THE PEOPLES NEED OF A LIVING PASTOR Asserted and explained in a SERMON Preached Novemb. 4. 1656. At the sad and solemn Funerals of that late learned pious and eminently hopeful Minister of the Gospel Mr. John Frost Batchelor in Divinity late Fellow of St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge and Pastor of St. Olaves Hart-steeet LONDON TOGETHER WITH A Narrative of his Life and Death By Z. C. Minister of the Word at Botolph-Aldgate London ACT. 20.38 Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Thomas Parkhurst at the Three Crowns over against the great Conduit at the lower end of Cheapside 1657. To the Inhabitants in the Parish of Olaves Hart-street London Gentlemen and Christian Friends I Know not to whom the inscription of this ensuing Discourse can more properly belong then to your selves the occasion of it being the sad Funerals of your deceased Pastor it being spoken specially in your ears and designed to affect your hearts and direct you to a serious Christian endevour under and improvement of so sad a providence To you therefore I do present it not doubting your readinesse to patronize and defend it of which had I no testimony of respects to my self yet that high respect you did bear to your late hopefull and learned Pastor witnessed by your importunate desires of him eminent delights in and unexpected union under his Ministry with your sorrowfull celebration of his Funerals and the importunate desires of many among you to read these Observations when you had heard them doth give me good assurance The scope of the following discourse was and yet is to inform your judgements of the necessity of Ministers life and so to affect your hearts with Ministers death directing your mournings to be from a right Principle that so they may regularly stream into their due measure and proportion and proper end you must know every Minister falls under a double notion as in his life so in his death as a man and as a Minister in the one a member of humane society in the other a main Pillar of Christianity in both he is desireable whilst living and deplorable when dead But you must know Nature entertains him under the one and Grace under the other Men are apt to admire acute parts profound judgement amiable carriage and learned language where they find it but never regard the Office in which a Minister stands and Authority by which he acts in his place no this is the work of Grace for it is religion must teach men to receive a Prophet in the name of a Prophet and to account of Ministers as the Ambassadors of Christ and to esteem them living and dying for their work sake Whilest I would not deny you the liberty of your lamenting your losse in your late Minister by reason of his naturall parts and endowments which I have noted to have been great I would desire in speciall to find your sorrow Christianized seizing on your spirit from the consideration of him as a Minister spirituall Guide and Father and so witnessing that you lived under his Instructions as under the word of God not of man and indeed under this notion you have much cause to lament him for that he was unto his Ministry excellently qualified in it very industrious and of the duties imposed on him by vertue of his Ministry very consciencious for your good And his death under this consideration is the sad Symptome of Gods displeasure and of smarting influence on your Congregation I have for some years observed your carriage in this case in reference to a Minister your selves know and I hope yet remember your sad divisions and smarting distractions into which you fell on a Ministers relinquishing his work among you God was pleased to cement all and settle you in peace and unity and good tendency to order by your now deceased Pastor by whose death you are again liable to the like danger I pray that you may be warned and preserved from it and that you may lay to heart this hand of providence in the losse not only of a man excellently qualified but a Minister of the Gospel very hopefull in and to the Church of God to which end I intreat your serious reading of this following Sermon and if it prove in any thing effectuall give God the praise and that shal be the honour of him who unfainedly condoles your losse and praying that the Lord may make up this breach among you remains Yours in all neighbourly Offices in the work of the Gospel Zach. Crofton To the READER Courteous Reader THere is not a truer Maxim in Nature then that Man passeth away like a shadow and vanisheth like smoke as the flower of the field it to day flourisheth and to morrow withereth Nor a truer Principle in Divinity then that the Prophets do not live for ever These are both of them witnessed daily not only by audible voice of Mourners for the dead but also visible objects spectacles of Mortality Death is a condition so common and inevitably certain to the Sons of men that neither age nor excellent endowments can stave it off but young and old fools and wise men are followeed to the Grave An evident and undeniable testimony hereof is eminently hopefull Mr. John Frost Being 30 years old who in his youth strength of dayes and sparklings of glory is fallen to the dust and thereby calls for the discharge of duty due to dead men viz. mourning for him and memoriall of him both which as they are commended by us by the counsels and constant practise of the wisest Heathen not affected with a Stoicall stupidity and senselesse apathy so also by Scripture if Moses or Samuel die all Israel must mourn and the Holy Ghost will dictate the memoriall of them Jer. 16.5 Ezek. 24.23 Jer. 22. It is a judgement threatned against the wicked they shall not be mourned for and their memoriall shall perish from the earth but the remembrance of the righteous shall be blessed it is their priviledge to die lamented God takes notice of it as lasie that the righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart Yet it is the common guilt of our age to let the Prophets die without lamentation nay amongst too many with high insultations for their death God hath of late taken from us many a Samuel and Paul and hopefull Timothy and yet our Israel are not affected with it nor in themselves afflicted for them they mourn not over them nor mind the memoriall of them Certainly the great cause of this evil is insensibility of their worth and serviceablenesse and our own want of their Ministrations As a cure therefore to this cause this Discourse is put into thy hands let me intreat thy serious reading of it and second thoughts about the necessity of Ministers lives for the Churches good And certainly if there be in thee any measure of Grace
thou wilt sorrowfully bewail the losse of so many needfull and shining lights and sadly fear it to be a presage of some future judgements upon our Nation and City And to the affecting of thy heart the memoriall of their parts and endowments will be desired by thee and the Narrative thereof be read with much pleasure And amongst others thou wilt find Mr. Frost at whose sad Funerals this Discourse was uttered not to be the least lamented Not therefore to hold thee in the Preface or swell with Apologies I cast this work on thy censure hoping that thou wilt exercise a spirit of candor and charity if not towards the living Author yet the dead man of whom it is thy duty to think and speak no way detractive and whose life thou hast annexed on the most certain and cleer account that could be had from Naturall relations Academicall acquaintance and the Personall knowledge of him who hath done his duty for the deceased desiring thee to own nothing that may come abroad under his name unlesse attested by his sorrowfull Father Brother or my self who shall freely midwife what is fit for publique use and now pray that thou mayst have grace to do thine and to that end find helpfull this Discourse Thine in the Lord Z. C. THE PEOPLES NEED OF A LIVING PASTOR Asserted and explained in a Sermon Preached Novemb. 4. 1656. at Olaves Hartstreet London at the Funeral of Mr. John Frost B. D. and Pastor of the said Church PHIL. 1.24 Nevertheless that I abide in the flesh is more needful for you SEnse of worth engageth sorrow for want Bona a terge formosissima when once a people are affected with the absolute and indispensable necessity of a living Ministry they affectionately rejoyce in the enjoyment and as passionately lament the loss of it evident this is in the Philippians joyes in and for Epaphroditus recovery from death-threatning sickness and the Ephesians passionate weeping at S. Pauls ultimum vale last farewell with a You shall see my face no more Act. 20.38 And let me to pass by Londons too too late instances increased say it is evident in that joy with which you of this Parish did begin to be transported in the injoyment and that exceeding grief with which you are this day dejected in the loss of your learned and hopeful Pastor Mr. John Frost whose sad Funerals we do now celebrate on which occasion give me leave to lay before you the necessity of a Ministers life and the greatness of your loss in the loss of this particular Minister of the Gospel the one from the text the other by the narrative of his hopeful parts and high endowments and first in reference to the Text. The Apostle Paul having been by an especial call from God in a vision acquainted with Macedonia her want of the Gospel Ministry Act. 16.9 10. went thither and there preached the Gospel to good purpose and with good success and planted a Church of Jesus Christ at Philippi the chief City thereof from whence being soon removed his care was to confirm them in the Faith they had received and counsel them to the due order of a Gospel conversation to this end he wrote to them this Epistle from Rome and sent it by the hand of Epaphroditus and according to these two ends the Epistle divideth it self into two parts 1. A confirmation in the Faith received and that is in this chapter 2. Counsel unto a Christian conversation in the following chapters The confirmation in the Faith is in this chapter and not to stand on the analytical parts of the chapter it is managed by the removal of the then great stumbling block of Christianity viz. the Crosse to which the Apostle was subjected to the startling of the Saints in his death-threatning sufferings and themselves seemed to be nigh unto danger for the very cause of their Gospel profession now this the Apostle removeth by suggesting to them this threefold consideration 1. The access of the cross advanceth the Gospel of Christ Jesus vers 12. I would that you should understand brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the progress of the Gospel whilest thereby it is spread in the publication of the cause of his calamity Hist of the Councel of Trent Edit 2. lib. 5. p. 418. whilest it might be said of him as of Au du Burge a Senator of Paris that the death and constancy of a man so conspicuous did make many curious to know what Religion that was for which he so couragiously endured punishment and made the number to encrease Not only was the Gospel spread but hereby also others out of spite and envie or sincere zeal were stirred up to preach Jesus Christ and every good Christian rejoyceth under all curses and crosses that advanceth the name of the Lord saying with Luther Prorsus Satan est Lutherus sed Christus vivit regnat Amen I am accounted a Devil and I know not what but be it so I matter not whilest Christ is magnified and therefore must neither dismay them in nor divert them from their profession 2. The access of the cross would be his advantage in life or death in life causing the lustre of his graces to shine or in death giving him communion with Christ in glory and therefore love to him could never lead them into backsliding fears and this is urged from vers 19. to vers 27. 3. The access of the cross would be their advantage if endured with patience whilest it is an honour and priviledge not only to believe but also to suffer for the name of Christ so that the cross should be so far from driving from their profession Fox his Acts and Monum p. 1330. that they should say as father Latimer answered to the sentence of death by burning O I thank God most heartily that he hath prolonged my life that I may in this case glorifie God in that kinde of death The words of the Text fall under the second consideration propounded to remove the stumblings at the Cross of Christ and is a part of an answer to an objection from thence thus framed Object Sir It is true that in respect of your self we have no cause to be offended at your sufferings for if they bring you to death yet it will be your advantage and exceeding great gain you will be with Christ but what shall become of us we shall be depriv'd of your Apostolical parts and power which should counsel and confirm us in so sad and suffering seasons and therefore for us it were more needful that you abide in the flesh Answ To this the Apostle answereth It is indetd true that in respect of my self it were better for me to die but for you that I live so useful are my parts and power in the midst of you that I am affectionately reduced into a great straight what
to chuse between my own happiness and your general good yet on the result of all I must confess with you that I abide in the flesh is more needful for you and I hope I shall so do The words then we finde to be an assertion of the necessity of a faithful Ministers life which is established by the peoples apprehension the Philippians plead it and the Apostles assent St. Paul he grants it and in this assertion we have two parts 1. The subject or matter that I abide in the flesh The predicate or thing asserted of it it is more needful for you For the explication of the termes we may enquire what it is to abide in the flesh And to this we must note that the flesh admits of various acceptations which I cannot now stand to mention but must desire you to note that in this place it signifieth natural life and present being in the flesh or in the land of the living and thus it is used 1 Cor. 7.28 and also of the natural life of Christ 1 Pet. 3.18 So that to abide in the flesh is to continue in the enjoyment of natural life and being to be freed from subjection unto death and annihilation it is a phrase answerable to that in 2 Cor. 5.6 At home in the body it is more needful for you the termes are comparative and relate to something before spoken the correlate to which they are to be referred are one of these two 1. The advantage that should accrue to the Gospel by the access of the Cross and then the meaning is this The Gospel will be furthered by my sufferings but much more by my life for that must be spoken of every where as the cause of my death yet when I have life and liberty to go up and down and preach in every place not only would Jesus Christ be mentioned but by my Apostolical parts and power be convincingly exhibited to your confirmation and many others conviction 2. Or the Correlate is the Apostles gain by dying under the Crosse of Christ thereby he should enjoy a personal plenary possession of Christ which is best of all and would be to him the height of happiness but they by his life would enjoy mediate communion with and much edification in Christ which would be the Churches very great advantage and to this I adhere for certainly the Churches good by a Ministers life counterballanceth his own good in his death and bringeth him into the Apostles straight what to chuse I shall not now stand to consider the words in their comparative sense but only positive as they are an assertion of the absolute necessity of a Ministers life and therefore shall gather up the meaning of the Text into this Doctrinal conclusion which I shall briefly prosecute Doct. The life of a Faithful Minister is a matter of great necessity to a Christian Church This Doctrine is an established truth from this very Text though it should no otherwise be argued for it is apprehended by the people and assented unto by the Apostle yet for the more full demonstration of it in this age wherein living Ministers are accounted needless burdens and many eminent Ministers are laid in the dust with little or no lamentation give me leave briefly to confirm it with these three arguments Gods esteem of Ministers lives The Devils envie at Ministers lives The Churches express experience of the necessity of Ministers lives Argum. 1 First of the first and it is the great esteem which God hath of his Ministers lives in reference to the Churches good certainly God best knowes the necessities of his Church and people he is the great father of the family that casts and careth for the necessities of his house and by his esteem the whole family may well be determined and as none may count that polluted and unclean which he hath called pure so may no man call that needless which he determineth needful and that the life of godly Ministers is by him esteemed in refefence to his Churches good may be many waies manifested Ministers in their discharges under the saddest events are unto God a sweet savour Patriarchas velit in tuâ—o esse quia sunt uncti deinde quia sunt Prophetae Mail. in loc yea though of death to wicked men 2 Cor. 2.15 in all the checks and charges he giveth to the world he provides for Ministers touch not mine anointed goeth not without and do my Prophets no harm Psal 105.15 Mollerus on this Text notes that the Ministry was the guard of the pilgrim Patriarchs And Piscator thence infers Piscator obser in Text. godly Ministers are hereby assured that God will save them from the tyranny of the men of the world nay when a Ministers life is hunted God will hide him and miraculously feed him as he did Elias by the Ravens and not wasting meal 1 King 17. And as God did express his esteem of his Ministers lives and persons under the Law he doth no less under the Gospel exceeding great is the doom that he threatens to such as disrespect his poor Ministers that deny them entertainment Mat. 10.14 15. Whosoever shall not receive you it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah then for that City abuse of Prophets highly provokes the violent shedding of their bloud and euding their lives is the very apex of impiety ripens a people for ruine 2 Chro. 36.16 they are so dear to God that if once they be abused his wrath ariseth till there be no remedy Eminent is that esteem that the Lord Jesus sets on the least courtesie that can be shewed a Minister he that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall have a Prophets reward Mat. 10.41 And every way remarkable are the delivering providences extended to and exercised about Ministers lives which are mentioned in sacred and Ecclesiastical story What shall we tell you of Peters delivery out of prison upon the prayers of the Church Act. 12.7 8 9 10 11 12. or of St. Paul's rescue from the cursed combination of the Jewes obliged by oath not to eat or drink untill they had killed Paul of which you read Act. 23. To which we might multiply many remarkable deliverances of Athanasius of Alexandria from the secret conspiracies and malicious open violence of the Arrians whilest Paulus Lucius and Georgius all Arrian Bishops perished who ever observed his dangers could have thought he should have continued Bishop of Alexandria 46 years Time fails to give an account of Austin of Chrysostom and many other of the Fathers whose dangers were death-threatning and to the eye of reason inevitable and yet they were delivered and what shall we say of Luther who drew on himself the enmity of all the Christian world that ever he should die in his bed and so also Calvin and almost all our reformers whose lives were followed after by Papal fury but preserved by God When I consider the heretical envie at
Gospel Ministers with which our Age and City abounds the many opportunities that might be taken to destroy them I can not but admire that a Gospel Minister should die in his bed but we see very fully that God esteems the lives of his Ministers at an high rate and it is no marvel for they are his servants his Embassadors and instruments of his Churches good as we shall note anon and therefore the prayers of the people is the Preachers guard I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you Philemon 22. Argum. 2 2. As Gods esteem of so also Satans envy at Ministers lives is an evident argument of their absolute necessity in the Church of God for Satan is the adversary envying the Churches good and alwaies endevouring to deprive them of things needful that thereby he may destroy them and constrain them to renounce the profession of Christ and his truth to their utter ruine 1 Pet. 5.8 the Devil is that roaring lion who daily goeth about seeking whom he may devour he is the malicious red Dragon who pursueth the woman into the Wilderness Revel 11. and he and his Angels maketh war against Michael and his Angels he erects his Synagogue where ever God builds his Church and knowing that these two cannot stand together studieth how to hinder Gods Temple from going forward and being built to perfection and finding Ministers to be labourers both stout and skilful in the work of the Lord against them he levels all his malice and improves his power policy to put a period to their lives and so their abilities and endevours saying in all Ages Nehem. 4. as Tobiah and Sanballat the Arabians Ammonites and Ashdodites Let us conspire and hinder the work even by cruelty we will go up against them they shall not know nor see till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease constraining the builders in Gods Temple to be working warriours to labour in their armour with their swords gird to their sides and spears in the one hand and trowels in the other craft in the Church of God without cruelty against faithful Ministers could never effect the Devils design hence he is a subtle seducer of souls from the truth until he gain power into his hand and then by bloudy persecution he ever proclaims open war and pursueth with fire and sword specially bending his force at the Ministers of the Church thus he did in all the apostasies of Israel unto idolatry giving cause of Elijah his complaint The children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thine Altars and slain thy Prophets and I even I only am escaped 1 King 19.10 in all the Ages of the Churches of the Jewes the false prophets ever studied to cut off the lives of the true Prophets and contracted that grievous guilt on the whole nation of the Jewes and City of Jerusalem with which our Saviour upbraids them Mat. 23.27 O Jerusalem that killest the Prophets and slayest them that are sent unto thee and as this was his course under the Law we shall finde he forsook it not under the Gospel with what envy may we observe him acted towards the life of our Lord Jesus Christ the great Prophet of Gods Church when his temptation would not succeed to draw him into sin and so to destroy the design of our redemption how doth he maliciously engage against him to put an end to his daies Mat. 2. exciting Herod to the cruel murther of all the Infants from two years old and under in Bethlehem Melius est Herodis esse porcum quam filium Macrob. and the coasts thereabout not sparing his own son giving Augustus Caesar cause to say It were better to be Herods swine then son and that to the end so eminent an author of future good might have been cut off before he could work nipped in the bud and crushed in the shell And all the time of his appearance in the earth what counsel and conspiracies against his life what rage and malice was continually exprest how many times may we observe they would have layed hands on him and durst not for the multitude would have stoned and violently put him to death if he had not miraculously conveyed himself from them and yet they never rested until they crucified the Lord of glory and as they dealt with the Master so also they persecuted his servants with those very death-threatning dangers foretold by our Saviour to attend his Disciples daily and bloudily persecuting the lives of the Apostles on this very ground they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead Act. 4.2 Which of the Apostles of our Saviour did the Devil suffer to die a natural death nay he did not so much as exempt James the Just though a man beloved by the people but brought him to a violent death to the very detestation of all men and as it was thus in the first Age of the Church may we not trace all the Ages of the Church and finde the Devils design to destroy the Church of God by cutting down faithful Ministers what shall we mention to you the many pious and grave Bishops of the Church that suffered under Pagans and the constant curious search that was made for Ministers to bring them to their death As was Athanasius for the death of Arsenius hidden by the Arrians of purpose to destroy the good Bishop nay and if any do but read the persecution of the Arrians and Donatists what an enmity is observable against Ministers lives the orthodox Bishops and Ministers are the men especially hated maliciously accused as guilty of murthers and villanies deserving death cruelly banished and put to death Alphonsus Diazius not being able to reduce his brother John Diazius from advancing the truth never rested until he murthered him nay if we come nearer what shall we say of the Popish persecutions principally directed against Luther Calvin Latimer Ridley Cranmer and famous reforming Ministers The time would fail to tell you the stories which might clearly manifest the Devils envie at the lives of godly Ministers and witness to the Church that Ministers are no less needful to them and useful among them then Alexanders demand of the Orators out of Athens did witness them to be Athenian guards as Mastiffs are the defence of the flock against the fury of the Wolves and so engage every Christian to esteem the life of Ministers Argum. 3 3 As Gods esteem of and the Devils envy at the lives of godly Ministers do witness their lives to be needful to the Churches good so also doth the expressed experiences of Gods Saints and people in all Ages who upon their own experimental observation are constrained to say with the Apostle nevertheless it is more needful for us that you live they see the sundry dangers to which the Church of God is obnoxious and the several
being and affectionate sorrow for their loss are the duties by which we witness with the Apostle that they abide in the flesh is more needful for the Church my next exhortation is to my brethren in the Ministry Exhort 2. to Ministers and to my self Let us so carry as to witness our sense that our death might be our gain but life our peoples advantage our affection towards the Church for whose good we are appointed must not only bring us into a straight what to chuse but must cast the scales of our thoughts and constrain us to say and confess that it is more needful for them that we abide in the flesh To this end we must 1. Carefully preserve our lives for the Churches good not casting our lives away it is indeed true if the cause of Christ and the Gospel call for them Act. 20.24 we must not count our lives dear but readily lay them down but yet our care must be to preserve our lives in the due use of all lawful means and prevent where we can do it without sin our sufferings and death and that we must do with the more care for the Churches good 2 Conscionably lay out your lives for the Churches good not sparing our pains in our Ministerial duties for fear of hastning our end the Ministery is the end of our life and our life is the only time of our work let us therefore work and that with diligence the night is coming when we cannot work it is good to check our fainting in Gods work through fear of approaching death with the answer of famous Dr. Rainolds nec propter vitam vivendi perdere finem and say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 12.15 we are willing to spend and be spent for you we are lamps lighted up that we may be wasted in giving light to others now that God hath taken off another painful labourer the work lieth the more heavy on our hands let us not loyter but improve lively the time and the strength we do enjoy lest our studies affections and endevouâ—s be anticipated by our death sed verbum sat sapienti Lastly I shall speak a word Exhort 3. to the Parish and but a word to you of this Parish and Congregation on whom in special God hath made the breach by the death of this reverend and learned Minister Mr. Fenten and Mr. John Frest within these two years God hath removed two very eminently hopeful instruments of his glory and his Churches good you cannot but see the footsteps of a furious God in these sad providences I pray God sanctâ—fie them to you and let me intreat you as convinced of the truth of the Doctrine and in special that it had been more needful for you that this your reverend and hopeful Pastor had abiden in the flesh carefully to discharge these duties Direct 1 1. Lament your lesse it is great to the Church it is greater to you your particular edification under his Ministry made him a blessing to the body you were objects of his especial care study and qualifications and constant subjects of his able and holy administrations of the Mysteries of God and salvation if he be layed to heart abroad and not lamented at home it will be the scandal of his name but the sin and shame of your souls But some may be ready to object and say Sir Why should we so much lament the losse of this Minister he was but a man as we are and must die and though he be gone we can soon get another Answ This objection is too full of stupidity and profaneness to deserve an answer yet let me say to it thus much 1. Though the temptation be common he was a man and mortal yet the breach is present you are a people without a Pastor your shepherd is smitten and you must needs be scattered were it not a stupidity would make nature blush to see a wife senslesly nay and sensually interre a deceased husband rendring this reason that he was mortall she may have another so God loseth the end and effect of the present smart and breach 2. Pitiful distractions and divisions may overtake you before you enjoy another Mr. Carter since dead when you were to fix one on the late resignation of a Minister you know what distractions and divisions you run into before you did agree in this your late Minister you did agree I pray God his death do not subject you to new divisions 3. You may obtain another but not easily such another Mr Frost was not ordinary as you shall hear anon you lie open to seducers Wolves in sheeps cloathing among us abound and may if not wisely prevented become your leaders unto ruine nay you may enjoy a lawful and pious Minister but he may want Mr. Frosts parts and prudence learning and piety 4. It is not with souls as with calves that change of pasture should make them fat Botolph Aldgate Sept. 15 1656. but of boyes change of School-masters make them backward in their learning it was his own note at my Church in the late morning exercise the word preached doth not profit because the hearer keeps not fixed to the preacher another must study your temper and disposition lay foundation work for Catechising and principling in Religion before he proceed to edifying dispensations this he had done intending to leave principles and carry you forward if God would but it is evident God will have you yet back again If then you are any way sensible of Gods hand and serious in reference to your own good you see cause to lament your loss Direct 2 Let your lives and conversations now he is dead witness that it had been more needful for you that he had continued in the flesh your union in him your resorting to him your acceptance of him and attendance on his Ministry did witness the necessity of his life among you there now wants the piety of your lives as an evidence of your proficiency in grace under his Ministry to witness it let me tell you Christians he did travel in birth to have Christ formed in you he studied the keeping of your affections for the good of your souls he delighted in your free and forward attentions to his Ministry it was his comfort on his death-bed So much he did declare that he had preached to you the Doctrine of the Scriptures and your duty to search them from Joh. 5.39 for he believed it seized on your hearts as he preached take heed you do not frustrate his hope and witness to the world you loved to hear him but would not do what he said when he shall meet you in the judgement of Jesus Christ how heavy will it be to you that he shall see you deceived his hopes and he laboured in vain among you your practice on what he preached will make all to say What pity was it Mr. Frost lived not longer at the Crouched Fryers 3.
services wherein the faithful Ministers are useful for their good they want counsel and correction and find Ministers qualified for and appointed unto such an end and hence whilest others envy they esteem them whilest others destroy they endevour to defend them and whilest others do rejoyce in their death they lay it to heart and sadly lament it by three eminent expressions the people of God have ever witnessed their experience of Ministers lives to be needful to the Church of God 1. Providing for their safety 2. Praying to God in the time of their danger 3. Praising God for their deliverance First they express their experience of the need of a living Minister and that by providing for their safety in a time of danger as the instruments of Satan hath in all Ages sought the ruine so the people of God have ever studied the preservation of the life of a godly Minister The good Kings of Judah were no less solicitous for the safety and comfort of the Priests and Levites then the idolatrous Kings were severe in seeking their destruction and with the Princes of Israel will study to hide Jeremiah the Prophet and Baruch the Scribe from the wrath of Jehoiakim the King that would destroy them Jer. 36.19 and to deliver them from the violence of such as would put them to death pleading in their behalf and powerfully withstanding vulgar violence which would destroy them Prov. 26.16 17 18. And by this very course we shall finde that Nicodemus gave testimony of the necessity of our Saviours life pleading for him among the Pharisees Joh. 7.50 51. And the Saints at Damascus gave this experience of the sense of this want of St. Paul's life when discerning his danger they let him down by the wall in a basket Act. 9.25 Many are the eminent and remarkable instances recorded in the Ecclesiastical story of Christians care to provide for the safety of Ministers in times of dangers Heathen Emperors did not more destroy them then Christian Emperors defend them Constantine herein became a reall nursing father to the Church cherishing and comforting the poor persecuted Bishops he waged war against Licinius his co-partner in the Empire Socrates Scholast hist lib. 1. cap. 4. Greek 3. translat because he decreed that the Bishops should not discourse of Christianity to the Gentiles and thereupon raised persecution against them The Princes of Bohemia were the Patrons of John Hus and Jerome of Prague and the Duke of Saxony of Luther when their lives were pursued by Papal power and not only shall we finde men in place but also common people according to their capacity providing for the safety of their Ministers three daies was Polycarpus hidden by the people when sought for by the bloudy persecutors and when Chrysostome was to be sent to Jerusalem the Prefect of Antioch was constrained by a sleight to convey him away for fear of the people and when to be banished from Constantinople the people plead for him with a Satius est ut Sol noâ— luceat quam Chrysostomus non doceat better we want the sun to shine then Chrysostome to teach and they watch his house night and day the holy Pastor is fain to steal into banishment lest the peoples affection betraies the City into commotion What shall we say of the people of Alexandria confessing for their Bishop Athanasius against the Arrians but among many others eminent is the example the people in Merindol and Cabriers who when by the Parliament of Provence they with their whole town and families were decreed to be destroyed sent away their Ministers that they might escape in safety and admirable was the counsel of the Waldenses to the Bohemians in the heat of persecution to have an especial care of their Ministers that they might maintain a succession Time would fail me to multiply the many remarkable examples of peoples care towards their Ministers pleading their cause hiding their persons defending their lives to the utmost of their power and when they can do no more expediting their flight and hasting to give them warning of imminent and impending dangers crying vigorously as the Senator of Hale to Brentius Fuge fuge Brenti cito citius citissime be gone be gone with all speed lest danger overtake thee and certainly this exceeding provision for their safety is an evident expression of their experience that it is to them needful that they abide in the flesh Secondly When the Saints cannot provide they pray for the safety of their Ministers and ceâ—â—â—â—nly the prayers of the people of God are expressions of their sense they wrestle not with God for things of no moment and value prayer it is a most serious and solemn duty and also signifies the sensible and restless desires of the souls suing for such blessings with greatest fervor that are found of greatest need the sting of the Church her sorrow which gives strength to her heaven-piercing prayers is our Prophets are all gone Psal 74.9 the want of a faithful Minister is many time the woe of heart to a wicked man Job 33.19 20 21 22 23. when he is chastened with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain then a messenger one of a thousand is very desireable how many that in health would have been the death of a Minister on their sick beds seek to them and when they come to die pray for them pinching perplexity will convince Saul so far of the want of a Prophet of God that it will provoke when he hath no hope to speed with God to complain to the very Devil I am sore distressed and God is departed from me and answereth me no more no not by Prophets 1 Sam. 28.15 How much more do the people of God who are sensible of and subjected to ministerial priviledges pray to God to preserve their lives you shall finde that when Herod the King stretched forth his hand to kill James and imprison Peter the poor Christians that had no other weapons betake themselves to God by prayers and tears and importuned till they obtained the life of Peter Act. 12. and St. Paul having escaped some eminent death-threatning danger in Asia directs the glory of it unto the prayers of the Christians as his only guard by civine grace 2 Cor. 1.10 11. Who delivered 〈◊〉 from so great death you helping with your prayers and to the prayers of the Saints he flies as his fence in time of danger as in Phil. 1.19 and Phil. 22. I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you Tertullian Apologizing for the Christians noteth that in all their dangers prayer was their refuge Preces fundimus coelum tundimus misericordiam extorquemus we besiege heaven for mercy and wrestle till we prevail Te supastitem faciat mihi Deus hoc peto vâ—lo fiat voluntas mea amen When Luther came to visit Mâ—conius being very sick and considering how useful he had been in the
not appear to advance their damned errors nor to assemble their followers of this St. Paul had clear experience and expressed his knowledge of it to the Elders of the Church at Ephesus Act. 20.29 30. For I know that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock and of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things and drawing away disciples after them the zeal of a faithful Minister in defending the truth and condemning all falsities doth anticipate the Devils design that errors cannot spread and enrage his instruments to study the ruine and death of them Elijah his zeal will not suffer Israel to follow and worship Baal the false Prophets cannot prevail if Micaiah and Jeremiah be at liberty the Arrians cannot spread their blasphemies unless Athanasius and the Divines teaching the Doctrine of one substance be exiled many are the remarkable instances of the contradictions and convictions of horrid Heresies by the Fathers of the Church with which Ecclesiastical story abounds hence it comes to pass that all Heresies end in and are advanced by persecution for the enmity of truth and falshood is irreconcilable and herein some of Gods Ministers are more instrumental to the Church of God then others as they are more eminently qualified by God and nature for such knotty and controversial work thus Athanasius was of all the contestors for the truth of one substance accounted the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bulwark of truth and of all the first reformers of Christian Religion none obtained the title of Conqueror of the world save only Luther and lastly we may observe the insultations and triumphs of seducers from the truth at and for the death of faithful Ministers with their free and forward publication of their damned Doctrines when they conceive there is none that will or can oppose them and their opinions saying as Flaccius Osiander when Luther was dead in the bold oppugning of the doctrine of Justification by faith alone Leonem mortuum esse c. the Lion was dead and he cared not for the Foxes meaning Melancthon and and others as an evident testimony that their false doctrines cannot spring under Ministerial air and this engaged the Apostles to write the Doctrines they had preached with many a charge that the Christians should hold it fast that they might have it in remembrance when they were dead 2 Pet. 1.15 and that they might earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 2. For that when the faithful Minister is once dead he can neither warn the people instruct the seduced flock convince the gainsayer nor reject the Heretick or use any other means to stay the spreading of error and for the safety of the Church Thirdly As the living Minister doth curb sin and contradict error so also he is serviceable to counsel unto duty every dark and dubious soul in this respect the covenant of God is with them and the Priests lips must preserve knowledge 1 Pet. 4.11 and the people must seek the Law at his mouth Mal. 2.7 the Ministery of the Gospel is as the Oracles of God under the Law unto which men must have recourse in all straights and doubts and by which they must be resolved When the strife is great at Antioch about the Jewish ceremonies an appeal must be made to the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem Act. 15. and there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 determined decrees must be the guidance of every Christian and all the Churches of God and what ever doubt is in the Church of Corinth St. Paul must be sought unto and determine it hence Ministers are called lights in darkness and guides in deserts to the people of God The Levites were scattered in all the tribes of Israel and had their houses near the Synagogues that the people might on all occasions resort to them for counsel and advice in matters of doubt and difficulty the people resorting to Calvin for counsel by colloquy in private was one means that was observed to waste his spirits and weaken his nature and hasten his end and in in respect of this special service the people of God have cause to lament the death of a faithful Minister as did the Jewes in their captivity Our Prophets are all gone there is none to tell us how long or as Saul over Samuel The Lord is departed and answereth me not by a Prophet Fourthly As a living Minister doth curb sin contradict error and counsel unto duty so also he is serviceable to comfort the desponding soul in a day of danger and distress he is the messenger one of a thousand Job 33.23 sent by God to shew unto man his uprightness when he is pained on his bed and perplexed in his thoughts and to this end the covenant of peace between God and man is in his mouth and the supporting sealing Sacraments are in his hand and authority given to him in the name of the Lord to chear the soul and pronounce pardon of sin and it is charged on them to comfort the mourners in Zion and they are qualified with skill to binde up the broken hearted and to heal the wounded spirit by speaking a word in season to a wearied soul so that the death of a faithful Minister may make the Church to complain as Lam. 1.16 The comforter which should relieve my soul is far from me Whosoever then seeth a necessity of sin to be checked error contradicted doubtful souls counselled and desponding spirits to be comforted and that this service is imposed on the Ministers of God and life to be the twelve hours in which this work must be done death to be the night in which no man worketh must needs conclude that the Minister abide in the flesh is absolutely needful We have done with the Doctrinal part of this observation and have given you by arguments and Reasons to see that the lives of faithful Ministers are of absolute necessity to the Church of God give me now leave to winde up all in one word of application and to pass by all other uses that might be inferred I shall only improve it by way of exhortation Let it then exhort every one of us in our proper places to carry toward the Ministers of the Word as convinced that their life and abode in the flesh is more needful for us It is our shame and sin that we carry towards living I and dead Ministers as if at the best they were indifferencies and matters of conveniencies in the enjoyment of which we seem to be little better and in the want of them nothing worse they are certain spangling ornaments but not essential to any society whatsoever in the enjoyment of them our being is something more honourable but in the want of them we retain our being with as much compleatness and certainty as needs so that the Ministers are to most that carry it fairly in the Church glorious superfluities that may well
Labour to supply his place by a a lawful pious and prudent Divine blessed be God you may be stored be speedy in making up your breach beg of God to direct your choice agree among your selves and the Lord give you a man that may stand up in his stead In the careful and conscionable performance of these duties you will witness the life of a faithful Minister to be of absolute necessity to the Church of God and constrain the Ministers of the Word to assent unto your apprehensions in the words of the Text with which I shall conclude this first part of this discourse Nevertheless that we abide in the flesh is more needful for you Having presented you with the necessity of a Ministers life in the general as it relates to the Church of God let me now affect you with a sense of the want of this Minister learned Mr. John Frost in special by presenting you with the hopeful parts and high endowments which rendred him serviceable whilest living and may make us sorrowful in such a loss now he is dead That the memorial of the just may be blessed and preserved whilest the remembrance of the wicked doth perish it hath been the constant and commendable custome of good men to make honourable mention of the graces and eminent endowments of deceased friends famous are the Panegyrick Orations made at the Tombs of the primitive Martyrs memorable are the several Orations of the two Gregories Nyssen and Nazianzen on the death of Basil the Great This laudable practise hath been ever used and still is in the midst of us we have too too lately had published the lives of too many learned lights and eminently pious Ministers pillars of the Church of God not only in the Countrey but also in this our City learned Gataker judicious Vines acute Gouge affectionate Robinson pious Whitaker and profound Usher with many others have been lately added to Londons Catalogue of deceased Ministers the which if the Lord stay not his hand is like to swell into no mean volume their worthy praises have sounded in our ears and been laid before our eyes I am this day to trace the same course and to characterize this eminent person and hopefull instrument whom God hath to our sorrow added to this sad Catalogue whose worth deserved to have been advanced by the Tongue of some Angelical Doctor or present Academical Orator rather then to be depressed by my rude and plain expressions yet seeing this work is cast on my hands I shall according to my ability give you an account of him as I have received it from his nearest relations best acquaintance or my own personal knowledge and herein let me mention him in general and particular In generall I may say of him to the aggravation of our grief he was from his cradle to his grave eminently commendable for he was admirably endowed by nature adorned by the acquirements of learning and advanced by ministerial qualifications which might have made him exceeding useful as ever any our age may I not say our nation produced and gave occasion to many eminent Divines to say of him as Erasmus of Philip Melancthon he is an excellent Grecian and a most learned man he is a youth and stripling if ye consider his age but one of us if you look on the variety of his knowledge almost in all Books he is very exquisite in learning I pray Christ this Youth may live long among us In particular Mr. John Frost was sonne and eldest sonne to an antient reverend and pious Divine Mr. John Frost Minister of Fakenham in the County of Suffolk His relation where he hath resided above twenty years past and yet exerciseth his Ministry surviving and sadly this day lamenting the losse of his first-born his might the beginning of his strength the excellency of his dignity nay the comfort of his old age honour and hope of his gray hairs So that if descent from and relation to the Tribe of Levi Ministers of the Gospel be as blessed be God it hath of late been asserted and publiquely appeared to be an honour worthy a publique association let the constituted Company of Ministers Sons lament the losse of this glorious Pearle and glittering Diamond which is fallen out of their Crown He hath three brothers all surviving Thomas Master of Arts and Minister of the word James now Student in St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge and Richard an Apothecary in Cambridge and now present to condole the losse of such a Brother to two of them learning his ornament is become essentiall and to the other the chief ingredient that compounds his calling May it be our hearty prayer this day to God that the two intended Ministers may revive Mr. John Frost and arise in his stead and that a double portion of his Spirit may rest on them as did the spirit of Elijah on Elisha for the good of the Church of God! Amen This is the person and thus related in Nature whose life whilest I relate in your ears I shall observe him and represent him to you in a threefold estate Childehood before his going to the University Growth in his behaviour and acquirements at the University and perfection in the exercise of his Ministery in all which you shall see he was a promising Sprout and primely growing Tree plentifully bearing fruit in its perfection First in reference to the first In his Childehood His Infant disposition even from his Cradle he was so well tempered by nature that he was alwayes towardly and hopefull no way subjected to the wildenesse or wantonnesse much lesse to the wickednesse of other children he was mild of nature harmlesse in behaviour soon snub'd for any defect and submissive under any check even from his Fathers Servants so gentle sweet and amiable was his disposition that it rendred him dear to his brethren delightfull to servants neighbours and all that knew him and the Darling of his Parents So that in this respect were it not a saying too hyperbolicall I might say of him as it was said of Bonaventure In hoc homine non peccavit Adam Adams depraved nature was scarce visible in him Being grown into some competency in years and by his Father found docible ingenious and pliable to every thing that was good and religious and greatly desirous of learning he was sent to School and placed under the tuition of an eminent School-master at Thetford in the County of Norfolk where he continued till the thirteen or fourteenth year of his age to the great improvement of his naturall parts in the attainment of knowledge in the Latine and Greek Tongues and indeed the perfection of Grammar and Rhetorick to the glory and comfort of his School-master and the admiration of his School-fellowes whom he much out-stripped His School demeanour for Nature had endowed him with all helps to learning an healthfull and good constitution of body a quick capacity a criticall and enquiring
which stood at a distance from others which were more strange and retired He was in all Companies freely communicative mildly hearing and freely answering all enquiries some of his Parish sadly lament his losse on this very account He would have come to us been so familiar with us we could have moved any question to him he would have freely resolved us 2. Grave and meek he had a gravity which kept his person from contempt his levity never led any to despise his youth but the gravity of his carriage convicted men that he was considerate of the place in which he was and work which lay on his shoulders in common conference he was ready to rebuke with all authority yet his gravity was naturall not affected tempered with such a meek and amiable disposition and countenance as made him acceptable to all that it might have been said of him as of Anthony the Monk he might have been known among hundreds of his Order by his cheerfull countenance though an humble serious and mortified man 4. Holy and exemplary What he preached to others he first preached to himself and after to them by practise as well as in the Pulpit I have heard him say he would not deny but God might use a profane Minister to be the Instrument of Conversion but he observed he rarely did and was perswaded would not So studious was he to be an example to his people that he dayly prayed Lord give me so to walk that I may say to thy people So walk as ye have me for an example He made it his great care that his Family should serve the Lord and on his death-bed he gave it in charge to his Yoak-fellow whom he hath but a while enjoyed that she should be carefull of the worship of God in her Family And this his piety as it ran through his life it did sparkle with much beauty in his death the which we shall briefly note and so conclude In his death much may not be expected by reason His dying carriage that the disease gave neither time nor opportunity to his friends to be frequent with him in observing his frame of spirit His distempers seized on him with force on Monday the 27. of October such was his care and respect to his friends that he would not suffer his friends to come to him he apprehending his distemper to be contagious Being the Small-pox and fearing it might fasten on them for indeed his more then ordinary fear of this noysome distemper His only infirmity was the great infirmity of his flesh but he was very silent under and submisse to the hand of his God when herein inflicted desirous he was and diligent in the use of means for recovery I pray God pardon the feared preposterous course held with him by his Physitian He continuing very ill on Friday received the sentence of death in himself and on Saturday morning sent to me if I were not afraid to come to him which I accordingly did and coming to him found him much composed in his spirit Discoursing with him he declared himself much comforted and encouraged in the prayers of the people of God Saints prayers his souls comfort he heard that he did enjoy and desired me to pray with him which I did he very seriously attending and assenting to every Petition He declared himself willing to live for the good of the Church in speciall his own people whom he comfortably apprehended to have been much moved by his last Sermon on the duty of searching the Scriptures from Joh. 5.39 And hoped would be bettered by it yet he was submisse to the determination of God When I asked him how he did he still answered me full of silence and sweet patience in submission to and dependence on God my Saviour Last Act. When I was gone the pangs of death began more forcibly to approach of which he being sensible called together his Family and friends and in his own person prayed with much livelinesse and affection this was the last act of his life that as it becomes a Minister to die praying or preaching he was no Sabbath out of Heaven when taken off his preaching and prayer was his last performance on earth Prayer being ended he called to his Brother for something to drink which having received he cryed out Vincimus Vincimus his wife lying in his bosome not understanding it he did himself translate it We have overcome overcome and so spake no more but remained quiet untill the midnight following When his conflict ended his Soul was crowned with glory and his life hid with Christ at whose appearance we may expect to see him again In the mean let us leave him to rest in hope and do our own work lamenting the losse of him for that he was a Good man and so is a great losse to humane society Gracious Minister the want of whom is a great dammage to the Church of God Of great parts and by his death the hopes of Gods people are frustrate Newly fixed and his sudden removall is a sad Symptome of Divine displeasure Suitable for our sad times wherein seducers do abound and gainsayers of the truth call for such as are able to convince And cause hath this Congregation to fear now he is gone men will arise teaching perverse things and drawing away Disciples after them And therefore we may all weep for that we must see his face no more FINIS In pag. 47. l. 22. for master read matter Books printed are to be sold by Thomas Parkhurst who prints and sells this Sermon of Mr. Zach. Crofton at the Sign of the Three Crowns over against the Great Conduit at the lower end of Cheapside THE Dead Saint speaking to Saints and Sinners living In severall Treatises By Samuel Bolton D. D. There is newly come forth Mr. William Fenner his Continuation of Christs Alarm to Drowsie Saints with a Treatise of Effectuall Calling The killing power of the Law The Spirituall Watch New Birth A Christians ingrafting into Christ Fol. The Journal or Diary of a thankfull Christian wherein is contained Directions for the right method of keeping and using according to the Rules of Practice a Day-book of Nationall and Publick personall and private passages of Gods providence to help Christians to thankfullnesse and experience By John Beadle Minister of the Gospel at Barnstone in Essex large 8. A learned Commentary or Exposition upon the first Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians by Dr. Richard Sibbs Published for publick good by Thomas Manton Fol. Mr. Robinsons Christian Armour in large 8. The young mans Guide to Godlinesse by Wil. Penkins 12. FINIS