lightsome heavenly and spiritual according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself 1 Cor. 15. 49. Phil. 3. 21. VI. And this truly they knew as well as any thing else that he lives for evermore and can make good his kind intentions and gracious promises According to his own words which he spake to St. John when he appeared to him Rev. 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and Death That he promised such glorious things they were very certain for they heard him speak them with their own ears That it was his goodness and kindness alone which moved him to engage himself in those promises they were well assured for nothing else could perswade him to it And that his power was equal to his will they had abundant demonstration for they saw him open the eyes of him that was born blind and raise Lazarus out of his Grave to behold the light of the Sun and all the beauties of this world Now what reason had they to imagine that his goodness was lessened when his Glory was encreased since there is no good man but is still growing better Or how could they suspect any defect in his power now that he was made Lord of all and they felt him also every where present to work such wonders at their word that they raised the dead to life again as he himself had done What greater evidence could they desire of his ability to make good all his promises of raising up themselves to a more glorious life They might very well trust his word that as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself John 5. 26. that be came that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly John 10. 10. and that because he lived they should live also John 14. 19. VII Especially since they knew by the strange change that he had wrought already in every one of their souls that he could easily do as much for their bodies It was no harder for him they knew to give a luminous body than it was so marvellously to illuminate their minds to turn this earthly house into an heavenly than to fill the spirits of common men with the Spirit and Wisdom of God That pureness agility and incorruption of the body which they looked for was as easie to be effected in the twinkling of an eye as it was for their souls to receive on a sudden such quickness of thoughts the light of Prophecy the gift of Languages and all the other excellent endowments which they found themselves possessed of He that had converted their minds into a kind of Angelical understanding they knew could raise them still to what degree he pleased and convert their other part into as high a glory So that the Angels should as much admire the change of the one as they did of the other and as now they desired to look into the goodly state of the Christian Church so hereafter they should be very much surprized with the greater splendor of it when they saw the dead raised and made equal to themselves Marcion indeed and other ancient Hereticks vilified the body so much that they thought it unworthy of the Care of God But as Tertullian smartly replyed they loved it too well though they despised and undervalued it so much and as for God he will never despise the work of his own hands And it is not one of his ordinary works neither but the work of his Counsel The receptacle of a noble Spirit that which ministers to the Most High and doth him service that which is offered and sacrificed to him by the holy Martyrs that which the Son of God himself did not despise Therefore Absit absit ut Deus ingenii sui curam c. Far be it from God far be it from him to abandon and cast away the care of his Counsel and admirable contrivance the receiver of his breath the Queen of his Creation the Heir of his Liberality the Priest and Minister of his Religion the Souldier of his Testimony which witnesses to him by sufferings and in one word the Sister of Christ Jesus which he hath purchased also with his blood He will not forsake it and leave it for ever in its ruines He will make it the subject of more of his care and bestow on it more of his Counsel He will make it far better and turn it into a Nobler Being And though the Apostles did not now feel the beginning of a change in it as they did in their Spirits yet the wonderful advancement which they felt in them forced them to conclude that he could as easily raise and improve their mortal bodies And it was a proof also that he would for one Promise being fulfilled of sending the Spirit upon them it was an earnest of the other Promise that he would turn these earthly bodies into heavenly Planè accepit hîc Spiritum Caro sed arrabonem as the same Tertullian speaks The Flesh it self also hath plainly here received the Spirit but as an earnest only What God poured out upon their souls was a pledge of his love to their bodies Their flesh hereby received a testimony that it should be made spiritual and incorruptible VIII To conclude they knew likewise there had been some alteration already made upon occasion in the body of some of them and that others also felt an higher elevation of their soul As for the body St. Steven's face was seen as it had been the face of an Angel Acts 6. ult Angelicum jam fastigium induer at as the fore-named Author speaks he had already put on the Angelical state and dignity he was arrayed for a time with their brightness and glory It was not the Author of this Religion only which was transfigured but his followers also in some measure And as that transfiguration of our Saviour on the holy Mount was to fore-shadow his glory in the Heavens so might this of St. Steven's be to shew what God would do for his faithful servants there St. Paul was more than ordinarily assured of it for he was lifted up in soul at least to the third Heavens and carried likewise into Paradise as he tells us in Chap. 12. of this Epistle In which places he heard among the heavenly company there unexpressible words which it was not possible for him to utter and relate to others when he came down to conceive with his brain and speak with his tongue again But this ecstasie of Spirit or translation of his thither gave him a high fore-taste of the bliss of the coelestial inhabitants And clearly demonstrated what unspeakable joy and pleasures our souls are capable of when they remove into those Mansions and to what a pitch of glory both soul and body shall be promoted at the resurrection of the dead It was manifest
indeed this house is raised and advanced to a greater bigness yet besides that it is of no huge dimensions and a great many years were spent in rearing it to such an height it is but like a Tabernacle A place subject to continual changes the Scene of perpetual alterations by which it hath both its subsistence and destruction It is lyable also to outward violence as well as inward pains and diseases And at its best state is but a vile and forbid habitation An house of Clay or Dirt into which it will at last be resolved It cannot stand long though we under-prop it never so much but as it calls for daily repairs so in the end it will utterly fall to ruine This is the miserable condition of souls in their present abode which should make them one would think not very fond of it nor to set an high esteem on those pleasures which are limited to so small a space and crowded into such a narrow compass Nunquam magnis ingeniis chara in corpore mora est No great Minds ever held their bodies in great esteem nor would purchase their stay in them at too great a price They rather groan earnestly as the Apostle speaks in the next Verse when they feel the burdens and pressures of this state to be translated to that blessed Countrey where they shall be better entertain'd For there all faithful souls shall feel themselves in fairer and more spatious Mansions and possess a building of greater capacity and larger reception In which they shall enjoy as much liberty and freedome as heart can desire spreading themselves in a vast and unbounded blessedness It cannot be otherwise seeing it is a building of God a Fabrick wholly of his own rearing And therefore must needs be a beautiful and stately work that shall bear some marks of the excellency of the Builder and declare the Greatness Wisdom and Magnificent Goodness of our Creator and Redeemer There can be no time conceived there wherein we shall be to seek for our happiness but at our first entrance into that blessed place we shall find our thoughts full of God our hearts exceedingly ravished with his love and all our troublesome Passions turned into joy that we have made such a gainful change Nor shall we meet with any thing either to trouble our delights or to divert and interrupt those happy enjoyments We shall not stand in need of so much as meat and drink and clothes whereby we support and repair this present Tabernacle but as that house is made without hands so it will subsist unchangeably without those helps which we now require For it is a building in the Heavens the dwelling place of God himself Who will one day refine our very body and make it like the purest Sky so that it shall have no spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing but be of a clear and transparent beauty like that of the Glorious Body of our Saviour This will secure the incorruption and eternity of it There will be no heaviness in it to incline it to this dull earth again no such weight as shall sink us down to these lower Regions But being translated to the Countrey of Spirits it will become in a manner a spiritual body which shall neither grow old nor suffer any decay but remain in a constant youth and freshness eternally in the Heavens These are great and glorious things as I then distinctly shewed So great that they who do not believe them cannot but wish they should be true For men naturally abhor to think that any thing of them should perish and dye for ever and they as passionately desire to be in a better condition than now they find themselves They would all be more happy if they knew how than the whole world can make them and never by their good wills have any period put to their enjoyments Which is the very thing that the Apostle here gives us hope of the General sense of whose words is this That there is a never ending felicity for good Christians not only for their souls but their bodies too in the other world For their souls presently in those heavenly Mansions which our Lord spoke of in his Fathers house and for their bodies at the day of his appearing again when he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus as the Apostle speaks in Ver. 14. of the former Chapter But what certainty is there of such things may some say May we not abuse our selves if we look for that which no man ever saw Is not this to build Castles in the Air as the common saying is and to feed our selves with vain and empty Promises out of our own imagination Why should we hope for any such Glorious state who are so unworthy even our present Being What made it enter into the heart of man to think of being so happy and to entertain their minds with the expectation of such matters as seem too good and too great to be true The Apostle answers to such surmises here in my Text. We know that we have a building of God c. We have good reason for what we preach we do not flatter our selves and you when we speak of these things our hopes are not built on the Sand or the Air but stand on a firm foundation We have solid grounds for this perswasion and such certain arguments on which to found this belief that it amounts to a knowledge We doubt no more of it than of those things of which we have a certain assurance but as we know that we must dye so we know by other means that after we are dissolved there is a better dwelling for us This shall be the subject of my Discourse at this time And here are five things worthy of our notice which make up the evidence which the Apostle had for this building and eternal possessions in the Heavens I. He saith it was a thing known a matter that was demonstrable by proper Arguments II. A thing generally known for he speaks in the Plural Number Not a private Doctrine but the common sense of all the followers of Jesus III. They knew this so that they made it the scope of all their endeavours That the Particle FOR bids us consider which refers to the words immediately foregoing IV. More than this they were so sure of it that for its sake they quitted their present dwelling and ventured their very lives to come at it For so he will tell you if you look but a little further back to the 16. 11. and 10 â—h Verses of the fourth Chapter of which he here also gives the reason V. Lastly They were so perfectly perswaded of it that they esteemed themselves in a sort possessed of this building For he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 WE HAVE a building of God in the Heavens I. I begin with the first the knowledge which the Apostles had of this happy state in a greater freedom
which he appealed for a proof of the truth of all his Promises They perceived a manifest difference in his condition now from what it was before and that his body was become more subtil and aiery than it was when he dwelt among them For on a sudden he appeared in the midst of them and again in a moment he vanished out of their fight His body was now in a preparation to an higher state and therefore though they felt really flesh and bones yet he shewed them by the hasty disappearance of it into what a pure substance it was shortly to be turn'd They saw it was to be so thin and rarified that it would be a Spirit rather than a body and was to suffer such a change that now it was not fit for them to converse withal while they were in this earthly tabernacle This was the reason that he came to them only at certain seasons and continued not alwayes with them and that he charged Mary not to touch him John 20. 17. as if she mean't to hold him fast and keep him with her For though he intended to afford them some of his company being not yet ascended to the Father yet he would have her know they must not expect his stay with them after his wonted manner but go to his Brethren the Disciples and say to them I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God IV. Accordingly they knew that he did ascend up to Heaven forty dayes after his Resurrection For they themselves saw him transported thither and had his own word for it that he went to prepare a place for them and would come again and receive them unto himself that where he was there they might be also John 14. 3. For this they had also the word of two of the Heavenly Court who stood by them in bright rayment as they gazed upon him when he was taken up saying This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manâ—â—â— as ye have seen him go into Heaven Acts 1. 10. And how glorious his body was made after he came thither they also very well knew For St. Stephen at his tryal saw the Heavens opened and beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God This he openly testified to the whole Council before whom he stood accused Acts 7. 55 56. and it signifies the illustrious condition wherein he was for as he was the Son of man he stood next to the Divine Majesty and was arrayed with the glory of God St. Paul also who so little believed Steven's words that he was consenting to his death as if he had been a Blasphemer saw our Saviour not long after this as he was journeying to Damascus But he beheld him in such an astonishing brightness that it struck him to the ground and put out his eyes which were not able to endure the glory of it Acts 9. 3 4 c. Which in his Apology to the people he calls a great light that shone round about him Acts 22. 6. and in his Apology to Agrippa a light from Heaven at mid-day above the brightness of the Sun Acts 26. 13. To these two you may add the Testimony of the beloved Disciple who when he was in the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus saw him in a Majestick shape and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength And when he saw him he was so dismayed that he fell as dead at his feet Rev. 1. 16 17. By these means they knew to what an amazing glory they should one day be exalted a little glimpse of which in this mortal nature they were not strong enough to bear V. For they knew withal that their very bodies should be made like unto his 1. They remembred how he called them Brethren and told them that his Father was their Father and his God their God and therefore doubted not that what was done for him should be done for them 2. And how he prayed that they might be with him where he was and behold i. e. enjoy his glory which the Father hath given him John 17. 24. 3. And how he assured them it was the will of him that sent him that every one who seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and he should raise him up at the last day John 6. 40. Which made the Apostle say as you heard in the Chapter before my Text V. 14. they knew that he who raised up the Lord Jesus would raise us up by Jesus 4. And being raised up they knew that they should be carried into the air to meet the Lord 1 Thess 4. 17. Now these bodies which we wear at present are not of an aërial nature but altogether of an earthly They are not fit to be transported beyond this lower Region nor were made to live in any other Element than that in which they are Nay it would be a great terror to us in this body to be caught and lifted up above we should be in continual dread of falling down to this earth whether the heaviness of them doth incline us And therefore they must be changed if we go to meet the Lord in the air as he hath promised we shall For the Apostle saith he spake this by the word of the Lord V. 15. 5 And he promised by the same word that so we shall be ever with him Ib. V. 17. Which we cannot conceive how this earthly body should endure It would soon be weary of that strange place and groan and sigh there as much as the soul doth here It would be pined for want of meat and drink as the Spirit now is often too much stifled with them And therefore in pursuance of his Promise they must be made another kind of bodies fitted to that Countrey to which they shall be transported Where there is no earth nor water nor such creatures as live in them but pure light of unconceivable brightness Lastly they knew that the Members must needs be made conformable to the head and therefore his body being glorious so must this vile body of ours be made too as the Apostle tells us Phil. 3. 21. It would be but an ugly sight among us to behold an hansome beautiful face of the purest complexion joyned to a body black and sooty whose limbs were all deformed and dis-proportioned And much more ill-favoured to see an head of light glistering like the Sun and all the Members dark as pitch resembling this sluggish Earth They made no question therefore but that when he should appear again visibly with them attending on him they should be conformed to the condition and quality of his person to whom they related as members of his body that so he might be admired in his Saints and glorified in all that believe They look't for him to come from Heaven and fashion them after his own image i. e. to make them
the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth as gone into the Heavens and there sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him as the Lord of life and glory who is gone to prepare a place for us and will come again and receive us to himself that where he is there we may be also Then will these spiritual things be as much valued by us as now they are despised and we shall as much slight all these bodily enjoyments as now they are overprized We shall not consent for any good in this world to lose our portion with him but chuse rather to dye a thousand deaths than not receive the Crown of life In short the Faith of Christians will then be able to do as much as Sense now doth As that now disparages and thrusts by the things of Faith because they seem Nothing or Uncertain so Faith will put by all the temptations of sense and bid them stand aside because it apprehends coelestial things to be sure and certain too For if they appear as real and certain things they must as I told you be preferred because they are infinitely better than all other and have nothing to disparage them but only their seeming uncertainty They will undoubtedly make us do and suffer the will of our Lord with all chearfulness and patient perseverance while we are here and make us ready to go from hence with the like cheerfulness when or howsoever it shall be his will and pleasure to call for us And what if he send for some of our Friends and dear relations to come away before us Will not the belief of these things make us with some cheerfulness or contentment resign them to him There can be no greater comfort than this Discourse against the grief we are apt to conceive at their departure For death is but the pulling down of an earthly house that they may pass out into an heavenly And it is not the going of our Friends quite away but only their going before and if they be godly they are gone into a better dwelling Why should we mourn then immoderately as those that have no hope Would we not have our Friends advanceed Do we grieve that they are possessed of a more plentiful estate And weep perpetually that they live like Kings and reign with Christ in glorious Pallaces O let not the tears flow too fast Look upon the Heavens and dry your eyes for out of an earthly hole all purified souls take their flight above those spatious Vaults From cold hunger thirst and nakedness they go to a place where there are none of these necessities Would you have your Children lye alwayes in their swadling-clothes Or when they are grown bigger do you desire they should alwayes go in their side-coates Do you sigh to see them beyond their non-age and grown to the state of men and women Would you have them return to their infancy again and become little children meerly that you may play with them Why do you take it ill then that your Friends are grown to an higher stature Why do you lament so heavily that they are stript of their raggs to put on richer apparel Why do you not rather comfort your selves that they are in the condition of Angels and numbred among the Sons of glory being entred into the family of God above in the Court of Heaven Consider I beseech you that too long continued bewailings of the loss of our holy Friends doth betray our Ignorance or forgetfulness of the glory of the other world It is a sign we do not know or else not think of that which the Apostle here preaches We are but in a dream of happiness all this while and see but the shadows and images of it There is little or nothing of this felicity which we touch and feel or that strongly affects our heart For if it did we should be satisfied both because they are gone to it and we may one day follow them If they loved our Lord in sincerity he hath better provided for them than if they had staid in our company And if we love him too and so be perswaded of his love to us they are but poor thoughts that we have of him which cannot supply the place of a Friend a Brother an Husband or a Wife and but low thoughts that we have of his happiness if there be not a great deal more in it to quiet and compose us than there is in the loss of any thing in this world to trouble and disturb us It was a notable saying of one of the Antients that the souls of Philosophers have the Body for their house but they that are ignorant enjoy it but as their prison The truth of which is too apparent For the unbelieving and ungodly are shut up close in their Bodies and fettered within those walls of flesh They are tyed to them by as many chains as they have Members and have no other light but what comes in at the holes of their eyes no other comfort but what they receive by the means of the rest of their bodily senses Whereas all faithfull souls enjoy a greater freedome They can go out of doors and are at liberty to walk abroad and take a view of unseen enjoyments They can look up a while to the highest Heavens and behold in the light of God the glory of our Lord the innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect The shortest glimpse of whose happiness is able to cheer and refresh their souls in the most disconsolate condition And if they can but think of their Friends departed as Members of that blessed Society the remembrance of them will never fail to be accompanied with such a taste of joy as shall take away the bitterness of all their sorrows Into that glorious assembly of Saints our good Friend I make no question is gone whose earthly house we come here to lay for a time in its Grave In whom you might have seen an example of the force of this Divine Faith which as it was the guide and principle of the actions of his life so it was the exceeding joy and comfort of his heart at death For that he seemed to fear no more than he did his sleep He went as willingly out of this body as he was wont to do out of his own house into this place the House of God and left the dearest relations with such satisfaction as if he were taking a journey to them A very noble degree of Christian confidence And yet no more than might be expected to wait on a long train of other excellent qualities which were eminent in him Of which if I proceed to speak a few words not meerly to comply with Custome but to furnish you with a worthy example as I am sure I shall not wrong the truth so I hope I shall as little
cause to preferr above our selves And the more a man encreases in the knowledge of himself the more ready he will be to excuse the ignorance or errors of his neighbours Certain it is that the greater worth there is in any person the more humble and lowly he is Light things ascend aloft as is commonly observed but those that are heavy sink down and depress themselves beneath The little Brooks are very talkative and make a great noise when they and the Pebbles meet and prattle together But for all their haste and the dinn they make in our ears and the plenty of Water which seems to flow along alas their depth is so small that you may feel to the bottom of them with your finger Whereas the great Rivers which are very deep and carry great burdens and are as profitable as they are fair and beautiful how modestly and soberly as I may so speak do they go into the Ocean They do not so much as murmur in any bodies ears to tell them how profound they are but move silently and stilly on their way as if they would not be observed There is nothing better that I can think of than this vulgar comparison which every body uses to represent unto us the clear difference that is between the humble lowly Christian and those that are malepert and confident full of ostentation and ever talking even there where it would more become them to use their ears than they do their tongues For if they did it as the Brooks I mentioned only among the stones and blocks it were no great matter or if while they set out themselves they would not despise or defame their neighbours that far excell them it might be endured But to instruct their Teachers to babble before the Wise the aged and experienced to meddle with things which they do not and perhaps cannot understand nay to get up into the Seat of Judgement and pass sentence upon their Superiours is such an intolerable piece of arrogance as in the phrase of St. yprian * Epist. 55. is born of the Spirit of Antichrist and proceeds not from the humble discipline of our Saviour Which makes the loss of such a person as had the good education of Christian people under his care to be the more deplorable especially since he taught by his example as well as his preaching the younger to submit themselves to the elder and that in lowliness of mind each should esteem others better than themselves 1 Pet. 5. 5. Phil. 2. 3. 3. And truly if our Governours and Tutors be our Second Parents and we owe no less to those who breed us in knowledge than to them that breed us in the womb then this deserves not the least commendation that he carefully performed the part of a good Instructer and Curate of souls Alexander thought himself not more beholden to his Father who left him a Kingdom than to Aristotle who taught him how to govern it And Aristotle taught him this among other things that for those who ingraft right notions of things in our minds and make us wise there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no honour proportionable to their merits Unless we will bestow upon them some such Veneration as is given to God and our Parents they being a kind of Earthly Gods and Heavenly Parents Antoninus also I remember in the beginning of his Book acknowledges the bounty of God in this as much as in any other blessing that he had made him the Disciple of such excellent Philosophers such as Sextus Maximus Rusticus and others The last of which Julius Capitolinus * In M. Antonin philosoph tells us he made of his Privy Council and used to salute with a kiss even before the Captains of the Praetorian Band. That he demanded publick Statues also of the Senate for him after his decease and in fine had such respect to all his Teachers as to pay an honour to their very Sepulchres and to have their Images in Gold in the very same place with his houshold Gods And the very truth is we are deeply indebted to them and the Memory of our Christian Instructers ought to be very dear and sacred with us as long as we live For they learn us how to live well and prepare us for a better life He that begins to take us into his discipline and piously discharges the Office of a good Tutor or Schoolmaster is our good Genius our Guardian Angel alwayes by our side the Guide of our youth the Security of our slippery age the Seeds-man of God the Dresser of infant souls the Husbandman that cultivates and improves the soil of the mind And a conscientious skilfull Minister to whose care and direction we are delivered afterward can be no less than all these to our riper years besides that he is our Counsellor in doubts our Comforter in affliction the Dispencer of the Mysteries of God and our Conductor to perfection and therefore ought to be highly esteemed for his work sake Such an one I dare boldly say you have lost in this place and it is a common loss to more than your selves a person both able and honest wise and pious So that as the same Antoninus saith he learn't of one of his Masters to suppress anger of another to mind serious things of a third kindness and benevolence of a fourth modesty of a fifth an uncounterfeited gravity of a sixth to bear with simple people and of others constancy patience and such an apt accommodation of himself to all that his conversation might be more soft and sweet than flattery it self so you me thinks might be able to say that all these you have learn't of him For Whose understanding and judgement if I may speak in the language of G. Nazianzen was more grave and aged even before gray hairs Whose Meditations were more concocted Whose Speech more unaffected Whose behaviour more solemn and composed Who is there that had less need of learning to commend him considering the integrity of his manners and yet how few that had so considerable a share of both A man of great candor and ingenuity of a tender and compassionate Spirit heartily desirous of the good of souls and very thoughtful and solicitous I can assure you how to promote it in the easiest plainest and most effectual methods Things the more to be prized in these dayes because as the Father now named complains in another place * Orat. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most sacred Order of all other among us is in danger to become the most ridiculous No man can be acknowledged for a Physitian unless he have considered the nature of Diseases or for a Drawer of Pictures that knows not how to mingle colours And yet we can find with the greatest ease a Teacher of Divine Truth Not one that is laboured as his word is and prepared but that starts up on a sudden and is sown and comes forth as hastily as the Fable makes the Giants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We make Saints in a dayes space and wise men without any wisdom and guides to others who have nothing to qualifie them for that office but a great desire to be promoted to it Such a Novice our Friend was not but like that good Father himself who by retirement and much meditation fitted himself as he tells us for so great a charge He was sensible of these two things First That it is the Art of Arts and the Science of Sciences as his words are * Orat. 1. to guide and govern mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most humorous various and uncertain of all other creatures And Secondly That it requires great skill and not a little Spirit to give to every one in the houshold their portion of meat in due season and to mannage and dispence with judgement the Truths of Christian Doctrine They are great and many as he there numbers them which if any person think himself with little labour able to explain O how I wonder saith he at that mans understanding or to speak more plainly at his folly This holy Philosophy as he calls it requires that we should bring to the study of it great simplicity of mind an impartial judgement pure and holy thoughts quiet affections a patient Spirit and a will disposed to conform it self to God And if it had pleased the Almighty to have indulged this good man a little more time you might have seen a greater proof of his profiting by these means to the no small benefit I have reason to think of others as well as you that were more immediately under his care For to all these good qualities now named he had the advantage also of an even steady temper that was alwayes alike and not subject to any transports But God hath taken him off from his work and what have we to do but to submit with patience to his wise Providence And whether you remember his loss as a good Christian or a faithful Minister or a tender Husband or a kind Friend or a courteous Neighbour still to say It is the Lord. The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. He hath called him away no doubt to receive the reward of his labours praise and commendation from himself for his diligence and uprightness and so he stands in no need at all of ours Only these things may be fit to be considered by us that survive to excite us to the same love of God and man to the same modesty and humility of mind to the same industry and fidelity in our several charges that so our Faith also may be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ FINIS