Friends a kind Acquaintance his Servants a good Master and we a liberal Benefactor and we may justly cry and say O Death thou dost indeed make great spoil and havock in the World thou dost visit every Family and every Person at one time or other thou art so cruel that thou sparest neither Young nor Old neither the Useless nor the Serviceable neither the Profitable nor Unprofitable Servant Our Sin has indeed given thee all thy Power and made thee look with a formidable Aspect to Flesh and Blood but because thou art so formidable we turn our Eyes from thee and look with more pleasure upon that Blessed Redeemer that has disarmed thee of all thy hurtful Power and that will give us Life when thou hast exercised all thy Rage and done the very worst he dyed that that such as believe might never die We cannot but somewhat fear thee O Death as thou dost dissolve our present Frame but we bid thee welcome as thou art the Messenger of the Lord of Glory to convey us thither To Conclude It is like that we who are in this Assembly upon this occasion shall never meet again Oh that We and all our Acquaintance might meet in Heaven above And let us be sure not to Fall out in our Way thither Let us while we live in a changeable and fading World prepare for one that will never fade Let us not be amazed at the Grave it now swallows us up and our Friends but it shall not keep us very long for our Lord will shortly come and make our Dust to live again and make those Bodies that were weakned by Sickness and destroyed by Death to be like his own glorious Body and what we now believe we shall then see and know to be true In the mean while let us make Conscience of Meditating at the least once a day upon that Comfortable and Reviving Place of our Apostle 1 Thes 4.14 and so to the end For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we be ever be with the Lord. Wherefore Comfort one another with these Words I conclude this Subject with the Prayer of the same Apostle 2 Thes 3.16 Now the Lord of Peace himself give you Peace always by all Means The Lord be with you all THE END Books lately Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultry viz. THE Mourners Companion Or Funeral Discourses on several Texts by John Shower p. 1 s. 6 d. The Life and Death of the Renowned John Eliot the first Preacher of the Gospel to the Heathens in America Written by Mr. Cotton Mather Mr. Barker's Book Intituled Flores Intellectuales or Select Notions Sentences and Observations Collected out of several Authors Mr. Lees Joy of Faith Casuistical Morning-Exercise the Fourth Volume By several Ministers in and about London preached in October 1689. Mr. Quick's Young Man's Claim to the Sacrament Mr. Crow's Vanity of Judicial Astrology A New Martyrology or the Bloody Assizes containing the Lives and Sufferings of those who died in the West The third Edition Early Piety Exemplified in the Life and Death of Mr. Nathaniel Mather With a Prefactory Epistle by Mr. Matthew Mead. Mr. Baxter's Poetical Fragments Mr. Oakes Funeral Sermon Mr. Kent's Funeral Sermon The Tragedies of Sin together with the Remarks on the Life of the great Abraham By Stephen Jay Rector of Chimer The Heads of Agreement assented to by the United Ministers There is now in the Press Mr. Brand's Funeral Sermon Preached by Dr. Annesley which will speedily be Publish'd Printed for John Dunton
upon the DEATH OF Mr. Anthony Dunwell GEN. xlv 24. See that ye fall not out by the way IT is not unknown to several here That this Evening is solemn to us upon more Accounts than one not only as 't is the Evening of the Lord's Day and the usual Time of our Lecture here but also as the Providence of God hath given us a peculiar Occasion to remember a Departed Friend by whose Appointment and Desire before he dyed I am now come to Preach a Funeral Sermon for him It is the same Person for whom when I was last here we prayed as being then in the painful Agonies of Death and the next Morning God was pleased to let him Dye He had for several Months by a Lingring Wasting Disease found the Truth of that in Job 14.1 That man that is born of a Woman is full of Trouble and now his going hence has also given us the Proof of the next Verse how he cometh forth like a flower and is cut down He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not This Flower on which a little while ago we looked with Delight is now blasted with the Stroak of Death and we shall not behold its Greenness and Freshness in this World any more Though we hope it is transplanted to flourish in a better Place This Friend whose Funeral we now celebrate was a constant Hearer in this Place a generous Encourager of this Lecture to my Brother Kentish and to me he was a Cordial and sincere Friend but alas he is gone His Death is indeed our Loss but we hope it was his Gain He is gone whose Friendship was so pleasant and so necessary to us He that delighted in the Activity of his serviceableness to God and us is now at rest in the silent Grave there we hope he sleeps in the Lord there we must leave his Dust and thither will his Works follow him He used to be a constant Attender on this Lecture as he was always more than a Well-wisher to it and I could heartily desire that those other Young People to whom we are beholden for their Kindness would be equally Serious and if it consisted with the Order of their Families as diligent Attenders there are some indeed that are so and if they were all such we hope they would not lose their Time We would willingly have them to receive some Benefit by our poor Pains and to taste of the Fruit of those Studies which their Liberalities have Promoted and Encouraged If it had so pleased God I had rather have come hither to have preached a Sermon of Thankfulness for the Recovery of our Friend than a Funeral Sermon I know it would have been pleasant to us and to all his Relations to have joyned together on such a chearful occasion and our Praises then would have been as many as are now our Sighs and Tears To these Mourners I am sure the Garments of Praise would have been much more delightful than these of Heaviness But what shall we say the Will of God is Done and let us humbly and quietly acquiesce therein for he alone knows when it is the most proper Season for us all to dye Our Acquaintance are going into the next World one after another and in a little while we shall also be gone and our Places know us no more To those that are Departed we must go they will not return to us though our Duty under the Stroaks of God and the Loss of our Friends obliges us to be sensible of his Warnings and of our own Frailty yet it also does engage us not to Repine or Murmur at his Providence Our Eyes may justly weep when we see the Graves of our Holy Friends but they ought not so to weep as to hinder our View of their certain and approaching Resurrection when their now vile and consuming Bodies shall be like the glorious Body of our Lord. I believe you will think this a very strange Place of Scripture on such a sad occasion as this I believe had I been left to my Liberty I should not have chosen it but it was bequeathed to me in the Last Will and Testament of our deceased Friend Mr. Anthony Dunwel and I do now understand That it was that which he had fixed upon several Years ago Men never put any thing in their Wills of this nature but what they most firmly desire to have done It may be a great Comfort to his Friends and Acquaintance that he not only retained a quiet and peaceable Spirit to his Dying Day but that he was willing to have Peace and Quietness flourish in the World and in the Church when he was Dead and Gone a Temper not like to those selfish and narrow Soul People that so they may Live and Dye at Ease care not if all the World be in Flames and Wars and Confusions afterwards as he said Me pereunte ruat Mundus Our peaceable Friend was in this Like to our Blessed Saviour who as he chose to be manifested when the Temple of Janus was shut at Rome and all the World was in a profound Peace and being himself the Prince of Peace and his Reign full of Pity he endeavoured to Reconcile God and Man and the Sons of Men to one another So a little before his Death discoursing with his Disciples Peace was the great Legacy that he bequeathed to them Joh. xiv 27. Peace I leave with you my Peace I give unto you And it is like our Deceased Friend had this in his Eye when he left this Text which is indeed a most pleasant Text though the Occasion on which I am to insist upon it be sad and mournful and I will apply my self to the handling of it when I have done that Justice to the Relations and Friends of the Deceased as to say That I never heard of any falling out among them nor is there I fully believe any Disagreement but a cordial and sincere Love as there ought to be Nor do I believe that he intended them when his Thoughts fixed upon this Subject but only from what I apprehend he was greatly desirous that there should be Love and Friendship and Union and Peace among all Good People of whatsoever Profession and Denomination whether Conformists or Nonconformists and in this Sense and with Relation to this that I shall now explain this good Advice See that ye fall not out by the Way This History of Joseph contains a series of admirable Transactions and is a great instance of the Mysteriousness and Wisdom of the Divine Providence that by Ways to Appearance very unlikely and undiscerned at first by Mortal Men does certainly bring about his own Designs and that Curious Succession and Period of Things which was first laid in his own Decree The Malice and Envy of Joseph's Brethen was the Means of his Advancement their Selling of him preserved their own Lives It was a Cruel Lye that they told his Father Jacob when they said Joseph
Love as Brethren be Pitiful be Courteous not rendring Evil for Evil or Railing for Railing but contrary-wise Blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that you should inherit a Blessing In the Primitive times they could forbear and forgive their Enemies much more their Brethren and were not like the Waspish Philosophers who as one says were ready to fall foul upon one another Dr. Cave's Primitive Christianity pt 3. ch 3. p. 317. for every petty and inconsiderable Difference that was among them Christians as he says were careful not to offend either God or Man but to keep and maintain Peace with both thence that excellent saying of Ephraem Syrus when he came to die In my whole Life said he I never reproached my Lord and Master nor suffered any foolish Talk to come out of my Lips nor did I ever Curse or Revile any Man or maintain the least Difference or Controversie with any Christian in all my Life Why may it not be among us as Sir William Temple says it is in the Netherlands where differences in Opinions make none in Affections little in Conversation where it serves but for Entertainment and Variety They argue without Interest or Anger they differ without Enmity or Scorn and they agree without Confederacy Men live together like Citizens of the World associated by the common tyes of Humanity and the Bonds of Peace under the Impartial Protection of indifferent Laws with equal encouragement of all Arts and Industry and equal freedom of Speculation and Enquiry According to our old saying Soft Words and hard Arguments are the best and if I may judge of others by my self harsh Expressions and a sowre Carriage will never make one regard what another says The Potion has too much Gall in it to be Medicinal whereas we cannot refuse to listen to a Man that comes to us in a mild and gentle manner It is the Spirit of Elias and not the Spirit of Jesus that is furious and violent It is an Human thing to be kind to those of the same nature with our selves but for one Professing Religion to be furious and eager and stormy is to let the Christian destroy the Man Mildness is an Offspring of Heaven the resemblance of Christ and has a strange constraining Power with it A calm and gentle Soul will govern and allay the disorder of the Tongue and keep us all quiet The very appearances as one observes of a calm Temper have a Charm in them but the effects of them in concurrence with other prudent Methods are almost irresistible And says he it is better to be over-run and ruined in the ways of Meekness than to conquer all the World by Cruelty in the one we bear the Cross and suffer for Righteousness sake in the other we Triumph in the Garments of Antichrist dyed red with the Blood of those who though in Errors yet may be good Men in the main for ought we know Sixthly Let us always Love our Brethren though we cannot he in all things of their Mind And this Love will produce all those acts of Kindness and good Will which I have newly mentioned in our different places of Worship and in the different manner of our Prayers there may be still an Union in our Hearts I can love many a good Man and wish him well with all my Soul to whose particular Persuasion I am not satisfied to joyn my self Let us love our Brethren for the Common Truths in which they and we both agree we have one Faith though we have two Names then let us commend all that we see in others that is truly good and commendable let us commend their Gifts and Graces their Learning and their Holy Lives let us pity their Faults and praise them for their good Deeds and this is the best way that I know of to keep us from falling out And if we must strive let us strive who shall be most serviceable to God and to one another Seventhly Take heed of loving needless Disputations Of all things beware of taking pleasure in them or of frivolous and curious Questions which tend to fill us with Rancour but promote not Edification Carnal Zeal as one says may put us on disputing but true Zeal will put us upon Prayer Some Men are of so strange a Palate that they love Niceties and Quelques chose rather than solid and substantial Food some love to splinter the plain Truths of the Gospel and to wrap them up in Clouds when if they left them to their native plainness they would be as bright as day For my part I had rather be a quiet Ploughman than a fiery Philosopher I had rather be a Son of Peace than the greatest Disputer in the World Disputes occasion abundance of ferment in the Minds of those who would otherwise be very quiet People and they also prove a Generation of Vipers Such as love them generally sting one another with many base and mean Reflections and which tast more of Billings-gate than of Jerusalem I thank God I have a peculiar Antipathy in my Temper to all hot and fiery Proceedings and I had rather Preach one Sermon of Vnity among Brethren than Write a thousand Follo's of Controversie We have all Reason to be thankful that our Age is pretty well delivered from a doting Admiration of the old School-men that spun Divinity into Cobwebs and made Depths and Mysteries where they found none it would pity a Man to see such excellent parts as many of them had to be so ill imployed But their Notions are now musty and antiquated and dead and I will never do any thing to revive or quicken them For as one very well observes our Fathers in the beginning of the Reformation were greatly scandalized at that School divinity which for a long time had filled the World not only with Questions vain and frivolous but pernicious also and leading Men to Wickedness What can any one think of such a manner of treating the Mysteries of Religion as they used and by Distinctions crude and sensless if it were not that all that was very likely to raise an abundance of Errors and excellently contrived for the maintaining of all such as Ignorance Passion Engagements or Interests would have produced One of the Effects of that Disorder of the Schools was the depraving of Christian Morality by the Introduction of divers destructive Maxims which tended only to corrupt Men's Minds and Hearts Instances of which see at large in Monsieur Claude 's Historical Defence of the Reformation part 1. p. 28. It would be a Comfortable Sight to see the Funeral of all needless Controversies We have seen indeed a Book lately writ by a Learned Man Mr. Baxter of The End of Controversies and I wish they were really ended that so we might Learn though not to Talk so logically yet to Live better Some Errors there are indeed that must be opposed and God leaves not his Ministers without Gifts for that very