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A48837
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A sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Francis Mitchel, who dyed the 19th, and was buried the 24th of July, 1671
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Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.
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1671
(1671)
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Wing L2702A; ESTC R20394
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10,987
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39
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A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF M R. FRANCIS MITCHEL Who Dyed the 19th and was Buried the 24th of Iuly 1671. The Memory of the Iust is Blessed Prov. 10. 7. LONDON Printed by Thomas Milbourn for Thomas Iohnson 1671. A SERMON PREACHED At the Funeral of Mr. F. M. PSAL. 37. 37. Mark the perfect Man and behold the upright for the End of that M'an is Peace THis whole Psalm was designed saies the Syriack Translation for the resolving of that Question which hath often troubled good men and somtimes David himself as he confesseth Psal. 73. 2 c. Why God the Almighty and most Just God doth not speedily in this Life take Vengeance of ungodly and wicked men Whereas on the other hand it is often-times seen that good men are punisht and chastend and plagued as David complain'd that himself was Psal. 73.14 And his son Solomon observed it in his time Eccl. 8.14 There be Iust men saith he to whom it happens according to the work of the Wicked Again There be Wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the Righteous this is Vanity saith the Epicurean whom Solomon there personates 't is Vanity to make any distinction or to trouble ones head with it or to do any thing else than to eat and drink and be merry and let things go which way they will But saies Solomon of himself in the last verse of the chapter I beheld the work of God in it who orders things as he pleases and what he doth we ought to submit to it and why he doth it is past our finding out Nor doth David pretend to say why God doth thus or thus we shall know that most distinctly and particularly hereafter 'T is at present sufficient to know that He doth it who is a God of Infinite Unspeakable Incomprehensible Wisdom who is most Just in those things where He seems most Remiss Who is most Merciful even then when He seems most Severe and most Rigorous Who as St. Austin saies is so Good that He would not suffer any evil to be done but that he is also so Wise that he can turn that evil to a greater Good If any man be unsatisfied with this reason of Gods doings it is because he himself is unreasonable as David confesseth he had been when time was Psal. 73.22 So Foolish was I and Ignorant I was as a Beast before thee 'T is unreasonable to expect that every thing must be set right within a few years or else to conclude it will never be Our few years are but as a Moment before God To Him a Thousand years are but as one day Yea they are as nothing in respect of Eternity We shall be wiser if we go into the Sanctuary of God that is if we consult with Divine Revelation Then we shall know what the End of every thing is and it is a wise mans Rule not to judge of any thing till the End He that judgeth by a part of any thing shall often see himself confuted by the End of it Therefore David so much insists upon this as if he had expresly said Tell not me of any ones beginning Tell not me how he thrives and prospers in the World or what Crosses he hath in the course of this Life There is no judging of a tree but by his Fruit nor of a Ship till you see it in the Haven nor of a man till you have seen his End Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the End of that man is peace But the transgressors shall be destroyed together the End of the wicked shall be cut off Half this will serve me at this time for my business is only with the perfect and upright man I shall shew you who he is and how we are to observe him and what we shall find by him all this in the words of my Text First who he is that David speaks of The Perfect and the Upright Man I shall speak of these words severally then bring them together for they signifie one and the same thing They are the description of a faithful servant of God He is exprest by two names to answer those two words Observe and Behold which as Kimchi conceives are to be taken Distributively As if DaVid had said Mark every individual servant of God First Observe one Then look upon another and so throughout the whole number you shall find that their End is happy There is not one of them but whatsoever his Life was he is happy in his Death The End of that man is peace It is the opinion of others that by thus Doubling his words David meant we should Double our care in the observation As if he had said Mark the just man and keep a good Eye upon him You may lose him in a cloud of affliction and then you may conclude that he is gone That God hath cast him out of his sight and that he will remember him no more But it is no such thing If you keep your eye upon him If you follow him home to the mark you shall surely find and you cannot but observe that the End of that man is peace The End may signifie the last part of ones life or it may signifie another life after death Of one or both these it is promised that it shall be Peace to the righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only Peace but the perfection of happiness This was promised to the righteous in this life according to the Letter of the Jews law but under that was contained a Mystical sence on which they rather depended They were not so confident of any thing in this world as they were of a happy and blessed immortality Much less should we Christians to whom God hath much more clearly revealed it as St. Paul saith 2 Tim. 1. 10. He hath brought Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel I having thus designed the Method of my discourse I shall now consider each part in it's order We are to speak of the Perfect and of the Upright man by which words the Iews meant him that lived according to their Law Him they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Perfect wanting nothing to make him a holy or a righteous man For their Law was perfect converting Souls that is making them like it which lived according to the Rules of it And therefore of those Gems which the Priest wore in his Breast-plate and were called Urim and Thummim that is Lights and Perfections As that which was called Urim or Lights was a pledge from God of his Illumination for the resolving of Questions concerning Civil Affairs while they were a Theocracy under the government of God so the other Stone was called Thummim that is Perfections in token of his perfect Knowledge of the Law of God which as St. Paul said long after that Token had ceast but perhaps alluding to it 2 Tim. 3. ver ult was enough to make the man of God
that man shall be Peace And now suppose any thing to befal that can happen we are armed against all cross accidents in the world Ye cannot say nor suppose any thing too hard for Gods Power and if it be in Gods power he will surely make good his Promise What if one be snatch't away in the prime of his years what if he be cut off in the Field of Battel what if he leaves a miserable widow and children what if he leaves an Embroil'd estate behind him what if he sees the Church of God tottering and ready to fall after him Yet if this be no fault of his if it be the will and pleasure of God thus to deal with the Perfect and Upright man to whom God made this promise in my Text whatsoever Circumstances he dies in it is certain that the End of that Man is Peace There is one Text that proves this and there needs not a second 't is in 2 Chron. 34. 28. where God promises Iosiah Behold I will gather thee to they Fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy Grave in Peace This God promised Iosiah you see not only in the General words of my Text but also in an Express and Particular Revelation from Heaven And yet will you see how God performed with him It lies before you in the History of Iosias he Dyed in all those sad circumstances that I mentioned He was cropt off in the prime and flower of his age He dyed a bloody death in the field of Battel He left a desolate Widow and poor Infants behind him And a bleeding State a Tottering Church a ruining Kingdom What can be said more Only this that if God said true Iosiah dyed in Peace But we are sure God is true Therefore to die in peace we are sure is somthing else than what the world would imagine When God sayes the End of that Man is Peace he means not that he shall die in his Bed He means not that he shall dye in a good Old age He means not that he shall have his Wife and Children about him He means not that he shall leave Sion in Peace and Ierusalem in Prosperity He means none of those things which belong to this world But God means he shall have that peace which the world cannot give It is so For this world is only for Temporal things but the peace of the Perfect and Upright Man is Spiritual and Eternal First there is a Spiritual Peace that is made for him in this Life Wheresoever there is Grace there is Peace You know Grace and Peace go together in the Gospel But the Perfect and Upright Man being in the covenant of grace he is therefore in the covenant of Peace he is reconciled to God in the blood of Christ which is the only effectual sufficient peace-offering of all them that are true and living Members of his body the Church Eph. 2. 14 15 16 18. Now this peace being Made for us it is necessary we should Plead it that we should depend wholly upon it that we should look on this as our only way to God the only means of Pardon and Mercy of grace and glory It is necessary withal that we should observe those Terms that our Peace-Maker hath made for us That is not only to believe in him but to believe him to keep his Commandements to repent and be converted that our Sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he that doth thus is sure also of another peace in the Heavenly Ierusalem which is the Eternal Vision of peace It is that rest which was Typified in the Earthly Canaan and which is the Substance of all those promises of entring into Gods Rest. That perfect Peace of the Perfect Man Who is able to express it but he that hath already attained it If the peace of God in this world passes all understanding How much more doth that peace of God in Heaven pass all our expression We cannot say what it is but we can say what it is not And therefore do commonly express it by Negatives by Abstracting from all the Cares and Sorrows and Fears and Troubles and Miseries of this Life We say first there is no Sin in Heaven and then to be sure there is no Evil whatsoever There is no sorrow nor affliction There is no fear nor danger There is no strife nor division There is no enmity nor Enemy There is only God and whatsoever is like him in goodness and Charity in Joy and Peace in Holiness and all manner of Perfection Which if any one desires to know more distinctly let him first practise these things which he knows upon Earth and let him have Patience and Persevere in well-doing and when God sees his time he shall depart in that Spiritual peace which I before described into that Eternal Peace which is here promised in these words The End of that man is Peace I have done with my Text beyond which I cannot pretend to Revelation And therefore in what followeth as in all such cases I desire not to impose upon your Faith But according to the measures of Discretion and Charity to say my thoughts upon long and intimate Knowledge of the Person who hath been the sad occasion of our meeting this day I cannot but say that I have thought of him all this while as being according to the Language of my Text to my thinking a truly Perfect and an Upright Man He was eminently such for he was Perfect in that Calling which of all other is most apt to shew mens Imperfections It was a saying of Bias that Magistracy shews what a man is I think next to Magistracy it ought to be said of this Profession because of the great opportunities thâ—t it gives men to be dishonest if they please However I may be understood I am sure I mean this no otherwise but to the honour of the profession The Law is the glory and support of any Nation a good Practitioner is an ornament to the Law and such he was I am sure if I knew any Among the men of his rank few more throughly understood it None more punctually observed it None more heartily loved the known Laws of the Nation And yet he loved not to set men at Law He did not need it much less did he affect it It was his way to compose suits rather then to make them especially if he saw they were Unjust or Unnecessary And I verily believe in this kind he hath prevented more Suits than many an Honest man was ever retain'd in As he was not greedy to undertake so he was most diligent to give a good dispatch He used his Client as if he had been his Guardian contriving onely how to leave him as rich in purse and as much at peace as it was possible And yet this I have known of him that he was not more frugal of his Clients cost then he was Liberal of his own All that God blest him with was like a Stock put in his hands for Good Uses out of which he both gave and lent freely while he lived and left the rest to be distributed by his Will Of which some I suppose will redound to the good of this Place What I have said of him in respect of his Calling was only because in that he was most known If I should speak of him in other respects as a Vertuous man as a Just dealer as a Faithful Friend as a Loyal Subject as an Humble Devout Christian I am sure there are those present that could Testifie all that I have said And after all this Why may not I say my Text over his Corps Why may not I call him by these good Names in it Why may not I say His End is Peace Only because I have not this from God 'T is known to God alone who is Perfect and who is Vpright and whose Soul is in Peace In the most known sence of the words I am sure he was a Perfect and Upright Man if one may Judge by twenty Years trial For so long I have known him and in all that time I never knew him blemisht I never heard from him an Obscene or Indecent Word I never saw by him an Unjust or Uncharitable Action If any have known worse then I have observed of him I desire them to remember there is no perfection without some imperfection in this World And I am sure he that knows more then I know or can imagine knows much less by him then all know of the â—ommon rate of Christians If such a one as he was should miscarry and perish God help us in this Age How Few are they that shall be Saved And if the Righteous scarcely be Saved where shall the Sinner and the Vngodly appear The Lord give us Grace to avoid all evil Examples and to give Example or to follow it in all things that are good That coming to that Perfection which God hath required in this life we may attain to that Peace which he hath promised in the Life to Come FINIS