Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B05935
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A sermon preached in S. George's Church Southwark, at the funeral of that pious and worthy gentlewoman, Mrs. Frances Fenn. / By R. Sparke ...
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Sparke, Robert.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing S4819; ESTC R184509
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20,356
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36
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A SERMON PREACHED IN S. George's Church SOVTHWARK AT THE FUNERAL OF THAT Pious and Worthy Gentlewoman Mrs FRANCES FENN By R. SPARKE of NEWINGTON M. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by T. James for Joseph Collyer and are to be Sold at his Shop at the Angel on London-Bridge a little below the Gate 1679. Imprimatur C. ALSTON Novem. 30. 1678. TO THE Right Worshipful AND His Honoured Friend JOHN TREGONWELL Esq And his Vertuous LADY UPon Request I have assumed the Confidence to Expose this following Sermon to Publick View and if it meet with a kind Reception and a candid Interpretation which I question not from your Self and your worthy Family it is all I beg As for Others if they be truly Learned they will be Civil If Critical and Captious I say to them in the words of Catullus Non vident id manticae quod in tergo est Let it be sheltred under your Protection it is enough and the greatest Ambition the Author aims at I am happy it hath so Noble a Patron I shall not trouble you with a prolix or tedious Discourse of this nature And therefore desiring the Great God to Shadow You your Pious Lady and invaluable Stems under his Almighty Power and establish You and Yours not onely on Earth but in the highest Heavens is the Prayer of Your most Obliged Servant ROBERT SPARKE A Funeral Sermon The Text is in GENESIS the XXIII the first Clause of the 2. Verse Then Sarah died THat silent Witness of Mortality presents the sad Occasion of our Assembly to Celebrate the Funeral of Mrs. Frances Fenn and for a Mournful Meeting what more convenient and necessary than Psalms Sighs and Tears of Sorrow and Lamentation Discourse with Matter Matter with Action Action with Affection Affection with Opportunity Opportunity with Occasion should concur and concord together Suitable for which occasion I have elected and chosen out this Text which speaks of Death a sad and doleful Messenger and end of all And whilst I apply to this sad Spectacle apply your Hearts to Sorrow your Eyes to Tears and your Selves to Mourning If not for her that is dead and gone for she is happy and acquiesceth from her Labours and her good Works shall follow her yet for your own sins which will cause you Volens nolens will you nill you the Lord knowes how soon to follow her But to my Text Then Sarah died Was Sarah the first that ever died Was not Grandmother Eve with many more dead long before If dead why not recorded in Sacred Writ What was eminent what was admirable What was remarkable or singular in her or in her death that she above all her Sex above Eve her self should merit the first Memorial Then Sarah died Certainly I know no other reason can be rendred but this That as Abraham was the Father so Sarah was the Mother of the Faithful and therefore the Holy Ghost confers that upon her which he denies to other Women even a Noble and Honourable mention both of her Age how long she lived and of the time of her death when she died When Sarah was 127 years old so long she lived Then Sarah died Sarah though the Mother of the Faithful though a holy and religious Matron though a Saint and dear Child of God yet Sarah died Whence observe Obs The General and Universal condition of all Mankind and that which the holy Apostle hath many hundred years since abundantly confirmed Statutum est omnibus semel mori It is appointed for all men once to die Appointed and decreed it is and that by Elohim the Mighty God who hath the disposing ordering and appointing of all things and whose Decrees and Appointments are like those of the Medes and Persians they shall not they cannot be altered or changed All must drink of Sarahs Cup the Cup is full of one and the same Liquor the Liquors drawn from one and the same Spring now the Spring it self is poysoned and if the Spring be corrupted the streams will be disturbed too if the Root be cankered the branches will wither and die and if the Head be out of order the whole Body will be indispos'd also Now the head and the root as of Sarah so of all Mankind was Father Adam But Adam disobeying his Creator and transgressing the Law of his God sinned not only in his own person but in his humane nature and so incurred the wrath and displeasure of his good and gracious God and purchased the punishment of sin which is death not only unto himself unto his own person but also to all his Posterity To this I may add that of the Apostle Rom. 5.12 By one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin entred also By one Adam one Eve two in Sex but one in Nature one in offending one in disobedience the Woman seduced by the Serpent the Man induced by the Woman sin entred into the World and Death by sin entred also so death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Adam at first might have lived freely fully happily and plenteously eating of all the Trees in Paradise except one Now having tasted of that one a necessity is laid upon him and he must die The cause of his death was the breach of diet God forbad him the fruit of one Tree this he hungreth for and taste it he will though it cost him his life S. Augustine bringeth in our first Parents thus disputing in a Dialogue concerning that fruit If this Fruit be good why may I not eat of it If it be not good why groweth it in Paradise Demine dedisti hortum negasta pomum Lord hast thou given us the Garden and denied us the Apple Therefore saith he God hath given thee the fruition and benefit of Paradise that thou mayest know his beneficence his bounty and goodness towards thee but hath denied this one fruit that he may find thy Obedience and Duty to him This Duty and Obedience neglected by our Grandfather Adam Death the Lodge of every mans life cometh with insensible degrees upon the Children of Men. So that now assoon as Man begins to live he begins a continual Voyage unto death and there is none but is nearer death at the years end than at the beginning to morrow than to day to day than yesterday by and by than just now and now then a little before each part of time if time may be said to have part that we may divide it divides and cuts off so much of our life and the remainder still decreaseth Veniente pueritia saith S. Aug. in Psalm 127. moritur infantia veniente adolescentia moritur pueritia veniente juventute moritur adolescentia veniente senectute moritur juventus veniente morte moritur omnis aetas When childhood approacheth or cometh on infancy dyeth when adolescence cometh childhood dyeth when youth cometh adolescence dyeth when old age cometh youth dyeth but when Death the
King of Terrors cometh all and every age dieth Look how many degrees of ages we covet to live so many degrees of death we desire to die After an Old man where is his Infancy where is his Childhood where is his Adolescence where is his Youth Shall he not truly speak if he answers All these are dead and gone What speak I of ages every year month day and hour of our lives that we have lived in this vale of misery is dead to us and we are dead with them What therefore is our life but a gradation unto death What is every minute thereof but a motion to our graves Quotidie morimur saith Seneca Lib. 3. Epist 24. We die daily every day we lose somewhat of our life and the more it increaseth the more it dedecreaseth the more it is lengthen'd the more it is shortned and the longer we live the nearer we approach unto death Excellent to our purpose is that of Job Job 30.27 I know assuredly thou wilt bring me unto death which is appointed for all the living as a Harbour or Haven for all Shipping It may be when a Ship cometh within sight of land or near its harbour a sudden and violent gust or blast of wind may repel and drive it back again into the vast Ocean but thither after it hath been tossed with boistrous waves it will arrive at last So must we after many tryals crosses and afflictions at the gates of death Omnes una manet mors calcanda semelvia lethi Saith a worthy Author Death is the end of all and once the way of Death is to be trod of all As a River that riseth in the Forrest passeth by many Rocks runneth and tumbleth and maketh a noise yet in the end entreth into the Sea so fareth it with mans life He cometh into the world with pain and beginneth his course with pitiful cries and is daily molested with sickness and never ceaseth running till in the end he falls into the Sea of Death As every man hath his Genesis so he must have his Exodus and as we are born to live so we are born to die and our dying on earth is but the taking our journey to Heaven Why are we unwilling to lose that which cannot be kept The good Pilot sits at the Stern to guid his Ship and a good Christian to direct his life must think on Death Death is the door whereby we go out of Bondage and Christ is the door of Liberty Therefore as he that is in Prison taketh great comfort to sit upon the Threshold that when the door is opened he may the sooner get out so we must always have our hearts and minds fixed upon death for die we must We are all travelling unto one home the habitation or house of death which the Prophet in a proverbial manner calleth the way of all the earth Josh 23.14 Thus as death is certain so it is as certain our life is short which daily experience fully demonstrates It is compared to a shadow Psal 102.11 My days are like a shadow that fadeth and I am withered like grass and Hosea the 13.3 it is likened to smoke that vanisheth to a bubble that is dissolved to a Weavers shuttle for swiftness Job the 7.6 My days are swifter than a weavers shuttle and they are spent without hope and this he speaks in respect of the brevity of mans life which passeth without hope of returning in consideration whereof he desireth God to have compassion on him To a spiders web which is soon swept away To a cloud that goeth away Job 7.9 As the Cloud vanisheth and goeth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more that is shall no more enjoy this mortall life To a vapour that is soon disperst James 4.14 Ye cannot tell what shall be to morrow for what is you life It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and afterwards vanisheth away Remember my life is but a wind saith Job 7.7 No wonder if when the wind bloweth the Leaf falleth if when death cometh the day ends Is our life so uncertain so full of inconstancy and of so short a being upon earth better than is it to die than to live and the day of death better than the day wherein one is born Eccles 7.3 The day of death is not a perishing but a parting the soul is not lost to the body but only sent before it unto joy If the soul be carefully and painfully laid off it is joyfully and happily laid up Per nativitatem ad stadium per mortem ad praemium pervenimus Through our nativity we come to the race through death to the reward through birth to a sea of sorrow through death to the Heaven of Comfort through birth to the Combate through death to the victory through birth to labour through death to rest by birth to mourning by death to rejoycing by birth to a life which is full of misery by death to a life eternal free from all sorrows Death is rather the flight of sin than the detriment of man dying because to the Righteous death is not the end of nature but of sin As a father saith To leave this world and inherit a better should seem nothing Death is a passage from sin and corruption to glory and immortality from this Earth to Heaven from the company of Sinners to the company of Saints from sorrow to solace from pain to peace from sickness to safety from persecution to triumph from the bondage and slavery of Pharaoh to the liberty and freedome of the children of God When we are born we are mortal but when we shall rise again we shall be immortal We are alive in the Womb to die in the World but dead in the Grave to live in Heaven Our life is not compared to any thing that is permanent but to those things that are momentary and of no long continuance The date of our life is threescore years and ten Psal 90.10 and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flee away The Kingly Prophet could say it was but a span long Moses and Solomon called it a life dayes But what need we these Memento's or Remembrances seeing we can turn our selves no way but something there is which may put us in mind of our mortality Can you look upon your Watch and not consider that as the hour passeth so doth your life Can you sit in the chairs by the fire side and see a great quantity of wood or coals converted into smoke and ashes and not consider with the Poet Sic in non hominem vertitutur omnis homo So man no man will suddenly become Can you walk forth into the pleasant fields and see how some grass is coming some already withered and some quite sprung up Esay 40.6 and not consider with the Prophet All flesh is grass