indeed an Essential part of man yet it is the less principal part since the Soul can act and live as well out of it as in it And therefore it is from the Original of the Soul that the birth of man is chiefly to be reckoned rather than from the formation of the body Now if accordingly we compute the birth of a Saint we are led to a Threefold Birth which results from the Consideration The 1st is by Creation when the Soul of Man is at first created and placed in the body Which indeed carries along with it the formation of the body also for we can't conceive the body to be formed as to its due perfection with respect to union with the Soul till the moment of the Souls infusion therein if with the Schools I may be admitted to use such a word who tell us of the Soul that creando infunditur insundendo creatur But that the Soul derives its original from Gods immediate creating it and not ex traduce I speak with all deference to learned and worthy Persons of another judgment may seem plain if it were but from that one Scripture Zech. 12. 1. especially if we duely consider its connexion with what precedes I say then that the first birth of man to speak properly is to be reckoned from the union of the Soul and body in the womb which as to priority of time seems to be instantaneously upon the Creation of the Soul rather than from the Egress of the child from thence But since we are most taken with what is most sensible to us I shall not contend about words if the thing be understood Especially seeing the Scripture is so calculated in its Expressions as to use words commonly in use understood by the lowest form of Christians Only howsoever we use words I am confident to say that the Birth of Man may very well be reckoned from the Vnion of Soul and Body in the womb For whatever hath these two constituent parts of man can be assign'd to no other class but that of Mankind The 2. Birth of Man according to the Soul is in Regeneration or Conversion Of which Christ speaking Joh. 3. Calls it the birth of a man from above v. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The 3. Birth is in Glorification And this admits of a Twofold Period viz. 1. As to the Soul only at Death when it separates from the Body and becomes from that moment perfectly freed from sin and misery and admitted to the enjoyment of true happiness above For the Souls of just persons even then are said to be made perfect Heb. 12. 23. 2. As to Soul and Body when re-united at the Resurrection which is called the Adoption and Redemption of the Body Rom. 8. 23. Now from all this we may arrive to make some tolerable Estimate of that which we commonly call the Birth and Death of a Saint For 1. that which we commonly call Birth is nothing else but mans Egress from the womb and his Ingress into the Society of Mortals here Now what is this but a kind of Death since we being our selves Mortal see and converse only with Mortal Objects as all things external here are Whence it is that all mans time on earth even from the Evening of the Worlds Creation to the Morning of the Resurrection is esteemed but as one Night as is imported Psal 49. 14. When the Resurrection is Emphatically Termed the Morning both with respect to the night of time preceding and the day of eternity about to succeed And hence also our Life on earth is called a Sleep wherein we rather dream of things than really apprehend them and out of which we are first thorowly awaked by Death We may see this plainly hinted Psal 17. 15. Whereas 2. that which we call commonly Death is nothing else but the unpinning our mortal Tabernacles and the manumitting us into the immortal Regions of Light Love and Liberty Of which the great Saints in Scripture speak no otherwise than in the familiar Dialect of putting off a suit of old Apparrel for new and more glorious ones Thus Paul calls it a being unclothed as to the Body and clothed upon by having Mortality swallowed up of Life 2 Cor. 5. 4. And Peter calls it a putting off this his Tabernacle 2 Eph. 1. 14. Again 2 let us consider Death the right notion whereof will become more facile to our apprehensions by what we have said of Life All therefore that I shall say of it is that besides that which we commonly call so there is a Twofold Death in a Spiritual sense which falls under consideration here The 1. is a Death in Sin which is entered into at our Birth into the world For then it is that we come to enter upon the Stage of a sinful world We are shapen in sin and conceived in iniquity And our Birth into the world is rather a kind of Death than Life since we are exposed thereby to sinning and suffering to vanity and vexation of Spirit The 2. is a Death to Sin which is entered upon at the dissolution of the tye between Soul and body upon which account it is called Death But tho' it disunite soul and body for a time yet it may rather be called the Birth of the Soul in as far as it translates it from all manner of sin and misery It is true indeed as was said before Regeneration is a kind of new Birth to the Soul in as far as it delivers us from the death of sin in a great measure Yet since that is but a deliverance in part therefore it is by death only that we come totally to dye to sin Tho' I grant that this death to sin comes to be more illustriously display'd at the great period of the Resurrection When the last enemy Death comes to be Totally destroyed and swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15. 54. So that from hence we may see that our Birth into this world is a Death in Sin whereas our Dissolution or the separation of soul and body is properly a Death to Sin or a manumission and freedom given us both from Sin and misery Wherefore from all that hath been said in the Premises as to both these Terms of Birth and Death we may not injustly invert the notion of them with respect to the Saints and say That the day of our Birth into this world was the day of our Death in sin ignorance vanity and misery Whereas the day of our Death may be justly reputed to be the day of our Birth into the world of purity knowledge light and rest But 2dly I come now to consider what that thing we call Life is which the two Periods of Birth and Death enter us upon and with respect to which we can only pass a right judgement of the preferableness of either of them And truely as to this matter we are very much in the dark taking that to be life which hath little more of
THE MOVRNERS Memorial IN TWO SERMONS On the Death of the Truly Pious Mris. SUSANNA SOAME Late Wife of Bartholomew Soame of Thurlow Esq Who Deceased Febru 14. 1691 2. With some Account of Her LIFE DEATH By Timothy Wright Robert Fleming Ministers of the Gospel London Printed for John Salusbury at the Rising-Sun in Cornhil and John Harris at the Harrow in the Poultry MDCXCII To the much Honoured BARTHOLOMEW SOAME of Little Thurlow Esq Honoured Sir THat Relation which these Discourses have to One who a few days ago stood in the nearest upon earth to your self rendering them peculiarly Yours doth intitle them to your Patronage And considering that upon the same account they may be acceptable to many others unto whom her Memory is precious tho' as they are Ours we have little reason to expect they should be so to any We do with the greater readiness in Obedience to your Commands here humbly present them to your Hand in that plain Countrey-dress in which they were lately directed to your Ear among many others to whom they were in that respect the more suitable as well as to the solemnity of the Occasion Hopeing that as through the Divine Grace they found some Access unto your Heart when they first visited your Ear so they may be of some further use by the blessing of God to renew or rather fix and settle the impressions which were then made being now again presented to your Eye Sir As there is none more deeply sensible of the greatness of the loss which You and Yours have sustained by the Death of so near and dear and every way useful a Relative so there is none more sincerely desirous than We are to the utmost of our power to be assistant both to You and them in bearing your present Burdens as far as Christianity doth oblige and Capacitate us to be mutually helpful to one another in fulfilling that part of the Law of Christ And surely it cannot choose but be a very relieving thought to you to consider what a vast disproportion there is between your Temporal loss and her Eternal gain by her happy Exchange of a frail Tottering Earthly Tabernacle for an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens It may very well be a comfortable Alleviation to your Grief and Sorrow under the present afflictive dispensation when you first look backward and reflect upon the many wearisome and painful Exercises which One whom you so Dearly loved and then so heartily pityed did for so long a time undergo in a distempered body and then look forward and consider that She is now Eternally freed from all being happily arrived at that Everlasting Rest where there is not only perfect ease but fulness of joy to make it the more compleat complacential and delightful That Eternal weight of Glory which she is now in the possession of doth infinitely preponderate both her former sufferings in a mortal body and your present heavy affliction and sorrow upon her going out of it And therefore You have greater reason to rejoyce than to weep for her in as much as she is now gone unto her Heavenly Father And tho' it cannot be denyed but we have all reason to weep for our selves as indeed the state of this wretched World in general as well as of particular Families is sadly to be lamented when Persons of Eminent endowments and singular usefulness in their respective stations are in so great numbers as they have been of late translated out of it as being no longer worthy of such excellent Inhabitants and so few in many places springing up in their room Yet even in this respect we have no reason to sorrow as those that have no hope For As there are in your Family many pleasant and hopeful young Plants upon which the Blessing of Gen. 17. v. 7. Abraham is continually descending to make them yet more and more fruitful in every good work that it may still retain the beautiful Complexion of a Watered Garden and all that see Isa 58. v. 11. cap. 61. v. â— them may acknowledge that they are the Seed which the Lord hath blessed So with respect to the poor adjacent Countrey who also have sustained a great loss of which they are very sensible in the Decease of One who by your kind assistance and chearful Concurrence was more immediately instrumental in procuring for them such plain wholesome food for their Souls as they had a grateful relish of notwithstanding what in that kind they do otherwise enjoy We are greatly encouraged to hope that the Father of Spirits will in his wise and good Providence make up this loss also to them by continuing your Affairs here in such a posture that you may yet further pursue your own beneficent and charitable inclination towards your Neighbours and Country-men in affording them the like additional helps still for their spiritual improvement And in so doing We doubt not but You will find the Blessings of Heaven still multiplied upon your Family and abundance of peace and satisfaction in your own Spirit in persisting in and reflecting upon such a charitable piece of Service to the Souls of men In order whereunto both You and Yours of whose numerous favours to each of us we shall ever retain a most grateful sense are with no less sincerity than constancy recommended daily to the Compassionate Care of the Father of Mercys and the God of all Grace and Consolation by Honoured Sir Your greatly obliged faithful and humble Servants in Christ Timothy Wright Robert Fleming Thurlow-Hall March 7th 1691 2. A Funeral Sermon By Timothy Wright Chaplain in the Family Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Which words as connected with v. 6. are thus Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life IT having pleased Almighty God the Soveraign disposer of all things in whose hands all our times are to remove from us and take unto himself our deservedly Honoured Dear and useful Friend who as you all know was in her life-time not without the condescending and chearful Concurrence of Her surviving Head very instrumental for the propagating the True knowledge of Christ Jesus among you by the Preaching of the Gospel in this place It is now the commendable and pious desire and appointment of her nearest surviving Relatives that we should this day here pay our last solemn and publick Respects together unto her Memory in a Sermon or two dedicated unto it And my Station in the Family laying me under a peculiar Obligation to bear my part in this solemn service tho' otherwise unworthy of it it was not long after I began more closely to apply my thoughts to the making some slender preparation for it that this Text presented it self to my mind as a proper subject for our
Heb. 10. v. 38. have no pleasure in him He that would so run as to obtain must not think it enough to set out right to begin well but he must hold on till he comes to the end of the prescribed course or else he looseth all As he must be careful to run the very race that is set before him keeping his feet in the direct path that is delineared for him by the divine Precepts without turning aside to any crooked way either on the right hand or on the left So he must be sure to run to the end of it not desisting till he arrive there or else he will run in vain 3. The last and highest gradation in this account that the Text gives of the way and manner of seeking regularly for glory and honour and immortality is made by the addition of patience unto this perseverance in well-doing And this Patience hath respect both to present evils endured and to future good expected in the way of our duty For patience is exercised by the Children of God in this state of their minority imperfection both these ways viz. in enduring and in waiting indeed in both respects they have need of patience that after they have done the Heb. 10. v. 36. Will of God they may receive the promise First All the Heirs of Glory during the time of their minority do stand in need of patience as it is to be exercised in enduring the many afflictive evils that they meet with in the course of their obedience and continuance in well-doing For as Gods ancient People Israel passed through a troublesome and howling Wilderness into the promised Land So all True Christians must expect through much Acts 14. v. 22. tribulation to enter into the Kingdom of God And therefore our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples that in the John 16. v. 33. World they should have tribulation And indeed there is such a great variety of troubles to which the best of men are exposed here in this life as may sufficiently convince them that here is not Mich. 2. v. 10. their rest But all these are quietly and patiently undergone with a silent humble and meek submission to the divine Soveraign disposing hand that orders all by such as have eternal glory in their eye and aim in somuch that they do not only persevere in doing good with unwearied diligence but also hold out in suffering evils with invincible patience Col. 1. v. 11. being strengthened thereunto according to the glorious power of the divine grace Secondly They do exercise patience in waiting as well as in enduring For as the Apostle speaks they hope for Rom. 8. v. 25. that which yet they see not and therefore do with patience wait for it And this is that kind of patience which the Apostle James exhorts unto Jam. 5. 7 8. Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and the latter rain Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draws nigh And the right Seekers after Glory and happiness are no strangers to the exercise of this kind of patience And therefore they are not weary in well-doing because they know that in due season they shall Gal. 6. v. 9. reap if they faint not and that every thing is most pleasant as well as most beautiful Eccl. 3. v. 11. in its season And thus have I shewn you at large the extensive import of the Character by which the Heirs of future blessedness are here described And so I come more briefly II. To consider in the next place the nature and excellency of that final happiness which doth by the divine ordination and appointment belong to them as their everlasting inheritance as it is here summ'd up in those two comprehensive words Eternal Life Which contain more in them than all the united eloquence of men and Angels is able to express and set forth It is a phrase more frequently than any other made use of in Scripture summarily to express the great felicity to which the glorified Saints are advanced in the heavenly Mansions And it doth very aptly serve to lead our Minds into some more general Conceptions of the greatness and glory of it tho' indeed all that can be said or thought falls infinitely short of being commensurate unto it Life is the sweetest of all enjoyments and therefore that is the last thing that any man will part with so long as he is able to retain it and Eternal life is the highest Job 2. ver 4. and most noble kind of life of which the nature of Man when in the utmost elevation is susceptive of And the excellency of it will more clearly appear to us if we consider it more distinctly first with respect to what is more directly imported in it and then with respect to what it doth necessarily connote when understood in that latitude in which the phrase is most frequently if not always used in Scripture 1. If we consider it in the more direct import of it so it appears to have a very radiant excellency in it that doth far out-shine the brightest part of this Worlds glory For it must be understood to singifie somewhat more than a bare immortality or a meer living for ever for that belongs also to the wicked that are turned into Hell and hath no happiness in it if abstractly considered even a glorious ineffable and everlasting union with God the fountain of life whereby the Spirits of just men made perfect dwelling in God the all-comprehending Spirit do so far as the finite capacity of a creature will admit everlastingly possess a perfect plenitude of life And this is elsewhere in Scripture express'd by being ever with the Lord. And this 1 Thes 4. v. 17. we are to conceive the Souls of the Saints to enter upon immediately after death altho' their bodies are not to be advanced to a participation in it until the resurrection when they also shall be made immortal and fashioned like unto Christs glorious Body according to the Phil. 3. v. 21. working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself 2. If we consider this Eternal life with respect to what it doth necessarily connote so it will appear to be still more excellent and glorious For as that God in whom the glorified Saints have most intimately their everlasting residence is in himself the fountain of life or the living God So he is also the fountain of blessedness And therefore as by being for ever with the Lord they do everlastingly possess a perfect plenitude of life in 2 Cor. 5. v. 4. which every thing of mortality shall at last be swallowed up So they must needs also enjoy together therewith a perfect fulness of whatsoever can be conceived of under the notion
Respect unto her Memory I shall only speak of what I have had the peculiar advantage of observing my self for the space of almost seven years that I have in two distinct periods lived in her Family And I must have been very inobservant indeed if in all that time I had not taken notice of what was so visible both in her habitual Temper and constant carriage exactly answering to every part of that descriptive Character of the true Christain which I have been this day unfolding to you of which I shall give you a distinct and impartial account in the following Particulars And 1. Her habitual heavenly-mindedness was such a shining Excellency in her as could not be hid under that Vaile of Humility and Modesty which was her constant ornament but did discover it self in an holy contempt of this lower World and all its perishing Enjoyments in a steady Aim directed unto higher and more noble Objects and in a continual aspiration after glory and honour and immortality The divine Grace had inspired her with that true magnanimity and nobleness of Spirit that her Desires and Hopes could by no means be confined within the narrow limits of Time nor be long together held down to sublunary and terrene objects And therefore her Soul would be often mounting upward upon the Wings of Faith into the bright Regions of light and glory above to contemplate the eternal and glorious Objects that are there And more especially toward the end of her Time having been observed for some months before her Death to have her thoughts much exercised about the State and Enjoyments of Heaven And particularly about separate Souls mutual knowledge of and converse with one another taking occasion very frequently to discourse upon that sublime Subject when in company with such as she apprehended might be assistant to her in her endeavours to attain more distinct and clear notions about it Of which she now understands more than any one here could tell her 2. The earnestness of her desires after heavenly glory and felicity was no less conspicuous than the steadiness of her Aims principally directed that way She did not only set this glory honour and immortality before her as the great Mark at which she aimed but was continually pressing forwards toward it seeking after these things with the most close and strenuous application of mind And that more espeically in fervent prayer wherein she was wont to breath out her very Soul to God every day For as her natural Temper inclined her to the love of Solitude so Grace had taught her to make the best improvement of her Solitary hours which she was careful to employ not only in diligent reading and devout meditation but especially in secret prayer whereby she maintained and kept up a continual commerce with Heaven which many a time brought her in very rich Returns in divine communications and manifestations Nor was she content to seek alone for such great things as Grace and Glory are and therefore would often with earnest importunity be-speak the joint-assistance of her more intimate Christian-friends and especially of such Ministers of her acquaintance as she could be most free with in managing this work that so her Addresses to God might be the more solemn by others assisting her therein and Dedicating several hours together unto that sacred service as hath been frequently done at her Request and principally upon her account in her own house 3. She was no less careful about the regular way of seeking for glory and honour and immortality than she was earnest and zealous in the work it self For she was better instructed in the great Doctrines and Duties of Christinity and in the Method of obtaining Salvation by Jesus Christ as it is revealed in the Gospel than to separate the Way from the End or foolishly to think of attaining the one without an heedful walking in the other And therefore it was her daily Study and sincere Endeavour in every thing to walk by rule not abusing the Grace of the Gospel as an encouragement to licentiousness but learning from it to deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts and to live Tit. 2. v. 11 12. 13. soberly righteously and godly in this present World so looking for that blessed hope c. Labouring to have her conversation such in all respects as might Phil. 1. v. 27. become the Gospel and her behaviour answerable to her hope And therefore it was her conscientious care and earnest endeavour to be seriously diligent and constant in performing all the Duties of a Christian both in her personal and relative capacities And whereas in the latter she sometimes found some difficulties under such concurrent circumstances as need not be mentioned which did unavoidably discover such of her Infirmities as otherwise might have been hid I have this to add from certain knowledge that they were by none more deeply resented or more sadly bewailed than by her self For when at any time upon some slender provocation the natural quickness of her Temper did on a suddain betray and hurry her into some more hasty passionate or indecent expressions they were soon followed with such an indignation against her self as did more than bear proportion thereunto and therefore might very justly as I doubt not but it did in a great measure make atonement for them unto such as were most nearly and sensibly touched by them All which I should have passed over in silence had I not considered that what I have mentioned on the one part might perhaps have been observed by many unto whom what is said on the other in her just vindication may be altogether unknown And what I have thus impartially hinted amounting to sufficient evidence that her Infirmities of this kind were no other than were very well consistent with sincerity and a good conscience both toward God and toward Man I must after all in justice to her Memory give her this general Character which all that knew her more intimately will say she justly deserved That she was a loving discreet and prudent Wife a careful affectionate and tender-hearted Mother a faithful compassionate and beneficent friend and in all these respects and many more a most exemplary Christian And then 4. To complete the Character her Patience and Perseverance were no less eminent than her care and diligence in well-doing She was not only unweariedly active and constant in doing but eminently submissive and patient in suffering the Will of her heavenly Father And therefore under all her painful and frequently renewed Exercises and Tryals which indeed were very grievous especially for the last twelve Months of her Life she did with unrepining submission and as much chearfulness as was consistent with her acute pains bow to the Soveraign disposing hand of God resigning her Will to his so as never to have been heard all the time to charge him foolishly in any the least murmuring complaint against him under what in his paternal wisdom he
merits and righteousness of Christ and fancy not that your own inherent Righteousness must go Partner with the Righteousness of Christ in the point of Justification lest thereby you impeach the all-sufficient Merits of Christ of defectiveness and claim the priviledge to be accounted your own Saviours But endeavour with the Apostle Phil. 3. 9. To be found in him not having your own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith 3. Mind the concernment of your Souls Salvation with all earnestness and diligence For what profit will it be untoyou to gain the whole world if you lose your Souls or what can you give in exchange again for them if once they be lost Therefore trifle not away precious time and golden opportunities in doing nothing or it may be things worse than nothing lest you be forced at length to cry out as the great Grotius did when dying Ah vitam perdidi operose nihil agendo Be not so besotted as to lay the stress of your hopes upon an imaginary Death-bed Repentance But since now you have a price put into your hands to get wisdom with beg and endeavour after that happy Part and Lot that shall never be taken from you when once attained 2. Direct Take heed how you carry with respect to your Bodies And as to this matter I will give you a tast of my Thoughts in these three things 1. Watch against your Bodies that they prove not snares to your Souls as they are I fear to many in more than one respect For 1. how oft do our senses deceive and cheat the Soul and presenting it with innumerable objects to distract and disturb it from the pursuit of more noble things And 2. the Fancy and unruely Imagination doth no less oft discompose the Mind and Reason by innumerable Chimera's in the forming and producing of which it is for the most part strangely fruitful Yea 3. the wants of the Body prove oft-times a great Remora to the Soul in its spiritual operations by giving occasion to sollicitude and anxious cares about what we shall eat and drink and wherewithall we shall be clothed and how we shall prevent such and such evils and troubles c. In all which respects we have great reason both to watch over and to watch against our Bodies 2. Live above your Bodies Let not your thoughts and cares terminate only there What! Shall a mortal fadeing Carcase swallow up our thoughts and inhance our affections when the time is coming that Death will at one blow cut down the same whereon we have bestowed so much pains in vain Yea the time is coming when this beautiful outside will stink and turn to corruption And then worms must nestle in those holes where sprightly eyes did once shine and all our graceful and well proportioned members and parts moulder down into deformity and rottenness Therefore let us hence learn to live above our Bodies 3. Be content to be unbodied for a time It is this way alone that we can expect to see God fully and to reach the happy Life and therefore it is our Duty to work up our hearts to an hearty contentment in and satisfaction with this way method and ordinance of Gods own appointment in order to consummate our felicity Nay let me say further that we ought to endeavour not only to be content to die but to be willing and desirous to depart that we may be with Christ which is best of all This was Pauls attainment Phil. 1. 23. And not his only but that which was very common to the Saints in those more heavenly times Rom. 8. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 4 5. Yea the very inanimate Creation hath an earnest propensity this way groaning for a dissolution as to its present form that it may be restored to its pristine glory and splendour before it became the stage of sin and theatre of misery This we may see Rom. 8. 19 21 22. Which is a consideration that may well shame us out of our earthly frame that we have sunk into for the most part in these depraved days I know indeed that we are apt to reckon it a great attainment in a Christian and comparatively indeed with the frame of most it is so to be content to die in submission to Divine good pleasure yet desirous to live But the excellency of the Christian attainment and frame of spirit in this matter stands in the inversion of the common order viz. In being desirous to die yet content to live in submission to Gods will and in regard of service to be done for God further And indeed when a Christian hath once tasted of the pleasure and delight of communion with God and thus been admitted to some fore-tasts of the future glory he can scarce any longer contain himself the love of God in Christ constraining him from crying out O Time be gone O Eternity make hast Why art thou so long a coming to those that are ready to burst with longing after the immediate sight and fruition of their God and Saviour forever Don't the Spirit and the Bride both Eccho forth with a sweet pathos come Lord Jesus And shall not our Souls joyn in the consort and ingeminat Amen even so come Lord Jesus come come 3. Direct Take heed how you carry with respect to your Souls Which Advice I take up also in these Three Things which I shall but very briefly propose First Be careful to cultivate your Souls that so you may grow dayly in a meetness and preparedness for Heaven and Glory And as there are two principal Faculties of the Soul the Vnderstanding and Will so accordingly let it be your great study to adorn these with what tends to render them more and more excellent And 1. Improve your Vnderstandings by dilating and enlarging them by further degrees of true spiritual Knowledge Grow in the Knowledge of God and Christ of the Vanity of the World and Excellency of Heaven and of the Worth of the Soul and in summ of all Gospel-Truths and Promises and the legal Precepts and Duties that are revealed as needful to be known 2. Improve your Wills and Affections also by more and more Grace that the Habits thereof may be strengthened by repeated Acts and that so these habits thus strengthened may be exerted put forth the more sweetly and freely in the out-going of the Soul in all its acts and operations 2. Employ your Souls always in Gods service This is and ought to be your chief and constant work and business Let us with complacency and chearfulness imploy our selves this way that it may be our meat and drink to do the will of our Father who is in Heaven What is our business in the world if it be not this For it is an opportunity to serve God here that alone can make a Saint content and willing to stay below in this Dung-hill world when
Preaching the Everlasting Gospel And would not this make us both more servicable in our several stations and capacities to glorifie God which is the great end of our Lives and I hope the great desire of our Souls And therefore I know nothing more worthy of our most earnest wrestlings and greatest importunities For since I hope God hath given us an interest in himself thorow his dear Son and our great Mediator and so hath accepted our Persous in Justification thorow the imputed righteousness of Christ I think the next work we have to do is to be dayly interceding for the Influences of the Spirit in order to carry on the great business of sanctification that so we may grow in a fitness for every duty and a meetness for the future state that we are hastning into It were long to produce all or many of the Expressions of this nature that might be given And therefore I shall only add one more in a Letter to a Friend upon a Reprieve from Death that she had providentially got beyond expectation for a time and which she was apprehensive he had some hand in with others as a Return of Prayer Now methinks says she I have been saying to you whom I believe to have been instrumental in this matter is this your kindness to your Friend When I seem'd to have got so near to the harbour of an hoped for rest to use all your force and strength to bring me back again into this stormy and troublesome Sea where I must expect to be tossed with new Tempests before I get to shore of which I have now a much clearer Prospect than of any service I can do here in this world Did I ever desire you to pray for Life Or was it not rather that I might be carried thorow the dark valley of the shadow of Death But I must submit since I know you think you have acted Duty in this and since all things of this nature are ordered by a wise and gracious God for good to us And this does abundantly satisfie me in this and I hope in all other dispensations concerning me And now from these few Expressions as well as from what hints have been besides given of this pious Person we may easily perceive what Spirit she was of and what her great work and Business in the world was She wisely chose the Better part which none could take from her The whole of her Life being one continued declaration that she sought a better Country as knowing that we have no continuing City or place of abode here Thorow a patient continuance in well-doing she sought for honour and glory and immortality both in Health and Sickness And tho' an universal Decay of Spirits in Gods wise determination did incapacitate her in the hour of Deaths approach from having that sensible joy and ravishment which somtimes the Saints then have from the prospect of the nearness of Glory yet that Faith and Affiance that Reverence and Love and that Resignation and full satisfaction which she then expressed were such clear Evidences of her Grace and such happy Prognosticks of that Happiness she was entering upon the Possession of that we may justly admire Gods Mercy in all this both to Her and Us. And now my Friends obey the Instruction and imitate the Pattern that I have at this time set before you Which that we may do let us fervently implore the divine Grace and seriously improve the Gospel-Means And then I question not but we shall come in due time to find this Doctrine verified in our own Experience That better is the Day of Death than the Day of Birth Amen TO THE MEMORY of the Truly Religious Mrs. Susanna Soame WHO Departed this Life at Thurlow in Suffolk Feb. 14. An. Dom. 169 1 2. ART thou then gone thou sweet and humble Mind Leaving thy Friends thus sorrowing behind And can our Thoughts within our breasts be pent Since sorrows double are that have no vent No! No! My weeping Muse shall drop a Verse And offer at thy much lamented Hearse Thy Piety and Worth deserve no less And if my Lines be in an humble Dress It yet may Mourners suit since 't is requir'd That such in Black not Gold should be attir'd Had I a Pen drop't from an Angels Wing Or could I hear the Anthems thou dost sing Since thou art joyn'd unto the Quire above And swallow'd up in Raptures high of Love My Thoughts might then 't is like my Pen inspire with such like Notes as mov'd Wise Sol'mons Lyre When he did sing the Mystick Loves between Heav'ns Glorious Darling and his Purchas'd Queen For now that Song thou lov'dst so here is known To thee since thou hast reach'd the Heavenly Throne Yet when I think how Holy Paul before Tho' thus rapt up to Heaven could do no more But only tell he saw Things Glorious Which he nor could nor durst express to us I 'me therefore left in silence to adore That Hand which casts a Veil such things before And wills us to believe they are too great For this Imperfect State where we await Until we also from our Corps remove And mount all Earthly Dust and Shades above Wherefore I 'm left to muse on what is past And on thy by-gone-Lise some Thoughts to cast And here methinks as present still to day I see thy Face and hear thee thus to say An Acrostical Character of her Life S oar fain I would above each earthly thing V nto my Lord of all my Joy the Spring S uch is my study but alas I find A ll my Attempts too weak too dark my Mind N ow Clouds bemist me Grief o're-pow'rs my Soul N ow Fears alternate like the Waves do rowl A nd all my Comforts Joy and Hope controul S weet Glances from my God yet now and then O blidge my Soul from Sorrow to refrain A nd blast my Griefs and cause my Fears to fly M y Case thus changeth too and fro whilst I E ach day for Heaven long yet fear to dye Yet tho' all is but Folly that is said By Living Mortals of th' Immortal Dead Yet since we justly do conclude thou' rt blest And now from Pains and Sorrows all at rest Methinks I hear thy Voice from Heaven high Drop silent to my Ear thus through the Sky An Acrostical Character of her Death Soar now I do above each earthly thing Vnto my Lord of all my Joy the Spring Such was my Aim below but then did find All my Attempts too weak too dark my Mind No Cloud bemists me now and on my Soul No Grief or Fear alternately doth rowl As an Allay my Comforts to controul Sweet Sights of God and Christ I do obtain O sweet my Life Sweet Place where I remain Angels and Saints are now my Company My Friends below I 'd pity did not I Expect to see them to Eternity The Epitaph UNderneath this Stone doth lye Dust precious for the Memory Of a sweet Saint who once did dwell In such a fadeing Mortal Cell Who having got Gods Pass took wing Upwards to Heaven to live and sing Triumphant Hallelujahs there And breath more free in Sweeter Air. An Acrostical Memorial Since Vpwards Soar'd All Notions New Attend Seen Objects Ancient Molestations End. As the last Expression of Friendship on Earth These Lines are Offered by R. F. BOOKS Printed for John Harris at the Harrow against the Church in the Poultrey and John Salusbury at the Rising Sun over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1. ANgliae Metropolis Or The Present State of London with Memorials comprehending a full and succienct Account of the Antient and Modern State thereof First Written by the late Ingenious Tho. De Laune Gent. and continued to this present Year by a careful Hand 2. The Life and Death of that Old Disciple of Jesus Christ and Eminent Minister of the Gospel Mr. Hanserd Knollys who dyed in the Ninety Third Year of his Age. These Two Printed for J. Harris 3. The Certainly of the Worlds of Spirits Fully evinced by unquestionable Histories of Apparitions and Witchcrafts Operations Voices c. Proving the Immortality of Souls the Malice and Miseries of the Devils and the Damned and the Blessedness of the Justified By R. Baxter 4. An End of Doctrinal Controversies which have lately Troubled the Churches by Reconciling Explication without much Disputing By R. Baxter These Two Printed for J. Salusbury CORRIGENDA SErm 1. pag. 7. lin 20 after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 insert and. p. 17. l. 20. after follow insert that p. 28. l. 10. after Scripture insert expressed p. 45. l. 1. for she read they p. 47. l. 14. after which insert is p. 48. l. 8. after her insert to observe her Serm. 2. p. 55. l. ult after must insert not p. 72. l. 7. for Eph. read Ep.