A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THAT Truly Pious and Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Nich. Thorowgood: At Godelman in Surrey. By JOHN BUCK, Minister of the Gospel. LONDON: Printed for Tho. Cockerill, at the Three Legs in the Poultry, over-against the Stock-market. 1692. To the REVEREND Mr. Edward Veal, Minister of the Gospel in Wapping. SIR, COULD I be ungrateful, your Name had never been prefixed to this Sermon: For as you were pleased to command me this last Office of respect to the Deceased, of which you gave me an Example but a few Months before on the like sad and sorrowful Occasion that called us together as Mourners: So 'tis but Justice you should allow me the liberty, when my dearest Friends go off the Stage so fast, to express my Thankfulness for one living, whose Friendship is so greatly valuable. Any who know me, know I truly rejoice in the happy Relation that favours me with the honour of calling you Tutor, or Brother. Reading, and Books, have been but part of my small Improvement; Your Friendly and Affable Converse in your Family, and since, has been such as I must blame my own Dulness for, if I have not been advantaged thereby. We were ever mutually dear one to the other; distance and absence have but heightened our Reciprocal Affections; that on your part must be owned the result only of a kind generous Disposition; but on mine, as a just Tribute paid to your real Worth. And may it be yet our Emulation, which of us shall continue the most Affectionately Cordial: May the God of Heaven long lengthen out your days of Service to his Church; and Crown therein your Ministerial Labours with the most blessed Success: There are none more desirous of it, than is, SIR, Your most Affectionate Brother, and Hearty Servant, JOHN BUCK. PHILIPP. I. 23. For I am in a straight between two, having a desire to departed, and to be with Christ, which is far better. 'TIS pity any private Christian of Exemplary Zeal for God and Religion, should at any time go unlamented to his Grave; much more any serious, painful, and laborious Preacher, that like the kind Silkworm, hath spinned out his own Bowels for the Public good, and been others loud Call from Sin and Vanity, to the sincere Profession of the Gospel, as their highest Advantage and Gain. We are greatly stupid, if we eye not their death (the most gainful to themselves) as our own misery and loss, the loudest Alarm to a serious preparation for our own Dissolution and Change, (that must as certainly overtake us, as it hath them) and the saddest indication of Heaven's severest Displeasure against us, in the inundation of the heaviest Calamities, that by their powerful Intercessions they might have kept off, and prevented, if there be any thing of weight in the most sacred complaint; The righteous perisheth, Isa. 57.1. and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. And who can forbear dropping a sigh, or weeping a tear, if not a flood, for the death of him we have lately followed to the Earth, and seen covered up therewith, as a much-to-be-lamented loss, as a Christian, and a Minister; and of justice challenging a greater tribute of Respect to his Memory and Ashes than what yet we have paid? But leaving at present so Melancholy a Theme, the sad Occasion of our Assembling; Let us come nearer the Text, that plainly tells us, Life or Death, as they most effectually advance the Honour of Christ, should be the chief matter of our Rejoicing and Triumph: But as it is hard to determine, whether one or the other; the one in a painful service in his Church, the other in a holy dying Profession of his Truth, hath the greatest tendency thereunto; so a difficulty oftentimes almost invincible attends the Choice. As for the division of the Text, it naturally brancheth itself out into these parts. 1st, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. St. Paul's sharp Conflict with each; For I am in a straight betwixt two; q. d. Hemmed in with Difficulties, not knowing which to take, nor which to leave; under a perplexity of mind, not capable of answering Arguments for one or the other; A pressure of Spirit not to be expressed, as is elsewhere the import of the Phrase, Luke 12.50. Acts 18.5. 2. One chief Reason thereof; His desire of being with Christ in a departure, (Having a desire to departed, and to be with Christ.) This was what stirred up in him as earnest long for Death, as hopes of further service to his dear Philippians, did of Life; or caused him to breathe out the most passionate desires of quitting his abode on Earth, for that of Heaven; the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Having a desire; as it denotes the greatest permanency and constancy thereof, not a sick or faint velleity, or sudden Passion, that soon vanisheth and is gone; so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to departed; it imports a dissolution of parts, of which we were before composed, or the quitting of our Clayie Cottages, as persons do their Houses in a Journey; or a Ship, the Shore in a Voyage. 3. His true judgement of that estate: Far, far, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. or much, much, the better; i. e. To himself as his own greatest personal Gain, though not to others; the other Reason of his strait, in what he next utters; V 24. Nevertheless to abide in the flesh, is more needful for you. From whence ariseth this Threefold Doctrine. Truly holy souls, Doct. I when Life and Death are set before them, may be in a very great strait as to their choice of either. Truly holy souls are immediately with Christ at their departure from the body. Doct. TWO To be with Christ at our death, is far better than any bodily continuance on earth. Doct. III Truly holy souls, when life and death are set before them, may be in a very great strait, Doct. I as to their choice of either. St. Paul was so, not willing of a cessation from works, nor the delay of his Reward; desirous of converting more fouls to Christ, and yet longing to be himself with him; in a straight whether he should be yet longer surrounded with the most afflictive troubles, (as are those of this present life, of one kind or another) or received to a Heavenly Enlargement and Rest. And what was his Conflict, may be that of others, under different Apprehensions or Temptations. At one time they are reasoning, (there is a Serpent every where with his alluring Apple, except in the Heavenly Paradise); How can I leave this plentiful Estate to the spoils of luxurious Spendthrifts, riepend enough without them for destruction? How this dear companion of all my earthly comforts and sorrows? How these Children of my delights, standing as Olive-plants about my table, Psal. 128.3. I can leave them Holy and Gracious? Might I not, if longer spared in the world, be of farther use and service in it, than hitherto, through remissness or sloth I have been? Are not threatened Judgements calling for Intercessors? I might be one in the gap to prevent. Are not hungry bellies, and naked backs calling for Relief? It will be, at the last day, my greatest Honour and Happiness, Mat. 25.34. to the 40. to have fed and clothed them? Are not dark, secure, and comfortless Souls needing Counsels, Awakening, and Supports? I'd spare no pains to Awaken, Direct, and Cheer: And shall I be of farther use and service to neither? Have I finished my whole work? Might no Talon be better improved; nor in any thing the Honour of my dear Redeemer more advanced? Is his Church in her fullest Glory, I would rejoice to see her in? Am I dying, ere Religion is living? And soon again, as conquered by quite different motives, they are breathing out quite contrary desires; pleading, When, Lord, shall I be released from this present bondage and misery? When from this heavy load of Corruption? When from the cruel buffet of Satan? When from the grief I am in for the Afflictions of thy Zion; for which I weep, Lam. 1.16. mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water? When from the tempting Flatteries, and unkind Persecutions of this vain and foolish world, that would allure or affright me from my Reward and Crown? When shall I exchange these dead, cold, and heartless duties, for Triumphant Praises and Hallelujahs? When for transient visits on earth, shall I have a permanent enjoyment of Thee in Heaven? Ah! I see a beauty, a desirableness in nothing that can be matched with thy All-Glorious Perfections: Husband, Wife, and Children are dear; but thou art dearer to me than all; how it reputes me, that I should place so much of affection on them, as I have done. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Rev. 22.20. Judg. 5.28. Cant. 8.14. Why so slack in thy approaches? Why is thy chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels thereof? Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a Roe, or young Hart upon the mountains of spices. But a little while, and I shall be triumphing in thy blessed Arms and Bosom, where I shall sin no more, and sorrow no more. A Pain, a Sigh, a Groan more, as the happiest I ever felt, finisheth my days, and completes my joys: And who longs not with me for the approach of this hour? Shall I carry none with me to Heaven, as unwilling to be happy alone! Holy David was in a straight, as to the choice of three the greatest evils, Famine, Pestilence, and Sword. 2 Sam. 24.14. The Saint is oftentimes so, as to two the greatest goods, the Work and Service of Life, and the Reward and Gain of Death. Censure not any for it. Use I 'Tis sad when an overweening affection to any creature-comfort, is the reason of it: Earthly delights are put into the same balance with heavenly; but not where hopes of farther service in the world is so. O Grace indeed! to be found weighing the Soul-advantages of others, in the same scale with our own. O Noble Soul! that can be willing to be one moment out of Heaven, in hopes of being others happy Convoy thither. 2. Think Heaven desirable: Needs must it be so, as what frees us from every pinching strait; particularly that of Living or Dying: For the Soul there, how unwilling soever it was to quit this life, is wholly freed from any the least inclination of returning back to it; under no more sharp conflicts of leaving creature-comforts; but triumphs in God, as better than all. Truly holy souls are immediately with Christ at their departure. Doct. TWO With him, as in a state of Separation from their earthly bodies, so without the assuming of any Aereal; there is not any more need of this, for a heavenly converse with their fellow-Spirits, than of Angels one with another. With him, as not sleeping in the Grave till the Resurrection, nor tormented with Purgatory-Flames: As the former is an inlet to the greatest Infidelity and Atheism, so the latter is greatly derogatory from the Riches of Freegrace in their forgiveness and pardon, as implying a Punishment of a fault remitted; a Forgiving the Treason, but Executing the Traitor: For which, may they continue to plead, who experience the secular gain thereof, as of any the most profitable fire in their Kitchen; others, as great Masters of Reason as themselves, dare not: but, as fully redeemed by the Blood of Christ, from all future pains and misery, can hearty laugh at those of an imaginary Purgatory: For we are told, we have Redemption through his blood, Eph. 1.7. the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. And how far a less noble Redemption and Forgiveness would it be, than he hath obtained for us, were we after this life to be refined for Heaven in Flames (according to the Popish notion), not differing from those of Hell, Luke 23.43. except in duration? The Converted Thief enters, the very day he suffered, into Paradise: It is not to be thought, that no greater happiness was designed him in the promise of it, than the assurance of it after some longer continuance of time, Acts 7.59. than the very present day in which it was made. Stephen cemmends his Spirit to Christ at his Death. Our good works, Rev. 14.13. Eccl. 12.7. as meant of their reward, are said to follow us. The dust to return to the earth, as it was, and the spirit unto God that gave it. And (which seems to be the most convincing Argument of it), Are or can they be rightly desirous of a Dissolution, upon no other account? It is not to be supposed, Thinking, Rational Creatures should be willing to part with Life, the greatest of Temporal Blessings, for the Redemption of which, a man will give skin for skin, Job 2.8. and all that he hath, for a silent state in the grave, or the most insupportable of pains? No, rather strip them of their hopes of a present happiness at death; and very unaccountable are their desires of it: They, as knowing when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved, 2 Cor. 5.1, 2. they shall have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; are groaning enrnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from heaven. Don't be prejudiced against Religion, or a holy life, Use. for any the greatest earthly afflictions or sufferings of gracious souls. You have little reason to be so, their Deaths are so happy; if their Lives are so miserable, their Exit is Peace; their Reward, Life Everlasting; Psal. 37.37. Gal. 6.8. and their present sorrow and affliction, the blessed school in which they have been disciplined and trained up for it. And will you continue to be so prejudiced? Psal. 119.67. Live rather their lives, as you would die their deaths. It is most foolish without this to wish, Numb. 23.10. Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his. Embrace Piety as your richest gain; avoid sin as your highest folly; and remember, That as aged and stricken in years, the hoary head is a crown of glory, Prov. 16.31. when found in the way of righteousness; so as young, you are called upon to Remember your Creator in the days of your youth: Eccl. 12.1. The dedication of your youthful parts, strength, and vigour, to him and his service, seems greatly intended, in that under the Law, Deut. 18.4. Chap. 26.2. Mat. 21.15. John 21.7. of the first fruits for Sacrifice. The hosannah's of Children were pleasing to Christ in the Temple: St. John, of any, his youngest Disciple, was evidently his most beloved Disciple. On you, of any, are founded the fairest hopes of being the most faithful Instruments of service in Church and State, in the room of those deceased. You are, of any, both the joys and fears of indulgent Parents, and painful Preachers; almost weary of this world, they can do no more good in it; and you only are those that can turn the old Hellish Proverb, A Young Saint, and an Old Devil; into what looks more like Truth, and appears divine (be the Doctrine of our final Perseverance in Grace begun, acknowledged such), a Saint in Youth, and a bright Angel for Holiness in Old Age; an Angel in Youth, and a Seraphim in Glory. To be with Christ at our death, Doct. III is far better than any bodily continuance on the earth. In the prosecution of which, I shall only show, 1. How, or in what respects it is so. 2. The Use. 1. How, or in what respects it is so. And here, where shall I begin, or where shall I end? What a work have I undertaken? How unfit am I to discourse of the blissful state of departed souls in Heaven, who know so little of Souls or Spirits on Earth? Shall I describe a City or Plantation I never saw or viewed, but in the History or Map? Much less a future Glory, which I am sure much more to fail in the description of? Methinks I hear it more than whispered, Who is this that darkneth counsel, Job 38.2. by words without knowledge? Stop thou stammering Tongue, and frail Mortal, thy blackest Pen, with which thou art sure but to shade and darken what thou fond hopest in lively colours to paint out and enliven. 2 Cor. 12.4. They were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, words unutterable, or unspeakable, the blessed Apostle, the great St. 1 Cor. 2.9. Paul, heard in his highest Rapture; Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor heart conceived, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And wilt thou attempt to tell us more? 'tis impossible, alas, impossible. But a dark and blurred discovery being better than none, be pleased to take it in this twofold particular only: viz. 1st, A total removal of all Evil. 2dly, The actual possession and enjoyment of all Good. 1. A total removal of all Evil; as of Sin, and Sorrow. 1. Of Sin. Sin our greatest burden here, Rom. 7.24. the which made us often to utter the Apostolic Complaint, Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! shall be none then, but be destroyed rather; as in its Actings and Wound, so in its very Esse, or Being. Not a vain Thought, the sinfulness of which once enkindled in the Almighty A repentance of his ever making man; Gen. 6.5, 6. Jer. 4.14. and we are bid to dislodge. Not a vain Word; Our words are so far so, that we may call most of them, what the Satirist calls some, Pers. Sat. 5. Bullaras nugas, utpote simile, Bullis vento plenis. Rev. 3.4. Bubbly toys; they are so like a Bubble full of wind: not a sinning Principle, a sinning Disposition, a sinning Inclination is then remaining. We are clothed in White, the most lively Emblem of Holiness, and have Spirits made perfect. Our Sanctification is complete; Heb. 12.23. 1 John 3.12. Ephes. 4.13. the Divine Image, in which we were at first form, most blessedly restored. And oh happy blissful State! that at once strips us of all our former rotten Rags of Sin, and Lust, and most richly adorns us with those of a primitive Perfection and Purity. How should this be the Mark and Prize we aim at! It was that St. Paul did so, in, and under his greatest Spiritual Attainments, Philip. 3.13, 14. 2. Of Sorrow. Sorrows of one kind or another attend every worldly Condition: We come into the World with a Cry, and take our farewell of it with a Groan. One (of any the severest of Sorrows) is bemoaning himself under spiritual Desertions, the prevalency of Corruption, and Buffet of Satan: Another passionately weeping for the death of Relations; this day like Jonah's Gourd, flourishing; the next, dead and withered. Now the delight of our Eyes, and the chief of our Affections; Gen. 24.3. but anon a dead Sarah that must be buried out of our sight. Another, expressing his Poverty and Losses, through Plunderings and Persecutions: Another, his restless days and nights through Pains and Sickness. But farewel Sorrow, farewel Grief in Heaven, as no place for either. Then no more Devil to assault and tempt us, nor malicious World to afflict and persecute us; no more aching Head, sick Heart, burning Fever, grinding Stone, painful Colic, trembling Palsy, wasted Strength, mouldering Carcase; no more scoffing Ishmael, profane Esau, spiteful Canaanite, scratching Thorn, pricking Brier; but an end of sinning, and an end of sorrowing and weeping; an end of sinning, and an end of dying; Rev. 20.4. 1 Thess. 4.17. a dying once, and a living with the Lord for ever. And not only is it better to be with Christ at our death, than to enjoy the longest bodily continuance here as to this twofold Evil of Sin and Sorrow, we are fully delivered from. But, 2. As to the actual possession and enjoyment of all good. 1. A perfection of Knowledge. Here it is blemished with much imperfection and ignorance. One who had made the sacred Scriptures his chief study, confessed, Multo plura nescio quam scio, He was ignorant of more than he knew. And some of the Jewish Rabbis the like, in their known Saying, Elias cum venerit solvet omnia, Elias, when he cometh, shall give a solution to all things, though we cannot. But then shall all our present ignorance and imperfection be done away, and our knowledge be no longer in part, but complete and perfect; not mediate, or at the second hand only, by discourse, study and meditation; but immediate, and intuitive. And that, as of God, his Divine Being and Perfections; 1 Cor. 13.12. so of Christ his Mysterious Incarnation, Union of Natures without change of Properties; and of the Holy Spirit of Grace, how the same in Essence, and yet distinct as to Person. How Creation, Redemption and Sanctification, are the proper work of one, or the other; and yet as works ad extra, alike applicable to either. And of the most Mysterious Actings of Providence in the World, Job 10.3. Psal. 73.16. we could before give no account of, nor durst demand any. How we were afflicted, and yet beloved; What Souls are, as to their Royal Original, and what as to their most vivacious Actings; without the assistance of any corporeal Organ; with innumerable difficulties, no Hypothesis in Philosophy can give an exact solution of. Oh the knowledge that a Soul one minute in glory, hath of delightful Mysteries, beyond what on Earth we are capable of, by the most painful Converse with Men or Books! He knows more than us all, and is perfectly happy in the knowledge of what he knows; whilst in the knowledge of many things we are miserable, and as to our knowledge of what we ought chief to know, have reason to sigh out the complaint of our ignorance. 2. Exactness of conformity in every thing to the divine Image. For what Grace in our blessed Conformity thereunto, is not then in its liveliest and highest Exercise! Our Love, our Delight, our Joy and Rejoicing is so, if not Desire, Faith and Fear wholly ceasing; As we actually enjoy the good or happiness we wished for, believed, or dreaded the loss of. And as for our obedience in every thing to the Divine Will, it is the most cheerful, constant and perfect; or to what end do we pray, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven? 3. Constancy of abode. They are no longer complaining, Heb. 13.14. We have here no continuing City. No more restless in their motions from place to place, like Noah's Dove, that found no rest for the sole of her Foot, the Waters had so covered the Earth; but plucked in rather by a tender hand into the heavenly Ark, where they have rest perpetual, are fixed the Citizens of the New Jerusalem, that City above, where they are for ever at home. And oh the happiness of this, beyond what possibly at present we entertain the thoughts of! It is so undoubtedly as to that Venerable, Gray-headed Disciple and Soldier of our dear Redeemer deceased, of any man I have known, since he first left his Public Living for the sake of conscientious innocent Nonconformity; His Life appeared but one continued Journey and Travel from place to place; and no removal thereof was apparently more his death's stroke, than his last, from his Native County, and dear People of his Affections, as he often styled them, to sing out his dying, sweet and Swanlike Notes with you. 4. Sweetest Harmony and Concord one with another. It seems the least of doubts, that Souls departed know each other in Glory; Why not, as well as Adam in the state of Innocency? Of whom it is said, that as soon as he awaked out of his deep Sleep, He knew Eve to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. And no small part truly of their Happiness is it, that they have the highest satisfaction and contentment one in another, as partakers of the same Rest, and alike employed in the same most noble and delightful work of Praise. Heaven admits of no Mistakes, nor misunderstandings one of another; and 'tis pity this lower World should do it. There are no Treacherous Judas' to betray us with a Kiss; nor faithless Friends, whose friendship is as vanishing as the smoke and vapour; but rather a Hooper and a Ridley more fairly-shaking hands, than ever they agreed in their Prisons. A Luther and a Calvin sworn Friends, or rather a perpetual and everlasting Friendship, that shall never once be violated; begun not only with known Friends deceased, but all the Holy Patriarches, Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs, we never before saw or knew. And may there, as the liveliest Emblem of Heaven, be more of Brotherly Peace, Love and Amity on Earth; May no trifling difference in Judgement separate Affections, but each one for the future make it their only contention, who shall most advance the Interest of the Lord Jesus in the World; and resolve to leave those of lesser moment, to such as think they have greater Concerns to mind, than an endless blessed Eternity we are professedly waiting, hoping, longing for, and hastening to. And which follows on this, 5. Fullness, unspeakableness, and Eternity of Delight and joy. 1. Fullness, and unspeakableness. It is a Joy redundant and overflowing, yet what admits of degrees, or it had never been said, They that be wise, Dan. 12.3. shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever. But every holy glorified Soul, more or less capacious, is as truly full of it, as the lesser Vessel thrown into the Sea, less capacious, yet is as full as the greater. Matt. 25.21. Psal. 16.11. A Joy too great to enter into us, for which we are bid to enter into it. A Fullness inexhaustible, and that lasts for ever. A Joy that at present supports under the most painful Tribulations, and Afflictive Losses. Rom. 5.3. Heb. 10.34. Primitive Worthies gloried therein; And took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, as knowing they had in heaven a more enduring substance. A Joy, of which God himself is the Author, which was of everlasting preparation, Matt. 25.34. and the most affecting Subject of his dearest Son's Intercession. He had never Grace more apparently poured into his Lips, Psal. 45.2. than when he uttered, These things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. John 17.13, v. 24. Or as the everlasting subject thereof he pleaded, Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me, be with we where I am, that they may behold the glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. A Joy completely satisfactory; and that as to the place of it, Heaven; excelling in glory all that is earthly. Luke 23.43. Rev. 21.10. Rev. 21.2. Luke 22.29. Luke 12.32. Matt. 25.32. Rev. 4.8. Rev. 2.10. It is styled upon this Account, Paradise, the great City, the new Jerusalem, the Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world; the work of it, Praises and Thanksgiving, of any the most noble and delightful: Its advancement, Thrones, Sceptres and Crowns; our Company, God, Christ, and glorified Being's. And our heavenly Converse as with the former, so the latter, communicating their thoughts to us, and we ours to them, in a way much more noble and excellent, than that at present of our quaintest and exactest Oratory. Oh the various Delights and Joys, resulting from each part of such our fullness and variety of Happiness, yet no way diverting us from God the Chief; but leading of us rather to the greater admiration of his rich Sovereign Love and Goodness, in preparing each part of it for Creatures the most vile and unworthy; and the highest thankfulness to him, for the Death and Satisfaction of his Son, by which only it hath been obtained and purchased. And, 2. Eternity. It is what shall never have an end. We are never more dreading the clouding or Eclipses of it; but is a Life of joy that lasts for ever. A Joy that is essentially complete at death, but will be every way so at the Resurrection, in the reunion of our Souls to our Bodies; Phil. 3.21. Fashioned like unto Christ's most glorious body. It being then this despicable Clay shall arise incorruptible and immortal, 1 Cor. 15.53. and be alike Partners in glory with our Souls, as they have both been so in work and service. Eternally in glory, for ever with the Lord: And oh madness unspeakable, to prefer the greatest Comforts and Enjoyments of Life, before such the greatest Happiness and Joy at Death! Oh what are Riches, Honours, and worldly Greatness, that you should put them into the same Scale! Alas, but vain and empty dead Comforts, dead Enjoyments, that speak you as foolish in the hugging of them, as was the Egyptian in that of the Carved Image or Statue of his dead Son; he hoped with Crowned Garlands, and a profound respect paid to it, would have been the total cure of his Sorrow; but as the Historian tells us, proved rather the life and resurrection thereof. They are but sweet Dishes, Death with his Voider will soon sweep away, leaving you only a cutting Reckoning to pay, for the full feast and meal of them you have made. They are but Comforts and Enjoyments that are every day on their wing from you, were not you so from them. Prov. 23.5. And will you then continue to do this? haste rather from their tempting Destruction; make sure of more satisfactory Delights, I mean those of a heavenly State, which righteous Souls, as the former Doctrine tells you, presently partake of at their Death. And this last they are most unspeakably happy in, beyond any the longest bodily continuance on Earth. But to hasten to a more practical improvement of what hath been said. As, The USE let it be inferred, 1st, Oh the dreadful Misery of the Damned! For if to be with Christ at our death, is so desirable; to be banished from him then, must needs be dreadful. Oh the sad exchange they have made of this Life, for what is future. Tongue cannot express the least part of their Torment and Sorrow, and that from the dismal place they are in, set forth to us in all the doleful Expressions of Horror; Isa. 30 ult. 1 Pet. 3.19. Rev. 20.3. Matt. 13.42. Rev. 19.20. Luke 16.28. Matt. 22.13. 2 Pet. 2.4. Jud. 13. as of Tophet, a Prison, Bottomless Pit, Furnace of Fire, Lake of Fire, Place of Torment, Outer-Darkness, Chains, and Blackness of Darkness. Their Eternity, Ever, Ever, being as a thousand Daggers wounding, or Scorpions stinging; and the Accusations of Conscience still gnawing them, like Prometheus his Vulture, for their inexcusable folly, as in running themselves upon the Misery they might so fairly have avoided; so in losing the God, the Saviour, the Kingdom and Glory they might have gained. And shall then the Offers of each be slighted any longer by you? Why so foolishly contented to be miserable, when wooed to be happy? Trifle not away one offer of Grace more, lest it be your last. 2. Be less dismayed, if holy and righteous, at the approach of death, as to yourselves; and learn more to moderate your sorrow for that of others, you had reason to believe such. 1. Be less dismayed, if holy and righteous, at the approach of death, as to yourselves. It is alas! as to you, but an enemy unstung and disarmed, if in its self the King of Terrors; Job 18.14 what but lodgeth your Bodies in a Grave, the most sweetly perfumed by the Burial of the Son of God, and your Souls with him in endless Happiness; and so as Conquerors, already over each, bids you to Triumph, Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, 1 Cor. 15.55, 56, 57 where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Learn more to moderate your sorrow for that of others, you have reason to believe such. For how should the sense of their Gain, swallow up all repine at your Loss, and excite you to as great a willingness of parting with them, as any have to the parting with their Children to the remotest ends of the earth, for the sake of Temporal Advancements. Methinks upon this account sorrow too often usurps the Throne of Joy. We should even be weeping at the Birth of an Infant, and rejoicing at the Death of a Saint: Or if (which Nature allows us) the eye must drop a tear, and the poor pained heart ease itself in sighs and groans, it should be for this chief, That they have gotten so much the start of us, as to be at their Kingdom and Rest before us: Which as we are called to in the deaths of others, so particularly in that of this Worthy Person deceased: Concerning whom I may modestly speak, That if his Soul be not now with his Redeemer in Heaven, there are but few of us who have not reason to despair of getting thither. So heavenly truly, and spiritual at all times were his words and discourse, that we might have thought him unfit for earth, long before he left it. His Observation of the Lords Day, was most exemplary, as never (though most mornings the earliest riser) sooner from his bed, nor later in it; even impatient through the whole of it, of having his Mind and Ears filled with worldly Concerns, or to see any part of it unredeemed. And as for his Industry and Painfulness in his Ministerial Work, where he last was, both in Lectures and Fasts, it must be confessed, He laboured more abundantly than us all. 1 Cor. 15.10. His Affections to you, in his coming to you, drowned greater Offers; as thinking himself more happy in the Affections, than the Fleece of his Flock: And how painful and acceptable his short-lived Labours were among you, needs no fuller a proof, than his Last Sermon he Preached, with Death's cold Dart stricken to his heart; and the general Lamentations you express for him. Upon the Death of his dearest Relation, in very affecting expressions he uttered the deepest sense of his own; he was heard thus to express himself, The Lord fit those whose turn is next: Ah! What would I not do, what would I not forgo for Christ and Heaven? And where is he now, but with him, reaping the full Reward of all his Painful Labours? Not complaining any longer with his dearest Lord, John 1.11. He came to his own, but his own received him not: Nor bleeding under the unkindnesses of Friends or Enemies: But as to his own fullness of Joy, and the miseries that seem to threaten you, speaking, though dead, the same Language the other did, Luke 23.28. Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. And surely, as his gain, you should acquiesce in your loss; for can you bring him back again? It is impossible: The Grave, his Prison till a Glorious Resurrection, hath shut its mouth upon him. You must go to him, 2 Sam. 12, 22, 23. he shall not return to you. Or if you could, would you? The greatest good you could thereby wish or hope for yourselves, is not what would compensate for his harm: He is arrived at too happy a Port, ever once more willingly to encounter the Rocks and Quicksands, the rough Waves and Billows of a Tempestuous Sea; the dangers of which are passed; the consideration of which, should teach you to be quiet; be dumb, not opening of your mouths, Psal. 39.9. it is God who hath done it. Receive cheerfully a present evil from those hands, Job 2.10. Job 1.20, 21. from whence you have received so much good: Bless him taking, as well as giving. But that it may not be thought I plead for a Stoical insensibleness under so severe a stroke, let not tears or sorrow take up with a present vent. It is a Death-stroke Heaven hath given; a Loss that will not easily be repaired: But let him continue to live in your Thoughts, and to Preach in your Affections. It should be as hard for you now he is deceased, to refrain from telling the world in plenty of tears over his Grave, how well you loved him, as it was with many of you, John 11.36. when you stood by him in his Ascent to Glory, to refrain from uttering, My father, 2 Kin. 12.12. my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And 3. Long more to be with him therein. Gain is alluring, and should not that of your being with Christ in your death be so? If far better evidence is such by your desires of it, as well as in the vanquishing the slavish fears of so grim a Messenger that must bring you to it; make haste, prepare for it; yet not such haste as he made to know the truth of the Souls Immortality, who leaped into the Sea, and drowned himself, for a farther confirmation thereof, he was so affected with the Platonic Lecture of it he had read; but by Holy Preparations and Desires, our only way through the Merits of a Redeemer, the Scritpure hath chalked out thither: O for a greater weanedness of affection from the perishing delights and joys of the world, and greater out-going of them to the unseen and Immortal. Let the one be more in your eye, the other more under your feet. Look well to every account, improve faithfully every Talon; live every day, perform every duty as your last, that when you cease to live, you may not be afraid to die; but be filled rather with St. Paul's Triumph, with which I close, 2 Tim. 4.7, 8. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. FINIS. Books Printed for Tho. Cockerill. RVSHWORTH's Historical Collections, 2d Part, never before Printed; containing the Principal Matters which happened from the meeting of the Parliament 1640. to the end of the year 1644. in 2 Vol. Fol. A Funeral Sermon on the Death of the Reverend Mr. West. A Discourse concerning Regeneration, Faith, and Repentance. A Discourse of the Christian Religion, in sundry Points. The Incomprehensibleness of Imputed Righteousness for Justification, by Human Reason, till enlightened by the Spirit of God. These Four by the Reverend Mr. Cole. A Succinct and Seasonable Discourse of the Occasions, Causes, Natures, Rise, Growth and Remedies of Mental Errors; with a Discourse of Infant Baptism, and against the Antinomians. A Discourse of the Reasonableness of Personal Reformation, and Necessity of Conversion. Mr. John flavel's Remains; being two Sermons: The one Preached at Dartmouth, the other intended to be preached at a Meeting of Ministers. These Three by John Flavell, late Minister of Devon. A Companion for Prayer: By R. Alleine, Author of Vinditiae Pietatis.