Of all the Providences of God his ordinary ones are least observed and among them this of turning man to destruction Psal 90.5 and calling again for the return of the sons of men is as much slighted as any though none being of equal concern to it as standing betwixt both worlds and influencing upon our everlasting and unchangeable Beings Dies mortis natalis Aeterni the day of Death is the birth-day of Eternity And therefore it is that I have chosen to speak to you out of a Parable that I may take faster hold on your hearts and give the present occasion an advantage to gain upon your affections Parables having the knack of insinuating themselves into the memories and lodging truths in the minds of the Hearers They are like plain cut Seals that leave a fair impression behind them They are like Threds to string the Jewels of heavenly Truths that they may not drop off and be lost They are a great help to the practice of that Apostolical Exhortation We ought to give earnest heed to the things which we have heard Hebr. 2.1 lest at any time we should let them slip The Parable you may read at your leasure and save me the labour The purport of it is under the plain and familiar Discourse of a Lord going far from home intrusting his servants with money returning reckoning with them and remunerating of them to set before us in a most lively and apposite Representation our lives and concredited mercies our deaths and following judgments our sutable retributions and final rewards I shall not trouble my self nor you with a disquisition whether this be the same Parable with that of Luk. 19. or not St. Chrysostom in his 79. Homily upon St. Matthew's Gospel gives us many differences among the rest these two which may serve the turn They differ both in the weight of the Trust and in the number of the Trustees In the weight of the Trust there a pound here a Talent which is one hundred twenty and five pounds In the number of the Trustees there ten here but three But I shall leave such discussions to them that have leasure enough and to spare Nor shall I meddle with the Allegory which does but spend time and sport with the Text. The plain English of the Parable is this The man travelling into a far Countrey ver 14. is the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ leaving the Earth Eph 4.10 and ascending far above all Heavens Psa 72.11 His servants ver 14. are the Inhabitants of the World men of all degrees and conditions Li. 2. ad simpl qu. 1 Pelarg. Quaest Evang 〈◊〉 238. All Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall serve him The Goods given are called Talents ver 15. which are according to St. Augustine Munus aliquod divinum some divine kind of charge or employment Gratia sine merito Li. 2. de vnc Gent. cap. 8. in St Prosper's sense Grace and the gift by grace something freely derived to us to which no worth of ours could intitle us nor merit lay claim Quaelibet Dei dona In Regul brev Inter. 253. if you 'll have it from St. Basil Any the Gifts of God All the Goods we hold of him Goods of Nature Wit Memory Understanding Goods of Fortune give leave to the expression Honors Houses Riches Possessions Inheritance Goods of Grace Eph 1.3 spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Word Worship Sanctuary seasons of grace the dayes of the Son of man These all these and whatever is dispensed and concredited to us by the Lord are our Talents The diversity of these Gifts To one five To another two And to another one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to every ones capacity or ability De vita Christi P. ◠cap. 49. ◠3. is Ne quem gravaret ne cuiquam deficeret sayes Ludolphus That none might have more than he could manage or less than he could imploy Or else Salm. in Par. Tract 39. n. 7. Ob pulchritudinem Ecclesiae quae ex variis gradibus resultat For the beauty of the Church which is a Symmetry or elegancy of proportion a comely Result of several parts each contributing his share to the whole The Trading with the Talents or the committing them to the Nummularii vers 16.27 is the expending and laying out of all receivings of all our betrusted and concredited mercies thriving by them and gathering in the use of them as if we were driving on a Trade for Heaven and immortality The long time after which the Lord cometh and reckoneth with his servants vers 19. is in general all the dayes of the Son of man the Time of his forbearance and long-suffering with the World from the day of his departure till the day of his last appearance when he shall come again in power and great glory Vers 31 and all his holy Angels with him In particular The dayes of Man of every man the time of natural life Dies Peregrinationis as Jacob calls them Gen. 47.9 the dayes of the years of our Pilgrimage Eccles 12.6 7. the space of our abode on this side the Grave till the silver Cord be loosed and the golden Bowl be broken and Dust return to Earth as it was Then He reckons reckons righteously reckons indispensibly with every soul and then he will bespeak every faithful servant in the language of the Text. His Lord said unto him Well done Thou good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. So that the Text as you may see by this time is the Soul's Audit for another world Wherein is observable 1. The Auditor His Lord. 2. The Accomptant Him His Lord said unto him 3. The Acquittance or discharge which is made 1. By Applauding him Well done good and faithful servant 2. By Approving him Thou hast been faithful over a few things 3. By advancing him I will make thee Ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. The Particulars are many and the Time short I must post through them please to let your Attentions keep pace with me and I hope I shall not tire them The Auditor He 's first Col. 1.15.17 and well he deserves it it is his place He 's the first-born of every creature He is before all things and by him all things consist His Lord. Lord. That 's the Auditor's Greatness His Lord. There 's the Accomptant's Happiness Tolle meum Tolle Deum better for him there was no Lord than not be his His Lord. It will be the work of this Lord in the great day of his appearance all judgment being committed to him to summon the dead small and great Rev. 20.12 13. to stand before him to call to the Sea to give up her Dead and Death and Hell to deliver up the Dead which are in
God's servants shall be told for a memorial of them Let me raise it one step higher I am thy fellow-servant Rev. 22.9 sayes the Angel to St. John the service of God sets men above men makes them Peers with the Angels And that for the first Title of Applause Servant Well done Servant Good that 's next Well done Good servant Good by Divine Assimilation so is the creature good only so and no further For God is the Standard the Rule the Measure of Goodness Goodness in man is nothing else but a conformity to God And Man referres to God as his Exemplar in a double conformity 1. To his Nature so much is intimated in that phrase of the Apostle 2 Pet 1.4 that you might be partakers of the Divine Nature which is nothing else but Analogically to resemble God the greatest of Goods and best of Beings 2. To his Will this is the Rule as his Nature is the Pattern of Goodness for us to conform to His internal Will or voluntas Beneplaciti the good pleasure of his Will that 's the firstly first Rule and his external Will or Voluntas Signi His Will declared in his Word that 's the secondly first Rule of our goodness as the Schools speak So that all our services are either good or evil as they conform to or discord from the Will of God To do good and to do the Will of God are one and the same and there is so much of goodness as of conformity to the first Good in any of our services He is a good servant that eyes his Lord as his Standard and Rule in all his performances and comes up to him as near as mortality is capable of Good by Divine Assimilation let that be enough to have spoken of the second Title Well done Thou Good servant Faithful that 's the third A necessary qualification in a servant which as God will one day requite Be faithful unto death Rev. 2.10 and I will give thee a crown of life so he does now require it 1 Cor 4.2 It is required in Stewards that a man be found faithful It is required upon a twofold account Videt Dominus and Credit Dominus His Lord sees him and trusts him 1. Videt Dominus His Lord sees him and that will require the servants circumspection when he considers that He is a strict and exact Animadvertour upon the Actings and Expendings of his servants One that will note the least ill Husbandry and book every extravagancy One that keeps count of all his receivings and is by at all his disbursements this over-awes him into a gracious frugality This is a commendable eye-service to set the Lord alwayes before us Psal 16.8 and to act as being ever under the command of the all-seeing eye 1 King 5.26 Went not mine heart along with thee sayes Elisha to his cheating servant Gehezi If Elisha's eye was so near or could carry so far Ubi Dominus Deus Elisha Where is the Lord God of Elisha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Paul speaks Act. 17.27 He is not farre from every one of us he is very near us he is with us he is within us Cor Hominis fenestra Dei The heart of man is God's Window by which he looks into every room and sees what is doing in every corner of it He had need carry even then that 's thus look'd at and that is the servant's case here it concerns him to be faithful for Vidit Dominus His Master sees him 2. Credit Dominus His Master trusts him and He thinks it below the honour of a man more of a Christian to betray a trust He knows all he hath is concredited to him and deposited with him that his whole stock of mercies are upon Trust that whatever his Lord hath given him he hath not given from himself but reserves a soveraign right and interest and is Supreme Proprietor still He does not so farre mistake his Tenure as to call himself Lord of what he is but Steward A false Title makes men false to their Trust We misapply our mercies first and then we misimprove them Thus Nabal with his surly Possessives My bread 1 Sam. 25.11 and my water and my flesh did good with never an one of them Would we often recognize our Tenure that whatsoever we have is ours to use only and upon loane As the Prophet's Sons said of the Ax 2 King 6.5 Alas Master for it was borrowed it would make us more Husbandly with our Intrustments more true to our concredited mercies that by them we might carry on our everlasting Advantages My Time is not mine own it is my Master 's I will so spend it as to redeem it and whil'st this moment lasts make sure Eternity My House and Inheritance my Riches and Possessions are not mine own they are my Master 's I 'll make to my self such friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness Luk â—â— 9 that when I fail they may receive me into everlasting habitations My very body of flesh is not mine own it is my Master 's I will so possess the earthly house of this Tabernacle 1 Cor. 5.2 that when it shall be dissolved I may have a building of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens This is that which influenceth so vigorously upon a servant in all his tradings and transactions to make him faithful Credit Dominus His Master trusts him And be that enough for the first particular in the Acquittance or Discharge The servant Applauded from his Titles Servant Good Faithful Well done thou good and faithful servant Please now to hear him Approved for that 's next Thou hast been faithful over a few things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in St. Novarinus Lection varietas in Mat. 25. Augustine's Latin is In paucis In modico in St. Prosper's In a few things in a small matter in a little Great faithfulness is often seen in a little matter Adam must not eat the fruit Lot's wife must not look behind her The matter small the trial great in both It is Gods method to proportion commands and deposite mercies sutable to the capacities of his servants All are not of Abrahams growth and bulk and so not fit for such encounters to wrestle with seeming impossibilities to sacrifice a son an only son and yet a son of promise too There are lesser measures and so to be exercised in lesser matters There is a Mole-hill as well as a Mountain faith graces the mustard-seed will fit them for a comparison and these must be matched with trials and Talents of their own pitch and size and even in these few these little things will appear great faithfulness Thou hast been faithful over a few things I shall not trouble you with many Expositions of these few things take some few of many Pauca bona quibus utimur pauca supplicia quae
THE SERVANT'S AUDIT A SERMON Preached at the Funerals of the Right Worshipful Sr. EDMUND ANDERSON Baronet in the Church of Broughton in the County of Lincoln Febr. 15. 1660. By Edward Boteler sometimes Fellow of St. Mary Magdalen Colledge in Cambridge now Rector of Wintringham in that County and Chaplain to his MAJESTY Horat. Carm. li iij. Od. xi I Secundo Omine nostri memorem Sepulchro Sculpe querelam London Printed for G. Bedell T. Collins and are sold at their shop at the Middle-Temple Gate in Fleet-street 1662. To the Right Worshipful Sir JOHN ANDERSON OF BROVGHTON in the County of LINCOLN Baronet SIR I Was in some dispute with my self to whom this Dedication might be most proper your Lady Mother or your self Rom. 16.27 but it pleased God only wise to decide that Question by translating her into Glory and leaving you to enter upon your Parentalia among which this Sermon with your approbation and good leave may be accounted and passe for one It was preached by your Father's Will but printed against my own Pardon me Sir that I tell you so It is not that I was unwilling to raise my whole Posse and offer my utmost Contributions to his memory The adventure I made of my self in that great and solemn appearance at his Funerals will assert me against that Suspition but because I was sensible of that Torrent of Inke whick broke in upon us during the late lawlesse and scribling dayes every one licensing himself to invade the Press till we were become almost all Books and no learning insomuch that if we had held on at that rate that expression of Saint John had scarce been an Hyperbole with us Joh. 21.25 Even the world it self could not contain the Books that should be written You cannot then blame me if I was so charitable to my self as to desire not to be listed among those Supernumeraries Over and besides all this I looked on your self as the fairest Transcript of your Father's vertues out-doing all Copies that a pen could pretend to and coming so near the Original as might justly silence and Supersede all attempts of this nature So that what is or can be written may be seen exemplified in your self with many advantages And it is no small help to me that where I am defective and come short I may remit those that know you to look at you for their Reparations The world then having the best account of your Father in your self these Papers with the Escutcheons and other their companions in duty for the Rites of that day might well have gone into privacy according as every one could get their share and not have been summoned to this Reviviscence to stand a second trial and submit to a further but it may be not a more favorable sentence But I have learned not to consult my self where you command and have therefore given my self up to your obedience Please that your Name may give life to this Sermon the creature of your Father's death 't will encourage the Reader in the perusal as it hath done the Writer in the Publication for the worth of it will more than abundantly compound for the wants of SIR Your most faithful And most humble servant E. BOTELER A SERMON Preached at the Funerals Of the Right Worshipful Sir EDMVND ANDERSON Baronet Febr. 15. 1660. MAN being in honour abideth not is a Truth Psal 49.12 not more legible in the Psalmist than in this Solemnity Under the Herse is Man Adam of the Earth Earthy the Ruines and Reversions of Man A dead man excuse the Expression is Man drawn to the Life Upon the Herse you may see Man in honour There you have his Insignia the fair Atchievements of meriting Ancestors illustrated by a late Access the Cognizance of His Princes Favour the Guerdon of his own Loyalty And if you look at the mournful Attendants on his Exequies this day they tell us That this Man in honour abideth not Job 17.1 Eccl 12.5 Superest Sepulchrum in a nearer sense than Job spake it The Grave is ready for him he is going to his long home and therefore do the Mourners go about the streets But though Man abide not yet his honour I hope will be long lived it will live in his hopeful Son and Successor it will live in the mouths and memories of the present Age and grateful Posterity I came not hither to paint his Sepulchre or trick up his Name with any light Embroide yes of Wit or Art it is plainness suits best with mourning Besides his infinite Fame admits no addition no cont ibutions of the Orator can better it his own life hath given him the clearest commendations to the World and his sickness and death are his best Funeral Sermon Virtus Sepulchrum condidit Horat. in Epod 9. However being designed to this Employment both by the Will of God and the Will of the deceased I shall neither be so faithless to his Merits or false to your Expectation as to let him go to the Grave in silence and not let you know as King David said of Abner That there is a great man fallen this day in Israel 2 Sam. 3 38. But I must remember he is not my only Text though the practice of Antiquity would justifie me should I spend my whole Discourse upon him I know you will expect another and I have chosen one which I perswade my self shall have all your Votes for the sutableness of it Give me leave to treat your Attentions with it a while It is written MATTH 25.21 His Lord said unto him Well done Thou good and faithful servant Thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. THE Righteous perisheth Isa 57.1 and no man layeth it to heart was a complaint in Isaiah's dayes may be so in ours Thoughts of our own of anothers death we strive to keep as far from the heart as we can To mourn in our cloaths and laugh in our sleeves that 's fashonable and familiar it is to be light enough within so we can but black our selves a little about the skirts and edges and carry a face of sadness And if such an occasion as this do at any time melt us into some seasonable meditations of our mortalities they may rather be called our Fits than our Affections It is with us for the most part as with the people of Israel who 2 Sam. 20.12 13. when they saw Amasa wallowing in blood and lying before them in the way stood still a while and made a melancholy pause but when he was removed out of the way and a Cloth cast upon him they went on after Joab When we come to a Funeral our thoughts happily are at a stand sometimes seldom at a stay we are willing it may be to let them visit but cannot consent they should sit down in the Chambers of darkness
them to bring the World to a Reckoning to Audit the Accounts state the debentures and settle the eternal condition of Men and Angels Isa 2.11 The lofty looks of Man shall be humbled and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day His Lord the Auditor He 's first The Accomptant He 's next His Lord said unto him To him that received the Talents it is he that must account for them Whatsoever the servant hath is Depositum Domni they are his Lords Goods though in his hands as they are called vers 14. and his Lord will call him to account for them Him This Him is not a third person to exclude the first and second for it is I and thou and all every man and woman in the Congregation not a man that hath received a Talent but his Lord will say to Him Remember this remember it often remember it alwayes it will convince you into a holy thrift and make you better Husbands with all your intrustments Servants that never think of a reckoning never value their expences They care not how they debauch and mis-spend and lash out they are secure against Accounts The evil servant that sayes in his heart Mat. 24.48.49 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Lord delayeth his coming grows dissolute upon it smites his fellow-servants eats and drinks with the Drunken Oh! but let the Redde rationem have a room in your thoughts and keep company with your meditations it will lay a restraint upon you and overaw you into a spiritual providence and Heavenly forecast to remember that God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness Act. 17.31 to consider with your selves that there is an Audit day set down in the decretals of Eternity a time when the Lord will have a saying with every servant His Lord said unto him And that for the Accomptant briefly whom I leave to his Lord and let us now see how he comes off with him upon his reckoning in the Third particular his acquittance or discharge And here we find him 1. Applauded Well done thou good and faithful servant 2. Approved Thou hast been faithful over a few things 3. Advanced I will make thee Ruler over many things enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Applauded first and there we may take notice 1. Of the note of applause Well done 2. Of the matter of applause Good and faithful The note of Applause is but one word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Arias Montanus renders it with a benè only Well good and faithful servant It is vox optantis so St. Chrysostome is Latin'd Benè sit tibi Be it well to thee thou good and faithful servant Or It is vox laudantis Novarinus Lection variet in Mat. 25. so from the Syriack it is given us Benè est It is well I meet also with Euge rectè rectè sanè All which come to one and the same praising and applauding the servant for his faithfulness and goodness Salm. in Par. Tract 39. laus in parte mercedis datur his praise being part of his pay Well done What a Good God do we serve that maketh the best construction of us and our performances What a Candid Interpreter is He of the actions of his people Not the least endeavour of any servant of his shall want commendation though it deserve none Novarinus in Loc. and all this ad grandia quaeque allicere To quicken our industry after the highest attainings encouraging us to do well by assuring us he will one day say Well done Well done not well wish'd then Balaam had carried it Num. 23.10 Fiant novissima mea horum similia Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his Well done not well said neither will that serve Then every Running pretended Preacher would thrust in with the foremost Mat. 7.22 Many will say in that day Lord Lord Bern. have we not prophesied in thy Name Non legisse sed egisse non dixisse sed vixisse laus erit It is Action shall have the praise of that day nothing will do then but doing Well done And that for the note of Applause it is but a word and therefore a word of it may suffice Let us now proceed to the Titles of Applause Good and Faithful servant Serve per propriam humiliationem quoad teipsum Lud. de vita Christi p. 2 c. 49. Chrysost Hom. 79. in Matth. Bone per divinam assimilationem quoad Deum Fidelis per utilem dispensationem quoad proximum so Ludolphus glosseth upon the words following St. Chrysostome Servant by self-Humiliation Good by Divine Assimilation Faithful by provident dispensation Servant that 's the first Title A Title good enough for the best of us I wish we may deserve it We use to say of other services that they are no Inheritance God's service is Not a servant of his but ha's an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.4 and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for him Which made St. Augustine cry out with admiration Qualis ille Dominus qui omnes servos suos facit Dominos What a Master is he that makes Lords of all his Servants Servant is a Title may humble us and honour us 1. May humble us allay our heat and level our height teach us not to Lord it over one another since we are but servants make us see our distance and acknowledge our dependance upon him to whose bounty we ow all that we have or are mind us to wait as becometh servants Luk. 12.35 36. having our lights burning and our loines girded and being like unto men that wait for our Lord. Let this prick the bladder of Pride when it swells and take down rampant Greatness remember we are but servants Luk. 17.10 and even when we have done all we can unprofitable servants too Servant is a Title may humble us that 's one 2. May honour us If any man serve me him will my Father honour Joh. 12.26 sayes the fountain of Honour himself David counted the place of a Nethinim a Door-keeper the lowest of Temple-Officers no disparagement And John Baptist that Grandee of the New Testament than whom there never was a greater among them which are born of women Mat. 11 11 Of whom the Father Quicquid eo plus esset Augustine Deus esset He could not be more and not be God whom some upon what grounds I know not take upon them to seat in that very place from which Lucifer fell in Heaven yet He could find no place low enough here on earth so he might be in service Mat. 3.11 whose shooes I am not worthy to bear This was the Honorary Title of Abraham and other Saints of the greatest Print and wherever the Word shall be preached this also that they were