Blessed PAVL's Tryal and Triumph IN A SERMON Upon the DEATH of Mrs. ELIZABETH KING By JOHN OAKES Minister of the Gospel being the last Funeral Sermon that ever he Preacht before Himself was snatcht away to Glory MATTHEW xxiv 44. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh LONDON Printed by J. Richardson for Tho. Cockeril at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1689. Blessed Paul's Tryal and Triumph A Funeral Sermon ON 2 TIMOTHY iv 7 8. I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing HOW pertinent and seasonable the Words I have now read are for the solemn occasion we are met about is obvious to every Eye although I must tell you it was not the Object of my own choice but pitched upon by the Deceased whose Funeral I am now to Commemorate My Text is very copious and of too great an extent to admit at present of any Preface or to permit me to give you any account of the Epistle nor scarce so much time as to cast an Eye upon the Context Only in a word the time drew nigh when this Blessed Apostle Paul was to suffer Martyrdom and thereby Seal his Testimony to those Gospel Truths which he had preached and professed and that by the effusion of his Blood and the laying down of his Life The Enemy had got him in their Pound confin'd him in their Prison and still he was every day expecting and waiting when the Writ should be sign'd for his Execution as he tells us verse 6. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand With this he acquaints Timothy to whom he dedicates this Epistle not by way of Complaint but by way of Encouragement he being as ready to be offered up at the Will and Call of God as they were ready to execute their Rage and Malice against him Having told us long before I am ready not to be bound only but also to dye at Jerusalem for 〈…〉 13. the Name of the Lord Jesus What were the Cordials that supported him in this fainting season and enabled him to look Death though presented in a very ghastly dress in the face with Comfort and Confidence my Text acquaints you I have fought a good fight c. In which words you have these two general parts First Paul's Retrospect viz. his serious reflection upon the by past Course of his Life that is ever since he had properly lived ever since he had been quickned by the renewing Grace of God's Spirit For all the time we remain in an unregenerate State is not time lived but time lost I have fought a good fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith This was the report that Paul's Well inlightned Conscience made upon this serious review and enquiry The Reflection upon which fil'd his Heart with Divine Consolation Before I proceed to the main point I intend I shall briefly offer two Notes to your serious Consideration 1. That the apprehension of the near approaches of Death doth ordinarily occasion nay necessitate Men whether good or bad to take a strict surveigh of their by past Life then Men think and enquire of themselves what they have been doing and whether they are going I say ordinarily it is so Some indeed are judiciously hardned and given up by God to a blind mind and to a feared Conscience that they are past feeling Living and dying like Beasts without any sight or sence of their Sin here or their Misery hereafter whose Eyes are not opened till they drop into Eternal Flames Except in such a case not to be mentioned without horror all Men not accidentally incapacitated by the violence of some bodily Distemper will at Death be upon a review 2. Note hence that according to the report that a well inform'd Conscience gives in at a dying hour so it will fill and furnish the Soul either with Triumph or Trouble with Joy or Sorrow If Conscience well instructed bears Witness for it that it hath done its work dispatched the business that God sent it into the World for then will it be fill'd with Songs in the Night then will it lift up its head knowing the Luke 21. 28. day of its redemption draws nigh Then next to Jesus Christ no such Friend as Death Then will it long to be dissolved to be with Christ Our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World. Self-examination and serious Reflection is a Duty though attended with great advantage that few Men understand but wholly neglect or at best are very slight and superficial in the performance of Most run away with the first over-hasty reports that may be results from a blind carnal sensual heart taking all things of that Nature upon trust rather than put themselves to the trouble of a serious Tryal but this will not alwayes do when Death hath clapt an Arrest upon thee and thou seest that thou must in good earnest put thy head into another World then matters relating to thy self and future state must pass through a finer sieve and a more severe scrutiny Oh that I could more throughly perswade my self and all you that hear me this day to be more frequent and industrious in this matter now and never leave till the great business betwixt God and our Souls be so throughly and comfortably stated that it may remain as a lasting impression when all our self-flattering glasses shall be broken in pieces and all those false measures which we have taken of our Spiritual State shall vanish and disappear Now may be any thing will stop the Mouth of Conscience and justifie such a conclusion concerning our welfare that we are Protestants that we have been Baptized that we are Members of this or that particular Church that we have been just to all or that we have been injurious to none that we have been no Persecutors that we have been charitable to the Poor that we have kept our Church that we have said our Prayers and if after all this we come short of Heaven then God help us say some though all this while totally Strangers to the work of Regeneration and Heart-Renovation For God's sake Sirs Consider and consider it in time what Christ speaks Except your Righteousness shall 〈…〉 5. 20. exceed the Righteousness of the Soribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And in another place Verily verily I say unto thee except a Man be born 〈…〉 3. 3. again see cannot be
the Kingdom of God. Beloved I beseech you see whether that which is sufficient to stop the Mouth of Conscience how whilest you live in this hurry will make you lie at ease then when you come to a Death-Bed But I must proceed Secondly You have the Apostles Prospect viz. his looking forward where he opens a fresh Spring whence he draws his Comfort and Confidence at this time when he was making his entry into the dark valley of the shades of Death and then considers what he had in expectation on the other side the Grave Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing This was the Joy that was set before the Eye of Paul's Faith. What appeared to his sence must needs be terrible and terrifying to Nature Death when it comes clothed with the most desirable Circumstances must needs make Nature startle at it Nature will certainly recoil and as such cannot bid it welcome No those that seem most to court it that look and long for it and with submission to Divine Pleasure have great reason to do so yet know it is never so for its own sake but for the sake of something that it is introductive to as appears from that of the Apostle after he had given testimony of his Faith both as to the reality of the future state of Felicity and also of the assurance that he had attained of his personal and particular interest in that state as you read 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens The Considerations of which together with the present inconvenience that did attend their present Habitation here below made them give many a long look and fetch many a heavy groan to be gone And no wonder Which of you that dwell in a pitiful poor mean tottering Cottage that know not but every day it may drop about your Ears that were sure that you had a Pallace richly furnished for you that stood ready to receive you would not do the like Indeed if you had made no such Provision but might expect when ever you were turned out you must lye abroad exposed to Storms and Tempest no wonder then if you notwithstanding inconveniences were loath to depart Truly the case is much thus betwixt Sinners and Saints no wonder you that are yet in a state of alienation from God that would never be perswaded to look after any further nor higher happyness than what results from a confluence of Creature Enjoyments I say no wonder that Death coming as a Messenger to call you from hence to see you cleaving and clinging so fast about the Creature to find you sending post for this and the tother Physician and for this and the other Friend crying out as that young Man once did when he was grapling with the pangs of Death inducias usque ad mane Lord tarry till the Morning When he knew not whether he was going but saw he must be exposed to the intolerable and unavoidable storms of God's Wrath but for you Believers who by an Eye of Faith may see the Heavens opened and Everlasting Mansions of Glory prepared for you and an Honourable Convoy sent to conduct you into the blessed Presence of a Reconciled God it would be a reproach to hang back yet I observe what the fore-mentioned Apostle takes notice of That when they came closely to consider the dark and narrow entry of Death that they were to pass through into the possession of this Land of Light when they considered the trouble they must be exposed to in their removal from this Tabernacle on Earth to their glorious Temple in Heaven It put them to the shrug and occasion'd a Contest betwixt Flesh and Spirit in this matter verse 4. We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of Life There is a double groan that God's people often fetch in this hour the one of Nature the other of Grace That of Nature arises from the apprehension and fear of approaching Death together with the afflictive Evils that attend it The other of Grace expressive of those earnest desires of that future state of Bliss and Glory whereof they are supposed to have some present prelibations to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better than the best state on Earth Now when the groans of Grace are louder than the groans of Nature as sometimes they are then Death is bid welcom and they can heartily cry out as this Gracious Soul did Come Lord Jesus come quickly and why are thy Chariot wheels so long a coming I know much time and more than can be allow'd for this exercise might be spent and that profitably too in the explication of the Contents of these two Verses The handling of which would swell rather into a large Treatise than be confin'd to the limits of a single Sermon But that I may fulfil the Will of the Deceased that gave me no liberty to speak to any particular branch of it but repeated the whole as my subject and yet not be offensive by too great a prolixity to the Living I shall with all possible brevity that may be consistent with perspecuity give you little more than a short Paraphrase upon the whole waving what ever might be judged ornamental to my Discourse as not being so seasonable for such a serious Dispensation where Death and Eternity are so immediately in view and we are to look upon each other as passing and posting to Everlasting Mansions In the words then consider two more general parts First A Christians Work faithfully perform'd or a Believers great business upon which God hath sent him into and continues him in this World carefully dispatched and this expressed under several Metaphors relating to Paul both as a Christian in his personal and more private Capacity and as a Minister of the Gospel in his more publick Capacity verse 6. I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Secondly Here is a comfortable and well-grounded expectation of the promised reward as consequential upon his finishing his work and this with a particular application and appropriation to himself though not without the same security to all others in the like case and as supposed for the main in the same Spiritual Condition Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness c. I shall put both these together into the Doctrine or Proposition viz. Doct. That all those and only those who have good evidences of their having done and dispatched their great work and business God hath allotted for them in this World can with comfort and confidence ensure to
who are still Servants of Sin and Slaves of the Devil and Strangers and Enemies to Christ who are found fighting indeed but whom or what do they fight for They are fighters against God resisters of the Spirit striving against the Counsels of God's Word and the Motions of his Grace and resolv'd to maintain and defend their Lusts Poor wretched Souls Can you think to live here always Or that your Houses shall continue for ever Do you never expect to dye Or is it indifferent with you where Death will set you in Heaven or in Hell The Lord so awaken you that you may give no sleep to your Eyes nor rest to your Souls till you come in at the sound of the Gospel-Trumpet You who have not taken one step in this Christian Race who are running indeed but whither I beseech you so fast You are running from God with your Faces towards Hell and your Backs upon Heaven and there is no stopping you as yet in this cursed Race Ministers call after you God calls and holds out a Crown to you invites and intreats you to consider your wayes and turn your feet unto his Testimonies You who are so far from keeping the Faith that you are Strangers to any such Work and Gift you have none in truth to keep You may have and make a profession but it is so weakly bottomed so little understood and you are so unable to give a reason of it that you are ready to part with it when the next temptation assaults you The Lord give you to believe and put the Spirit of Faith within you before it be too late to cure your Infidelity and you perish from the way Secondly Improve this Oh you Christians who are Christians indeed for your encouragement in your Work and Way You who have enter'd the Lists and are engaged in this Holy War let what you have heard this day strengthen you in your Conflicts It is true God hath cast your Lot in an evil day in which all your Enemies the World Flesh and Devil are coming forth full of rage and fury and you may expect a terrible shock but let me beseech you to endure 〈…〉 2. 3. hardness as good Soldiers of Jesus Christ Still think that you hear Christ calling to you Be of good chear I have overcome 〈…〉 33. the World I may add and the God of the World too You must combate still but remember 't is with conquered Enemies You have indeed rough wayes to run your Race in but there is a Glorious prize before you Be not weary of well-doing for in due season you shall reap if you faint not 〈…〉 9. There are 't is true many Spoilers abroad who would not only rob and deprive you of your Estates and Lives but of your Souls and Religion and tempt you to serve other Gods which you have not known but bear up Christians against them Yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry To conclude hearken diligently to 〈…〉 37. what your Lord says Hold fast that which thou hast that no Revel 3. 11. man take thy Crown Having thus finisht what I intended from the Text it self I shall now take leave to begin another Subject which shall be a just and faithful account of this precious Saint and Servant of God lately deceased Mrs. Elizabeth King who having fill'd up the number of Thirteen Years the last day of the last Month was on the Seventeenth day of this removed by a very Triumphant Death out of the present World into a better to the great grief not only of her Parents who are most immediately and especially concerned in the loss but also of all those who had converst with her and seen or heard of that Blessed frame which she was in at her departure hence I say to their great grief tho mixed with great joy the pulling down of her Earthly House being like the laying of the Foundation of the second Temple which occasioned both loud shouting and weeping too I have a Theam Ezra 3. 12. before me which might well employ the Tongue or Pen of the greatest Oratour enough to strike the Hearers with wonder but at what Not a poor empty Creature which is nothing or worse than nothing of it self but the rich and powerful Grace of God which hath been so conspicuous in so young a Child as may well be usher'd in with a Behold and command both your quickest attention and highest admiration To say nothing of her Ancestors the worthy Grandfathers on both sides who yet speak though dead many years since and from whose Prayers while alive she may be justly supposed to have received some benefit nor of her Parentage nor Education I shall confine my self to the recital of some passages which dropt as Honey from her Lips upon her Death-Bed and especially on the day before her translation into Heaven The warning which God gave her to get ready for her change was short though she was apprehensive as she afterwards declared assoon as God laid his Hand upon her that the stroak would be mortal The Messenger which her Heavenly Father sent I mean the Distemper wherewith she was at first seized had Esau's hand and handled her roughly she was taken on the Lords day at night or early in the next morning of that week in which she dyed with extream tormenting pains and though she wanted no Humane help it prov'd all but vain and under such a racking exercise notwithstanding a very diligent application of means she continued till the Fryday morning following during which time though she could not forbear to groan she was never heard to grumble as was said of her Great Grandfather whose name is famous 〈…〉 W. Gouge 〈…〉 Life in the Church of God she never uttered one mutinous or discontented word but shewed a mighty subjection of Soul to Gods mighty hand and opened not her mouth so as to charge Him foolishly she was dumb because God did it like 〈…〉 39. 9. 〈…〉 â—3 7. David yea like Christ Himself the unparalleld example of Divine Patience and Meekness On the Fryday morning before mentioned whether her pains were more mitigated or Nature more spent Grace begun more signally to discover it self Her Parents being then present found her in such Heavenly raptures and so refresht with the prelibations and foretasts of that Glory which she was going to that it filled them with astonishment for at that time God began to give a remarkable answer to their Prayers which were that if He did call her hence by this visitation though that was earnestly deprecated with submission to His Sovereign Pleasure she might leave behind such plain and manifest proofs of her eternal well-being as might enable them to stand under that almost insupportable burden to these Prayers God was pleased to say Amen for though they had very good and justifiable hopes from those Testimonies which she had given