Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A92746
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A sermon preached at the funeral of the Lady Newland. At Alhallows Barkin, London By John Scott, D.D.
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Scott, John, 1639-1695.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S2075; ESTC R229814
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11,228
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21
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if this doth not stop our Mouths and silence our complaints for ever nay if it doth not cause us to rejoice in our Tribulations and to thank God for them on our bended Knees If it doth not make us chearfully submit and cry out with that resigned Soul Vre Seca Vulnera Lord burn or cut or wound me as thou pleasest strip me of all my dearest Comforts handle me as severely as thou wilt so I may have but my Fruit unto Holiness and my End Everlasting Life If I say we can complain of our present afflictions while we thus compare them with our future reward we are infinitely foolish and ungrateful But then 2. Hence also I infer what a vast deal of reason we have to slight and contemn this World for we are born to infinitely greater hopes than any this World can propose to us even to the hopes of an abiding City where our Happiness shall be no longer the sport and dalliance of every puff of Wind the Ball of every accident and contingency but remain for ever safe and inviolable as the happiness of God himself And it being thus methinks our Ambition should sore as high as our hope and disdain such low and ignoble Quarries as the Pleasures and Profits and Honours of this Life Sure Sirs We mistake the Scene of our Immortality We fancy that our abiding City hath shifted its situation and is come down from Heaven to fix its Foundations here below otherwise we are most strangely besotted who being born to live for ever above in Everlasting Glory and Delight can suffer our selves to doat as we do upon the transitory Vanities of this Life O could we stand a while in the mid-way between Heaven and Earth and at one Prospect see the Glories of both how faint and dim would all the Glories of this World appear to us in comparison with those above how would they sneak and disappear in the presence of that Eternal Brightness how would they be forc'd to shroud their vanquish'd Glories as Stars do when the Sun appears whilst we interchangeably turn'd our Eyes from one to the other With what shame and confusion should we reflect upon the wretched groveling temper of our minds What poor mean-spirited Creatures we are to satisfie our selves with the impertinent trifles of this World when we have all the Joys of an Everlasting Heaven before us and may if we please after a few moments of Obedience be possest of them for ever Ah! foolish Creatures that we are thus to prefer a far Country where we live on nothing but Husks before the Everlasting Festivities of our Father's House and Bosom thus foolishly to chuse Nebuchadnezzar's Fate and leave Crowns and Sceptres to live among the Salvage Herds of the Wilderness Could but the blessed Saints above divert so much from their more happy employments as to look down a little from their Thrones of Glory and see how busie poor Mortals are a scrambling for this wretched Pelf which within a few Months they must leave for ever How they justle and run counter defeat defraud and undermine one another What a most ridiculous Spectacle would it appear to them with what scorn would they look on it or rather with what pity to see a Company of Heaven-born Souls that are capable of and designed for the same Glory and Happiness with themselves thus miserably busied and employed One priding it self in a gay Suit another hugging a Bag of glistering Earth and a third stewing in Luxury and Voluptuousness and all employ'd at that sordid rate as if they had nothing to do with Heaven To tell you truly and seriously my thoughts I cannot imagine but if when we are thus extravagantly concern'd about the pitiful trifles of this World those blessed Spirits do see and converse with us it is a much more ludicrous sight in their Eyes than 't would be in ours to see a Company of Boys with mighty zeal and concern wrangling for a Bag of Cherry-Stones Wherefore in the Name of God Sirs Let us not expose our selves any longer to the just derision of all the World by our excessive dotage upon the vanities of this Life but let us seriously consider that we are all concern'd in matters of much higher importance even in the Joys and Fruitions of that abiding City which is to come 3. Hence also I infer how unreasonable a thing it is for good Men to be afraid of dying since on the other side of their Grave there is an abiding City ready to receive and entertain them So that to them Death is but a dark Entry out of a Wilderness of Sorrows into a Paradise of Eternal Pleasure And therefore if it be an unreasonable thing for sick Men to dread their recovery for Slaves to tremble at their Jubilee for Prisoners to quake at the news of a Gaol-Delivery how much more unreasonable is it for good Men to be afraid of Death which is but a momentany passage from Sickness Labour and Confinement to Eternal Health and Rest and Liberty 'T is true the passage from one to the other is commonly very painful and grievous but what of that in other Cases we are willing enough to endure a present Pain in order to a future Ease and if a few Mortal Pangs will work a perfect Cure on me and recover me to Everlasting Health methinks the hope of this Blessed Effect should sweeten and indear that Agony But alas to die is to leave all our Acquaintance to bid adieu to our dearest Friends and Relatives and to pass into an unknown State where we are to converse with Strangers whose Laws and Customs we are unacquainted with Why now all that looks sad in this is a very great mistake For I verily hope I have more Friends Acquaintance and Relations in Heaven than I shall leave behind me here on Earth and if so I do but go from worse Friends to better for one Friend there is worth a thousand here in respect of all those indearing accomplishments which render a Friend a Jewel but if I die a good Man I shall carry into Eternity with me the genius and temper of a glorified Spirit and that will recommend me to all the Society of Heaven and render the Spirits of those just Men whose Names I never heard of as dear and familiar Friends to me in an instant as if they had been my ancient Cronies and Acquaintance But why should I grieve at parting with my Friends below when I shall go to the best Friends I have in all the World to God my Father to Jesus my Redeemer to the Holy Ghost my constant Comforter and Assistant and what though that state and the Laws and Customs of it be in a great measure unknown to me yet what I know is infinitely desirable from whence I may reasonably infer that what I know not is so too and if I have but the Temper of Heaven I am sure I shall easily comply with the Heavenly