Luk. 15.29 When he was asking of him that he would send one from the Dead to his five Brethren upon the Earth who were in hazard of coming to the same Place of Torment They have Moses and the Prophets said he let them hear them But replyed the rich Glutton if one went unto them from the Dead they will repent To which again was made that most Righteous Return If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they he perswaded though one rose from the Dead So that nothing from without us is like to make Men Serious All the Funeral Parads on Earth all the Paleness that sits upon the Faces of our dead Friends and all the Solitude it leaves upon their Families serve but a little to amuse the Minds of Natural Men and e're we are aware the Impressions are gone But a right and Habitual Seriousness is the Effect of a great deal more Recollection than the Generality of Men alloweth themselves and of a great deal more Application to Almighty God than is ordinarly found with them Thence indeed comes the Work of God upon the Heart And except you think you cannot learn except you ask you cannot receive Except you seek you cannot find Except you knock it cannot be opened to you And were I able to awaken you out of your Securities and quicken your Meditations and set you forward in your Applications to Almighty God by suggesting to you any such Rouzing Considerations as this Subject may afford us I have my End and you have yours I hope in coming to this Audience There be therefore these two Serious Thoughts I would have you to weigh with me in order to this End and as arising genuinely enough from this important Subject I. Death maketh a total and final Separation betwixt us and all our Temporal Enjoyments as First From all the Stations in which we are placed Indeed by the way it is by different Stations and due Subordinations that the Societies in Heaven and Earth are governed And if any pretend by another Method to subsist it is Heteroclite and Singular and must necessarly terminat in the deepest Confusions But let us reflect all the Beauty of Order and all the Measures of a true and Temporal Felicity upon these Stations of Men and the Peaceful Effects of them throughout the World Yet as to the Men themselves it is perhaps fit enough to tell them at least to bring them to Remembrance at all Occasions of this Nature that they must drop from their Benches and as the Holy Psalmist speaking of the Highest of them Psal lxxxii v. 6 7. I have said Ye are Gods And all of you the Sons of the most High but ye shall die like Men and fall like one of the Princes And since it is so behave your selves as these that live in a continual Prospect of Death and not as such who have nothing but Worldly Projects before their Eyes Pray do not either desire these Stations while you have them not nor cajol your selves in them while you have them merely upon these following Heads with Worldly and Carnal Men as 1. To Deck your selves with Plumes of Glory to be admired of your Fellow Creatures Thus do the Vain affect the Heights of the World and whom in this place I shall only call to Mind of that Advertisement of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Matth. vi v. 2. Given with Respect unto the right Distribution of Charity When thou doest thine Alms do not sound a Trumpet before thee as the Hypocrites do in the Synagogues and in the Streets that they may have Glory of Men. Verily I say unto you they have their Reward And no other indeed can I promise them in another World But upon the contrary when they are by Death which hasteth upon them stript of all their Plumes of Glory and covered with the Beggers Mantle of common Grass they shall be brought to the Blush before the Throne of God where they have nothing to cover the Vileness and Nakedness of their Crimes and Faults and from thence to the lowest and loathsomest Pit of Miseries Neither 2. Use these your Stations Majori fastu incedere to step with a loftier paw or to exercise an higher hand over the same thy fellow Creatures For so do the Proud affect their Stations But remember Thou must ly by the side of him whom sometime thou thought unworthy to stand before thee And therefore Walk softly and Speak with an humble Voice and remember the Regions of endless Darkness and the Place of remediless Torments for the Vain and the Proud are there And 3. Use not your Stations to this purpose to act Revenge upon thine Enemy by so doing thou may prompt Revenge in him to thine own Dishonour if he chance to Survive thee to set his Foot with Indignation upon thy Breast while thou lyest upon thy Back in the Dust and so may bring him with thy self into the very same place of Torment Nor Use your Stations for no other end than to enhaunse a Naboth's Vineyard or a poor Man's Ewe-lamb Thy Possessions shall not avail thee when for an inch of the Earth thou finds thou hast lost a spann of Heaven even all the Regions of Blessedness Nor shall thy Pleasures relish with thee in the midst of these Flames thy Lusts have kindled upon thee Remember how narrow thy Lodgings are in the Grave and how scant thy Provisions are among the Damned This is the first serious Thought I have offered thee That Death shall make a total and final Separation betwixt us and all our temporal Enjoyments As from all the Stations in which we are placed so II. From all the Natural Endowments in Body or Mind with which we are blessed I speak of these as they consist in conjunction with one another in this perishing and imperfect Life For after Death the Souls of the Blessed shall be infinitely better endued when brought nearer unto God and in fellowship with the Spirits of just Men made perfect Here we see but in part and know but in part but but there we shall see as we are seen and know as we are known So after the Resurrection our Bodies shall have infinitely more perfect powers 1 Cor. xv 42. Sowen in Corruption raised in Incorruption Sowen in Weakness raised in Power Sowen a Natural raised a Spiritual body Only here as the powers of the body and faculty of the Soul exist in Conjunction with one another in this perishing and imperfect state at least in so far as they ad upon temporal beeings and objects they are quite broken of and cut short for which reason in like manner as I have already said we are to take special care not to use them to unrighteous ends In the body is it strength Use it not to Oppress but to rescue and defend the Weak as Moses would have done Exod. ii 13. betwixt the two contending Israelites Because Solomon's evil days haste upon thee Eccles xii
3. When the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong Men shall bow themselves Is it Nimbleness and Agility Use it not to be swift to shed innocent blood to execute evil offices with wicked Men but to be quick in the measures of thy duty to God thy Neighbour and thy Self I will run the way of thy Commandments satih the Psalmist when thou hast enlarged my Heart Because the same evil days come when the Almond Tree shall flourish and the Grashopper shall become a burden And in the withered stalk of Old Age thy joynts shall deny their Offices Is it Beauty Use not this as a snare to thy own or thy neighbours Soul to become a Trap in the hand of the unclean Spirit but further to set off the virtues of the mind as an Emerauld in pure Gold or as Solomon terms Words fitly spoken Prov. xxv 11. As Aples of Gold in Pictures of Silver Because these evil days also come upon thee when these that look out at the Windows wax dim The most sparkling Eyes shall become Dull and Lifeless They shall move no more in the Head or entice into the works of Darkness but in a little their Imperial Seat shall become the Windows of a Lizard or a loathsom Toad Such is the End and Exit that all the powers of the Body do make at Death and in the house of the Grave So likeways it is with all the natural endowments of the Mind as existing in Conjunction with the Body as I have already said and as acting upon temporal Beeings and Objects Profound searches and nimble Wit and Facetious Humour and all evanish Psal cxlvi v. 4. When his Breath goeth out and he returneth to his Dust in that very day his thoughts perish So III. It is with all the great Acts and Conquests of a Mans Life We have heard of the House which Solomon built 1 King 10. v. 4 5. And of the Ascent by which he went up to the House of God admired by the Southern Queen for the Temple it was ordered by a Greater Architect We have heard of the great Babel which Nebuchadnezzar built and of the Tower and Cities of Nimrod Of the Conquests of Alexander and of the great Atchievements of all both Roman Emperors and Hero's And whatever may be the fullest Extent of Mens Acquests or the most beautiful Ornaments of their Habitations from all these doth Death make a total and final Separation even from all the Enjoyments of this Life And which is yet of far greater Importance The Second Serious Thought which I offer to you That they are concluded under an Irreversible State and Condition of Felicity or Misery in another World As the Tree fallcth so it lyeth and as Death leaveth so Judgment findeth This is the Import of all that Doctrine which our Blessed Lord Saviour delivered when he was in the World and of all these Parables by which he represented the State of another Life As in that of the Sheep and the Goats Mat. 25. How plain are the Words And he said to these upon his Right Hand Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Again to those upon the left Hand Depart from Me ye Cursed into Everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And in the Conclusion of all and these went into Everlast Punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal So in that Parable of Dives and Lazarus Luk 15. There is made mention of a great Gulf betwixt the two and declared to be Impassible so that the one cannot come to the other Pray for what is all this but to tell us of an Irreversible State as of Bless and Glory to the One so of Misery and Sorrow to the Other and that without End or Period And as this was the Doctrine of the Blessed Jesus so of all his Servants the Apostles in their time and under the Trust put into their Hands Rom 2.6 Who will render to every Man according to his Works and so forward in the 7 8 9 10 Verses To them who by patient Continuance in Well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life But unto them that are Contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey Unrighteousness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth Evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But Glory Honour and Peace c. And now if it be so whence hath arisen the new Doctrine of some of our late Discanters upon the State of another Life who quite Annihilat the Punishments of the Wicked to the great Encouragement and Increase of Atheism and Irreligion Nay though there were no revealed Religion owned amongst Men as these New and Dark Tapers would have it who take the Boldness to set themselves in the Light of the Sun which is a Supposition so contrary to all the Motives of Credibility the History of our Saviours Life Death Resurrection and Doctrine doth give us the plain Analogy and Proportion betwixt Him and all the Types and Prophecies which have been concerning him throwout the whole Jewish Dispensation the Confession of Enemies both Jews and Heathens and the Acknowledgment of Devils themselves That a Man may alsewel deny every thing that he hath not seen though never so convincingly instructed Which were a Practice so absurd that the whole Learned World should run to his Condemnation Far less ground of Certainty do Men acquiesce in and rest upon in other Matters which concern not Religion No Body denies a Hector and an Achilles a Pompey and an Alexander And it is much they deny not a Julius Caesar because an Augustus is made mention of in the New Testament But I say supposing all this only absit Blasphemia yet if we own the Beeing of a God which none amongst all the new sprung spawn of Deists or Demi-Atheists hath yet denied then we must own Him among all the rest of His excellent Attributes to be purely Just and Righteous But how shall He be so if He have not reserved Rewards and Punishments for another Life while in this we see prosperous Villany set before our Eyes throughout all the Ages of the World and the most excellent Virtues groaning under the heaviest Oppressions So that we may easily stumble upon the stumbling Block of the holy Prophet Ps 73. passim throughout the same I was envious at the Foolish when I saw the Prosperity of the Wicked They have no Bands in their Death neither are they in trouble as other Men. And further is he led unto the very brink of Atheism In vain have I cleansed my Heart and washed my hands in Iunocency for I am Plagued and Chastned every Morning But immediately he pulls in the Roynes amd gives himself the Check from the 15. Vers and downward When I sought to know this it was too Painful for me Until I went into the Sanctuary of God
then understood I their end And so furth But in the 24 Vers Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterward receive me to Glory And in the 27 Vers Lo they that are far from Thee shall Parish They that is All they An Indefinite being equivalent to an Universal And since not all of them Perish but some of them Prosper in this Life we must necessarly conclude that Punishments are reserved for them in an other Except you say in the next place with the fore-mentioned Deists and Disciples of Epicurus that Almighty God exerciseth no Providence nor regardeth what is done upon the Earth If so what account shall we make of the Misgivings of the best laid Designs and Projects amongst Men and the success of those things that having less Counsel and Contrivance in them pass commonly under the Name of Accidents What Accounts can we make of many Instances in Prophane History If these disingenuous Creatures will not admit Sacred History to the benefit of Common Credit and Repute least they read their own Condemnation in the midst of it What Account can we make of the disappointment of Brennus and the Gauls in their designed surprize of the Capitol of Rome by the keckling of the Geese in Juno's Temple What Account can we make of Sardanapalus his burning himself with his own Women in a Pile of Wood who loved so much to live in the Flames of his Lusts What Account shall we make of St. Augustin his Digression which he thought not of in a Sermon against the Manichees by which Firmus a Manichee was happily Converted What shall we make at another time of his mistaking his Way by which he escaped the bloody Hands of the Donatists who lay in wait for him Or if they will carry any regatd only to the History of the Old Testiment so anciently and closly asserted by the then Learned and most Celebrated Nation of the Jews and so firmly adhered to till this very Day And what a Providence do you think was the saving of Moses in the Ark of Bulrushes Exod. ii And what a Providence that Pharaoh's Daughter should own and inhaunse him and what a Providence that his Mother was allowed to Nurse him and what a Providence that he should refuse when he came to riper Years to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter that he might step up to a far more Glorious Trust thorow a Thicket of interwoven Dangers and Contradictions to be the Deliverer of the People of God What a Providence was it that Joseph was sold into Egypt and by the way of a Prison was sent to Pharaoh's Court for the safety of these very Brethren that sold him Nay what a Providence that David escaped out of the City of Keilah where he thought himself so secure when afterwards he was made to understand the Keilits would certainly have delivered him up Or if these be interpreted Accidents still and this be all the account that can be made of the singular Providences which every considering Person is able to find out in the Tract of his own Life Let us again mind these Atheâ—sts in Masquerad of the essential and inseparable Attributs of that God whom they still own in His Beeing If that God be Omniscient and infinitely Wise which they must agree to He must needs see all the wicked Actions of ungodly Men. And then if He be alse Just as He is Wise He must alse necessarly Punish them or then acquiesce in a very great Disorder in the Oeconomy of that World which He made But not to trouble the World more with that Sect of Men let us only bid them reflect upon the Quiet of their own Minds when they do that which is Good And the Resentments of a natural Conscience upon perpetrated Wickedness And remember who said Hic murus abeneus esto Nil conscire sibi And again Integer vitae scelerisque purus Non eget Mauri jaculis nec arcu c. Horat But if otherways Cur hos Evasisse putes quos diri conscia facti Mens habet attonitos c. Inven Nay these bitter Resentments of a Natural Conscience are but the Fore-runers of that Worme that never dieth in the Regions of the Damned And indeed as we have already said they pass into an irreversible and Irremediless State of Misery And if so In the next place To what purpose are all the Soul Masses that are offered up in the Church of Rome for such as pass into the State of the Dead to shorten or totally to remove their Sorrows And that according to the offerings of Charity that are made for them at least Sums of Money which are cast into the Treasury of the Church If our Saviour had meaned any such State of Life from which Redemption could have been so Purchased how should Dives have been concluded under this irreversible Condition while he lest such vast Substance behind him which might have been happily employed to so good purpose But Abraham insinuats no such thing in his Answers to Dives in the fore-cited Parable And now Christians if these things be True as I think there is enough said to evince the Truth of them That Death makes a total and sinal Separation betwixt us and all the Enjoyments of this World and concludes us under an irreversible State and Condition in an other Life How serious ought we to be improving the Advertisement my Text gives us It is the Custom of Children only to throw away Pearls for Peeble-stones and real Gold for the more glistering Counterfeit but Wise Men part with the lesser always for the greater Advantages And what Comparison is there betwixt Time and Eternity betwixt the pleasures of Sin that last but for a Season and the never ending Joyes Felicities of another Life Nay betwixt the Lusts and Passions that really toss Men amidst the Diseases they bring upon their Bodies and the resentments they break up in their Minds and Spirits and these equal and continual Satisfactions of the Blessed in the presence of God and the Societies of just Men made Perfect And to this blessed State and Conditions we are hopeful â—ur truely Great our truely Noble our truely Virtuous Friend is gone Whose Dust lyeth now before us to be returned to that Dust of the Earth out of which it was taken Not do I say this out of any Complement to His Friends and Memory but from very considerable Evidences and Grounds of Charity And therefore shall presume to set before you for your Christian Imitation some of these excellent Virtues which did most luculently shine forth in his Lise And by which there was a considerable Obedience given to some of the most important of the Gospel Precepts And this I take to be the chief Design of Funeral Discourses upon our dead Friends to make their Light so shine before Men that others seing their Good Works at least hearing of them may Glorify their Father which is in Heaven We find