the Kingdom of God. Beloved I beseech you see whether that which is sufficient to stop the Mouth of Conscience how whilest you live in this hurry will make you lie at ease then when you come to a Death-Bed But I must proceed Secondly You have the Apostles Prospect viz. his looking forward where he opens a fresh Spring whence he draws his Comfort and Confidence at this time when he was making his entry into the dark valley of the shades of Death and then considers what he had in expectation on the other side the Grave Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing This was the Joy that was set before the Eye of Paul's Faith. What appeared to his sence must needs be terrible and terrifying to Nature Death when it comes clothed with the most desirable Circumstances must needs make Nature startle at it Nature will certainly recoil and as such cannot bid it welcome No those that seem most to court it that look and long for it and with submission to Divine Pleasure have great reason to do so yet know it is never so for its own sake but for the sake of something that it is introductive to as appears from that of the Apostle after he had given testimony of his Faith both as to the reality of the future state of Felicity and also of the assurance that he had attained of his personal and particular interest in that state as you read 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens The Considerations of which together with the present inconvenience that did attend their present Habitation here below made them give many a long look and fetch many a heavy groan to be gone And no wonder Which of you that dwell in a pitiful poor mean tottering Cottage that know not but every day it may drop about your Ears that were sure that you had a Pallace richly furnished for you that stood ready to receive you would not do the like Indeed if you had made no such Provision but might expect when ever you were turned out you must lye abroad exposed to Storms and Tempest no wonder then if you notwithstanding inconveniences were loath to depart Truly the case is much thus betwixt Sinners and Saints no wonder you that are yet in a state of alienation from God that would never be perswaded to look after any further nor higher happyness than what results from a confluence of Creature Enjoyments I say no wonder that Death coming as a Messenger to call you from hence to see you cleaving and clinging so fast about the Creature to find you sending post for this and the tother Physician and for this and the other Friend crying out as that young Man once did when he was grapling with the pangs of Death inducias usque ad mane Lord tarry till the Morning When he knew not whether he was going but saw he must be exposed to the intolerable and unavoidable storms of God's Wrath but for you Believers who by an Eye of Faith may see the Heavens opened and Everlasting Mansions of Glory prepared for you and an Honourable Convoy sent to conduct you into the blessed Presence of a Reconciled God it would be a reproach to hang back yet I observe what the fore-mentioned Apostle takes notice of That when they came closely to consider the dark and narrow entry of Death that they were to pass through into the possession of this Land of Light when they considered the trouble they must be exposed to in their removal from this Tabernacle on Earth to their glorious Temple in Heaven It put them to the shrug and occasion'd a Contest betwixt Flesh and Spirit in this matter verse 4. We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of Life There is a double groan that God's people often fetch in this hour the one of Nature the other of Grace That of Nature arises from the apprehension and fear of approaching Death together with the afflictive Evils that attend it The other of Grace expressive of those earnest desires of that future state of Bliss and Glory whereof they are supposed to have some present prelibations to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better than the best state on Earth Now when the groans of Grace are louder than the groans of Nature as sometimes they are then Death is bid welcom and they can heartily cry out as this Gracious Soul did Come Lord Jesus come quickly and why are thy Chariot wheels so long a coming I know much time and more than can be allow'd for this exercise might be spent and that profitably too in the explication of the Contents of these two Verses The handling of which would swell rather into a large Treatise than be confin'd to the limits of a single Sermon But that I may fulfil the Will of the Deceased that gave me no liberty to speak to any particular branch of it but repeated the whole as my subject and yet not be offensive by too great a prolixity to the Living I shall with all possible brevity that may be consistent with perspecuity give you little more than a short Paraphrase upon the whole waving what ever might be judged ornamental to my Discourse as not being so seasonable for such a serious Dispensation where Death and Eternity are so immediately in view and we are to look upon each other as passing and posting to Everlasting Mansions In the words then consider two more general parts First A Christians Work faithfully perform'd or a Believers great business upon which God hath sent him into and continues him in this World carefully dispatched and this expressed under several Metaphors relating to Paul both as a Christian in his personal and more private Capacity and as a Minister of the Gospel in his more publick Capacity verse 6. I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Secondly Here is a comfortable and well-grounded expectation of the promised reward as consequential upon his finishing his work and this with a particular application and appropriation to himself though not without the same security to all others in the like case and as supposed for the main in the same Spiritual Condition Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness c. I shall put both these together into the Doctrine or Proposition viz. Doct. That all those and only those who have good evidences of their having done and dispatched their great work and business God hath allotted for them in this World can with comfort and confidence ensure to
Blessed PAVL's Tryal and Triumph IN A SERMON Upon the DEATH of Mrs. ELIZABETH KING By JOHN OAKES Minister of the Gospel being the last Funeral Sermon that ever he Preacht before Himself was snatcht away to Glory MATTHEW xxiv 44. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh LONDON Printed by J. Richardson for Tho. Cockeril at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over against the Stocks-Market 1689. Blessed Paul's Tryal and Triumph A Funeral Sermon ON 2 TIMOTHY iv 7 8. I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing HOW pertinent and seasonable the Words I have now read are for the solemn occasion we are met about is obvious to every Eye although I must tell you it was not the Object of my own choice but pitched upon by the Deceased whose Funeral I am now to Commemorate My Text is very copious and of too great an extent to admit at present of any Preface or to permit me to give you any account of the Epistle nor scarce so much time as to cast an Eye upon the Context Only in a word the time drew nigh when this Blessed Apostle Paul was to suffer Martyrdom and thereby Seal his Testimony to those Gospel Truths which he had preached and professed and that by the effusion of his Blood and the laying down of his Life The Enemy had got him in their Pound confin'd him in their Prison and still he was every day expecting and waiting when the Writ should be sign'd for his Execution as he tells us verse 6. I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand With this he acquaints Timothy to whom he dedicates this Epistle not by way of Complaint but by way of Encouragement he being as ready to be offered up at the Will and Call of God as they were ready to execute their Rage and Malice against him Having told us long before I am ready not to be bound only but also to dye at Jerusalem for 〈…〉 13. the Name of the Lord Jesus What were the Cordials that supported him in this fainting season and enabled him to look Death though presented in a very ghastly dress in the face with Comfort and Confidence my Text acquaints you I have fought a good fight c. In which words you have these two general parts First Paul's Retrospect viz. his serious reflection upon the by past Course of his Life that is ever since he had properly lived ever since he had been quickned by the renewing Grace of God's Spirit For all the time we remain in an unregenerate State is not time lived but time lost I have fought a good fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith This was the report that Paul's Well inlightned Conscience made upon this serious review and enquiry The Reflection upon which fil'd his Heart with Divine Consolation Before I proceed to the main point I intend I shall briefly offer two Notes to your serious Consideration 1. That the apprehension of the near approaches of Death doth ordinarily occasion nay necessitate Men whether good or bad to take a strict surveigh of their by past Life then Men think and enquire of themselves what they have been doing and whether they are going I say ordinarily it is so Some indeed are judiciously hardned and given up by God to a blind mind and to a feared Conscience that they are past feeling Living and dying like Beasts without any sight or sence of their Sin here or their Misery hereafter whose Eyes are not opened till they drop into Eternal Flames Except in such a case not to be mentioned without horror all Men not accidentally incapacitated by the violence of some bodily Distemper will at Death be upon a review 2. Note hence that according to the report that a well inform'd Conscience gives in at a dying hour so it will fill and furnish the Soul either with Triumph or Trouble with Joy or Sorrow If Conscience well instructed bears Witness for it that it hath done its work dispatched the business that God sent it into the World for then will it be fill'd with Songs in the Night then will it lift up its head knowing the Luke 21. 28. day of its redemption draws nigh Then next to Jesus Christ no such Friend as Death Then will it long to be dissolved to be with Christ Our rejoycing is this the Testimony of our Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World. Self-examination and serious Reflection is a Duty though attended with great advantage that few Men understand but wholly neglect or at best are very slight and superficial in the performance of Most run away with the first over-hasty reports that may be results from a blind carnal sensual heart taking all things of that Nature upon trust rather than put themselves to the trouble of a serious Tryal but this will not alwayes do when Death hath clapt an Arrest upon thee and thou seest that thou must in good earnest put thy head into another World then matters relating to thy self and future state must pass through a finer sieve and a more severe scrutiny Oh that I could more throughly perswade my self and all you that hear me this day to be more frequent and industrious in this matter now and never leave till the great business betwixt God and our Souls be so throughly and comfortably stated that it may remain as a lasting impression when all our self-flattering glasses shall be broken in pieces and all those false measures which we have taken of our Spiritual State shall vanish and disappear Now may be any thing will stop the Mouth of Conscience and justifie such a conclusion concerning our welfare that we are Protestants that we have been Baptized that we are Members of this or that particular Church that we have been just to all or that we have been injurious to none that we have been no Persecutors that we have been charitable to the Poor that we have kept our Church that we have said our Prayers and if after all this we come short of Heaven then God help us say some though all this while totally Strangers to the work of Regeneration and Heart-Renovation For God's sake Sirs Consider and consider it in time what Christ speaks Except your Righteousness shall 〈…〉 5. 20. exceed the Righteousness of the Soribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven And in another place Verily verily I say unto thee except a Man be born 〈…〉 3. 3. again see cannot be
themselves the expectation of the promised reward in the other World at their Death or day of Retribution This is a plain and undoubted Truth no well-grounded expectation of our Reward till we have first finished our Work. Christ himself who was both a Son and a Servant sent by his Father into the World had work appointed him to do a work of the greatest weight and importance that ever was put into the hands of any to dispatch the reparation of his Fathers Glory eclipsed by Man's Rebellion and Apostacy and the Redemption and Salvation of all the Elect depended upon Christ's finishing this work and a work to be done within a limited time as may be inferred from what our Saviour speaks I must work the works of him that sent me while John 9. 4. it is day the night cometh when no man can work A work that had many works in it Here was doing work and here was suffering work and upon his faithful discharge of this great work a glorious Reward was insured to Christ and you may observe that though the work he was ingaged in was difficult and hard too difficult for all the Angels in Heaven or Creatures on Earth to undertake In the doing of which he met with inexpressible Discouragements and Oppositions both from Friends and Enemies And the reward he expected was a high and glorious reward such a massy Crown as could fit no Head but Christ's which might well put him upon earnest longing for it as you see he did by what the Apostle tells us Heb. 12. 2. speaking of this Blessed Jesus Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God. Yet we never find that either the consideration of the one the difficulty of his work or the consideration of the other the beauty and brightness of his reward did put him upon desiring or expecting the possession of his promised Glory till he could say he had done his work and then indeed you will see him addressing his Father in this manner I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do 〈…〉 17. 4 5. And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the world was q. d. I have done my work and I expect my reward Truly thus it is in all our cases That God who hath sent us into the World and hath appointed our time and limited our 〈…〉 14. boundt beyond which we cannot pass This God hath also prescribed our work what we are to do in this short time allotted for us He hath not sent us hither only to gaze about us or to feed and gratifie the carnal and sensual inclinations of a corrupt heart in spending these precious hours in sports and pastimes No no as God hath given us work to do so he hath furnished us with talents to be improved for the Glory 〈…〉 25. 15. of that God who gave us our beings He hath committed the care of precious Souls one of which is more in value than 〈…〉 16. 26. Ten Thousand Worlds to be recovered out of that lapsed and lost Estate into which they are fallen He hath given his Word for our Direction hath promised his Spirit for our help he hath betrusted us with choice advantages and opportunities for the facilitating of what work we have to do He hath appointed a day for the calling us to an account and a Acts 17. 3 Judge to give forth a Righteous Retribution according to what we have done in the Flesh whether it be good or evil He hath proposed and promised a blessed and glorious Reward not as merited by our work but as consequential upon it a Reward not of Debt but of meer Grace and Favour He hath threatned an Everlasting Punishment as the demerit of our neglect of that great Salvation set before us Cutting us off from Heb. 2. 3. all hopes of enjoying the former and of escaping the latter without finishing the work he hath given us to do These things are so evident in Scripture that you whose lot is cast under the Dispensation of these Divine Revelations cannot plead ignorance so that if your days be finished and your work unfinished Wo be to that Man or Woman it had been better for them they had never been born But on the other side If we can say with Paul in my Text That we have fought the good fight and finished our course c. Then when Death comes thou mayest entertain it with a smile and triumph over it and though it closes thine Eyes so as to hinder thy beholding of all thy amiable enjoyments here on Earth Thou shalt see them no more but must bid adieu to them all for ever Yet wilt thou then by an Eye of Faith with Stephen See the Heavens opened and the Son of Acts 7. 56 Man standing on the right hand of God ready to receive thee and bid thee welcom to that glorious Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you 1 Pet. 1. 4. Having thus for brevity's sake hudled matters together in general I shall now in order to further instruction reduce the whole under two heads 1. With respect to the work which we have to do here on Faith What it is and how and when it may be said to be finished 2. Somewhat with respect to the promised reward in Heaven which follows What that is and upon what basis our hopes and expectations of it are bottomed In the managing of both these I shall follow the guidance of my Text. 1. Then as to the work we have to do in this Life What it is I hope I need not mind you that the work I am speaking to relates not to the Duties of your particular Callings as Men and as disposed by the Conduct of Divine Providence into this and that civil and secular Employment which are many and various and which are so to be managed as may best subserve your general Calling as Christians But the work I am to speak to is of a far higher Nature that which doth not so immediately nor primarily respect our beings or well-beings with respect to time as what respects our well-beings to Eternity A work that hath some resemblance and bears some parity to the great work that Jesus Christ the Son of God came into the World for though to be performed in a far different manner Christ's work was reducible to two general heads First The glorifying of his Father So you read John 17. 4. I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do q. d. Father that was the work which thou sentest me into the World for and that work I have done Secondly Christ's work was to
them in the time of her former Life yet now her expressions and behaviour a little before her Death were so much more satisfactory that they left no room for the least doubt or suspicion of her Blessedness Her Mother putting it to her whether she remembred any particular time when God first wrought upon her she answered No but God had begun to work upon her almost as soon as she had a Being or at least as soon as she was come to the use of Reason only she recollected that she had some remarkable impressions made by the Spirit at the hearing of a Sermon repeated from these words Now we are the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall 1 John 3. 2. be and another time at the hearing of a Sermon preacht upon the Glory of the Gospel from that Text In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not 2 Cor. 4. 4. lest the light of the Glorious Gospel c. When I came to her that morning before she dyed being sent for at her urgent request she desired me to Preach her Funeral Sermon upon the subject which you have heard readily repeating both the verses without any haesitation adding that she desir'd it not upon her own account but for the sake of Religion that the world might be convinced there was somewhat in that how much soever despised which would bear up the heart in a dying hour With great gravity she exhorted me to go on and Preach the Gospel praying that my Ministry might not be in vain whereupon telling her that I hop'd it had not been in vain to her she with much heartiness replyed No I bless God it hath not Another Neighbouring Minister being call'd in the same morning to her at her request when he first came and askt her how she did she chearfully answered very well how can I be better for I am going to my Heavenly Father He then asking her whether she was willing to leave this World she replyed Yes most willing for why should I desire to live any longer in it He telling her that she had now a great work to do she answered Yes but I bless God I am prepared for it and I fear not Death for Christ by his Blood hath taken out the sting The question being propos'd to her whether she would have him to pray with her she said Yes I would have you to pray that God would continue to lift up the light of his countenance upon me to the last as he does now And before he came away from her she prayed that the Lord would be with him and help him to preach so as that the World might have no occasion to jeer at Religion She was much concerned for the Publick and in her Addresses and Ejaculations to God forgot not to mention Zion but prayed for the downfal of those three Enemies of the Church the Turk Antichrist and Satan And as to her self she prayed sometimes in these words Lord chase away the Tempter and suffer him not to darken my evidences now And again she prayed That when he came to her as he did to Christ he might find nothing in her When she was speaking of the sensible decayes of her Body and near approaches to the Grave she said I feel my self as it were like the Sun going down into another World. And when some drink was offered her she cryed I shall soon have done eating and drinking here but am going to drink new Wine with Christ in my Fathers Kingdom Her want of Sleep being spoken of by a stander by she said In a little while I shall sleep in the Lord which is better than any I can take here When the sharpness and violence of her pains was mentioned she said that indeed she could never have been able to endure them if God had not strengthened her and given in such extraordinary comforts to her for she was never so sensible of his love as when she was in the greatest misery And then she added But alas what are my pains in comparison of what my dear Saviour underwent when he sweat drops of Blood for my sins Some weeping loud in the room she beg'd them to forbear saying Why should you cry for such a lump of dirt It will do me no good but make me dye the harder and I count it rather an Argument of hatred than of love to me When one spoke in her hearing of the troubles of the times she said God is hiding me in the hollow of his Hand from the Besom of Destruction which may be coming She very largely exprest her earnestness to be dissolved at several times and more especially when she found that her Death was deferred longer than she had supposed it would be she cryed out I have tasted so much of the Joys of Heaven that I loath the Earth What should I do in this Dunghil World where I hear the Name of my God so often blasphemed I am weary of it my Heart is ready to break because I may not go home to my Father Oh! to have such a sense of the Love of God and then be put back again I cannot bear it I am sure I shall go to Heaven I wish that I might go quickly I shall never enjoy my self till I am there One askt her whether if she might recover she could be willing to return again into this World and she answered with some vehemency No. Yet notwithstanding all this she was not irregularly impatient to be gone as appeared by that passage The Lord look upon me and enable me to wait his time She mingled the Praises of God with her Prayers to him and was heard sometimes to utter those words Grace Grace She gave very serious Counsels to those that came to see her and stood about her she spoke to her Brother and Sisters in a way sutable to their Capacities and amongst other things strictly caution'd them against the Sin of Lying and advised them to be very dutiful and good Children to their Father and Mother and to love as Brethren and Sisters Taking her leave of one whom she blest God for as an Instrument of bringing her to the Knowledge of God in her tender years She said I am going from you now but hope to meet you again hereafter in Heaven And to the same purpose she spoke to some others of whose good Estate she was perswaded To another she said Be sure above all things to get an interest in Christ for this is all which we have to do in this World. She counselled and intreated all to walk as becomes the Gospel that they might not dishonour God nor provoke him to take the Gospel from them Her Mother asking her what she had to say to her she answered I pray God to support you and I hope he will be your everlasting support She had alwayes carryed her self so well towards her Parents that she was able with a good Conscience to tell her Father in this sickness that she had never wilfully offended him in her whole Life She was very conscientious in observing of the Lords Day and those parts of it which were not taken up in publick or in Family-Worship she spent in her own private Retirements the Fruit whereof abundantly appeared She had made her Bible her dayly delightful Companion for such a considerable time and profited so much in it that she could recite