Abel being Dead yet speaketh OR THE LIFE DEATH Of that deservedly Famous Man of GOD Mr John Cotton Late TEACHER of the Church of CHRIST at BOSTON in NEW-ENGLAND By JOHN NORTON Teacher of the same Church Heb. 13. 7. Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb for Lodowick Lloyd and are to be sold at his Shop next the Castle-Tavern in Cornhill 1658. The Life and Death OF Mr JOHN COTTON The late Reverend Teacher of the Church of Christ at Boston in NEVY-ENGLAND IT is the priviledg of the blessed who lived in Heaven whilst they lived on Earth That they may live on Earth whilst they live in Heaven And 't is a part of the Portion of the Saints that together with the benefit of the living they may enjoy both the life and death of those who both lived and dyed in the 1 Cor. 3. 22. Hebr. 11. 4. Faith Life and Death are yours By Faith Abel being dead many thousand years since yet speaketh and will speak whil'st time shall be no more That the living speak is no wonder but that the dead speak is more then miraculous This though it be enough to draw forth attention from the sons of men Who is not affected with miracles yet being influenced with a Divine and special Benediction for the memorial of the Just is blessed To suppress an Instrument of so much good with silence were not only unthankfulness to the dead but an injury to the generation present and to many an one that is to come To preserve the memory of the blessed with the Spices and sweet Odors of their Excellencies and Weldoing recorded to posterity is a super Aegyptian embalming and a service which many reasons perswade unto This we do as men glad to rescue and solicitous to preserve any excellency in the Sons of mortality that may out-live Death desire of continuance in being is in it self inseperable from being Dumb Pictures of deserving men answer not ingenuous minds capable to retain the memorial of vertue the real effigies of their Spirits Besides unhappy Emulation happily expiring with the life of the emulated We greedily own and enjoy such Worthies when they are not whom envy in a great Degree bereaved us of whilst they were This we do as Friends hence the Smyrnean Poet of old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nam is demum est amicus qui etiam extincti memoriam servat ejusque causâ dolet licet non amplius superstes sit Heb. 11. 36. He is a true friend who continueth the memory of his deceased Friend And this is done not only in love to them but also in love to our selves thereby easing in part our loss and saving so much of our own lives He may the better be heard who reckoned his Friend the one half of himself when Moses intimates a Friend to be as our own Soul whilst Calvin lives Beza's life is sweet when Calvin dyes death is the more acceptable unto Beza This we do as Christians The Deeds of those worthies was the subject matter of the speech of the Saints these all obtained a good Report A considerable part of the Scripture is a divine testimony of what the Faithful have done and suffered recorded unto succeeding Generations not only as a memorial of them but as so many practical demonstrations of the Faithfulness of God as so many full and glorious triumphs over the World Sin and Satan obtained by persons in like temptations and subject to like passions with our selves A quickning motive unto such who have understanding of the times not to pretermit those testimonies the signal presence of God in whom manifests them to have been fore-appointed for the further compleating of that Cloud of Witnesses which elevates the Beholders thereof to lay aside every weight that doth so easily beset us and with the same spirit to run the race that is set before us The Mystery of God concerning all the transactions of his eternal purpose upon the Theatre of this World throughout the whole time of time being fully accomplished and revealed that of Jesus Christ himself excepted in none of all the work which he hath gloriously done will he be admired so much in that day as in what he hath wrought in the lives and deaths of Beleevers as Beleevers The same object is as admirable now as then that it is not so much admired is because it is not seen now so much as it shall be then The greatest Object out of Heaven is the life and death of such upon Earth who are now in Heaven You may beleeve it what God hath done for the Soul of the least Saint of some few years continuance were it digested into Order would make a volume full of temptations signes and wonders A wonderful History because a History of such experiences each one whereof is more then a Wonder No greater acts then their obedience both Active and Passive unto the death The sufferings of the Apostles may well be reckoned amongst the Acts of the Apostles No greater Monuments then their Register To live and die in the Faith of Jesus to do things worthy to be written and to write things worthy to be done both is good and doth good 'T is better with William Hunter then with William the Conqueror 'T is better to have a name in the Book of Martyrs then in the Book of Chronicles Martial Conquerors conquer Bodies by destroying Confessors conquer Souls by saveing They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of his Testimony and loved not their lives unto the death Amongst these as the Age that now is through Grace hath abounded with many worthies so This Eminent Servant of God the subject of our present meditation may without wrong unto any be placed amongst the first Three Had it pleased the only wise God to have put it into his heart to have imitated Junius in leaving behind him the History of his own Life how many would have gladly received it as Elisha did the Mantle which fell from Elijah when he was caught up and carried from him into Heaven But Divine Providence otherwise disposing it remains that they who have known his doctrine manner of Life purpose Faith Long-suffering Love Patience Persecutions and affliction do not suffer such a Light to be hid under a Bushel but put it on a Candlestick that it may give light to them that are in the House His Birth-place Dorby we shall not detain the Reader at His birth though a Scituation in respect of the purity and frequent Agitation of the air attempered in the judgment of the Orator for the breeding of better Wits Creatures are in their kind subservient but t is God not the air who puts Wisdom into the inward parts and giveth understanding to the heart As the wise man and the Fool die so are
already Brother His work now finished with all men perceiving his departure to be at hand and having nothing to do only that great work of dying in the Lord he totally composed and set himself for his dissolution desiring that he might be permitted to improve the little remnant of his life without any considerable impediment to his private devotions and divine soliloquies between God and his Soul For that end he caused the Curtains to be drawn and a Gentleman and brother of the Congregation that was much with him and ministred unto him in his sickness to promise him that the Chamber should be kept private But a while after hearing the whispering of some brethren in the room he called for that Gentleman saying Why do you break your word with me An expression so circumstanced as that the impression thereof abideth unto this day in the heart of that godly man whose omission gave him occasion so to speak Not long after mindful no doubt of that great helpfulness which he received from that forementioned brother throughout his visitation he left him with this farewel The God that made you and bought you with a great price redeem your body and soul unto himself These words were his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his last words after which he was not heard to speak but lying some hours speechless quietly breathed out his spirit into His Death the hands of him that gave it December 23. 1652. between eleven and twelve after the bell had called to the Lecture Thus preventing the Assembly in going to see what they were but going to hear being entred into the Sixty and eighth year of his age So ceased this Silver-trumpet waiting for the sound of the last Trump The eyes of his dead body were soon closed but before that the eye of his ever-living soul beholds the face of Jesus Christ Upon the 29. day the Body was interred within a Tomb of Brick a numerous confluence of all Degrees from all parts as the season would permit orderly accompanying the corpse borne upon the shoulders of his Fellow-Ministers unto the chambers of death not only with sighs and tears and Funeral-Poems all in abundance but with the solemnity of sorrow of heart it self alas too manifest in the carriage and countenance of those whose visage was as the visage of them which are bereaved of the breath of their nostrils The Inhabitants of the Land might have said This was a great mourning Such were New-Englands tears for the Man of their desires of whom they and especially his own Congregation cannot speak without lamentation unto this day Fuimus Troes fuit Ilium New-England was and flourished Now our Candlesticks cannot but lament in darkness when their Lights are gone And the Thrones of David mourn that so many of our late Worthies can be seen there no more Our desiderable men that remain remove from us and few they are who return again And as for those that rise up amongst our selves such is the portion of this Jerusalem that though for her time she hath not been an unfruitful mother yet they are but few that will guide her amongst all the sons which she had brought forth yea very few that take her by the hand of all the sons which she hath brought up Thus are our trials increased and our strength decreased that we might learn to trust in God What the counsel of the Lord is concerning the bereaved Churches of New-England is a solemn and awful meditation The non-considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come was a symptomatical and threatening incogitancie in Isaiah's days Sure we are that Iosiah was gathered unto his Fathers that he might not see the evil that was to come upon Jerusalem Augustine is taken out of the world before Hippo is taken by the Vandals Paraeus is gotten to his better Country before Heidelbergh and the Palatinate are delivered into the power of the Enemies Whatsoever it be we may not here silence that monitory Apparition in the Heavens that appeared about fourteen O quantum dilecte Deo cui militat Aether days before and according to the report of some observers thereof was not seen here after this man of God was taken from amongst us It was a profane jest of Vespatian who seeing a bearded Comet said This Prodigie belongs to the King of Parthia that wears long hair meaning it did not belong unto himself who wore short hair But soon after followed the death not of the King of Parthia but of Vespasian It was a Christian and imitable speech of Lodowick the First who unto his Astronomer seeing him observing the Comet and to prevent an ominous and afflicting construction in the Emperors heart alleadging those words in the Prophet Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven thus replied Timeamus Conditorem hujus Cometae Let us fear the Creator of this Comet not the Comet it self and let us praise his clemencie who vouchsafeth to admonish our sluggishness with such signs Many instances we have in History of Dissention in Religion and Heresies following upon these Meteors A Comet preceded the Furies of the Enthusiasts in Germany 1533. the genuine offspring of whom is that generation commonly known by the name of Quakers Comets are signal though not causal They are signal as to changes of Divine providence which befall men though they have no causal influence upon the minds of men And be it so that in themselves simply considered future Events whether good or evil are illegible yet when they are placed in Conjunction with Scripture-predictions concerning the iniquities of men ripening for the execution of Divine vengeance being interpreted according to the word of their Creator they are not without instruction Mr. Cotton upon his enquiry after the motion of this Comet being asked what he himself conceived of it answered That he thought it portended great Changes in the Churches But that which further calleth upon us not to be unmindful of sadder Vicissitudes probably impending is the formidable Apostacie both from the Order and Faith of the Gospel appearing and threatening us in this Age. Christ mentions prodigious Tenets of false Prophets and false Marth 24. Christs arising as sometimes at the least signal of Publick calamities As the concurrence of multitude of Heresies and mutability in Religion which gave occasion to that opprobrious Fides menstrua and horrid Proverb The Christians Faith is menstruous was a means to bring in Antichrist so the present vexation of Consciences and of the Civil Estates with uncertainty and manifold Heresie in matter of Faith hath no small tendencie to bring back the Infallible Chair People will accept of a quiet Harbor though upon hard conditions rather then be afflicted with continual tossings in stormy Seas 'T is natural to man to covet any quiet Land rather then to dwell with the terror of a continual Earthquake Heu Pietas heu prisca Fides It was no despicable stratagem of the
eating thereof they must die a lingring death for want of food And the same day that their Pastor preached to them it being the Lords-day out of Psal 23. 1. The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want At such a time the good hand of the Lord brought this succor to them from afar To give quickly doubleth but to give to the Saints in a time of need trebleth the gift Whilst he was in England his eminent piety success of his His sufferings from men labors interest in the hearts of both superiors inferiors and equals drew much envy upon him and his Non-conformity added thereunto delivered him in a great degree unto the will of his Adversaries whose hour and the power of darkness being come spared not to shoot at him and grieve him not giving over until they had bereaved him of much of his livelihood his liberty Country and therewith of the sweet society of lovers friends and many ways endeared Acquaintance much more precious to him then life it self Yet the measure of the afflictions of Christ in this kind appointed to be suffered by him in the flesh was not fulfilled But lo in the time of his Exile some Brethren we do not say they were not of us being willing to hope better things provoked by the Censure of Authority though justly and not without tears inflicted upon them single out him as a chief object of their displeasure who though above other men declining irregular and unnecessary interesting of himself in the actions of the Magistrate and while opportunity lasted endeavouring their healing yet must now be requited evil for good and that by some of them who were formerly companions with him in the tribulations of this Patmos Respecters of him had taken sweet counsel together and walked in the house of God as friends Hence is he with pen and tongue blasphemed by them for whom he formerly intreated and for whom he both then and afterwards wept and put on sackcloth Such buffetings of Satan though sharp are medicinal at times to the excellent upon earth who by reason of the body of death indwelling must be kept weak that they may be made strong Since this time also some reverend learned and godly men haply in zeal against the Congregational-way sharpened their style against him Which if it be the truth as we believe it is their speaking so much ad hominem especially to such a man whose love to any good man much exceeded their displeasure to him argueth too much of man Howsoever he was then a sufferer for the Truth In which respect the pious and ingenuous spirit of learned Mr. Rutherford though in pursuance of the Truth he disputes ad idem and with strength which is his praise and acceptable yet he professedly carrieth it as to a Brother not to an Adversary There is an excess in too much salt and not a little to be complained of in personal and causeless aspersions from good men That smarts these defile That makes less comfortable these tend us to make us unprofitable Roses are not without their pricks The Archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and were displeased with him but his Bowe abode in strength the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob From thence is the Shepherd and the Stone of Israel An honest-minded man Plutarch de capienda ex hostibus utilitate libellus saith Xenophon gets by enmity And Plutarch writes a Treatise concerning benefiting by our Enemies adorning his discourse with that of Jason of Thessaly whose Enemy stabbing him and intending his death only opened an ulcer otherwise incurable and so saved his life If men without God in the world having only star-light and scarce so much as seeing men walk like trees only feeling after the Lord have thus spoken we see the greater encouragement why Christians who are made light by the Father of Light and know Him that is Love may through grace not only speak better but also practise accordingly Job can turn the book written against him by his adversaries into a crown Joseph feeling the benefit of the Patriarchs unkindness is the more readily disposed to forgive that wrong whereby he finds himself made a great gainer He was a good Accomptant who esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt Paul takes pleasure in reproaches for Christs sake The best and most peaceable spirits cannot hope to fulfill their course in a Pacifique sea The way of the most excellent lieth through evil report and good report through honor and dishonor To avoid the fouler part of the passage is not in the power of man To walk clean through it To do well and approve himself as a Minister of Christ in suffering ill is all that can be expected from a man of God Erasmus acknowledging some men to do well in In hoc uno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut aiunt conjunctum fuit eximium fuit quicquid in aliis per partes miramur Erasm epistnuncupat praefixa tom 3. epist. Hieron some things will have Hierom to excell in all It was a great Encomium which the German Phenix sometimes gave to Luther I saith he speaking of himself am a Logician Pomeranus is a Grammarian Justus Jonas is an Orator but Luther is all Let it suffice to be said of Mr. Cotton that he was a famous Light in his generation a glory to both Englands and such an one in whom was so much of what is desireable in Man as is rarely to be seem in one Person As concerning any Tenet wherein he may seem singular Remember he was a man and therefore to be heard and read with judgment and haply sometimes with favour Scio me aliter habere apostolos aliter reliquos tractatores c. Hier. ep to 2. ep tua Hierom makes a difference between reading the writings of the Apostles and the Tractates of other Authors They saith he always spake the truth These as men in some things erre Let him but receive with some proportion to the measure that he gave and he will be found no debtor upon that account No man did more placidly bear a Dissentient The Jews unto their own question Why Asa and Iehoshaphat removing the Idols in high places took not also away the Brazen-serpent give this answer The father 's left a place for Hezekiah to exercise his zeal That great Conqueror vainly feared that his Father Philip's victories would deprive the Son of an opportunity to improve his magnanimity Much of the wisdom of God both in the Scripture and Creature is still unseen and it hath been judged but meet that each Age should contribute somewhat toward the fuller discovery of Truth But this cannot be except men of a larger Acumen and greater industry may be permitted to communicate their notions especially whilst as Austin in Non tanquam affirmator sed tanquam scratator Aug. Psal 85.