daily crucified for thee Canst thou fancy or desire greater benefits then those that accrew to thee and are offered thee by Christ who hath taken away the sting of death 1 Cor. 15. which is sin that when thou diest in the Lord thou art sure to be eternally blessed with the Lord Vitam non amittimus sed mutamus Hieron for true Christians doe not lose but exchange life by death Like a turning chatr which serves for a door so death natural is but a moving us out of one room which is an ontward antecamera chamber or common gallery or base court into another which is most ample and nobly furnished with all company and other accomplishments befitting the Majesty Palace and presence of the King of Heaven Death is but a transition or passage from grace to glory the taking of the candle of our soules out of a dark and close lanthorn of our bodies to set it on a fair candlestick in a stately chamber till the body be restored fitter for it crystalline celestial incorruptible When Christians defer their repentance and comming to Christ they forget the priviledges and benefits which are enjoyable only by them both in life and death at resurrection and judgment to come There being no other name under heaven by which we may be saved in any of these exigents Acts 4.12 which will in after-years overtake us all O bethink thy self and say in thy heart with David What shall I render to the Lord for all his mercies Psal 116.12 What shall I return to my blessed Saviour who hath redeemed me by his precious blood from so many and so great deaths I will devote both soul and body to him as a living and acceptable sacrifice Rom. 12.2 which is but my reasonable service Though I have done foolishy ungratefully unchristianly and desperately hitherto yet I will adde no more drunkenness to thirst or iniquity to sinne since he hath by his meritorious passion both redeemed my life from the death in sin and my death from the penal horrors for sin Yea in this he hath made my death better then my life that while I live I shall sin by daily defects and infirmities but when I die sin shall wholly die in me This one cordial is in every good Christians death that his sin shall not be immortal but as he shall be ever with the Lord so he shall never sin more against him 9. Lay to heart upon this and the like sad occasions to what good end or purpose thou hast hitherto lived for many yeares as a man or a Christian in the sphear of reason in the bosome of the Church and in the light of true Religion Bethink thy self how many hours dayes weeks moneths yeares God hath given thee since thou cam'st to be master of reason and instructed in Religion knowing good and evil as a space of repentance and opportunity to shew thy fear love duty and obedience to God that thou mightst be capable of his eternal rewards There are in every year eight thousand seven hundred seventy five hours if we should allow the greater half of these for sleep and necessary attending our bodies take but four thousand houres for our work and business of consequence how poor account can most men women of ripe age but not yet come to yeares of discretion give of all these in a whole year Not one hour in seven which is as a Sabbatical hour in every day not one hour in ten which is but the Tithe of our time is generally devoted to God or any good duty Nay many are weary of doing nothing Mark 11.20 and how solicitous to ravel out their time in the most impertinent and excessive pastimes they can imagine They are like to doe very well who know not what to doe with themselves and their time Phil. 3.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When they have most leisure to intend their spiritual and eternal improvement then are they most lavish of their precious houres Debuisti boc tempus non perdere So Pliny the elder checked his Nephew for losse of time when he saw him walking in the streets and indisposed thereby to read or note any thing Canst thou not tell how to spend this or that long day Wouldst thou adde spurs to the wings of time I will tell thee the very waste and seeming superfluity of thy time would serve thy turn for an eternal happiness to work out thy salvation Those lost shreds of hours which thou flingest away lazing and laughing and chatting and visiting stretching yawning and playing and fooling so long till from doing nothing art tempted to doe evil things idleness being the Devils anvil Incus Diaboli desidia Cavene te Diabolus inveniat oriosum Hieren Pro. 17.16 These parings and rags I say of thy precious time which is infinitely more precious then the finest gold is a price put into thy hand if thou be not an egregious fool of which infinite gain and advantage may be made for ever In this and that good hour which thou prodigally losest not knowing how to spend it thou mightest be seeking thy lost-self thy lost soul thy lost conscience thy lost God thy lost Saviour who came into the world to seek and to save that which is lost O what might not be done in that chain and circle which St. Jerom commends to Laeta Orationem lectio lectionem meditatio meditationē oratio sequebatur Hieron of dispensing time nay if we wrought but now and then a link of grace O what prayers what tears what meditation what contrition what compunction what godly sorrow what ingenuous shame what self-abhorrence what self-despairs might be wrought upon thy heart as to the reflection of thy sins past Yea what fear of God what reverence of the Divine majesty power wisedome justice goodness evident in his works providences word What breathings sighings and seekings after God! What purposes vowes holy resolutions thou mightst take up and begin What hatred and loathing of sin as the greatest abasing of a reasonable creature what search into and admiration of the mystery of Christ crucified what longing after him what faith in him what sense of thy want of him what zeal for him what humility meekness charity holy industry sense of Gods savour sweet influence of his Spirit power against corruptions comforts against death hopes of heaven delight in well-doing joy in God! What serious considerations of the deformity and danger by sin of the beauty and benefits by Christ of the vanity of the world the certain uncertainty of dying These meditations and many such like effects of our thoughts and reflexions of things might be the happy fruits of thy true of thy holy considerations and sober endeavours if thou wert worthy of one moment of that life which thou art so weary of and wastest so impertinently a little portion of which will be one day when thy distresses and terrors come upon
alienated from his fear by the prosperity of any evil doers Psal 73.16 or adversity of well doers in this life But go into his Sanctuary with David search the Scriptures and there thou shalt see the eternal counterpoisings of these strange momentary dispensations how the wicked go away to eternal darkness Psal 97.10 11 c. Luke 12.4 and shall never see any light of comfort when his candle is once put out but to the righteous the Lord preserveth the souls of them from those that can but kill the body Rom. 2.7 yea light is sown in their darkness life in their death a crown of eternal glory will grow out of their crown of thorns rivers of everlasting refreshings shall flow out of the rock of their patience and sufferings in well doing in the midst of which fiery trials the spirit of glory rested upon them 1 Pet. 3.18 1 Pet. 4.13 14. Phil. 1.28 they are made conformable to Christ in sufferings that they may reign with him hence they enjoy a most evident sign of their adversaries condition but of their own salvation and that of God who is a righteous Judge a God of truth and faithfulness who will not forget the labour of love or suffer those to go unrewarded who suffer for righteousness sake Mat. 5.10.12 great is their reward in heaven Do not foolishly fret and envy Dives his delicates when thou seest Lazarus die on a dunghil Luke 16.19 Matth. 14.8 nor grudge Herod his throne when thou seest John Baptists head in a charger There is not a greater argument Certissimum futuri judicii praejudicium Tert. Jer. 51.56 The Lord God of recompenses shall surely require Mal. 3.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or more likely demonstration to confute Atheism to confirm faith and hope in a better and another life which the Lord God of recompenses hath certainly prepared for those that are his when he makes up his jewels Can any man be loser for Gods cause Shall not the just God do right to himself and to every man according to his own word and every mans works No man can think God is unable or unwilling to make such amends in another life as shall infinitely expiate and exceed all the seeming detriments here on the part of the godly and the increments or advantages on the part of the wicked Could he make such a world for the good and bad the just and unjust for men and beasts enemies and servants Matth. 5.45 and cannot he prepare for and bestow a better state upon his friends and children Is this mortal and momentary state worthy the name of life with which we are so taken and we are loth to leave whose welfare consists only in the using and enjoying of creatures either without life or only with life and sense or at best adorned with reason added to their life and sense Col. 2.22 but yet perishing in the use and dying as our selves Is this a life to be so desired and doted upon and must not that excel which consists in communion with and participation of the Creator who must necessarily be better then all his creatures and infinitely exceed them as much as light darkness the sea a drop or the Sun a mote or spark Is it a small matter that the spirit or soul of a good man like Lazarus's and Stephens Luke 16. is presently attended and received by many blessed Angels which light on it as a swarm of bees to conduct it joyfully to its blessed God and Saviour so that as soon as it parts out of the body it enjoys spiritual Angelical and celestial joys But the souls of the wicked loth to leave their carkasses and lingring as it were about their corps are presently beset with so many evil spirits or spiteful divels who like wasps and hornets fall upon it as it were to bite and sting and vex it with such resentments and terrors as they either feel or fear to which the soul is first self-condemned and presently selfe-tormented being its own Hell or Tormentor now as it was its own betrayer or tempter heretofore 10. These and the like serious reflexions may justly be laid to heart by all such as are yet but in the outward court of reason on the bare forms of religion and even by others who are come or seem so at least into the holy place to clearer perceptions of piety carrying sincere purposes in their souls and professing to live in communion with God and Christ I am to speak to the hearts of these also How come they to live still incumbred with so many strange opinions passions lusts and affections which seem very weak partial preposterous disorderly earthly and uncharitable Is this to live as in the prospect of death in the confines of heaven in the aim at eternal life yet so eager solicitous impatient disquieted and concerned for these momentary and transeunt enjoyments of life as if these were the main interests they were to carry on in life or to provide for against death Art thou a Kings son and embracest dunghils Lam. 4.5 talkest so much of heaven and graspest only earth Art thou among Gods Nazarites Lam. 4.7 who profess to be separate from sinners crucified to the world whose heart and conversation should be whiter then milk purer then snow beautiful as the rubies and more polished then Saphirs as Jeremiah laments and yet is thy visage blacker then a coal thy sin cleaveth to thy bones such an hidebound Christian and politick professor so carking and caring so getting and griping so sharking and shifting to and fro in thy judgement and way of religion that thou seemest more to regard the wind and weathercock of civil interests favours and advantages then the constant rule and compass of Gods word shifting thy sails to every point as may most fit thy worldly occasions rather then thy conscience and eternal concernments Whence is it that thou a profest pilgrim and stranger in this world art so great an agitator and so passionately engaged in secular sidings whence is this strange Metamorphosis or change of Christianity from the primitive beauty and Scriptural garb or fashion used by the Confessors Martyrs Apostles by Christ himself and his best followers in all ages when hands and eyes heads and hearts lives and conversations of Christians were all lifted up toward heaven and set upon heavenly things how are they now become dross so groveling to the earth joyning Christ with Belial and God with Mammon 2 Cor. 6.15 1 Thes 2.5 Col. 3.5 Rom. 2.22 Prov. 3.9 Mal. 3.8 professions of light with operations of darkness making Christian liberty a cloke for all licentiousness and malice for all filthy lucre and even sacrilegious covetousness which is worse then Idolatry for the Idolater honours a false god with his substance but a Sacrilegious Christian robs the true God to increase his private substance This temper is far from the mortifying
established and used for above an hundred yeares by the most noble wise and religious persons in this Nation of all degrees with no small benefit of piety to the living especially the common people but they crosse also the permissions yea the Institutions even of God himself in his holy word as by Solomons pen here so by the Apostles afterward injoyning us to Preach and so to pray in season and out of season to doe all things to edification and with decency becomming Christians as well as men especially in such eases as most affect the living in reference both to their own others mortal state which dasheth all faith hope and holy industry of a godly life the best men being of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 if there be not a frequent and full Antidote against our dying and sorrowing condition duely applyed from the holy word of God as to the happy and hopeful state of such as live and die in the Lord 1 Cor. 14 26 40 2 Tim. 4.2 both as to their spirits which return to God and their bodies which rest in hopes of an happy resurrection to glory For which purpose we see the Scripture hath furnished the Church with as many clear 1 Thess 4.13 See the long discourse of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. large and pregnant places to establish the faithful in that Article of their faith the bodies resurrection as any other point whatsoever There needs no other Form of Liturgy of exhortation or consolation or prayer or gratulation or benediction or comprecation then what is guided by and grounded upon the Scripture Nor was there other prescribed or used in the Church of England by any discreet Minister If such sad occasions may nay must in many respects be duely and devoutly laid to heart by the living as I have shewed you what hinders I beseech you but that Sermons instructions exhortations consolations and prayers too may be used at them in order to apply them most neerly to and work most effectually upon the hearts of the living And then especially when the hearts of men and women of parents and children of neighbours and friends yea of enemies and strangers too are most prone to be moved and affected to good purpose some being softened by common sympathies of humanity others steeped in teares by their more indeared relations and tender affections the whole assembly being as it were in the bath and furnace more pliable humble and melting then at any other time If we Christians only brought the eyes the hearts and senses of beasts to these Funeral-occasions it were venial to give our children parents friends husbands wives kindred and our selves no other honour or comfort then the burial of an asse or of a dead dog would afford and require or if we came together only as so many Gymnosophists Brachmans and Philosophers or so many Heathens Indians and meer men without hope and not as Christians who have much to learn to hear to say to pray and to practice upon these texts of mortality not only as to natural death but as to the spiritual and eternal death as to judgment to come as to a resurrection and after recompenses their scrupulous restraint were excusable but blessed be God what a field of excellent matter as to saith and manners as to hope and comfort in reference to both dead and living Christians is there to be gone through to be beaten oft over from the Scriptures suggestion and direction that the living the living might duely effectually and frequently lay those things to heart which are presented to them by every Funeral-occasion but not easily improved by the generality of people if they have nothing else but a dumb shew and silent procession at their Funerals Object But some are afraid of superstition lest we pray for the dead or praise God on their behalf beyond that ancient gratulation for their departure in the faith and that comprecation for a blessed consummation of the Kingdome of Christ and all his Church at and after the Resurrection which is under a divine promise upon all good Christians hopes hearts and future expectations blessings certainly no less lawful to be prayed for as the ancient Churches did then desired and expected by all the faithful living as I believe they are by all the Saints departed Answ To these Objecters I answer Let them forbear Funeral Sermons exhortations and prayers till they get more wit to understand their own good and more charity then to grudge others their Christian liberty either to do or get good in such wayes as Gods word and the customes of this Christian well reformed Church allow us This Indulgence I easily grant to such as are simply and honestly scrupulous but to others that are rudely captious and contemptuous yea ridiculously clamorous and contumacious against any thing which they doe not form and fancy though they give no reason why they scruple or condemn it my answer is as that of our Saviour to the Pharisees You hypocrites Matth. 16.3 can you discern the face of the sky and can you not discern the signs of the times Are you so fearful of praying for the dead that you will not pray for and with the living Can you endure the pomp of a Funeral and not the piety of it Can you bear with Trumpets Banners Escucheons and not with the word of God with Sermons and Prayers which sanctifie all things in themselves lawful and expedient Is not sanctity the best part of Christians Solemnities who in all temporal things must look to things eternal Are you so afraid of superstition that you grudge us our devotions and holy exercises as God gives us more signal calls and occasions Can you endure Heraldry and not the Liturgy in this part of it which sets forth very handsomely and fully to the living out of the lively oracles of God those most pertinent places and excellent truths which make most for the good hope comfort and instruction of the living both in respect of their dead relations and themselves Take heed you swallow not camels while you strain at gnats If you think a dead Christian that dies in the faith of Christ and in the compass of our charity differs not from a dead Heathen or a dead beast if their spirits goe all one way with their bodies to the dust if neither they dying nor you living have any lively hope of a resurrection without which all your faith living is but dead and in vain if you know not how to make a holy rational and religious use of their death much good may you have with those dumb shewes which you have lately taken up with your silent solemnities and processions at the Funerals of your Christian friends much comfort may you have in your burnt wine and biscuits in your black cloaks and ribbands in your mourning gloves and boxes of sweet-meats which good you somtimes get gape for at Funerals These are toyes