the abridgment of that Liberty which other young persons take very often to their prejudice and ruine as a singular advantage and favour from Heaven § 14. In some part of her Sickness she had some humble becoming doubts and fears of her own state but having imparted them to a Reverend Person well acquainted in the Family and heard his Resolutions and Answers she was better satisfied and express'd her hopes of Pardon and Salvation through the Righteousness of Christ who loved her and washed her from her Sins in his own Blood Yea so far was she from questioning the goodness of God and the Truth of his Promise so far from doubting of the alsufficiency of Christs Mediation the Merit of his Sacrifice and his willingness to receive returning Sinners that the believing thoughts of it were her greatest support and joy saying often in the time of her Sickness That though her Sins were as Scarlet God could make them as Snow though red like Crimson they should be as Wooll Isa 1.18 § 15. Moreover she did thankfully acknowledge the Mercies of God to her in the former part of her Life whereof she had very many both Personal and Relative And particularly desired that Thanks might be returned to God for his singular goodness to her during her Sickness § 16. She was very desirous of Prayer to God on her behalf and very joyful and well pleased when she had it and being at any time ask't what particular request she desired should be made to God for her she mention'd not her Recovery and the lengthening of her days but the forgiveness of Sin through the Merit of her Redeemer an humble submission to Gods disposal and a prepared heart to acquiesce in his appointment And so in one sence she was full of dayes though she dyed very young being satiated with the Time she had liv'd on Earth and not importunate for a longer stay § 17. Within a few hours before her dissolution of the approach whereof she was more apprehensive than those about her she was very desirous that a worthy Minister whom she named might immediately be sent for Mr. S. F. to commend her Soul to God Who accordingly came thô at Midnight She her self joyn'd in that last Office with great seriousness and affection and afterward return'd him her hearty thanks for his great kindness therein saying Now I have nothing more to do but to dye Only requested him not to leave the house that night as knowing that his Company and Counsel might administer to the support of her Affectionate Mother and other Relations whom she should leave in sorrow thô she her self was passing to Eternal Joy § 18. After which she composed her self to rest and refused every thing that was offer'd her to take making Signs with her hands of her unwillingness to be disturbed § 19. In that short space of her Continuance which was not an hour she was heard to say Be gone Satan Be gone Thou art a Lyar from the Beginning and the Father of Lyes O come Lord Jesus And soon after she said He is come he is come and so fell asleep as in the Arms of her dearest Saviour or as the Jews report of Moses That he dyed with the Kiss of God O Death where is now thy Sting O Grave where is now thy Victory The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ And blessed are the Dead that Thus dye in the Lord. § 20. Would to God that the Account here given might effectually convince us of the great difference between the Death of the Holy and the Vnholy of the Righteous and the Sinner Might convince us of the great Blessing of holy Parents and a good Education and encourage Parents to be diligent and faithfal to be serious prudent and affectionate in the Education of their Children because such a deportment is most likely to be owned by God with the desired Success And Oh that it might Convince us likewise of the Vanity of Youth the shortness of our Lives the uncertainty of our Time the nearness of our Change the necessity reasonableness and manifold advantages of Remembring our Creator in our younger Years And withal might hasten our Preparations and spirit our Desires to depart and be dissolv'd whenever God shall call us That following their Example who by Faith and Patience are gone to inherit the Promises We may at length meet those Precious Souls above who are gone before us that with them and all the Children of the Kingdom we may be for ever with the Lord which is Best of all THE END M rs SHOWER's Funeral Sermon BY Mr. JOHN SPADEMAN of Rotterdam Sickness and Death for the Glory of CHRIST A Funeral Sermon ON THE DECEASE OF M rs ELIZ. SHOWER Who Dyed the 24th of Aug. 1691. By JOHN SPADEMAN Minister of the English Church at Rotterdam LONDON Printed for J. Dunton and A. Chandler 1691. TO My Honoured Friend Mr. SHOWER SIR WHen after an unpleasing separation the Providence of God gave Opportunity of renewing our Converse in your Habitation I promis'd my self an unmix'd satisfaction during my stay with you And as none is more oblig'd to rejoyce in all the Good which you or yours are partakers of so none could be more heartily dispos'd to do it Indeed the hopes of enjoying your Society sweetned the fatigues of a Voyage which after many Years absence I lately made unto my own Countrey In which I was truly delighted to find that not only your Person and Ministry were acceptable and useful but that there was a prospect that God would make your House to grow But when I was preparing to return I perceived that God had brought me to mourn with you under a most afflictive Providence In which though my Character had made me unfit to present Comfort to you yet few of your Friends had more light to discern the deepness of your Wound and greatness of your Loss For the intimate Friendship between us and our cohabitation in Holland gave me opportunity of understanding the worth of Her whom now you lament Though this Consideration as it makes your Tryal greater renders your Resignation more acceptable to God and useful to Men. To part with an ordinary Possession with willingness is a kin to that Patience which is exercis'd under merited Punishment which in the Apostles judgment hath no Glory or Commendation in it 1 Pet. 1.20 But 't is an Heroick Spirit a resemblance of that Faith which dignifi'd the Father of all who believe to give up a rare and endearing Treasure And if any Consideration hath strength to work this Noble Disposition in our Souls that which is taken from the Glory of God and the Redeemer hath 'T was this which led my thoughts unto the Meditations in the following Discourse which though much below the dignity of the Subject am willing to make thus
of a greater and better Hope Are they at all considerable and worthy our fear if put in the ballance with the promised Salvation to sollow on our departure Are they comparable in the Nature of Evil to the blessed Life they lead us to in the Nature of Good or comparable to the gripes of Conscience which unpardon'd Sinners meet with in Life and Death yea do we not think them greater and make them worse by our foolish fears than most do find them Is not the Sting of Death remov'd and the Heavenly Mansions prepar'd and promis'd And is it a reasonable Request that God should vary from his settled Course and sixed Law upon our sole Account Will nothing else content and please us but that Heaven must descend to Earth or we be in a moment translated thither to prevent our Pain and supersede the necessity of our Dissolution which we fear will be so attended As a proper Remedy in the present Case let us samiliarize the Thoughts of Death by frequent serious Meditation Let us view it oftner in our way that it may not meet us with so much Terror at our Journeys end Let us admit the Thoughts of a Departure with particular Application to our selves and improve the Funerals of our Friends as a seasonable memento that our own is near Let us lay open the Picture of Death naked to our view and urge it to our Hearts with the infinite Glory that immediately succeeds and take in the Death and Promise of Christ as our assurance of it And this will reconcile us more to a Departure and help to overcome our unreasonable fears of Pain and Sickness antecedent to it 3. The weakness and declension of our Love to Christ is another ground of our Unwillingness to depart and to be with him To a degenerate Soul that is destitute of the Love of Christ an Everlasting Distance would be more desireable than a Local Presence For that could not make him happy he would still be as far remov'd from Bliss by being with the Lord as the Centre of a Milstone in the bottom of the Sea would be from moisture But the Company and Converse of those we Love must needs be Eligible and the more we love them the stronger will still be our desire of being with them and the more impatient shall we be of every delay And is it not the sease and secret language of our Hearts Whom have we in Heaven but Christ And are we not desirous to forsake this Earth to enjoy his Presence Certainly the growth and strength and exercise of Holy Love to Christ would even render our Dissolution grateful in order to it and make our Hearts rejoyce at the approach of Death as it did old Jacob's to see the Waggons that are sent to fetch us to our beloved Jesus who is Lord of that Countrey whither we are going 4. Immoderate Love to this present World and our Temporal Life Were we crucified to fleshly Pleasures and sensual Joys to worldly Honours and earthly Riches we should less regret the Thoughts of Dying and more heartily desire to be with Christ For as the Pangs of Death are not ordinarily so violent and intolerable to one whose strength is wasted by a pining Sickness as to him who is Arrested suddenly in his full strength and vigour so will he more easily leave this World who for some time past hath been dying to it Were we more crucified to the World and the World to us by the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.14 we should not so affectionately hug the Carkass of a dead Enemy whom we our selves have crucified and slain but wait for the Time and long for the happy Hour when we shall leave it and be gone to our Eternal Rest Let us therefore make use of all the Christian methods of Mortification and look on this World as a strange place and our selves as Pilgrims and Strangers here as Exiles from our own Countrey and hastening to it And we cannot but wish our selves at home and desire a departure as necessary thereto and in the interim sigh to think of the vast disproportion and difference between the slender Entertainments of our Inn and the plentiful Provisions of our Father's House 5. Blotted Evidences and the want of Assurance concerning our Title to the Heavenly Glory And this we all pretend as the reason of our Unwillingness to Die A Sadducee is loth to die lest he should not be at all an Vnprepared Sinner for fear of being Miserable and a Doubting Christian because he knows not whether Happiness or Misery shall be his Portion after his Departure For were we well assured we should be with Christ for ever we could not be so backward and unwilling to be dissolv'd Had we any better grounds to hope that Sin was pardon'd and God our Covenant-Father that Heaven would be our Inheritance and we should not come into Condemnation we might rejoyce to think of our departure when and how it shall please God to call us When the Psalmist could say The Lord is my Shepherd he could boldly venture upon Death and walk through the Valley of Darkness without fear of evil Psal 23.4 6. But when Distress had brought his Sin to remembrance and made him doubt of his Condition he cries O spare me a little longer that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more seen Psal 39.13 Could you say with the Spouse of Christ in the Canticles My Beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 6.3 you might chearfully joyn your Amen when you hear the Spirit and the Bride say in the Revelations Come Lord Jesus come quickly Rev. 20.22 Therefore Try your State and Examine your selves a-fresh and endeavour with your utmost Care and Diligence to obtain a well grounded Assurance founded on the Testimony of a good Conscience by comparing the Promises of Remission and Eternal Life with the requisite Qualifications and Conditions of them For if our hearts condemn us not we shall have considence towards God 1 Joh. 3.21 even in a dying hour To which end let us endeavour by daily Acts of Repentance to obtain a daily Pardon Let us sum up our Accounts at the foot of every Page I mean reflect every Night on the Passages of the preceding Day that we may rest on our Beds with the sense of a daily Pardon and be as sit to die as we are to sleep 6. Our fond Affections to our Friends on Earth may make us loth to die though we hope to be with Christ in Heaven But is not his Bosom more desirable than the Arms and Embraces of our dearest Friends and nearest Relations Must we not abandon and hate them all for his sake Luke 14.26 i. e. use them as contemptible and hated things if they keep us from him Have we not solemnly engag'd to do so by our Covenant with God and shall we not stand to our Agreement Is there no difference between our Friends on Earth
endeavour to recollect after I have considered the extraordinary Instance of this Text where we find the Prophet Ezekiel is forbidden by God to mourn for the death of his Wife having receiv'd an express order not to testifie his Affection by any of the Funeral Rites and Customs of Mourning used among the Jews on the like Occasion Also the Word of the Lord came unto me saying Son of Man behold I take away from thee the Desire of thine Eyes with a stroke yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep neither shall thy Tears run down For the better understanding of this Passage you must know that this Prophet had for several years publish't the orders of God and denounc'd Judgments in his Name unto Judah and Jerusalem but without the desired fruit of his Ministry without the success of his important Messages and Commission The generality of the People applauded his Rhetorick but continued to do after the Lusts of their Hearts and the sight of their Eyes and would not hearken to his repeated Calls to Repentance or be awaken'd by the most awfull Threatnings of approaching Calamity Hereupon God resolves to take another Method and try if his Sufferings would not be instructive unto those to whom his Preaching had been little so The Prophet himself should be a Sign unto 'em and the surprizing Death of his Wife be made a Warning of what God would do against that Nation And his not being permitted to mourn for her should signifie the (a) Uxcrem nolo lugeas ut signisices in maximis malis con vacaturum Ipsis ut lugeant Grotius Extremity of that Judgment which would quickly overtake them and represent the Horror of their Distress that they should not have leave or opportunity to perform Funeral Rites or make a regular mourning for their Dead Relations The following part of the Chapter declares this to be the general scope and meaning of this Passage Wherein we may consider First The Literal Sence of the words in relation to this Prophet Secondly The Parabolical meaning of them in relation to the People of the Jews Thirdly The Practical Improvement of this Instance as to Ordinary Cases of the Death of Relations and Mourning for ' em The former will tell us what these Expressions signifie in themselves the Second what they were designed by God to represent to the Jews which will make way for what may be instructive from both whenever God takes away the Desire of our Eyes by Sickness or any other stroke Under the First Enquiry we may take notice of three things 1. The Title here given to the Prophet Son of Man 2. The Calamity threatned Behold I take away the Desire of thine Eyes with a stroke 3. The Prohibition in that case not to mourn or weep or use the ordinary Expressions of Funeral Sorrow First This Title of Son of Man we find given him almost an hundred times in this Prophecy That it should be given him as a Type of Christ who is so often called the Son of Man I know no sufficient reason to prove for that Appellation seems to have respect to his Mediatory Office as that true Son of Man or promised Seed who was to bruise the Serpents head and not only to be the Saviour of Israel but a light to the Gentiles and allied unto all Mankind Vnto whom all Power and Authority is given and all Judgment Committed because he is the Son of Man Joh. 5. It may either referr to his mean Original and frailty as a Son of Adam whose Body was formed out of the dust of the ground and must return to it which might help to prevent his being lifted up by the extraordinary Visions and Revelations God had favour'd him with that he might not think of himself above what was meet 2 Cor. 12.7 or count it strange that he should be called to so difficult a Service and prov'd by such an afflicting Stroke since he was but a Son of Adam Or the expression may (b) Cameronis Prelect ad 16 Matth. 27. import no more but simply O man which is usual in all Languages when a Superiour directs his discourse to an Inferior So Rom. 9.20 Secondly N. The Calamity threatned by God I take away the Desire of thine eyes with a stroke By a Plague or Apoplexy or some very surprizing more immediate Hand of God such as the First-born of the Egyptians were smitten with Exod. 12.29 where the word is used The Desire or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Desires of thine Eyes as the Septuagint Translation renders it who this was the eighteenth verse tells us So I spake unto the people in the morning and at Even my Wife dyed 'T is manifestly supposed that she had many qualifications to render her Desireable and make the loss exceedingly afflictive otherwise the dreadful Calamity that was coming upon the Jews would not have been properly represented by it If the Spirit of God had not reckon'd this Instance to have been one of the most smarting and afflictive of all private and particular losses it could not have been fitly made use of here If the loss of a tender Parent or of a beloved Child or any other Relation had been superior or equal to this the death of some or other of those Relations would rather have been mention'd instead of this It may therefore be thought reasonable that when the Inferiour Priests were forbidden under the Law to defile themselves for the Dead save only for their nearest kindred Levit. 21.3 4. that the Wife must be comprehended thò not express'd Allowance being given them to mourn for a Father or Mother a Brother or Sister a Son or Daughter this Relation is much more supposed for whose sake a Man is to leave all others It were needless to tell him he might afflict himself in that case when it is granted as to the lesser and more remote Relatives The Margin of some Bibles would intimate it was forbidden unto a Priest being an Husband among his People to defile himself by Funeral Mourning for his Wife but it may better be read He shall not defile himself for a Chief man or Magistrate among his People therefore much less might he do so for any other save his nearest Kindred and Relations The general reason of such (c) Dr. Spencer de Ritiâ—us Jud. lib. 1. cap. 7. §. 2. a Prohibition seems to have been to keep up the Reputation and Respect due to the Sacred Office and Ministry which by being ordinarily present at Funeral Solemnities might have been lessen'd that he might not being a publick person and employed about the worship of God by any sorrowful indecorous Ceremonies disparage his Office or lessen his Dignity and esteem among the people for it follows v. 6. They shall be holy unto their God and not profane the Name of God i. e. They are peculiarly separated for the service of God and the Offices of Religion and obliged to greater strictness and