the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth as gone into the Heavens and there sat down at the right hand of the Throne of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him as the Lord of life and glory who is gone to prepare a place for us and will come again and receive us to himself that where he is there we may be also Then will these spiritual things be as much valued by us as now they are despised and we shall as much slight all these bodily enjoyments as now they are overprized We shall not consent for any good in this world to lose our portion with him but chuse rather to dye a thousand deaths than not receive the Crown of life In short the Faith of Christians will then be able to do as much as Sense now doth As that now disparages and thrusts by the things of Faith because they seem Nothing or Uncertain so Faith will put by all the temptations of sense and bid them stand aside because it apprehends coelestial things to be sure and certain too For if they appear as real and certain things they must as I told you be preferred because they are infinitely better than all other and have nothing to disparage them but only their seeming uncertainty They will undoubtedly make us do and suffer the will of our Lord with all chearfulness and patient perseverance while we are here and make us ready to go from hence with the like cheerfulness when or howsoever it shall be his will and pleasure to call for us And what if he send for some of our Friends and dear relations to come away before us Will not the belief of these things make us with some cheerfulness or contentment resign them to him There can be no greater comfort than this Discourse against the grief we are apt to conceive at their departure For death is but the pulling down of an earthly house that they may pass out into an heavenly And it is not the going of our Friends quite away but only their going before and if they be godly they are gone into a better dwelling Why should we mourn then immoderately as those that have no hope Would we not have our Friends advanceed Do we grieve that they are possessed of a more plentiful estate And weep perpetually that they live like Kings and reign with Christ in glorious Pallaces O let not the tears flow too fast Look upon the Heavens and dry your eyes for out of an earthly hole all purified souls take their flight above those spatious Vaults From cold hunger thirst and nakedness they go to a place where there are none of these necessities Would you have your Children lye alwayes in their swadling-clothes Or when they are grown bigger do you desire they should alwayes go in their side-coates Do you sigh to see them beyond their non-age and grown to the state of men and women Would you have them return to their infancy again and become little children meerly that you may play with them Why do you take it ill then that your Friends are grown to an higher stature Why do you lament so heavily that they are stript of their raggs to put on richer apparel Why do you not rather comfort your selves that they are in the condition of Angels and numbred among the Sons of glory being entred into the family of God above in the Court of Heaven Consider I beseech you that too long continued bewailings of the loss of our holy Friends doth betray our Ignorance or forgetfulness of the glory of the other world It is a sign we do not know or else not think of that which the Apostle here preaches We are but in a dream of happiness all this while and see but the shadows and images of it There is little or nothing of this felicity which we touch and feel or that strongly affects our heart For if it did we should be satisfied both because they are gone to it and we may one day follow them If they loved our Lord in sincerity he hath better provided for them than if they had staid in our company And if we love him too and so be perswaded of his love to us they are but poor thoughts that we have of him which cannot supply the place of a Friend a Brother an Husband or a Wife and but low thoughts that we have of his happiness if there be not a great deal more in it to quiet and compose us than there is in the loss of any thing in this world to trouble and disturb us It was a notable saying of one of the Antients that the souls of Philosophers have the Body for their house but they that are ignorant enjoy it but as their prison The truth of which is too apparent For the unbelieving and ungodly are shut up close in their Bodies and fettered within those walls of flesh They are tyed to them by as many chains as they have Members and have no other light but what comes in at the holes of their eyes no other comfort but what they receive by the means of the rest of their bodily senses Whereas all faithfull souls enjoy a greater freedome They can go out of doors and are at liberty to walk abroad and take a view of unseen enjoyments They can look up a while to the highest Heavens and behold in the light of God the glory of our Lord the innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of just men made perfect The shortest glimpse of whose happiness is able to cheer and refresh their souls in the most disconsolate condition And if they can but think of their Friends departed as Members of that blessed Society the remembrance of them will never fail to be accompanied with such a taste of joy as shall take away the bitterness of all their sorrows Into that glorious assembly of Saints our good Friend I make no question is gone whose earthly house we come here to lay for a time in its Grave In whom you might have seen an example of the force of this Divine Faith which as it was the guide and principle of the actions of his life so it was the exceeding joy and comfort of his heart at death For that he seemed to fear no more than he did his sleep He went as willingly out of this body as he was wont to do out of his own house into this place the House of God and left the dearest relations with such satisfaction as if he were taking a journey to them A very noble degree of Christian confidence And yet no more than might be expected to wait on a long train of other excellent qualities which were eminent in him Of which if I proceed to speak a few words not meerly to comply with Custome but to furnish you with a worthy example as I am sure I shall not wrong the truth so I hope I shall as little
designs and labours They slighted and trod upon all other things in compare with this which they valued infinitely above all the contentments and satisfactions of this present life There were none of them that studied to make any purchases in this world to lay to their earthly house They had no designs to grow rich and great to provide themselves with fair estates or to raise themselves a Name and a praise among men They did not follow the pleasures of this world nor contrived how their body might enjoy its ease and take its fill of sensual delights No though they wrought Miracles with a word of their mouth they never employed any of them for their temporal gain and advantage Silver and Gold they had none though they were inriched with all the gifts of the Holy Ghost They healed all manner of Diseases but received nothing for the Cure They spoke with Tongues taught Mysteries instructed men in heavenly knowledge but freely they received and freely they gave to all their Disciples None of them sought to advance himself to the degree of a Noble man or a Ruler of this world None of them laboured so much as to settle himself in a competent Estate but they went up and down as their Master did and had no certain dwelling-place They sought only for this building of God which is above the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us This was all the possessions that they aimed at They had nothing in their thoughts but to go to Jesus and to carry others along with them to those coelestial Mansions where he is A great token of the sincerity of their belief a manifest demonstration that they thought themselves sure of what they preached For otherwise they would not have been so foolish and unthrifty as not to have made some present temporal benefit of that great knowledge and power wherewith they were endowed IV. But more than this they were so sure of this building of God in the Heavens that they endured all sorts of miseries and pains in this life meerly in hopes and expectations of it So St. Paul tells us as I noted before in the fore-going Chapter and gives us a more particular account of his sufferings whereby he approved himself a Minister of God Chap. 6. 4 5 8 9 10. and afterward a larger Catalogue of them Chap. 11. 23 24 25 26 27. Which when you have read you will not doubt but that they knew whom they had trusted as he speaks in another place 2 Tim. 1. 12. and were perswaded that he was able to keep that which they had committed unto him against that day They exposed this house I mean this Body wherein they were to all the injuries and violence of an angry world They regarded not what breaches were made in it by cruel hands They suffered it to be rifled and spoiled of all its goods They let it be ripped up and laid bare that men might see into the sincerity of their hearts in this belief Nay they cared not though it were pulled down and laid even with the ground They let fire be set to it and contentedly saw it turn'd to ashes Which they could never have consented unto if they had not been assured of a better habitation a building of God eternal in the Heavens Were they think you the only fools who knew not what was good for themselves Were men of so great knowledge can you imagine destitute of so much Wit as not to understand the value of life Were they so grosly ignorant as not to know that pleasure is better than pain And a poor house better than none at all What should make them then forsake the common sense of mankind who by all means labour to preserve life and seek to maintain the comforts and enjoyments of it unless it were this belief which I speak of that they should gain a more happy life by leaving this and make an exchange of a mean and contemptible dwelling for one more honourable and glorious It was not a fancy that could prevail with such wise men as they appeared against sense and bodily feeling Though fools may carelesly throw themselves into dangers yet we cannot conceive how men of such divine reason could support themselves by meer imagination under so many dreadful sufferings We must rather conclude that it was the presence and real possession of some great good infinitely surpassing all others which made them quit so easily that which others hold so fast and endure so constantly that which others so solicitously labour to avoid And it is considerable that they not only suffered all the torments the world could inflict but under-went them with great patience and admirable quiet of mind Nay they endured not only with patience but with joy nay counted it all joy when they fell into divers tryals And more than this they gloried in tribulations nay esteemed it as a gift on the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but to suffer also for his sake As if they had looked on their sufferings with the same eye that they did on their coelestial habitations which they made account were a gift a grace and favour of God to them Nor was there any of them otherwise minded but they all departed from the presence of the Council where they had been beaten rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name Acts 5. 41. and as St. Paul testifies of himself none of these things moved them neither counted they their lives dear unto themselves so that they might finish their course with joy Acts 20. 24. There was not one of them that shrank back when his life was in danger and would not leave his possessions here which we may well think would have hapned if they had not verily believed as they spake Some or other of them would have discovered the fraud if they had gone about to abuse the world A Rack would have made them speak the truth a Gibbet the Fire or some other torture would have drawn from them another confession if they could have said any thing but this that the crucified Jesus was alive again and was gone to Heaven and lived for evermore and had all power in Heaven and Earth and would receive their Spirits and raise their dead bodies that they might live and reign for ever with him in the high and holy place where he is But in this they all agreed to lay down their lives and suffer themselves to be cast out of their present dwellings which was a sign they had good security given them of enjoying everlasting habitations as our Saviour calls them Luke 16. 9. which no power on earth can touch And that brings me to the last thing the Apostle took his security to be so unquestionable that he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have a building of God V. They were so sure of this that it seemed to them as if
vex your patience THere are none here I presume that think it a crime to praise those that highly deserve it nor are of their humour who make a scruple to commend the dead though they make none to discommend and calumniate both dead and living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as the Apostate Emperor speaks for this is no new Vice If there be an occasion for reproaches or for Cavils there are alwayes those ready who will not be sparing of them but if there be an occasion given to commend another they can find no tongue for that imployment Nay they look upon it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it were but a piece of profuseness and an unthrifty vanity such a superfluous expence that it is one of their vertues to save themselves that cost and charges But Good Men think that it is far more pardonable to praise the truly Vertuous even above their merits than to be alwayes carping at others and back-biting them though they should deserve some reproof For my part I shall not willingly fall into either of these guilts As I have no disposition to detract from an enemy so I shall not be prodigal in the commendation of a Friend But rather be so frugal and sparing at this time as to comprehend all that I have to say under these three Heads 1. In General He was one that endeavoured his wayes might be found perfect before God And not one of the lame and criple Christians of these dayes who hope to go to Heaven with one wooden leg He was careful I mean to maintain good works as the necessary fruits of Christian Faith and such works as are due to men as well as those that have a more immediate respect to God Good Morality was part of his Christianity To be just and charitable industrious in his charge watchful over his tongue respectful to Superiours obedient to Governours not to speak evil of Dignities to be very sparing in his censures and kind to those that differed from him were a piece of his Conscience as well as to read and pray and preach and frequent all the Worship of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For it is a stupid thing and exceeding impudent to think to please God without the hearty study of Vertue as the fore-named Emperour excellently speaks Into whom the Christian Religion had sunk so far as to make him remember that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Orat. 2. p. 130. It is to be supposed that God rejoyces most of all in this and that you cannot gratifie him so much by any means as by being good Not that we are to neglect his Worship and Service as he proceeds nor be careless in doing him honour but we should exercise the greatest piety with the study of all Vertue For to say the truth holy Devotion is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the Daughers of Justice the fruit of natural Equity without which we cannot be said to be honest men It is a thing due to our Creator as other things are to our neighbours and he cannot be a righteous man who doth not honour God no more than he that doth not love his Brother But more particularly 2. That which deserves among other Christian Vertues to be remembred in him because so rare and little regarded is his great Modesty of Spirit and Humility of Mind and Behaviour He was not so ill furnish't and provided but that he had abundant matter for Discourse in things belonging to his Profession and yet I alwayes observed that he loved to enquire and soberly to propound doubts and difficulties As if he had a mind rather to hear the judgement of others than to speak his own and to learn and receive instruction rather than take upon him that great Office which almost every body thinks himself to be fit for now adayes to be a Teacher nay Controller of all his neighbours There is scarce a smatterer now in Christian learning in many places though never so raw and ignorant but hath so good a conceit of himself that he will dictate as Magisterially judge as superciliously censure as boldly speak as confidently to his betters and be as pert even before his Spiritual Guides and those that have been long Students in Christian knowledge as if he were infallible and breathed nothing but the Hòly Ghost A Vice which this good man so studiously avoided that as none could be a more severe censurer of other mens actions than he was of his own so it was not easie for any to be more confident that they were in the right than he was fearful lest he should be in the wrong This made him swift to hear but slow to speak to consider much and pronounce little and as one of the Antients saith * Greg. Nazianz Orat. 3. to know both how to overcome with reason and how to yield to reason and suffer himself to be overcome And his humility I must tell you was of the right strain Which as the same Father observes ** Orat. 26. is not proved and tryed so much in little things wherein it may be easily counterfeited as in the greatest To say nothing of our clothes and outward deportment it is no such great piece of humility saith he in my account to speak but a little of a mans own self and this but seldome and before few or to speak to an inferiour in a lowly and courteous manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But he that speaks spatingly and modestly concerning God is in my opinion the most humble person He hath attained to a considerable pitch in this Grace who knows how to speak some things of him in others to be silent and in others plainly to confess his ignorance and hath the modesty to let those speak of him who are appointed to it and to suffer some also to be of more elevated contemplation than himself It is the most unseemly thing for a man to choose the poorest diet and apparel to express much humility in tears in fastings in watchings in a sad countenance and lying hard or on the bare ground but in discourse of Divine matters to exercise a kind of Soveraign power or tyranny rather over others to yield to none and to seek to govern all This is to be proud there where humility is not only glorious but also safe The least tang of which vanity I could never discern in this good man who grew as fast in an humble sense of our distance from God as some are apt to do in an arrogant opinion of their Superiority above all other men He was like those good Students at Athens who as Menedemus if I forget not said went thither Doctors in their own opion he means continued there Scholars and came away ignorants For the more we understand the more we see there is above our comprehension And the more we converse with Wise and Pious men the more we see there are that we have