that a frequent Premeditation of it is a part of the greatest Wisdom and the best means to conquer the Suggestions of Nature and to stir us up to the performance of Good Works whilst it is call'd to day So for the same ends and more especially to comfort the Souls of the Righteous A like Voice to that was heard in these latter times from Heaven to bid St. John in the words now handled not to cry but to write Cry not to the Inhabitants of the Earth at present but write Record it to all Ages of the World and what is thus to be written or recorded by virtue of this Charge from on high Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit for they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord. By which Persons so pronounced Blessed I know that * Qui Christi causâ mortis pericula adeunt Saith Grotius upon the Place and Translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui propter Dominum vel Domini causâ moriuntur As also Beza Junius and Others some Interpreters have understood here in a proper Sence only Those that have Sacrificed their Lives to seal the Truth of their Religion with their Blood or Those that have laid them down for Christ's Name-sake or their Faith in him and that by reason of some preceding part of this Chapter which speaks of a Vision wherein a Third Angel was seen and heard to say with a loud Voice Ver. 9 10. If any Man Worship the Beast and his Image the same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God and afterwards Here is the Patience of the Saints Ver. 12. Intimating as they would have it that the sole intent of the Spirit in these words was to chear up the Hearts of the Primitive Professors of Christianity so as to make them to bid Defiance to those Persecutions which the Rage of the prejudiced World and the Madness of the Idolatrous Heathen were then bringing in upon them and in order to that to tell them that the Persons so Dying in the Lord were those that are now pronounced Blessed Yea Blessed for ever Blessed if GOD be true are such but that these are not the only Persons here meant is evident from the Character given of them in the words immediately before my Text Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus which no sooner was proclaim'd by the Angel but the Voice is directed to St. John Saying write Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord that is according to the Connexion those that dye in the LORD as having kept the Commandments of GOD and the Faith of JESUS so that as long as the sence of these words may properly be extended farther than Martyrs * Sicut in Christo esse dicuntur que ei verâ fide constanter adhaerent in Christo vivere qui vivunt ad voluntatem Christi ita in Domino mori dicuntur qui in vera fide invocatione Domini per fidem Christo insiti ut vera membra corporis ejus moriuntur Par. Cluv. Gat. to all true Disciples of our Blessed Saviour who by whatever Death they fall have sincerely endeavour'd to keep the Commandments of GOD upon their Failure been truly penitent and by a lively Faith in the Merits and Satisfaction of our Saviour's Sufferings commended themselves to His Mercy They may pertinently and profitably be discoursed upon at this Solemnity whilst we are paying our last Office to this our late Dearly-beloved and much-esteemed BROTHER Whose sincere and hearty Repentance Whose constant Piety and fervent Devotion and Whose chearful Resignation of Himself to GOD's Disposal of all which I was a daily Witness gives me confidence to say In every part He fulfilled the Character Be pleas'd then in them to consider these Particulars First A Declaration of the Blessedness or State of Happiness of All those that dye in the Lord. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord. Secondly A full Assurance or Confirmation of it Yea saith the Spirit And lastly A Twofold Reason containing in it the Nature of that their Blessedness or State of Happiness That they may or rather †So we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated in our Liturgy for they rest from their labours and their works follow them But that my Discourse upon these Heads may be the more Clear and Regular I shall invert their Order and begin with the last viz. The Twofold Reason containing in it the Nature of their Blessedness And when we have seen in some measure what their State of Happiness is I shall speak something very briefly to the two first viz. The Declaration and Confirmation of it both together that thereby we may be satisfy'd of the full Assurance we have that such shall be their Portion that dye in the Lord. And that what shall be deliver'd may have such an Impression upon us as to move us earnestly to endeavour to be found at the last of their number I shall add something as an Application suitable to the present Occasion and so conclude I begin then with the Nature of that Blessedness that is said to be the Portion of those that dye in the Lord contain'd in this that They rest from their labours and their works follow them Which evidently manifests this unto us that the Nature of their Happiness consists First Negatively in a Cessation or Freedom from all or their not being tormented with any worldly labours and troubles and Secondly Positively in the Enjoyment of inconceivably great Rewards consequent upon their good Works And first Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord inasmuch as they happily enjoy a Cessation or freedom from all their worldly labors and troubles They rest from their labours And indeed so many are the laborious miseries of this vain world that by reason of them the Thracians of old wept at the Birth of those Children who were ready to be brought under their Burden and celebrated the Funerals of those who by Death were freed from them with Musical Entertainments and we Christians according to the Rules of our Church do now-a-days with hearty Thanksgivings to our GOD for that it hath pleased Him to deliver them from the miseries of this sinful world which is not a less Rational than a Religious Custom For how sadly has Sin defaced our Souls and made our Understandings become so short-sighted that we cannot penetrate into the true Nature of many things nay nor scarce get a thorow Apprehension of some few necessary ones without much study Eccles 12.12 which as the Wiseman speaks is a weariness of the Flesh The corruptible Body presseth down the Soul Wisd 9.15 16. and with labour do we find out the things that are before us How wretchedly by the same Original sin are our Wills corrupted that when we seem to our selves most
us therefore Phil. 3.14 press towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus and set our affections on things above and not on things on the earth Col. 3.2 always remembring the Wise-man's Words Prov. 11.4 that Riches profit not in the day of wrath but Righteousness delivereth from death And whatever fair Offers or Enticing promises of this World's Treasures be made or given unto us upon our compliance with sinful terms As Moses refus'd to be call'd the son of Pharaoh's Daughter Heb. 11.24 because he had a respect unto the recompence of reward so let us contemn the like Proposals for the same reason choosing rather as he did to suffer affliction with the people of God Ver. 25. than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season And indeed as the pleasures of sin are but for a season or of a short continuance so are they base in themselves and end in bitterness Be they in appearance never so specious yet in the Wise-man's Language they bite like a serpent Prov. 23.32 and sling like an adder they lead down to the Chambers of Death and their way is the way to Hell Ch. 7.27 Wherefore let us consider the dignity of our Nature and the Excellency of our Religion and let not brutish Sence lead Us so basely captive to whom GOD has given Reason to be our Guide and of whom He now requires Faith as our Support against Temptations and our Glory in our Conquest of them And that it may not let us following these Exhortations mortify our members that are upon earth Col. 3.5 and as the Apostle himself infers having these promises 2 Cor. 7.1 let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God For as all our future and everlasting Happiness proceedeth from the Vision of Him so are we certain that without Holiness no Man shall ever see Him And as thus we should be upon our guard lest either the Hopes of this World's profits and honours or the enticements of its pleasures should so far prevail as to seduce us out of those paths that lead to Blessedness so should we also lest the fears of affliction should drive us from them Wherefore rather than do any ill Action let us suffer every ill thing The Powers and the Rage of this World can lay upon us reckoning with the Apostle Rom. 8.18 That the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compar'd with the glory that shall be revealed in us So shall we be prepar'd for all conditions of Life and every thing that can beset us and thereby approve our selves as true Sons of our CHURCH as this our Deceased Brother was Whose Faith in JESUS and Whose stedfastness to our Religion I need not tell many Persons here to have been truly such as the changes of the World could never alter In the close of all Hold fast as He did the profession of your faith without wavering Heb. 10.23 for he is faithful that has promised and be ye stedfast 1 Cor. 15.58 unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour will not be in vain in the Lord. For since He who 't is impossible should act any thing in vain or be disappointed of His Ends did condescend to a most painful and shameful Death that all such as dye in the Lord might be advanc'd to an Everlasting Life of Pleasure and Glory Certainly when he had overcome the sharpness of that Death He opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers And Now To God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be ascribed all Dominion Power and Glory both now and for ever Amen
securely to sland we are oblig'd of necessity continually to labour lest we fall forasmuch as we always find in the Apostle's Language a law in our members Rom. 7 2â— warring against the law of our minds and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin How miserably are our Bodies depriv'd of their primitive welfare and how jarring and unsociable are all their parts so full are they of inward aches and disturbing pains that we are frequently compell'd to labour to preserve them in a Vital Amity to keep them and our Souls from a dissolution forasmuch as in the midst of life we are in death And besides all this How difficultly doth the Earth bring forth her Fruits and with what labour do living Men enjoy them truly with so great pains that according to the curse of GOD upon it we are forced to Eat our bread in the sweat of our brows And how many are our other outward Crosses our suprizing Losses and thereby our great Disappointments Oftentimes truly so many that in patience to possess our Souls we find a very laborious task And all these in their innumerable particulars are so inseparably annex'd to the Life that now is that * Omnia ad quae gemimus tributa vitae sunt in longa vita sunt quomodo in longa via pulvis lutum pluvia Ep. 96. Seneca an Heathen as well the Spirit of GOD has compar'd our course upon Earth to a Journey upon a Road in which the Traveller may as soon expect not to meet with rain nor dirt nor wind nor dust as we in our Life may not to meet with Labours nor Crosses nor Troubles And if an Heathen could observe this of himself as a Man and if in the same sence our sad Experience often-times confirms this to our selves that We are born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward that is by a Natural necessity to how far greater measure are our Labours augmented who profess our selves the Souldiers of CHRIST our Captain as well as the Servants of Him our Master who in our Baptismal Vow have sworn by the Labours of a continual warfare manfully to fight against the assaults of our Lusts and the Wiles and Temptations of Devils who in the midst of the Commotions of a mad World are oblig'd to strive for Peace with all Men to bear Persecutions when laid upon us for Righteousness-sake and the like Whereas now the Dead that dye in the Lord are not perplex'd with any of these or the like troublesome tasks but are freed from all their hardships their tiresome journeyings their tedious warfare their fretting cares their vexatious crosses their grievous persecutions and in a word all other their worldly afflictions which is in one Expression now spoken to They rest from their labours Yea they rest from their labours For certainly there is no striving after Knowledge no Labour under Ignorance to them who are made partakers of GODS Wisdom and Glory in Heaven No labour to them of preserving themselves in their state of Holiness who like those Angels that never sinned are confirm'd in their station and put out of a possibility of falling No pains no aches of Body to them whose Bodies lye senceless in the dust until the Resurrection and at and after that time are transform'd into and remain glorify'd ones No difficulty to them of supporting themselves with provisions who perpetually are feasting upon the Bread of Heaven being actual possessours of ineffable pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore No surprizing losses no vexing disappointments to them in that state which GOD has made as unalterable as Himelf is who is the same yesterday today and for ever and changeth not No labour against temptations to them who lye not within the reach of any enemies and whom neither lusts nor Devils can assault No strivings after peace to them whose place hath known no wars nor commotions since the Devil and his Angels thence were beaten And they of necessity must be freed from persecutions since they have fought their Good Fight obtain'd their Victory by Faith and are made Members of a Church eternally triumphant And this is the First Part of that Blessedness The Dead enjoy who dye in the Lord they rest from their labours But alas a meer resting from their labours falls infinitely short of half their Happiness as will be clearly manifested now 〈◊〉 come to treat of the Second positive part of their state which was said to consist in the enjoyment of inconceivably great Rewards consequent upon their good works contain'd in these words Their works follow them GOD'S gracious Rewards of their good works accompany them Not that we are to think that these their good works were the Meritorious cause of their enjoyment of them so as by reason of them we may with the Romanists affirm that they deserv'd them or in strict justice might have challeng'd them as their due from GOD but only that they were the necessary means appointed by GOD for the obtainment of the Blessing aâ—… being those without which they never would have had their joys Joys that no Man upon Earth can pretend to set forth in their proper colours forasmuch as whatever pleasures there arise to our Rational Natures made perfect from the Vision and Fruition of that All-glorious Spirit who is the incomprehensible Fountain of all perfection and happiness forasmuch as whatever pleasures there arise from the unspeakable harmony of Celestial Hallelujahs from the society and love of holy Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made like unto and as pure as them and lastly forasmuch as whatever advantages there arise to these our Corruptible dishonourable weak and Natural Bodies by being raised and glorify'd in Incorruption in Honour in Power and Spirituality are pleasures and advantages truly that the Mind of Man cannot apprehend any so agreeable to the dignity of our Constitutions and as touching the excellency of them what they are in themselves the highest strains of Humane Oratory can never represent nor our loftiest imaginations mount unto But tho' Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor Heart conceived the things that God hath prepared for those that love him for those that by keeping his Commandments and the Faith of Jesus dye in Him yet as we can look upon them as thro' a Glass darkly at present thus much we know in part that their Bodies after the Resurrection will remain as the brightness of the Firmament Ch. 12. ver 3. as the Prophet Daniel assures us and shine as the Stars for ever and ever And as touching their Souls Before that glorious manifestation of God's Power and Promises in raising their corrupted Bodies from the Dust we are assured they shall be with Abraham in Comfort and with Christ in Paradise and After their Minds will be fill'd with as much Light and their Wills with as much Love as ever they are capable of their Faith being heighten'd into an Eternal Vision of
as long as we enjoy the Powers of Thinking by being Living Men let us not forget this great and weighty Truth that the Voice from Heaven for our Comfort and Salvation declared and confirmed by the Seal of GOD that so we may not faint in our Travels whilst we are labouring to abound in the work of the Lord to obtain that Blessedness that is the sure Reward prepared for those that dye in Him In a brief Application then of all The Persons that dye in the Lord are all those that depart this Life having sincerely endeavoured to the end to keep the Commandments of GOD upon their failure been truly Penitent and by a lively Faith in CHRIST committed themselves to his Mercy And that there are incomprehensible Degrees of Blessedness in the Mansions Above prepared for all such Persons I believe no well-disposed Reason of Man can after this remain unconvinced and if he has any Faith in JESUS must I am sure be fully satisfied since that is the Substance of this Blessedness hoped for in him and the evidence of Joyful things to come hereafter and as yet not seen Wherefore having this satisfaction by this Voice from Heaven as also by many other Declarations of our Saviour and his Apostles who all confirm'd the Truth of what they taught by frequent and unparallel'd Miracles Be the Labours the Cares the Crosses the Persecutions and Afflictions of this Life never so numerous or so grievous to Flesh and Blood let not the sence of such momentary Afflictions ever so far vex or depress our Souls as to make us either murmur at GOD's Providence or despair of his Mercy or be unmindful of the Eternal weight of Glory Act. 14. ver 22. whereinto through much Tribulation we are foretold we must expect to enter and where the Angel proclaim'd is the patience of the Saints Saints who tho' once were sailing in these troubled waters yet because they made not Shipwrack of a good Conscience but by Faith bore themselves up from sinking in the Waves are now arrived at their ever-quiet Haven whose Number my Hope yea Confidence is the Soul of this our Deceased Brother has encreased who in time of his Affliction yea amidst his greatest Pains submitted himself to God's Visitation with a wonderful Calmness and Serenity of Spirit much like unto His who said Not my Will O Father but thine be done Who having purged his Conscience from dead and sinful Works to serve the living God and thereby being filled with the well-grounded hopes of a blessed Immortality thro' Jesus Christ Faced his approaching Hour with that truly Christian Fortitude that he shew'd himself as Unconcern'd at the sence of its usual Terrours as the Apostle did when he sang Triumphantly this Epinichion O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory But Secondly Since Labours and Afflictions by an unavoidable Necessity accompany all living and since inconceivable Pleasures in an infinitely blessed State are the everlasting Portion of those that Dye in the Lord Let us always remember the great Advantage they have by their Change who dye the Death of the Righteous and thence learn not over-much to lament our Loss by their Departure GOD for many wise Reasons more than the Wisest of us can discern takes the Righteous to himself from the Evil that is and is to come and 't is or at least it should be our Prayer that He would be pleas'd shortly to accomplish the Number of his Elect and hasten his Kingdome and therefore as well in submission to the unsearchable Methods of Divine Providence as in compliance with other Christian Duties we should check those Passions that are apt to exceed the Bounds allowable to natural Affection whenever they arise to an high Degree upon the sence of our Loss by the Departure of our Friends By Death they are freed from the Labours and Miseries of this World and if their last End were like his whose Funeral we are now attending they are Rejoycing in the Ease and Pleasures of the Other and therefore tho' Lamentation and Mourning may plead very strongly for themselves upon this Occasion when GOD has Deprived a most tenderly Affectionate Wife of an Husband who never in any thing Contended with her unless it were to exceed her in Kindness When he has been pleased to take from a Family a Father rather than a Brother from the Neighbourhood a Composer of their Differences and a Guardian of their Rights from the Poor a Reliever of their Necessities and from all his Acquaintance from the highest to the lowest an Affable Courteous and True-hearted Friend One who was always an Enemy to PAGEANTRY ☞ HYPOCRISY and PRIDE and tho' abounding with this World 's Good could never by any One be charged as the Prince of Tyre is by the Prophet that his Heart was lifted up because of his Riches Eze. 28. ver 5. Tho' I say the sence of these Losses by so Worthy a Gentleman's Death which I should more largely insist upon were it not my Design to allay your Sorrows may very strongly incline us over-much to Lament and Grieve yet when in one Minute we look upon our selves and his just Character and Sigh upon the sence of our Loss let us in the Next consider his happy State and Comfort our selves upon the Thoughts of his infinite Gain for should his Spirit return to us he Himself would Advise us not to Weep for him but t◠Weep for our selves who now are in the midst of our labours whilst he rests from them who now are working whilst he is rewarded Thirdly and lastly Since all those that dye in the Lord are Blest with Eternal Joys that none can comprehend but that GREAT GOD that gives them and those Happy Souls that by His Favour do now possess them notwithstanding the wonderful and unspeakable Greatness of them and their Eternity Shall we ever be so seduc'd as by Apostacy from our Faith in CHRIST and Obedience to His Precepts to forfeit our Title to them either for the hope of Temporal Profits and Honours or the sake of sensual Pleasures or the Fear of worldly Afflictions Alas all Temporal Advantages even the greatest of all earthly Felicities had they a Sufficiency in themselves to satisfy our Desires and could we be secure of their Duration or Continuance with us yet at best can attend us no farther than this present Life which is as a vapour and a Shadow and passeth away like a tale that is told When we please our selves most in the Thoughts of enjoying them GOD many times is pleas'd to interpose Himself and cut us off And to say to our Souls Luke 12.19 take your ease eat drink and be merry because as we think there is much goods laid up for many years is so sandy a foundation to build upon that our Lord hath faid THOU FOOL Ver. 20. to him that doth it For this night our Souls may be required of us Let