godlines looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God 2 Pet 3. 11. 12. And from the occasion and object before you be instructed to prepare to dye Nothing that is either great or good secures from Death No Man living can deliver himselfe from the power of the grave A little time will returne us to our dust and shut us up in the house prepard for all living A few Months have put a period to the Mortal lives of two good Brothers not more united by the bonds of nature then by those of Grace and brotherly affection Of whom we may say what David said of Saul and Jonathan 2 Sam 1. 23. They were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their Deaths they were not much divided Such a paire as for sincerity in Religion for mutual correspondence of affection one towards another and for candour and integrity of conversation towards all Men will scarse be paralleld in this or I doubt in the succeeding age As for this worthy Gentleman whose funeral hath brought us together I need say little being I speak to an auditory that have knowne him much longer and better then my selfe His extraction from Honourable and pious Ancestors was by him honoured with qualities and conversation worthy such a descent In matters of Religion he was serious and fixt not eccentrick and uncertaine in his motions but a fixed starre in his owne Orbe giving a steady and a constant light In matters of the world he was just and equitable tender of dishonouring his God or injuring his Neighbour providing things honest in the sight of all Men studying to give no just cause of offence to great or small Of so well ballanc't a soul and a mind so prepar'd to all events that scarse any external accidents whether prosperous or adverse of which his life wanted not it's variety were ever observed to resolve him into any unseemly expressions or immoderate effusions of sorrow joy feare anger or any other impotent and unruly passion Of such a composed gravity that shamelesse wickednesse open profaneness chose rather to hide it selfe frō him then to affront him Yet of that courtesy affability that attracted obliged all persons so that seldome any of any rank went away from him ill satisfyed or displeased Loving and faithful to his kindred and friends and out of a faire estate free and liberal to them and also to the poore and needy An eminent example of wisdome and goodnesse in all estates of life in all the imployments he managed and all relations that he underwent And all these Graces and vertues set off with so much humility modesty and selfe denyal and seasond with so much plainnesse and sincerity as made them all shine like apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver How well he deserved of all sorts and how generally he was and deservedly beloved I appeal to the frequency of this solemnity to the common vogue of the Country and particularly to the sad hearts and heavy lookes of you his friends here present of others too that are absent no lesse sensible and passionate Mourners In a word it may be said of him as St. John sayes of Demetrius 3. John 12. He hath a good report of all Men and of the truth also And having served his generation by the will of God having done his work and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his course he is come to his grave in a full age as a shock of corne comes in in it's season leaving to his friends and posterity something to perpetuate his memory better then a Coat or a Scucheon even the fragrancy of a pious name and the shining light of a good example Learne we that are his Survivors to transcribe his Copy to Live after his example and to be followers of him who by Faith and patience inherits the promises so when we are absent from our Bodyes shall we be present with the Lord we in the meane time labouring that whether present or absent we may be accepted of God through Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be honour and Glory for ever Amen FINIS
secur'd his Lot in Zoar Sodoms faire and Sunshine morning ends in a black and dismal storme If then we consider the paucity of good men if we remember they are our Brethren our fellow-Members if we owe any respect to the memory of them if we consider their usefulness while they are here and the ill presages that their removal carryes in it he must have an understanding of lead and an Heart of brasse that lets the Righteous perish without regarding or merciful Men be tooke away without laying it to Heart All which I have spoken not to adde affliction to the afflicted or to mix Vinegar with their Gall nor to grieve the Hearts of those who are too much overwhelm'd with Sorrow already I have another word to them before we part But to awaken the careless and secure world who regard not the Workes of God nor consider the operation of his Hand who take no notice what desolations God makes on the Earth what breachcs in particular places and families that regard not the afflictions of Joseph nor the Death of him that Dyeth Where are your natural affections where are your Bowels of Spiritual Love and compassion sympathetically feeling a common losse and bearing one anothers burdens Nay where are your eyes and understandings to enquire and discern the reason hereof and what God meanes by snatching his own out of the World so the Text. None considering that the Righteous are took away from the evil to come The word to come is not in the Original No more is there read but are took away from the face of the evill Which may only note their freeing and delivering from Sin and suffering which are the evils they have felt in this present life Having from henceforth all Sin washt from their Soules and all teares wiped from their Eyes So as for the time to come they shall neither offend nor be offended shall neither commit evill nor be capable of the impression of any evill from without But I shall take the words as we Translate them and as they are most commonly understood and applyed Hence collect 2. That God sometimes in much Mercy takes away his dearest Children from the evill to come When God is about to bring some publick calamity or some common scourage upon a People or place he removes his owne that they shall not see them nor feel the smart or burden of them Among the many wayes of mercy that God hath to secure his People from general evills this is one to call them forth to himselfe to hide them in the grave where malice and wrong can do them no further mischiefe Is 26. 20. Come my People enter into thy Closet shut the doore after thee Hide thy selfe for a littel moment till the Indignation be overpast And what if one sort of these Chambers be the Chambers of a natural Death and these doores be the sides of the pit and the Leaves of the Grave As God made an Arke for Noah to save him from the Flood so he can make the Grave an Arke wherein to secure his People till the indignation be past So sayes God to Josiah 2 Kings 22. 19. 20. Because thine heart was tender and thou humbledst thyselfe and weptst before me I have heard thee behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gatherd to thy Grave in peace and thine Eyes shall not see all the evill that I will do unto this Place Thus it is observed that Methuselah and Lamech probably many more of the good Parriarchs were gathered 10 their Grave the Yeare before the Flood Luther Dyed a little before the commotion and sad desolations that were made by the Boores in Germany and Saint Austin Dyed while his City was Besieged by the Barbarous and Pagan Vandals and good Paraeus but a few Dayes before the taking and sacking of Heidelberge by the little lesse barbarous and Bloudy Spaniards and Imperialists This then should teach us yet more seriously to lay to heart the Death of good Men least perhaps it should portend any future evill to us that are left behind When a Prince calls forth his friends and allyes out of a forrainers Country it is an argument he hath a controversy with that Country When Saul called the Kenites from among the Amalekites it was a forerunner of a Warre with Amalck 1 Sam 15. 16. When God calls his Servants and friends out of a place let them that are left consider their wayes amend their lives If these things be done to the greene Tree what shall be done to the dry and if God take away that which is the substance the sap and the juice what 's the rest but dry Wood fit onely to be bundled up and burnt Learne we then to turne our natural passions into Christian affections our bootlesse sorrow for the Dead into useful and pious love for the Living Weep for the Sins for the sufferings of the living for what 's present for what may be future what they feel what further they may feare Jer 22. 10. Weep not for the Dead neither bemoane him but weep sore for him that goes away That is whose troubles are but now a beginning being to endure the miseryes of a sore and long Captivity which will make them of Solomons Mind Eccl 4. 2. Wherefore I Praised them which are already Dead more then the Living which are yet alive yea better is he then both they who hath not yet been who hath not seen the evil that is under the Sun When a great company of people followed our Saviour to his crucifixion and the Women bewayled and Lamented him Luc. 23. 28. Jesus turned to them and sayd Oh Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but for your selves and for your Children for the Day is coming in which it shall be said Blessed are the barren and the Womb that never bare c. Convert your mourning and teares into fervent prayers and supplications for the pardon of our Sins who remaine and preventing the further progresse of Gods Judgments When Moses had took a full prospect of that grievous mortality that was in his time in the Camp of Israel and had had sad reflexions upon it he concludes-all with prayers fiâ—t for our imitation in such a time as this that the living might lay it to heart and learne to prepare for Death that God would put a stop to his displeasure and revive the hearts of his people with some tokens of favour and mercy for the time to come Ps 90. 12. Teach us to number our daies c. Returne O Lord how long and let it repent thee concerning thy servants make us glad according to the dayes wherein thou hast afflicted us c. so David Ps 39. Contemplating the shortness and uncertainty of humane life improves that consideration into such petitions as these v. 4. Lord make me to know mine end c. v. 8. Deliver me from my transgressions v. 10. Remove thy stroke
TWO SERMONS The first Preacht at Steeple-Aston in Oxfordshire at the Funerall of Mr. Francis Croke of that Place Aug. 2. 1672. The other at the Funerall of Alexander Croke of Studley Esq Buryed at Chilton in Buckinghamshire Octob. 24. 1672. By DANIEL GREENWOOD M. A. and late Rector of Steeple-Aston in Oxfordshire OXFORD Printed Anno Dom. 1680. Isai LVII 1 2. The Righteous perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and mercifull Men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evill to come He shall enter into peace they rest in their Beds each one walking in his uprightness THE Prophet Isaiah as all the Ministers of Christ was set to be a Watchman to give warning of Judgment approaching and also to be a Judge to Judge the House of Israel and to shew them all their abominations the causes and procurers of these Judgments To be also the voyce of a Cryer or a Trumpet to alarme and rouse them to a readiness that being God would do this to them they should prepare to meet the Lord by a thorough humiliation hearty repentance and effectuall reformation and amendment of such things as are amisse In the dispatch and delivery of this his message and errand he meets with various effects and his word different entertainment from two sorts of Men. 1. some were stubborne and disobedient going on impenitently in their rebellion adding Sin to Sin and securely promising themselves prosperity many happy daies with a plentiful and flourishing State notwithstanding all the menaces of the Prophet like those Deut. 29. 19. That say they shall have peace though they walk after the imagination of their own Heart adding drunkennesse to thirst so these secure desperate Jews slighting the threatnings of God by his Prophet cry in the verse before my Text Come I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong Drink and to morrow shall be as this Day and much more abundant like Babylon that said Is 47. 7 8. c. I shall be a Lady for ever so that they did not lay those things to Heart nor consider the latter end of it like those Amos. 6. 1. That are at ease put far from them the evill day and regard not the afflictions of Joseph But secondly there was another sort whose Hearts like Josiahs were tender trembled at Gods word were affraid of his Judgments prepared their Hearts to seeke the Lord and Mourned in secret for common abominations who mended what they could mourn'd for what they could not Now so it came to pass that while God was thus threatning these degenerate Jews by slow but secret paths making way for his wrath and bringing on the Judgments which he had denounced many of those Holy Men fore spoken of dropt away some it may be cut off by a suddain and violent stroak who had their Lives threatn'd by the cruel usage of mercyless persecutors others called aside by the wife dispose of him whose we are and whose our time and Life is So that good Men seemed to be very thin strewed scant one of a family and two of a tribe that he might complaine as the Psalmist Ps 12. 1. Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth the faithfull fail or as Mich. 7. 1. Woe is me for I am as when they have gathered the Summer fruits as the Grape gleanings of the Vintage All this was little regarded or minded by wicked worldly and voluptuous Men but it could not chuse but be an hearts griefe a sore rock of offence and occasion of trouble of mind to serious and considerate persons Therefore the Prophet amidst dreadfull denunciations of Judgment against the maine Body of State inserts some words of comfort to the sincere hearted who could not but lament to see but few good and those few made every day fewer by Death And therefore in these two verses God by his Prophet tells the People 1. How greatly he resents that neglect which his People met with complaining that their Death was not regarded nor their losse valued as it ought 2. Tells them what gracious end he had in cutting the thread of their temporall Lives which was to deliver them from the evill to come 3. What care God had of them after this life and what amends he made them for snatching them sooner then ordinary out of the World They enter into peace c. These afford us sundry points of Instruction 1. That God would have the Death of his Servants minded and layd to Heart 2. God sometimes in much Mercy takes away his Children by Death from the evill to come 3. That the Death of the Righteous is the beginning and inlett of their happiness 1. That God would have the Death of his Servants minded and laid to Heart The righteous perisheth and no Man c. by Righteous understand in a large sense the Holy the good Man that hath respect to all Gods Commandments that is carefull to order his Conversation aright or as the 2. verse expresseth it He that walketh in his uprightnesse By the mercifull Man understand the same good and holy man expressing his Piety to God by his Charity to his Brother and mercifull is added to just because it is not enough to give every one his owne and do no body any wrong unless he be a doing good likewise shewing mercy and extending bowells of compassion towards them that are in want Ps 37. 26. The Righteous is ever mercifull and Lendeth v. 21. he sheweth mercy and giveth Ps 112. v. 4. He is gracious full of compassion and righteous v. 5. A good man sheweth favour and lendeth v. 9. He hath disperst he hath given to the poor c. In all which places we see Righteousnesse and mercifulnesse are joyn'd together as in the Text and a Man is not a righteous except he be a mercifull Man That Summum jus which some Men stand so much upon and expect so much to be justified by whereby they give every one their owne and accordingly exact their owne of every one without difference or distinction when it is weighed in Gods balance will be found Summa injuria extreme wrong far from what he expects from a Christian whose profession is Charity You are my Disciples if you Love one another Jo. 15. 12. and who have these precepts from the Apostle of their profession Be mercifull as your Hâ—avenly Father is mercifull Lu. 6. 36 and in a word Piety Justice and Mercy are so nearly linkt together that where all are not none is in truth He that hath this worlds goods and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up the Bowells of Compassion from him how dwells the Love of God in him 1. Jo. 3. 17. He hath shew'd thee O Man what is good and what the Lord requires of thee that thou do Justice Love Mercy and walk humbly with thy God Mic. 6. 8. Pure Religion before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherlesse and
away from me v. 12. I am a stranger as all my fathers were Oh spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence c. Go we and pray like wise 3. The Death of the Righteous is the beginning and inlet of their happiness from henceforth they cease to be miserable and enter into bliss This is assured us by a double expression in the Text. 1. He shall enter into peace that is the Righteous Man departs here with inward peace in his Soul and Conscience Lu. 2. 29. Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace this peace begins here being supported by that hope which at length will not make ashamed Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Or he departs hence into Rest and Peace Glory Honour and Peace on every Soul that doth well Rom 2. 10. This is that peace which the world neither gives nor takes away A Peace whiâ—h the world is not acquainted with and therefore considers not that when the Righteous is taken away he enters into peace For a Christians spirituall Life is a riddle and mystery to a worldly man much more is eternal Life Our life is hid with Christ in God Col 3. 3. but shall be reveal'd seen and confest by all at the generall resurrection v. 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear we shall appear with him in glory This is a peace that passeth our present understanding For Eye hath not seen nor Eare heard nor hath it enterd into the Heart of Man to conceive what God hath layd up for those that Love him We are now saith the Apostle 1 Iohn 3 2. the Sons of God but it doth not appeare what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 2. They shall rest in their Beds As their soules pass to a place of rest and blessedness so their Bodyes are layd down at rest in the Grave as in a Bed or Bed-Chamber there to sleep quietly till the generall Resurrection Hence it is familiar with the Scripture to express Death by sleep the Grave by an House a Chamber a Bed and the Resurrection by waking and rising as Men do in the Morning out of their Beds after the sleep and repose of the Night Both phrases put together import the felicity both of Soul and Body perfect peace and satisfaction of mind with an undisturb'd rest and ease of Body whereby the whole man being freed from Sin and all the evill effects of it Ghostly and Bodily is admitted to see God and enjoy him in a fuller measure then ever he was seen or enjoy'd in this Life or it can enter into the Heart of Man at present to conceive Rev. 14 13. I heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them 1. This should Stanch our sorrow and stop all immoderate griefe for good and Holy Men departed this life For besides the unprofitableness of this griefe neither benefiting nor recalling those that are deceased which consideration put a stop to Davids mourning for his Child 2 Sam 12. 22. for he sayd while the Child was yet alive I fasted and Wept for I sayd who can tell whether God will be gracious unto mee that the chid may live But now he is Dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back againe I shall go to him but he shall not returne to me Besides the unpleasingness of it to God who as he hath taught us to Pray that his will may be done so he requires us to be contented and satisfyed when we see it done so is it unreasonable in it selfe the day of a good Mans Death being better then the day of his Birth Eccl 4. 2. He is borne to toyle and labour to misery trouble But at Death he enters into peace he rests in his Bed Who ever grieved to see his friend take his natural rest quietly Who was ever discontented with an happy peace after a troublesome a tedious War or a safe harbour after a dangerous and a Stormy passage or an easy Bed after an hard Dayes labour Nay it savours of some unkindnes to our deceased friends to be immoderately sorrowful for their departure as if we more valued the comfort and benefit we receive by thir bodily presence then their seeing the face of god and enjoying the pleasures that run at his right hand for ever more Do but recollect concerning our friends departed how many cares and troubles they were encumbred with in this World what fears within what terrors without what anxious sollicitous cares for Soules for Bodyes for themselves their familyes their friends and relations and for ihe Church of God how deep their sighes how many their teares how fervent their prayers and wrestlings with God both alone and with others in private and in publick and then consider againe can we be sorry that these troubles are at an end that these cares are off that these tears are wiped from their eyes that their prayers are heard and their petitions longings and hopes are swallowed up in fruition and Enjoyment that their fight is fought their warfare accomplisht and that they have receiv'd at the Hands of the Lord not double but a thousand fold reparation and recompense for all their service of Faith and labour of Love and patience of hope which they have exprest in this day of their pilgrimage To me saith the Apostle Phil. 1. 21. To Dye is gaine Oppose we not our loss to their gaine our temporal to their Eternal Non moeremus c. saith Hierome We grieve not that we have lost such an one but we give God thankes that we had him nay we have him for to God all are alive and who ever is returned to the Lord is yet accompted of the Family that is still a member of the Body of Christ and therefore not lost but shall come againe when he shall be revealed from Heaven with all his Saints 1. Thes 4. 13. I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that yee sorrow not as others which have no hope for if you believe that Jesus Dyed and Rose againe even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 2. This should reach us to give all diligence to be of the number of these Blessed ones that when we Dye we may enter into peace we may rest in our Beds that our Soules may be admitted to the beatifical vision of God and Christ and our Bodies may rest in hope even such hope as Job professeth Job 19. 25. I know that my redeemer Liveth and shall stand at the latter day on the Earth and though after my skin wormes destroy this Body yet in my flesh I shall see God