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A55553 A sermon at the funeral of the reverend Mr. Thomas Grey, late Vicar of Dedham in Essex preach'd in the parish-church of Dedham, Febr. the 2d. 1691/2, with a short account of his life / by Joseph Powell ... Powell, Joseph, d. 1698. 1692 (1692) Wing P3064; ESTC R3154 24,894 36

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much uneasiness to him and so often put him in hazard in this Life 4. The Enlargement of our Faculties and Perfection of our Vertue How short Humane Knowledge is they best understand who have spent the longest Time and used the greatest Pains in improving it they who know almost nothing may perhaps esteem themselves very great Clerks If by chance they light upon a thing which every one does not know they presently have a very great Opinion of their own Understanding and like the Son of Syrach's Description of a Fool That he travelleth with a word are very big to let other Men see how very wise they are of a sudden grown whilst those who know the most things knowable in this State have very different Thoughts of themselves and though they avoid such a Scepticism as to doubt of every thing yet are they very sensible how many things there are which they know not and how far they are from perfectly understanding very Common things So also a little Pharisaick Piety makes a very fine shew and a mighty noise and bluster in the World They who are got no further than this empty Form of Godliness are highly opiniated of themselves and apt to despise all others as meer Sons of the Earth not worth regarding Whereas a truly Pious Christian is always a Humble Christian he has a very mean Opinion of himself and is very ready to entertain a good one of other Men he is sensible of the Imperfection of his Vertue and what low Degrees of it he has attained to and his greatest Comfort is grounded upon his Sincerity and that he hopes and trusts that his Heart is right towards God Now who would be fond of this Life which is so dark and so imperfect a State Who would not be willing to die that expects the enlargement of his Knowledge upon his Dissolution extending to a clear view of all the Works of God and looking into the Secrets and unfolding the Mysteries of Providence to the near Contemplation of the Divine Nature seeing God as he is and comprehending his Perfections as much as Angels do and to the Fathoming the Wonders of our Redemption by Christ Jesus things so far out of the reach of our Understandings in this World where also he shall arrive at Degrees of Vertue infinitely above what he is ever capable of coming to here And in one word shall be in all things like unto the Angels of God which are in Heaven and how happy may he conceive himself then to be who considers that he owes the chief pleasure of his present Life to the small Attainments he has been able to make in Wisdom and Goodness 5. The immediate Possession of Happiness at Death Indeed if all Pious Christians some few only excepted were to enter immediately upon Death into a Place of the most exquisite Torment differing very little from Hell saving in the infinite duration of it and there to abide none knows how long even to the Day of the Great Judgment some of them it would be very unreasonable for any Man to desire Death unless it were by Martyrdom by which he might escape this Purgatory Fire and the thought of dying would be the most dreadful one that a Man could have in his whole Life But this is a meer Fiction brought into the Church by Ignorance and Superstition and maintained for Reasons well known and has no Foundation neither in Scripture or Primitive Antiquity defended by some even of the Roman Communion only as some other Doctrines are because Decreed in Councils and so not to be let go for fear of shaking a Pretence that is not to be parted with The Scripture is in this Point very clear and express and assures us that immediately upon Death there is an admission to Bliss To day says our Saviour to the Thief on the Cross shalt thou be with me in paradise Luke 23.43 Phil. 3.23 And St. Paul mentions his being with Christ as an immediate consequence of his Departure These are so plain Proofs that to evade the force of them they must be exempt Cases and the Thief and St. Paul and some few more never went to Purgatory But this shift signifies little for the Scripture speaks of all that die in the Lord that is in the Faith and Obedience of the Gospel as being at rest which is a Jewish Idiom and imports a state of Bliss And St. Paul takes notice that living here keeps us from Christ and therefore assigns this as a Reason why we should be willing and desirous to leave this World that we might go to Christ 2 Cor. 5.6 8. Knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord We are therefore confident and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 6. The completion of this Happiness in Body and Soul at the General Judgment Though good Men are admitted to immediate Happiness at Death yet not to a full Participation of it or to all that Happiness God has designed them by way of Reward This is reserved for that Great Day so often made mention of in the Holy Books when Christ Matth. 25.31 to whom the Judgment of the World is committed shall come in the Glory of his Father in Triumph and with great Splendor attended with an innumerable Host of Angels Acts 1.11 1 Thess 4.16 to render to every Man according to his Works Then shall those who sleep in the Dust awake and the Dead shall be called out of their Graves by the Voice of the Son of Man and the Sound of the last Trump These Bodies of ours shall then be raised up from Mortality and Corruption to an Immortal and Incorruptible State A wonderful thing to be effected by that Power alone which first made all things out of nothing A Truth knowable only by Revelation and received by Faith and being united to their proper Souls together with them who shall then be found alive and remaining on the Earth we shall be caught up in the Clouds 1 Thess 4.17 to meet the Lord in the Air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is that great Day the Apostle speaks of 2 Tim. 4.8 when Crowns shall be put upon the Heads of all the Faithful even all those who love his appearing This is the Day when the whole World shall have its last Period and Consummation when Death it self shall be Eternally destroyed and God's Kingdom shall be set up over all Revel 20.14 and his Saints shall Reign with him for ever and ever And these I take to be good Reasons for every Pious Christian to be indifferent to Life and very willing with submission to God's Wisdom in Disposing of him to have his Dismission Now the Use of this Doctrine is 1. To endeavour to reduce it to Practice I mean to carry our selves with all that indifferency towards this World and Life