THE BEST CHOYCE A Funerall Sermon Published at the desire of some of the friends of the Dead Psal 116.15 Right deare in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints LONDON Printed for C. B. dwelling at the Swan in Pauls Church-yard 1607. THE BEST choyce A Funerall Sermon Philip. 1.23 Desiring to be loosed and to be with Christ which is best of all THis Text that I haue chosen being considered as it standeth here related is but a part of a sentence For in this verse with the 22. going before and the 24. following the Apostle consulteth of two things set before him whether hee maye choose not of any inconstant lightnesse neither of any discontentment but because he seeth in either thing good cause to desire it The two things whereof he consulteth whether to choose are life and death in which consultation most men would quickly resolue For many desire life with any conditions as Augustine truly affirmes in one of his Sermons saying Longam vitam etiam malam pene omnes volunt habere all men welnie desire a long long life though euill and troublesome The commoditie of life for which the Apostle can bee content to choose it is the profitable seruice that hee might doe to the Church This he mentioneth as drawing his desire after life in the 24. verse saying Neuerthelesse to abide in the flesh is more needefull for you Where note by the way what it is should make thee desirous to liue in this world onely to profit others and to do the office of a good seruant among thy fellow seruants The commoditie of death for which hee wisheth that is the fellowshippe of Christ in heauen so to be obtained This hee mentioneth as drawing his desire after it in the wordes of my Text saying Desiring to bee loosed and to bee with Christ which is best of all Where note I pray you what is the hope desire of the godly in their death namely to be gathered to their Sauiour If wee consider these wordes apart singled from the rest of the Epistle they containe a perfect instruction concerning the death of true beleeuers wherein are these three things First that death is a thing of the godly to be desired in these words Desiring to be loosed Secondly that the godlie are gathered by death into the companie of Iesus Christ in heauen which is the thing that maketh their death to be so much to be desired in these wordes and to bee with Christ Thirdly that the fellowship of Christ which the godly obtaine after death is the greatest happinesse that can bee desired or obteined in these wordes for that is best of all This Text I haue chosen at this time for this reasō We are come togither to cōmit to the groūd the bodie of a seruāt childe of God who with all his hart desired to be dissolued Who desired his dissolution with the same reason for which the Apostle desired it namely that hee might be with Christ and desired this fellowshippe of Christ with the same iudgement with which the Apostle desired it because hee knew that to be best of all By the handling of this text you shal see the wisedom of of his choice and his desire and so I hope bee drawen with desire and iudgement to wait for the day of your dissolution that you also may bee gathered to Christ which is best of all Desiring to be loosed eis to analusai for so the Apostle describeth death to bee an vnbinding and loosing of man that the soule set at liberty from the fetters of the flesh may return to his Creator freely Which it cannot doe so long as it is shackled here in the body And this description of death is most conuenient both to confute all Sadduces and also to instruct vs howe to iudge rightly of death Euery childe of man is compounded of these two parties of an humane body that is as the house and dwelling and of a reasonable soule that is the tenant dwelling there So are wee taught in the historie of the first mans creation Gen. 2.7 The Lord Gad made the man of the dust of the ground there is the body the house of clay and hee breathed in his face the breath of life That is saith Tremelius Animam vitalem elementari corpori inspirauit by inspiration hee placed a liuing soule in his elementarie bodie and the man was a liuing soule so soone as these two partes beeing ioyned together the man liueth And that which we cal death is no thing else but the dissoluing of this composition and the seperating of these two parts that the soule may be loose and at liberty to returne vnto God as Salomon describeth death in Ecclesiastes 12.7 Dust returneth to earth as it was and the spirit returnes to God that gaue it Death is not the destruction eyther of the whole man or of any part of him as many suppose that say in the Booke of Wisedome 2.2 Wee were borne at all auenture and hereafter wee shall bee as if wee had neuer beene For the breath is a smoke in our nosthrills and the words are a sparke raised out of the heart which being extinguished the bodie is turned into ashes and the spirit vanisheth as the soft aire Thus foolish men thinke that in death they perish and come to nothing and die as the beasts doe And of this opinion in the Church of the Iewes were the absurd Saduces who beleeued no resurrection to come of the body and therefore thought that the body perished in death And they beleeued that there was no spirit seperated from flesh no such inuisible and spirituall creature and therefore thought that the soule perished in death Their absurd opinion is recorded in Acts 23.8 The Sadduces say that there is no resurrection nor Spirit nor Angel But we beleeue and teach contrarie to all Sadduces both the immortality of the soule remaining after death and also the resurrection of the flesh at the last day For the soule of Lazarus being dead ascended to a place of comfort Luk. 16.22 And all that are in the graue which is the receptacle of our dead bodies shall at the last daye heare the voyce of Christ sending forth his Archangel with the sound of a Trumpet and they shall come forth to iudgement Ioh. 5.28 So that neither body nor soule in death perisheth and ceaseth to bee and death is no destruction of man but the loosing of the Spirrit out of the prison of the flesh and a dissoluing of man into his parts as the Apostle here speaketh desiring to bee dissolued Wherein it behoueth no man to bee an agent to loose himself as they which lay violent hands vpon themselues but we must all be patients and wait vpon God till he that tied the knot of life in thee vntie the same The Apostle to bee with Christ desired not to lose himselfe but to be loosed Desiring to be loosed The Apostle in these words
houses of clay where faith is the stay and comfort of our soules We are strangers from the reall presence companie of Christ from heauen from our Countrey and resting place We are not in patria but in via not in our Countrey but in the way vnto it But when we put off the earthly house of this habitation Quam seperamur à corpore saith Anselme presentamur Domino vt eum in specie diuinitatis suae videamus apud eum maneamus That is when we are seperated from the body we are presented to the Lord that wee may see him in the show and beauty of his diuinitie and may remaine with him Lastly let vs consider what wee read Reuelations 14.1 Iohn seeth manie thousands standing on Mount Sion with the Lambe Iesus Christ They are in his company and they follow the Lambe whither soeuer he goeth These places doe plainely teach vs that this followeth the dissolution and death of the Saints as a thing for which it is to bee desired that they do goe vnto the Lord and inioy the company of Iesus Christ their redeemer their soules doe so when they die and their bodies also in the resurrection as the Apostle witnesseth in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians 4. chapter 16. verse The Lord himself shal descend from heauen with a shout and with the voyce of the Archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ shal rise first Then shal we which liue and remaine be caught vp with them also in the cloudes to meete the Lorde in the aire and so shal wee euer be with the Lord. But the body resting in the graue waiting for that glorious resurrection the soule in the meane time leauing the flesh and leauing the world goeth to Christ O blessed and most comfortable death of the Saints which gathereth the members to the head in whom they liue and setteth the branches close to the tree in the liuely sappe whereof they flourish which bringeth home the Bride into the chamber of the Bridegroome in whom onely shee reioyceth and gathereth the redeemed people together about their redeemer who onely hath made them free and leadeth vs out of this vale of miserie vnto our Lord Iesus Christ that wee may see his glorie and bee partakers with him of his kingdome The worst then that can be said of death for his doings vnto the faithfull is this that he is a cruell churlish guide that leadeth vs vnto a most sweet and curteous Lord that he is a rough boisterous minister that performeth and dooth for vs a most acceptable seruice that his countenance is much deformed hee fraieth those to whom hee appeareth that his hands are burning hot hee scorcheth those whom he apprehendeth Yet among the faithfull those whom he laieth hold vpon hee bringeth to Iesus Christ This is not out of the naturall condition of death that the faithfull reape such aduantage by it for death was born of sinne which diuideth vs from God and it was ordained as a heauie punishment of sin and it is still a signe and remembrance of Gods anger for sin But this commeth to passe by the benefit and fauour of him who by his death hath destroyed death and him that had the power of death that is the diuell It commeth to passe by the benefite of Iesus Christ who hath made vs more then conquerours ouer death euery aduersary taking away the sting of death making a plague to be a blessing an enemie to be a seruant because now without death that is otherwise then by the passage of death flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God This commeth to passe by the merit of him and by faith in him who is vnto vs both in life and death aduantage and whose wee are both liuing dying that whether we sleep or wake we might liue togither with him Augustine speaking of benefite attained by death in this world I meane this first death in his 13. Booke of the Citie of God and 4. chapter saith Non quia mors bonum aliquod facta est quae ante malum fuit sed tantam Deus fidei prestitit gratiam vt mors quam vitae constat esse contrariam instrumentum fieret per quod transiretur in vitā It is not because death is now become a good thing and a blessing which before was an euill thing and curse but so much grace hath God affoorded to our faith in Christ that death which was knowne to bee contrary to life happinesse should now become an instrument of our passage to life and happinesse And therefore not vnto death and dissolution that dooth bring vs vnto Christ but vnto Iesus Christ that by death and dissolution doth bring and gather vs vnto himselfe doe wee giue thankes for this aduantage of our death that when we are loosed we go vnto the Lord for dread full death in tantam vtilitatem non vi sua sed diuina opitulatione conuersa est is become a matter of great profite to vs not by it owne force vertue but by the helpe of God Yet from hence the faith full may learne gather vnto themselues plentifull comfort against the terrours of death and strong incouragement if not to desire long for yet to entertaine with reioycing the day of their dissolution because from thenceforth they shall be with Christ This did that seruant of the Lord see whose body wee followed to the graue And therefore quietly yea ioyfully hee accepted yea desired his dissolutiō sometime saying Come Lord Iesus and sometime saying I come Lord Iesus only desiring constantly desiring to be with the Lord Iesus And this is it that shall make death bitter in it selfe to be both sweet and pleasant vnto vs when it commeth And therefore I beseech you learne now in time lay this doctrine vp in your harts often think vpon it that the faithfull departing hence doe goe vnto the Lord that when the houre commeth whsch canot be auoided we may embrace the pleasure of God as the meanes of our owne good and may not murmure in vaine But it may be some will say is it a matter of so great price to be gathered vnto Christ that a man should despise al the pleasures of this life cōtemne all the bitternes terrors of the houre of death with the Apostle here desire to be loosed and to be with Christ I surely and that is it that followeth in the next place to bee considered and in the last wordes of my text Which is best of all Vnto the Lord Iesus at the last day all both good and bad shall be gathered in the 25. of Matth at the 31. verse It is saide When the Sonne of man shall come in his glorie and all his holy Angells with him then shall he sit vpon the throne of his glorie and before him shall be gathered all Nations of the earth And in the
2. to the Corinthians 5. chapter 10 verse Paul saith Wee must all appeare before the tribunall seate of Christ that euery one may receiue the thinges that are done in his body whether it be good or euil All therefore at that day shall bee brought before the Lord Iesus But the wicked shal not come to be and to abide with Iesus Christ from that day Neither shal they in the houre of their dissolution bee gathered vnto him to be abide with him before that day They shall come vnto him as vnto a Iudge armed with authoritie to condemne They shall come vnto him as vnto a reuenger appearing from heauen with flaming fire to destroy And their iudgement when they appeare shal be to depart for euer from his presence As wee reade the sentence set downe in the 25. of Matthew at the 14. verse Depart from me ye cursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the diuell and his angells And of the iudgment of them in that great day that either know not God hauing had no calling or obeyed not the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ hauing obeied no calling Paul saith in the second to the Thessalonians 1. chapter and 9. verse That they shall be punished with euerlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord and from the glorie of his power Their comming therefore is not to bee and abide with Christ And for the time of their comming and abiding before Christ it shall be most fearefull vnto them of whom it is written Reuelations 6. chapter 16. verse That they shall say vnto the mountaines and hills fall vpon vs and couer vs from the presence of him that sitteth vpon the throne and from the Lambe for the great day of his wrath is come and who can stand that is who shall be able to abide his iudgement But the faithfull at that great day come vnto him to be and abide with him to whom Iesus shal say in the 25. of Matthew 34. Come yee blessed of my Father And of whom Paul doth say in the 1. to the Thessalonians 4. chap 17. verse So shal we be euer with the Lord. And that their being and continuing with him is their happines as here Paul saith Euen best of all To this purpose it is an apt speech that is in the 6. chapter of Augustines Manuale Faelix anima quae terreno resoluta tarcere libera coelum petit quae te dulcisimum Dominum facie ad faciem ceruit quae nullo metu mortis affiicitur sed de incorruptione perpetua gloria letatur Happy is that soule which freed from her earthly prison dooth now in libertie enter into heauen and there beholdeth thee most sweete Lord Iesus face to face and is affected with no more feare of death but reioyceth in the incorruptible estate of eternall glory Marke the words of the Lord Iesus spoken to the Apostles touching this very matter of his fellowship in heauen and you shall finde them to contemne all consolation In the 22. of Luke at the 29. verse I appoint vnto you a kingdome as my Father hath appointed to me that you may eate and drinke at my table in my kingdome and sit on thrones iudging the twelue Tribes of Israel In the fellowshippe of Christ they shall bee made partakers with him of all glorie and gladnesse they shall be made partakers with him of all glorie for they raigne with him as Kings and be copartners of his Kingdome and ioyne with him in iudgement when he shall condemne the wicked And they shall bee made partakers with him of all gladnesse for they shall sit with him at table after the blessed manner of heauenly entertainement and they shall eate and drinke with him after the manner of heauenly diet and it shall be done to them that was saide to the faithfull seruant they shall enter into their Maisters ioy The blessednesse of this fellowship is described and shadowed forth vnto vs in the Parable by the happy successe of the fiue wise Virgins of whom it is said in the 25. verse of Mathew 10. verse That they entred with the Bridegroome into his wedding Chamber What meane these thinges the wedding day is a day of ioy and gladnesse The place where the wedding is kept is a place abounding with reioycing and feasting Those that are guests admitted to the fellowship of that time and place and admitted to the fellowshippe of ioy and gladnesse The wine was merely spent at the wedding in Cana of Galilee when the company was sober and Iesus his mother and Disciples were bidden and present And the faithfull comming to Iesus for the state of all the faithful in those fiue wise Virgins is shadowed enter with him into the wedding chamber that is they come to the place of mirth of ioy and of gladnesse Where as Anselme saith Munda anima sempiterno diuino consortio copulatur The pure soule is coupled as in marriage with euerlasting fellowship with God Father saith Iesus in the 17. of Iohn 24. verse I will that those which thou hast giuen me be with me where I am that they may see my glory which thou hast giuen mee That is that at leisure and at their pleasure they may satisfie their soules with viewing whatsoeuer delight the Kingdome of heauen and the glorie of the Sonne of God may affoord Which how great delight it is vnto the soule they cannot conceiue that are not yet admitted to see The Queene of the South came a far iourney to see the wisedome the riches the glorie of Salomon whereof she had heard report And in the second of Chronicles 9. chapter she came and saw and wondred And in the seuenth verse pronounced the seruants of Salomon and his men happy because they stoode before him heard his wisedome And when wee shall come vnto Christ to continue with him and to stand before him is there not a greater then Salomon there In wisedome and riches and glory farre passing Salomon How much more then shall we be happie and blessed to heare his wisedome in whom all the treasure of wisedome and knowledge are laied vp Peter saith Hee had the wordes of eternall life in his mouth whiles he was poore and despised on earth His wisedome then must needes be the words of eternall comfort and glorie which his followers shall heare from his mouth in heauen And how much more shall we be happie in beholding his riches and glorie when wee shall obtaine with him all vse of his riches and shall bee transformed into the like glorie For the iust shall shine as the Sunne in the Kingdome of their Father Mat. 13.43 The beautie of Lillies and other flowers exceedeth by the saying of our Sauiour Christ Matth. 6.29 the beautie and glorie of Salomon But the glorie of the Lorde Iesus Christ farre exceedeth the glorie of the heauens his exceeding glorie giuing light and beautie to the heauens As it is said Reuelations 21. chapter and 23. verse The Citie
of the heauenly Ierusalem hath no neede of the Sun neither of the Moone to shine in it for the glorie of God did light it and the Lambe is the light of it Then necessarily it must giue much more true content and delight and bee a greater happinesse to bee and abide with Christ to see his glory then to be abide in Salomons Court and to see his glory Yea so happy a thing it is to be with Christ behold his glory that when hee was transfigured vpon the Mountaine and had onely two of the Saints in company with him Moses Elias and they conferring with him of no pleasant discourse but of his death that hee should shortly suffer at Ierusalem yet the view of that short glorie was so excellent in Peters iudgement that though hee and his two fellowes were open to the checke of all weather on the mountaines top and were not themselues inlightened and glorified with that glorie yet was hee so wholly surprised and rauished with the sight of it that hee would gladly there haue made his continual abode to haue had libertie still to behold the same saying in the 17. of Matthew 4. verse Master it is good for vs to be here if thou wilt let vs make here three Tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias Consider still the circumstances of that glorie of Christ which they then sawe and compare it with the reuealed circumstances of the present glory of Christ which the soules of the faithfull now after dissolution doe see in heauen and it will appeare that though it were a good thing and a signe of great fauour to bee admitted to see that glorie of Christ vppon the mountaine yet it is as my text dooth call it Multo magis melius much better best of all and the full fruit of infinite fauour to be with Christ after dissolution and to be admitted in heauen to behold his present glorie The Lord Iesus for his owne part did then shine in glorie his face as the Sunne his garments as the light So that Peter doth call it in his second Epistle 1. chapter 16. verse Maiestie honour and glory yet putting a difference betweene that and another which he calleth excellent glory From whence that voyce came saying This is my welbeloued Sonne in whom I am well pleased But Iesus was then vpon an earthly mountaine vpon Mount Tabor he was not then vpon Mount Sion which Iohn in the Reuelations saw And he was accompanied onely with two of his Saints wanting the honorable traine of an hundred fortie and foure thousands hauing his Fathers name vpon their fore-heads and with heauenly musicke attending him vppon that mountaine And the glory of Iesus in that open and solitary place was short Peter heard Moses Elias talking with him of his death that should shortly follow at Ierusalem Peter also that beheld that glory was as slenderly accompanied with Iames Iohn and in a sort diuided from the fellowship of the Saints And he was also cloathed with mortalitie and in himselfe still full of frailtie and infirmitie and yet hee was astonished at the view of so great glorie But now is Iesus in heauen sitting at the right hand of God cloathed with maiestie and glorie Now is hee accompanied and attended by armies of Saints and Angells Now is his glorie constant and shall neuer more admit any eclips The Saintes that now come vnto him by putting off their bodies in death they put off mortalitie corruption frailty and all infirmitie they are brought by Angells into the societie of Saints and Angells as the Apostle to the Hebrewes speaketh in the 12. chapter the 22. verse Ye are come vnto the mounts Sion and to the Citie of the liuing God the celestiall Ierusalem and to the company of innumerable Angells and to the congregation of the first borne which are written in heauen and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of iust and perfect men and to Iesus to Mediator of the new Testament And while thus accompanied they behold the glory of Christ themselues shall bee transformed into glory Our iudgement esteeming of this happinesse to be with Christ may be directed and helped something by our wordes in recounting this happinesse But yet neither can our wordes expresse nor our heart fully conceiue the great happinesse that the Saints of God finde when departing from vs they come vnto the Lord Christ Is not the naturall childe glad to be with his father and doth he not therein find content Is not the louing wife satisfied to bee in company with her kinde husband and dooth not that please her minde Is not a true hearted and faithfull friend glad to enioy the companie of a true hearted and faithfull friend and doe not they being met reioyce togither Euen so the Christian soule that loueth the Lorde Iesus will desire to bee loosed and to bee with Christ for it knoweth that to be best Such to be the desire of a true holie soule euen by death to come vnto him rather then by still liuing here to be kept from him may appeare by the words of priuate meditation that Augustine vseth in the first chapter of his Soliloquia saying Cur faciem tuam abscondis forte dices non videbit me homo viuet Eia Domine moriar vt te videā videam vt hic moriar nolo viuere volo mori dissolui cupio esse cū Christo mori desidero vt videā Christum viuere renue vt vivam cum Christo O Domine Iesu accipe spiritum meum vita mea suscipe animam meam gaudium meum attrahe cor meum That is why doost thou hide thy face Thou wilt say perhaps no man shall see me and liue Come on then Lord let mee die that I may see thee Let mee see thee though I die here Oh I desire not to liue I desire to die I long to bee loosed that I may bee with Christ I wish to die that I may see Christ I refuse to liue that I may liue with Christ O my Lorde Iesus receiue my spirite O thou my life receiue my soule O thou my ioy drawe my heart vnto thee Those which were present with this man in the time of his sicknesse and houre of his death know with what constant desire he waited for and desired his dissolution therefore desiring to die that hee might be with Christ therfore desiring to be with Christ because he knew it to be best of all That the power of faith and true knowledge of Iesus Christ hadde wrougth in him that he preferred Iesus Christ before al things before life riches friends whatsoeuer knowing that to bee with Christ was more then all Blessed be God that is wonderfull in those that beleeue And let vs by such examples bee moued to treasure vp faith in Christ The Apostle saith in his Epistle to the Philippians 3. chapter 17. verse Looke on them which walke so as they haue vs for an example The Apostle himselfe was the example He desired to be loosed that he might be with Christ which is best of all This man walked so for hee desired to bee loosed that he might be with Christ knowing that to be best of all Let vs looke vpon him and while wee haue time helpes let vs lay hold on faith that knowing death to bee the gathering of vs vnto Christ and that companie of Christ to be the highest happinesse wee may with quiet and glad mindes put off our flesh when the day of our dissolution commeth and may rest in the Lord as this our Brother doth Laus Deo Amen FINIS