Fountain of Life They enjoy a better Immortality than the Tree of Life could have preserved in Adam The Revolutions of the Heavens and Ages are under their Feet and cannot in the least alter or determine their Happiness After the passing of millions of Years still an entire Eternity remains of their enjoying God O most desirable State where Blessedness and Eternity are inseparably united O joyful Harmony when the full Chorus of Heaven shall sing This God is our God for ever and ever This adds an infinite weight to their Glory This redoubles their unspeakable Joys with infinite sweetness and security They repose themselves in the compleat Fruition of their Happiness God reigns in the Saints and they live in him for ever From what has been discoursed we should I. Consider the woful Folly of Men in refusing such a Happiness that by the admirable favour of God is offer'd to their choice Can there be an Expectation or Desire or Capacity in Man of enjoying a Happiness beyond what is Infinite and Eternal O blind and wretched World so careless of everlasting felicity Who can behold without compassion and indignation Men vainly seek for happiness where 't is not to be found and after innumerable disappointments fly at an Impossibility and neglect their sovereign and final Blessedness Astonishing Madness that God and Heaven should be despised in comparison of painted Trifles This adds the greatest Contumely to their Impiety What powerful Charm obstructs their true judging of things What Spirit of Errour possesses them Alas Eternal Things are unseen not of conspicuous moment and therefore in the carnal Ballance are esteemed light against temporal things present to the Sense It does not appear what we shall be The Vail of the visible Heavens covers the Sanctuary where JESUS our High-Priest is entred and stops the enquiring Eye But have we not assurance by the most infallible Principles of Faith that the Son of God came down from Heaven to live with us and dye for us and that he rose again to confirm our Belief in his exceeding great and precious Promises concerning this happiness in the future state And do not the most evident Principles of Reason and Universal Experience prove that this World cannot afford true Happiness to us How wretchedly do we forfeit the Prerogative of the Reasonable Nature by neglecting our last and blessed End If the Mind be darkned that it does not see the amiable Excellencies of God and the Will so depraved that it does not feel their ravishing power the Man ceases to be a Man and becomes like the Beasts that perish As a blind Eye is no longer an Eye being absolutely useless to that end for which it was made And though in this present state Men are stupid and unconcern'd yet hereafter their Misery will awaken them to discover what is that Supream Good wherein their Perfection and Felicity consists When their folly shall be exposed before God Angels and Saints in what extream confusion will they appear before that glorious and immense Theatre Our Saviour told the unbelieving Jews There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves turn'd out They shall be tortur'd with the desire of Happiness without possible satisfaction 'T is most just that those who err without excuse should repent without remedy 2. Let us be excited seriously to apply our selves in the use of effectual means for the obtaining this Happiness Indeed the original cause of it is the pure rich Mercy of God the meritorious is the most precious obedience of our Saviour by whom we obtain plenteous Redemption His Abasement is the cause of our Exaltation The Wounds he received in his Body the characters of Ignominy and footsteps of Death are the Fountains of our Glory Eternal Life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But the Gospel declares that without Holiness no Man shall see God An holy change of our Natures and perseverance in the course of universal obedience are indispensibly requisite in order to our obtaining Heaven Those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality shall partake of Eternal Life Now were there no other reason of this Constitution but the sovereign Will of God it were sufficient But the Foundation of it is laid in the nature of the Things themselves Therefore our Saviour does not simply declare that an unregenerate Person shal not see the Kingdom of God but with the greatest emphasis cannot to signify an absolute impossibility of it Besides the Legal Bar that excludes unsanctified Persons from the beatifick vision of God there is a moral incapacity Suppose that Justice should allow Omnipotence to translate such a sinner to Heaven would the Place make him happy Can two incongruous Natures delight in one another The happiness of Sense is by an impression of Pleasure from a suitable Object The happiness of intellectual Beings arises from an entire conformity of dispositions So that unless God recede from his Holiness which is absolutely impossible or Man be purified and changed into his likeness there can be no sweet Communion between them Our Saviour assigns this Reason of the necessity of Regeneration in order to our admission into Heaven That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit According to the quality of the Principle such is what proceeds from it The Flesh is a corrupt Principle and accordingly the Natural Man is wholly carnal in his propensions operations and end The Disease is turn'd into his Constitution He is dead to the Spiritual Life to the actions and enjoyments that are proper to it Nay there is in him a surviving Principle of Enmity to that Life not only a mortal coldness to God but a stiff aversation from him a perpetual resistance and impatience of the Divine Presence that would disturb his voluptuous enjoyments The Exercises of Heaven would be as the Torments of Hell to him while in the midst of those pure Joys his inward inclinations vehemently run into the lowest Lees of Sensuality And therefore till this contrariety so deep and predominant in an unholy Person be removed 't is utterly impossible he should enjoy God with satisfaction Holiness alone prepares Men for the possession of Celestial Happiness that is against the corruption and above the perfection of meer Nature Let us then having such a Joy set before us lay aside every weight and the Sin which doth so easily beset us and run with patience the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith Methinks the sight of worldly Men so active and vigilant to prosecute their low designs should quicken us to seek with the greater diligence and alacrity the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof A carnal Wretch urged by the sting of a brutish desire with
illustriate this by comparing the Price of our Redemption and the Reward The Death of Christ is a universal benefit to all the Saints yet 't is so applied to every Believer for his perfect Redemption as if our Saviour in all his Agonies and Sufferings had no other in his Eye and Heart as if all his Prayers his Tears his Blood were offer'd up to his Father only for that Person The common respect of it the Apostle declares in those admirable words that signify such an excess of God's Love to us He that spared not his own Son but deliver'd him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things But to imagine that the propriety of every Believer is thereby prejudiced is not only false but extreamly injurious to the Merit and Dignity and to the infinite Love of Christ. Therefore the same Apostle tells us 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 as if he were the sole Object of Christ's Love the End and Reward of his Sufferings And this appropriating of it to himself is no prejudice to the rights of all others St. John describes himself by that truly glorious Title The Disciple whom Jesus loved Could he speak this of himself without the injury and indignation of the other Disciples Certainly he might For if we consider that incomprehensible Love of Christ exprest to them all at his last Supper after Judas was gone forth As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you We may easily understand that every one of them might justly believe that he was singularly beloved of Christ. They were all received in the Heart though with John they did not all lean on the Breast of their Divine Master Thus in Heaven God is the universal Treasure of all the Saints and the peculiar Portion of every one As by his Essence he equally fills the whole World and every part of it and by his Providence equally regards all and every particular Creature so in Heaven he dispenses the Riches of his Love to all that they cannot desire more if every one of them were if I may so express it the only begotten of the only begotten himself the sole Heir of all the Merits of his Son Every Saint may with the inflamed Spouse break forth in that Triumph of Love My Beloved is mine and I am his Nay the great number of the glorifi'd Saints is so far from lessening their Joy that it unspeakably encreases it The innumerable Company of Angels and the General Assembly of the Church of the First-born next to the happiness of enjoying God are a chief part of Heaven An unfeigned ardent Affection unites that pure society Our Love is now kindled either from a relation in Nature or some visible Excellencies that render a Person worthy of our choice and friendship but in Heaven the Reasons are greater and the degrees of Love incomparably more fervent All Carnal Alliances and Respects cease in that supernatural state The Apostle tells us If I have known Christ after the flesh I know him so no more By the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ he was transported into another World and had communion with him as an Heavenly King without low regards to the temporal Priviledge of conversing with him on Earth The Spiritual relation is more near and permanent than the strictest band of Nature The Saints have all relation to the same Heavenly Father and to Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace and Head of that happy Fraternity The principal motive of Love here is for the inherent Excellencies of a Person Wisdom Holiness Goodness Fidelity are mighty Attractives and produce a more worthy Affection a more intimate Confederacy of Souls than propinquity in Nature David declares that all his delight was in the Excellent But there are allays of this Noble Love here For 1. There are reliques of Frailty in the best Men on Earth some Blemishes that render them less amiable when discovered Here their Graces are mixt Infirmities and but ascending to Glory Accordingly our Love to them must be regular and serene not clouded with Error mistaking defects for amiable qualities But in Heaven the Image of God is compleat by the union of all the glorious Vertues requisite to its perfection Every Saint there exactly agrees with the first Exemplar is transformed according to the primitive beauty of Holiness No spot or wrinkle remains nor any such thing that may cast the least aspect of deformity upon them 2. In the present state the least part of the Saints worth is visible As the Earth is fruitful in Plants and Flowers but its riches are in the Mines of precious Metals the veins of Marble hidden in its bosom True Grace appears in sensible Actions but its Glory is within The sincerity of Aims the purity of Affections the impresses of the Spirit on the Heart the interiour beauties of Holiness are only seen by God Besides such is the humility of eminent Saints that the more they abound in spiritual treasures the less they show As the Heavenly Bodies when in nearest conjunction with the Sun and fullest of light make the least appearance to our sight But all their Excellencies shall then be in view The Glory of God shall be revealed in them And how attractive is the Divine Likeness to an holy Eye How will it ravish the Saints to behold an immortal Loveliness shining in one another Their Love is mutual and reflexive proportionable to the cause of it An equal constant Flame is preserv'd by pure Materials Every one is perfectly amiable and perfectly enamour'd with all Now can we frame a fuller conception of Happiness than such a State of Love wherein whatever is pleasant in Friendship is in perfection and whatever is distastful by Mens folly and weakness is abolish'd The Psalmist breaks out in a Rapture Behold â—…ow good and pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Unity Love is the Beauty and Strength of Societies the Pleasure of Life How excellent is the Joy of the Blessed when the Prayer of Christ shall be accomplish'd that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us God is absolutely One in his glorious Nature and Will and therefore unalterably happy And their inviolable Union in Love is a Ray of the Essential Unity between the sacred Persons There are no Divisions of Heart and Tongues as in this Babel but the most perfect and sweetest Concord an Eternal Agreement in Tempers and Inclinations There are no envious Comparisons for Love that affectively transforms one into another causes the Glory of every Saint to redound to the Joy of all Every one takes his share in the Felicity of all and adds to it Such is the power of that Celestial Fire wherein they all burn that it melts and mixes Souls
what impatience does he pursue the pleasure of Sin which is but for a season An Ambitious Person with what an intemperate heighth of Passion does he chase a Feather A Covetous Man how greedily does he prosecute the Advantages of the present World that passes away and the Lusts thereof Ah! how do they upbraid our indifferent desires our dull delays and cold endeavours when such an high Prize is set before us Who is able to conceive the excesse of Pleasure the Soul feels when it first enters through the beautiful Gate of Paradise and sees before it that incomprehensible Glory and hears a Voice from Him that sits upon the Throne Enter into thy Masters Joy for ever be happy with him The serious belief of this will draw forth all our active powers in the service of God The feeding by lively thoughts on this supernatural food will add new vigor and lustre to our Graces and make our Victory easy over the World If we believe indeed that our Bodies shall be spiritual and our Souls divine in their perfections it will make us resolute to subdue the Rebel Flesh and rescue the captiv'd Spirit from all Intanglements of Iniquity Having the promise of such an excellent Reward let us always abound in the work of the Lord. 3. The lively hope of this Blessedness is powerful to support us under the greatest Troubles can befal us in this our mortal condition Here we are tost upon the alternate waves of Time but hereafter we shall arrive at the Port the blessed Bosom of our Saviour and enjoy a peaceful calm and so we shall ever be with the Lord. Words of infinite sweetness This is the Song of our Prosperity and Charm of our Adversity We shall ever be with the Lord. Well might the Apostle add immediately after therefore comfort one another with these words More particularly They are a Lenitive to moderate our Sorrows upon the Departure of our dearest Friends who dye in the Lord for they ascend from this valley of Tears to the happy Land of the Living What Father is so deserted of Reason as to bear impatiently the parting with his Son that goes over a narrow part of the Sea to a rich and pleasant Country and receive the investiture and peaceable possession of a Kingdom Nay by how much the Stronger his Love is so much the more transporting is his Joy especially if he expects shortly to be with him to see him on the Throne in the state of a King and to partake of his happiness If then it be impossible to Nature to be grieved at the felicity of one that is loved according to what principle of Nature or Faith do Believers so uncomfortably lament the Death of Friends of whom they have assurance that after their leaving our Earth they enter into an everlasting Kingdom to receive a Crown of Glory from Christ himself Our Saviour tells the Disciples If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I said I go to my Father to sit down at his right-hand in Majesty A pure Affection directly terminates in the happiness and exaltation of the Person that is loved I am not speaking against the exercise of tender Affections on the loss of our dear Friends and a pensive feeling of God's hand in it which is an natural and necessary duty There is a great difference between Stupidity and Patience but violent Passion or unremitting Sorrow is most unbecoming the blessed Hope assur'd to us in the Gospel Chrysostom treating of this Argument and reflecting upon the custom of those Times wherein at Funeral Solemnities a train of Mourning Women attended the Corps tearing their Hair and Face and crying out with all the expressions of desperate Sorrow breaks forth Ah Christian Faith and Religion that was triumphant over thine Enemies in so many Battels and Victories by the Blood and Death of the Martyrs how art thou contradicted by the practice of these who profess thee in words Is this not to be sorrowful as those that have no hope Are these the affections the expressions of one that believes the blessedness of Immortal Life What will the Heathens say how will they be induc'd to believe the Promises of Christ to his Servants of a glorious Kingdom when those who are so in title behave themselves as if they had no stedfast faith in them 4. The hopes of this blessed state is able to free us from the fear of Death This last Enemy gives an hot Alarm to Mankind both as it deprives them of all that is pleasant here and for the terrible consequences that attend it To the eye of Sense a dead Body is a spectacle of fearful appearance He that a little before heard and discours'd and with a chearful Air convers'd and enjoy'd the World now is dead and all his senses in him the Eyes are dead to light and the Ears to sounds the Tongue to words and the Heart to feel any Affections and the Countenance to discover them nothing remains but silence horrour and corruption Besides after Death comes Judgment and a state of unrelenting Torments to the Wicked But a true Believer that has been obedient to his Saviour sees things by another light than that of sense and has living hopes in his dying Agonies He knows that Death to the Saints is but a sleep and while the Body rests in the Grave the Soul is as it were all Act continually exercising its most noble faculties on the best Objects Does the Soul sleep in that all-enlightned World that sees with open face the infinite Beauty of God that hears and bears a part in the hymns of the Angels Saints encircling his Throne that drinks of the Rivers of Pleasure that flow from his Presence that freely and joyfully converses with all the Celestial Courtiers the Princes of that Kingdom the Favourites of God Then it truly lives This reconciles Death to a Christian who has nothing more in his wishes than to be with Christ and knows that diseases and pains the forerunners of it are but as the breaking down the Walls of this earthly dark Prison that the Soul may take its flight to the happy Region and for ever enjoy the Liberty of the Sons of God And for his Body that shall be reunited to the Soul in Glory Methinks God speaks to a dying Believer as he did to Jacob when he was to descend to Egypt Fear not to go down into the Grave I will go down with thee and I will bring thee up again The same Almighty Voice that gave being to the World shall awake those who sleep in the dust and reform them according to the Example of Christ's glorified Body O how should we long for that triumphant day and with most ardent Aspirings pray Thy Kingdom come in its full power and glory I Shall now come to speak of the Mournful Subject the Cause of my Appearing here at this time the Deceased Reverend and Excellent Divine Dr. Thomas Manton A Name worthy of
precious and eternal Memory And I shall consider him both in the quality of his Office as he was an Embassadour of Christ declaring his Mind and representing his Authority and in the holiness of his Person shewing forth the Graces and Vertues of his Divine Master God had furnish'd him with a rare union of those parts that are requisite to form a Minister of his Word A clear Judgment rich Fancy strong Memory and happy Elocution met in him and were excellently improved by his diligent study The Preaching of the Word is the principal part of the Minister's duty most essential to his Calling and most necessary to the Church For this end chiefly the several Orders in the Ministerial Office were instituted and upon our Saviour's triumphant ascent and reception into Heaven an abundant effusion of the Spirit in Graces and Abilities descended upon Men. Now in the performing this Work he was of that conspicuous Eminence that none could detract from him but from ignorance or envy He was endowed with extraordinary knowledg in the Scriptures those holy Oracles from whence all Spiritual Light is derived And in his preaching gave such a perspicuous account of the order and dependance of Divine Truths and with that felicity applied the Scriptures to confirm them that every Subject by his management was cultivated and improved His Discourses were so clear and convincing that none without offering voluntary violence to Conscience could resist their Evidence And from hence they were effectual not only to inspire a sudden Flame and raise a short Commotion in the Affections but to make a lasting Change in the Life For in the humane Soul such is the composition of its faculties that till the Understanding be rectified in its Apprehensions and Estimations the Will is never induc'd to make an entire firm choice of what is necessary for the obtaining perfect Happiness A sincere persevering Conversion is effected by weighty Reasons that sink and settle in the Heart His Doctrine was uncorrupt and pure the Truth according to Godliness He was far from a guilty vile intention to prostitute that sacred Ordinance for the acquiring any private secular advantage Neither did he entertain his Hearers with impertinent Subtilties empty Notions intricate Disputes dry and barren without productive Vertue But as one that always had before his Eyes the great End of the Ministry the Glory of God and the Salvation of Men his Sermons were directed to open their eyes that they might see their wretched condition as Sinners to hasten their flight from the Wrath to come to make them humbly thankfully and entirely receive Christ as their Prince and all-sufficient Saviour And to build up the converted in their most holy Faith and more excellent Love that is the fulfilling of the Law In short to make true Christians eminent in Knowledg and universal Obedience As the matter of his Sermons was designed for the good of Souls so his way of expression was proper to that end Words are the vehicle of the heavenly Light As the Divine Wisdom was incarnate to reveal the Eternal Counsels of God to the World so Spiritual Wisdom in the mind must be clothed with words to make it sensible to others And in this he had a singular Talent His Stile was not exquisitely studied not consisting of harmonious Periods but far distant from vulgar meanness His Expression was natural and free clear and strong quick and powerful without any spice of folly and always suitable to the Simplicity and Majesty of Divine Truths His Sermons afforded substantial food with delight so that a fastidious mind could not disrelish them He abhorr'd a vain ostentation of Wit in handling Sacred things so venerable and grave and of eternal consequence Indeed what is more unbecoming a Minister of Christ than to waste the spirits of his Brain as a Spider does his bowels to spin a web only to catch Flyes to get vain applause by foolish pleasing the ignorant And what cruelty is it to the Souls of Men 'T is recorded as an instance of Nero's savage temper that in a general Famine when many perish'd by hunger he ordered a Ship should come from Egypt the Granary of Italy laden with Sand for the use of Wrestlers In such extremity to provide only for delight that there might be spectacles on the Theatre when the City of Rome was a spectacle of such misery as to melt the heart of any but of Nero was most barbarous Cruelty But 't is Cruelty of an heavier imputation for a Minister to prepare his Sermons to please the foolish curiosity of Fancy with flashy Conceits nay such light Vanities that would scarce be endured in a Scene whiles hungry Souls languish for want of solid nourishment His fervour and earnestness in Preaching was such as might soften and make pliant the most stubborn obdurate spirits I am not speaking of one whose talent was only in voice that labours in the Pulpit as if the end of Preaching were for the exercise of the Body and not for the profit of Souls But this Man of God was inflam'd vvith an holy Zeal and from thence such ardent expressions broke forth as were capable to procure attention and consent in his Hearers He spake as one that had a living Faith within him of Divine Truths From this union of Zeal with his Knowledg he was excellently qualified to convince and convert Souls The sound of words only strikes the Ear but the Mind reasons with the Mind and the Heart speaks to the Heart His unparallel'd Assiduity in Preaching declar'd him very sensible of those dear and strong Obligations that lie upon Ministers to be very diligent in that blessed Work What a powerful Motive our Saviour urged upon St. Peter As thou lovest me feed my Sheep feed my Lambs And can any feed too much when none can love enough Can any Pains be sufficient for the salvation of Souls for which the Son of God did not esteem his Blood too costly a price Is not incessant unwearied industry requisite to advance the work of Grace in them to perfection In this the work of a Minister has its peculiar disadvantage that whereas an Artificer how curious and difficult soever his work be yet has this encouragement that what is begun with Art and Care he finds in the same state wherein 't was left A Painter that designs an exact Piece draws many Lines often touches it with his Pencil to give it life and beauty and though unfinish'd 't is not spoild by his intermission A Sculptor that carves a Statue though his labour be hard from the resistance of the matter yet his work remains firm and durable But the Heart of Man is of a strange temper hard as Marble not easily receptive of heavenly impressions yet fluid as Water those impressions are easily defac'd in it 't is expos'd to so many temptations that induce an oblivion of eternal things that without frequent excitations to