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A56456 A sermon preached at the funeral of Mr. Tho. Whitchurch October the 15th. 1691. at Chalfont St. Peter's. By Henry Parsley, A.M. rector of Hodgerley, in the county of Bucks. Parsley, Henry. 1692 (1692) Wing P559C; ESTC R221948 13,121 33

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A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF M R. Tho. Whitchurch October the 15 th 1691. AT CHALFONT St. PETER ' S. By HENRY PARSLEY A. M. Rector of Hedgerley in the County of Bucks LONDON Printed by W and J. Wilde for G. Conyers in Little-Britain 1692. Imprimatur Ex Aedibus Lambh Augusti 11 mo 1692. Ra. Barker TO Mr. Richard Whitchurch SIR I Here present you with a Discourse which was preached at the Desire of your Father and is now published for the Satisfaction of some of your Relations and as a lasting Testimony of that Esteem and Respects I have for your self The Subject is of the greatest Concernment how meanly soever it may be handled and if well thought upon and considered would have a mighty Influence upon us in the due Conduct and Government of our Lives Which that it may have is the hearty Prayer of SIR Your Obliged Friend and Humble Servant HENRY PARSLEY A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF Mr. THOMAS WHITCHURCH REV. XIV 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them IT is the common and universal Judgment of Mankind a Truth generally received and which cannot be contradicted by any that to be in such a State or Condition as is not obnoxious to Pain and Trouble and where true and real Happiness is to be found is the true Interest and ought to be nay is the constant Aim and Desire of all men as they are reasonable Creatures for the Soul of Man can never be so far corrupted as not to design in all its deliberate and advised Actions it s own Happiness and Felicity as its End insomuch that those who have made it their Business to understand Humane Nature have thought it enough barely to intimate and needless to prove this Point because it is already by every one confess'd no Notion more common or more generally owned than this viz. That every Man desires to be free from Pain Grief and Trouble from any thing that is uneasie and vexatious to him and to live in an Estate of Delight and Happiness There is another universal Judgment of all Mankind not denied by any man that will give himself leave to consider and weigh the worth of things and that is this that the greater and more durable Delight is to be chosen before the shorter and the less for Delight and Happiness being in the Opinion of all Men esteemed a thing innoffensively good of which there can be no noxious or harmful Excess it followeth that the more of this excellent Condition any man enjoyeth it is so much the better for him or he is so much the happier Now if we look into all those outward things that 't is possible for us to enjoy here in this World we cannot find Happiness inscrib'd upon them much less the greatest Happiness Riches Honours and Pleasures here as they are unsatisfactory to the Soul of Man when enjoyed so they are uncertain and easily interrupted and oftentimes intermixt with Troubles or Evils of one sort or other either by some Casualty 〈◊〉 Accident they may be taken from us or else we by Diseases and Sicknesses made unfit to enjoy them or at least we are by Death utterly deprived of them Now therefore if we will be wise we must chuse something for our Happiness that is more pleasurable and satisfactory more lasting and durable and that is a virtuous Life and Actions a Life lead according to God's Will and Command to Right Reason and true Religion and this will even here amidst the Troubles and Afflictions of this Life delight our Souls with solid Joys and go along with us into the World to come to our unspeakable Comfort for saith the Text Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord they rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them From these Words I shall endeavour to describe unto you the Happiness of those that die in the Lord after they are delivered from the Burden of the Flesh and to prove that in Heaven God hath provided for virtuous men an Estate of Happiness that is in all respects the greatest that possibly can be imagined or enjoyed And this you cannot but grant if you consider those Parts and Properties of it which in the Text are either explicitely or implicitely affirmed concerning it As I. The First Property thereof is the Absence of Grief and Security from it Th●●●est from 〈…〉 Labours II. ●he Second ●●s the actual Possession of Joy and Happiness for Blessed or happy are they saith the Text which Blessedness without doubt shall be in the highest 〈◊〉 and greatest Measure suitable to the Goodness of God who gives it and to the Capacities of those who are to receive it III. Thirdly and Lastly This Blessedness shall be of the greatest Duration and this is also implied in the Text for otherwise there cannot be a Freedom from all Sorrow if it were possible for their Happiness to be interrupted 1. The first Property of this Happiness is that they have the Absence of Grief and Security from it They rest from their Labours This is necessarily supposed to a State of Happiness for that cannot be where Pains or Sorrows are mixt or fill any part of the Soul there being 〈◊〉 Foundation for true and real Happiness where the Place is already possest with Grief For as the School-men use to argue that the Privation ●r Absence of Cold is necessarily required for the introducing of Heat so they affirm also that the Absence of Grief or Sorrow is as necessary for the Production of Delight and Pleasure Freedom from Evil is the Ground or Basis of Delight and is in many places of Scripture expresly asserted to be part of the Happiness of the Blessed ●n Heaven especially by St. John who we know in the Gospel was a Person so very dear to our Saviour that he chose him out of all his Disciples more particularly to shew unto him those things that were to come to pass at the end of the World He saw the Heavens and the Earth fly away from before the Face of God and there was no place found for them Rev. 20.11 He saw also a new Heaven and a new Earth and a new Jerusalem coming down from God richly adorned as a Bride in expectation of her Bridegroom Rev. 21. Ver. 1 2 3. And I heard saith he a great Voice out of Heaven saying Behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his People and God himself shall be with them and be their God And God shall wipe away all Tears from their Eyes and there shall be no more Death neither Sorrow nor Crying neither shall there be any more Pain Behold here you have a particular Revelation of the first part of the Happiness of good men