things are not so much to be insisted upon Were they Holy and Gracious Were they born twice before they died once Were they partakers of the Holy Ghost in his renewing Influences Was their Walk with God and their Motions toward Heaven Did they carry Grace along with them into the other World and leave good ground of Hope in this concerning them Then keep your Grief within its due bounds You may yea you ought to be sensible of God's hand and of your own loss and of the Nations and Churches loss God would not have his Children stupid he allows not in them a Stoical Apathy Paul doth not forbid all Mourning upon this account but would not have yours like that of theirs who mourn without hope You may be sensible but not sink drop some Tears over such an o 〈…〉 s Herse but not be drown'd in Sorrow While by your Sorrow and Tears you express the dearness of your Affection to your deceased Friend be sure that by your patient Submission and humble Silence you do equally manifest your Faith and Hope And to that purpose I offer these Four following Particulars to your Consideration First Your departed Relations and Friend◠are gone to him that loved them best and that both can and will do most for them To him that is all Love and hath all Power To him who hath Earth with all its fulness Heaven with all its Glory at his own dispose and is himself alone better than both They are gone indeed and shall not return their Places here will know them no more Oh! saith one my Husband is gone and he was my Guide and my Support He lived with me as a Man of Knowledge and helped me on in the way everlasting And saith another My Wife is gone and she was a suitable Yoke-fellow a delightful Companion the desire of mine Eyes And saith another My Child is gone and it was a pleasant One the Child of my Hopes but now that is gone that Bud is nipt and those Hopes are blasted And say others Our Shepherd is gone who led us by the skilfulness of his Hands brake to us the Bread of Life and sed us with sound Knowledge and Understanding These are gone and gone for ever and they will not return any more and you say true for they cannot Job 14. 14. If a man dye shall he live again Yes in another World Iob did not question that but rejoyced in the Faith of it but not again in this World The most holy Persons that lived best and pleased God most cannot return to live again here and indeed as they cannot so they would not if they could they would not For remember this as they are gone from hence and from you so they are gone to God and to Heaven They are gone but it is from their Labour to their Rest to an undisturbed and everlasting Rest after a wearisome and tedious Life They are gone but it is from the Work of their Lord in which they were faithful and industrious to the Joy of their Lord which nothing shall imbitter neither can any take it from them God will not Enemies shall not They are gone but it is from a life of Conflicts which they had with the Corruptions of their own Hearts and the Temptations of Satan to maintain an everlasting Triumph with the Lord Jesus the Captain of their Salvation In short They are gone but it is out of the Wilderness which was over-run with pricking Briars and vexing Thorns and full of Beasts of prey Lyons roaring and Serpents hissing the Devil and his Instruments creating them all the trouble they can and now they are entred into the Coelestial Canaan a Land flowing not with Milk and Honey but unspeakably better Enjoyments infinitely purer and higher Delights Do but you tread in their Steps and follow them in their Faith and Holiness considering the end of their Conversation and then you shall meet them again and that meeting shall be with Joy Secondly Tho they be gone yet their time of going was first come The Apostle Paul speaks of a time of departure 2 Tim. 4. 6. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand The time which God in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness had ordained and prefixed by an eternal and unalterable Decree They liv'd till the last Sand in their Glass was run out till they had reached those Bounds which they could not pass There is one thing which some surviving Relations do most unreasonably afflict and torture themselves with notwithstanding all the care they have taken it is this they think if this or that had been done their deceased Relation might have been still alive but that is a foolish Fancy and I am apt to think it a Suggestion of the Devil who thereby would pour Vinegar into that Wound which Providence hath made for if this and that and an hundred nay a thousand things more had been done they all would not have kept them here It is indeed unquestionably our Duty to be in the diligent use of all lawful means for the preservation of Health the cure and removal of Diseases and the continuance of our own and our Relations Lives and a known wilful neglect of any doth bring guilt with it and may breed a painful sting in the Conscience but all the means that can be used cannot possibly hinder the accomplishment of any of the divine purposes Who hath resisted his Will and who can resist it Will you consider this and work it upon your hearts by repeated thoughts such Friends and Relations of yours are gone but not before they were sent for God bid Moses go up to Mount Nebo and die there the same God in whose hand our times are did also bid them lie down upon such a Bed and die there Death was God's Messenger he commission'd it and gave it his order its work was to cut off the thread of their lives and fetch them home and that work must be done how unacceptable and afflictive soever it is to any yea and it must be done at that very time too Tho in other things God exerciseth admirable patience waiting that he might be gracious and being exulted that he might have mercy upon sinners yet in this case he will not stay nor is it at all fit that he should nor is it lawful for any to desire it What reason can be given why Infinite Wisdom should give way to humane weakness and folly or why God should in the most minute and smallest Circumstance act counter to his own most Holy Will and Purpose for the gratifying of our humour and imprudent desires let us leave God to chuse and order as being best able and learn our selves to submit and accept and since Death must and will do its work at its time let us be before-hand and do our work in our time since Death will not stay for us nor any body let us so prepare and
get ready that we may not have cause to desire its stay Thirdly Though they be gone yet it was not before they were fit to go Some of thm liv'd but a little time but they liv'd much in a little time and how are they to be commended and the grace of God to be admired in them who do happily dispatch that work in twenty years or less which others and those holy Souls too are threescore or seventy years about Some die young it is a sign they ripened apace The Husband man careth not when he plucks up his Weeds because they are either for the Furnace or the Dunghil but his Corn shall be white to the Harvest before he puts in his Sickle So a wise man will let the Fruit of his Orchard hang till it be ripe and when it is so he gathers it So doth the wise and ever-blessed God as for wicked men he is not so curious about them they only cumber the ground they bring forth wild Grapes down with them saith Justice it will be a good riddance let better be planted in their room but he doth otherwise with the Trees of Righteousness the souls of holy persons are prepared for glory by that time their bodies drop into the Grave The marriage of the Lamb will not come before his Bride hath made her self ready Now is not this enough to satisfy you give one good reason if you can why any should remain upon earth after they are once truly fit for Heaven why they should have their days prolonged when their work is finished they shall not die before it why should they live here after it why should they not receive the Crown of Righteousness when they have fought the good fight and finished their course and kept the faith To what purpose I beseech you should they live when they have no more grace to get here and no more good to do To such an one as loves God dearly and is set for his glory an useless barren and unprofitable life would be an heavy burden and a great deal worse than death Such an one in such a case would not know how to enjoy himself an hour but would long and pine and cry out for the coming of death as the Mother of Sisera did for her Son Why is his Chariot so long in coming why tarry the wheels of his Chariot Fourthly As they are gone to God so they had excellent company by the way It is not a little distance between this earth which the Saints now inhabit and the highest Heaven unto which at death they go the habitation of God and seat of the blessed and tho the holy Soul be exceeding swift in its motion when it is once freed from the heavy clog of dull flesh and got upon the wing yet will it be some time before so long a Journey can be dispatch'd and it arrive at its desired home At the beginning of Daniel's supplication the Commandment came forth and the Angel Gabriel was caused to flee swiftly yet he came not to him till the time of the evening oblation And there is an innumerable number of wicked spirits in the way Legions of Devils in the Regions of the Air which envy the happiness of those who are to have an everlasting abode in those places out of which they themselves were cast and therefore will be sure to do their utmost for the disturbing them in their ascent But for the preventing of it the great and holy God hath appointed them a strong Guard in Hebr. 1. 14. the holy Angels are said to be initistring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation and they take pleasure in doing so Little do we know the obligations we lie under to them how much we are beholden to them how they watch over us and pitch their Tents about us and are Assistants to us Many and many are the good offices which the good Angels do for the Saints while they live and when they die they are a strong Convoy to their Souls that will keep off from them all Enemies and Dangers and bring them with safety and honour into the King's Palace the Presence-Chamber of their God and Father Upon all these accounts I counsel you not to lay the reins upon the neck of your passions nor to mourn over them who died in the Lord as those who have no hope for they are blessed When they lived they were the habitations of God through the Spirit when they died they died in the Lord and their bodies sleep in Iesus their Souls upon dissolution are the charge of Angels It was they that carried the Soul of poor but precious Lazarus into the bosom of Abraham tho the rich Glutton suffer'd him to lie in his Rags and Sores starving at his door neglected and despis'd and both their souls and bodies at the Resurrection of the Just shall have a consummate happiness in the full uninterrupted and eternal enjoyment of God Therefore I say again mourn not for them there is no cause they are in a far better condition than you turn your Grief into another Channel and as our Saviour directed weep for your selves and for your children on the score of what you have lost and what you may feel in this world of sin and uncertainty The second Branch of this Use of Exhortation will be this Be you willing to go to God also whensoever he shall please by death to send for you You I mean who have been indeed made partakers of grace who love God and have made him your choice and have good hope yea assurance of your interest in him It would be a shame for any of you to be unwilling and loth to die God may very well take that unkindly at your hands and you for it have reason to be displeas'd and angry with your selves What is there upon earth that should make you unwilling What is there in Death that should affright and scare you Have you great affliction and trouble here would it not be better for you to be out of it to exchange a tempestuous Sea for an Haven of Peace Do you now swim in Delights and abound with Creature comforts shall you not find better in Heaven than those you leave behind you Would you stay yet longer that so you might provide for your Children and see them setled well and comfortably in the World Will you not commit them to the care of your heavenly Father who is their God in Covenant as well as yours Can you trust God with your Souls and will you not trust him with your Seed Do you think it is an hard thing to die cannot God strengthen you for it Is there a bitterness in it cannot God sweeten it to you Cannot he make it easy to you as he hath made it to many of his People Cannot he by the light of his Countenance and the witness of his Spirit and the shedding abroad of his love
But let me ask thee Was not the glory of God dear to thee and his Name precious Was he not highest in thy esteem valued above all the world set up in the Throne all other things being made his Footstool Canst thou not with all thy heart say after the Prophet in Psal. 73. Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee Hast thou made him thy choice and desired to live in an obedience to him and expressiveness of him Hast thou commended him to others thy Relations Friends and Neighbours and endeavoured in thy place to enlarge his Kingdom and submit themselves to his Government Hast thou offered thy self and thy praise to him He himself tells thee Psal. 50. 23. That is a glorifying him Hast thou had thy fruit unto holiness and was thy heart set for the bringing forth much fruit Our Saviour tells you Iohn 15. 8. Herein his Father is glorified If thou dost find these things in thy self tho thou dost also find too much of that which should not be and is matter of grief to thee thou may'st meditate terror without being terrified thou may'st be very willing yea glad to die whensoever God calls thee to it being fully persuaded that he will with an hand of grace put a glory upon thee when at the same time he will extort glory from others in a way of wrath and vengeance Thirdly Can you say as our Saviour did I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do He had work given him by the Father good and great work in which his Father himself and all his people were concerned it being for his Fathers and his own Glory and for his Peoples Salvation and everlasting Happiness And he was intent upon it industrious and diligent in it I must saith he work the works of him that sent me while it is day And at his giving up of the Ghost he could say It is finished Now none of us were made and sent hither to be idle nor to sport upon the Earth as Leviathan doth in the Sea No no we all have Work to do Work that our heavenly Father hath given us There is the general Work of Godliness and Religion and the particular Work of our several Stations and Relations None need sit still and study how to pass away the time for they have enough to do if they will but mind it Now if our Work be not done how shall we with any comfort or boldness look our great Lord and Master in the Face It was a terrible Sentence that past upon the lazy Servant that had buried his Talent in a Napkin But here again a poor humble Christian will presently object against its self for such an one needs none Accuser he can and will do that work fast enough And in this case he will take shame as his Portion and declare he is very far from finishing the Work which God gave him to do You have minded other things of less concern yea of no concern and neglected that You have lived in the World to very little purpose led unprofitable Lives and suffered your Days your precious Seasons your golden Hours to run out at waste You have done but very little for God and for your Souls and in order to your everlasting Happiness and that which you have done hath been so pitifully done that you are asham'd to look upon it you have botcht and bungled at it And I do readily grant your best Works do not deserve acceptance with God he may justly reject and abhor them and cast them as Dung into your Faces because of the Iniquities which adhere or cleave to them But let me ask you and do you ask your own Souls when you are in your Retirements and greatest Seriousness Hast thou loved the Work of God and preferred the hardest and most unpleasing pieces of it before the most facil and pleasant parts of the Devil's Hast thou counted his Service perfect freedom but that of Sin the basest of Drudgeries Have you been pleased and delighted when you did at any time find your hearts raised in it and enlarged and more than ordinarily carried out Hath it been your Grief and Trouble when you found in your selves straitness deadness and dulness Have you been angry with your selves because you have done no more and no better for God Have you often and often with earnestness begg'd of God that he would give you more Grace and greater Strength in order to your doing him better Service and bringing him more Glory Then you need not be afraid to appear before him for he will spare you as a Father spareth his Son that serveth him and you shall be accepted in the beloved and your gracious and prevailing Advocate will appear on your behalf and plead your Cause saying as once he did on the behalf of the good Woman whom the Disciples in their discontent quarrel'd They have done what they could And he will cover all your Failings and fill up all your Vacancies and Defects with his own most full and perfect Obedience for to your comfort know tho thy Duties be weak and deficient and defiled yet his Obedience was compleat and perfect nay more it was Satisfactory too and of a meritorious Nature too and the merit of it is sufficient for thee and for all his People And therefore if that which I have spoken be the frame of your Spirits you may at a dying hour with triumph say Now Father come I to thee We will now proceed to the third Use of this Doctrine which will be by way of Exhortation and it shall be divided only into Two Branches My first Exhortation is this Do not mourn immoderately over your deceased Friends and Relations Those of them I mean who while they were here lived unto the Lord and when they had finished their course and came to the period of their Days those Bounds which they could not pass died in the Lord and in the faith As to the business now in hand it is no matter by what they died whether a natural Death or a violent one by the hand of an Enemy or an Executioner consumed by the merciless Flames or swallowed up by the mighty Waters whether they died a short and easy Death and having serv'd their Generation according to the Will of God sell asleep or a tedious and lingring one cast upon Beds of Languishment and having wearisom Days Nights and Months numbred out unto them Nor is it as to this any matter in what manner they died whether under a dark and thick Cloud having many Questions Doubts and Fears or under the Smiles of God the Light of his Countenance and the bright sweet shining of his Face whether they came to their Harbour in a pleasant Calm or in a blustering Storm In a word whether they had the perfect use of their Understanding and Reason to the last or were under a delirium and distraction These
in your hearts mitigate and abate the sense of pain Look to it that you do not leave him while you live and then rest confident of this that he will not forsake you when you come to die David could say Psal 23. 4 Tho he did walk through the valley of the shadow of death he would fear no evil for God's rod and staff did comfort him I am apt to think the pains of Death are worst at a distance and not seldom more terrible to the Spectators than to the Patient And I do not in the least question but the throws and agonies of many poor Women in Child-bearing and those Pains also which are caused by the Cramp the Gout the Stone or Strangury are far greater and more severe than the Pains of Death usually are But however we may be sure of this those Pains be they what they will are but short if compared with that blessed Eternity which shall succeed them and so light as not worthy to be mention'd the same day with that far more exceeding weight of glory which shall be graciously bestowed upon them that overcome So the holy Apostle Paul saith Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present life take them altogether from the first to the last moment are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore by Prayer earnestly beg of God a willingness to go to him and take pains with your own Souls in order to the working of them up thereunto Humbly and freely leave it to him who is infinite in wisdom to chuse the time when it shall be to him who is love it self and whose compassions do not fail to order out the manner how it shall be only be you careful to prepare and get ready labour to be fit to die and meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light and when that grim Messenger comes bid him welcome and let your hearts be glad and your glory rejoice Do your Souls now at any time wander from God call them in and chide them home and when you come to die sing them home and the good Lord enable you by being with you while you walk in the valley of the shadow of Death comforting you with his Rod and Staff giving you to look within the veil and to see your Advocate and Mediator Jesus at the right hand of God ready to receive you that so you may as the Protomarryr Stephen did commend your spirit into his hand and besides what hath been already said before the time of your departure come lay your selves in with these comfortable meditations First God whom you go to is the best and dearest Friend In him there is infinite Fulness and everlasting Love As the Sun when up and shining forth in his Glory doth so obscure and darken all the Stars that in his Presence they hide their Heads and disappear so doth the Glory of God prevail and triumph over all the Beauty and Glory of the Creature He hath all Perfections and is pleasant for Delights It is his Glory to be Self-sufficient and All-sufficient He hath enough for himself and for the holy Angels who look no further and desire no more therefore he cannot but have enough for you And as there is All fulness in him so All-sweetness too Here indeed a gracious Soul may sometimes discover that in God which strikes a terror in it The Psalmist remembred God and was troubled Psalm 77. 3. The Prophet cried out I am undone for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts Isa 6. 5. But in the other World where the sight will be clear and full you shall see nothing in him save that which will be your Comfort and Joy Then every sight of him will be ravishing and every thought of him precious He will then be in your Account altogether lovely You will then see he hath such a Glory as knoweth no blemish such a Fulness as knoweth no defect so that you cannot desire him better than he is nor would you have him other than he is for as all his Attributes are his own Glory so they will all contribute to and issue in your Satisfaction Secondly Heaven is the sweetest place that you can be in We have reason to conclude it must of necessity be so since God hath chosen it for his own Seat the place of his own Residence This World is but a Wilderness since Sin entred into it that is a Paradice far beyond the Terrestial one out of which our first Parents were driven This World is but a Dunghil that is a Mountain of Myrrhs there be the Beds of Spices There is nothing to pollute nothing to offend no danger of falling no fear of losing nothing to disturb the Spirit to break the Peace or damp the Joy Read and consider that excellent Description which is given of the New Ierusalem in that Rev. 21. 10 c. some passages whereof are these The foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones the twelve gates were twelve pearls the City yea the very street of it is pure gold the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it the Glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof And if there be such a Glory in that great City which descends from God out of Heaven what do you think and how great is the Glory of that great City which is in Heaven What words are big enough to express it What mind large enough to conceive it Deus Coelum non patiuntur hyperbolem God and Heaven are incapable of an Hyperbole our most raised and inlarged Thoughts will be too narrow short and low I will add but one thing more and shut up this Discourse Lastly When once you come to Heaven you will never be weary of being there Here indeed we are quickly weary and tir'd out at the best of our comforts A Man may lie in a Bed of Down till he is weary and his Bones ake He may sit at a noble and sumptuous Feast till he is weary and would be glad of a dimission We may pray and preach and hear till we are weary tho we should not be weary of Gospel-Ordinances and Religious Duties yet we may be weary in them But there is no such thing as this in Heaven no nothing like it throughout Eternity The Saints there will neither be weary of God nor of Heaven nor of themselves nor of one another Their Eye will not be weary of beholding God and contemplating his Glory nor the Tongue weary of blessing and praising him nor Soul and Body weary of maintaining a close and intimate converse with him As there will be a compleat Enjoyment so constant and fresh Delight A Fulness and All fulness of Joy and that will infallibly afford Pleasures for evermore God hath made a great Breach among you who meet in this place by taking away his Servant who labour'd in the Word and Doctrine It is above Fifty years since our first Acquaintance we having been of the same College and under the same Tutor He was a Learned Man and as I am persuaded truly Godly one that denied himself and suffered much for Conscience-sake I came hither to do you good not to commend him for that is needless you having known his Doctrine and manner of Life His Course is finished and God hath call'd him home so that you shall see his Face no more I beseech you to live the Truths he brought you and since you are taken with the goodness of this Air and the pleasantness of this Place for the health of your Bodies see that you neglect not you Souls but chearfully allow to the procuring and setling one among you that may feâ—d you with sound Knowledge and Understanding by your Liberality therein manifest the value you have for the Gospel and the good Lord send one in whose Light you may rejoyce FINIS