Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A42701
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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 ...
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Gibbs, William.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing G668; ESTC R34914
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17,370
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36
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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
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