and in that upon the flesh and Blood of Christ They differ in their Apparel Saints put on the Lord Jesus his righteousness as imputed and his grace and holiness as imparted to them but the wicked are clothed only with the defiled and defective rags of their own righteousness and the deformities of the old man and corruption 2. When the Israelites departed from Egypt their Exodus or departure was e terra afflictionis as 't is call'd Gen. 41.52 from a troublesome and afflicting Country therefore Scripture frequently speaks concerning their afflictions in Egypt Exod. 3.7 their being bond-men in Egypt Deut. 6.21 concerning the murther of their Infants in Egypt concerning their iron furnace in Egypt Dent. 4.20 called an iron-furnace because much imployment of the Israelites was spent in the melting and mollifying of iron which doubtless was the sorest and hottest work and a little before they went away their bricks were doubled their burthens were increased in one word the Egyptian cruelties were extended to the very highest pitch of extremity And when the people of God go out of the world is not their Exodus their departure from an Egypt too in this regard It is a troublesome hating persecuting world that they depart from Mundus turbatur amatur the world is troubled and troublesome saith Austin yet too much lov'd and God makes the place of our distance from heaven an house of bondage and trouble lest we should make it the place of our delight 'T is better for Gods Israel that Egypt should be a house of bondage than hospitality and God will have his people afflicted in it that they may not be infected with it and say it is good for us to be here When the people of Israel were coming into Egypt how kindly did Pharaoh entertain them how welcome were they to the Egyptians but when they went out from thence how were they persecuted When the people of God are looking towards the world and seeming to comply with it then they shall be respected but when they will leave it in their deportment and practice then they are hated 'T is good that Egyptians should hate Israel that they may not hurt them When the world is most kind 't is most corrupting and when it smiles most it seduceth most Were it not for the bondage of Egypt we should too much delight in the Idols and Onyons of Egypt 3. When the Israelites departed out of Egypt they departed e terra proâ—â—ana out of a wicked idolatrous sinful Country therefore you so often read concerning the idols of the Egyptians the gods of the Egyptians Jer. 43.12 Jer. 46.25 and particularly you have mention made Josh 24.14 concerning the people of Israel their serving the gods of the Egyptians which doubtless they did too frequently when they were amongst them so you read concerning the whoredoms of Egypt Ezek. 23.8 And is not this as the world that we are leaving the Egppt from which we are departing when we are dying The whole world says the Apostle lies in wickedness like a Swine in the midst of the mire wallowing and tumbling immersed in all kind of lewdness and profaneness and it is called therefore this present evil World Gal. 1.4 And the truth is the people of God while here they abide are too ready in this Egypt to learn the Language and imitate the sinful practises of Egypt Water though never so pure running through a Brimstony or Allomy Myne will have something of the savour tang and tast of it And the people of God as frequently we see and should sadly observe although they are holy purified and cleansed yet running through the Myne of a sinful profane World have too great a tang and savour of its Impiety I doubt not but the people of Israel learned their Idolatry of worshipping the golden Calf of the Egyptians who worshipped such Idols Thus you see from whence the Exodus or departure of the Israelites was it was from Egypt that carries too great a resemblance to the World which the Saints leave when they die 2dly What was the way of the Israelites departing out of Egypt It was through a red-Sea a kind of living-death in appearance or sepulcher wherein they expected every moment to be swallowed up Pharaoh also pursuing of them And the people of God must pass to life sometimes through a red-Sea of Persecution and Bloud as this great Apostle Peter did according to the prediction that he had from Jesus Joh. 21.18 but always they must pass to life through death there is no going any other way till the fetters of the body be knockt off the Soul cannot get up to God Death must be the threshold of Life we must be absent from the body before we can be present with the Lord. This is as the way of sins merit so of Gods method He writes death upon all things and persons before he enlivens and raiseth them Nor is the passage of the Saints through the red-Sea of Death without a pursuing Pharaoh the Devil with his Army of Tentations who will ever disturb where he cannot destroy and pursue though he cannot prevail But blessed be Christ who not only disappoints but destroys the destroyer 3dly To what Countrey did they design to go when they departed out of Egypt 'T was to the Land of Canaan thither they were tending and marching And so likewise do the People of God when they leave this Egypt they go to a better Land of Canaan than that which is earthly a Heavenly Countrey an heavenly Canaan though shadowed out and typified by the earthly I shall open it to you in three particulars 1. The Land of Canaan was Terra Promissa it was a Promised Land therefore Neh. 9.15 it is there called the Land which God both promised and sware to give the Israelites Their only Title to it was by Promise God ow'd it to them no further than he had promised it to them And the heavenly Canaan to which the dying Saints do go is also a Land of Promise 1 John 2.25 This is the promise that he hath promised Eternal life A Promise is a middle thing between Purpose and Performance first there is the Purpose of God to save his People his eternal Decree then he promises it in the Gospel then performs it after Death and so great is the Love of God to a true Israelite an Israelite indeed that he will not stay till the day of performance comes but shews his Love in promising before the time of performance And hence you read of the promise of eternal Life 2 Tim. 1.1 Heb. 9.15 the promise of the eternal Inheritance and the Saints called the heirs of Promise and hereby God both honours his own faithfulness in his peoples trusting him for Heaven and tries his Saints sincerity who embrace Gods Promises before the Worlds Performances and the Riches of the people of God on this side Heaven lies in this great Promise of Heaven A Saint that
EXODUS OR The DECEASE of Holy Men and MINISTERS Consider'd in The Nature Certainty Causes and Improvement thereof A SERMON Preach't Sept. 12. 1675. By occasion of the much lamented Death of that Learned and Reverend Minister of Christ Dr. LAZARVS SEAMAN Late Pastor of Alhallows-Bread-street London By WILLIAM JENKYN late Minister of the Gospel at Christ-Church London LONDON Printed for Edward Brewster and William Cooper at the Crane in St. Pauls-Church-Yard and at the Pellican in Little-Brittain 1675. EXODVS OR The Decease of Holy Men and Ministers considered c. THat single dissuasive from this my undertaking the Insufficiency I mean of my dwarfish endeavours to reach the height of Doctor Seamans Worth and so to add any honour to his venerable memory was easily overcome by a double inducement to this present Performance First the dying desire to me the command of my dear and deceased Friend Next the importunity of his afflicted and affectionate Flock for my performing of this last respect which so deservedly I owe to their late Learned and Reverend Pastor If the Angels lately carried him as they carried Lazarus from all his sores and sorrows into the bosom of a sweet and quiet repose how can you or I deny a short endeavour severally to bear our parts in bearing up his memory who had not only the attendance of Angels when he dyed but the title of an Angel while he lived conjoin'd with those not titular but real yea raised endowments which the tongue of an Angel is much fitter than mine to set forth in their due and genuine perfection But as I never did so now I much less do delight in Preface or Apology perceiving that probably I may thereby raise your sorrow to that excess which may hinder your attendance upon a more useful Subject which you may find presented to you in the 2d Epistle of Peter ch 1. ver 15. in these words Moreover I will endeavour that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance DIvine Exhortations and holy Instructions propounded to us are in Eccles 12.11 said to be as Nails but such is the hardness of our hearts that as Nails for their more easie entrance and piercing are often dipt in oyl and after always driven with many knocks and strokes and blows so holy Exhortations must be dipt in the sweetning and suppl'ing love of the Exhorter and set home besides by strong and forcible reasons and arguments to make them prevalent and penetrative This blessed Apostle Peter giving to those Christians to whom he wrote that great Exhortation of progressiveness and proficiency in holiness plainly observ'd this way of Exhortation First he dips the Nail of Exhortation in the oyl of love and sweetness v. 12. Telling those Christians to whom he wrote that he granted they were knowing persons and that they were established in the present Truth he yields that they were already both informati confirmati as Gerard speaks informed and confirmed in the truth acknowledging what they had that so they may the better admit what they needed hereby he yet insinuates that though they knew the truth yet their memories needed refreshment though they were establish'd yet by reason of their inward corruptions and outward temptations they might want further Confirmation In a word the Apostle to win acceptance to this Exhortation tells them in effect That he doth not lay the first Colours but only refreshes and washes them over again Secondly As the Apostle dips the Nail in the oil of love so he strikes it home with the blows of forcible arguments and perswasions and the first argument is laid down in ver 12 in the word wherefore Wherefore says he I will put you in remembrance But wherefore was that wherefore put down The force of it lies thus Because by your progressiveness in Grace proficiency in Holiness there will be a more abundant Entrance made for you into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ As if he had said If you have but a little grace though you may get into Heaven yet it will be more difficultly and creepingly but if you go with a full measure of Grace with proficiency in Holiness by adding one degree of grace unto another then there shall be an abundant entrance made for you into the Kingdom of Christ As when a mean and ordinary person comes to your Houses 't is enough to open the Common-wicket or the lesser-door for his admission but if there come some Prince or great Person to visit you then you set open the great Gates for his Entrance then you make an abundant Entrance for him So here if you will be great in Grace eminent in Holiness high proficients in Obedience then there shall be abundant entrance made for you into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Then says the Apostle you shall go into Heaven with more assurance of the Love of God with the more confidence and courage then you shall go even with joy unto Eternal Joy The second Motive is the meetness and fitness of him to give them this Exhortation to progressiveness and proficiency in Holiness and that is in ver 13 I judged it meet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in regard of my Office of my Place being a Minister an Apostle It was not enough for this blessed man to have the title of an Apostle unless he did by a correspondent-carriage answer that Title by endeavouring the welfare of his people The third argument is taken from the opportunity that still he had to exhort them laid down ver 13 I am yet says he in the body in my tabernacle I have not yet put it off and therefore I must take my present opportunity and because yet I have time I will make use of it Fourthly The next argument to quicken them to proficiency in Holiness is from the nearness of his Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 laying off of my tabernacle is near q. d. therefore I will bless you before I die the less our time the faster must be our working short seasons require quick services the smaller quantity of paper we have to write in the closer must be our writing And the Apostle confirms the nearness of his death from the declaration of Christ himself that you have in John 21.18 When thou shalt be old says Christ another shall gird thee meaning he should die a violent death by Crucifixion and because Christ shew'd him that this should be when he was old Peter finding himself now in years could not but judg this prediction would shortly be fulfilled The fifth and last argument is in the words of my Text laid down in ver 15 Moreover I will endeavour that after my decease you may have these things always in remembrance and the argument intended in these words to set home the Exhortation is his desire to benefit their Souls after his death After my decease In the whole Verse we may most clearly
hath a Promise of Heaven is richer than he is that hath all the Performances of the World 2dly The Land of Canaan to which the people of Israel went was Terra Sancta it was the Holy Land and therefore it is called Gods holy habitation Exod. 15.12 and Hierusalem the beauty of the land of Canaan the type of Heaven is called the holy City Matt. 4.5 And therefore was Canaan an holy place because that Land God had separated from all Lands to afford the visible tokens of his gracious presence in it and to it and to settle his Worship and Sanctuary in it for Communion with himself and to have the Israelites that inhabited it a peculiar people and set a-part for his own Honour and Service But much more may the Heavenly Canaan to which the Saints go when dying be called a Terra Sancta a Holy Land 'T is separated and set a-part for the glory of a holy God for holy performances holy persons The God of Heaven is Holy Holy Holy All that live with him there are holy only holy Ones enter there Holy Angels Souls of just men made perfectly holy Nothing defiled or defiling can there be admitted no sin no Sinner no more of unholiness is there than of unhappiness sorrow and sin came and shall go together There as all tears shall be wiped away from the eyes so all sin perfectly washt away from the Soul there shall neither be sin in the Soul nor Sinner in the Company as compleat an Holiness as God will and we can desire 3. The Land of Canaan was terra desiderii so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psalm 106.24 a pleasant delightful Land described to be a Land of milk and honey and to have an affluence of all things desirable to sense as Corn Wine Balm Oil Fountains Pastures But what a faint resemblance do all these carry to the pleasures of the Heavenly Canaan Here are the true full and everlasting pleasures fulness of joy pleasures for evermore Eternal satisfaction without any satiety and glutting An Eternal fulness and yet an eternal freshness of delights All comforts are centred in God All sweetness and delights meet in him In him there 's infinitely more than the Soul can want or wish and he is in heaven perfectly enjoyed even to the utmost extent of the Souls capacity but yet the Oyl will be infinitely more plentiful than the Vessels are capacious which cannot hold all that oyl of joy that God can give out of himself The people of God in Heaven are said to enter into their Masters joy for their joy cannot fully enter into them there In Heaven there 's that we call enough a thing never to be had in this world there is in that Life mors desiderii the death of desire and perfect joy is nothing but the cessation of all our wishes Vse The Application of all this shall only be to counsel you To labour that your departure out of this world may be an happy Exodus or departure as a going from the Land of Egypt to a happy an heavenly Canaan And for the making this Counsel the more effectual I 'le present it to you in these four branches 1. Be sure you be Israelites otherwise there is no entring into Canaan when you depart hence Canaan was a Land of Promise but promised only to Israel and for your entrance into the heavenly Canaan there is no promise unless you be Israelites Nor is it enough for you to be carnal Israelites I mean only such in regard of outward priviledges and enjoyment of outward Ordinances Outward priviledges put lust to no pain The most eminent for priviledges are oft under the prevalency of corruptions But you must be as Christ speaks of Nathaneel truly and indeed Israelites Otherwise Publicans and Harlots enter into Heaven before a meerly nominal Israelite How woful is that Hell into which men fall by presuming of Heaven The Valley of Vision hath the heaviest burden The deeper a ship is laden even with Gold the deeper she sinks God is most dishonour'd by the sins of visible Professours by these the power of Godliness is oft most bitterly opposed He that was born after the flesh was the greatest persecutor of him that was born after the spirit The priviledges of grace without the grace of the priviledg give no admission into Glory True holiness only is the way to true happiness No grace but tried grace enters into Heaven Many of the children of the Kingdom shall be shut out of the Kingdom He is not an Israelite who is one outwardly but he is an Israelite who is one inwardly Rom. 2.28 The children of the flesh are not the children of God Rom. 9.8 Luk. 16.25 I read of a Son of Abraham in Hell The children of Israel have oft been the children of the Devil No promise of salvation is made more to the Member of a visible Church unless he have a changed heart than to an Heathen 2dly Take heed of turning in your hearts back again into Egypt many that went out of Egypt did not go into Canaan the Holy Ghost tells us how forward they were to return back into Egypt Numb 14.3 4. Turn not from your professions imbrace not the present world take heed of being backsliders better you had never gone out of Egypt than to turn back again into it You must hold it out unto the death if you would have a Crown of life it is not he that sets out first but he that holds out last that shall be crowned 3dly Take heed of unbelief distrust not the promises that God hath made of entring into his rest Unbelief was the killing mother murthering sin of the Israelites they could not enter in Heb. 3.15 because of unbelief no difficulties in the way give a dispensation to distrust the promise of bestowing the happiness of the end Unbelief is the sin that of all other discredits God rejects mercy offered hinders from Salvation puts a necessity of destruction upon you other sins make us obnoxious unto death but Unbelief makes us opposite unto life 4thly Think not of entring into Canaan without your Joshua your Jesus there is no getting to the heavenly Canaan but by him He must be improved in these two regards 1. As your Conquerour one that is to conquer all the enemies you are to meet withall in your entrance into Canaan he only can overcome Death Devil Guilt it is he who by death overcomes him that hath the power of death he overcomes him by price in satisfying the Justice of God by force in the destroying of his works by his Spirit in the Souls of his Saints And 2dly You must improve Jesus not only as your Conquerour but also as your Leader to follow him they followed Joshua into Canaan Jesus must be our Captain as well as Conquerour Follow him as your Example If he be not your Pattern he never procures your Pardon You must follow him in the way unto
Canaan if you expect to follow him into the blessedness of Canaan You must go as he did if whither he did in the way of holy walking yea in the way of suffering if he will call you to follow him through mud and bloud take up your Cross and follow him you must suffer with him if you would be glorified with him Thus I have gone briefly over the first thing considerable in the time when Peter endeavoured that they should remember his holy instructions We have considered this time first as giving a Title unto Death it is here called a Decease an Exodus 2dly We must consider it as discovering the lot of Peter an eminent Apostle an excellent Servant of Jesus in the Ministry and yet here he tells you of his decease The Observation shall be by way of question in allusion to the words of Stephen Acts 7.52 Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted My Doctrinal Question shall be this Which of the Prophets hath not death removed Prophets ordinary or extraordinary Prophets before and Prophets since Christ all slain by Death they are deceased says the Apostle after my decease But why is it thus Next to the will of God and the irrevocable statute of dying Take this fourfold account of the death of the Prophets 1. Consider them as Men. 2. As holy men 3. As sinful men 4. As Ministers of Jesus Christ as Prophets And upon all these accounts they must have their decease 1. As men they are liable to a decease their bodies are flesh and bloud we walk after the flesh saith Paul that is as to the outward-man and state of frailty mortality 2 Cor. 10.3 Even they as well as you must mend their Cottages of Mortality once a day at least to keep them wind-tight and water-tight to preserve them from an untimely dissolution these Lamps cannot burn and shine without your Oil they are earthen vessels as the Apostle calls them Peter here twice calls his body a tabernacle and that shortly to be laid off the word of Life is in the Mouths of your Prophets but the Characters of Death are on their foreheads Isidore of Pelusium his expression is very apt to this purpose Our dissolution saith he doth as it were run an equal pace with our framing or making in the womb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assoon as you light a Candle it is melting and declining Post genesin sequitur exodus Every man as born is a dying man even Adam in his innocency though he had a posse non mori a power not to die yet he had not a non posse mori in regard of the originals of his body and its matter he had a remote power of dying he had the principia resolutionis principles of dissolution though in regard of his excellent Constitution and original Righteousness but especially the ordination and Providence of God he was in innocency immortal but in our fallen-state as men born living we are mortal death is natural and necessary We must die not because we are sick but because we live morieris non quia aegrotas sed quia vivis 2. As they are holy men Prophets must die 1. They must be made perfectly holy and they long to be so but on this side the grave they cannot be so they have indeed the first-fruits of the spirit but yet the reliques of sin primitias spiritus reliquias vetustatis here they strive against sin and yet do but imperfectly conquer it in Heaven they are neither conquered by sin nor have they the company of sin therefore because they are holy men that they may be perfectly so and have the full crop after the first fruits they must die 2dly Because they are holy men therefore they must see God God will not always be without their company the least grace is too good to go to hell and to stay always upon earth Enoch walked with God and was translated of all the Patriarchs before the Flood he lived the best and the least holy Prophets must die that they may go to the perfect fruition of God 3. They must dye because they are sinful men Our Apostle Peter that here foretells his decease not more humbly than truly call'd himself a sinful man Depart from me O Lord I am a sinful man Sin makes all subject to the stroke though not to the sting of death God hates sin wheresoever he sees it Christ must dye if sin be but imputed and all must dye if sin be inherent Though death be not unto the Saints a curse for sin yet it is a consequent of sin and blessed be God that it shall be the cure of sin 4. They must dye because they are Prophets Ministers of Christ 1. God oft takes away Prophets and Ministers they have their decease to punish the unprofitableness and unthankfulness of their people that never knew how to prize and value them in the time of their enjoying them God puts out these lights because you play the wantons with them If you will be playing when you should be working by the light God sometimes righteously takes away the Candle and lets you go to bed in the dark without an enlightning Minister 2. As they are Prophets they must dye because they are oft as Prophets persecuted to death A godly Minister is set in the Forlorn Hope of the Army of Christs Saints wicked men oftentimes shorten their lives and would not willingly let these lights burn to the socket but would gladly blow them out before they are burnt out Though blessed be God we cannot say with Lorinus the Jesuit upon the Text who writes concerning the Popes That in all their successions from Peter to the year 1625 though he doth most falsely date the succession of the Popes from Peter there never yet was one Pope that lived twenty-four years and truly he may well say so many of them having hastned their deaths with poisons others with their Murders Sodomy Incest and other notorious Villanies not to be named by a Minister of Christ in the Pulpit Though blessed be God I say we cannot say that none of our Ministers have arrived to the age of 24 years in their Ministry yet we must say their Lives are commonly shorter than those of others even in regard of that Antichristian fury principally bent against them the edg whereof hath frequently cut the thread of their Lives Persecutors have made faithful Ministers the very Butts of their shot of Opposition The Thief hates and strikes at the Candle more than any thing The Wolf is most angry with the Shepherd that defends the Flock witness the rage of the Devil in all places and ages 3. They must die as Prophets Ministers because there is no other way so fit for wicked men themselves to praise and prize them as by their dying While godly Ministers Lived though they were the marks of all the Obloquie and oppression of wicked men yet when dead even the wicked
to faithful men saith Paul to Timothy 2 Tim. 2.2 Upon which words Reverend Calvin well notes Here the Apostle shews Quantum sit solicitus de propaganda sana doctrina ad posteros His sollicitousness to propagate sound Doctrine to Posterity and that the Servant of Christ must not only quamdiu vivit while he lives labour to preserve the purity of Doctrine sed quam longissime ejus cura studiam se extendere poterit as far as ever his care and study should be able to extend The like some Learned men have observed upon 1 Tim. 6.14 Keep this Commandment without spot and unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ No faithful Servant of Christ is willing that the fruit of his Endowments or Employments should die with him but that they may live when he is dead for the furthering your Salvation that Instructions may abide with you to inform you Exhortations to quicken you Examples if holy to be imitated by you his sufferings for the Truth to strengthen and confirm you in the Truth thereby sealed And this is their Duty First That thereby they may keep up the name of God and promote his glory in the World This we should desire may be done after our death yea by it It was excellent Counsel of Luther Disce mori ut vivat Christi gloria Learn to die that the glory of Christ may live If Christ may increase by or after our decrease our very diminution should be our Option whatever makes Christ great should please us The end of living or dying is Gods glory if living or dying we are the Lords our living and dying should be to the Lord we should serve our generation that the generations after us may serve him 2. Hereby the Servants of God best provide for their own names 'T is this that makes our names to be a sweet Perfume to Posterity and gives them as much of Eternity as in this World they are capable of obtaining The rotting of the name is a wicked mans Curse and the preservation of our memories by doing good is both a Duty and a Blessing As an useless unserviceable person is dead while he lives so service is that that makes us live when we are dead and makes the places where we lived like the Civet-box when the Civet is taken out of it to savour of our holy Endeavours when we our selves are gone from and out of them 3. Thirdly Love to Souls makes this a Duty Regard to these must be lengthened beyond the length of our lives A Servant of Christ must do good to as many as he can 'T is both his duty and disposition Paul tells us the design of all his condescensions was that he might gain the more 1 Cor. 9.19 No godly man needs or wishes to make a Monopoly of Heaven Every Saint loves Company to Glory he loves to be saved surely but not solitarily 'T is this that should be the great motive to writing to benefit others after our decease The Pen hath as one speaks the greatest Auditories and the advantage of levening Posterity with Holiness and it hath given the deepest wounds to Antichrist and been the best Antidote against Heresies 'T is a holy Covetousness to crave the saving of many both while we live and after death Besides this is a kind of countermining of Satan who after the death of able Instruments labours most to pervert the Truth and to subvert Souls After my departure saith Paul Acts 20.29 grievous Wolves shall enter in among you not sparing the flock 4. Fourthly The best in their life-time have done too little for the good of Souls How small is the number of those we have brought to Heaven compared with those that for ought we know we have undone for ever by our sinful Examples and other encouragements to sin There may be several that shall be saved who have occasioned the damnation of others by their sinful and scandalous carriages The colder the Winter hath been the hotter say some the Summer is like to be so the more benummed and frozen our endeavours for saving of Souls have been formerly the hotter should our Divine Zeal be afterwards to save them Never did a bad man do more against Christ than Paul did before his Conversion but never did a good man do more for him than Paul did afterwards I would to God saith he that all that hear me were such as I am As much as in me is Rom. 1.15 I will preach the Gospel I will gladly spend and be spent 2 Cor. 12.15 The grace of God was exceeding abundant in that faith and love 1 Tim. 1.14 which answered the former to his infidelity the latter to his persecution 5. Fifthly The reward that godly men and Prophets expect is Everlasting It shall last longer than their longest usefulness can do their Crown shall never fade away Why then should their helpfulness to Souls be short upon earth since their happiness in Heaven shall be perpetual And 't is the opinion of some That the Saints in Heaven have an addition made to their happiness there by the Conversion of every Soul that is converted by their means after their departure 6. Lastly In some regards they may do good to Souls after their decease with less disadvantage than they could while living upon earth for while here they lived their bodily presence and speech was weak and contemptible their outward man their constant familiar Converse with a people made them the more neglected But these hinderances after death are removed people then being ready to entertain more honourable thoughts of them than when they lived Every advantage for doing good should be embraced The higher thoughts any have of us the higher thoughts we should labour that thereby they may have of Christ Paul his bodily presence was despicable but how greatly have his labours benefited Posterity 1. For the Use of this Point 1. Heinous is the impiety of those who so live that they do more hurt to Souls after their death than ever they did while they lived whose practical immoralities and heretical opinions being transmitted to posterity prove its bane and poyson I might instance in Arrius Pelagius Socinus Arminius and other Innovators who by their Writings have perverted more since they left the world than ever they did by their tongues while they were in it and what rebuke I give to Heterodox Writings is as due to those Heterodox by some so called Practices of impiety wherewith men are destructive to those who follow their Examples in after-ages Our practices while we live should be so holy and exemplary that when we dye we may not be asham'd to say we desire that after our decease these things may be remembred Who ever heard of any impure Sensualist or any infamous for immoralities to be so senslesly impudent as to say Let posterity have these things always in remembrance for by the same reason that they desire to hide their impieties