Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A45686
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A funeral sermon preached upon the death of Mrs. Rebecka Goddard, November the 13th. 1692 At Joyners-Hall. By Tho. Harrison.
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Harrison, Thomas, fl. 1700.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing H910A; ESTC R213017
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15,833
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28
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latter he gives Worship Secondly From his Expressions Ver. 21. Words are or ought to be the Interpreters of our Hearts and a Comment upon our Actions Least some observing Job in such a Posture might think that he was beside himself and thrown into a Frenzy by these doleful Tidings he declares the Frame of his Heart and the meaning of these forementioned Actions by these following Expressions Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return thither These Words are as I conceive used by him as an Argument to support his own Spirit under his present Afflictions q. d. Altho' I am now in a Naked Condition stript and depriv'd of mine outward Comforts yet I have no Cause to Murmur for I brought nothing into the World neither can I carry any thing with me out of it and then says he in the Words of my Text The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. These Words may be divided into two general Parts 1. Two Propositions The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away 2. A natural and necessary Inference and Conclusion from them both Blessed be the Name of the Lord. I shall speak to both First Two Propositions or Assertions 1. The Lord gave 2. The Lord hath taken away First The Lord gave q. d. The Lord gave me those Outward Comforts and Enjoyments that Wealth those servants and Children which I lately had but am now bereaved of From hence I shall Observe Doct. That all our Outward Comforts and Temporal Enjoyments come from and are the Gift of God God is the giver of every good and perfect Gift James 1.17 Not only of the best and most perfect Gifts but also of those that are good and perfect in their kind Temporal as well as Spiritual and Eternal Blessings are streams flowing from this Fountain of Goodness In the Prosecution of this Point I shall do two things First Lay down some Explicatory and Demonstrative Propositions Secondly Present you with some Practical Applicatory Inferences First I shall lay down some Explicatory and Demonstrative Propositions First Prop. The God is the efficient Cause of all our Creature Comforts Every good thing that we enjoy is God's Creature for as every Creature of God is good so nothing is good but what is his Creature Sin which is essentially evil is not God's but the Devil's Creature Our near and dear Relations must own God only for their Creator Though Parents are the Instrumental Causes yet God is the Principal Efficient Cause of their Children's Beings though their Bodies were formed of their substance yet they were formed by God's Omnipotent Arm by him they were fearfully and wonderfully made Psal 139.14 and he animated and informed them with a rational Soul therefore is he called the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 and the God of the Spirits of all flesh Numb 16.22 Hence Second Prop. God hath an Original Right to and Propriety in them He must needs be the sole Proprietor of those things whereof he is the sole Creator Those Bodies and Souls must needs be his who derived their Being from him The first Cause of every thing hath an unquestionable Dominion of Propriety in it upon the score of Justice By the Law of Nations the first Finder of a Countrey is esteemed the Rightful Possessor of that Countrey And the first Inventor of an Art hath a right of exercising it Thirdly All the Outward Comforts which we enjoy were bestowed upon us by God they being Created by him and he being the rightful Lord of them we cannot enjoy them 'till we receive them from him The Right and Title which we have to them is not Primitive but Derivative Some of our Relations at least might have had an Existence and yet we might not have had an Interest in them Hast thou a good Husband or Wife as God's Creating Power gave them being so his wise and gracious Providence made them thine He allotts one Person for a Conjugal Union with another and by his Providence and that sometimes very strangely and wonderfully brings about and effects it Fourth Prop. All those excellent Qualities which any of our Outward Enjoyments are the subjects of whereby they are rendered very Comfortable and Delightful to us proceed from God All the natural and acquired Endowments of the Body and Mind which endear Relations to us as Beauty Ingenuity a good Natural Temper and Disposition as well as Grace which is a supernatural Endowment of the Soul are bestowed upon them by the Fountain of all Perfections He curiously formed their Bodies and dignified their Minds with these Intellectual Qualities Fifthly Whatsoever we receive from God flows from the Free Grace and Sovereign Goodness of God This is indeed the proper Notion of a Gift It is a good thing freely bestowed upon us When we receive some good from another which he is not Obliged to give us it may properly be styled a Gift Now in this sense all our Temporal as well as our Spiritual Enjoyments are the Gifts of the Supream Being He is under no Engagement or Obligation to any of his Creatures but what he voluntarily and freely enters into and lays himself under We are less than the least of his Mercies and unworthy of the smallest of his Favours Have any of us a Wife Children or any other Relations which greatly add to the Comfort of our Lives we must say concerning them as Jacob did to his Brother Esau concerning his Children these God hath graciously given thy Servant Gen. 33.5 Sixth Prop. When God bestows any Outward Comforts upon us he doth not divest himself of nor make over unto us an absolute Propriety in them Among Men there are several sorts of Gifts or several ways of giving Sometimes Men cannot be said to retain any Right to those things which they have given unto another All the right to the Gift passeth over from the Giver to the Receiver by Vertue of the Donation and the Person that gave it cannot without a Breach of the Rules of Justice reassume it without the Receiver's full Consent But other things are so given by Men that they still retain their right to and Propriety in them or indeed they are rather lent than given We have an Instance hereof in Places of Profit and Trust which are bestowed by Princes upon their Favourites during their Pleasure This Donation is not absolute so as to divest the Sovereign of his Right to them for he can take them away when he pleases without committing any Act of Injustice And of this latter sort of Gifts are those outward Comforts which we receive from God He did not divest himself of the Propriety when he granted us the Use Our Relations are His and not Ours even when they are in some sense Ours Though they may be Ours in opposition to Men yet they are not Ours in opposition to God they are granted us only for our Use as the Coller of
bestow them upon us or continue them with us Though we may make use of all lawfull Means to obtain and preserve Temporal good things yet we must not forget to apply our selves unto God whose Blessing alone can render them effectual Physitians will be of no Value for the recovery of our languishing Relations unless God sends forth his Word and heals them Secondly Hence I Inferr That they deserve to be reproved who when they have sustained any Losses reflect upon perplex themselves about and ascribe those Losses solely or principally to second Causes We are very prone in such Cases to blame Instruments instead of eyeing the Providence of the principal Efficient to resolve all troublesome Events into the malignity of Second Causes This part of practical Atheism we are apt to be guilty of thô common Observation might be sufficient to Confute it The same second Cause which produces such an effect at one time or in one Person shall not produce the like at another time or upon another Person Why should we ascribe the Death of our Relations principally to the Malignity of the Distemper wherewith they were seized when we see others surviving the same Distemper when attended with the same dangerous Circumstances Thirdly I Inferr That when any of our Outward Comforts are taken away from us we should diligently enquire into the end and design of that separation which hath been made between us and them Tho' the Ends of Humane Acts are not always worthy of our search and enquiry yet the ends of Divine Acts are always so God hath Noble and Excellent Ends in all his Operations Let us therefore at such a time address our selves to God in the words of Holy Job 10. ch 2. v. Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me Fourthly I Inferr The Folly of those who put their Trust and place their Confidence in any thing as a security from Death Were they who go to their long Home only taken away by Men then there might be some probability of warding off the fatal blow but seeing they are taken away by God what can prevent it Can you think that the great Jehovah will be charm'd by your Beauty or overpower'd by your Strength Are there any Forts or Towers into which he cannot enter Can you flie into any remote Countrey where his Arm cannot reach you Will the Great God have any regard to your Worldly Riches or Temporal Grandure By none of these things can you deliver either your own or others Souls from Death or hinder them from going down to the Pit Thus much for the first part of the Words I now proceed to the second Secondly We have a Natural and Necessary Inference or Conclusion from both the forementioned Propositions Blessed be the Name of the Lord In which words we have two things contained viz. First An Object The Name of the Lord. This Phrase hath various acceptations in the Holy Scriptures But there are two things which I conceive may be intended by it in this place and indeed the latter is plainly included in the former First By the Name of the Lord is intended God himself The Name of a Person or Thing is often put for the Person or Thing named Thus 1 Acts 15. The number of the Names together were about an hundred and twenty i. e. the number of Persons they being numbered by their Names So 44 Psal 5. and several other places Secondly By the Name of the Lord are intended the Attributes and Perfections of God By them is his Nature discovered unto his Creatures and indeed all his Perfections are inseparable from his Essence Secondly We have an Act which was exerted upon this Object and that is Blessing By blessing God we are to understand either what we express in Words concerning God or what we think concerning him God is blessed by his Creatures when his glorious Perfections are published with Praise and Thanksgiving or when they have high great and glorious Thoughts of him when they inwardly reverence Honour and Love him The former is a Blessing with the Tongue the latter is a Blessing with the Heart the Tongue blessing without the Heart is but a tinkling Cymbal the Heart blessing without the Tongue makes sweet but still Musick both in Consort make that Harmony which fills and delights both Heaven and Earth When Job saith here Blessed be the Name of the Lord we are to understand it both ways Job speaks out the Blessing of God with his mouth and likewise had high and honourable Thoughts of him From these words I shall present you with the following Observation Doct. That it is the Duty and will be the Disposition of the People of God when in a right frame of Spirit to bless a taking as well as a giving God This is indeed a very hard Work but it is a very necessary Work God's People are not at all times engaged in it but they are so when in a right frame of Spirit In the Prosecution of this Point I shall take the following Method First I shall more particularly shew you what is intended by or implyed in our Blessing a taking God Secondly Endeavour the Proof and Demonstration of the Doctrine Thirdly Make some Improvement and Application of it First I shall more particularly shew you what is intended by or implyed in our blessing a taking God This I shall do by laying down the following Propositions First Prop. This is not exclusive of a holy mourning for the loss of our Outward Comforts At the same time that we bless God who hath taken away what we once enjoyed we may Mourn for our Loss These two as plainly appears from the Text and Context were joined together by Job and their Conjunction was approved by God as appears from the words following my Text In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly Mourning is allowable if we exercise a Christian Moderation therein Second Prop. Our Afflictions are not in themselves the proper Subject of Thanksgiving Outward Comforts being in themselves good things the loss of them absolutely considered is an evil Now the proper Subject of Praise is something that is Good Third Prop. Blessing God is absolutely exclusive of being directly opposite to every thing that is implyed in Cursing him Blessing and Cursing are Opposites To Curse God is to Blaspheme him either in our thoughts or words to think or speak unworthily or unbecomingly of him there is a Cursing God with the Heart as well as a Cursing him with the Lips We Curse God when our Hearts are imbitter'd against him or our Tongues sharpen'd to wound his Honour Therefore they that Bless him will not either think or speak unbecomingly of him they will not either mentally or verbally Murmur and repine at him they will not Question his Justice Reproach his Goodness or Accuse his Providence Fourth Prop. Blessing God implies the Exercise of Patience and our thinking and speaking honourably of God under affliction The Soul who