A Gainful Death the end of a truly Christian Life A SERMON At the FUNERAL of Mr. John Griffith Late Minister of the Gospel Who departed this Life May 16. in the 79th year of his Age. Preach'd May the 20th 1700. By RICHARD ALLEN LONDON Printed for Andr. Bell at the Cross Keys and Bible in Cornhil and M. Fabian at Mercer's Chappel in Cheapside 1700. TO THE READER I Have no other Excuse to plead for exposing the following Sermon but the common one that it was not by my own choice but thro the earnest and often repeated Importunities of the dearest Relatives of that Worthy Person at whose Interment it was preach'd 'T is impossible I should commit it to the Press verbatim as then deliver'd But tho several Expressions then used may have eseaped my Recollection yet the substance from my own brief Notes and Memory is here transmitted with some little Additions The Subject is undoubtedly excellent had my Abilities in handling it been somewhat proportionable I should hope the advantage would well compensate the small Cost and Labour of the perusal Such as it is I commit it to publick View If God please by his Blessing to make it in some measure useful to promote a Christian Life and a gainful Death in any into whose hands it shall come let such be excited to give the greater Glory to God from the Consideration of the meanness of the Instrument R. A. Phil. i. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain AS I thought strange when Application was made to me so I doubt not but several here may wonder that I should be ingaged in a Funeral Discourse at the Interment of this antient and worthy Minister of the Gospel Such I would inform that it was nothing but the earnest Solicitations of his dearest Friends and Relations together with the venerable Esteem I had for himself that prevailed with me And having consented I had many thoughts what Text to make the foundation of my present Discourse but being assured that these excellent words of the Apostle were a very great Support and Solace to the Mind of this Reverend Person in the approaches of his Dissolution and often repeated by him with much delight but few hours before his last Exit I concluded none more fit to be consider'd upon this solemn occasion and the rather because they are the words of one to whom I will venture to liken tho in vastly different degrees this our deceased Friend viz. an antient faithful Minister of the Lord Jesus Christ the great Apostle Paul who was now a Prisoner at Rome and under the apprehensions of a sudden Dissolution not indeed as our antient Friend through the Infirmities of Age and Sickness but as a Martyr of Jesus Christ which Apprehensions were so far from being frightful and surprizing that they were very comfortable and delightful to him as appears v. 20. The ground of which holy Confidence and fearless Expectation of Death was his consciousness that Christ was his Life and that therefore Death would be his Gain as it is expressed in my Text For to me to live is Christ and to die is Gain In which words we have two Generals First The Apostle in himself gives us a Description of a living Christian in these words For to me to live is Christ or as Tremellius from the Syriac and others render it * Vita enim mea Christus est For Christ is my Life understanding that the Apostle useth the Infinitive †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to live for the Noun ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Life which is very usual both in Scripture and other Authors and being thus understood the words contain this Proposition That Christ is the Life of a true Christian as Col. 3.4 When Christ who is our Life shall appear c. Secondly The happy Exit of such a one He that can say upon clear grounds with the Apostle That Christ is his Life may assure himself that Death will be so far from being the King of Terrors that it will be Gain to him Doct. All those and only those who have Christ for their Life shall be Gainers by their Death In handling this Truth I shall endeavour two things I. To shew what 's included in Christ's being the Life of a true Christian II. What are the Advantages that such gain by their Death I. The first thing we shall enquire is What may be included in Christ's being the Life of a true Christian that thereby we may make some Judgment of our own State I conceive it includes these following things which I may little more than glance at 1. Christ is the meritorious Cause of a true Christian's Life We are all thro Sin dead in Law and under Condemnation but a true Christian is passed from this State of Death and Condemnation into that of Justification and Life But how Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ 'T is thro the meritorious Sufferings and Obedience of the Lord Jesus imputed to Believers in respect of the saving Benefits thereof By Sin all are alienated from the Life of God but the true Christian is rais'd up from a Death of Sin to a Life of sincere Holiness But how 't is by the gracious operation of the Spirit of God which he shed on us abundantly Tit. 3.6 through Jesus Christ our Saviour 2. Christ is the Principle of the Spiritual Life of a true Christian which springs from Vnion with him 'T is a dangerous Error for any to suppose themselves to live a Life of Justification before they have some real experience of a Life of Sanctification and 't is impossible to live a Life of Sanctification before this vital Vnion Gal. 2.20 I live says the Apostle yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me 3. The Laws of Christ are the governing Rule of the true Christian's Life If we savingly receive Christ we receive him as Lord Col. 2.6 i. e. We as willingly receive him as our King to rule and govern us and to save us from the Power and Dominion of Sin at present and from Sin it self hereafter as we receive him for our great High Priest to atone for our Guilt and procure and maintain our Peace with God by his Sacrifice and Intercession Christ is the sole Author of eternal Salvation Heb. 5.9 but 't is only to them that obey him 4. The Love of Christ is the constraining Motive of a true Christian's Life None can upon clear grounds say with the Apostle To me to die is Gain but such as can in some good measure also say The Love of Christ constraineth us 2 Cor. 5.14 2 Tim. 4.8 The Crown of Righteousness is promised to all them and to them only who love
his appearing And to be sure none can love Christ's appearing but such as can truly say 1 Joh. 4.19 We love him because he first loved us 5. Christ is the Pattern and Exemplar of a true Christian's Life God hath predestinated all his Children to be conformed to the Image of his Son Rom. 8.29 both in Grace and Holiness here and in Glory and Happiness hereafter And the former is the only and necessary way and means to the latter 'T is vain for us to pretend to be savingly interested in Christ unless in some good measure we are like him in Holiness Humility Meekness Self-denial Zeal for the Divine Glory 1 Joh. 2.6 c. He that saith he abideth in him * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 5.10 must needs himself also so walk even as he walked Lastly The Glory Honour and Interest of Christ is the great End of a true Christian's Life He does not only sometimes speak or act for Christ 2 Cor. 5.15 but habitually lives to him Our Apostle tells us here V. 15 18. he rejoic'd while Christ was preached and glorified and his Interest carried on tho himself was by the same Persons envied and despised We must in this be like him and hereby evidence that Christ is our Life if we would say upon like grounds with him Death will be our Gain These are brief hints of the severals I take to be included in this Phrase To me to live is Christ or Christ is my Life which taken together I conceive give us an excellent Description of a true living Christian He is one that through the meritorious Sufferings and Obedience of the Lord Jesus is vitally united to him by Faith and thereby justified and sanctified rul'd by his Laws and influenc'd by his Love his Life is conform'd to Christ's Life and devoted to the advancement of his Glory and Interest To all such and such only Death will be Gain And so I come to the II. General to treat something of the Advantage that every true living Christian gains by Death This we shall consider more generally and more particularly I would in a more general way premise two things 1. Every true living Christian is a present and immediate Gainer by Death When their Body returns to the Earth Eccles 12.7 their Spirit happily returns to God who gave it Hence heavenly-minded Christians earnestly long to be absent from the Body 2 Cor. 5.8 that they may be present with the Lord. Without presupposing this I can't see what rational Account can be given of the Apostles Option ver 23. Having a desire to depart or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be dissolv'd and be with Christ Which Truth I think also plainly taught by our Saviour in his gracious Promise to the petitioning Malefactor Luke 23.43 Verily I say to thee To day or †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hodie q.d. hoc die Pasor this very day thou shalt be with me in Paradise that is in heavenly Delights and Pleasures Who also teaches all his faithful Servants by his own Example Ib. ver 46. to commend their expiring Spirits into the hands of their Heavenly Father But 2. The fulness and completion of their Gain by Death is reserv'd for the glorious Appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ When the Bodies of Saints shall be rais'd and reunited to their Souls then they shall fully enter into the Joy of their Lord. Hence this is constantly spoken of as the great day of Redemption and Recompence 'T is when Christ who is our Life shall appear Col. 3.4 that we shall fully appear with him in Glory 2 Thess 1.10 When he shall come to be most eminently glorified in his Saints and admir'd in all them that believe Whence all that have valiantly and victoriously fought the good fight c. 2 Tim. 4.7 8. die in a comfortable hope of receiving a Crown of Righteousness at that day viz. of his appearing Thus much in general I shall now more particularly endeavour to set before you something of the Advantages which living Christians gain by Death And 1. They gain thereby a perfect freedom from all Sin I need not prove to any serious Christian that this is a very great Gain Believers are indeed now characteriz'd to be such as are made free from Sin Rom. 6.22 but this means no otherwise than as the Apostle afterwards explains himself 8.2 made free from the Law or Dominion of Sin An absolutely perfect freedom from Sin is peculiar to the future Life The remains of this Plague in Believers like that inveterate Leprosy in the Houses of Israelites Lev. 14. can't be perfectly cur'd without dissolving this earthly House of their Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5.1 Christ will at and after Death compleat his Work and present his Church and each living Member thereof Eph. 5.27 glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish Then they shall be without fault before the Throne of God Rev. 14.5 2. They are freed by it not only from all Sin but from all Temptations and Inclinations to Sin This is much more than the former Our first Parents in Innocency were wholly free from Sin but 't is certain they were not free from Temptations to Sin Yea the second Adam our Lord Jesus tho perfectly holy and undefil'd yet in the state of his Humiliation he was not only assaulted with Temptations but violently assaulted with most black and hellish ones and tho he could not in the least be prevailed upon to sin by these Temptations yet he suffered Heb. 2.18 which seems to import some difficulty in bearing and resisting of them no wonder then that the best Christians very often find themselves grievously tempted and too much inclin'd to a sinful compliance when yet through Grace they are kept from those Sins to which they are tempted But Death will free the sincere Christian not only from the destructive malignity of the fiery Darts of the wicked one Eph. 6.16 but also from their afflictive Injections not only from being overcome by those fleshly Lusts 1 Pet. 2.11 which war against their Souls but also from being any more molested by the motion of them Death will not only secure them from being destroyed by this present evil World Gal. 1.4 but it will totally deliver them from it In this respect Death will usher the living Christian into a Life transcendently more excellent than the present Life of Grace wherein whatever ground Christians have to think themselves to stand 1 Cor. 10.12 or * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 13.1 to be established they must still take heed lest they fall And sure the most confirm'd Christian while here as well as the great Apostle has need to maintain a cautionary Fear and Endeavour 1 Cor. 9.27 lest he should be or †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
express 1 Joh. 3.2 We shall see him as he is and as the blessed Effect of this Vision we shall be like him And well may this according to the Apostle's design raise admiring Thoughts and Meditations in our Minds concerning that State and the Divine Love which gives us an Interest therein 'T is very unchristian to murmur and repine at the Death of our Godly Friends and Relations which is only the accomplishment of the gracious Will and mediatory Request of our Saviour Joh. 17.24 Father saith he I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory c. O! what a desirable thing must it be to be for ever with the Lord 1 Thess 4.17 and in the perpetual and uninterrupted fruition of him To all such who count it no less their Privilege than their Duty to behold his Glory now tho it be only in the Glass of Ordinances to all those who often in some good measure experience the Psalmist's Devotion breathing forth with him Psal 42.20 My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come to appear before God And again 63.1 2. My Soul thirsieth for thee to see thy Power and thy Glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary 7. Death will bring them into the most blessed and delightful Society They now enjoy not only a visible Fellowship with Saints but a sweet and invisible Communion with holy Angels who delightfully perform that kind Office in which they are imploy'd by our common Head being by him made all ministring Spirits Heb. 1.14 sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation But they shall ascend from the valley of Death to the top of Mount Sion Heb. 12.22 23. and to the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect Made perfect that is freed from all those defects in Knowledg and Holiness which here render the Society even of Saints sometimes very unpleasant and troublesom But O what a Felicity will it be to meet in that perfect State with many of our dear Friends and Relations and it may be some of our Enemies too persectly reconciled to us to enjoy intimate Society with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs and in a word with all those Noble and Excellent Saints that ever we read or heard of You can't but from the Consideration of these things conclude with me in the 8. Place That Death will bring them into the most ravishing Joys and into the most pure and unmix'd Pleasures The most refin'd Joys of this Life have a great alloy and mixture of Sorrow The most delightful Pleasures are attended with Pain and Uneasiness The most happy Estate here is often obtain'd with care kept with fear and lost with trouble Honour and Greatness are commonly uneasy to those that have them and hated and envied by those that have them not Liberal Education and Knowledg is one of the sweetest Pleasures and Delights of an ingenuous Mind yet even this if we may believe him who had the largest Experience of it is not without its Vanity and Vexation of Spirit For in much Wisdom Eccles 1.18 saith he is much Grief and he that increaseth Knowledg increaseth Sorrow Yea the very Sweets and Delights of Religion are here exceedingly dampt partly by the Consciousness of our great Imperfection therein partly by Melancholy and partly by the Malice of that malignant Spirit who if he can't hale us with himself into Hell will be sure to make us go as droopingly as possible in our way to Heaven But Death transmits holy Souls into the immediate Presence of God where there is fulness of Joy Psal 16.11 and at whose right-hand there are Pleasures for evermore Then all the Doubts of sad and dejected tho sincere Souls shall be chang'd into full assurance all their Darkness into the most clear Light their Mournings into Melodies their Sorrows and Sighs into Songs of Praise and joyful Hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne Rev. 19.1 chap. 5.13 and to the Lamb for ever and ever Lastly All these Advantages will be eternal and everlasting This is indeed but a Circumstance but 't is such a Circumstance without which all the Happiness of Heaven it self would be imperfect Yea the greater the Felicity is the greater and more amazing would be the damp it would strike upon the Spirits of those who are in the fruition of it to think Alas one day I must be depriv'd of all this and either relapse into my former Miseries or else sink into the abyss of Nothingness I believe there are few living Christians but are ready to cry out with Job under a sense of the Sinsulness and Miserableness of the present Life Job 7.16 I would not live always But it is impossible any such thought should enter into the Mind of a glorified Saint Where there is fulness of Joy it can't but be an inconceivable Pleasure to know it shall be for evermore As the Felicities of Saints after Death are call'd weights of Glory because of the Greatness of them so they are call'd eternal weights because of the Durableness and Permanency of them O consider then what a blessed thing it is to be regenerated and born again for such are begotten to an Inheritance not like the Inheritances of this World fading and uncertain 1 Pet. 1.3 5. but to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you who are kept by the Power of God thro Faith unto Salvation Thus I have set before you a little and I may without any Rhetorical Flourish say but a little of the Advantages which every sincere Christian shall gain by Death I am confident whoever of you pass thro the dark valley and shadow of Death into those Regions of Light and Blessedness and O that it may be the Portion of every one of you who are my Hearers or Readers you will then wonderingly say of this your Gain by Death as the Queen of Sheba of Solomon's Wisdom Behold 1 Kings 10 7. the half was not told me and the Glory and Felicity far exceeds the Fame I heard I now proceed to make some brief Application of the whole And among many very useful Reflections which might be made upon this excellent Subject I shall shut up my present Discourse with these brief ones following 1. Well may we hence infer the Wisdom of sincere Religion If such be the end of a truly Christian Life then as the Scriptures frequently so they most fitly represent sincere Religion and Piety as the truest Wisdom Let even Reason impartially speak whether it be not the truest Wisdom to prefer the Fountain of Living Waters before broken Cisterns that can hold no Water to prefer