Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A92746
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A sermon preached at the funeral of the Lady Newland. At Alhallows Barkin, London By John Scott, D.D.
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Scott, John, 1639-1695.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S2075; ESTC R229814
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11,228
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21
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A SERMON PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE Lady Newland AT Alhallows Barkin London By JOHN SCOTT D. D. LONDON Printed in the Year 1690. A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THE Lady Newland HEB. xiii 14. For here we have no abiding City but we seek one to come IN these words the Author encourages Christians couragiously to bear up under reproaches in Conformity to their Lord and Master who in a disgraceful manner was Crucified without the City as if they thought his Blood would have desecrated it or feared lest his last Breath might have scattered a Contagion through it Let us therefore saith he in the 13 th Verse go forth unto him without the Camp bearing his reproach i.e. Let us be contented with him to be thrown forth as the dung and off-scouring of the streets from the Society of Men and not be concerned that for his sake we are made the abjects of the Earth For here we have no abiding City and so 't is not long that we shall endure this but we seek one to come whither when we are once arrived we shall be above all reproach and malice for ever In which words you have I. The Christian's present State Here we have no abiding City II. The Christian's present practice in order to his future state but we seek one to come I. I begin with the first Here we have no abiding City The present and future state of Christians is here compared to a City in allusion I suppose to those who though they were not born at Rome but lived it may be a great way off from it had yet Jus Civitatis Romanae the Priviledges of Citizens of Rome even as we Christians though we are born in this World and do spend our lives in it do yet belong to another Corporation and are Denizens of that City which is above and therefore saith he this present state is not our home in this City we are but Foreigners and do only sojourn in it for a time till we go home to the new Jerusalem which is the place of our abode and the City we are already free of And indeed that Here we have no abiding City is a truth so sensible that one would think we need not be put in mind of it for which way soever we turn our Eyes we see a dark and deadly shade overspreading the World and behold Men vanishing every day like the smoke quitting the Stage round about us and disappearing almost as soon as they have shewed themselves To day we converse with our Friends and among our other Festivities we tickle our selves with the Joys of our future Conversation To Morrow their Passing-Bell tells us a sad story that they are gone to converse with Worms where these Eyes of ours shall never see them more and indeed if we consider our present state we are but a kind of fictitious Beings that rather seem to be than are and do so little deserve to be taken for realities that we only serve to cheat one another into an opinion that we truly exist when presently by vanishing away we baffle that Opinion and shew our selves to be but hovering shadows that in a moment are and are not Indeed all Created things have more of not being than of being in them For it is only a limited portion of being which they have but there is an infinitude of being which they have not So that being infinitely nearer to nothingness than to fullness of being they rather deserve to be called nothing than real beings And if the best of our being be so near to nothing what is our outward Man which is but the umbrage and shadow of our being Alas If we consider the Frame and composition of it it is nothing but a continual Flux and defluence of parts insomuch that each Climacterick of our Age changes our whole Fabrick and we are at no one time all our selves but seven years hence shall be another thing This Body will be all vanished and gone and of the parts it now consists there will be none remaining So that while we are we are hastening away and within a little time shall vanish into Worms-Meat And hence it is that the Scripture compares our present life to such fleeting and evanid things to an Image a Dream a Post a Shadow by all which it 's design is to make us sensible of this truth that Here we have no abiding City And indeed so volatile and fugitive is our present Existence that if it were not for another World it were scarce worth the while for a Man to be And could we but have understood before we came into being what an uncomfortable Stage this World is I am apt to think we should rather have chosen to remain for ever in the Womb of nothing than venture into the Theatre of beings only to take a turn or two and weep and grone and die For what an impertinent thing would it be for a Man to come out of nothing into being only to open his Eyes and look about him and vanish into nothing again And yet this is all that most of those do that are born into the World and as for those that act a longer part there is alas so much of Tragedy in it that the Pain doth even counter-balance the Pleasure of it That therefore which makes Life truly desirable is this That though we have here no continuing City yet we look for one to come which is the second part of the Text viz. II. The Christian's present Practice in order to his future State but we seek one to come which implies these four things 1. Our belief of the reality of this abiding State 2. Our hope and expectation of enjoying it 3. Our proposing it to our selves as the great end and aim of all our actions 4. Our diligent pursuit of it by such a course of actions as is most suitable to it and does tend most directly towards it Of each of these briefly 1. Our seeking this abiding City implies our sincere belief of the reality and existence of it For what wise Man will hunt after a Dream and a shadow which he believes hath no Being or Existence Who was ever so mad as to make a Voyage for Gold or Spices to Vtopia For that which I believe is not is to me as if it were not and hath no more influence upon us than the most palpable Dream and Fiction So that how real soever Heaven be in it self it is impossible it should move us to seek after it unless we believe its Existence 'T is our Faith must influence our Minds and Spirit all our powers of action otherwise all the Joys of another World will never be able to move or affect us Unless our Faith ascends the Pisgah of God's Promises and from thence takes a view of the Holy Land and of those Joys and Delights it flows and abounds with we shall loiter for ever in this Wilderness and never