally and indeed necessarily Inferr hence 1. Infer We see from what hath been said not only the certainty of a Future Life and state but of an immediate Happiness and Glory also which the Souls of the Righteous pass into at Death When the poor Beggar dyed he was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosome Luk. 16. 26. And the poor penitent Thief was on one and the same day in misery on the Cross with Christ and in paradise with him Luk. 23. 43. And St. Paul the great Columbus of the upper world who first made a voyage and returned again in time as we see 2 Cor. 12. 1 4 c. Could never reflect afterwards upon that paradise which he then saw but with earnest breathings to be there again as we see 2 Cor. 5. 1 2. c. Phil. 1. 23. And indeed if there were not a future state we could never give any rational account why God should make so Noble a Creature as Man but might then cry out with the Psalmist Psal 89. 47. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain And were not this glorious life and state to be entered upon by the Souls of Believers Immediately at Death it would greatly damp the sweet and comfortable reflections which they are called to have thereof then 2. Infer We have hence also a rational and satisfactory Answer to give to all the scruples and Objections that can be put up by any against this Doctrine And now since we hinted before some Doubts that naturally might arise in mens minds from the first proposal and idea of this Doctrine I shall therefore in this place briefly Answer the same from what hath been already said Wherefore 1. Since Atheistical and Anti-scriptural Persons cry out upon this Doctrine as ridiculous from a fond imagination that the Soul has no existence when separate from the body I Answer 1. That such an imagination is not only contrary to Scripture but Reason it self For how is it possible for us to conceive that such a noble active and intelligent being as the Soul of Man should be meerly dependant on the body and have only its duration for a short space in this vain world Especially 2. since we see that this present life is rather an appearance than a reality as all things
we here converse with are also Or 2. If the carnal Rationalist and Philosopher further object and argue against this Doctrine from the consideration of Deaths being the Destruction of nature I Answer 1. that to speak properly there is no such destruction of nature by Death as many imagine For the Soul is not destroyed by it but acts and lives more nobly than before Neither is the Body properly destroyed but only reduced into its first Principles in order to be new moulded and more gloriously re-edified than before And therefore since the two Essential constituent parts of man remain in being man can't be said to be destroyed For tho' the immediate Tye between Soul and Body be loosed yet it is for a time only and in the mean time the relation they stand in to one another continues even when the actual union is suspended And besides all this it being the Soul that is principally the Man we are therefore to reckon that the man is in being still even when unbodied But 2. let it be considered that Death is not preferred to Birth or Life meerly as it is the dissolution of nature as now existing but the formal Reason of this is upon the account of the excellency of the future Life which death is the passage into For upon this account only is it that the Apostle prefers death to life 2 Cor. 5. 4. Not for that we would be unclothed says he but clothed upon that Mortality may be swallowed up of Life But 3. as to what many poor sincere-Christians are apt to object against this Point from the expressions that sometimes Death goes under in Scripture of its being as the punishment of sin our enemy and to be destroyed 1 Cor. 15. 26. I would for Answer propose to them besides what hath been already said this one consideration That tho' Death be indeed our enemy as it is inflicted as a punishment of sin since the fall Yet it has now altered its nature and end with respect to Saints since Christs death especially Christ having slain death and him that had the power thereof Indeed Death passeth still upon all men but in very different respects For to the wicked death is still continued as a grim Messenger and King of Terrours But as for the Saints Death is now become Christs servant to convey home the Souls of his own to himself Therefore as Christ is said to have abolished death 2 Tim. 1. 10. So he is said also Rev. 1. 18. To have taken into his custody and keeping the Keys of Hell and Death Upon which accounts we may perceive what little reason we have to fear Death when he acts only in commission under our dear Lord and Saviour and when also so blessed a Guide as he leads the way And 4. As to the Objection which the vulgar sort of groveling Mortals are apt to make against Death that it robbs them of and separates them from all their comforts friends possessions enjoyments and hopes I Answer that where the case is thus with any I must needs grant they have reason to prefer life to death If thou hast all thy portion in this life I shall not wonder to see thee prefer earth to heaven and dust to gold But O poor wretch art thou not ashamed of such an objection which militates indeed against thee but not against this Doctrine For the Saints of whom we here speak will tell thee that whereas death separates thee from all thy comforts it is in that way alone that they expect to reap the full harvest of all joy and comfort for at the right hand of God there is fulness of joy and in his presence there are pleasures for evermore 3. Infer We may see hence also the folly and ignorance of the generality of men as to their notions and conceptions of Life and Death Who seem to think that all comforts are to be found only in this Life and therefore give way to strange and melancholly apprehensions of death and what follows it As there are many poor Creatures in the world living in mean celles and cottages in some obscure corner whose low minds having never travelled from the smell of their native thatch and turff represent the world to themselves no otherwise than according to the ideas which a barren spot of earth of a few miles circumference hath afforded them So the generality of mankind seem to be so pre-occupied with the prejudices of sense and custom as never to have suitably reflected on those things which right Reason may not obscurely conclude from Scripture Premises concerning the glory and excellency of the future state of the spirits of just men made perfect For if our thoughts were more inured to such Divine Meditations we would dispise the vanities of a fading life more since we converse here but with imaginary comforts and joys tho' with too real griefs and miseries 2d The Regulation of our Practise As Practise is the end of Knowledge so my design in all that hath been said was to bring you to a sincere conscientious Performance of those Duties that the Doctrine handled doth call for from you And therefore suffer me to lay them impartially before you at this time And in doing this since not only the Doctrine in it self but the present Occasion of this Discourse calls for a particular and becoming Consideration this way I shall therefore endeavour with what succinctness is convenient to do these two things here viz. 1. to Improve the Doctrine Practically with respect to that Duty that is incumbent upon all from hence as to the good of our Souls 2. to Improve it also specially with respect to the sad occasion of this present meeting and concourse And 1 I shall endeavour to Improve the Doctrine in the General so as may be of use to all of you And what I have thus to say to you I will comprise and summ up in these three Directions or Rules 1. Direct Take heed how you carry with respect to your Spiritual state and Interest in God thorow Christ Which Advice I will take up in these three Parts which I am sure you are all concerned seriously to mind 1. Examine and Try your selves if God be your Portion and Christ your Saviour What are you secure whilst you remain at uncertainties as to this matter What ground have you to believe that Christ is yours Have you renounced Sin Satan the world and sinful self Have you accepted Christ wholly in all his offices and have you laid hold on him as your alone Saviour Be careful my friends that you found not your hopes on a mistake and thus build on the sand Religion is more than a name and Conversion more than a notion Therefore Judge your selves impartially as to this matter lest you be judged to condemnation by God for your neglect to do so 2. Be sure what ever you do to lay the whole weight and stress of your Salvation in the
merits and righteousness of Christ and fancy not that your own inherent Righteousness must go Partner with the Righteousness of Christ in the point of Justification lest thereby you impeach the all-sufficient Merits of Christ of defectiveness and claim the priviledge to be accounted your own Saviours But endeavour with the Apostle Phil. 3. 9. To be found in him not having your own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith 3. Mind the concernment of your Souls Salvation with all earnestness and diligence For what profit will it be untoyou to gain the whole world if you lose your Souls or what can you give in exchange again for them if once they be lost Therefore trifle not away precious time and golden opportunities in doing nothing or it may be things worse than nothing lest you be forced at length to cry out as the great Grotius did when dying Ah vitam perdidi operose nihil agendo Be not so besotted as to lay the stress of your hopes upon an imaginary Death-bed Repentance But since now you have a price put into your hands to get wisdom with beg and endeavour after that happy Part and Lot that shall never be taken from you when once attained 2. Direct Take heed how you carry with respect to your Bodies And as to this matter I will give you a tast of my Thoughts in these three things 1. Watch against your Bodies that they prove not snares to your Souls as they are I fear to many in more than one respect For 1. how oft do our senses deceive and cheat the Soul and presenting it with innumerable objects to distract and disturb it from the pursuit of more noble things And 2. the Fancy and unruely Imagination doth no less oft discompose the Mind and Reason by innumerable Chimera's in the forming and producing of which it is for the most part strangely fruitful Yea 3. the wants of the Body prove oft-times a great Remora to the Soul in its spiritual operations by giving occasion to sollicitude and anxious cares about what we shall eat and drink and wherewithall we shall be clothed and how we shall prevent such and such evils and troubles c. In all which respects we have great reason both to watch over and to watch against our Bodies 2. Live above your Bodies Let not your thoughts and cares terminate only there What! Shall a mortal fadeing Carcase swallow up our thoughts and inhance our affections when the time is coming that Death will at one blow cut down the same whereon we have bestowed so much pains in vain Yea the time is coming when this beautiful outside will stink and turn to corruption And then worms must nestle in those holes where sprightly eyes did once shine and all our graceful and well proportioned members and parts moulder down into deformity and rottenness Therefore let us hence learn to live above our Bodies 3. Be content to be unbodied for a time It is this way alone that we can expect to see God fully and to reach the happy Life and therefore it is our Duty to work up our hearts to an hearty contentment in and satisfaction with this way method and ordinance of Gods own appointment in order to consummate our felicity Nay let me say further that we ought to endeavour not only to be content to die but to be willing and desirous to depart that we may be with Christ which is best of all This was Pauls attainment Phil. 1. 23. And not his only but that which was very common to the Saints in those more heavenly times Rom. 8. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 4 5. Yea the very inanimate Creation hath an earnest propensity this way groaning for a dissolution as to its present form that it may be restored to its pristine glory and splendour before it became the stage of sin and theatre of misery This we may see Rom. 8. 19 21 22. Which is a consideration that may well shame us out of our earthly frame that we have sunk into for the most part in these depraved days I know indeed that we are apt to reckon it a great attainment in a Christian and comparatively indeed with the frame of most it is so to be content to die in submission to Divine good pleasure yet desirous to live But the excellency of the Christian attainment and frame of spirit in this matter stands in the inversion of the common order viz. In being desirous to die yet content to live in submission to Gods will and in regard of service to be done for God further And indeed when a Christian hath once tasted of the pleasure and delight of communion with God and thus been admitted to some fore-tasts of the future glory he can scarce any longer contain himself the love of God in Christ constraining him from crying out O Time be gone O Eternity make hast Why art thou so long a coming to those that are ready to burst with longing after the immediate sight and fruition of their God and Saviour forever Don't the Spirit and the Bride both Eccho forth with a sweet pathos come Lord Jesus And shall not our Souls joyn in the consort and ingeminat Amen even so come Lord Jesus come come 3. Direct Take heed how you carry with respect to your Souls Which Advice I take up also in these Three Things which I shall but very briefly propose First Be careful to cultivate your Souls that so you may grow dayly in a meetness and preparedness for Heaven and Glory And as there are two principal Faculties of the Soul the Vnderstanding and Will so accordingly let it be your great study to adorn these with what tends to render them more and more excellent And 1. Improve your Vnderstandings by dilating and enlarging them by further degrees of true spiritual Knowledge Grow in the Knowledge of God and Christ of the Vanity of the World and Excellency of Heaven and of the Worth of the Soul and in summ of all Gospel-Truths and Promises and the legal Precepts and Duties that are revealed as needful to be known 2. Improve your Wills and Affections also by more and more Grace that the Habits thereof may be strengthened by repeated Acts and that so these habits thus strengthened may be exerted put forth the more sweetly and freely in the out-going of the Soul in all its acts and operations 2. Employ your Souls always in Gods service This is and ought to be your chief and constant work and business Let us with complacency and chearfulness imploy our selves this way that it may be our meat and drink to do the will of our Father who is in Heaven What is our business in the world if it be not this For it is an opportunity to serve God here that alone can make a Saint content and willing to stay below in this Dung-hill world when
his Soul is otherwise wholly propending Heaven-ward 3. Seek to have your Souls admitted to Converse with God here For if we are not admitted to this happy Society wholly yet let us endeavour after this Blessing here below in as far as God may be pleased to priviledge us with it Alas that we should be satisfied with the Society of shadows and vanishing things here below whilst we may have communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ It is this blessed Fellowship alone that can sweeten and familiarise Death and dissolution to us and make separation appear rather a change of our Place than of our Company But 2 I must also subjoyn some more special improvement of the Doctrine with respect to our Practise in relation to the sad Occasion of our present Meeting together at this time And here tho' what I am to say further may be of use to all yet I address my self more particularly to You whom this Dispensation of Providence doth more nearly respect and concern And what I have to say here I shall comprise in a Threefold Counsel or Advice 1. Couns Submit your selves cordially to Gods correcting hand in this stroke Remember the Patience of Job under greater severity and say with him the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken blessed be the Name of the Lord. All the Providences of God are the Effects of the highest wisdom and with respect to the Saints they all flow from love and mercy also Nothing falls out casually in such matters however they appear to us For if a sparrow fall not to the ground without our Father which is in Heaven then surely a Friend a Relative and Child of God cannot be removed hence without his special providence for are we not of more value than many sparrows 2. Couns Moderate your sorrows as to the Person deceased from the consideration of the place and company she is gone to and the happiness she now enjoys For blessed be God we sorrow not to day as those that have no hope For we have not the least shadow of doubt as to her happiness and glory But if we have any thing to bewail this day it is as to our selves that we are left behind Indeed we have reason to lament her removal as a loss to her Relatives a loss to her Friends yea and a loss to the Country But otherwise with respect to her self we have rather cause of joy than sorrow If I may be so bold as to suppose the Lord speaking to us in the words of Jerom who to comfort a pious Matron named Paula upon the death of her daughter brings in the Lord speaking to her may we not think that the Lord speaks by this dispensation unto you to this purpose I have made this your Relative and Friend mine But what Do you envy my possession Where can she be better than with me Would you bring her back from Rivers of Pleasures to the valley of Tears From Health to Sickness From a Throne to a Drageon May we not therefore in this case allude to our Lords expression Joh. 14. 28. If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I go to the Father And I suppose could we now hear her speak to us it would be in words of such an importance 3. Couns Imitate what was Good Valuable and Praise-worthy in her Imitate her in her Faith in her Charity in her Assiduity in Religious Duties in an impartial scrutiny into the state of her own Soul in her closet retirements and publick walk and conversation in a sincere design to honour and please God in a chearful delight in doing good to all and in patience and submission under affliction and this Leads me to a Transition from the Doctrine to the Person in whom we may see a Laudable Example which may serve to back the Preceding Precepts as being at least to many of us here an ocular Demonstration thereof The Character And here give me leave to present you with a few hints of this worthy Saint which I have either known from her self immediately or from an impartial observation of her Life and walk And I am the rather emboldned to do this because although many others knew her much earlier and longer than I yet there were few she was pleased to condescend to be more free with in the concernments of her Soul But since my Brother who hath already preceded me on the same occasion hath besides a General Character of her given you some succinct narrative of her last Hours I shall therefore only present you further with some account of her Christian Life and Conversation that may be of further use with respect to Imitation by others as well as condusive to make her Memory further precious Her natural Temper was Retired and serious and altogether averse from crouds of Company and the hurries of the world Yet no way Morose and Sullen but Pleasant and Affable to All and becomingly Free also with her Friends And such she specially reckoned so who were truely Pious and Religious For it might justly be said of her as of David that all her delight was in the Saints whom she esteemed the excellent Ones of the Earth And such Persons she valued according to the degree of worth that she see in any without regard to the discriminating name of a Party For she was careful besides her regard for all pious and vertuous Persons duely to ponder the super added Qualifications that she see in any that might entitle them to a more particular share in her Friendship And as her Temper was naturally serious so God blessed her very early even in her childhood with true seriousness and Piety as she hath been forced oftner than once to confess with grateful Acknowledgments of Gods mercy to her on that account as well as comfortably to reflect upon the Blessing she had in being descended from eminently Religious Parents and brought up in true Christian Education A natural Modesty attended her in all her Actions even the most serious An eminent instance whereof was this that tho' she was educated in the Congregational-way very strictly yet she could never be induced as is usual with such to give any open or formal account of her Souls concerns before others and upon that account she had been wholly debarred from the most spiritual of ordinances had not God by providential acquaintance imprest that just Character of her upon the mind of the Reverend Dr. Jacomb as upon an inquiry into such things to admit of her notwithstanding this to all ordinances with intire satisfaction This I speak not with the least design to reflect on any Party or Way especially since God hath been pleased of late to cement the two sticks of Ephraim and Judah in so great a measure by an happy Vnion but I mention it only by way of Caution both to Ministers and Churches that we may see what tenderness is required in debarring poor modest Christians from what in