any meanes of escaping having so highly provok'd that Great Judge before whom he is then to appear Whereas on the other hand he who has made it the business of his life to make the Judg his friend triumphs at the news of his appearance before him and looking merrily towards heaven the Reward of his Innocence his soul is ravisht with an earnest desire of being dissolved that he may be with God The Glory of the End makes him contemn the Hardness of the Way He knowes that as he lives in Gods Fear so he shall dye in his Favour and therefore he smiles upon the Messenger of his Departure and embraces it as his entrance into Happiness Is it any wonder that the wicked should fear death when their Conscience which is their faithful Informer tells them that it is a Trap-door which will let them down into the Dungeon of eternal misery Is it any wonder that he is dismayed when these Spiritual Philistines the terrors of death make War upon him when his own heart informs him that the Lord is departed from him No wonder if he who lived without Grace expects to dye without Comfort Needs must it be a ghastly sight to him to see death like a Pursevant sent from hell waiting to guard him into endless miseries But now they who dye in the Lord have another-guess Cordial to keep up their spirits so that in what habit soever death comes attired they can make him welcome because they perceive him to be a Messenger come from their Heavenly Father to call them to take possession of a Kingdom They may pass with comfort and courage through this dark entry which leads to the Palace of their eternal Glory They may play upon the hole of this Asp without danger for it cannot sting them Christ has subdued the Second and reconciled the First Death to them so that the one they never taste of and the other is so sweetned that they cannot justly complain of its relish When these Jacobs have got the blessing of their heavenly Father they can meet this ruffe Esau with a kiss and not with a frown and if they do receive a blow from his ruffe hand yet that very stroke is healing When our Saviour has made the bed of the grave soft and sweet by his own lying in it a Christian can with much chearfulness and quietness repose himself in it When an Angel comes to him as it did to S. Peter knocks off his chains and profers him a Gaol-delivery he is no longer in love with the Prison of his flesh but lets his Soul follow him freely into the best of Liberties When his Redeemer sends for him he has no reason to shew any unwillingness to go to him And what do you think it was but a sight of this future blessedness which made the Martyrs so in love with their stakes and so strangely amorous of their torment What was it but this that made them chalenge death and court their persecutors as their best friends giving them thanks for their service in letting them loose from the slavery of this world Was it not the earnest desire of their future glory which so passionately inflamed them with a love of their present misery Needs must they be blessed who dye in the Lord who then reap the great and plentiful gain of their Godliness here they have Beatitudinem viae but then and there do they enter upon Beatitudinem Patriae they have a blessing accompanying them in their wayes but it is not to be compared with that which meets them at their journies end He who is the Lord of life and has tryed what it is to dye has pronounc'd a peculiar blessing upon them that dye in the Lord they are both Beati qui moriuntur quia moriuntur in Domino who do and because they do dye in the Lord the interest which they have in God whilst they live is that which gives them assurance of their happiness with him when they dye They who do not live in London cannot expect to dye there nor can they who do not live in Gods Grace expect by death to have admission into his Glory They who would be happy in the end must first be holy in the beginning they who would obtain the price of eternal happiness which is to be distributed at the Goal must first run the race which is set before them and observe the rules likewise that are given out by the eternal God who is to dispose of it and in so doing they shall have priviledges of a double nature conveyed over to them some in possession others in reversion some in spe others in re they shall have some blessing in hold whilst they live in hope of others Here they shall have desiderium Beatitudinis there Beatitudinem desiderii here the desire of happiness and persuit after it there shall they be swallowed up in the happiness which they desire Those are blessed who live in the Lord but they rest not from their labours toil and sorrow intrudes between them and a perfect enjoyment of that blessedness which they now possess only in hope and inchoation when Death adds rest to it then and not before is their happiness compleated whilst they are in the body their souls lye manacled in their jayl of flesh but then they receive a release and are joyned with their Saviour in eternal liberty where they possess joyes for matter spiritual for substance real for use universal and for continuance eternal And therefore Foelices nimium quibus est fortuna peracta Jam sua They are happy beyond comparison or expression whose Glass is so well run as that we may say of them they are dead in the Lord. Blessed are the dead who dye in the Lord so some translations by which it seems that good men are dead before the stroke of death reaches them death is no stranger to them they are grown familiar with it being dead to Sin dead to the Law and dead to the World The wicked go down quick to Hell but the Godly are dead before hand and therefore 't is no trouble or difficulty for them to dye especially considering that they dye in the Lord. They live in the Lord in one sense but they dye in him in another for being engrafted into Christ that precious Vine by Faith and Love they live and flourish for ever and continue to be the Mystical Members of his body the living Branches of that Vine even when they have naturally breath'd out their Souls and are fallen asleep in his bosome But Beza's Latine Translation reads it Beati qui Domini causâ moriuntur Blessed are they who dye for the Lord's sake who are persecuted for righteousness sake unto death because through a red Sea of blood they pass into a Canaan of eternal happiness Though Christ have finished his own sufferings for the expiation of the World yet there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portions which are
them it makes both for the glory of God and the benefit of the living The happiness of the godly is a Truth of more unquestionable Authority than those which are conveyed to us by Tradition for it hath a Scriptum est to confirm it 'T is written So that these are no transient Commendations which are given them from Heaven such as spend their life in a breath but they are determined to be lasting and permament ones they must be written in an indelible Character as it were with a Graver upon the Tomb of them who dye in the Lord. God has a Book of Remembrance in which those who are his Servants are registred that they may be had in everlasting remembrance that they may appear to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a people of extraordinary note even Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jewels of Heaven those upon whom he puts an higher value then ordinary and indeed it his esteem of them which doth both make and manifest their happiness Those therefore whom by the declaration of Gods will as it were by a voice from heaven he causes to be written amongst his Favourites must needs have such a share in his love and such a title to his affection as will make them happy to all eternity God threatned the wicked that he will scatter them Deut. 32. 26 into corners and that he will make the remembrance of them to cease from amongst men And when Bildad was reckoning up the calamities of the wicked he thought this was not to be forgotten That the light of Job 17. 6. tbe wicked shall be put out and his candle put out with him his remembrance shall perish from the earth and he Ver. 17. shall have no name in the street The face of the Lord Psal 34. 16. is against them that do evil sayes David to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth It seems they are so bad that God would have us hear no more of them when they are gone because their memory stinks and is offensive therefore does he take care that it may be buried with them All their actions abhor a register nor shall they be ever named unlesse like that obscure Herostrotus to their perpetual infamy But the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Psal 112. 2. He took care to do well and God takes care that he may hear well causing his best actions to be written in a fair hand that he may transmit his memory to after ages He enrolls them in an everlasting Register and that his name may ride in Triumph to all eternity he allots his glorious Angels for his Supporters That the priviledges of the righteous may be sure to be heard of far and near God causes them to be pronounc'd by a voice from heaven a miraculous one indeed a voice without a Speaker an audible testimony of an invisible witnesse and yet not outwardly sounding that we read of to S. John but inwardly conveyed to him by that Angel who reveal'd the whole Apocalypse to him The Memorial of the Just shall be blessed A Good Prov. 10. 7. Name shall be his heir which that it may be made manifest to Succeeding as well as Present Generations God orders it to be written that so his respect and love to him may never be forgotten but remain upon Record to all eternity Now because this affection of the Holy Spirit of God to the Servants of God when deceased runs through the other two parts of their Epitaph and is to be seen as well in the Character which is given them as likewise in the Comfort which is administred to their surviving friends I cannot properly be said to passe it over though I come along with your patience to the Second Observable in my Text viz. II. The Signal Character which by order from Heaven is given to these servants of God whereby they are to be distinguisht from all others and by which their Memory is perfum'd to all eternity viz. in the Blessing which is pronounc'd on them and of them Blessed are they who dye in the Lord a Phrase suitable to that Of Sleeping in the 1 Cor. 15. 18 Lord. The Verdict of the Holy Spirit is much different from the Worlds opinion for whereas they judg none more Miserable the Comforter declares none more Blessed then they who dye in the Lord that is either for his Cause or in faith and obedience to him nay none besides them The Spirit sayes it though the flesh and the world deny it It was but one mans opinion and he a Heathen too That Death was Natures best invention and therefore that Blessedness should be entailed upon the dead will amongst sober men easily pass for a Paradox which that it may appear to be true beyond all exceptions and mistakes thre is a clause of Inhibition by the Holy Spirit here inserted which limits the Proposition and shews what sorts of Dead he means when he stiles them Blessed not all for then Scipio's Question to his Father were material Why should we live many in pain more in misery all in sin but they only who dy in the Lord that is they who lead their lives in an impartial obedience to his Commands and continues faithful to the end and then departs in Peace with God their own Consciences and all the World Though every Subject do desire to have this Predicate of Blessedness coupled to it yet to none is it really agreeable but to those who dye in the Lord which as I now tell you in the beginning of my Discourse you will certainly find most true in the end of your lives Not every one who ferries over the Dead sea is happy only they are truly stiled Blessed who arrive safely at the Haven of eternal Happiness and such are those and those only who dye in the Lord. It cannot be expected but as men differ in their lives so they should in their deaths They who go two several wayes and those opposite one to the other can never hope to meet at one end of their journey The same Prison may for a while containe both the Innocent and Malefactor but when a Commission is issued forth to call them out and a Warrant to bring them to the Bar this Summons finds a different entertainment between them For the wicked mans Guilt does then flye in his face and take down his courage nor can all his vain and frolick methods of confidence shift off the violent horror which he conceives at this news upon a conscience of his own misdemeanors The fear of death like one of the stained colours does then abate his pleasant and chearful countenance and the melancholy remembrance of what he has done together with the horrid expectation and foresight of his future sufferings terrifies him to the purpose He now sees the gates of death wide open expecting him and through them his passage to those of hell which he cannot possibly conceive
THE GOOD MAN'S EPITAPH BRIEFLY EXPLAINED APPLYED IN A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL OF Mr. JOHN DRVRY By THOMAS CARTWRIGHT M. of A. of Queens College Oxon and now Vicar of Walthamstow in Essex 2 Cor. 4. 17. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of Glory London Printed by D. Maxwel for John Baker at the Peacock in S. Pauls Church-yard 1659. TO My ever honored Friend Mris REBECCA DRURY Madam WHen you were pleased to make your desires known to me That I who had perform'd the first Office of Friendship to You both would likewise do the Last to your deceased Consort I found a double task in my hands the one to compose my self and the other this Sermon as likewise an indispensible engagement of making that smal portion of time which was too short for the former sufficient for both Now being thus divided and streightned between my Studies and Passions I could not but expest that my Auditors should bewail the sadness of my Discourse and be as sensible of my want of time as my self And therefore though I could civilly have denyed all other Sutors who deemed it worthy of a longer life which was judged to enjoy but an hours breath and then to be buried with him to whose death it owed its birth yet an innocent Ambition of publishing my Obligations to either part of your self hath obtained its reprieve and made me so inclinable to your Commands which indeed I could not pardonably resist as to reconcile my Respects to you with my Judgment of it and so for your sake to allow it publick Liberty if indeed this be not a severer Sentence then any to which I could have adjudged it If it may be so happy as to raise you matter of spiritual joy from the ground which has been watered with your tears by convincing you that your dearer self is gone to Heaven before you so much to your advantage because to his I shall have the better thoughts of it for your sake I might easily have spent a longer Discourse upon the Coffin then I did upon the Text nor was it for want of respect to the Truth or Him that I strewed so few flowers on his Herse but that I might appear to be so perfect a stranger to that over-bold flattery which has so frequently intruded at such melancholy Solemnities as rather to be acknowledged to have fallen short in many particulars of his Commendations then to have exceeded in the least And as I was the more obliged to be free of my Eulogies in respect of Himself because he would never accept them from any when alive so the less in regard of his acquaintance amongst whom his Civil and Christian carriage hath already brought him into so much Credit that any good Word of mine will come too late Though you lost as great a Temporal Blessing in him as your utmost Ambitions could have aspired to yet I know you are so much a Christian as to be sensible whom you are obliged to love above him and so patiently at least to part with what God has thought fit to take to himself and to be fully satisfied with what he has left you If the assurance of having so considerable a part of your self as he was in heaven before you may be a means to wean you from the world engage you to live in the Lord like him that when you dye you may be happy and Blessed with him to all eternity you will make a very good improvement of your loss in order whereunto you may promise your self the Prayers of Your Faithful Friend and Servant THOMAS CARTWRIGHT Octob. 18. 1659. REVEL 14. 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are those who dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labors and their Works do follow them THese words are words of Consolation conveyed to S. John by a voice from Heaven that he might thereby encourage the Saints and faithful Servants of God cheerfully to encounter all the dangers which should at any time assault them in their passage through the wildernesse of this World to the Canaan of Eternal happinesse by assuring them that the utmost extent of their enemies malice and the worst they could do them was to put them in present possession of their happinesse What dependance soever they may have upon the foregoing parts of this Chapter they are as considered in themselves fit for such a Funeral Discourse as ours and need no other Introduction then a Coffin Now that you may benefit the more by them I shall propose them to you in the easiest and most familiar method imaginable But first Let The Voice challenge your attention because 't is a Voice from Heaven Non vox hominem sonat it sounds as if it came from the tongue of an Angel and not of a Man and therefore hearken to it not as 't is reported by a weak and sinful man at the second hand but as if you heard it with S. Johns ears immediately sounding from heaven And I heard a voice from heaven saying c. Which Words may fitly be termed the Godly mans Epitaph pen'd by S. John as 't was dictated to him by a voice from heaven in which as in all well-composed Epitaphs there are three things observable 1. The Inditers Love to the parties deceased in registring their happiness and causing it to be exposed to publick view And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me Write Yea saith the Spirit 2. A Signal Character given them whereby they are distinguished from all others and their memory continued to posterity Blessed are they that dye in the Lord. 3. Their Friends surviving are comforted from an assurance of a double priviledg which they since their death enjoy viz. 1. Rest or cessation from their works They rest from their labors 2. Remuneration or reward for their works And their works they follow them We shall speak something as far as a Funeral-warning your patience and this time will give us leave to each of these particulars and that orderly briefly and plainly And therefore 1. First let us take a view of the Inditers love to the parties deceased in exposing their happiness to publick view and causing their priviledges to be recorded And from hence we may observe how the Spirit of God takes care to register the Priviledges of the Godly both for their own satisfaction and others conviction He causes their Ptiviledges to be written that in them others may read the goodness and bounty of God to them that seek him Though Christs friends dye as well as others yet he takes a special care to shew his friendship to them and to clear it to the world after their death lest possibly his love to them might appear to die with them Now this praise which he takes such a special order to have upon record of
left behind of the sufferings of Christ which must be filled up by his body the Church and happy are those who contribute most unto it And this is a duty which our times make highly seasonable to be prest though the present occasion of our meeting do withdraw me from pursuing it Now there is a particle of time mentioned in this blessing which breeds some small difference among Interpreters from henceforth from now from this time which some with Beza would joyn with Blessed and then the words run thus Blessed from henceforth are they who dye in the Lord. Others are unwilling to stir it out of the place which our Translation has given it and therefore joyn it with Dying and then they read them thus Blessed are those that dye from henceforth in the Lord not but that those who dyed in former ages were also blessed but because the times which the Angel here spoke of were times of great persecution and therefore required more signal comfort then ordinary A third sort restrain it not to the time of uttering this Prophecy but to the instant of death and thereby make this voice from heaven of strength enough to blow out Romes pick-purse flames and beat down their Doctrine of Purgatory Now because every Epitaph is supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Commendatory and therefore is likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consolatory carrying something in it that may calm the minds of those friends who shall bewayl the parties â—â—â—psed therefore the holy Spirit here writing upon the Saints departed closes their Epitaph with matter of comfort to their surviving relations wherein he takes care by a fresh gale of consolation to blow over those showers of tears which would otherwise fall for them in the last words for they rest from their labours and their works they follow them So that III. Their Friends are Comforted from an assurance of a double Priviledg that they 〈◊〉 their death enjoy viz. Rest and Reward 1. The First Cordial that the H. Spirit administers to keep up their fainting friends is a serious consideration That they rest from their labors By which it seems That Christianity is no lazie Imployment God admits none but Labourers into his Vineyard Loyterers have nothing to do there We must bestir our selves in it all the day till the evening comes and with that the Messenger of Death from God to serve a Quietus est upon us and command us to rest from our labour Labors are a Law which we all are bound to submit to who have Adam for our Grandfather and Crosses are a Curse which will reach us all who acknowledge Eve for our Grandmother and though the wickeds death is not properly a Rest but a Remove to a greater place of torment as well as Labor yet there remaineth a rest to the people of God which at the hour of death they enter into possession of for then they Rest from their labors that is from Evils of all sorts from the Injuries of the World from Temporal Chastisements from all Infirmities and Bodily Diseases from all painfull and Laborious Imployments and therefore they are never better delivered then when delivered by death For they are now in their Haven and no longer tugging at the Oares Their Work is done their Journey ended no more Fasting Weeping Watching Sinning Suffering no Peccant Humors to disturb their crazie bodies no griping Fears nor consuming Cares to afflict their minds as formerly but they are freed from all these and enjoy an absolutely perfect and complete Rest from all their Labors from the sence of Gods displeasure from the Disturbing Temptations of Satan from the Allurements of the flesh from the bewitching Snares of the World from all Abuses and Dissentions from the many Duties which their Weakness made burdensome from the disturbance of Desires and Hopes of their Longing and Waitings which made them weary of their lives and desirous to be dissolved But before we dismiss this Clause let us not forget to reconcile it with another in the same Book which may seem to stand at a distance from it where 't is said of the Saints in Heaven That they have no Rest day or Rev. 4. 8. night whereas one of the principal Fruits of Life Eternal is shadowed out under the Metaphor of Rest and here 't is recorded as a Priviledg of theirs That they rest from their Labors To bring both which expressions together to salute one another with a Kiss of Peace let us consider that a Rest indeed they have viz. Such a one as implies A cessation from all toilesome and troublesome Labours But yet they are not Idle in Heaven they have their work to do there as wel as on Earth but yet such an one as will not in continuance of time tire them but eternally Delight them such as wil not at any time destroy but for everperfect them And therefore weep not for them but your selves in that God has not thought fit to give you a Writ of Ease to sit down with them 2. The second Comfort which the Holy Spirit administers to the Living at the death of their righteous Friends is That their Works follow them which if they were Good must needs Comfort the pensive spirit of the Mourner and administer a Cruse of Oyle to his Joy but if Bad a Conduit of Tears to his sorrow for Qualis vita finis ita As men live so they dye As Evil Works have two Punishments following of them close at their heeles viz. Remorse and guilt of Conscience in this life and Eternal Damnation in that which is to come So Good Works have two Rewards attending them the one in this life and that 's Peace of Conscience the other following them into that to come viz. Joy for evermore Then shall they reap the Fruit of their Labors when God renders to every one according to their deeds that they have done in the flesh whether good or evil Good Works are the Seeds of Glory A man may as well ride to Rome upon a dead horse as go to heaven with a dead faith and such is that which is without Jam. 2. 17. Works and therefore Blessed are they whose works follow them into Heaven whither Christ is gone before them and do there claim of God that exceeding weight of Glory which is not out of our Merits but His Mercy treasured up for them who dye in the Lord so that if thy Actions have been good on Earth great will be thy Reward in Heaven where thy Grace will be consummated thy Glory perfected and thou have the inseparable Company of Christ and immediate communion with thy God where thou shalt feast thy self with the vision of that Being which is Invisible and according to the Riches of Gods promise Inherit that Kingdome which flesh and blood cannot inherit No sooner does the Messenger of death arrest us but Riches they take wing and fly away our Pleasures they steal from us and