that are have been or shall be shall all be gathered together 2 Thes 2.1 I beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him at the great day At the day of judgement we shall all be gathered together and shall be all taken up to heaven I mean all the righteous and be ever with the Lord and so much for the opening of the doctrine But here it may be objected Are not the unrighteous gathered by death as well as the righteous I answer it is true the unrighteous are scattered in this life and gathered by death as well as the righteous but with a great deal of difference First the wicked are scattered in this life but they are scattered from God but the godly are scattered for God and for a good conscience many times as they as Jerusalem were scattered The godly are scattered from the glorious presence of God in heaven but the wicked are scattered from the gracious presence of God on earth Again the scattering of the wicked is a curse to them and it is threatned as a curse Levit. 26.32 I will scatter you among the heathen and draw out my sword after you and wherever the wicked come in what part soever of the world the wicked are scattered they bring the curse of God with them and they bring the judgments of God on Towns or Cities where they are as plauge famine and sword and all miseries But the godly when they are scattered they are scattered as a blessing into what Country or Town soever they come they come as a blessing they come like a ship laden with corn to a Town ready to perish with famine they come as a blessing four ways First by their prayers to pray down a blessing on the place where they come Secondly they come as a blessing by their holy life and conversation that is a loadstone to draw others to holiness Thirdly they come as a blessing by their holy advise and counsel that they give to the place where they come Nay fourthly their very presence is a blessing as long as Lot was in Sodom Sodom could not be destroyed so long as Paul was in the ship the three hundred could not be drown'd So that the godly come as a blessing where-ever they are scattered but the wicked are as chaffe scattered by the wind and they are scattered as the dust of the earth You know when the dust is scattered it gets into mens eyes and blinds them and falls upon their cloaths and fullies and defiles them so the wicked where-ever they are scattered they defile the place where they are scattered The godly are as planets that wander and move from one part of heaven to another carrying light to the world Secondly as the wicked are scattered whise they live so when they dye they are gathered it is true but how not to God and Christ and his Angels but they are gathered to the divel and his Angels and to damned spirits not as bundles of wheat into the barn of heaven but as bundles of tares to be burned for ever in everlasting fire Now if the righteous perish as well as others and if their perishing be nothing but a gathering to God and Christ then First learn hence the preciousness of every righteous man the great God will not gather things of no value great men do not use to gather chaffe and straw and therefore when God saith of Josiah I will gather thee to thy Fathers it was a sign he was a precious pearl worth the gathering and of a high value and account in the sight of God and so is every true child of God right dear and precious are they in the sight of God both living and dying they are bought with a great price not with gold and silver and other corruptible things but they are bought with the precious blood of the Son of God They are as precious to God as the apple of his eye so precious that be hath given Christ for them and to them so precious that he called them his Jewels his peculiar treasure Jedidiahs and therefore God will not suffer them to perish but gather them to himself before the evil day come as the husbandman gathers in the corn before the beasts go out into the field Secondly Learn here what reason we have to be comforted in the death of a righteous man or woman because their death is not a perishing but a gathering to God and Christ and the society of Saints and Angels The death of a righteous man is no more then if a Merchant that hath abundance of Jewels in a far country should send for them home Why death to a righteous man is nothing but Gods sending for his Jewels home Such a phrase there is in Mal. 3.17 In the day that I make up my Jewels they shall be mine In this life they are imperfect Jewels they are like gold in the oar mingled with a great deal of drosse and death is nothing but a perfecting of these Jewels death is nothing more and God doth nothing by death but as a gold-finder gather up all his ends of gold and silver It is nothing but just as if a Father should send for his Son home that had been a long while absent from him to his own House it is a carrying us to our Father's house And therefore let us be comforted when our righteous Friends dye though their death be matter of sorrow to us in regard of the loss that we sustain by their death and because their death is a Warning piece of evil to come yet in regard of them we have no cause to mourn I speak this to those that are related to the righteous when they dye Did you ever hear of a Husbandman that mourned for the carrying of his Corn into the Barn or a Jeweller mourn for making up of his Jewels Let us mourn rather that we are left scattered among the wicked of the earth and from the glorious presence of God and Christ and let us mourn for those that are scattered from Christ and from grace and for those that whilest they live are scattered and when they dye are gathered to the Devil and his Angels Let us not mourn for those that dye in Christ but let us mourn for those that live out of Christ let us not mourn over the body that the soul hath left but let us mourn over the soul that God hath left The third Use is of Consolation to all the people of God in reference to evil times that are coming upon us or to the evil of times Whatever befalls a Child of God in this life though he be scattered by wicked men from England into other Forreign Countreys though he wander up and down in Desarts and Wildernesses though he be scattered from house to prison yet there will be a gathering time shortly there will a time come when all the Saints shall be gathered
work of an Evangelist make full proof of thy Ministry why so for I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand and therefore work thou see that thou endure affliction preach the Gospel as becomes a Minister of the Gospel that there may be no loss by my departure so in 2 Tim. 2.2 The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men that shall be able to teach others also Hath God committed any thing to you a treasure of Learning or grace commit it to young Ministers that they may commit it to others that so there may be a succession of gifts and graces Do as Physicians do that labour to communicate their skil to their Children and to others so should we that so there may be a succession of godly ones that godliness may be entailed upon us and our Relations Thirdly and lastly let us all labour to be such that when we die when we come to be gathered we may be gathered to Christ and his Angels and not to the Divel and his Angels And for that purpose let us labour to be merciful and righteous and let us be gathered to Christ by faith and to one another by love and dear affection and then we shall be gathered at the great day to Christ and the blessed company of Saints and Angels There are Four Observations yet behind but I must waye them at this time I have now another Sermon to preach and I cannot without injury to you that are alive and without wrong to the memory of my dearly beloved brother but speak somthing of him at whose funeral we are met this evening no so much for his commendation he needs it not but for our imitation It is pitty great pitty somthing should not be said that this reverend Minister though dead may yet preach this night and I have so much to say of him that I know not where to begin and when I have begun I hardly know how to make an end I must confess the little time allotted me for the providing for this solemn work and the necessary avocations in this little time have hindered me from informing my self about his breeding and manner of education at Emanuel Colledge under Mr. Stooker and his excellent carriage and converse with Mr. Hildâ—rsam Mr. Dod Mr. Ball Mr. Langley and other Ministers famous in their generations and the many pressures and hardships that he suffered in those parts and times for the keeping of his conscience pure from that which he counted sin and therefore I must draw a vail over that part of his life and confine my difcourse only to the time since his coming to live with us in London which is about the space of twenty two or three and twenty years all which time I have had the happiness to be intimately acquainted with him insomuch as that I can freely and clearly profess and that with a sad heart that I and many others have lost a real wise and godly friend brother and fellow-labourer in the Lord the Church hath lost an eminent member and choice pillar and this City hath lost an ancient faithful and painful Minister who by his prayers and holy life did seek to keep off the judgments of God from faling upon us and the less sensible the City is of this loss the greater is the loss I fear we may too truly repeat the words in the Text The righteous perisheth and no man lay it to heart and merciful men are taken away none considering that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come I have read of Philo the Jew and by chance met with the same in the life of Saint Ambrose that when they came to any City or Town and heard of the death of any godly man though never so poor they would both of them mourn exceedingly because of the great loss that place had by the death of that godly man and because it was a warning-piece from God of evil approaching But we have had many godly men and godly Ministers taken away of late and yet I fear me but few lay it to heart and therefore as I said the loss is the greater to this City because it is so little sensible of it It is a great loss also to his Relations his wife hath lost a dear and loving husband his sister a dear brother his Parish and Congregation a faithful Pastour The ministerial Excellencies of many Ministers were collected concentred in one Simeon Ash he was a Bezaleel in Gods Tabernacle a Master-builder and old Disciple a Polycarpe a Christian of long standing in the School of Christ a burning and a shining light one whom many Ministers and other good Christians called Father insomuch that it was a common Proverb in this City Father Ash and I believe many experimentaly lament over him as the King did over the Propet Elisha My Father my father the chariots of Israel and the horsmen thereof For he lived desired and died lamented not only in the city but I believ in very many places in the Country where he was known But more particularly there were twelve excellencies that I observed in this reverend Minister and my dear Brother that were as twelve jewels or precious pearls in that crown with which God had crowned him I shall name them for your imitation and benefit he needs them not for he is above our Eulogy The first and chief Jewel that I did beautifie and adorn this our brother was his sincerity and uprightnes of heart which indeed is not a single grace but the soul of all grace and the interlineary that must run through all grace for what is faith if it be not unfained what will love to God profit you if it be not without dissimulation what is repentance worth if it be not in truth as the body without the soul is a rotten carkass so is all grace without sincerity this is the soul of all grace this is the girdle of truth Sincerity is that which girts all our spiritual armour together and makes them useful what advantage is it to have the breastplate of righteousness the shield of faith the helmet of hope if they be but painted things it is the girdle of sincerity that makes all the other parts of our armour useful Now this excellent grace of sincerity was eminent in this our dear brother he was a true Nathanael in whom there was no guile I mean no allowed hypocrisie and this was that which carried him through the pangs of death with a great deal of comfort for he was able to say with Hezekiah Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart He could say with Paul This is my rejoycing the testimony of my conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity I have had my conversation in the world Secondly Another Jewel was his humility this is a grace that he
as well as others because they have a body of sin that they carry about with them for there is no man so wise that lives and sins not Eccles 7.20 Wherefore there is that which deserves death in a righteous man Lastly and especially The righteous must perish upon a peculiar account For if we had hope only in this life saith the Apostle we are of all men most miserable and therefore they must perish to keep them from perishing they must say as Themistocles Periissem nisi periissem they must dye that they may rest from their labour for here is not our rest Micah 2.10 There remaineth a rest for the people of God there is no rest in this World the word quies wants the plural number 3dly The righteous must dye that they may have their reward their Crown of glory that God hath laid up for them they must first fight the good sight and finish their course and then they shall receive a Crown of glory 3dly They must dye that they may be free from sin for they shal never put off the body of sin till they put off the body of flesh 4thly They must die that mortality may be swallowed up of life that corruption may put on incorruption 5ly They must dye that they may be perfect in Grace Lastly They must die that they may see God face to face and be for ever with the Lord which they cannot do till they dye therefore blessed be God that the r ghteous must perish If a man should bring news to a righteous man that he should always live on Earth always be young rich and healthful it would be unwelcom news for while we are in the body we are absent from the Lord and subject to sin and therefore when Peter asked Christ what should be done with John Christ tells him If I will that he tarry till I come what 's that to thee from henceforth there went a report abroad that John should not die John 21.32 Now the Apostle himself was much displeased with this report and look't upon it as a great affliction that he should not die and therefore he himself confutes it But yet Jesus said he said not that he should not dye as if he had said God forbid that I should not die Before I come to the Application of this point give me leave to speak something to the second point and so I shal apply them both together The second Doctrine is this That the perishing of a righteous man is nothing but a gathering of him to God Christ and the blessed Society of Saints and Angels in heaven This is contained in the second expression Merciful men are taken away the word in the Hebrew is colliguntuâ— they are gathered it is exegetical of the former they did not perish but they are gathered to God and Christ there is a great deal of excellency a magazine of sweetness in this expression they are gathered It implies two things First That the righteous are in a scattered condition while they are in this World and that three ways First They are scattered among the wicked and ungodly of the World as Sheep among Wolves as Lambs among Lions rent and torn in pieces forced to wander up and down in sheep-skins and Goat skins 2dly The righteous are scattered in the world one from another and that two ways 1. They are scattered by their different habitations for the godly are forced to separate one from another as Lot from Abraham 2. They are scattered one from another by the cruel persecution of wicked men and therefore you read Acts 8. that at that time when there was a persecution against the Church at Jerusalem that they were all scattered abroad 3dly The godly are scattered in this life from the glorious presence of God in Heaven indeed they are never sattered from the gracious presence of God but sometimes they are scattered from the comforting presence of God and as long as we live in this World we shall be scattered from the glorious presence of God for while we are in the body we are absent from the Lord. Secondly This implyes a bringing of God's people out of this scattered condition it is a gathering of the righteous out of this world into another from a sinfull persecuted world into a sinles glorious world from diversity of dwellings on earth to dwell altogether in one heaven it is a gathering out of the reach of men and divels a gathering them not only to the gracious but to the glorious presence of God and Christ and to the souls of just men made perfect and to the general assembly of the first born and to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem where they shall live together never to be scattered again To understand this the better let me offer 3 things to you shewing you that the godly are gathered to God 3 wayes In this life at death and at the day of judgment First the righteous are gathered to God in this life and that is at their first conversion for by nature we are all aliens and strangers to God scattered from any union or communion with God not only scattered from the glorious but from the gracious presence of God God made man at first to enjoy communion with himself but Adam lost this by his sin and now we are all Cains and Vagabonds scattered from the love of God and from union and communion with God but when God converts any of the elect he gathers them home to himself for conversion is nothing but God's gathering them to himself in the second Adam that were scattered from him in the first Adam the first Adam was a root of scattering a root of separation from God but the second Adam was a root of union and conjunction Christ is the head and all the elect are all gathered together in him 1 Eph. 10. that he might gather together in one all things in Christ so that conversion is nothing but a gathering of the elect of God to Christ by faith and a gathering to one another by love and charity Secondly Gods people are gathered at death here they are gathered to Christ by grace but at death they are gathered to Christ in glory here they are gathered to God by hope but at death by fruition here Christ is gathered to us he comes down and dwells with us but at death we shall be gathered to him we shall go up and be joynd with him There 's a great deal of difference between esse cum Christe and esse in Christo esse cum Christo to be one with Christ is a Christians great security but esse in Christo to be one in Christ it is a Christians great felicity In this life we are gathered to God by faith but at death by vision Lastly we shall be gathered to God at the day of Judgment it is called the day of the gathering of the Saints together A day when all the Saints