Asses braying to the most melodious musick in comparison of that But Heaven is a place of divine glories and glorious things are spoken of thee O Citie of God all manner of precious stones are fetch'd to set up thy glory O Jerusalem Jerusalem Revell 21. 19. and in the lies a Sun for every eye a Crown for every head yea a Crown that fadeth not away Crowns are the highest pitch of glory that the aspiring soul of man can work unto but the lowest shadow of divine glory Crowns and Kingdomes are but fading things yea they are now fading while the glory of Christ is rising in our Land yea in Ireland which the Devil and the Pope thought once to have had for their share but blessed shall they be who have been most instrumental to plant the Gospel there and some body here have been very much instrumental that way and many to pull down you and the Crowns of some of your families yea the Crown of these Nations all which lie in the dirt and yet you go on to sin as much as ever and never think how many was sent to the Devil in the late warre standing up for the Crown yea how many great ones were sent in a day in some great fights to wit Naseby York Newberry or Spinham land and yet these kind of Crownes are not worth contending for they are such light foolish fading things But Saints Crowns are exceeding weighty heavy and massy yea there is an eternal weight of glory that attends every Saint 2 Cor. 4. 17. An eternal weight of glory can never be poys'd or fade away but a present earthly glory every age can discover to be light and vain yea within these few daies I have discovered much my self and many vain men as David sayes which now are not and where is Mr. such an one with his brave feather and Mr. such an one with his golden back alass alass t is a thousand piâ—tles their Heaven was so short And for your stately laying out the Carcass at the last that is much more I saw the fragments of a silly Bird which a ravenous Fowl had prayed upon and all that was left by the hedge was a legg and a wing and a few loose feathers may be the Surgeon brawns up the whole body bowels and all with a great deal of beating by his huge sledges after which nasty and noysome work the Harril dresses that and a room three or four some dark and some light one within another before you come where the Body lyes in a thick sheet with a many popish Candles Candlesticks great Standards Silk and Silver Scutchions half a dozen in the nature of weepers to see who comes to stayr and some are even ready to say their prayers but the spiritual man mourns others crying they never saw the like nor shall they ever see more what 's become of the wing and the legg the life and the soul whilst death and rottenness sleeps in the feathers and is this all you call the laying in state Solomon sales vanity of vanities all is vanity and would this text was ever sounding in your eares and written in your foreheads as well as in your lives but what All doth the wise man mean questionless this and all below the Sun and that is all indeed but what 's reserved for the Saints whom you now despise and count fools and their ends to be without honour Wisdome 5. 4. O read read this text though it be Apocripha We fools counted his life madness and yet his lot is among the Saints we wearied our selves in wickedness but what hath pride profitted us and what hath vaunting and riches profitted us all is passed away like a shadow pâ—st or ship that passeth over the waves ver. 10. But their portion is above the Sun and yours below theirs where no moaths theeves or rust can come Maâ— 6 9 but at all these things they can and do come yea they will come at all your glories and there is a secret worm at the rooâ— of every glory yea your sweetest pleasures have a thousand snares envy pride malice and covetousness are alwaies eating alwaies stealing and staining earthly glories this way Nation eats up Nation and Time them again but time death grave nor eternity it self can ever fade steal or eat away the least bit of a Saints glory no no death and time puts them in and locks them safely up for that glory which eternity is alwaies opening and unfolding but for all your earthly glories they are soon opened one man and one age opens anotheâ—s glory pride and envy â—olds up that again to shew it selt but death folds up all yea all the sorrow shame and sufferings of the Saints and glories of the world yea it will fold up all your Maying and your gaying and your present glories so that that which is the outlet is the inlet both to one and the other darkness hell sin shame and sorrow is the inlet of death to such as you yea this breaks in like mighty seas upon the stroaks of death and so doth rest peace joy and glory to the Saints but what is the glory of Heaven and the Sains in Heaven may some say alass it is a question out of question or a question for eternity but this may and hath been said already God is the glory of and the Heaven of Heavens both to Saints and Angells but how much of 〈◊〉 Heaven every single Saint shall have for his share is a question never to be answered this we know a Crown shall be on every head and a Sun on every face and the least Saint shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdome of his Father Mat. 13. 43. and Christ as a Sun to all yea Christ humane shall do so and if so what shall Christ divine and the Father in the Spirit do that is the question out of question and beyond all answer the eye that made the eye the ear that made the ear the Sun that made the Sun the Heaven that made that Heaven which is called Heaven cannot be spoken to Men may look into the beamâ—s but not into the Sun it is so glorious the rayes of glory on the backs of the glorified may be looked into and spoken of but not to one thousand part as once Queen Sheba said to Solomon eye hath not seen nor ear heard that which thou O God hast prepared for them that waite for thee Isa. 64. 4. Nay it never entred into the heart of any man to conceive saith St. Paul what God hath prepared for them that fear him 1 Cor. 2. 9. O how great is that Goodness saith David But something is revealed by the Spirit yea so much that many wiser than any of you have despised with disdain and detestation all yours and this worlds glory for it and others have desired to die that they might be at it when as all as you desire to live for is onely to sin
and the fine linnen with the Lemmon sauce must have an end and the sweet singing but the howling that must be for evermore But take a touch of Heaven or ahout Heaven though you never intend to come there and I have done And for Heaven first it is a place for divine discoveries secondly of divine rest thirdly of divine joyes fourthly of divine glories and in it God discovers four things the secrets of his heart the fulness of his glory the nearness of relation and greatness of his love we shall know as we are known Gods decrees purposes and secrets his glory the fulness of his glory and nearness of relation yea we shall come from the East and from the West the North and the South and sit down with Abraham Isaack and Iacob in the Kingdome of our God and Father and know him to be our Father even from everlasting Isa. 63. 16. Luke 13. 29. God shall so abundantly discover his love unto us calling of us by his own name O Ephraim Ephraim my dear child thou art mine yea Lord God and Father I am and so is all that glory that thou hast given me as Christ speaks in another case God gives to Christ Christ gives to Saints and Saints gives to God all again and so God is all in all and ever shall be 1 Cor. 2. 9. But secondly Heaven is a place of divine rest from sorrow sin and labour tumults noyses feares and troubles in this world you shall have trouble but in me ye shall have peace saith Christ Iohn 16. 33. internal external and eternal A mans enemies shall be at peace with him sometimes and yet his friends warre against him if his waies please God And so the soul is like the needle on the point the Ark or Dove upon the waters she wants footing for the sole of the foot and God is often wanting to the soul of a Saint thou didst hide thy face saith David and I was troubled and the greatest trouble in the world is Gods hiding of his face but time shall pass and time will come that Israels God will be no more a hiding God Isa. 45. I5 nor they a wandring people in the barren wilderness of this world for in their Country which is Heaven there is rest without weariness for the wavering Man and the wearied Saint and the bed and pillow is not half so sweet to the wearied man as is this rest And the Saints rest is God yea God is their sweetest true and lasting rest and home and so is Heaven yea this is the Land of Canaan indeed and that Canaan which every one would land in when they come to dye I knew one of you the other day that alwaies wore a feather in his cap but being sick he sent a Bill to beg that he might be pardoned and go thither yea there is none of you all but would fain lay your bones and lodge your sinning souls in Canaan when you come to dye Oh but you must live in Canaan or go the way to Canaan if ever you mean to come thither t is not an old fashion'd priests benediction or absolution with a little Common Prayer a sup of Wine with a bit of Bread will lodge you there this may seal your damnation but it will never bring you to salvation no no these low things shore none upon the Land of Canaan it is Gods love Christs merit and regeneration of the spirit a thing ye never knew what belongs to Iohn 3. 5. that sets the soul there But to go on Heaven is a place of divine joyes and they that live in Heaven live in joyes and yet the joyes of Heaven can never live in them they are so great Enter into thy Masters joy saith Christ Light may enter in the eye but not the body of light joy may enter into the heart but not the body of joy Men and Angels are but finite creatures but the joyes of Heaven are infinite unspeakable unconceivable earthly joyes are but shadowes of spiritual the joy of the Harvest is nothing to the joy of the Elect and the sweetest joyes of the spirit is nothing in comparison to the joyes of Heaven ye shall rejoyce saith Christ and no man shall take your joy from you Iohn 16. 22. and this is that joy which Christ speaks of some Fountains have their mouths or pipes by which they continually send their Christal streams into the artificial Wells with pleasant noyses God hath his continual joyes and glories which he alwaies sends forth by discoveries from himself into the souls of his which they being filled withal sends forth as it were from other golden pipes his continual praises and herein lies the joyes of Heaven and the Heaven above which you scarce beleeve Angels and communion with Angels are not the joyes of Heaven Saints and communion with Saints are not the joyes of Heaven these may sing and joy and play together yet are they not the joy of Heaven t is the musick rather than the string that is the melody of musick and it is God rather than the creature that is the joy of Heaven and hence it is that their joy is alwaies fresh and green musick dulls beauty fades yea the Sun appears sometimes darker than at other at leastwise unto apprehension but this joy is alwaies rising more and more delighting now where there is a continual rising of divine joyes glories there can be no ebbing of divine delights the eccho rises with the voice the musick with the string joyes by discoveries do the like yea they rise unanimously in all the Saints and being risen in them Heaven is made a double Heaven shout O ye Inhabitants of Jerusalem for great is the Holy One in the midst of thee Isa. 12. 6. But howle ye Ships of Tarshish and pleasant pictures yea let the ungodly and rich howle together Isa. 2. 16. Iam. 5. 1. But shout O Inhabitants of Jerusalem above the City of the great King this shouting denotes the highest pitch of joy that Saints shall be filled with when they shall come to sup with God and Christ by feeding on divine delights Rayes joyes and glories which are the dishes of that wedding Supper where every Saint shall feed his full Revell 19. 8. 3 26. his full of joy his full of praise and sing his part yea every Angell his and all shall try their skill and strain their voices to make one melodious song of praises unto God and the Lamb for evermore Revell. 7. 10. 15. 3. Some say that a Syrrian or the song thereof will so inchaunt a man that irresistibly it shall draw him to his fatall ruine confident I am were one Saint or Angell to sing from Heaven this day to you in Hide-Park but one quarter of an hour it would kill all other delights and make you mind the God of Heaven and the joyes of Heaven for evermore and all your former sinful sweetest pleasures would be but as the
indeed if my Lord or my Lady had such an onely daughter and a lovely Lady also she were a match for the greatest Prince in the world and were Angelical Spirits capable of marrying or giving in marriage as they are not Mark 12. 25. they would come to such vertues but when blossomes birth and beauty have nothing to adoâ—ne them but spangles gold and outward glory they are farre short of the Church of Christ the Kings daughter who is all glorious within Psal. 45. 13. Inward glory is true glory outward glory is false inward glory is pure light life and heart purifying but of outward honour glory beauty and esteem a man may have a great deal and a great deal of Gold with capps knees and bowings to him for his portion and go to the Devil when all is done but the Lord is my portion saies the Church Lament. 3. 25. And truly it were a Lamentation well worth the taking up to think how many brave Sparks and Ladyes that are now in midst of all their gold and glory displaying of themselves and glories as it were for the glory of the day in Hide-Park with leaping lightsome hearts and souls through the pleasures of it yet that the night should and suddenly will come that all these must undress and go away hence to the darksome cold earth yea to the darksome dens or darkest dungeons of Hell if they have nothing but outward glory for their portion and then they will be more miserable than they that are acquainted with a kind of Hell beforehand Some say when they make a Nun in another Country first they make a feast as rich and noble as may be then they invite their greatest friends yea they entertaine all of qualitie with the greatest delights that this earth can afford and she her self to espouse her self to Christ as she thinks is dressed with all that youthful virgin rich and princely attire that is possible to be thought on or adorned with but the feast and the mask the musick and the singing being over the poor Lady is 〈◊〉 to the skin yea she burns in the presence of them all her greatest ornament and glory her hair and all for the Kingdome of Heavens sake sequestring her self from all the pleasures of this life for another which she ignorantly hopes to find in a wrong way but sure I am you wilfully loose that which you may easily find in a way of beleeving though not in a way of working and this is a lamentation and a thing to be taken up for a lamentation that you the Lords and Ladies of England the Gentry and the greater part of the Gentry and glory of the Nation in a common sense forgoe for a present Heaven which yet is but a Hell to a heavenly man and an heavenmind the true Heaven and the God of Heaven whose loving kindness is better than life so saith David Psal. 63. O Madam home is home as we use to say though never so homely and Heaven is Heaven when all is done but there is no home like to Heaven and the God in Heaven which you forgot for a moments lust were your pleasures as his are for evermore it were something but for moments joyes to loose a Heaven the joyes of Heaven and Heavenly glories for evermore is a loss indeed And now I am speaking of Heaven let me give you one touch of that and I have done onely I shall make your Funeral Sermon in conclusion for I think verily you will be damned and never come there yea most of you will be so and though I am but a poor man yet I would not be in some of your conditions for an hundred thousand Worlds heretofore when I have been going to bed I have thought when I saw my sins before I came to see them all freely done away and pardoned by the blood of Christ if I should have been sick in my bed and dye what a miserable creature should I be sure I am in danger to be damned thought I and yet there is no man living but he may be easily saved if he looks to God and beleeves in God in time yea if a man beleeves in God and lives to God really he shall as certainly be saved as ever any sinner in the World was damned Iohn 3. 36. But now if some of you should go home and consider a little in the night what you have been doing all the day yea what you have been undoing all your lives along it would make you sad indeed some men live long enough to get Heaven for their souls and an estate for their Children but if they get nothing but an estate for their relations let them have this for an Epitaph upon their graves here lies PENNY WISE but POUND FOOLISH and let them have a little thatch in their hands also for that will do them as much good as the welfare of their wives and children if their souls doe miscarry in the other World but for a man to live ten twenty forty years or upwards to undo his relations and his own soul as some do yea most of you fine folks do litte else but sin a great deal and live a little while to undoe and damne your selves for ever and ever some fill the bag or bushel in a little time and are carried away into the Land of Shinar Zaph 5. 5. and we remember them no more when they are once gone to the Devil I beleeve you your selves have almost forgot forty brave Sparks as heretofore used Hide-Park Christ was thirty three years old before he thoroughly saved one soul and then he dyed and saved all the world Iohn 1. 29. but it is that World that beleeves in him repents and lives to him But of the world of Gallants that I saw the last year in Hide-Park I did not see above half a dozen of my acquaintance that looked any thing Saint-like or Sion-ward some look as if they would never pray others as if they would never swear or sin they are so handsome and yet they do nothing else but sin and swear or tittle tattle all the day long for my part I did not hear one word of Christ and yet I was in the Park all the afternoon but it was upon a good account and for my part I am resolved for ought I know never to go again after this bout I have witnessed twice against them and once against the Tryrâ—s at White-Hall and I beleeve they will make but a blind business with the Keyes of David now in their hands which should be in the hands of Christ alone Isa. 22. 22. Nor will they ever put the power of Preaching for fear of spoyling their trade into the hands of any in the world but they that will make an absolute trade of it when as I am confident an ugly knotty stick being hewed and plained a little will make a better piece of timber than some of them that they set up will
or be a little longer out of Hell but I beleeve many of you are Sadduces which scarce beleeve there is a Heaven a Hell or Resurrection but fain would Paul die upon this account and who would not do so and be uncloathed that he might be cloathed upon with this house from Heaven and glory of Heaven yea crowd thorough and thorough the gates of death for the Crown of Crowns this wreath of life and glory O â—ut where is the Christian that can say so now and unstrip his dublet and affections to the creature freely laying down all that is near and dear at the feet of Christ for love to Christ the joyes of Christ and glories of Heaven the Saints cannot see now as in Stevens time the glory of God and Christ at the right hand nor the immortall things that Paul speaks of â— Cor. 2. 9. And hence it is they cannot desire to unstrip and be dissolved O but were the least glimpses of immortal Crowns and glory clearly in their eyes they would leap into the grave and call for death as a man for a friend in a great distress we have heard of some that have thrown themselves into the Ocean for to catch the shadow I am sure the God of Heaven and the joyes of Heaven are the substance which all men should catch at but the shadow most do yea the Saints themselves are lâ—w and dungy sishing for the creature rather than immortal glories But were they minded as in former times I make no question but the Saints of this age would Imperious like as much scorn the dungy chaff stubble straw and vanity of this world as the lofty Eagle doth the poorest prey when she is flying towards Heaven yea were our thoughts upon our Fathers house our Fathers home our Fathers glory yea and our glory which is laid up for us where all our faithfull friends are gone and longs for our communion me thinks the pavement and curtains of Heaven the place where Sun Moon and Staries are pitched tells us t is a glorious place yea if the outside of this Ark above the water be so speckled and spangled what is the inside where God and all the saved creatures are Sun Moon and Starres are but the 〈◊〉 of Heaven the 〈◊〉 beaten garmenâ— which must passe away and be folded up as an old thing Psal. 102. 26. And when this old thing shall be done away God and the Lamb become a new Heaven to the Saints yea when God and the Lamb shall compass them and be their Temple and they his Pillars in this Temple bearing up his everlasting praises Revell. 3. 12. Then shall the glory of the Lord and the Lamb be for Sun and Moon Revell. 21. 23. Here Gospel Spirit Ordinances are in the Church and Temple the Sun Moon and glory of it and would it were so in all and not form and formality but God shall immediately one day himself become their Sun and glory Isa. 60. 20 And the Lamb shall personally lead them to the fountains of living waters not to sup a little as now but to bath and tumble in those everlasting streames and Oceans of divine glory yea when every Saint shall have a Temple Sun and Sea of glory to himself walk hand in hand as it were with the Lamb Revell. 7. 17. thorough and thorough the glorious high discoveries of God which are the Seas of glory and the glorified Seas wherein their souls shall alwayes tumble never sounding any bottome in those boundless glorious bancks carrying them by gales of divine joyes further and further from all bounds and bottoms rocks and dangers And now I conclude with this advice if you indeed think there is a Heaven look for that or if indeed this be a fancy And all that you call Divinity be a meer piece of knavish Policy to make fools and asses of honest men then take your pleasure stil and let the daies of darkness never come near you nor your thoughts or families which do but spoil your pleasures for if you affright a child with a Bugbeare you may make hm fearful all his life and if you your selves will fancy that which is not It will be great losse and trouble to the minds of such as you who yet want more pleasures or time to pursue after more nay do you not O but if after all there should be a God O but if there should be a Heaven and a God better than Heaven a thousand times or a thousand Heavens which should at last be lost for want of thinking or beleeving what a sad case will you then be in yea I say what a sad case will you then all be in when God is lost Christ Heaven Soul Body and all is lost for a moments lust O Madam consider this in time yea this night least the night of nights overtake you which that it may not it is and ever shall be the hearts desire and prayer of him who with St. Paul wisherâ— from his soul that you and your Children with the whole Israel of God may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ Romans 10. 1. And so I rest Your humble Servant W. B. FINIS