many years and of noted zeal and fervency in what she apprehended to be the truth and right way of God walking for diverse years with and of good note among some people called Independants amongst whom her love and liberality zeal and diligence in seeking after God according to their principles were conspicuous and her yet remaining works for them and their entertainment speak yet for her But it pleased God in process of time to open her understanding in the Scriptures of truth and righter way of the Lord in giving her to perceive his Grace in Christ to all mankind according to the received doctrine of the Church of England and freeness to impart it to all and interest any of all there-through in his everlasting Covenant in coming to him and to bring her into acquaintance with a people believing and walking therein Chiefly I think by means of her son in law Mr Jeremy Coleman Minister of Hethersest in Norfolke a man of a sweet and excellent spirit and usefully precious in his generation who some years before her though young was taken away as a chastisement to many yet surviving How readily she received the Testimony of the Grace of God in its extent and how well she relisht it and retained it and how blamelesly and uprightly she walked in it for divers years before her decease and untill her decease I suppose many can Testifie And so that she was so far as men may judge a truly righteous person because seeking and accepting of the Lord Jesus Christ only to be her righteousness in her generation to her capacities which were none of the meanest Her constancy in the faith of Christ her love to it her charity and liberality her blamelesness c. yet live in the memories of diverse though she be dead now some time since and long may they there live A woman she was that had a close therefore better than his that died unlamented and indeed worthy to be lamented in respect of others though to be rejoiced in in behalfe of her self The loss many have and will have of her is to be bewailed by us for as she was good and useful to many while she lived so now being dead that usefulness cannot but be missed Chiefly her onely son hath a loss of her whom she had a most motherly and affectionate care of being as yet in his minority and a little too much indulgence for his sake and to have seen him well disposed of and much more truly well disposed she could have been glad if God had pleased to have lived here yet a little longer otherwise for her self content to be dissolved and to be with Christ How gravely and graciously as I was informed I being then not there she did instruct and admonish him when her sickness began to seize on her and she thought death approached some yet can well rememberâ— and I pray God he himself may not forget it but may follow her good admonitions advise and practises as long aâ— he lives A loâ—â— the town and neighborhood had of her who may w◠〈◊〉 lament that one so useful to and among them 〈…〉 The good relief the poor had and the good 〈…〉 and matters of health the sick and 〈…〉 the good opportunities such as would had and more also might have had for receiving instructions in the Gospel and truth of God for their souls by her means as a countenancer and promoter thereof speak for lamentations upon her death her freinds and relations have the want and loss of her company and acquaintance (a) Chiefly her ouâ— Daughter 〈…〉 of Yaâ—moâ—h but she we trust is above the reach of loss and wants as to her self In many respects therefore her Death is greatly to be lamented but in respect of her death it self and in respect of her self in and by death cause of gladness and much rejoycing That she did well while she lived and lived so long as she did considering her weak body much craziness and often infirmities to do so much good as she did and that she dyed in the faith of Christ and hope of his glory to be revealed upon her and injoyed by her at the appearing again of the Lord Jesus these are matters to be rejoyced in and for Her righteous doing here is at and end but her righteousness in which she was righteous and which in that righteousness she did endureth for ever for she was righteous in that sense of righteousness too as it is taken for mercy and almsdeeds so that it might be said of her she dispersed and gave to the poor her righteouâ—ness endureth for ever and therefore her hâ—rn shall be exalted with honor Psal 112.7 The consideration of the goodness of her life but much more of the happiness of her death and of her state as dead put me in minde of what Balaam wisht and put me upon explicating it in order to the consideration of the desirableness of what he wished and desired Well she is gone and gone to the best place we trust that she could go to even to the presence of the Lord Jesus in whom and through whose grace she and what she did had allowance and acceptance and with whom she is above our wishing and praying for any thing more for her except that Gods Kingdom may come and therein the accomplishment of hers and all our happiness Being a woman that feared God and wrought righteousness as she was accepted of God so she may be praised of men for favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised and though I cannot say of her in all things as was said of that unparalel'd woman Prov. 31. yet we may say in her commendations she was doubtless among the daughters that did vertuously though I will not say that she eâ—â—elled all the rest Prov. 31 30 31. Let us also imitate whatsoever was truly praise-worthy in her giving diligence that we may die the death of the righteous by living their life that our latter end may be like hers ADieu adieu dear Friend that state possess Wherein the upright Souls have endless bless What others but desired thou hast gain'd What we yet pray for thou hast now obtain'd Freed from all earthly dross and worldly cares Thou hast that peace now which nothing impairs Thy righteousness which here thou followdst after Like Sarahs womb hath brought forth only laughter For nought but joy and happiness attends The Soul that on the Lord alone depends Who trusting in him doth what 's good how well He speeds at last no mortals tongue can tell But thou in part injoyst what we below Can see but glimmerings of not fully know Thy Race is run thy Goal's obtain'd and thou Art far above the reach of danger now Oh happy Soul But blest for ever be That precious Lamb of God that made thee free Free him to close with and believe on here Free now from sin
be an aftertime is requisite and necessary and that it shall be so is most certain For 1. The righteousness and stedfastness of his Law and Doctrine his love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity and his righteousness in rewarding vertue and punishing sin and wickedness must be declared 2 Thes 1.4 5 6. Heb. 6.10 11. He is the righteous Lord that loveth righteousness Psal 11.7 And He is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. pâ— Ajax Flag but hates all the workers of iniquity Psal 5.4 5 6. And therefore hath in his Law and Doctrine promised and proposed great rewards and blessings to the righteous and threatned great wrath and punishment to the wicked Levit. 26. Deut. 28. But 2. This Time is not the time in which these things are sufficiently manifested and fulfilled This is but the time of workings not of recompencing and rewarding All the time of this life is a time of work and labor and therefore there must be another time of reward For here neither are the righteous evidently rewarded with or enjoy the promised blessings Heb. 11.13 nor the wicked punished according to their wickedness so as may either sufficiently evidence Gods love and faithfulness to the one or his wrath and hatred against the other the truth of his threatnings True it is that God doth give some rewards or rather encouragements to goodness here in inward peace and comfort and oft-times in outward and signal preservations and deliverances from dangers and benefits conferred Especially to Societies and Companies of men as Cities and Nations doing righteously and cleaving to it For otherwise there would be no encouragements here to serve God and walk in his wayes that might induce the world thereto or such as are chiefly yet sensual But his service must needs be a sad and uncomfortable exercise and especially in communities or common bodies as Kingdoms Cities and Common-wealths as such which as one well observes shall never be restored into their publick capacities again to be as such rewarded Nor would it be known by experience or rationally thought that the giving such benefits here appertained to God or that he takes notice of mens righteous or evil doings if God should give such mercies to none that ask or desire them or that fear and serve him And again on the other hand true it is that some wicked men and especially Nations and Common-wealths for the reason above noted are punished here with severe and smart judgments for their wickedness as Egipt De civ Dei lib. 1 cap. 8. Si nulium peccatum nunc punires aperte diviniâ—as nulla esse divina providentia crederetur Babilon Jerusalem Pharaoh Saul Haman c. otherwise as St. Augustine also notes men would believe no Divine providence nor have sufficient evidence of Gods anger against wickedness to move them to beware of it and fear the judgements further threatned But yet neither are the encouragements here given to the righteous persons especially in their personal considerations such as either answer or evidence the greatness of Gods love to them or come up to such promises as The meek shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in the abundance of Peace Psal 37.11 that they are blessed of the Lord and shall endure before him for ever And many the like nor are they common or general to all of them as to such at least as are outwardly and visibly testifyed Many of them in the eye of the world and to their own sense as some of themselves oftimes complain being plagued all the day long and afflicted every morning Mala corporis bona sunt anim Lact lib. 5. cap 7. So as they are ready to say and others to think that they in vain cleanse their hearts and wash their hands in innocency Psal 73.13 14. being as the Scripture saith else where oftimes killed all the day long and made as Sheep for the slaughter Rom. 8.36 Yea seem to the world to die miserably and receive no reward here for their love to righteousness and to God and Christ testified in their death As on the other hand the wicked oftimes prosper all their lives become old and grow great in power have none or no remarkable wrath testified against them either in their life their houses being safe from fear and they prospering in the world or in their Death having no bonds therein as Psal 73.3 4 5-12 Job 21.6 7 8 c. Yea and they of them that are punished here are not punished beyond what some one of their innumerable sins may deserve nay little more than what lays upon all good and bad commonly befalls them For what had Pharoah more than Josiah in being Drowned or Saul in being killed in the Battel or Haman in being hanged more than ordinarily is felt in men dying except the suddainness the frightfulness publickness and shame therein or some such concomitant making their falls exemplary and testimonies of vengeance Many a man that dies on his bed of the Colick or Stone or Strangury endures more torment yea and many righteous persons endure as suddain violent and shameful Deaths even for righteousness as many Martyrs and those mentioned Heb. 11.35 36 37. St. Lawrence on the Gridiron endured as much for Christ as Ahab and Keliah for Idolatry and Adultery whom the King of Babylon roasted in the Fire Jer. 29.22 23. as to what was visible Here all things happen to the outward eye promiscuously and to all alike as to the evil so to the good as to him that feareth the Lord so to him that feareth him not God now causing his Sun to shine on good and bad and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5.45 he desiring the Death of none no not of the wicked invites them by his goodness long-suffering and forbearance to repentance And some of them doubtless are led to repent thereby though others harden their hearts there-against and in their impenitency treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelations of the righteous judgment of God Matth. 11.21.23 and 12.41 Rom. 2.4 5. and on the other side God often corrects both good and bad that he might exercise the faith of the one and more purifie and prepare them for his glory making them therethrough partakers of his holiness and that he might admonish and awaken the other to repentance that his soul might be kept from going down to the pit c. Job 33.29 and some are awakened thereby to repentance though some when Gods hand is lifted up will not see Deus non exclusit mala ut ratio virtutis constare posset Lact. Isa 26 9 10. though indeed the righteous have the greatest share of troubles and evils here for the greater evidencing and adding worth and luster to their faith and obedience And also for the preparing them for and magnifying or inhancing their after-rewards Their light and momentany
sufferings here working for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 As also because they have all their punishment here none hereafter As the contrary may be some reason of the wickeds more prospering here Luc. 16.26 and so as Austin well observes * Tam patientia Dei ad poenitentia invitat males sicut flagellum Dei od patientiam erudit bones Itemâ— misericordia Dei fovendos amplectitur bones sicut severitas Dei pnniendos corripit malos c. Ang. de ci vit Dei lib. 1. cap. 8. the patience of God invites the wicked to repentance and the Rod of God nurtures the good to patience Sometime again the mercy of God embraces the good that are to be cherished and the severity of God chastens the wicked that are to be punished Again God would have these temporal matters common to both That good men might neither greedily covet what good things they see to be but the portion of the wicked here nor shamefully avoid such troubles as they see for the most part befall the good Here then evident it is is neither the time nor place of the full manifestation of Gods righteous judgment on either And therefore 3. It remains that seeing God hath said he will punish all the workers of iniquity and reward all that are righteous and patiently persevere in well doing that there must be another an aftertime and state in which his word that must not pass or fall to the ground shall be accomplished and his righteousness both to the one and the other and his love to righteousness and hatred of iniquity be fully manifested Rom. 2.5 which must therefore be after Death But then again 4. Seeing in the state of Death and separation of the Body and Soul though indeed there is a different dispose of their Souls as aforesaid and as will after appear and be more cleared yet what is done then to the Soul or Spirit by way of reward or punishment is neither of the whole guilty or praise-worthy subject The Body having sinned also and been active in the wickedness of the wicked and on the other hand hath wrought what is good and suffered injuries and wrongs for Christ and righteousness sake in the righteous and it s but right and reasonable that the whole that shared in the work should share too in the wages though the soul in both being the principal agent and mover of the body it s not unreasonable that both in the one and the other it have the precedency and so have what is allotted in the separated state while the body lies dead and sensless as also seeing what happens to the soul or spirit is not openly evident to the world if evident to those spirits that partake of like state and its meet that Gods righteousness be as openly and evidently seen in the world to men angels as mens works have been as his Law and Doctrine have which they therein kept or broke as also the Promises and Threatnings therein As also many things in the spirits and bodily actings too of men have been here hid as also much of the reason of Gods dealings here and he hath promised open-rewards therefore it follows that it is necessary that there be a resurrection and reviving both of good and bad from the dead and the bringing them to a publike visible open and manifest Judgement so as God and Christ may be openly and manifestly glorified And the good and bad receive open and manifest recompences for their works So as both the good may be openly honoured and rewarded in the veiw of those that have derided and reproach'd them and from and amongst whom they have suffered for and practiced righteousness And the wicked be openly judged amongst and by and punished in the veiw of those over whom they have here gloryed and triumphed and whom they here falsly judged and condemned Such the grounds and reasons for this after-state The Vse consideration of which as thus far carried on by us or rather as so to be carried on by Christ may put us upon a more serious consideration of our Mortallity and Death and seeing that our life here is so momentany and uncertain so as it is compared in the Scriptures to most flitting things as a shadow Job 8 9. and 14.2 a vapour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the shadow of smoke And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dream of a shadow in Sâ—pa and Pindar Jam. 4.14 a post swifter than a post Job 9.25 or a Weavers shuttle Job 7.6 and the like as some of the heathen have compared them to a shadow or smoke or a dream or the dream of a shadow and man himself to an image or shadow and so we know not how soon we may be at that after-part therefore to be more serious passing the time of our present so journing in the fear of God 1 Pet. 1.17 Remembring our Creator in the dayes of our youth or choise while yet Life and Death are before us and either of them may be chosen by us Not to live like because as to our Bodies we are mortal and must die as the Beasts or like the Epicures that say Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die as if there was nothing for us after death either to enjoy or suffer and as if the old Verse of the Epicures were true viz. Ede bibas ludas post mortem nulia voluptas Let us eat drink and play for in the Grave Or after Death no pleasure men shall have So making the consideration of our Death an argument to provoke us to mind and follow after the fading pleasures and enjoyments only of this fading life banishing the remembrances of God out of our hearts as those wicked ones in Job 21.13 14. and 22.16 17. that say to God Depart from us we desire not not the knowledge of thy wayes What can the Almighty do for us But seeing there is something after Death good or bad to be reaped by us according to our lives here it should stir us up to live as men endued with principles of understanding and reason and so capable of knowing and improving those truths concerning us minding and thinking on him who in creating and making us and all other creatures preferred us before and above them and prepared another and a further life for us beyond what he gave or gives them that in calling to mind what he hath done for and to us both in the first Adam and in our own persons as in and from him in making us men indued with his image and likeness and capable of higher happiness than the Beasts of the earth over which he also gave us dominion and also and especially in the second Adam our Lord Jesus in whom he hath ransomed us from the Death we fell into in the first Adam and bought us into his own merciful and righteous Lordship and dispose and given us eternal life a
by Christ So as with respect to him namely Eph 2.4 5. And so 3. It springs from the infinite excellency of the person and the precious vertuousness of the abasement and obedience of the Lord Jesus to the death the death of the Cross and the force and prevalency of his mediation of the new Testament with God his Father in the vertues thereof that the called might receive the promise of the eternel inheritance Heb. 9.15 2 Thes 4.14 1 Pet. 5. 10. For though if man had abode in his innocency he I believe should have been very happy out of the love that God beares to righteousness and to man as his creature abiding righteous yet as it is no where said so neither find I sufficient ground to believe that he should have had the same happiness that now he shall have in and upon the account of Christ Jesus he not only delivering him from his sin but being made also such a righteousness to man as made in him as becomes a new and more glorious foundation of his future happiness then his owne personal righteousness as a pure creature could have been Therefore also it is said that Gods eternal purpose about the Gospel-contents were purposed in Christ Jesus Eph. 1.11 and that Christ at his coming shall be admired in all his Saints it being the glory of Christ that shall then be manifested in and upon them even that that he hath by the vertues of his abasement sufferings and death acquired into the nature of man for us and to be communicated by and with him to us 2 Thes 1.10 and 2.14 It s the great commendation and Manifestation of the strength and excellency of this foundation that it is counted worthy of and meet for such a glorious superstructure to be built upon it and that its able to support and uphold such a weight an exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Sure if our sufferings in and for him work for us such a weight of glory as some particular rewards of them in that Kingdom what did his sufferings for us work whence all our sufferings for him have their foundation motive and value but even the whole Kingdom it self and all its glory Such was his unspeakable love and grace in abasing himself so low at the will and appointment of his Father and suffering so great things for man that as he is accounted worthy to receive of God his Father highest dignity honor and glory in the manhood and for men even power and riches wisdom and strength honor and glory and blessing Rev. 5.12 so also such is the infinite prevalency of his mediation with his Father through the same that he obtains of him what he desires and such is his infinite love and grace to his that love and obey him that as his Father loves him so he loves them Joh. 15.9 and therefore aim'd at askes and obtaines of his Father for them the highest and most inconceivable happiness and glory that may be injoyed by them whence also we may say that 4 It springs from Christs unspeakeable love to them as his Members Spouse Inheritance which is such as that he thinks nothing too good or great for them that he hath in his power or may by his power and prevalency obtain of God for them Thence he tells them that he appoints to them a Kingdom as his Father appointed him that they may sit and eat and drink with him at his table in his Kingdom and sit on thrones c. Luc. 22.28 29. Rev. 2.26 27. and 3.21 and to give to them to sit with him on his throne and he gave himself for his Church that he may sanctify it with the washing of water in the word to present it to himself a Glorious Church c. Ephes 5.26 27. improving all the infinite vertues of his Cross and Sufferings and all the authority and power he hath with his Father and over all things for the advancing them to the heighth of happiness How great must that happiness needs be how great that glory that shall be to the heighth of Christs power and interest by which also they are prepared for that glory and brought to it too Whence the Spouse glories also my beloved is mine He and all that he is and hath and I am his to love delight in and make me happy as well as also to obey and serve him Yea 5. It springs from the love both of the Father and Son to them which leads them so to accept of any their breathings after them love and services to them as to reward them not after their worthiness in themselves but according to the graciousness of their own acceptance of them in their love to them and according to the infinite munificence and magnificence of so great and glorious persons so as they may shew forth the glory of their grace and love therein to them and upon them 6 It springs from the truth and faithfulness of God and Christ for whereas love and goodness led or moved God and Christ to promise so great and glorious recompences to them that overcome their corruptions and lusts and wills and enemies in the power of his grace given them in Christ and that do not through sloth cowardliness or contempt of the riches of his goodness unbelief or the like yeild themselves to them his faithfulness truth and power are ingaged to perform and make good these ingagements to them To which he hath bound himself both by promise and oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lye they may have strong consolation that flee for refuge to the hope set before them Heb. 6.13.17 18. Now God is faithful and able to perform that that he hath promised and will not faile his righteousness shall be seen and glorified therefore in the performance to the heires of promise 2 Thess 1.5 6. 7. Lastly it springs also from the great wisdom of God that such and so great a reward and End was prepared for and is promised by him that he may induce and incourage the hearts of poor mortal creatures to obedience to the faith of Jesus and to the way and practise of righteousness For such is the power of corruption errour and ignorance in us naturally such the powerful influences of this world and its allurements upon us such the force also of its threats frownes and hardships to be met with in the way of God and such the force and violence of Satan in thrusting against us in and with all afore-mentioned and endeavouring to ruine us that did not God bid so high for us and our service he would have few that would deny themselves of the baits and encounter with and stand against the difficulties and discouragements they meet with But the veiw of such a price or prize kept in the eye may and doth and will allure and draw and keep up the heart in and through Christ Jesus to all