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A62464
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A funeral sermon upon the much lamented death of Col. Edward Cook who died in London upon January the 29th. and was buried in the chapple at Highnam near Gloucester, on February the 2d. 1683/4. By Edmond Thorne Master of Arts, and Fellow of Oriel College in Oxford.
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Thorne, Edmund.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing T1057AA; ESTC R222218
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33,919
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39
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part especially the vulgar live by sense more then by Faith and have better thoughts and apprehensions of their present lives then of any that is to come Whence it proceeds for currant practice that many persons appear honest and upright in their dealings to the eye of the World but are in truth very Knaves Theives and Murderers in their Hearts From a deep sense and apprehension of the Judgment to come Felix we read was very much dismayed and fearfully trembled So that an assurance of ensuing punishment makes the stoutest and most resolved Malefactor to be Conscious of their Crimes and though stolen Goods may be as sweet as Honey to their Mouths yet the sight of a Tribunal pricks them to their hearts and strangely turns all their sweets into gall and wormwood I 'le give you but one instance of the present Case our first parents had observed the forbidden Fruit in the 3d. of Genesis and the 6 Verse to be good for food pleasant also to their eyes and very much to be desired whereupon they never bogled at Gods positive Command for the satisfaction of their sensitive lusts and appetites But then perceiving themselves to be wretched and miserable because of the transgression they were presently surprized with horror and confusion of face they were extreamly scared upon the sight and presence of God as a most righteous incensed Judg whom they had wickedly disobeyed as a tender and loving Father And seeing that we their sinful off spring are all involved in the guilt and liable also to the punishment of that first and great offence blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he left us not in such a desperate condition but hath raised us up to the lively hope of a glorious Resurrection from the Dead blessed also be the Fountain of all our deliverance the Lord Jesus Christ that Son of Righteousness which came down with healing under his Wings to visit us who sate in darkness and in the shadow of death and guide our feet into the way of peace to redeem us from the hands of all our Enemies and bless us with all Spiritual and Heavenly Blessings together with himself in glory Thus we come now to consider the Grounds and Reasons which the Spirit hath fitted and laid ready to our hand for the defence and confirmation of the Truth here asserted and consequently for the building up and establishing of us and all Christians in our most holy Faith which Faith and the good Fruits thereof manifested in a blameless and holy conversation would appear somewhat unreasonable and vain of little or none effest but only for the good assurance which God hath given us of a blessed enduring substance in that he raised up Jesus from the dead and hath exalted him in our Nature to the Throne of Heaven The truth of our assertion that the Dead in the Lord are blessed stands unmoveable and firmly fixt upon a double Basis visible in the very Letter of the Text the first is divine Revelation ordained purposely by God for the confutation of Socinians and all other vainly conceited Sophisters who take upon them to measure and weigh the profound Articles of our Christian Faith by the scant Line the false Ballance of their own corrupted Reasons Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit And because the Command here laid upon Saint John was to Write that saying as from Heaven or imprint the same in legible Characters on the fleshly Tables of mens hearts that should afterwards be recorded with Ink and Paper in all succeeding Ages it may serve to spoil the Papists of their needless Oral Traditions invented as it seems in opposition to the dictates of the Spirit and in derogation to the most indubitable perspicuous and sufficient Oracles of God which are able to make us wise to Salvation through Faith 2 Tim. 3.15 Rom. 15.4 Jo. 4. last Verse which is in Christ Jesus for if we believe St. Paul whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our Learning that we through patience and Comfort of the Scripture might have Hope and St. John says he wrote his Gospell in the later days concerning Christs Person Doctrines and Miracles for this end that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that so believing we might have life through his Name the second Ground or Basis whereon is built this impregnable fortress of our hope is the reason here alledged by the Spirit of such convincing evidence as to confirm his own saying and also to stop the mouths of all proud Opposers For it mightily confounds our Quakers and all fantastical Enthusiasts for divulging openly to the disturbance of the Church and their own Destruction their own private unreasonable Imaginations in despight of Scripture and all other Learning for immediate inspirations of the holy Ghost From the method here used by that infallible Spirit of God we may learn to beware of those false Prophets who put on such pretences for a cloak of maliciousness and then decry with insufferable noise and impudence all use of Reason as to matters of Religion that so they may safely bring in those damnable Heresies whereby the blind guides themselves and all their bewitched followers cannot choose but fall into the ditch For if any Man or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than that ye have received let him be accursâ—d Gal. 1.9 Notwithstanding all that Opposition which hath been made upon this account either by the Popes or the Devils Emissaries maugre all the wiles and stratagems the Winds and Waves of these implacable Enemies the first endeavouring with subtle Sophistry to defer the second wholely to make void the Saints recompence of Reward in everlasting Rest yet this Anchor of our Hope this Pillar of our Faith remains very sure and stedfast on the Rock of our Salvation the Lord Jesus Christ against which the Gates of Hell are ne're able to prevail for it is likewise ratified and sealed by the Spirit of Promise that is Faithful and cannot Lie For even so saith the Spirit from henceforth blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord. Against this interpretation of the Text there lies I conceive no probable exception but what must rise from the signification of the word singly consider'd or as it stands in relation to the Rest The word from henceforth singly consider'd and of it self is much varied amongst the Latines by those particles A modo Deinceps confestim Inde Jam jam and the like all which denote this instant or indivisible point of time wherein the Soul departs from the Body from henceforth if the person dies in the Lord with unfeigned Repentance for all his former sins and with a lively Faith in Christ he is presently blessed It 's true The Reverend Learned and Pious Doctor Hammond hath well enough applied this place and many more to those temporal Afflictions
thereupon Mans happiness may be considered either as it is Temporal or Eternal Those Temporal and Earthly Blessings which are but equivocally good or profitable unto Men that are Creatures made for Eternity Philosophers have drawn out upon their Ethick Schems into the distinct parts of bona Animi bona Corporis bona Fortunae the first rank of these erroneously stiled Beatitudes are properly seated in the Soul the second pertain especially to the Body but the last are the poor Largesses of blind chance the treacherous Donatives of deceitful unconstant Fortune They are all summed up in three words Honour Profit and Pleasure which like Cyphers can signifie nothing by themselves and yet will enhanse our Accounts at the General Audit according as they have been superadded for the good use and improvement of better Talents 1 John 2.16 17. but after all St. John the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath set a true Gloss upon that false Text by comprizing all that is in the World under the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eyes and the pride of Life And then for the confusion of all vain Philosophers and wretched Miscreants who fix their affections and all their happiness on such pittiful empty things He concludes they be not of the Father but of the World that passeth away together with all the Vanities and Lusts thereof And what Men having but so much reason as to know themselves and their eternal Interests can be so very Brutish in the great business of Religion or so careless of their own precious and immortal Souls as to set up such gross and ridiculous Idols in their Hearts to fall down worship and serve the Creature instead of their Creatour that is God Blessed for ever Do not those unreasonable Men exceedingly deceive their own Souls who trust in their uncertain Riches and foolishly vaunt in those very things that perish even in their use and will certainly come to naught Are they not the most absurd Idolaters in the World that make their own Belly their God Who sacrifice to their own proud imaginations and ambitiously court other folks for the vanishing breath of popular applause Are any Men so mad or beside themselves as they be who count their happiness more or less by the numbers of their Flocks and Heards their large Fields and full Coffers Or as others who forsake the living and only true God and place all their Devotion upon the Service of their own Luxurious Tables and that for no better end but only the pampering of those fleshly Lusts that war against their Souls Believe it such worldly carnal Wisdom is but Foolishness with God it is not from above but from beneath it is earthly sensual devillish absurd and irrational in its nature destructive and pernicious in its end Eccles 5. For in short Riches may be kept unto the owners hurt because they can yield no real content or satisfaction but are the cause of much trouble and vexation of spirit both in their persuit and fruition too For as they will not suffer the greedy wretch to sleep or take his rest so they will certainly one time or other make themselves wings and fly away What confidence also can be reasonably fixed upon the strongest Arm of Human Flesh What true joy what comfort can arise from Gorgeous Apparel even to Crowns and Scepters Purple Robes and precious Jewels with a numerous train of obsequious hungry Servants wherein lies the delight and pleasure of the riotous Livers which are truely burdens to the Common-wealth and also to themselves being loaden with their Sins and miseries at once having their Brains besotted and their whole bodies infected with disease and surfeit from the spoils of nature and fopperies of art For when those voluptuaries have industriously ransackt all the Elements for the nourishment of their lusts having drawn up several courses in rank and file and made their assaults against the works of nature and of Art with fierce and keen Appetites rushing like wild Horses into the Battle and engaging all before them like those old Andebatae blindfold without either fear or wit it hath often come to pass the most unsatiable Assailants have been wounded shamefully with their own Weapons The preserving remedies of Health and Life were turned into the most unhappy Instruments of Sickness unto Death in spight of Nature and of God himself their Tables were become snares unto them and those very things that should have been for their wealth were unnaturally misused for the sad occasions of their fall There now remains of all things under the Sun but only one Blessing more that hath any pretence at all to the present or future happiness of Mankind namely the rare endowments both of intellectual and moral habits which at once enrich and adorn our Souls These were the best means whereby the Philosophers ever dreamt of attaining happiness with all their pains and studies But though knowledge and morality be two Pearls of no small price even with Christians and are both difficult in their acquisitions requiring the most accurate endeavours of our Hearts and Heads and also very profitable in their use being the most likely means for gaining that happiness which is in truth our end yet these things are insufficient of themselves till quickned by the warm influences of Gods Holy Spirit For the subtlest Polititians the most profound Scholars in the World could never come up to the knowledge of the Truth or of Gods reconciling the World unto himself by Jesus Christ with all their otherwise excellent abilities void of Divine Grace for the Gentiles or meerly natural men 1 Cor. 2.14 receive not those deep things of God which are foolishness unto them neither can they know them because they are spiritually discerned For the same reason the most learned Rabbies amongst the Jews also lived ignorant of those obscure mysteries which lay hid in Christ notwithstanding that unto them were committed the first written Elements of Religion those choice Oracles of God for had they known the great mystery of Godliness in Christ Jesus they would not have crucified the Lord of Life and Glory Wherefore it is manifest that neither Jews nor Gentiles remaining still ignorant of Christ and his Gospel could be made wise unto Salvation For Acts 3. 1 Cor. 2.8 Joh. 17.3 Lu. 10.22 This indeed is Life Eternal that they may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent And no Man knoweth who the Son is but the Father and who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him From hence 't is plain That Mans eternal Redemption from the jaws of death his peace and reconciliation with God in Christ Jesus could never have been discovered by the wise Men or Princes of this World that come to naught but meerly by the demonstration of the Spirit and Power of God as it is revealed in the Gospel And since the Gospel