it 's but reasonable to be affected with our Death before it come Thirdly Because it is not the end of your being but your entering upon an unchangeable condition You don't cease to be but cease to be Mortal Now you fall into Sin and there is a may be of your Recovering but then as the Tree falls so it lies Now many that are caught in the Snare of the Devil may be Rescued by their Redeemer but if you fall a Captive to Satan in this Rancounter there 's no Ransom for ever There 's no mistaking twice in this Warfare nor is there any room to correct an Error For there 's no Work nor Device Eccl. 9. 10. nor Wisdom in the Grave whither thou art going For you that are Believers it 's your going to meet your Head and Husband and shall not the Lambs Wife make her self ready You are Wise Virgins and is it not a reproach that the Wise should sleep with the Foolish as this enters you upon a state where there 's no mixture all pure Joy or unmixt Misery so it puts you beyond all changing the Believer shall never more put to Sea or be in a Storm again And for you that are Unbelievers there shall no more be a Messenger of Peace to knock at your Doors that which is now your desire shall be your Doom Now you desire the Almighty to depart from you and he will leave you to all Eternity O Sirs this one Word Eternity if duly Weighed by us either as it respects happiness or Torments we could not look upon the Death of others without laying it to Heart by Preparing for our own Thus I have done with my Doctrine which I may rather call an Application I am afraid the Age we Live in needs more to be urged to Practice than entertained with the Explication of what is more abstruse many know much and know that they do know but few Practise what they know What I have further to say is to apply this Doctrine with respect unto the present occasion I might draw several Inferences from hence As First That the Christian Religion does not forbid but commend our sympathising with those that mourn for deceased Friends Religion is not a rigid Sowerness true Grace regulates but does not destroy natural Affections Tears came in by the first Adam and they were Legitimated by the second Jesus wept If we are not only to go to the House of mourning but to lay it to heart sure I am we are to be affected with those that are afflicted in it Secondly I might collect how difficult it is to make right Improvement even of those things that are most obvious We live among the Monuments of the Dead and it 's of the Lord's Mercy that we are spared The Living know they must die Some have the Harbingers of this King of Terrours already come and feel Death already invading them The Records of the Grave tell us it 's the House of all Living and yet how difficult is it to be affected with it Some possibly will say they have been hearing a very common Theme this Morning but canst thou say by all the Funerals thou hast frequented or Sermons thou hast heard that thou hast laid thy Death to Heart by making ready both as to thy state and frame as hath now been shown Thirdly How irrationally do they act who instead of laying Death to Heart put it far from them and lay Sin next their Heart and in their Affection They hug the Serpent that will Sting them the Worm that will gnaw in their Bosoms to all eternity God hath not given them the seeing Eye nor the understanding Heart unto this Day Some there are that carry it towards Death as if they were able to Hector it to stay their leasure or else were resolved as one says to try what Musick there is in Weeping and Wailing joyned in consort with Gnashing of Teeth Such may truly be said to be Dead while Living for the living c Second use by way of Exhortation Shall not we that are Living lay this to Heart that Death hath bereft us of one that used to be a Messenger of Peace from God to us in this Place One did I say I might have said many Or must I take up the Prophets complaint The rightous Is 57. 1. Nemo Hemo reponi◠in animo Junius Perish and no man layeth it to heart Possibly you 'll ask when such an one Died What was his Distemper Who succeeds him And in what condition is his Family left And when this is done your concern is over and gone Is this to lay what is come to pass to Heart No! this doès evidence that there was little Love to them while Living when we can so easily forget them when Dead Is the Staff and the Stay the Ancient and the Prophet taken away and will the Living not be affected I know Funeral Sermons have been much abused by daubing flattery whence some have condemn'd them in gross and think their ought to be no more notice taken of the precious than of the vile I grant that my work is not to praise the Dead but to instruct the Living and if I should attempt a panigyrick in this case it would be to put Paint upon pure Gold However oppressed Innoence ought to be vindicated and shameless Sinners ought to be reproved whether they will or will not regard it I shall therefore mention Three things which if well considered will show what just reason there is to be deeply affected 1st The Person 2dly The Season 3dly The hand the Living had in it First For the Person not that I pretend to tell you his worth for that would suppose I knew all he was Only give me leave to speak of him under a double capacity 1st As a gracious Man 2dly As a Minister of Jesus Christ First As a gracious Man True Grace is the lasting Foundation of Honour and Greatness Let Hell and Earth unite their Malice to contradict it the Oracles of Heaven will maintain Ps 112. 6. it That the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance In him Heaven gave an early confutation of that opprobrious but too common reflection That Ministers Children of all others seldom mind Religion He could say and that truly too as Obadiah did Thy servant feared the Lord from my youth 1 Kings 18. 12. He was early Planted in the Beams of the Sun of Righteousness and thereby quickly ripened to do his Master eminent Service He not only from a Child knew the Scriptures but through them was made 2 Tim. 3. 15. wise unto Salvation Nor was his goodness like the Morning Cloud and the early Dew but like the shining light which shineth more and Prov. 4. 18. more unto the perfect day Tho through constant labour in his Masters Vineyard and other afflictive providences he contracted an early weakness in his outward Man so that his Strength was weakned in the
A Funeral Sermon Preached at the Merchants Lecture AT Pinner's-Hall Broadstreet UPON THE DEATH of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Gouge Who Deceased Jan. 8. 1699 1700. By JOHN NESBITT LONDON Printed for John Marshall at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street 1700. TO THE Relations and Friends Of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Gouge DECEASED THE more Useful your Relation or Friend was to the World and Delightful to you the more Conspicuous will your Graces appear in a becoming Submission to the Will of Him who hath now remov'd him to a Better Place We can't part with such in whom we have Pleasure without Pain nor can such as have been united in Affection part without a Sigh and a Groan To have no Sense of what we suffer or to part with our Friends as if we sustained no Loss is Stupidity and not Submission but while you feelingly complain to God to show your Affection beware of complaining of him or censuring his Dispensations for he is accountable for None of his Ways as he can't deny us that Mercy which we have Merited so he can't take that from us which we have not Forfeited therefore it becomes you to say with David I was Dumb I opened not my Mouth because thou didst it Psal 39. 9. What I have said of him will appear to the Impartial his Circumstances being considered to be a due Debt If any of you think I have said too little blame your selves for not making Choice of a more Skilful Hand to represent him in his full Lustre If any blame me for saying so much that 's owing to the Living who made it needful and not to my Inclination If to think and speak Ill of others is as a Great Man hath Asserted not only a bad thing but a sign of a bad Man sure I am it 's a very difficult thing to find a good Man in Conversation when speaking Ill of others is so much in fashion It is a pity when so many of all Parties seem to be bent for Division that such should appear agreed and united only in this to think the way to do Christ Service and promote their own Opinions is by endeavouring to blast the Reputation of each other I wish rather all Parties could learn to be Conscientiously strict to their own Principles and Perswasions in Practice and at the same time do all the Offices of Love and Kindness to each other notwithstanding our Differences as becomes the Disciples of a Meek Jesus As for this Discourse it is a Theme that is so often Preach'd and Published and Calculated chiefly for Practice that I must not expect it will suite the Gust and Relish of such Airy Christians as despise all Practical Discourses but if it may be Blest of God to assist and excite any of you or others so to number their Days that they may apply their Hearts to Wisdom my Design is obtained which that it may is the Earnest Prayer of Your Sincere Friend and Servant in the Ministry of Christ Jesus John Nesbitt Books Printed for and Sold by John Marshall at the Bible in Grace-Church-Street AN Elegiack Essay Humbly Offered to the Pious Memory of the Late Reverend and Learned Mr. Matthew Mead Minister of the Gospel at Stepney c. Also most of his Works The Effigies of Mr. Matth. Mead newly Engraved to the Life by an Ingenious Hand far Excelling any before A Sermon on the Death of the Reverend and Learned Mr. Stephen Lobb By Thomas Goodwin A Declaration of the Congregational Ministers in and about London against Antinomian Errors c. The Second Edition To which is added The Testimony of some of the Ministers in Behalf of the rest The Divine Institution of Congregational Churches Ministry and Ordinances By Isaac Chauncy Variety without Vanity or a Compact Number of Copies with most Sorts of Copy-books c. with Copies on the top to learn by Also most Sorts of Books whereby to learn Short-hand Rich's Short-hand Testament and Psalms A Funeral-Sermon ECCLES vii Verse 2. The last clause The Living will lay it to his Heart IT is generally granted that Life is the most inestimable Jewel of the Creation the Father of Lyes in this spake Truth That Skin for Skin Job 2. 4. and all a Man hath he will give for his Life Life tho' but in an Infect is more Glorious than the Sun that gave it both Breath and Being A Living Dog is better than Eccl. 9. 4. a Dead Lyon Yet this Royal Preacher when he weighs the Godly Man's Death with the Day of his Natural Birth he prefers the former before the latter The one is attended with a numerous train of Miseries whereas the other is the Believers deciding Stroak and final Conquest over all his Enemies Hence he perswades us to allay the Sorrow and Toyl of a miserable Life by making preparation for a comfortable Death and the method proposed is to frequent Funerals rather than Feasts It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to the House of Feasting and that for two Reasons First Because while we are Lamenting anothers Death we may learn the Frailty of our own Life For it is the end of all Men. Secondly The Influence it will have upon our Hearts and Practice The Living will lay it to his Heart Which passage I hope will not be thought unsuitable to the late Providence which gave me the sad occasion to make choice of it First Here 's a Duty mentioned Laying Death to Heart Secondly You have the equity or reasonableness of it The Living will lay it to his Heart As he Merits the Character of a Fool nay of a Devil that can make a mock of his own or anothers Sins so he is Prov. 14. 9. justly esteemed Dead while Living that with an unconcerned Eye can see Death's Conquest over others which is the Fruit of Sin and the example of his own The Doctrine I purpose to prosecute from these Words is this When we hear or see Death removing the best of Men and Ministers it is highly reasonable to expect that the Living will lay Death to Heart In managing this point I shall I. Show what it is to lay Death to Heart II. The reasonableness of it III. apply it First What it is to lay Death to Heart First To fix the Mind upon Dying to make it the Subject of our Mente attendet serious Meditation He that is a Wise Man will consider his latter end when he sees an end is come to others before him Some like the Prodigal lavish out their Thoughts wholly about this World and Death that will shortly snatch them from it is quite forgotten they like Archimedes are drawing their Projects in the Dust Take no Alarum by the warnings that are given them till the Enemy smite them down at once Others think it too Melancholy a Theme and why should they torment themselves before the time to think that this Body carefully kept and delicately fed must
into Eternity He views his Family and there finds nothing to support his departing Spirit but when he Reads over the Charter of the Covenant he begins the Songs of Zion tho' not yet past the swellings of Jordan Here he saw that peace between God and him which would abide in Death and out-live the Grave They that are without the Bond of the Covenant who have never given their Heart and Hand to be the Lord's they may be dejected and there is cause for it But Why Ps 49. 5. should I fear in the day when the iniquities of my heels compass me about tho' not only Infirmities but many Iniquities lay seige against the believers Soul yet why should I be dejected For the Lord will redeem my vers 15. Soul from the power of the grave my God will receive me What tho' Death seem never so terrible it hath lost its Sting Christ by his Cross hath turned those Waters of Marah into a refreshing Stream to all that are in Covenant with God thro' him As in the first Covenant Death is the Messenger of Justice to drag the Sinner to execution so in the New Covenant it is the Messenger of a Father to fetch his Children to those Mansions Christ hath prepared for them tho' death is continued in its natural conception as it is a dissolving of our Frame and Union between Soul and Body yet it is not continued in its moral notion as a penal satisfaction Death it self is put into the Believers Inventory Death is yours 1 Cor. 3. 22. Death is to every Man according to the Covenant in which it finds him if there be a Covenant of Peace between God and Thee then thou may'st go out boldly and meet death as a real Friend tho' in the Array of a formidable Enemy 3dly When your Hearts are sanctfied and renewed We are saved Tit. 3. 5. by the Washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Christ's Righteousness will never be a defence to any but his own Image If we take his Robe to cover us in our Sin we do but deceive our own Souls As death will wipe away all Tears from the Believer's Eyes so it will take off the paint of Hypocritical Professors then elevated strains shall not go for true Godliness nor fair Words pass for Charity nor an empty Name for the power of Religion he only shall appear an Israelite indeed that is without Guile and hath true Grace or Wisdom in the hidden parts As Hypocrites tho' they are embellish'd with many glistering Ornaments in the externals of Religion yet they are always loathsom to God because of their unseen uncleannesses so tho' Believers have many visible Infirmities and Imperfections yet they are always glorious with the truth of Grace within tho' like the Ark covered with coarse Skins yet pure Gold within then do we truly lay death to heart in preparing for it when Sin in its dominion is cast out of the heart for he is a Jew which is one Inward and Gospel Circumcision is Rom. 2. 29 that of the heart in the spirit where these three are secured that Soul's state is safe The second preparation is to be actually ready for death The former is and hath been the care of every true Believer but the neglect of this latter makes the message of death strangely surprizing to many real Christians instead of going out of the World like the Patriarch saying I have waited for thy Salvation or like old Simeon Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace Luk. 2. 29. they cry out like him O spare Psal 39. 13. me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more tho' the Believer's Righteous Soul while here is vexed with the filthy Conversation of the Wicked yet like Lot he is ready to linger when God calls him out of this Sodom of a World Would you then die not only in safety but with joy instead of being dragg'd forcibly go out willingly and while others have their Souls taken from them thou like thy Redeemer give up thine into the hand of thy heavenly Father for this purpose be conscientious in these four things 1. Let not the things of this World fix upon your Heart and Affections it 's difficult keeping the Heart chast for God when the Affections are intangled in the World tho' your necessity will oblige you to drink of this Jael's Cup yet beware of sleeping in her Tent beware of its Syrene Songs and Meretricious Smiles tho' neither Earth nor Hell shall keep the Believer out of Heaven yet they make many go halting thither Maintain as much as possible the same opinion of your earthly enjoyments while living as Men generally have 〈◊〉 when dying Look upon them rather as Talents committed to Servants to improve for their Master's use than as absolutely your own as they are free Gifts which we never deserved so be thankful to the Donor and as they are Talents so we should be faithful because we must give an account to our Lord and Master So use this world as not to abuse it 1 Cor. 7. 31. nor to have thy heart abused by it When thou seest the Kingdoms of this World and the Glory thereof beware of falling down and worshiping let not the dust of the Earth blind the eye of thy Faith nor the pleasures of it divide thy Love whatever be the delight of your Eyes be sure that nothing but God in Christ be the delight of your Hearts 2dly Keep your Loyns girt and your Lamps Burning As we are to stand actually ready for whatsoever service our Lord may appoint us whether doing or suffering so we must in order thereunto keep every Grace in exercise It was very surprising to the Wise Virgins when the mid-night cry came to go out and meet the Bridgroom to find their Lamps untrim'd tho' there was Oyl in their Vessels As Gall. 2. 20. we are to live by the Faith of the Son of God for daily influence so we are to walk by Faith as the eye to direct our Practice Let it 2 Cor. 5. 7. be your care to say with the Spouse At our gates are all manner of pleasant Cant. 7. 15. fruits which I have laid up for thee O my beloved There you have plenty and variety All manner of c and they are at the Gate that is actually ready and all for the Beloved As all Grace is derived from Christ's fulness so it 's devoted to him for his service Let there be Faith to follow him in dark Providences patience to wait for him under delays meekness to guard thy Spirit from being ruffled by the scurrilites of a sordid World Love which makes every duty easy and this is the way to have an abundant 2 Pet. 1. 11. entrance into thy Master's joy 3dly Dye dayly unto Sin It 's Sin that will be the Achan and troubler of thy camp This will make thee fly