secur'd his Lot in Zoar Sodoms faire and Sunshine morning ends in a black and dismal storme If then we consider the paucity of good men if we remember they are our Brethren our fellow-Members if we owe any respect to the memory of them if we consider their usefulness while they are here and the ill presages that their removal carryes in it he must have an understanding of lead and an Heart of brasse that lets the Righteous perish without regarding or merciful Men be tooke away without laying it to Heart All which I have spoken not to adde affliction to the afflicted or to mix Vinegar with their Gall nor to grieve the Hearts of those who are too much overwhelm'd with Sorrow already I have another word to them before we part But to awaken the careless and secure world who regard not the Workes of God nor consider the operation of his Hand who take no notice what desolations God makes on the Earth what breachcs in particular places and families that regard not the afflictions of Joseph nor the Death of him that Dyeth Where are your natural affections where are your Bowels of Spiritual Love and compassion sympathetically feeling a common losse and bearing one anothers burdens Nay where are your eyes and understandings to enquire and discern the reason hereof and what God meanes by snatching his own out of the World so the Text. None considering that the Righteous are took away from the evil to come The word to come is not in the Original No more is there read but are took away from the face of the evill Which may only note their freeing and delivering from Sin and suffering which are the evils they have felt in this present life Having from henceforth all Sin washt from their Soules and all teares wiped from their Eyes So as for the time to come they shall neither offend nor be offended shall neither commit evill nor be capable of the impression of any evill from without But I shall take the words as we Translate them and as they are most commonly understood and applyed Hence collect 2. That God sometimes in much Mercy takes away his dearest Children from the evill to come When God is about to bring some publick calamity or some common scourage upon a People or place he removes his owne that they shall not see them nor feel the smart or burden of them Among the many wayes of mercy that God hath to secure his People from general evills this is one to call them forth to himselfe to hide them in the grave where malice and wrong can do them no further mischiefe Is 26. 20. Come my People enter into thy Closet shut the doore after thee Hide thy selfe for a littel moment till the Indignation be overpast And what if one sort of these Chambers be the Chambers of a natural Death and these doores be the sides of the pit and the Leaves of the Grave As God made an Arke for Noah to save him from the Flood so he can make the Grave an Arke wherein to secure his People till the indignation be past So sayes God to Josiah 2 Kings 22. 19. 20. Because thine heart was tender and thou humbledst thyselfe and weptst before me I have heard thee behold I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gatherd to thy Grave in peace and thine Eyes shall not see all the evill that I will do unto this Place Thus it is observed that Methuselah and Lamech probably many more of the good Parriarchs were gathered 10 their Grave the Yeare before the Flood Luther Dyed a little before the commotion and sad desolations that were made by the Boores in Germany and Saint Austin Dyed while his City was Besieged by the Barbarous and Pagan Vandals and good Paraeus but a few Dayes before the taking and sacking of Heidelberge by the little lesse barbarous and Bloudy Spaniards and Imperialists This then should teach us yet more seriously to lay to heart the Death of good Men least perhaps it should portend any future evill to us that are left behind When a Prince calls forth his friends and allyes out of a forrainers Country it is an argument he hath a controversy with that Country When Saul called the Kenites from among the Amalekites it was a forerunner of a Warre with Amalck 1 Sam 15. 16. When God calls his Servants and friends out of a place let them that are left consider their wayes amend their lives If these things be done to the greene Tree what shall be done to the dry and if God take away that which is the substance the sap and the juice what 's the rest but dry Wood fit onely to be bundled up and burnt Learne we then to turne our natural passions into Christian affections our bootlesse sorrow for the Dead into useful and pious love for the Living Weep for the Sins for the sufferings of the living for what 's present for what may be future what they feel what further they may feare Jer 22. 10. Weep not for the Dead neither bemoane him but weep sore for him that goes away That is whose troubles are but now a beginning being to endure the miseryes of a sore and long Captivity which will make them of Solomons Mind Eccl 4. 2. Wherefore I Praised them which are already Dead more then the Living which are yet alive yea better is he then both they who hath not yet been who hath not seen the evil that is under the Sun When a great company of people followed our Saviour to his crucifixion and the Women bewayled and Lamented him Luc. 23. 28. Jesus turned to them and sayd Oh Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but for your selves and for your Children for the Day is coming in which it shall be said Blessed are the barren and the Womb that never bare c. Convert your mourning and teares into fervent prayers and supplications for the pardon of our Sins who remaine and preventing the further progresse of Gods Judgments When Moses had took a full prospect of that grievous mortality that was in his time in the Camp of Israel and had had sad reflexions upon it he concludes-all with prayers fiâ—t for our imitation in such a time as this that the living might lay it to heart and learne to prepare for Death that God would put a stop to his displeasure and revive the hearts of his people with some tokens of favour and mercy for the time to come Ps 90. 12. Teach us to number our daies c. Returne O Lord how long and let it repent thee concerning thy servants make us glad according to the dayes wherein thou hast afflicted us c. so David Ps 39. Contemplating the shortness and uncertainty of humane life improves that consideration into such petitions as these v. 4. Lord make me to know mine end c. v. 8. Deliver me from my transgressions v. 10. Remove thy stroke
TWO SERMONS The first Preacht at Steeple-Aston in Oxfordshire at the Funerall of Mr. Francis Croke of that Place Aug. 2. 1672. The other at the Funerall of Alexander Croke of Studley Esq Buryed at Chilton in Buckinghamshire Octob. 24. 1672. By DANIEL GREENWOOD M. A. and late Rector of Steeple-Aston in Oxfordshire OXFORD Printed Anno Dom. 1680. Isai LVII 1 2. The Righteous perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and mercifull Men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the evill to come He shall enter into peace they rest in their Beds each one walking in his uprightness THE Prophet Isaiah as all the Ministers of Christ was set to be a Watchman to give warning of Judgment approaching and also to be a Judge to Judge the House of Israel and to shew them all their abominations the causes and procurers of these Judgments To be also the voyce of a Cryer or a Trumpet to alarme and rouse them to a readiness that being God would do this to them they should prepare to meet the Lord by a thorough humiliation hearty repentance and effectuall reformation and amendment of such things as are amisse In the dispatch and delivery of this his message and errand he meets with various effects and his word different entertainment from two sorts of Men. 1. some were stubborne and disobedient going on impenitently in their rebellion adding Sin to Sin and securely promising themselves prosperity many happy daies with a plentiful and flourishing State notwithstanding all the menaces of the Prophet like those Deut. 29. 19. That say they shall have peace though they walk after the imagination of their own Heart adding drunkennesse to thirst so these secure desperate Jews slighting the threatnings of God by his Prophet cry in the verse before my Text Come I will fetch Wine and we will fill our selves with strong Drink and to morrow shall be as this Day and much more abundant like Babylon that said Is 47. 7 8. c. I shall be a Lady for ever so that they did not lay those things to Heart nor consider the latter end of it like those Amos. 6. 1. That are at ease put far from them the evill day and regard not the afflictions of Joseph But secondly there was another sort whose Hearts like Josiahs were tender trembled at Gods word were affraid of his Judgments prepared their Hearts to seeke the Lord and Mourned in secret for common abominations who mended what they could mourn'd for what they could not Now so it came to pass that while God was thus threatning these degenerate Jews by slow but secret paths making way for his wrath and bringing on the Judgments which he had denounced many of those Holy Men fore spoken of dropt away some it may be cut off by a suddain and violent stroak who had their Lives threatn'd by the cruel usage of mercyless persecutors others called aside by the wife dispose of him whose we are and whose our time and Life is So that good Men seemed to be very thin strewed scant one of a family and two of a tribe that he might complaine as the Psalmist Ps 12. 1. Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth the faithfull fail or as Mich. 7. 1. Woe is me for I am as when they have gathered the Summer fruits as the Grape gleanings of the Vintage All this was little regarded or minded by wicked worldly and voluptuous Men but it could not chuse but be an hearts griefe a sore rock of offence and occasion of trouble of mind to serious and considerate persons Therefore the Prophet amidst dreadfull denunciations of Judgment against the maine Body of State inserts some words of comfort to the sincere hearted who could not but lament to see but few good and those few made every day fewer by Death And therefore in these two verses God by his Prophet tells the People 1. How greatly he resents that neglect which his People met with complaining that their Death was not regarded nor their losse valued as it ought 2. Tells them what gracious end he had in cutting the thread of their temporall Lives which was to deliver them from the evill to come 3. What care God had of them after this life and what amends he made them for snatching them sooner then ordinary out of the World They enter into peace c. These afford us sundry points of Instruction 1. That God would have the Death of his Servants minded and layd to Heart 2. God sometimes in much Mercy takes away his Children by Death from the evill to come 3. That the Death of the Righteous is the beginning and inlett of their happiness 1. That God would have the Death of his Servants minded and laid to Heart The righteous perisheth and no Man c. by Righteous understand in a large sense the Holy the good Man that hath respect to all Gods Commandments that is carefull to order his Conversation aright or as the 2. verse expresseth it He that walketh in his uprightnesse By the mercifull Man understand the same good and holy man expressing his Piety to God by his Charity to his Brother and mercifull is added to just because it is not enough to give every one his owne and do no body any wrong unless he be a doing good likewise shewing mercy and extending bowells of compassion towards them that are in want Ps 37. 26. The Righteous is ever mercifull and Lendeth v. 21. he sheweth mercy and giveth Ps 112. v. 4. He is gracious full of compassion and righteous v. 5. A good man sheweth favour and lendeth v. 9. He hath disperst he hath given to the poor c. In all which places we see Righteousnesse and mercifulnesse are joyn'd together as in the Text and a Man is not a righteous except he be a mercifull Man That Summum jus which some Men stand so much upon and expect so much to be justified by whereby they give every one their owne and accordingly exact their owne of every one without difference or distinction when it is weighed in Gods balance will be found Summa injuria extreme wrong far from what he expects from a Christian whose profession is Charity You are my Disciples if you Love one another Jo. 15. 12. and who have these precepts from the Apostle of their profession Be mercifull as your Hâ—avenly Father is mercifull Lu. 6. 36 and in a word Piety Justice and Mercy are so nearly linkt together that where all are not none is in truth He that hath this worlds goods and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up the Bowells of Compassion from him how dwells the Love of God in him 1. Jo. 3. 17. He hath shew'd thee O Man what is good and what the Lord requires of thee that thou do Justice Love Mercy and walk humbly with thy God Mic. 6. 8. Pure Religion before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherlesse and
away from me v. 12. I am a stranger as all my fathers were Oh spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence c. Go we and pray like wise 3. The Death of the Righteous is the beginning and inlet of their happiness from henceforth they cease to be miserable and enter into bliss This is assured us by a double expression in the Text. 1. He shall enter into peace that is the Righteous Man departs here with inward peace in his Soul and Conscience Lu. 2. 29. Now lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace this peace begins here being supported by that hope which at length will not make ashamed Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Or he departs hence into Rest and Peace Glory Honour and Peace on every Soul that doth well Rom 2. 10. This is that peace which the world neither gives nor takes away A Peace whiâ—h the world is not acquainted with and therefore considers not that when the Righteous is taken away he enters into peace For a Christians spirituall Life is a riddle and mystery to a worldly man much more is eternal Life Our life is hid with Christ in God Col 3. 3. but shall be reveal'd seen and confest by all at the generall resurrection v. 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear we shall appear with him in glory This is a peace that passeth our present understanding For Eye hath not seen nor Eare heard nor hath it enterd into the Heart of Man to conceive what God hath layd up for those that Love him We are now saith the Apostle 1 Iohn 3 2. the Sons of God but it doth not appeare what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 2. They shall rest in their Beds As their soules pass to a place of rest and blessedness so their Bodyes are layd down at rest in the Grave as in a Bed or Bed-Chamber there to sleep quietly till the generall Resurrection Hence it is familiar with the Scripture to express Death by sleep the Grave by an House a Chamber a Bed and the Resurrection by waking and rising as Men do in the Morning out of their Beds after the sleep and repose of the Night Both phrases put together import the felicity both of Soul and Body perfect peace and satisfaction of mind with an undisturb'd rest and ease of Body whereby the whole man being freed from Sin and all the evill effects of it Ghostly and Bodily is admitted to see God and enjoy him in a fuller measure then ever he was seen or enjoy'd in this Life or it can enter into the Heart of Man at present to conceive Rev. 14 13. I heard a voyce from Heaven saying Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them 1. This should Stanch our sorrow and stop all immoderate griefe for good and Holy Men departed this life For besides the unprofitableness of this griefe neither benefiting nor recalling those that are deceased which consideration put a stop to Davids mourning for his Child 2 Sam 12. 22. for he sayd while the Child was yet alive I fasted and Wept for I sayd who can tell whether God will be gracious unto mee that the chid may live But now he is Dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back againe I shall go to him but he shall not returne to me Besides the unpleasingness of it to God who as he hath taught us to Pray that his will may be done so he requires us to be contented and satisfyed when we see it done so is it unreasonable in it selfe the day of a good Mans Death being better then the day of his Birth Eccl 4. 2. He is borne to toyle and labour to misery trouble But at Death he enters into peace he rests in his Bed Who ever grieved to see his friend take his natural rest quietly Who was ever discontented with an happy peace after a troublesome a tedious War or a safe harbour after a dangerous and a Stormy passage or an easy Bed after an hard Dayes labour Nay it savours of some unkindnes to our deceased friends to be immoderately sorrowful for their departure as if we more valued the comfort and benefit we receive by thir bodily presence then their seeing the face of god and enjoying the pleasures that run at his right hand for ever more Do but recollect concerning our friends departed how many cares and troubles they were encumbred with in this World what fears within what terrors without what anxious sollicitous cares for Soules for Bodyes for themselves their familyes their friends and relations and for ihe Church of God how deep their sighes how many their teares how fervent their prayers and wrestlings with God both alone and with others in private and in publick and then consider againe can we be sorry that these troubles are at an end that these cares are off that these tears are wiped from their eyes that their prayers are heard and their petitions longings and hopes are swallowed up in fruition and Enjoyment that their fight is fought their warfare accomplisht and that they have receiv'd at the Hands of the Lord not double but a thousand fold reparation and recompense for all their service of Faith and labour of Love and patience of hope which they have exprest in this day of their pilgrimage To me saith the Apostle Phil. 1. 21. To Dye is gaine Oppose we not our loss to their gaine our temporal to their Eternal Non moeremus c. saith Hierome We grieve not that we have lost such an one but we give God thankes that we had him nay we have him for to God all are alive and who ever is returned to the Lord is yet accompted of the Family that is still a member of the Body of Christ and therefore not lost but shall come againe when he shall be revealed from Heaven with all his Saints 1. Thes 4. 13. I would not have you ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that yee sorrow not as others which have no hope for if you believe that Jesus Dyed and Rose againe even so them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 2. This should reach us to give all diligence to be of the number of these Blessed ones that when we Dye we may enter into peace we may rest in our Beds that our Soules may be admitted to the beatifical vision of God and Christ and our Bodies may rest in hope even such hope as Job professeth Job 19. 25. I know that my redeemer Liveth and shall stand at the latter day on the Earth and though after my skin wormes destroy this Body yet in my flesh I shall see God
whom I shall see my selfe and mine eyes shall behold and not anothers though my reines be consumed within me And if you ask me how we shall attaine to this happiness and hope I answer The way is prescribed us in the Text and a patterne given us in the present occasion The way prescribed in the Text is this Every one walking in his uprightnes The distributive particle every one seemes to mind us that we must not trust to others merits but each one express the truth of his faith by the goodness of his own personall conversation For though God here may visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children and sheweth mercy unto after-generations for their forefathers sake yet at the day of Accompt we must all appeare before the Judgment seat of Christ 2 Cor 5. 10. And every one of us shall give Account of himself to God Rom 14. 12. Every one must stand on his own bottome and be judged by what he hath personally done in the flesh good or evill Now this uprightness is oppos'd 1st to wickedness ungodliness and a trade of sin 2dly to dissimulation hypocrisy He then walkes uprightly that leads his Life not according to the course of the world nor according to the lusts of his ignorance but by the guidance of the Spirit of God and the prescript of his Commandements He also that doth not only take up a forme and make a shew of godliness but hath the power of it in an honest heart and expresseth it in a blameless conversation that is a true Israelite in whom is no guile Joh. 1. 47. But because there is more force in examples than there is in rules and precepts and that you may see that what is commanded is practicable the occasion gives you a pattern of an upright Man I meane the example of our dear Brother departed You perfectly knew his conversation and manner of Life almost from his Youth upward and though he be Dead his good name Lives and his example speakes It is you know beside my custome to turne the Pulpit into a Desk and Sermons to the Living into commendations of the Dead yet I should displease my self and injure you if I should not at least point you to so faire a Copy for your imitation and herein I will not walk without my line or commend him to you for things before my knowledge or beside my profession He was one of these righteous ones in the Text one that walked in his uprightnes He was like Timothy well acquainted with the Scriptures from a Child and having in his youth been train'd up by his pious Ancestors in the way wherein he should go when he was Old he departed not from it He was neither a blazing nor a wandring nor a falling Star but one that shone in his owne orbe and gave a constant and a steady light A constant attender on the publick ordinances and worship of God a Sincere lover of the Ministers of Christ and all that feare God A diligent performer of all family worship and that brought up his Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. One feareful of offending God or giveing Just occasion of offence to any Man merciful and compassionate to all Liberal to his ability yea above his ability to those that wanted especially to the houshold of Faith One that minded the one thing necessary sought the Kingdome of God and his righteousnisse in the first place and slighted all things in comparison of these That would often professe to have Vitam in patientiâ mortem in desiderio To be one that could live but that would rather Dye and be with Christ which is best of all This I have said much more I could say but forbear not with any designe to Paint the Sepulchre of the Dead or to flatter any liveing but to restify my due respects for the memory of so good and worthy a person With my just resentments of our great losse and to provoke my selfe and you to the imitation of his vertues that walking every one in his uprightnesse when we dye we may enter into peace and rest in our Beds and then when the Lord the Righteous Judge shall come he will give us a Crowne of Glory and not unto us only but to all that love and looke for his appearing FINIS II Cor. 6 7 8. Therefore we are allwaies confident knowing that whilst we are at home in the Body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith not by sight We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the Body and to be present with the Lord. THAT there neither is nor ever was in the World a person so every way blameless and circumspect in his way and Carriage whom envy and ill will will not bite and traduce No action so sincerely meant so candidly perform'd but was lyable to the calumnies and ill constructions of open Enemies or false Brethren appears by the example of the great Apostle St. Paul Who during his Judaism was as to the Righteousness that is in the Law blameless and when he became a Christian and was called to be an Apostle he walked with a right foot according to the truth of the Gospell herein exercising himself to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and all Men yet could he not escape the malitious Calumneys of the false Apostles who what ever he said or did were ready to carpe and reprehend to take by the wrong handle and to put an ill construction upon Which the Apostle perceiving is forc't by way of apology in this Epistle to defend himselfe to magnify his Ministry and Apostleship and to declare the arguments by which he armed himself against all reproaches persecutions and the worst that man could do against him In his former Epistle he had told the Corinthians that he would come shortly to them ch 14. 19. But being hindered by labours and sufferings he came not This occasion the false Apostles tooke to accuse him of Levity Inconstancy and Falseness to his word This the Apostle wipes off in this Epistle Ch. 1. 8. He had in the same former Epistle given order to the Church to deliver up the obstinate Incestuous person to Sathan Ch. 5. 4. 5. whereby he became almost overwhelmed with sorrow Upon this the false Apostles censure him of too much rigour and austerity too much imperiousnes and affecting domination over the Church Of this he clears himselfe Ch 4 c. After this he falls into a large commendation of his Ministry and repeats the arguments that carryed him through all the difficulties of it and by which he was encouraged against all persecutions and sufferings yea though it should be to martyrdome it selfe for Christs and the Gospells sake and they were the same that had supported Moses in a like case Heb. 11. 27. He saw him that was invisible he had respect to the recompence of reward So our Apostle Ch. 4.
16. 18. For which cause we faint not c. while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen c. Upon this he professeth the full assurance of his hope concerning the future happy estate of himself and all good men Ch. 5. 1. We know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God c. And upon the certainty of this Faith and Hope professeth his earnest desire to enjoy what he so assuredly looked for v. 2. In this we groan earnestly desiring to he clothed upon And finally upon a full and a deliberate debate he chuseth Death rather than Life the condition of good men after this Life which he calls being absent from the Body and present with the Lord before their condition here on Earth which he calls being present with the Body and absent from the Lord. There is an elegant Paronomasia in the Originall which our translation can scarce reach and more matter in the words then the time will give us leave to discursse These 4. propositions will swallow up the substance of them 1. That the best of Men here on Earth Live by Faith not by sight 2. To be here at home in the Body is to be absent from the Lord. 3. To be absent from the Body is to be present with the Lord. 4 Holy men have attain'd and may attaine to this high and Heavenly pitch to desire rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. A little of each 1. The best of Men Live here by faith not by sight This liveing by Faith is mentioned elsewhere partly as a duty partly as a privilege and promise Heb 2 4. Heb 10. 38. It seemes brought in in this place as an allay to a Christians present condition Understanding by sight enioyment it is as if he had sayd we enioy not but we believe and that supports us We have but the least part of our inheritance and happiness in our possession more in expectation reversion and hope but that also as sure as if we had it For true Faith is an evidence Heb 11 1. And Christian Hope maketh not ashamed Rom 5. 5. But look as all men had rather be in a condition of haveing then hoping of enjoying then desiring so had we Now this life of Faith and Sense differ especially in two respects 1. Sight reaches only to visible things Faith to invisible the Eye of sense sees only grosse and materiall things placed in a due distance through a fit medium c. but faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. If you run through the whole Life of a Christian you shall find it a kind of invisible and mysterious Life The actions of it are managed and caryed on by Motives unknown to other Men. The food that maintains it is such as the world knowes not off The joyes that cheare and quicken it are such as a stranger intermeddles not with The promises which maintaine and support it are of things beyond the kenne of carnal reason and sense Eternal Life is promised but it is hid with Christ in God We are justifyed but not by a righteousnes that is in us but in Christ who suffered at Jerusalem out of our view long before our time and is removed into Heaven far from our sight and yet we look for eternal Life in him as assuredly as if we enjoyed it Whom having not seen yet we love in whom though we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet 1. 8. 2. Sight extends only to present things faith to future therefore faith is said to be the substance of things hoped for Now hope that is seen is not hope for that which a Man sees why doth he yet hope for Rom 8. 24. Christians live not by present things or things that perish with the using but such as will come hereafter and will last for ever While we look not at those things which are seen but at those which are not seene For those things which are seen are temporal but those which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor 4. 18. If then a Christians life be a life of hope not of enjoyment of faith not of sense it confutes on the one hand the fond imagination of conceited Perfectionists on the other the brutish sensuality of worldlings and Epicures The first pretends to live above the life of faith would make us believe they are already in possession and enjoyment of what ever a Christian can wish or hope for and despise those that presse hard after God in the use of his Ordinances that go groaning under the burden of their corruptions and sighing after the enjoyment of a future happines as persons of a lower forme and meaner attainements for their parts they are perfect they are sinlesse they need no staires nor ladder they are already at the top no ordinances no meanes of grace they are full they have attain'd they are in Heaven allready c. what shall we say to these Men but what the Apostle sayes to the Galatians CH 3. 1. Oh foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you and certainely if there were not a certaine witchcraft and sorcery in heresy and fond opinions and if there were not a Spiritual as well as bodily phrensie we might justly wonder at the wild conceits of such Opinionists Have ye seene Men in Bedlam strangely enjoying themselves in their imaginary felicityes just such are these Confuted by the whole tenour of Scripture and by the constant experience of the best of Gods Children who have alway confest they knew but in part and were but Sanctifyed in part Now we see through a glasse darkely 1 Cor 17. 12. for v. 9 10. we know but in part and we Prophecy in part c. The Apostle Paul himselfe thought not himselfe perfect nor to have already attaind Phil. 3 13. 2. Others live a life as much below as these pretend to live above the Life of faith It were to be wisht that all were arrived so far as to follow the dictate of natural and common Reason But alas Men are degenerated into brutes live not the lives of rational beings homines in ventrem proni libidinum mancipia as the Historian speakes or as the Apostle better Their belly is their God they glory in their shame they minde earthly things Phil 3. 19. These must learne to be Men before they can hope to be Christians And must bid adieu to the dreggy desires of the world and the flesh and become pure in heart before they can see God For without Holines none shall see the Lord. Heb 12. 14. 3. Proposition They that are at home in the body are absent from the Lord. For understanding thereof we must distinguish of a 4. fold presence of God 1. His essential presence Or the presence of his being In which respect God is boundlesse and