Paludibus Lacunis that is The holy Spirit dwells in dry and clean Souls not in Boggs and Fenns and Ditches and Plashes that are over-charged with Gluttony and Intemperance we may then justly suppose the holy Dove that sacred Spirit dwelt much in such a Temple I might instance in more particulars and consider him as a Friend Firm Faithful and Affectionate As a Master Just and Equal As a Husband Faithful Tender and Affectionate But this I will decline lest I draw more Tears from those eyes that have paid over and above the full Debt already Such as this was the discharge of his Duties to himself and Neighbour And now we may be sure 't is not likely that he should come short in those to his God whom he loved infinitely beyond both To whom he is now gone to exchange his Faith for Vision his Hope for Fruition his Devotions to be turn'd into Hallelujahs where he will alway love him without Abatement Cessation Diminution and Interruption and never more fear to offend him His immediate Duties I say to his God I have reasons to believe took up a considerable part of each day of his Life Thirdly I might consider him next as a Priest of the Holy Catholick Church as a Dispenser of all the Parts and Instances of Ministration to the Divine Glory Love and Obedience How Faithful how Constant how Able how Assiduous in his Preaching the Gospel in his Administration of the Sacraments and the other parts of his holy Function these lately of his Charge are his best Witnesses And his Master when he call'd for his Accounts and bid him lay aside his business here and come up to him Carne and found him so doing And blessed is That Servant says our Great Master St. Matth. 24.46 And thus much though too briefly as to his Life 2. As to his Death If the separation of the Soul and Body shall be call'd so For not Christians only but what 's much more remarkable and strange even the Heathens and particularly the Greek Tragedian would not allow the unfettering and unchaining of the Soul to be call'd a death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is who knows who can tell but that that Life which we live here is but a death and that to dye only is truly to live And 't is as strange what is said by another Hi vivunt qui ex corporum vinculis tanquam e carcere evolaverunt vestra vero quae dicitur vita mors est i. e. They truly live who have made their escape out of this prison of the Body but that which men commonly call Life that 's Death And a third speaks higher yet The Gods as they speak conceal from Men and will not let them know the sweetness of dying to make them patient and content to live But we need not the Testimony or Opinion of the Wisest Heathens who have the Revelation of the Son of God That Death only lets us in to that State which alone deserves the name of Life And how holy how Christian how truly devout his Passage was might be too long to mention at large For certainly all that stood near him have reason to wish in the words of Balaam Let my last end be like his Numb 23.10 Having given him several Visits in his Sickness which were voluntary and uncall'd for I found at last by his continual Languishments reason to believe the time of his Removal could be at no great distance With which Thoughts I faithfully acquainted him in a Letter As knowing 't was best to take all the Securities which our Lord has given us to make our Passage safe and holy And it being infinite Pity that a Regular a Holy and Exemplary Life should want any of the Advantages of a happy Death Accordingly the day before his Death he was pleased to send for me and call upon me to assist him in his Trimming of his Lamp for the coming of his Bridegroom whom he now apprehended to be near at hand and to help him to Dress and Adorn himself for his Funeral 'T will be a great Mistake for any Man or all Men living to expect a minute and particular Account of every word that might pass between us But when I came to him he told me he was going hence that he was very apprehensive that in a little time he should be call'd to change Worlds and desired I would assist him in his last Agonies How willing I was to undertake so welcome a Duty in which I could at once serve my Master and my Friend a Master above and a Friend below in the same Instance and in an Instance too in which I was never like to do it more is no part of my present Business to say At first he desired the Prayers of the Church in which he joyned with all possible Demonstrations of a lively Faith an unfeign'd Repentance a Seraphic Fervency and Zeal a holy Hope and religious Affections Which being ended he told me he designed the next day which proved to be that in which he Dyed for the receiving his Viaticum for his approaching Journy I mean the Blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper I told him I thought it might be very convenient and most safe to do it to day To which He after some Thoughts and Considerations most readily and willingly consented He complained I remember of his Unwillingness to receive his Saviour as he lay and could have wish'd if his Weakness would have permitted it might have been upon his Knees and in a more humble Posture of External Devotion But his great Weakness of Body considered this could be no Dispute and 't is pity that ever it should have been one in the Christian Church Which having devoutly Received he then seem'd more full of a Holy Joy and Pious Satisfaction and a Religious Peace And he express'd his Rejoycings in some chearful Ejaculations Thus in the mid'st of Blessing and Prayers and Eucharist he stands about a day longer upon the Threshold of the new World And then he is called to come in and he bows the Head and enters And Willingly and Chearfully Yields and Resigns up his Soul you may be sure not without the Peace of the Church into the Hands of the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls the Holy Jesus And now I 'le stay to ask one Question once more in the words before mentioned who of us here is there but must be inclin'd to say Let my last end be like his Thus he has left Mortality And tho he has left his Partner Disconsolate his Relatives Mourning his Friends Sighing yet above all he has left his People without a Pastor an Assistant and a Guide And tho all that knew him may possibly Lament his Removal yet certainly none have more cause than you that were the People of his Charge to whom I now speak And if the taking away so faithful a Conductor of you
A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL Of the Reverend Mr. John Culme Vicar of Knowstone and Molland in Devon December 2. 1691. By LEWIS SOVTHCOMB Rector of Rose-Ash Imprimatur Ra. Barker Dec. 28. 1691. LONDON Printed for H. Bonwicke at the Red Lyon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1692. To the Worshipful Philip Shapcote Esq of Shapcote one of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Devon SIR I Have sometimes wondred how the Dedication of a Book or a Pamphlet to a worthy Person could be called or thought an Instance of paying Respect or doing Honour to the Patron where the Discourse has but little worth in 't Upon which Principle or Opinion Sir the prefixing your Name to this Discourse would rather look like an Affront than a Dedication and make me as much inclin'd to beg your Pardon as I should be to think I needed it did I not know that as you would have all you converse with to be truly Wise truly Happy and truly Good so you may Countenance the meanest Endeavours that with clear Intuition undisguised Sincerity and Purity of Intention have such Aims and Intendments which is all that can and I am afraid more than ought to be said for this Sermon 'T is usual to tell the World that the Publishing of a Sermon was desired by some of the Hearers Now tho I might say so too yet should I mention who they were it would derive as little Honour upon their Judgment for desiring it as can accrue to my own for consenting Sir if you find as you will two or three Pages more-here than what was delivered I am to assure you that 't is what was prepared to have been spoken if the shortness of the Day and some other Reasons had not made me think fit to wave it The great Respect Sir you have alway shewn to our whole Order and particularly to the Person whose Obsequies we lately celebrated your Countenancing and Encouraging your Excellent Lady's late pious Action of Building of a Tower not intentionally to her own but to the divine Glory for I am confident if it had been possible she would have conceal'd it till the Resurrection That Prudence and Zeal with which she began that Act of Piety and has conducted it all the way makes me among many others desirous to be thought by both and by all that know me to be SIR Your Faithful Affectionate Humble Servant Lewis Southcomb A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL Of the Reverend Mr. John Culme Vicar of Knowstone and Molland December 2. 1691. Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end THE great business of our present state in this lower VVorld is our Preparation for a better and by one short but holy Life to train up and discipline and trim the Soul for its safe and holy Passage to the state of Separation for its blest Admittance to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect to a new and unknown and glorious Society in a new and lovely world among the beatified Spirits of all the VVise and all the Good Men of all Ages That by such an Admittance there we may supply the Vacancies of fallen Angels enjoy the beatific Vision or the felicity of the presence of God the Holiness and Happiness and Peace and Joy and Clarity of understanding the upper world for all futurity Every man methinks that believes any thing of this and has these Hopes and Expectations beyond the Grave should easily be perswaded to be so wise as to understand this to be the most important business of our present state of probation here and consequently consider his latter end The words of the Text will need but little Opening or Explication Only I must observe this That I do not think the words consider their latter end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are in this place primarily and directly meant of Death or our Dissolution nor does the Context at all seem to warrant it But they are a kind of Wish of God by Moses that the Jews would consider Gods dealings with them and compare them with what would befall them in the end for their Stubbornness and Rebellion So Menochius and Vatablus both say upon the place if the Synopsis have quoted them right Vtinam intellexissent quis finis eos maneat reputassent eadem sibi eventura propter peccata sua i. e. That they would understand and consider and observe how God would deal with them in the end for their Rebellion Disobedience and Ingratitude But I shall for the present follow the common Road and as most suitable to our present occasion suppose them to be meant of Death or the State of Separation and the parting of the two old Friends Soul and Body till their Re-union at the Resurrection I shall spend no one minute of my time in so fruitless a Thought as to shew the Certainty of our Removal or the uncertainty of the time when which every Body believes whatever they do as to the Consideration of it But I shall rather choose from the words to raise this Doctrinal Head That as a seasonable Provision for our change of Worlds our removal hence or our state of Separation is an Act of the highest Reason and the truest Wisdom so the contrary neglect is infinitely irrational and unaccountable This I shall a little further confirm and make evident from holy Scripture And then from eight rational Considerations endeavour to demonstrate its most infallible Truth and Certainty And then see what Uses are to be made of the whole or what Influence it ought to have upon our Thoughts and Actions 1. From Scripture a word or two Holy Job thought it so much the truest Wisdom that he tells us it should be the great business of all the days of this his Pilgrimage to wait for his Dissolution and accordingly lay up no doubt for his safe admittance to the beatified Spirits of the Patriarchs and other Just men made perfect who were gone before him Thus in that known place Job 14.14 He resolves that all the days of his appointed time he would wait till his change came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the days of my warfare will I wait or as the Verb there also signifies will I Hope or Trust till my Change come Till I change a tumultuous and uncertain World for a World of Happiness and Peace and Joy for all Ages In either of which Senses whether of Expectation Trusting or Hoping he sufficiently intimates and supposes not only a due Consideration of but a seasonable Provision and Laying up for his safe and holy Passage out of this World to a new Scene of things and for the Dis-union of his Soul and Body and for his unknown State and Condition Thus the same Moses who is the Author of my Text has given it as the Character of the Truest Wisdom in the Psalm for this Occasion Psal 90.12 So teach us to number our days
Imployments and contrived for a longer Duration framed for Perpetuity at the Resurrection Whether to direct one short Life and all the greater Aims and Actions and Intendments of it to such a Resurrection appear to be Wisdom or no I leave to thy Consideration in thy next Retirements from the World when thou art withdrawn from the Throngs and Hurries of it from its Noise and Tumults 5. Every man methinks should allow it to be Wise and Rational to prefer a perpetual Plenty or a Supply of all his Wishes and Desires before the Necessities and Wants that attend us here And for our transient life to act accordingly He that has the largest Portion of this Worlds Affluence and Plenty still finds that there is something or other that he always stands in need of to compleat his Happiness or satisfy his Needs or answer his Desires And thus 't will always be till we come home to him who is called The desire of all Nations Haggai 2.7 Till then our Desires will never be satisfied our Needs never sufficiently relieved our Expectations never answered our little Satisfactions here never great enough or long enough or substantial enough to deserve that name But above all the devout poor man he who sinds so very much need of begging his daily Bread he to whom God is pleased to give no more than a literal Answer of his Petitions who can wonder at his humble earnest pious and wise Provision for a Life of perpetual Plenty And who can wonder enough at that Man who is unwilling to take care for his Removal thither where all his Needs and Necessities and Desires shall be effectually supplyed not for a day or two not for a short seventy or eighty years but for a long Eternity Come Christian let a silent and solitary thought or two in thy next Retirements put thee upon a close and piercing Meditation of the true Wisdom of a seasonable Provision for that State where all the wishes and the wants the needs and desires of Humane Life shall end in a vast Affluence and Plenty and Satisfaction for a never-ending Futurity 6. Every man methinks should allow it to be an Act of substantial Reason and true Wisdom to prefer a perpetual Peace of Mind and Clarity of Vnderstanding before the Doubts and Fears and Scruples that attend us here And to be willing for one short Life to Act accordingly Now we see but thro a glass darkly but after a Blest and Happy Separation at least in the Resurrection we shall see God face to face Now as the Apostle says we know but in part but we shall then know even as also we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 That is we shall know God as truly as hitherto we have been known by him 'T is sometime the Lot and Portion doubtless of the Best of men here to meet with Doubts and Fears and Ignorances and Scruples and Dissatisfactions of Conscience And we often wish to have them clearly answered and done away but we can find no Remedy But when the Veil shall be taken off and the Curtain shall be drawn aside and the thick and dull and heavy Load of Flesh shall be laid down the devout Christian shall quickly receive a Clarity of Understanding and all his Doubts and Fears and Scruples and Curious Inquiries shall be answered once for all And without all doubt there shall from this arise an unknown Peace and Pleasure and Satisfaction of Soul infinitely beyond all the great Pleasures of Mathematical Demonstration Then the poor humble meek and sincere yet doubting Christian shall no more need to speak with his Confessour no more wish for a Guide of Souls before whom with pious Tremblings an upright Heart great Affections and tremulous Discourses to bring his Doubts and Fears No more wish for the Good Man to direct assist and help him to resolve these Doubts remove these Fears and cure these Tremblings No The Clearness of his Understanding the Fulness of his Enjoyments and the Assurance of his safe Arrival there where he so passionately long'd to be shall remove all these Doubts and Fears and Scruples and leave no more room or possibility for them for all Eternity Tell me Oh tell me Christian can you choose but Pant and Sigh and Languish for and with inflamed Affections breath after this Clarity of thy Understanding this Settlement of thy Peace this Removal of thy Doubts for an inconceiveable Perpetuity 7. Every Man methinks should allow it to be Wisdom to prefer the Eternal Enjoyment of the Victory before the Pains of the Combat before the Pains and Hazard of subduing a Temptation here and all the Severities of Repentance and a watchful Life And for the little time he is like to stay here to act accordingly Should we ask the Souldier which is most Choosable most Pleasurable the Peace and Joys of Victory or the Pains and Dangers the Fears and Hazards of the Warfare he would readily answer us and tell us unfelt things of the Transporting Pleasures of the Victory But he would talk of the Dangers and the Hardships of the War with a trembling Remembrance Only it may be recounting with Thanks and Joy and Wonder the Mercy of Preservation and the Narrowness of his Escape Well and what do we think will the Pleasurable Resentments of the Soul be that 's just come away from the Hazards of a long Combat with Sin the World and the Devil to the Pleasures of an Eternal Victory From the Importunity and Restlessnessof a Temptation to the Joys of Conquest And to Sit and Live and Love and Reign and be in Safety above the Reach of them for all Futurity When through the Merits of his Saviour he shall be able with Peace and in the Securities of Heaven and with Transporting Joys in an Extasy of Love and Thanks and Wonder remember his old Doubts and Fears and Enemies and Hazards and the Securities of his Repentance Being now got up far above them once for all and being expired into the Element of Love is there to spend a Rapturous Eternity But 't is impossible to give a full Account of these things till we our selves have felt and experienc'd something of them in a happy State of Separation or in the Joys of a safe and happy Resurrection Only I would ask this Question whether upon this Glimpse of them you do not think them worth Dying for And if so then I would ask one more and that is whether you do not think them worth Living for for one short Life here For certainly t is extremely irrational to say you could be content to Dye for that for which you are not content to Live 8. Eighthly and lasty Every Man methinks should allow 〈◊〉 to be an Act of substantial Reason and true Wisdom to prefer the Enjoyment of the Creator and all the Beatify'd Spirits of the upper World before the Enjoyment of the Creatures in any Instances here below And for our Probation Hour to act