what we are designed in another World Hence Christ's Kingdom is said not to be of this World hence we are directed to look upon our selves as Pilgrims and Strangers on this Earth John 13.36 Heb. 11.13 1 Pet. 2.11 Heb. 13.14 Phil. 3.20 that we are put in Mind that we have here no continuing City and are exhorted to be in the continual search after one that is to come that we are counselled to Set our Affections on things above and not on things on the earth to have our Conversation in another World That is to behave our selves as those who expect a Portion and an Interest there and if we consider a great number of the Gospel Precepts and weigh those high degrees of Vertue they oblige us to and to deny our selves in a great many Instances which are very hard and difficult and yet not altogether necessary for this World yea sometimes to hate and despise this World and to chuse the greatest Evils of Life together with those Duties of over-looking our own Advantage for the greater Benefit of others of doing Good for Evil of wasting our Spirits and laying out the Strength and Vigour of our Days in doing good to Mankind we cannot but conclude that these Rules have a respect to some future World and that they are designed to raise us up to such a Temper of Mind as may prepare us for something God has intended us for when there shall be an end of this Life of Man upon Earth Neither can we possibly have any doubt of this who believe the Christian Revelation the Promises whereof have so direct a reference to a Future State of things This Faith was the great support to the Primitive Christians under those hard Circumstances they were in Their Thoughts were six'd upon such Promises as these Revel 3.5.21 21.7 22.5 Him that overcometh will I cloath in white rayment and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life and I will confess him before my Father and he shall sit down with me in my Throne even as I have overcome and am set down with my Father in his Throne and he shall inherit all things and he shall reign with me for ever and ever Hence it was that they were such great Instances of Vertue such Bright and Shining Lights to the World such Glorious Examples of a mighty Zeal for God of an ardent Piety and Devotion of the most heroick Goodness the most enlarged Charity an exemplary Patience and a very intire Resignation of themselves to the Will of God Hence it was that they so readily parted with their Lives and so willingly chose to die to the amazement of the Heathen World who observed of them that it was the belief of a Life after this that was the Cause of all this Courage and Resolution who therefore would not sometimes suffer them to be buried but burnt their Bodies and dispersed their Ashes foolishly thinking that this would abate their Hope of a Resurrection Now if this be the great thing that the Christian Institution teaches us That this World is not our home but that we live here expectants of one to come What great reason have we to be fond of this Life Or who can blame any Man for desiring and courting Death upon these Principles What is related of Trismegistus when he died whether ever said by him or no does very well become a dying Christian expressing his future Hopes and Expectations I have hitherto lived an Exile from my Country but now I am going safely thither I am returning to that Blessed City whither we cannot pass without taking Death in our way 2. The having the Sting of Death pulled out for us Death must be allowed to be very terrible to a wicked Man for when he dieth His hope perisheth Prov. 11.7 his expectation is utterly cut off There 's an end of all that in which he has placed his Confidence the Man who has Calculated all his Projects and designs meerly for this World must needs be strangely surprized when the Message is brought him that God requires his Soul and that he must give up his Account and his Stewardship for so the Scripture calls this Life is at an end But the loss of his present Enjoyments is not all he goes out of this World in a State of Guilt and is haled to the Divine Tribunal and there Sentenced to a Punishment we know little more of than this That it is certainly a very Terrible one and probably greater than we can at present conceive it to be 'T is far otherwise with the Good Man he parts with nothing that is overvaluable to him having never engaged his Affections to what he always knew was to be left in a few days and he goes out of the World with his Sins Pardoned and delivered from the Threatnings annext to the Law and this is that pulling out the Sting of Death which we owe to the Merits and Satisfaction of our Blessed Saviour in Consideration of which a Christian may look on Death as a hurtless thing whose wounding Power is taken away as St. Paul tells us in that Triumphal Song 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 3. The Thoughts of being absolutely and perfectly freed from Sin All the Evils and Miseries of this Life put together are not half so much a Burden to a Pious Christian as the sharp Contest that is kept up within him betwixt the Flesh and the Spirit The struggle betwixt the Principles of Grace and those of a Corrupt Nature and the Advantage which the Devil and Temptations and his own Evil Inclinations not perfectly subdued often get of him through the Remainders of Sin in him These are Matters of his daily Sorrow and Repentance and Humiliation and he often Trembles for those Sins he has fallen into though long since and which yet he hopes he has truly Repented of and to his very last Breath continues to work out his Salvation with fear And though he uses all Diligence Heb 6.11 according to the Apostle's Advice to reach to the full assurance of hope unto the end yet he confiders that this is a Modest and Humble sort of Assurance which the Apostle speaks of and so very well consistent with some Fear Now Death is desirable by a sincere Christian on this Account that it sets him above all his Troubles and his Fears It puts him into a State where the Devil shall have no further Advantage against him where this struggling betwixt Grace and Nature shall perfectly cease where he shall no more dishonour God nor blemish his own Nature nor have so much as the Sins of Infirmity to lament and bewail but shall live in a perfect freedom from those Moral Evils which created so
lively and full of vigour but may not our Constitution soon be broken and we cast upon a Bed of Sickness grapling with Pains or crying out under extream Torture We enjoy Liberty and have a quiet Possession of the Blessings of Life but is it impossible that ever we should fall under the Yoke of some of the mighty Nimrods of the World the Hunters of Mankind Job 7.15 When as Job expresses it we should choose strangling rather than Life i. e. If we were at our own dispose the worst of Deaths would be far more desirable than such a Life When Xerxes viewing his numerous Army bemoan'd it that within a little more than half an Age there would not be a Man of them left alive one of his Captains reply'd Sir Let not this trouble you for they are like to endure so great fatigue and so many hardships that the greater number will in all probability wish themselves dead a long time before they shall be so happy as to die And thus the Roman Orator comparing the Great Pompey's Sickness at Naples where he had like to have died with his last End concludes That it had been much better for this Great Man to have died when he had the Command of the Arms of Rome and was the darling of the World for this had prevented the Bloody War with Caesar the loss of his Army his flying with Disgrace his being slain by one of his own Servants the presenting his Head to his Father-in-Law his Children turning Fugitive and the Consiscation of his Estate but he had dyed in Honour and never known any of these Evils neither himself nor his Family And upon this account was that wise saying of Solon to Croesus who had cause enough afterward to remember and acknowledge the Truth of it That he must first see him die before he judged of his Happiness it being a Point of the Grecian Wisdom to account no Man happy before his Death 3. A view of Death with respect to the Good and Evil of this Life 'T is true Death deprives us of all those which are properly called the Goods of Life But as these are not over Considerable so it is our present want of them that renders them of any Consideration at all If we did not need them their absence would be no injury to us in this Life the true Notion of Riches being a sufficiency to answer our Conveniencies beyond which all is but meer imagination and attended with the increase of trouble Since therefore Death puts us in Circumstances that we cannot want them and perfectly takes away their use what trouble can it be that it removes us from them To look upon it as a very uncomfortable thing to be cast into Circumstances where we cannot use these Goods is to be so drowned in sensuality that we are thereby become fit for nothing beyond this World and hardly fit for this But then Death takes us also from the Evils of Life which are more in Number than the Goods and much over-balance them in respect at least to the generality of Mankind A bare enumeration of the Evils of Life does sufficiently in Tully's Opinion commend Death which puts an end to them He tells us of one who writing a Book in the praise of Death did therein only describe the Calamities of humane Life On this Account Death has been sometimes interpreted as a Reward for Eminent Piety The very Heathens seemed to have looked upon it under this Notion Thus when those who built the Magnificent Temple of Apollo prayed that what was best for Man might befal them the third day after they were found dead which was reckoned upon as a Reward of their Piety Agreeably to this Isaiah 57.1 the Prophet Isaiah speaking of the Death of Good Josias says He was taken away from the Evil to come 4. The Universal Law upon humane Nature that all who are born must die It has ever been accounted a great part of Wisdom to bring our Minds quietly to comport with what is not in our Power to avoid By this Consideration we bear up under all the disasters of Life this brings us into Temper when we have royl'd our selves never so much upon the death of our nearest Relations or dearest Friends And the same Thought ought in common Discretion to bring us at least patiently to submit to our own Deaths whenever they come This is the great Argument that runs through all the Books of the Moralists A Pilate says Plutarch cannot in a Storm command the Billows or calm the Winds or by Hectoring cause the Storm to cease he at last therefore commits himself to its Fury pulls down all his Sails by the Board and expects the sinking of the Leaky Vessel and thus must we when Life grows painful and uneasie and Death approaches wait our Dissolution according to the Common Law of Nature since that which is unavoidable ought to disturb us as little as is possible This is the Principal Argument of all Seneca's Books of the Brevity of Life and the Tranquillity of the Mind and his Discourses of Providence That it is a very unbecoming thing to struggle with the Laws of Fate and not to be carried willingly whither we must go whether we will or no. But far greater reason have we for this who are taught what a Vertue it is and how capable of Reward chearfully to submit to the Wisdom of God in disposing of our Lives and these are such Arguments as are proper to induce a Wise Man not to be over fond of Life and to know when he has enough of it and at least quietly and calmly to entertain the Message of Death when it is sent to him But then a Pious Christian has Arguments beyond all these to do not only thus much but a great deal more to be perfectly above any fondness for Life and to rejoice at the Thoughts of his Dissolution and with submission to the Will and Providence of God heartily to desire his Dismission and they are these following I. A General Consideration of the Religion we Profess which has chiefly a respect to a future World II. Our Knowledge that the Sting of Death is pulled out III. The Thoughts of being absolutely and perfectly freed from Sin IV. The enlargement of our Faculties and Perfection of our Vertue V. The immediate Possession of Happiness at Death VI. The Completion of this in Body and Soul at the General Judgment 1. A General Consideration of the Religion we Profess which has chiefly a respect to a future World The Christian Religion Promises us very little or nothing that respects meerly this present Life In this it differs from God's Ancient Covenant with the Jews that it secures us of nothing of this World absolutely but requires us to refer all things to God's Wisdom and Providence to appoint them to us as they shall best tend to the making us wise and good and to the sitting of us for
A SERMON AT THE FUNERAL Of the Reverend Mr. THOMAS GREY Late Vicar of Dedham in Essex PREACH'D In the Parish-Church of Dedham Febr. the 2d 1691 2. With a short Account of his LIFE By JOSEPH POWELL A. M. Rector of St. Mary on the Wall in Colchester LONDON Printed for Thomas Speed at the Three Crowns near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1692. St. LUKE CHAP. ii VER 29. Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace IT is related in the Sacred History 1 King 19.4 of the great Prophet Elijah that he was perfectly cloy'd with Life and pray'd for a dismission he went a days Journey into the Wilderness and came and sat down under a Juniper Tree and he requested for himself that he might die and said It is enough now O Lord take away my Life for I am not better than my Fathers This looks like a Fit of Melancholy occasion'd by a Reflection on the unsuccessfulness of his Ministry and the rage of Jezabel against him and seems rather to be mention'd as an Instance of the Imperfections that stick to the best of Men in this Life than to be propos'd for our Imitation or to be drawn into Example by us Job 7.16 The like Account the Holy Books give us of another Man very Eminent for his Piety in the Age he liv'd in that he loath'd Life and was very desirous an end might be put to it The Objection against this Example also is that Holy Job breaks forth into this Expression in the anguish and vexation of his Spirit and that it was the mere effect of the pressure of that load of Troubles and Evils under which he labour'd Neither can this be deny'd for the Holy Man seems hereupon both to ground and to excuse his desire of Death as will be easily discern'd by any who will be at the pains to consult that Chapter of which give me leave to give you a short Paraphrase so far as concerns this his Complaint of Life and earnest desire of Death Let me ask you says he to his Friends these Questions Is not Death appointed by the Soveraign Lord of the World to every Man And does not Man spin out his short Life on Earth in trouble and toyl like an Hireling his Day And doth not such an one wearied out with the Work and Labour of the day naturally desire the approach of the Night to give him ease and refreshment And is not this my Case or rather is not my Case much worse For both day and night are alike uneasie to me you cannot but be sensible into how miserable a State I am fallen you who have seen my former Prosperity unless you have quite put off Humanity it self must pity my present Condition and which is to me a very sad Consideration you are never like to see it better for I shall enjoy no more good in this Life my Body is already over-run with Worms and I am become loathsom while I live and you cannot but be sensible how very difficult I find it to maintain my Temper of Mind in this Condition Since therefore God has assign'd Death as the End of all these Miseries can you blame me that I pray God to hasten it I know that 't is my Duty to refer my self wholly to God's wise disposal of me but assure your selves if God would give me leave to make my own choice I would much rather desire to die than to live And I cannot but look upon this desire as proceeding from Wisdom and a right Judgment of things But notwithstanding the special Circumstances attending both these Cases there seems to be something in the Requests of those great Men very agreeable to the desires of the best Men whilst under these wisest and most compos'd Thoughts and the happiest and most promising Advantages of Life A due Reflection upon the Vanity of Humane Life in its best State with a stedfast Faith of a future happy State to succeed the determination of the short Period of our days here on Earth are enough to dispose us not to be over fond of living any very long time here and with submission to the Will and Providence of God very chearfully to receive our Dismission when ever it shall be sent us We so sensibly find that there is no perfect Happiness to be met with on Earth that nothing needs to be said to confirm our Experience nor are we ignorant of the result of dying and the Rewards that befal the Righteous when once this Difficulty is overcome Happiness is the thing that all humane Nature is reaching at and who would die struglingly and with reluctancy whilst under the vigorous expectation of that great Declaration and Assurance given by our Religion Rev. 14.13 And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write from henceforth i. e. from the very time of their Deaths blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord yea saith the Spirit which denotes the undoubted certainty of the thing that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them The Scriptures therefore have given us other Instances less liable to these Exceptions and which represent the desire of Death not as a rash unadvised impatient or melancholy Request but as the effect of great Piety high Attainments in Vertue and Goodness and a very lively sense of a future World disposing those who have thus rais'd themselves above this World and enlarg'd their Minds by the Principles of Religion easily to part with all things here below and to be under Wise and Pious and Devout Desires of Death and Dissolution Such is the Instance of the great Apostle who expresses his longing to be gone Phil. 1.21 and concludes peremptorily that it was much for his Advantage to die and though he was content to live this was upon no other score but his being useful and serviceable to others And he Pronounces this as the common Desire of all the Apostles and very proper to be embrac'd by all Wise and Pious Christians 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolv'd we have a building of God an house not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens For in this q. d. for this Reason we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven And to mention no more this was the Case of good old Simeon a Just and Devout Man as the Evangelist gives his Character who had liv'd in the Faith and Hope of Israel the expectation of the Messias to come and by the Account given of him seems for some time to have been waiting both for the fulfilling of this Hope and for his own Dissolution For he had receiv'd a Revelation that he should not die till the Messias should come and he see him In submission therefore to the Will of God and in expectation of this Promise he still liv'd not fond of Life but chearfully waiting for Death
as the End of his Troubles here on Earth and the beginning of a new and better Life and coming into the Temple at the time that Jesus was presented to the Lord according to the Custom of the Law he took the Child up in his Arms and publickly declar'd that this was the Messias so long promis'd and the Revelation of his seeing him in the Flesh being fulfill'd to him he now expresses his hearty and earnest desire to be gathered to his Fathers in the Words of my Text. Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace From which I might fairly Discourse these Two things I. That it is very becoming a Wise Man and especially a Pious Christian to be very indifferent to Life and to know when he has had enough of it yea to be weary of the World and to be very willing to have his Dismission II. That it is a very desirable thing to depart this Life in peace I shall consider only the First Particular and before I enter upon the Argument I must set these following Bounds and Limitations to it 1. This is to be understood with great deference to the Wisdom and Providence of God so as to show no impatience of Life 2. With respect to the Benefit and Advantage of others for whose sake a Wise and Good Man who is very willing to die may also be willing to live yea upon this account he may be desirous to live when otherwise and for his own sake he would make it his choice to die 3. This desire of Death is never to be divided from a firm persuasion of Mind that whatever God orders to us be it Life or Death is for that reason best and therefore it is rather to be understood as a desire that God would then take us out of this World when to his Infinite Wisdom it shall appear to be most for our and the Advantage of others who depend upon us or we have any relation to 1. This is to be understood with great deference to the Wisdom and Providence of God so as to show no impatience of Life We are in this World like Soldiers in an Army assign'd by their General to their several Posts which would be direct Disobedience proceeding from Sedition Mutiny or Cowardice to desert without leave And from what Cause soever it proceeds it is highly punishable Such a Post is humane Life which must not be abandon'd without permission and till the Providence of God discharge us We must not be so weary of Life or fond of Death as voluntarily to forsake the one and hasten the other by our own acts or any means used upon our selves This I am aware has of old been accounted a true Instance of a Roman Spirit of Magnanimity and Greatness of Mind for Men to dispatch themselves and thereby put a period to those Evils they were not able to bear Thus the brave Cato slew himself not being able to bear Caesar's Victories nor to endure to think of falling into the Conqueror's Hands Thus Paulus Aemilius replied to Perseus when he so meanly supplicated him that he might not be led in Triumph That it had been and was still in his own Power to prevent this Disgrace and that it was the true mark of a Coward to have a Remedy at hand and not to dare to use it But as such actions as these are utterly inconsistent with a steady Belief of God's Wise Government of the World and particularly with the Principles of Christianity so neither are they Instances of that Greatness of Mind they pretend to they are rather plain Evidences of Pusillanimity and Vileness of Mind in that Men cannot bear Evils as becomes Philosophers and especially Christians but are prevail'd upon basely and meanly to fly from them as St. Austin excellently argues in that noble Book of his of tho City of God where he maintains that a voluntary Death is no Argument of Greatness of Mind 2. It must be understood with respect to the Benefit and Advantage of others for whose sake a wise and good Man who is willing to die may also be willing to live yea upon this account be desirous to live when otherwise and for his own sake he would make it his choice to die That which causes other Men to desire their Lives is a good reason to themselves to desire to live at least to be so well content with this as not to be weary of Life When a Man is of more than ordinary Use and Benefit to the Common-wealth or the Church of God or in the Place where he lives or when he has a numerous Family and many young Children who are growing up as Plants for the next Age who receive a mighty Benefit by his careful Provision for them by his Instruction by his Example and by a great Diligence and Care used in their Education and when by the course of Nature he might yet have liv'd many Years In such cases it is very reasonable for others to desire the Lives of such Men Sometimes the scarcity of such Men and the circumstances of the time when their Help and Assistance is like to be in a special manner beneficial to the World renders it reasonable to be very earnest in asking of God their Lives And those are also good Reasons why they themselves should desire to live living to the benefit of others and so as to be useful in our Generations being one great End of Life and a considerable Reason why it is desirable And this was the very case of St. Paul which put him to such a struggle with himself which to desire In respect of himself it was past all dispute that Death was most desirable but in regard to those to whom his Ministry was serviceable he was content to bear Life a little longer Phil. 1.23 I am in a strait says he betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you 3. This desire of Death is never to be divided from a firm persuasion of Mind that whatever God orders to us be it Life or Death is for that Reason best And therefore is rather to be understood as a desire that God would then take us out of this World when to his Infinite Wisdom it shall appear to be most for our own and the Advantage of others who depend upon us or we have any relation to This is that great Principle which alone can carry us chearfully through this World and dispose us to submit freely not only to the variety of Changes we meet with in it but also to our great Change and neither impatiently to expect it nor yet to be startled at it when it comes In our very judgment as Epictetus speaks more to consent to that which God would have than what our own Inclinations lead us to To desire and wish just so as God doth We may mistake and so may
our Friends too in their Opinion of things when we imagine that had we liv'd longer we could have been very useful to the World and done a great deal of good in it God is the best Judge of this and he is the Wise Disposer of our Lives 'T is sufficient for us that we have done what good we could while we did live We may be troubled for our Family and Relations for our little Children and some special Friends who enjoy'd a visible Advantage by our continuance amongst them We may be concern'd to consider how hard it is like to be with our Oss-spring and how many shocks they may indure after our departure But do we remember that we leave them to the Care of that Waking and Merciful Providence of which we our selves have had so large an Experience all our Days We may be wretchedly out and often are so in our foreboding of Events Their being depriv'd of our Help and Assistance and Provision renders them the more immediate Objects of Divine Providence and it has been often seen that Children whom their Parents fear'd they had left in had Circumstances have in a wonderful manner been better provided for when their Parents have been taken away from them than probably they would have been had they continued with them that Reflection which the Holy Psalmist makes upon his own Life being frequently verified in the Posterity of good Men Psalm 27.10 When my father and mother forsake me the Lord taketh me up Again we may think that hitherto we have made but low attainments in Vertue and Goodness but could we have liv'd a little longer we should have been mighty Proficients in Christ's School we could have got a much greater Conquest over the World and our selves we could have enobled our Minds with more fixt and lasting Habits of Vertue and if God would be pleas'd to continue our Lives we should be much fitter for Heaven some few Years hence than we are at present But in this also we may be as much mistaken as in our other Thoughts Have we consider'd that our Vertue in this World will always be very imperfect Have we weighed what our Danger is as long as we live here Do we know if we live longer what future Temptations we may meet with or can we tell what Influence they may have upon us or be sure that they shall not prevail over us And what do we think of that Declaration of the Prophet which holds good under the Gospel-Covenant Ezek. 18.24 When the righteous man forsakes his righteousness and committeth iniquity and doth as the wicked doth his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned In his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he sinneth in that shall he die It sufficeth that at present we walk sincerely and with Integrity in the way of God's Commandments and that we heartily and universally comply with our Duty though in much weakness and encompast with many infirmities The rest is to be left intirely to the Wisdom of God And when he calls us out of the World we may hope and in as much as all things are order'd by Infinite Wisdom and God's Goodness is over all his Works have reason to believe that this is the most fitting time for us to die in and best also for those who belong to us and for the World in general Having fixt these Bounds to it I now proceed to the Argument it self viz. That it is very becoming a wise Man and especially a Pious Christian to be very indifferent to Life and to know when he has had enough of it yea to be weary of the World and to be very willing to have his Dismission Many Considerations offer themselves for the evincing the Truth of this Proposition some respect a wise Man barely consider'd as such others concern him as he is a Christian I shall name some few of both sorts Those that respect a wise Man barely consider'd as such are these following I. A just and impartial Reflection upon the state of humane Nature II. A Consideration of the future Contingencies of Life III. A view of Death with respect to the Good and Evil of Life IV. That universal Law That all who are born must die 1. A just and impartial Reflection upon the state of humane Nature That this is very Deplorable has been the loud Complaint of all the Ages of the World which has been made by the wisest Men who have most narrowly consider'd Man's Condition in all his various Circumstances And though there are many Goods in Life which are not morosely and with sullenness to be despis'd yea it is an Instance of great Folly to rank them in the number of indifferent things yet it has been generally agreed that the Evils of Life do much over-balance the Good And though perhaps this is not so in respect of every individual Man for some are in very happy outward Circumstances in respect of others Yet if we consider how it fares with the generality which we must do in duly examining the Case of humane Nature upon this view there is no great doubt to be made but the Observation will be found to be as true as 't is common and 't is a Wise Man's part not barely to consider his own present Circumstances but to enquire how it goes with other Men since humane Nature being common to all whatever any other Man's Condition is he cannot tell how soon his may be the same When thou art lifted up with admiration of thy self for the Pomp wherein thou appearest to the World cast thy Eyes downwards upon those who are cloathed in Rags and want the Necessaries of Life When thou art wandring says the Philosopher at Xerxes crossing the Ocean with his mighty Navy think of those Wretches who are digging through Mount Athos who are forc'd to their Labour with Blows and Blood mingled with their Sweat call to mind that they had their Ears and Noses cut off because the Bridge was broken down by the violence of the Waves and consider what secret Reflections they make upon their sad Circumstances 'T is enough to cause a Wise Man readily to embrace Death Job 3.17 to consider only Job's Description of the Grave There the wicked cease from troubling there the weary are at rest There the prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressor 2. A Consideration of the future Contingencies of humane Life These are without Number and yet the daily expectation of every Wise Man who has consider'd what is represented by the Emblem of the Wheel constant change and vicissitude in the Life of Man We are suppose very Rich but do we know how long we shall be so and may we not ere we are aware be as Poor Riches make themselves wings Prov. 23.5 they fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven so says the Wisest of Men. We are at present in perfect health brisk and
much uneasiness to him and so often put him in hazard in this Life 4. The Enlargement of our Faculties and Perfection of our Vertue How short Humane Knowledge is they best understand who have spent the longest Time and used the greatest Pains in improving it they who know almost nothing may perhaps esteem themselves very great Clerks If by chance they light upon a thing which every one does not know they presently have a very great Opinion of their own Understanding and like the Son of Syrach's Description of a Fool That he travelleth with a word are very big to let other Men see how very wise they are of a sudden grown whilst those who know the most things knowable in this State have very different Thoughts of themselves and though they avoid such a Scepticism as to doubt of every thing yet are they very sensible how many things there are which they know not and how far they are from perfectly understanding very Common things So also a little Pharisaick Piety makes a very fine shew and a mighty noise and bluster in the World They who are got no further than this empty Form of Godliness are highly opiniated of themselves and apt to despise all others as meer Sons of the Earth not worth regarding Whereas a truly Pious Christian is always a Humble Christian he has a very mean Opinion of himself and is very ready to entertain a good one of other Men he is sensible of the Imperfection of his Vertue and what low Degrees of it he has attained to and his greatest Comfort is grounded upon his Sincerity and that he hopes and trusts that his Heart is right towards God Now who would be fond of this Life which is so dark and so imperfect a State Who would not be willing to die that expects the enlargement of his Knowledge upon his Dissolution extending to a clear view of all the Works of God and looking into the Secrets and unfolding the Mysteries of Providence to the near Contemplation of the Divine Nature seeing God as he is and comprehending his Perfections as much as Angels do and to the Fathoming the Wonders of our Redemption by Christ Jesus things so far out of the reach of our Understandings in this World where also he shall arrive at Degrees of Vertue infinitely above what he is ever capable of coming to here And in one word shall be in all things like unto the Angels of God which are in Heaven and how happy may he conceive himself then to be who considers that he owes the chief pleasure of his present Life to the small Attainments he has been able to make in Wisdom and Goodness 5. The immediate Possession of Happiness at Death Indeed if all Pious Christians some few only excepted were to enter immediately upon Death into a Place of the most exquisite Torment differing very little from Hell saving in the infinite duration of it and there to abide none knows how long even to the Day of the Great Judgment some of them it would be very unreasonable for any Man to desire Death unless it were by Martyrdom by which he might escape this Purgatory Fire and the thought of dying would be the most dreadful one that a Man could have in his whole Life But this is a meer Fiction brought into the Church by Ignorance and Superstition and maintained for Reasons well known and has no Foundation neither in Scripture or Primitive Antiquity defended by some even of the Roman Communion only as some other Doctrines are because Decreed in Councils and so not to be let go for fear of shaking a Pretence that is not to be parted with The Scripture is in this Point very clear and express and assures us that immediately upon Death there is an admission to Bliss To day says our Saviour to the Thief on the Cross shalt thou be with me in paradise Luke 23.43 Phil. 3.23 And St. Paul mentions his being with Christ as an immediate consequence of his Departure These are so plain Proofs that to evade the force of them they must be exempt Cases and the Thief and St. Paul and some few more never went to Purgatory But this shift signifies little for the Scripture speaks of all that die in the Lord that is in the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel as being at rest which is a Jewish Idiom and imports a state of Bliss And St. Paul takes notice that living here keeps us from Christ and therefore assigns this as a Reason why we should be willing and desirous to leave this World that we might go to Christ 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are therefore confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 6. The completion of this Happiness in Body and Soul at the General Judgment Though good Men are admitted to immediate Happiness at Death yet not to a full Participation of it or to all that Happiness God has designed them by way of Reward This is reserved for that Great Day so often made mention of in the Holy Books when Christ Matth. 25.31 to whom the Judgment of the World is committed shall come in the Glory of his Father in Triumph and with great Splendor attended with an innumerable Host of Angels Acts 1.11 1 Thess 4.16 to render to every Man according to his Works Then shall those who sleep in the Dust awake and the Dead shall be called out of their Graves by the Voice of the Son of Man and the Sound of the last Trump These Bodies of ours shall then be raised up from Mortality and Corruption to an Immortal and Incorruptible State A wonderful thing to be effected by that Power alone which first made all things out of nothing A Truth knowable only by Revelation and received by Faith and being united to their proper Souls together with them who shall then be found alive and remaining on the Earth we shall be caught up in the Clouds 1 Thess 4.17 to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is that great Day the Apostle speaks of 2 Tim. 4.8 when Crowns shall be put upon the Heads of all the Faithful even all those who love his appearing This is the Day when the whole World shall have its last Period and Consummation when Death it self shall be Eternally destroyed and God's Kingdom shall be set up over all Revel 20.14 and his Saints shall Reign with him for ever and ever And these I take to be good Reasons for every Pious Christian to be indifferent to Life and very willing with submission to God's Wisdom in Disposing of him to have his Dismission Now the Use of this Doctrine is 1. To endeavour to reduce it to Practice I mean to carry our selves with all that indifferency towards this World and Life
and present state of Things which becomes wife Men and good Christians We cannot dispose of Events What belongs to us is to be content with that Portion whatever it is that Providence allots us and to manage every thing to the best advantage and to take care that what befals us without our leave may not disturb us It is not worth the while for gaining the World to do any thing not only which is plainly Unjust but any thing that is Uncharitable Mean Pitiful or Base And what we possess fairly and honestly it is Wisdom so to use as not to abuse it 1 Cor. 7.11 remembring as the Apostle speaks That the Fashion of this World passeth away Neither to be over anxious and sollicitous about it nor to suffer our whole Life to be eat up with the Cares and Concerns of it nor so to set our Hearts and Affections upon it as that it should ever prove horribly troublesome and uneasie to us to part with it To avoid that Error our Saviour corrected in Martha To be always Carking about things little and needless and with her wiser Sister to be careful to secure to our selves that better part Luke 10.40 41 42. those vertuous Dispositions and Habits of the Mind which shall never be taken away from us To consider this World as only of present Use and when the time comes that this Use is to cease to take our leaves of it as a thing we are no further concerned in If we enjoy the Good of Life to receive it Thankfully and manage it with Discretion and so as it may turn to our Advantage hereafter If we have our share in the Evils of Life to bear these with Moderation and Patience as expecting better things to come And as to Life it self neither to be Prodigal nor Niggardly of it to esteem it neither above nor below its just Value to take care to preserve it as far as becomes a wise Man and yet to be ready to part with it upon a good account to prefer the keeping the Integrity of our Minds and a good Conscience before it but yet to chuse to die though a violent and immature Death rather than do an ill thing to prolong Life the doing of which is a far greater Evil than Death can be to a good Man 2. In order to this it ought to be our great and main endeavour to live up to the height of the Principles of that Religion we profess Plutarch tells us of one who leading a very loose life consulted the Oracle Whether ever he should live any better to which the Answer was That it should be better with him after he was dead Not long after this he dies but while they were carrying him forth to be buryed of a sudden he Revives and comes to himself But it was almost incredible what a Change there was in the course of his Life he became one of the most Pious and Verthous Men of his Age and being asked by his Friends the Reason of this great Change he gave them this account of it That no sooner was his Soul parted from his Body but he found a mighty confusion in himself which he could not compare to any thing better than the Pilot of a Ship being flung from the Helm by the force of a Storm into the vast Ocean after this rising up as it were above Water and recovering himself from this Confusion he thought he felt himself alive and looking round him he saw all things clearly but very different sights they were from what he had ever beheld in this World Amongst other things he saw a numerous Company of Souls in very different states some in mighty Transports of Joys others in Miseries inexpressible Some of these latter whom he thought he knew he endeavoured to have approached and discoursed them but they seemed to be like Persons frighted and bereav'd of their Senses in a deep Consternation flying from him and wholly avoiding him At last he meets with a certain Kinsman of his who had been for some time dead who calls him by his Name and gives him a large Account of that State and carries him about and makes him an Eye Witness of the several Conditions of separate Souls but withal tells him That he was not in the Number of the Dead but by permission only was come hither and must return again to his Body Whilst he stood trembling at what he had seen a certain Woman admirable for her Form took him by the Hand and bad him keep in Remembrance these things The Moral of this Story instructs us what influence a direct view of another World is fitted to have upon us and what then may not be expected from us who have so full and clear a Revelation of it and of the several States of Men when arrived there Let us then walk by this Faith and have our Eyes fixed upon the Recompence of a future Reward Let us remember that the great design of our Religion is to Train us up for Heaven and that all the great things it has promised are to be accomplished and perfected in a future World Let us look upon our selves as only passing through this and travelling home to our Fathers House whither our Forerunner is already gone and where Mansions of Glory are prepared for us such Weights of Glory as the Apostle did not know how to express exceeding Eternal weights of Glory Let us often converse with that World the World of Angels and Blessed Spirits a World of perfect Knowledge and Vertue of Goodness and Charity a Region of Pure and Spotless Light where God himself has his peculiar Throne where there is no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in it Rev. 21.21 for the Glory of God does lighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof Let our Hearts be much there where our chief Treasure is where our consummated Happiness lies so shall we be able to preserve a Wise and Pious Indifferency to this World and Life so shall we take care to live as usefully and do as much good as we can in the World so shall we always keep our selves in an actual Preparation for Death and whenever it comes being born up by the strength of our Faith and Hope in God and in his Promises we shall cheatfully take up this Pious Hymn of good Old Simeon and say Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace I am sensible I have been too long upon this Subject in regard there is another I know you will expect I should speak something to But if I beg a little of your Patience I know not when I shall do this again and I am pretty well assured never upon so sad an Occasion I am well aware how liable Discourses of this Nature are to Censure and Exception But in this Auditory upon the present Occasion I am above these fears It is allowed by all that there is a just Praise due to
those who have raised themselves above a common Level I do not mean in amassing together a more than ordinary heap of Riches the Portion as commonly of Fools as of the Wise and at least equally reached by Good and Bad Men but in those Gifts of true Wisdom and real Goodness the greatest God has given to Men by which there seems to be as great a difference amongst Men as betwixt Man and the Beasts or as betwixt some Men of exalted Vertue and the Angels above For while some are raised up to a Divine Likeness others have almost quite defaced the Image of God in themselves and are sunk a vast way below the Dignity of Humane Nature into Ignorance Folly Immorality and downright Brutishness Such who have been thus distinguished from others in their Lives ought to be so in their Deaths too and not to go out of the World without a more than ordinary notice taken of them 'T is fit that their Wisdom and Vertue which rendered them so useful while they lived should be proposed to the World as an Example and for the imitation of such as survive them This has been the Practice of all Nations to have Orations of Praise at the Interment of such who lived usefully in their Generations The Scripture mentions it as an Act of Honour done to the Righteous at their Deaths and seems very plainly to recommend it in those Promises to the Good Man 2 Chron. 32.33 That his Name shall be had in remembrance and his Memory be blessed The Practice of the Christian Church in this Point is so well known that I shall not spend time needlesly to insist on it Supported by this Authority I will venture to draw a short Character of your Deceased Pastor He was a Man of a very large Understanding of a quick and ready Apprehension and had a very happy way of expressing himself which as far as these are meer Natural Endowments do by no means seem to be given by God to all Men alike and would tempt to believe that the difference in Men does not wholly arise from the Disposition of Bodily Organs or Education or any the like Causes but that there is really an inequality in their Original make These natural Endowments were cultivated by a happy Education and an early Acquaintance with all that School Learning which is so necessary a Foundation for rendring a Man useful in any considerable Post in Church or State He was called very early out to be a Labourer in God's Vineyard an Employment though some perhaps may imagine little of difficulty in it and that the Clergy of all other Men live most at ease that requires a mighty Pains to be able to discharge it wisely and usefully which perhaps the Apostle intimates when he calls it Labouring in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5.17 Our Deceased Brother was so apprehensive of this at his first coming among you where his constant Task was to preach three times a Week besides the Monthly Preparation Sermon for the Sacrament and many other occasional Sermons that to be able to give a good Account of his Ministry to God to his own Conscience and to Wise Men to approve himself a Workman that needed not to be ashamed 2 Tim. 2.15 rightly dividing the word of Truth and that as becomes the Man of God he might be perfect 2 Tim. 3.17 throughly furnished to every good work as the Apostle exhorts Timothy that is as a Teacher or Preacher of the Gospel by the Study of the Scripture be furnished for all turns and enabled to discharge his whole Duty towards the Souls of his Flock as Dr. Hammond has Paraphrased those Words he fell upon that excessive hard Study which broke an excellent Constitution of Body and so impaired his Health that he was never able to recover it and though he was in a while sensible of this and often admonished by his Friends to remit that Rigour yet his Circumstances partly necessitated him to continue it and besides by Use and Custom it was become so pleasant a Diversion that he seemed to think the Improvements hereby made to himself to be an abundant Recompense for the Infirmities it brought along with it and as Tully preferred the living one Day according to the Precepts of Philosophy to a vicious Immortality so our Deceased Brother had a far greater Inclination to improve his Knowledge and to live usefully though but a few years than to arrive at an extream old Age with no other Sign upon him that he had lived long but what might be discovered as Seneca speaks in Wrinkles and Grey Hairs This I have particular Reason to observe inasmuch as when I have been discoursing with him which was frequently of giving himself a little case and calling in one to his Assistance his constant Answer was to this Effect That his Life could not be better wasted than in a careful discharge of his Ministry and in doing all the Good he could and let his Great Master call him when he pleased Happy was that Servant whom his Lord when he should come found so doing In Consideration of this his hard Study was not barely to satisfie his Curiosity or to please himself with his own Notions though this is both an Innocent and a very delightful Piece of Epicurism but to render himself serviceable to others to discharge his Office with Credit to Religion and to profit those in trust committed to his Care he was a Constant Judicious and Profitable Preacher In all his Discourses he Studiously avoided according to the Apostle's Advice all useless Questions which minister only to strife and by which let the Preacher argue and defend either side of the Question none are made either the wiser or better Men. His chief Business was to prosecute Practical Subjects with the utmost force of Perswasion well knowing that most Men understand their Duty much better than they Practise it and that to stir up their Remembrance and over-rule their Wills was one great part of the Minister's Office His main Endeavour was to speak good Sense and to deliver the most useful Truths in plain and easie Expressions and was often wont to say That the Practical Doctrines of Christianity were so perfectly agreeable to natural Principles that if they were fairly represented no Man would be found to make the least opposition to them but that the same Doctrine might be so intangled with Controversie under the shew of clearing them that Mens Prejudices would still over-sway them and every Man would retain the Principles of his first Education and that such Discourses never turned to any Advantage of the Hearers but served either to Prejudice them against their Preachers or to drive them into Heats and Contentions among themselves to the bane of Christian Practice We are lately told of a Noble Design provided for in the Will of a very extraordinary Person Deceased that every year should be composed a few well
Digested Sermons wherein should be set forth the Truth of the Christian Religion in General without descending to the Subdivisions among Christians This is very agreeable to what was the constant Design of your Deceased Pastor whose chief Business it was to represent Christianity As a System of Truths which ought to purifie the Hearts and govern the Lives of those who Profess it where the Fundamentals of Christianity were in hazard none shewed a greater Zeal in exhorting earnestly to contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints witness his many close Discourses against Popery in the late Reign And as he apprehended there might be in time occasion for it he was ready to shew the same Zeal against such Errors as threaten utter Ruine to all Positive Religion But in other Matters he abhorred Bigotry and knew how to pity the weakness of Humane Understandings and to allow for the Prejudices of Education and though no Man had a greater value for our Church Constitution nor could more heartily wish the Recovery of our Discipline nor yet had a truer and righter Notion of Religion yet he never cared roughly to disturb People though in an Error when he saw the Error did no hurt and that they who were under it did not pursue it in any of its bad Consequences but were as careful to live Piously and Vertuously as those could be who were in the right Yea he would say That for some whom he knew to be sincere Christians he thought it was better to let them alone in Innocent Mistakes and that there was Danger in going about to set them right yet so far as he could fairly do it he always took care to rectifie Mens Religious Notions and occasionally and by the bye rather to insinuate some Truths than purposely to set himself to Argue and Defend them His Conduct among his Parishioners was such as deserves Imitation by the whole Order of the Clergy in their several Places and perhaps would do more to prevent the growing of Schism than all the Laws that could be contrived in the Church's favour His business was to keep up a good Understanding betwixt himself and his Neighbours and likewise among themselves He was ready to serve the meanest of them upon all other occasions as well as those immediately relating to his Function If there happened any breach his Care was to stop it in its first rise well knowing how hard it is oft-times to do it afterward I might here mention some Offices of Publick Benefit and Advantage to this Town which owed themselves chiefly to his Advice Industry and Conduct Particularly the Settling an Industrious and Useful School-Master among you and Recovering and Advancing the Credit and Reputation of your Grammar-School This was his Behaviour among you and such a mutual Friendship was hereby grown up into a Habit betwixt him and his Flock that he would often say If the Governors of the Church should think fit to Reward his hard Labour with some small Dignity in the Church he would most thankfully accept it but he could never be in a place where he should be capable of doing more Good or among a-People that were more likely to receive Good from him and that therefore he could not tell how to entertain any Thoughts of leaving you as long as he lived In all the other Relations he bore which were those a of Father a Husband a Son and a Brother I never knew any Man that discharged these Obligations with greater Prudence or more Exactness with a wiser Conduct or a better Sense of Duty He had a Capacity which reached almost all sorts of Things and a wonderful Dexterousness in Dispatch of Business which made him to be sought to by all the Neighbourhood and so often to be chosen an Umpire in their Controversies in all which as his Care was to avoid Intrenching upon any other Man's Profession so he never sought any Advantage to himself but designed only doing Good and obliging Mankind His Conversation was both Pleasant and Useful He had indeed a sort of Facetiousness that was very natural to him and perhaps is so to most Men of free Thoughts but it was Innocent and when it had in it any thing of Design it was only to convey wise Notices of things in this way where he knew not how to come at Mens Understandings in any other For my own part I must say that being freed from the necessary Impertinencies of a mixt Conversation I scarce ever spent an Hour with him in all the time of our Acquaintance but with some Advantage and it is a Justice due to his Memory to own that I have learnt much from him And what I take to be a very high Accomplishment of human Nature an argument of a great and noble Mind and not to be omitted in his Character is That he was a Wise a Faithful and an Intire Friend I had the Happiness and a great Happiness it was to my Life to live in a perfect Friendship with him which from our first entring into it being founded upon no selfish Ends never received any interruption but grew up and waxed stronger as all good Dispositions do till they come into confirmed Habits Whether Friendship be dissolved by Death on their part who are gone into another World I cannot tell This was one of the Contemplations our deceased Brother was entertaining himself with a little before his Departure He was musing as he told me whether he should be able to do any kind Offices for his Friends whom he left on Earth However on their part who survive it is not dissolved for there cannot be a more tender Point than the Name and Memory of a dead Friend But that which is above all other Endowments either natural or acquired and which therefore I reserved to be mentioned in the last place was his lively and vigorous Sense of Religion He throughly understood the Design of it and was very sensible of those infinite Obligations we are under to the Goodness of God for making so ample a Provision for our Happiness as we see done in the Covenant of Grace in Christ Jesus and for furnishing us with such admirable Rules of Life in the Practice of which Man's Happiness so plainly lies That our reaches in Vertue give us a very lively Sense of our future Immortality He was naturally of a very warm and quick Temper Those who conversed with him and knew what a clear and exact Conduct he had of his Mind may perhaps smile at this as those who were acquainted with Socrates and knew his absolute and intire government of his Passions did at the Physiognomist's Character of him but that wise Man vindicated his Art and assured his Friends That the Man had judged truly of his natural Temper which was corrected by the Principles of Philosophy And our deceased Friend would confess That it was not Nature but Grace that had assisted him in this Work and that he had done