Selected quad for the lemma: honour_n
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A92746
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A sermon preached at the funeral of the Lady Newland. At Alhallows Barkin, London By John Scott, D.D.
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Scott, John, 1639-1695.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S2075; ESTC R229814
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11,228
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21
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think our selves concerned to seek any other Country or Habitation But Faith saith the Apostle is the substance of things hop'd for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. i. e. 'T is that which realizes Heaven to us and possesses our Minds with its Being and Existence and when this is once done one would think it should be impossible to withold us from the quest and pursuit of it especially if to our Faith we add the next thing which this seeking implies and that is 2. A lively hope and expectation of enjoying it For no Man will seek after that which he never hopes to find or enjoy A Man may possibly be so extravagant as to desire to fly up to the Stars that so he may the better survey their refulgent Bodies and search into their Form and Substance but no Man was ever so mad to attempt it because he knows it is impossible And so if a Man did only believe there were a Heaven of joys above but had no hope of coming thither he might possibly desire against hope and wish that he could fly up thither but he could never be so vain as to indeavour his despair would cramp the sinews of his action and freeze up all the motions of his Soul and all the Joys of Eternity would no more be able to affect or move him than the promise of a mighty Empire in the World in the Moon Wherefore to put us upon seeking after Heaven it is necessary that our Minds should be animated and enlivened with a vigorous hope and expectation of it That our Hearts should be inspired with a strong perswasion not only that there is a Heaven of Endless Joys on t'other side the Grave but that it is possible for us to arrive to it and that if by a patient continuance in well-doing we faithfully contend and aspire after it we shall be sure not to fall short of it which perswasion is sufficient to animate the most dull and restful Soul and make it all Life and Spirit and Wing in the pursuit of Heaven and Immortality 3. Our seeking this abiding City doth also imply our proposing it to our selves as the great end and aim of all our actions For that which a Man seeks after he makes the great end of his search and prosecution and no Man can be said to seek in earnest after Heaven who doth not set it up as the great mark of his Actions and the ultimate point and centre of all his motions For thus in Rom. 6. 22. Everlasting Life is expresly said to be the end of having our Fruit unto Holiness and as such we are bid to direct our Actions to it to believe in Christ unto Everlasting Life 1 Tim. 1. 16. and to do good that we may lay hold on Eternal Life 1 Tim. 6. 18 19. and consequently Heaven is described to be the Christian 's Canaan to which we are to direct all our steps while we are travelling through this World Heb. 11. 14 15. and the whole Life of a Christian is exprest by seeking it Mat. 6. 33. So that our seeking this abiding City that is to come implies our walking on through the whole course of this Life with Heaven in our Eyes and constantly directing all our steps and actions thither not that it is necessary we should actually aim at Heaven in every action we perform for that is impossible our thoughts being very often otherwise imployed by the necessary occasions of this Life and always unable to attend many things at once It is sufficient therefore that we habitually intend and aim at Heaven and propose it as the ordinary and fixed end of our Actions that we make it the standing Goal of our Race and in our ordinary course level our thoughts and words and actions thither But I see I must hasten Again 4. And lastly Our seeking this abiding City doth also imply our diligent pursuit of it by such a course of actions as are most suitable to it and do tend most directly towards it For seeking is a regular action and implies the prosecuting an end by due and proper means so that our seeking Heaven denotes our vigorous prosecution of it by a course of Heavenly actions Wherefore since Heaven as I have often shew'd you is nothing else but the Perfection of all Vertue and Piety seeking Heaven must necessarily imply our pursuing and endeavouring after it in a constant series of Pious and Vertuous Courses in which Courses we are gradually growing up to Heaven and rising to that Blessed State in which Piety and Vertue will be our Everlasting Pleasure and Entertainment And hence we are said by patient Continuance in well-doing to seek for Honour and Glory Immortality and Eternal Life Every degree of Vertue and Piety we arrive to being a step to Glory and a Stair to the Chambers of Blessedness Wherefore our quest of Heaven is very truly described by the Apostle to consist in all diligence to add to our faith vertue and to our vertue knowledge and to our knowledge temperance and to our temperance patience and to our patience godliness and to our godliness brotherly kindness and to our brotherly-kindness charity for so saith he an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 11. And now give me leave to conclude this Argument with three or four Inferences 1. From hence I infer how much we are obliged to be contented and satisfied under all the present Afflictions of this Life For since our abiding City is to come it can be but a little while ere all these storms will be blown over and conclude in an Everlasting Calm and when that Blessed time comes Lord How trifling and inconsiderable will all our present griefs appear And with what Contempt shall we reflect upon our present meanness of Spirit that could not bear with a few inconveniencies on the Road to the Blessed City of our abode Wherefore if our Voyage be not so pleasant as we would have it let us remember 't is not long we have but a short days Sail to Eternity and when once we are landed on that Blessed Shore with what ravishing Content and Satisfaction shall we look back on the rough and boisterous Seas we have past and for ever bless the Storms and Winds that drove us to that happy Port. Let us therefore comfort our selves with these things and when at any time our Spirits are sinking under any Worldly trouble conclude with our selves that while we have a Heaven to hope for we can never be miserable When therefore we are bemoaning our selves under present griefs and afflictions let us lift up our dejected Eyes to yonder blessed Regions of Reward and think of those Joys and Pleasures those Crowns and Everlasting Triumphs which do there await us and consider how necessary these bitter trials are to prepare us for and waft us to them And
if this doth not stop our Mouths and silence our complaints for ever nay if it doth not cause us to rejoice in our Tribulations and to thank God for them on our bended Knees If it doth not make us chearfully submit and cry out with that resigned Soul Vre Seca Vulnera Lord burn or cut or wound me as thou pleasest strip me of all my dearest Comforts handle me as severely as thou wilt so I may have but my Fruit unto Holiness and my End Everlasting Life If I say we can complain of our present afflictions while we thus compare them with our future reward we are infinitely foolish and ungrateful But then 2. Hence also I infer what a vast deal of reason we have to slight and contemn this World for we are born to infinitely greater hopes than any this World can propose to us even to the hopes of an abiding City where our Happiness shall be no longer the sport and dalliance of every puff of Wind the Ball of every accident and contingency but remain for ever safe and inviolable as the happiness of God himself And it being thus methinks our Ambition should sore as high as our hope and disdain such low and ignoble Quarries as the Pleasures and Profits and Honours of this Life Sure Sirs We mistake the Scene of our Immortality We fancy that our abiding City hath shifted its situation and is come down from Heaven to fix its Foundations here below otherwise we are most strangely besotted who being born to live for ever above in Everlasting Glory and Delight can suffer our selves to doat as we do upon the transitory Vanities of this Life O could we stand a while in the mid-way between Heaven and Earth and at one Prospect see the Glories of both how faint and dim would all the Glories of this World appear to us in comparison with those above how would they sneak and disappear in the presence of that Eternal Brightness how would they be forc'd to shroud their vanquish'd Glories as Stars do when the Sun appears whilst we interchangeably turn'd our Eyes from one to the other With what shame and confusion should we reflect upon the wretched groveling temper of our minds What poor mean-spirited Creatures we are to satisfie our selves with the impertinent trifles of this World when we have all the Joys of an Everlasting Heaven before us and may if we please after a few moments of Obedience be possest of them for ever Ah! foolish Creatures that we are thus to prefer a far Country where we live on nothing but Husks before the Everlasting Festivities of our Father's House and Bosom thus foolishly to chuse Nebuchadnezzar's Fate and leave Crowns and Sceptres to live among the Salvage Herds of the Wilderness Could but the blessed Saints above divert so much from their more happy employments as to look down a little from their Thrones of Glory and see how busie poor Mortals are a scrambling for this wretched Pelf which within a few Months they must leave for ever How they justle and run counter defeat defraud and undermine one another What a most ridiculous Spectacle would it appear to them with what scorn would they look on it or rather with what pity to see a Company of Heaven-born Souls that are capable of and designed for the same Glory and Happiness with themselves thus miserably busied and employed One priding it self in a gay Suit another hugging a Bag of glistering Earth and a third stewing in Luxury and Voluptuousness and all employ'd at that sordid rate as if they had nothing to do with Heaven To tell you truly and seriously my thoughts I cannot imagine but if when we are thus extravagantly concern'd about the pitiful trifles of this World those blessed Spirits do see and converse with us it is a much more ludicrous sight in their Eyes than 't would be in ours to see a Company of Boys with mighty zeal and concern wrangling for a Bag of Cherry-Stones Wherefore in the Name of God Sirs Let us not expose our selves any longer to the just derision of all the World by our excessive dotage upon the vanities of this Life but let us seriously consider that we are all concern'd in matters of much higher importance even in the Joys and Fruitions of that abiding City which is to come 3. Hence also I infer how unreasonable a thing it is for good Men to be afraid of dying since on the other side of their Grave there is an abiding City ready to receive and entertain them So that to them Death is but a dark Entry out of a Wilderness of Sorrows into a Paradise of Eternal Pleasure And therefore if it be an unreasonable thing for sick Men to dread their recovery for Slaves to tremble at their Jubilee for Prisoners to quake at the news of a Gaol-Delivery how much more unreasonable is it for good Men to be afraid of Death which is but a momentany passage from Sickness Labour and Confinement to Eternal Health and Rest and Liberty 'T is true the passage from one to the other is commonly very painful and grievous but what of that in other Cases we are willing enough to endure a present Pain in order to a future Ease and if a few Mortal Pangs will work a perfect Cure on me and recover me to Everlasting Health methinks the hope of this Blessed Effect should sweeten and indear that Agony But alas to die is to leave all our Acquaintance to bid adieu to our dearest Friends and Relatives and to pass into an unknown State where we are to converse with Strangers whose Laws and Customs we are unacquainted with Why now all that looks sad in this is a very great mistake For I verily hope I have more Friends Acquaintance and Relations in Heaven than I shall leave behind me here on Earth and if so I do but go from worse Friends to better for one Friend there is worth a thousand here in respect of all those indearing accomplishments which render a Friend a Jewel but if I die a good Man I shall carry into Eternity with me the genius and temper of a glorified Spirit and that will recommend me to all the Society of Heaven and render the Spirits of those just Men whose Names I never heard of as dear and familiar Friends to me in an instant as if they had been my ancient Cronies and Acquaintance But why should I grieve at parting with my Friends below when I shall go to the best Friends I have in all the World to God my Father to Jesus my Redeemer to the Holy Ghost my constant Comforter and Assistant and what though that state and the Laws and Customs of it be in a great measure unknown to me yet what I know is infinitely desirable from whence I may reasonably infer that what I know not is so too and if I have but the Temper of Heaven I am sure I shall easily comply with the Heavenly