Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A53236
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Blessed Paul's tryal and triumph in a sermon upon the death of Mrs. Elizabeth King / by John Oakes ...
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Oakes, John, d. 1689?
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1689
(1689)
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Wing O18; ESTC R17578
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25,131
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33
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Blessed PAVL's Tryal and Triumph IN A SERMON Upon the DEATH of Mrs. ELIZABETH KING By JOHN OAKES Minister of the Gospel being the last Funeral Sermon that ever he Preacht before Himself was snatcht away to Glory MATTHEW xxiv 44. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh LONDON Printed by J. Richardson for Tho. Cockeril at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1689. Blessed Paul's Tryal and Triumph A Funeral Sermon ON 2 TIMOTHY iv 7 8. I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing HOW pertinent and seasonable the Words I have now read are for the solemn occasion we are met about is obvious to every Eye although I must tell you it was not the Object of my own choice but pitched upon by the Deceased whose Funeral I am now to Commemorate My Text is very copious and of too great an extent to admit at present of any Preface or to permit me to give you any account of the Epistle nor scarce so much time as to cast an Eye upon the Context Only in a word the time drew nigh when this Blessed Apostle Paul was to suffer Martyrdom and thereby Seal his Testimony to those Gospel Truths which he had preached and professed and that by the effusion of his Blood and the laying down of his Life The Enemy had got him in their Pound confin'd him in their Prison and still he was every day expecting and waiting when the Writ should be sign'd for his Execution as he tells us verse 6. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand With this he acquaints Timothy to whom he dedicates this Epistle not by way of Complaint but by way of Encouragement he being as ready to be offered up at the Will and Call of God as they were ready to execute their Rage and Malice against him Having told us long before I am ready not to be bound only but also to dye at Jerusalem for 〈…〉 13. the Name of the Lord Jesus What were the Cordials that supported him in this fainting season and enabled him to look Death though presented in a very ghastly dress in the face with Comfort and Confidence my Text acquaints you I have fought a good fight c. In which words you have these two general parts First Paul's Retrospect viz. his serious reflection upon the by past Course of his Life that is ever since he had properly lived ever since he had been quickned by the renewing Grace of God's Spirit For all the time we remain in an unregenerate State is not time lived but time lost I have fought a good fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith This was the report that Paul's Well inlightned Conscience made upon this serious review and enquiry The Reflection upon which fil'd his Heart with Divine Consolation Before I proceed to the main point I intend I shall briefly offer two Notes to your serious Consideration 1. That the apprehension of the near approaches of Death doth ordinarily occasion nay necessitate Men whether good or bad to take a strict surveigh of their by past Life then Men think and enquire of themselves what they have been doing and whether they are going I say ordinarily it is so Some indeed are judiciously hardned and given up by God to a blind mind and to a feared Conscience that they are past feeling Living and dying like Beasts without any sight or sence of their Sin here or their Misery hereafter whose Eyes are not opened till they drop into Eternal Flames Except in such a case not to be mentioned without horror all Men not accidentally incapacitated by the violence of some bodily Distemper will at Death be upon a review 2. Note hence that according to the report that a well inform'd Conscience gives in at a dying hour so it will fill and furnish the Soul either with Triumph or Trouble with Joy or Sorrow If Conscience well instructed bears Witness for it that it hath done its work dispatched the business that God sent it into the World for then will it be fill'd with Songs in the Night then will it lift up its head knowing the Luke 21. 28. day of its redemption draws nigh Then next to Jesus Christ no such Friend as Death Then will it long to be dissolved to be with Christ Our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World. Self-examination and serious Reflection is a Duty though attended with great advantage that few Men understand but wholly neglect or at best are very slight and superficial in the performance of Most run away with the first over-hasty reports that may be results from a blind carnal sensual heart taking all things of that Nature upon trust rather than put themselves to the trouble of a serious Tryal but this will not alwayes do when Death hath clapt an Arrest upon thee and thou seest that thou must in good earnest put thy head into another World then matters relating to thy self and future state must pass through a finer sieve and a more severe scrutiny Oh that I could more throughly perswade my self and all you that hear me this day to be more frequent and industrious in this matter now and never leave till the great business betwixt God and our Souls be so throughly and comfortably stated that it may remain as a lasting impression when all our self-flattering glasses shall be broken in pieces and all those false measures which we have taken of our Spiritual State shall vanish and disappear Now may be any thing will stop the Mouth of Conscience and justifie such a conclusion concerning our welfare that we are Protestants that we have been Baptized that we are Members of this or that particular Church that we have been just to all or that we have been injurious to none that we have been no Persecutors that we have been charitable to the Poor that we have kept our Church that we have said our Prayers and if after all this we come short of Heaven then God help us say some though all this while totally Strangers to the work of Regeneration and Heart-Renovation For God's sake Sirs Consider and consider it in time what Christ speaks Except your Righteousness shall 〈…〉 5. 20. exceed the Righteousness of the Soribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And in another place Verily verily I say unto thee except a Man be born 〈…〉 3. 3. again see cannot be
themselves the expectation of the promised reward in the other World at their Death or day of Retribution This is a plain and undoubted Truth no well-grounded expectation of our Reward till we have first finished our Work. Christ himself who was both a Son and a Servant sent by his Father into the World had work appointed him to do a work of the greatest weight and importance that ever was put into the hands of any to dispatch the reparation of his Fathers Glory eclipsed by Man's Rebellion and Apostacy and the Redemption and Salvation of all the Elect depended upon Christ's finishing this work and a work to be done within a limited time as may be inferred from what our Saviour speaks I must work the works of him that sent me while John 9. 4. it is day the night cometh when no man can work A work that had many works in it Here was doing work and here was suffering work and upon his faithful discharge of this great work a glorious Reward was insured to Christ and you may observe that though the work he was ingaged in was difficult and hard too difficult for all the Angels in Heaven or Creatures on Earth to undertake In the doing of which he met with inexpressible Discouragements and Oppositions both from Friends and Enemies And the reward he expected was a high and glorious reward such a massy Crown as could fit no Head but Christ's which might well put him upon earnest longing for it as you see he did by what the Apostle tells us Heb. 12. 2. speaking of this Blessed Jesus Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God. Yet we never find that either the consideration of the one the difficulty of his work or the consideration of the other the beauty and brightness of his reward did put him upon desiring or expecting the possession of his promised Glory till he could say he had done his work and then indeed you will see him addressing his Father in this manner I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do 〈…〉 17. 4 5. And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the world was q. d. I have done my work and I expect my reward Truly thus it is in all our cases That God who hath sent us into the World and hath appointed our time and limited our 〈…〉 14. boundt beyond which we cannot pass This God hath also prescribed our work what we are to do in this short time allotted for us He hath not sent us hither only to gaze about us or to feed and gratifie the carnal and sensual inclinations of a corrupt heart in spending these precious hours in sports and pastimes No no as God hath given us work to do so he hath furnished us with talents to be improved for the Glory 〈…〉 25. 15. of that God who gave us our beings He hath committed the care of precious Souls one of which is more in value than 〈…〉 16. 26. Ten Thousand Worlds to be recovered out of that lapsed and lost Estate into which they are fallen He hath given his Word for our Direction hath promised his Spirit for our help he hath betrusted us with choice advantages and opportunities for the facilitating of what work we have to do He hath appointed a day for the calling us to an account and a Acts 17. 3 Judge to give forth a Righteous Retribution according to what we have done in the Flesh whether it be good or evil He hath proposed and promised a blessed and glorious Reward not as merited by our work but as consequential upon it a Reward not of Debt but of meer Grace and Favour He hath threatned an Everlasting Punishment as the demerit of our neglect of that great Salvation set before us Cutting us off from Heb. 2. 3. all hopes of enjoying the former and of escaping the latter without finishing the work he hath given us to do These things are so evident in Scripture that you whose lot is cast under the Dispensation of these Divine Revelations cannot plead ignorance so that if your days be finished and your work unfinished Wo be to that Man or Woman it had been better for them they had never been born But on the other side If we can say with Paul in my Text That we have fought the good fight and finished our course c. Then when Death comes thou mayest entertain it with a smile and triumph over it and though it closes thine Eyes so as to hinder thy beholding of all thy amiable enjoyments here on Earth Thou shalt see them no more but must bid adieu to them all for ever Yet wilt thou then by an Eye of Faith with Stephen See the Heavens opened and the Son of Acts 7. 56 Man standing on the right hand of God ready to receive thee and bid thee welcom to that glorious Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you 1 Pet. 1. 4. Having thus for brevity's sake hudled matters together in general I shall now in order to further instruction reduce the whole under two heads 1. With respect to the work which we have to do here on Faith What it is and how and when it may be said to be finished 2. Somewhat with respect to the promised reward in Heaven which follows What that is and upon what basis our hopes and expectations of it are bottomed In the managing of both these I shall follow the guidance of my Text. 1. Then as to the work we have to do in this Life What it is I hope I need not mind you that the work I am speaking to relates not to the Duties of your particular Callings as Men and as disposed by the Conduct of Divine Providence into this and that civil and secular Employment which are many and various and which are so to be managed as may best subserve your general Calling as Christians But the work I am to speak to is of a far higher Nature that which doth not so immediately nor primarily respect our beings or well-beings with respect to time as what respects our well-beings to Eternity A work that hath some resemblance and bears some parity to the great work that Jesus Christ the Son of God came into the World for though to be performed in a far different manner Christ's work was reducible to two general heads First The glorifying of his Father So you read John 17. 4. I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do q. d. Father that was the work which thou sentest me into the World for and that work I have done Secondly Christ's work was to