Religious Exercises which cool our Zeal and abate the fervor of our Spirits in the service of our Redeemer which weaken our Confidence in Prayer and shame our faces before the Lord in secret And is it not far better to part with the body of flesh that thereby we may be rid of this body of sin and death Rom. 7.2 and be like our Saviour in perfect purity Do we not complain of our Ignorance of Divine Truths and the blessed Mysteries of the Gospel notwithstanding all our means of knowledge of our Earthliness and unbelief of unbecoming Thoughts of God and holy things of proud Imaginations and carnal reasonings against his Works and Word of languishing and imperfect Graces to be recovered and perfected c And is it not better be with Christ where that which is imperfect shall be done away Is not God dishonor'd and provok't by our frequent Omissions and slight Performances of duty do we not resist and quench and sadden his holy Spirit and are we not often griev'd by God's rebukes and frowns by the wounds and smart regrets of our own Conscience so that we remember God and are troubled and cry out in the bitterness of our Souls Hath he forgotten to be gracious and will he be merciful no more Are not our holy Purposes inconstant and our best Resolutions wavering and unsteddy and very quickly very easily shatter'd by the breath of a small Temptation Have we not a constant Watch to keep over our Hearts and wayes a perpetual War to manage with the Infernal Trinity the World the Flesh and the Devil and do we know his rage and malice and serpentine policy with the Multitude Strength and Power of his Temptations How often we have been foil'd already and how soon we may be so again and shall we not be desirous of a sinless state in the presence of Christ where no Tempter no Temptation shall ever be admitted Yea had we no corruption or Sin of our own to be delivered from yet our concern at God's dishonour by the sins of others should make us willing to depart as much more desirable than our abode on earth Job 24.9 〈◊〉 24.4 Which is given into the hands of the wicked and defiled by its Inhabitants Where the very Air is infected with Oaths and Blasphemies prophane discourse and filthy Talk Where the very Being of a God is question'd his Providence denyed and his Authority mock't Where the Gospel of Christ is disparag'd and despised his Laws contradicted his Worship polluted his Institutions subverted and his holy Name made a cloak for Licentiousness and his faithful Servants trampl'd on by the foot of Pride and scorned by men at ease and forc't to own his Truth with the peril of their Lives And can we say It is good to be here or is it not far better to forsake such a Place and Company that we may be with Christ 3. Let us consider what are the grounds and Principles by which a Christian is assured of this Blessedness in the presence of Christ after his dissolution This Inquiry is necessary because the discourse of our future Bliss with Christ cannot be supposed to have any effect or influence upon us to make us desire our departure while we disbelieve or make a doubt of the matter I hope it were needless to prove the Possibility of the Souls existence in a state of seperation from the Body Whether in the body or out of the body 2 Cor. 12 2. would not have been a doubt to this great Apostle if he could not possibly have liv'd but in it neither could he desire to depart that he might be with Christ if after his departure he should not be at all And supposing the existence of the Soul notwithstanding the dissolution of the Body we have as full an assurance as the nature of the thing is capable of that holy Souls shall be present with the Lord in glory when absent from the body 1 Thess 4.17 Joh. 17.24 Matth. 25.23 Rev. 3.21 c. But because the Text hath a special relation to Christ and to be with him is the Blessedness on the account whereof 't is desirable to depart I shall only mention his Death and Resurrection as a sufficient ground to confirm our Faith in the certainty of being with him and to excite our Desires of a departure in order to it 1. The Death of Christ He hath cancell'd the Hand-writing against us and put away Sin Eph. 1.7 which is the sting of Death by the Death of the Cross a way is now open for us into the holy of holies by his blood not for our Prayers only but our Persons Heb. 10.19 He hath wounded the Head of the old Serpent even by permitting him to bruise his Heel by crucifying his humane Nature which was only Vestigium Deitatis 2 Sam. 23 21. Heb. 2.15 As Benaiah slew the Egyptian with his own Spear Having destroyed death and him that had the power of it and delivered those who were all their Life time subject to bondage through the fear of death He hath set his foot on the neck of this Adversary disarm'd it of it's weapon and rob'd it of it's sting and abolisht the ugliness and poyson of it He hath dismounted Hell and Damnation from behind him who Sat on the Pale-horse Rev. 6.8 Whether the first Adam were buryed in Calvary where the second was crucifyed as some affirm I need not enquire we know that his Death was our Victory and his Cross may be our Triumph since the Devil is conquered and death Sanctified and the Grave perfum'd by his burial so that we need not be afraid to lodge in a Sepulchre where our Lord himself hath slept Yea since the effusion of his Blood there is an amiable ruddiness in the Face of death for that which was the Instrument of Justice is now the messenger of Peace and Joy that which was the gate of Hell is the way to Life He hath brought sweetness out of the Strong and meat out of the Eater 1 Cor. 3.21 and therefore Death as well as Life is reckon'd in the Inventory of the riches of the Saints All things are yours because you are Christs and Christ is Gods 2. His Resurrection and Exaltation his rising from the Dead not only discovers the possibility of our Resurrection and gives us a pledge and assurance of it as declaring the sufficiency and acceptation of his Sacrifice Rom. 8.11 Is 26.19 that therefore the Dead in Christ shall live and with his Dead Body arise But being punctually effected according to his prediction and promise it confirms the Truth of all his Word and seals the promise of eternal Life unto all Believers He hath open'd the Prison doors and loos'd the bands of Death 1 Cor. 15. â—0 and roll'd away the heavy Stone from the Graves of his people he is now become the first fruits of them that Sleep in Jesus And
of her Sickness That though her sins were as Scarlet Is 1.18 God could make them Snow though red like Crimson they should be as Wooll § 15. Moreover she did thankfully acknowledge the Mercies of God to her in the former part of her Life whereof she had very many both Personal and Relative And particularly desired that Thanks might be returned to God for his singular goodness to her during her Sickness § 16. She was very desirous of Prayer to God on her behalf and very joyfull and well pleased when she had it and being at any time ask't what particular request she desired should be made to God for her she mention'd not her Recovery and the lengthening of her days but the forgiveness of Sin through the Merit of her Redeemer an humble submission to Gods disposal and a prepared heart to acquiesce in his appointment And so in one sence she was full of dayes though she dyed very young being satiated with the Time she had liv'd on Earth and not importunate for a longer stay § 17. Within a few hours before her dissolution of the approach whereof she was more apprehensive than those about her she was very desirous that a worthy Minister whom she named Mr. S. F. might immediately be sent for to commend her Soul to God Who accordingly came though at Midnight She her self joyn'd in that last Office with great seriousness and affection and afterward return'd him her hearty thanks for his great kindness therein saying Now I have nothing more to do but to dye Only requested him not to leave the house that night as knowing that his Company and Counsel might administer to the support of her Affectionate Mother and other Relations whom she should leave in sorrow though she her self was passing to Eternal Joy § 18. After which she composed her self to rest and refused every thing that was offer'd her to take making Signs with her hand of her unwillingness to be disturbed § 19. In that short space of her Continuance which was not an hour she was heard to say Be gone Satan Be gone Thou art a Lyar from the Beginning and the Father of Lyes O come Lord Jesus And soon after she said He is Come he is Come And so fell asleep as in the Arms of her dearest Saviour or as the Jews Report of Moses That he dyed with the Kiss of God O Death where is now thy Sting O Grave where is now thy Victory The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And Blessed are the Dead that Thus dye in the Lord. § 20. Would to God that the Account here given might effectually convince us of the great difference between the Death of the Holy and the Vnholy of the Righteous and the Sinner Might convince us of the great Blessing of holy Parents and a good Education and encourage Parents to be diligent and faithful to be serious prudent and affectionate in the Education of their Children because such a deportment is most likely to be owned by God with the desired Success And Convince us likewise of the Vanity of Youth the shortness of our Lives the uncertainty of our Time the nearness of our Change the necessity reasonableness and manifold advantages of Remembring our Creator in our younger Years And withall might hasten our Preparations and spirit our Desires to depart and be dissolv'd whenever God shall call us That following their Example who by Faith and Patience are gone to inherit the Promises We may at length meet those Precious Souls above who are gone before us that with them and all the Children of the Kingdom we may be for ever with the Lord which is Best of all FINIS
A SERMON PREACHT Upon the DEATH OF Mrs ANNE BARNARDISTON DAUGHTER of NATHANAEL BARNARDISTON Esq late of Hackney Who departed this Life the 30th day of Decemb. 1681. at the Age of Seventeen With a brief Account of some Remarkable Passages of her LIFE and DEATH Published at the Desire of her Relations Psal 103.15 As for man his dayes are as grass as a flower of the field so he flourisheth V. 16. For the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more LONDON Printed by J. A. for Benjamin Alsop at the Angel and Bible and John Dunton at the Black Raven in the Poultrey 1682. TO The Much Honoured MADAM ELIZABETH BARNARDISTON MADAM THE sad Occasion of the Sermon and your Relation to Her whose dying request was fulfilled in my preaching it doth style the Dedication yours Though what I have mention'd of your excellent Daughter is less than others would have said on the same subject yet having given an account of her preparedness and willingness to dye methinks that should be considered as a sufficient Argument to mitigate your Sorrow and prevent its excess 1 Thess 13. 'T is the Apostles Instruction concerning them who sleep in Jesus that we ought not to sorrow as do others who have no hope Such were the Aegyptians and 't is observ'd of them that they mourned longer for the death of old Jacob Gen. 50.3 than his own Son Joseph did I know the Time of Her Death gives an Accent to the Calamity That before your Mourning Weeds were laid aside for one of the best of Husbands who hath a good Report of all men and of the Truth it self you should be forced to continue the same or put on more for the Loss of such a Child in the Prime of her Youth and Strength and Beauty A Loss for which you do not mourn alone since many others are partners of your grief not by sympathy only as pitying you but from a due Respect and Affection to her and their own Concern at her departure But as your Afflictions abound God can make your Consolations by Christ abound much more And such Losses as these though some of the smartest and most afflictive to humane Nature may turn to your Spiritual Gain And even this Rod like that of Aaron may blossom and produce the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness If in the want of their Company God himself be more depended on as your All in all If their removal out of this World promote your Mortification to it if their being taken up to Heaven assist your Preparations and excite your desires to follow God hath already made good his Covenant Promise in a very peculiar manner to those whom he gave and hath taken from you and I trust will do so as to those who remain that they may know and serve the God of their Fathers with a perfect heart and see the Felicity of his Chosen That they may tread in the steps of their departed Relatives and bear up the Name of God in their respective stations to his Glory and your Comfort and their Salvation And if God should not make your house to grow 2 Sam. 2 5. yet he hath made an Everlasting Covenant with you well ordered in all things and sure I wish the following Discourse may contribute any thing to your Support or at least be accepted as an Expression of my Obedience in complying with your request thus to make it publick And as a Testimony of my unfeigned Respect to the memory of the deceased with a serious desire of some benefit to others also by such a remarkable Instance of an Early Piety of an Exemplary Life of a peaceable Death Which God grant who alone can bring Good out of Evil all whose Works are perfect and whose Wayes are Judgment I am MADAM Your most Affectionate Humble Servant John Shower London Jan. 25. 1681 2 TO THE READER Reader I Being Earnestly desired both by the Relations of the Deceased Gentlewoman and by the Preacher of the following Funeral Sermon to Testifie what I knew of the Gracious and wonderful workings of the holy Spirit upon the Heart of this Person during Her Life I could not but yield to their Importunate requests And upon this occasion I must declare That having Known her from her Childhood and having very much observed her Conversation of late and being called to give her several visits in her sickness I do believe upon the whole that God did give her a sound Repentance for and a Full Remission of all her sins through the mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I can assure thee Reader who ever thou art that she had an awakened sight of her sins accompanied with a great measure of Godly Sorrow for them I discerned also in her a deep Humiliation and I heard her open self-Condemnation thereupon I found in her also a clear Knowledge of the Nature of the New Covenant together with a Right Apprehension of the Nature of that Faith which is Required of all men and is through Grace bestowed upon some penitents whereby the Soul doth attain to an Interest in that Covenant It being thereby united unto Christ and consequently doth partake of the Benefits of his Merits and doth receive the Fruits of his Attonement with the Inhabitation of his Spirit Saving Faith and True Repentance are alwayes inseparable and their Conjunction doth evidence and speak them to be true and saving both These I do believe were united in the Soul of this deceased person And therefore I have very great Hopes of her State All Faith which is pretended to where Repentance is wanting I account to be nothing but a presumptuous Confidence and all seeming Repentance which is not Accompanied with some Faith in the Divine Goodness and in the promises made thereof by our Lord Jesus is no other than the Repentance of a Cain or a Judas his despair Our Lord Jesus did as it were Epitomize the whole Gospel and comprehended the whole Duty of man in two words viz. Repent and Believe and 't is to be observed that these two are set in the very Front as the Text to all his Ministry Mark 1.15 And by reason of the Import of them they may be accounted as the Contents of the whole Where these two Graces are not conjoyned Guilt Remains and Sin Reigns But where they are united in any Soul as that person is Justifyed so that Heart is savingly changed and that Nature is in measure Sanctified and the life of that man for the Future will be proportionably universally Holy Would the Genius of the present Age allow me to use Metaphors in Soul-concernments I should think that I did then best explicate to vulgar capacities the nature of saving Faith as when I did call Faith the Daughter of Knowledge the Sister of Repentance and the Mother of Love for the Holy Ghost tells us that Faith comes in by Hearing Ro. 10.17 That it
hath the Keyes of Death and Hell Rev. 1. even the two most formidable enemies are under his Dominion who though once he were dead doth now live yea live for evermore And for this very end did God raise him up 1 Pet. 1.2 that our faith and hope might be in him in reference to the Blessedness of another Life Yea saith the Apostle concerning that Act. 13.3 he raised him from the dead no more to see corruption God said I will give you the sure mercies of David Is 55.3 or an Everlasting Covenant which Death shall not dissolve and his being risen is the ground of our Faith and Hope that the promise shall be fulfill'd For the Resurrection of Christ is the evidence of the validity and Efficacy of his Death and Sacrifice and a sufficient proof that his Precious Blood shed upon the Cross Heb. 13. â— was the blood of an Everlasting Covenant Establishing a Covenant of Grace and making it truly Everlasting for we know that he is a Priest for ever after the Power of an endless Life And therefore know Heb. 7. â— to our unspeakable Satisfaction Incouragement and Joy in whom we have believed and that he is able to keep unto that day what we have committed to him 2 Tim. 12. Phil. 1. Jude 2. Col. 3.3 to perfect what he hath begun and at last present us blameless before the presence of his glory with exceeding Joy For our Life being hid with him in God we are fully assured that when he who is our Life shall appear 1 Joh. 3. we shall appear with him in glory and because he lives we shall live also and when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 4. Let us consider Whence it comes to pass that notwithstanding the Blessedness of being with Christ and our assurance of it by his Death and Resurrection that yet we are so backward and unwilling to depart What is the true reason why so many of those who acknowledge it far better to be with Christ yet cannot say with the Apostle That they desire to be dissolv'd that they may be with him 1. The weakness of Faith concerning the Invisible World and the future Glory of the Saints is the reason why so many Christians are unwilling to dye They are very sensible of the inconveniencies of their present abode they complain to God and men of Corruption Temptation and Sin and they hear of a blessed Deliverance from all these by Death and a perfect Felicity in the presence of the Redeemer after their dissolution but unbelief makes them stagger at the Promise They are not fully satisfied that such a transcendent Glory will be Consequent to Dying Did they but soundly believe the Testimony and Revelation which God hath given in his Word concerning it they would choose to be absent from the body Some of the Ignorant Heathens have been desperate in their Choice of death only as the Period of present Calamities but others who were doubtful of the Consequence have yet entertained it with an hearty Welcome As Socrates for instance who profess'd That he ought not to fear death because he could not tell whether it were good or evil And shall not we who understand the Grounds and Principles the greatness and certainty of a future Blessedness after Death be as willing to depart A confirmed Faith is therefore necessary and adviseable in the present case and the rather that thereby we may quench the fiery darts of Satan who if he cannot hinder us of our Crown would rob us of our Joyful Prospect of it if he cannot prevent our future Glory would render us dejected in our passage thither if he cannot prevail to exclude and banish us for ever from the Presence of Christ would darken our present comfort by the desire and Hope of it but more especially at the prospect and approach of Death for that is his hour and the power of darkness But by this shield of Faith Eph. 6.11.16 we may be able to stand even in that evil day of our dissolution 2. The Pains of Death They pray that God would hasten his Glorious Kingdom and bring them to it and believe it to be most eligible to be with Christ yet are loth their own Prayers should be answered and the end and object of their Faith obtain'd through the discouraging apprehensions they admit of a dying hour Would we not be with the Lord and know him better and Love him more and enjoy him fully and shall we stick at a little pain as introductory to so great a Happiness A Pain that will speedily convey us to Eternal ease and rest which thousands of Holy Souls in Glory have indur'd more of than we can fear But suppose the Agonies of Death are ne're so frightful to Flesh and Blood hath not Our Redeemer a Rod and Staff to comfort us in the dark Valley Ps 23.4 Doth he not know what it is to dye and how much we dread it doth he not understand our weakness remember our frailty pity our infirmities and bid us ask for support and Strength Ps 73.2 yea hath he not promis'd that when Heart and Flesh shall fail that he will be the Strength of our Hearts and our Portion for ever Shall Ignorant hopeless Heathens without God in this world without the expectation of being with Christ in the next be so desirous of Immortality as to dispatch themselves and be their own Executioners to force an escape from the Body and shall we resist and struggle draw back and fear object and be unwilling when our Saviour calls us to endless and unspeakable Felicity Is not this the last Experiment of our Faith and Patience and holy Resolution the last essay of our Christian Courage Are not the antecedent pains of dying the fruit of sin no less than the throws and pangs of Travelling Women and are the Latter tolerable in hopes of Children and their own deliverance and may we not support the Former by the assistance of a greater and better Hope Are they at all considerable and worthy our fear if put in the ballance with the promised Salvation to follow on our departure Are they comparable in the nature of evil to the blessed Life they lead us to in the nature of good or comparable to the gripes of Conscience which unpardon'd sinners meet with in Life and Death yea do we not think them greater and make them worse by our foolish fears than most do find them Is not the sting of Death remov'd and the Heavenly Mansions prepar'd and promis'd and is it a reasonable request that God should vary from his settled course and fixed Law upon our Sole account will nothing else content and please us but that Heaven must descend to Earth or we be in a moment translated thither to prevent our pain and supersede the necessity of our dissolution which we fear will be so