they shall be cast out The Lord Jesus will say to sin that foul Spirit as Mark 9.25 Come out and enter no more Well then admit this there shall be no corruption within I may add farther no fear of any temptation from without whether of the Devil or from the World What can Satan do The Devil without us could not harm us were it not for the Devil within us he could do nothing upon Christ John 14.30 Because he was without sin he found nothing in him to fasten his temptations to If he do strike 't is as nothing so long as there is no tinder to catch But besides I believe though he goeth to and fro in the earth that Heaven is none of his walk none of his circuit it is not in his commission or rather permission Add what can the World do to them who are gon out of the World Before they were not of the World now they are not in the World The World here as the Ivy twisting about the tree sucks the heart out It flatters as Jael did Sisera Butter and Milk in a Lordly dish and so nails the temples of the Soul to the ground but after death there shall be no alluring World The World and the things of the World as to them Angeli non habent jumenta shall be no more There is no device in the grave no trading no tilling no shops no farms or cattel we shall be as the Angels who are not combred with these things There as Rev. 12.1 The Moon shall be under our Feet we shall have as little esteem of these sublinary things as the dust under our Feet Thus we have the first branch of the negative part Saints shall be blessed at death because they shall not be infected with the evil of sin 2. After death there shall be as no sinning so no suffering this necessarily follows for take away the cause and the effect will cease there shall be no complaining in those streets and therefore blessed for I may apply the words of the Psalmist Psalm 144.14 15. Happy are the people that are in such a case hereupon earth is nothing but Alass wo is me wo worth the day Not only Hell is full of complaining but the earth also our dayes here are ful of trouble Our life is like the Prophets book Ezek. 2.10 Written within and without lamentations mournings and wo within are Fightings without are Fears We are at no time exempted from complaining because of sin and it is but seldom but that we are mourning because of trouble which sorrowful condition of ours upon earth is elegantly set forth in that place Job 5.7 Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward Indeed in Hell is nothing but evil from one end to the other It is a sea of evils without bank or bottom On earth are some fair days though many be stormy and tempestuous a rad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 elatus fuit Isa 33.24 Isa 35.10 but in Heaven whether Saints go when they die is no fear of any of these things This is that Tower whether the righteous shall run and be safe or set aloft out of the reach of danger Prov. 18.10 There the inhabitants shall not say I am sick sorrow and sighing shall fly away All evil shall be banished many thousand thousand miles from the lines of Saints communication I shall shut up this part with that comfortable Scripture 1 Thes 1.10 Jesus delivers from the wrath to come If saved from wrath then from those evils which are the effects of wrath and where there is no sin to stir up wrath there can be no evil which is the consequence of wrath and thus we have the Saints blessednesse negatively but now 2. Positively and affirmitively to make up blessednesse there must be the presence of all good which brancheth it self into two parts 1. The perfection of grace and holiness 2. The fulness of bliss and happiness 1. After death when the Children of God come to Heaven they shall be made perfectly holy Heaven is that Holy Land whether they are going on Pilgrimage See 2 Peter 3.13 There the Apostle saith dwelleth righteousnesse there is its Mansion-house and in comparison thereof here upon earth it is but as in an Inn or a sojourner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven is the lot or place alloted to holy ones Col. 1.12 There is no possibility for a sinner to get in thither heaven gate is strongly guardded by holy Angels should they neglect their trust yet God is of purer clearer eyes then that a sinner should escape him Yea were it possible a sinner could steal into Heaven yet he should soon be thrown out as the Apostatizing Angels were and as Adam was driven out of Paradise and the corrupt Nations beaten out of Canaan and the Man without his wedding garment cast out of the mariage chamber Yea further suppose a sinner might be let alone yet he would soon void the place of himself it being not a proper element for him to live in As soon may a fish live on dry land as sinners who drink in iniquitie as the fish drinketh in Water live in that Holy Land But further there the people of God shall be made perfect in holiness Heb. 12.23 The Souls of just Men shall be made perfect They are holy in this life but not perfectly holy Yea here they have a perfect imperfection Grace is glory begun and glory is grace perfected Grace shall not be lessoned but heightned and increased in glory Grace shall be swallowed up of Glory as the rude draught is when the Picture is finished and as the Morning light is by the noon-day See 1 John 3.2 shall be like God this is in the perfecting of holiness which is called our being made like God God at first made Man after his own Image that is in holiness as the Apostle shews Eph 4.24 Now in Heaven there shall be a perfect restoring of this image The expression is full 1 Cor. 15.49 We shall bear the image of the heavenly but it may be Queried when shall this be the answer is in the following verse it shall be in the Kingdom of God While we remain in this flesh we cannot bear this image and yet it is true again that Beleevers even in this life do bear this Image the difficulty is easily resolved here we have the truth there the perfection of holinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scripture speaks of true holiness or the holiness of truth Eph. 4.24 There is that which is such in truth though not in perfecton And surely so great will this change be when a Beleever shall be made perfect that he will seem to be changed into another Man as was said of Saul he would even wonder at himself to see how he differs from himself what he now is being a comprehender and what he was whiles a Traveler below Great and wonderful is the change in
A VOYCE FROM HEAVEN SPEAKING Good words and Comfortable words concerning Saints departed Which words are opened in a SERMON PREACHED At SOUTH-WEAL In ESSEX 6. September 1658. At the Funeral of that Worthy and Eminent Minister of the Gospel Mr. Thomas Goodwin Late Pastor there Hereunto is annexed a relation of many things observable in his Life and Death By G. B. Preacher of the word at Shenfield in Essex 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy Sting Luk. 14.15 Blessed is he that shall eat Bread in the Kingdom of God LONDON Printed by S. Griffin for J. Kirton at the Kings-Arms in Pauls Church-yard 1659. TO The Right Worshipful Sir Henry Wright Knight and Baronet And to the Worshipful Mr. John Leech Esquire Justice of Peace And to the Good Gentleman Mr. Richard Sherbrook Together with the rest of the Inhabitants of Southweal Honoured and much Respected I Do here present you with a Sermon Preached at the Funeral of your Pastor Loth I was to Preach it not grudging the Service but wishing the work had fallen into better hands More loth I was to Print it well knowing that there is nothing in this or any thing of mine worth Publishing to the world It sufficeth me if by private Preaching I may serve God in the place where my lot is cast I dwell among mine own people But the urgent importunings both of Ministers and other Christians have wearyed me and being not able to withstand the many Sollicitations I have forced myself to send abroad this Sermon which I Dedicate to your selves to whom of right it doth belong The occasion of it was the Death of him who was your Pastor your Minister and whose Flock and People yee sometime were It comes to you by way of Dedication be pleased to own it with your Christian Acceptation It is indeed very plain without any flourishings and therefore can scarce expect a welcome for its own sake but it tends to keep up the memory of him whom you sometime loved and delighted in you may welcome it for his sake and moreover it contains heavenly comforts Counsels which being the Truths of God you must welcome it for Gods sake and for the sake of your own souls It comes out somewhat long after the Preaching and no marvel if it come late I had much a do to perswade with my self to let it come at all Though indeed the hand of the Lord upon me in a sore sickness made it much longer than otherwise it would have been It is enlarged beyond what it was when I Preached it because the straits of time we being benighted and many persons far from their home would not suffer me to deliver scarce one half of what was then intended I then only delivered the heads now you have the enlargements upon those heads And Now Honoured and Worthy Friends give me leave a little to vent the sorrows of my heart for this great loss The blow indeed lights upon you mainly but not upon you only but upon the Neighbour-hood also yea the whole Church of God I have had many sad Letters since his Death bewailing the loss If others at a great distance be so affected how should you your selves much more lay to heart you may justly call your selves Ichabod Glory is departed The Ark is for the present taken from you God can Glory over you and set up the Ark again among you Amen the Lord grant it but yet remember you had a Goodwin among you some of you I am perswaded being the Seal of his Ministry will remember him as long as you have a day to live Your Town of Brentwood is famous for its situation upon an Hill but its eminency of late years was much from Mr. Goodwins Ministry in that place Your Hill seemed to be the Candlestick whereon this burning and shining light was set He was a Tower a Beacon on this Hill His monethly Lectures which the Neighbours round about did partake of made it as the Hill of Hermon and Mount Sion distilling dewes upon the Valleys round about He is now gone and is as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again Though his Person be dead let his doctrines live yea because he is gone let them the rather remain He shall Preach to you no more unless it be by his former labours and holy life by both which he being dead yet speaketh Mr. Goodwin still lives in Weal if ye his people stand fast in the Lord which that you may do as also be blessed with one to succeed who may call home the uncalled and perfect what is lacking in the faith of others is and shall be the Prayer of him who is Your Servant in Christ Jesus GEORGE BOWND REVELAT 14. v. 13. And I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth THe words which I have read unto you are part of a Sermon Preached by an Angel the third Angel mentioned in this Chapter That they depend upon the foregoing words Ad superiora hac refero Aret. in loc and that the voyce from heaven in the Text was uttered by the same Angel is the Judgement of a good expositor This Sermon as it may fitly be called begins from verse the 9th and we may observe three things concerning it 1. The Preacher 2. The Matter 3. The Method First the Preacher viz. God by an Angel from Heaven Preaching and Prophesying to Iohn what things should come to pass in the latter dayes In what age these things were fulfilled whether in the time of Martin Luther as some or later Preachers as others I shall not spend time to enquire The Preacher is an Angel from Heaven and though the Lord ordinarily Preach to his Church by men upon earth yet in some extraordinary cases he preaches by Angels from heaven Ministers indeed are called Angels Rev. 1.20 and it is no small honour which ariseth to that office from the name which the Persons bear yet though called Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pares Angelis they are inferiour to them which are in heaven when they come to Heaven they with other Saints shall be Angels fellows Luc. 20.36 Secondly The matter of the Sermon is destruction to the wicked both here and hereafter but Salvation to the Godly if not in this life yet certainly hereafter in the life to come That which this Angel Preached is such as to which the Scripture in the whole tenour of it consenteth and is agreeable to the Analogy of Faith Angels from heaven will Preach can preach no other that of Gal. 1.8 Is the supposition of an impossible case say Expositors There be indeed Angels that Preach other Doctrines the Devil and his Angels from Hell in their Instruments false Teachers upon Earth There be many Errors among the School-men though they be called Angelical Doctors This Angel in the Text is from heaven and accordingly his doctrines Scriptural as all
of a smoaky Cottage that it may be built a stately Palace as the Southsayers said upon the burning of the Capitol by lightning the Gods did suffer it to be that it might be built better and more gloriously Now these are the actings of faith required in him who would dye to the Lord. Now a Person may dye in the Lord and be blessed who yet doth not thus dye to the Lord for these actings may be suspended either 1. Through our inadvertency not considering what duty is incumbent upon us to glorifie God in dying 2. Through violence of diseases depriving or at least dulling and stupifying the memory understanding reason which are necessarily required to these actings 3. By some fit of desertion whereby we come to doubt of our evidences which alone can make us cheerfully to submit Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace now and not till now because now mine eyes have seen thy Salvation And thus I have done with the first thing which needed to be explained who they be that are said to dye in the Lord. II. I shall now speak to the second what that blessedness is which they who dye in the Lord shall have This is an hard thing if not impossible to do the Scripture speaks of it as that which is inexpressible unutterable See 2 Cor. 12.4 Paul rapt up into heaven heard words unspeakable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it is not possible for a man to utter yea which is more unconceivable 1 Cor. 2.9 it hath not entred into the heart of man 'T is in vain to expect that it should be spoken with the Tongue which cannot be conceived by the heart As soon may the Earth and Sea be put into a Pot as the bliss of glorified Saints into the understanding as soon may you hold the whole earth in the hollow of the hand as comprehend heaven in the heart Much hath been spoken and written concerning it doubtless to the great chearing of the hearts of Saints insomuch that some have been ravished with the newes of it that they have in a kind of impatiency been weary of life and longed for death saying come Lord Jesus come quickly yet I believe that when a Saint comes to heaven he will say in the words of the Queen of Sheba 1 King 10 6 7. It was a true report that I heard upon earth of heavens glory but behold the half was not told me The Apostle in the place before describes it Negatively Eye hath not seen c. The eye hath seen much the ear hath heard more than ever the eye saw and the heart of man can conceive more than ever the eye saw or ear heard yet the heart cannot conceive this Surely the full and perfect knowledge of this blessedness is only to those Saints who are comprehenders of it The blind man may say much of light but nothing comparably to him who beholds the light much may be said of the sweetness of honey by what is reported of it but it is nothing to what may be said from the tasting and eating of it See 1 Joh. 3.2 it doth not yet appear what we shall be or what glory we shall have till we come to see this light and eat of this honey I might therefore shut up this part in silence wishing you to wait till this glory shall be fully revealed but because something may be expected upon the method before laid down it being one of the three things promised to be explained and besides much is said of it in the Scripture to the unspeakable consolation of believers making them bear up and be of good chear under present evils whereof this life is full whiles they have an eye to the recompence of reward I shall therefore as the Lord shall enable me give you a brief collection of what is held forth in Scripture concerning this blessedness I cannot go round about Sion and tell all the Towers may I at least but point out some The Israelites rejoyced but to see some clusters from Canaan and it may refresh our hearts whilest we behold some parts or pieces of this glory laid down before us They waited for Gods time to take possession of that earthly Canaan and so must we 't is but tarry till death comes Death will put us in possession of the heavenly Canaan then it shall be said to Saints as to Abraham Genesis 13.17 Arise walk through the Land in the length and breadth of it Beleevers shall be blessed when they die but wherein doth this blessednesse consists I Answer to the making up of blessednesse it is required 1. That it be full 2. That it be lasting Fulnesse implies 1. The absence of all evil 2. The presence of all good 1. Then Saints dying are out of the reach and danger of evill Prastat non esse quà m miserum esse of what may be called evil even the very appearance of evil Though there were no good in Heaven yet it is very considerable that there is no evil Now evil is two fold 1. Of sin 2. of punishment but neither is in Heaven 1. There is no sin there this is the grand evil a poysonous weed that growes every where but in Heaven 'T is said that no venemous thing will live in Ireland I am sure it is true of heaven This weed took rooting in paradise but it was the earthly Paradise and not the heavenly whereof Christ speaks Luke 23.43 and whereof St. Paul speaks 2 Cor. 12.4 The best of Saints carry sin about with them one need not tell them so they know it to the great grief of their heart it being that which often fetcheth water from their eyes and blood from their Souls Hearken but to their Closet doors and you shall hear sad complaints against it and mourning over it This is that stone tyed to the birds legg Anselm as one well resembles it upon seeing boys play which pulleth it down when it attempts to fly aloft This is that Pharaoh which keeps Gods Israel in bondage and hinders from serving God as they should and as they would There is indeed a principle of grace in beleevers and there is also a body of sin and in this respect they are like to the tribe of Manasse half in the Land of Canaan half on the other side Jordan But death will convey them into the heavenly Canaan Col. 3.5 and the Jordan of sin shall be quite dryed up may not this be one reason why the Apostle calls sins our members which are upon earth members because of the dear love we are apt to bear to them they are as dear as the members of our body as an eye and hand and earthly because they shall not be in Heaven These sins by the power of grace are mortified in Saints whiles they are upon earth but in Heaven they shall be nullified there shall not be an hoof left behind Here they are cast down there
came to his Bed-side but he laystil and seemed not to know me Hereupon his Wife asked him if he knew me he said yes and called me by my name but withall asked if it were Thursday supposing I had been come to the Lecture and so by the way visited him I then told him it was Fryday and so gave him an account whither I was going even to joyn with his people in seeking the Lord for him and desired to know what he would have us most importune the Lord for on his behalf After a little pause he brake out into most affectionate speeches to expresse his own sense of his peoples love to him and how greatly his Love was set upon them I could not bear away all his words but he was full of these Oh my poor people Oh the Souls of my poor people How dear how precious are they to me Oh if God should spare me how would I lay out my self for them After this he prayed me to commend him to his people and tell them that wherein he desired their prayers was to begg of God a clearer sense of his love saying not that I altogether want it for I bless God I have it but saith he Sometimes and so laid down and said no more and I finding him to be much spent with speaking durst not urge him any further but went away partly rejoycing that though Satan did buffet yet that he had been able to prevail no further On the next day being Saturday in the evening whereof the Lord took him I went again to him in the afternoon but before I was up the stairs I heard him speaking with a very loud voice This at first hearing struck my heart perceiving his distemper was come to that height that there could be no hopes conceived of his life before I went in I stood hearing him a little time at the door Cygnea cantio Oportet Episcopum concionantem mori and by and by went in and stood by his bed-side attending to what he spake where indeed I heard a precious powerful discourse about the sweetness fulness of Christ It was spoken just as if he had been in the Pulpit preaching I could not but stand and wonder to hear a distempered head vent such a discourse so methodical and so clear with the quoting of Scriptures and no failing in sense and not much faultring in words he quoted 1 Cor. 3.21 22 23. And went as far as he could in rehearsing the words All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things here his mouth being much clam'd he could not get out his words but yet made a shift to add because ye are Christs I know the distemper of his head was the cause of this loud speech but yet I believe this distemper was a means to draw forth what was in his heart Now perceiving that he had spent himself far beyond what his then little or no strenth would bear I spake to him saying My dear Friend though your discourse may be very profitable to my self and others that stand by yet I know it doth much spend and weaken you and so wished him to forbear and lie still Hereupon he did cease a while and after some little pause he spake again in some few but very sweet words which were these Well it is a sweet thing when he that speaks of Christ hath Christ dwelling in him at that time when he speaks After this he spake no more while I was there neither can I learn of others that he spake any more but left those for his last words And so falling into slumbrings and cold sweats before midnight he gave up the Ghost He had finished his Testimony The Witnesses cannot be slain till this be done Rev. 11.7 His work was done and now he hath his Crown Our work is not yet done but it remains that we be followers of the Saints as they were followers of Christ then shall we also receive the Crown 2 Tim. 4.8 the Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give not to a Paul only a Minister a Preacher of the Gospel But to them also that love his appearing