Fountain of Life They enjoy a better Immortality than the Tree of Life could have preserved in Adam The Revolutions of the Heavens and Ages are under their Feet and cannot in the least alter or determine their Happiness After the passing of millions of Years still an entire Eternity remains of their enjoying God O most desirable State where Blessedness and Eternity are inseparably united O joyful Harmony when the full Chorus of Heaven shall sing This God is our God for ever and ever This adds an infinite weight to their Glory This redoubles their unspeakable Joys with infinite sweetness and security They repose themselves in the compleat Fruition of their Happiness God reigns in the Saints and they live in him for ever From what has been discoursed we should I. Consider the woful Folly of Men in refusing such a Happiness that by the admirable favour of God is offer'd to their choice Can there be an Expectation or Desire or Capacity in Man of enjoying a Happiness beyond what is Infinite and Eternal O blind and wretched World so careless of everlasting felicity Who can behold without compassion and indignation Men vainly seek for happiness where 't is not to be found and after innumerable disappointments fly at an Impossibility and neglect their sovereign and final Blessedness Astonishing Madness that God and Heaven should be despised in comparison of painted Trifles This adds the greatest Contumely to their Impiety What powerful Charm obstructs their true judging of things What Spirit of Errour possesses them Alas Eternal Things are unseen not of conspicuous moment and therefore in the carnal Ballance are esteemed light against temporal things present to the Sense It does not appear what we shall be The Vail of the visible Heavens covers the Sanctuary where JESUS our High-Priest is entred and stops the enquiring Eye But have we not assurance by the most infallible Principles of Faith that the Son of God came down from Heaven to live with us and dye for us and that he rose again to confirm our Belief in his exceeding great and precious Promises concerning this happiness in the future state And do not the most evident Principles of Reason and Universal Experience prove that this World cannot afford true Happiness to us How wretchedly do we forfeit the Prerogative of the Reasonable Nature by neglecting our last and blessed End If the Mind be darkned that it does not see the amiable Excellencies of God and the Will so depraved that it does not feel their ravishing power the Man ceases to be a Man and becomes like the Beasts that perish As a blind Eye is no longer an Eye being absolutely useless to that end for which it was made And though in this present state Men are stupid and unconcern'd yet hereafter their Misery will awaken them to discover what is that Supream Good wherein their Perfection and Felicity consists When their folly shall be exposed before God Angels and Saints in what extream confusion will they appear before that glorious and immense Theatre Our Saviour told the unbelieving Jews There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves turn'd out They shall be tortur'd with the desire of Happiness without possible satisfaction 'T is most just that those who err without excuse should repent without remedy 2. Let us be excited seriously to apply our selves in the use of effectual means for the obtaining this Happiness Indeed the original cause of it is the pure rich Mercy of God the meritorious is the most precious obedience of our Saviour by whom we obtain plenteous Redemption His Abasement is the cause of our Exaltation The Wounds he received in his Body the characters of Ignominy and footsteps of Death are the Fountains of our Glory Eternal Life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But the Gospel declares that without Holiness no Man shall see God An holy change of our Natures and perseverance in the course of universal obedience are indispensibly requisite in order to our obtaining Heaven Those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality shall partake of Eternal Life Now were there no other reason of this Constitution but the sovereign Will of God it were sufficient But the Foundation of it is laid in the nature of the Things themselves Therefore our Saviour does not simply declare that an unregenerate Person shal not see the Kingdom of God but with the greatest emphasis cannot to signify an absolute impossibility of it Besides the Legal Bar that excludes unsanctified Persons from the beatifick vision of God there is a moral incapacity Suppose that Justice should allow Omnipotence to translate such a sinner to Heaven would the Place make him happy Can two incongruous Natures delight in one another The happiness of Sense is by an impression of Pleasure from a suitable Object The happiness of intellectual Beings arises from an entire conformity of dispositions So that unless God recede from his Holiness which is absolutely impossible or Man be purified and changed into his likeness there can be no sweet Communion between them Our Saviour assigns this Reason of the necessity of Regeneration in order to our admission into Heaven That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit According to the quality of the Principle such is what proceeds from it The Flesh is a corrupt Principle and accordingly the Natural Man is wholly carnal in his propensions operations and end The Disease is turn'd into his Constitution He is dead to the Spiritual Life to the actions and enjoyments that are proper to it Nay there is in him a surviving Principle of Enmity to that Life not only a mortal coldness to God but a stiff aversation from him a perpetual resistance and impatience of the Divine Presence that would disturb his voluptuous enjoyments The Exercises of Heaven would be as the Torments of Hell to him while in the midst of those pure Joys his inward inclinations vehemently run into the lowest Lees of Sensuality And therefore till this contrariety so deep and predominant in an unholy Person be removed 't is utterly impossible he should enjoy God with satisfaction Holiness alone prepares Men for the possession of Celestial Happiness that is against the corruption and above the perfection of meer Nature Let us then having such a Joy set before us lay aside every weight and the Sin which doth so easily beset us and run with patience the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith Methinks the sight of worldly Men so active and vigilant to prosecute their low designs should quicken us to seek with the greater diligence and alacrity the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof A carnal Wretch urged by the sting of a brutish desire with
A Funeral Sermon PREACHED Upon the Death of the Reverend and Excellent Divine Dr. Thomas Manton Who deceas'd the 18th of October 1677. By WILLIAM BATES D. D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons in Cornhil over against the Royal Exchange 1678. 1 THES 4. 17. The last Clause And so shall we ever be with the Lord. THE Words are a Consolation brought by the Apostle from the tbird Heaven where he was by extraordinary Priviledg rais'd and saw and understood how great a Happiness it is to be with Christ. And they are addrest to Believers to moderate and allay their Sorrows for the Death of those Saints who by their Conjunction in Blood or Friendship were most dear to them Thus he speaks in the 13 Verse I would not have you be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not as others which have no hope The Heathens that were Strangers to a future State and thought that after a short Course through the World Mankind would be lost for ever in the Dead Sea might with some pretence abandon themselves to the Extremity of their Passions But Christians to whom Life and Immortality are reveal'd by the Gospel who believe that as JESUS died and rose again So all that sleep in JESUS that persevere in Faith and Holiness to the end GOD will bring with Him are forbid upon the most weighty Reasons to indulge their Grief in excess The Union between Christ and Believers is inviolable and from thence it follows they shall be Partakers with him in his Glory The Soul immediately after Death shall be with Christ vvhiles the Body reposes in the Grave 't is in his Presence who is Life and Light and has a vital joyful Rest in Communion with him And in the appointed Time the Bodies of the Saints those happy Spoils shall be rescued from the dark Prison of the Grave and be Sharers with their Souls in immortal Glory This consummate Happiness of the Saints the Apostle assures from the highest Authority the Word of the Lord and describes his glorious Appearance so as to make the strongest Impression on our Minds For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a Shout with the Voice of an Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then Death the last Enemy so fearful and feared by Men shall be destroyed And the Captive Prince of the World with all the powers of darkness and all other rebellious Sinners that obstinately joyn'd vvith him shall be brought in Chains before his dreadful Tribunal and after the great Act of the Universal Judgment shall be compleated then shall the Saints make their triumphant Entry with the Captain of their Salvation into his Kingdom and shall ever be with the Lord. The general Proposition from the Words is this The Saints after the Resurrection shall be Compleatly and Eternally happy in the Presence of Christ. To make this supernatural Blessedness more easie and intelligible to us the Scripture describes it by sensible Representations For while the Soul is cloath'd with flesh Fancy has such a dominion that we can conceive of nothing but by Comparisons and Images taken from material things 'T is therefore set forth by a Feast and a Kingdom to signifie the Joy and Glory of that State But to prevent all gross conceits it tells us that the Bodies of the Saints shall be spiritual not capable of hunger and thirst nor consequently of any refreshment that is caused by the satisfaction of those appetites The objects of the most noble senses Seeing and Hearing the pleasure of which is mix'd with Reason and not common to the Brutes are more frequently made use of to reconcile that glorious State to the proportion of our minds Thus sometimes the Blessed are represented plac'd on Thrones with Crowns on their heads sometimes cloathed in White with Palms in their hands sometimes singing Songs of triumph to Him that sits on the Throne and to their Saviour But the reality of this Blessedness infinitely exceeds all those faint Metaphors Heaven is lessened by Comparisons from earthly things The Apostle who was dignifi'd with the revelation of the successes that shall happen to the Church till Time shall be no more tells us it does not appear what we shall be in Eternity The things that God has prepar'd for those that love him are far more above the highest ascent of our thoughts than the Marriage-Feast of a great Prince exceeds in splendor and magnificence the imagination of one that has alwayes liv'd in an obscure Village and never saw any ornaments of State nor tasted Wine in his Life We can think of those things but according to the poverty of our Understandings But so much we know that is able to sweeten all the bitterness and render insipid all the sweetness of this World This will appear by considering that whatever is requisite to constitute the perfect Blessedness of Man is fully enjoy'd in the Divine Presence 1. An exemption from all evils is the first concondition of perfect Blessedness The sentence of wise Solon is true in another sense than he intended Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet No Man can be named happy whilst in this valley of Tears But upon the entrance into Heaven all those evils that by their number variety or weight disquiet and oppress us are at an end Sin of all evils the most hateful shall be abolisht And all Temptations that surround us and endanger our innocence shall cease Here the best Men lament the weakness of the flesh and sometimes the violent assaults of spiritual enemies St. Paul himself breaks forth into a mournful Complaint O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of Death And when harrass'd with the buffets of Satan renews his most earnest addresses to God to be freed from them Here our Purity is not absolute we must be always cleansing our selves from the reliques of that deep defilement that cleaves to our nature Here our peace is preserv'd with the Sword in our hand by a continual Warfare against Satan and the World But in Heaven no ignorance darkens the Mind no passions rebel against the sanctified Will no inherent pollution remains The Church is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing And all Temptations that war against the Soul shall then cease The Tempter was cast out of Heaven and none of his poison'd Arrows can reach that Purified Company Glorious Liberty here ardently desir'd but fully enjoy'd by the Sons of God above And as Sin so all the penal consequences of it are quite taken away The present Life is an incurable disease and sometimes attended with that sharp sense that Death is desir'd as a
clearly understand the Divine Perfections that our present knowledg compar'd to that is but as the seeing a dark resemblance in a Glass to the clear view of a Person in the native beauty of his Face God is most gloriously present in Heaven For according to the degrees of excellence in the Work such are the impressions and discoveries of the Vertues of the Cause Now all sensible things in the low order of Nature are but weak resultances from his Perfections in comparison of their illustrious Effects in the Divine World The Glories of the Place and of the Inhabitants the Angels and Saints clearly express his Majesty Goodness and Power But in a transcendent manner he exhibits himself in the glorified Mediator He is stiled the brightness of the Father's Glory and the express image of his Person not only for his equal Perfections in respect of the unity of their Nature but to signifie that God in the Person of the incarnate Mediator is so fully represented to us that by the sight of him we see God himself in his unchangeable Excellencies This appears by the following words that having purged us from our sins he sate down on the right-hand of the Majesty on high for they respect the Son of God as united to the humane Nature in which he perform'd the Office of the Priesthood and took possession of his glorious Kingdom During his humble state the Divine vertues Wisdom Goodness Holiness Power were so visible in his Person Life Revelations and miraculous Works that when Philip so long'd for the sight of the Father as the only consummate Blessedness Shew us the Father and it suffices He told him he that has seen me has seen the Father also But how brightly do they appear in his triumphant Exaltation 'T was his Prayer on Earth Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory Inestimable Felicity whether we consider him in the respect of an Object that incomparably transcends all the created Glory of Heaven or in the relation of our Head on a double account partly because he was debased into the form of a Servant and suffered all Indignities and Cruelties of Sinners for us has received the Recompence of his Meritorious Sufferings the triumph of his Victory being glorified with the Father with the Glory he had before the World was and partly because every Member shall be conformed to him in his Glory We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And all Felicity and Glory is compriz'd in that Promise The sight of the Face of Moses when radiant had no transforming efficacy for the light of it was not in him as its source but by derivation But God is Light essentially and the sight of his Perfections will be productive of his Likeness in us so far as it may be in a restrained subject When our Saviour was upon the holy Mount and one vanishing Beam of Glory appear'd in his Transfiguration Peter was so transported at the sight that he forgot the World and himself How ravishing then will the sight of him be in his triumphant Majesty when we shall be transfigured our selves 2. As they shall behold God's Face know his most amiable Excellencies so they shall love him as perfectly as they know him To the illustrations of the Mind there are correspondent impressions on the Heart In the present state our Love is imperfect and as Fire out of its sphere dies away by our neglect to feed it with proper materials enamouring considerations of God But 't is not so in Heaven there the Divine Sun attracts every Eye with the light of its beauty and inflames every Heart with the heat of his Love The continual Presence of God is in different respects the Cause and Effect of our Love to him For there is no more powerful Attractive to love him than to see him And Love keeps the thoughts undivided from him God is Love and will kindle in us a pure Affection that Eternity shall never lessen Our Affections that are now scattered on many things wherein some small Reflections of his Goodness appear shall joyn in one full Current in Heaven where God is all in all We shall then understand the riches of his Love that God who is infinitely happy in himself should make Man for such a Glory and such a Glory for Man And that when for his Rebellion he was justly expell'd from Paradise and under a sentence of Eternal Death God should please to restore him to his Favour and give him a better state than was forfeited We shall then understand our infinite Obligations to the Son of God who descended from the Heaven of Heavens to our Earth and which is more from the Majesty wherein he there reign'd from the Glory wherein he was visible to the Angelical Minds and became Man for Men Redemption for the Lost to purchase Immortal Life for those who were dead to that blessed Life In short then God will express his Love to us in the highest degrees that a finite Creature is capable to receive from Love it self and we shall love him with all the strength of our glorified powers 3. Compleat satisfaction flows from union with God by Knowledg and Love In his Presence is fulness of Joy at his Right-hand are Pleasures for ever The Causes and Excellencies of the Heavenly Life are in those words exprest The Causes are the influxive Presence of God the revelation of his attractive Perfections the beholding his Face the declaration of his peculiar Favour This our blessed Lord himself had a respect to as the compleat Reward of his Sufferings Thou shalt make me full of Joy with thy Countenance And his Right-Hand his Bounty that dispenses and Power that secures that Felicity The Excellencies of this state are fulness of Joy and that without diminution or end When the Soul opens its eyes to the clear discoveries of the first Truth and its breast to the dear and intimate imbraces of the Supream Good beyond which nothing remains to be known nothing to be enjoy'd what a deluge of the purest Pleasures will overflow it We cannot ascend in our thoughts so high as to conceive the excess of Joy that attends those operations of the glorified Soul upon its proper object But something we may conjecture Those who are possest with a noble Passion for Knowledg how do they despise all lower Pleasures in comparison of it How do they forget themselves neglect the Body and retire into the Mind the highest part of Man and nearest to God The bare apprehension of such things that by their internal nature have no attractive influence upon the Affections is pleasant to the Understanding As the appearance of Light though not attended with any other visible beauties refreshes the Eye after long darkness so the clear discovery of Truths how abstract so ever that were before unknown is grateful to the intellective
what impatience does he pursue the pleasure of Sin which is but for a season An Ambitious Person with what an intemperate heighth of Passion does he chase a Feather A Covetous Man how greedily does he prosecute the Advantages of the present World that passes away and the Lusts thereof Ah! how do they upbraid our indifferent desires our dull delays and cold endeavours when such an high Prize is set before us Who is able to conceive the excesse of Pleasure the Soul feels when it first enters through the beautiful Gate of Paradise and sees before it that incomprehensible Glory and hears a Voice from Him that sits upon the Throne Enter into thy Masters Joy for ever be happy with him The serious belief of this will draw forth all our active powers in the service of God The feeding by lively thoughts on this supernatural food will add new vigor and lustre to our Graces and make our Victory easy over the World If we believe indeed that our Bodies shall be spiritual and our Souls divine in their perfections it will make us resolute to subdue the Rebel Flesh and rescue the captiv'd Spirit from all Intanglements of Iniquity Having the promise of such an excellent Reward let us always abound in the work of the Lord. 3. The lively hope of this Blessedness is powerful to support us under the greatest Troubles can befal us in this our mortal condition Here we are tost upon the alternate waves of Time but hereafter we shall arrive at the Port the blessed Bosom of our Saviour and enjoy a peaceful calm and so we shall ever be with the Lord. Words of infinite sweetness This is the Song of our Prosperity and Charm of our Adversity We shall ever be with the Lord. Well might the Apostle add immediately after therefore comfort one another with these words More particularly They are a Lenitive to moderate our Sorrows upon the Departure of our dearest Friends who dye in the Lord for they ascend from this valley of Tears to the happy Land of the Living What Father is so deserted of Reason as to bear impatiently the parting with his Son that goes over a narrow part of the Sea to a rich and pleasant Country and receive the investiture and peaceable possession of a Kingdom Nay by how much the Stronger his Love is so much the more transporting is his Joy especially if he expects shortly to be with him to see him on the Throne in the state of a King and to partake of his happiness If then it be impossible to Nature to be grieved at the felicity of one that is loved according to what principle of Nature or Faith do Believers so uncomfortably lament the Death of Friends of whom they have assurance that after their leaving our Earth they enter into an everlasting Kingdom to receive a Crown of Glory from Christ himself Our Saviour tells the Disciples If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I said I go to my Father to sit down at his right-hand in Majesty A pure Affection directly terminates in the happiness and exaltation of the Person that is loved I am not speaking against the exercise of tender Affections on the loss of our dear Friends and a pensive feeling of God's hand in it which is an natural and necessary duty There is a great difference between Stupidity and Patience but violent Passion or unremitting Sorrow is most unbecoming the blessed Hope assur'd to us in the Gospel Chrysostom treating of this Argument and reflecting upon the custom of those Times wherein at Funeral Solemnities a train of Mourning Women attended the Corps tearing their Hair and Face and crying out with all the expressions of desperate Sorrow breaks forth Ah Christian Faith and Religion that was triumphant over thine Enemies in so many Battels and Victories by the Blood and Death of the Martyrs how art thou contradicted by the practice of these who profess thee in words Is this not to be sorrowful as those that have no hope Are these the affections the expressions of one that believes the blessedness of Immortal Life What will the Heathens say how will they be induc'd to believe the Promises of Christ to his Servants of a glorious Kingdom when those who are so in title behave themselves as if they had no stedfast faith in them 4. The hopes of this blessed state is able to free us from the fear of Death This last Enemy gives an hot Alarm to Mankind both as it deprives them of all that is pleasant here and for the terrible consequences that attend it To the eye of Sense a dead Body is a spectacle of fearful appearance He that a little before heard and discours'd and with a chearful Air convers'd and enjoy'd the World now is dead and all his senses in him the Eyes are dead to light and the Ears to sounds the Tongue to words and the Heart to feel any Affections and the Countenance to discover them nothing remains but silence horrour and corruption Besides after Death comes Judgment and a state of unrelenting Torments to the Wicked But a true Believer that has been obedient to his Saviour sees things by another light than that of sense and has living hopes in his dying Agonies He knows that Death to the Saints is but a sleep and while the Body rests in the Grave the Soul is as it were all Act continually exercising its most noble faculties on the best Objects Does the Soul sleep in that all-enlightned World that sees with open face the infinite Beauty of God that hears and bears a part in the hymns of the Angels Saints encircling his Throne that drinks of the Rivers of Pleasure that flow from his Presence that freely and joyfully converses with all the Celestial Courtiers the Princes of that Kingdom the Favourites of God Then it truly lives This reconciles Death to a Christian who has nothing more in his wishes than to be with Christ and knows that diseases and pains the forerunners of it are but as the breaking down the Walls of this earthly dark Prison that the Soul may take its flight to the happy Region and for ever enjoy the Liberty of the Sons of God And for his Body that shall be reunited to the Soul in Glory Methinks God speaks to a dying Believer as he did to Jacob when he was to descend to Egypt Fear not to go down into the Grave I will go down with thee and I will bring thee up again The same Almighty Voice that gave being to the World shall awake those who sleep in the dust and reform them according to the Example of Christ's glorified Body O how should we long for that triumphant day and with most ardent Aspirings pray Thy Kingdom come in its full power and glory I Shall now come to speak of the Mournful Subject the Cause of my Appearing here at this time the Deceased Reverend and Excellent Divine Dr. Thomas Manton A Name worthy of