A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF M r. Jos. Glanvil, Late Rector of BATH, and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty: Who died at his Rectory of Bath, the fourth of November, 1680. and was Buried there the Ninth of the same Month. By jos. Pleydell, Archdeacon of Chichester.  
LONDON, Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Sign of the Phoenix in St. Paul's Churchyard, and the White Hart in Westminster-Hall. 1681.   
REVEL. XIV. Ver. 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth, yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. 
THe more attentively we consider the Christian Religion in any of its parts, we find greater grounds for the confirmation both of its Author and excellency; so infinitely does it surpass all those writings of that nature, which the great Sages of the World, have, with so much superciliousness on their part, and admiration from their respective followers, I may add too (all things considered) not without meriting due praise from us, delivered to their Scholars.  
And this will appear evident and undeniable if we but parallel them in any of the chief heads; for instance, in the principles upon which our Religion does proceed, the precepts it contains, and the rewards it appoints; which division will comprise the sum of what we profess: In all which the great Masters of Heathen wisdom, do plainly discover, either a great deal of Ignorance, or malice, in prevaricating that light they had reflected upon them from Jewish tradition, so that it may be well doubted whether their Symbolic Divinity were not designed rather to conceal their own Ignorance in what they pretended to, than to secure the rites and mysteries thereof from the vulgar's profanation. For example:  
1. Take first the Principles, those truths that are the Basis and foundation of our Religion; such as are the Being and Nature of God, the Creation of the World, the Fall of man, and his Redemption by a Messias, the Immortality of the Soul, and the Resurrection; 'tis plain the whole Philosophic world had none, or but a very imperfect knowledge of almost all of them; However some, of their lavish Charity, have endeavoured to squeeze as much from their writings: Nay, that they were not without some knowledge of our greatest Mysteries, viz. of a Messias under their Daimono-Latria, and even of the Trinity in Plato's Triad, and the Resurrection of the body, under the Indians Palin-genesis: But no body that has any veneration either for the Scriptures, or but for Truth in general, but must see and acknowledge that all this is but tortured from them.  
Nor may we deny this further, that whatever Notions of this kind they had, were but traditional in respect of their Origine, and conjectural in reference to their ambiguity and uncertainty.  
2. The like is to be said of their Rules and Precepts of virtuous living. For we may not detract thus much from them, that they have recommended many excellent Institutes to their Sects. You shall collect among them many very admirable sayings, such as these;  
To know ourselves; to abstain from vice; to bear afflictions: to do justly, and speak truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. do as we would be done by; and many more.  
Indeed for that kind of Divinity which was deducible from the Rules of common prudence and observation, and depended not chiefly or solely upon Divine Revelation, they have done extraordinary well: And if they had not furnished us with so many famous examples of Virtue too, it would not reflect so much upon the Professors of Christianity, which in the spirituality of its precepts has as far exceeded all that they have writ, as some of their Lives have most of ours; though that be not to be imputed to our Religion, unless it were justly chargeable upon the vitiosity or defect of its Principles or Rules.  
Thus miserably however do we compensate the Divine culture; and as if Nature abhorring so great a disparity betwixt mankind, would thus balance the Heathen with the Christian World; by opposing their Imperfect Knowledge, but severer Virtue, to our diviner Laws, but greater licentiousness in Practice: Many of them having, by as great proportions exceeded us in their endeavours after goodness, as we do them in the knowledge and other means of it.  
3. Last of all (which brings it to our present subject) Christianity propounds nothing but upon the fairest and surest encouragement imaginable. For the happiness of our Religion is both transcendently superior to their discoveries and accounts of it; and then also we are sufficiently and unquestionably assured hereof, i e. 'tis not recommended to us upon plausible persuasions and inconclusive arguments, but in the genuine sense of St. Paul's expressions, 1 Corinth. 2. 4. in demonstration of the Spirit and Power.  
So that we see there is a kind of peculiar excellency in the Holy Scriptures, above all the Systems of the greatest Moralists; the foundation of our Obedience being laid upon clearer and better principles, the practice of our obedience being carried higher by the spirituality of its commands, and the rewards of our obedience being incomparably greater, than what we can conceive, much less could they promise or bestow.  
'Tis the last of these that is contained in the Text, and for which I am to be further accountable to ye in the prosecution of the words I have read. And I heard a voice from Heaven, saying unto me, Write, Blessed, etc. Wherein we have these following particulars principally to be observed.  
1. The happiness of good men described by its general nature, they are blessed, and by its integral parts, they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.  
2. The Security and Evidence upon which this happiness is promised and asserted, yea saith the Spirit.  
3. The time of its perfection and accomplishment, partly in this life, but not fully nor completely till death, saying, Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord.  
4. And lastly, the Influence which the consideration of these premises ought to have upon us, both in Life and Death, in reference to Obedience and Patience. And  
I. To begin with the description of that happiness, those rewards, which are propounded to us for the encouragement of our Obedience and Patience: Which are so great, that I am utterly ignorant by what measures to describe them to ye. The nature of that Celestial bliss as far transcending all our present felicities, by which we should judge of it; as it does the very capacity of our meriting it.  
Sir Francis Bacon has observed, We can have but a very imperfect account of those things, which receded any whit near those extremes of Nothing and Infinity: because either by their parvity or immensity, they elude or confound our knowledge.  
And especially the latter, which choke the understanding; and is like the beholding of the Sun, whose light and lustre, by which we discern other objects, mars, and dims our sight.  
Such is the transcendent excellency of our future bliss, at once the delight and amazement of our Intellectuals.  
In the description whereof our highest expressions are so far from being hyperbolical, that they amount but to a Litotes; so that after our utmost endeavours we must content ourselves with St. Paul's account of it, in his First and Second Epistles to the Corinthians, 
1 Ep. c. 2. v. 9 2 Ep. ch. 12. v. 4.  his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, unutterable, for that I take to be the meaning (and not as we render it unlawful) of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and also unconceivable.  
So inevitably should we diminish the Glory of Heaven, by any expression, illustration, or parallel whatever.  
Which happiness of ours consists of, and is integrated by these two parts.  
The total privation of all evil.  
And the aggregate enjoyment of all good.  
Both which as they are necessarily requisite to the nature of the thing, so are they contained in the very notion of the word.  
For as the plurality of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 [Ashrei] ostendit omnigenam beatitudinem; so more expressly does the Etymology of the Greek word answer hereunto, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immunity from evil, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 extremity of joy; and accordingly 'tis described in my Text, first Privatively, and then Positively.  
1. For the privative part, Rest from their labours, or which is all one, Immunity from Evil, by which this happiness is ofttimes described: for though the privation hereof simply and absolutely signify no part hereof, the absence especially; for by that reason you might call a stock or stone or any other insensible creature happy, as by the other a Horse or Dog might be said to be so when dead: yet inasmuch as it is more than a negation, namely the being delivered from a world of misery wherewith we are now infested, and more which we had deserved, and were once obnoxious to, which we also then behold in others of the same make and nature with us; the contemplation hereof, by which it so widely differs from both the Instances, must needs fill our mind with an ineffable delight and satisfaction.  
Or at least if this indolency be no part of our happiness, yet is it so absolutely needful to it, that we cannot tell well how to conceive of it without this; and much less can such a thing be as perfect happiness and degrees of misery conjoined together.  
Nor did ever any Sect of Philosophers think otherwise, but those sullen and self-willed Stoics. That ever any body should be so mad to cry out in the extremity of pain and misery, quam suave, quam dulce hoc est, quam hoc non curo! And I cannot but laugh at Possidonius his Rant, Nil agis, O Dolour, etc.  
There are divers instances of such who have born most exquisite miseries even to admiration, as well out of a kind of hardiness of nature, as greatness of mind; and in that they were less miserable than the delicate and impatient: but whence was it? either from necessity, or hope, or both; this is Christianlike, but that is brutish, if it were sufficient without t'other, but 'tis not, for perpetuity would certainly render any evil intolerable.  
So that we are so far from being completely happy as long as any disease or inquietude of mind or body does attend us; that the hope of being delivered is the only argument that can afford us any solid and rational comfort in our afflictions: For as to fatality, hoc ipsum est, said Augustus when one urged it; and for the disease of Impatiency, 'tis (as one has excellently observed) no proper consideration of comfort, but only an art of managing our trouble; so as not to make it greater than really it is.  
2. The other part of our happiness, and indeed the main, we call positive, and consists in the enjoyment of all good; and is what St. john intends by their works following them; i. e. they shall then receive all those glorious rewards that God has promised to good and righteous men for all their service and obedience. We should in vain go about to recount them, they are so many and so great.  
In two things the Scriptures chiefly place it; in the vision, and in the fruition of God. This is life Eternal, saith this very St. john in his Gospel, to know thee the only true God, and jesus Christ; 
Joh. 17. 3.  and again in his 1 Ep. Ch. 3. v. 2. It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he doth appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The other is called the being with Christ, 
Phil. 1. 23.  and the being united to him. St. john 17. 21. That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. But this is not to exclude the other instances of our happiness, indeed it comprehends all the rest.  
For what are all the pleasures and contentments of the World, but as so many rays of that Sun and emanations of that fountain?  
They are all contained with much more perfection in God, than they were created in their own natures: Whereupon it follows that they which are admitted into his presence, have all the goodness and perfections of all the creatures in the world united in God.  
So that whatever can delight either body or mind, there it is; nor will there be any room to wish for or imagine more than what we have; there being in him (as an ingenious man expresseth it) such a various Identity, that the fruition of him at once satisfies and creates desires, that without fatiety, this without disquiet.  
3. To which if we add the eternal duration of this state, we attribute unto it a kind of complication of Infinities, a potential Infinity in the subject, actual in the object, and eternal in the continuance of it:  
Which single consideration is sufficient to advance it to an infinite preference above all earthly things imaginable; because these things being founded in matter, and that being in continual flux and motion, here can be nothing permanent and lasting. Nor indeed would that be any addition to our present felicity. 'Tis variety that makes these things appear excellent; their mutability, is both the life and death of all present delights.  
A few repetitions make us abhor our food; in less than a night and a day we grow weary of our Beds; and 'tis so in all the other instances of our Nature, and 'tis more so in those of our corruption.  
But 'tis otherwise in the attainment of the ultimate end, where all our appetites are arrested and detained.  
Indeed we no sooner experience these things in the fruition, but we straightway nauseate them; finding them so pitifully allayed with mixtures of evil, and prove so miserably short of what we desire and expect from them. But 'tis otherwise there, the excellency of those Celestial Objects will disappoint our expectation by their transcendency, as much as in all other fruitions their emptiness is wont to do.  
So that Eternity, though but a circumstance which does only superinduce a kind of extremity or perfection to what it is conjoined with; and may as well be drawn in to enhanse our misery, (for what more than this makes the condition of the damned so horribly dreadful, whereby they are excluded from all hope, the very seed and lowest degree of felicity?) Yet is it so necessary to what we are speaking of, as that without it those joys of Heaven, though otherwise absolute and infinite, would suffer a contradiction, and become imperfect: And that not only for the future, but the present, by introducing such passions as must needs debase and allay the highest delights.  
So that by being thus secured in the possession of our happiness, we receive thereby an unspeakable addition to it.  
II. Proceed we next to show you the Security and Evidence, upon which this happiness is promised and asserted, and whether it bear any proportion to our duty and the Rewards of it, for so we are allowed to call them; though not upon the account of merit, yet by reason of their necessary connexion with, dependence upon, and that kind (such a one as 'tis) of proportion they bear to each other.  
There is a twofold evidence God Almighty has given us, for the strengthening of our hope, and confirming of our faith, in the belief and expectation of the other World. The first moral, grounded upon the testimony of the Spirit; the other I call natural, and is grounded in the things themselves.  
1. The first evidence of our future bliss, is the testimony of the Spirit, express in the Text, Yea, saith the Spirit. But then we must have a care of what kind of Testimony of the Spirit we understand it: for, understand it as 'tis vulgarly taken, for some act or operation wrought in and upon us, besides the Enthusiasm of it, fain would I be satisfied, what validity can there be in such a testimony, as itself needs something else to confirm it? for so this testimony of the Spirit is to be tried by its concordance and agreement to the word of God, nor do I know any other way to distinguish it from a motion or suggestion of the Devil's besides. And though to err thus in this single instance may not be very pernicious, for I am not mighty solicitous, how it was wrought, so there be a firm persuasion in us of this truth; yet in other cases I know how dangerous it is, nor is it safe in this, for it leaves a passage open and unguarded to downright Atheism.  
By the testimony of the Spirit therefore I understand the word of God; or the Scriptures as made known and proved to us to derived from this Divine Spirit, which we may call the outward testimony thereof: for though St. john knew this by the other way, as most certainly all others did who received any Revelation; yet never was any other than the person himself assured that way.  
Nor do I make degrees of more or less certainty in the way or manner of the Spirit's revealing a thing; for the Apostles were as well assured of the infallibility of their doctrine before they wrought any miracles, as we are by them: but we were not nor could be so.  
But this notwithstanding, in respect of us we must admit of such degrees; for no body I hope will be so blasphemous to equal such private dictates they have in their own breast to the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures.  
So then I make this to be the moral evidence of future happiness: God hath said it in his word. And this I call a moral certainty, not in opposition to divine and infallible; as they are sometimes contradistinguished; but only to natural: for we can desire no greater evidence, we cannot have a higher confirmation of any truth, than the veracity of Heaven to attest it.  
I do not know any proposition that carries greater self-evidence than this, That God ought to be believed in what he says; and therefore though we may question the truth of the Revelation, 'tis impossible to do so of any thing we acknowledge to be so revealed.  
So that the stress of this point lies upon that great and necessary praecognitum in our Religion; namely, the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures. Upon which postulate if we proceed, there is as great certainty of the truth of this proposition, That good men shall enjoy eternal happiness after this life; as if we should again hear that Daughter of voice, and God himself should sensibly attest it.  
2. But there is another ground or evidence of our future happiness which I call natural, because it depends upon that Intrinsic Relation and consent there is between goodness and it; the difference between them being only in degree, like the dawning of the Morning to the lustre of the Noon. For what is it to be happy but to be united to God? and what does unite us to God but Love? and what is the love of God but Religion? And if you remove but all inward imperfections, and all outward impediments, there remains no difference at all. So that Virtue and Piety do not only dispose and prepare us for Heaven and Salvation, but we thereby receive and experience the very beginnings and anticipations of it.  
And though in respect of the mutability of our will and affections toward God and goodness in this world, we cannot be infallibly assured of it as to our own particulars; because every alteration in the one produceth a like answerable effect as to the other: Yet in the general we may, even from hence, be very well assured hereof; because there is nothing more required to the completing of our essential happiness, than an advance and progression in the same virtuous tract.  
And however it looks in a Divine, if we will speak rationally to the thing, we must allow the love and hatred of God to be the true natural causes of our salvation and damnation, even of their very eternity; it being naturally impossible to be other than happy while we love God, and chose if we hate him; and this is the only instant cause of its continuation through all the durations of Eternity. And to remove your astonishment, see, how in this lower world, many stupendous and admirable works are daily produced which were mean and unnoted while they lay hid and contained in the seminal beginnings; after the same wonderful manner by divers minute gradations does this divine Creature grow up from its first formation in our trembling and unstable desires, to the stature and perfection of Everlasting Glory.  
And yet there remains less doubt if we take in the Consideration of the Divine nature. How else will you vindicate the Justice of God in all the odd and confused occurrences of this World? Where's your infinite goodness and bounty, that suffers its servants always to be neglected? what will become of an almighty and omniscient Justice if sinners are never called to an account? Or one, or t'other cannot be.  
III. 'Tis true indeed the completing of this bliss (which brings us to our next head) is neither promised, nor to be had in this life. 'Tis at Death these rewards become due and payable.  
— Dicique beatus  
Ante obitum nemo, supremáque funera possit.  
It has been the constant method of Divine providence, to cause the most excellent things to follow and arise from the most uncouth and unlikely. Thus in the Creation order springs from confusion, and the Light is made to attend the darkness.  
Contrary to the methods observed by Nature, where the causes are ever more worthy than their effects from their first beginning downward.  
Now as he is pleased to transcend and deviate from the tracts and capacities of natural Agents, thereby to assert his Prerogative, and render his omnipotency more conspicuous to the world: So is he no less delighted to use the same recesses in displaying his Grace; evermore ushering in his mercies with the Black Rod, thereby enhancing and endearing our subsequent refreshments.  
And though the goodness of those celestial inhabitants, and the happiness of their condition, need neither foil nor artifice to render that or their acknowledgements of the Divine favour greater: Yet however if we consider these things as a reward and encouragement of our obedience, the proceeding thus is but regular and necessary; that we should do our work before we receive our wages, and finish our undertaking, before we demand satisfaction.  
Earnest and Security Heaven has vouchsafed us, but to deposit the whole in hand, this were, not to encourage but bribe our Obedience. This were to destroy Morality, and turn Virtue into Nature.  
Nor yet is the Divine goodness less communicable in this life, but we are not so capable of receiving it.  
For look as in Nature neither the single excellency of the Object or the Agent alone is sufficient to produce any notable effect, but both are required: So likewise in Religion, all the effects of the divine grace and bounty (though that be free and infinite) are limited and determined by our capacities and reception.  
So that while our Appetites, those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as they are called in Scripture, that are to be the receptacles of all this Glory, are, either replenished with the vain and sinful objects of this Life, or, are straitened and contracted by the weakness and imperfection of this dull and lumpish matter, they must be rid of the one and devested of the other, and then, we should be instantly happy.  
You have seen the happiness of the Christian man; there are indeed encouragements of another nature, namely, earthly blessings and temporal rewards, our whole present interest, unless it happen to interfere at any time with the other. Religion has descended to the securing of these too, and that not only by moral designation, but by a proper and natural efficiency; so that we cannot better prosecute our present interest, than by the methods of Religion. And by this gracious and happy complication of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together, they are made to become helpful and assisting to each other, serving reciprocally as a means or motive either to other.  
But this encouragement is neither proper nor adequate to Christianity; since it may be as well pursued by natural, as by divine rules, better perhaps by diabolical arts than either, nothing experimentally so enriching men, as sordidness, oppression, and other violences and frauds. The Devil in all likelihood, giving the fairest prospect, and most likely possession of the Kingdoms and glory of this world.  
But they are things, I have shown you, of a nature infinitely more sublime, that Christianity propounds to its observers; The rewards of our Religion, exceeding as well the capacities of our Nature, as all those other things. To the attainment whereof, as all vicious practices are extremely contrary; so have all the others Philosophic transactions been miserably vain.  
Some weak and glimmering light the Heathen had of these things; which it is not certain whether they collected from some fragments of tradition, or extracted from the principles of natural reason; but which way ever it came, it was so weak and imperfect, as served to shadow, not help to discover, but eclipse the transcendent excellency of that State; till, as the Great Apostle of the Gentiles saith, 
1 Tim. 1. 10.  Life and Immortality were brought to light by the Gospel.  
And indeed without this all other proposals were unsuitable to its professors, and disproportionate to the difficulty and severities of Religion. Cicero saith, None ought to be deemed a virtuous or a just man, that will be allured affrighted from his duty, by any advantage or disadvantage whatever: But who, trow ye, would abide both these, upon no other consideration, than barely to have acted according to the sentiments of right Reason, or in hope to acquire an insignificant fame of Virtue, of which they could have no knowledge or remembrance after death?  
And for this cause I judge the Stoics more absurd in their morals, than the Epicureans, considering the principles that is upon which they built. For 'tis the premise and not the inference of theirs, that's so urged by the Apostle, Let us eat and drink, 1 Cor. 15. 32. But now the Christian Religion propunds such overtures to our Obedience and Patience, as may justly and reasonably encourage us thereunto.  
IV. For a Conclusion, let us take in the Importance of that Phrase of [dying in the Lord] which relates primarily to Martyrdom; but must also be extended to as many as live and die in the faith of the Holy Jesus.  
The result of all is this: That we would so consider this happiness, as every of our great interest, that we forfeit not our propriety therein, by a vicious and sinful life. There's nothing else can render it hazardous or doubtful, but that, which indeed in the very nature of the thing renders it impossible. Let us not repeat Esau's folly, sell our birthright for a trifle; and for the sake of some pitiful lust proscribe ourselves out of our celestial inheritance.  
Neither let us contemn our happiness for being feasible. Were wilful poverty and certain Martyrdom, part of our duty, and inseparable appendages of our Religion, there is tentation enough in the proposals, to make us conflict with the greatest difficulties, and overcome them.  
When Christianity was thus attended, and had nothing else to recommend itself to the world, besides the reasonableness of its injunctions, with what holy violence did those blessed Saints storm Heaven, and with a strange eagerness pursue Martyrdom! But now as if the fervour of our Devotion were only kindled and maintained by Antiperistasis: Now I say the Impediments are removed, and Religion is become a part of our Civil obedience, and made necessary to our secular interests, and guarded with a great many other temporal Phylacteries, men are yet more hardly wrought upon to be Religious, the consideration of a single lust shall be able to weigh down all.  
And if any would seem to have a greater zeal for it than ordinary, as if they were in love with the troubles of Religion, and not the thing; they suffer their heat to spend itself in little piques and contentions, and about things of none or ill moment, in maintaining of parties, and opposing their Superiors, and not in Devotion, Obedience, Charity, Humility, and the like, as they ought.  
In short, Christians, let the thoughts of this blessedness, excite our affection's Heaven-ward, and quicken our endeavours: Let it animate us against all difficulties, and buoy us up above all adversities; Let it cheer us in our duty, quiet us in affliction, and comfort us in death. That so living unto Christ, we may at last die in him, and in the end be for ever blessed.  
And now to accommodate all to our present case. It has pleased God to take away this extraordinary man, for such, considering all things, we must needs allow him; and because 'twas somewewhat early, I think of Dr. Hammond's notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text, the sooner the better, the better for him, no doubt.  
I had once thought to have given you his Character, but I am not ashamed to tell you, I found me not able to do it worthy of him. And calling to mind a saying of one of the Roman Historians, I soon desisted from any further attempt of it; who when he was reckoning up some of the great men of that age, Virgil and Ovid, Livy and Sallust, and going to commend them, stops, and concludes thus: But of men of Eminency, as their admiration is great, so is their censure full of difficulty.  
As to those Relations that are more nearly interessed in this solemnity; I would beseech them to remember, that all Indecency and excess of Grief, for our deceased friends, must needs reflect upon the memory of the dead, or the discretion of the survivers. God enable them to bear it: And supply this loss to them by his Grace and Providence: Let me say, and to the Church of England, by increasing the number of such men, of no worse Learning, Integrity, and Courage; that are able, and dare defend her against the encroachments of Popery and Fanaticisme.  
Now to God only wise be Glory through jesus Christ for ever. Amen.  
FINIS.