A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THAT Truly Pious and Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ Mr. Nich. Thorowgood At Godelman in Surrey By JOHN BVCK Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market 1692. To the REVEREND Mr. Edward Veal Minister of the Gospel in Wapping SIR COULD I be ungrateful your Name had never been prefixed to this Sermon For as you were pleased to command me this last Office of respect to the Deceased of which you gave me an Example but a few Months before on the like sad and sorrowful Occasion that call'd us together as Mourners So 't is but Justice you should allow me the liberty when my dearest Friends go off the Stage so fast to express my Thankfulness for one living whose Friendship is so greatly valuable Any who know me know I truly rejoice in the happy Relation that favours me with the honour of calling you Tutor or Brother Reading and Books have been but part of my small Improvement Your Friendly and Affable Converse in your Family and since has been such as I must blame my own Dulness for if I have not been advantaged thereby We were ever mutually dear one to the other distance and absence have but heightened our Reciprocal Affections that on your part must be owned the result only of a kind generous Disposition but on mine as a just Tribute paid to your real Worth And may it be yet our Emulation which of us shall continue the most Affectionately Cordial May the God of Heaven long lengthen out your days of Service to his Church and Crown therein your Ministerial Labours with the most blessed Success There are none more desirous of it than is SIR Your most Affectionate Brother and Hearty Servant JOHN BUCK PHILIPP I. 23. For I am in a strait between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better 'T IS pity any private Christian of Exemplary Zeal for God and Religion should at any time go unlamented to his Grave much more any serious painful and laborious Preacher that like the kind Silk-worm hath spinned out his own Bowels for the Publick good and been others loud Call from Sin and Vanity to the sincere Profession of the Gospel as their highest Advantage and Gain We are greatly stupid if we eye not their death the most gainful to themselves as our own misery and loss the loudest Alarm to a serious preparation for our own Dissolution and Change that must as certainly overtake us as it hath them and the saddest indication of Heaven's severest Displeasure against us in the inundation of the heaviest Calamities that by their powerful Intercessions they might have kept off and prevented if there be any thing of weight in the most sacred complaint The righteous perisheth Isa 57.1 and no man layeth it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come And who can forbear dropping a sigh or weeping a tear if not a floud for the death of him we have lately followed to the Earth and seen covered up therewith as a much-to-be-lamented loss as a Christian and a Minister and of justice challenging a greater tribute of Respect to his Memory and Ashes than what yet we have paid But leaving at present so Melancholy a Theme the sad Occasion of our Assembling Let us come nearer the Text that plainly tells us Life or Death as they most effectually advance the Honour of Christ should be the chief matter of our Rejoycing and Triumph But as it is hard to determine whether one or the other the one in a painful service in his Church the other in a holy dying Profession of his Truth hath the greatest tendency thereunto so a difficulty oftentimes almost invincible attends the Choice As for the division of the Text it naturally brancheth it self out into these parts 1st 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Paul's sharp Conflict with each For I am in a strait betwixt two q. d. Hemm'd in with Difficulties not knowing which to take nor which to leave under a perplexity of mind not capable of answering Arguments for one or the other A pressure of Spirit not to be expressed as is elsewhere the import of the Phrase Luke 12.50 Acts 18.5 2. One chief Reason thereof His desire of being with Christ in a departure Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ This was what stirred up in him as earnest longings for Death as hopes of further service to his dear Philippians did of Life or caused him to breathe out the most passionate desires of quitting his abode on Earth for that of Heaven the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having a desire as it denotes the greatest permanency and constancy thereof not a sick or faint velleity or sudden Passion that soon vanisheth and is gone so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to depart it imports a dissolution of parts of which we were before composed or the quitting of our Clayie Cottages as persons do their Houses in a Journey or a Ship the Shore in a Voyage 3. His true judgment of that estate Far far 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or much much the better i. e. To himself as his own greatest personal Gain tho not to others the other Reason of his strait in what he next utters V. 24. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you From whence ariseth this Threefold Doctrine Truly holy souls Doct. I when Life and Death are set before them may be in a very great strait as to their choice of either Truly holy souls are immediately with Christ at their departure from the body Doct. II To be with Christ at our death is far better than any bodily continuance on earth Doct. III Truly holy souls when life and death are set before them may be in a very great strait Doct. I as to their choice of either St. Paul was so not willing of a cessation from works nor the delay of his Reward desirous of converting more fouls to Christ and yet longing to be himself with him in a strait whether he should be yet longer surrounded with the most afflictive troubles as are those of this present life of one kind or another or received to a Heavenly Enlargement and Rest And what was his Conflict may be that of others under different Apprehensions or Temptations At one time they are reasoning there is a Serpent every where with his alluring Apple except in the Heavenly Paradise How can I leave this plentiful Estate to the spoils of luxurious Spend-thrifts riepend enough without them for destruction How this dear companion of all my earthly comforts and sorrows How these Children of my delights standing as Olive-plants about my table Psal 128.3 e're I can leave them Holy and Gracious Might I not if longer spared in the world be of farther use and service
in it than hitherto through remissness or sloth I have been Are not threatned Judgments calling for Intercessors I might be one in the gap to prevent Are not hungry bellies and naked backs calling for Relief It will be at the last day my greatest Honour and Happiness Mat. 25.34 to the 40. to have fed and cloathed them Are not dark secure and comfortless Souls needing Counsels Awakenings and Supports I 'de spare no pains to Awaken Direct and Chear And shall I be of farther use and service to neither Have I finished my whole work Might no Talent be better improved nor in any thing the Honour of my dear Redeemer more advanced Is his Church in her fullest Glory I would rejoice to see her in Am I dying ere Religion is living And soon again as conquered by quite different motives they are breathing out quite contrary desires pleading When Lord shall I be released from this present bondage and misery When from this heavy load of Corruption When from the cruel buffetings of Satan When from the grief I am in for the Afflictions of thy Zion for which I weep Lam. 1.16 mine eye mine eye runneth down with water When from the tempting Flatteries and unkind Persecutions of this vain and foolish world that would allure or affright me from my Reward and Crown When shall I exchange these dead cold and heartless duties for Triumphant Praises and Hallelujahs When for transient visits on earth shall I have a permanent enjoyment of Thee in Heaven Ah! I see a beauty a desirableness in nothing that can be matched with thy All-Glorious Perfections Husband Wife and Children are dear but thou art dearer to me than all how it repents me that I should place so much of affection on them as I have done Come Lord Jesus come quickly Rev. 22.20 Judg. 5.28 Cant. 8.14 Why so slack in thy approaches Why is thy chariot so long in coming Why tarry the wheels thereof Make haste my beloved and be thou like to a Roe or young Hart upon the mountains of spices But a little while and I shall be triumphing in thy blessed Arms and Bosom where I shall sin no more and sorrow no more A Pain a Sigh a Groan more as the happiest I ever felt finisheth my days and compleats my joys And who longs not with me for the approach of this hour Shall I carry none with me to Heaven as unwilling to be happy alone Holy David was in a strait as to the choice of three the greatest evils Famine Pestilence and Sword 2 Sam. 24.14 The Saint is oftentimes so as to two the greatest goods the Work and Service of Life and the Reward and Gain of Death Censure not any for it Vse I 'T is sad when an over-weening affection to any creature-comfort is the reason of it Earthly delights are put into the same balance with heavenly but not where hopes of farther service in the world is so O Grace indeed to be found weighing the Soul-advantages of others in the same scale with our own O Noble Soul that can be willing to be one moment out of Heaven in hopes of being others happy Convoy thither 2. Think Heaven desirable Needs must it be so as what frees us from every pinching strait particularly that of Living or Dying For the Soul there how unwilling soever it was to quit this life is wholly freed from any the least inclination of returning back to it under no more sharp conflicts of leaving creature-comforts but triumphs in God as better than all Truly holy souls are immediately with Christ at their departure Doct. II With him as in a state of Separation from their earthly bodies so without the assuming of any Aereal there is not any more need of this for a heavenly converse with their fellow-Spirits than of Angels one with another With him as not sleeping in the Grave till the Resurrection nor tormented with Purgatory-Flames As the former is an inlet to the greatest Infidelity and Atheism so the latter is greatly derogatory from the Riches of Free-Grace in their forgiveness and pardon as implying a Punishment of a fault remitted a Forgiving the Treason but Executing the Traytor For which may they continue to plead who experience the secular gain thereof as of any the most profitable fire in their Kitchen others as great Masters of Reason as themselves dare not but as fully redeemed by the Blood of Christ from all future pains and misery can heartily laugh at those of an imaginary Purgatory For we are told we have Redemption through his blood Eph. 1.7 the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace And how far a less noble Redemption and Forgiveness would it be than he hath obtained for us were we after this life to be refined for Heaven in Flames according to the Popish notion not differing from those of Hell Luke 23.43 except in duration The Converted Thief enters the very day he suffered into Paradise It is not to be thought that no greater happiness was designed him in the promise of it than the assurance of it after some longer continuance of time Acts 7.59 than the very present day in which it was made Stephen cemmends his Spirit to Christ at his Death Our good works Rev. 14.13 Eccl. 12.7 as meant of their reward are said to follow us The dust to return to the earth as it was and the spirit unto God that gave it And which seems to be the most convincing Argument of it Are or can they be rightly desirous of a Dissolution upon no other account It is not to be supposed Thinking Rational Creatures should be willing to part with Life the greatest of Temporal Blessings for the Redemption of which a man will give skin for skin Job 2.8 and all that he hath for a silent state in the grave or the most insupportable of pains No rather strip them of their hopes of a present happiness at death and very unaccountable are their desires of it They as knowing when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved 2 Cor. 5.1 2. they shall have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens are groaning enrnestly desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from heaven Don't be prejudiced against Religion or a holy life Vse for any the greatest earthly afflictions or sufferings of gracious souls You have little reason to be so their Deaths are so happy if their Lives are so miserable their Exit is Peace their Reward Life Everlasting Psal 37.37 Gal. 6.8 and their present sorrow and affliction the blessed school in which they have been disciplined and trained up for it And will you continue to be so prejudiced Psal 119.67 Live rather their lives as you would dye their deaths It is most foolish without this to wish Numb 23.10 Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last
again It is impossible The Grave his Prison till a Glorious Resurrection hath shut its mouth upon him You must go to him 2 Sam. 12 22 23. he shall not return to you Or if you could would you The greatest good you could thereby wish or hope for your selves is not what would compensate for his harm He is arrived at too happy a Port ever once more willingly to encounter the Rocks and Quicksands the rough Waves and Billows of a Tempestuous Sea the dangers of which are passed the consideration of which should teach you to be quiet be dumb not opening of your mouths Psal 39.9 it is God who hath done it Receive chearfully a present evil from those hands Job 2.10 Job 1.20 21. from whence you have received so much good Bless him taking as well as giving But that it may not be thought I plead for a Stoical insensibleness under so severe a stroke let not tears or sorrow take up with a present vent It is a Death-stroke Heaven hath given a Loss that will not easily be repaired But let him continue to live in your Thoughts and to Preach in your Affections It should be as hard for you now he is deceased to refrain from telling the world in plenty of tears over his Grave how well you loved him as it was with many of you John 11.36 when you stood by him in his Ascent to Glory to refrain from uttering My father 2 Kin. 12.12 my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof And 3. Long more to be with him therein Gain is alluring and should not that of your being with Christ in your death be so If far better evidence is such by your desires of it as well as in the vanquishing the slavish fears of so grim a Messenger that must bring you to it make haste prepare for it yet not such haste as he made to know the truth of the Souls Immortality who leap'd into the Sea and drown'd himself for a farther confirmation thereof he was so affected with the Platonick Lecture of it he had read but by Holy Preparations and Desires our only way through the Merits of a Redeemer the Scritpure hath chalked out thither O for a greater weanedness of affection from the perishing delights and joys of the world and greater out-goings of them to the unseen and Immortal Let the one be more in your eye the other more under your feet Look well to every account improve faithfully every Talent live every day perform every duty as your last that when you cease to live you may not be afraid to dye but be filled rather with St. Paul's Triumph with which I close 2 Tim. 4.7 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 FINIS Books Printed for Tho. Cockerill RVSHWORTH's Historical Collections 2d Part never before Printed containing the Principal Matters which happened from the meeting of the Parliament 1640. to the end of the year 1644. in 2 Vol. Fol. A Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Reverend Mr. West A Discourse concerning Regeneration Faith and Repentance A Discourse of the Christian Religion in sundry Points The Incomprehensibleness of Imputed Righteousness for Justification by Human Reason till enlightned by the Spirit of God These Four by the Reverend Mr. Cole A Succinct and Seasonable Discourse of the Occasions Causes Natures Rise Growth and Remedies of Mental Errors with a Discourse of Infant Baptism and against the Antinomians A Discourse of the Reasonableness of Personal Reformation and Necessity of Conversion Mr. John Flavell's Remains being two Sermons The one Preached at Dartmouth the other intended to be preached at a Meeting of Ministers These Three by John Flavell late Minister of Devon A Companion for Prayer By R. Alleine Author of Vinditiae Pietatis