DEATH AND THE GRAVE No Bar to Believers Happiness.  
OR, A SERMON preached at the Funeral OF THE Lady HONOUR VYNER, In the Parish Church of Mary Wolnoth in Lombardstreet, July 10. 1656.  
By WILLIAM SPURSTOW, D. D. and Minister of God's Word at Hackney.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable, 1 Cor. 15. 19 I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death: O death I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction, Hosea 13. 14. 
Omnia sub sole vanitas; ergo supra solem veritas. Paulin. in Opusc.  
LONDON, Printed for J. Rothwell, at the Fountain in Goldsmiths-row in Cheapside. 1656.   

TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL Sir THOMAS VYNER, Kt. And Alderman of the City of LONDON.  
SIR,  
SInce that you are pleased not to be dissatisfied with the long stay of this Sermon, it matters not to give an account to others, to whose hands it may happily come, what the causes are that have made it to stick so long in the birth. And yet I am willing they should understand thus much: First, that it is a sad work, and that I never preached or printed more unchearfully: Sorrow is a passion that moves slowly, it makes the words slow as well as few, and the pace to be creeping, and snail-like: there is nothing in it that runs, but tears. Secondly, that it is an imperfect work, and unfit for that end to which it seems to be designed; and therefore I gladly would that it might have been still hid like Saul behind the stuff, and not have appeared in public view. For I know it will be looked upon as a kind of record that bears upon it the name of the Lady HONOUR VYNER, whose name should always be written by me, aureis potius literis, quam vili hoc liquore, in Letters of Gold rather than with this vile and cheap Ink, so many were my obligations to her for the constant and real favours that she was pleased to heap upon me, which must still live, and be acknowliged by me: But the best at present that I can make of this way is, that black is suitable to mourning, and that broken notes, sentences, and inconsistencies (with which I fear this little piece abounds) are in sorrow pardonable, if not commendable. And this is all that I shall now say on my own behalf.  
To you Sir, who are still a sad mourner under this band and stroke of God, I hope this Sermon may afford such prevailing considerations as may cause you not to sorrow as others that have no hopes, in regard that she is not dead but sleeps, is not lost but found, not taken from the company of the living, but of the lamenting. Though therefore your eyes may drop as a limbeck, yet let them not run as spouts; though sighs may come from you, yet take heed of repine. It is God that hath done it, and who shall say unto him, What dost thou? I know you do strive against dejections, (and I bless God) that hitherto you have born your cross as becomes a Christian; continue, I beseech you still in the exercise of Faith and Patience, that so when you are tried, you may receive the Crown of life that the Lord hath promised to those that love him, James 1. 12. And that you may thus do, and be thus crowned, shall be the prayer of him, who thankfully acknowledgeth all your love, and rests  
SIR, Your most affectionate friend and servant in the Lord WILLIAM SPURSTOWE.   

DEATH and the GRAVE no Bar to a BELIEVERS Happiness.  PSAL. 17. 15. I shall be satisfied, when I awake with thy likeness. 
It is storied by the famous Tully concerning Syracuse, that there is no day throughout the whole year so stormy, and tempestuous, in which the inhabitants have not some glimpse and sight of the Sun: The like observation may be truly made on all those Psalms of David, in which his complaints are most multiplied, his fears, and pressures most insisted on, that there is not any of them so totally overcast with the black darkness of despair; but that we may easily discern them to be here and there intervened and streaked with some comfortable expressions of his faith and hope in God. If in the beginning of a Psalm we find him restless in his motions, like Noah's Dove upon the overspreading waters; yet in the close we shall see him like the same Dove returning with an Olive branch in its mouth, and fixing upon the Ark. If we find him in another Psalm staggering in the midst of his distresses through the prevalency of carnal fears; we may also in it behold him recovering himself again, by fetching arguments from faith, whose topics are of an higher elevation then to be shaken by the timorous suggestions that arise from the flesh. If at another time we behold him like to a boat on drift, that is tossed and beaten by the inconstant winds, and fierce waves, yet we shall still find all his rollings and agitations to be such as carry him towards the standing shore, where he rides at last both in peace and safety. And of all this the present Psalm is both a full and lively instance.  
For in it holy David's afflictions are neither few nor small: His innocency that is wounded by malicious slanders, His life that is in jeopardy by deadly enemies that compass him about, His present condition that is embittered unto him by the pressing wants of a barren Wilderness, while his foes live deliciously in saul's Court. And yet under the weight and combination of so many sore evils, David carries himself as one that is neither hopeless nor forsaken: yea, lays his estate in the balance against theirs, and in this low ebb of his vies with them for happiness; and at last shutting up the Psalm with a triumphant Epiphonema, concludes himself to be by far the better man. As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. They 'tis true enjoy the face of their King, whose favour is as a cloud of latter rain promising a fruitful harvest of many blessings, But I (saith he) shall behold the face of God in righteousness; whose loves: kindness is better than life, clothed with all its Royalties: they have their bellies filled with hidden treasure, having more than a common hand of bounty opened unto them; but I have more gladness put into my heart, more than in the time that their Corn and Wine increased. They have their portion in hand, as being men of this world; but I have mine laid up in the other: I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.  
In the words we have his and every believers eternal happiness in the other life, set forth in three particulars as a most effectual Antidote against present troubles and temptations that arise from the malice of wicked men againstt them.  
First, the time of his absolute and complete happiness. Cum evigilavero, when I awake. Some Interpreters conceive, that by this waking the Prophet intends no more than to express the lively sense and confidence that he hath of the return of God's favour unto him, under this dark night of trouble and sorrow which is now upon him: and though he now be like those that are asleep, who for that time want those pleasures and delights which others enjoy; yet he shall awake again to behold the light of God's face shining upon him like a bright Sun with manifold emanations of love and bounty. But others both of the Ancient and Modern carry the Metaphor far higher, applying it to the resurrection, and the state of blessedness after death, which to me seems to be both a full and genuine interpretation; in regard that David comforteth himself in his present wants with the hopes of an after happiness, totally differenced from that which those whom he styles the men of the World, and such as have their portion in this life are made partakers of.  
The second is the measure and redundancy of his happiness: I shall be satisfied. The Sun is not so full of light, nor the Sea of water, as he shall be at his awaking of endless bliss and perfection. Our desires in this life are (as the Lawyers say, of ones will while he lives) wholly ambulatory, and admit of as many alterations, as such testaments do of additions and expunctions; being neither filled nor fixed with the fruition of any satisfactory good: But in the the other life our desires are terminated in the fullness of our enjoyments, and as faith is swallowed up in vision, so are our desires in complacency: we affect nothing that we have not, and we have nothing that we do not affect.  
The third is the object of his happiness, together with the manner of his enjoying it : I shall be satisfied with thy likeness. The object is the likeness of God, that is, his glory and perfection, with which he sits clothed on his Throne of Majesty. The manner of enjoying it, is by beholding of it; not by way of resultancy, and mediante speculo, by the conveyance and help of a glass; but by an immediate, clear, and permanent vision, in which he shall be filled with the knowledge and sight of God, so fare as the capacity of a creature can reach unto: but as it is impossible to bring the vast body of the Sun into the narrow compass of the eye that beholds it; so is it much more impossible to comprehend the being of an infinite God within the limits of a finite understanding, when elevated and widened to its highest pitch.  
Having opened the words in the several branches, which naturally they shoot forth into: I shall begin with the first particular, the time of david's and every believers complete happiness: [When I awake] And from it gather two Observations.  
The first, (which I shall but briefly touch) is, That death to the godly is no more than a sleep. The grave in which they rest is as their bed; the darkness of it as the night; and their resurrection from it, as the joyful morning. The Heathens have called death by the name of sleep as well as the Scripture. Homer saith, that sleep and death have one mother, and are begotten of the night: And the Cynic falling into a sleep, a little before his death, pleasantly said, Frater me mox traditurus est fratri suo; one brother is now delivering me into the hands of another: but yet they never styled it so upon the same ground which the Scripture doth, neither ever could, being wholly ignorant of Christ, by whom death is wonderfully changed from an enemy to a friend, from a curse to a blessing, and is put into the Inventory of the Saints privileges which accrue unto them by Christ, 1 Cor. 3. 22. It comes now to them rather by sin, then for sin, because it is not in ordine a peccato ad supplicium, sed ad salutem: it comes not as a middle thing between sin and damnation, but between sin and salvation. And therefore may now fitly be resembled to a sleep in these respects.  
First, sleep is a ligation, not an ablation of the external senses; it obstructs their function and exercise, but it doth not destroy the faculty: So death interrupts and suspends the action of life, but it doth not extinguish the root and principle of a believers life, so as to make it to admit of no return. The Philosopher thought indeed the dissolution of the body to be argument full enough to evince the impossibility of its resurrection, and therefore derided the doctrine of it when Paul preached it, Act. 17. 18. But Job tells us, that though his reins be consumed within him, that yet with his eyes he should behold God, Job 19 27. and the Prophet saith, that Christ's dead shall arise and sing, Jsay 26. 19 The silence of the grave is but a kind of Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or restraint only for a time; sight, hearing, speech shall all return again. For though death hath made a separation between soul and body, yet neither soul nor body are by it separated from Christ: but as in Christ the Union Hypostatical; so in his members the Union mystical is inviolable: and therefore they are said to sleep in Jesus, 1 Thes: 4. 14. to die not out of the Lord but in the Lord, Rev. 14. 13. yea into the Lord, Rom. 14. 8. so as by death to be more closely joined to him: being then united to him that lives for evermore, their very dust must needs be a living part of him.  
Secondly, in regard both of the time and manner of sleep and death. Some as children are put sooner to bed; others again sit up longer before they go to sleep: some have their life like a Winter day short and cloudy, and with them it is quickly night; some have it lengthened out like to a Summer day, and with them it is late before the evening of their life shuts in. Some as children when undressed by their Parents, begin to struggle and express a backwardness; others again as throughly wearied with their stirring, call to be had to bed: And so some Christians shrink at the approaches of death, and are loath to be unclothed; others again as burdened with their earthly tabernacle, groan to have mortality to be swallowed up of life. Hezekiah when the Prophet bids him set his house in order, for he must die and not live, turned his face to the wall and wept sore, 2 King. 20. 3. But Paul he desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is best of all, Philip. 1. 21.  
Thirdly, death is a sleep in regard of the likeness of our being awakened both from the one and from the other. It is observed by the Naturalists that no noise more suddenly awaketh a man from his sleep, than an Humane voice; yea though it be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that heavy and deep slumber which precedeth death itself, as the Aphorism noteth it in Hypocrates. The way by which our Saviour raised Lazarus, John 11. 45. and Peter raised Tabytha, was by a voice, Acts 9 40. And the way by which all the congregation of the dead shall be awakened from the grave, shall be, not by the immediate voice of God, but by the voice of the Son of man. The hour cometh (saith our Saviour) in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and come forth, John 5. 28. It is his voice that shall cause the Sea to give up its dead, and shall make the bones of his Saints that are scattered over the face of the whole earth to come together.  
But it is not my purpose to weary the Metaphor in a full and close pursuit of it, or to draw an exact parallel between sleep and death: It being a point that I least aimed at in this present exercise. The application that I shall make is briefly double.  
First, if death be but a sleep to believers, than it should cause us to moderate our sorrow on the behalf of our dearest friends and relations that are fallen asleep in the Lord: as also to correct that excess of fear in regard of ourselves, who are apt to be dismayed at the harbingers of the King of terrors, age, pain, and sickness, and to sink under the sad thoughts of an imminent dissolution. Who is troubled when he understands his sick friend is laid down to rest? and who is afraid to put off his clothes at night, when he goes to bed? Sleep is not an hurtful, but a necessary kind of privation and intermission: It is the sick man's Physician, the travellers and labouring man's restorative, the only Parenthesis of the afflicted man's sorrows; and from hence it is that Aristotle in his Ethics saith, that for well nigh half their time the miserable and the happy do little differ. And are not all these together with far more high advantages found to meet in the believers sleep of death? is there not then a perfect release from all the miseries of this life? is there not by it a cure wrought of all the maladies both of the soul and of the body, so that the one shall no more relapse into its former sins, nor the other into its old diseases & cares? the eye shall not weep for sorrow, nor the brow sweat with labour, the head shall not ache with the multitude of anxious thoughts, nor the fancy be molested with the dreams & visions of the night: when we awake from it we shall say it was the best and quietest sleep that ever we slept, and the best physic that ever we took for the putting of a final period to all our distempers. Let not therefore believers dread the thoughts of death as others do, nor shriek out when they espy this snake creeping into their bosoms; for hurt them it cannot having lost its sting; but benefit them it shall, being made by Christ an egress from all misery, and an ingress into all happiness.  
The second application is, to acquaint us how necessary it is to exercise faith and holiness while we live, that death may be a comfortable sleep to us when we die. No man can die in the Lord that lives not to the Lord; nor shall awake from death to happiness, that doth not first awake from sin to holiness. It is a vain presumption to conceive that a man that lives and dies in his sins, can ever have the same joyful resurrection with them that have made it their constant work to die to their sin. Northern and Southern rivers though they run from contrary points meet in the same Sea; but they whose ways and Principles are contrary unto theirs that profess holiness, shall never be found with them in the same Heaven. If we look for according to God's promise, new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, 2 Pet. 3. 13. we must have righteousness dwelling in us here, or else we shall never dwell in them hereafter. O then that they would lay this to heart who dread the separation of the soul from the body; but yet are not at all afraid of the separation and disunion both of the body and soul from God, that so they may timely busy themselves in those ways and duties, which may make the first death that cannot possibly be avoided by them, to be comfortable to them; and may also wholly prevent their dying of the second death, which leaves all those that fall under the stroke of it eternally hopeless.  
And thus I have done with the first Observation, touching it well nigh with as light an hand as Jonathan did the honeycomb, into which he only dipped the end of his rod; but by that small taste his eyes were enlightened; and so I hope may ours also by that little which hath been spoken of it. There remains yet a second observation, which grows as ripe fruit upon the same branch and is next to be gathered, and that is this.  
Doct. 2 That the happiness of believers is not absolute and entire until their resurrection from the grave: nor are they filled with bliss and glory to satisfaction till they be awaked. In nature the tree puts forth first buds, than blossoms, and afterwards by a further digestion of the sap there is a production of the fruit: and so it is with believers in their supernatural and eternal blessedness, in which they are not at once estated; but have it first in the buddings of it by faith and hope, in the blooming of it by the joys and comforts of the Spirit, with which they are often lifted up towards Heaven; but the ultimate fullness of it, they enjoy not until the whole man come to be possessed of Heaven. We are now the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be, 1 John 2. 2. Our present condition at best falls as far short of our future, as a faint ray doth of the Sun when it shines in its full strength. The learned Verulam's observation of Prophecies falls in much with the manner of our celestial happiness, who saith, that they have gradus & scalas complementi, certain gradual fulfilings, in each of which they grow more clear and distinct: And so hath it sundry progressive steps, and ascensions, in each of which we are truly partakers of it after a growing and increasing way, as I shall show in five steps.  
First, believers have life and eternal blessedness, in pretio, in the price that is laid down for it. Ephes. 1. 14. It is called a purchased possession, an inheritance that doth not descend to us by birth; but is given to us by grace. He who hath a natural right unto it, as being the heir of all things, Heb. 1. 2. hath given unto us a right of purchase: Our title is founded in Christ's blood which makes it truly ours; he having by it obtained a power to give eternal life to whomsoever he pleaseth.  
Secondly, believers have it in promisso, in the promise, which is a declaration and conveyance of what Christ hath purchased to be to their behoof, and the oath of God which is added to it, is as the seal upon the label of the deed, that gives a further ratification unto it; that so by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, they might have strong consolation, Heb. 6. 18. And who is it that by the eye of faith views and reads those evidences, in which a crown of life, Revel. 2. 10. a Kingdom that cannot be moved, Heb. 12. 28. an inheritance that fadeth not away, 1 Pet. 1. 4. are all ascertained to him, doth not rejoice more under the hopes of glory, than the greatest of Princes ever can in the fruition of all their worldly greatness.  
Thirdly, they are partakers of Heaven itself, in prodromo, in their forerunner, the Lord Christ. He at his ascension took seisin and livery of it in their name, John 14. 2. I go to prepare a place for you. An expression (as some conceive) borrowed from travellers, amongst whom some one is by agreement sent before to take up lodgings for the rest of his company. And as he takes, so also doth he keep possession in their names, preserving still their right unto it, until they come to be possessed of it themselves. And hence it is, that the Apostle saith of believers, that they are raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ, Ephes. 2. 6.  
Fourthly, they have the happiness of Heaven, in primitiis, in the first-fruits, and pledges of it, every grace of the Spirit is scintilla futurae lucis, a spark of their future glory; every comfort of it is gutta font is vitae, a drop of the well of life; and are as certain evidences of an ensuing fullness; as the daystar is of an approaching morning. The tastes and prelibations of happiness, which believers have in this life by the mouth of faith, the sight of Heaven which they have by the eye of faith, that sometimes stands, on tiptoe, and peeps into the things that are within the veil, do differ only in degree and not in kind from the full sruition and vision of God which they have in the other life, when their souls and body, are reunited to each other, and both con●oyned unto Christ their everliving head and Lord.  
Fifthly and laftly, believers have life and eternal blessedness, in mess, in the rich and full harvest of it; when all the promises both of grace and glory are wholly accomplished, when all the expectations of faith and hope are swallowed up in endless admiration, when all the desires of the soul, which are more restless than the Sun in their motions, are eternally fixed upon one simple and infinite good, which contains in it the perfection of all delectible objects. Quid ●o avarius cui Deus non sufficit in quo sunt omnia? What can be more insatiable than that man, whom God doth not suffice in whom all things are? can any thirst after a larger possession than immensity? a surer state than immortality? a longer term of years than perpetuity?  
But if you ask me why God defers the consummation of his children's happiness unto the resurrection, and makes it to be like a jacob's ladder, that hath sundry steps and ascensions: amongst many grounds that may be assigned, be pleased to take these.  
First, God doth it that he may hid his counsels and purposes concerning his children from the eyes and knowledge of carnal & proud men, to whom the external meanness of Christ and his followers becomes a stumbling-block, and a just occasion to make them perish in their sins. And he doth it also that he may hid his people from their rage and fury, who are as impatient at the least appearances of their welfare, as Bulls are at the fight of Scarlet. They envy them their morsels of bread, much more their Manna; their rags, much more their robes. The evil husbandmen in the Gospel as soon as they beheld the heir, deal worse with him then with their Lords servants, Luke 20. 14. And did but the wicked of the world but fully know whose the inheritance of Heaven were, they would fall upon them as the Jews upon Steven, and stone them to death.  
Secondly, God doth it that he may show forth the greatness of his power. Alchemists boast much of their skill, that they can turn base metals into more noble, Led into Silver, Copper into gold, but the ground upon which they build their presumption is, that these base metals are in their nature in the way to be better; and so they do but perfect that which is imperfect and would by course of nature have become perfect though they had never laboured it; But they never assayed to turn dross into Silver, or dirt into Gold. And yet the power which God putteth forth is far greater, when he raiseth his children from the grave to Heaven, and makes them that were Netherlanders, dwelling in the dust, to be citizens of the new Jerusalem which is above, the companions of Angels, and coheirs with Christ. Who but an infinite power can make a vile corruptible body to put on incorruption? or can change a natural body into a spiritual body, so as that it shall not need the assistance of meats and drinks, but live as the Angels do? or can make a body sown in dishonour to rise in honour, being beautified with the glorious endowments of clarity, agility, and impassibility?  
Thirdly, God defers the full happiness of believers till their resurrection, that they may have occasion to show forth and exercise all kind of graces that bring glory and honour to himself. If the crown were set upon their heads, while they were as infants in the cradle, where would their patience in enduring trials and in waiting on the pleasure of God be made visible to the world? If they were all forthwith taken up from earth to heaven, where would be the exercise of their hope, and earnest longing after the appearing of Christ in glory? If there were no such changes as death and dissolution intervening, where would be the glory of the Christians faith who now believe that which the line of reason cannot fathom. Is there any desert so hopeless as death and the grave, desertion of life and being, when milk forsakes the breasts, marrow the bones, blood the veins, spirit the arteries; and the soul the body? And yet after such desolations faith expects a restauration: I know (saith Job) that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand upon the Earth at the latter day: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, Job 19 25, 26. Believers know the power of God can easily break asunder the bands of death, and therefore yield to it as prisoners of hope.  
Fourthly, God doth it, that there may be a conformity between Christ's and the believers entrance into glory. He was first abased, and then exalted; He suffered, and then was crowned; he descended into the grave, and then ascended into Heaven. O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken; ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? saith our Saviour to his doubting Disciples, Luke 24. 25, 26. Surely, if He went from the Cross to his Throne, it is not meet that we should balk the one, and take the other: If he were stripped naked, before he was clothed with Majesty and honour, we may not refuse to undergo the same condition with him; especially he having sanctified to us abasements, afflictions, death and the grave, by undergoing them for us.  
Fifthly, God doth it, that he may declare himself just in his threaten, as well as gracious in his promises. It was his Law that if any man did offend, he should die the death; and therefore though he hath taken away the curse from off the soul, yet he hath not taken away the stroke of it from the body; though he have in mercy freed his chosen one's from Hell, yet he hath not exempted them from the grave. Let not therefore any so presume on his goodness, as to slight his justice, or conceive that the promises of the Gospel have vacated the threaten of the Law: but let them remember, that he is known by executing of judgement, Psal. 9 16. as well as by showing mercy, Exodus 34. 7.  
In the application of this truth I shall be very brief, and touch only upon two inferences, without insisting upon either, that so I may not by the lapse of time be wholly frustrated in speaking to other particulars, that are yet like rich hang folded up and not presented to our view.  
First, it may acquaint us how needful a grace patience is to believers, whose felicity is in expectation, not in possession, whose life is a seeds-time, and not an harvest, that so they may not droop at the delay of the promise. It is one choice piece of the spiritual armour with which the Apostle would have the Ephesians feet to be shod, to secure them both against the roughness, and the length of their way, Ephes. 6. 15. It is that he prays for in the behalf of the Thessalonians, that God would direct their hearts into the patiented waiting for Christ, 2 Thes. 3. 5. It is the commendation os the Saints given by the Angel, Revel. 14. 12. that they bore patiently the furious assaults of Antichrist without fainting, expecting by faith his ruin and their own exaltation. Let us therefore arm ourselves with the same mind, both in running our race, and bearing our burdens without murmuring or dejection, believing that in the best season God will make our happiness to grow as the light, until it be consummated in its ultimate perfection and stability.  
The second inference is, that though the complete happiness of believers be future, that yet it is no ground to any to slacken their present diligence of standing perfect and complete in all the will of God, Col. 4. 12. or to procrastinate their service till they draw nearer the borders of the other World, because they conceive the reward to stand at a great distance: for when they have done whatever we can imagine to lie within the latitude of a creatures ability, yet their work will never arise to any equality with their wages. For could we suppose a man's obedience from his birth to run in a parallel line with the purity of the whole law, and that he should abide in that estate as many years as the world hath stood minutes; yet when the total sum of all his duties and services is cast up, it would fall as far short of the reward with which God crowns the services of his children, as the smallest fraction doth of the greatest number, or the least filing of gold of the riches of the whole Indies. How sedulous and careful therefore should believers be, to let slip no season, nor to foreslow any occasion of honouring God in the exercise of all holiness, whose time is but short, whose works are but imperfect; and yet are rewarded with full and endless bliss.  
I leave now the first particular the time of David's happiness [when I awake] and come to the second, the measure and redundancy of it, which follows next as well in order of the words, as of the parts: When I wake I shall be satisfied. This one word satiabor, points out the wide difference that is between Earth and Heaven; the one is the place of desires, and they speak indigency, the other of having, and that speaks fullness. Whom have I in Heaven but thee O Lord? And there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee, Psal. 73. 25. On Earth we may have contentment, which consists in curbing our appetite, and bringing our mind to our estate, but in Heaven we have satisfaction, and that is, when our estate is fully according to our mind and desires. Then all the thirsty appetites of the soul, and of the whole man are filled and satisfied with enjoyments suitable to the several faculties: The understanding that is filled to its utmost capacity with truth, the will that is satisfied with goodness, and the senses with pleasure. When therefore believers change Earth for Heaven they do not lose their happiness but perfect it: as Fish when they fall out of the narrow and small brooks into the wide and deep Sea do not leave their Element, but are more in it then before.  
To open more distinctly the fullness and perfection of the blessedness of Heaven, I shall set it forth two ways. First, Comparatively. Secondly, Positively.  
First, let us compare it to the best things here below, such as men's hearts, and endeavours are most carried forth unto, and we shall quickly find how light they will be in the balance, and how heavy the other. Gold, pearls, precious stones do but serve to set forth the pavements of the streets, the Walls and Gates of the new Jerusalem, Revel. 31. But alas! they are too mean things to shadow forth the riches, glory and dignity of the Inhabitants? What is the beauty of the High Priest garments wherewith he entered into the Holy of holies, to those robes of righteousness with which the Saints are clothed? What is Solomon's throne with its steps and ascents, to the throne upon which they sit? What are his servants and attendants, which astonish the Queen of Sheba, to those Angels that are their ministering spirits? they are but as rags, as a dunghill, as motes in the Sunbeam to the beam itself.  
Secondly, compare it with the sorest sufferings and afflictions that any have, or may sustain while they are in the body, and they will all be as so many foils to set off the pefection of the happiness of Heavens Who have met with harder measure from the World by persecutions, by torments, by slaughters, than Christians? and who have sustained them with such courage and resolution as they have done? giving greater thanks to their enemies, when they have been condemned, then when absolved. Paul under the hope of glory, joys in tribulation, Rom. 5. 3. The believing Hebrews knowing that they have in Heaven an enduring substance, take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, Heb. 10. 34. Others that they might obtain a better resurrection, have not accepted of deliverance from the sword, flames and other tortures when it hath been offered unto them, Heb. 11, 35. It is storied of Adrianus that Martyr, that seeing many Christians put to so cruel and bitter deaths, he asked others of them what it was that they suffered such grievous things for; and their Answer was, Speramus illa bona quae oculus non vidit, auris non audivit, in cor hominis non ascenderunt: We hope for those things which eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor ever entered into the heart of man to conceive. Whereupon he was so moved, that he forthwith desired to be enroled in the catalogue of Martyrs, and so suffered his Wife exciting him thereunto. Needs therefore must the happiness of Heaven be full and perfect, when for it, men are willing to forgo the sweetest things, and to undergo the hardest; and yet reckon all not worthy of the Glory that shall be revealed in them, Rom. 8. 18.  
Thirdly, the fullness of the felicity of Heaven may appear, if we compare it with the joys and comforts of the Holy Spirit. Such they are, as that the Scripture styles them strong consolations, Heb. 6. 17. full joys, John 15. 11. Joy unspeakable and full of Glory, 1 Pet. 1. 8. abounding consolations, 2 Cor. 1. 5. And yet all the joy and peace that believers are partakers of in this life is but as a drop to the Ocean, as a single cluster to the whole Vintage, as the Thyme or Honey upon the thigh of a Bee to the whole Hive fully fraught with it, or as the break and peep of day to the bright no●n-tide. But yet these tastes of the Water, Wine, and Honey of this celestial Canaan with which the Holy Spirit makes glad the hearts of believers are both far more desirable and satisfactory than the overflowing streams of all earthly felicities: And there are none who have once tasted of them, but say as the Samaritan woman did, Lord give me that Water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw, John 4. 15. So also the first and early dawnings of the heavenly light fill the soul with more serenity, and ravish it with more pure joy, than the brightest Sunshine of all worldly splendour can ever do. I have read of a devout Person who but dreaming of Heaven, the signatures and impressions it made upon his fancy were so strong, as that when he awaked he knew not his Cell, could not distinguish the night from the day, nor difference by his taste Oil from Wine, still he was calling for his vision and saying, Red mihi campos floridos, columnam anream, comitem Hieronymum, assistentes Angelos. Give me my fresh and fragrant fields again, my Golden pillar of light, Jerom my companion, Angels my assistants. If Heaven in a dream produce such extacies, as drown and overwhelm the exercise of the senses to inferior objects; what transes and complacencies must the fruition of it work in those, who have their whole rational appetite filled, and their body beautified with its endless glory?  
Secondly, as we have seen the transcendent fullness of Heaven's happiness comparatively; so now let us view it a little positively, and that both in its causes and in its properties.  
First, the efficient cause of all the fullness and glory of Heaven is God. It is his royal mansion built by himself, and for himself, Heb. 11. 10. No Artist had either head or hand in the creating of this stately fabric; for who could make it suitable to his greatness but himself, who only understands his own excellency. The Tabernacle, the Temple in which his typical presence only was, were both by his appointment to have art and cost bestowed upon them, that so they might the better draw respect and reverence to his name who was worshipped in them: how much more will God beautify and deck his Throne of Majesty on which he sits, & on which he will manifest himself in all perfection unto the whole Assembly of the first born, whose names are written in Heaven, that he may forever be adored, and admired by them.  
Secondly, if we look upon Heaven in the meritorious cause of it, as it is a purchased inheritance; so it will appear also to be full of glory. When we hear what a vast sum hath been given for a Lordship, for a Jewel or Diamond by them that have become propreiators of them, we usually conclude, that they are of more than common worth, or else men would not have expended so much treasure for them: How much better may we argue, the worth and excellency of Heaven, for which the Lord Christ laid down his blood as a price to gain us thereby a right and a title unto it. Surely he who is the wisdom of God knew the value and worth of it to be such as none but himself could ever have been able to compass, or else he would not have given his precious blood for that, for which men or Angels had been sufficient to have bought with their stock.  
Thirdly, the riches and glory of Heaven is seen in this, that Christ is the exemplary cause, and pattern to whom believers are to be conformed. He shall change our vile body (saith the Apostle) that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body, Phil. 3. 21. In his abasement he became like us bearing upon him our infirmities; but in our exaltation we shall be made like unto him: We shall not only behold his glory; but we shall be partakers of it. And can they want any thing who sit upon the same throne, who feed at the same table, who are clothed with the robe of his righteousness, who are dignified with the titles of being heirs with him, brethren to him, and members of him who is the head that falls All in all, Ephes. 1. 23.  
Fourthly, the full blessedness of Heaven may be demonstrated from the matter or object of it; which being fully perfect must needs make the partakers of it fully blessed. Felicity consists in an aggregation of all good, if any thing be wanting, it cannot be absolute and entire: And can we find any perfect coacervation of all the scattered objects of good, but in God, who as he is in all things, so all things are in him after a more excellent manner then ever they were, or can be in themselves: they never were without imperfection, and since the fall not without impurity; but in him they are perfect without defect, and pure without pollution. When therefore God in Heaven, and not any confluence of created good is the object and matter of believers happiness, must it not needs be full? Can he that inherits all things, Revel. 21. 7. want any thing? or can he who hath a full and constant communication of God himself not inherit all things?  
Fifthly, the final cause: For Gods making Heaven proves the happiness of it to be perfect. God's end in all his works is his glory; for he that is the fountain of his own being, must necessarily be the end of his own actions: but yet the manifestations of his own glory, are not in all his works alike, the more or less he communicates himself to them, the more or less are they glorious. Now there are not where such perfect communications of God as in Heaven. That is the place designed by God, where all the riches of mercy and of glory that eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor the heart of man conceived, shall be all revealed in their full lustre and beauty: there pardoning grace in the full discharge of all debts that could never have been paid, shall be for ever admired; there sanctifying grace which is now imperfect shall be completed: there we shall know, as we are known, and love as we are loved; loving God not as we do here with a love of desire, but with a love of friendship, being for ever united to him, and made fully happy and blessed by him.  
Secondly, the full and satisfactory happiness of Heaven will appear in the inseparable properties and adjuncts of it; but through want of time I can only point at them in a brief gloss upon those words of the Apostle, 1 Pet. 1. 4. An inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.  
First, it is felicity which is incorruptible. There is nothing on earth which serves either for necessity, or for delight, for food or for ornament, but it hath in it a latent soed of mortality which in time prevails against it, and corrupts the being and substance of it. Bread that is the staff of life, that in a few day's moulds. And Manna that for its excellency is Angel's meat, if kept but a little that stinks: Gold that serves for riches that rusts, and clothes that are for ornament wear into rags. But in Heaven there is nothing but what is free from corruption. The food which the Saints live on is the tree of life, Revel. 22. 2. the crown which they wear is a crown of life, Revel. 2. 10. The riches which they possess, are durable riches, Prov. 8. 18.  
Secondly, It is undefiled. As it is free from corruption within; so is it also from soil or any abasement from without. Sorrows cares, fears, take away the lustre of all earthly felicity, and make it become like a crystal glass blown upon by some impure breath that retains little or nothing of its native brightness: But in Heaven all our enjoyments are pure, without the least stain or spot of any evils that may cast a dimness upon their beauty, there is no fear of losing what we have, nor vexing care in keeping what we have; no sorrow in grieving for any thing that we want: What ever we there possess is made delightful to us by an holy security, and a perfect complacency.  
Thirdly, It is felicity that fadeth not away. There is a double fading to which the most desirable things on earth are subject: the one is, when the things themselves recede from that beauty and verdure with which they sometimes flourished: the other is, when they fade in our esteem and affection, so as to become less amiable to us, and less desired by us. But to neither of these is the happiness of Heaven ●●able, as it abides in the same lustre and brightness, which had in the first moment that we entered into it, so have we also the same height of ravishing joys and delights after Millions of years fruition of it.  
The uses of this point might be various; but I may not draw them out into number or length, I shall therefore confine myself to a brief nomination of two.  
First, If the happiness of Heaven be full and satisfactory, it should then take off the edge both of our desires and endeavours in the eager pursuit of things that are below. Illi sapiant terrena, qui promissa coelestia non habent. Let them savour earthly things (saith Jerom to Celantia) who have no interest in Heavenly promises: And yet it is both strange, and sad to see how earthly the conversations of many are who profess to have Heavenly expectations, running after the empty pleasures, and perishing delights of the World with as much vehemency and strife as the small Fish do after a fly, or rotten Worm that swims upon the top of the Water who shall first catch it. But alas! how do such men belie their hopes and give occasion to the World to say, that what ever they profess of Heaven carries more of a design in it then a real truth, and that they drop and let fall such notions, as Atalanta did her golden balls, to stop and impede the course of others that themselves may gain and grasp the more? Let me beseech you therefore who have taken upon you the name of Christians, to raise up your minds and souls towards Heaven, where your Treasure, your Crown, your Saviour, and your God all are, that thereby you may vindicate Religion from that reproach which it lies under, and yourselves of that sin of earthly-mindedness, which like a root of bitterness hath spread itself, to the defiling of many; so that I may truly say, that from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven never suffered less violence, nor the World more.  
Secondly, how great is their folly who exchange a full and satisfactory happiness for empty and transient pleasures? and how sad will their end be, when dying in their sins, evil and misery shall come upon them in its perfection? What is it that heightens the blessed condition of those that are in Heaven, but this, that their happiness is pure without mixture, and lasting without end? And is not this the aggravation of the sinner's estate in Hell, that it is shear wrath without the least allay of mercy, with which they are filled; and that it is abiding wrath, without the least hope of end, with which they are tormented? There is not so much as a drop of water to a lake of fire, not a moment of ease to an eternity of pain. All their short pleasures are turned into sufferings that are eternity to the bottom; their mirth is changed into endless sigh, their tabrets and shaumes into everlasting beat, and hammerings upon the anvils of their breasts, their shoutings into howl, and their clapping of hands into a perpetual gnashing of teeth. O that I might therefore by a timely expostulation with sinners prevent that desolation that else will certainly befall them! Why do you lay out your money for that which is not bread? Why do you refuse the free tender of that mercy, which hereafter at any rate you would gladly purchase? Is then a little ease worth a World? and are now the comforts of God worth less than a few base lusts? Would you then subscribe to the hardest conditions of duty and set vice that God could propound, and say Yes Lord to every question? and will you now make a denial to every wooing? O consider this all ye that forget God, left he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you, Psalm 50. 22. O remember that your life is not so long to day as it was yesterday, and that though the Sun times measure did once stand still, yet time itself ever passed forward, and did neither stand with the Suns standing, nor return with the Suns returning.  
The last branch that should now be spoken unto, is the matter and manner of this happiness which is both full and satisfactory: the matter of it is GOD'S face or likeness, which is commonly termed by the School, faelicitas objectiva, objective happiness: the manner of enjoying it, is by beholding the face of God, which is by them also called faelicitas formalis, formal happiness. Man's objective happiness lieth wholly out of himself, and out of every creature, and the more he fixeth his happiness upon the object without himself the more happy and excellent he is; for as the eye is perfected by light without, so is the soul by God. But yet secondly, not God abstracted and simply considered, is man's happiness; but God enjoyed and looked upon as God, with whom he hath perfect union and communion, is that which makes up man's formal happiness. And this is that vision and fruition of God which David faith when he awakes he shall be satisfied with. But I must of necessity wave what I intended to speak of this point, having already exceeded (I fear) the time, that should confine and terminate this Exercise.  
It is I know expected, that I should speak somewhat concerning this worthy Lady, the Lady Honour Viner, whose sad funerals we now celebrate; but it hath never been my custom on such occasions to add a long Panegyric to a Sermon, the end of this meeting being rather to instruct and counsel the living, then to commend the dead. Yet do I not with others think it wholly unlawful to give a due testimony to the dead, in mentioning such things of their life and conversation, as may be useful patterns to the living for their imitation. If we look into the Ancients, we shall find them mingling the praises of their friends with their sorrowful mournings over them. Thus Ambrose commends Satyrus' his worth as well as deplores his loss, the same doth Nazianzen for Gorgonia his sister, Austin for Nebridius his friend, and Bernard for Gervasius. The great miscarriage that hath brought this way both under suspicion and censure, hath been the golden commendations that some have bestowed upon worthless persons, as if they did make it their professed art to garnish Tombs and Sepulchers, But though Tombs may receive an addition of beauty from colours laid upon them, yet pearls do not, they shine best not by a borrowed but by their native lustre: And such an one is she of whom I am now speaking whose own real endowments and qualifications will more commend her, then adscititious and studied praises. I shall therefore give you a plain and genuine character of what she was, which in brief is this.  
She was one in whom many virtues did meet, which made her truly amiable. As a wife she was a rich blessing to him to whom God had for many years given her; She was both as Ezekiel's wife, the desire of his eyes; & as Solomon's virtuous woman, the repose of his heart, & did fully deserve that praise which is given by him Prov. 31. 11. that the heart of her husband doth safely trust in her: so that he shall have no need of spoil. She so managed domestical affairs, as that by her prudence his care was eased, and all meet supplies fully furnished. As a mother she had most tender affections, which yet were governed with wisdom and discretion; and unto others whose relation stood at a further distance, she was (as I know themselves will always readily acknowledge) a mother in love rather than a mother in law: such an one whom few will be found to equal, much less to exceed. As a friend, she was affable, and courteous, without haughtiness or pride, and real without guile. But as the watering of the Diamond though it give a lustre to it, doth yet add little or nothing to its value: so all moral perfections, though they set off and beautify a Christian, yet not they, but true piety doth give unto him a real worth. What therefore she was in this, as well as in the other, you shall see both by her way and practice.  
In works of mercy she had an open hand, and a tender heart, but yet her charity run with a still and silent stream: great and deep rivers that pay a large tribute to the Sea, empty themselves oftimes into it in a more still manner then the petty and shallow brooks; and so did she diffuse her bounty with far less noise than many that give little and boast much. What she did in this kind was not to get herself a name, but to do the poor good.  
Of private duties she was a constant observer, making Religion the work of her Closet, as well as of the Church. Grande est Christianum esse non videri: It is a great thing (saith Jerom) to be a Christian, not to seem one; and there is no character that doth better evidence the reality of profession in any, than a conscientious performance of unseen and secret duties, especially in these times in which Religion shoots forth into leaves rather than into fruit.  
And as for her esteem both of the public Ordinances and the Dispenser's of them, the two contrary affections of sorrow and joy which of late had visible stir in her, shall be the present testimony. She was to my knowledge much affected with the sad breach that God had made upon this place, by taking from it an able and faithful Pastor by the stroke of death; and was also not a little sensible of the mercy of God in providing again so happily for it. And for her affection to the Word, I shall now let pass her constant attendance on it on the Lord's day, and shall briefly add a passage that since my preaching came to my knowledge from him that can best tell, and that is this: She expressed herself to be very glad that he was purposed to case himself of such burdens as had hitherto lain upon him in his calling, and to draw his business into a narrower compass: For now (saith she) I hope you and I shall hear more Sermons, and frequent more Lectures than before. A speech it is, which if some that have time and leisure would seriously think of, their life would prove more useful, and their death more comfortable. But not many weeks after she had thus spoken, and pleased herself with the hopes of enjoying such happy opportunities, it pleased God to put a sudden period to her life, which yet was no other than what that infirmity with which she conflicted had once threatened, some of her friends feared, and herself expected; who sometimes 〈…〉 leave them on the sudden. Such indeed was the blow, as that it took from her the opportunities that others have in lingering sicknesses of expressing themselves; but though they be wanting, yet God's hand on her speaks to us, and bids to keep our Lamps burning, and our garments girt about us, because we know not at what hour our Lord will come.  
FINIS.