from it sufficient to fill and satisfie the Soul much less determine with them the way and manner in which either is done lest by taking upon me to be wise above what is revealed I talk as foolishly as they about these Matters which are above our Reach We shall as the Apostle says See him as he is not in 1 Cor. 13. 14. 1 Joh. 3. 2. the highest sense of that Phrase in an adequate comprehending way which is absolutely imcompatible to a Finite tho' Glorify'd Nature The Creature must be God or he cannot so see him it may be enough or Modest Minds guided by the sure Duct of plain Revelation to say it â—hall be a Glory that excelleth as the 2 Cor. 3. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostle assures us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory What â—n Heap of Emphatical and Hyperâ—olical Words are amast together to give but an Umbrage of so great a 1 Pet. 1. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blessedness so bright a Glory an Excellent Magnificent Glory but it is yet to be revealed It is not it cannot be fully revealed 'till enjoyed we know not yet what it or we shall be but we shall be like him have a Blessed Resemblance of him share in Joy with him and who can wish for better than the Joy of his Lord which he enjoys and hath prepared for us to enjoy that we shall enter into tho' 1 Joh. 3. 2. it cannot fully enter into us Paul that saw it could not fully discover it to such Mortals as our selves Christians you that have had any of the Views Relishes and Fore-tastes of Heaven in Ordinances you can tell that when your Hearts have been drawing nigh to God humbled and debased before him lifted up to him drawn out after him you have receiv'd such Notices of the Goodness Mercy and Kindness of God to your Souls that it hath been highly pleasing to you hath it noâ— been a Grief to you that you have seen no more of it that you so sooâ— lose the the sight of it that you cannot keep up this delightful frame from Ordinance to Ordinance where you desire and design to converse with God This that is the Object of the Beatifick Vision is that which when displayed upon the Soul agreeably to the Excellency of the Object and Subject renders the Soul happy that enjoys it Secondly It carries with it a Dilection or Love to so amiable an Object as the Blessed God and the Holy Jesus not to mention our Holy Friends there which cannot but leave delightful Relishes upon the Holy Soul and the more thou knowest of thy God the more thou lovest him and if thou complain of an Heart straitned in thy Love to God I will tell thee that thy Faith doth not deal well with thee that it does not give thee plainer Views of this God for if thou didst know him better thou wouldst love him better When thou gettest any of this in his Ordinances dost thou not find thy Heart charmed with him To set this in a clearer Light this Love Amor est â—â—mplacentia boni dilectio addit rationis dilectum as Moralists speak imports a Complaisance of the Person loving in the Beloved the Genuine Properties and Effects of this Love are reckoned to be 1. Assimulating of the Lover to the Object beloved Every Lover feels a bent of Heart to conform himself to the Mind and Pleasure of his Beloved 2. A Vnion of the Lover to the beloved Object be it who or what 〈◊〉 will Love formally taken is a kinâ— of Union of the Lover with the Beloved and causeth the Lover to desire as much as may be to be onâ— with the Beloved which causeth 〈◊〉 perpetual Desire of its presence with it 3. An Inhesion or Adhesion of the Lover in or to the Beloved It will not be parted from it without an uneasie Violence he thinks of thirstâ— after and lays up his Heart with it so that the Lover's Heart dwells in the Beloved is taken up there more than at Home According to thaâ— Saying which derives from the Wisdom of Plato That this Soul is as it were dead to its own Body and lives in another agreeable to that other Observation It 's more where it loves ' than where it lives And what is true of Love in General is easily applicable to this Divine Love this Love of God For where all that is lovely is found by the Holy Prepared Soul in God this best Good it cannot but love and take Complacency in him delight to please him be most strictly united to and be one with him would not be parted from him and how great a Portion of Blessedness doth this administer to the Soul that hath in all this its Heart's Desire Oh! Fervent Lover it shall be as thou would'st have it in all this and more thou canst not wish Thirdly There is also resulting from all this A Participation of this Felicitating Object For Vision is not without this Participation to use the Words of an Excellent-Person He that Mr. How on Blessedness beholds partakes what is represented is impressed Thou dost not only see somewhat of God now and love him a little now but in doing so thou canst find that there are some abiding Impressions of God upon thy Heart some of his Divine Likeness renew'd upon thy Soul and how much better will it be there where thou shalt see him more clearly and love him more fervently and enjoy him more perfectly Sin is the Disease of the Soul and it can never be recovered to any tolerable degree of Health Ease or Comfort 'till the Likeness of God is recover'd upon it Therefore this is that which Ordinances are designed for here thou shouldst attend Ordinances to this Holy and Divine End that thou may'st carry away Impressions upon thy Heart of a God-like Temper of Mind a God-like Disposition to love as God loves and hate as God hates and be in all things like minded to him O this is that that is the true End of them but when thou dyest in the Lord thou shalt have such a Participation of God such Divine Impresses from God that shall clear thee of all those Infirmities and Diseases that Sin hath infected thee with then thou shalt have nothing to do but to delight thy self in the Lord thy God and this shall be thy unwearied endless Pleasure Well Soul is it not worth while to part with thy dearest Lusts for this Christ seeing if thou wilt get into and dye in him thou shalt be admitted to share with him in a fuller Participation of him and receive the Benefits purchased by him Remember thou canst not be happy without Participation of this Likeness and Love of God but in this thou mayest As this Blessedness does import a Separation from Evil and Knowledge of Love to
in this Text of great Importance to your Souls and mine O that I knew how to â—ffect your Hearts and mine with it â—hat we might know how to give it â—ts Influence upon your Hearts and Lives I say so because of the Great Solemnity with which these Words are introduced here is such an Apparatus as is verily very awful I do not know three Passages in all Scripture so Solemnly introduced I heard a Voice from Heaven whether the Voice of the Angel of God the Angel of the Covenant Or whether a Voice from God more immediately the Text hath not told us And we may safely be ignorant about it But it is A Voice from Heaven a Voice than cannot lye a Voice that cannot deceive us a Voice that should be heard and received with all suitble Reverence and Acceptation and who could have believed it unless well attested and this Voice bids him Write Write why is it worthy to be Written if it is a Voice from Heaven on such an Important Occasion as appears in the Context John might well write it down fro the Comfort of the Followers of Jesus that poor despised reproached persecuted Generation whom the World reckons not worthy to live And their God that knows them better than the World knows them and is not ashamed to be called their God he knows that the World is not worthy of them q. d. Souls bear up under all Discouragements tho' yours is a Distressed Heart-stooping Day here is a Word from Heaven a Cordial for Fainting Seasons and I 'll write it down for you that you may have it ready and may have Recourse to it in your needful Hours and that is Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth c. The Words Logically considered contain First A Proposition Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord. Secondly A Limitation or Determination of the Time and Season of verifying it From henceforth Thirdly A Twofold Reason of the Truth of the Proposition First That they may rest from their Labours Secondly And their Works do follow them Which will be the Reasons of the ctrine and waving to speak to them now I may hope for room for some Application which is the thing I would aim at The Proposition in the Text then that I may for Brevity sake make it serve for the Doctrine is this Doct. Blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord. I call it a Proposition and yet the accurate Logicians may quarrel at it because the Predicate is in the Place of the Subject But it is a Logical Proposition at least with very little Variation They that are dead and dye in the Lord are Blessed And so I must endeavor to explain the Subject and then the Predicate and though the Subject be last in the Text it is to be reckoned first in the Proposition and must therefore fall first under our Consideration First What are we to understand by The Dead that dye in the Lord There are two Senses that put in very fairly and both of them agreeable enough to the Original Some and Men of Value by Dying in the Lord do understand as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much as Dying For the Cause and Sake of the Lord as Martyrs do that seal their Testimony with their Blood The Preposition which we render In after the manner of the Hebrews signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as For and I must not deny but this Preposition in other Places of Scripture is so render'd as in the Margin and elsewhere and the Proposition Mat. 6. 7. Eph. 3. 13. is true take it in this Sense That those that Dye For the Lord are Blessed and it may be in a Degree above other Men that Dye only in the Lord. But I may not exclude the other Sense of it by this tho' there are great Authorities to countenance me in it because I think it is beyond Dispute that when the Apostle uses an Equivalent Phrase Them that sleep in 1 Thes 4. 14. Jesus Sleeping is allow'd to be dying in Jesus For after this he assures us The dead in Christ shall rise first Verse 16. There is nothing in the Context that I can discover should limit us to this Sense therefore it must not I think be understood only of those that Dye for him that suffered a Violent Death for him as many of our Brethren have done and now do in the Christian World The Translation hath a plain and sound Sense different from that for though it may be admitted to signifie Dying for him yet it doth not exclude but take in their Dying in him that dyed not thus for him 1 John 4. 13. Eph. 3. 17. Dying interested in him United to him by the Spirit on his part and by Faith on ours And the Proposition is true of these and all these so that in the same Rom. 8. 1. Rom. 16. 7. Joh. 15. 4. Sense they are said to be in Christ to abide in him and walk in him they may be said to dye in him Let me add that Dying in the Lord thus explain'd doth suppose Two Things First Their Being in him by their Coming to him and Receiving of him which are but two different Scripture Joh. 1. 12. Mat. 11. 28. Expressions for their Believing in him Secondly It is Supposed to Dying in him they did Abide and Walk in him from the time of their Coming to him and Receiving of him be it a longer or shorter time And pray Sinners you that make light of Christ that prefer your other things before him or turn your Backs upon him to serve divers Lusts and Pleasures instead of him that abandon your selves to a Carnal Interest Know that you cannot in this Case dye in him or be blessed in so doing and therefore bethink your selves how it will be with you if Death lay its cold Hands upon you O Get into Christ Get a saving Interest in him give up your selves to him that Death may not find you out of him for Woe to you if you dye and not in Jesus Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord. Let us now briefly see what we are to understand by the Predicate Blessed And of this give me leave to speak something First of the Name and then of the Thing for Names are to lead us to Things and I would I could tell you more of it I am ashamed to think how little I can tell you of the Blessedness of those Souls that Live and Dye in Jesus That I may borrow some Light from the Old Testament let me tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Hebrews have a Word Expressive of this beyond what our Language can fully reach it 's often Translated Blessed and this Word seems to be in that form which the Masters in Sacred Language call Forma Regiminis and may be turned from its concrete to an abstract Signification and therefore if I
Participation and Fruition of that which is called the Felicitating Good the best Good I did not say an adequate Good for that strictly taken does sometimes denote that which does but just correspond to the thing But O! the Happiness the Blessedness of the Soul that is interested in this God and this Christ There shall be more than he can receive more than enough for him a fulness for all the rest of the Heavenly Society Fourthly The last thing I shall mention as Consequent upon and perhaps Constitutive of this Blessedness is a full Contentation a Complacential Repose of Soul in the Delights which arise from all this to a Holy Soul My Friends when the Soul hath a View of God of his Holiness Purity and Goodness that doth enamour it that doth draw out and enlarge the Affections towards him when this Soul is grown up hereby unto a resemblance of God and perfected Participation of him can it choose but have Rest and Repose in him The School-men are puzzled for a Notion of this Rest this satisfying Repose as I understand it here they can get no higher than an Acquiescence or Resting of the Appetite in the appitible thing and such a pleasedness in its Portion that it will look no where else for another a better O my Friends the Blessedness of this state which our Lord is gone to prepare for us and which they are received into that dye in him hath all this and a great deal more than this that might be expressed and yet at last our highest Expressions nay our most refined Conceptions are at a loss in this Paul that was there was not able to utter what this Blessedness was which some translate not fit not lawful to be spoken and 2 Cor. 12. 4. others not possible to be spoken to us in our imperfect state it doth not appear yet what we shall be No not to inspired Men but we shall be like him resembling God and Christ in their imitable Perfections Wicked Men are so Foolish that though they walk after the Inclinations of their own Hearts they think they may go well enough to Heaven but it is far otherwise If these Men were not Fools to themselves they would think it so but it is otherwise Philosophically speaking since there is no proper suitableness between the Faculty and Object which can only yield Pleasure between God and Men and so there is no Capacity in them for this Blessedness Though I have spoken to the Name and Thing which we call Blessedness as it does cannote an Abolition of all Evil Natural and Moral and of that satisfying Repose or Felicity in its several Ingredients which either constitute or at least result from the Fruition of this Blessedness 2. Let us a little consider the Determination or Limitation of it the Word we translate From henceforth from the different Position of it in various Copies hath caused a considerable Variation in the Sence Those that make it the last Word of the first Clause with our own Translation Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth would have them Blessed from the Time and Season of their Death Others that make it the first Word of the next Clause From henceforth that they may rest from their Labours and their Works follow them would have them blessed from the Sufferings they endured The Traceing this in all its Niceties is not to be entred upon before this Assembly and it would signifie little if I may bring it which way soever taken to much the same Sence The Word Henceforth may refer to the Calamities and Persecutions under which they were or it may relate to the Death of those that dye in the Lord and why not to both and if it were reckoned to the latter it will still I conceive come to the same thing That they may cease from their Labours and their Works do follow them from henceforth from the time of their Departure that are in Jesus not to exclude the other they are blessed in him Next that they are so blessed the Spirit of God hath given two Evidences which I left for Reasons of the Proposition they are blessed and cannot but be blessed when they dye in Jesus For First They Cease from their Labours The Translation seems perplext That they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them It looks not at first view very like a Reason But if we may take the Greek Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text which we Translate That they may for a Conjunction Causal as Grammarians and Lexographers allow us to do in other Cases and Translate it Because both Clauses run smooth as Reasons of the Doctrine They are blessed because they do or may rest and because their Works do follow them Man that is born of a Woman is of Job 14. 1. very short Continuance of few days and full of trouble They often have sighing sobbing Hearts grieved Souls this is a sighing sobbing troublesome World and they have it from within from rebelling Passions they feel it is Labour and Sorrow to grapple with these What from Afflictions and what from Sin it 's all Labour and Sorrow Now for a Man that is deeply afflicted by these Calamities whether of Sin or Afflictions it 's a comfortable thing for the weary to be at Rest Come Souls take Courage remember that though you walk with many a sorrowful Heart after your Lord groaning under an Evil Nature of your own and the Evil Influence it hath upon you your Devotions to God and Conversation with Men yet you shall be blessed when you dye in the Lord all this shall be done away at once Secondly Their Works do follow Acts 10. 4. them Indeed they go also Before them but I say their Works do follow them not barely to be their Continued Imployment there though that may be true the Change of their Place will make but a Gradual Change of the most Noble Part of their Imployment here they shall Love and Praise God there as they did here but at a more Easie Elevated Rate They must needs be blessed upon that account the Nature of this Blessedness as far as we can pry into it tells you that they cannot but be happy Men that see that love and enjoy God and rise to such a satisfaction of Mind therein that they want no more than what they have they drink of such Rivers of Pleasure that they are satisfied with them There is somewhat Emphatical in the Text Their Works do follow them their Works shall follow with them as the Original is more strictly rendred A Metaphor taken from People that are crouding in at some Narrow Passage they that are coming after press and croud in with them there is a kind of Struggle among them O the Works of Humanity Charity and Piety which they have exercised themselves in shall follow them they shall croud in with them Neither bring I it so
A Funeral Sermon Occasioned by the DEATH OF M rs Jane Papillon Late WIFE of The Very Worthy Thomas Papillon Esq First Preached July 24. 1698. and now Published at his Request By JOHN WOODHOVSE LONDON Printed by J. Astwood for John Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultrey 1698. TO THE Worthy and Ever Honoured Thomas Papillon Esq One of the Representatives of the Honourable City of LONDON in the present Parliament AND The Deservedly Respected Philip Papillon His Only SON WHEN I had performed the Service which you were pleased to Call me to in the Preaching of this Sermon I had no Grounds of Fear you would Importune me to make it more Publick THERE are few can be desired to send their Pulpit Discourses to the Press upon greater Disadvantage than my self who have no written Hints to recollect what I deliver and must therefore be forced when urg'd to it to Desire Help from some of my Hearers and refresh my Memory with their Notes which alwayes labour under considerable Imperfections To this I was particularly forced in the present Case which I thought a sufficient Reason for my desiring as I did it might when committed to Paper be kept for your own Private Perusal THEY that know us will not expect I should say much of you when I write to you However I am bold to be your Remembrancer of what was your Deceased Consort ' s Satisfaction in her Languishing Hours because it may on equal Grounds be both yours To have about Thirty descending from you or nearly United to them that do and no One but what gives just Cause to all of us to believe the Root of the Matter is found and Christ formed in them is a Comfort many want after all their Pious Counsels Holy Examples and Care of their Disposal And tho' this be but one of the many Distinguishing Marks God hath Honoured you both with yet this alone should raise our Thanks and Hopes about them AND that God will continue them and especially You Sir his Worthy Son in the Steps of such a Father to fill up many of his Useful and Exemplary Posts both Religious and Civil is the Desire and shall be the Prayer of Your Affectionate Honourer and Faithful Servant in Our Dear Lord John Woodhouse Upper Moorfields Octob. 27. 1698. REV. XIV 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the Dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their Labours and their Works do follow them I Need not tell you Beloved the sad Occasion of this Mournful Assembly The Design I shall mainly drive at is not the Celebration of the Deserved Praises of the Dead or the Revival of the Grief and Tender Sence the Living have of so great a Loss But if it were possible I would Endeavour to bring this Afflictive Providence so near our Hearts that we might not lose all that we might get some good by so great a loss the loss of so Excellent a Person I would render it as Instructive as I can to this great Assembly And that I may the more successfully do it will you lend me your Attentive Thoughts to that Passage of Sacred Writ that you have upon Record but now named to you Blessed are the Dead c. Scripture and Experience tell us that the Inhabitants of this lower World are Divided under two great Lords that have the Rule over them Christ and Satan the Flesh and Spirit and it is true it lyes at every Man's Choice whose he will be and whom he will serve the Devil cannot force Subjects and Christ will not he will Deal with us according to the Free and Noble Natures that he hath given us but hath from the Divine Pleasure and according to the Nature of the thing Purposed that what Sinners Choose that they shall have such as hath been their first such shall be their Final State the Way and End are inseparably Connected together The far greater part of Mankind Devote themselves to the Service of the World and the Flesh abandon themselves to a fleshly animal Life these they Choose and Follow And Verse 9. the Context tells you what will be the Dreadful Issue of this their Course They shall be filled with their own Verse 10. Wayes for they shall be Tormented with Fire and Brimstone A Dreadful Entertainment shall Sinners find when they come to Receive the Recompence of the Pleasures of Sin that they had for a short Season For they shall find the most Tormenting Element of Fire with Brimstone to give Heat and Horrour to it the Smoke of their Torment that 's an Verse 11. Awakening Word to them that feel and to them that do not yet feel it shall ascend for ever and ever and they shall have no Rest Day nor Night Sinners let me tell you from the Lord that there is not one of you that is yet a Slave to his Lust that chooseth and pursueth a Carnal Worldly Interest before all that God and Christ have offered to you but he is in a Case that doth certainly entitle him to this Torment tho' yet he is not in it I know Sinner thou fondly hopest it will be better but where is the Ground for it Either set thy self to Fear the Lord and Follow the Lamb or thou canst never escape and therefore whoever thou art that hast never been awakened to a Sense of thy Sin and Danger art thou yet in an Impenitent Christless State think what will the way I have taken bring me to this End God hath told me so and at my Peril I must believe it that I may prevent it Oh that God would give thee a Heart to it But as dark as that side of the Cloud is the Context hath a light side also and my Text leads me to a Better Sort of Souls And O that God would lead it to the Souls of all of you that are in such a State as will intitle you to this Torment that you may make your Escape and never know by feeling what it means There is a Generation that under the sweet Influences of Free and Powerful Grace follow the Lamb whithersoever Verse 4. he goes They had taken Christ and become Imitators of him and they would follow him through Tribulation and Persecution to Glory let it be how it would with them here they would follow Christ they had embark'd with him and they would adventure their all with him These are they that are devoted to God set apart for God and Holiness in their Hearts and Lives They keep the Commandments of God and the Verse 12. Faith of Jesus they follow Christ in a Life of Obedience and maintain the Faith of Jesus cleaving to abiding in and walking with him and these shall have the Recompence of Reward In the next Verse I heard 〈◊〉 Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead Surely Sirs here is somewhat