Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B05935
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A sermon preached in S. George's Church Southwark, at the funeral of that pious and worthy gentlewoman, Mrs. Frances Fenn. / By R. Sparke ...
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Sparke, Robert.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing S4819; ESTC R184509
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20,356
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36
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A SERMON PREACHED IN S. George's Church SOVTHWARK AT THE FUNERAL OF THAT Pious and Worthy Gentlewoman Mrs FRANCES FENN By R. SPARKE of NEWINGTON M. A. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by T. James for Joseph Collyer and are to be Sold at his Shop at the Angel on London-Bridge a little below the Gate 1679. Imprimatur C. ALSTON Novem. 30. 1678. TO THE Right Worshipful AND His Honoured Friend JOHN TREGONWELL Esq And his Vertuous LADY UPon Request I have assumed the Confidence to Expose this following Sermon to Publick View and if it meet with a kind Reception and a candid Interpretation which I question not from your Self and your worthy Family it is all I beg As for Others if they be truly Learned they will be Civil If Critical and Captious I say to them in the words of Catullus Non vident id manticae quod in tergo est Let it be sheltred under your Protection it is enough and the greatest Ambition the Author aims at I am happy it hath so Noble a Patron I shall not trouble you with a prolix or tedious Discourse of this nature And therefore desiring the Great God to Shadow You your Pious Lady and invaluable Stems under his Almighty Power and establish You and Yours not onely on Earth but in the highest Heavens is the Prayer of Your most Obliged Servant ROBERT SPARKE A Funeral Sermon The Text is in GENESIS the XXIII the first Clause of the 2. Verse Then Sarah died THat silent Witness of Mortality presents the sad Occasion of our Assembly to Celebrate the Funeral of Mrs. Frances Fenn and for a Mournful Meeting what more convenient and necessary than Psalms Sighs and Tears of Sorrow and Lamentation Discourse with Matter Matter with Action Action with Affection Affection with Opportunity Opportunity with Occasion should concur and concord together Suitable for which occasion I have elected and chosen out this Text which speaks of Death a sad and doleful Messenger and end of all And whilst I apply to this sad Spectacle apply your Hearts to Sorrow your Eyes to Tears and your Selves to Mourning If not for her that is dead and gone for she is happy and acquiesceth from her Labours and her good Works shall follow her yet for your own sins which will cause you Volens nolens will you nill you the Lord knowes how soon to follow her But to my Text Then Sarah died Was Sarah the first that ever died Was not Grandmother Eve with many more dead long before If dead why not recorded in Sacred Writ What was eminent what was admirable What was remarkable or singular in her or in her death that she above all her Sex above Eve her self should merit the first Memorial Then Sarah died Certainly I know no other reason can be rendred but this That as Abraham was the Father so Sarah was the Mother of the Faithful and therefore the Holy Ghost confers that upon her which he denies to other Women even a Noble and Honourable mention both of her Age how long she lived and of the time of her death when she died When Sarah was 127 years old so long she lived Then Sarah died Sarah though the Mother of the Faithful though a holy and religious Matron though a Saint and dear Child of God yet Sarah died Whence observe Obs The General and Universal condition of all Mankind and that which the holy Apostle hath many hundred years since abundantly confirmed Statutum est omnibus semel mori It is appointed for all men once to die Appointed and decreed it is and that by Elohim the Mighty God who hath the disposing ordering and appointing of all things and whose Decrees and Appointments are like those of the Medes and Persians they shall not they cannot be altered or changed All must drink of Sarahs Cup the Cup is full of one and the same Liquor the Liquors drawn from one and the same Spring now the Spring it self is poysoned and if the Spring be corrupted the streams will be disturbed too if the Root be cankered the branches will wither and die and if the Head be out of order the whole Body will be indispos'd also Now the head and the root as of Sarah so of all Mankind was Father Adam But Adam disobeying his Creator and transgressing the Law of his God sinned not only in his own person but in his humane nature and so incurred the wrath and displeasure of his good and gracious God and purchased the punishment of sin which is death not only unto himself unto his own person but also to all his Posterity To this I may add that of the Apostle Rom. 5.12 By one Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin entred also By one Adam one Eve two in Sex but one in Nature one in offending one in disobedience the Woman seduced by the Serpent the Man induced by the Woman sin entred into the World and Death by sin entred also so death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Adam at first might have lived freely fully happily and plenteously eating of all the Trees in Paradise except one Now having tasted of that one a necessity is laid upon him and he must die The cause of his death was the breach of diet God forbad him the fruit of one Tree this he hungreth for and taste it he will though it cost him his life S. Augustine bringeth in our first Parents thus disputing in a Dialogue concerning that fruit If this Fruit be good why may I not eat of it If it be not good why groweth it in Paradise Demine dedisti hortum negasta pomum Lord hast thou given us the Garden and denied us the Apple Therefore saith he God hath given thee the fruition and benefit of Paradise that thou mayest know his beneficence his bounty and goodness towards thee but hath denied this one fruit that he may find thy Obedience and Duty to him This Duty and Obedience neglected by our Grandfather Adam Death the Lodge of every mans life cometh with insensible degrees upon the Children of Men. So that now assoon as Man begins to live he begins a continual Voyage unto death and there is none but is nearer death at the years end than at the beginning to morrow than to day to day than yesterday by and by than just now and now then a little before each part of time if time may be said to have part that we may divide it divides and cuts off so much of our life and the remainder still decreaseth Veniente pueritia saith S. Aug. in Psalm 127. moritur infantia veniente adolescentia moritur pueritia veniente juventute moritur adolescentia veniente senectute moritur juventus veniente morte moritur omnis aetas When childhood approacheth or cometh on infancy dyeth when adolescence cometh childhood dyeth when youth cometh adolescence dyeth when old age cometh youth dyeth but when Death the
and all the beauty and glory thereof as the Flower in the field Can you feel the Air move and the Wind beat in your faces and not consider the breath of man is in his nostrils The strongest tenure of his life is but a puff of wind Can you shoot in the fields and not consider as the arrow flyeth in the air so swiftly doth your life pass away As Jonah's Gourd was soon come and soon vanished Jon. 4.6 so man is soon born and soon dead This World is as a Stage Man as an Actor when he hath plaied his part he is gone Our lives shorten as if the Book of our Dayes was by the pen-knife of Gods Judgments cut less Our sins call for new plagues We may observe that neither the planets above nor the plants below yield us expected comfort God for our impieties doth cause the Heaven to be Brass and the Earth Iron and the Air with the Winds to be tempestuous Deut. 28. So almost every thing which was erected for mans use is become his enemy and all because we unthankfully turn all things to Vices corruption which out of mercy were given for Natures protection And therefore what we have diverted to wickedness God hath reverted to our revenge We are sick of sin and the world is sick of us how soon doth the Sand run down the Hour-glass how quickly doth the Sun set So speedily doth our time pass away Future things are always beginning present things always ending and things past are dead and gone While we live we die and then we leave dying when we leave living better is it therefore to die to life than to live to death because our mortal life is nothing but a living death and life continually flieth from us and cannot be with-held and death hourly comes upon us and cannot be withstood No wisdom shall appease it no policy prevent it no riches bribe it If all perils spare our life yet time and age in the end will consume and annihilate it S. August speaking upon those words of St. Paul Rom. 8.2 Christ hath made me free from the Law of sin and death saith thus Lex peccati est ut quicunque peccarit morietur Lex mortis terra est in terram reverteris The Law of sin is whosoever offends shall die the Law of death is dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return We are all going to our long and last home to the house of eternity Eccles 12.5 Man goeth to his long home How doth he go He goeth swiftly always in motion night and day sleeping or waking labouring or loytering this Post hastens time and tide stays not Again He goeth insensibly he doth not discern or perceive how his precious time doth flie from him the shadow on the Dial passeth from one hour or figure to another from the Suns rising to its setting though its speedy transcendent motion is not observed or considered So man passeth from one year to another till he come to old Age and the Grave and we take little or no notice of it so insensibly doth our time pass away There was never Orator so lerned or eloquent that could perswade Death to spare him or prolong his days never Hector so valiant or Monarch so mighty that could resist him We must all submit and fall down at Deaths feet if he commands we must obey if he calls we must away no tears no intreaties no threatnings will serve the turn or release us at that time so strong so stubborn so implacable and inexorable is Death No man nor ways no means can oppose it no not length of years nor wisdom nor riches nor honours nor beauty nor strength no nor that excellent grace and gift of Holiness and Piety Nay if age if vertue if pity if innocency charity or godliness could work any relent or compassion in Death from embrewing his cruel hands in mortal blood See where age where vertue where pity where charity where innocence and godliness lies entomb'd wholly defaced clouded eclipsed and over-shadowed with death Oh Death how ir-relentful is thy heart how bloody are thy hands how impartial thy stroak how general is thy arrest The Ancient Fathers and Patriarchs before the Deluge lived to vast years to a great and miraculous age some 700 some 800 some 900 years and more yet at length of all and every one it is said he died Sampson was endowed with extraordinary and wonderful strength at one time he slew 1000 with the Jaw-bone of an Ass and yet he died Judg. 16.3 Solomon was a wise King the wisest that ever was he knew the nature and the vertue of all Simples from the meanest Herb to the biggest Cedar therefore if any surely he above others might have preserv'd and kept himself from Death and yet of him in the end it is said he also died 1 Kings 11.43 Abraham the Father of the Faithful Noah a Preacher of Righteousness David a man after Gods own heart and many more dear and precious in the sight of God of whom the Scripture saith They died The Prophets were endowed with a greater measure of sanctification than their brethren yet the Prophet Zechary joyneth them altogether in one condition Zech. 1.5 Your Fathers Where are they and do the Prophets live for ever But what speak I of the Prophets Patriarchs or Ancient Fathers Christ Jesus our Holy and Blessed Saviour the Son of God his only Son in whom he was well pleased more Wise than Solomon more Mighty than Sampson and more Righteous than Noah and all the Prophets who did no wrong who knew no sin in himself yet assuming and taking the burthen of our sins upon him became subject to the same doom of mortality with us and he died also Nay Sarah in my Text though she lived 127 years and was Wise Chast Beautiful and Innocent yet neither he Wisdom Chastity Beauty or Innocency could defend her in this case for saith the Text Then Sarah died There have been and there are ways and means discovered and found out to subdue and make gentle the most cruel and savage Creature to break and mollifie the hard Flint yea the hardest thing in the world but not any thing to asswage and mitigate Deaths fury Resistitur ignibus resistitur nudis resistitur ferno resistitur regibus resistitur reguis imperiis venit una mors quis ci resistat Fire Water and the Sword may be resisted Kings Kingdoms and the greatest Empires may be resisted but when Death comes that is invincible and who can resist it Non miseretur inopum Death pittieth not the Poor respects not the Rich feareth not the Mighty spareth not any Man goeth irresistably neither Men nor Angels Physick or Physicians can keep him here for here he hath no abiding place it stands him in hand therefore to look for one to come It is as easie to obstruct the Course of Nature or to hinder Gods Covenant of day and night Man