confess the wounds and acknowledge the conquests of these powerful enemies And the sad spectacle before us being already the Triumph of the one and suddenly to become the Captive of the other seems at once to answer the Question and defeat the Insultation of the Text. So that might it not have been better said O Death where is not thy Sting O Grave where is not thy Victory But notwithstanding all this he that looks upon the words with senses duely exercised may discerne a great propriety in them for the present Solemnity and by Faith as through a Telescope discover a Rich and pleasant Country beyond the Gloomy region of the Grave and a fresh Blooming Life springing out of the Dust of Death Which though it bears the name of an Enemy yet to a good Christian performs the Office of a Friend in letting him out of this vain and wretched State of Mortality into a life of unmixt and unchangeable Glory This contemplation hath force enough not only to Justify the suitableness of the Text but to reform our common Sentiments and practices upon such occasions by making us exchange our Cypress for Laurel and our tears of Sorrow for those of Joy which will farther appear upon a due examination of these words This Text I have taken at the second hand it being not Originally the Apostles as himself confesses in the verse preceding but a Quotation of his out of the Prophet Hosea c. 13. v. 14. which place though our Translation reading thus O Death I will be thy Plagues O Grave I will be thy Destruction gives but a faint resemblance to it Yet the Septuagint comes nearer to it especially if we allow the Words Sting and Victory to have been transposed through the transcribers negligence which is favoured by considerable a Beza â—â—iorum Copies and b Vulgar Aethiopic Versions retaining the Prophets order of the words in this passage of the Apostle For then they would be found to differ only in one word and not at all in sense it being to the same effect whether we say O Grave where is thy Victory or where is thy Cause wherein thou hast so long prevailed Or where is thy Plea which thou used to put in at the Bar of Divine Justice as for the word which we here render I will c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be it also signifies the same with that which is commonly translated d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where in the Judgment of several Eminent Christian e Jun. and Tremel c. Interpreters and of some learned Jews as well as of the Septuagint which here and generally where not corrupted is our best Guide to the true sense of the Original and for that reason alone doubtless was so often followed by the Inspired Pen-men of the New Testament even when it seemingly departs from the present reading of the Hebrew Code so that f Capell Critic Sacr. their conjecture is as needless as 't is groundless who conceive the latter Hebrew word was read by the LXX in this place instead of the former But the Hebrew it self hath the greatest affinity of all with the Text according to some and those most g Dr. Pocock on this place eminently learned in the Oriental Tongues by whose assistance they have undertaken to reconcile and adjust all the rest of the words both as to their Signification and Order of place and so completed the agreement betwixt the Prophet and the Apostle But however that be 't is sufficient for our purpose that the sense of the two clauses in this sentence is not much different and the scope of the whole even in our version is exactly the same O Death where are thy fatal Plagues or poisonons Sting O Grave where is thy destruction of or Victory gained over them Which Words though in the Prophet they might literally denote Gods deliverance of his people from the greatest temporal Dangers and Enemies even Death and the Grave and which by some h Grotius in loc are applyed to Gods destruction of Sennacheribs Army yet by the Apostle they are raised to an higher sense and adapted to the general Resurrection when Death and the Grave shall be swallowed up in Victory i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for ever when they shall be quite Abolished and Vanish not only so as to be no more but so as no Footsteps shall remain of their having ever been when there shall not be seen so much as the least Marks or Scars upon those who have layn under their utmost Force and Cruelty not a Blemish on their Bodies nor a Hair of their heads Singed And as this Scripture will then have its Consummation so it certainly had its Beginning at Christs Resurrection when the groundwork was laid of this our Rejoycing Whereupon these words are conceived by some to have been a proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Captain of our Salvation when having foiled his Enemies wrested their Weapons out of their hands given them their Deaths-wound and seeing them ly grovelling upon the ground he might draw near and Insult them saying where 's now thy Sting O! Death wherewith thou hast so often wounded and poisoned mankind Where 's now thy Victory O Grave which thou hast so long carried and boasted of over the Children of men And the Apostle here under the certain hope and sweet contemplation of that glorious day of Universal Triumph cannot for bear to anticipate that joy of the Resurrection but looking upon these baffled enemies a stingless Death and a powerless Grave as hurtless and despicable things breaks out into this Triumphant song this holy Exaltation and Insultation of the Text. O Death c. These words imply a Complete Victory and express a Joyful Triumph The better to represent the reasonableness of which Triumph and to lay bare the Foundations of this Rejoycing we must enquire what Victory this is and by whom obtained but before we can learn its just value and greatness we must be acquainted with the nature and quality of the Adversary so that we have three parts or steps cut out for the progress of our Discourse 1. The Nature and Dreadfulness of the Enemies 2. The Author and Absoluteness of the Victory over them 3. The Reasonableness of Triumphing and Rejoycing for the same In speaking to the first part we shall shew 1. Who and what kind of Enemies these are 2. With what Weapon they assail us 3. What Success they have formerly had 1. The Enemies are Death and the Grave That by the former is here meant the death of the Body is manifest from the whole bent and scope of this Chapter which is to demonstrate the Resurrection of the dead both of Christ the first fruits and of all Christians as the entire harvest through him at his coming And it is thence also no less evident that by Grave though the Original Word both in the Prophet and the
according to Solomons Advice Prov. 3.9 as well as with cheaper services and will cast an Eternal Glory about his Name and Memory This honour of building a House for the Almighty to dwell in Holy David was more Ambitious of than of being the Founder of the Royal Palace in Sion for himself and the succeeding Kings of Israel Which though God denied him yet he dismist him not without both a Commendation and Reward for his desiring and designing to do it And that Mans praise is inroll'd in the Everlasting Register of the Gospel who loved his Nation and built them a Synagogue Luke 7.5 But notwithstanding the largeness of his Heart and the liberality of his Hand his constant Hospitality and Private Charities his Publick Expences and Pious Works and Donations yet at the foot of the Account at his Death his Personal Estate rose up to such an unexpected heigth as can hardly be Accounted for upon any other Hypothesis than that Divine Principle That the Blessing of the Lord maketh rich Prov. 10.22 And that he replenisheth the Treasures of those that love him Prov. 8.21 when emptied in his Service Accordingly this good Man seems to have shared in the promis'd Reward of Godliness in this life and that in a higher degree than the Widow of Sarepta for while her Hospitable Barrel and Cruse kept at a stand only and wasted not his Wealth by his Religious Disbursements overflow'd 1 King. 17.14 and like the true Riches of the Mind improved by using and so became an eminent Instance and Justification of that sacred Paradox That there is that scattereth and yet increaseth Prov. 11.24 In short This Excellent Person like an unspotted Pearl was a Man of many and bright Vertues without the least stain of any known Vice. In whom we found the Loyalty and Charity of a Church of England Man the Piety and Purity of a Primitive Christian the Publick Spiritedness and Magnanimity of an Heroe with the Zeal and Constancy of a Martyr All which Vertues were in him such Originals in their several kinds as taken apart may challenge our Imitation but in Conjunction demand our Wonder And now reflecting upon what I have done in attempting to draw a Character where 't was fitter to pay Admiration as it may appear to be my Crime so also my Justification the former for the Essay the latter for the ill success of it For though the Excellency of the Theme may Impeach my Confidence for undertaking it at all yet it will at the same time Apologize for my Deficiency in performing it no better the worth of this great Man being such and so well known that it doth not need though it deserve a better Orator Besides the great commotion which I feel in my own Breast for the particular share I bear in this general loss hath so scattered my thoughts that it ought to be admitted not only to excuse a negligence of Style and a disorderly Method but to justifie them too as most proper for an Argument too bulky for the Undertaker and most becoming the tumultuariness of that Passion which hath possessed my Soul. Having now attended this Extraordinary Man through the more remarkable and Illustrious Passages of his Life we come to the last dark scene of it that of his Death which was uniform and of a piece with all the rest For as he lived the Life so he died the Death of the Righteous in the Unity and Communion of the Church of England thereby giving the most absolute Pattern of an Excellent Christian in both This sad cloudy part he adorned with the most vigorous exercise of all those glorious Graces Faith Hope and Charity wherewith he had so richly furnished himself in his life time and of all those other Divine habits peculiar to that state not only of Patience and Meekness Christian Courage and an Entire Resignment to the Divine Disposal but of Earnest Longings and Breathings of Soul to be with Christ In all things performing this last part so gracefully as when he went off the Stage not only to deserve the Plaudits of all good Men and Angels to whom he was a Spectacle but to receive an Euge and a Crown from his great Master who hath doubtless exalted him to a State of full Recompence and Transcendent Glory with himself in Heaven to his great and unconceivable Comfort though to our no less great and inexpressible Sorrow His setting like that of the Sun whose unlimited influence and bounty he emulated though it creates a Day and Joy to the other World leaves us in the Night and Darkness of gloomy thoughts for our loss A loss which must be beholding to time to be understood and to Eternity to be forgotten in a loss that is not confined within the narrow limits of a Family or a Town within the Precincts of a Hundred or a County but t is National and Epidemical t is the loss of so great and good a Man that the Gentry could not have lost a more faithful Friend the Magistracy a more worthy Associate nor the Country a more Nobler Patriot Than whom the King could not have lost a more Loyal Subject the Clergy a Stouter Champion the Church a truer Son nor the World a greater Example of all that is truly generous vertuous and praise worthy Yet we ought not only with patience but chearfulness to Contemplate and acquiesce in this great Conjugation of our losses they being also infinitely over-balanced by his gain of that Eternal and exceeding weight of glory which we are all aspiring unto and wherewith he is now certainly Crown'd amidst an innumerable company of Angels and of the Spirits of Just Men made perfect in the City of the Living God in whose presence is fulness of Joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore What we have hitherto heard and seen from both these Texts I mean the Word and Work of God may yield some useful Inferences that may reach those who are nearest concerned in this sad occasion If it be true that Death to the godly is now not only a Conquered Enemy but a real and a Confederate Friend not so much a Curse or a Cross as a great Deliverance and Blessing and if we ought to rejoyce and give thanks unto God for the Victory he hath gained and given us over it then surely we ought to be far from murmuring or immoderate Mourning when either we or any of our fellow-Souldiers are called out to Triumph over this Enemy and take possession of those Conquests as we do in part at Death But on the contrary rejoyce and give thanks Hence we may inferr a Double Duty First the Abstaining from excessive sorrow Secondly Admitting of moderate and suitable Joy. First we should hence Learn to Abstain from Excessive sorrow The voice of nature in the Heathens granted a Toleration for men to Lament their Deceased Friends and to wait upon them with Tears and Sorrow to their
THE CHRISTIANS Triumph over Death A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL OF RICHARD LEGH of Lime IN THE County Palatine of CHESTER Esq AT WINWICK IN THE County Palatine of LANCASTER Sept. 6. 1687. By W. Shippen D.D. Rector of Stockport in Cheshire Sometimes Fellow of Vnivers Coll. Oxon. OXFORD Printed at the THEATER 1688. Imprimatur GILB IRONSIDE Vice-Can OXON Sept. 12. 1688. To the much Honoured and most Accomplished Mrs. Elizabeth Legh the Vertuous Relict of Richard Legh of Lime Esq MADAM HAD my abilities to perform been equal to my propension to undertake your commands these Papers had presented you with somthing more worthy the memory of that half of your self which is in Heaven and less unfit for the perusal of the other with which we are still honoured upon Earth But the greatest ambition as well as the most proper disposal of them as they are was to have heen buried in the same dark Vault with their subject Yet seeing you would not be prevailed with to lay aside your authority over me nor be denied a sight of that which your circumstances would not permit you to hear I committed this Discourse into your hands in confidence you would have confined it to your Closet where I could have rested secure of a pardon for all its failures upon your own native goodness but could never have admitted the least thought of suffering it to be more publick had it not been for your irresistible commands and invincible resolutions to have it so notwithstanding the greatest and justest importunities of my self and friends to the contrary so that your Ladyship must be accountable to the world for the many imperfections it labours under The Pictures of our absent friends though they express no more then their outward and visible features are very desireable and delightful monuments but the Character of their minds and their inward and invisible beauties are far more excellent and valuable Fine spirits like elegant faces are difficult to be drawn to an exactness even by the greatest Masters And this worthy person hath been equally unhappy both under the Pencil and the Pen. How little I have succeeded and how short this rude draught falls of the Original your first reading I doubt will testify with trouble if not with tears and now when 't is too late force you to take up my first wish that this Province had been allotted to a more skilful hand that might have done him more right and given you more satisfaction Better parts might not only have set a greater lustre on so noble a Theme but have reflected an honour upon themselves and together with his consecrated their own names to Eternity while my humble Talent only sues for an excuse and may not unreasonably expect it too if either extremity of Passion through this surprizing blow or distraction of thought from a like intervenient Occasion and Office I was called to at the same time which throws the mind into confusion and darkness may pass for indispositions to such composures But what ever Entertainment this discourse may meet with from its deficiencies of form and poverty of art in this nice and censorions age yet the richness of the matter and the excellence of the argument are sufficient I know to recommend it to a place among your choicest Cimelia But as the greatness of his worth inhances the estimate of your loss so the displaying of that doth but open and revive your sense of this which I finding it more reasonable to appease then aggravate and observing how much you resemble the famous Lady Paulina in S. Jerom not only in the eminence of her Vertues but in the tenderness of her passions shall rather recommend to you those few familier considerations in the close hereof directed to the stopping of the stream of nature or allaying the bitterness of your grief if not the turning it into the sweeter passion of Joy. To the making all which advices of reason and succours of faith there offered effectual to that purpose 't is requisite that you bring along with you a serious attention and a greatness of Spirit The former of which you have in your power the latter in your nature For the awakening of which I know nothing more prevalent then to mind you of the original Stock from whence you Sprung and of those personal qualifications and that elevated Genius wherewith you are blessed Your paternal family hath furnished out persons of that eminence both for parts and virtues as have adorned the highest stations in Church and State. A deliberate reflection whereupon will hardly suffer you to stoop to so weak a passion or entertain so mean a thought as must sink you below the dignity of your Line or to be dejected with any thing save what is degenerous or inglorious Your own excellent endowments which have sufficiently appeared on other occasions as the serenity of your understanding the soundness of your Judgment and constancy of mind if duly touched and excited with these meditations can hardly fail of raising the desired effects But though envy it self cannot but give place to a reverence for the dead yet it will not so patiently brook the commendations of the living And though his modesty who is gone cannot be wounded by his Just Character yet yours is so tender that it would be oppressed with your own So that I know not how to do right to the rest of your Vertues without offering an injury to this I shall therefore indeavour to supply the omission of your deserved praises and the weakness of my other performances with the sincerity and fervency of my prayers to him who can wipe all tears from your Eyes and make the bones that he hath broken to rejoyce for your support and improvement under this severe Visitation that what you have lost in temporal comforts may be abundantly repayed you in Spiritual in this life and with eternal glory in the next which shall be the constant Intercession of Most Honoured Madam Your most Obedient Faithful Humble servant W. S. Octob. 3. 1687. 1 Cor. XV. 55. O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory THESE words at the first view may seem but an improper subject for this sad and solemn occasion For what greater soloecism can well be imagined than a Text of rejoycing for a Funeral Sermon than the celebrating a Day of mourning and lamentation with a song of Triumph and the drawing the bright scene of Mirth and Jubilee before the clouded minds of the disconsolate and afflicted What an incongruity to ask where are the weapons of Death and where 's the Victory of the Grave when every place and object proclaims their puissance and atchievements Every Church yard and Charnel-house being stuffd with their spoils and the whole earth but one Mackpelah where they bestow their prisoners and bury their slain The cries of the Mourners that go about the streets and the tears of them that weep within doors do sufficiently
Apostle by its various and doubtful senses hath afforded a large field to the Criticks to shew their Reading and Judgement in is here to be understood neither the Prison of the damned nor the state of the dead but the Mansion of our Carkasses till the Resurrection And though Death and the Grave are here distinguished by the Apostle yet in effect being the same to us we shall in the sequele of this discourse for the most part speak of them as but One. This is the enemy then we have to deal with and how Dreadful it is to the Children of Corruption needs no other proof than a bare appeal to the Universal sense and suffrage of mankind Job 18.14 which Job hath roundly summ'd up in his description of Death by the King of terrours and after him Aristotle much to the same purpose in styling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There 's nothing in the World can beget a greater dread or create a more exquisite horrour in the minds of men than the black and Melancholly apprehension of descending into the dismal state of everlasting darkness and solitude oblivion and senslesness There 's nothing we are not willing to do to suffer or to part with rather than be brought under its power We are ready to undergo all labours and pains fasting and Physick shame and tortures nay I had almost said death it self to avoid it So much of truth is there in That of the Father of lies Skin for Skin and all that a man hath Job 2.4 will be give for his Life And this is so well grounded a passion that it seizes and shakes the mind and shrivels up the Spirits of the stoutest the wisest and most virtuous men Our natures are agast and recoil at the very thoughts of death and our countenances wax wan at the sight of the Grave We are so unfit to enter the lists with these Combatants that we are scarce able to support our selves under the bare prospect or mention of them These Basilisks dis-spirit us at their approach and kill us with their very looks The sound of their names like that of Hunniades to the Turks strikes a dread into our Soul and shoots a chilness through our Veins which Lewis the 11th was so apprehensive of that he would not endure the mention of them either in health or sickness but charged his Servants when ever they should see him weak and languishing to exhort him to confess his Sins but in no wise to name death to him least that alone should kill him before the time The reason of all which must be sought for in our Inbred Antipathy to Annihilation The fear of Death lies as close to our essence as the Love of Life and to offer to reconcile a man to the thoughts of his dissolution is as contradictory an attempt as to perswade him to fall out with his nature and renounce his being And if it be a Natural it must also be a Necessary and unavoidable passion and consequently 't is as impossible to throw off the Fear as the Fate of dying This Enemy is not only Formidable and operative meerly upon the fancy but it s really Hurtful and Mischievous Death smites us in all our Capacities in our Relations and our Persons It turns us out of our Stateliest Houses and Palaces and Sequesters us from our greatest possessions and Empires It blasts our fairest Hopes and dashes in pieces our finest Models Breaking our purposes and the thoughts of our heart It snatches our tender Children out of our Arms and tears away the dearest Guest of our bosom from us It plunders us of our beauty and our strength of our honours and our pleasures It not only deprives us of our liberty and the light by shutting us up in a close dark prison but it layeth us in a bed of dishonour and loathsomness among worms and serpents It throws us into a Pit of stench and rottenness where it preys upon our bodies putrefies our flesh and consumes our bones It not only lops off some of our choicest comforts but lays the Ax to the root of all our Enjoyments in making a divorce betwixt the dearest Couple in nature our Body and Soul and drawing after it if not timely prevented an utter destruction of both eternally Add hereunto that this is an inveterate and implacable Enemy with whom there can no league be struck no amity purchased no reconciliation had It gives quarter to none but shews the like mercy of the Sword to all Indeed beaten captivated destroy'd it may be so it hath been by Christ but appeased reconciled never The Devil who is General and Parent of this Enemy being the Father of Sin who is the Mother of Death hath like an infernal Hannibal sworn all his Offspring to have no peace with the Posterity of Adam Nevertheless Death could do us no great mischief if he came not armed with his Sting which is The second particular the weapon with which this Enemy assaults us The meaning and reason of which Title is next to be examined The Apostle declares the former briefly and plainly in the next words The sting of death is sin A dangerous and deadly weapon The congruity of their names might be deduced from their common relation to a Serpent whose natural weapon is a sting as Sin is the proper hurtful Instrument of that old Serpent the Devil But the dreadfulness of this Weapon and its analogy to a Sting will more fully appear from a distinct consideration of the Pungent and Poisonous nature of Sin. 1. Sin is of a Pungent and Painful nature It usually approaches us indeed with a courtly address and a fawning salutation like Solomons strange Woman her lips drop as an hony comb and her mouth is smoother than oil but the end is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two edged sword A prosperous and harden'd Sinner who resolves to go on in the way of his heart and in the sight of his eyes knowing what smart and anguish the reflection upon his guilt and the very thoughts of the Divine Vengeance will necessarily give him industriously beats out of his mind all notices and remembrances of these things and bears down the first essays of Conscience either to inform or restrain him The Voluptuary indeavours to drown its voice with the louder noise of his Tabret and Harp. The Mammonist tries to hide if not smother this Vice-God as Rachel did her false ones among his Worldly Stuff and Furniture The Atheist and Hypocrite strive to over-rule its Plea with Erroneous Principles and Specious Pretences But at last when the Conscience hath thrown off her chains and servitude and asserted her rightful authority and dominion over the Sinner be it in old age or sickness when he is smitten of God or Man she will change the whole scene of affairs she will set up a true light in his soul and give him a juster apprehension of things and another sense of his own
able to transmute a whole World in a moment into its Malignant nature Which unhappy Projection hath been actually made already by our first Parents who no sooner toucht it but its Rancorous Ferment impregnated the whole Mass of Humane Nature stream'd through all the Blood of their Posterity and so turn'd the happy Golden Age into this wretched one of Brass and Iron 3. Sin is of a deadly Influence it may make its entry as Ehud did to Eglon with a Present in its hand but will at last leave a secret Dagger in our Bowels In a day or less it brings forth death Judg. 3.17 21. In the day thou eats thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 For though Man did not then presently die yet in the same instant he became Mortal that deadly infusion was then let into his Veins and mixt with his Spirits which was sure to be his Bane in the conclusion Whereas without this nothing in the World could have been destructive to us neither Weapon nor Distemper Bliting nor Thunder 't is Sin alone that gives an edge to the Sword an infection to the Air and points to the flames of Fire 't is this that gives malignity to Feavers virulence to Poisons and arms every Creature with instruments of death against us so that had we not been so wretched as to be Sinners we had been so happy as to be Immortal Our naked Innocence would have been greater security to us and more impenetrable than a Coat of Mail. Had it not been for this Sting Death it self could never have reach'd us no nor so much as had any being in the World. For Sin brings forth Death James 1.15 And though our Saviour who knew no Sin tasted of it yet that was not of necessity but a voluntary undertaking that as the first Adam by Sin brought Death into the World so he the second by Death might cast Sin out of it This is the bitter Root from whence springs all the Misery both for degree and kind which ever befell Humane Nature All the steps and advances towards our greatest sorrow from the first indisposition and slightest pain to final Death and utter Damnation derive from hence We were once so hardy and firm in our uprightness that nothing could pierce or annoy us but that unhappy fall that Sin gave us so bruised and loosened our Constitution and made us ever since so feeble and tender that we are now brought under the power of the weakest and most Contemptible Creature The least Fly wants not a weapon to wound us and the smallest Kernel hath been the fatal Instrument of Death The Lamp of our Life is now easily blown out we being ready to expire with any extraordinary Passions even those soft and gayer ones of Mirth and Joy. 'T is this that often makes the ordinary means of our health the occasion of our sickness and not only fasting but food mortal To this the several kinds of Death whether Temporal Spiritual or Eternal owe their Original The wounds which this Weapon gives are so fatal as to destroy not only Nature but Grace also and Glory working such a Miracle of Mischief as to extinguish that Life which is everlasting It is so dreadful and ruinous that it kills the Soul as well as the Body and sends not only to the Grave but to Hell. It destroy'd the old World of Men by a Flood laying waste the Primitive Paradisial Earth and turning it into a great ruine It swept away at once a great part of the Inhabitants of Heaven arresting the faln Angels before the Throne of the Almighty and hurrying them headlong into the bottomless Pit and it will at last people the woful Kingdom of Darkness wich an unknown number of miserable deluded Wretches There is no sort of it whether Original if its poison be not washed out in the Laver of Regeneration or Actual how small soever if the Viper be not crushed by Contrition and Repentance but will prove mortal One single act of it if it were possible to stop there nay the least omission entitles to eternal Death That is the wages that will be sure to be paid us even for not doing our work A petty neglect of Charity will deprive us of the inexhaustible Treasures of the Divine Mercy and we may purchase to our selves a portion in the lake which burns with fire by denying a Cup of cold Water Not only an idle word but sometimes silence it self consigns to Damnation Thus deadly is this Sting in all its kinds and degrees which is the Weapon wherewith this Enemy assaults us 3. The success which this Enemy usually meets with in his Conflict with Mankind is Victory If this were not sufficiently implyed in the Question Where 's thy Victory As if he should say thy Victory hitherto hath been notoriously both known and felt but where is it now yet all Countries and Ages Histories and Observation shew how he hath gone on Conquering and to Conquer what spoils and devastations he hath made throughout the World what slaughters and massacres he hath committed upon the sons of Men. There was never any universal Monarch upon Earth besides this King of Terrors to whom all living Creatures sooner or later must bow and obey The mightiest Princes as well as the meanest Subjects are his Tributaries he neither favours the Scepter nor forgets the Spade but calls for them all in and piles them up in one confused heap to raise a triumphal Pyramid to his name Cyrus and Alexander Caesar and Tamberlane after all their glorious Conquests and Trophies their Temples and Statues have at last let fall their Victorious Arms at the feet of this great Conqueror and laid down their Heads on the cold Clod in homage and obeisance to his unbounded Empire Those Heroick flaming Spirits who were so fierce and keen for Victory and Honour and so unsatiable with All this World could give them that they were impatient even to the Effeminacy of tears that there was no more then this to Conquer and Triumph over have yet in fine had all their heat and vigour quenched and tamed by the cold hand of Death their Glory covered with Darkness and themselves led in triumph by this great Triumpher who might insult them too in the Prophetick Stile saying Is this the Man that made the Earth to tremble Isa 14. and shaked Kingdoms That made the World a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof How art thou faln from Heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning O thou who didst weaken the Nations Art thou also become weak like other Men Ezek. 32. Dost thou lie among those that are slain with the Sword And bear the shame of them that go down to the Pit How come thy once glittering weapons of War to lie so quiet and rusty by thee while those Despicable Enemies the Worms assault and prevail over thee intrench within thy bosom and prey upon thy Vitals He was as great a Warriour as
a King who acknowledged the Absolute Soveraignty and general success of this Monarch in asking the question What Man is he that lives and shall not see death and shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Psal 89.48 And not only David the Man after Gods own heart but the Son of David the Man to whose heart God himself was hypostatically joyn'd the Blessed Jesus was for some time his Subject and Captive Who then can expect an Exemption from walking in this way of all the Earth And yet we should the less envy him the glory and universality of this Victory if the effects of it fell not so ruinously upon us If the overthrow were no more than the greatest Temporal Destruction nay which is greater than an Eternal Annihilation so that as our hopes were only in this life our fears might be of no other Our Case were the less Deplorable We should then at worst be but Negatively Miserable But when the death of the Body is but a Prologue to the death of the Soul and when this second Death is so far from being nothing that it is an everlasting and unconceivable torment when it is such a forlorn state as that the greatest Evil the utmost Misfortune of this VVorld even Death it self would be the greatest Good and only Comfort and yet not only the hopes but the very Possibility of Dying is there extinct seeing it is an Immortal Death This advances our Misery not more above the Patience than the Imagination of Mankind These Considerations of the Dreadfulness of the Enemy of the Deadliness of the VVeapon of the generality of their Success and the necessary Consequent thereof our extream Desolation may give us just occasion to cry out Rom. 7.24 O wretched Men that we are who shall deliver us from the body of Sin and of this Death VVho shall rescue us from the All-devouring Mouth of this Grave Certainly neither Man nor Angel can deliver us from the force and fury of these Enemies yet from the fear of them we may be delivered by the happy tidings of a perfect Victory over them all which is brought us by 2. The second General The Author and Absoluteness of this Victory Sed quis nobis Hercules But alass who will venture to go forth and fight this Goliah for us that thus Dismaies and Defies the whole Host of Mankind and dares them to match him with an Equal Combatant Let no Mans heart fail for there is one who will undertake him and he though not a David Heb. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet his Son according to the Flesh one who hath already gone out smitten and set his foot upon him 'T is Our great Champion Christ Jesus who came down from Heaven on purpose to fight this bloody Battle for us to enter the Lists with Death and the Grave and Sin and all the Black Legions of Darkness who had held us so long in fear and bondage And though his whole Life was but one continued Dispute with them yet the sharp and doubtful Encounter was at his Passion when he was not only sore thrust at bruised and wounded but slain Not only lost Blood but Life too and his Body closely Imprisoned in a Tomb. So that now one would think Death might be able to answer the Question of the Text to purpose and say Behold here 's my Sting fixed in the Body of the Lord of Life see the deep wound it hath made in his Side which hath let out his very Hearts Blood. The Grave might also vauntingly reply My Victory was in Golgotha and behold here 's my Prisoner whom I have in safe Custody in this Cave But stay a while and you shall see the salvation of the Lord Exod. 14.13 who though he fell to the ground rose up again and that Antoeus-like with renewed force and vertue when he charged his Enemies afresh broke all their strengths and gave them a final overthrow when he disarmed Death of his Sting and quenched its Poison in his Blood and by taking away the guilt thereof destroyed both the power and enmity of Death though he suffered the Enemy to continue till the General Resurrection He conquered the Grave also making his way through all its Guards and Rampiers it having no more power to detain him than the travelling Woman hath the struggling burden of her Womb when it comes to the Birth For how was it possible that a narrow Sepulchre should hold him whom neither the Temple of Solomon nor the Heaven of Heavens are able to contain It was a glorious Miracle for him to open the Graves to unlock those Chambers of Death for others when he was alive but infinitely more to break its Iron Bars asunder and throw open its Doors when he lay Dead and buried in it himself and to rise up and march out like the Sun in his full strength A Victory this sufficient to father it self and which visibly points to no less than a Divine Author and an Omnipotent Arm. It could be no other than our Spiritual Sampson the strength of our Salvation who when the Enemy thought him sure and sealed up even to an Impossibility of a Resurrection awoke thus out of the sleep of Death shook himself and carried away the gates of his Prison to the Heavenly Mount giving eminent proof of his ability and fitness for this mighty Enterprise by beating the Enemy at his own Weapon and in his own Strongest Holds the Grave and Hell and all this in the weakness of Humane Nature which had been so often foil'd by the Adversary And yet this Victory was not more Eminent for its Author nor more wonderful for its Manner than Compleat for its Effect It was so absolute that it not only presented us with our Capital Enemy in Chains but extended it self to all its Associates so as not to leave one Adversary behind to lift up his hand against us There 's no more Condemnation now from the Law Rom. 8.1 to them who are under Grace Sin hath no more Dominion over us ch 6.14 though it still keeps a Residence among us Death hath never an Instrument of Cruelty or Terror left him but being disarmed of his Sting he is a naked gentle and innocent Enemy He is destroyed also who had the power of Death that is the Devil And now the Serpents Head being thus broken though his Tail may still move and seem to threaten yet it cannot hurt us We may safely play with the Scorpion that hath lost its Sting for though we may find some loathing and abhorrence in our selves to it yet we shall receive no harm from it To die now for Christians is but to fall into a quiet and sound sleep to renew our vigour for the Actions of an Everlasting and Divine Life when we awake in the morning of the Resurrection The Grave likewise is so absolutely vanquished that it
will not withold one of its Prisoners but must at the appointed time surrender up all both good and bad Our Saviour hath so broken the Teeth and Jaws of this Devourer that it may swallow but it cannot grind us it may receive us into its Belly as the Whale did the Prophet but not being able to hold us must of necessity cast us up again upon the Land of Immortality The Righteous shall come forth of that close Cell of Darkness and Corruption into spacious Regions of Light and Glory The Wicked shall be brought forth too but it will be to a Bar that will doom them to a far more Dismal Place They shall rise out of one Pit only to fall into another more horrid and bottomless They shall be roused out of a state of Insensibility and still Silence to be driven into another of Sharpest Sense and most shrill and terrible Shriekings They shall enter upon Miseries which are no more possible to be undergone by them than understood by us We may now be able to make some Competent Estimate of the greatness both of the Victory and of the Mercy to us therein A Victory over the Enemies of this Life is valuable to those who have groaned under a Tyrannizing Conquerour or smarted in some Bloody Battle Those Israelites seem to have fully understood its price who having been long harassed by their Enemies offered to God whatsoever he pleased for one Do thou unto us say they Judg. 10.15 whatsoever seemeth good unto thee deliver us only we pray thee this day The Romans were not more satisfied with any Conquest than with those they had over the Germans because they were so near Neighbours and had been so long and vexatious an Enemy to them Surely a right apprehension of the Enemies in the Text will recommend this Victory over them as far more glorious in it self so more Comfortable to us For of Enemies some are Noble and Generous aiming like Pyrrhus only at Glory and Triumph Others are Imperious and Tyrannical designing like Carthage Domination and Oppression yet the bitterest Feuds and Hostilities in this World all Bodily Servitudes and Temporal Sufferances whatsoever are perfect friendships freedoms and Entertainments in comparison of that Mortal shall I say Immortal Enmity that Spiritual Bondage that Eternal Misery which we are delivered from by this happy Victory 3. VVhich shews the Reasonableness of Triumphing and Rejoycing for the same It was one of the Fundamental Laws of the Roman Triumphs Val. Max. l. 2. c. 8. sect 1. that there should be five thousand Enemies slain in the Battle but that could not debar our Victorious Lord from a right to this Honour who had virtually slain infinitely more in destroying the whole Body of Sin and Death and in spoiling Legions of Principalities and Powers Wherefore as at his Resurrection he got the Victory so at his Ascension he Rode in Triumph when he went up towards the Heavenly City with a Shout Ps 47.5 and the sound of a Trumpet Eph. 4.8 having the Clouds for his Triumphal Chariots leading Captivity Captive Coll. 2.15 and making shew of the Spoils openly When he was doubtless met in the way to the upper Jerusalem by numberless Troops of Angels and Seraphims with Psalms in their Hands and Hosanna's in their Mouths as the Daughters of Israel met his Father David with Musick and Dancing in his return from slaying the Philistin and by them Conducted with the greatest Magnificence and Jubilation into the Holy of Holies 1 Sam. 1.8 6. And as he hath given us the benefit of his Victory so the honour of a Triumph too though at present in the Inferour Kind We may have our Christian Acclamations now proportionable to the Pagan Ovations and our Hosanna's to answer their Jo Paean's and that upon better ground then any they ever had seeing by it we are not only delivered from the power and malice of our Cruel Enemy but also from those mighty fears and insuperable Apprehensions we had of them He hath dispersed all those horrours and amazements that unavoidably sprung up in our Minds under the thoughts of our dropping into an Abyss of Darkness and of nothing if not of endless and Exquisite Misery He hath released us from that pepetual anguish and perplexity that formerly stuck to the Soul in spite of all Humane Relief That scorn'd all the powers of Reason and mocked at the attempts of Philosophy to remove it He hath freed us from two greater Evils than Death it self the precedent fear of it in this Life and the dismal Consequence in the next so that we may now lift up our heads and hearts with joy and behold those Insulting Egyptians our proud and inhumane Taskmasters lying dead on the Shore or their Carkasses floting on the Waves We may take a new Song in our Mouths or else that old one of Moses with a little variation Exod. 15.1.21 The Lord hath Triumphed Gloriously the Pale Horse and the Rider hath he thrown into the Sea even into the Red Sea of his Blood. Or else resume this Apostolical Hymn of the Text in a holy defiance of those Enemies upbraiding and boldly challenging them now to do their worst and chearfully singing O Death Where is thy Sting Come bring forth all thy Instruments of Mischief let loose all thy Plagues and Poisons exert thy destructive Victorious Power to the utmost and hurt me now if thou canst but alass thy Weapon is wrested out of thy Hand thy Sinews are Cut and thy Meager Paleness is now not more the symptom of thy Envy and Malice than of thy fainting and languishing Spirits O thou great Destroyer of Mankind thou art now utterly destroyed thy self O Grave Where is thy Victory Keep me in durance now if thou art able make fast all thy Prison-doors and throw thy strongest Chains and Fetters upon me yet these as in the case of St. Peter shall all fall off and the other fly open O thou Devourer of all Flesh thou art now swallowed up in Victory thy self by him whom thou hadst devour'd Who can forbear now not only to Sing but Dance for Joy who could not forbear before to Cry out and Tremble for fear under the sight or sense of these hideous Bugbears to the Heirs of Mortality seeing they are now so weaken'd and wounded that there 's little left for us save the honour and pleasure to stand upon and insult these Sons of Anak who lie thus prostrate before us Let us then bravely despise and deride Death with all his Associates and Seconds Let us not so far disparage this great performance of our Lord as to receive the Spirit of Bondage again to fear any of them This would be to blemish the glory of his Victory as if he had left it imperfect whereas he was not only an absolute Conqueror of them all himself Rom. 8.37 But hath made us also more than Conquerours through faith in him and
even that faith he gives us also whereby we overcome the World. He hath not only ransom'd us from the Insolencies and Severities of our Enemies loos'd our Bands knock'd off our Shackles and scatter'd our fears but bids us fly in upon the Rich Spoils seize the glorious Prize and advances us to the greatest Priviledges and Perferments He not only settles us in a State of Peace and Security but of Grace and Glory He hath not only pluck'd the Sting out of Death but hath left Honey in its stead so that we may suck sweetness out of that Strong One Judg. 14.14 and find Meat and Manna in that Eater That which was threatned as the greatest Punishment under the Law is by our Saviours Victorious Resurrection become a real Blessing and under the Gospel 't is little less than a Promise and Priviledge that we shall all be changed It was formerly esteemed an unhappiness that we should dye it would now be one if we should not We should be forc'd to sojourn in this Mesech and be confin'd to dwell for ever in these Tents of Kedar were it not for Death which is the happy gate to Everlasting Life Wherefore we have no reason to look upon it as Satan's Serjeant or as our Executioner but as Christs Messenger and our Usher to Glory Socrates his Divinity raised him to such a heigth as to tell his Philosophical Friend that his Enemies might kill but could not hurt him sure our Christianity then will enable us to look upon Death not so much as a tolerable Evil but as the most desirable good and the greatest of Mercies fitter for our Love and Courtship than for our Fear and Abhorrence So that if an Angel from Heaven should bring us the news that we should never die we ought to account it as no Gospel no good Tidings but rather as an Anathema to us We need not shrug at the Grave neither for that cold and hard Lodging by our Saviours lying there is become as warm and soft as a Bed of Down That place of Stench and Noisomness since this Rose of Sharon was planted there is more fragrant than a Bed of Spices 'T is now not a Dungeon but a Repository wherein the Sacred Dust the only Reliques of the Saints are to be inshrined till the last Trump shall call for them again to be built up into a new and living Temple for their own blessed Souls and the holy Spirit of God to cohabite in for evermore And as we have little cause to fear so less to love these Enemies or to enter into any secret friendships and Alliances with them any more to make a Covenant with Death Isa 28.15 and to be at an Agreement with Hell or the Grave in the Prophets sense i. e. to persist in the way of Wickedness and cherish those Sins in our bosom which are both His and Our Mortal Enemies which cost him so dear as his own Blood to subdue and which if they be suffered to revive will be the death of our Souls Let us have a care that while he hath fought our Battles we do not thus make war upon him That would make this Victory over our Enemies the greatest overthrow of our selves and call for a Lamentation instead of a Triumph For such a perverse Requital of so great Salvation must proportionably inhance our future Everlasting Punishment What then shall we render unto the Lord for all these mighty Benefits Let us light all our brightest Torches of Joy and Gladness and kindle all our Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving to this Eternal and glorious Conqueror who hath wrought such wonders of Mercies for us and destroyed those our Potent and Cruel Enemies Let us praise him not only with our Voices but with our Affections in our Hearts and in our Lives in Pious Remembrances and pure Conversations The grateful Heathens used to Consecrate the Memory of those Heroes who subdu'd their Enemies and freed their Countries from infesting Monsters and Giants not only making them their Kings while they were on Earth but their Gods afterward in Heaven And can we do less to our Victorious General who hath vanquished so many Abaddons and Monsters for us who hath destroy'd a greater Devourer of Mans Flesh than the Minotaur even Death it self in its own Labyrinth the Grave and hath quell'd a more terrible Serpent than the many-headed Hydra even that whose name is Legion Certainly then to obey him as our King and to adore him as our God is both Rational and Christian Why should we not Erect a Statue to his Honour as Victors use to have not of Silver or Gold or the Work of Mens Hands but the Divine Image of himself in our Hearts for a perpetual Remembrance Let us take the Cup of Salvation and sing Everlasting Praises to this Immortal Lord of Life who was content once to die that we Mortals might live for ever and when by his own Nature it was impossible for him so to do assumed ours to qualifie himself for Death for our sakes To this Victorious King of Glory who rose again to give us the fuller assurance of the truth of his present and of our future Victory at the Resurrection lastly to this Triumphant God who ascended visibly and gloriously into Heaven to shew us the way thither and to take possession of it for us who hath in his Gospel thrown wide open the Everlasting Gates of Glory and exposed to our view all the Riches the Beauties and Honours of his Kingdom that we might behold the glorious Furniture of those Eternal Mansions he hath prepared for us and the never fading Crowns of Immortality hung out to edge our Appetites and inflame our Ardors to be partakers of them and to support and animate us in all Difficulties and Conflicts in our passage to this new Jerusalem To him I say let us give as is most due all possible Praise and Adoration both now and for evermore And it could be no less than a firm assurance of this blessed Victory over Death and a clear prospect of this glorious Scene of Immortality beyond it which fixed this great and good Man whose Obsequies we are now Celebrating in so steddy and uniform a Course of Christianity in his Life and Composed him into such a Chearfulness and Serenity of Spirit at his Death In shadowing out a more particular though but faint Idea of this Excellent Person I need not borrow any Colour from his Blood nor reflect any Lustre upon his Character from the shining Vertues and Noble Acts of his Ancestors which have Adorned his Family with many Royal Badges of their Loyalty and Eminent Services to the Crown though the Honourary Augmentation of a Hand and Banner to their Arms and of the Mannor of Hanley with its Franchises and Priviledges to their Estate will never suffer the brave Atchievements of Advancing the Black Princes Standard at the famous Battle of Cressey and the taking Prisoner Count Tanquervile
Graves But she bestowed her Praises and Encomiums upon those only who bore themselves bravely above it Among the Jews a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Vit. Mosis l. 3◠though mourning was not accounted a Sin yet such a Defect and Defilement as Excluded them for a certain time from the use of holy things And though Christianity it self hath not Entertain'd so much of Stoicism as to cancel all natural affections and to recommend a perfect Apathy to her Disciples yet she undertakes to Limit and Direct their Motions to assign them their proper Objects and their due Measures She knows that Love is such a Powerful Cement as works not only a close and firm Adherence but such a strange Coalition nay such a perfect unity of the Lovers hearts that death cannot snatch away the one without Tearing a piece from the other also and so leave the survivor under a kind of necessity of smarting and bleeding for it She therefore expects not that men should be insensible of their loss but only temperate in their sorrow She desires they would not show themselves so much Friends to the Dead as to become enemies to the Living to God and to themselves Hence S. Paul's admonition to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 4.13 concerning them which are asleep is not that they sorrow not at all but that they sorrow not as others who have no hope What a great disparagement and a Reproach would it be to our Religion if we could not shew an equal courage at least with the Heathens under the loss of Friends which many of them sustained not only with moderation but unconcernedness Could we in truth urge that Argument for our Lamentation which Rachel alledg'd for her refusing comfort upon the Death of her Children because they are not or did we not really believe a Resurrection and eternal Life we might have more pretence for an exorbitance in this kind but now seeing it appears from what has been said and all Christians acknowledge that death can have no other force upon a man than was ascribed of Old to Gyges his Ring not to unmake but only to make him Invisible for a season why should we so grosly and meanly deny that in our practice which we so openly and constantly avow in our Creed and in despite of all the evidence of Scripture and Specious profession of our Faith by our unreasonable despondency tell the world that in truth we are destitute of all hope that we not only question but quite despair of the being or the well being of the dead For can we believe that they shall rise again and yet thus bitterly bemoan them what should we have done if God had left them under the power of Death without any Resurrection nay what should we have done if we had reason to believe that he had doomed them to the second and Everlasting death we hereby give too just occasion to the Enemies of our Religion to deride and expose our Hypocrisy and the Contradiction of our Lives to our Principles and to wound it through our sides nay in effect we doe it our selves for every impatient exclamation is a kind of Blasphemy against our holy Faith and every deep sigh and groan a palpable Mockery and Ridiculing the Article of Eternal life Upon which considerations a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in Heb. c. 2. Hom. 4. St. Chrysostom judges the indulgence of immoderate mourning at Funerals so scandalous as to deserve Excommunication and indeed whatever may be the pretence there 's nothing at the bottom but a deep tincture of Infidelity which gives birth and nourishment to this unruly passion For who can believe that the Son of God himself died and yet so impatiently lament that any of the Children of men should die also who can beleive that he conquer'd Death and the Grave rose again and ascended triumphantly into Heaven and is there sate down at the right hand of the Father and yet lye under such distractions of mind when any of our Relations are call'd out of the body to follow him into his Kingdom We doe hereby raise an evil report of that good Land the Heavenly Canaan we discover a mean esteem of that blessed seat Abrahams bosom whither good men are carryed at death by the Angels nay we offer an affront to our Saviour himself in deploring their condition as miserable whom Faith assures us to be with him in Paradise partaking of his Glories and made like unto him And hence St. Paul who had been rapt up into the third Heavens reckon'd it a Gain to him to dye and to be with Christ And doubtless one assur'd thought of the Christians Heaven one single glance of the Glories wherewith our Friend is Crown'd would effectually quash and becalm all those stormy passions and impetuous commotions of Soul which we suffer for him So that in final resolution Immoderate mourning is so unchristian a passion that it evidently betrays our want of those Gospel-Graces either Faith in the Doctrine of the Resurrection and future happiness or hope and Charity if we bewail our Friend as if he had no share in them Whereas both his Life and Death were the greatest indications to the contrary for as he liv'd not the common Life so he dyed not the common Death of all men but the peculiar and distinguishing one of Gods Children amidst the Ministeries and in the embraces of those who would willingly have sacrificed their own lives to have redeemed his amidst the prayers of his dearest Relations returning them his last Counsels and Blessings under the greatest calmness of Spirit and clearness of understanding to the Fatal moment his happy Soul being constantly exercis'd and inflam'd with the purest and most ardent devotion overflowing with Spiritual Comforts and glorious Expectations till at last it went off as it were in a holy Extasy on the wings of Divine Love and Heavenly Meditations into the boundless Regions of Light and Glory and Immortality 2ly and Lastly let us not only shut up natures Flood-gates and quit our selves like men but let us open the Channels of grace and rise up to the Dignity of Christians and to the Example which the great Apostle gives us in the Text by taking up a song of Joy and Thanksgiving to God for the happy deliverance and exaltation of our Departed friend There is nothing more usual nor perhaps more natural for human Minds than in their affections and inclinations especially to fly from one extreme to another Mans whole life is but a Constant Vibration betwixt the opposite Passions of hope and fear of Grief and Joy which are the Systole and Diastole of the Mind Alternatly and almost necessarily succeeding one another And Tears are as natural Expressions of Extraordinary Joy as of common Sorrow Let us try then the Experiment in the present Case and see how happily we can Change the Irrational and dull Passion of sadness into that Angelick and Spritely one of
cheerfulness and gladness of Heart By ingaging our passionate and melting Souls in the Divine and Pathetick transports of Joy and Exultation with this Triumphing Saint By Lanching as it were out of the Body to fly up after him into those Orbs of Blessedness above to be present at his Coronation and to behold how he Reigns and Shines in the Kingdom of Glory At least let us turn our Condoleances into Congratulations Anoint our Heads and put on both Festival Robes and Spirits at this time of his happy Inauguration How unsuitable are our mourning weeds to those white Raiments with which he is now Array'd How Incongruous are our sad cries and Ditties to his Joyful Hymns and sweet Hallelujahs Sure his blessed Condition which hath Advanced him above the Benefit though still below the Addresses and Adorations of our Prayers is a fitter subject for Thanksgiving than Lamentation One of the best Arguments of true Love is the sympathizing in both fortunes with the party beloved But what a Strange and Ridiculous proof do they offer of their Affection who break their hearts with Sorrow because their friend is Transported with Joy who suffer their own spirits to be the more Dejected by how much his is exalted like the Representation of the heavenly bodies in the water the higher the Objects are in Reality above its surface the Lower doth their Image and Counterpart seem to sink beneath it Let us rather Ascend with him in Divine Meditations and rais'd Affections into the highest heavens Let us Rejoyce with him who doth now Rejoyce and Sing with him who is now Singing a new song of glory and praise and thanksgiving to Him that sits upon the Throne for the infinite mercy of this his happy Translation There 's none who had any true affection for him here but would be desirous to have as much Converse with him still as is possible Now the only way and the highest degree of keeping up a spiritual Correspondence a holy Communion with him is by doing Gods will on Earth as he is doing it in heaven by gloryfying our Creator at his footstool as he is doing before his Throne by bearing though it be never so mean a part in that Universal Consort and Anthem of Divine praise which is Maintain'd by the Church OEcumenical whereof he is singing the highest and sweetest Notes in the August Cathedral of heaven There is Doubtless joy among the Angels at the Coronation of a Saint as well as at the Conversion of a Sinner and if there be no Expressions but of Sorrow amongst men on that Occasion what is this but to walk directly opposite to the Inhabitants of that upper world and to justify this Churches title of Militant on Earth upon this if there were no other reason that it Clashes with the ways and interests of that which is Triumphant in Heaven Let us wipe off this black Infamy from the glorious name of Christians Let Atheists and Libertines whose hopes Expire with their breath go whining about in the Low and Lamentable style of Melancholick and Doleful Elegies at the Death of their friends and of Despairing Declamations and bitter Curses upon the Cruelty of the Fates It becomes the Inlightned Race of Christs Disciples who profess themselves heirs of Eternity to make a higher and nobler Flight and in a generous and heroic strain to sing a Triumphant Song at the Departure of those who Die in the Lord and to Congratulate their happy Advancement with a chearfulness of Spirit not inferiour to that wherewith they now possess it This which I propose is no Impossibility in Nature nor Romance in Divinity but a practical Mystery and a Noble eminence of Religion The loving our Mortal Enemies and the rejoycing at the Death of our dearest friends are perhaps two of the greatest heights in all Christianity and the latter seems no harder a task than the former The one being but a Reconciling the Antipathies the other the divorcing the sympathies of humane Minds A pitch this which was oftner Reach'd by the Strength of Nature and reason in the more considering Heathens than the former The Thracians who mourned at the Nativity used to rejoyce at the Funerals of their Friends The Egyptians Celebrated the Obsequies of their Prophet Isis The People of Salamis of their King Evagoras and the old Massilienses of their Chiefest Friends not with sorrowful Lamentations and Cries but with Feasts and Entertainments with Plays and Showes with Musick and Dancing with Songs and joyful Acclamations as for those who were entering upon great Honours and Preferments Whereas we run counter to the common stream of nature as well as to the custom and reason of those Nations if at the birth of our Friends when they weep we rejoyce and at their Death when they rejoyce we weep and lament And though the Author of nature our blessed Saviour wept for Lazarus yet if we allow the a Doluit Lazarum non dormientem Christus sed potius resurgentem Hieron Consol ad Tyras It. Concil Toletan 3. Can. 22. Fathers Descant it was not for his death which freed him from the Miseries of this world but for his rising from the Dead which would again expose him to them And Religion recommended to the first and best Christians this more suitable and chearful practice of Rejoycing at their friends Death not only for the Pagans consideration that they rest from their Labours and all the troubles of this Life but upon a higher reason also that their works follow them and that they are admitted a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. 4 in Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. in laud. Cesarii Hieronym ad O ean Epitaph Fabiolae It. ad Eustach Epitaph Paulae into the Joy of their Lord. For the Ancient Church had their gladsome Torches and joyful Hymns and Psalms in their Offices of burial which they sung at their Funerals in Testimony of their hope in the Resurrection and in token that the Christian Combatants having now Conquer'd were Crown'd and advanc'd to glory praising and thanking God for the same taking Comfort to themselves and giving Honour to the person departed some Footsteps of which Primitive usage seem still Legible in the Customs of those places among us where Psalms are sung all the way while the Body is Carried to the Grave Antiquity celebrated the anniversary memorials of their Saints also not with the drooping and Melancholick ceremonies of tears and cries nor in the Mourning habit of Sackcloath and Ashes but with the most splendid Scenes of Mirth and Festivity with the sweetest expressions of Joy and Thanksgiving And Doubtless if we had the same vigorous faith and hope which they had we should not fail of shewing the same serenity of brow and alacrity of spirit upon the like occasions This is neither an unpracticable nor a very difficult province to him that hath learned to Live by Faith to him that not only confesses with his mouth but
believeth with his heart this grand Principle in Religion of every mans being after Death and of the good mans being happy nor lastly to him who in our present Case shall be so just as to believe that this good man to whom we are paying these last Offices of Piety is entred into the perfections and joys of Eternity Whose Glory though it be shut up and skreen'd from our eyes below yet as the Sun in an Eclipse it opens and Displays it self Illustriously to them above Min gling beams with those bright Stars of the Morning the Angels and Cherubims he is now securely placed in the City of God actually Triumphing over Death and Sin for he can now sin no more and therefore can Die no more His Soul may defy them both and say O Death Sting me now if thou canst O Sin Poison me now if thou art able His Body also resting in hope may say to the Grave Rejoyce not against me O mine Enemy for though I am faln I shall rise again Mich. 7.8 Though I ly in Darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me What our Saviour said of Jairus's Daughter is true of our Departed Friend that he is not Dead but Sleepeth or indeed but one part of him sleepeth his Body for his Soul is awake and sings in Heaven Nay he Lives on Earth too for in many respects Death had no Dominion over him His Fame still Lives and will for ever in the Mouths of all good men that knew him His Blood is still warm and flows in the veins of his promising Issue His virtues and the noble Idea of his great mind still Lives and fairly Dawns forth in the hopeful Heir of his Family which God grant he may as fully inherit as he doth his outward Fortune Or rather may a double portion of the Fathers spirit rest upon the Son that he who Succeeds may if possible Exceed him also in all things that are great and honourable virtuous and praise-worthy That he may grow up to be a support to all the tender Branches and a Joy to the Disconsolate Members of that Large family And that in time he may fill up the great vacancies made by his Fathers Death in all stations whether private or publick both with satisfaction to others and honour to himself and so become an Ornament both to his Name and Country To conclude with St. Paul in his words following the Text Let us give thanks to God for giving us and all Christians the victory over Death and the Grave and Sin Through our Lord Jesus Christ Let us give thanks to God for this particular victory which we assuredly hope he hath given our Departed brother over all his Enemies Let his Dear Consort give thanks to God and Rejoyce not that the beloved guest of her bosom is snatched from her but that He is now in the Embraces of his Blessed Saviour and Ravished with Extasies of Divine Love. Let his Dutiful Children give thanks and Rejoyce not that He who gave them a being in this world is taken out of it himself but that they had a Father who in his Life gave them an Example of great virtue and left behind him at his Death a Name more fragrant than pretious Ointment Let us all rejoyce and give hearty thanks to God for the great Ministeries and Comforts which he vouchsafed us in him during his abode with us and for the Merciful and seasonable Deliverance of him out of the Dangers Temptations and Miseries of this sinful world Beseeching him in the Churches excellent prayer That of his Gracious goodness he would shortly accomplish the Number of his Elect and hasten his Kingdom That we meeting again with this happy Soul and All those other that are Departed in the true Faith of his holy name may have our Consummation and bliss both in Body and Soul In his Eternal and Everlasting Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS