great in quantity pure in nature full of light and exceeding large able to receive Ten thousand times more Persons than there are drops of Water in the Sea or Sands lying on the Sea-shore 5. It is called Sancta Civitas The Holy City built with most precious Pearls because the company that dwell therein are holy and pure shining in Holiness and glistering in Purity and Righteousness 6. It is called Summa Beatitudo Inestimable Blessedness because the Saints enjoy the full and glorious presence of the Blessed Trinity wherein true Blessedness consists 7. And lastly It is called Vita Eterna Life Eternal because there shall be no more Death nor Lamentation no more Weeping nor Sorrow but the prepared for Death shall enjoy these blessed Joys so long as God shall be God which is everlasting This is the reward promised to all that die in the Lord a large reward and no man knoweth it but he that enjoyeth it Adeo magna est quod nequit numerari adeo pretiosa quod nequit comparari adeo diutina quod nequit terminari So great as it cannot be numbred so precious that it cannot be valued so lasting as it is everlasting so great so precious so lasting is the Reward promised and prepared for them that die in him Secondly In respect of the Society for here we live amongst prophane wicked and sinful men but there we shall have the happy fruition of innumerable Angels Heb. 12.22 and have the Society of Saints Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors and the rest and we shall enjoy their Fellowship after an undefiled manner with all purity amity and everlasting concord Where also we shall enjoy God our Creator a God of so wonderful Might Majesty Excellency Beauty Glory Love as cannot be imagined and Christ his only and dear Son and our dear and precious Saviour If a man had the enjoyment of all other things yet without this all would be but misery and accursedness This will be the Society of those that are called from Earth to Heaven Thirdly In respect of their Condition They are Blessed for they rest from all their Labours For they which are prepared for Death die in the Lord and they that die in the Lord are with the Lord saith St. Paul Phil. 1.23 My Soul desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ Death considered in Christ and joyned with a holy Conversation to Believers is an advantage saith the Apostle Phil. 1.21 Christ is to me both in life and death an advantage Death is nothing else but a Bridge over this Tempestuous Sea the World to Heaven Gods Grace and Mcrcy made it so not by making Death in it self good but an instrument of good to the Godly Death cannot separate them from God that live a pious life but maketh them draw near to God for then do we approach near to God and your heavenly Place that excellent Society and shall enjoy that Blessed Condition to rest from our Labours and to have our good Works follow us in glorious Recompences when we die in the Lord. And now the great and glorious God direct and enable us all so to live and so die that when the Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be raised and we shall be changed we may with joy and rejoycing and to our unspeakable consolation hear that soul-ravishing Saying Come ye blessed inherit the Kingdom c. And now Beloved give me leave before I dismiss you to speak something by way of an Encomium upon our Worthy Patroness deceased the Relict of Mr. Robert Fenn formerly Alderman of London Should I be altogether silent I should undoubtedly be prodigiously unjust to her who merited more than I am able to express Now what came you forth to see or Hear Of a Reed shaken with the wind of one clothed in rich and glorious Apparel Behold a Pillar in the Temple of our God to whom it is given to shine in white and glorious linnen which is the rightousness of the Saints Altogether superfluous it were to strew Rhetorical Flowers upon that Herse which covereth an inclosed Garden In regard of her Candour Innocency Goodness and Integrity She was a Lilly among the valleys Though amongst Thorns yet was a Cedar in Libanus That House of Darkness the Grave is to receive the Earthen Vessel of an Heavenly Treasure till time shall be no longer Her blessed Soul possesseth the Inheritance of the Saints but this House of God must be filled with the Savour of her good Name which is a precious Oyntment now to be powred forth and most deservedly in this place For here she was built up to be an Holy Temple to the Lord. Her heart and her joy was here fixed She Loved Lord the habitation of thine House and the Place where thine Honour dwelleth She was desended of a very good Family and her Education was every way answerable to one of such a Quality But I shall omit this being as I humbly conceive more proper for a Herauld than a Minister to give an account of For my Discourse must take notice of her from her Second Birth by which she became a Child of the Most High and rejoyced thather Name was Written in Heaven not by way of Ostentation but as a ground of her Consolation She was holy just and good holy in her life just in her ways good and courteous to all Her Life was a Looking-glass wherein all Ladies and Gentlewomen might see to dress themselves and attire their Conversation This Pious and Religious Matron was exceeding charitable and made it her business in imitation of her blessed Saviour in the time of her life so long as strength would permit to go about doing good Her House was an Eleemosinary or if you will an Apothecaries Shop where the Wounded and Diseased Poor might have Therapeuticks Sanatives Healing and Curing Medicines without Price or Money She was a second Dorcas who delighted in Clothing the Naked feeding the Hungry relieving the Oppressed visiting the Sick and in administring to the necessities of the Saints Her Ambition was terminated in the bounds of Moderation that being good to the Poor she might be rich in good Works Discretion the Vertue of Vertues waited on her and that Grace by which she so much undervalued her self in that she most shined The Vassal of all other Graces Humility for you might behold in her when living the most beautiful condescention in the bosome of magnitude and make of her Manners a Censure of Vices and of her Life Examples of Piety But these are external signs of inward holiness Her Heart panted after God the Seal of Wisdom was upon her Lips and she washed her Feet in Innocency She turned away her Eyes from beholding Vanity she considered her own ways and turned her feet to Gods Testimonies That so now they who will prepare Statues or Monuments for Vertue may boldly plant the Basis in her Foot-steps which you shall imprint or erect Many lament her many desire her but all do miss her She trampled the World under her Feet where Inconstancy is everlasting and Glory but momentary where Men live by Opinion sin by Precepts and amend not through impotency of offending and as it were never die but by sudden surprizal She was a Directory in her Family directing them in the fear of God and in the ways of his Commandments Vertue is a rare thing and so is a Vertuous Woman a rare Jewel hard to be found yet not so rare but may be found for lo here is one and therefore She may challenge the Character of the Wise-man Her price is far above Rubies The World was not worthy of her Let not any envy at Gods Grace upon her Many Daughters have done well but thou exceedest them all She was zealous for the Lord the Zeal of Gods House did even eat her up She was fervent in Prayer fervent in Reading She followed the exhortation of St. Paul not in putting on of Hair and Broidered Apparel and the insolent impiety of these times but in putting off of Apparel The Ornament she had was in the hidden man of the heart a meek and quiet Spirit She was no scornful and curious Dame but of a gentle humble and affable Disposition and one that powered out her heart unto the Lord. She lived a Saint she died a Saint and precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of Saints Her works shall praise her in the Gates and shall follow her with happy rewards In a word She hath fought the good Fight She hath run her Christian Race with a good Conscience She hath wrought out her Salvation with a filial fear and trembling Therefore no doubt but her Soul is translated or metamorphosed into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God and her Heavenly Creator and her Body at the Great and General Resurrection shall be re-united to her Soul and shine like the Sun in the Firmament nay it shall be made like unto the Glorious Body of Christ which in glory exceedeth and excelleth all And if her Body shall be so glorious how glorious shall her Soul be it is altogether impossible to imagine But I must be silent and put a period to my Discourse for I want words to express her Worth FINIS
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
uncleanness as on the Israelitish Man and Moabitish Woman Num. 25.8 Or when thou art coveting as on the Rich Man in the Gospel Luk. 12.20 O Fool this night will they fetch away thy Soul from thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided Which with so much wrack of Conscience so much breach of Charity so much wrong to Humane Society thou hast scrapt together No Thunder now can beat into them a dread or fear of that which then no power shall ease them of We know Christ will come let us prepare for his welcome You are yet through mercy on this side the Grave and not gone down into that place of Torment You enjoy many gracious opportunities for your spiritual advantages and are daily exhorted to relinquish and to leave your sins and turn to God to accept of Christ to think on Death and Hell that you may never see it nor feel it for there is much more in the Pains of Hell and Wrath of God than ever you heard or is possible for you to imagine Be therefore perswaded to redeem the precious time which you have lost in the well managing that little time which through the Grace and Goodness of God you may enjoy Seeing our time draweth nigh and that Death will be the portion of us all What manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy and godly Conversation How careful should we be in fitting our selves for our Change How vigilantly to stand upon our Guards and Watch that we may not be unprovided when Death comes to summon us to appear before our Creator Secondly This reprehends all those that slight and neglect this great and saving Duty that do not prepare themselves for Death knowing that they are mortal As the audacious Atheist and impenitent Sinner who put the evil day far from them saying Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die They will satisfie their lusts walk in the ways and imaginations of their own hearts but hereby they make the breach wider and themselves seven-fold more the Children of Sathan and at last sit down in everlasting woe and sorrow for did they believe that they must die and be judged and that they must appear in a very little time before the dreadful God who will in no wise clear the guilty surely they would quickly change their courses Nevertheless these Vipers these Devils Incarnate these Monsters in the shape of Men trisle away their time and think that they are wise when indeed they have no understanding Wise they are Jer. 4.22 but it is to do evil to cavil and spurn against the truth dispute against Religion and a Life of Piety but to do good they have no knowledge Is it not lamentable to consider how that Men that know they must die and leave all behind them should be so lethargical and mad as not to mind Death in many days it may be in many moneths together yea scarcely to entertain a serious cogitation of Death or of Judgment at a House of Mourning but in the very sight of the Dead they can laugh and quaff and be vain drink feast and discourse of Prophane and idle Stories It may be some may seem more religious than their Brethren but as soon as the Dead Corps is removed and the Grave and Coffin out of sight Death is no more remembred Oh! how sad is it to think how quickly the thoughts of Mortality do pass away notwithstanding Death is at your very heels and before your eyes Whither can you direct your eyes and not behold that which preacheth or representeth Death All the Winter Death is on the Trees in your Gardens on every Flower at your Tables every day You feed on the Flesh of dead Creatures to tell you that you must die And is not Death in your Beds every night What is Sleep but the picture and image of cold Death and your Beds are the representations of your dark Graves and yet for all this the greatest part of the World foolishly and unadvisedly spend their precious time not considering that they shall die This is a sin not only that the prophane World are guilty of but some too many that profess the Name of God and covet to be called Christians They conclude upon a fitness and preparedness for Death upon every slender and unwarrantable ground They have a name to live as it is said of the Church of Sardis but it is to be feared that they are dead therefore in this great Soul-business let none be so fool-hardy as to trust without examination But let every man as the Apostle saith Gal. 6.4 5. prove his own work and then shall he have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another for every man shall bear his own burden And so I pass to the third and last Use and I have done Thirdly If it be so that to die is the general condition of all men this must needs consolate and comfort those that are prepared for it for Revel 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. They are blessed in three respects I. In respect of the Place II. In respect of their Society III. In respect of their Condition All which must needs comfort them First In respect of the Place which is Heaven For if we rightly consider the World wherein we live it is a Vale of Misery a Prison or place of Ignominy Vexation Afflictions and Trouble as the Apostle saith Rom. 8.22 We know that every Creature groaneth and travelleth in pain together until this present time but Heaven is a place of Joy of Rest of Comfort This World is of short and no continuance but Heaven is a place of continuance it is permanent and everlasting It is a glorious Place the Holy Word of God admirably demonstrates it by those excellent things to which it is compared or by which it is called 1. It is called Regnum a Kingdom for there such as are prepared for Death and die in the Lord shall enjoy great Liberty Honour Power Pleasure and all good Things whatsoever 2. It is called Regnum Dei Christi Eph. 5.5 The Kingdom of God and of Christ because that Jesus Christ having overcome Death Hell and Damnation together with all the Enemies that did oppose us in the way to Heaven doth there govern his Church Triumphant with heavenly peace and everlasting tranquility 3. It is called by the name of Paradisus Luk. 23. in respect of the plenty of all good and delighful things which such as die in the Lord I mean the Just can either wish or possibly desire 4. It is called by the name of Coelum tertium The third Heaven 2 Cor. 12. Which is called Coelum empyreum id est igneum Not in respect of Fire but in respect of the glorious Light that shineth therein for as one saith it is Situ altissimum quantitate maximum natura purissimum Luce plenissimum capacitate amplissimum High in scituation