A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL Of the Reverend Mr. THOMAS GREY Late Vicar of Dedham in Essex PREACH'D In the Parish-Church of Dedham Febr. the 2d 1691 2. With a short Account of his LIFE By JOSEPH POWELL A. M. Rector of St. Mary on the Wall in Colchester LONDON Printed for Thomas Speed at the Three Crowns near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1692. St. LUKE CHAP. ii VER 29. Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace IT is related in the Sacred History 1 King 19.4 of the great Prophet Elijah that he was perfectly cloy'd with Life and pray'd for a dismission he went a days Journey into the Wilderness and came and sat down under a Juniper Tree and he requested for himself that he might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my Life for I am not better than my Fathers This looks like a Fit of Melancholy occasion'd by a Reflection on the unsuccessfulness of his Ministry and the rage of Jezabel against him and seems rather to be mention'd as an Instance of the Imperfections that stick to the best of Men in this Life than to be propos'd for our Imitation or to be drawn into Example by us Job 7.16 The like Account the Holy Books give us of another Man very Eminent for his Piety in the Age he liv'd in that he loath'd Life and was very desirous an end might be put to it The Objection against this Example also is that Holy Job breaks forth into this Expression in the anguish and vexation of his Spirit and that it was the mere effect of the pressure of that load of Troubles and Evils under which he labour'd Neither can this be deny'd for the Holy Man seems hereupon both to ground and to excuse his desire of Death as will be easily discern'd by any who will be at the pains to consult that Chapter of which give me leave to give you a short Paraphrase so far as concerns this his Complaint of Life and earnest desire of Death Let me ask you says he to his Friends these Questions Is not Death appointed by the Soveraign Lord of the World to every Man And does not Man spin out his short Life on Earth in trouble and toyl like an Hireling his Day And doth not such an one wearied out with the Work and Labour of the day naturally desire the approach of the Night to give him ease and refreshment And is not this my Case or rather is not my Case much worse For both day and night are alike uneasie to me you cannot but be sensible into how miserable a State I am fallen you who have seen my former Prosperity unless you have quite put off Humanity it self must pity my present Condition and which is to me a very sad Consideration you are never like to see it better for I shall enjoy no more good in this Life my Body is already over-run with Worms and I am become loathsom while I live and you cannot but be sensible how very difficult I find it to maintain my Temper of Mind in this Condition Since therefore God has assign'd Death as the End of all these Miseries can you blame me that I pray God to hasten it I know that 't is my Duty to refer my self wholly to God's wise disposal of me but assure your selves if God would give me leave to make my own choice I would much rather desire to die than to live And I cannot but look upon this desire as proceeding from Wisdom and a right Judgment of things But notwithstanding the special Circumstances attending both these Cases there seems to be something in the Requests of those great Men very agreeable to the desires of the best Men whilst under these wisest and most compos'd Thoughts and the happiest and most promising Advantages of Life A due Reflection upon the Vanity of Humane Life in its best State with a stedfast Faith of a future happy State to succeed the determination of the short Period of our days here on Earth are enough to dispose us not to be over fond of living any very long time here and with submission to the Will and Providence of God very chearfully to receive our Dismission when ever it shall be sent us We so sensibly find that there is no perfect Happiness to be met with on Earth that nothing needs to be said to confirm our Experience nor are we ignorant of the result of dying and the Rewards that befal the Righteous when once this Difficulty is overcome Happiness is the thing that all humane Nature is reaching at and who would die struglingly and with reluctancy whilst under the vigorous expectation of that great Declaration and Assurance given by our Religion Rev. 14.13 And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write from henceforth i. e. from the very time of their Deaths blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit which denotes the undoubted certainty of the thing that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them The Scriptures therefore have given us other Instances less liable to these Exceptions and which represent the desire of Death not as a rash unadvised impatient or melancholy Request but as the effect of great Piety high Attainments in Vertue and Goodness and a very lively sense of a future World disposing those who have thus rais'd themselves above this World and enlarg'd their Minds by the Principles of Religion easily to part with all things here below and to be under Wise and Pious and Devout Desires of Death and Dissolution Such is the Instance of the great Apostle who expresses his longing to be gone Phil. 1.21 and concludes peremptorily that it was much for his Advantage to die and though he was content to live this was upon no other score but his being useful and serviceable to others And he Pronounces this as the common Desire of all the Apostles and very proper to be embrac'd by all Wise and Pious Christians 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolv'd we have a building of God an house not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens For in this q. d. for this Reason we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven And to mention no more this was the Case of good old Simeon a Just and Devout Man as the Evangelist gives his Character who had liv'd in the Faith and Hope of Israel the expectation of the Messias to come and by the Account given of him seems for some time to have been waiting both for the fulfilling of this Hope and for his own Dissolution For he had receiv'd a Revelation that he should not die till the Messias should come and he see him In submission therefore to the Will of God and in expectation of this Promise he still liv'd not fond of Life but chearfully waiting for Death
what we are designed in another World Hence Christ's Kingdom is said not to be of this World hence we are directed to look upon our selves as Pilgrims and Strangers on this Earth John 13.36 Heb. 11.13 1 Pet. 2.11 Heb. 13.14 Phil. 3.20 that we are put in Mind that we have here no continuing City and are exhorted to be in the continual search after one that is to come that we are counselled to Set our Affections on things above and not on things on the earth to have our Conversation in another World That is to behave our selves as those who expect a Portion and an Interest there and if we consider a great number of the Gospel Precepts and weigh those high degrees of Vertue they oblige us to and to deny our selves in a great many Instances which are very hard and difficult and yet not altogether necessary for this World yea sometimes to hate and despise this World and to chuse the greatest Evils of Life together with those Duties of over-looking our own Advantage for the greater Benefit of others of doing Good for Evil of wasting our Spirits and laying out the Strength and Vigour of our Days in doing good to Mankind we cannot but conclude that these Rules have a respect to some future World and that they are designed to raise us up to such a Temper of Mind as may prepare us for something God has intended us for when there shall be an end of this Life of Man upon Earth Neither can we possibly have any doubt of this who believe the Christian Revelation the Promises whereof have so direct a reference to a Future State of things This Faith was the great support to the Primitive Christians under those hard Circumstances they were in Their Thoughts were six'd upon such Promises as these Revel 3.5.21 21.7 22.5 Him that overcometh will I cloath in white rayment and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life and I will confess him before my Father and he shall sit down with me in my Throne even as I have overcome and am set down with my Father in his Throne and he shall inherit all things and he shall reign with me for ever and ever Hence it was that they were such great Instances of Vertue such Bright and Shining Lights to the World such Glorious Examples of a mighty Zeal for God of an ardent Piety and Devotion of the most heroick Goodness the most enlarged Charity an exemplary Patience and a very intire Resignation of themselves to the Will of God Hence it was that they so readily parted with their Lives and so willingly chose to die to the amazement of the Heathen World who observed of them that it was the belief of a Life after this that was the Cause of all this Courage and Resolution who therefore would not sometimes suffer them to be buried but burnt their Bodies and dispersed their Ashes foolishly thinking that this would abate their Hope of a Resurrection Now if this be the great thing that the Christian Institution teaches us That this World is not our home but that we live here expectants of one to come What great reason have we to be fond of this Life Or who can blame any Man for desiring and courting Death upon these Principles What is related of Trismegistus when he died whether ever said by him or no does very well become a dying Christian expressing his future Hopes and Expectations I have hitherto lived an Exile from my Country but now I am going safely thither I am returning to that Blessed City whither we cannot pass without taking Death in our way 2. The having the Sting of Death pulled out for us Death must be allowed to be very terrible to a wicked Man for when he dieth His hope perisheth Prov. 11.7 his expectation is utterly cut off There 's an end of all that in which he has placed his Confidence the Man who has Calculated all his Projects and designs meerly for this World must needs be strangely surprized when the Message is brought him that God requires his Soul and that he must give up his Account and his Stewardship for so the Scripture calls this Life is at an end But the loss of his present Enjoyments is not all he goes out of this World in a State of Guilt and is haled to the Divine Tribunal and there Sentenced to a Punishment we know little more of than this That it is certainly a very Terrible one and probably greater than we can at present conceive it to be 'T is far otherwise with the Good Man he parts with nothing that is overvaluable to him having never engaged his Affections to what he always knew was to be left in a few days and he goes out of the World with his Sins Pardoned and delivered from the Threatnings annext to the Law and this is that pulling out the Sting of Death which we owe to the Merits and Satisfaction of our Blessed Saviour in Consideration of which a Christian may look on Death as a hurtless thing whose wounding Power is taken away as St. Paul tells us in that Triumphal Song 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 3. The Thoughts of being absolutely and perfectly freed from Sin All the Evils and Miseries of this Life put together are not half so much a Burden to a Pious Christian as the sharp Contest that is kept up within him betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit The struggle betwixt the Principles of Grace and those of a Corrupt Nature and the Advantage which the Devil and Temptations and his own Evil Inclinations not perfectly subdued often get of him through the Remainders of Sin in him These are Matters of his daily Sorrow and Repentance and Humiliation and he often Trembles for those Sins he has fallen into though long since and which yet he hopes he has truly Repented of and to his very last Breath continues to work out his Salvation with fear And though he uses all Diligence Heb 6.11 according to the Apostle's Advice to reach to the full assurance of hope unto the end yet he confiders that this is a Modest and Humble sort of Assurance which the Apostle speaks of and so very well consistent with some Fear Now Death is desirable by a sincere Christian on this Account that it sets him above all his Troubles and his Fears It puts him into a State where the Devil shall have no further Advantage against him where this struggling betwixt Grace and Nature shall perfectly cease where he shall no more dishonour God nor blemish his own Nature nor have so much as the Sins of Infirmity to lament and bewail but shall live in a perfect freedom from those Moral Evils which created so
as the End of his Troubles here on Earth and the beginning of a new and better Life and coming into the Temple at the time that Jesus was presented to the Lord according to the Custom of the Law he took the Child up in his Arms and publickly declar'd that this was the Messias so long promis'd and the Revelation of his seeing him in the Flesh being fulfill'd to him he now expresses his hearty and earnest desire to be gathered to his Fathers in the Words of my Text. Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace From which I might fairly Discourse these Two things I. That it is very becoming a Wise Man and especially a Pious Christian to be very indifferent to Life and to know when he has had enough of it yea to be weary of the World and to be very willing to have his Dismission II. That it is a very desirable thing to depart this Life in peace I shall consider only the First Particular and before I enter upon the Argument I must set these following Bounds and Limitations to it 1. This is to be understood with great deference to the Wisdom and Providence of God so as to show no impatience of Life 2. With respect to the Benefit and Advantage of others for whose sake a Wise and Good Man who is very willing to die may also be willing to live yea upon this account he may be desirous to live when otherwise and for his own sake he would make it his choice to die 3. This desire of Death is never to be divided from a firm persuasion of Mind that whatever God orders to us be it Life or Death is for that reason best and therefore it is rather to be understood as a desire that God would then take us out of this World when to his Infinite Wisdom it shall appear to be most for our and the Advantage of others who depend upon us or we have any relation to 1. This is to be understood with great deference to the Wisdom and Providence of God so as to show no impatience of Life We are in this World like Soldiers in an Army assign'd by their General to their several Posts which would be direct Disobedience proceeding from Sedition Mutiny or Cowardice to desert without leave And from what Cause soever it proceeds it is highly punishable Such a Post is humane Life which must not be abandon'd without permission and till the Providence of God discharge us We must not be so weary of Life or fond of Death as voluntarily to forsake the one and hasten the other by our own acts or any means used upon our selves This I am aware has of old been accounted a true Instance of a Roman Spirit of Magnanimity and Greatness of Mind for Men to dispatch themselves and thereby put a period to those Evils they were not able to bear Thus the brave Cato slew himself not being able to bear Caesar's Victories nor to endure to think of falling into the Conqueror's Hands Thus Paulus Aemilius replied to Perseus when he so meanly supplicated him that he might not be led in Triumph That it had been and was still in his own Power to prevent this Disgrace and that it was the true mark of a Coward to have a Remedy at hand and not to dare to use it But as such actions as these are utterly inconsistent with a steady Belief of God's Wise Government of the World and particularly with the Principles of Christianity so neither are they Instances of that Greatness of Mind they pretend to they are rather plain Evidences of Pusillanimity and Vileness of Mind in that Men cannot bear Evils as becomes Philosophers and especially Christians but are prevail'd upon basely and meanly to fly from them as St. Austin excellently argues in that noble Book of his of tho City of God where he maintains that a voluntary Death is no Argument of Greatness of Mind 2. It must be understood with respect to the Benefit and Advantage of others for whose sake a wise and good Man who is willing to die may also be willing to live yea upon this account be desirous to live when otherwise and for his own sake he would make it his choice to die That which causes other Men to desire their Lives is a good reason to themselves to desire to live at least to be so well content with this as not to be weary of Life When a Man is of more than ordinary Use and Benefit to the Common-wealth or the Church of God or in the Place where he lives or when he has a numerous Family and many young Children who are growing up as Plants for the next Age who receive a mighty Benefit by his careful Provision for them by his Instruction by his Example and by a great Diligence and Care used in their Education and when by the course of Nature he might yet have liv'd many Years In such cases it is very reasonable for others to desire the Lives of such Men Sometimes the scarcity of such Men and the circumstances of the time when their Help and Assistance is like to be in a special manner beneficial to the World renders it reasonable to be very earnest in asking of God their Lives And those are also good Reasons why they themselves should desire to live living to the benefit of others and so as to be useful in our Generations being one great End of Life and a considerable Reason why it is desirable And this was the very case of St. Paul which put him to such a struggle with himself which to desire In respect of himself it was past all dispute that Death was most desirable but in regard to those to whom his Ministry was serviceable he was content to bear Life a little longer Phil. 1.23 I am in a strait says he betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you 3. This desire of Death is never to be divided from a firm persuasion of Mind that whatever God orders to us be it Life or Death is for that Reason best And therefore is rather to be understood as a desire that God would then take us out of this World when to his Infinite Wisdom it shall appear to be most for our own and the Advantage of others who depend upon us or we have any relation to This is that great Principle which alone can carry us chearfully through this World and dispose us to submit freely not only to the variety of Changes we meet with in it but also to our great Change and neither impatiently to expect it nor yet to be startled at it when it comes In our very judgment as Epictetus speaks more to consent to that which God would have than what our own Inclinations lead us to To desire and wish just so as God doth We may mistake and so may
much uneasiness to him and so often put him in hazard in this Life 4. The Enlargement of our Faculties and Perfection of our Vertue How short Humane Knowledge is they best understand who have spent the longest Time and used the greatest Pains in improving it they who know almost nothing may perhaps esteem themselves very great Clerks If by chance they light upon a thing which every one does not know they presently have a very great Opinion of their own Understanding and like the Son of Syrach's Description of a Fool That he travelleth with a word are very big to let other Men see how very wise they are of a sudden grown whilst those who know the most things knowable in this State have very different Thoughts of themselves and though they avoid such a Scepticism as to doubt of every thing yet are they very sensible how many things there are which they know not and how far they are from perfectly understanding very Common things So also a little Pharisaick Piety makes a very fine shew and a mighty noise and bluster in the World They who are got no further than this empty Form of Godliness are highly opiniated of themselves and apt to despise all others as meer Sons of the Earth not worth regarding Whereas a truly Pious Christian is always a Humble Christian he has a very mean Opinion of himself and is very ready to entertain a good one of other Men he is sensible of the Imperfection of his Vertue and what low Degrees of it he has attained to and his greatest Comfort is grounded upon his Sincerity and that he hopes and trusts that his Heart is right towards God Now who would be fond of this Life which is so dark and so imperfect a State Who would not be willing to die that expects the enlargement of his Knowledge upon his Dissolution extending to a clear view of all the Works of God and looking into the Secrets and unfolding the Mysteries of Providence to the near Contemplation of the Divine Nature seeing God as he is and comprehending his Perfections as much as Angels do and to the Fathoming the Wonders of our Redemption by Christ Jesus things so far out of the reach of our Understandings in this World where also he shall arrive at Degrees of Vertue infinitely above what he is ever capable of coming to here And in one word shall be in all things like unto the Angels of God which are in Heaven and how happy may he conceive himself then to be who considers that he owes the chief pleasure of his present Life to the small Attainments he has been able to make in Wisdom and Goodness 5. The immediate Possession of Happiness at Death Indeed if all Pious Christians some few only excepted were to enter immediately upon Death into a Place of the most exquisite Torment differing very little from Hell saving in the infinite duration of it and there to abide none knows how long even to the Day of the Great Judgment some of them it would be very unreasonable for any Man to desire Death unless it were by Martyrdom by which he might escape this Purgatory Fire and the thought of dying would be the most dreadful one that a Man could have in his whole Life But this is a meer Fiction brought into the Church by Ignorance and Superstition and maintained for Reasons well known and has no Foundation neither in Scripture or Primitive Antiquity defended by some even of the Roman Communion only as some other Doctrines are because Decreed in Councils and so not to be let go for fear of shaking a Pretence that is not to be parted with The Scripture is in this Point very clear and express and assures us that immediately upon Death there is an admission to Bliss To day says our Saviour to the Thief on the Cross shalt thou be with me in paradise Luke 23.43 Phil. 3.23 And St. Paul mentions his being with Christ as an immediate consequence of his Departure These are so plain Proofs that to evade the force of them they must be exempt Cases and the Thief and St. Paul and some few more never went to Purgatory But this shift signifies little for the Scripture speaks of all that die in the Lord that is in the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel as being at rest which is a Jewish Idiom and imports a state of Bliss And St. Paul takes notice that living here keeps us from Christ and therefore assigns this as a Reason why we should be willing and desirous to leave this World that we might go to Christ 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are therefore confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 6. The completion of this Happiness in Body and Soul at the General Judgment Though good Men are admitted to immediate Happiness at Death yet not to a full Participation of it or to all that Happiness God has designed them by way of Reward This is reserved for that Great Day so often made mention of in the Holy Books when Christ Matth. 25.31 to whom the Judgment of the World is committed shall come in the Glory of his Father in Triumph and with great Splendor attended with an innumerable Host of Angels Acts 1.11 1 Thess 4.16 to render to every Man according to his Works Then shall those who sleep in the Dust awake and the Dead shall be called out of their Graves by the Voice of the Son of Man and the Sound of the last Trump These Bodies of ours shall then be raised up from Mortality and Corruption to an Immortal and Incorruptible State A wonderful thing to be effected by that Power alone which first made all things out of nothing A Truth knowable only by Revelation and received by Faith and being united to their proper Souls together with them who shall then be found alive and remaining on the Earth we shall be caught up in the Clouds 1 Thess 4.17 to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is that great Day the Apostle speaks of 2 Tim. 4.8 when Crowns shall be put upon the Heads of all the Faithful even all those who love his appearing This is the Day when the whole World shall have its last Period and Consummation when Death it self shall be Eternally destroyed and God's Kingdom shall be set up over all Revel 20.14 and his Saints shall Reign with him for ever and ever And these I take to be good Reasons for every Pious Christian to be indifferent to Life and very willing with submission to God's Wisdom in Disposing of him to have his Dismission Now the Use of this Doctrine is 1. To endeavour to reduce it to Practice I mean to carry our selves with all that indifferency towards this World and Life