of a smoaky Cottage that it may be built a stately Palace as the Southsayers said upon the burning of the Capitol by lightning the Gods did suffer it to be that it might be built better and more gloriously Now these are the actings of faith required in him who would dye to the Lord. Now a Person may dye in the Lord and be blessed who yet doth not thus dye to the Lord for these actings may be suspended either 1. Through our inadvertency not considering what duty is incumbent upon us to glorifie God in dying 2. Through violence of diseases depriving or at least dulling and stupifying the memory understanding reason which are necessarily required to these actings 3. By some fit of desertion whereby we come to doubt of our evidences which alone can make us cheerfully to submit Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace now and not till now because now mine eyes have seen thy Salvation And thus I have done with the first thing which needed to be explained who they be that are said to dye in the Lord. II. I shall now speak to the second what that blessedness is which they who dye in the Lord shall have This is an hard thing if not impossible to do the Scripture speaks of it as that which is inexpressible unutterable See 2 Cor. 12.4 Paul rapt up into heaven heard words unspeakable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it is not possible for a man to utter yea which is more unconceivable 1 Cor. 2.9 it hath not entred into the heart of man 'T is in vain to expect that it should be spoken with the Tongue which cannot be conceived by the heart As soon may the Earth and Sea be put into a Pot as the bliss of glorified Saints into the understanding as soon may you hold the whole earth in the hollow of the hand as comprehend heaven in the heart Much hath been spoken and written concerning it doubtless to the great chearing of the hearts of Saints insomuch that some have been ravished with the newes of it that they have in a kind of impatiency been weary of life and longed for death saying come Lord Jesus come quickly yet I believe that when a Saint comes to heaven he will say in the words of the Queen of Sheba 1 King 10 6 7. It was a true report that I heard upon earth of heavens glory but behold the half was not told me The Apostle in the place before describes it Negatively Eye hath not seen c. The eye hath seen much the ear hath heard more than ever the eye saw and the heart of man can conceive more than ever the eye saw or ear heard yet the heart cannot conceive this Surely the full and perfect knowledge of this blessedness is only to those Saints who are comprehenders of it The blind man may say much of light but nothing comparably to him who beholds the light much may be said of the sweetness of honey by what is reported of it but it is nothing to what may be said from the tasting and eating of it See 1 Joh. 3.2 it doth not yet appear what we shall be or what glory we shall have till we come to see this light and eat of this honey I might therefore shut up this part in silence wishing you to wait till this glory shall be fully revealed but because something may be expected upon the method before laid down it being one of the three things promised to be explained and besides much is said of it in the Scripture to the unspeakable consolation of believers making them bear up and be of good chear under present evils whereof this life is full whiles they have an eye to the recompence of reward I shall therefore as the Lord shall enable me give you a brief collection of what is held forth in Scripture concerning this blessedness I cannot go round about Sion and tell all the Towers may I at least but point out some The Israelites rejoyced but to see some clusters from Canaan and it may refresh our hearts whilest we behold some parts or pieces of this glory laid down before us They waited for Gods time to take possession of that earthly Canaan and so must we 't is but tarry till death comes Death will put us in possession of the heavenly Canaan then it shall be said to Saints as to Abraham Genesis 13.17 Arise walk through the Land in the length and breadth of it Beleevers shall be blessed when they die but wherein doth this blessednesse consists I Answer to the making up of blessednesse it is required 1. That it be full 2. That it be lasting Fulnesse implies 1. The absence of all evil 2. The presence of all good 1. Then Saints dying are out of the reach and danger of evill Prastat non esse quà m miserum esse of what may be called evil even the very appearance of evil Though there were no good in Heaven yet it is very considerable that there is no evil Now evil is two fold 1. Of sin 2. of punishment but neither is in Heaven 1. There is no sin there this is the grand evil a poysonous weed that growes every where but in Heaven 'T is said that no venemous thing will live in Ireland I am sure it is true of heaven This weed took rooting in paradise but it was the earthly Paradise and not the heavenly whereof Christ speaks Luke 23.43 and whereof St. Paul speaks 2 Cor. 12.4 The best of Saints carry sin about with them one need not tell them so they know it to the great grief of their heart it being that which often fetcheth water from their eyes and blood from their Souls Hearken but to their Closet doors and you shall hear sad complaints against it and mourning over it This is that stone tyed to the birds legg Anselm as one well resembles it upon seeing boys play which pulleth it down when it attempts to fly aloft This is that Pharaoh which keeps Gods Israel in bondage and hinders from serving God as they should and as they would There is indeed a principle of grace in beleevers and there is also a body of sin and in this respect they are like to the tribe of Manasse half in the Land of Canaan half on the other side Jordan But death will convey them into the heavenly Canaan Col. 3.5 and the Jordan of sin shall be quite dryed up may not this be one reason why the Apostle calls sins our members which are upon earth members because of the dear love we are apt to bear to them they are as dear as the members of our body as an eye and hand and earthly because they shall not be in Heaven These sins by the power of grace are mortified in Saints whiles they are upon earth but in Heaven they shall be nullified there shall not be an hoof left behind Here they are cast down there
A VOYCE FROM HEAVEN SPEAKING Good words and Comfortable words concerning Saints departed Which words are opened in a SERMON PREACHED At SOUTH-WEAL In ESSEX 6. September 1658. At the Funeral of that Worthy and Eminent Minister of the Gospel Mr. Thomas Goodwin Late Pastor there Hereunto is annexed a relation of many things observable in his Life and Death By G. B. Preacher of the word at Shenfield in Essex 1 Cor. 15.55 O Death where is thy Sting Luk. 14.15 Blessed is he that shall eat Bread in the Kingdom of God LONDON Printed by S. Griffin for J. Kirton at the Kings-Arms in Pauls Church-yard 1659. TO The Right Worshipful Sir Henry Wright Knight and Baronet And to the Worshipful Mr. John Leech Esquire Justice of Peace And to the Good Gentleman Mr. Richard Sherbrook Together with the rest of the Inhabitants of Southweal Honoured and much Respected I Do here present you with a Sermon Preached at the Funeral of your Pastor Loth I was to Preach it not grudging the Service but wishing the work had fallen into better hands More loth I was to Print it well knowing that there is nothing in this or any thing of mine worth Publishing to the world It sufficeth me if by private Preaching I may serve God in the place where my lot is cast I dwell among mine own people But the urgent importunings both of Ministers and other Christians have wearyed me and being not able to withstand the many Sollicitations I have forced myself to send abroad this Sermon which I Dedicate to your selves to whom of right it doth belong The occasion of it was the Death of him who was your Pastor your Minister and whose Flock and People yee sometime were It comes to you by way of Dedication be pleased to own it with your Christian Acceptation It is indeed very plain without any flourishings and therefore can scarce expect a welcome for its own sake but it tends to keep up the memory of him whom you sometime loved and delighted in you may welcome it for his sake and moreover it contains heavenly comforts Counsels which being the Truths of God you must welcome it for Gods sake and for the sake of your own souls It comes out somewhat long after the Preaching and no marvel if it come late I had much a do to perswade with my self to let it come at all Though indeed the hand of the Lord upon me in a sore sickness made it much longer than otherwise it would have been It is enlarged beyond what it was when I Preached it because the straits of time we being benighted and many persons far from their home would not suffer me to deliver scarce one half of what was then intended I then only delivered the heads now you have the enlargements upon those heads And Now Honoured and Worthy Friends give me leave a little to vent the sorrows of my heart for this great loss The blow indeed lights upon you mainly but not upon you only but upon the Neighbour-hood also yea the whole Church of God I have had many sad Letters since his Death bewailing the loss If others at a great distance be so affected how should you your selves much more lay to heart you may justly call your selves Ichabod Glory is departed The Ark is for the present taken from you God can Glory over you and set up the Ark again among you Amen the Lord grant it but yet remember you had a Goodwin among you some of you I am perswaded being the Seal of his Ministry will remember him as long as you have a day to live Your Town of Brentwood is famous for its situation upon an Hill but its eminency of late years was much from Mr. Goodwins Ministry in that place Your Hill seemed to be the Candlestick whereon this burning and shining light was set He was a Tower a Beacon on this Hill His monethly Lectures which the Neighbours round about did partake of made it as the Hill of Hermon and Mount Sion distilling dewes upon the Valleys round about He is now gone and is as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again Though his Person be dead let his doctrines live yea because he is gone let them the rather remain He shall Preach to you no more unless it be by his former labours and holy life by both which he being dead yet speaketh Mr. Goodwin still lives in Weal if ye his people stand fast in the Lord which that you may do as also be blessed with one to succeed who may call home the uncalled and perfect what is lacking in the faith of others is and shall be the Prayer of him who is Your Servant in Christ Jesus GEORGE BOWND REVELAT 14. v. 13. And I heard a voyce from heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth THe words which I have read unto you are part of a Sermon Preached by an Angel the third Angel mentioned in this Chapter That they depend upon the foregoing words Ad superiora hac refero Aret. in loc and that the voyce from heaven in the Text was uttered by the same Angel is the Judgement of a good expositor This Sermon as it may fitly be called begins from verse the 9th and we may observe three things concerning it 1. The Preacher 2. The Matter 3. The Method First the Preacher viz. God by an Angel from Heaven Preaching and Prophesying to Iohn what things should come to pass in the latter dayes In what age these things were fulfilled whether in the time of Martin Luther as some or later Preachers as others I shall not spend time to enquire The Preacher is an Angel from Heaven and though the Lord ordinarily Preach to his Church by men upon earth yet in some extraordinary cases he preaches by Angels from heaven Ministers indeed are called Angels Rev. 1.20 and it is no small honour which ariseth to that office from the name which the Persons bear yet though called Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pares Angelis they are inferiour to them which are in heaven when they come to Heaven they with other Saints shall be Angels fellows Luc. 20.36 Secondly The matter of the Sermon is destruction to the wicked both here and hereafter but Salvation to the Godly if not in this life yet certainly hereafter in the life to come That which this Angel Preached is such as to which the Scripture in the whole tenour of it consenteth and is agreeable to the Analogy of Faith Angels from heaven will Preach can preach no other that of Gal. 1.8 Is the supposition of an impossible case say Expositors There be indeed Angels that Preach other Doctrines the Devil and his Angels from Hell in their Instruments false Teachers upon Earth There be many Errors among the School-men though they be called Angelical Doctors This Angel in the Text is from heaven and accordingly his doctrines Scriptural as all
heavenly doctrines are Thirdly the Method is Doctrine and Use The doctrinal part of this Angels Sermon lies in verses 9 10 11. Where the position is this that most dreadful plagues do attend Antichrist and his adherents This position is illustrated by shewing 1. The Extremity 2. The Eternity of their misery 1. The extremity vers 16. Drink of the wine of the wrath of God There is the wine of Gods love the consolations of the Spirit when the soul is led into the wine-sellar and there staied with Flagons Cant. 2.5 The sweet preparative for that collation which Saints shall have in heaven where shall eat and drink at Christs Table in Christs Kingdom Luc. 22.30 But this in the Chapter is the wine of Gods wrath like that in Psal 60.3 Wine of astonishment or wine given to make them mad 'T is added here without mixture not allayed with one drop of mercy Jam. 2.13 There is indeed fire and brimstone put into it and mixed with it but there is little comfort in this addition it makes the Cup more dreadful there shall be drinking in Hell but it is in draughts of brimstone 2. The Eternity and lastingness of these evils the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night the evils which betide the wicked in this life are but the beginnings of sorrows the end will be to have no end This is the doctrinal part the Application follows in a two-fold Use 1. By way of Information shewing that Gods end in these judgements next to the taking vengeance on the wicked is to try the patience of Saints vers 12. To try I say the constancy of their obedience whether they will hold the Faith of Jesus in troublesome times 't is easie to sail in a calm Sea but to encounter raging waves and tempestuous storms and not to make Shipwrack of Faith and a good conscience is the trial of a Christian indeed one that is not with Agrippa almost but altogether here is the patience of Saints here are they that keep the Commandements of God and the Faith of Iesus Object The wicked are threatned with the Vials of wrath to be poured upon them but why should this trouble the Saints they follow the Lamb how is their patience tried by the judgements inflicted on such as worship the Beast Answ Yes it doth because when ever the wicked are made to drink the Cup of wrath they will be furious outragious and exceeding mad as the expression was before which rage will vent it self in bloody persecuting the Saints as the Church hath found in all ages by sad experience Object Then there is no difference between good and bad but it may be as ill with them who follow the Lamb as who worship the beast then we may say with the profane ones in Malachy Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur what profit is it to serve God will God suffer the righteous to be slain with the wicked and the righteous to be as the wicked Gen. 18.25 Answ That be far from the Lord and therefore if we mark what follows we shall be able to discern between the righteous and the wicked him that serveth God and him that serveth him not the worst that can befall them is the loss of this present life Persecutors can but kill the body and therefore Secondly by way of consolation he sheweth there is no cause why believers should be dismayed at the troubles which may betide them in this present life for while Tyrants make havock of the body God cares for the soul and eternal salvation if they dye by the hand of the wicked this is the hardest measure that can be meted to them this is the heaviest shock which can befall them and having once undergone this perfect blessedness presently followes Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Having thus cleared the coherence the Text as you see is the very Use of consolation and it affords very great comfort to the people of God especially if we consider what goes before and what follows after for from both it receives both light and strength and comes to the Church as the Queen of Sheba to Solomon attended with a very great train First that which goes before is a voyce from heaven saying Write Though every passage in this Angels Sermon need be attended to yet this especially therefore a voyce from heaven alarms us to attention and though every sentence be worth noting writing setting down yet this above all therefore write This word write Nihil hie sine pondere mensurâ is as a finger pointing to some excellent matter 't is a Star set by it and a light held over it that none may pass by without diligent weighing it and though there be nothing in Scripture but hath its weight and worth yet some truths are most diligently to be heeded even above others Divines observe that the word behold in the beginning of a sentence and Selah in the end of a sentence do shew that those are remarkable sentences so we may say of this word write All Scriptures are alike true but some are to be noted by us in a principal manner Secondly That which follows after is the Spirits sanction yea saith the Spirit and as if the bare testimony of the Spirit were not enough to carry the matter there are two reasons annexed First is when death comes they rest from their labours The wicked have all their comfort here Luc. 16. Son remember thou hast had thy good things so the Godly have all their sorrows here 'T is the opinion of some that Christs weeping over Lazarus Joh. 11. was not because he was dead but because he was to be raised to this troublesome life again for such is this life at the best to the Godly had it been Samuel indeed he might well say why hast thou disquieted me 1 Sam. 28.15 The Godly in this life have labours in common with others sufficient to every ones day is the evill thereof but besides they have troubles which the wicked feel not Satans winnowings buffetings a law in their members warring against the law of their mind But death stills and quiets all 't is to them the silent house and place of rest 2. Impii judicabuntur secundùm propter opera sua pii verò secundùm fidei opera sed non propter opera The second reason is their works follow in happy rewards he means their good works The best of Gods Children have their evill works but they are washed away in the blood of Jesus and therefore cannot follow them their good works do follow through free grace in glorious rewards they shall be rewarded according to their works though not for their works and thus they follow The works of wicked men follow but 't is in everlasting punishments they shall be rewarded both according to and also for their works and thus they