A Funeral Sermon Preached at Deptford June 3. 1688. Upon the occasion of the Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Kilbury Late Wife of Mr. John Kilbury By Henry Godman Minister of the Gospel With Allowance LONDON Printed for Nath. Crouch at the Bell in the Poultrey near Cheapside 1688. TO THE READER THat thou may'st profit by thy hearing or reading of Sermons There is a necessity of more Pastors and Teachers to open and apply the Word than one Thou must act the part of a Pastor and Teacher unto thy self and thine own Soul. The Ministers Application without thine own will be to little or no purpose When there is the Application of the Word to the heart by preaching and the Application of the heart to the Word preached by serious Meditation when I say both these meet and strike one upon the other there will by the help of the spirit who is always ready to promote his work be some sire struck and a kindling of some good things in our Souls towards the Lord our God meditate on these things saith the Apostle that thy profiting may appear Reader if thou wouldst meditate well on this plain Sermon and ponder with thy Heart and Soul on these plain truths that are here laid down thou wouldst doubtless find them to be blessed for thy Spiritual and Eternal advantage but without this all will prove but empty words and the whole Discourse but as so much water spilt upon the ground This Sermon was calculated for a plain Countrey Auditory such as it is I mean rude rough and unpolisht as it is I let it go Being importuned by the earnest desires of several persons especially those concerned for the preaching of it to send it forth And indeed to tell you the truth if I had never so many polished shafts in my Quiver as I have none I should not care to draw them out in my Ministerial work being convinced in my Soul and Conscience that there is very little work done for God or Mens Souls this way I don 't at all affect to tickle means ears with pleasing Eloquence or to humour their fancies Though the flashy Professors of our Age whose Religion lies all in their fancies memories or minds for there is little or nothing of it in their hearts like nothing else I am sure that God in the Scripture doth not labour to please mens ears nor to adorn his matter with a curious garment of words but represents the matter it self to the Souls of men as that which is worthy of all acceptation The things of God need no humane Eloquence to commend them Painting spoils Native Beauty and external Ornaments would disfigure some things that are of themselves Proportioned and Lovely It 's that preaching which the world counts foolish and which men being vain in their imaginations are ready to despise that is made mighty through God for the casting down the Devils Kingdom and the setting up the Kingdom of Christ in the Souls of men If God would please to bless these plain things for the good of any poor Souls then I should easily despise all the exceptions of the Curious and slight all the cavils of the Captious That the Lord may water these Seeds with his Blessing shall be my Prayer Farewel Psalm 73. 25 26. Whom have I in Heaven but thee And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my Portion for ever My Beloved THIS Text was bequeathed unto me and you as I may say by the last Will and Testament of a Deceased Friend both mine and yours which the Lord can make more profitable to us than thousands of Gold and Silver And I am sure it was the earnest desire of her that left it that it might be blest to us all for our everlasting benefit In the first verse of the Psalm the sweet Singer of Israel lays down a Consolatory Proposition for the whole Israel of God to cheer up and refresh their Souls withal in their darkest and most cloudy seasons of trouble and affliction Truly God is good to Israel even to such as are of a clean heart As if he should say though God may seem by his Providence to neglect the ways of men and the worst in the view and judgment of sense may seem to prosper most and the best be of all men the most miserable yet for all this I am sure that this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation That God is good to his Israel and will do them good Then to come near to the Text he tells us that God will guide them v. 24. by his counsel and hereafter will receive them to his glory He speaks indeed in the singular number as of himself but you are to understand him in what he says as personating all the People of God Therefore it must needs be well with the People of God here since Infinite Wisdom doth guide and direct them and it shall certainly go well with them hereafter since Infinite Glory then shall crown them Which blessed Estate the Psalmist esteemed above all that this world can afford because God in that estate will be all in all in the faith hope and expectation of the enjoyment of him for ever knowing that in him he shall inherit all things he incourages and comforts his Soul in his present troubles verse 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee And what is there upon Earth that I desire besides thee The words you see are an Interrogation which here hath the force of a Negation Thus there is nothing Lord in my Judgment either in Heaven above or on the Earth beneath that is of any real worth and value to me or affords any comfort to my Soul besides thy self Now the doctrinal Observation which I shall draw from hence is this Doct. That God is the All of a gracious and godly Soul. Other things to him are but as Cyphers that signifie nothing are but as shadows which are something in shew but nothing in substance the things that the men of the world court and adore the Trinity which the world doth worship which are earthly pelf sleshly pleasure and airy honour are nothing less than nothing and vanity in compaparison to him unto such a Soul. Take this in two or three particulars 1. This gracious Soul sees all things in God I am God All-sussicient saith God to Abraham and I see thou art so saith this Soul to God. In thy breasts are all things as the Hebrew word imports out of which we may draw and suck every thing that we need either for the vile Body or the precious Soul he sees by an Eye of Faith and the Vision of an enlightned mind that all things are in God comprehensively eminently virtually superlatively according to what we read Rev. 21. 7. He that overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God. The carnal heart
other he will then will our Beauty consume away as a moth and this blow of his hand will make our flesh to fail 2. Mans heart will fail This heart of man which is that part that is primum vivens and ultimum moriens in him which is first alive and dies last this heart will fail grow cold and die away It dies last but die it must This strong hold in man will be assaulted and forced nolens volens whether it will or no to surrender to the power of sickness and death Sickness will come and closely besiege it one Disease and Distemper or another will give it a Summons then Death will come that Mighty Conqueror and break the very strings of it and so quite subdue it Thus as you read Eccles 12. ver 6. This golden bowl will be broken and the pitcher will be broken at the fountain and the wheel will he broken at the cistern that is the heart of man with all the instrumental and subservient parts whereby supplies of Blood and Spirits are conveighed from it into the several parts of the Body will break and fail and the Offices of these parts will cease and be performed no more 3. We are to shew from whence this failing doth proceed The answer to this Question hath occasioned many serious thoughts amongst the Wise men of this world I mean amongst many Sage Heathens and Profound Philosophers these evils and miseries they were sensible of and complained of them but the rise and original of them they could not come to the knowledge and understanding of This wisdom and understanding was too deep for them to sound with their line of reason and too difficult for them to attain unto Therefore they looked upon death and all the failings and tendences thereunto to be a common Tribute laid upon every Creature to pay to be an Universal Law that all Mankind must obey and submit to And to have the same reason that other mutations and changes have which they did see in the course of nature every day And they could render no other reason but the same which they gave when they saw other things dissolved into their Elements This is a common fate Sic fata volunt It 's so appointed by the Higher Powers but the reason of the appointment they could not find out And because they did apprehend no farther it 's no great wonder why they did fear death and dissolution no more than they did but rather expected or desired it as a rest from their labours and an end of all their sorrows and miseries But God hath shewn in his Word unto us the true cause of all our woe and the original of our failing and dying that all proceeds from mans sin Hinc illae lachrymae from this cursed root of bitterness doth spring and arise all our Worm-wood and Gall. Rom. 5. 12. By one mans disobedience sin entred into the world and death by sin Death with all its appurtenances with all that leadeth to it and all the miseries that follow after it all are the issues and products of sin There had been no sickness no death no failing of heart or flesh had there been no sin Man hath sown unto the flesh and therefore of the flesh must reap corruption Gal. 6. 8. Sin as naturally produceth these evils as every Seed doth produce and send forth its own Herb It 's this that hath opened the Sluce and let in that Inundation of miseries that we poor Creatures are assaulted and over-whelmed withal It 's storied Of a Person travelling in Germany and beholding the ruins and desolations which the Wars had made there that he said Haec sunt peccata Germanorum that is these ruins and desolations are the Germans sins meaning that their sins and provocations were the procuring causes of all their mischiefs and miseries James 4. ver 1. The Apostle proposes a question and gives the resolution of it From whence saith he come wars and fightings with all their mischievous and destructive attendances He tells us they come from the lusts of men that war in their members against the Lord and against their own peace comfort and tranquillity There had been nothing but good Seed in the whole Creation which would have brought forth good fruit had not man by his sin sowed tares There had been no pricking bryar nor grieving thorn there had been nothing to hurt or destroy in the whole Universe had it not been for mans sin Man hath sowed the wind and reaps the whirl-wind We will now make some brief Application and so dispatch this point VSE I. Let 's all look to this that all be well within with our Souls and Spirits because these failings and failures will certainly come upon our slesh and our hearts Oh look to your Souls and ask them often how they do And whither they are not in danger of failing too I mean of being lost and undone for ever Oh it 's sad to have a failing Body and a perishing Soul to have a pained and languishing Body and to have a pained and dying Soul troubles without and terrors within this must needs be doleful and dismal The spirit of a man will bear the infirmities and failings of the Body if that be but sound and in a good condition but if that be wounded and galled with the guilt of sin and apprehensions of wrath what is there then to help us to bear VSE II. Let 's think seriously of this failing Make me to know how frail I am Psalm 39. 4. Help me to apâ—rehend and consider what a poor failing Creature I am saith David those of you that have Bones full of Marrow and Breasts of Milk that are in your Health and Strength and seem to slourish like the green Bay-tree Oh consider this and lay it to heart that your Flesh and your Hearts must fail before it be long The Lord help us so to consider it that we may apply our hearts to Wisdom Oh that there were such an Heart within us Eccles 11. 8. If a man live many years and rejoice in them all yet let him remember the days of darkness for they will be many Oh don't let us forget the days of darkness let us not put away from us the evil days of failing of trouble and affliction because they will assuredly come upon us Some Heathens accounted it true Wisdom and sound Philosophy to meditate often of Death To be sure this would be of excellent use and would much conduce to the promotion of Piety and true Religion if we would be much in meditation on this Subject Let it be much in your thoughts in your lying down and in your rising up in your going out and in your coming in at home and abroad Oh consider that your Flesh and your Heart must fail in a little time This frequently considered on and often revolved in our minds would by the assistance and operation of the Spirit of grace doubtless better us to
greater cause to weep and howl even in the fulness of their sufficiency than they have to rejoyce and be glad It 's said of Jehoshaphat that he had Silver and Gold in abundance Riches and Honour in abundance 2 Chron. 17. 5 6. but his heart was lift up to God in the ways of God He valued not himself by his Riches and Honour but by his relation to God and interest in him without whom all other things had been but low-priz'd Commodities and of very little account with him The wicked man's Riches Honours and good things are his All for what hath he more God pays them their Portion in the World's Coin and in a little while will say unto them You have received your Consolation And then they will wish that they had begg'd their Bread with Lazarus on Earth rather than their Water with Dives in Hell. Oh! pity these miserable Souls they have nothing within them or without them that can do them any good They have nothing but Sin within them and that will damn them they have nothing but the World without them and that cannot save them no it will prove a heavy Mill-stone about their necks which will sink them down deeper into the Gulf of Eternal Woe and Misery I now pass on to the next which is the 26th verse My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Where you have the Psalmists Complaint And secondly the Psalmists Comfort In the former part of the verse you find him going forth weeping My flesh and my heart faileth but because he had within him precious seed For light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart This seed is already sown in their Hearts and Souls Therefore in the latter part of the verse we find him returning again rejoycing with his Sheaves in his bosom But God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever We will first consider his Complaint My flesh and my heart faileth 〈◊〉 will fail my flesh will fail my heart will fail in a little time He speaks in the present tense to notifie the certainty of the failure Such forms of speech are frequently used in Scripture Babylon is fallen is fallen i. e. Babylon shallas surely fall as if it were fallen already The Scripture speaks often of things that will be done as if they were at present done Rom. 8. Whom he justified them he glorified that is they shall as certainly be glorified as if they were already in the Kingdom of Glory Thus here My flesh and my heart faileth that is it 's sure and certain that it will be so My flesh my heart we are not to understand it exclusivè as if it were only appropriate to himself and were not the case of others as weâ—l as his no but you are to understand it inclusivè as meant of all that dwell in these fleshly Tabernacles and Houses of Clay This is a common case there is no exemption from this general Calamity and Affliction The Doctrine from hence which I shall but briefly insist on is this Doct. That the flesh and the heart of every man will certainly fail Though at present this flesh of ours may flourish as the Grass and may be in its beauty as the Flower in the field yet as the Grass soon withereth and the Flower soon fadeth so will it be with our flesh Though at present these hearts of ours may be sound and strong though they are every moment moving and beating in our bosoms always opening or shutting Still busie either in a way of contraction or dilatation but e're long all this work will fail this motion will cease the heart will faint and succumb and the strings of it will be broken in pieces Mans slesh and heart will surely fail I shall in a few words animadvert 1. Vpon the failing of mans Flesh 2. On the failing of mans Heart And then 3. Shew whence this failing proceeds and doth arise And 4. Make some brief Application 1. Mans Flesh that will fail Flesh sometimes is taken in Scripture Sensu morali or rather immorali corrupto in a moral or immoral and corrupt sense for the depraved Nature for the unregenerate Part in man As in Gal. 5. 17. The flesh lusteth against the spirit Rom. 7. 18. In my flesh there dwelleth no good thing So in Gal. 5. 19. The works of the flesh are manifest c. But this is not the meaning of it here Though this flesh shall fail and doth fail for in every regenerate Soul it is dying daily Sin in the Godly hath lost its Sword. So that it can't kill it hath lost its Scepter so that it can't rule and in a few days it shall lose its Being its Habitation and Residence The death of the Body shall be the destruction of the body of death Now sin is dying in them it hath received a deadly wound but then it shall breathe out its last and live no longer to be a Thorn in their Eyes or a Goad in their Sides to vex and disquiet their righteous Souls as now it doth from day to day Then this cursed Inmate shall be turned out of doors and Grace shall dwell alone in the Soul for ever This body of death is now under a Curse and then the Curse of the barren Fig-tree shall fall upon it and no fruit shall ever grow on it more But secondly Flesh is taken and to be understood sensu naturali physico in a natural and physical sense and thus we are to take it here For the fleshly part of man that fleshly substance that our bones are covered withal that fleshly Tabernacle in which the Soul of man doth dwell This flesh will fail Isa 40. 6 7. All flesh is grass and the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth and the flower fadeth so will the flesh All the goodliness of it its comeliness strength and beauty all will fail A blast will come upon all which will cause it to wither and decay which will turn it into rottenness and make it become like a Moth-eaten garment Job 13. 28. How beautiful soever you may now be in a few days your beauty shall be turned into deformity And how strong soever you at present be it will not be long but this flesh of yours will become so weak that it will not be able any longer to hold the spirit The Lord hath determined a Consumption to come upon all flesh Isa 28. 22. and he hath many ways and methods to bring it about As in Deut. 28. 21 22. Either by the pestilence or a fever or an inflammation or an extream burning or the sword c. How many hundred diseases and distempers are there up and down in the world effecting this determined consumption If God give any one of them a Commission to come to us and to effect the same as surely at one time or
a far higher degree than yet we have attained unto 1. We should verily be less earthly than we are did we ponder this more in our hearts than we do We should not be so much concerned about the Body and the things thereof as we are did we seriously consider this Certainly men would not spend their days waste their lives prostitute their Consciences in making provision for their Flesh and in getting supplies for their Bodies did they seriously consider that this Fabrick of the Body this Tabernacle of dust this House of clay is falling down about their ears and then what profit will they have of all that they cared for and laboured after under the Sun Were this well considered we should not be so like the Serpent as we are which goes on its Belly and seeds on Dust Mens Souls cleave unto the dust as David speaks though in another sense Psal 119. 25. Adhaerent pavimento They are as if they were all Flesh and had no Spirit to mind at all as if they were all Body and had no Soul which would not be if this were well considered by us 2. We should be surely more heavenly than we are if we did meditate more on the failing of our Flesh and our Heart We should be more heavenly in our Conversations in our Communications in our Hearts and Affections in our Labours and Indeavours This would cause us to groan to be delivered out of this failing Tabernacle and to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven Here we have no continuing City saith the Apostle Heb. 12. 14. There is not a House in it but what is failing decaying and even ready to drop down Therefore we seek one to come even a City that hath Foundations and will never fail whose Builder and Maker is God. VSE III. Let 's from hence learn to hate sin to a greater degree than yet we do This is the evil of evils the greatest evil of all evils and the evil that is the cause of all our other evils It 's this that doth us all the mischief All our Consumptions our Pains Diseases Distempers Failings come from this cause It 's strange indeed that men should be in love with their deadly Enemy that they should entertain it in their Bosoms that they should lodge it so near their Hearts That they should nourish this Viper which will gnaw out their very Bowels and will assuredly feed upon the slaughters and ruins of its dearest lovers Oh if we love our sins we are cruel unto our own Souls If any man among our selves should take away our Money should fall upon us and beat and wound us or deprive us of any worldly accommodation how easily can we hate such a Person and how hardly be reconciled to him Oh learn to hate sin all ye that love the Lord hate evil all ye that love your selves that love your Souls hate sin There 's nothing more prejudicial and destructive to us This is the Enemy that robs and wounds us this weakens and debilitates our Bodies and ruins our Souls This is the Enemy that separates the Soul from the Body and God from the Soul. Thus we have done with the Psalmists complaint My Flesh and my Heart faileth there 's the dark side of the Cloud We pass on now to the bright side thereof which is the Psalmists comfort But God is the strength of my Heart and my portion for ever Thus as in 1 Sam. 30. 6. he encouraged himself in the Lord his God and in the view and apprehension of the failing of his flesh and his heart these consolations did refresh and delight his Soul. Here I shall only glance a little upon these three particulars which may serve for so many Doctrinal Observations 1. That God is the Believers strength 2. That God is the Believers portion 3. That God is the Believers everlasting portion Every one of these is a Well of Salvation out of which with the Bucket of Faith we may draw out abundance of the Waters of Consolation to chear our Hearts withal in our greatest troubles 1. God is the Believers strength From God he hath strength 1. To bear his burdens Alas without the strength of God we should faint in the day of adversity because our strength is small God puts underneath his everlasting arms and enables them to bear He strengthens them with all might by his Spirit in the inward man and helps to undergo the miseries infirmities and burdens that are upon the outward man therefore by Faith we should cast all our burdens upon him for he hath promised to sustain us Psal 55. 22. He will give us shoulders suitable to our burdens or else suite our burdens to our shoulders 2. From God he hath strength to do his Duties As he gives shoulders for every burden he hath for us to bear so he gives hands for every piece of work he hath for us to do Alas Without him we can do nothing as the Hand can do nothing without the Head the Body can do nothing without the Soul no more can we do without the strength of God Therefore where ever there is a command that finds us work there is always a suitable promise to find us strength I will cause you saith God to walk in my ways my grace shall be made sufficient for you God doth not deal with us as the Egyptian Taskmasters did with the Israelites who required Brick but would give them no Straw God doth not require Duty and Service of us and leave us to get strength to do it where we can no but is pleased graciously to promise that he will give what he doth command and that his Spirit shall help our infirmities and that he will strengthen us unto the performance of every good work 3. From God he hath strength to overcome his corruptions Were it not for the power of God resting on them and working in them these Sons of Zerviah would be too hard for them these mighty Philistines would certainly vanquish and overcome them Therefore he goes out against them in the Name of the Lord as David did against that Philistine Giant 1 Sam. 17. 45 knowing that in his own strength he cannot prevail therefore he begs of God to teach his hands to war and to strengthen his fingers to fight that he may be avenged on the Enemies of God and of his Soul and be made more than a Conquerour in and through the strength and power of Christ Jesus It 's from the Spirit and strength of Christ that any Soul is enabled to mortifie the deeds of the flesh without this strength instead of mortifying our lusts our lusts to be sure would mortifie us and lead us captive as it were bound hands and and feet and triumph over us 4. In God is his strength to stand it out against to resist and to overcome Satan's Temptations The Tempter is strong and we are weak he did overcome Man when he had no