The Dead Prophet yet Speaking.  
Being A Funeral Sermon Preached at Plaisterers-Hall on the Decease of their late Reverend Pastor, Mr. John Faldo.  
By J. Q.   

The Dead Prophet yet Speaking.  
A Funeral Sermon Preached at Plaisterers-Hall, Feb. 15. 1690. to the Church of Christ there, upon the sad Occasion of the Decease of their late Reverend Pastor, Mr. John Faldo.  
By JOHN QVICK, Minister of the Gospel in London.  
Infoelix de quo clamabitur; Tollatur impius, ne videat gloriam Dei.— utinam nihil unquam vidisset oculus meus, si illâ (quod avertat Deus) frustrandus est visione!  Bernhardus de verbis Esaiae, Sermone 2do p. 61. 
The Voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All Flesh is Grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the Flower of the Field.— The Grass withereth, the Flower fadeth; but the Word of our God shall stand for ever,  Isa. 40.6, 8. 
LONDON, Printed by T. Snowden for Thomas Philip's at the Seven Stars in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1691.   

For the very Honoured Madam MARY WILLET.  
Madam,  
THE Death of God's Saints and Faithful Ministers is not at all considered by the careless World. Little do they know how much they be beholding to their Lives, and what Loser's they are by their Death. Lot was a burden to them, so thought the wicked Sodomites, whilst he lived among them; and therefore would fain have rid their City of its best and greatest Blessing. But no sooner was he gone, than wrath came upon them to the uttermost. We have lost of late too many of God's Favourites, who stood in the Gap; and had power with God to keep off Judgements from us: And when as any one of these Men of God Powerful in Prayer, and mighty Wrestlers with Heaven are taken from us, we may well cry out with the Psalmist, Help! Lord, for the Godly Man ceaseth; and as that Prophet seeing his Master Translated into Glory, My Father! My Father! The Chariots of Israel, and the Horsemen thereof! Blessed be the Lord, there be yet some Pious and Devout Souls in our Nation, and in this City, that when the Righteous perish do lay it to Heart, and when the Merciful are taken away do consider, that they be taken from the evil to come, and are therefore weeping over their own and the Church's weakness, which hath lost so many Stakes out of her Hedge, so many Pillars out of her Temple, so many Buttresses out of her Wall, that should support and sustain her, so many Sons and Fathers, that should instruct, cherish and comfort her. You, Madam, have enroled yourself among the Mourners in our Zion, and have been deeply affected with the Deaths of Godly Ministers and private Christians, which tho' timely to them, (being gathered in respect of their Age as Corn in due Season into the Granary,) yet to us that survive them, must needs be very unseasonable: Who were it the good will of God so to order it, can hardly spare them, and would most unwillingly part with them in such a day as this is. But it is from the Lord, the Sole and Sovereign Disposer of us, and of all our Comforts, and we must acquiesce.  
Reverend Mr. Faldo whilst living was very Dear to your Godly Parents, (who are now reaping the Fruit of their Great and Ample Charities,) and was as much prized and honoured by yourself. This makes me to address his Funeral Sermon to you, and once more to offer that to your Eyes, which you twice heard in one day with your Ears. I surprise you with the Dedication. But that have and Value you have for all that fear God, and for the Ambassadors of our Lord Jesus, and which you have abundantly expressed to me the least and meanest of them all (an Hereditary Virtue in you) moves me to it. The Lord give you to be a Follower of them, who through Faith and Patience have Inherited the Promises! I am,  
Most Honoured Madam, Your very Humble Servant in the Lord, John Quick.   
Zachariah 1. ver. 5. 
Your Fathers where are they? and the Prophets do they live for ever?  
'TIS an unexpected Providence, and undesired that hath brought me into this Assembly, and put me upon this Service. A very Dear Brother, upon whom this Work lay, earnestly desired me to do it for him, he being necessitated to be elsewhere, and I could not well deny him. Yet little did I imagine that the last time your Reverend Deceased Pastor and myself were together in another place, and familiarly discoursing each with other, that it would fall to my Lot to Preach his Funeral Sermon. But the Holy Wise Providence of God hath so brought it about, that I must do him this last Office of Love, which may the Great God in whose Hands are all our Lives, all our Times, by his Holy Spirit make useful and beneficial to your Souls!  
Your Fathers where are they? and the Prophets do they live for ever?  
These words were spoken by the Prophet Zachary. We read in Scripture of three Zachary's.  
1. There was Zachariah the Son of that good Highpriest Jehojada, Murdered by his Unnatural and Ungrateful Kinsman, Joash King of Judah, who ill requited his Father that saved his Life, by taking away that of his Godly and Zealous Son. You may read the Story, 2 Chon. 24.21. But this was not our Prophet, he was Stoned to death about four hundred and twenty one years before the Son of Iddo Prophesied.  
2. There was Zachariah the Father of John the Baptist; but he lived about four hundred years after our Zachary.  
3. There was Zachary the Son of Barachias, the Son of Iddo. Iddo his Grandfather returned from the Captivity of Babylon with Zerubbabel, Nehemiah 12.4. The Jewish Rabbins say, That where the Father and Grandfather of a Prophet are mentioned in Scripture, it denotes they were also Prophets.  
It was a great Honour to the Family of the Piso's at Rome that for three Generations successively they had been Princes of the Senate. And 'twas a very great Honour to Zachary that his Father and Grandfather had been Prophets before him. The Spirit of Prophecy seemed to run in his Blood, and the Prophetical Office to be entailed upon him as an Inheritance: Yet did he excel his Fathers in true Honour. If they lived Prophets so did he also. They lived Prophets, but he lived a Prophet, and died a Martyr. He was slain by his ungodly Countrymen for his free Rebuking of their sins, between the Temple and the Altar, whither he fled for Sanctuary. No place so Holy, no person so Sacred but the wicked will profane and violate in pursuit of their Brutish Lusts and Malice, Matth. 23.35.  
How long he Prophesied is not certain; when he began to Prophecy the first verse of this Chapter tells us. It was in the eighth Month, in the second year of Darius (Nothus.) He was contemporary with Haggai the Prophet, who began his Ministry but two Months before him. See Hag. 1.1.  
The parts of his Prophecy are four.  

1. Doctrinal, in the six first verses of this Chapter.  
2. Visional, from the seventh verse to the end of the sixth Chapter.  
3. Casuistical, in the seventh and eighth Chapters.  
4. Lastly, Purely Prophetical, from thence to the end of his Book.   
The Text is fallen under the first Head. In which we have,  
1. The time of his Prophecy, two Months after his Colleague in the same Work and Ministry, Haggai. Haggai gins in the sixth Month of the second year of King Darius. Zachary follows him in the same Work and Office two Months after. God keeps an exact & faithful Register of all the Ministers he sends, & of all their Sermons, he order them Preach unto a people, and of the times and to places when and where, and of the beginning, duration and continuance of their Ministerial Labours among them. Look to it Sirs, you may take no notice of this: You may forget when, and where, and whom you heard. But so doth not God. He Records all in his Book of Remembrance, and you shall be accountable for it another day.  
O that you may be able to yield up your Accounts with Joy, and not with Sorrow!  
2. We have the subject matter of his Sermon. And there lie before us but brief Heads, short Minutes of it, and we shall as briefly run them over.  
1. In the second verse we have a Narration of God's just anger against their Ancestors. The Lord hath been sore displeased with your Fathers.  
2. In the third and fourth verses, we have God's summons unto their Children for Repentance, Conversion and Reformation. Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts. Be ye not as your Fathers, unto whom the former Prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, turn you now from your evil ways, and from your evil do, but they did not hear nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord.  
3. In our Text we have a Dialogue (for so many Expositors read it) between the Prophet and his wicked Auditory.  
1. The Prophet first Queries. Where are your ungodly Fathers? What's become of them? Did not God's Vengeance light upon them, as he had threatened them? They would not believe, nor obey, but rebelled against his Word spoken to them by former Prophets; yet did they feel the Verity and Majesty, the Truth and terrible Power thereof in their own persons; for were they not cut off by Deaths? Whence by the way note,  
That Judgements upon the Fathers do not always work Repentance and Reformation in the Children; they be as bad as they.  
2. We have his Auditory's reply, by way of Expostulation with the Prophet. And you Sir! pray! Where are the Prophets? Do they live for ever? You throw in our Teeth the death of our Ancestors, and we will also as justly retort upon you, What is become of those busy, censorious Fellows their Prophets? Are not they gone to their long Home? You see God's Judgements Doctrinal and Providential on the Parents do find the Children bad, and leave them worse, greater Atheists and Despisers of God, his Word, and Ministers than themselves.  
But tho' the Text may be thus read Dialogue-wise, yet I humbly conceive, It is an Argument urged by the Prophet to enforce his Doctrine, asserted before in the third and fourth verses. Your Father's where, are they? And the Prophets do they live for ever? This double Interrogation must be answered negatively. No; your Fathers are not. Your Prophets are not. They do not live here for ever. They be dead. But tho' they die, yet the Word of God, preached by your Prophets, that dieth not, it liveth and will live, and take hold of all stubborn, unbelieving and disobedient sinners. As verse 6.  
Whence observe these two Points of Doctrine.  

Doctrine I. That  Persons and Godly Ministers are all alike Mortal Creatures.  
Doctrine II. Tho' Ministers die, yet God's Word from their Mouths never dieth, it lives for ever.   
Tho' these Points shall be opened distinctly, yet I shall apply them jointly, in case time do permit us.  
Doct. I.  Persons and Godly Ministers are all alike Mortal Creatures.  
I need not stand to prove this Point, 'twere but to abuse your time and patience. Who needs a Candle to see the Sun at Noonday? The truth of the Doctrine is visible, and notorious to all the World. Eccles. 8.8. There is no Man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death: And there is no discharge in that War; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it. Besides, there are in both the Godly and Ungodly, the Natural and Moral Causes of Mortality, this is also undeniable. The matter of our Bodies is made up of contrary humours and qualities; and when their Balance is turned, their Temperament broken, the whole Frame and Compages must be dissolved, and moulder into dust: Besides, sin is in the best, and its wages is death. 'Tis appointed to all Men, to the worst, and to the best once to die, and then to Judgement.  
But yet there is a vast difference between the Wicked and the Godly in their death. We see that Wisemen die, likewise the Fool, and the brutish person perish. But dieth Abner as a Fool? The Saint as the Sinner? No; The two Poles are not at a greater distance than these are in their deaths. That wretched Soothsayer will assure you of it. He, who never cared to live as the Saint, is yet afraid to die as the Sinner, Numb. 23.10. Let me die the death of the Righteous! and let my last end be like unto his.  
Quest. But wherein lies the difference?  
Ans. 1. The one dieth in his sins, and in his infidelity and impenitency, without a Pardon. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, 
Prov. 5.2 23.  and he shall be holden with the Cords of his sins. Sins shall Arrest the dying sinner as so many Bayliffts and Sergeants, and drag him as a Prisoner to God's Tribunal. He shall be Fettered, Hampered, and Manacled by them, so that tho' he would fain (as it may be no wicked man would willingly be found in his sins in the hour of death, but) be rid of them, yet he shall not. For sin as an Officer or Bailiff will keep his Prisoner. He shall die without Instruction, without Conversion, in all his filth and guilt, and be so hurried unto the Bar of Christ. Oh! how uncomfortable must this needs be unto the sinner! But so doth not the Saint die. None of God's Elect but are either sooner or later, sometime in their life, and before death, either at the sixth hour in the dawn of their Youth, or at the ninth in the Flower of their Strength, or at the eleventh the last Hour of their Life effectually called, and savingly converted.  
2. The Saints are in Life and Death united unto Christ. He is their Head, they his Members, he their Root, they his Branches, and the Axe of Death cannot sunder nor sever between them. Nay Death befriends them, it carries them into Paradise. It ushers them into the Bride-chamber, it brings them unto the desire of their Souls, with whom they long to be, and shall be for ever. Them that sleep in Jesus God wilt bring with Jesus. The Angels carried the Soul of Lazarus into Abraham's, Bosom, into the presence of God where is fullness of Joy, and Rivers of Pleasure for evermore. But the wicked are buried in Death. They never had any Union with Christ living, nor shall they when they are dying. They go like Judas unto their own place, Acts 1.25. far enough from Christ, Heaven and Glory. No sooner is Dives dead, but the next news you read of him is that he is in Hell tormented, Luke 16.23.  
3. The one dieth as to his Soul, and Everlasting Concerns, stupid and senseless, as Nabal whose Heart grew dead as a stone in him, 1 Sam. 25.37. Their Spiritual Lethargy kills them. The injudicious World say indeed of the sinner, O! how quietly did he die! He slipped away like a Lamb. He had no pangs in his Death. He was not in bitterness of Spirit as many others. But this is an horrible mistake. Senslesness is no quietness, stupidity of Conscience is not true serenity. True tranquillity of Soul in death flows from the sense of God's Love, who is reconciled to us in the Blood of Jesus; and this none but Saints have, who have laid hold of it by Faith, and ran to it under distress of Soul as to their only City of Refuge, Glorious high Throne, Heavenly and Inviolable Sanctuary.  
Quest. But you will ask of me, Have all God's Saints this inward peace upon their Deathbeds?  
Answ. 1. No wicked Man hath it at all. If the Child of God has it not, no Child of the Devil hath it. Through fancy and self flattery, he may think he has it, and so dream himself into a Fool's Paradise; but the first and next moment after death undeceives him, for than he finds himself in the midst, in the very Belly of Hell. There is no peace, saith my God, unto the wicked.  
2. Multitudes of Godly Persons have it, tho' many other's as truly Godly want it, and die away without it. God's Holy Spirit is a free Agent, and as the wind blows where he listeth, so he seals and comforts when and whom he pleaseth. Our blessed Martyr Mr. Glover met with the Comforter at the stake, and cried out unto his Man, Austin, He is come! He is come! The Comforter whom I waited for he is come! St. Stephen when he was condemned was so ravished with Divine Joys, so that in the midst of a shower of stones which brained him to death, he could joyfully commend his Soul into the Hands of Christ, and died praying like his Saviour for his Persecutors and Murderers, Acts 7.55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60.  
3. 'Tis a most happy mistake for those poor Saints, who die fearing their Damnation, and yet the next instant after death find themselves as Elijah in the Arms of blessed Angels, riding post in those flying Chariots to Glory. O! my Dear Friends, may you and I be so happily mistaken! A Godly Minister upon his Deathbed laughed aloud, and being demanded the reason of it, answered, I am thinking, saith he, how my Blessed Father will be surprised to see me in Heaven, whom he once gave over for a Reprobate in Earth, and lost for ever. So will the fearful, desponding Saints be happily mistaken of himself, and cry out as Ionas, Out of the Belly of Hell have I cried, and thou heardest my voice. Thou hadst cast me into the deep, into the midst of the Seas, the Floods of wrath compassed me, all thy Billows and Waves passed over me: I was cast out of thy sight, but thou hast made me to look, again toward thy Holy Temple, O! my God, thou hast brought up my Soul from the bottomless Pit of destruction, Jonah, 2.3, 4, 5, etc. I thought I should be damned, but through rich Grace I am now saved.  
4. Sometimes the wicked die under Horrors and Terrors, despairing of Mercy, their confidence is rooted out of their Tabernacle, and they be brought unto the King of Terrors, Job 18.14. What think you of Cain roaring out, Mine iniquities are more than can be forgiven! And my punishment greater than can be born! What think you of Saul sadly groaning? O! Miserable that I am, God hath forsaken me, and the Devil will have me; this day I and my Sons shall be with him in Hell! What, think ye of Judas? I have sinned! I have sinned! in betraying my Master. He that is the Saviour of the World will be my Judge, and Damn me! His Innocent Blood that reconciles Believers, is like Abel 's to me, crying, Wrath! wrath! Eternal vengeance upon me! What think you of the Sodomites, who passed out of one Hell into another? O! the frights and scrieches of those filthy sinners, burning in their Lusts, and running from the fiery Streams, and flaming Torrents of Divine Wrath! What think you of the Giants of the old World, howling and yelling under the deluges of God's Vengeance! Job 26.5. What think you of Korah, and his Schismatical and Rebellious Grew? Had they peace, confidence and comfort, when the Earth opened her Mouth, and swallowed them up quick, and they went down alive into the Pit of Hell? Their cries and lamentations frighted all Israel in such a manner, that they fled from them, fearing lest they should be engulpht in their destruction, Numb. 16.31, 32, 33, 34.  
But possibly you will say these were extraordinary Judgements from Heaven, and so no Rules for us to walk by. Wherefore to silence all queries and clamours for the future, pray do but read and consider attentively what the Holy Ghost saith, Prov. 14.32. The wicked is driven away in his wickedness; driven away, how? As with a Tempest and a furious Whirlwind; before your Pots can feel the Thorns, the burning wrath of God shall take them away one by one with a sudden destruction, they shall go down to Hell alive, quick into the Pit: But the Righteous hath hope in his death.  
And so much for Explication and Confirmation of the Doctrine; let's subjoin a word of Application.  
Use 1. Do the Prophets and Godly Ministers as well as their ungodly Hearers die? Then a Wicked People shall not be long blest with their Persons, and Preach, with their Company and Labours. For, 1. They be too good for them. The World is not worthy of them. The unkind World cries out, Take away such Fellows! They be not fit to live in it! Acts 22.22. And God saith so too, but in another sense, The World is not worthy of them, they be too good for Earth, they be Ripe for Heaven, meet and fit to be partakers of an Inheritance with God's Saints in Glory. Those famous Witnesses (Rev. 11.10, 11, 12.) that the World despised for their Sackcloth and Poverty, and hated for their Doctrine and Prophecy, and rejoiced at their Death and Calamity, sending Gifts to one another, and Feasting each other because these their Tormentors were now dead, (tho' yet 'twas but a civil death, a Bartholomew Act, that disabled them from their Work, which was their Life,) yet the voice of God bids them in the sight and hearing of their very Enemies, to come up unto him into Heaven. Come up hither, my dear Saints! my faithful Witnesses! Come up unto your God in Glory. The World is weary of you. That Dunghill is not worthy to have you. Come up unto your God in Glory!  
2. As soon as their Work is done God will call them home. After Work Rest, after Labour Wages. There remaineth a Rest, an Everlasting Sabbatism for God's Saints. We have a little Type and Shadow, a poor Picture-pledge and Earnest of it in this holy day of rest. O! but when all our Work is done, than an Eternal rest, than God will call upon his Servants, Come enter into your Rest, into your Master's Joy, my dear Saints! There is a Twofold Work that God's Ministers have to do.  
1. A Work of Conviction and Condemnation. This is a very sad, burdensome and uncomfortable Work, that instead of Preaching Souls out of their sins, we shall only show them to them, make them see them, but not leave them. Our Sermons shall awaken and startle them, but not renew nor reform them, we shall give them a Pisgah view of Heaven, but they shall nevertheless, because of their unbelief never enter into it. To some we shall be the savour of death unto death. They shall be convinced of their sins, hardened in their sins, and by those selfsame Sermons condemned for their sins. Noah that Preacher of Righteousness did thus convince and condemn the old World, Heb. 11.7. O! Sirs, it affrights me to think I should Preach any of you into Hell, and that myself and Sermons should witness to your condemnation in the last day.  
2. There is a Work of Conversion and Edification God sometimes sends us about this Work, this is pleasing, delightful, and exceeding comfortable. Go, saith God to Paul and preach at Corinth, for I have much people there, Acts 18.10. Seedsman! saith Christ unto his Minister, go scatter the good Seed of my Word in such a Soil, and it shall yield thirty, sixty, and an hundred fold. Fisherman! let down thy Net in yonder Pool, and thou shalt take many a Fish, a multitude of precious Souls. O! Sirs, if we can but gain you to Christ, and as his Ambassadors reconcile you to God, we have our ends, we have done our Work, our Master's Work, to our great Joy and Consolation. Now when we have done this Work, filled up our number of Converts, as Spiritual Fathers begotten many a Child for God, and built them up in Faith and Holiness, we shall hear our Great Lord say unto us, Well done, good and faithful Servants, enter into your Masters Joy.  
3. The sins of their Hearers, of their people, do oftentimes shorten the days of their Ministers, and many Churches are real Murderers of their most Faithful Pastors.  
You will say possibly this is an hard word, and who can bear it? How do Churches Murder their Ministers? Why Sirs, 1. Not only by exacting Work from them above their Ability; 2. Nor only by denying them due encouragement, and a competency for their subsistence; Nor yet, 3. By downright killing of them in Persecution, as both the Zachary's were, and an infinite number of other Faithful Prophets of the Lord were. But, 4. By your sins. The sins of the Hearers are our Murderers.  
But what sins? I answer, 1. Your Nonproficiency by our Ministry. You be God's Husbandry, and Garden, we are to Manure and Dress you; you be God's Building and Temple we are to repair, beautify and adorn you. 'Twas said of Augustus Caesar, that he found Rome Brick, but left it Marble. O! what a comfort will it be to our Souls to have found you Earthly, and left you Heavenly! To have found you Sinners, and leave you Saints! We have digged about you, we have manured and dressed you, studied for you, preached to you, admonished you in public and private, and what? Shall we have laboured in vain? When you have been a sleeping in your Beds, and Sins at midnight, possibly your Faithful Ministers have been upon their Knees weeping and mourning for you, struggling and wrestling with God in Fervent Prayers for your Souls; and shall all these Pains and Labours be lost? Shall we Meditate and Study, Preach and spend our Spirits in Prayer in vain, and not for your good? Shall the Lord say unto us as to Moses in another case, Speak to me no more, move me no more in this matter for these Souls, for these Sinners? They be Reprobate Silver, dross and lost Creatures, whom the Lord hath rejected for their unprofitableness under all the Means of Grace? Brethren, this cuts us to the quick, and helps to break our Heart. Your Eternal Happiness would be our Life: The fear of your being undone Eternally is as death unto us, it is killing to us.  
2. The Pragmaticalness of Church-members, who take upon them to contradict and control their Ministers. Preposterous courses! God hath made us Teachers and our People will teach their Instructors! God hath made us Guides and Lights unto you in the way to Heaven but pragmatical Hearers take upon them Magisterially enough to direct, dictate, and prescribe unto their Ministers, what Doctrine they shall Preach, and what not. The Lord takes notice of these by the Prophet, Isa. 30.8, 9, 10, 11. Now go, writ it before them in a Table, note it in a Book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever. That this is a Rebellious people, lying Children, Children that will not hear the Word of the Lord; which say to the Seers, see not, and to the Prophets prophesy not right things unto us, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. When a Godly Minister had preached of Hell unto his Parishioners, a great Lady takes him up sharply enough. What! Do not you know that my Lord can't endure to hear speak of death, and are you so unwise as to preach of the Torments of Hell unto him? Pray learn more wit next, and deliver in public a Doctrine that shall be more edifying and pleasing to him! Again, Christ hath made us by virtue of our Pastoral Office Rulers in the House of God, and committed the Keys of Doctrine and Discipline to us; but sorry Mechanics take upon them to overrule and correct their Pastors. We be Watchers for your Souls, and some watch for our failings. Jesus Christ hath positively commanded you, Heb. 13 7. to remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken to you the Word of God, to follow their Faith, considering the end of their Conversation: And again, Obey them that have the Rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your Souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you. And 1 Tim. 5.17. Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine. I'll not meddle with that Controversy, whether in the Church there be such an Officer distinct from the Pastor, as the Ruling Elder, I have told my poor thoughts about it elsewhere, 'tis certain the Pastor is a Ruler in the Church of God, no Civil Officer, he is a Spiritual Officer, not a Magistrate but a Minister, we Preach ourselves your Servants for Christ's sake; we are not the Lord's of your Faith, but the Helpers of your Joy, our Ministry is not a Saecular Magistracy. But tho' we be Spiritual Fathers, your Shepherds, and Elders in Office in the House of God, who are more slighted, disesteemed and disobeyed? So far are Church-members from giving their Pastors their double, that they deny them their single Honour. Brethren, the honour of our Ministry and Office must be vindicated. We have received it for your Edification. We encroach not upon your just Liberties, but take you heed of invading ours, of overthrowing God's established Mound, and ancient Landmarks. That Eminent Godly Minister of the Lord Jesus, old Mr. Wilson of Boston in New-England called this sin Koraism. For lying upon his Deathbed, and being visited by the Preaching Elders of that Famous Colony, they desired that he would solemnly declare unto them what he conceived were those sins which provoked the displeasure of God against the Country, he then told them, That among others, Corahism was none of the least, which he thus explained, When people rise up as Corah against their Ministers or Elders, as if they took, too much upon them, when indeed they do but rule for Christ, and according to Christ; yet said he, 'tis nothing for a Brother to stand up, and oppose without Scripture or Reason the Doctrine and Word of the Elder, saying, I am not satisfied. Oh! what a sad account shall we give of such Children, Sheep, and Members of ours unto the Lord Jesus? when in the day of Judgement we shall be asked by him (for we must give an account as for ourselves so for you also.) How far my Sheep committed to your Care and Charge in yonder Wilderness? How did you leave them, when you left the World? My Brethren, what answer do you think we shall return unto our Lord and Judge concerning you? We tremble to think the truth, the sad truth we must then relate unto him, of the Pride and Self-conceitedness, of the Stubbornness, Perverseness, and Untractableness, of the Unbelief and Disobedience of a multitude of our Hearers and Church-Members. I speak it Brethren with Tears, that I fear we shall cry as the Prophet did, Lord! who hath believed our report? 
Isa. 53.1. Chap. 65.2.  And to whom hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed? And all the day long have we stretched out our hands to a Gain saying and Rebellious People. They have despised both our Persons and Doctrine. As soon as negligent Hearers are admonished by us of their Duty, and delinquent Members reproved by us for their sins, they fly in our Faces, leave our Communion, rail at us and revile us, vomiting out the worst of Lies against us, as if we were the worst of Men. To whom shall we speak, and give warning that they may hear? Behold their Ear is uncircumcised, 
Jer. 6.10.  and they cannot hearken: Behold the Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. I know this hath sat near the Hearts of several of God's Ministers, both formerly and of later times, and filled them with unspeakable grief to the shortening of their days. If you stand fast in God, and the practice of Godliness we live, we have the end and design, and desire of our Life; for this we wish and labour for, even your perfection. Our Heart's Desire and Prayer is that you may be saved: And we preach, warning every Man, and teaching every Man in all Wisdom, that we may present every Man perfect in Christ Jesus. But if instead of this, you will retain your old sins, and slight our Counsels, and render our poor Labours ineffectual and unsuccessful, tho' this will pierce our Souls to the quick, and over-whelm us with grief to the shortening of our Lives, yet let me be bold to tell you, such wicked ones shall answer for it unto the Supreme Judge, and the Judge is now at the Door.  
Use 2. Are Godly Ministers Mortal Creatures? Then serve yourselves of them whilst you have them. Jesus Christ hath given us to you for the service of your Souls. As I said but now, so I repeat it again; we preach ourselves your Servants for Christ's sake; make use of us then for your Souls good. God hath tinded us up poor Lamps, poor Candles in the Golden Candlesticks of our Churches, receive Light, and Heavenly Instruction from us. We desire to guide you by the Divine Councils, and to feed you with the Celestial Manna, and do bring unto you the best news in the World, the glad-tydings of Salvation. O! let our Persons, our Message be acceptable to you. How beautiful are the Feet of them that publish the glad-tydings of Salvation? You should say unto us as Laban did to Abraham's Servant, (for we come unto you upon the like Errand to Espouse and Marry you unto Christ) Come in, ye blessed of the Lord, wherefore stand you without? When the Jesuits first came into Portugal, they were called the Apostles of Portugal, and entertained with all imaginable honour. Strange! that a Crew of selfseeking, and deceiving Idolaters should be caressed and Embraced, and the Ambassadors of Christ stand waiting, and weeping without, at your Doors. We are, Sirs, Christ's Ambassadors, and we come upon this Errand to you, and beseech you to listen to it, to reconcile you unto God. You are by nature his Enemies, and 'tis very dangerous for you. O! become his Friends. Be you reconciled unto God. And the rather do this, because you shall not have us always with you. We are Mortal, we are dying now whilst we are living and preaching to you. My Race is well nigh run, my Work is well nigh finished, the Sands in the Glass of my Life are almost out. Walk in the Light whilst you have the Light. The Prophets don't live for ever.  
Quest. But how shall we use and serve ourselves of our Ministers?  
Answ. 1. Be swift to hear, slow to wrath. God hath made us Preachers, and you Hearers, we should not preach to empty Houses, and naked Walls. Church-members should be ordinarily Hearers of their own Ministers. Neglect no opportunities that you can conveniently have and spare for this Duty. If we are to preach in season and out of season, to be instant in Exhortation and Doctrine, you must lend us your Ears. Blessed are they that watch at Wisdoms Gates, and wait daily at the Posts of her Doors.  
2. Rejoice in our Light, Doctrine, and Conversation. Herod heard John the Baptist with delight. His Person and Preaching was very sweet and pleasing to him, yea and to the Jews also, for he was a burning and shining Light, and they rejoiced in his Light for a time, John 5.35.  
3. Frequently consult with your Pastors in private about your Souls, and your Estate to God-ward. When you find inward struggle and perplexities within you as to your Everlasting condition, do as Rebekah did, go and consult with God by us. Ask the counsel and mind of God for you from us. There should not be that strangeness that is between Pastor and People, but a sweet intimacy and holy familiarity as between Children and their Fathers. Come to us with such questions as these, Oh! Sirs, What shall we do to be saved? Is this work that is wrought in me a saving or a common work? Inform and direct me, that I may not miscarry in Conversion, nor be mistaken as to my Right and Title to Heaven and Glory.  
4. Never let us go out of your Houses without leaving our blessing with you. The old Puritan would not let their Pastors go without praying with them, and praying for them.  
Use 3. Are Godly Ministers and Ungodly Hearers both all alike dying Creatures? Then look to it, that you be not numbered in your Deaths with Godless Hearers. O! saith Balaam, Let me die the death of the Righteous, and my latter end like unto theirs! A young Man seeing the happy end of St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan, turning to his Boon Companions, I would, said he, fain live with you, but die with Ambrose. There had been some picks and quarrels between Maccovius Professor of Divinity at Franequer in Friesland, and our Pious Learned Aims, which made our Reverend Countryman to quit that University: But when Maccovius heard of his death, he cries out, May my Soul when it leaves this Body be where Blessed Dr. Ames is! O! Sirs, 'twill be your happiness to be with all the Holy Prophets, Apostles and Evangelists, with the Glorious Company of innumerable Angels, and with the Blessed Spirit's of God's Ministers, those just men made perfect. That Blessed Society which is in Heaven is the sweets of Heaven. I shall only change my place, not my Company, said dying Dr. Preston. He left imperfect for perfect Saints. The Communion of Saints in Glory, next to the Eternal Enjoyment of God, is the Paradise of Heaven. O! Labour for it.  
Quest. But how shall we get ourselves among them in Death?  
Answ. 1. Consider their Faith, and the end of their Conversation. God hath made your Ministers your Examples both in Life and Death. Be you Followers of them as they be of Christ. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report: If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, thinks on these things. Those things which ye have both learned and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: And the God of peace shall be with you.  
2. Let not our Sermons be buried with us in our Graves. Let not those hundreds of Sermons you have heard from your two Learned and Faithful Ministers die with them. Have them always in remembrance. Let them live in your minds and memories, 2 Pet. 1.12, 15.  
3. Let our Word, which yet is not ours but God's, ever live in your Hearts and Affections. O! how do I love thy Word! 'tis my Meditation all the day long, said that Royal Prophet, Psal. 119.97, 103, 113, 127, 140. If you will love and live God's Word, do and practise it, you will be guided by the best of Counsels, and infallibly brought unto Glory.  
4. Let our Sermons be copied out in your Conversations; hold you forth in them the Word of Life unto all that see and observe you. This renders God's Word on your part, and as much as in you lieth Immortal, and fitteth you for blessed Immortality. Tho' the Preachers die, yet in this manner God's Word never dies, and the Preacher's themselves will seem to be alive. I'll shut up all with these words of the Apostles, 2 Cor. 3.1, 2, 3. Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or need we as some others Epistles of Commendation to you, or Letters of Commendation from you? Ye are our Epistle written in our Hearts, known and read of all men: For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with Ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God; not in Tables of Stone, but in Fleshly Tables of the Heart.  
And if you are thus the Epistle of Christ, and our Ministry unto your Souls is the Ministry of the Spirit of Life, you may rest assured that Godly Ministers and Godly Hearers shall be as Saul and Jonathan lovely in their Lives, nor shall they in Death be divided.  
I have done with my Sermon, yet I cannot but speak something of your late Reverend, and now Glorified Pastor, tho' by reason the time is past, it will be but very little.  
1. He was a Man of singular Moderation, and of a very peaceable Spirit. If the Peacemakers are blessed, and shall be called the Children of God, then Blessed is Mr. Faldo, who had an especial hand in the healing of our Breaches, which, Glory be unto God's Holy Name, are to the Mutual Joys of all the Saints now composed, and those two great divided Parties in this Nation, and that had been so for above Forty years, are now once again United, and become one, and we shall no more for the future hear of those unhappy Terms of Distinction and Separation, Presbyterian and Independent, but we shall be called as the Primitive Church of Antioch by his Name who hath Redeemed us, and Anointed us with his Holy Spirit, even Christians.  
2. He was a stout Assertor of Ancient, Primitive Truths in Doctrine and Worship. He contended earnestly for the Faith once delivered unto the Saints, and was a Zealous Champion for it against the Impious Errors, and Damnable Opinions of a Deluded, Seduced Party in this Land. His Learned Labours Polemical with them, Practical and Devotional for the use of others do praise him in the Gate, and by these as Righteous Abel, tho' dead, he yet speaketh.  
3. He was a constant Labourer, and very painful in his Lord's Vineyard, and the very first that entered publicly upon it before the last Indulgence by King James the Second. And his Great Master found him in his Work. There the Gripes and Stone assaulted him, which at last killed him. Blessed is that Servant, whom when his Lord comes he finds so doing!  
I cannot but condole your loss, and the Church's loss, and pardon these Tears, my own particular loss. I have been so unhappy as to lose in your two Successive Holy and Reverend Pastors two very Worthy and Dear Friends.  
I pray God, my Brethren, that as you had a Learned and Pious Faldo to succeed your Blessed Mr. Partridge, so you may have another; who may Excel them both in Gifts and Graces, in all Ministerial Endowments, and Pastoral Abilities.  
But my Dear Brethren, such a Pastor as Reverend Mr. Faldo is Forty years a making.  
However, I beseech you be not too long in making your Choice, and filling up your Vacancy. Either Incorporate with some other Church, or call in speedily another Pastor. There be some young Men of great Hopes, of Eminent Parts and Piety that are yet unemployed. If any one ask why they are idle this time a-day, they will reply, Because none hath hired us. Pray get one of them; some One may be had.  
The Lord, God of Wisdom Led, Guide, and Direct you in your way! And give you a Pastor after his own Heart, that may feed you with Knowledge and Understanding! Amen.  
FINIS.