THE SAINTS EXPECTATION AND REWARD A SERMON AT THE FUNERALL of that Learned and Faithfull Minister of Christ Mr. THO WIBOROW June 10th 1652. Preached at Enfeild in Staffordshire By MICHAEL THOMAS Minister of Gods Word at Stockden in Shropshire Marke the perfect Man and behold the Vpright for the end of that man is Peace Psal 37. 37. The Righteous shall be had in everlasting Remembrance Psal 112. 6. Blessed are the Dead that Dye in the Lord. Revel 14. 13. LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his Shop at the Princis Armes in St Pauls Church-yard 1655. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Epist Pet. 3d. chap. ver 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness THE first word of this Text invites us to look back to somewhat that went before at the third Verse the Apostle gives a propheticall caveat concerning a sort of scoffers that should come in the last daies mockers at Religion not onely bending all their wit and learning to dispute against it but deciding those that spake of the comming of the Lord. Where is the promise of his comming say they ver 4. 't was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies Aretius a mocking and scoffing question which argued not onely the proud wickednesse but the deep security of their hearts Now against these Saint Peter bends his main forces and in this Epistle stirres up his dispersed Countrymen the Jews to stick close to that Doctrine which was delivered by the Prophets and Apostles For assure your selves saith he that as this VVorld had a beginning and once perished so hereafter it shall have an end and whatsoever these scoffers think be consumed with fire Verses 6 and 7. Neither think yee this time long a comming for though it seem so to us it is otherwise with God Deo nihil est aut prius aut posterius say the Schoolmen Gods actions are not measured by the rule of time those things which are past and future are present to him for one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day ver 8. 'T is the patience and long-suffering of the Lord which doth as it were set back the clock of time that we might take the advantage of the means and opportunities of grace to repent and be provided against that day commeth For come it shall and that suddenly as a thief in the night ver 9. and appear it shall and that terribly when the Heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat verse 10 but howsoever this universall combustion shall ruine the frame of this world and involve those desperate wretches in it that rest their hearts upon it yet to us who have obtained the pretious faith through the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ it shall not occasion the least trouble let the foundations of the Earth sink away under our feet let our habitations totter about our ears let the air fail our nostrills or the Heavens to give us light Neverthelesse we according to his promise look for new Heavens seq This Text in the generall purpose and design of it presents to us this observation That a righteous man hath both helps and hopes to depend upon when the whole world failes him A Doctrine very proper and necessary to be discussed in these sad times we see by sad and daily experiences that the tenure of our Earthly poslessions is fickle and uncertain those Tabernacles of our flesh wherein our soules dwell are continually decaying and mouldring away and therefore the spirits of holy men had need to be supported with their future hopes by the consideration of those glorious Mansions that are preparred in Heaven for them And when I have discussed this generall observation I proceed to speak of these five particulars First that the Estate of a Christian in this life is an inheritance 't is not in possession but in reversion Expectamus wee look for The second is that this inheritance will certainly devolve and fall to him for his Evidence for it is Gods promise Wee according to his promise look for The third is the substance of the inheritance Heaven and Earth The forth is the quality of the inheritance New Heavens and a new Earth The fift is the excellence of the inheritance wherein dwelleth righteousnesse I shall guide your Christian attention through these particulars and collect thence such notes of as may be proper to our selves and sutable to this present occasion I begin with the generall observation That a righteous man hath both helps and hopes to depend when the whole world failes him 'T was a blessed Metaphor which the Holy Ghost put into the mouth of St. Paul Pondus gloriae When he said that our afflictions are but light because there is an exceeding and an eternall weight of glory attending on them for were it not for that exceeding weight of glory no other weight in the world were able to turn the scale or weigh down those infinite weights of affliction which oppose us here we read in the book of Exodus that God sent upon Pharaoh pestem valde gravem a very heavy pestilence 9. 3d. in the eighth chap. Musâ—am valde gravem God called in but the fly to vex the Egyptians and even that flye was an heavy burthen to them The distressed Church of the Jews complain'd Lament 3. that God aggravasset compedes had made their fetters and their chains heavy to them and the workmen in the harvest Math. 20. complain that they had born the heat burthen of the day David and Solomon both cryed out and said that this work is vanity and lightnesse when wee see all is weight and burden and heavinesse and oppression what man that lives may not say and that truly trouble and heavinesse are fallen upon me so that were there not a weight of future glory to counterpoise it we should all sink into nothing And that which multiplies the sadnesse of this consideration is that still the best men have the most heavy afflictions laid upon them No sooner do we hear God say of Job that he had found a just man one that fear'd God and eschewed evill but immediately God grants a Commission to Satan to bring in the Sabeans and Chaldeans upon his servants and cattle fire and tempest upon his children and loathsom diseases upon his body Although God gave that testimony of holy David hat he was a man according to his own heart yet we may read several crosses that befel him in the miscarriages disobediences of his Children Yea our blessed Saviour himself of whom God testified at his baptism This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Yet we find that beloved Son led up by the spirit to be tempted in the Wildernesse Math. 4. Afterward you may hear God ratifying the same testimony at his transfiguration This is my beloved Son in whom
father and they are as so many wounds pleading and making intercession for penitent sinners So that these words that God will remember his people more tenderly then a mother can her child that the names of his Elect are written in the palmes of his hands in such bloody characters that no time can deface how strong an argument may this be to every Christian that Christ will be a friend and stick to him when the whole world shall fail him Saint Ambrose observing those many names and relations by which the Lord is pleased to own his people breaks forth into this meditation Omnia Christus est nobis Christ is all in all to us Is thy conscience wounded Christ is a Physician are thy sins many and grievous Christ is righteousnesse dost thou walk in darknesser Christ is light wouldst thou go to heaven he is the way dost thou fear death Christ is the life Vide quot titulorum generibus tui gratia Christus insignitur saies that father See how many names and titles Christ takes upon him for thy sake who in his own Essence is but one God that in all the changes and chances that may befall us in this life we may have some name and notion of God to lay hold upon and to sustain us in the day of adversity But some carnal heart perchance may say if the Lord be the help the hope of his people how is it that they are oftentimes brought into such straits that they know not which way to turn themselvs we might satisfie this and the like objections if we would but consider of these things First it is very meet that every child should honour his Father that every servant should glorifie his Master In the afflictions of his holy ones the Lord lets the wicked see how much they will suffer for his sake and not forsake him that they will not leave their integritie though they lose all the world beside Dost thou still retain thine integritie saies Jobs wife to him Dost thou fear such a God as hath stripped thee of all thy earthly comforts Oh saies Job shall we receive good from the hand of the Lord and shall we not receive evil The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Again it is not meet that children and servants should receive correction from their Parents and Masters to remember them of and to obtain them in their duty Secundi successus abducunt a Deo sanctimonia saies Hyperius prosperitie and happinesse do estrange or hearts from Godlinesse and slacken us in all duties of devotion this corruption David acknowledged in his own nature Man being honour hath no understanding And further Before I was afflicted I went wrong but now I will keep thy testimonies The Vine will grow empty and wild except it be pruned and so will the best man except the Lord somtime shake his rod over him Irascitur Divina Benitas in hoc soeculo ne irascatur in altero Almighty God will be angry with us in this world that he may favour us in the next and in mercy corrects us here that he may not consume us in vengeance hereafter And thirdly It is not meet that every one should wear the badge and cognizance of his profession Luther was wont to say Qui non est crucianus non est Christianus He that is not crucified to the world the world to him is no Christian and some stories tell us that the primitive Christians had an Hieroglyphick Crucem coronatam a Cross with a Crown upon it it had this inscription Tolle crucem 〈◊〉 â—â—bere coronam you must bear the Cross if ye would wear the Crownâ— if we be the members of Christ we must conform to our head partake with our fellow members wee must not expect that God should strew carpets for our nice feet to walk into Heaven and make that way smooth for us which all the Patriarchs and Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs yea and Christ himselfe found so rugged and bloody the gate of Heaven is streight and we must strive to enter into it we must be disposed and prepared in mind cherfully to part with any thing we enjoy when it shall please the Lord to call for it This is the race we must run this is the course we must finish and yet we may not say within our selves this is an hard saying are these the helpes and hopes that a righteous man hath to depend upon whent he world failes him surely wee mistake our selves if we look for any other for the estate of a Christian is an inheritance his happinesse is not in possession but in reversion which is the first of those particulars I propounnded to consider when I had handled the generall observation Expectamus saies the Apostle there are some better things we look for then we possesse here I am perswaded a great part of that trouble that befalls the children of God in this life ariseth from a mistake because our Saviour saies that the meek shall inherit the Earth therefore when meek and holy persons are driven from their house and home when their earthly possessions are taken from them by violence hereupon they are cast down and troubled as if they were at once oppressed by men and forsaken of God but this I say is a mistake Righteous men look upon the world as if it were their own when they have a good title to it yet they have the least share in it the wealth of a Christian is not in possession 't is true what Solomon saies Wisdom is good with an inheritance that man that is Dives and Lazarus too He to whom God hath given both riches and religion wealth and grace to manage it goodly and fair is that mans lot God hath done so to some but hee doth not promise to do so to all when the Sons of Zebedee were presented by their mother to our Saviours favour to sit one on his right hand the other on his left in his Kingdom they received no other answer but this can ye drink of my Cup that is can ye suffer with me can ye powre out your blood for the profession of my Gospel The Crown of of Martyrdom was all the honour which our Saviour offered to those ambitious Disciples Our Saviour told Pilate that his Kingdom was not of this world our estates then lie not on this old earth but in those new Heavens that we look for Neither do we find in Scripture that the Saints held by any other tenure Saint Paul saies of Abraham that he did but soâ—ourn in Canaan as in a strange Country he and his Children dwelling in Tents for he looked for a City that had foundations whose builder and maker was God So Jacob describes his own life and calls it but a Pilgrimage So David confesses that he was but a stranger and sojourner as all his Fathers were from whence proceeded these humble acknowledgements
one as 〈◊〉 not fade away Pareus gives us a criticisme upon the place that terme in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we read incorruptible he conceives should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indiminishable which tearme would much advance our heavenly inheritance we observe of earthly inheritances how great soever they be they do not wholly descend upon the heir the more children their are in a familie into the more portions must the inheritance be divided and every division is a diminution But this inheritance which Christ hath purchased for us is given whole and entire to every son of God Tanta est singulis quanta est omnibus saies Saint Augustine every blessed soul enjoyes the whole heaven and all the comforts of it which are the rather enlarged by the multitude of those that partake of them And again it is such an inheritance wherein dwelleth righteousnesse 'T is a nice but a profitable note that both Beza and Sâ—rrarius make conceiving the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to referre rather to the persons then the place they render it thus We in whom dwelleth the righteousnesse of faith look for new heavens and a new earth And admitting of this translation it may rouse our souls and consciences to consider whether true and saving righteousnesse dwell in us or no for 't is that only that must give us title to that inheritance Saint John in the Revelation tells us that there shall in no wise enter into the new Jerusalem anything that defileth or worketh abhomination or marketh alie Holy persons we must be as we hope to ascend into the holy hill of the Lord. Or consider the words as we read them that righteousnesse referres to the place and even that will exast the excellencie of it Here in this world righteousnesse doth but sojurne there it dwells here it hath but a Tabernacle there a Mansion here it is mixed with manifold infirmities there it is perfect and in the greatest eminency here but in some there in all here but for a time but there for ever The unrighteonsnesse of this present evill world makes all those that belong to heaven to desire to be dissolved These are those daies in which we may take up that crie of David Hâ—lp Lord for the godly man ceaseth and the faithfull fail from among the Children of men they speak with vain tongues and slattering lipps and double hearts and are full of all unrighteousnesse So that we may say Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord they do not only rest from their labours but are secured from all violence and unrighteousnesse they neither know nor feel the evills that are done upon earth Into which blessed state our confidence is the soul of our Brother here disceased is translated in the honour of whose memory I must yet begg a few minutes to shew you in how many respects he was an example of the Text and both in life and death a very eminent practiser of it I remember what Plinie said of Antoninus Pictores pulchram absolitamg faciem raro nisi 〈◊〉 peâ—us effingunt An exact and comely face is seldâ—me drawn but with some dissadvantage Persons of great parts and gifts cannot with sufficient right and justice be represented by one of meaner abilities I may say of him what Nacianzen said of Saint Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here wants his own tongue to speak his own storâ— that elegant and pious tongne which you have so often heard resounding the praises of God in this place Yet since David tells us that there is an honour due to all the Saints of God to such as live and die in his holy faith and since Providence put me upon the work for I sought it not as I loved and honoured him living it is some addition to my sorrow for his death that I cannot discharge this funerall rite in a measure answerable to his just desert In that great varietie of graces which shined eminently in him I cannot tell which to select and present first It was the Fate of this reverend person to live in such times wherein this Prophecie of Saint Peter in this Chapter was over-abundantly fulfilled He foretold that there should be scoffers and jesters in divine things in matters appertaining to God and religion For now in these daies excellency of wit lies in prophannesse and he is reputed a good spirit that dares abuse God and holy things that person is esteemed good company who by his scurrile wit makes his company the worse or keeps them from goodnesse This being the air and complexion of the wit of these times I have been both an eye and ear witnesse that prophane wit hath oftentimes been a matter of vexation to him but never of mirth that I could perceive It pleased God to carry him through various fortunes and yet to support him with cheerfulnesse and a true Christian constancie in all It was an inverterate disease no calamitie of these times that occasion'd his death He hath given many testimonies of his firm faith in the Doctrine of our Text that a righteous man hath both helps hopes to depend upon when the world failes him He saw and had experience of many failings in the world and worldly things His estate failed him which in the beginning of these troubles was full and plentifull His friends failed him and proved unfaithfull His health and strength failed him and let his bodie fall into his grave like ripe fruit from a tree and in all these deficiencies and faultrings of the world he bore up a true Christian head glorifying God in great patienee and integritie submitting to his holy will aswell in his losses as in his gaines blessing God both when he gave and when he took away He made the only right use of all his afflictions by considering that they were sent to teach him holy obedience to fear God and to eschew evill in which important lessons he was so good a proficient that like a dutifull servant he had learnt to carry the Crosse of his Master Christ Jesus after him Those staunch and reserved affections which he had to earthly things did abundantly testifie that he placed his wealth and treasure in his reversions in heaven not in any thing that he did or could possesse here on earth he accounted himselfe but a stranger and a pilgrim in this world and therefore was content though his Tabernacle were pitched and removed in divers places He was assured that God in his good time would provide an hiding place for him either on the earth or in the grave supporting himselfe with Luthers holy resolution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calo aut sub Calo that he should either be under the protection of heaven or in the possession of heaven His hope and beliefe in the watchfull providence of God was alwaies strong being rooted on that immovable foundation the promises of God of which he treasured up such store in his memorie that he could at