perishing and more then so taken away and when this perishing and taking away of the righteous was a prediction that concerned themselves of their ruin their judgements was at hand and ready to overtake and overthrow them and they not to consider it adde to this that this shall be so and that there should not be a man to consider it not as if there was none at all there were some though the number be but very small that did bemoan and lay this thing to heart yet it is usuall in Scripture to expresse where there is but a few as if there was none at all as in the 53 Psal. 3. 5 Ierem. 15. Because there is but a very few therefore it is expressed as if there were none at all there was but a few zealous in regard of the multitude and generally it they did not consider that the Righteous perish and they did not lay it to heart the mercifull men are takâ—n away from the evil to come I say these things being put together you will find it was noe small sin and that the Prophet hath noe little reason to complain that they did not lay it to heart if you consider it in reference 1. Vnto God 2. Vnto them 3. To our selves 1. In reference unto God this was a great work and aspeciall work of Gods provience that he was pleased to suffer his righteous ones to pâ—rish and be taken away It is a very great sin not to observe Gods dealing they are equally bad when Gods word sounds in our eares his works appears in our eyes and neither is regarded by us As the Psalmist complains in the 26 Psalm This is great impiety that God should passe by us in a speciall providence and we not take notice thereof if not a sparrow fall to the ground without his knowledge nor a hair of our heads fall to the ground much lesse our heads they cannot perish but by a speciall providence and they should be taken notice of when God intends to take them from us and as it impiery against God so likewise it is a sin against them it argues that as we want piety so pity as purity so bowels when those that are our Fellow-members Righteous ones especially nay when in a higher rank then our selves Ministers or others are in misery and we are not troubled at their sufferings this argues we want much pity they are but glasse eyes that weep not for such a losse and it is but a woodden leg that is not sensible what the rest of the members endures And as it is a sin against them so likewayes it is an evil against our selves it argues a stupid mind a secure heart and an obdurate spirit that is not moved with such providentiall dispensations against us especially when it presages judgement and misery to come upon a people and yet it should not work upon us All this considered you will find it was a just matter of complaint which the Prophet takes up the righteous perish and no man layes it heart c. I beseech you in the fear of God let us learn to practise the contrary and to lay to heart the miseries distresses and perishings of the servants of God but especially when they die by a violent death the Sun daily shines and noe man regards it but when once it is in an Eclipse then every eye will be upon it neither do men mind the high mountains when standing but if it chance to fall then every eye consider it and shall we not take notice of the Eclipses of Gods faithfull servants and so lay them to heart by remembring to register the deeds of Gods faithfull servants How and when taken away and withall bemoaning and bewailing both the miseries they suffer and the Calamities we are like to suffer by reason they are taken away from the evil to come and by imitating their vertues following their graces setting before us their exemplary lives and treading in their steps so as to prepare for dying for suffering in the like or any other kind that death may not find us unprovided and if we do live to prepare for the evil to come judgement is at hand Let us be making our peace with God by repenting of our own and the sins of the land that when the evil comes it may not come upon us unprepared and though we be taken away we may be but taken to the fruition of Glory and happinesse and that I may not be guilty of this sin I here declaime against it I dare not but stir up my self and you sadly and veriously stir up you and me to lay to heart this mercifull man of God this righteous man that hath been lately taken from us I hope none will envy his Character if we look no further then his death it was a violent death but as for the cause of his death it concernes not me it must be referred to that great day the day of judgement I hope without offence to any here I may look to the manner of his death the righteous are said to be bold as a Lyon and hath hopes in his death and what is this but the serene consequence of a well led life that made him meekly bold and humbly confident and chearful at his dissolution of all acts of mercies none is greater then that of forgiving enemies which that he did witnesse those lines those excellent lines read at his interrment or those gracious charitable words and prayers he uttered upon the Scaffold which proclaims him a man full of grace mercy I want time and tongue to go over his life and al that knew him will acknowledge this that the whole course of his life was a constellation of graces and vertues both as he was a Christian and as he was a Minister This righteous man is now perished this mercifull man is now taken away But I trust nay I have some measure of confidence he is but perished from the earth taken from us and removed to a better habitation to enjoy a safer a more Glorious life and I hope though he be out of sight yet he is not out of mind and will not be forgotten especially by you among whom he hath been a faithfull and painfull Laborour he having spent his time strength and labour for your Souls good therefore do you lay his death to heart Remember how often you have behold him from his sacred Oratory How often you have heard him dropping nay overflowing with faithfull reproofes sweet comforts wholesome admonitious Remember all those savery instructions you have heard from him remember and practice them that will be the best way to lay to heart the losse of this viagilant and faithfull Minister and lay to heart your own barrenesse and unfruitfullnesse that hath provoked God to deprive and Rob you of such a Iewell lay it to heart that you have been no more bettered and mended by those saving Doctrines and not onely you but all of us lay it to heart this and all others of Gods servants that have been taken from this City not many years ago which is a sad persage that the ruine thereof is at hand if a timely repentance and amendment of life prevent not which is the end of our discourse that all of us may be brought to a serious repentance as to lay to heart the perishing and taking away of the Righteous ones so not to murmur and repine at those that have been the instruments of our losse but to repent of our sins with grief and sorrow as the cause thereof by contempt of the word and Sacraments having used all means to provoke God to take them from us Let us for the time to come so repent that if it be possible Gods wrath may be appeased his judgements diverted and those faithfull ones that are yet among us may be continued and that more faithfull messengers may be sent into his harvest which God of his mercy grant AMEN FINIS
they must die and perish as well as others but that which the Prophet aimes at is perishing in a violent sense and the phrase taken away hints as much they are taken away and cut of as ' it s spoken of the Messias from the land of the living These candles do not go out of themselves for want of that which should give them life but are blown out by a violent wind and very well it may be so because of their enemies David saith the wicked watch the Righteous and why do they watch him but to take advantage to slay him and this many times befalls the godly ones and that in great wisdome even that the glory of Gods power may appeare his power in sustaining and upholding them when by death he brings them to himself especially strengthning them in the hour of a violent death and his power will appear in raising of their vile bodies that shall be in the dust in raising them when their vile bodies shall be changed and made like the glorious body of Christ he will have it so that their graces may appear that their faith may be more eminent if God should translate them as he did Eliah from earth to heaven there would be something to appear of glory but nothing of strength and therefore that the faith and courage of his servants may appear he thus takes them away and chiefly that they may be conformable to Christ and that he may make the members like unto the head and go as he did by a violent death they must drink of the brook and after lift up their heads therefore this is a just complaint the Righteous perish and mercifull men are taken away The consideration of this may serve partly to inform partly to instruct First to inform us That there is another world and day of judgement that there is a time wherein God will put a difference between the godly and the wicked between him that swears and him that fears an oath between him that serves him and him that rebells against him I say there must be a time of retribution or he could not be a Righteous and mercifull God when there must be a recompence to godly men you see how the Righteous perish as well as the wicked you see the same lot befalls the one as well as the other it assures us therefore that there is another day comming when it will appear that there is a reward to the godly And it should secondly instruct all righteous ones that they should make use of this kind of death for the glory of Gods name and the good of his own brethren How should all of us Magistrates Ministers and People approve our selves in the discharge of our duty and especially mercifull men by shewing mercy multiplying mercy when the mercifull man is taken away then all is taken away there is no more work nor almes nor mercy for us to do in the grave where we are a going and further it should instruct us that we should make use of and make much of the Righteous men that are in the midst of us because they must perish and be taken from us these candles must go out nay they may by a blustering wind be blown out make use of them while you have them Our Saviour bids us walk in the light while you have the light so do you whilst Gods righteous servants and Ministers are amongst you make the best use of them you can as our Saviour said Me you shall not have alwayes with you so these you shall not have alwayes with you therefore endeavour to reap all the benefit and profit from them you can Finally let us not think the worse of them because they are taken away we are ready to be frighted because of the trouble that befalls them but let us remember that the Righteous whatever trouble incompasses them they are delivered from it by death nay that taking away of theirs is a benefit to them for it is a taking away from the evil to come And that leads me to the other branch which mitigateth the complaint in the close of the verse The righteous are taken away from the evil to come Taken away from the evil to come is a phrase which admits of a double construction we may understand it of being taken away from the evil to come upon themselves they are taken away from those future evils that if they had continued longer upon earth should have befallen them thus they are taken away from Criminall evils and Poenall evils 1. From Criminall evils they are taken away and thereby prevented from those sins they might otherwayes have fallen into for the righteous are not altogether free from sin while herebelow and therefore it is that they are delivered from that which is a great grief unto them ever to sin against their Father 2. From Poenall evils from those miseries and troubles that do befall them in this world Many are the afflictions of the righteous but God delivers them out of all Pain penurie aches sicknesse c. and when the righteous is taken away he is taken away from all these But that which is the principal meaning of the word is They are taken away from the evil of the place wherein they live from the common calamitie that is to seize upon the people therefore you find in the 26. Isa. 20. where the Prophet saith Come my people enter thou into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast some understand those little doors and moments places and Chambers to be meant of the grave yet there God hides his people he puts them in the grave where they are quiet when he intends to send a blustering tempest and a storm upon the earth Thus God prepares a Zoar for Lot when he brings destruction upon Sodom and an Ark for Noah when he brings a deluge upon the world so God prepares a grave for the righteous when he intends to bring evil upon the earth but this is not alwaies so for God will somtimes keep them in the midst of trouble he sets a mark upon their forehead as in the 9. Ezek. 4. And the Lord said unto him go through the midst of the City through the midst of Ierusalem and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof And sometimes God makes them sharers and sufferers in the evils because they have not mourned for the sinnes of the times and places where they live therefore God makes them partakers of the miserie but God many times takes them away from the evil to come Thus Josiah is taken away from the evil that was to come upon the Jews and St. Austin's prayers were heard God taking him away before Hippo was taken whereof he was Bp and Luther was taken out of the world before
A SERMON PREACHED At St. Gregories Church by St. Paul's on Sunday the 13th day of Iune 1658. INTENDED For the Funeral Solemnization of IOHN HEWIT Dr. of Divinity and late Minister there LONDON Printed and are to be sold in St. Paul's Church-yard 1658. The Mourning BUSH A Funeral Sermon upon Isaiah 57. 1. The Righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart and mercifull men are taken avvay none considering that the righteous are taken avvay from the evil to come The INDUCTION OUR Prophet Isaiah in the 22 Chapter of this Prophecie vers. 12. makes mention of a day wherein the Lord of Hosts doth call to weeping and to mourning And beloved although there is no day wherein we are without Sin and so confequently no day wherein we should be without so now yet there are four speciall dayes wherein our Lord God expects this duty from us viz. The day of any heynous wickednesse comitted by our selves or others The day of any grievious judgement whether personall or national inflicted The day wherein the wicked prosper and the ungodly triumph Finally the day wherein any of Gods eminent and faithfull servants are snatch't away by death It is not many dayes since there was such a day amongst us and of such a day my Text speaks of and the want of a due sence and sorrow and Mourning when such a day comes is that which the Prophet bemoans in the words of my Text The rightous perisheth no man layeth it to heart c. This Text is a sorrowfull and dolefull complaint in every part and clause of it and looketh 2. wayes 1. Upon the good and bemoans their misery 2. Upon the wicked and bewailes their obstinacy It complains of the Righteous that their persons are destroy'd It complains of the wicked that their hearts are hardned The former complaint is purely from grief the latter is from grief mixt with anger both are very vehement and fervent witness the reiteration of the words in both parts The former in three clauses The Righteous perish Mercifull men are taken away The Righteous are taken away from the evil to come The latter in two clauses no man laying it to heart none considering it In which we may see what an holy passion our holy Prophet was in and I pray God grant that we may resemble him in grief and sorrow when we heare both of the righteous and of the wicked First of the complaint the Prophet makes concerning the Godly The Righteous perish and mercifull men are taken away The Righteous are taken away from the evil to come And this complaint concerning the righteous you have it first propounded and then mitigated First ' it s propounded in the two clauses which are for substance and sense one and the same The Righteous perisheth and mercifull men are taken away But withall secondly The complaint is in the latter part of the verse leviated mitigated where 't is said The Righteous are taken away from the evil to come Look upon the matter of the complaint it self as set down in these two clauses The Righteous perish and mercifull men are taken away First Where you have set before you both their disposition and their condition Their disposition is very good Their condition is seemingly very bad Their pious disposition Their miserable condition The Characters of the one viz. their disposition are these two Righteous and mercifull men The other viz. their condition is set forth in these two Characters Perishing and taking away First we will take the Character that sets down their disposition The Righteous and mercifull men those that the Prophet bemoans are said to be Righteous and mercifull men The first word is singular in the Hebrew {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} where Interpreters glossing upon the Text suppose it to be some particular person that the Prophet points at and the glosse understands it of Christ himself whose passion he foresaw and consequently foretells and these titles most strictly and fully belong to him who is called the Son of Righteousnesse Malachy 4. v. 2. All others are but stars of righteousnesse their lights borrowed from him he it is who is compleatly righteous and of him it was verified he perished and was taken away none laying it to heart But we must not confine it to Christ for although the first word be singular the second is plurall The mercifull men and men of mercy which is meant of those righteous ones that were cut off distroyed by Manasses that fill'd Ierusalem with bloud But that you may see how justly these Characters belong to those persons take them a sunder first he call's them Righteous and the servants of God Ministers or others may have this name given them in a qualified sense for there are none righteous no not one save him that I named even now not but that it may belong to them too for they are Righteous really interpretatively and comparatively They are righteous really in as much as their persons are justified before God through our Lord Jesus Christ who is called by the Prophet Ieremy The Lord our Righteousnesse Ierem. 23. v. 6. who is said to cover us with a robe of righteousness Isa. 63. who is said by S. Paul to be made to us righteousness and that we are righteousness in him Thus they are righteous because justified and not onely so but also because their natures are renewed after the Image of God that is cretaed in righteousnesse and true holinesse in which respect they are partakers of the Divine nature and also righteous in ordering their lives according to the rule of the word which all Gods servants sets before them and seek to live according thereunto that they may give God his due and men their due and thus it is true of the servant of God they are righteous really And Interpretatively they are so for as much as God is pleased to accept them notwithstanding their weaknesses When Abraham was to offer up his Son Isacak it is said he offered his son in regard he was willing to do it it was therefore Interpretatively so So the servants of God in as much as they are lovers and followers of God and strive after righteousnesse not allowing themselves in any wickednesse making conscience of all known duties so that God accepts them as perfectly righteous And comparatively they are righteous though not absolutely yet comparatively in respect of others as it 's said of those Worthies St. Ambross speaks of The righteous if compared with the wicked of the world are Worthies so they are righteous compared with the ungodly In the foregoing Chapter vers. 12. the Prophet speaks of certain Epicures and others which say we will fill our selves with strong Drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more aboundant So in respect of sinners the servants of God may have the appellation of righteous and not righteous onely but merciful men or as the Hebrew hath