FOUR SERMONS PREACH'D By the Right Reverend FATHER in GOD JOHN TOWERS D. D. L. Bishop of Peterburgh 1. At the Funerall of the Right Honorable William Earl of Northampton 2. At the Baptism of the Right Honorable James Earl of Northampton 3. Before King JAMES in Defence of The Material Church 4. Before K. CHARLES at White-Hall in time of Lent He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Rev. 2.7 London Printed for Thomas Rooks and are to be sold at the sign of the Lamb at the East end of S. Pauls near the School 1660. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE JAMES Earl of NORTHAMPTON And to his Excellent Lady ISABELLA The Right Honorable Countess of NORTHAMPTON Right Honorable my singular good Lord IT is now more than time that these holy Sermons should come to light into the light of this World to be themselves a Light to the World after so many years since the departure of the Reverend and Religious Author of them into the light of God When they first come abroad whom ought they earlier to greet than your noble Lordship that his Posthume Papers might crave protection from the same Family which gave Patronage to his living Person From the service of the Earldom he went up to wait upon the Throne and yet did never forget Your Castle-Ashby after his arrive to the Kings White-Hall though he was found to have merit enough to entitle his attendance upon the two best Peers in Chaplainry to your Grandfather who deserved to be in respect of the Earldom though there was a deserv'd and much more ancient rise of the noble name of the Comptons Ortus Domus suae a fairer commendation than which the quickest best-tongu'd Orator could not invent for himself and in Tutorage to your Father whose fall was so valiant that he chose to pay a magnanimous Death rather than to owe a bestowed Life though from thence the same merit carried him on to do yearly homage to the two choicest Kings James the wise and Charles the Religious yet he had also humble Gratitude enough to confesse aloud it was Northampton's Arm more than his own hand and Pen that rais'd him My good Lord you see already your just Title to the whole But you have still a more peculiar Interest in these selected four One of them was Preach'd at that Parish which was all your Ancestors and the Authors Nine parts yours and the Tithes his and Tither of duty it ought to return Another at your owne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the second the Baptismall Birth of your Noble selfe A third at the third Birth of the most munificent your Fathers Father when he had pass'd over the life of Nature and the life of Grace and was receiv'd up into the life of Glory A fourth is added to expiate the delay in payment of the three former Nay my most noble Lord all this will not suffice that you should have title to these Composures from your Progenitors from your selfe from the Author unlesse I humbly acknowledge the right you have in my Transcription too from the claim which your Honour may lay to my very selfe also your interest in me your jurisdiction over me your purchase of me Your Honor had interest in me before I was so happy as to see your Lordship or so wise as to know my felf even whilst I was yet in Lumbis for sure our Birth is not so wholly wretched as to have nothing else entail'd upon us at our coming into the world besides original sin we are even born with respects and duties and devotions to originall Benefactors too Your jurisdiction over me shall never be disown'd by me whilst I have breath Dum spiritus hos regit Artus in that since I had breath your Lordship was the first Master I ever had Master and Father too by your purchase of me in that I did eat of your Lordships bread when by the common calamities of the Times and the deserv'd ones of my own I had no bread of my own to eat but went abroad to Preach the Gospel like the Gospels first Disciples without Pâ—rse or Scrip. Luk. 22.35 And now my most excellently voriuous and meek Lady is not your right the same with my Noble Lords and has not your owne goodnesse bought a like interest in me I have nothing to return to either of your Honors but my prayers that You both may enjoy the whole benefit of this which is a dedication upon design that as you are regenerate by Baptism the discourse of one of these Homilies you may so love to serve God in his own House the subject of another that when your Bodies are interr'd in the Church the matter of a third your souls may be convey'd to that place which Christ is gone up to prepare for you the subject-matter of a fourth there to enjoy honour and bliss eternall 'T is really the Prayer of My Noble Lord and my Religious Lady Your Honors most Faithfull most obliged Servant William Towers A SERMON Preached at the FVNERALS of the Right Honorable WILLIAM EARL of Northampton Rev. 14.13 Beati Mortui qui in Domino moriuntur Blessed are the Dead that die in the Lord. FOR the Authority of this Book of the Revelation of S. John Occasio Operis I should not need to plead but that for the honorable memory of the Person of Honour whose Body we now interr and because of the morenesse of Time since his death it will mis-become such an obliged Chaplain of such a bountifull Patron not to take pains somewhat more than ordinary and to exceed the hour in this last Publick Service which he performs for the most liberal of Masters to the meanest of Gods Houshold Servants Let this short Apology bear me out in my prolixnesse after since by his own example I desire to do much of good at his Death to those who are come hither to remember him and to mourn their own losse though in his blessednesse the businesse of whose Life was to do all good to all The joynt consent of the Ancient and Modern Church Authoritus Libri hath with an easie refutation of some weak objections to the contrary and with a constant and unanimous submission of their Faith and Obedience to the Contents of it by the direction of the Holy Spirit received this Book into and by the special Providence of the same Spirit preserved it in the Canon of the Scripture That the blessed Apostle and Evangelist S. John was the Author of it by writing we doubt not and that being the Apostle of Christ he wrote this as he did his Gospels and Epistles being inspir'd by the Holy Ghost to remain in the Church of Christ as Apostolical Scripture for confirmation whereof Vers 1. He cals it also in the beginning The Revelation of Jesus Christ and tels us that God gave it unto him and that he sent and signifi'd it by his Angel
thy trust thy hope in the Lord Let none by their impatience to bear a lesse misery rid themselves into a greater whoever he be that can speak with that Emphasis I am the man that have seen affliction Lam. 3.1 and does therefore with Job abandon the day of his birth Job 3.3 and importune for the hour of death would this man have death be good unto him and save him O then let him apply the counsel of the 26. verse as a remedy against the complaint of the first It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Well Non omnes post obitum the last part remains yet to be handled no man can obtain true blessednesse till he leaves this world that we have done with nor then all men but morientes in Domino they who so cease to live as that they die in the Lord these are they who are blessed Beza renders it propter Dominum who die for the Lord who in their fervent love to him lay down their life for his sake as his Son did for theirs and lose it or rather give it or rather yet sell it in his quarrel and for the defence of his truth true this but not all for thus to expound it ties this promised blessednesse onely upon the Martyrs of God those valiant and faithfull Servants of his as if his many many promises to the faithfull became void if they were not valiant too or though valiant if they had not a cruel occasion to trie their valour who patiently underwent the torments of a violent death at the hands of persecutors for the witnesse-bearing to the truth of his Gospel These no doubt are blessed in Heaven He that loses his life for my sake shall finde it Matth. 10.39 blessed with a double crown both as they regarded the glory of God and the good of their Christian brethren by their example of constancy the bloud of the Martyrs having ever been the seed of the Church and that which is fire to their flesh and bones water to the Gospel to make it slourish a good confession witnessed before the wicked Tyrants of the world doth good service to God and his truth so it fell out in that martyrdome of S. Paul which he suffered in his life time for they are Martyrs too which for Gods cause stoutly endure any kind of misery besides death and yet to humour some rigid Interpreters who will not be brought to allow of a living Martyr let us for once call every affliction a death too not onely by the example of Pharaoh who persecuted the Church of God Take away this death Exod. 10.17 but especially by that of S. Paul who in this afflicted sense suffered many yea dayly deaths for the Church he was in deaths often 2 Cor. 11.23 he did die dayly 1 Cor. 15.31 The things which bappened unto him in his persecution at Rome they fell out unto the furtherance of the Gospel insomuch that many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by his bonds were much imboldned to speak the word without fear Phil. 1.12 14. This is it that has made many of Gods righteous servants not sparing of themselves that Christ might be magnified in their bodies whether it be by life or by death by life I say and S. Paul sayes so too as well as by death v. 20. and that they might be blessed after this life and death as those Martyrs the Apostle speaks of Heb. 11.35 who were tortured and cared not to be delivered that they might obtain a better resurrection But we must not restrain this blessednesse to those only who thus die for the Lord since the Lord bestows this crown of blisse upon them also who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the Text who die in the Lord. If we will know what this is Mori in Domino to die in the Lord and who they be that so do we must first understand what it is to be in the Lord while we live for even then this happinesse begins in us when we begin to be in Christ There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 If no condemnation then no wrath of God if not that then Grace and Love and Favour and consequently salvation and eternal life Man is no indifferent thing to his Maker if he does not hate he loves nay the very earth upon which Man is God does either blesse it with encrease or curse it with barrennesse and the Lord of the earth under the Lord of Heaven Man much more and no lesse than this is the effect of Gods love to Mankinde God so loved the World John 3.16 So how even to everlasting life v. the same Now what it is thus uncondemnedly to be in Christ we have it explained John 3.18 He that believes on him is not condemned so in the verse before Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish 16. Not be condemned not perish what them he shall have life everlasting that 's the effect of Gods love that 's the consequent of Gods not condeming So then to be in Christ is to be in the love of God and faith of Christ to cleave unto him and rely upon him then are we by his Holy Spirit ingrafted into him made his members spiritually joyn'd unto him and live in him There is a general conjunction which all men living have with the Son of God in that he took upon him our humane nature not the flesh of man but of mankinde Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himselfe likewise took part of the same Heb. 2.14 But this conjunction which is so general with all men does not therefore make all men to be in him we are thus conjoyned with him as I may say only in regard of the matter and to say sooth all this notwithstanding there is a great disjunction betwixt him and us and the nature of men as of men does much differ from that nature which the Son of God took upon him that Humane Nature of his now with him in Heaven is of it selfe immortal without spot or stain free from all sin adorned with all holinesse and purity and the fulnesse of all excellent graces ours is impure and unholy and wofully subject to corruption because miserably defiled with sin we are conceived in sin Psa 51.5 saies holy David we are by nature the sons of wrath saies S. Paul Ephes 2.3 our natural our first birth in the flesh separates us from him keeps us out of him but our second our spiritual birth our regeneration when we are born again Joh. 3.5 of water and the spirit when we are indued with the spirit of Christ to believe in him to live according to the direction of his Holy Spirit then is our nature so repaired so renewed that we come near to his nature we are thereby conformed to the image of the Son of God
only Author the principal efficient cause of our new Birth The Principal I say for he does not use to worke Regeneration in the heart of any man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Enthusiasts will have it immediately but by such ordinary meanes as he has appointed both for himselfe to offer and for us to apprehend eternal Salvation The means allotted to us in this behalfe who are Receivers is Faith the onely Hand he has given us to reach out and lay hold on and apply unto ourselves the Grace of God offered the merit of Christ with the consequents thereof Forgivenesse of our sins justification and eternal salvation By faith of Jesus Christ the righteousnesse of God is unto all and upon all that believe Rom. 3.22 But then in respect of God who is the Donor the means by which he does usually bestow these Graces upon us and convey them unto us are two his Word his Sacraments Of the efficacy of his Word no Christian doubteth By hearing comes faith Rom. 10.17 and by the hearing of faith is the spirit received Gal. 3.2 And for the Sacraments they have as little reason to trouble themselves and the Church of God with seruples of doubt as if they were but bare signes and no more Do not the Fathers call the Sacraments Verbum visibile a visihle Word Are they not as it were an Epitome of the Gospel Receive they not all their worth and vertue and operation not only from the present Grace but from the ancient Appointment and Ordinance of God and from the Word of God which by Divine as well as Ecclesiasticall Ordination is joyned to the outward Elements But to make it good against them in this one Sacrament which we have now in hand If he and he onely shall be saved in an ordinary course who believes and is baptized Mark 16.16 may we not well reckon Baptism an ordinary means of this salvation If of salvation then also of those other graces which are the way unto it regeneration remission of sins righteousness and renewing of the mind Except a man be born of water and the spirit John 3.5 there 's regeneration by it John Baptist preach'd the Baptism of Repentance for the remission of sins Luk. 3.3 Repent saies S. Peter and be baptized for the remission of sins Act. 2.28 and Arise says Ananias to Paul upon his conversion and be baptized and wash away thy sins Act. 22.16 there 's remission Ye are wash'd saies St. Paul 1 Cor. 5. then presently follows upon that Ye are sanctified ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus v. 11. there be two other graces As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and having Christ upon us we have his obedience his merits his righteousnesse how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 So that as S. James in the case of our regeneration does joyn together the Spirit and the Word which is one of the means he uses to that purpose Of his own will begat he us with the Word of Truth Jam. 1.18 so our Saviour Christ does joyn the Holy Ghost and Baptism which is another effectuall meanes Except a man be born of water and the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 And S. Paul couples both these means together makes them march hand in hand as equally usefull to sanctification in the Church of God Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word Eph. 5.26 what shall I say more This will I say that A cause therefore we need not fear to call it of our regeneration and salvation though not the principall that 's God himselfe yet the instrumentall as we speak in Schools or medium He saved us saies the Apostle God Tit. 3. there 's the principall cause by the washing of regeneration there 's the instrumentall v. 5. We have the steps of all the ancient Fathers of the Church walking in this Track a warrant to us for this confidence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find it call'd and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a second Birth and a Divine Generation by Dionysius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a being born again by Greg. Nazianz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Bath by which we wash away our sinnes Clem. Alexandr Peccatorum omnium remissionem the forgivenesse of all our sins by S. Ambrose Fons Divinus quo Fideles in Creaturam novam regenerantur by Cassiodorus the Divine Fountain by which the Faithfull are made up into a New Creature and by every one the Door of Heaven the Sacrament of Initiation the first admission into Gods Kingdome Not that all that are baptized are thereby necessarily admitted into the Kingdome of Heaven or that all do receive the Grace of God who receive the Sacrament of his Grace for as not the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist so neither the water in Baptism does contain in it selfe any vital force or efficacy That Grace which is a consequent of the Sacraments it doth accompany them as their end the benefit whereof whoso partakes he receives it from God himselfe the Author of Sacraments and not from any other natural or supernatural quality in them And therefore their manner of necessity to life supernatural is not in all respects as food unto natural life they are not Physical but Moral Instruments of Salvation Duties of Service and Worship which unlesse we perform as the Author of them requireth they are unprofitable Hugo's Rule we acknowledge and follow in this case De Sacr. lib. 1. c. 3 Fideles salutem ex istis elementis non quaerunt etiamsi in istis quaerunt though we seek for salvation in Baptism yet not from Baptism but from God for this is the instrument of God to that end and purpose a Moral Instrument the use whereof is in our hand the effect in his for the use we have his express command for the effect his conditional promise so that without our obedience to the one there is of the other no apparent assurance whereas on the other side where the signes and Sacraments of his Grace are not either omitted through contempt or received with contempt we are not to doubt but that they really give what they promise and are what they signifie The same is true here which Solomons Wisdome observeth in the Brazen Serpent He that turned himselfe to it was not healed by the thing he saw but by thee O Saviour of all Wisd 16.7 The necessity therefore that Ispake of for the comming to Christ this way for our being renewed by this second Birth I hope appeareth which necessity notwithstanding we do not preach unto you to be so absolute as if God had never another door into Heaven as if he had so tied his saving Grace to this means as without it 't were impossible to be attained by any this is
is the end even the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1.9 that they truly and indeed are possest of in this life Haec est vita aeterna says our Saviour John 17.3 This is life eternal to know thee and Jesus He that hears my words and beleeveth on him hath eternal life John 5.24 he hath it in that degree as here he is capable of it But Beatitudo patriae the perfection of blisse the sight and fruition of God in Heaven that intire union with him when we shall be like unto himselfe for we shall see him as he is 1 John 3.2 This is for another life this is the crown laid up which the righteous Judge shall give at that day 2 Tim. 4.8 Vltima semper Expectando dies homini est Dicique beatus Antiobitum nemo supremaque funera debet Ovid. This expect not till death for thus only the dead are blessed To take away all scruple 't is an observable truth that S. Gregory Nyscen hath in his book De Beatitud that God in himselfe is Verè Beatus most properly blessed as having it in and from him-himselfe and that from him as from a Fountain it issues forth upon Angels and Men who are blessed in the participation of it which they receive from him Such as is the difference between the face of man which God made and his Picture drawn by an earthly skilfull hand though this be too distant to expresse it yet 't is the best we can light upon there the prime and true beauty is in the living face and the second the resemblance the counterfeit of it in his image so here the most excelling blessednesse is in the Deity it selfe and the next from him upon those creatures of his who were facti ad similitudinem ejus made after his likenesse and are his Image He is true Blessednesse in himselfe and to us but to us how no otherwise than as he is applied unto us and we conjoyn'd unto him which act of joyning us unto him and applying him unto us is that which is called Fruitio or Visio Dei when we perfectly enjoy him by our sight of him and see him as he is This is that act which is our formall blessednesse For God though he be blessednesse yet he is not formally in us but objectivè as the School speaks or effectivè That which makes us formally blessed is the sight of his glorious countenance that which makes us thus like to him is that we see him as he is His servants shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads Revel 22.3 4 5. Now can this be the portion of any living man to see his face this which was denied to Moses his so beloved Servant to whom he had said I know thee by name and thou hast found grace in my sight Exod. 33.12 grace in it but not the sight it selfe yet to him Thou canst not see my face no no man shall see me and live v. 20. if not see his face and live then not that true blessednesse which consists in that sight while we live There is a measure of seeing God in this life and so a measure of happiness but neither full we see God in his workes O come hither and behold the works of the Lord Psal 46.8 And These see the workes of the Lord Psal 107.24 And Behold the goodnesse and severity of God Rom. 11.22 This is with Moses to see the back parts of Jehovah Exod. 33.23 to behold him in his workes of Power and Justice and Goodnesse So then there is a cleer and open seeing of our Creator that true beatifical Vision which the blessed Saints and Angels in Heaven only enjoy and there is a weaker sight a more obscure glimpse of the Deity which only the servants of God have here by faith they and none else neither Heathen who are not called to the knowledge of God nor wicked men who resist the Grace of God calling them who do not open to him when he knocks nor yield obedience to the good motions of his Spirit these see him not at all They have eyes but see not Matth. 13.14 at most seeing they see but do not perceive the eye of their mind is so wholly darkned that it is and they are darknesse it selfe as S. Paul tels the Ephesians before they were called to the light of grace Eph. 5.8 Now if the eye of thy winde if the light that is in thee be darknesse how great is that darknesse Matth. 6.23 And can darknesse it selfe see so great a darknesse see God himselfe him whom eye hath not seen Isa 64.4 He is seen but by one of these two wayes cleerly by them in heaven and sub-obscurely by his on earth we have ground for them both in one verse of St. Pauls 1 Cor. 13.12 Now we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face just the same that I told you from 1 John 3.2 We shall see him as he is In a word we are blessed here onely in that we hope we shall be blessed hereafter and that hope of blessednesse is grounded upon the hope we have that we shall see God face to face Blessed are the pure in heart saies Christ Matth. 5.8 why they shall see God they are blessed because they shall be blessed This was the ground of Job's happinesse while he liv'd in regard whereto death and destruction could not hurt him Though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Job 19.26 This was it that made David blessed here and was such a preservative to him against fainting in the midst of all his troubles I should utterly have fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodnesse of the Lord where in the land of the living Psal 27.15 So that the blessednesse which we have here consists in the hope that we shall be blessed in Heaven Without salvation no perfect blessednesse that 's sure but we are saved by hope Rom. 8.24 and we are blessed only by hope whilst here we live neither is revealed yet the glory that shall be revealed so the Apostle cals it Rom. 8.8 for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for v. 24. I hope we may now conclude this point with that saying of the wise-man Ecclesiasticus 11.28 Judge no man blessed before his death for before blessed he shall be die he must sayes our Text Blessednesse is first in the order of the words but in the order of nature death and with that exhortation of the Prophet David which follows upon the confidence he had that he should see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living Psal 27. that for blessednesse sake we would not rush upon death as some Heathens being taught the immortality of the soul cast themselves and their souls away that they might be immortal but rather Tarry the Lords leisure be strong and he shall comfort thy heart and put
Rom. 8.29 so conformed that we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5.20 't is an Hebrew phrase they were wont to say of their Brothers and kinred Os meum est caro mea he is my bone and my flesh as having received from the same loins and womb the same matter of flesh and bones common between them I beyond all this besides the fleshly substance which Brothers receive from the same Parents they do most what agree in the likenesse of disposition which they draw from the same common birth 'T is so with the Sons of God when they are made the Brethren of Christ being born of the Spirit of God besides that they partake of the same nature they are of the same mind with him which token of Brotherhood the Apostle requires in us Phil. 2.5 Let this minde be in you which was in Christ Jesus they are of the same spirit and minde they are pure even as he is pure 1 John 3.3 'T is his quickening and sanctifying spirit that puts life into them and makes them his members that puts holinesse into them and makes them his Brethren The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren Hebr. 2.11 This our so near conjunction with Christ and being in him the Apostle hath fitly express'd Rom. 11. by a Graft grafted into a Plant by which resemblance is fully made good what I have said concerning the nearnesse of a Christian to Christ by faith and his spiritual living in him in as much as the Graft and the Plant are now made both one thing not only one and the same matter which before was different and two the one a good Olive-tree the other wilde but further that the same sap also does nourish all and the same spirit gives life and growth to all and all this by faith as v. 20. because of unbeliefe they were broken off the natural branches the Jewes Tu vero fide but thou standest by faith thou standest as he that tels thee so S. Paul lived by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 'T is the same in effect with that which the Son of God had taught before John 15. I am the Vine ye are the branches v. 5. Now the branch who knowes not lives in the Vine has the same life common with it sprouts and springs forth from the same power within and we as that must bring forth the fruits of the same spirit For deceive we not our selves beloved 't is not enough to professe Christ outwardly to say we believe in him this does not prove us to be ingrafted into him no more than the bramble was therefore King because it said unto the Trees If in truth ye annoint me King Judg. 9.15 this was only said there was no truth in it therefore there was no truth in it because of that other truth which Christ hath said that of a Bramble-bush men do not gather Grapes Luke 6.44 because it is altogether fruitlesse But if we do indeed and in truth cleave unto Christ by a true and lively faith an effectual and operative faith a faith working by love and bringing forth the fruits of good Works then be sure we are in him The branch cannot bear of it selfe except it abide in the Vine no more can ye saies Christ except ye abide in me John 15.4 And therefore when S. Paul had comforted the faithfull with an assurance of freedome from condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. because our being in him by faith is an internal note and cannot so easily be discerned he adds presently v. 1. another an external a practical note of Gods children whereby they may be known even by the fruit of their Faith who walk saies he not after the flesh but after the spirit All men carry their flesh about them with the infirmities of it and do often feel the force of sin within themselves but Rom. 6.13 Vers 12. so they yield not to it so they suffer it not to reign in their mortal bodies so they do not obey it in the lusts thereof Rom. 8.13 Rom. 6.4 but dayly strive to mortifie by the Spirit the deeds of the body so they walk in newnesse of life and not after the old man the flesh this is to them a token of the spirit of God in them that spirit is a pledge of their faith and both an assurance that they are in Christ so as not to be condemned when they are judged so as to have begun their state of blessednesse Now if they be thus happy who are in him as in that Text of the Apostle and thus in him as in our exposition upon it then surely they who abide in him as in that other Text of S. John holding fast that which they have that no man take away their crown abide in him till they have passed through Epistle and Gospel and come to this Text here in the Revelation that they die in the Lord holding fast the same faith unto the end and by the force of it recommending their spirit Lu. 23.46 in the end into the hands of him that gave it they must not doubt to partake of this blessednesse pronounc'd by a voice from Heaven Blessed are the dead that thus die They are blessed who live in the Lord by the faith of Christ who believe in him Beata quae credidit saies Elizabeth to the blessed Virgin Luke 1.45 thou are blessed in that thou hast believed but in a far lower degree according to the measure of our knowledge such is our happinesse but that knowledge which we have of God by faith is but a beginning of that we shall have by sight we know him now but in part 1 Cor. 13.9 But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away Then we shall know even as we are known v. 12. then shall we enjoy that perfect blisse which only can give us satisfaction satiabor cum evigelavero saies holy David Psal 17.16 I shall behold thy face in righteousnesse and when I awake up after thy likenesse I shall be satisfied with it Beloved ye have seen in part wherein this blessednesse consists which is the greatest and most absolute good to man that he can desire and who they be that shall obtain it To exhort you to the desire of so great a good were needlesse since every man does by nature long after it with the strongest bent of his affection 't is a thing born with us and we cannot choose but covet earnestly this best gift to be happy but 1 Cor. 12.21 because we often fail in our judgment of the right way to it and now that this voice from Heaven has made known unto us the only certain entrance that must convey us thither yield we willingly to this perswasion for our own good that we apply our hearts