Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n
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A53236
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Blessed Paul's tryal and triumph in a sermon upon the death of Mrs. Elizabeth King / by John Oakes ...
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Oakes, John, d. 1689?
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1689
(1689)
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Wing O18; ESTC R17578
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25,131
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33
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the Kingdom of God. Beloved I beseech you see whether that which is sufficient to stop the Mouth of Conscience how whilest you live in this hurry will make you lie at ease then when you come to a Death-Bed But I must proceed Secondly You have the Apostles Prospect viz. his looking forward where he opens a fresh Spring whence he draws his Comfort and Confidence at this time when he was making his entry into the dark valley of the shades of Death and then considers what he had in expectation on the other side the Grave Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing This was the Joy that was set before the Eye of Paul's Faith. What appeared to his sence must needs be terrible and terrifying to Nature Death when it comes clothed with the most desirable Circumstances must needs make Nature startle at it Nature will certainly recoil and as such cannot bid it welcome No those that seem most to court it that look and long for it and with submission to Divine Pleasure have great reason to do so yet know it is never so for its own sake but for the sake of something that it is introductive to as appears from that of the Apostle after he had given testimony of his Faith both as to the reality of the future state of Felicity and also of the assurance that he had attained of his personal and particular interest in that state as you read 2 Cor. 5. 1. For we know that if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God a House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens The Considerations of which together with the present inconvenience that did attend their present Habitation here below made them give many a long look and fetch many a heavy groan to be gone And no wonder Which of you that dwell in a pitiful poor mean tottering Cottage that know not but every day it may drop about your Ears that were sure that you had a Pallace richly furnished for you that stood ready to receive you would not do the like Indeed if you had made no such Provision but might expect when ever you were turned out you must lye abroad exposed to Storms and Tempest no wonder then if you notwithstanding inconveniences were loath to depart Truly the case is much thus betwixt Sinners and Saints no wonder you that are yet in a state of alienation from God that would never be perswaded to look after any further nor higher happyness than what results from a confluence of Creature Enjoyments I say no wonder that Death coming as a Messenger to call you from hence to see you cleaving and clinging so fast about the Creature to find you sending post for this and the tother Physician and for this and the other Friend crying out as that young Man once did when he was grapling with the pangs of Death inducias usque ad mane Lord tarry till the Morning When he knew not whether he was going but saw he must be exposed to the intolerable and unavoidable storms of God's Wrath but for you Believers who by an Eye of Faith may see the Heavens opened and Everlasting Mansions of Glory prepared for you and an Honourable Convoy sent to conduct you into the blessed Presence of a Reconciled God it would be a reproach to hang back yet I observe what the fore-mentioned Apostle takes notice of That when they came closely to consider the dark and narrow entry of Death that they were to pass through into the possession of this Land of Light when they considered the trouble they must be exposed to in their removal from this Tabernacle on Earth to their glorious Temple in Heaven It put them to the shrug and occasion'd a Contest betwixt Flesh and Spirit in this matter verse 4. We that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of Life There is a double groan that God's people often fetch in this hour the one of Nature the other of Grace That of Nature arises from the apprehension and fear of approaching Death together with the afflictive Evils that attend it The other of Grace expressive of those earnest desires of that future state of Bliss and Glory whereof they are supposed to have some present prelibations to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better than the best state on Earth Now when the groans of Grace are louder than the groans of Nature as sometimes they are then Death is bid welcom and they can heartily cry out as this Gracious Soul did Come Lord Jesus come quickly and why are thy Chariot wheels so long a coming I know much time and more than can be allow'd for this exercise might be spent and that profitably too in the explication of the Contents of these two Verses The handling of which would swell rather into a large Treatise than be confin'd to the limits of a single Sermon But that I may fulfil the Will of the Deceased that gave me no liberty to speak to any particular branch of it but repeated the whole as my subject and yet not be offensive by too great a prolixity to the Living I shall with all possible brevity that may be consistent with perspecuity give you little more than a short Paraphrase upon the whole waving what ever might be judged ornamental to my Discourse as not being so seasonable for such a serious Dispensation where Death and Eternity are so immediately in view and we are to look upon each other as passing and posting to Everlasting Mansions In the words then consider two more general parts First A Christians Work faithfully perform'd or a Believers great business upon which God hath sent him into and continues him in this World carefully dispatched and this expressed under several Metaphors relating to Paul both as a Christian in his personal and more private Capacity and as a Minister of the Gospel in his more publick Capacity verse 6. I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Secondly Here is a comfortable and well-grounded expectation of the promised reward as consequential upon his finishing his work and this with a particular application and appropriation to himself though not without the same security to all others in the like case and as supposed for the main in the same Spiritual Condition Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness c. I shall put both these together into the Doctrine or Proposition viz. Doct. That all those and only those who have good evidences of their having done and dispatched their great work and business God hath allotted for them in this World can with comfort and confidence ensure to
themselves the expectation of the promised reward in the other World at their Death or day of Retribution This is a plain and undoubted Truth no well-grounded expectation of our Reward till we have first finished our Work. Christ himself who was both a Son and a Servant sent by his Father into the World had work appointed him to do a work of the greatest weight and importance that ever was put into the hands of any to dispatch the reparation of his Fathers Glory eclipsed by Man's Rebellion and Apostacy and the Redemption and Salvation of all the Elect depended upon Christ's finishing this work and a work to be done within a limited time as may be inferred from what our Saviour speaks I must work the works of him that sent me while John 9. 4. it is day the night cometh when no man can work A work that had many works in it Here was doing work and here was suffering work and upon his faithful discharge of this great work a glorious Reward was insured to Christ and you may observe that though the work he was ingaged in was difficult and hard too difficult for all the Angels in Heaven or Creatures on Earth to undertake In the doing of which he met with inexpressible Discouragements and Oppositions both from Friends and Enemies And the reward he expected was a high and glorious reward such a massy Crown as could fit no Head but Christ's which might well put him upon earnest longing for it as you see he did by what the Apostle tells us Heb. 12. 2. speaking of this Blessed Jesus Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God. Yet we never find that either the consideration of the one the difficulty of his work or the consideration of the other the beauty and brightness of his reward did put him upon desiring or expecting the possession of his promised Glory till he could say he had done his work and then indeed you will see him addressing his Father in this manner I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do 〈…〉 17. 4 5. And now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the Glory which I had with thee before the world was q. d. I have done my work and I expect my reward Truly thus it is in all our cases That God who hath sent us into the World and hath appointed our time and limited our 〈…〉 14. boundt beyond which we cannot pass This God hath also prescribed our work what we are to do in this short time allotted for us He hath not sent us hither only to gaze about us or to feed and gratifie the carnal and sensual inclinations of a corrupt heart in spending these precious hours in sports and pastimes No no as God hath given us work to do so he hath furnished us with talents to be improved for the Glory 〈…〉 25. 15. of that God who gave us our beings He hath committed the care of precious Souls one of which is more in value than 〈…〉 16. 26. Ten Thousand Worlds to be recovered out of that lapsed and lost Estate into which they are fallen He hath given his Word for our Direction hath promised his Spirit for our help he hath betrusted us with choice advantages and opportunities for the facilitating of what work we have to do He hath appointed a day for the calling us to an account and a Acts 17. 3 Judge to give forth a Righteous Retribution according to what we have done in the Flesh whether it be good or evil He hath proposed and promised a blessed and glorious Reward not as merited by our work but as consequential upon it a Reward not of Debt but of meer Grace and Favour He hath threatned an Everlasting Punishment as the demerit of our neglect of that great Salvation set before us Cutting us off from Heb. 2. 3. all hopes of enjoying the former and of escaping the latter without finishing the work he hath given us to do These things are so evident in Scripture that you whose lot is cast under the Dispensation of these Divine Revelations cannot plead ignorance so that if your days be finished and your work unfinished Wo be to that Man or Woman it had been better for them they had never been born But on the other side If we can say with Paul in my Text That we have fought the good fight and finished our course c. Then when Death comes thou mayest entertain it with a smile and triumph over it and though it closes thine Eyes so as to hinder thy beholding of all thy amiable enjoyments here on Earth Thou shalt see them no more but must bid adieu to them all for ever Yet wilt thou then by an Eye of Faith with Stephen See the Heavens opened and the Son of Acts 7. 56 Man standing on the right hand of God ready to receive thee and bid thee welcom to that glorious Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you 1 Pet. 1. 4. Having thus for brevity's sake hudled matters together in general I shall now in order to further instruction reduce the whole under two heads 1. With respect to the work which we have to do here on Faith What it is and how and when it may be said to be finished 2. Somewhat with respect to the promised reward in Heaven which follows What that is and upon what basis our hopes and expectations of it are bottomed In the managing of both these I shall follow the guidance of my Text. 1. Then as to the work we have to do in this Life What it is I hope I need not mind you that the work I am speaking to relates not to the Duties of your particular Callings as Men and as disposed by the Conduct of Divine Providence into this and that civil and secular Employment which are many and various and which are so to be managed as may best subserve your general Calling as Christians But the work I am to speak to is of a far higher Nature that which doth not so immediately nor primarily respect our beings or well-beings with respect to time as what respects our well-beings to Eternity A work that hath some resemblance and bears some parity to the great work that Jesus Christ the Son of God came into the World for though to be performed in a far different manner Christ's work was reducible to two general heads First The glorifying of his Father So you read John 17. 4. I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do q. d. Father that was the work which thou sentest me into the World for and that work I have done Secondly Christ's work was to