A FUNERAL SERMON Delivered upon Occasion of the Death of that Worthy Gentleman John Marsh Esq Who lived at Garston-Hall in Watford Parish in the County of Hartford And Died in the Lord and was Buried Septemb. 16 1681. By Samuel Slater Late Minister of the Gospel at Edmunds-Bury in Suffolk Isa. 57. 2. He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their Beds each one walking in his uprightness LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel 1682. The Epistle Dedicatory To my Honoured Friends Madam Marsh and her Pious Son and Daughters AT the Motion and Desire of your since Deceased Father and Husband my Worthy Friend I did after the Solemnization of his Funeral deliver the following Discourse to you in Private And in order to Common Good I have here made it Publick The Father of Mercies accompany it with his Blessing upon you and all others into whose hands it shall come that thereby Love to and Faith in Christ may be promoted together with Holiness of Life and Comfort at Death That you may not be unmindful of that King of Terrors at his greatest distances nor terrified by him in his nearest approaches I was greatly pleased to see your gracious Deportment under that Afflictive Providence which deprived you of one so desireable and that you were duely affected with your Loss yet sweetly submissive to your God Though the Cup was bitter you did not faint nor murmur It was indeed a Mercy that you enjoyed him so long for he was full of Dayes and had a flourishing old Age. And it may be a Comfort that you shall see him again in Heaven where you shall Eternally rejoyce together in God That your Souls may prosper your Graces increase your Comforts abound your Daies may be filled with Mercy and Duty and your selves at last received into Glory is the Hearty Prayer of Your Friend and Servant in our dear Lord Jesus S. Slater Decemb. 22 1681. Errata corrigenda PAge 13 line 16 for primative read privative p. 14. l. 12. for places r praises l. 22. for Son r Sun p. 20. l. 10. for lusted r likened p. 22. l. 6. dele thus p. 23. l. 31. dele that l. 36. after am l r that l. p. 26. l. 20. for him r them p. 30. 1. 14. for Judges r Judge l. 37. for Lords and Gods r Lord and God p. 34. l. 34. for their r the. p. 35. l. 16. for in r is p. 36. l. 10. for not r now LUK. 2. 29 30. Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word For mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation THESE are the words of Holy Simeon who is supposed to be the Son of Hillel and Chief of the great Synedrion and Father of the Learned Doctor Gamaliel at whose Feet the great Apostle of the Gentiles Paul was educated Concerning whom the Sacred Scripture testifies that he was a Just and Devout man i. e. Godly and Righteous Wary and Cautious A man that managed his Life and ordered his actions with that due circumspection as evidenced his sedulous care of approving himself to God This good man waited for the Consolation of Israel viz. the incarnation or coming of the Son of God the promised and longingly expected Messiah in whom all our comforts are laid up if we be Israelites indeed That Jesus alone can be our Consolation who is our Salvation It is only under his shadow we can sit with great delight because under that alone we can sit in safety Those men and Women that seek their comforts out of Christ will find themselves under miserable disappointment And by how much the higher they are raised in hopes and expectation by so much the lower they will be plunged into sorrow and vexation I do earnestly beseech you Christians to remember this that Christ is the Consolation of Israel and improve it for your Souls advantage Especially I speak this to you my Friends who are most nearly concerned in the late stroak of Providence and do now mourn under the smart thereof Learn whither you should repair for support and healing even to this Jesus who to this day yea for ever continues to be the Consolation of Israel and in whom you may find abundantly enough to sweeten this bitter Cup. This Simeon who thus waited was well rewarded for his Faith and Patience having this assurance given him that he should not see Death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. He should not see Death until Christ was born Christ should come upon Earth before Simeon should go to Heaven From whence you may learn this truth That waiting upon God is not in vain much time may be spent in it but it will not be time mis-spent God is not wont to send a waiting Soul mourning away Such an one may come to God with a tear in it's Eye but sooner or later it shall go from him with a smile upon it's Countenance Thou O mourning drooping Christian dost not see Christ now he covers himself with a Cloud well sink not under discouragement but let patience have it's perfect work and do thou charge thy Soul to wait on I am perswaded before thou seest Death thou shalt see Jesus Christ will manifest himself unto thee however as soon as Death hath closed thy bodily Eyes thou shalt both see him and thy self with him in Glory Well Simeon having waited long though not too long came into the Temple which did then exceed in Glory for there he met with Jesus And having met with him he toook him up in his arms and he was a most blessed arm-full doubtless the good old man was glad he had got him and his heart did leap within him He never before embraced so great and glorious an Object And I tell thee O Christian who hast got Christ in thy Heart and dost hug him in the arms of thy Faith thou hast as much reason to rejoyce as Simeon did when he had him in his arms for it is Christ in you the hope of Glory If he be formed in you you shall be saved by him Having taken Christ in his arms what did the good man do Oh! he blessed God and truly he had reason How could he be without his Song when he had got him who was his strength and Salvation We have cause to bless God for Creatures for our Health Strength Estates and Relations because we are less than the least of these but we have infinitely more cause to bless God for Christ because he is a gift of the dearest love and of the greatest excellency All Earthly comforts come from the hand of God but Christ comes from the Some part of that which Simeon spake upon this occasion you have in the words of the Text in which take notice of these two things 1. Simeons humble petition and request to God Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word 2. The ground
procure us heavier blows 3. Doct. We may learn that Death is a departure Lord lettest thou thy Servant depart When a man dies he removes He doth not then go back again into nothing but into another Place and into another State Christ called his Death a going away Joh. 14. 28. Ye have heard how I sayed vnto you I go away So Joh. 16. 7. It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you Our Death also is a going away Those that make the longest stay here must be gone at last A wicked man when he dies departs out of his warm Climate and pleasant State from his Friends and Riches from his Comforts and Delights into Miseries and Torments which are Intolerable and Eternal And it is no wonder if such a man play loath to depart and Death be unto him a King of Terrors But when an Holy Gracious Person departs he leaves all his sins and enemies all his troubles and sorrows behind him and he goes to a better place and better company and infinitely better delights He enters into peace and into rest and into the joy of his Lord. He gets off from the stormy troublesome Sea of this World where he was so frequently indangered and baths himself in those Rivers of pleasure which are at God's Right-hand for evermore Vse 1. Let the consideration hereof quiet us under those Breaches which Death makes in our Families and Relations Though it be very afflictive to think my dear Husband is gone my tender Father is gone my loving and faithfull Friend is gone Yet this will lighten and sweeten that affliction if we think whether he is gone from Earth to Heaven from Troubles to Joy and Glory from us to God Christ the Spirit Angels and Saints above Oh Blessed and Everlastingly making Exchange Vse 2. Let the consideration hereof quicken us the good Lord grant that we all may frequently and seriously think of this our departure and industriously bestir our selves in order to a full preparation for it Oh let us get our work done before we go Christ did so Joh. 17. 4. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and now come I to thee Mind follow finish that for which you came into the World before you are called out of the World Oh! get your evidences full and fair that when Death siezeth upon you you may lay hold upon Eternal Life Make sure of Heaven before you come to leave the Earth How sweet was it for Christ to tell his Disciples I go to my Father and to your Father to my God and to your God Doct. 4. We may from hence learn this Lesson That a departure in peace is exceeding desireable This was the subject matter of Simeon's desire and prayer Lord lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace He would go out in a calm neither in a stink through sin nor in a storm through fear but in an holy peace This promise was made to Abraham the Father of the Faithfull Thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace That is with a quiet pacate and comfortable Spirit with joy and satisfaction without any trouble for what he should part with and without fear of any thing he should meet with And you find Psal. 37. 37. The Royal Prophet bids you Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is Peace Whatever troubles he is encountered by in his way he hath Peace at his end A wicked man may dye in Stupidity but not in Peace he may then be secure but he is not safe though he then have no trouble yet he hath cause enough of trouble My God saith there is no Peace to the wicked neither in his Life nor at his Death Such an one dies in sin and therefore he cannot dye in Peace But now a Godly man whose heart is sprinkled from an evil Conscience hath Peace in his Death usually he hath Peace with his own Conscience that befriends him witnesseth for him speaks comfortably to him and is an excellent Cordial at a dying hour Always he hath peace with his God they are Friends he is Reconciled to God and God to him Moses dyed at the mouth of the Lord God kist him home Vse Well my Friends I am confident you all desire such a Death you would willingly go out of the VVorld in peace Oh let it not be only the matter of your desire but likewise of your endeavour use means in order thereunto and follow these directions 1. Make your peace now Cease your enmity against God throw down your weapons of Rebellion and return unto your duty How can those persons rationally hope that God should be a Friend to them when they dye who are enemies to God while they live now now seek peace and ensue it 2. Make hast to Christ make sure of Christ get unto him He and he alone is the peace and the Prince of peace there is no peace to be had out of Christ. Let him saith God lay hold upon my strength that is upon Christ that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me Have a care that you be not found in your sins nor in your selves nor in your own Righteousness trusting in that No no saith Paul Phil. 3. 8 9. I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him 3. Look after a sanctifying change in your hearts and natures follow Peace and Holiness Holiness both of inward Disposition and of outward Conversation Grace ushers in peace purity and peace go together the work of Righteousness is peace and the effect of Righteousness is quietness and assurance for ever By the study and practice of Holiness you may lose your peace with some men but you will keep up and maintain your peace with God yea and with good men too Prov. 22. 11. He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his Friend Doct. 5. VVe may from these words gather this instruction That a truly gracious man may very well be willing and free and forward to dye Thus good Simeon was here he prayed for Death Let me depart let me be gone out of this VVorld Do thou Lord send for me that I may come to thee And not only so but he also prayed for a quick dispatch a speedy dismission as one that was in hast to be gone As you may learn from that particle Now now lettest thou thy Servant depart He did full well know that he must dye one day that was certain and unavoidable the Chambers of the grave are prepared for all the living but he would dye presently now O Lord now without more ado now without any longer tarrying A wicked man doth not care how long Death stays he puts that day far from him because he looks upon it as a very evil day
Righteousness As if God would take you from hence to your loss and you should be better in a strange Land than in your Fathers house And the preparations that God hath made for Eternity are not so good as those that he hath made for a short time and so Abraham Isaac Jacob David Peter Paul and the rest of the Saints departed had better have staid here and now they are with God do wish themselves with us again In a word it is as if the immediate and full enjoyment of God would not be sufficient for you you could not find room enough nor goodness and delights enough in a God but you must go begging to the door of creatures and patch up to your selves an happiness with these small and sorry shreds of being and you have found more to live upon and to delight your selves in the drop of a bucket than you can or do find in the Ocean of goodness I beseech you seriously consider of these things all these things lye uppermost any one may see them in such a persons unwillingness and loathness to dye whensoever God would have him But to proceed Vse 3. In the third and last place this may prove a very comfortable consideration and staff of support in the hands of those who labour under sorrow and continual heaviness of heart because of their departure of their gracious and holy Relations they are dead and you carry as if all your comforts were dead with them This is certain that when God gives such blows those that have any thing of tenderness do feel the smart of them Breaches in the Family do make breaches upon the Spirit When Lazarus was dead Jesus wept Mourning at Funerals is no Soloecism but a lovely sight so the sorrow be kept within those bounds that reason Religion have set it And where there are such breaches they call for binding up We should all be as so many good Samaritans pouring Oyl into the wounds of the Spirit for the suppleing and healing of them God hath been pleased to come into this Family and break the head of it and cut it off in taking him away he took away a tender Husband a loving Father a good Master a dear Friend one that in these evil days owned God his Waies and People and kept a Church in his House and his doors open that hungry Souls might feed upon and be refreshed with the bread of life which was there from Sabbath to Sabbath delivered out unto them The death of such a person is a common loss not only to the Familie but to the Country too and because thereof you are in Heaviness and afflicted in your Spirits Neither is this your case alone but of many others Death rides in Circuit and according to the Commission which it hath received so it makes it seizures here in an Husband deprived of the delight of his Eyes there is a woman made a Widow and her Children Fatherless Many a faithful fruitful useful Christian is cut down under whose shadow and in whose sellowship his Relations and Acquaintance did greatly rejoyce Unto such I have something to say that should prevail to the silencing of them and that is this it is the will of God the great God will have it so Thou wouldest have had thy Husband thy Wife thy Father thy Child lived longer but God would have him die now and this should knock all quarrelings and murmurrings and discontents down for there is all the reason in the world why God's will should take place and he should fullfil all his pleasure and why our will should submit and give place to God's And then I have something to say that may quiet satisfie you under such a providence for it is not enough for us that we be silent under it unless we be also reconciled to it at peace with it now in order thereunto take these 2 particulars consider them 1. They did see Gods Salvation before they did depart and so they dyed not under terrour nor in doubt nor at any uncertainty but in peace before Death closed the Eyes of their Bodies God had opened the Eyes of their Faith and shewn Christ to them and his love in Christ and you have reason to be perswaded good things concerning them even such as do accompany Salvation nay to be now perswaded of their Salvation it self This was the reason of my choosing these words of Simeon for the Subject of my discourse at this time because they were the Swan-like Song of our deceased Brother the very last words he spake save some short and holy Counsels which he gave to his beloved and most hopeful Son and shall not this satisfie you But then add 2. Now that those Holy ones are dead they see those things which they never saw things that are most richly worth their seeing and which as the case now stands with mankind they could not see without dying They have those sights which make the seer blessed they are taken up to the beatifical Vision They do not see an end of all their sins and sorrows nothing shall defile nor afflict them more all filth and all tears are wiped away they see the accomplishment of all their hopes the fullfilling of all their prayers the reward of all their services the Crown of all their sufferings They see the excellent Majesty and Glory of that God whom they had chosen and do now behold his face in righteousness Neither is that sight terrible to them as it was to Moses in the Mount so that he did exceedingly fear and quake No those Holy Souls do see God and live and rejoyce that sight is their satisfaction and delight They see that Blessed Jesus who loved them and gave himself for them and washed them in his own blood and made them Kings and Priests unto God yea they shall be like him for they shall see him as he is They do see that Holy Spirit which convinced them and sanctified them who directed them in their difficulties strengthned them in their weaknesses assisted them in their duties and most sweetly supported and comforted them in all their distresses They see an innumerable company of Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect In short they see that which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive namely that Glory Kingdom Inheritance those Robes Crowns and Thrones which God hath prepared for them that love him And the day is coming in which they shall again see those Bodies that at their flight to Heaven they left behind in a better State than ever And you O Saints shall see them too and Christ with them and then your hearts shall rejoyce and your joy no man shall take from you Only in the mean time do you live believingly walk humbly holily and circumspectly get your Vessels filled with Oil your Lamps burning and your Loins girt make haste to the Kingdom of God and be ye followers of them that through Faith and Patience do inherit the Promises