Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n
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A40687
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A sermon preached at St. Clemens Danes at the funeral of Mr. George Heycock by Thomas Fuller ...
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Fuller, Thomas, 1608-1661.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing F2464; ESTC R6581
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11,917
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28
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A SERMON Preached at St. Clemens Danes At the FUNERAL OF Mr. George Heycock By Thomas Fuller B. D. ECCLES. 7.2 It is better to go to the house of mourning then to go to the house of feasting for that is the end of 〈…〉 the living will lay it to heart LONDON Printed by R. W. Anno Dom. 1657. To the Friends of the party deceased IT grieved me when I was to perform the last office to our deceased Friend that I had scarce the stump of a voice left me so that very few did distinctly hear what I did deliver This hath made me the more willingly condescend to your desire in Printing this Sermon that your Eye may peruse what your Ear did not receive And as you have honoured your dead Friend in attending his Corpse in so sad and solemn an equipage so you shall truly honour your selves in following his example and imitating those vertues which were eminent in him This is the desire of Your unfeigned friend Thomas Fuller ACTS 13.36 For David after he had served his own generation after the will of God fell asleep c. IN this Chapter Saint Paul doth demonstrate the Resurrection of our blessed Saviour by three several places of Scripture foretold and now fulfilld The Law saith in the mouth of two or three witnesses the truth shall be established Two may Three must do the deed Two make full measure Three make measure pressed down and running over And such doth the Apostle give us in the proof of this point The first place he citeth Psalm 2.7 Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee The second Isaiah 55.3 I will give you the sure mercies of David The last Psalm 16.11 Thou shalt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption It is observable that the same Text Acts 2.31 is also alledged expounded applyed and pressed by Saint Paul to prove the Resurrection of Christs body uncorrupted See here the holy Harmony betwixt the two Apostles Though Peter and Paul had a short and sharp contest at Antioch Galat. 2.11 where Paul withstood him to his face yet here their hearts and hands and tongues meet lovingly together in the improving of the same portion of Scripture Both of them shew first negatively how it could not litterally be meant of David whose body was corrupted and his Sepulchre remained amongst them unto that day and therefore positively must be meant mystically and prophetically of Christ Now as I am charitably confident that all who hear me this day are satisfied and assured herein That our Saviours body saw no corruption so give me leave to be jealous over you with a godly jealousie for fear some mistake the cause of this his incorruptibility and bottom it on a false foundation Some perchance may impute it to the shortness of the time he lay in his grave being but a day and two pieces of a day numero rotundo though currente stilo they commonly be called and counted three daies These do ponere non causam pro causa for the time was long enough in that hot Countrey to cause putrefaction considering that our Saviours body was much bruised and broken with the whips nails and spears besides the effusion of much blood which would the sooner have invited corruption Others perchance put the untaintedness of his body upon the account of the great quantity of Myrrh and Aloes about an hundred pound weight and other precious spices wherewith Ioseph and Nicodemus Iohn 19.39 imbalmed it This also is an unsound opinion for all the spices of Arabia cannot secure a corpse from putrifying though they may preserve it that such putrifaction shall not be noysom to others in the ill savour thereof not keeping it from corrupting but from offending The true reason is this Though Christs soul was parted from his body and where disposed of God only knows during his remainder in the grave yet the union with the Deity was never dissolved which priviledged his corpse from corruption So that had it been possible which was impossible as is inconsistent with Gods promise and pleasure for his corpse to have lien in the grave till this instant they had been perpetuated in an intire estate whilst it is true of David as it is in the Text after he had served his own generation by the will of God he fell on sleep and was laid unto his Fathers and saw corruption Observe in the words four principal parts 1. What a generation is 2. What it is to serve ones generation 3. How David served his own generation 4. How we after his example are to serve ours Of these in order and first we will consider what a generation is A Generation is a company of men and women born living and dying much about the same time I say much about the same time for seven years under or over sooner or later breaketh no squares herein but that the said persons are reducible to the same generation Thus Mat. 1.17 All the Generations from Abraham to David are fourteen Generations and from David untill the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen Generations from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen Generations Now all generations are not of equal extent so admirable the Longevitie of those before the Flood compared to our short lives since God for our sins hath contracted the cloth of our life to three score and ten years and all is but a course List which is more then that measure Psalm 90.10 And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flie away It is remarkable that Three Generations are alwaies at the same time on foot in the world namely 1. The Generation rising 2. The Generation shining 3. The Generation setting For should God clear the earth of all men at once mankind could not be recruted but by miracle besides neither humane Arts nor Sciences nor could the Scripture hansomly be handed and delivered from one Generation to another God therefore of his goodness doth so order it that rather then any empty Interval should happen betwixt them one Generation should fold and lap over another These three degrees were most visibly conspicuous in the Levites which till five and twenty years of age were learning Levites thence till fifty acting Levites as being then in the strength of their age imployed in the portage of the Tabernacle and after fifty had a Writ of ease from bodily labour though they may be presumed to be busied in the teaching of others Pass we now to explain what it is to serve our Generation To serve it is to discharge our conscience according to Gods will in his word to our superiours equals inferiours all persons to whom we stand related in our generation And the more eminent the person is in Church and State the more are his references multiplyed and the more publick and ponderous the service is which he is
we willingly let the fair Fabrick of Faith and good Life to run to ruine in our so that the next Age may justly sue us for Dilapidations When our Saviour said unto his Disciples Matth. 26.21 Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me they were exceeding sorrowfull and began every one of them to say unto him Lord is it I yea Iudas himself lagging at last with his Is it I Lord and was returned with Thou saidst it Thus at the last day of judgement shall all generations be arraigned before God But to confine our Application only to those three within the last six-score years if God should say unto them One of you have betrayed my truth how would it put them all upon their particular purgation Is it I Lord saith the first generation in the raign of King Edward the sixt surely they shall be acquitted who in the Marian daies sealed the truth with their blood Is it I Lord saith the second generation lasting all the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to the middle of King Iames That also will be cleared as publickly preserving the purity of true Doctrine in the thirty nine Articles What a shame shall it be if when our Age shall ask with Iudas is it I we shall be returned thou hast said it Yours is the Age that hath betrayed my Truth to Errour Unity to Faction Piety to Prophaness sad when such a Fact shall be so clear that it cannot be denyed and yet so foul that it cannot be defended However this my too just fear may consist with hope of better things of you and such as accompany salvation I must conclude with you Reverend Fathers whom my loyalty cannot pass by without doing my due Homage to the Crown of your Age especially if it be found in the way of truth Give me leave to tell you belong to that generation which is passed out of this world not only the Van or Front and also the main body and battle of your Army are marched to their graves and their souls I hope to heaven whilest Divine Providence for reasons best known to himself hath reserved you to bring up as I may say the very rear of the rear of your generation O do not mistake this Reprieve for a Pardon and here give me leave to use a plain but expressive Similitude Have you never seen a wanton child run a firebrand against the Hearth or back of the Chymney and so on a suddain make a skie of sparks of which sparks some instantly expire others continue a pretty time and then go out others last a little longer whilest one or two as having a greater stock of soot to feed them hold out a good while but at last are extinguisht Man is born to labour as sparks do fly upward some presently go out wafted from the womb to the winding-sheet others live to ripe men others to be old men some whose temper and temperance are more signal then in others to be countect wonderous old but all at last die and fall to the earth We read Revelat. 10.2 of an Angel who had his right foot on the Sea and his left on the earth This may seem a strange stride save that it abateth the wonder because Angels when pleased to assume bodies may extend themselves to a vast though finite proportion But you though meet men and weak men must stride a greater distance having your left foot already in the Grave endeavour to have your right foot in Heaven and waving all love of this world set your minds and meditations alone on God and godliness In a word whatever our Age be rising shining or setting Men Brethren or Fathers let us endeavour with David in my Text according to the will of God to serve our own Generation Come we now to the sad occasion of our present meeting to perform the last Christian Office to our Deceased Brother well known to many of you and to none better then to my self A child is like a man in the similitude of parts though not of degrees and in some measure he did sincerely with David serve his Generation He was a dutifull Son unto his aged Mother as she cannot but confess and will I hope as occasion is offered remember and reward it to his wife and children A loving Brother a kind Husband and I doubt not but his widow will discharge her mutual affection to him in his relations Bathsheba thus describeth a good wife Proverbs 31.12 She will do her husband good and not evil all the daies of her life It is not said all the daies of his life but of her life What if he should chance to die and she to survive him yea after to marry again as God forbid any should be debarred marrying in the Lord especially for their own and childrens advantage yet still she would do good unto him all the daies of her life To him that is to his memory mentioning with respect To him that is to his children and friends carefull over the one and curteous over the other He was a tender Father and faithfull Friend witness the many volunteer mourners an unusuall proportion for a person of his quality who at their own charge have habited themselves that the outward sadness of their cloathes might express the inward sorrow of their hearts He was an excellent Master having bred many good workmen in his Vocation and I hope they will prove good husbands too Let me add he was an excellent subject for according to that which his conscience with many others conceived to be loyaltie he lost much of and hazarded all his estate Lastly and chiefly he was a good Saint having more piety then he shewed and as daily he consumed in his body he was strengthened in his soul in Faith through Christ whereof he gave many testimonies before towards and at his death What shall I speak of his parts of Nature so far above his education and profession that he might have past for a Scholar amongst Scholars for his wit and pleasant expressions But God now hath made him his free-man and paid him his wages for so well serving his Generation FINIS * Lib. none Ep. 70.