A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the Reverend and Learned MR. GEORG RITSCHEL Late Minister of Hexham in Northumberland By Mr. MAJOR ALGOOD Rector of Symon-burn in the same County With an Elegie on his Death LONDON Printed for Joseph Hall Bookseller and Bookbinder on tyne Bridge Newcastle upon Tyne 1684. Ecclesiastes 12 part of the 5 verse Because man goeth to his long home THe great matter necessary to be thought of in this life is what shall become of us after death and whither we shall goe when we goe hence For here we have but a short time to stay we are on our journey and every moment brings us nigher to the end thereof but wherever we goe to after death it is for ever and ever Solomon tells us in his distribution of time that there is a season to every purpose under heaven and amongst the rest he reckons a time to be borne and a time to dye but he tells us of no time to live because our life is uncertaine death follows in some soon after the birth and their cradle seems to stand on your graves and those that live longest are but of few dayes in respect of eternity So that our life is to be reckoned rather a moment then time and yet on this moment doth depend our everlasting happiness in the next life This all is allowed us to make provision for our long home In the words we may consider 1. The subject man 2. His transitory estate and condition expressed by way of travaile goeth 3. The end of his journey to his home 4. The duration of that home it is a long home To the first man Man in general that is every man every woman when our glorious God had by his infinite wisedom made the world in a wonderful manner and furnished it with all varietie and creatures for profit and pleasure at last after a most exquisite manner he consulted with himself for the shape of Man and finding no creature fit enough for a pattern concluded with himself to make mankind as a lively ressemblance after some sort of his own majesty that he might both in soul and body represent his creator Adams soule did most lively shadow out the divine essence not onely in the simplicity invisibleness and immortality therof but also in that power which it enjoyed to know and to will 1. For mans body it did likewise resemble God in several respects but more especially in that immortalitie wherin it was at first created The whole Man then mixt of body and soule was in the creation in a glorious state of immortalitie bordering upon everlastingness but it was not absolutely but conditionally So it is true he had a power not to dye if he had not sinned but there was a necessity he should dye when he had sinned for so the unalterable charge runs * Gen. 2 17. in the day thou eatest therof thou shalt surely dye Thus was the statute enacted that all must dye which is not to be repeated It hath bin put in execution from the beginning of the world to this time and so shall be to the end of the world We all come by the wombe and we must go by the grave from the arreast of death there 's no releasement from its sentence there 's no appeale Balthazar 's embleame is now written upon every mans wall thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting and therfore thy life is divided and given to death It is not the Majesty of a Prince nor holiness of a prophet nor the gravity of a prelate that death respecteth It is not strength of body nor comliness of person not tender years nor the wisedom of the aged not profound learning nor an abiss of riches can plead a priviledge against the grave In other dangers there may be some way contrived by the will of man to escape them power treasure flyght counsel and policy may serve the turn but there 's no power in man to bannish death no riches will buy it of nor can we fly from it neither prevent it by counsel nor turn it back with pollicy The greatest and best of men as well as the meanest and worst must say with Job * Job 17 14. to corruption thou art my Father to the worm thou art my Mother and my Sister Abel whose sacrifice was accepted as well as Cain whose offerings were rejected Abraham the Father of the faithful as well as the infidel Abimelech Jacob whome God loved as well as Esau whome he hated and David a man after Gods own heart as well as Saul from whom he toke his holy Spirit have bin all alike subject to the empire of death and to the decree of God so that then death is the common roade of all the world of Man in general without exception 2. His transitorie state and condition goeth We are heere in this life performing a journey which we must one day finish One goes before and another followes after one body rotts in the grave and leaves room for another Whether we go softly or run swiftly our time still spends and every moment brings us more forward towards our journeys end and nigher to our home our bodies are but earthen cottagies houses of dust which fall before we are aware our life runs on apace and death rides post after and often overtakes men before ever they thought it was nigh them and when they least thought of 't Our life is like a candle in the body in one the wind maketh it sweale away in another it is blown out before it be halfe spent and in other though it burn out to the end yett it continues not long at last vanisheth into smoake and exspires Whether we sleep or wake whether we stand sitt or walk still the course of our life goes on till it be finished we never make a step forward on the ground but it is a slep nigher to death My dayes saith Job 7 6. are swifter then a weavers shuttle and in the 9 chap. vers 25.26 now my dayes are swifter then a poste they flee away they see no good they are passed away as the swift ships as the eagle that hasteth to the prey Where he reckons our life by dayes and not by yeares as if it depended on moment and not on time but if on time it must be that which is present not that which is to come But although in these places he allowes men dayes to live here yett in another place as if he had bin so prodigal in his account he lakes up and therfore he will have him to be a ereature but of yesterday Job 8.9 for we are but of yesterday and know nothing because our dayes upon earth are a shadow And in deed we may be very properly tearmed creatures of yesterday for a dying houre hastens on us so fast that we cannot assure our selfs of the light of another day and the time of our journey end is so uncertaine
that we know not but this very evening our life may sett with the sunn nay shut up with the next moment The brevity of our life has bin noted by the most learned amongst the heathens The Egyptians compared it to an Inn where a man lodgeth for a night and on the morning is gone Aristotle to a certaine beast which is never but one day old Sophocles to a shadow and Homer to leaves which are blown away as fast as they bud and others to a dreame which at our awakening is gone so transitory is the state of man he is still on his journey to death he goeth 3. To his home This world is like the wilderness to Israel we must goe through it before we can come to the land of promise to the place of rest We must goe through the red sea of temptations in this life the Divel pharaoh like following to destroy us before we can come to our expected home This world is not our home but the way towards our home it is but as our inns or lodgings where we are not to stay any long time but rest a night or so take what is necessary for our repast and refreshment and then be going on in our journey We must leave the place to other comers Our generation passeth and another cometh They that come hereafter shall tread upon our graves as we doe now upon the sepulchres of our fathers they shall possess our houses goods and lands as we doe theirs who are gone before us Hence is' t that the Apostle tells us Heb 13 14. for here we have no continuing city but we seek one to come And he testifieth of the Patriarch Abraham that he was no more but a sojourner in a strang land he dwelt with Isaac and Jacob in tabernacles Hebr. 11 9. He built no houses but such as are used in warr such as are easily erected up and soon taken down again This he did as also your fathers generally of the first ages of the world that they might testifie their religion that they did not account this world as their home but a place from whence they must remove they did not know how soone Abram was in expectation of going home and therfore we are told ver 10. he looked for a city which had foundations whose builder and maker is God that is for heaven Besides the prophet David acknowledgeth that he was no other then a travailer in this life passing to another Ps 39 12. I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my father were Reason will in form us so much For that is not to be esteemed a mans home where he came lately and from whence he is shortly to depart but where he is to continue the most part of his life Upon this consideration St. Peter in his 1 Epist 2. chap. ver 11. becoms a supplicant to Christians Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstaine from fleshly lusts which war against the soule Prudent travailers carry nothing with them which may be burdensome to them in their journey so this Apostle adviseth that we have a care since we are as pilgrims in this life that we be not loaden with sins whose weight will hold us downe and keep us from entering in at the straite gate 4. The duration of our home it is a long home Wee are here in this life but for a moment it cannot properly be called time but wherever we go after death it is for eternity The longest day here hath its night and the longest life ends in death but the state in the next life is unchangeable without end Whether we are to be placed amongst the sheep or goates whether we are to be crowned or burned it is for ever the joy is an everlasting joy the punnishment whether it be heaven or hell we go to it is to be our long home The Antients used to represent this by their hierogliphicks of a round ring which hath no end of a Hydra's head which growes as fast as it is cutt of of a running fountaine which springeth as quickly as it floweth Arithmetick hath her figures to cast up numbers Astronomie its instruments to take the height of the starrs mariners their plummets to sound the depth of the sea but no invention of man can fathome the depth height length and breadth of eternitie which is boundless and unlimited It was the thoughts of this which did so much amaze a serious man that sitting very melancholly not speaking to any nor reguarding those who spoke to him at last those words burst out for ever for ever and for some time spoke nothing else he afterward told his friends about him that it was this for ever which had wholy taken up his thoughts and which he should never gett out of his mind And certainly when a man comes seriously to consider with himself that death is an entrance to eterninity opens a passage to a day that never shuts up to a continuation of time which hath no end and with all doth ponder with himself that after a short and uncertaine life here he must lead an end less life either with God or the Divel either in heaven or hell either in everlasting joyes or everlasting flames I dare say for him it is enough to affright his soule and to awaken his spirit from security as the mariners did Jonah in the tempest 1 Jon. 1 6. what meanest thou oh sleeper arise call upon thy God if so be that God will think on us that we perish not Consider then that man in general his state is transitorie in this life he 's a travailer on his journey homeward his home is not in this world when he dyes he goeth home and wherever he goe to it is a long home so reternitie Let us then use consideration Consideration is the key which openeth the dore to the closet of our hearts where all our bookes of account doe lye It is the very eye of our soule whereby shee lookes into her estate lett us now from what haith bin said make a serious use of 't and consider what a sad and dismal thing it will be to miscarrie for ever what a wide door of mercie is offered to us in this moment of our life in this consists the opportunitie to make our selfs happie for ever or miserable without end We are just now going on towards our home it is but one stroke of death and we are gone in the twinckling of an eye and God knowes whither let us therfore be wise in this our day before our dissolution apeareth that a speedy repentance may prevent our dwelling in darkness for ever God said of the church of Thâ—atira I gave her time to repent of her fornication and shee repented not lett not us give our good God occasion of such a complaint against us It is perniciously dangerous to put of our consciences calling for repentance and to say to them as Felix to
S. Paul * Act. 24. v. 25. go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee All delay in this great concern is too hazardous the present time is still the fittest and onely fit to Cast up the accounts of our soules In deed if we could arrest time if we could strike of the nimble wheels of its chariot and could Joshuah like command the sun to stand still and make opportunity waite our leisure then there were some thing of excuse for delay but since we can noe more command the future then we can call back the by past time it is but extreame madness to delay our hours It is now in our power under the influence of Gods grace to prepare for death to repent of our sinns and make our peace with God before we goe hence and be no more seene but it is not in our power to live till to morrow our dayes may close up with this day our life sett this very evening with the sunn nay the next moment If we loose this opportunity which presents its self it can never be recovered no not by most earnest wishes nor fervent desire nor a flood of Teares Remember the sad condition of prophane Esau for once despising the blessing he loosed it for ever and found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with teares To go on still in a sinful course of life with hopes that we may repent when we dye is to venture all upon a very uncertaine after game and just as if a mariner should be content to have his ship cast away upon bare hope that he may escape on a planck and gett safe to shore How fondly do such dispose of that time which is not in their power but in Gods hand whilst they vainly lett go that which God has given them The stork the brane the swallow know their seasons they know their appointed time and how much more should man a creature whom God has endowed with reason especially since it is so very uncertaine how long we shall enjoy this opportunitie All creatures under the sunn doe naturally intend their own preservation and desire that happiness which is agreeable to their nature and shall man their Lord be impiously careless of his eternal and everlasting welfare Death stands ready to snatch us away conscience persuades Hell threatens and heaven invites to prepare to lay up a good foundation for the next life for a long and happy home Lett us not then be secure but sett to work whilst it is called to day for as the wise preacher * Eccl. 9 10. tells us there 's no work nor device nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest What a sad and fatal thing is' t for men to run head long to their long home like the rich glutton in the ghosple who never was sensible of his estate till he was in torment he then found to his sorrow that out of the pitt there 's no redemption He leads a life suetable to his Christian profession who dayly is in expectation to leave it The best guide of our life here is the often consideration of our death and what shall become of us when wee go hence Wee need not wonder to see men so very industriously carefull to avoide death it is naturally terrible but this is it which all good men and even Angels may admire at to see Christians so generally careless to lay up a good foundation for a future life For there 's nothing certainly which makes death so terrible as the estate which followes after if our long home be in heaven death is a joyful birth day and the day of it better then the day of our first birth but if it be in the Divels mansions it is but the beginnig of endless miserie Let us therfore be persuaded to make use of our time and learn in this our day the things which belong to our peace before they be hid from our eyes before our feet be manacled in the dust and our arms rott of from our shoulders in the grave Do that before death which may doe you good when you are dead but can never be done after Live the life of the righteous and dye the death of the righteous dye the death of the righteous and live for ever in a long and happy manner That I may press this further behold ther 's before your eyes a spectacle of mortality the body of our deceased Brother which wee are mett together to bring to its own house as the prophet Esay * Esa 14 18. calls the grave to lay it up in the dust after all its great labour long journeys and tedious travaile on earth his soule being gone before to take possession of its long and happy home I must therfore now leave the other and apply my self to this text To say nothing were to be injurious to his worth and to hide those vertues which shined bright in him and may serve for our imitation Whatever the envious may say or think it is no fault to commend them at their death who have bin commendable in their life It was the ancient custome of the church to celebrate the memorie of holy men that thereby others might be moved to follow their examples As for his extraction I must be silent in it he being a Bohemian borne and that perticuler unknown to us yett let me say a man of meane observation by his deportment might guess it was of more than an ordinary ranck I shall therfore onely speake my knowledg of him haveing had an intimacie with him for a bove twenty yeares togeather As for his moral honestie it was very exemplar I appeale to you all here present whether he has not left a good report behind him and a good name which is better then precious ointment not one of this parish or elswhere can I am confident complaine of any unjust dealing by him nor can the poore this day send cursses to his grave I may justly in his behalfe take up Samuels * chalenge whose ox has he taken whose ass or whom has he defrauded whom has he oppressed or of whose hand has he received any bribe to blind his eyes therewith and I promise to restore it So critical was he even to the minute parts of honesty that if thorough inadvertency he had done any thing which did but looke like unjustness though no person was prejudiced by the same it was an affliction to his mind And as he did practice honesty himself as if he had known nothing else so did he allwayes love honest men and sett a just value on such but when he found any man to be otherwise how would he condole his condition and heartily sigh for him his looke at the same time speaking the thoughts of his heart how sorry he was that any man should be a knave how seriously would he endeavoure to reclaime such In his conversation and friendship