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A79887 An antidote against immoderate mourning for the dead. Being a funeral sermon preached at the burial of Mr. Thomas Bewley junior, December 17th. 1658. By Sa. Clarke, pastor in Bennet Fink, London. Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682. 1660 (1660) Wing C4501; Thomason E1015_5; ESTC R208174 34,512 62

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their death but their strength is firm they are not in trouble as other men From these and such like weak grounds they presume that their friends after death must needs go to heaven and therefore they comfort themselves and one another with these words whereas the truth is they may go to Hell after all these things Our Saviour Christ tells us Matt. 5. 20. that except our righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees we shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven And these men are so far from exceeding that they come short of the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees who were frequent in Alms-deeds in prayer in fasting Mat. 6. 2. 5. 16. and yet Christ calls them hypocrites Yea they made long prayers Matth. 23. 14. they compassed Sea and land to make one Proselyte v. 15. they payed even their smallest tithes v. 23. They outwardly appeared righteous unto men v. 28. they blamed their fathers for murthering the Prophets and by way of compensation to free themselves from the guilt they built Tombs for those Prophets and garnished the Sepulchres of the righteous v. 29. 30. notwithstanding all which Christ pronounceth many woes against them Thus we see what are ill-grounded hopes which prove but like a spiders web to those that trust in them I shall therefore in the next place shew you what is a well-grounded hope of the happinesse of our friends departed which consists in this When our deceased friends have in their life-time given us some good evidence of the work of grace and sanctification wrought in their hearts whereby we could discern that by Gods blessing upon the means their eyes were opened that they were turned from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God For then we may conclude that they have received forgivenesse of their sins and an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Act. 26. 18. But this work of grace being inward and secret how shall we be able to judge of it Our Saviour Christ gives us a rule for our direction in judging of others Mat. 7 16 17 18 19 20. Ye shall know them saith he by their fruits Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles even so every good tree brings forth good fruit but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them From whence we may gather that as wicked men for the most part may be known by their wicked lives so gracious persons may be known by their gracious lives For it s as easie to carry fire in our bosome or oil in our hands without discovery as grace in our hearts without the manifestation of it Now many signes might be given whereby we may judge of the work of grace in others but I shall content my self for the present with these three First if living with them we observe that they make conscience of and practise private and secret duties as well as publick Hypocrites when they do duties do all to be seen of men that they may have glory of men Matth. 6. 2. 5. 16. and therefore in their very private prayers they love to make them in the Synagogues and in the corners of the streets v. 5. they have Jacobs voice but Esaus hands the Lord indeed is much in their mouths but far from their reines Jer. 12. 2. they lay claim to Christ but yet have no share in him they deeply affirm of him but have no manner of right to him their faith is but phansie their confidence but presumption they are like the mad man at Athens that laid claim to every ship that came into the Harbour when he had no part in any Like Haman that hearing the King would honour a man concluded but falsly that himself was the man or like Sisera that dreamed of a Kingdome whereas Jaels nail was neerer his temples then a crown and thus they deceive themselves with their shews and think to deceive others but Gods children can usually discern them and discover them to be like Harpyes that are said to have Virgins faces but Vulturs talons but on the contrary a sound-hearted Christian though he dare not neglect yea though he prefer the publick yet he also makes conscience of private duties and prayes to his Father in secret so that if we observe this in them its one good ground that they have the work of regeneration wrought in their hearts Secondly if we observe them that they labour to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men as Saint Paul professeth that he did Act. 24. 16. If they have had respect to all Gods commandments as David Psal. 119. 6. If they have made conscience of the duties of both Tables serving God in holinesse and righteousnesse all the days of their lives Luke 1. 75. hiring themselves unto him for term of life not desiring to change their Master knowing that they cannot mend themselves neither for fairnesse of work nor fulnesse of wages whereas an Hypocrite is versutulus versatilis he casts about how to deceive God and man with meer shews of devotion being not afraid to be damned so he may seem to be saved and seeking so long to deceive others that in fine he deceives his own soul Imposturam faciunt patiuntur as that Emperour said of them that sold glasse beads for pearl They deceive and are deceived Thirdly when we have heard them groaning and mourning under the remainders of corruption and the relicts of sin crying out with the holy Apostle Rom 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death When they have manifested their hatred against all sin and shunned every evil way saying with the wisest of men Prov. 8. 13. the fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride and arrogancy and every evil way do I hate whereas a dispensatory conscience is a naughty conscience Neither doth he Gods will but his own that doth no more nor no other then himself pleaseth as hypocrites use such holiday servants God cares not for Every one can swim in a warm Bath and every bird will sing in a Summers-day Judas will bear the Crosse so he may bear the bag and the carnal Capernaits will follow Christ for the loaves though not for love Joh. 6. 26. But Abraham will forsake all to follow God though he know not whither yea though God seems to go a cross way as when he promised him a land flowing with milk and honey and yet so soon as he came there he met with a famine Gen. 12. 10. If then you have observed these three things in your Christian friends whilst they lived you may have a well-grounded hope of their blessednesse after death which sure cannot but moderate your mourning for
AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST IMMODERATE MOVRNING For the DEAD Being a Funeral SERMON Preached at the Burial of Mr. THOMAS BEWLEY junior December 17th. 1658. By SA. CLARKE Pastor in Bennet Fink LONDON Quid interest utrum Febris an ferrum de corpore solverit Non quâ occasione sed quales ad se exeant Dominus attendit in servis suis August Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his dayes like the dayes of an hireling Job 7. 1. LONDON Printed by E. M. for George Calvert at the Half Moon in Pauls Church-yard neer the little North-door 1659. TO HIS Honoured and much esteemed Friends Mr. Thomas Bewley Merchant AND Mrs. Mary Bewley his wife Dearly beloved in the Lord IT was at your request that I first preached this Sermon and it is more to satisfie your desires than mine own that I now print it They that know me cannot but withall know how backward I have ever been being conscious to my own weaknesse to publish any of my labours in this kind and your selves can bear me witness that it was my earnest request that you would have laid this burthen upon abler shoulders especially having so great choise of godly and learned Ministers whom you invited to the Funeral But when you persevered in your desires and requests to me to undertake it my chiefest care was to make choise of such a subject as through Gods blessing might come home to your hearts and direct your behaviour under so great a burthen as is the losse of a dear and and only Son I knew that your affections were strong and that you had need of a great deal of heavenly wisdom to enable you to moderate them and whence is this wisdom to be learned but from the sacred Scriptures which are richly stored with precious promises as with so many cordials to revive and strengthen us in our greatest necessities Vnless thy Law faith David meaning principally the promises contained in it had been my delights I should have perished in mine affliction Psal. 119. 92. But as those which are faln into a swoon may be fetched again with hot waters poured down their throats so they that are troubled and pressed down under the heavy burthen of sorrow and grief may by patience and comfort of the Scriptures recover hope and joy The Text which God directed me to treat of was both seasonable and suitable to your present condition as not onely teaching you how to behave your selves under such an affliction but holding forth to you sound and sufficient arguments to perswade and induce you to the practice of the same I beseech you therefore to read it over and over again and remember what the Father said these are Verba vivenda non legenda solùm words to be lived and practised and not to be read only Such a sentence it is as a man would fetch from China upon his bare feet rather than be without it Take I pray you your correction as from Gods hand and humble your selves under the smart of it yet withal look to Christ and entreat him that your Faith Hope and meeknesse may not be overturned by it but rather that the affliction may bring forth Patience and Patience Experience and Experience Hope Consider who it is that hath done it Is he not your heavenly Father Now if your natural Father had done some shrewd turn at unawares by breaking a thing wherein you much delighted when you heard that he did it you would be quiet though before you were much moved Should you not say with Christ Shall I not drink of that cup that my Father will have me to drink of Remember I pray you what the Apostle suggesteth Hebr. 12. 9. We have had Fathers of our flesh that have corrected us and we gave them reverence Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of our Spirits and live v. 10. For they verily for a few days chastned us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holinesse Consider I pray you if God when you were first married should have told you I will give you two children and you shall bring them up so many years and then I will take them away again would you not have accepted gladly of this offer and taken it thankfully too why the event doth tell you no lesse than if he had spoken so afore-hand and will you now murmur or repine at his dispensation Is not God the chief Father of all the Families in Heaven and Earth and we but Foster-parents to our own children under him Is it not a mercy that God hath made you instrumentall for the enlarging of his Kingdom though he hath taken both your children from you Say therefore with Job The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord At least say with David I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou Lord didst it Oh! labour for good old Eli's temper It is the Lord let him do what seems good in his eyes 1 Sam. 3. 18. Consider that God who hath done it is Love and if you look upon it as an effect of his anger towards you yet be of good comfort that God that would not have sinful man to let the Sun go down upon his anger he will not retain his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy Micha 7. 18. But I presume that one thing addes a great sting to your affliction which is that hereby you want an Heir to enjoy your Estate and to preserve your name for all men naturally affect immortality and because they cannot enjoy it in themselves they desire it in their posterity that survives them But for a medicine to this malady remember what the Lord speaketh Isa. 56. 3 4 5 Let not the Eunuch say Behold I am a dry tree For thus saith the Lord to the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbath choose the things that please me and take hold of my Covenant even unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off Let me but adde one word more and I have done Consider what a mercy it is that God hath given you so many Christian friends that sympathize with you and help to bear your burthen so many godly and able comforters to speak a word in season to your afflicted souls so many faithful Ministers and Christians that daily pray for you and beg of God that he will support you under this heavy losse and make it up in some better blessing Remember I beseech you what our Lord and Saviour Christ saith Luke 14. 26. If any one come unto me and hates not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple Now the God