But alas the Generality went not so far the common Cry with them was much like the Arguings of those Fools in the Book of Wisdom Chap. 2. Our life is short and tedious and in the death of man there is no remedy neither was there any man known to have returned from the Grave for we are born at all adventure and we shall be hereafter as though we bad never been for the breath in our nostrils is as smoak and a little spark in the moving of our heart which being extinguish'd our body shall be turned into ashes and our spirit shall vanish as the soft Air Our time is a very shadow that passeth away and after our End there is no returning for it is fast sealed so that no man cometh again Thus it was with them and truly it was little otherwise with their Grave and Learned Philosophers though they made such great Flourishes and some of them talk'd loftily about the Joys of the separate Soul yet they were so extravagant in their Fancies and some of them so inconsistent with themselves when they had Occasion to discourse on this Subject that we may easily imagine they were at a Loss and not much satisfied themselves in that which they taught the common People to believe Insomuch that Socrates who was as great an Instance of Virtue and Learning as the Gentile World could produce yet towards the latter End of his Life plainly confesses his Ignorance in this thing for when he came to plead his cause before his Judges and largely discourses of the Happy State of good Men hereafter at last frankly owns that he could be content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to dye over and over was he but assured of the reality of what he had so often asserted and afterwards receiving his Sentence concludes his Apology in this doubtful manner I am now leaving the World 't is your Lot to live and mine to dye but whether of us two shall fare the better i.e. whether there be any Existence on the other side the Grave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is unknown to all but God alone so little Confidence had that great Man even at such a time when he should have been constant to his former Reasonings and magnified his own Philosophy Hence we may safely affirm of a great part of them what the Author of the Book of Wisdom says that As for the Mysteries of God they know them not neither hoped they for the wages of Righteousness nor discern'd a Reward for blameless Souls And now being thus wavering in their Minds and unfix'd as to their Resolutions about an Immortality what was there left to fortifie them against the fears of Dying Nature is apt to startle at the thoughts of a Dissolution even then when it is assured it serves but as a Passage to that Life which shall never end but when it looks upon it as the utmost Period of their Being as that which crumbles them into Dust without any possibility of a return what Reflections can be more dismal or amazing And therefore to prepare themselves the better for the fatal stroak they invented many pretty Apothegms and Paradoxes furnished themselves with some Common Topicks or Witty Sayings that so they might have some Relief against their own or their Friends Departure But alas they are all of them but poor Receipts in respect of that Sovereign Antidote which the Gospel prescribes To instance in some of their choicest Sometimes they would say that Death was the unavoidable Fate of all Mankind that there was no resisting the Power of it they saw that wise Men dyed as well as Fools and therefore it was their Prudence not to be concern'd at that which no ways could be avoided Again It was a common Calamity we every day meet with Remembrances of Mortality and should such thoughts discompose us our Life would be a continual Vexation Sometimes they would use this little Sophistry That Death cannot hurt us because when that is we are not and when we are that is absent so is a thing that does not at all belong to us and if perhaps there be any pain at the last Separation of the Soul from the Body yet afterwards we shall not grieve at what we had endur'd a little before This was the great Retreat Epicurus and his Followers betook themselves to Sometimes they would argue after this Rate That we are dead already as to so much of our Life which is past and gone for so much as we live so much we dye being dead to the day past and that which we usually call Death is but our last Death and therefore as we did not fear our former Death why should we that which is to come Another little Hold they had was That they were admitted into Life upon this Condition that they should give place to others as the former Generation did to them and therefore a piece of Injustice to be unwilling to go off the Stage when their Work was done Others would Comfort themselves after this manner That Death was a desirable thing seeing there were so many Troubles and Disasters that did attend us for it was no more than Solutio omnium Dolorum The easying and disburthening us of all our Cares and Fears the letting us loose from an Infirm Body and a Tormenting World and laying us up in that quiet secure state wherein we were before we had a Being This is Seneca's last Refuge For tho' he sometimes seems to intimate a Belief of a Future State yet he is quickly off again very inconstant as to his Resolutions in that Point and makes use of this as the chief Prescription to allay our Fears and Moderate our Griefs Some in the last place soar'd higher and would solace themselves with the Thoughts of the Soul 's enjoying by Death a true Freedom and Liberty of its being received into pleasant delightful Mansions and there partaking for a vast Tract of Time of such Enjoyments as were more suitable to its Nature This was the Opinion of the Platonists but their Fancies in this kind were so Extravagant their Notions generally so Obscure and their Discourses so Romantick that it may very well be question'd whether they had those great Transports when they were about to exchange this Prison of the Body for those Airy Vehicles they so much talk'd of Nay such as profess'd most to own the Incorruptible Nature of the Soul and stedfastly to believe a Future State yet supposed such various Transmigrations and Shiftings of the Soul from one Body to another as must needs be an abatement of its Happiness because by such alterations it should soon lose all Knowledge both of its Friends and it self too These were the cheif Prescriptions the Moralists made use of but alas how slight and feeble are they in respect of that Lively Hope the Christian is possess'd of with what Courage and Constancy such Notions might inspire them I know not but certainly where
A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL Of the Reverend Edward Reynolds D. D. Arch-Deacon of Norfolk and Rector of Kings-Thorp near Northampton By WILLIAM GIBBS M. A. Rector of Gayton in Northampton-shire LONDON Printed by John Astwood for Thomas Cocketil in Amen-Corner and Herbert Walwyn in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1699. TO M rs Frances Reynolds Relict of Dr. REYNOLDS MADAM WHen your Desires were once and again signified to me of having this Discourse published it became not me to Dispute them especially in such a Season and in such Circumstances to which nothing is to be denyed and therefore I presently resolv'd to Comply tho' I was not Ignorant at the same time how hazardous a Proof I must give of my Obedience For tho' Sermons of this kind are not so liable to Censure as others because if they be plain and practical 't is all that is expected from them and Allowances are generally made for those Deficiencies of Language Method and Reading which would hardly be granted in other Composures Yet if thâ—â—â— be any thing of a Character added That is capable of being assaulted by so many and in such various wayes according to the different Apprehensions and Interests of Men that nothing renders an Author more obnoxious or sooner forfeits the Reputation of the whole What Entertainment MADAM this is likely to meet with I am not at all sollicitons to know for if what is here said be any wayes instrumental to Moderate that Sorrow you have justly Conceiv'd for the Loss of so near a Relation or may serve to keep up the Memory of so worthy an Example I have all my aim unless it be the gratifying of a little Ambition which this Opportunity gives me in letting the World know that I was once honoured with the Friendship of the Deceased and that I am MADAM Your most Obliged and Humble Servant WILL. GIBBS 1 THES IV. 13. But I would not have you to be Ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no Hope THese Words are an Introduction to a short Discourse which St. Paul makes concerning the Certainty of a Resurrection and the manner thereof by which he Endeavours to rectifie the Mistakes of some concerning a Future State and thereby moderate their Griefs for their Deceased Friends which it seems were too often wont to be so excessive and inordinate as did not at all become those that had such Hopes The Occasion of them this The Saints at Thessalonica were sorely persecuted by the Unbelieving Jews as is hinted in several places of this Epistle and many of them no doubt put to Death which proving great Discouragements to those New Converts St. Paul tells them that God's Wrath would shortly seize upon those wicked Enemies of theirs and then they should be delivered from those Pressures and Afflictions which at present they lay under And as for those of their Fellow-Christians who had already lost their Lives for the sake of their Religion for some imagine such are here 〈…〉 not be too much solicitous for or perplex'd about for if they did believe that Christ dyed and rose again which great Article of Faith they all profess'd the same Assurance had they likewise of their Resurrection at the last And because the several kinds of Death to which they were exposed might a little startle their Belief and increase their Sorrows for they were sometimes committed to the Flames and their Ashes scattered up and down in all places their Enemies fondly thinking thereby to quash their Hopes of a Resurrection Sometimes they were cast to the Lyons and other Beasts of Prey to be devoured by them and sometimes their Carkasses thrown into the Sea for the Fish to feed on their surviving Friends tho' they might be well enough satisfied of the State of their Souls might yet possibly be too solicitous for their Bodies what should become of them whether they that were thus mangled were capable of a restauration To Obviate which the Apostle shews that such shall be no losers by the Injuries that have been offered them for they shall not only be raised as entire as those that dyed a Natural Death but as a special Reward of their Martyrdom shall have the Priviledge to rise before the rest this be intimates Ver. 16. When the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout and the Voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God the Dead in Christ or those that dyed for Christ shall rise first Nay even those which are found alive at the Coming of our Lord shall not have the start of those Martyr'd Saints so as first to meet their Saviour and receive their Crown this he assures them ver 15. For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord as much as if he had said I do not speak it according to my own Fancy or Private Opinion but as I had it by Revelation That we which are alive and remain unto the Coming of our Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep i.e. be caught up before them to congratulate first our returning Lord and be rewarded by him and having thus evinc'd the Certainty of a Resurrection he concludes thus Wherefore comfort ye one another with these Words But though we should grant that the Word may be more eminently understood of those that dye for Christ and suffer Martyrdom for his sake yet they seem to require a larger Interpretation and to be extended to all that are Christ's 1 Cor. 15. 23. for those which are here said to be asleep are oppos'd to those which are alive And besides if they were to be restrained to those only that thus suffered then the Apostle's Argument for the Consolation of Christians would only be serviceable to such whose Friends were of that Happy and Illustrious Number And therefore I shall take the Words in the more General Sence and then we have in them these three Parts 1. St. Paul's Desire to inform the Ignorance and rectifie the Misapprehensions of the Saints of Thessalonica concerning the State of the Dead of such as had laid down their Lives for the sake of Christ and indeed of all that truly believe in him I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep it is a Matter of great Importance and therefore would not have you lye under any Doubts or Mistakes herein but desire you may have as full an Understanding of the thing as the Gospel Revelation will afford you 2. The Design which the Apostle had in clearing up these Notions to them and that was to repress those Excessive Griefs and Inordinate Sorrows which they had conceived upon the Account of their Departed Friends for want of a right Apprehension and steady Belief hereof 3. We have this Sorrow more particularly describ'd viz. It was like theirs who had no Hope Such who either absolutely denied the Immortality of the Soul and the
Certainty of a Future State as the Sadduces among the Jews and the Epicureans among the Gentiles Or such who had but faint Apprehensions and doubtful Guesses thereof as the Generality of the Heathens who had no other Direction herein but the Light of Nature No Wonder to see such vent their Sorrows in an Extravagant Manner when all their Hopes were terminated on this side the Grave and when once gone they fear'd there was to be no more Remembrance of them or their Friends for ever To bring the Words down to our Purpose I resolve them into these three Propositions 1. That there is a certain Measure of Sorrow allowable to a Christian at the Death of his Friends 2. That Excessive or Immoderate Sorrow be the Loss never so heavy is much unbecoming the Christian Temper and very unsuitable to those Hopes which he professes to have I would not have you sorrow like others that have no Hopes 3. That a right Understanding and a due Consideration of what our Religion offers in such Cases is the most effectual Method for the suppressing of all those Inordinate Passions This I gather from the former part of the Text I would not have you to be ignorant concerning them that are asleep as if he had said Had you but right Apprehensions of what the Gospel assures you herein you would not be thus sorrowful To begin with the First 1. That there is a certain Measure of Grief and Sorrow allowed to the Christian at the Death of his Friend This is clearly implyed in the Words for the Apostle by telling them that they should not sorrow as those that had no Hope does at the same time intimate there must be some Allowance made that Christianity did not design to extirpate our Passions but only to moderate and correct them to keep them from those Excesses which would disparage our Reason and put the Soul into an Unquiet State 'T is true there is no Command in the Gospel for this because the Practice hereof has no Inherent Goodness in it but argues rather the Debility and Weakness of Humane Nature however the Lawfulness and Expediency of such a Sorrow cannot in the least be doubted and this will appear 1. From the Examples of many Pious and Devout Persons who upon such Occasions have vented their Griefs without ever having them changed upon them as Crimes or Indecencies We find Jacob renting his Cloaths putting Sackcloath upon his Loyns mourning bitterly for his Son many days whom he supposed to have been slain and refusing to be comforted Gen. 37. 34. We read again of Joseph and his Brethren making such a Lamentation for their Father Jacob that the Canaanites charged the Name of the Place to be a perpetual Remembrance of their Sorrow Gen. 50. 11. David whose Thoughts seem'd mightily to be raised above the little Concernments of this Life doth not look upon it as any Derogation to his Piety to be the chies Mourner at the Death of Saul and his Beloved Jonathan how Pathetical his Grief was may be seen in that Funeral Song he composed for that purpose in 2 Sam. 1st Chap. Nay he doth indulge his Passion so far as to lament the Tragical End of his Rebellious Son Absalom in a most unusual strain O my son Absalom my son my son Absalom would to God I had dyed for thee O Absalom my son my son and yet we find him not reproved for it by God or his Prophet 2 Sam. 18. 33. Nay higher yet our Blessed Saviour who never did any thing amiss bears a part with the Jews in their mourning for Lazarus for when he saw Mary and the rest of the Company lamenting the Loss of her Brother He Likewise groan'd in spirit and was troubled but when he approaches nearer to the Grave his Sorrows found a Vent our Dear Lord is then said to have wept John 11. 35. and whether he did this out of Affection to his Friend or upon the account of the Jews Incredulity or some other Consideration as some are apt to think we are sure the Standers by took it in the first Sense for in the Verse after they say Behold how he loved him What shall I say more God himself is said to be grieved and troubled at the Death of his Creatures and is set forth by the Prophets most passionately resenting the Loss of any of them and when their Iniquities had forc'd him to destroy them how pathetically doth he express the Conflicts he had within How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel my Heart is turned within me my Resentings are kindled together Hosea 11. 8. 2. As the Lawfulness of bewailing the Death of our Friends is thus to be justified from Instances so out of Complyance with our Natural Frailties which must necessarily be allowed such Excursions for being Creatures compounded of gross earthy Bodies as well as pure immaterial Souls we shall unavoidably be sensible of Calamities Afflictions Losses and what greater than those of a Real Friend so that Sorrow and Anguish will take hold of us as long as we have Humane Passions and Affections to gratify for our strength is not the strength of stones or our flesh of brass as Job expostulates the Case And as Humanity requires it so Christianity does indulge it tho' that indeed tends much to the raising up our Thoughts to higher Objects yet it doth not oblige us to a stupid Regardlessness of our Concerns here below or intend wholly to divest us of our Passions such a Temper befiting rather a sullen Stoick than a tender-hearted Christian and therefore we are allowed not only to be sensible of but to complain and weep for our Losses tho' never to murmure or repine Nay Seneca himself who was much of the Stoical Humour could say Nobis ignosci potest prolapsis ad lacrymas si non nimiae decurrerint That Tears might be excused if they did not flow down in too great abundance And he tells us in the same Epistle what his own Carriage was at the Death of his Dear Friend Annaeus Serenus I saith he was of the Number of those whom Grief overcame Nature it seems was there too strong for his Philosophy tho' at other times none outbraves the Misfortunes of Life or the Terrors of Death at a higher Rate as if they had not the least Power to move his Wise Man 3. Such Sorrows are the proper intimations of our Love to the deceased Person they are the last Expressions of Kindness to our Friend and therefore very allowable there being no wayes so proper of shewing our Value and Esteem for them Hence it was a Custom among the Jews and some part of the Gentile World to set apart such a Portion of Time for these Mournful Exercises in which 't was accounted dishonourable and inhumane to set about other Concerns and therefore sayes the wise Son of Sirach Weep bitterly for the dead and make great moan and use
Persons find themselves made for higher Objects than what this World presents and have a Consciousness of their own Eternity nothing can effectually compose the tumultuary Rovings of that Mind but the Assurances of an Immortality and of such an Immortality only which the Christian hopes for Without this all the Notions of the Phylosophers and Sentences of the Moralists signifie little Death can never be vanquish'd by such weak Charms but would be still too hard for their Principles too strong for their Resolutions they must Sorrow even as those that have no Hope So that the best of them pass'd off the Stage rather in an obstinate vain-glorious Humour than in any true Satisfaction or Triumph But now the Christian has a far better Provision made him for besides the Helps and Considerations he has in common with the Phylosophers which he may serve himself of when he pleases his Religion offers him such Supports as are sufficient to repress all inordinate Passions and compose our Minds into a steady Frame It assures us of the reality of a Divine Providence in the Managery of things here below that whatever Affliction Loss or Calamity befalls us was so Ordered by an over-ruling Providence This was a Truth which the Gentile World either absolutely denyed or however was not so well satisfied in as to make any true Use of their Adversities or to be Patient under them But now we know that Affliction springs not out of the dust nor trouble out of the ground that nothing falls upon us without the Knowledge and Permission of our Heavenly Father who still designs our Welfare by all the severe Methods and Dispensations he exercises towards us and therefore the Thoughts of this must needs render us more Calm and Sedate at such times than those who can spy out nothing of Divine Wisdom and Goodness but look upon all their Crosses as the Effects either of an ill Chance or an inevitable Fate But more especially doth it relieve our Thoughts by giving us so great an Assurance of a happy State hereafter that not only the Soul but the Body too shall live for ever that the whole Man shall be perfectly and entirely raised and Death at last be swallowed up in Victory therefore those that were Dead are said in my Text only to be asleep and if we sleep we shall do well as the Disciples said of Lazarus It is only a resting for a while in our Dormitories but we shall as certainly awake in the Morning as ever we lay down And this we are ascertain'd of First By many full and clear Testimonies in the Scripture of whose Divine Authority we have so many undoubted Proofs Here we are plainly told that the Hour is coming in which all that are in the Graves shall bear and shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life Hear it is said that when our earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Here 't is promised that this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this Mortal must put on Immortality Nay here in the Context we have a more particular Description of the Manner thereof and in what Order it shall be Secondly But more especially are we secur'd hereof by the Resurrection of our Blessed Saviour therefore St. Paul makes use of this Argument to excite in us these Hopes as in the Verse after my Text For if we believe that Jesus dyed and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him As if he had said If once your Faith will carry you so far as to believe your Lord's Resurrection you need never doubt your own this being a Matter of Fact surpasses all the Arguments that could be drawn from any other Topick whatsoever For our Saviour dying in a Humane Capacity and being raised again does clearly evince that we who are of the same Nature are capable of a like Restauration This indeed is a sensible Experiment of the possibity of a Resurrection but now that which was thus shewn to be possible is made also certain to us from the Relation that is between Christ and us as he is the Head and we are his Members and so shall be made Partakers of the like Condition with him So our Apostle elsewhere 2 Cor. 4. 14. Knowing this that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus of which we have have an Earnest by the Spirit he hath given us So our Apostle again Rom. 8. 11. If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you So that by this Triumphant Action chiefly it is that our Lord has brought Life and Immortality to light brought those Mysteries to a full View which before lay hid under Types and Figures or were only faintly apprehended by Natural Reason And to give us a further Assurance of the thing He manifested his Power before for at his Death the Graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of their Graves after his Resurrection and appear'd to many intimating by that Release of some few Prisoners made then what a general Goal-delivery there should be when he comes at last in his Glory And now upon a Review of all this shall the Christian sorrow like those that have no Hope Shall he not be able to part with a Pious Friend or Relation but must he lament him as if lost for ever How easily rather may he at such a time triumph over Death and cry out Where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Where are all your Trophies the Body indeed you have seized on but that is only a Sacred Depositum committed to your Trust for a time you must make a faithful Restitution of it e're long the Victory truly is ours and God hath given it us through our Lord Jesus Christ By the help of this single Consideration how often hath Death been triumph'd over by the Primitive Christians who have been so transported with the thoughts hereof that they have been eager to quit this dull Mortality before they were call'd and to press upon those Eternal Mansions before they had compleated their Probation-ship here below and yet we have the same Arguments for the truth hereof as they and may have as strong Evidences for our Title However if our Faith cannot inspirit our Resolutions so high yet sure it will be sufficient to moderate our Grief to restrain the Inordinacy of our Passions for our deceased Friends especially when they are such as sleep in Jesus such who are not so much departed from us as gone before us have the Priviledge to go a little the sooner to take Possession of that Glorious Inheritance where they joyfully