avoid being so called Thirdly See hence How little Reason Souls in Christ have to be fond of Life or afraid of Death What fond of Labour and Sorrow What afraid of Rest and Blessedness your Case Christians is not like that of other Men whilst you live and are present in the Body you are absent from the Lord from the Joys of your Lord when you dye in the Lord you enter upon this Blessedness Tho' this Portal be dark and uncomfortable it is an Inlet to this Transcendent Glory to us and to our Dear Friends that dye in Jesus Fourthly See hence What little reason we have to lament immoderately for our Deceased Godly Friends that dye before us What because they are blessed before us Fifthly Learn hence How Holiness becomes so absolutely necessary to this Blessedness It 's that without which it cannot be enjoyed You have heard wherein this Blessedness lyes what Ingredients it hath in it that it includes the Perfection of our Natures and Satisfaction thereof Blessedness is but perfected Holiness Now how impossible is it that Holiness should be perfected in Heaven that was never begun on Earth when this is the State we are to be made meet for So that a Heart conformed to God is in the Nature of the Thing as well as by the Pleasure of God absolutely necessary to a Felicitating Enjoyment of God Wicked Men hope God will save them in their Sins take them to Heaven in their unsanctified State and Temper of Soul which is not only repugnant to the Nature and Word of God as it were easie to evidence but to the Nature of that Happy because Holy State for what Philosophy can shew you true Pleasure and Blessedness can be obtained without a proper suitableness of the Faculty to the Object and Exercise of the Heavenly State A Holy Nature is necessary to the Enjoyment of a Holy God How often have you heard that if it could be supposed that a Carnal Animal Unsanctify'd Wretch void of a Divine Nature and God-like Temper could enter into Heaven where we are as sure as God can make us no such Wretch can come he would find nothing there that would make him Happy no Objects would be found there suitable to his Fleshly Appetites to feed upon and no Holy Appetites in him to relish the pure Pleasures of that Happy because Holy State Oh! if Sinners could but sense this that is so true in it self so evident in Scripture and to Reason it self as depraved as it is surely they would bethink themselves pray for and endeavour in the use of all God's appointed Means to be partakers of a Divine Nature qualifying for Glory Sinner let me tell thee 'till thy Nature and Temper the Disposition and Constitution of thy Soul be turned towards God and Holiness to love and hate as God doth thou mayest dream of Heaven as thine but it will prove but a Dream If thou live and dye short of real Holiness in thy Heart and Life thou must lye down in Everlasting Sorrow short of true Happiness Well then Sinner go home and take this with thee to thy retiring Place and seriously consider how frivolous all thy Pretensions are for Blessedness whilst thou art short of this real Holiness without which thou art absolutely uncapable of it Secondly For Exhortation Is it so that they who dye in the Lord are Blessed Oh! secure to your selves a Share in this Blessedness In Order to which ask your own Hearts whether this be like to be your Case Let me Begg of you to deal Faithfully with your own Souls in a Matter of this Importance There is a Blessedness which Eye has not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive adequately of Have I an Interest have I a Share in it Will it be mine at last The Time will come will shortly come it may suddenly come that I must Dye Am I in Jesus Shall I Dye in Jesus Have I that Holiness that is Necessary to render me Meet for this Blessedness Oh! Christians would you put these Question in good Earnest to your own Consciences and take a Deliberate Answer some of you might go home with other Thoughts than you brought hither Do we see the Seats of our deceased Friends emptyed from day to day Will our Places shortly be Vacant as theirs are Must I Dye also and if I Dye in the Case I am in shall I Dye in the Lord Shall I be Blessed And give thy Soul no Rest 'till Conscience well informed and well awakened can furnish thee with a Satisfying Answer that when thou dyest tho' in the State thou art in thou dyest in the Lord and shalt be Blessed in the Eternal Enjoyment of him Secondly As ever thou wouldest be Blessed by Dying in the Lord Get into him United to him Interested in him as thy Lord and Saviour This I told you was supposed There is a Blessedness belongs to them that Dye in the Lord but none can share in it but such as are in him United to him Sinner art thou willing to be in the Lord in order to a Safe and Comfortable Dying in him and sharing in in this Blessedness with him Oh that it were so Oh that thou wert willing heartily willing for then the Hardest of the Work were over Our Dearest Lord hath done his part he hath satisfied Justice and Merited Mercy stands willing to Entertain thee Nay Courts and Solicits thy Compliance with him I know but three things and all highly reasonable in themselves that are absolutely Necessary to thy being in the Lord without which thou canst not Dye in him and be Blessed with him Let these be done and this Affair is well Secured First Give Credit and Assent to all that the Scriptures say of Christ Believing Acts 24. 14. all things that are said in the Law and the Prophets For these are they that Testifie of him And as Faith Unites the Soul to Christ so this is the first Work of Faith the Foundation of all the Rest But this must be an Energetical Operative and Influential Assent to all the Discoveries made of Christ Here is a Gospel that brings good Tydings of him and thou sayest thou believest it but I am notwithstanding all my Charity verily afraid with very many that say so it is not so for they do not carry it as if they did believe it Did they believe it they would not dare to live so opposite to it to the holy Ends of it therefore rest not in a naked Assent hereto but bring thy Heart thereby Secondly To give a Cordial Consent to the Terms proposed by him Thy Assent which is an Act of the Intellect or rather of the Soul as knowing the Truth and Goodness of Gospel Proposals must be accompanied or followed with an unseigned Consent to the Terms on which he is offered to be thine this Act of Faith is called Receiving of Christ As many Joh. 1.
A Funeral Sermon Occasioned by the DEATH OF M rs Jane Papillon Late WIFE of The Very Worthy Thomas Papillon Esq First Preached July 24. 1698. and now Published at his Request By JOHN WOODHOVSE LONDON Printed by J. Astwood for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey 1698. TO THE Worthy and Ever Honoured Thomas Papillon Esq One of the Representatives of the Honourable City of LONDON in the present Parliament AND The Deservedly Respected Philip Papillon His Only SON WHEN I had performed the Service which you were pleased to Call me to in the Preaching of this Sermon I had no Grounds of Fear you would Importune me to make it more Publick THERE are few can be desired to send their Pulpit Discourses to the Press upon greater Disadvantage than my self who have no written Hints to recollect what I deliver and must therefore be forced when urg'd to it to Desire Help from some of my Hearers and refresh my Memory with their Notes which alwayes labour under considerable Imperfections To this I was particularly forced in the present Case which I thought a sufficient Reason for my desiring as I did it might when committed to Paper be kept for your own Private Perusal THEY that know us will not expect I should say much of you when I write to you However I am bold to be your Remembrancer of what was your Deceased Consort ' s Satisfaction in her Languishing Hours because it may on equal Grounds be both yours To have about Thirty descending from you or nearly United to them that do and no One but what gives just Cause to all of us to believe the Root of the Matter is found and Christ formed in them is a Comfort many want after all their Pious Counsels Holy Examples and Care of their Disposal And tho' this be but one of the many Distinguishing Marks God hath Honoured you both with yet this alone should raise our Thanks and Hopes about them AND that God will continue them and especially You Sir his Worthy Son in the Steps of such a Father to fill up many of his Useful and Exemplary Posts both Religious and Civil is the Desire and shall be the Prayer of Your Affectionate Honourer and Faithful Servant in Our Dear Lord John Woodhouse Upper Moorfields Octob. 27. 1698. REV. XIV 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them I Need not tell you Beloved the sad Occasion of this Mournful Assembly The Design I shall mainly drive at is not the Celebration of the Deserved Praises of the Dead or the Revival of the Grief and Tender Sence the Living have of so great a Loss But if it were possible I would Endeavour to bring this Afflictive Providence so near our Hearts that we might not lose all that we might get some good by so great a loss the loss of so Excellent a Person I would render it as Instructive as I can to this great Assembly And that I may the more successfully do it will you lend me your Attentive Thoughts to that Passage of Sacred Writ that you have upon Record but now named to you Blessed are the Dead c. Scripture and Experience tell us that the Inhabitants of this lower World are Divided under two great Lords that have the Rule over them Christ and Satan the Flesh and Spirit and it is true it lyes at every Man's Choice whose he will be and whom he will serve the Devil cannot force Subjects and Christ will not he will Deal with us according to the Free and Noble Natures that he hath given us but hath from the Divine Pleasure and according to the Nature of the thing Purposed that what Sinners Choose that they shall have such as hath been their first such shall be their Final State the Way and End are inseparably Connected together The far greater part of Mankind Devote themselves to the Service of the World and the Flesh abandon themselves to a fleshly animal Life these they Choose and Follow And Verse 9. the Context tells you what will be the Dreadful Issue of this their Course They shall be filled with their own Verse 10. Wayes for they shall be Tormented with Fire and Brimstone A Dreadful Entertainment shall Sinners find when they come to Receive the Recompence of the Pleasures of Sin that they had for a short Season For they shall find the most Tormenting Element of Fire with Brimstone to give Heat and Horrour to it the Smoke of their Torment that 's an Verse 11. Awakening Word to them that feel and to them that do not yet feel it shall ascend for ever and ever and they shall have no Rest Day nor Night Sinners let me tell you from the Lord that there is not one of you that is yet a Slave to his Lust that chooseth and pursueth a Carnal Worldly Interest before all that God and Christ have offered to you but he is in a Case that doth certainly entitle him to this Torment tho' yet he is not in it I know Sinner thou fondly hopest it will be better but where is the Ground for it Either set thy self to Fear the Lord and Follow the Lamb or thou canst never escape and therefore whoever thou art that hast never been awakened to a Sense of thy Sin and Danger art thou yet in an Impenitent Christless State think what will the way I have taken bring me to this End God hath told me so and at my Peril I must believe it that I may prevent it Oh that God would give thee a Heart to it But as dark as that side of the Cloud is the Context hath a light side also and my Text leads me to a Better Sort of Souls And O that God would lead it to the Souls of all of you that are in such a State as will intitle you to this Torment that you may make your Escape and never know by feeling what it means There is a Generation that under the sweet Influences of Free and Powerful Grace follow the Lamb whithersoever Verse 4. he goes They had taken Christ and become Imitators of him and they would follow him through Tribulation and Persecution to Glory let it be how it would with them here they would follow Christ they had embark'd with him and they would adventure their all with him These are they that are devoted to God set apart for God and Holiness in their Hearts and Lives They keep the Commandments of God and the Verse 12. Faith of Jesus they follow Christ in a Life of Obedience and maintain the Faith of Jesus cleaving to abiding in and walking with him and these shall have the Recompence of Reward In the next Verse I heard 〈◊〉 Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead Surely Sirs here is somewhat
in this Text of great Importance to your Souls and mine O that I knew how to â—ffect your Hearts and mine with it â—hat we might know how to give it â—ts Influence upon your Hearts and Lives I say so because of the Great Solemnity with which these Words are introduced here is such an Apparatus as is verily very awful I do not know three Passages in all Scripture so Solemnly introduced I heard a Voice from Heaven whether the Voice of the Angel of God the Angel of the Covenant Or whether a Voice from God more immediately the Text hath not told us And we may safely be ignorant about it But it is A Voice from Heaven a Voice than cannot lye a Voice that cannot deceive us a Voice that should be heard and received with all suitble Reverence and Acceptation and who could have believed it unless well attested and this Voice bids him Write Write why is it worthy to be Written if it is a Voice from Heaven on such an Important Occasion as appears in the Context John might well write it down fro the Comfort of the Followers of Jesus that poor despised reproached persecuted Generation whom the World reckons not worthy to live And their God that knows them better than the World knows them and is not ashamed to be called their God he knows that the World is not worthy of them q. d. Souls bear up under all Discouragements tho' yours is a Distressed Heart-stooping Day here is a Word from Heaven a Cordial for Fainting Seasons and I 'll write it down for you that you may have it ready and may have Recourse to it in your needful Hours and that is Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth c. The Words Logically considered contain First A Proposition Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord. Secondly A Limitation or Determination of the Time and Season of verifying it From henceforth Thirdly A Twofold Reason of the Truth of the Proposition First That they may rest from their Labours Secondly And their Works do follow them Which will be the Reasons of the ctrine and waving to speak to them now I may hope for room for some Application which is the thing I would aim at The Proposition in the Text then that I may for Brevity sake make it serve for the Doctrine is this Doct. Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord. I call it a Proposition and yet the accurate Logicians may quarrel at it because the Predicate is in the Place of the Subject But it is a Logical Proposition at least with very little Variation They that are dead and dye in the Lord are Blessed And so I must endeavor to explain the Subject and then the Predicate and though the Subject be last in the Text it is to be reckoned first in the Proposition and must therefore fall first under our Consideration First What are we to understand by The Dead that dye in the Lord There are two Senses that put in very fairly and both of them agreeable enough to the Original Some and Men of Value by Dying in the Lord do understand as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much as Dying For the Cause and Sake of the Lord as Martyrs do that seal their Testimony with their Blood The Preposition which we render In after the manner of the Hebrews signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as For and I must not deny but this Preposition in other Places of Scripture is so render'd as in the Margin and elsewhere and the Proposition Mat. 6. 7. Eph. 3. 13. is true take it in this Sense That those that Dye For the Lord are Blessed and it may be in a Degree above other Men that Dye only in the Lord. But I may not exclude the other Sense of it by this tho' there are great Authorities to countenance me in it because I think it is beyond Dispute that when the Apostle uses an Equivalent Phrase Them that sleep in 1 Thes 4. 14. Jesus Sleeping is allow'd to be dying in Jesus For after this he assures us The dead in Christ shall rise first Verse 16. There is nothing in the Context that I can discover should limit us to this Sense therefore it must not I think be understood only of those that Dye for him that suffered a Violent Death for him as many of our Brethren have done and now do in the Christian World The Translation hath a plain and sound Sense different from that for though it may be admitted to signifie Dying for him yet it doth not exclude but take in their Dying in him that dyed not thus for him 1 John 4. 13. Eph. 3. 17. Dying interested in him United to him by the Spirit on his part and by Faith on ours And the Proposition is true of these and all these so that in the same Rom. 8. 1. Rom. 16. 7. Joh. 15. 4. Sense they are said to be in Christ to abide in him and walk in him they may be said to dye in him Let me add that Dying in the Lord thus explain'd doth suppose Two Things First Their Being in him by their Coming to him and Receiving of him which are but two different Scripture Joh. 1. 12. Mat. 11. 28. Expressions for their Believing in him Secondly It is Supposed to Dying in him they did Abide and Walk in him from the time of their Coming to him and Receiving of him be it a longer or shorter time And pray Sinners you that make light of Christ that prefer your other things before him or turn your Backs upon him to serve divers Lusts and Pleasures instead of him that abandon your selves to a Carnal Interest Know that you cannot in this Case dye in him or be blessed in so doing and therefore bethink your selves how it will be with you if Death lay its cold Hands upon you O Get into Christ Get a saving Interest in him give up your selves to him that Death may not find you out of him for Woe to you if you dye and not in Jesus Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord. Let us now briefly see what we are to understand by the Predicate Blessed And of this give me leave to speak something First of the Name and then of the Thing for Names are to lead us to Things and I would I could tell you more of it I am ashamed to think how little I can tell you of the Blessedness of those Souls that Live and Dye in Jesus That I may borrow some Light from the Old Testament let me tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Hebrews have a Word Expressive of this beyond what our Language can fully reach it 's often Translated Blessed and this Word seems to be in that form which the Masters in Sacred Language call Forma Regiminis and may be turned from its concrete to an abstract Signification and therefore if I
must render it I must do it as I can because I can do it no better Viz. Oh the Blessednesses of that Man not Blessed Adjectively and in the Concrete but Blessednesses Substantively and in the Abstract not Blessedness in the Singular Number but Blessednesses in the Plural and O the Blessednesses A compleat Complication of them in that Soul that lives in Christ walks in him and dyes in him and though Philologers are not certainly agreed Whether it be a Noun Substantive or Adjective Plural containing all kind of Felicity or an Adverb or Interjection Well is it for that Man Happily is he Provided for Yet they seem agreed that which soever it be and one they generally think it must be it hath the force Habet affluentiam omnium bonorum vel omnium bonorum aggregatione perfectus Modis omnibus accumulate beatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multum gaudens Others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à vehementiore gaudio of a Pathetick Joyful Acclamation and then they come much to one as the Learned Drusius hath it He is abundantly and every way blessed beyond Expression I have the rather Noted this because the Seventy Translate the Hebrew Word which we render Blessed by the very Original Word in my Text which Philologers derive from Words importing Great Joy Joy unspeakable and as I may say full of Glory It does denote that a Soul in Christ when he dyes shall have such a Blessedness and Joy such a fulness of Joy and Pleasure that he shall neither want nor wish for more But not to stay upon the Name which was to lead us into the Thing Let us see what we can say of it And O! how gladly would I commend the Blessedness of this State to you that I might commend this Dear and Blessed Jesus to you Verily Sirs you could never set so light by this Jesus as you do if you did but know the Worth of him if you knew your Need of him and what you should have by him If I fail in this I shall avail you little The dead that dye in the Lord are blessed Which does denote First A Separation a Removal of all that is Evil and Distressing There shall when thou dyest in the Lord be a Separation from all Evils Natural and Moral that are so great a part of thy Distress here Every one feels the Evil of Afflictions every one can complain of this Plague of the Heart every one hath his own Body of Sin and his own Burthen I do not know any is without one you do not feel mine nor I yours but I feel one and you another Oh! what a Complaining World is this Sickness Pain Calamity Losses of Relations Crosses on the one Hand and Moral Evil which is the greater Evil on the other Hand the Evil of Sin Dwelling and Working in us The Tender-hearted Soul that hath a new Nature in it that is set against Sin hath a very tender Sense of the Evil of that Sin that dwells in it and is an implacable Enemy to it I am sure it made Paul pour out more Complaints than all his Stripes and Stoning Irons and Imprisonment did Where do you hear him complain how adverse how miserable soever his Case was as he does on this Occasion O wretched man that I Rom. 7. 24. am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Sin fate uneasie upon his Spirit tho' it was not Reigning and Allowed but Unallowed and Hated Well Soul bear up if thou be but heartily come to Jesus if thou art but one of those that are willing to follow this Lamb whithersoever he goes I can tell thee Good Tydings of Great Joy it cannot be long e're thy Blessed Jesus will deliver thee from all this thy Anguish Vexation and Miseries shall all be done away All thy Sweat thy Labours shall cease all Tears be wiped from thine Eyes and all Sorrows done away with the Causes of them and though thou art now conversant with a Sluggish and Sleepy and Hypocritical Heart thou knowest not what to do with it thou bringest it to Ordinances and God in them to better it and this without any great and good Effect hitherto Bear up Soul this Holy Jesus hath undertaken for thee thou art in him and thou shalt dye in him from henceforth thou shalt not feel the Temptations the sinful Workings of a Naughty Heart Oh! that will be a Joyful Change to a Holy Soul that is under the Tender Sence of these things here This is one part of the Blessedness as it denotes an Abolition of and Separation from the Evils of this Life both Natural and Moral from that of Affliction and that of Sin which tho' it be rather Negative than Positive yet it is that without which positive Blessedness cann't be enjoyed None can be fully happy with so much Misery hanging about him and pressing upon him Methinks therefore it should be Joy to Holy Souls to wait for and expect such a day when Sin and Sorrow shall be fully done away and shall be known no more for ever Secondly I must tell you it does denote A fruition of the most felicitating Good the best Good that the Soul is capable of the Blessed God that Summum Bonum that the blind Heathens fought after so long to so little purpose Eustachius in his Excellent Ethicks and our other Masters in Ethicks when they write of this tell us that Felicity or Blessedness is either Objective or Formal Objective Felicity denotes no more but God the Object but Formal Felicity denotes more Some kind of Union to Communion with and Injoyment of this Felicitating Object and this is as it were to be made one with it They commonly place it in two things give me leave to put it in three or four 1. It lyes in the Contemplation of this delightful Object 2. In a Delightful Love of it 3. In a Participation or Enjoyment of it 4. In a Contentation in it When the Soul shall be let into this State it will be a State of Possession and Fruition which as far as I can understand is imported in these four Words First Knowledge or Contemplation The People of God shall know him in another manner than now they do It is called Seeing of God and the Beatifick Vision What sensible Views God will give them to gratifie their Bodily Eyes when they are re-united to their Souls we cannot tell tho' it seems rational to think all our Powers even the lowest of them shall be suitably employed but it will be an intelligible or an intellectual Vision a rational Discovery of the Excellency of this God and his Christ which gives Rise to this Happiness which the Spirits made perfect shall be everlastingly employ'd to view and contemplate with intense and pleasurable Applications of Mind I dare not herd with those bold Presumers that dare to determine whether it be the Divine Essence that is thus view'd immediately or some Created Glory flowing