The Happiness of Good Men after Death A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL OF Mr. Robert Castell Late of Deptford in Kent Preached in the Parish Church of Deptford August the 19th 1698. Published at the Request of the Relations and Executors of the Deceased By GEORGE STANHOPE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for R. Sare at Grays-Inn-gate in Holborn 1699. Rev. xiv V. 13. I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them THat the Importance of these words is very great we need no other Argument to convince us than the solemn manner in which they are delivered to the Apostle Such is the express Command that they should be carefully preserved by writing I heard a Voice from Heâ—ven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth To which is added yet farther the Testimony of the Holy Ghost confirming the Truth of what that Voice had dictated and declaring particularly wherein the Blessedness of such persons consists Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them These forms are such Preparations as always speak the matter ushered in by them to be of mighty Consequence And are intended to awaken our Minds more powerfully and to recommend it to our best and most attentive Consideration The immediate Occasion and Design of the Passage now before us was plainly to fortify the Christians against some very violent Persecutions which St. John had a certain foresight given him of and describes accordingly by very terrible Circumstances Infomuch that he pronounces it here a very great Happiness to be taken out of the World before those Calamitous and Trying times should come which might endanger the shaking the most resolute Faith and Patience even of the best Men. Or as some other Interpreters think he describes the Blessedness of those faithful Professors of Christianity whom the Grace of God should enable to persevere unto the end and to suffer Martyrdom for the Doctrines of his Gospel Those persons being sometimes said with a peculiar Emphasis to dye in the Lord who suffer in his Cause and lay down their Lives for his sake But there is no necessity nor indeed any sufficient Reason for confining this Expression to those times of Primitive Perfecution only or to the Martyrs who suffered in them For as every sincere good Man who heartily embraces the Faith of Christ and whose Conversation is such as becomes that Faith is said in Scripture to * 2 Cor. v. 15. live unto the Lord so every one who continues in that Belief and Obedience to the End of his Days is very truly and properly said when God takes him out of the World to †1 Thes iv 14. sleep in Jesus and to dye in the Lord. And thus it is manifest not our Own only but the Christian Church in general hath constantly understood the Text by making it in many antient Liturgies a part of the Burial Service And so declaring the Blessedness here to belong to every deceased Person who lives and dyes a worthy Member of her Communion Having therefore so good Authority to bear me out I shall make no difficulty to treat of my Text in this larger and more popular Sense and so to apply it to the occasion of our present meeting that we may gather from hence those useful and comfortable Reflections which may minister to us a Reasonable Hope of our Departed Brother's Happiness and a joyful Expectation of our Own In order hereunto I shall so far as the time will give me leave do these three things I. First I shall endeavour to represent to you the Happy State of Good Men after Death as the Words have here described it to us II. Secondly I shall from this Doctrine so established draw some few Inferences which may be of use to us both for the Conduct of our Lives in general and more particularly seasonable upon these Melancholy Occasions III. And then in the Third and last Place I shall apply the Substance of my two former heads yet more closely to the Circumstances of the Person whose mortal part now lyes before us 1. First I shall endeavour to represent to you the happy State of Good Men after Death as the Words have here described it to us And I may well say I shall endeavour only that which it is not possible for me worthily to effect For Who indeed can represent it justly What Tongue of Men or Angels can find expressions strong and significant enough What Images are so bright so glorious What finite Understandings of a Capacity so large that they should contain adequate Ideas of that Bliss to which nothing we are acquainted with in this Life is equal nothing like nothing in any degree comparable That Bliss which would lose a great part of its Perfection if Sense and feeble Reason could fully comprehend it and whose peculiar Excellence we are told it is that * 1 Cor. ii 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him The utmost therefore which you must expect in this case is only to have it drawn in little In such proportions as frail Men are capable of by Resemblances taken from things familiar to us by setting it in opposition to the Miseries we are at present exposed to and by such Other Considerations as are of Value and Weight with us in the Affairs and Transactions of humane Life This is the Method which the Holy Spirit hath made use of here And the Arguments by which he raises our esteem of that Blessedness pronounced from Heaven upon the Dead which dye in the Lord seem to be these Three 1. First The Troubles such Men are delivered from They rest from their Labours 2. Secondly The good Acceptance and great Reward which they shall after Death receive for what they have done well during the present Life Their Works do follow them 3. Thirdly The Time when they enter upon this Happiness intimated in that Term fixed here Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth 1. First They who dye in the Lord are Blessed in regard of the Troubles they are delivered from They rest from their Labours I will not I need not upon this occasion undertake to shew how sore and manifold these Labours are For This is an Argument that comes home to the Sense and Experience of every one of us All that hear me are able to go before me in the Reflection how thick we are beset with Troubles and Afflictions on every Side in our Bodies and our Souls in our publick and our private Capacities The Vanities of Youth and the Infirmities of Age The Difficulties of Supporting these
it is enough to prevail with us not only to bear but even to bless our Troubles when we reflect that though our Sufferings are left behind yet the Virtue and Effect of them are not For that is the Second Reason II. Wherefore the Dead are blessed who dye in the Lord that they do not only rest from their Labours but their Works follow them The Toil and Drudgery is at an End and all that could be grievous to them is put off with that Body which exposed them to Corruption and Suffering But those Labours are not forgotten Their Diligence and Consciencious Care The Meekness and Resignation wherewith they were endured sticks by the Labourer still And as to all the desirable and advantagious purposes will be sure to keep him company for ever in the other World For by this Expression of their Works following them is meant that Good Acceptance and great Reward which the Saints shall be sure to find after Death for what they have done well during this present Life We must not from This or from any Other Expressions like it in Scripture infer such Merit and Sufficiency in the best works of the best Men as can convey to them a Right to demand this happiness as in Rigour and Equity their due For All have come short of the Glory of God * Rom. iii. 23. Psal cxliii 2. and no Flesh can be justified in his Sight should Judgment and not Mercy be the Standard of his Proceedings But hereby is meant that according to the Terms of the Gospel-Covenant which for the Sake and Sufferings of Christ promiseth Pardon for Sins rerepented of Compassion for Infirmities not indulged and a Recompence for those Good Actions which the Grace of God hath wrought in and by and with us Every sincere Christian shall not fail to be abundantly considered for and in proportion to what he hath performed and endured as became him in the days of his Flesh I say abundantly considered More or less as the Tryals and Instances of each Man's Virtue have been more or less but yet in such manner and measure as far exceeds the Value of his best Works and the Degree of his sharpest Afflictions For St. Paul hath assured us * Rom. viii 18. That the Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us and that †2 Cor. iv 16. these light Afflictions which are but for a moment work out for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory In short God will deal with such Men according to the Riches of his own infinite Mercy and make them actually happy then far above what they now are able so much as to conceive For how indeed can it be supposed that We in this imperfect State of things should have any distinct Notions of that future and vastly different State when this dross of Earth and sensual Appetites shall be purified when the Faculties of our Mind shall be enlarged freed from Prejudice and Errour * 1 Cor. xiii 12. and not see as now darkly and through a Glass but know even as also we are known When we raise our Souls as high as possibly we can yet even then our thoughts are cloudy and confused We speak as Children we think as Children we understand as Children but when we come to the fullness of the Stature of perfect Men in Christ Jesus these childish things shall be put away and we shall have quite other apprehensions of the matter Then shall we see and know and feel that all those lofty descriptions of Heavenly Joys in Scripture which now so hardly gain our belief are much beneath the Dignity of that Happiness they would represent and recommend to us And that those Images were made use of not because they were worthy and proportionable but because they were the fittest and best resemblances of that Bliss which We were capable of And therefore even in these noblest flights there is all along a condescension to our weaknesses A veil of Figures and sensible Similitudes drawn before that Glory which is too strong and bright for our naked Eye too big for even Thoughts and Wishes much more for Words to reach and come up to O! the incomprehensible Excellence of that knowledge which shall see God as he is and liken the Soul to the Excellence it sees O the Delights of that Wonder and Praise and perpetual Thanksgiving with which glorified Saints extol the amazing Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of God! The mighty Satisfaction of being let in to the hidden Treasures of his Mercy the exact harmony of his Providence the Mysteries of his Nature and his Dealings with Mankind which now pretending Mortals wrangle and raise such a Dust about O the perfect purity and tranquility of a Life free from Lust and Passion from doubtful and painful Struggles and ever choosing ever delighting in that which is good O the Charms of that entire Love and Peace and joynt Consent in honouring and serving God and rejoycing in each other's Happiness void of that Envy and Grudging that Jealousy and Discord that Ill-nature or Selfishness those Personal Injuries or differences in Interests and Opinions which will not suffer us to enjoy a perfect Unity in this World O Gracious God how plentiful is thy Goodness which thou hast laid up for Them that fear thee They pay thee a short imperfect Obedience and what is this that the King of Heaven should recompence it with so great a Reward They are unprofitable Servants and yet thou makest them Sit down at thy Table in thy Kingdom Their Sins and Frailties are Many and Those are remembred no more their Good Deeds in comparison but very few and yet not one of These is forgotten Their present Labours and Sufferings have their Intervals and Comforts and are but light and short at worst light in consideration of that future weight of Glory short and even as nothing to that Eternity of Bliss that pure uninterrupted Bliss which they work out for them Nor dost thou Blessed Jesus put off these Labourers with distant Prospects and uneasy Expectations For no sooner does that Night come on in which they can work no longer but they are called to present payment The Combat once ended and the Race run the Conquerour is crown'd without delay Which brings me to the third Circumstance whereby this Spirit here represents to us the Blessedness of Good Men departed and that is III. The Time when they enter upon their Happiness intimated in that Term fixed in those words Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth I am not ignorant what differing Interpretations are put upon this word in the Original but neither the Time nor the present Temper of your Minds will bear so cold a thing as Criticising now And therefore it shall suffice to say that both the Sense in which I have all along taken the words and the Church
in using them at the Burial of every Christian do warrant us to conclude that this Rest from Labour and the Reward of Good Works begin at the instant of Men's dying in the Lord. And if the passage before us do not sufficiently prove this yet there are Others which may even oblige us to understand it so The Labourers in the Vineyard assoon as ever the Even was come * Matth. xx 8. and the Duty of the Day over are called to receive their Wages Lazarus immediately upon his Death is said †Luke xvi 22 25. to be carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom and comforted for the Evil things he received in his Life-time St. * 2 Tim. iv 6 7 8. Paul upon mentioning his departure at hand and reflecting upon the good fight he had fought declares that from thenceforth there was laid up for him a Crown of Righteousness Perhaps indeed this Crown is not yet so bright nor Lazarus his happiness so exquisite as it will be at the last great day of account But still that Crown was determined and fixed from the day of this Apostle's departure though he is to be more solemnly invested with it at the day when the Righteous Judge shall appear And Lazarus was at least in a Condition of Comfort Such as made him good amends for the Poverty and Diseases he had undergone in his Body So that these Passages as well as that of the Labourers in the Vineyard sufficiently confute that fond imagination which some have entertained of the Soul sleeping in a State of Insensibility till the general Resurrection They also overthrow that profitable Delusion of the Romish Purgatory and render Prayers for the Dead superfluous and useless For how can they be comforted who have no Sense What occasion have they for our Prayers who are already blessed or how can they be said to rest from their Labours who pass from hence into a Condition of Torments more exquisite by far than this Life can possibly endure and yet such the Popish Purgatory is represented So just ground have we to conclude that there is no Interval between the End of Good Men's Labour and the Beginning of their Rest So substantial a Reason is it of their Happiness that their Works do not only follow them at a distance but keep them company go with them hand in hand and render the Dead blessed from the very moment of their Dying in the Lord. II. I have now done with my first general Head and after so largely insisting upon it shall think it necessary to say less upon my Second which consists of such Inferences as are proper to be drawn from the foregoing Particulars And they among many Others may be These that follow 1. As First We shall do well seriously to consider what vast encouragement these words contain to a Godly Life For it must always be remembred that the Glorious Privileges we have hitherto been treating of do not belong to all indifferently but only to such as Dye in the Lord. That is as was declared in the beginning of this Discourse To Them that embrace the Faith of Jesus that live up to the Principles of the Gospel and persevere in doing so to the End of their Days As for Those who either refuse and oppose this Belief or who hold it in unrighteousness their Case is the very Reverse of what we have been describing They are so far from finding Rest after their Labours that all the Evils they sustain in this world are light and gentle and less than nothing in comparison of the intolerable the unconceivable the infinitely heavier Miseries reserved for them in another Their Works follow them too but it is to upbraid them with their Guilt and Impenitence to wound them with sad and fruitless Remorse to testify against them in the Great Day of Account and to condemn them to everlasting Flames Let me then most earnestly conjure let me prevail with All that hear me to Secure a Title to this Blessedness by breaking off their Iniquities from this very moment And this will best be done by possessing their minds with just and worthy Notions of these Comforts in my Text by considering what vast amends will be made them for all the hardships of Virtue here and how wretched an Exchange those Men will make at last who indulge the pleasures of Sin for a season at the prodigious Expence the certain and irrecoverable Loss of their Souls and Eternal Happiness hereafter The Severest Doctrines of the Gospel have more than enough to enforce their practice upon us if we would but consider them impartially and proceed upon the same Measures which humane Prudence puts us upon in the Affairs of this World And What are the Affairs of this world when put into the ballance against our Spiritual Concerns What are the troubled and imperfect Joys of Sense which a thousand cares and fears pains and disasters innumerable disturb in comparison of that sweet and sure Repose above which nothing can annoy What are the Honours the Wealth the Pomp we so eagerly pursue here if set against the Glories of Saints and the inestimable Treasures of our heavenly Father's Kingdom Trust me Such gains are no where to be had so cheaply to be bought so certain to be obtained so durable in the Enjoyment No gains indeed are durable but these Nothing turns to True account but Piety and Virtue And This is profitable for all things so exceeding profitable that we could not have hoped we could not have imagined it and if any other than God the Giver had told us of this we could not have ben so easy as to believe so presumptuous as to expect it 2. Secondly The Considerations which went before are very proper to arm our minds against the Fear of Death A passion where it prevails to any great degree of all Others the most Tyrannical and tormenting It must be so Because Scaring us perpetually with hideous Apprehensions of a Danger which we are fully satisfied beforehand it is not possible with all our Industry to shun And this domineering Evil is what nothing but Christianity ever was or could be a match for But when we consider how many things there are which may justly abate our fondness for This Life and that they who dye in the Lord are effectually delivered from all these When we look upon Death as a necessary Passage to Happiness and reflect that the instant we cease to be miserable here we take possession of a never failing Bliss in another State This puts quite another face upon the matter from what it carries to the Wicked or to the Natural Man * 1 Cor. xv 56. The Sting of Death is Sin says the Apostle that is the Only thing which can in reason render Dying terrible is the being called to an account for our evil deeds But the Gospel frees us from the Bondage of this Fear too It shews us a Victorious Redeemer One who hath
made Satisfaction for the Sins of Mankind and by so doing hath triumphed over Death nay hath perfectly changed the nature of the thing and made it a Blessing to them that dye in Him And This is what we may all do by the assistance of his Grace which is wanting to none who seek and use it diligently So that upon the whole matter this Fear is an Affliction in our power to correct and moderate at least We may conquer it as Christians though we cannot wholly remove it as Men For the better we are provided for the Approach of Death the less troublesome all Apprehensions of it will be to us And a firm prospect of our future Blessedness would bring us so far as is consistent with our Duty even to thirst and pant and long for that very Dissolution which now we start and tremble at and take such infinite pains to run away from 3. Thirdly From hence we may fetch the most in truth the only powerful Argument to support us under any Injuries or Afflictions that befall us in this present World To think that These things cannot last long is some but far from a sufficient Consolation But to be assured that they will turn to our Advantage an incomparably greater Advantage such as bears no proportion at all to the utmost we can ever endure this is a substantial Stay to our Spirits To reflect that He who afflicts us in the mean while does it for our good and out of fatherly tenderness that what we complain of is the Exercise of our Virtue and every Fresh tryal a higher Step to Perfection that not One Sigh or groan vanishes into Air but reaches the Ears of the Almighty not One Tear falls to the ground but all are put into his Bottle as David expresses it * Psal lvi 8. not One Injury or Affront we ever forgave but it hath contributed to the forgiveness of our infinitely more heinous Offences against God Not One pang or Sickness we have gone through patiently and with a Christian Resignation but it will be paid us back with Interest in perfect Joy These are the invincible weapons of a Good Man such as harden and render him proof against all the Assaults of Ill Men and what we call ill-fortune And he who is careful to have this Armour girt close about him will find his Courage keep up with his Faith and be able to withstand in the Evil day and having done all to Stand. Fourthly and Lastly What hath been now said may and ought to prevent or at least to check those Sallies of excessive Grief which we are too often disposed to give a loose to when it pleases God to remove Good Men and especially our Friends and Relations out of the World For do the Men who indulge such Passions consider at all what they say or do when they profess this Concern for such Persons For Them Why are we sorry for Them Is it such an insupportable Calamity to us that they whom we loved most dearly have after many painful struggles broke loose at last from Misfortunes and Diseases from Hazards and Dangers from Sorrow and Sin Do we use to weep and lament when our best Friends escape many a terrible Storm and come Safe into Port especially too if the Returns of their Voyage have been prosperous beyond all Imagination Yet this my Brethren is directly the Case of our Friends who are dead in the Lord. And can we suppose that the being sorry for Their Happiness is an Argument of Our Love This is most absurd And it is plain our refusing to be comforted in such cases proceeds from want of considering how happy They really are or else it is not Kindness for Them but for our Selves And yet if it be for our selves Do we not think it a necessary proof of affection to be pleased with the very great Advantage of a particular Friend though We suffer some little uneasiness or Inconvenience by it And shall we not be content that a Useful Neighbour a Darling Child or a tender Husband should be blessed above what we can frame any Idea of to our Selves though we must not enjoy his Company here any longer But a good Man you 'll say can least of all be spared True When we speak and think as Men But if we argue as Christians It is as true that such a one we may best bear to part with Because the better the Man is the more assured hope we have of his obtaining that better Life which is the most Effectual Argument to Soften these Tryals of our Resignation to us And therefore I cannot but think it very well becomes me to exhort You the Relations of this deceased that you would dry up your Tears And from the dark Side of this afflicting Providence to your selves turn your thoughts rather to the bright prospect of his happy Change For such I make no doubt we shall think it if to my two former Heads be added that very Little which I have still to speak upon my Third and Last wherein I promised to apply my Self to the Circumstances of this Person upon whose account we are now met and whose Remains of Mortality lye here before us III. When I say I will add but little you will not so understand me as if the Subject would not bear a great deal But Much is not necessary when I speak to Them who have had the happiness of a longer Acquaintance than my Self and therefore All I have to do is only to refresh you Memories with some of those remarkably good qualities and actions which I have received from persons of undoubted Authority and such as your selves will bear testimony to upon the mention of them And here I shall follow the method of my Text. 1st then It could not be but a Person of his Engagements in the world must have a share of Labours and Troubles Losses and Disappointments All which were entertained with great Moderation and just Reflections upon that Providence of God which disposes of Us and Ours as he sees fit But besides these Tryals it pleased God in his later years to afflict him with Sore Pains and frequent Distempers All which he bore with such Evenness of Mind that even the Rackings of the Gout and Stone could not often provoke him to Any and never to such as were Unbecoming Complaints God exercised that patience we may hope to increase the Reward of it and to render it exemplary among those who observed and conversed with it And that Meekness and Submission which continued to his very last hours notwithstanding the most acute pangs of one of the most insupportable Diseases mankind are subject to give us just ground of Confidence that he is now at rest from his Labours and that it is good for him to have been so afflicted since Troubles thus sustained never fail to turn to the Sufferers unspeakable Advantage 2. But it was not in the Passive kind alone