THE CERTAINTY OF SALVATION To Them who Dye in the LORD A SERMON PREACHED At the FUNERAL of the Right Honourable GEORGE Lord DELAMER AT BODEN In the County-Palatine of CHESTER September the 9th 1684. By ZACHARY CAWDREY Rector of BARTHOMLY in the said County-Palatine of CHESTER LONDON Printed for Peter Gillworth Book-seller in New-Castle in Staffordshire and James Thursion Book-seller in Nantwich 1684. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND PIOUS LADY ELIZABETH Lady DELAMER Madam THough the time allowed me to prepare for the bearing that part I sustained at the Funeral of your Honoured Lord was but short that worthy Person to whom that Province was first committed falling sick some days before the solemnizing of it yet the Deference I bare to the Memory of that Great Good Man and the hopes of being serviceable to the Glory of God and the Good of some who might be present in so numerous an Auditory prevailed with me to attempt the Discharge of it as well as I could And it seems some favourable Auditors of that plain Sermon then preached which your own Retirement through Sorrow did not permit your Honour to hear have given you that account of it that your Honour judges it may be of use and benefit to others to read to excite them to live in the Lord that they also may dye in the Lord and be eternally happy If therefore when your Honour shall have read this Discourse your self it shall appear to your pious Judgment likely to be further useful to that good end for which I preached it and your Honour now desires the publishing of it I humbly submit it to your Honours pleasure and disposal And as I shall follow it with my Prayers to God that it may prosper to the encouragement of humble and pious persons who shall read it so also shall I beg of him in whose sight the death of his Servants is precious that he will build up a lasting Monument to the Memory of your Pious Lord by causing his Lordship that now is and the rest of his Generous Off-spring always to imitate this their great Domestick Exemplar that so your Honour may still be a Naomi Ruth 1.20 and that the Remainder of your Days may be blessed in them as your many Years have been wherein you lived with your most excellent and pious Consort MADAM I am Your Honours Most humble Servant ZACHARY CAWDREY THE CERTAINTY OF SALVATION To them who dye in the Lord. REV. 14.13 And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them IT is an Article of the common Creed of all Mankind that it shall be far better with pious and vertuous Persons and far worse with the vicious and ungodly after this Life than it can possibly be whilst they are in the Body For it is generally believed that this present Life is appointed by God the Supream Judge to be the time of Trial and Probation wherein Men work out for themselves either Eternal Salvation or Damnation It was such even to Adam in Paradise Now if we enquire into the Rise of this common Persuasion at least as to the first part of it about the future happiness of those who are esteemed good Men we shall find that it is not Natural Reason which in its Consequences draws Men into this Belief For Reason will easily convince a considerate person who shall set himself to weigh things seriously and wisely that Humane Nature is sunk into a state below the degree which was due to it according to the scale and distances of the Creatures from one another and is fallen from its primitive temper to affect and do things very Brutish and unbecoming a Rational Being And seeing this proneness to unseemly Actions and Affections is found to be common to all Men of all Ages and Climates or Places it cannot be reasonably conjectured how this Degeneracy of Humane Nature could have come into the World but by the Miscarriage of the first common Parents of all Mankind Besides it is plain to every Man who reflects upon his own Life that he himself hath actually sinned both frequently and heinously against the In-written Law of his own Conscience So that no Man's Reason can secure to himself that God the Righteous Judge will advance him to Bliss hereafter seeing he hath come short of the Glory of God his Maker Rom. 3.23 which ought to be the great end and design of every Man So that though Reason can evince the Immortality of the Soul and that God will judge the World in Righteousness according to their Works and consequently can prove that an Hell and state of Torments doth abide the notoriously debauched and wicked persons yet cannot Reason prove that there remains an Heaven or state of Bliss for any seeing all Men are Sinners From whence then comes it to pass that men of all Religions Heathens Mahumetans Jews and Christians have imbibed a Belief that certainly there is a Reward for the Righteous and that after this Life the Pious the Just the Loyal the Temperate the universally Kind and Obliging and who delight in all other holy and humble persons shall enter into Peace and Bliss If I be able to judge there can be no other Rise of this common Belief and Hope but the Tradition universally carried down from the first Fathers of Nations to their Posterity whom their Parents instructed that though Mankind by the Miscarriage of their first Parents was fallen from their primitive Innocency and had forfeited all Right to Happiness as well as the fallen Angels had done according to the Law and first Covenant of their Creator yet God condescended to make a New Covenant with Man in his lapsed State through the Mediation of that promised Seed of the Woman who by having his Heel bruised by suffering the Curse due to our Sin should break the Serpent's head and defeat the design of the fallen Angels who aimed at the universal destruction of all Mankind And in that Covenant God promised also through the Intercession of the promised Seed to accept graciously of the sincere though imperfect Services of Men and to reward them with an eternal Happiness So that in every Nation they that feared God and worked Righteousness should be accepted with him Act. 10.35 And this Patriarchal Creed about the efficacy of the Propitiation of the promised Seed the Christ to abolish the guilt of Sin and the prevalency of his Intercession as Mediator of the New Covenant to make accepted the Services of sincere and humble Penitents was not only carried down by Catechetical Instruction to all the Families of the Earth but they were taught also to make a Confession of that Faith and to protest that Hope by the offering of Sacrifices till the promised Seed should come to be actually offered as a Propitiation for Sin and to
suffer any thing which may promote the Knowledge Fear and Faith and Love of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ And who exercise universal Charity towards all Men even Enemies with special delight in all holy and good Men 1 Cor. 13.1 And lastly Those who make God's Favour in Christ Jesus here and Communion with him in a Vision of Peace hereafter the Inheritance and Happiness which they chuse and desire before all things both in this World and in the World to come Psal 73.25 and Gal. 6.8 These I say these penitent believing mortified devoted charitable and heavenly-minded persons are according to the Conditions of the New Covenant in Christ so as to receive from him the Benefits of Justification Peace Increase of Grace Acceptance in their Duties and Adoption and Resurrection unto Glory So then they who persevere in the Exercise of those Graces of Repentance Faith Devotedness to God's Service c. to the end of their days these dye in the Lord they dye with a Right and Title according to the terms of the New Covenant to that Crown of Glory which Christ hath purchased and as a Righteous Judge will give unto them at that day the day of death A second Term to be explain'd is this From henceforth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is an Epocha or Date and to me seems best sixed at the death of the Saints So that the sense is They who dye in the Lord are blessed from the very Instant of their death without any suspension of their Happiness through the sleep of their Souls or on account of their passage through or stay in Purgatory or any other middle state intervening betwixt the bodily Life and the Happiness of departed holy Souls This plain sense is both agreeable to the Scriptures and seems to be the sense of the Church of England about this Text in that she appoints it to be read at the Interment of the Dead So that I shall cleave to this plain sense waving all critical Enquiries after any other though I am not ignorant that some Expositors begin this Date from the ceasing of Persecution for some time under the Emperors Trajan Antoninus or some other mild Heathen Emperors Other Expositors fix it from the renewing of Persecutions under Decius or Dioclesian or other bitter Persecutors Others again fix it from the time of ceasing Persecution under the Emperors or Rome-Heathen till the Renewal of Persecution again under Rome-Papal But though Expositors thus differ about some critical Notes of time yet they all agree that at their death the Saints are happy I shall therefore stick to that sense Thirdly I must explain what are the Labours from which they who dye in the Lord are said to rest I answer All Conditions which are burthensome to the inward or outward Man to Body or Soul are Labours Such therefore are Sickness Pain Loss Reproach Disappointment Banishments Imprisonments Tormenting Deaths Such also are those passions of Fear Anger Sorrow Envy Inordinate Desire Suspiciousness and Anxiety of Mind Such also are all Compassions and Sufferings in Soul for the Miseries of others whether our private Friends and Relations or our Country or the Church of God Add to these Christians being subject to Temptations either to sin or to doubt of God's Mercy to their Souls are Labours also I say all these both Sufferings Passions Compassions and Temptations are Labours Here therefore I shall before I come to handle the main Proposition speak a little to two other Truths here supposed and they are these First That even good Men who live in the Lord do not till they dye in the Lord rest from all their Labours Secondly That bad Men who do not live in the Lord and consequently cannot dye in the Lord such do not rest from their Labours when they dye but the bitterest of their Labours follow them even beyond the Grave First That good Men have not a Rest from their Labours on this side the Grave It is true that Faith and Patience do much correct the malignity and bitterness of their Sufferings but even the best of God's Children have their Labours here For Who can doubt but it is a labour and burthen even to a good Man to be under pining sickness and pain to be subjected to the persecutions of slanderous Tongues and Pens to be deprived of their Estates Liberty or Country Who doubts but that Anger Sorrow Fear and Anxiety of Mind are yet a greater burthen and labour if a good Man in his weakness falls under the impression of any of them So also it is no small burthen when Friends are miserable or disobliging What a great part of a good Man's heart and bowels are carried away by the loss of a dear Joseph the Imprisonment of a Simeon the Ravishment of a Dinah or Tamar the Incest of an Amnon or the Rebellion of an Absalom What a burthen of heart to good Men are their sorrows and fears for the Church of God through the divisions of Brethren and the Contentions of a Paul and Barnabas or through the Apostacies of some eminent for Profession of Godliness to either damnable Errors or rending Schisms or downright Prophaness and Debaucheries Such labours and sufferings also to a good Man are their fears and sorrows for the Land of their Nativity suffering or like to suffer through Wars Famine or Pestilence And lastly What a labour and burthen is it to a good Man to be assaulted with inward Corruptions or outward Temptations and to wrestle and combat with his spiritual Adversaries and his own Doubts Now there are few or none of these but may be put into the Inventory of most or all good Men. So that they may well say to their own Souls in the Language of the Prophet Micah 2.10 Arise ye and depart this is not your Rest for it is defiled So that no pious persons ought to reckon it a mark of God's displeasure or rejection if they suffer here and have not an Heaven upon Earth seeing all holy Men who have gone before them to Heaven were made perfect by Sufferings and so also their Sufferings may be instrumental in the hand of God's Spirit to prepare them and make them meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light The second Proposition here supposed is That bad Men even when they dye do not rest from their Labours They are no more free from Sufferings on this side the Grave than good Men are their Sicknesses and Pains be as sharp and vehement their Bones being full of the Iniquities of their Youth Job 12.11 their Children may be rebellious as Sennacherib had Adramelech and Sharezer or they may dye soon if they be hopeful like Jeroboam's Abijah Their Names and Reputations may be torn in pieces by their black-mouth'd Fellow-sinners and they usually are highly tormented with fears and anxiety of Mind and with rage and envy at other Men. But one of the chiefest torments of wicked Men on this side Hell
person of such accomplished Endowments of such eminent Moralities and Intellectuals a Son in Law worthy their desire and choice From his Youth upward he professed and practised serious Godliness mixed with Humility and Charity and devoid of Affectation Censoriousness or Partiality He visited his Closet frequently every day for his private Devotions and withdrew for that good work even in the greatest throng of Business and in his very Journeys sought out such Privacies as befitted those sacred Breaâ—hings which shewed that it was Affection not Custom which carried him to that pious Retirement His Family was daily called at due Periods to Religious Worship himself and his pious Lady joyning therein when Health permitted He constantly when he was in health attended the Publick Service of God according to the Order of the Church of England by Law established of which Church he lived and died a pious Member He usually came to publick Worship with the first and staid till all Offices of the same were celebrated if any besides the common and stated parts of it were to be transacted as Baptism or the Eucharist joyning devoutly in them In London he received the Communion Monthly at Covent Garden-Church if he was able to go thither humbly kneeling at the Rails before the Altar or Communion-Table It was his mis-fortune when he was young to be seduced with the plausible pretensions of the Artificers of our late Troubles But he soon shewed the integrity of his heart by his early withdrawing from them when he discovered the mischievous designs of those who had drawn upon their Soveraign But as if that Secession from them had been a small Expiation of his Error he upon the first hopeful opportunity adventured his Life Fortunes and Family in the Service of our Royal Soveraign whom God long preserve And this he did not only upon truly Loyal and Monarchical Principles without admixture of any By-designs with the Service of his Prince but also by the Warrant of an express Commission from his Sacred Majesty constituting him Commander in Chief of all the Forces raised and to be raised for His Majesty's Service in Cheshire Lancashire and North Wales Which Commission I have seen and read it being exemplified under his Majesty's Royal Signet and Sign Manual Dated at His Majesty's Court at Bruxels Aug. 9. 1659. in the eleventh Year of his Reign With him then joyned many primitive Loyal Cavaliers and many Loyal Converts some of both sorts I believe are here present And the Rising of him and of you Noble and Loyal Sirs with him in this County gave the first warm and invigorating Spring beam to the Frost-nipt Loyalty of the Nation For the Tyrannical Usurpers cunningly exciting many of the Loyal Party by the Artifices of false Brethren to make ineffectual Attempts against their too well fortified Usurpation did upon the discovery of them by their Decoys cut them off by bloody and merciless Executions Which though it abated not the Zeal of the Royal Party yet it rendred many of them so mutually jealous that they durst scarce in secret communicate their loyal thoughts and desires to one another But the Rising of this Noble Lord and of you Generous Sirs in Cheshire unlock'd the bosom and opened the mouth of every Loyal Subject to his Neighbour to own the Royal Cause again with Courage and Confidence and gave the whole Nation boldness to declare their longing for David's Return Insomuch that one of the bloody Regicides said with Indignation That Sir George Booth 's Rising in Cheshire had again conjur'd up that old Monarchical Spirit in the Nation which he feared would never again be suppressed and for that he must dye without mercy And undoubtedly he had done so as the gallant Montross did in the like Circumstances before if God had not wonderfully prevented So that this Noble Lord and his Loyal Fellow-Soldiers even the Regicides themselves being Judges triumphed over the very Heart and Principles of Rebellion And that His Sacred Majesty had this gracious sense of this Attempt is evident by the Honours and other Favours he accumulated on this Loyal Convert And that it may appear that I speak not without Warrant I have transcribed out of his Lordship's Patent for his Barony His Majesty's gracious and ample Testimony of that honourable Engagement The words are these Idem Georgius summis Majoribus nequaquam virtute Minor crudelissimo Patris nostri Augustae Memoriae Parricidio nec non nostro miserrimo longóque exilio soevisque Regnorum Calamitatibus barbarâ inhumanâ Regicidarum crudelitate mancipatorum gravissimè affectus singulari in Nos amore in ruentem Patriam memorabili pietate impulsus incredibili virtute Rei Familiaris Vitaeque summo cum periculo coactâ fidâ Nobili Fortium Virorum Manu è Comitatibus Cestriae Lancastriae Arma sumpsit Nos Regnis Nobis Regna redditurus Quibus Ausis ingentibus licet tunc temporis ceciderit restanrationis tamen Nostrae tam foelicis tamdiu exoptatae Ansam praebuit The same George no way inferiour in Vertue to the chiefest of his Ancestors being deeply affected with the cruel Murder of Our Father of blessed Memory and with Our own most deplorable and long Banishment and with the heavy Calamities of Our Kingdoms enslaved by the inhumane Cruelty of the Regicides and being drawn by singular love to Vs and by memorable piety towards his sinking Country having with wonderful Courage and the greatest hazard of his Life and Fortunes gathered a Loyal and Generous Band of valiant Men out of the Counties of Cheshire and Lancashire took up Arms designing to restore Vs to Our Kingdoms and Our Kingdoms to Vs In which Heroick Attempts though he then failed yet gave he occasion for our so happy and so desired Return Having been thus large in this part of his Character I will be the briefer in the rest I shall not need to mention his Domestick Vertues It is known to all about him that in the faithful and affectionate Conjugal Love betwixt him and his pious Lady God set forth a worthy Example to this profligate Age how sacred the Matrimonial Bands are to those who fear God As God blest him with a numerous Issue for all whom he made an honourable Provision before his death so he educated them all with that pious Care as if the Fate and Honour of his Family was imbarqued in every one of them single Towards his Servants he was so just that he not only gave them all their due Expectances and more as to Temporals but caused them to be constantly instructed in the things belonging to a better Life Towards his Tenants according to the Hereditary Vertue of his Family he was one of the best of Landlords under whose Benevolent shadow many hundred Families did rest and enjoyed comfortable and plenteous Subsistencies The freedom also of his generous Hospitality and of his Alms to the Necessitous have rendred his Memory blessed And so also hath his Charity towards all Men with his special delight in all the pious humble loyal and peaceable persons known to him And no less eminent was he in his Mercy towards Enemies not only forgiving those who attempted his Life and Fortunes and putting them into his Prayers but doing them signal and ample Kindnesses overcoming their Evil with Good In the long and sharp Pains and Sickness which cut short his Pilgrimage he shewed such composed Patience as no bare Philosophical Principles though he was well verst in the choicest of them could possibly have produced but it evidenced it self to be the Genuine Issue of the Grace of God in a Will wholly submissive and resigned to the pleasure of his Soveraign Lord and Maker and still trusting his Wisdom Mercy and Faithfulness in Christ Jesus to cause all to work together for good to his immortal Soul So that we have upon all accounts good ground to hope that he is entred into that Kingdom of Peace and Purity where every Saint and Angel loves God more than they love themselves and God loves every Angel and Saint more than they can love themselves and every Saint and Angel loves others even as themselves and so they have as many Joys as they have Companions It must needs therefore follow that all Labours are then removed all Tears are wiped away all Desires satisfied all Wants supplied all Temptations excluded and all Graces perfected and the Glorified Saints have the perfection of Holiness and the fulness of Happiness through the Excellency of the Knowledge and Love of God their Maker and Saviour and in mutual Complacency in one another and rejoycing over one another in the Lord. This is the Portion of those who live and dye in the Lord. Therefore my beloved Brethren be ye stedfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much 〈◊〉 ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Rev. 1.5 6. To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood and hath made us Kings and Priests to God ever his Father to him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen FINIS
from that very instant wherein God condescended to make a new Covenant with fallen Man in the promised Seed the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 For that phrase From the beginning of the World points directly to the time of making that new Covenant in Paradise and on that account Christ is called A Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 That new Covenant is in that Verse called The book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World it containing the conditions of life and Happiness setled in the Mediation of the Lamb the Lord Jesus and confirmed in his Blood from the beginning of the World So then when God made that new Covenant promising in Christ Acceptance of Men's sincere though imperfect Obedience then I say he appointed and prepared for them not a Return into an earthly Paradise but an entrance into an everlasting Kingdom into an Eternal Life even for all those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and Immortality Rom. 2.7 We may observe further that the New Covenant was ratified and established by God's Mercy in the promised Seed Gen. 3.15 in his sentencing the Serpent and before he passed Sentence on Adam and Eve And therefore in the sentencing of them we hear of nothing of either spiritual or eternal Punishments pronounced against them but there is denounced only such temporal miseries and a temporal death as do indeed declare God's Anger against Sin but withall may by the Grace of God in the New Covenant redound to our spiritual and eternal Good On which account St. Paul 1 Tim. 2.15 saith that The child-bearing woman notwithstanding her pains in child-bearing shall be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through that promised birth of the Saviour of the world if she continue in faith For the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relates not to every Woman 's Child-bearing but to the famous Birth of the promised Seed as I with submission to the Godly Learned do judge So then when Christians through Grace perform the Obedience of the new Covenant in Repentance Faith Self-denial Heavenly-mindedness Charity and the rest of Christian Duties God accepts of them in Christ Jesus and will reward them therefore their Works following departed Saints to be rewarded they who die in the Lord are blessed And yet the Argument concluded not strongly unless that Reward be and make up compleat Blessedness But that it doth so is evident from Rom. 2.7 God will give to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life And Gal. 6.8 it is affirmed that They who sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Now this Life everlasting which is the portion of the Saints that it may be a compleat and perfect Happiness must be at least thus qualified In it the Saints must not want any thing that they stand in need of or desire any thing but what they have nor ever come to distaste or loath any thing they do enjoy nor fear the loss of what they are possest of nor envy the portion of any other who partake that state with them nor yet despise any that are their Associates in that blessed Inheritance I say the meanest Saint cannot envy the highest Angel nor can the highest Angel despise the meanest Saint For Reason it self will evince that it cannot be a perfect Life and Happiness where there is want of something we do need or longing for something we have not or a loathing of what we once savoured or a fear of losing of what we enjoy or a scorning or an envying of those who are our Companions in the same state But those Evils of Want Longing Loathing Fear Envy and Scorn being removed it cannot be but the Reward of the Saints must amount to Fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore Oh the infinite Mercies of God in Christ Jesus who accepts of the sincere though imperfect Services of holy and humble persons and thus highly rewards them But if we yet further enquire what Object it is that being thus enjoyed sets us above Want Longing Loathing Fear Scorn and Envy I answer It is God himself communicating his own glorious Perfections to the Knowledge and Contemplation of the Saints and Angels in that excellent Light of Glory wherein they see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 and see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 By which Knowledge so clear and so glorious the Saints and Angels are wrapt up into the most intense and fervent love of him and delight in him that it is possible for Creatures of their degrees to receive And seeing the Essential Happiness of God himself appears to be his Comprehensive Knowledge of his own Glorious Essence and Perfection and the Essential Love of and Eternal Complacency in himself for there is not a more excellent Being than himself for him to contemplate nor a more lovely Being than himself for him to delight himself in Hence I say our coming to that blessed Enjoyment of him is called Matth. 25.21 the Entring into the Joy of our Lord we coming to enjoy God whom himself enjoys and to enjoy him by Contemplation and Love which is the way of God's own Essential Enjoyment of himself as far as we can apprehend Thus God is the Portion of his People and the Inheritance of his Saints The Works therefore of those who dye in the Lord following them to receive so high a Reward through God's Mercy in the New Covenant confirmed in the Blood of his blessed Son it must needs be that they are eternally blessed And that this honourable and pious Person whose Funeral Rites have called this great Assembly together is now arrived at that Reward and Crown of Evangelical Righteousness is I suppose the persuasion of all persons present who knew him and who believe that there is a Reward for the Righteous But considering that when a great and good Man dyes something of the Panegyrick is required to make up the Justa and compleat his Funeral-Rites David himself made a Funeral-Oration at the Interment of Abner 2 Sam. 3.33 I shall say something of that kind as well as I am able but still being careful of this that I may not by Commendation of the Dead give any just Offence to the Living nor by false Praises of the Deceased lay a Snare for the Feet of Survivors as is too oft done I will therefore say nothing but what I knew or have unquestionable Testimony for it Concerning the Family of which this Noble Lord was lately the Head you all know it hath sent forth its Boughs unto the Seas and its Branches to the Rivers Psal 80.11 most Families of Quality in this County and many also in other Shires having mingled their Blood by Marriage with that of Dunham Himself joyned in Affinity with two great and ancient Families of the Nobility first that of Lincoln then that of Stamford who justly esteemed a