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A60155
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A sermon preacht upon the death of Mrs. Anne Barnardiston (daughter of Nathanael Barnardiston, Esq., late of Hackney) who departed this life the 30th day of Decemb. 1681, at the age of seventeen with a brief account of some remarkable passages of her life and death.
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Shower, John, 1657-1715.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing S3690; ESTC R5070
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28,398
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52
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attended As a proper Remedy in the present case let us familiarize the Thoughts of Death by frequent serious Meditation Let us view it oftner in our way that it may not meet us with so much Terror at our Journeys end Let us admit the Thoughts of a departure with particular application to our selves and improve the Funerals of our Friends as a seasonable memento that our own is near Let us lay open the Picture of Death naked to our view and urge it to our Hearts with the Infinite Glory that immediately succeeds and take in the Death and Promise of Christ as our assurance of it And this will reconcile us more to a Departure and help to overcome our unreasonable fears of pain and sickness antecedent to it 3. The weakness and declension of our Love to Christ is another ground of our unwillingness to depart and to be with him To a degenerate Soul that is destitute of the Love of Christ an Everlasting distance would be more desirable than a Local Presence For that could not make him happy he would still be as far remov'd from Bliss by being with the Lord as the Center of a Milstone in the bottom of the Sea would be from moisture But the company and converse of those we Love must needs be eligible and the more we Love them the stronger still will be our desire of being with them and the more impatient shall we be of every delay And is it not the sence and secret language of our Hearts Whom have we in Heaven but Christ And are we not desirous to forsake this Earth to enjoy his presence Certainly the growth and strength and exercise of Holy Love to Christ would even render our dissolution grateful in order to it and make our Hearts rejoyce at the approach of Death as it did old Jacobs to see the Waggons that are sent to fetch us to our beloved Jesus who is Lord of that Country whither we are going 4. Immoderate Love to this present World and our Temporal Life Were we crucifyed to fleshly Pleasures and sensual Joyes to worldly Honours and earthly Riches we should less regret the thoughts of dying and more heartily desire to be with Christ For as the pangs of Death are not ordinarily so violent and intolerable to one whose strength is wasted by a pining Sickness as to him who is arrested suddenly in his full strength and vigour so will he more easily leave this World who for some time past hath been dying to it Gal. 6.14 Were we more crucifyed to the World and the World to us by the Cross of Christ we should not so affectionately hug the Carkass of a dead Enemy whom we our selves have crucifyed and slain but wait for the Time and long for the happy hour when we shall leave it and be gone to our Eternal Rest Let us therefore make use of all the Christian methods of Mortification and look on this world as a strange place and our selves as Pilgrims and Strangers here as Exiles from our own Country and hastening to it And we cannot but wish our selves at home and desire a departure as necessary thereto and in the Interim sigh to think of the vast disproportion and difference between the slender entertainments of our Inn and the plentiful Provisions of our Father's house 5. Blotted Evidences and the want of Assurance concerning our Title to the Heavenly Glory And this we all pretend as the reason of our unwillingness to dye A Sadducee is loth to dye least he should not be at all an unprepared sinner for fear of being miserable and a doubting Christian because he knows not whether Happiness or Misery shall be his portion after his departure For were we well assured we should be with Christ for ever we could not be so backward and unwilling to be dissolv'd Had we any better grounds to hope that sin was pardon'd and God our Covenant Father that Heaven would be our Inheritance and we should not come into Condemnation we might rejoyce to think of our departure when and how it shall please God to call us When the Psalmist could say The Lord is my Shepherd Ps 23 4 6 he could boldly venture upon death and walk through the valley of darkness without fear of evil But when distress had brought his sin to remembrance and made him doubt of his condition he cries Ps 39.13 Oh spare me a little longer that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more seen Could you say with the Spouse of Christ in the Canticles Cant. 6.3 My Beloved is mine and I am his you might chearfully joyn your Amen when you hear the Spirit and the Bride say in the Revelations Come Lord Jesus Rev. 20.2 Come quickly Therefore Try your State and examine your selves afresh and endeavour with your utmost care and diligence to obtain a well grounded Assurance founded on the Testimony of a good Conscience by comparing the Promises of Remission and Eternal Life with the requisite qualifications and Conditions of them For if our hearts condemn us not we shall have confidence towards God Joh. 3.21 even in a dying hour To which end let us endeavour by daily acts of Repentance to obtain a daily pardon Let us summe up our accounts at the foot of every page I mean reflect every Night on the passages of the preceding Day That we may rest on our Beds with the sence of a daily pardon and be as fit to dye as we are to sleep 6. Our fond affections to our Friends on Earth may make us loth to dye though we hope to be with Christ in Heaven But is not his Bosom more desirable than the arms and embraces of our dearest Friends and nearest Relations must we not abandon and hate them all for his sake Luk. 14.26 i. e. use them as contemptible and hated things if they keep us from him Have we not solemnly engag'd to do so by our Covenant with God and shall we not stand to our agreement Is there no difference between our Friends on Earth and our beloved Saviour How often is an unactive pity vouchsafed in the room of succour when they need our assistance or we intercede for theirs We know if they are unholy they shall forever be banisht from the presence of Christ and we may well be asham'd to be unwilling to dye on their account and if they are holy though we shall not return to them yet we know that they shall shortly come to us And cannot God instruct them in his fear order their Conditions dispose of their affairs provide for their comfort and answer all our prayers in reference to them after our departure yea hath he not often done so Have we any Friends on Earth that are every way so accomplisht as alway to delight and please us or are we so perfectly wise and good as never to disgust and disoblige them Is there not some selfishness
Purifies the Heart Acts 15.9 and works by Love Gal. 5.6 That God had given this person the True Seed of such a Faith was evident by it's Fruits the Apostle tells us that he that hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Ro. 8.9 And also he tells us that as many as are led by the Spirit are the Children of God Ro. 8.16 Now I must profess that so far as I was able to Judge I have seldom seen a dying person manifest more of a Christ-like Spirit than she did That is I never saw more of a Spirit Thirsting after communion with God of a Spirit more contemning the World of a Spirit more deeply bowing unto the will of God or a Spirit more patient under the Cross and more Submitting to the Rod of God Indeed I knew once a person that did exceed her herein and it was her Renowned Father a man of the greatest and most deserved name for Piety and Sincerity for Humility and Patience of all men In or Near the City that I have known Who Feared no Pain or Torture upon any other account but this only viz. Least they should tempt him to the Least unbecomeing Groan in some great paroxisme of the Stone The Submitting of our wills to divine will and pleasure in all things is the summe and substance of all practical Religion here and the full conforming of our wills to the divine will and mind is the height and Top of all mans Happiness hereafter to enjoy this priviledge of full conformity to God is the Portion of None in this World and to perform that Duty of submission to him is the Attainment of but very Few yet this deceased person was so great a Favourite as that God was pleased to bestow this rare Jewel to be worn in her Bosom who did seem with John to Lye very near the Heart of her Saviour Very signal and Conspicuous is the discriminatng Grace of God towards some persons more than towards others 't is true that God is not wanting to the Happiness of any of his Creatures and his absolute Sovereignty seems in all things to be governed by his Infinite goodness so that he is both Just and good to all yet there is nothing more notable or more evident than that there are some objects of his Love who are his Segullahs his peculiar ones in whom God doth especially delight and unto whom God doth do good with his whole Heart Jer. 32.41 As God doth suffer most men to make their own choice and doth bestow upon them what they do fully and Finally choose so he will himself choose as he will and he will do with his own gratuitous favour as he himself pleaseth and he will give no account to any of his own matters A great Instance hereof was this now blessed person of whom I may say that her whole Life was full of Gods goodness and that Mercy and Truth did follow her even all her daies which daies the favour of Heaven would not suffer to be many because it did ordain that her Sorrows and her Temptations should be but Few Time being nothing but a dressing Room to Eternity the shorter it is the sooner do Holy Souls enter into the more immediate presence of the Glorious Majesty It is Reckoned in holy Writ as an act of very Great kindness shewn by Hegai the Kings Chamberlain unto Esther that all things necessary for her Purification and for her due preparation for the love of her designed Husband The great King Ahashuerus were given to her more speedily than to others whereby a Quicker access to the King was afforded her and the Crown was so much the sooner set upon her Head The good Spirit of God did deal something after the same manner with this young Virgin For the work of Sanctification was hastened in her that she might the more early receive the Crown of Glory from the King of Kings and might be presented holy and without spot or blemish or wrinkle or any such thing Few pages and fewer hours allotted me for this work will not permit me to enumerate the many special favours that were shoured down upon this person while she lived I shall not therefore take notice of the priviledges of her Birth or the Honour of her Family which were great neither will I mention her Natural endowments of parts or Beauty or any such thing Blessed be God that she her self though young had learned before her death to Reckon such enjoyments as these to be very mean and poor when compared with the Joyes that were set before her They are Love-tokens of a greater value which I did observe to be conferred upon her and these were such and so many That I may say that she was one of those that God had blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ and I may adde with the Apostle that God having chosen her in him from before the Foundation of the world to be holy and without Blame And the same God having decreed the end did also ordain the Means Accordingly in the First place the kindness of God appeared in ordering that she should be born of and brought up by very pious and Religious Parents and few persons did ever enjoy more Spiritual Nurtriture and Admonition or had a greater stock of Prayers laid up for them than this Gentlewoman and the rest of that Offspring Another singular Mercy which did promote her Salvation was the excellent pattern of modesty vertue and piety which was afforded her by her elder Sisters The Influence of a Good example is alwaies greatly Advantagious but when it is found in near Relations 't is much more obliging and efficacious Another great Blessing much conducing to her Eternal Happiness was this that in her youth she enjoyed the priviledge of Attending upon such an eminent Ministry that the very Enemies thereof have been heard to Confess that it is very Learned and most Rational and further they know not but such as are Taught of God and have their spiritual sences exercised so as to be acquainted not only with the form of Godliness but also with the power thereof these men do say that the Characters which the others do give of this eminent persons teaching are most true and they do further also say that it is extraordinary Clear and convincing most Evangelical and Scriptural greatly practical and profitable and yet very Sublime and Spiritual Now Reader consider whether many if any such have finally miscarried whose Natures were gentle and easie to be entreated whose hearts were Soft and Tender who had the Benefits of such Education and such Example who enjoyed such Teaching abroad as well as such Counsel at home and all accompanyed with servent Prayer unto God for a Blessing which I am sure that she did not want it being reported of her Father that his Custom was with the Psalmist 119.164 Seven times a day to pray unto the Lord and to praise