amongst Scepters and Crowns Stars and Intelligences with Angels and Archangels and all the Host of Heaven They live with Christ not for a Moment or a Month not for thousands of Days or Millions of Years but for ever If one Day in God's Presence is better than a thousand Days we now enjoy how much better will a thousand Years be than one Day The natural Body that is nourished with external Aliments and natural Food no longer doth it last than they uphold it when they decay Man turns to his Dust He that lives upon the Creature when that perisheth he fadeth He that lives upon his Credit if that dies he cracks but they that die in the Lord live for ever Let a Man go into a Garden that is never so great take his Pleasure and Pastime wallow in Beds of Roses yet he must retreat and go out again He that hath a good Lease for two or three Lives it will end at last Time concludes all things But they that die in the Lord the Clock of Time strikes Eternity to them they live for ever Now if you are curious to know the Reason how this comes to pass be it known unto all here present that the Death of the Righteous is a great part of his Jointure There is a Marriage between Christ and the pious Soul when the Soul is given to Christ the Jointure is made to the Soul 1 Cor. 3.21 22 23. Therefore let no Man glory in Man for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or Things present or Things to come all are yours and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's Behold here is a large Enfeoffment a greater Dowry than the Devil promised to our Saviour Christ if he would vouchsafe to honour him with his bended Knee if he would fall down and worship him he promised him the Gift of the whole World Yet he doth not say Life and Death Hell and the Grave Things present and Things to come are yours Consider then our Saviour Christ suffered for our Sins underwent the heavy Wrath of his Father's Displeasure for us He was the Scape-goat who having the Sins of the whole World cast upon him went into the Wilderness insulted over the Devils triumph'd over the Grave and led Death captive in spite of her Sting O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory Thus when he had suffered in Golgotha where his Blood run down upon the Graves of the Dead that were buried there he lay down in the Grave himself Thereby so perfuming it that we may safely lie down in that Bed which his blessed Body lay in from whence it is that they that die in the Lord are blessed that is freed from that Curse that Adam brought upon them But here some may say How is their Death that die in the Lord blessed for oftentimes their Pains are so great that it makes them senseless their Miserie 's so searching as makes them shrink under their Burden and their Diseases sometimes so noisom as bereave them of the Comfort of their Relations Now is their Death that die thus comfortable and blessed I answer Although the Old Man decays day by day yet the New Man encreaseth And although their Bodies may smart with Sores yet their Souls may be comforted with the Joy of the Spirit Although St. Paul carried in his Body the Marks of the Lord Jesus when in danger of his Life yet he is comforted with the Hopes of a Resurrection The more sharply their Bodies are tormented the sooner are they freed from their Pains and the sooner is their Soul delivered from the Burden of the Flesh Have we not read of those Martyrs that daunted the Malice of their Persecutors in the midst of Flames their greater Joy over-ruling these lesser Pains What although their Agonies be so great that they take away their Sense when their Souls are ravish'd with the Contemplation of those more generous Joys they are presently to be Mistriss of in Paradise And what if their Bodies be ulcerated with Sores and Putrefactions if in Patience they possess their Souls It was the Saying of a good Man that if his Father should send for him by the meanest Servant he had yet will I go The most loathsom Disease imaginable is a Servant of God sent from our heavenly Father to bring us to him Let our Sickness be never so it brings us to our heavenly Father We will go Lord we will go to thee for thou hast the Words of eternal Life We may see here the happy Condition of the pious Soul let his Life be what it will yet his Death is blessed The Wicked while they live are inclosed in their own Fat they come into no Danger like other Men they talk of Vanity every one with his Neighbour and their Blasphemies are against the most High Lo these are they that prosper in the World and have Riches in Possession Here they have the World in a Sling and do even what they list while the pious Soul to whom it is Meat and Drink to do the Will of his heavenly Father is tormented and distressed of whom the World is weary yet in their Deaths one is comforted and the other tormented And if there be so much Happiness in his Death what abundance of Peace Joy and Comfort is there for him in the Life to come If the Light saith Christ that is in thee be Darkness that Darkness must need be great So I say If the worst piece of a Christian's Life be blessed what Heart can conceive the best Let this then be instilled into the Hearts of all that want the Comfort of a godly Life and if you repent not ye shall want the Comfort of a godly Death For most certain it is that blessed is the Death of the godly Man while cursed are all those that forget God and go down to the Dust in their Sins 2dly If the Death of the Just be so blessed then there is no Reason why we should mourn and grieve at their Departure Let the Dead be mourned for yet not those that die in the Lord not those that have made their Peace with God but let such Dead be mourned for that go from one Torment to another from the Wicked in this Life to the Damned in Hell from their Sins on Earth to their Punishment in Flames that go from Death to Death When Absalom died David wept for his Friend but it was because he died in his Sins Although he had a fair Body he had a foul Soul But when his Child died he rejoiced rose up and washed himself and eat Bread It is hard for dear Friends for near Relations to part with one another to see the Corps of a Father or a Mother a Husband or a Wife c. lie upon the cold Floors without the Expression of some Tears It is hard to stop the Floodgates of Nature Flesh and Blood is too weak to master our Passions Sorrow we may weep we may but not without Hope for them that sleep in the Lord. To conclude therefore If the Death of the Godly be so blessed as it requires our Joy to perfect their Felicity let us wipe away all Tears from our Eyes since after they have lived the Life of Nature they are to live the Life of Glory Since their Life was a Probation of those Patterns and Precepts Christ left them to keep and observe Since they have gained so much by their Talent that was entrusted to them in spite of any Opposition never let it grieve us that they now enter into their Master's Joy Now if their Death and only theirs is blessed why then O all ye that forget God endeavour to make your Lives answerable to theirs Every one of you like the Sons of Zebedee desire to sit with Christ in his Kingdom but none shall sit there but such as can drink of his Cup None but they that can suffer with him shall be glorified with him Therefore let your daily Labour be to conform your Lives answerable to his most holy Will and pious Examples that your Death in his Name and through his Merits may be blessed for evermore Amen FINIS
A SERMON Preach'd at the FUNERAL OF Mrs. ABIGAIL COSTIVELL Widow In the Church of Little Brandon in Norfolk By JESSOP WEBB M. A. Rector of the same Church Printed as directed in her Will. LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCV A SERMON preach'd at the Funeral of Mrs. ABIGAIL COSTIVELL Widow REVEL xiv 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them IN this Chapter we have the Lamb come to the Destruction of Babylon who is described by his Company and Attendance and the Success of his Advent which is either the Ruine of the Enemy ver 10 11. or the Happiness of his Friends as in ver 13. In the Text we have a Promise of Consolation wherein I shall observe 1st The Promiser God set out by his Nature He is said to be a Spirit 2dly The Recorder John who is set forth by his Effect I heard a Voice from Heaven 3dly The Thing promised Blessed are the Dead With two Reasons why they are so 1. Because they rest from their Labours 2. Their Works follow them I shall not have time sufficient to run over all these therefore omitting them I shall fix my Discourse as this present Occasion requires Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord. In which we have this Observation That it is a blessed thing to die in the Lord. Now to die in the Lord is to die in the Faith and Fear in the Favour and Love of Christ It is opposed here to Backsliders who begin well but end ill who begin in the Spirit but end in the Flesh As if he should say it is a good thing to begin well but better to end so It is well that we have made a Profession but better that ye hold it out to the end He is not blessed that begins in the Lord but blessed is he that dies in the Lord. In Eccles 7.1 Solomon saith that the Day of ones Death is better than the Day of ones Birth which I know not know to make good unless we understand it either of the Flesh which thinketh Death to be the end of all Evils or else that this corporal Death is the entring into Life everlasting This must be understood of the Children of God for the Death of wicked Men is worse than the Day of Birth It were happy for them if they should never die as it had been for Judas if he had never been born Some Antiquaries have given some Reasons why the Day of ones Death is better than the Day of ones Birth 1. Because the Day of his Birth is the beginning of his Miseries but the Day of his Death is the End thereof A Man is born to suffer as Sparks fly upward saith Job but when he dies his Miseries end for then should I have lien still and been at Rest Job 3.13 The Grave is the Receptacle of those Souls to keep them from the Oppressor and Avenger it secures them from the Blows and Stripes of the Persecutors they sleep quietly from the Noise of Slander or Scandal When they once lie in the Dust their Bodies are freed from Sickness and Diseases Hunger and Thirst dwell not there neither is there any fear of any malignant Humour to make it look pale and wann only that Corruption that Mortality gave it and Putrefaction which nothing escapes There the Righteous rest from their Labours 2. Because in the Day of our Birth we are born in Sin and brought forth in Iniquity That Original Filth that was moulded up in the Clay of our first Father sticks close to our Bones and renders us as miserable as that can make us But in the Day of our Death we die in the Lord our Sins and our selves then shake Hands and bid an eternal Farewel to one another The Gave saith to our Sins as God to the Sea Hitherto shalt thou come and no further It is the blessed Dying in the Lord that makes that Day better it is their departing in Peace dying with a good Conscience in the Fear Faith and Favour of God that renders that Day happy whereas the Day of the Death of the Wicked is more bitter than the Day of their Birth For I may say of the Wicked whom the Son never kissed that when they die they go to the Damned That Day is the Beginning of Evil for as Christ said to the penitent Thief This Day thou shalt be with me in Paradise So he may say to the Wicked This Day shall ye be with the Devils in Hell As the Righteous die to live for ever so the Wicked die to die eternally From this Day of Death of thine infinite Mercy good Lord deliver us Blessed are they that die Why then so is Judas and Caiaphas Herod and Pontius Pilate blessed Why then it is no matter how we live if Blessedness will crown our Death No cursed are all those that die if they die not in the Lord. It is the dying in the Lord that makes our Death blessed Which Blessedness is nothing else but an Accumulation of many good things together which concur in the Death of the Godly First It renders his Death sure and safe Secondly Sweet and comfortable Thirdly Good and honourable Fourthly Advantagious and beneficial First Sure Whereas the Death of the Wicked is uncertain they are to seek when they die as for Example it is said of Nero that wicked Tyrant when he died Whither wilt thou go my Soul or what will become of thee I know not But the Souls of the Righteous when they die are committed into God's Hands Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit faith Christ The Viper nor the Adder shall not hurt them If God takes our Souls into his Custody and Charge they are safe and sure Secondly The Death of them that die in the Lord is sweet and comfortable Death at worst is but a grim Servant a lean pale-fac'd Messenger to let the Child of God into his Father's House or like the Breathing of a tumified Sore there may be a little Smart but there follows a great deal of Ease So the Death of the Godly may be full of Agonies and Grief full of Dolours and Tortures but there follows as much Ease and Tranquillity as before was Grief and Misery 1. It is called as Sleep for the great Refreshment it brings them for as Sleep was ordained to cherish the Bodies after their Labours so was Death to deliver the Righteous out of Troubles In the 7th Chapter of the Acts we read St. Stephen in the Shower of Stones fell asleep which was strange he should rest so quietly with the Noise of Stones about his Ears Although sometimes they die in great Agonies yet they die sweetly that die in the Lord. 2. It is called a Departure in Peace Luke 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace
according to thy Word Altho hitherto I have born about me the Rebukes of many have carried about me the Marks of the Lord Jesus yet my Mind is satisfied my Heart is at Rest let now thy Servant depart in Peace 3. It is called a gathering to our Fathers Good King Josiah was gathered to his Fathers As the Wheat when it is ripe is gathered into the Granery so the Righteous when they are ripe with good Works when they are in the Prime and Well-liking when they are fit for the Lord then he gathers them to himself It is to the Godly as an Harbour after a Storm when the Mariner had many Fears and more Storms in his Voyage is sweet and comfortable So when the godly Man after he hath been tossed with the Waves of this troublesom World when he hath escaped this Gulph of Fear and the other of Despair when he hath shunned this Rock of Vexation and that Shelf of Calamity how gladly doth he commit his crasie Vessel to that Harbour which will secure him from all these After the long and tedious Journey which the Wise Men took to seek him who was born the King of the Jews the Text saith they rejoiced exceedingly Now if they rejoiced to have found him in a Manger Luke 2.7 what would they have done to have found him in a Palace Now when the Godly Man dies he finds Christ not with a Cross but a Crown not in a Manger but in those amiable Courts of Heaven which must ravish his Soul with that beautiful Sight Thirdly Their Death is good and honourable fit and seasonable When the Sinner dies in his Sins he is like the untimely Fruit of a Woman he shall never see the Son When Sisera fled to the Tend of Jael he said to her If any Man ask for me say I am not here but she took a Nail and smote the Nail into his Temples and so he died with a Lie in his Mouth Judg. 4.20 21. Behold Zimri and Cozbi committing Fornication as the last Exercise of their Lives were slain by Phinehas Eleazar's Son Numb 25.8 Behold Ananias and Sapphira committing Sacrilege and Lying in their Hearts fell suddenly down dead Acts 5.5 Behold Nicanor raging against the Jews caused his Troops to march and give Battel on their Sabbath supposing that their Day of Rest would make him a better Market of the Enemies Blood In whose Army there were some Jews either compelled by Necessity or a voluntary Apostacy who desired not to destroy so cruelly and barbarously by reason that that Day was dedicated to Rest To whom he blasphemously replied Who is he that ordained that Day to Sloth They told him it was the God of Heaven that had set it apart for his Glory Whereupon he said That that God of Heaven should content himself to make Laws in his own Dominions But he that was Almighty on Earth commanded them to march for the Business of their King Whereupon when the Battel was ended they knew that Nicanor lay dead in his Harness and as an Example to all Blasphemers had his Head cut off from his Shoulders and the Hand that he had stretched out against the Holy Temple of the Almighty hang'd up as a sad Spectacle to all the World and his Tongue that had blasphemed God cut out and given as a Prey to the Fowls of the Air 2 Macc. 15. Thus unseasonable are all the Deaths of the Wicked whose Lives have been a continued Series of Impieties yet I never read of the Righteous to whom a good Conscience is a continual Feast that he died in his Sins Although he dies in his tender Age in his full Strength or in old Age although his Agonies were great his Pains searching and his Troubles many yet he hath wip'd off the black Score of his Sins by the Tears of a melting Heart and so dies seasonably Their Death is honourable The Name of the Wicked shall rot but the Righteous shall be had in everlasting Remembrance The Wicked while they live here it is possible many admire them more for the Crumbs than their Persons more for the Loaves than their Goodness more out of Fear than Love But when they die they go down to the Dust with Dishonour and their Ashes are scarcely suffer'd to lie quietly But the Godly while they live are persecuted derided hated of their Neighbours So persecuted they all the Prophets but when they were dead then they built them Tombs and Sepulchres David when he was alive the very Drunkards made Songs upon him but when dead esteem him a Man after God's own Heart Joseph when he was in Egypt they cast him into Prison but when he slept with his Fathers they mourned for him It is an Honour when a Man comes home from his Journey to be welcomed with great Attendance But when a Christian arrives to the end of his Heavenly Journey the Angels stand ready to carry him into Abraham's Bosom â—ake 16.22 then Christ he ushers them into the Presence of his Father Is it not a great Honour for a Subject to be brought by the King's Son into his Father's Presence and there tells him what a good Subject he hath been to him and thus and thus hath he done for me reward him as it seems in thy Pleasure So Christ takes his faithful Servant and brings him to the Presence of his Father tells him what Gain he hath made of his Talent and desires him that he may enter into the Joy of his Master Fourthly and Lastly Their Death is advantagious and beneficial to them to live is Christ and to die is Gain Phil. 1.21 He that loseth his Life for my sake shall save it and he that forsaketh Father or Mother for me shall receive an hundred fold and those Treasures that Moth doth not eat nor Rust corrupt shall be their Reward Godliness is great Gain both in this Life and a future Estate it affords us a necessary Supply of all our temporal Wants it procures us a good Name abroad and a good Conscience within us yet these are but the first Fruits of our Labours we only sow in Corruption but we reap the Harvest in Incorruption But in our future State when this Mortal shall have put on Immortality at the second Coming of Christ 1 Thess 4.16 And the Dead in Christ shall rise first and then live with him and live with him for ever These are the things that make the Death of the Righteous profitable 1. They shall live 2. They shall live with Christ 3. They shall live with him for ever Live Why so did Korah Dathan and Abiram the Wicked live and have Riches in Possession and so do the Beasts that perish Is it such a Matter to live No not in Sensuality and Lust in this Case it is better to die than to live But they that die in the Lord live with Christ not in the Tents of Ungodliness not in the Habitations of Mesech but the King's Palace