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father_n	john_n	send_v	son_n	16,040	5	6.2799	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27497	The penitent death of a woefull sinner, or, The penitent death of John Atherton, late Bishop of Waterford in Ireland who was executed at Dublin the 5. of December, 1640 : with some annotations upon severall passages in it : as also the sermon, with some further enlargements, preached at his burial / by Nicolas Barnard ...	Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1642 (1642)	Wing B2015; ESTC R3687	79,120	190

Slave●y The state of Conversion resembled by giving Sight Light Liberty That the greatest Sinner once converted is capeable of forgivenesse The joyfull happy estate of him who hath an assurance of it in three things he hath Peace with God of Conscience with Death And therein of spirituall refreshings Throughout Applicatory to the Party The Text. ACT. XXVI vers 17. I send thee Vers 18. To open their eyes to turne them from darknesse to light from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sins c. THat there is an eminent Man this day falne in Israel by a scandalous and ignominious death ye al know of whom this unwonted confluence of people speaks an expectation of saying somwhat For his life to give the least commendation would be a scandall to the Speaker and yet wholly to conceale his penitency at his death would be a wrong both to him and you the hearers It was indeed his own desire there might be no good spoke of him at all but me thinks that it self if there were no more is cause sufficient to speak somwhat in that short expression being much included And commendation if ever is then most seasonable when it can neither impute flattery to the one nor cause a pride in the other Then may be thought the lesse affected when a dispraise would be the least offensive And for that we have done with in the Relation This Text fits this present occasion thus Saint Paul is here sent to preach the Gospell such was the end of this our Brothers ordination but neglected Such had bin his solemne vow of latter years but broken The persons to whom he was sent were such as lived in darknesse under the power of Satan such to have bin his life formerly to the Churches scandall is confessed The effect of Saint Pauls message is to open their eyes to turne them unto God such a blessed change to have bin lately found in him hath bin made apparant And if with these he hath obtained the efficacy of the meanes why should we barre him from attaining the like happinesse in the end also viz. forgivenesse of sinnes 'T is true he was sent and like that Son that said he would go into the vineyard but went not Instead of converting others he had corrupted them instead of opening their eyes he had shut his owne instead of gayning others out of darknesse he had lived in the works of darknesse himselfe instead of turning men from the power of Satan he had drawn more subjects to him Notwithstanding what he was ordained to have bin an instrument of in others was by Gods grace in a great measure wrought in himselfe and if conversion why should not we beleeve forgivenesse and if forgivenesse blessednesse for blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered c. The Ocean of Gods mercy is able to swallow Mountaines as well as Mole-hils great sinnes as lesse according to the proportion of Repentance Saint Paul a blasphemer yet obtained pardon The crucifiers of the Lord of life are bad to be converted and their sinnes should bee blotted out 'T is true hee was at first mooved to it with Feare so was Noah to the saving himselfe by the Arke Gregorie Nazianzen was at first converted to Christianity in a Storme Our Saviour in the same breath calls his Disciples Friendes and yet bidds them feare him for the feare of Hell it selfe Hee came late so did they that went into the Vineyard at the eleventh houre Manasses began in fetters The Prodigall Son staid till he was starved and forced Oh let not your eyes be evill when Gods is good Where we find his hand why should wee doubt of his Seale if he were turned from the power of Satan in repentance to God no doubt but God hath turned to him in granting forgivenesse In the Text you may observe these three parts 1. St. Pauls mission J send thee 2. His Commission in three branches 1. To open their eyes 2. To turn them from darknes to light 3. From the power of Satan unto God 3. The happy fruit of both That they may receive forgivenesse of sins The first implies our Dignity The second our Duty The third our hearers benefit By this our Brother the first at his arraignement hath hin much disgraced The second in his life more neglected And the third at his death Gods mercy in him infinitely magnified From the first he judged himselfe worthy to be degraded For the second he had strongly resolved if he had lived to have repayred And the third was in an extraordinary manner to his conscience sealed So that the three things which are now to be handled from the words are these 1. First the dignity of Ministers to be Christs Messengers I send thee 2. Secondly the chief part of their message to be Preachers the sole end of which is the converting of men to open their eyes to turn c. 3. Thirdly the latitude of Gods mercy even to the worst of men who by their preaching shall be converted though living under the power of Satan yet shall receive forgivenesse of their sins In the handling of which ye shall find some things as seasonable as profitable and throughout I would be understood to be equally applicatatory to Bishops as other inferiour Ministers 1. First the dignity of Preachers sent by Christ their mission is like St. Johns Baptisme not of men but from Heaven they may say to their hearers as Moses to the Israelites I am hath sent me unto you And t is observable their Commission is sealed by the blessed Trinity First severally by the Father Matth. 19. ult Pray the Father that he will send labourers c. By the Son Ephes 4 1● He gave some Apostles some Pastours some Teachers c. By the Holy Ghost Act. 20.28 Over whom the Holy Ghost hath made you Over-seers Secondly ioyntly Math. 28.18 Go teach all Nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost and accordingly as Saint John begins his Revelation with a Salutation from them So Saint Paul concludes his second Epistle to the Corinthians with a Benediction Hence those honourable titles by each of which we deny not is implyed a severall duty also honos onus to imply there holinesse Men of God Their vigilancy Watchmen their courage Souldiers their painfullnesse harvest labourers the care of their flock Shepheards their wisedome Over-seers their industry Husbandmen their patience Fishermen their tendernesse of affection Nurses their love Fathers nay Mothers their faithfulnesse Stewards their necessary use in preserving and informing of men Salt of the Earth * Light of the world their dignity Rulers Embassadours their eminency Angels fellow-fervants with them

Person must needs sinke his offence the deeper The Scandall of both hath increased the Ignominy of his death the shame of his death hath occasioned his spirituall life And if God hath for given and forgotten it in Heaven why should we upbraid him with it here The cleerest Moones have some spots The best Churches have had some such staynes Oh! let the blot of his life be washed out of your memories by the many ●eares at his death for which Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort to whom be honour and glory for ever Amen O Poenitentia quid de te novi referam omnia ligata tu solvis omnia clausa tu reseras omnia adversa tu mitigas omnia contrita tu sanas omnia confusa tu lucidas omnia desperata tu animas Cyprian de Laud. Poenitent The Letter to his Wife My deare Wife MArke well these last wordes of him who these twenty yeares and upwards hath been your Husband and might have so continued much longer by the course of nature had not his continued and crying sinnes deservedly drawn this punishment upon him to be cut off from the living as unworthy of their society in this life I suffer for my wickednesse which I beseech God in his mercy through Iesus Christ to forgive me In my suffering you suffer both in your credit and estate and what else soever concernes this world This advantage you have of me I have only left unto mee a small time of Repentance but you by Gods grace may have a large time of amendment which I would have you improve to the full and not lose a minute Turne unto the Lord your God with all your heart Cloath your selfe with patience thanksgiving I doubt not but God will have mercy on you and prove a Husband to you and a Father to my Children yea I doubt not but you shall live with the same happinesse and greater content then if I were with you Serve him he will not faile you Bring up your Children in the feare of God that Houshold which you keep let it be the servants of God Above all things be diligent in private prayer make all your needs known unto the Lord. Vndertake nothing which you cannot finde in your heart to begge a blessing for Misconster not these my dying advertisements which proceed as in the presence of God from true affection that at length I might really give some supply to my former defaults and put you in a right way for everlasting comfort That though we part in this world yet we may enjoy a more happy meeting in Heaven And after all our afflictions be there partakers of endlesse blisse So prayes and ever shall pray as long as he lives Your Husband John Atherton Decemb. 1. 1641. Cast not away this paper when you have read it but keepe it as a Jewell and peruse it often as the Legacie of him who can now give no other The Letter to his Children My deare Children IT was ever my desire to have seene you well preferr'd but God thought otherwise and my sinnes would not suffer it which have not onely sentenced me to death but bereaved me of that small worldly blessing which I purposed unto you as a patrimony and evidence of my fatherly affection And how now it will be disposed of or what share will come to your lot I leave to God who as he hath given you body and soule so I doubt not but will of his great goodnesse provide for your estate What is left unto me and cannot be taken from me I freely impart and give unto you not dividing it amongst you by shares and proportions but giving each of you the whole wherein though you communicate one with another in my blessing and last councell yet each without wrong to the other may take and challenge the whole to her selfe First the blessing of God the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost light upon you give you a true knowledge of his Word a true feare of his Will and a true Faith in his Promises Let no day passe over you wherin you do not call your selves to a reckoning before you sleepe and make your peace with God for the offences of that day Be constant in private Prayer twice every day at the least upon your knees and God will be a Father unto you Do nothing great or small without first craving a blessing from God and forbeare that upon which you cannot find in your hearts to crave such a blessing Be content with whatsoever God shall afford you poverty or riches take heed repine not at his pleasure who in the end though it be sometimes contrary to our sense works all things for the good of his children If you marry preferre an honest man that feares God before all other respects in the world Be obedient to your mother love one another and live in hope to enjoy againe in Heaven the company of your Father Now ready to dye John Atherton Decemb. 4 1640. Cast not away this loose paper but each of you take a Copy of it and preserve it by you as a Jewell all the dayes of your life A SERMON PREACHED AT THE Buriall of the said IOHN ATHERTON The next night after his Execution December the fifth 1640. In St. IOHNS Church in Dublin With some other Additions and Enlargements which the shortnesse of the warning and latenesse of the night would not then permit throughout Applicatory to divers speciall passages in the Relation wherin there are also some other added which were before omitted By Nicolas Barnard Deane of Ardagh in IRELAND Chrysost in Laud. Pauli Homil. 1. Paulus terram mare circumivit peccarorum spinas evellens granaque pietatis ubique semmans veritatem reducens ex hominibus Angelos faciens c. ACTS 2.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sinnes may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. London Printed by G. M. 1641. The Summe of the Doctrines here handled The Dignity of Preachers C●●●sts Messengers whence for themselves a necessity of ordination to it of continuance in●●r for the people a necessity of entertainement of them of Audience Obedience to them The duty of Preachers in the Generall from whence observed That Preaching of all the Acts of the Ministry is the most Apostolicall and if so the most Episcopall And here in according to a speciall Confession of a Vow made and broken by this Person An Exhortation both to Preaching and Catechizing For the latter of which Foure things advised Shunning Diversities of Catechismes Vnnecessary Controversies Handling these Principles Briefly Often In both condemned Inconstancy either in the Doctrines delivered time giving it over The Duties of Preachers in Speciall Ability to Preach Perspicuity in their Preaching Their lives to be according The state of a man Vnconverted resembled by a Blindnesse Darknesse

pul'd out by the Philistines and then bound in fetters and made to grinde in the Prison t is so expressed Esay 42.7 To open the blinde eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison-house Signified somewhat by the Jsraelites miserable estate in the Aegyptian bondage They were in a strange Countrey and so the more helpelesse hopelesse Such is this where we are Pilgrims and strangers the taske-masters may resemble the buffetings and cruell exactions of our spirituall enemies Pharoah commands to have their children killed in the birth and so doth Satan endeavour daily to crush the very first motions and beginnings of any spirituall birth in us like the Dragon in the Revelation when he could not murther the Mother attempted the Child as soone as it was borne Sinne is in us as in the streame in Adam as in the Spring in the Divell as in the Sea from whom as all comes so to whom all that dye in them must return And yet heerin as Anselme observes by some Circumstances the Schollar exceeds the Master the sinnes of men may be greater than Satans saith he He sinnes against GOD reprobating him Man against GOD recalling him He is hardened against the punisher of him Man against the allurer Hee against one not seeking him Man against one dying for him For the state of grace by Conversion T is 1. Set forth here by sight to open Corporall miracles are ceased but behold a spirituall the greater remains If any should question us whether the word we preach be CHRISTS we may reply as our Saviour to the like from John by his Disciples Goe tell him the blinde see the lame walke c. My workes testifie of me And indeed it is CHRISTS worke Originally though instrumentally ours Elisha may send his servant and his staffe but no life to the Shunamites Childe till he come himselfe The Cocke may crow twice or thrice but Peter remembers not himself till Christ lookes on him As t is not all the outward light in the Sunne will make a man see if there be wanting the light in the eye within So all outward admonitions availe not without the seconding of them by his Spirit The first thing made in the Creation was light and so it is in the regeneration the lightning of the Conscience which Salomon cals the Candle of the LORD searching all the inward parts of the heart and this was it that gave the first token of spirituall life in this our Brother 2. By Light as Matth. 4.16 The people that sate in darkenesse saw great light and by it to omit divers others is especially signified Comfort as the contrary is usually meant by darknesse Observe hence That Conversion puts a man into a lightsome and cheerfull condition See Psal 97.11 Luk. 1.79 Matth. 9.2 be of good cheere c. Obiect It doth not seeme so but rather that wicked men have the merriest lives Answ First you must not alwayes judge of Mirth by outward laughter men sometimes laugh more at a jest than at the news of a Pardon But they are said to joy in the latter not in the former Secondly It may be the fault of some Christians like Sampsons wife to weepe all the dayes of the Feast like Mary Magdalen lamenting the losse of Christ and yet shee was talking with him Men may be in the estate of joy and yet not apprehend it Like Hagar though there was a Fountaine of Water neere her yet till GOD opened her eyes to see it cryes out for thirst Thirdly if wee shall take a survey of this Carnall mirth wee shall finde it not worth the naming For the brevitie Job saith enough It lasteth but for a moment If like Jonas his Gourd it come up in one night it withers the next usually like that creature the Naturalist speakes off which dies the same day it is brought forth If like the Marygold their hearts open in mirth at Sunne-rising they shut againe in sadnesse before it be down If it hath any light in it 't is like that of a Candle as Salomon compares it to that gives a faire light in a roome for the present but the least puffe of winde puts all out In the midst of their jollitie the least frowne of a Superiour a thwart of an equall any affront of an inferiour imbitters all Onely Mordecai's stiffe knee so turnes the edge of Hamans proud heart that all his honour avayld him nothing Nabal can bee merry enough at his drunken feast ore night but a little ill newes told him in the Morning makes his heart to sinke within him like a stone While the play lasts the sensualist laughs when t' is done hee is in his dumps againe Whil'st the Gamester winnes hee is well pleased but when the game once turnes and hee hath made all away hee is ready to make away himselfe For the fruite of it tell mee you that give your selves to pleasure all the day doth not a heavie heartednesse conclude it in the Evening Doth not usually such sensuall mirth goe out like a Candle leaves the stinke of a snuffe behinde it damps and sore griefes within your Consciences I am sure it was that which this our Brother often acknowledged and it had beene said by Solamon before him Prover 14.13 In their laughter their heart is sorrowfull See the shortnesse and the end of their mirth is heavinesse See the issue One sitly compares it to lightning which as it is but a Flash and away so the fruit of it is but a blast upon the heart and as after a lightning often followes a Thunder So after this flashy mirth loud cryes and tempests in the Conscience take one with the other and in reason 't is not worth the having But this spirituall joy adds no such sorrow with it and even though sorrowing yet alwayes rejoycing The poore condition of the former see Isaiah 24.7 8. and the magnanimitie of the latter Hab. 3.17 of both which having so lately tasted how savoury have I heard this our Brother thus to distinguish 3. Thirdly by a setting at libertie from the power of Satan so 't is expressed Luke 4.18 to preach deliverance and setting at libertie them that were bruised Before every Lust was a Commander the Divell Generall but now hee is delivered from them all and out of the heaviest yoake of thraldome to the most glorious libertie even of the sonnes of God To ransome or rescue a Christian from the slavery of the Turkes was ever accompted an honourable act but the converting of a sinner from the errour of his way must needs exceed it I neede not tell you 't is Gods act thus to enlarge the heart 't is plaine it must be so if you consider but the strength of him under whom wee are bound and see how especially it is given to the blessed Trinitie God the Father drawes 'T is the Sonne which