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A60347
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A funeral sermon occasioned by the death of Mr. William Rathband an aged and learned servant of Christ, and preached Octob. 13. 1695. at Highgate. By Samuel Slater, M.A. minister of the gospel.
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Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing S3965; ESTC R220549
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27,757
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34
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spake her loath to stir when her beloved who had done a great deal more and deserved much better at her hands stood all the while without knocking at the Door calling and begging for Admission Cant. 5. 2. Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled One would have thought such language of Love should have melted should have raised her Do not you contract upon your selves guilt of the same kind therefore my advice to you shall be the same with what you find in Psalm 24. 7. Lift up your heads O ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in Follow this advice will you Oh that you would remembring that you your selves must one day go to God and let that influence you to such a demeanour of your selves toward him now as that you may not at last find the Door shut against you and be forced to stand without calling and crying in the bitterness of your Souls Lord Lord open to us but may have an entrance ministred to you abundantly into the glorious kingdom of your God and Saviour Know for certain the very same measure you mete out shall be meted into you again with the pure he will shew himself pure and with the froward he will shew himself froward If you will be deaf to his call now he will not hear yours at last Prov. 1. 24 c. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me The second Use that I shall make of this Point shall be for Examination Let you and me fall to work and put our selves upon the Scrutiny for I can assure you it will be no lost labour to search and try our selves whether we are such and our State such as may at a dying hour be willing to go to God and may at the present rejoyce in the thoughts of it and so tho we must expect to fall by the stroke of Death yet we are deliver'd from the fear of Death And in order to the resolving of this great case let us propound to our selves these three Questions and deal faithfully with our own Souls for it is dangerous yea ruinous to be deceived in a matter of so great importance First Hath there been reconciliation made between God and you Is it Peace O my Soul is it peace There was a bâ—each that breach sprung up to an Enmity that Enmity produc'd a War you have been fighters against God there have been Acts of Hostility how is it now Is that Breach made up is that Enmity taken away and the War at an end There hath been Peace offered to you and most condescending gracious Terms propounded have you accepted and closed with them It cannot but be a most dreadful thing for a poor Creature to find it self at last no other than a vessel of wrath fitted for destruction one in whom God can have no pleasure It is a dreadful thing for one that lived a pitiful life and had little else but trouble in this world to find it unspeakably worse in the next trouble here and torment there A dreadful thing for one that was cloathed with Silk and Velvet far'd deliciously every day swam in pleasures and had the world at will to lie down in sorrow upon a Bed of Flames where throughout Eternity he cannot procure a moment's ease nor a drop of water to cool his tongue How sad will it be when a poor Soul is deprived of those comforts and delights which it eagerly hunted after and plac'd its happiness in and is turned out of house and home its old tabernacle of the body being so weak and crazy that there is no possibility of continuing there any longer and goeth naked to God who alone is able to afford it succor and relief and then it findeth that he is an enemy to it and will not give it one good word or look nor receive it into everlasting habitations Well do you now think seriously of it God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself and he hath committed to us the Word of reconciliation and we as the Embassadors of Christ and Messengers of Peace have sounded this Word in your ears and as tho God did beseech you by us we have often and often prayed you in Christ's stead that ye would be reconciled to God Now enquire how hath this Word wrought upon you Hath it come to you not in Word only but also in Power What effect hath it had Is the enmity that was in your hearts and natures to God slain Have you thrown down your Weapons of Rebellion Are you reconciled unto God Have you laid hold by an hand of Faith upon Christ who is his strength in order to the making of peace with him He hath promised that in that way you shall make peace with him otherwise never expect it for it will be but in vain to persons out of Christ he is a consuming fire and everlasting burnings Have you submitted to God and stoop'd and bow'd to his Government Do you like and love his Law Are you desirous that he should reign over you and erect his Throne in you Set this down with your selves as a most certain truth that unless you receive him for your Lord and King you will never find him your Friend Secondly Can you say as Christ did in this Chapter that you have glorified God upon earth All the glory that great Personages Lords and Ladies Kings and Queens have now will not stead them nor comfort them at the last but their having brought glory to God in their generation and several places Christ did this and he found the thought of it sweet to him he reflected upon it with joy and this all of us should do too in cur measure and to the utmost of our power for this was the end of our Creation for this we were sent into the world without this we live to no purpose and without this we cannot rationally expect to be accepted of him or glorified by him But here some poor humble Christian may object against its self and say When you speak of my glorifying God it strikes all my hopes dead for I have not done it nay I have not been in a capacity of doing it What glory can the infinitely great and ever-blessed God who is exalted above all blessing and praise possibly receive from such a sorry contemptible Worm such an earthen Vessel such a broken Potsherd as I am I do with grief and self-abhorrence own and acknowledge that I have highly dishonour'd him being a discredit to his holy and reverend Name while I was called by it and a disparagement to Religion while I made a profession of it
in your hearts mitigate and abate the sense of pain Look to it that you do not leave him while you live and then rest confident of this that he will not forsake you when you come to die David could say Psal 23. 4 Tho he did walk through the valley of the shadow of death he would fear no evil for God's rod and staff did comfort him I am apt to think the pains of Death are worst at a distance and not seldom more terrible to the Spectators than to the Patient And I do not in the least question but the throws and agonies of many poor Women in Child-bearing and those Pains also which are caused by the Cramp the Gout the Stone or Strangury are far greater and more severe than the Pains of Death usually are But however we may be sure of this those Pains be they what they will are but short if compared with that blessed Eternity which shall succeed them and so light as not worthy to be mention'd the same day with that far more exceeding weight of glory which shall be graciously bestowed upon them that overcome So the holy Apostle Paul saith Rom. 8. 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present life take them altogether from the first to the last moment are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore by Prayer earnestly beg of God a willingness to go to him and take pains with your own Souls in order to the working of them up thereunto Humbly and freely leave it to him who is infinite in wisdom to chuse the time when it shall be to him who is love it self and whose compassions do not fail to order out the manner how it shall be only be you careful to prepare and get ready labour to be fit to die and meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light and when that grim Messenger comes bid him welcome and let your hearts be glad and your glory rejoice Do your Souls now at any time wander from God call them in and chide them home and when you come to die sing them home and the good Lord enable you by being with you while you walk in the valley of the shadow of Death comforting you with his Rod and Staff giving you to look within the veil and to see your Advocate and Mediator Jesus at the right hand of God ready to receive you that so you may as the Protomarryr Stephen did commend your spirit into his hand and besides what hath been already said before the time of your departure come lay your selves in with these comfortable meditations First God whom you go to is the best and dearest Friend In him there is infinite Fulness and everlasting Love As the Sun when up and shining forth in his Glory doth so obscure and darken all the Stars that in his Presence they hide their Heads and disappear so doth the Glory of God prevail and triumph over all the Beauty and Glory of the Creature He hath all Perfections and is pleasant for Delights It is his Glory to be Self-sufficient and All-sufficient He hath enough for himself and for the holy Angels who look no further and desire no more therefore he cannot but have enough for you And as there is All fulness in him so All-sweetness too Here indeed a gracious Soul may sometimes discover that in God which strikes a terror in it The Psalmist remembred God and was troubled Psalm 77. 3. The Prophet cried out I am undone for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts Isa 6. 5. But in the other World where the sight will be clear and full you shall see nothing in him save that which will be your Comfort and Joy Then every sight of him will be ravishing and every thought of him precious He will then be in your Account altogether lovely You will then see he hath such a Glory as knoweth no blemish such a Fulness as knoweth no defect so that you cannot desire him better than he is nor would you have him other than he is for as all his Attributes are his own Glory so they will all contribute to and issue in your Satisfaction Secondly Heaven is the sweetest place that you can be in We have reason to conclude it must of necessity be so since God hath chosen it for his own Seat the place of his own Residence This World is but a Wilderness since Sin entred into it that is a Paradice far beyond the Terrestial one out of which our first Parents were driven This World is but a Dunghil that is a Mountain of Myrrhs there be the Beds of Spices There is nothing to pollute nothing to offend no danger of falling no fear of losing nothing to disturb the Spirit to break the Peace or damp the Joy Read and consider that excellent Description which is given of the New Ierusalem in that Rev. 21. 10 c. some passages whereof are these The foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones the twelve gates were twelve pearls the City yea the very street of it is pure gold the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it the Glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof And if there be such a Glory in that great City which descends from God out of Heaven what do you think and how great is the Glory of that great City which is in Heaven What words are big enough to express it What mind large enough to conceive it Deus Coelum non patiuntur hyperbolem God and Heaven are incapable of an Hyperbole our most raised and inlarged Thoughts will be too narrow short and low I will add but one thing more and shut up this Discourse Lastly When once you come to Heaven you will never be weary of being there Here indeed we are quickly weary and tir'd out at the best of our comforts A Man may lie in a Bed of Down till he is weary and his Bones ake He may sit at a noble and sumptuous Feast till he is weary and would be glad of a dimission We may pray and preach and hear till we are weary tho we should not be weary of Gospel-Ordinances and Religious Duties yet we may be weary in them But there is no such thing as this in Heaven no nothing like it throughout Eternity The Saints there will neither be weary of God nor of Heaven nor of themselves nor of one another Their Eye will not be weary of beholding God and contemplating his Glory nor the Tongue weary of blessing and praising him nor Soul and Body weary of maintaining a close and intimate converse with him As there will be a compleat Enjoyment so constant and fresh Delight A Fulness and All fulness of Joy and that will infallibly afford Pleasures for evermore God hath made a great Breach among you who meet in this place by taking away his Servant who labour'd in the Word and Doctrine It is above Fifty years since our first Acquaintance we having been of the same College and under the same Tutor He was a Learned Man and as I am persuaded truly Godly one that denied himself and suffered much for Conscience-sake I came hither to do you good not to commend him for that is needless you having known his Doctrine and manner of Life His Course is finished and God hath call'd him home so that you shall see his Face no more I beseech you to live the Truths he brought you and since you are taken with the goodness of this Air and the pleasantness of this Place for the health of your Bodies see that you neglect not you Souls but chearfully allow to the procuring and setling one among you that may feâ—d you with sound Knowledge and Understanding by your Liberality therein manifest the value you have for the Gospel and the good Lord send one in whose Light you may rejoyce FINIS