bare cipher which it properly resembles and cannot profit in the day of wrath for Christ tells us so much What will it profit a man to gaine the whole world Marke 8.36 and to lose his owne soule But place Christ before it and then every creature in it shall be avaylable for our good And Christ assures us this too Matth. 6.33 first seeke the Kingdom of God and the righteousnes thereof and all other things shall bee added unto you So then the way to be truely great is to bee truely good vertue is the best Nobility Christianity the greatest dignity and godlinesse the surest gaine Let it bee then our chiefe labour So to number our dayes since it will both supply our houses with wealth and apply our hearts to wisdome which brings me to the last particular viz. Finis Finis the End why wee desire to bee so taught That we may apply our hearts to wisdome Wherein observe first What kind of wisdome this is Secondly how our hearts are said to bee applyed unto it For the first there are two sorts of wisdome as Heady wisdome and Hearty wisdome Earthly wisdome and Heavenly wisdome Marthas wisdome and Maryes wisdome Now were wee ever to live in this world Marthas wisdome would be preferred but since our dayes are numbred with God Maryes choyce will best teach us so to number them our selves as to apply our hearts to heavenly wisdome Which may be distinguished from the earthly in 4. particulars 1. By the Object The Object of heavenly wisdome is Christ who is made unto us Wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption 1 Corinth 1.30 But of earthly wisdome vanity and sinne 2. By the Properties Heavenly wisdome is pure peaceable gentle and easy to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without Hypocrisy Iam. 3.17 But earthly wisdome is mixt with sin mudded with lust cruell crafty and quarelsome Iam. 3.15 3. By the Schoole where they are to bee learnt Heavenly wisdome is taught onely of God by his Spirit and in his Word but the other hath as many Masters as there are corrupt mindes 4. By the end at which they aime The one tends chiefely to the good of the soule howsoever it fare with the body But the other chiefely to satisfy and fulfill the lusts of the flesh without respect unto the soule Let an earthly wise man have Esaus blessing Gen. 27.39.28 the fatnesse of the earth and let who will take Iacobs blessing the dew of Heaven Psal 4.8 Let their corne and wine and oyle increase it is all they care for as for the light of Gods countenance they regard it not For the Second hee that beleeves what God affirmes applyes his heart to faith Hee that does what God commands applyes his heart to Obedidience and hee that makes use of both these in their benefits and effects to the good of his soule applyes his heart to wisdome Now hee that will so number his dayes as is before layd downe must thus apply his heart to a sixfold wisdome First to the Virgins Wisdome the wisdome of Preparation Math. 25.4 The wise Virgins tooke oyle in their Vessells Wee all know the Bridegroome Christ Iesus will come but when wee know not and therefore we ought alwayes to bee prepared with the oyle of grace in our lamps that when hee shall come we may be ready to enter with him into his everlasting glory I find no other difference betwixt the wise Virgins and the foolish but onely this the one did that in time which the other would faine have done when it was too late If thou bee wise then prepare in time least thou repent when it is too late Secondly to the serpents wisdome the wisdome of Preservation Matth. 10.16 Bee yee wise as serpents c. It is accounted a great part of wisdome in the Serpent to preserve his head with all the care that may be because all his life lyes in his head a little blow on the head quickly kills him but wound him never so much on the body his head being safe he will recover it againe Now the Apostle tels us that our life is hid with God in Christ our head Colos 3.3 in whom we must bee carefull to preserve and keepe our Faith though wee suffer never so many wounds in our persons goods or good names Resolving with the Apostle that neither tribulation nor anguish nor persecution c. shall bee able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Rom. 8. ult Thirdly to the Stewards wisdome the wisdome of Prevention Luke 16.8 The Lord commended the unjust Steward because hee had done wisely c. The Steward we know being ready to bee put from his place to prevent poverty made himselse friends with his Masters goods which was reputed a point of wisdome in him Now wee are all but Stewards of what wee possesse and know not how soone we shall bee taken from them or they from us Here then is our wisdome in time to make us friends with these Mammons of unrighteousnes for so Christ calls these earthly riches in comparison of the true treasure that when they sayle us Luke 16.9 we may be received into everlasting habitations which may bee best done by our Charity to the poore members of Christ for Prov. 19.17 what we give to the poore we lend to the Lord saith Salomon and what is layd out he will repay us againe The poore mans hand is the rich mans reasury what hee layes up there he shall find in heaven hee that feeds the hungry puts bread into Christs owne mouth hee that clothes the naked puts a garment on Christs owne backe and hee that gives to the poore puts a penny in Christs owne hand himselfe hath said it Matth 25.45 Eccl. 11 7. whatsoever you doe unto any of these little ones yee doe it unto me Cast your bread then upon these waters and after many dayes you shall find it againe with a great reward Fourthly to the Ants wisdome the wisdome of Providence Proverb 6.6 Goe to the Ant thou sluggard consider her wayes and bee wise It is observed of the Ant that she labours very painefully in the Summer to get provision together to keepe her in the Winter so should wee doe during the summer of health and prosperity and Sunne-shine of the Gospell of peace 1 Tim. 6.19 lay up for our selves a good foundation against the Winter of trouble need sorrow sicknesse or other adversity The Apostles Counsell is Gal. 6.10 while you have time doe good to all especially to those who are of the houshold of Faith and the Prophet renders you a reason of it because in death God is not remembred Psal 6.5 nor will any give him thanks in the grave while you have the light walk Iohn 11. Phil. 2.12 and while it is called to day worke out your salvation with feare and
would he never suffer it to faile and that it is the firmest faith which beleeves without feeling when a man can say with Iob though he kill me Iob 13.15 yet will I trust in him For our owne feeling is no fit judge of faith for that is often overwhelmed with temptations but faith must be judged of by the word of God Now the word tells us that faith is not alwayes a burning Lampe but somtimes yea often a smoaking Flax Mat. 12.20 which is so weake that it sends out neither heat nor flame but only a smoake and yet will not the Lord quench this small sparke of faith neither can it perish being begotten of immortall seed viz. the word of God which endures for ever 2 Pet. 1.23 Againe we know Magis et minus non mutant speciem a little or a sicke man is a man as well as a great or a sound one a foule and a feeble hand may receive an Almes as well as a faire and strong one so little and weake faith is faith as well as that which is great and firme and the one may as truely apply Christ as the other For we doe not imagine that faith doth justifie us because it is a strong and perfect vertue but it justifies us for the object which it apprehends that is Christ the Mediator Nor are we so much to conclude of faith from the firme perswasion it works in us as from the resting and relying thereby on the merits of Christ for salvation Moreover I laboured to possesse her with this truth that God can be no more said to forsake his Servants when for a time he hides away his face then the Sun can be said to be set when it is but under a cloud for howsoever the sensible presence of Gods Spirit whereby he makes his Children to feel him by the gracious effects which he workes in them be subject to changes and Eclipses yet the secret presence of his Spirit never departs from them but is continually ruling guiding and sustaining them in all their troubles according to his promise in the old Testament Esay 43.2 and in the New Math. 28.20 Yea by vertue of this secret presence he entertaines life in our soules when to our owne judgements we are become altogether dead and senselesse as there is life and sap in a tree when it hath neither fruit nor leaves which is evident by our standing in many temptations wherein we could find no present grace upholding us For had we our happinesse in our owne hands as once we had we could not be able to hold out against the least of Satans assaults but that he must needs deprive us of it but God seeing what bad keepers we are of our owne Jewels hath translated the custody of them unto Christ and hung the keyes at his girdle by whom they are so safely kept for us 1 Pet. 1.4.5 and we for them as saith S. Peter that now the least sparke of saving-grace in any beleever is more then all the power of Hell is able to quench Thus having spent some time with her by enlarging these and adding many other comforts out of the Scripture which need not here to be repeated endeavouring in what I could to satisfie her in every doubt perceiving a great part of her distemper to be occasioned from the weakenesse of her body the wearynesse of her spirits and the want of rest I tooke my leave of her for that time not without this acknowledgement of comfort from her selfe that she hoped I had done her some good promising at the intreating of her friends to visit her againe within few dayes at the house of the worthy Lady Dering the now sorrowing mother of this Gentlewoman whither the next day she was removed which accordingly I did the fryday following and understanding that she with her had bindiscoursing immediately before my comming and her entirely loving Brother the right Worshipfull Sir Edward Dering whose observation of her was this that those doubts and feares whereof she complained proceeded not so much from any sinfull cause occasioned by her selfe whereof she could accuse her selfe as from an over-earnest longing desire of more spiritual comfort and illumination then God was pleased for the present to make her sensible of as afterward it more cleerely appeared unwilling then to tire her enfeebled spirits with too much talke together I stayd a while before I saw her Then being brought into her Chamber she told me she much rejoyced at my comming being perswaded that she should reape comfort by my discourse and was minded to request me to pray with her whereunto then she had a great desire but the continuance of these good motions she said was so short that before she could call for me they were gone and she re-possest so with her former doubts and feares that now she had no heart thereto whereupon I replyed that I made no question but that these good motions would returne again In the mean time she might hereby take notice of Gods Method with his dearest Children sometimes ravishing them with S. Paul 2 Cor. 12.4 as it were into the third heavens by filling their soules with unspeakeable joy and gladnesse sometimes againe with the same Apostle humbling them as it were to hell by casting his angry countenance upon them suffering satan also to buffet them yet making them gainers both by his comming to them and his going from them for by the one they gaine comfort against despaire by the other warning against persumption therefore as she ought when she felt those heavenly Motions in her heart to cherish them so when she felt them not she ought not to think her self contemned Withall I shewed her that it is the endeavour of many beleevers so eagerly to pursue after more grace as that they deny themselves the comfortable use of what they have like many worldlings who having a competent portion of earthly things in the eye of others yet repine as if they had nothing because they have not so much as themselves desire wherfore I besought her as to remember carefully to seeke for more so not to forget thankefully to acknowledge what she had which was the onely way to invite God to conferre upon her a larger measure of Spirituall consolation I then offered unto her the assistance of my prayers which she imbraced and while we were intreating at the throne of grace on her behalfe for the returne of Gods favourable presence and the light of his countenance upon her and that he would againe restore her to the joy of his salvation c. I applyed unto her that petition of David Lord comfort the soule of thy Servant for in thee hath she put her trust which words were no sooner uttered but she cryed with a loud voice ô that I was assured that I am thy Servant and that I could trust in thee as I ought then should my soule be comforted
joy of his salvation to both your great rejoycings making her to say with the Prophet Psal 94.19 In the multitude of the sorrowes that I had in my heart thy comforts have refreshed my soule How many through the malignity of their diseases have beene dissolved on such distempered and distracted fits that Charity herselfe hath been faine to looke backe and take a view of their lives before she durst passe her verdit of their deaths When her dissolution was so cheerefull and Christian-like that whosoever had beheld it though unacquainted with her life yet must needs have given her that testimony which the Centurion gave our Saviour Math. 27.54 Surely this was the child of God How comfortably may you recount Gods goodnesse towards her at the very point of her departure both for the manner and the time of it not so much as faltering in her speech nor fayling in any of her intellectualls as many others have done but continuing all in their wonted vigour while she continued her life S. Iohn Revel 1.10 is said on the Lords day to be in the spirit and she on the Lords day resigned her spirit and that in a most memorable instant for no sooner were you your friends returned from commending your owne selves to God in the Church but you were immediatly called to recommend her soule to God from the Chamber so where you ended your Sabbath of temporall rest there she began her Sabbath of eternall rest And I may truly say Exod. 8.19 digitus Dei hic est the finger of God was in it or to speake in the Prophets phrase this was the Lords doing Ps 118.23 and it was marvailous in our eyes Suffer me then to comfort you as S. Hierome did Heliodorus Ne doleas quod talem amiseris sed gaudeas quod talem habueris sorrow not so much that you have now lost as give thanks to God that once you had so vertuous a companion who lived so piously and dyed so peaceably And you may also comfort your selfe in the absence of her your selfe united in the words of David for the death of his child himselfe divided You shall goe to her 2 Sam. 12.23 she shall not returne to you And that you may assuredly follow her to those joyes whither she is gone before and already entred Be it your care while you trafficke in this troublesome world to imitate that wise Merchant in the Gospell to pursue and purchase that one pearl of inestimable price Matth. 13.45.46 Math. 6.33 namely the Kingdome of Christ and the righteousnes thereof That so having fought the good fight kept the faith and finished your course 1 Tim. 6.19 2 Tim. 4.8 you may lay hold on eternall life and receive that Crowne which the Lord the righteous Iudge hath conferred on her and promised to you and all that love his appearing Now that both you and yours may constantly persevere in this course and bee everlastingly blest with this Crowne shall bee the dayly prayer of Your uncessant Orator ROBERT MARRIOT A FUNERALL SERMON FOR Mris ELIZABETH DERING PSALME 90.12 So teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts unto Wisdome IF we peruse the passages of holy Writ we shall there find that Christian Buriall is not onely commended but also commanded as a godly and charitable worke the Fathers of the Old and faithfull of the New Testament being our examples in the decent performance of this duty and comely payment of this debt thinking no care nor cost too much which they bestowed on the bodyes the vestments of the soules of their deceased friends while they safely reposed them as precious Relicks in the Wardrope of the Earth Nor was this care without good consideration This one Act of Christianity complying with many others of especiall note as First Iohn 11.25 Col. 1.18 with an act of Faith in Christ the Resurrection and the life who is primogenitus mortuorum borne tanquam ex utero sepulchri and rising the first fruits of them that sleepe to sanctify and assure us who bee the rest of the harvest Secondly with an act of Hope Ever since the Angell sat on the Grave-stone of our Saviour saying Resurrexit Matth. 28.6 non est hic He is risen he is not here we have been bold to write on the Tombe-stones of our friends Hic jacet spe resurgendi Here lyes such a one in hope of a glorious resurrection Hence it is observed that Christ from the grave appeared to Mary Iohn 20.15 in a Garden to teach us that he will one day turne all our graves into Garden-plots and so husband our very dust that by vertue of the dew of his Resurrection Esay 26.19 they shall spring out of the Earth like beautious flowers and be for ever planted in the Paradise of God Thirdly with an act of Charity and love to prosecute those bodyes being dead with honour to their graves whom wee nay whom God himselfe so much loved and honored being alive as to style them Members of Christ and Temples of the Holy Ghost Fourthly with an act of Necessity to separate the living from the contagion of the dead Abraham loved Sarah well but being departed hee besought the Hittits for a place to bury her out of his sight As there is nothing whiter then Snow of it selfe Gen. 23.4 yet being dissolved makes the fowlest water so the purest complexion the worst putrifaction according to the old Axiome corruptio optimi est pâ—ssima Lastly with an act of Mortification The Antients did use to take their leaves of their friends having brought them to their graves in these words Vale vale nos te sequemur Adue adue wee will follow thee and wee retaine this course still among us the dead corps are carryed before while the mourners follow after leading us the way in which we must all walke which should teach us to read our owne mortality in others Funeralls while we heare the Bell to tole for anothers passing to consider that if the Lord so please it may take in us also before it ring out when we walk over the graves of others to remember that they are our houses also in reversion and when wee see how suddenly the dayes of others are determined to learne so to number our dayes as to apply our hearts unto Wisdome So teach us c. It is the consent of the Fathers and the opinion of the best expositors that this Psalme was penned by Moses upon this occasion After the Israelits had passed the Red Sea and were entred into the wildernesse Moses sent spies before to discover the land of Canaan who returned with these sad tidings to the people that the inhabitants were Giants the sonnes of Anak in comparison of whom the Israelits were but as Grasse-hoppers and that their Citties were walled up to Heaven and so impregnable At which relation they forgetting the great wonders and mighty workes
deceased Gentlewoman she was a wise Rebecca and a faithful Sarah an amiable Rachel a fruitful Leah a discreet Abigal an obedient Hester a provident Martha and a prudent Mary a charitable Dorcas and a cheerfull Deborah in a word adevoute a pious Elizabeth endeavouring to walk in all the Commandements of God blameles and without reproofe Luke 1.6 The chiefe labour of her life was rightly to learne my Text So to number her dayes as to apply her heart unto wisedome and though she numbred but few to what she might have done in the ordinary course of nature had God so pleased yet she profited in this divine Arithmeticke so well that shee made up a mighty totall and attained to such a portion of heavenly Wisdome that the like is rarely to be found in either her sex or age But because we know it is the end which crownes the action and Vltima semper Expectanda dies homini diciq beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaq funera debet The last day is ever to be expected and happy can no man be said to be till death hath shewed how he departed saith the Philosopher Thereforefore I will leave you to judge more fully of the integrity and uprightnesse of her life by some remarkeable passages before her death the manner whereof I shall declare unto you more particularly She received the sentence of death within her selfe long before the execution thereof by meanes of a lingring Consumption sent from her heavenly Father with the same Message that the Prophet Isaiah brought to Hezekiah Set thy house in order 2 Kin. 20.1 for thou must dye whereby her strength daily decaying and notwithstanding the good use of all lawful meanes possible for prevention the glasse of her life being well nigh run out those motions of grace that were in her like those of nature became now In fine velociores more quicke and lively towards her end mounting up her soule on a swifter wing towards her happinesse the Spirit of God did now fill the sayles of her affections with more then an extraordinary desire of her wished-for heaven But Satan envying that so fure a vessell should arive at the Port without a storme raised a sudden tempest of doubts and distrustfull thoughts in her soule labouring thereby had it beene possible to wracke her faith upon the rocke of despaire and God willing to shew his strength in her weakenesse suffers for a time this Eclipse of his wonted presence being delighted to see her with the Disciples rowing and towing against the streames of Satans temptations whilst himselfe with our Saviour walkes by on the waves ready to succour her in the greatest necessity During which weakenesse both of mind and body her sorrowfull husband with other her choice friends who sincerely loved her being desirous to comply with any course which might be thought conducible to her welfare upon good advise her desire brought her on Tuesday the 14 day of Iuly last past from London towards Pluckley in Kent the residence of her husbands and truely also of her dearest and most tenderly affected kindred and friends Now as she was travelling upon the way there hapned unto her as to Iacob in his journey from Padan-Aram to Canaan a grievous wrestling Gen. 32.24 with a fore and heavy conflict which caused her for the time like him to halt very much not on her feet but in her affections beginning now extreamely to complaine of her want of faith and to doubt of the assurance of her salvation in both which before-time she lived fully confirmed and this tryall was so full of trouble to her selfe and griefe to her loving husband and friends then in company that they were necessitated for that to night lodge her and themselves short of that place whither they intended where having reposed her body with all sit accommodation their chiefe care was how to compose her doubts and to comfort her weake and feeble mind and to this end they requested my assistance the most unworthy pastor of that place where then she rested and considering the office required to be in it selfe both Christian and charitable and an essentiall part of my Ministeriall charge to support the weake And to bind up the broken hearted I was gladly entreated to assist with the best counsels that lay in me for the re-establishing of her peace Being come unto her she began to repeate unto me her former complaints accusing her selfe of a wonderfull dulnesse and deadnesse of heart of a marvellous want of faith that she could not apply the comsorts of God to her soule nor repent as she ought for her sins that she could not feele the comfortable presence of Gods Spirit as she was wont that she had no mind to sue unto him by prayer as before and thereupon concludes against her selfe that certainly the Lord had forsaken her and cast her off and would not restore her to the joy of his salvation which words she uttered with many sighs and groanes with strong cryings which argued truely the anguish and distresse of her soule Whereupon sorrowing to behold her in this extremity of affliction for as Solomon tells us the spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmity But a wounded spirit who can beare Proverb 18.14 I addrest my selfe to apply unto her what comfort God should enable meto Minister Assuring her that these spirituall desertions for a time are familiar to the dearest of Gods Children instancing in David in Iob and in S. Paul with other Saints whose particular tryals I dilated unto her adding moreover that God like a wise Father is not alwayes kissing his sons but many times correcting of them and that his love in their humiliation is as much magnifyed towards them by the saving effects of it as is his mercy in their exaltation I told her farther that the sense of her weakenesse which she complained of was not weakenesse but strength for it comes not from our corruption that we feele our corruption but from Gods grace and that the detestation of sin with a desire to repent is true repentance indeed and a manifest worke of the spirit and though God find many things in us that he likes not yet he ever loves and likes this in us that we doe dislike and loath our selves for God respects not so much our state as our purpose nor regards so much what we are as what we desire to be For a desire to be good is a good step to yea a good part of goodnesse it self I prayd her therefore not to wrong her selfe so much as to imagine she could not repent while she profest she hated sin and desired to repent nor to offer that indignity to Gods mercy as to feare he should be unwilling to forgive and pardon what she was so willing to forgoe and part withall I shewed her also concerning her want of faith and spirituall feeling how that though God might suffer her faith to faint yet