ready she was to be dejected from an over deep sence of her unworthiness will find reason to believe that this Man of God gave this Testimony of her to her as a Cordial to revive her Humble Spirit and therefore brings it in with And this to your comfort I add But I am too troublesom I fear to your Honour my hearty Prayers are that as you have begun so you may go on in living your Mothers Holy Life and that then yon may in a good Old Age dye her happy death with much Peace and Honour And that so long as you shall have a Posterity live on Earth your good Mother may never be Dead but may from Generation to Generation have those descending from her that will keep her Name and Pretious Example alive by a due Veneration of the one and Pious imitation of the other Madam I am your Honours most Humble Servant W. GVRNALL Evenham March 13. 1671. ERRATA PAge 51. Line 25. read Bewrayed pag. 87 l. 2O r. on p. 97. l. 22. r. sloughs p. 110 l. 11. r. Sin 1 Cor. 15.58 For as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. WHAT Luther said of Justification by Faith that may we concerning the Resurrection of the dead Articulus est Ecclesiae stantis aut cadentis it is an Article with which the Church standeth or falleth Yet so foul an errour had taken the head of some Members in the Church of Corinth as to deny this grand Truth which S t Paul calls in another place one of the principles of the Doctrine of Christ how say some among you there is no Resurrection of the dead v. 12. And is it not strange that such who professed to believe the Resurrection of Christ should deny their own but much more that any in the Church of Corinth especially in those early days should have such a darkness found upon their minds who stood so near the rising Sun and that while S t Paul himself was yet alive who had planted this Church by this we see though Truth is errours elder yet errour is not much Truths younger Though the Gospel-Church was purest in the Primitive times yet it soon began to corrupt in its Members Not unapt therefore was his saying who compared in this respect the gathering of Churches to the gathering of Apples which when first gathered may appear all fair and sound but then within a while some amongst them begin to speak and others to discover their rottinness No doubt this Church of Corinth and so others gathered by the rest of the Apostles appeared in their Members very sound in the faith and fair in their lives at their first embraceing of the Gospel yet some we see did thus soon discover corruption in both Now to recover the tainted and especially to preserve the sound from this dangerous infection the Apostle sets himself to defend this Article of our Faith well knowing that this was a blow made at the root of Christianity which must needs fall to the ground if this cannot be maintained and he doth it with such invincible arguments that if any Heretick shall now deny it the reason cannot be deficiency in the proof here given but rather a criminous conscience in himself which makes him on his own defence deny a Resurrection for fear of the Judgment which attends it Now the Apostle having done this and withal shewn the glorious array in which the Saints shall arise out of their beds of dust he then v. 55. sings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant song over Death and out-braves this King of Terrours to his face that is wont to keep the hearts of poor Mortals in the miserable bondage of a slavish fear O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory As if he had said Death do now thy worst we fear thee not thou mayest indeed get us into thy hands but thou canst not long keep us in thy power fall we shall into the Grave but we fall to rise again and when we arise out of our Graves then shalt thou Death fall into thy Grave never to arise again Then v. 57. he sings with an holy ravishment of joy the praises of God and Christ our Redeemer by whose atchievement this glorious victory over death is won The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ This indeed is our David who cut off the head of this Goliah with his own sword killed Death by falling dead upon it he unstung this Serpent by receiving its sting into his own blesed body He overcame this great Conquerour by submitting himself for a time to be conquered by it when Christ lost his life then his whole Army of Saints won the day Death now to them is no death that which was their punishment as Sinners is now their priviledge as Saints That which stood amongst the threatnings of the Law and was the most formidable of them all hath now changed its place and is got amongst the promises of the Gospel All things are yours or Life or Death 1 Cor. 3.21 So pretious an oyl doth our Apostle extract from this slain Scorpion so sweet an honey comb doth he find in this dead Lyons breast and gives it into the hand of the Saints to go eating of it to their unspeakable joy and comfort but is this victory over Death only matter of joy and comfort unto Believers Oh no Blessed art thou O Land when thy Princes eat for strength and not for drunkenness and blessed art thou O Emanuels Land when thy Saints feed on the priviledges and promises of the Gospel not to make them drunk with Pride nor to lay them asleepin Sloth but to rèfresh them to run the Race set before them and the Joy of the Lord becomes their strength the Apostle therefore goes on to improve and close up his discourse on this subject with an Exhortation to Duty Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord that is be stedfast in the faith of the Gospel and especially in the belief of this particular Article of our Christian faith the Resurrection of the dead and then live up unto this belief walk and work as for God while you live as believing you shall when dead rise again Now my Text hath the nature of a powerful Argument to inforce this Exhortation upon them for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words these two things are observable First the Nature and Quality of the service or work of God it is a Labour the Apostle changeth the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Work which he had used in the Exhortation immediately preceding into this of Labour and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies any ordinary labour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
IMPRIMATUR Robert Grove THE CHRISTIANS Labour and Reward OR A SERMON Part of which was Preached at the Funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere Relict of Sir Horace Vere Baron of Tilbury on the 10 th of January 1671. At Castle Heviningham in Essex The memory of the Just is Blessed Prov. 10.7 By humility and the fear of the Lord are Riches Honour and Life Prov. 22. ver 14. By William Gurnall M. A. of Emman Coll. now Pastor of Lavenham Suffolk Nobilis genere sed multo nobilior Sanctitate Hieron Epitaph Paulae Matris Ep. 27. LONDON printed by J. M. for Ralph Smith at the Bible under the Piazzo of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1672. TO THE Right Honourable Lady ELIZABETH Countess Dowager of Clare MADAM IT was a very merciful Providence which brought your Honour to your dear Mothers assistance in her dying sickness by which as you had the pleasure of recreating her Spirit with your presence and of giving an high Demonstration of your Piety to her in her low and weak state of body a vertue of great price with God and remarkably rewarded by him even in this life So also the happiness of being an eye witness to her Christian Deportment in her sharpest Pains and Agonies how her Faith and Patience triumphed over them all which no doubt did much sweeten the sorrow that her outward distress inflicted upon your tender Heart And indeed it is no wonder so holy a Life should have so Happy an end Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is Peace This Pretious Saint had made her Bed before she was to lye down on it Long had she been gathering these Spices Graces I mean for her dying Nest in the sweet Odours of which she at last so Holily and Peaceably breathed forth her Gracious Soul into the Arms of her beloved Saviour And now Madam seeing God hath determined your Will by declaring his it will highly become your Honour to bear her Decease as Saint Hierom did the death of the Noble Paula whom he so much honoured for her Piety Not by Mourning you have lost but by Praising God you had so Pretious a Saint to be your Mother and that you had her so long even to live to see and give her Blessing to your Childrens Children before her departure yea that you have her still Is there no way to have our Friends unless we have them in our sight She is not lost that still lives Her death was the end of her Mortality but there is no end of her Life In her Spirit she lives in Heaven with God to whom she lived on Earth In her good Name she lives with all that knew her or heard of her admirable Piety This like an after beam of the Sun-sett followed her to her bed of the Grave and still shines to her Honour The memory of the just is blessed though the name of the wicked rots even while it is remembred as the name of Pilate doth in the Creed to his reproach and curse And as to her Vertues she lives in your self and in as many other of her Noble Descendants as imitate her Piety It joyed this Blessed Saint while alive that she should leave her surviving Children and so many of her Grand-Children walking in the Truth And if an Heathen took such high content that the Honour which he arrived to befel him while his Parents were yet living whereby they had a pleasure in seeing his happiness How much more may it comfort the Pious Relations of this Saint that this their Pretious Parent had the joy of seeing them ennobled with Divine Grace and so in their way to Heaven before her self went thither I am sure it hath been an Heart-breaking-sorrow to some Children that they converted not to God before their Godly Parents bodies were converted into Dust and thereby cause them to go sighing with sorrow to their Graves who might they but first have seen them reclaimed would have gone down to them singing for joy It is a blessed sight to behold Children especially of Noble Persons imitating their Godly Parents Graces God is no respecter of Persons yet saith Saint Bernard I know not how it comes to pass that Vertue in a Noble Person doth more please Is it not haply because it is more conspicuous and so more attractive This Consideration made me more readily obey your Honours commands in publishing these mean Papers hoping that this great Example of Piety in so Noble a Lady together with the Honour that attended her to the Grave for it may cause some of high Birth a little more to consider their great mistake in thinking to overtake Honour in the dirty paths of Prophaneness and Irreligion and so be moved at last to change their way and turn into this clean road of Piety wherein this good Lady walking lived with so much esteem and dyed so wonderfully lamented The character that I have here given of her is True but not full nay far short of her worth Her Graces were of so high a strain that I may truly say what Saint Jerome did concerning his commending Marcella a Noble Roman Lady I was afraid to speak all I knew of her Wisdom Sanctity Charity and other Excellencies lest I should seem to exceed the belief of some those I mean who knew her not for as any were more and longer acquainted with her so their estimate of her advanced higher And must not that Piece be admirably well drawn which is most commended by those if able to judge that stand nearest and look longest on it And none I think will deny that famous light of his Age Bishop Usher to have been as able to judge in this case as any other and what an high esteem he had of this Lady and her Noble Lord and Husband also appears from a Letter written by him to her Forty years ago in which there is this passage The thing that I have most admired in your Noble Lord is that such lowliness of mind and such an high pitch of a brave Spirit should be yoaked together and lodged in one Breast And on the other side when I reflect upon you methinks I understand that saying of the Apostle better than I did That as the man is the Image and Glory of God so the woman is the Glory of the Man And to your comfort let me add this That if I have any insight in things of this Nature or have any judgment to discern of Spirits I have clearly beheld engraven in your Soul the Image and Superscription of my God Thus wrote this Excellent Person whose admirable judgment may keep any sober Person from thinking him in this high character guilty of rashness and light credulity and his known integrity is enough to free him from all suspicion of abusing his Pen to any servile flattery And they who knew the lowly Spirit of this good Lady and how
is But where may some say dwell these Men I am now directing my speech unto I wish they did not swarm every where and made not the greatest number in most of our Towns and Congregations I shall point at a few First He that conceits himself a Christian and nourisheth in him an hope of Salvation even whilst his life is prophane he no doubt thinks it too easie to be a Christian when a man shall think Christ will own him as his meerly for his Christian name and not reject him for his Heathenish Practices thinks that his heart is good though his life be wicked whereas his life could not be wicked if his heart was not so for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh when men shall think they are Gods Servants though they be the Devils Labourers that God is their Friend when they declare themselves every day his Enemies In a word to think they shall leap at death è coeno in coelum out of Delilahs lap into Abrahams bosom is not this to make it an easie thing to be a Christian and no hard matter to be saved and where is any one who hath not first been convinced from some work of the Spirit so bad that is not yet thus kind to himself yea have they not commonly the strongest Faith who have the weakest Grounds for it they build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come upon us Who knocks more boldly at Heaven Gate to be let in than they whom Christ will reject as workers of iniquity O what a delusion is this Caligula never made himself more ridiculous than when he would be honoured as a God while he lived more like a Devil Before you would have others take you for Christians for Gods sake prove your selves men and not beasts as you do by your bruitish lives Talk not of your hopes of Salvation so long as the marks of Damnation are seen upon your flagitious lives If the way to Heaven were thus easie I promise you the Saints in all Ages have been much over-seen to take so great pains in mortifying their lusts in denying to satisfie their sensual appetite ad quid perditio haec to what purpose did they make so much waste of their sweat in their zealous serving God and of their tears that they could serve him no better if they might have gone to Heaven as these men hope to do That Fryar was far more sound in his judgment in this Point who Preaching at Rome one Lent when some Cardinals and many other great ones were present began his Sermon thus abruptly and Ironically Saint Peter was a Fool Saint Paul was a Fool and all the Primitive Christians were Fools for they thought the way to Heaven was by Prayers and Tears Watchings and Fastings severities of Mortification and denying the pomp and glory of this World Whereas you here in Rome spend your time in Balls and Masks live in Pomp and Pride Lust and Luxury and yet count your selves good Christians and hope to be saved but at last you will prove the Fools and they will be found to have been the Wise men Did ever any man arrive at London by going from it every sin is a step from God and the more we sin the further we depart from God Doth not he then take a wise course to come at last to the full enjoyment of God in Heaven who by a lend wicked life runs as far from him as his legs can carry him Secondly They who think they are good Christians and fair enough for Heaven though they have no more then a Negative Holiness the best that can be said of them is they are not so bad as the worst they do not take so much pains for Hell as others but none for Heaven they labour not so much in the Devils work but work not at all for God like those in the Gospel they stand idle all the day long and yet hope for a peny at night though they never entred into Christs Vineyard they are so far from labouring in the work of the Lord that they will not touch his work with one of their fingers Do not these think it very easie to be Christians as if God was bound to save them but they not bound to serve them Is not Heaven called a reward and what reward can be expected where no work is done if some that work shall be denyed all reward because they did not labour at it and some seek that shall not be able to enter because they do not strive then miserable must thy condition be who fallest short of those who themselves fall short of Heaven Thirdly Formalists and slothful Christians and how many are these who will not be Atheists to live without all Religion but resolve not to be Zealots They are more then key-cold but are afraid to be too hot in their work they are not idle but cannot be perswaded to be diligent they love such a temper in Religion for their Souls as they do a Climate for their Bodies to live in it must be a very temperate one afraid to exceed only in Piety and Holiness in which alone there can be no excess Oh what a delusion is this he that will chuse another temper for his Religion than God hath commanded had need provide another Heaven for himself than God hath prepared for that is given to the zealous Labourer not the lazie Loiterer The violent are they which take this Kingdom by force a man may be sure of Hell with a little pains but Heaven will certainly be lost without our labour and diligence and the reason is because every man is born in a state of sin and damnation and so needs no more than to fit still in that state to bring inevitable destruction upon him to Hell he will come soon enough though he gallop not so fast as others in riot and excess But alas we are born afar off from God and Heaven much labour is required to get into the way that leads to life Eternal and when we are in it many a weary step to take abundance of work to dispatch sins to mortifie temptations to resist afflictions to endure impaired Graces to repair weak to strengthen and to persevere in all this labour till death it self takes us off This we must do or else as Saint Paul said of their abiding in the Ship we cannot be saved It is with the Christians Spiritual Life in this respect as with his natural his body hath within it self that which is sufficient to cause the death of it but not to maintain its life This provision is without as a man he will dye though he make no use of knife or halter to dispatch himself not taking food or not using physick will do it alone Thus the Christian hath enough within him to procure his Spiritual death and
is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 And this Faith is called a Faith of the operation of God Colos 2.12 't is wrought in us not by us Not only the light of truth which the Christian sees is Divine but the eye of Faith by which he sees this light is Divine also how certain must that knowledge be which in the light of Gods Spirit beholds the light of Gods Truth now from this Word of God the Christian is assured of this reward many ways First He is assured of it by Jesus Christ who himself came from Heaven and makes report thereof In my Fathers house are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you John 14.2 As if he had said you may belief me for I speak it that cannot lye and who loves you too well to put a cheat upon you That there are such Countries as France and Holland you do not doubt though you never saw them because some that have assure you it is true and shall the Saint be blamed for relying on Christs own faithful Word who cometh from Heaven is above all and what he hath seen and heard that he testifyeth John 3.32 Secondly The Christian knows it by the purchase Christ hath made of Heaven for Believers Mans sin had shut Heaven door against him and opened Death and Hells door upon him now before God would or indeed could set open again this door of life to poor sinners it was necessary that his Glory should first be secured which to do this admirable expedient the Divine Wisdom contrived that Christ should dye for sinners by which both Death the punishment of mans sin might be abolished and life and immortality which man had lost might be restored and brought to light again 2 Tim. 1.10 Hence it is said It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto Glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings Heb. 2.10 Mark that it became him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a condecency for God thus to do God never doth any thing that doth not become him in all his works he acts like himself every work declaring his Glory but not all alike Now God in the Redemption of the world intending to make the greatest manifestation of his Glory that ever he did It became him to pitch on such a means as was sutable to such an end and this of bringing his People to Glory by the abasement of his own Son to an ignominious and cursed death was the expedient he resolved upon as every way condecent to this design and indeed never did all the Divine Attributes appear in all their Glory so as they do here According therefore to this Eternal Council of Gods Will and Love in the fullness of time the Son of God was cloathed with our Flesh laid down his life took it up again and further to shew he had got a full triumph over death and had opened Heaven gates for Believers He opened the Graves of many of the dead Saints and raised them to life as a pledge that he would do the same in due time for the rest So that now to doubt whether there be an Eternal life for the Saints after death is to make the whole Gospel a fiction Thirdly They know it by the actual possession which Christ hath already taken of Heaven for them A Child thinks himself sure of an Estate when his Father not only purchaseth it but also taketh it up for him Thus did Christ ascend to Heaven not only to sit down on his own Throne but to take and keep possession of Heaven for the behoof and benefit of Believers Hence they are said to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus that is in him as their head which is a certain pledge to them they shall one day sit with him there in their own persons Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also Indeed he lives there to make Intercession for them and will never leave praying till he hath prayed them up unto himself I may say to Believers as once Naomi to Ruth sit still for the man will not cease till he hath finished the thing Christ will not cease his Mediatory work till he hath finished his peoples happiness and got his betrothed Spouse home to him in his Fathers house 4 ly He knows the certainty of this happy estate by the many express Promises made to Believers of it I cannot number them they are so many neither need I name them there being no Child of God so little I hope acquainted with his Saviours Will and Testament as not to be able to turn on a sudden to many places where this Inheritance is setled on them The greatest Heir that lives is the Saint He is heir to both Worlds having Promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come But the grand promise of all is that which gives him title to his Heavenly Inheritance In one place they are called Heirs of Promise in another Heirs of Salvation because this is the Crowning Promise Heaven it is called their Hope till this comes he hath not his Portion all he hath here is the least of what is promised But when Heaven comes then all is paid the Bond then is delivered in Faith and Hopes work is done The Christian who on Earth believes and expects Promises shall in Heaven inherit Promises there Faith shall be turned into Vision and Hope swallowed up in Fruition Now though nothing can make Heaven more sure to the Believer than Gods Promise no not the Oath of God it self because it is as impossible for God to lye without an Oath as with it for being he can swear by no greater he sweareth only by himself and so the strength even of his Oath lyeth in his Veracity which is engaged in his Promise as well as Oath yet he is graciously pleased ex abundanti consulting therein with our frailty to superadd all those things to his Promise by which men in contracts amongst themselves do conceive a further confirmation and security to to be given for performance of their Promises one to another as witnesses Seal Oath and Earnest that having these Securities which are wont to satisfie us in Humane Promises the sin of distrusting Gods performance of his might appear the more unreasonable in us and injurious to him as indeed it is beyond all expression when those Securities will not assure our hearts concerning the performance of Gods Promises than which we cannot exact more from those men that are most unresponsable or deceitful Secondly The Saints reward is described by its Transcendency your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In the explication of which Phrase I shewed that there is more implyed than is exprest That the Christians labour shall be highly unspeakably rewarded the place where the reward is laid up proves the transcendency of it and that is
And again Oh taste and see how good the Lord is once I confess in the Paroxism of a sore Temptation he spake like one of the foolish world I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency Psalm 73.13 But will ye believe what a man saith when his head is hot and light in the fit of a Fever rather than when he is in his true and right temper No sooner was this fit off but he befools and be beasts himself and blesseth himself in his approaching happiness Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me unto Glory verse 24. And from this hope takes faster hold of God and his Holy ways But it is good for me to draw near to God ver 28. And surely one affirmative testimony of a Saint in vindication of God and Religion is of more weight than a thousand negative testimonies of the wicked world to the contrary who speak evil of what they understand not condemn Religion before they have tryed it and disgrace that service they were never in Whereas the godly man hath served both Masters and speaks from his own experience where most is to be got professing that he hath nothing to shew of his gettings in the service of sin but shame But in the Lords service present fruit unto Holiness and a hope of Eternal life afterward In a word needs there any more to make this appear a false slander than to observe how these very wretches upon a sick-bed when they apprehend themselves on the marches of death do Court Religion which in their jollity they Cart and Scourge with their reviling Tongues Oh how glad would they then be to creep into a Saints cloaths and go by his name how desirous to dye the Righteous mans death and to have an end like his Oh how afraid to look into another world or to think of going hence as they are Doth not all this speak that they themselves secretly think there is more reality in Religion and the Eternal consequences of it than they will in their Prosperity confess The truth is God hath their Conscience on his side but their Lusts have their Hearts and these are they which gag their Conscience that it may not speak what it would but at last Conscience is even with them and revengeth the violence offered to it upon them And for stoping its mouth a while opens it the wider at last both in accusing them for this their past wickedness and terrifying them with the fearful expectation of the Dismal Tempest of Fire and Brimstone ready now to pour down upon them Thus as the hardest Frosts when they break leave the deepest slugs behind them so doth the greatest Dedolency and insensibility in an Irreligious life leave sinners when Conscience recovers its sense and feeling sticking fast in the deepest horror and desperation Secondly This convicts the carnal world of gross folly in refusing the service of God where the reward of their labour is so sure and incomprehensibly great and for misplacing their pains and labour for that which is neither sure to be obtained nor much worth the having if it be gotten and so in both respects labour in vain First the sinner labours for what he is not sure to obtain The world hath not to this day been able to give a certain rule whereby the covetous Worldling can be sure after all his toyl and drudgery that he shall be rich nor the ambitious that he shall get up the hill of honour and not catch a fall in climbing it the world is too like a Lottery where men know not whether they shall draw a Prize or Blank Though all come with heads full of hopes and projects into the world yet most go out with hearts full of shame and sorrow for their disappointments But in Religion there is such a certain rule laid down in the good Word of God that whoever walks by it Peace is upon him say ye to the Righteous it shall be well with him Mark the Perfect man and behold the Vpright for the end of that man is Peace Psalm 37.37 They that wait on the Lord shall not be ashamed because not disappointed of their hope but some carnal men will tell you whatever the world is to others yet they can say their labour is not in vain This worldling who hath prospered in his way can shew you his filled bags and tell you how many hundreds a year he puts up as clear gain into his Purse The Voluptuous person will tell you stories of the many merry Meetings he hath been at Months and Years of Pleasure he hath enjoyed saying with the carnal Jews These are the rewards our Lovers have given us Hosea 2.12 How then say you that we labour upon such uncertainties In the second place therefore the prize that sinners get by all their Labour it is not so much worth as to save them from losing their Labour For First What they have got will ere long leave them Secondly It will deceive them Thirdly It will damn them First It will leave them It is not in the power of mans wit to devise a way how the Ambitious man should keep his honour long except his preferment could change his Nature and make him immortal he is alas still of the same clay with other men as he was before The Rainbow is a common watry Cloud no more durable than the rest though painted for a time with gayer colours That which hath been is named already and it is known that it is man Eccles 6.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lump of red earth that must return ere long to his first dust As impossible it is for the Covetous man to make his estate sure to him his Riches will make wings to themselves though he doth not as the Prodigal make wings for them fly away they will and that toward Heaven also to accuse him and be a witness against him at the last day If he should not see them flown from him while he lives yet to be sure when Death's Gun goes off these and all the sinners joys will flye away at once And how near a step it is to Death the very Heathens can tell you by their Hyroglyphick of an open eye for life and an eye shut for death intimating that death may come ictu oculi mans life may be closed up as soon as an eye can be shut And is it not folly and madness to bestow all a mans Labour to raise the hopes of his Felicity on such loose ground where his building may fall as soon as it is up this made Solomon hate all his labour under the Sun Eccles 2.17 Because when he had done all he must leave all Secondly What Carnal men labour for will deceive them Satan and the World are both very free of their Promises to their Vassals and Servants All these things will I give thee said he if thou wilt fall down and
ready and prepared for every good work by daily combating with his corruptions and resisting temptations he learns more easily to overcome his Enemy And if in worldly trades this be accounted a sufficient reward to an Apprentice for serving out his time to learn the mystery of his Calling Oh what a reward is it by the daily practice of Godliness to learn more fully the Mystery of it This I am sure holy David set down for great gains I have remembred thy name O Lord in the night and have kept thy Law this I had because I kept thy Precepts Psal 119.55 And again I understand more than the Ancients because I kept thy Precepts ver 100. He did not grudge his own pains nor envy others ease so long as he might get more Heavenly Wisdom by it Secondly The Christians conscionable labour interesseth him in the special Providence of God for him while he is at work for God God will take care of him and what can he want that hath God for his Provider what or whom need he fear that hath God for his Protector For though all the Saints have a right in Promises yet none have a pleasant aptitude to apply the comfort of any one Promise while they are idle and negligent no this is the portion of the laborious Christian that walks in the actual exercise of his Grace No good thing shall he want that walks uprightly When God engageth to Abraham his Almightiness it is to him as walking before him not as sitting in the chair of sloth Thirdly The Christians labour is rewarded here with inward peace of Conscience and serenity of Mind Great peace have they that keep thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psalm 119.166 Peace be on them that walk by this rule as on the Israel of God Gal. 6. These are they in whose bosoms this Bird of Paradise sings her sweet Notes and her sweetest in foulest weather when sickness comes and death approacheth Now he that hath the testimony of his Conscience for having been a faithful Labourer in the Lords work will be able to make a comfortable reflection upon his past life For mens expectations of what is coming to them at death depends upon what their past lives have been Life is the time of sowing and death of reaping as they have sown so only can they expect to reap Life is a time for working and death for receiving the reward sutable to the work Hence it is when death is approaching Conscience if not seared and past all feeling is then carried back to review what the man hath been doing for whom he hath been labouring and therefore must needs bring in heavy tidings to the sinner of his approaching misery then it rips up all the stitches of that false peace which the ungodly wretch had been bolstred up with and tells him that now the Righteous Judge is at hand to pay him the dismal wages due to him for all the wicked works he hath done which makes the thoughts of death a terror to him But the Sincere Christian who hath laboured faithfully in the Lords work he then hath a pleasant Prospect to behold when he looks back upon his conscionable walking and can thence make his humble appeal to God and desire him to remember how he hath walked before him in Truth and with a Perfect Heart Oh what joy is this to his poor heart that his Conscience bears him witness he hath endeavoured to walk before God with godly simplicity and not in guile and can cast himself upon the Mercy of God in Christ and breathe out his Soul with a joyful expectation of being received into the Kingdom of Glory This premised I address my self to speak of the Christians reward in the other world this being principally if not solely in the Text where it is set forth two ways First By its certainty For as much as ye know Secondly By its transcendency Your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words you may remember I told you there is more intended than exprest First of the first The certainty of the Saints reward intimated by this Phrase ye know that is ye know it for a certain indubitable truth ye make no doubt of this thus is the Saints future Happiness spoke of with the greatest assurance and certainty We know that if our earthly house of his Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 1 Cor. 5.1 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him The Saints know this so well that they dare venture the loss of all they are worth here for the reward they expect there Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 yea they have refused their temporal life when offered to the prejudice of their eternal Heb. 11.35 Not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection If any should ask how do they know so assuredly there is this reward I would ask such how they know the Sun to be when they see it shine if they say by seeing of it they may know that the Saint sees an Heaven as certainly by an eye of Faith as they can do the Sun by an eye of Sense Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen The very light of nature whereby the Heathens knew a God did let with it into their minds some knowledge of another world and of a double state therein of happiness to the good and misery to the wicked being not able otherwise to reconcile the unevenness of Providence in this world with the righteous nature of God but alas what was this lesser light which God left in man to rule him in the night of Heathenish darkness to the certainty of the Saints knowledge which comes in by the light of Faith first the Christians Faith is grounded on the testimony of God himself in his word Humane Faith is indeed the weakest and most uncertain kind of knowledge because mans testimony on which it relys is so fallible but Divine Faith the most certain because the testimony of God on which its weight bears is infallible One who cannot deceive because he is truth it self nor be deceived because he is wisdom it self So that though Faith be not Reason yet to believe what God saith is true there is the highest reason 2 ly As the testimony on which the Saints Faith relies is the infallible Word of God so his very Faith which relies on this Word of God is no other than the work of God the same Spirit who is the Author of that is the efficient of this for the Christian believes not from the power of his own will but the power of God mightily working his heart up to this supernatural act Hence we are said to be saved through Faith and that not of our selves it
Actions now thou thinkest thy self Religious enough with thy infrequent Devotions if thou canst get to the Church once in a week and into thy Closet for a few moments once in a day it is well But when thou comest to dye thou wilt then complain how thou hast starved thy Soul and robbed thy God of much time which might and ought to have been imployed in Communion with him and working out thy own Salvation Now a few Pence out of thy great Estate passeth for Charity but when death comes to sweep all away at once then thou wilt complain thou hast been a niggard of thy Purse and didst not honour God with thy Substance Now though thou speakest but once or twice in a Moon of God and Heaven in thy Family and very seldom dost Catechise thy Children and that but formally without any affection or with little desire to affect them with the concernment of those Truths thou instructest them in yet thou pleasest thy self in having done thy duty to them so well But when death's cold sweat shall warn you of your approaching Dissolution then thou wilt bewail that Religion was so seldom the subject of thy discourse in your Family that you did not more constantly instruct your Children and Servants and when you did that you did not more passionately endeavour to move their affections and draw their hearts to the love and liking of Religion in its Truths and the practice of them Thirdly Improve the hope thou hast for this reward to make thee live above this present world Truly thou mayst well be content with a little here who lookest for so much hereafter If the Labourer hath but meat and drink at his work he asketh no more but stays willingly for the rest till night when he is to receive his wages If thou hast Food and Rayment here and Heaven at the end doth not God deal well with thee Oh 't is for want of Faith in the Promise and activity in our Hope to exercise it self on this Blessed Object that we are so having and craving after the things of this world and so dissatisfied with our portion here We read of Solomon that he made Silver to be in Jerusalem as stones Cedars as the Sycomore trees 1 Kings 10.27 The Christian might do more had he a lively Faith and Hope he might make all this worlds Glory Pleasures and Treasures to be but as dirt and dung in his valuation from what he expects to be preferred to within a while in Heaven And he is the happier man that can live above the world than he that swims in all its abundance It is for want of better Metal that Leather and Copper are stamped for Coin and for want of Faith or exercising it on the Promise that we set too high a price of the things of this world This would and nothing else can take off our Hearts from present things Our Affections are too great a stream to be dryed up but turned they may be into another Chanel and truly the world is too narrow a Chanel to contain them But here is roomth enough and more than enough for them all here is a place of broad-water no fear of wanting Sea-room If we would launch out into the Meditation of this blessed place oh how should we find our Hearts inflamed with longing desires to be there and no more envy the Carnal world for what we leave them here to enjoy than you would the Swine his swill if you were going to Feast at a Princes Table which minds me of the next particular Fourthly Improve this Glorious Reward to reconcile death to thy thoughts and make thee rather desire than fear to be dissolved Many were the Arguments which the Philosophers among the Heathens mustered up to expel the fear of this King of Terrors but the wisest of them were baffled in all their attempts therein As it is said of Cicero a little before his death that he confessed the remedies which he had prepared against this Enemy proved he knew not how but too weak and feeble for that purpose And one was bold to tell Plato when he spake much of the contempt of death Fortius loqueris quà m vivis that he spoke higher than he lived and no wonder if we consider in how dark a light they saw the existence of a future state and much more at what a loss they were for finding the right way which leads to the happiness of it Neither do I wonder that any wicked man under the Gospel should be terrified at an approaching death and go down to the grave as they say Bears go down an Hill backward afraid to see or think of that state they are going into For the more any knows of Heaven without a well grounded hope of arriving there the greater must his dread needs be He that increaseth knowledge here will be sure to increase his sorrow but why any of the People of God that have a hope of Heaven should not in some measure overcome the prevalency at least of this fear of death is strange and indeed casts a reproach upon Christianity The Turks I have heard some of them should say they did not think Christians believed there was an Heaven because they saw them so loth to go to it Labour Christian to wipe of this reproach which these Infidels cast upon our Religion First Look thou buildest thy hope of Heaven deep and strong upon a good ground which is Regenerating Grace for a dead Soul cannot have a lively Hope Then labour to hold fast the rejoycing of thy Hope unto the end to which it would much conduce to preserve a right notion of death in thy thoughts What else Christian is death to thee but what Jordan was to the Israelites a passage from an howling Wilderness of a sinful miserable World where thou hast been pinched with Wants and stung with fiery Temptations to a Land of Promise where is safety to security and fullness to Felicity where thou wilt find the absence of nothing but sin and sorrow Look upon it as the uncovering of the Ark of thy body wherein thou hast been tossed and tumbled sorely upon the waves of a restless life to set thee on shore on Heavens firm and peaceable Land Is the betrothed Spouse afraid of her Marriage day or a Prince loth to cross a narrow Sea to take possession of a wide Kingdom and a rich Crown that wait only for his coming No Christian fear not thou death but rather let thy heart revive with old Jacobs at the sight of this Wagon or Chariot which is sent to bring thee over to thy Heavenly Fathers house Fifthly Let it moderate your sorrow for the death of your Pious Friends and useful Instruments in their Generations Indeed the loss of such is great to those that are left behind and therefore God allows us to mourn when such breaches are made upon us but withal he sets bounds to our sorrow that we sorrow
high she got in Grace and Godliness She hath not drawn up the Ladder after her take her course tread in her steps and by Gods blessing though thou mayst not come to her pitch here yet thou shalt have far more than now thou hast She did not grow thus rich in Grace with idleness and sloth but by Gods blessing on her diligence in the use of means She did not become so eminent by proudly thinking her self so to be but by Humility and Poverty of Spirit Many had been better if they had not thought themselves to be better than they were Fourthly A word to you that had the priviledge to live in her Family For Gods sake look to your selves happy you if the holy Example you had in her and extraordinary means of Grace you enjoyed under her roof have had a kindly and powerful effect in you if they have produced a serious resolution for an holy life But wo be to you that shall bring a prophane and wicked Spirit out of such a Pious Family think seriously how sad it will be to live so near Heaven in this world as there you did and at last to miss of Heaven in the other Fifthly To those that are priviledged with Noble Birth or Gentile Extraction learn from this Lady the best way in the world to make the Tribute of Honour which is your due surely and chearfully to be payed you take but the same course that this Gracious Lady and Noble Lord her Husband did and I dare promise you shall obtain it Labour to be good and to do good be not afraid or ashamed to be Religious own God in his Holy Ways and Holy Ones and then you shall be Honoured of all but by those that refuse to Honour God himself And who would accept of Honour at their hands who rob God of his you have the Word of God for this Them that honour me I will honour 1 Sam. 2.30 By Humility and the fear of the Lord are Riches and Honour and Life Prov. 22.4 A place of Scripture which God fulfilled remarkably in the deceased Lady It fareth with Gentlemens Honours as it doth with Tradesmens Wares which while they are made true and good their price keeps up in the Market but when they are made with little care and of bad stuff then it falls and they hardly go off Oh defile not your Honours by any debaucheries Dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in Luto saith Salvian What pity is it a Scarlet Cloak should be sopt in a swill tub The corruption of the best is the worst I do not clear those of sin who do not give him the Honour due to his Title and Place that is unworthy of them but methinks that those whom God hath left so high in dignity above others should consider that it is their duty and wisdom also to shun all that may lead their Inferiours into this Temptation How can he be free to complain of others denying him his Honour who by his own prophaneness and wickedness casts more dishonour on himself than any other can do To be dishonourable is worse than to be dishonoured as much as a sin is worse than an affliction The Good and Pious are sometimes dishonoured by those that are wicked even for that which is their highest Honour but it is sin and wickedness that makes a person dishonourable as also it doth a Nation Prov. 14.35 But sin is a reproach to any People FINIS An Epitaph on the Right Honourable and Religious the Lady Vere Wife to the most Noble and Valiant Lord Horatio Vere Baron of Tilbury who dyed Decemb. 25. 1671. in the 90 Year of her Age. BEneath this Marble Stone doth lye Wonder of Age and Piety So Old so Good 't was hard to say Which striving in her won the day Or had most power to bow her down Her Age or her Devotion Her Piety made the World confess Old Age no bar to fruitfulness Her Age again so wondrous great Prov'd Piety never out of Date Well may she then a wonder go When as to prove her to be so The two grand Topicks do agree Both Scripture and Antiquity Thus was she like none ever more That Widow of above Fourscore Who serving God both day and night At last of Jesus gat a sight Nay still like her in Temple she Her Saviour waits once more to see On Her sleeping Three days together before she dyed Deaths Brother Sleep her Senses ty'd Three days and then she waking dy'd Sleep was the Essay of Death's Cup Which first she sipt then drank all up Thus Swimmers first with foot explore The Gelid stream then venture o're Thus Martyr for a Tryal first Into the fire his Finger thrust To snip a Pattern of the flame Then clothes his Body with the same Thus Spies to Canaans Land are sent To view the Countries e're they went Sleep was the Mask in which she saw The Promis'd Land Incognita Which done she only wak't to tell By-standers that she lik't it well Then Reader if thou wonder'st at Her Three days Sleep remember that Three days to view the Triple-Heaven One day spent in each Court makes even But Reader when thou think'st upon Her Third days Resurrection If thou' rt amaz'd wonder no more Her Saviour did so before On her dying just on the day of Christ's Nativity Long time she sleeping lay but could not dye Until the day of Christs Nativity No wonder then She slept and slumbered It was because the Bridegroom tarried On Her Nobility Noble herself more Noble ' cause so near To the Thrice Noble and Victorious Vere That Belgick Lyon whose loud fame did roar Heard from the German to the British shoar His Trophies she was Joyntur'd in so say The Lawyers Wives shine by their Husbands Ray. See therefore now how by his side she stands Triumphing midst the Graves those Netherlands Rather in Heaven Those only we confess Are truly call'd Th' Vnited Provinces Charles Darby Rector of Kediton in Suffolk Vpon the Death of the Right Honourable Lady Mary Vere WHat Marble Heart can chuse but drop a Tear At the sad Funeral of the Lady Vere Whose Death 's a publick loss Our spring is dry That many an empty Cistern did supply God deckt her Heaven-born Soul with Gems Divine Of various lustre which did make her shine That all that stood about her saw the light She made it day even in the darkest night Her bounteous Hand and truly noble Heart Did noble Gifts to multitudes impart She was a flowing Spring a Mine of Treasure To serve her Lord and do good was her pleasure Pattern of Goodness and a Pillar too A few such losses might the World undo She gave her self to Christ with heart and might And was with him in Spirit day and night And when his Festival began on Earth But kept in Heaven with purer joy and mirth She longed to be there which made her sing Her Nunc Dimittis and her Soul
consequently his Eternal but not to maintain his Spiritual life The provision for this is out of himself his sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3.5 and this sufficiency God gives not in an immediate way but by appointed means which he requireth their care to make use of as he did the Israelites hands to gather and bake their Manna and so by blessing his means and their care in using of it their Spiritual life is preserved and nourished unto Eternal life Now when any shall thus extend his care to the use of all appointed means and intend the faculties of his Soul industriously as he ought in the use of them and shall have continued some considerable time in this exercise then and not till then will he be a competent judge to tell us whether it be a slighty business to be a Christian indeed or not Secondly A few words to those who will acknowledge the labour of Christianity to be great but that is it which is their discouragement and scares them from entring into that service which will cost so much pains and bring so much trouble I shall leave some Considerations to be pondered by them which I hope may ease them of this too deep an apprehension of the Christians labour First Christianity 't is confest is a labour but a necessary labour it is not indeed the part of a wise man to labour or hazard much for that he little needs yet for such things is it God knows that most men bestow their greatest toyl and travel to obtain that which they may have specie aut valore and spare this their pains also as Cyneas told Pyrrhus when he said after such and such Kingdoms Conquered by him then we will sit down and live a merry life But why quoth Cyneas may we not do that already without all this trouble I confess considering the present frame of Carnal mens hearts they are under a kind of necessity of what they inordinately desire The Covetous man must have his Gold the Voluptuous man his Pleasures or else they cannot enjoy themselves but this necessity is no other than that of a Dropsie man for his unmeasurable drinking for was this mans disease and the other mans lusts purged out both their necessities would cease alike but Heaven is absolutely necessary to all whether they think so or no. Better we had the Soul of a Beast than having the Soul of a Man not to have at last that perfection and happiness for which this Immortal Soul was made And this thou canst not have except thou wilt take the pains to walk in the ways of Holiness which lead to it thy Soul poor man is hastning apace to its last and eternal state which will be either in Heaven or Hell the Happiness of the one invaluable the misery of the other intollerable and both interminable If thou bestirrest not thy self and that timely to take hold of Eternal Life Hell is at thy back to take hold of thee Now is there any room left in this case for deliberation when de vitâ aut morte aeternâ agitur is it now time to say shall I labour to be saved or shall I not It may in some cases be more eligible to lose our temporal life than to be at pains to save it If Caesar told the Marriner in a storm it was necessary he should sail not that he should live then surely with much more reason may the Christian say yea must he say it is not necessary I live here but 't is necessary while I live that I perform the voyage God hath imposed on me that I launch forth into his service whereby I may make sure of Eternal Life though with the loss of my Temporal But no worldly necessity can be such as should controul our care in the other Get Eternal Life and thou wilt find again that life thou didst lose in getting it but lose Heaven and in Hell thou wilt see all those paltry gains lost to keep which a while thou didst lose Heaven Secondly Consider the greatest labour and trouble the service of God will put thee to is incomparably less than the least pain the sinner shall find and feel in Hell What is the trouble a Christian is at in Mortifying a Lust here to the torment which the enraged Conscience of a Damued Soul will put him to there for not Mortifying of it when time was what is the sorrow which the Saint feels here whilst he mourns for his sins in hope of pardon to the horror of a Reprobrate anguish in Hell imbittered with despair what is the Christians loss to part with his Temporals for Christs sake to the Sinners parting with God and Heaven never to see his blessed face more in a word what are the flouts and reproaches which the Saint hath from a wicked world to the Sinners portion when God with all the Holy Angels and Saints shall laugh at their destruction If the love of Heaven will not move you to submit to the short labour which attends the service of God let the fear of Hell do it Thirdly Though the Christians labour be hard yet there are many things alleviate the burden of it First The sumbleness of the Christians work to his renewed Nature the trouble of a work is much as the mans mind stands to or against it It would be a tedious business to an ignorant Rustick to be locked up in a Scholars Study and there be made to spend his time amongst his Books but the true Scholar needs not be forced or wagered to this work his delight in it takes away the labour of it non inveni said one in hoc mundo requiem nisi in angulo cum libello it were a great calamity to a slothful dastardly spirit to be made to endure the labour and hardship of a Souldier whereas a generous Soul would prefer it before ease and gain at home mea sit laborum major pars pecuniâ autem abundet quis volet was Achilles his speech give me the labour let who will take the money To a sensual heart what more unpleasing then Heavenly Meditations yet what more delighted David To a carnal heart the Commandments of God are all hard sayings because contrary to his unholy nature but to a Gracious Soul none of them are grievous he loves the Law of God from the same reason for which the other hates it because it is pure he delights to do the Will of God because he hath a law within him which corresponds with the law without his Heart answers to it as the eccho to the voice thou saidst seek my face thy face will I seek No wonder a Cross lies heavy upon his shoulders that hath no Faith in God to sustain him under it but a Paul he can take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities c. 2 Cor. 12.10 Secondly The Divine assistances which the Christian hath in his work alleviates the labour of it consider the Christians