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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67016	A sermon preached on the 18th of April, 1692 at the funeral of the reverend Dr. Anthony Walker, late rector of Fyfield in the county of Essex, deceased by Josiah Woodward ...	Woodward, Josiah, 1660-1712.	1692 (1692)	Wing W3519; ESTC R22706	13,496	28

Service shall have his Quietus very speedily The Watch-man shall not stand Centinel long some Disease or some other means will call him off his Watch and then every Act of his careful Industry and Zeal for God shall be infinitely Rewarded Of many a Faithful Pastor it may be said as Jacob express'd himself concerning the restless Fatigue he underwent in securing Laban's Flock Gen. 31. 40. Gen. 31. 40. Thus I was in the day the Drought consumed me and the Frost by night and my sleep departed from mine Eyes The difficulty of our Work will give us many laborious days and our too little success may well bring upon us many restless nights And indeed the utmost Application and Earnestness of our Head and Heart day and night is little enough in order to finish our course with Joy For when we consider the Immortality of the Souls under our care and that Christ purchased them with his own Blood And that we are plac'd by the Great God as Overseers of them And finally That the guilt of so deplorable a Ruine as the infinite Misery of an everlasting Soul will be imputable to us if through our negligence it miscarries I say when we are duly sensible of these tremendous things we cannot think any pains too great to save a Soul from Exquisite Eternal Torment nor to spend a few drops of sweat in labouring to pull Men out of the Claws of the Devil when for this very thing our Blessed Lord shed Showers of his Blood These Thoughts will make every tender Pastor put himself out to the utmost And the less rest we take here the sweeter will be our everlasting repose above The cool Evening of Death draws on when the Limbs of the weary shall be at rest and shall never be disturb'd more The same propitious Hand which wipes away the Tears from the Eyes of the disconsolate Christian will wipe away the Sweat from the Brows of the Painful And then there 's a full end of their Labours and Sorrows No more hard Hearts to grieve their tender Bowels no more filthy Conversations to vex their Righteous Souls But undisturbed Joys abound even to exultation for evermore This then is an Expression of God's infinite Goodness and Compassion to his Faithful Ministers in that the infliction of Death is a dismission from their Labours Which will surther appear 2. In that by Death they are secured from the Malice of their Enemies For 't is no new thing that the most inoffensive life should meet with Enmity from the World We must not think to fare better than our Master who was thus Treated all his life long and being brought to his Death by the same malicious Enmity of wicked Men he told his Followers what they must expect from this evil World John 15. 21. The Dispositions and Interests and John 15. 21. Ways of good and bad Men are diametrically opposite and when there 's such a Constitutional difference of Inclinations and thwarting of Roads there are like to be many differences and then 't is easie to say who will be greatest sufferers either the few harmless Pilgrims that are so far from doing an Injury that they would not return one to gain the whole World Or a numerous Company of Passionate Proud Envious and Violent Men who take pleasure in unrighteousness From some of these every one that will live Godly in Christ Jesus must expect at some time or other to suffer Tribulation in some measure as both our Saviour and his Apostles have fore-told and as their own Sufferings fore-shew'd Yet one would indeed have thought that the Almighty God had sufficiently secured his Prophets from Violence when he had given such a peculiar Charge that they should do his Prophets no harm Psal 105. 15. And when Jeroboam's Passion Psal 105. 15. had transported him so far beyond the measures of Equity as to stretch forth his hand against a Prophet of the Lord his injurious Arm was instantly wither'd so that he could not pull it in to him again 1 Kings 13. 4. So that God reprov'd even Kings for 1 Kings 13. 4. their sakes And on the other side who could have thought but that every Body would have been kind and obliging to the Prophets when God had promis'd That so small a kindness as a Cup of cold water given to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet should not be unrewarded Matth. 10. 42. Considering Matth. 10. 42. withall That this was a promise made by that infinite Remunerator who gives whole Cities for the improvement of some petty Pounds Luke 19. Luke 19. 17. 17. Yet alas notwithstanding the Great God had both promis'd and threatned so highly in the behalf of his Prophets through what Vollies of Reproaches and Defiles of Injuries did they usually run their Course And through what painful and bloody Deaths did the most of them make their entrance into Glory Isaiah is said to be sawn asunder Jeremiah to be stoned to Death Ezechiel is reported to be slain by the Captain of the Jews at Babylon Amos his Brains beaten out by Amasias the Idolatrous Priest of Bethel Micah's Neck broken by Joram the Son of Ahab And to name no more Zechariah the Pen-man of the words of the Text is suppos'd to be the Prophet of whom our Blessed Saviour says He was slain betwixt the Porch and the Altar Matth. 23. 35. There being no other Zecharias the Son of Matth. 23. 35. Barachias mentioned in the Scriptures save this Prophet whose Genealogy is thus Recorded Zech. 1. 1. In the Eighth Month came the Word of the Lord to Zechariah the Son of Barachiah c. Many more Instances of this Nature are Collected by Epiphanius in his Account of the Lives of the Prophets And if we look into that Sacred Book which ought to be in our Hands every day we shall there find that the Holy Apostle sped no better And the Histories of those times assure us That hardly any one of them died otherwise than by a violent Death some were Crucify'd some Ston'd some slain with the Sword others had their Brains beat out with Clubs In so much that one of them Writes 1 Cor. 1 Cor. 4. 9. 4. 9. God seems to have sent out us the Apostles last as Men appointed to be slain A sort of forlorn Squadrons who made the first Effort against the Powerful Patrons of Sin and Attact Wickedness seated in high places who soon shew'd their Powerful Wrath against such as durst disturb their haughty Lusts John Baptist's Faithful Reproof of Herod's Adultery cost him his Head the Jewish Sanhedrim being reproov'd by St. Stephen for their blood-guiltiness they gnash upon him with their Teeth as if they 'd worry him as indeed they soon did Acts 7. 54. Acts 7. 54. And some of St. Paul's Hearers became his Enemies because he told them the Truth Gal. 4. 16. Gal. 4. 16. But the Messengers of God find wellcome

A SERMON Preached On the 18th of April 1692. AT THE FUNERAL Of the Reverend Dr. ANTHONY WALKER Late Rector of Fyfield in the County of Essex Deceased By JOSIAH WOODWARD Minister of Popler LONDON Printed for NATHANAEL RANEW at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1692. TO THE Mourning Relations and Friends Of the Reverend Dr. ANTHONY WALKER Lately Deceased My Friends IT must be look'd on as an Instance of your Affection to the Subject rather than your esteem of the management of it that you have requested the Publication of it with such an urgency as Civil Respect could not deny There being usually in Mourners a kind of satisfaction in humouring their Grief by viewing and reviewing any thing though never so mean that any way relates to a dear Friend taken from them And those who know any thing of my Sentiments in this Matter will deem it no low instance of my Respect that you so far gain the Ascendant over me as to induce me to yield to a thing so dissatisfactory to my self that I may contribute to your Satisfaction It being as I often assured you both beside all my former Intentins and contrary to my present Inclinations to commit these immature Thoughts to the Press which I could not have Pardoned my self for delivering in the Pulpit before such an Audience had I had leisure suitable to the Solemn Occasion But your Request being granted I only beg of God that it may improve any Teachable Mind and Honest Heart For as for such as are of another Temper What can either please or profit them To whom even our Sacred Religion it self is unsavoury and all serious thoughts about another World a sort of Melancholy-Madness Oh! May the God of Truth and Holiness vouchsafe a speedy stop to the rapid Floods of ungodliness by which we are almost overwhelm'd even to Destruction To contribute towards which it is a very small thing to hazzard our Reputation amongst the Enemies of Serious Religion For he that has the Temper of that Blessed Saviour and Religion that we profess will not think his Life dear if by the expence of it he could be Instrumental to stop up the way of such as hasten to Destruction which desirable end may it please the All-governing God to work out of what is here laid before you by Yours in all Sincere Affection and Respect J. W. A SERMON Preached at the funeral of Dr. ANTHONY WALKER Zech. 1. 5. The Prophets do they live for ever IT is not without deep Grief that I enter upon this Mournful Employment assign'd me by the Reverend Person whose Remains lie before us Every thought of it is afflicting and I am sure to find here many Partners in my Sorrows which deplorable Conjunction of our Grief would make it too exorbitant did we not consider that it would be a Violating rather than a Solemnizing of our Worthy Friend's Funerals to be sorry as Men without Hope And indeed as 't was never God's Will that good Men at least since the Fall should have their Happiness here So we act but an unkind part when we too much grudge and grieve that they are ascended above Sin and Mortality So that I shall hope The Sorrow of this Mournful Solemnity may be much Extenuated and in some measure Sanctified by considering That as the Death of the best is the usual course of that Providence which admits no Error so it is none of the unkindest of God's Dispensations to his Servants to put an end to the weary steps of their Pilgrimage 'T is well for the Prophets that they are not to live here for ever The Prophet indeed puts it to the Question in the Text yet so as to imply that there was no Question to be made of it since every body saw that the Prophets did not live for ever here As 't is said John 8. 53. Abraham is dead and the Prophets John 8. 53. are dead They fall sick and die as other Mortals though with better Hope more chearful Hearts and greater fitness for their Change than the Vain and Vicious part of the World That which ocasioned the Prophet Zechariah to make mention of the Mortality of his Brethren the Prophets was to make it a motive to the Hearers of the Prophets to Repent and Reform speedily according to their Doctrine As though he had said You had best improve your selves now by the Ministry of the Prophets They are as Mortal as your selves and your incorrigibleness may make the Death of the Prophets a Judicial stroak upon your selves Wherefore walk whilst you have the Light the Night cometh when none can work And when God draws his Noahs and Lots out of a place Woe be to those that remain behind The Judgments foretold by the Prophets usually attend their departure as it follows verse 6. But my Words and my Statutes which I Commanded my Servants the Prophets did they not take hold of your Fathers That is was not the Sanction of my Holy Statutes verified in the Execution of the Penalties Decreed to the breach of them Did not the Desolation fore-told by the Prophets come upon your disbelieving Fore-Fathers You canno but confess they did and that the Prediction proceeded to its accomplishment tho' the Oracle ceased Now the Duty and Office of a Prophet of old bears a substantial Analogy with that of Evangelical Ministers now Both had a Divine Commission to instruct People in the Mind and Will of God But with this difference The Prophets of old spake by immediate and extraordinary Revelation and Commission from God Whereas God's Ministers now have a Written and Established Rule by which they teach even that perfect System of Doctrine in our Holy Bible which fully contains the Faith once delivered to the Saints To which to presume to add is Enthusiastick Delusion as to diminish from it is Sacrilegious Violence All deviation from it on the right hand or on the left being Falshood and Folly But the End and Aim of God's Ministers the Prophets of old and his Ministers the Pastors now is the same viz. to bring Men to the Saving Knowledge of God in Jesus Christ and a filial Submission to his Sacred Will Upon which account we find the Holy Ghost using the words Prophesying and Preaching as Synonymous Terms for the same thing 1 Cor. 14. 3. and again verse 24. 1 Cor. 14. 3. and 24. And as God then did not discover future Events to Men only to gratifie their Childish Ears with Novels but to affect their Hearts and transform their Lives So is not the Christian Religion given us to be the Object of a curious Speculation but to be matter of our careful and Conscientious Practice So then the Holy Office of a Prophet under the Law and a Pastor under the Gospel being the same in substance the words of the Text will naturally apply themselves to our present occasion and shew us that neither the Sacred Dignity of the Ministerial Office