Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
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A44675
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A discourse relating to the much-lamented death and solemn funeral of our incomparable and most gracious Queen Mary, of most blessed memory by John Howe.
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Howe, John, 1630-1705.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing H3023; ESTC R7264
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27,333
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50
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them imitate him if they can What Persuasion among us can produce a greater Example than we have been now considering or more worthy the imitation even of Private Christians 2. The Spirits of the Just on Earth are in a great propinquity and have a near alliance to Heaven They are not there to have the first foundations laid of their blessed state but are only to be made perfect They have in them here the first Principles the Elements of their final blessedness Heaven in little As the Acorn contains the Tree or the Embrio the Man 3. The Just in this World are of the Church in Heaven They are come to the General Assembly the Church of the First-born c. All sincere Christians whether in Heaven or Earth as hath been noted make but one Family Ephes. 3. 15. Good God! Can our little differences here set us at greater distance than Heaven and Earth The Observation is worth considering of that Wise and Noble Person It will be found a matter of great moment and use to define what and of what latitude those points are which discorporate men from the body of the Church And if any think this hath been done now long ago let them seriously consider with what sincerity and moderation the same hath been performed c. And if it had not been done with due sincerity and moderation in his days it 's much to be doubted whether it have since In the mean time it is to be consider'd that what differenceth any thing constitutes it And if a Church of whatsoever denomination be constituted in its superstructure though its foundation be good of Hay and Stubble of things that can belong to no Church as a Church it must some time or other suffer loss And though the Builders be saved it must be by a more penetrative than an imagined Purgatory-fire 4. Angels must have kind propensions towards men especially good men in this World knowing these are of the same Society and Church with them though the Divine Wisdom hath not judg'd it suitable to our present state of probation there should be an open and common intercourse between them and us 'T is however a great incongruity we should have strange uncouth shy frightful or unfrequent thoughts of them in the mean time 5. When we find any excellent Persons in our World attain far and high towards the perfection of the Heavenly State it ought to be a great encouragement to us and is an obligation to aspire to some like pitch We see it is not an impossible or an unpracticable thing and should disdain to crawl now as Worms when we are to soar as Angels 6. We ought hereupon to acknowledge and adore the Munificence and Power of Divine Grace that it should design the making of such Abjects as we fit to be associated with such an Assembly the innumerable company of Angels and the spirits of the just made perfect and will not fail to effect it if we comply with the apt methods appointed for that blessed purpose 7. When such ascend and are taken up from us that God had eminently prepared for translation we should take great care lest we unduly regret it That we do not envy Heaven it s own To which they are more a-kin than to our Earth And which had a greater right in them than we could pretend 8. We should look upon Funeral Solemnities for such with more prospect than retrospect and consider them as directing our Eye less downward to our own forsaken World than upwards to the Celestial Regions and Inhabitants To such to dye is to be born They dye only out of our mean World and are born into a most glorious one Their Funerals should be celebrations of their ascent and an exulting Joy should therefore in that case not be quite banisht from Funeral Sorrows but be allow'd to mingle therewith as Sun-beams glittering in a Cloud When the greatest Person was leaving this world that even lived in it He says If you loved me you would rejoice that I say I go to the Father We should bear our part in the joys of heaven upon this Occasion if we relate to it And when we are told there is joy there among the Angels of God for the conversion of such who are thereby but prepared to come to their Assembly we may conclude there is much more for their glorification when they are fully come and joined to it Funeral Solemnities are very dull melancholy shews without such references forwards and upwards With how different a temper of mind would two Persons have been the Spectators of Jacob's Funeral The one of whom should have lookt no further than the Canaanites or Egyptians did who would only say some great Person is dead But the other by Divine Illumination is enabled to apprehend This dust here mingles with the earth of this Land to presignify this People of whom he was the Head must possess it Yea moreover here the Great God will fix his Residence and Throne Upon such a Mount shall be the Palace of the Supream King Here after great Mutations and Revolutions and great Destructions both of the Egyptians and Canaanites shall this People have a long succession of Princes and Rulers that shall be of themselves And all this but as representing a King and Kingdom that shall rule and spread over all the Earth and reach up at length into Heaven Canaan shall be an Holy Land Unto Sion's King shall Tributary Princes bring their Gifts out of Egypt and Ethiopia stretch out her hands and all Nations serve him His Empire shall confine with the Universe and all Power be given him both in Heaven and Earth With what a large and raised mind would such a One have beheld this Funeral What better Canaan than we now behold we shall have in this world God knows And we should be the less solicitous to know intermediate things when we are so fully ascertain'd of the glorious end of all things And let us reflect upon the solemn Pomp of that late Mournful Assembly that lamented our Queen's departure out of our world comparing it with the transcendent Magnificence of that Triumphant Assembly into which she is received above FINIS Some Books Printed for Brab Aylmer THE Blessedness of the Righteous opened and further Recommended from the Consideration of the Vanity of this mortal Life Of Delighting in God The Reconcileableness of God's Prescience of the Sins of men with the Wisdom and Sincerity of his Counsels Exhortations and whatsoever means he uses to prevent them In a Letter to the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq To which is added a Postscript in Defence of the said Letter Self-Dedication Discoursed in the Anniversary Thanksgiving of a Person of Honour for a great Deliverance The right use of that Argument in Prayer from the Name of God on behalf of a People that profess it A Funeral Sermon on the Decease of that Worthy Gentlewoman Mrs. Margaret Baxter Wife of the Reverend Mr. Richard Baxter The above are by the Reverend Mr. John Howe A Discourse of the great Disingenuity and Unreasonableness of Repining at Afflicting Providences And of the Influence which they ought to have upon us on Job 2. 10. Published upon Occasion of the Death of Our Gracious Sovereign Queen Mary of most Blessed Memory With a Preface containing some Observations touching Her Excellent Endowments and Exemplary Life By Edward Lord Bishop of Gloucester The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New with Annotations and Parallel Scriptures To which is Annex'd the Harmony of the Gospels As also the Reduction of the Jewish Weights Coins and Measures to our English Standard And a Table of the Promises in Scripture By Samuel Clark Minister of the Gospel Printed in Folio of a very Fair Letter The like never before in One Volume The Four last Things viz. Of Death Judgment Heaven Hell Practically Considered and Applied in several Discourses By William Bates D. D. A Sermon Preached upon the much Lamented Death of Our Late Gracious Sovereign Queen Mary To which is added the Address of Condolence to His Majesty by the Dissenting Ministers By W. Bates D. D. Acts 25. 23. Diod. Sic. l. 1. Herod Euterp Plin. Paneg Prov. 5. 22. Sen. Trag. Eccl. 7. 4. Chap. 2. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. in loc Heb. 7. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. Plutar. 1 Joh. 3. 3. Col. 3. 10. * Blessedness of the Righteous p. 69 c. Psal. 132. Gen. 49. Min. Fel. Lord Viscount Verul Adv. of Learn lib. 9.
of Speech familiar and well known to them have Respect to their Passage out of Egypt as the 3d and 4th Chapters of this Epistle also have towards the Land of their promised Inheritance whereof the Remains of their venerable Ancestor and Head holy Jacob or Israel had by Divine Instinct and Direction in that mentioned solemn Funeral Procession been convey'd before to take a sort of Typical and Prophetical Prepossession of it for them They are in the whole a Figure an Allegory which is expounded Gal. 3. In their way to their Terrestrial Canaan this People come to Mount Sinai The Emblem of their Jewish Church-state under rigorous Severities which they were to pass from and so shall we The Text expresses what they were come and were tending to The Representation whereof hath a double Reference intermediate to the State and Constitution of the Christian Church and final to the Heavenly State The former being both a Resemblance and some Degree of the latter Ye are come saith he to Mount Sion the Seat of the Sacred Temple the Shechinah the Habitation of the Divine Presence not ambulatory as the Tabernacle was while they were journeying through the Wilderness but the fixed Residence of the Eternal King where the Order of Worship was to be continued to the Fulness of time as afterwards in the Christian Church it was to be permanent and unchang'd to the end of time and in the Heavenly State unalterable and eternal And here in opposition to the case at Mount Sinai where the People were to stay beneath the Mount whereas they were to go up to the House of God on Mount Sion they are now to ascend and be higher than Heaven as their glorious Head and Lord is said to be To the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem to signify the Vicinity wherein God will have his People be to him as Jerusalem was to Sion their Houses and Dwellings being near to his own the City to the Temple And this Passage may also look back upon their former State whereas they had heretofore nothing but Wilderness they had now a City To which that also agrees Heb. 10. 16. Their earlier Progenitors were Wanderers and Strangers even in Canaan it self but now God had prepared for them a City in the Heavenly Canaan as before he did in the Earthly But lest their Minds should stay in the external Sign he lets them know he means the heavenly Jerusalem i. e. the Christian Church which was the Kingdom of Heaven begun and Heaven it self as being that Kingdom in its final and consummate State To an innumerable Company of Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which tho in the singular it signifies a definite Number being here put plurally may well be understood to signify indefinitely a numberless Multitude or whereas some selected Squadrons might only attend the Solemnity of giving the Law at Mount Sinai here is the whole Heavenly Host whose stated Office it is to guard the Church below and worship the Majesty of Heaven above To the General Assembly the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the glorious Consessus of all Orders of blessed Spirits which as it may be supposed constant at all times so is as supposable to be more frequented and solemn at some and whither any may resort as quick as the Glance of an Eye or a Thought and perhaps do at appointed Seasons so as to make more solemn Appearances before the Throne of God as the Laws and Usages of that blessed World shall require And we may well understand here an Allusion to the appointed times at which there was a Resort from all Parts of Judaea to Jerusalem and as in the Christian Church are at set Seasons more numerous and solemn Assemblies Here may also be an Allusion to the Panathenaica the more general Conventions of all the People of Athens upon some solemn Occasions which were wont to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These can be referr'd to but as saint Resemblances and Shadows whether they were the Jewish or the Grecian Assemblies of this Universal Convention that fills the vast Expanse of Heaven in comparison whereof not only this little Earth of ours but the whole Vortice to which it belongs can be considered but as a very minute Spot or Point The Inhabitants that people those immense pure and bright Regions in their Grand stated solemn Assembly make the Term to which Holy Souls ascending from among us are continually coming And here with what ineffable Pleasure must these pure Celestial Intelligences all fill'd with Light Wisdom Life Benignity Love and Joy converse with one another behold reverence love worship and enjoy their Sovereign Lord displaying his Glory perpetually before them and making his rich immense Goodness diffuse it self and flow in Rivers of Pleasure most copiously among them The Church of the First-born written in Heaven These all constitute but one Church of whatsoever Orders those blessed Spirits are And they are all said to be First-born The Church here meant consisting only of such in whom the Divine Life or the holy living Image of God hath Place they having all the Privileges which did belong to the First-born the Inheritance the Principality and the Priesthood For all God's Sons are also Heirs Rom. 8. 17. And they are all made Kings and Priests Rev. 1. 16. having all their Crowns which they often cast down before the Supreme King And their Employment being perpetual Oblation of Praise Adoration and all possible Acknowledgments to him They are all of excellent Dignity and every one enroll'd so that none have a Place there by Over-sight Casualty or Intrusion We must here understand an Allusion to what Citizens need not be told the known Custom of registring such as were Civitate donati or made Free And to God the Judg of all This may have reference to that Office of the Judg in the Olympick Concertations to whom it belong'd to determine who were Victors and to whom the Garlands or Crowns were justly due Here the Privilege is that they whose Cause is to be tried are sure of righteous Judgment and that they may approach the enthroned Majesty of Heaven it self None of them are deny'd Liberty of Access to the Throne of Glory Above as in the Christian Church none are to the Throne of Grace Below And to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect This shews they all make but one Church Even such Spirits as have dwelt in Flesh being received into the Communion of those whose dwelling never was with Flesh. And in the mean Time those that yet continue in these low Earthly Stations as soon as the Principles of the Divine Life have place in them belong and are related to that Glorious Community for they are said to be already come thereto and all together compose but One Family For there is but one Paterfamilias of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is said to be named Ephes. 3. 15. Now