A sermon preached at Alderly in the country of Gloucester, January IV, 1676/7 at the funeral of Sir Matthew Hale, kt, late Chief Justice of His Majestie's court of the King's bench / by E.G. ...

A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of Sir MATTHEW HALE K^t. At Alderly, Jan. 4. 1676/7.

Isa. 57.1.

The Righteous perisheth, 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.

IN the ninth Verse of the former Chapter the Holy Prophet threatneth a fearful Judg∣ment that was like to fall on the Jews, he calls for the wild Beasts of the Field and the Forest to come and devour, meaning the Gen∣tiles,

which should be Executioners of the Lord's Judgments; and because the Lord is Righteous in all his Ways, and Holy in all his Works, he shews what Causes would pro∣voke the Lord to inflict such a heavy Judg∣ment upon his People, as to give them up to be devoured by the Beasts of the Field and the Forest, such savage Enemies.

The First Cause is set down at large in the rest of the Verse to the end of the Chapter: Even the Blindness, Idleness, Covetousness, and Security of their Watchmen, who should have taught the Fear of the Lord; the neglect of their Duty being a special Occasion of the Peoples Sin, is alledged as the First Cause of God's Judgments threatned.

The Second Cause was in the Common People, set down in the first Verse of this Chapter: Even their careless neglect, in not regarding nor considering the Death of the Righteous, when many of them were taken away to warn them of some strange Judge∣ment to come; yet they laid it not to Heart nor considered, but continued and proceeded in their Sins, drinking, and filling themselves with Wine and strong Drink, and Merri∣ment, promising themselves happy Days, as it is the manner of the Wicked to be most

secure when Judgment is nearest unto them, as we have Example in Belshazzar, Dan. 5. he was among his Concubines and his Cups, when the Hand wrote his Doom over against the Candlestick, Mene mene tekel upharsin.

The Righteous perisheth.

These are the Words of the Holy and Evan∣gelical Prophet, lamenting the Spiritual Se∣curity of the Jews, chiding and reproving them for their great Stupidity and Spiritual Lethargy.

Wherein we have, First, The Persons that dyed, who are described by two excellent Properties: 1. Righteous before God; 2. Mer∣ciful towards Men. Secondly, The Manner of their Death, set forth by two Terms; peri∣sheth, are taken away. The Sin of careless People, by two Phrases; not laying to heart, nor considering the death of the Righteous. Fourth∣ly, the final Cause or special End for which they dye and are taken away, and that is, to prevent future Evils.

Concerning the Persons, here are two great Problems to be resolved, hard Questions.

Quest. I. How can any Man be Righteous? The Scripture saith, There is none Righteous, no not one.

II. How do the Righteous perish? The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous, the way of the Ungodly shall perish.

Answ. I. There is a Legal Righteousness, so Adam was righteous in the state of Inno∣cency, being created after God's Image: This Righteousness is forfeited and lost, so by na∣ture all are corrupt and unrighteous: There is none Righteous.

II. There is an Evangelical Righteousness, and this is twofold.

1. The Righteousness of Imputation, when the Righteousness of Christ is imputed to the Believer, and received of him by Faith: Christ is made of God to be unto us Righteousness, 1 Cor. 1. Jehova tsidkenu, Jer. 23.6. He was made Sin for us, that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. 5. ult. As Christ was made Sin for us, not by the infusion of Sin into his Person, but by imputation of our

Sins unto him: So we are made righteous before God, not by any Righteousness inhe∣rent in us, but by the Righteousness of Christ imputed unto us.

2. Believers are righteous by Sanctification, when by the Spirit of Christ the Mind is en∣lightned, the Heart is mollified, the Will is rectified, the Affections sanctified, and the whole course of their Life is reformed, the habits of Grace planted in them, they are partakers of the Divine Nature; so that as before they liked, loved, and lived in Sin, now they abhor and avoid Sin and all the occasions of it: He that doth righteousness is righteous, 1 Joh. 3.7. This doth not make us perfectly Righteous, but imperfectly; not be∣fore God, but before Men. Jam. 2.24.

3. They that are Righteous thus by Justi∣fication and Sanctification, are also merciful, passively and actively: Passively, that is, first in nature and order, such as Gad received into Mercy and Favour; hence they are called Vessels of Mercy prepared unto Glory, Rom. 9.23. they are truly Righteous before God, whom he hath received into Mercy in for∣giving their Sins. Rom. 4.6, 7. Actively, for such as shew mercy unto others; these two are always found together in the same Per∣sons,

as our Saviour, Matth. 5.7. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. They have obtained pardoning Mercy, and shall ob∣tain crowning mercy: He which receiveth mercy of the Lord will shew mercy unto Men.

Quest. II. How doth the Righteous perish?

Answ. Not in Soul, for that is immortal, and cannot perish by any means, but doth live out of the Body as well, or more truly than in the Body: This Solomon taught, Ecclesiast. 12.7. The spirit returns to God that gave it; this St. Paul desireth, To be dissolved, and to be with Christ: Phil. 1.23. and Lazarus enjoyed at his Death, being carried by the Angels in∣to Abraham's Bosom: Luke 16. and this John saw in a Vision, Revelat. 6.9. performed to the Saints, he saw the Souls under the Altar. Neither doth he perish in Body, for the Body of a Righteous Man hath still a Being in the sight of God, and remains a Member of Christ's Mystical Body: This Union betwixt Christ and the Faithful is not of Souls only, but also of Bodies; the Bodies of Saints do not finally and totally perish, their Dust in the Grave is precious in God's sight, they only sleep in Jesus, and by the power of Jesus shall

be raised again glorious Bodies. Phil. 3. ult.

Nothing perisheth of a Righteous Man in Death finally and totally, but Sin. They pe∣rish in appearance, according to the Opinion of the World and the Judgment of Flesh and Blood. The proper meaning of this Expres∣sion is, They dye, depart hence, and are no more seen, their place knoweth them no more; or, as the other Word is added exegetically, they are taken away or gathered to God and his Christ, to Angels and Saints.

Observation. The Righteous and Godly Man must dye as well as others, but the Death of the Righteous is not hurtful but beneficial, no loss, but great gain and advantage.

Of this Lesson we see two Branches.

1. That the Righteous Man who is Evan∣gelically Righteous, as being justified by the Righteousness of Christ, and sanctified by his Spirit, must dye, and go down into the Cham∣bers of Death and Darkness, and the House of Rottenness, as well as others.

2. That the Death of the Righteous is not hurtful, but beneficial; no loss, but gain.

Of the First; Death is the way of all the world Josh. 23.14. The way of all the earth, saith

David, 1 King. 2.2. It is the end of all Men, as Solomon, Eccles. 7.2. and the Righteous must walk and pass this way, and come to this end before they come to their everlasting Home, as well as others: The wise man dyeth as well as the fool, Eccles. 2.16. yea in this respect the condition of the Children of Men and the condition of Beasts are alike, As the one dyeth, so dieth the other. Eccles. 3.19. No marvel if the condition of all Men be alike, High and Low, Rich and Poor, Wise and Unwise, Learned and Ignorant, Righteous Unrighteous, Godly and Prophane, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Mors impudens, it fears no colours, spares neither great nor good: Abel dyed, whose Person and Sacrifice God accepted, as well as Cain whose Person and Sacrifice God rejected. Abraham the Father of all the Faithful, and the Friend of God, Isaac, Ja∣cob, Joseph, all the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apo∣stles, Evangelists, and Holy Men of God paid this Tribute, and all must pay: Heb. 9.27. Statutum est, there is the necessity; Omnibus, there is the Universality of dying; there is a Statute Law for both, Enacted in the Court of Heaven, which no Mortal can Repeal. As sure as we are born to live, so sure are we born to dye; Nasci & denasci ordo rerum est. I

need not travel far for many more Examples or Proofs of this, only turn your Eyes to that doleful Object and sad Spectacle of Mortality under that black Vail, then conclude of this necessity: For if Art, and Learned Skill and Industry of Physick could have continued him, if Strength of Body could have preserved him, if Wisdom and rare Gifts of Mind, if Temperance in Diet, if Chastness of Life, if a concurrence of all excellent Virtues, if Piety and the Power of Godliness, the Life of Ho∣liness, if the Wishes of Men, yea of a whole Nation, if the Prayers and Tears of the Godly, if any thing could have prevailed for him to give him any Priviledge against Deaths Arrest; blackness and darkness had not at this time covered that Earthly Tabernacle wherein lately lodged so Heavenly a Mind.

Quest. Why should this be so, hath not Christ died for the Righteous, why then should they dye? Death is the Wages of Sin, hath not Christ suffered for all their Sins, wherefore should they dye?

Answ. Christ by his Death and Satisfa∣ction hath freed them from the second Death, and all the degrees of it; as,

1. Spiritual Death in Sin.

2. The Damnation of the Soul at her sepa∣paration from the Body.

3. From the Condemnation of the whole •…•…lan at the Resurrection; Go ye cursed into ever∣l••sting fire.

This Death Christ by his Death hath abo∣lished, and freed the Righteous from; but not from the first Death, which is the separation of Soul and Body: He hath only changed the nature and use of the first Death, he hath taken away the sting and venom of it , all the evil and hurt of it: Of a Punishment for Sin, he hath made it a Passage into Hea∣ven; of a Curse, he hath turned it into a Blessing; it did at first deprive Men of good, but now it putteth the Righteous into the possession of all good. The Righteous must dye.

Ratio 1. To accomplish the Decree, and to prove the truth of God, who said, In the day thou eatest thereof, morte morieris, thou shalt surely dye. Gen. 2.17. As they who are adjudged and condemned to dye are dead in Law, albeit

they be kept in Prison, and not presently Exe∣cuted; so our first Parents, though they did not immediately dye, were subject to Death by the desert of Sin, and so in them all their Posterity. By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Rom. 5.12.

Now that the Decree of God might be ac∣complished, and his Truth kept inviolate and stand with his Mercy, Man, yea the Righteous Man must dye the first Death.

If Man should dye no manner of Death, how could the Truth of God appear? and if that Death due to Sin had been inflicted on Man, how should the Mercy of God have been manifested?

This Controversie God in his wonderful Wisdom hath reconciled thus, Piat mors bona, & habet utraque quod petit; in changing the cursed nature of Death, and making that Temporal which was Eternal, doth his Mercy appear; and in the dissolution of Man's Body into Dust for a time, doth his Truth ap∣pear.

Ra. 2. Because all are Dust; Our Bodies are Earthly Tabernacles, Houses of clay, the foun∣dation

of them in the dust: Job 4.19. All flesh is grass, and the glory of man as the flower of the field: Isa. 40. Great as well as mean ones, their Glory fades, they wither as the Grass, and meet all in the Dust: Our life is a vapour. Ja. 4.14.

The Sea never resteth; but is always eb∣bing or flowing, so is it with the Life of Man, it never standeth at one stay, every Day cutteth off one part of our Life , no power can make my Life so long to day as it was yesterday, we are nearer our end in the Eve∣ning than in the Morning. Job 4.20. We are destroyed from morning to evening. Even as Ri∣vers run into the Sea, so our Life runs into Death. This is the Reason which the Lord useth, Gen. 3.19. Dust thou art, and into dust shalt thou return.

Ra. 3. Because here is no continuing City for any; We are Strangers and Pilgrims, and are placed in the World for a season, as Men upon a Stage to act our parts, and then must be gone, to give room for others. One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh. Ec∣cles. 1.4.

Ra. 4. The Righteous are taken away be∣cause

the World is not worthy of them, Heb. 11▪ 38. They are the means of Blessings to the World, 1. By their presence: 2. By their Prayers; they stand in the gap, they stave off Judgments from the World; the Angel could do nothing to filthy Sodom, until Lot was gone out of it into Zoar: Gen. 19.22. 3. By their Examples: and 4. By their Counsel: But the wicked World will neither follow their Ex∣ample, nor take their Counsel: Therefore the Lord doth take away the Righteous in Mercy to Them, but in Judgment to the World.

Branch 2. The Death of the Righteous is not hurtful but beneficial, no loss, but great gain and advantage.

This will appear, 1. By the Phrases which the Holy Ghost useth to describe the Death of the Righteous: It is a sleeping in Jesus, 1 Thes∣salon. 4. A resting in hope, Psalm 16. A putting off an earthly tabernacle, 2 Pet. 1.14. A falling of a corn of Wheat into the ground, that it may spring up more glorious; a sowing in God's Acre. Joh. 12.24.

It is a gathering of them to their Fathers:

1. Of their Bodies from a place of care and

labour, o•• trouble and pain, to a place of ease∣rest, and security; They shall enter into peace, rest in their beds. Vers. 2.

2. Of their Souls, from the Body to God, to Abraham's Bosom; from an Earthly Taber∣nacle and House of Clay, to an House not made with Hands, Eternal in the Heavens: from Men to Angels; from Sinners to Saints per∣fectly righteous; from Enemies to their best Friends; from the Vale of the shadow of Death to the Land of the Living; from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant; from Earth to Heaven, whither they are gathered, as the Apostle teacheth at large, Heb. 12.22, 23, 24. to Mount Sion the City of the Living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem; to an innume∣rable company of Angels, to God the Judge of all, and the Spirits of just Men made per∣fect, to Jesus the Mediator of the New Cove∣nant.

2. This will yet evidently appear, if we con∣sider two things.

1. The Evils from which the Righteous are freed by Death.

2. The Good which comes unto them in Death, the Blessed Estate they shall then enter into, and so continue to all Eternity.

For the first, they shall be freed, 1. From

all Evils, corporal and temporal, Sicknesses Diseases, Aches, Pains, Griefs, Toyl, Labour Crosses and Losses, Troubles and Persecutions which God's Children, as long as they live here are subject unto. The Disciple of Christ must take up his Cross; Through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Act▪ 14.22.

We must look for Afflictions so long as Life lasteth, but Death makes an end of them all: Life and Trouble are Twins which were born together: Job 5.7. Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward; and must dye together, as John heard it by a Voice from Heaven , Reve∣lat. 14. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours: All labour in their Actions, and dolour in their Passions are ended; then shall God wipe away all tears from their eyes. Revelat. 21.4.

Again, they are often taken away to pre∣vent some extraordinary Evils to come, as in the Text: So Josiah, 2 King. 22. was put in his Grave in peace, that he might not see the evil that God did bring upon his Land: So Luther was taken away not long before that miserable Ca∣lamity which the Lord brought upon Germany, for their contempt of the Gospel. Augustine died before the taking of Hippo; Paraeus before

••he taking of Heydelberg: happy is he who dieth before his Country, i. e. before the ruine and desolation of his Country. Virgil.

Faelix Nepotianus qui haec non videt, saith Je∣rom of his Friend Nepotianus: Jerom lived in a calamitous time, and he counted his Friend happy, that he died before he saw those Cala¦mities.

2. The Righteous, by death are freed from Spiritual Evils; as,

1. From the Assaults of the Devil; our Life here is a continual Warfare, the Church is Mi∣litant, and we must fight as the Lord's Soul∣diers, and that not against Flesh and Blood, for then one Man's Sword would be as long as anothers, and one Man's Skin as thick as ano∣thers; but against Principalities, Powers, Rulers of the darkness of this World, Spiritual Wickednesses, Lambs against roaring Lions, Men against Devils, and not for a Natural or Temporal, but for a Spiritual and Eternal Life; not for an Earthly, but for a Heavenly Crown and Kingdom: And in this War there is no time of Truce, if the Devil be overcome one time, he will suddenly, and none knows how soon, give a fresh Assault, but Death ends the Battel; not as among Earthly Warriours, when the one dieth in the Fight the other getteth the

upper hand; but in this Fight the Devil hath not the Victory by the death of the Faithful, but the Faithful at the end get a full and final Conquest, and ascend into Heaven, there to triumph; the Devil cannot assault them there, he may compass the Earth, but he cannot enter within the Lists of Heaven, he never came thither to assault any since he was cast out; though he tempted Adam in the Earthly Para∣dise, and got him to be thrust out, yet can he not tempt any in the Heavenly Para∣dise.

2. It is no small evil to the Righteous to live and converse among the Wicked, to see the Land dishonour God; as just Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the Wicked, Dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, he vexed his righteous soul from day to day at their unlawful deeds: 2 Pet. 2.7, 8. He which is truly grieved for Sin in himself, will be also grieved for Sin in others; so David, Psal. 119.136. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, becaus•• men keep not thy law: and Psal. 120.5. Wo is m•• that I am constrained to dwell in Mesech, and in the tents of Kedar; barbarous and profane People▪ that did neither know God, nor fear, nor love▪ nor serve him. Now this World is full of scandalous Sinners, that if a Man would not

keep any converse with such, he must go out ••f the World, as St. Paul saith, 1 Cor. 5.10. But Death frees the Righteous from this evil, for it taketh them out of the World, that they shall not behold either the Sins which Men commit against God, or the evils which God doth bring upon them; yea Death doth carry them into Heaven, to the Society of the Holy Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made per∣fect, which sin not at all, but do the Will of God in all perfection.

3. Another Evil from which the Righteous are freed in Death is the practice of Sin here, as Solomon saith, There is not a just man upon earth, that doth good and sinneth not: Eccles. 7.20. In many things we sin all. Jam. 3.2. As the Wicked sin in all things, so the Righteous, yea all the Righteous sin in many things, and nothing is so grievous to the true Christian as Sin, it is as the Thorn, 2 Cor. 12. or barbed head of an Arrow in the tender Flesh, a Splinter under the Nail, it woundeth in the piercing in, and woundeth in the taking out; he will cry with St. Paul, O wretched man that I am, &c. Rom. 7. But Death destroyeth Sin, this is a Mystery of Grace, Sin brought in Death, and Death drives out Sin: After Death the Righteous shall be perfectly sanctified, and made

like the Angels to do the Will of the Lord readily, willingly, chearfully, delightfully, and constantly. At first Death was inflicted as a punishment for Sin, but now it is used as 〈◊〉〈◊〉 means to stop the course of Sin: Tunc dictum est homini, morieris si peccaveris, nunc dicitur, morer•• ne pecces; Then it was said to Man, If thou sin thou shalt dye; now it is said to the Righteous Man, Dye that thou mayst not sin. Sin is the Mother, and Death is the Daughter, and the Daughter shall become the destroyer of her own Mother: Unto the Christian Death is a perfect mortification of all his earthly members, and the destruction of the whole Body of Sin.

2. The Good which Death brings to the Righteous Man is manifold; 1. It brings him into the presence of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; our Father, Redeemer, and Com∣forter, an immediate communion and fellow∣ship with the Sacred Trinity. 2. The Beatifical Vision of God, To see his face, Rev. 22.4. To see him as he is, 1 Joh. 3.2. 3. Union with God. 4. Fruition of God, and that for the manner, immediately, all means ceasing; for the mea∣sure, fully, enjoy God in all, and all in God; for time, eternally, for ever with the Lord, and reign for ever and ever; Revelat. 22.5. for th•• place, in the third Heaven, the Heaven of

Heavens, the Paradise of God, where the Throne of God and of the Lamb is; for the company joyned with us, the innumerable company of glorious Angels and blessed Saints: from this Fruition will arise endless and un∣speakable Joy, and Pleasure, and Glory; That far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory. 2 Cor. 4.17.

Usus 1. In that Death cannot be avoided, we should learn to prepare and wait for it, to have our Loins girded, as the Israelites, and our Staves in our Hands, ready to take our Journey from Egypt to Canaan: as Fowls desirous to fly, stretch out their Wings, so should we, being desirous to be with the Lord, stretch out our Affections towards Heaven. As Abra∣ham was in the Door of his Tent when the Angel appeared unto him, and Elijah in the mouth of the Cave when the Lord appeared unto him; so we should be ready to come out of the Cave and Tabernacle of our Body when the Lord appeareth unto us by his Messenger, Death.

Let our Lamps be trimmed, our Lights burning, and always watching, as our Lord commandeth, Matth. 24.42. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come: And

holy Job practised, Job 14. All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

Look to your Faith that it be unfeigned, the Faith of God's Elect; to Conscience, that it be pure, undefiled, void of offence towards God and Man; to Conversation, that it be such as becometh the Gospel, that is, holy, and in Heaven: a good Life will sit us for a comforta∣ble Death, and a comfortable Death will assure us of a joyful Resurrection.

Usus 2. Death to the Righteous is not hurt∣ful, therefore not to be feared; but is beneficial, therefore to be desired: Unto the gracious Christian, whose Conscience is purged from dead Works, Death shall neither be fearful nor bitter; Acerbitas non mortis sed culpae, The bitter∣ness is not in Death, but in Sin: as a Serpent wanting a Sting may hiss, but cannot hurt, a Man may take it in Hand and put it in his Bosom; so the Righteous Man may welcome and embrace Death, and be sure it will never hurt him: it is not the death of the Man, but of Sin in the Man, it is not the destruction but the absolution of the Christian; the dis∣solution of the Body is the absolution of the Soul. So then not Death it self, but the Opi∣nion of Death is terrible; for since it translates

us from this present evil Wo••••d, and Va••e of Misery and the shadow of Death, into ever∣lasting Life into the Land of the Living, How can it be called Death, said one of the Ancients, being nomine magis quam re formidabilis, for∣midable rather in name than indeed?

The separation of the Soul from God, that is Death; but the separation of the Soul from the Body is only the shadow of Death: There∣fore such as are dead, not in Soul, but in the Flesh, are not said to be properly dead, but to be covered with the shadow of Death. The Righteous Man who is Evangelically Righteous hath no cause to fear Death, but with St. Paul, desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ: Let him only fear Death who is unwilling to go to Christ. It is true which Solomon saith, that The day of a mans death (that is, a Righteous Man's death) is better than the day of his birth: Eccles. 7.3. The day of a Godly Man's Birth is the beginning of his Misery, but the day of his Death is the end of his Misery, and an en∣trance into endless Glory and Bliss.

Usus 3. Consolation as to the Death of our Righteous Friends. It cannot be denied, but that we ought in a special manner to con∣sider and lay to Heart the Death of our

Righteous Friends that are near and dear unto us, of whom we have good grounds to be perswaded that they sleep in Jesus, and dye in the Lord; for it may be they were taken from us because we were not worthy of them, and the Mercies we received from God in and by them, and were not thankful unto God for them; or that we gloried, were proud of them, and trusted too much in them, made Flesh our Arm. We must consider whether God hath deprived us of them as a punishment of our Sins and Unthankfulness, as the Widow of Sarepta said unto the Prophet, O man of God! art thou come to call my sins to remembrance? 1 King. 17.18. In this respect we have cause to mourn, and lay to Heart the Death of our Righteous Friends.

We of this Place have cause indeed to mourn, droop, hang down our Heads like Bulrushes, to weep, yea to weep if it were possible Rivers of Tears, till we can weep no more, with David, because our Honourable dearest Lord and best Friend to all of us is not: But that this may be guided with Wisdom, and that we be not swallowed up of Sorrow, let us rightly understand where he is not: He is not in a Prison, but in a Palace of freedom and enlargement; he is not in the Sea tossed

with Waves, exposed to Storms, but arrived safely in the Haven; he is not in Bondage of Corruption, but in the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God; he is not in the Way and upon his Journey, travelling and toyling, but in his Country, and at home in his own Mansion, in his Father's House; he is not in the hope of Heaven, but in the actual possession of it: And look how far Heaven doth excel the Earth; eternal Good things, momentary and perishing Vanities; the true Joys of the Saints of God, the false Delights of the Sons of Men: So much is his Condition better than ours is, or his was, when with us. Oh then! Pereat contristatio ubi est tanta consolatio; Forget we our Sadness in the midst of such Joys, and let these Consolations allay the bitterness of our Grief, and dry up in part the Fountain of our Tears.

Farther consider:

1. His Gain: Ballance that (whereof you you have heard before) with our Loss; and then our Loss (though exceeding great) will hold no weight.

2. Let that Argument which prevailed with the Ephesians in the like Case sway with us,

The will of the Lord be done, Acts 21.13. Let us not make such Idols of our selves, or our Friends, as for their Death, so comfortable and advantageous to them, to be discontented with God's appointment.

3. If the Heathen could say, Non amitti∣mus, sed praemittimus, why should not Christians much more be so perswaded, and say, We do not lose our Godly Friends, but send them before us?

Usus 4. Yet take this Caution, Beware of the Sin of this People reproved in the Text, in not laying to Heart the Death of this our Honourable, Dear, Religious, and Right Christian Lord; but make we some Use of this sad dispensation of Divine Providence.

1. Consider it as a plain Prognostication and Warning of some Evil to come, as in the Text, The Righteous is taken away from the evil to come: a Trumpet sounded, or a Beacon set on fire to alarm and awaken us out of the sleep of Sin, to fright and fire Sinners out of their carnal security.

We may be assured he is freed from all Evils and Miseries present, and it may be he pre∣vented some extraordinary Judgments which remain for it. Sin is rise and ripe, hath all

the Symptoms of Ripeness: 1. It is great, knows not how to be more sinful, strikes immediately at the Glorious Face of God. 2. Common, from the highest to the lowest. 3. It is impudent; Sinners of this Generation cannot blush, they declare their Sin as Sodom, they hide it not. 4. Incorrigible; we have been stricken, but we have not grieved; we have been consumed, but refused to receive Correction, we have made our Faces harder than a Rock, we have refused to return. Jer. 5.3.

We may therefore justly fear some strange future Evils, when the Harvest is ripe the sharp Sickle will be thrust in, and the Earth will be reaped; and when the Grapes are fully ripe, the Vine of the Earth shall be gathered and cast into the great Wine-press of the Wrath of God. Rev. 14.14.

Now God grant, that as he hath pre∣vented such Evils by his blessed Death, so we may prevent them by our unfeigned and seasonable Repentance, and by receiving that Exhortation, Zeph. 2.1, 2, 3. The decree i•• big and travelleth, and will undoubtedly brin•• forth, therefore gather your selves, O Nation, see▪ ye the Lord, it may be ye shall be hid in the day 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the Lord's anger.

2. Remember we his eminent Virtues and holy Graces for our imitation, he hath no need of our Prayers or our Praises, his Praise is not of Men but of God: Though his God had honoured him highly in the sight of all wise, learned, good, godly, and great Men, as unto his Servant David, Made him a great name among the great men that are in the earth: 2 Sam. 7. so that he will be eminently Famous to all Posterity, as one of his Honourable Brethren, a Learned Judge of the Land faith: And let me add, His Remembrance will be as The Remembrance of Josiah, like the composition of the perfume made by the art of the Apothecary, sweet as honey in all mouthes, and Melodious in all Ears, as musick at a banquet of wine. Ecclus. 49.1.

This is for our Comfort and Instruction, but adds nothing to his Happiness, which is in the highest perfection, now in the clear sight and full fruition of the chiefest good.

If he desires any thing, it is our Imitation; that I am inclined to believe, that the Saints in Glory desire the Salvation of their Brethren on Earth; and consequently, that they should be followers of them in the way of Salvation. Rev. 6.10.

Then remember we,

1. His Humility, Meekness, and Gentle∣ness, and Self-denial; in this Grace, which indeed is the grace of every Grace, he was another Moses.

2. His Patience under all his Crosses and Tryals, whereof he had no small portion, and his long continued Affliction in this Ex∣cellent Virtue, that he was another Mirror, after holy Job.

3. His Temperance and Sobriety, in the midst of a sottish and swinish Generation.

4. His Righteousness and Justice, he was another Aristides; to hinder him from admi∣nistring of Justice impartially, to high, low, Rich, Poor, without Fear or Favour, was to stop the Sun in the Firmament, and to divert its Course.

5. His Piety and holy Devotion, in publick, in private, in secret, he kept close and con∣stant communion with God.

6. His Charity and Mercifulness to the Poor, his bowels of Compassion were largely drawn out to them.

7. His indefatigable Industry in all the

Duties of his Calling, general and particular; it may be Engraven upon his Tomb,

Hic mortuus requiescit semel, Qui vivus, requievit nunquam.

Here, being dead, he resteth once; Who being alive, rested never.

These rare Virtues and precious Graces were deeply planted and habituated in his Gracious Soul, even from his Youth, for his God looked early upon him, which was his own Expression to my self with great Humility, and thankful Resignation of himself, and all that he was, and had, to his good God, from whom he acknowledged he received all. These, I say, were acted, and shined in the whole course of his Life: Let us remember them carefully, and conscionably follow him in these Holy Steps; so shall we come to the Place and Estate wherein he is, and meet again at the Right Hand of Jesus Christ at the Resur∣rection of the Just, to our mutual Joy, and rejoycing both his and ours, and hear and have that joyful and blessed Doom, Come

ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom.— Which God of his infinite Mercy and rich Grace grant, for Jesus Christ his dear Son's sake, to whom be Glory, and Majesty, Domi∣nion and Power, and Blessing, now and for ever. Amen.

FINIS.