Section 7
July 2d and 3d, 1680. These two days brought tidings of the death of Mr. Haines, sometime minister of Wem, in Shropshire, and since at New Chapel, in Westminster ; and of Mr. Richard Edwards, minister at Oswestry, both worthy conformists, pious, peaceable, and good men, whom I hope, through grace, to meet shortly in heaven. The Lord raise up others in their room to be and do better!
Mr. Robert Rosier,* my dear friend and kinsman, having just completed the twenty-third year of his age, died of a fever, September 13, 1680, at Mr. Doolittle's house in Islington, whither he was gone but a few weeks before for improvement in learning; being formerly a commoner of Edmund Hall, in Oxford ; and since, having spent some years in my family, and designed himself for the service of Christ, in the work of the ministry. He was a young man of pregnant parts, great industry, and exemplary seriousness and piety, and likely to be an eminent instrument of good in his day. His friends and relations bad promised themselves much comfort in him, but we know who performeth the thing that is appointed for us, and giveth not account of any of his matters, Mr. John Maiden, my dear and worthy friend, turned out from Newport, in Shropshire, for nontametune Wivx a ballad was sung in, that they said had treasonable words in it Baxter's Eng. Noncon. p. 185. «/ mfra.
X See Tong*8 Life of M. Henry, vtwprat p. 36, &c. and emtejffS.
7 See ante p. 73.
" The great Sir Isaac Newton*s Friend/' See Dr. lAtham's Sermon for the Rev. D. Madock, (who was Dr. ll's son,) ui npra, p. 27. The Appendix to that Discourse contains a letter from Sir Isaac Newton, superscribed, **- For his honoured Friend, Joshua Madock, Doctor of Physic, at his house in Whitchurch, in Shropshire ** p. 33. conformity, died at Alkingn, near Whitchurch, May 23, 1681, a man of great learning, an excellent Hebrician, and of exemplary piety, and a solid preacher; as he lived, so he died, very low in his own eyes ; esteeming himself good for nothing, though really good for every thing; which was manifestly a prejudice, both to his comfort, and to his usefulness. He said, he was far from, repenting his being a sufferer against conformity. The relics of so much learning, piety, and humility, I have not seen this great while laid in a gave. But blessed be God we had such a one so long.
Dr. Joshua Maddocks, a beloved physician, our very dear friend and kinsman, died of a fever at Whitchurch, in the midst of his days, July 27,1682, a very pious man, and especially eminent for meekness ; an excellent scholar, and particularly learned in the mathematics.' He lived much desired, and died much lamented.
Mr. Thomas Bridge, who had been rector of the higher rectory of Malpas about fifty-seven years, being aged about eighty-two years, viras buried at Malpas, October 7, 1682. In his last sickness, which was long, he had appointed Mr. Green/ one of the curates there, to preach his funeral sermon on 1 Timothy i. 16.— Howbeityfor this cause I obtained mercy y that in me fir sty Jesus Christ miyht show forth all long-suffering; and, to say nothing in his com-mendation, but to give a large account of his repentance upon his death-bed, &c. He was a taking, popular preacher, preaching often, and almost to the last. When old, he could read the smallest print without spectacles.''
Mr. William Cook,^ an aged, painful, faithful minister of Jesus Christ, in Chester, finished his course with joy, July 4, 1684, in the midst of the cloudy and dark day. See Mr. Baxter's character of him in his Life, Part iii. page 98. And an honourable account given of him by Mr. Samuel Bold, of Steeple, in Dorsetshire, in a large preface to his book of Man's Great Duty.* He was eminent for great industry, both in public and private work; great self-denial, mortification, and contempt of the world ;• and a strict adherence to his principles in all the turns of the times. He was first minister at Wroxal, in Warwickshire; there he published two treatises against the anabaptists. From thence he was, by the advice of the London ministers, removed to Ashby, in Leicestershire, whence he was turned out for refusing the engagement, and afterwards
Mr. Green was buried at Malpas, Feb. 14,1687-^ Bfrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS. b The same is recorded of Dean Nowell. See his life by the Rev. Archdeacon Churton. p. 364. e See Noncon. Mem. v. I. p. 326. h/ tra ; and Dr. Calamy's Continuation, v. 9. p. 119. &c. oct 1713. d Duod. 1693. See the Noncon. Mem. v. l. p. 320.«/ nrf ra. note. e He is fit to preach a crucified Christ, who is himlf cnicified to the world. Mr. Steele. Philip Henry's MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
147 settled in Chester, where he was minister of Michael's church, till he was onted by the Act of Uniformity. He was an actiye man for Sir George Booth, when he made that attempt to bring in the lung, in 1659, for which he wad brought up a prisoner to London, and continued long under confinement in Lambeth-house; and, had not the times turned, had been tried for his life. During the usurpation, his frequent prayer was;—" That God would pull down all usurped power, and restore the banished to their right.'' After he was silenced by the Bartholomew Act, he continued to his death in a pastoral relation to a society of many worthy eminent Christians in Chester; though during the heat of the Five-mile Act,'he was forced to withdraw to Puddington in Wirral; where, as in Chester, till King Charles's Indulgence, he constantly attended on the public ministry; and he himself preached in the intervals. He would say sometimes to his friends, when he was in that retirement, that he thought *^ what little peace and quietness there was in this world, God's people enjoyed it in their comers." Soon after he was silenced he was committed to the common gaol of Chester, for preaching in his own house, by the mayor, at the instigation of the then Bishop Hall. He was very indefati-^ble in his ministerial labours, in which he never sought the assistance of any other minister; though, while he had liberty, he constantly kept a public fast in his congregation every month, as he did also ft private fast in his own closet and family every nreek. He usually set apart one afternoon every week to visit the families of his congregation, and ^ catechise their children and servants, and discourse with them personally about their souls; his Fisits were short and edifying, (and he managed them as one that was a great husband of his time,) and he seldom, or never, parted without prayer. He was not free to join in the Common Prayer, and bore his testimony against prelacy, and the ceremonies, with something of zeal; but his great piety, integrity, mortification, and charity, recommended bim to the respects even of many that differed from him.' If any asked his advice to any thing which night draw suffering upon them, he would be very tender, and desire them not to depend upon his judgment; but, since it was a matter of suffering, to hefulfy pers Maded in their own minds. He was a ^reat scholar, and a hard student to the last, and Was far from entangling himself in the affairs of this ^>/f, not knowing ought he hady save the bread that he iideat. In worldly matters he was not very conr Bishop Walton would speak civilly to Mr. Cook, but told him, be must conform, or he could not help him. The Confonnist's Ponrth Plea, ultmpra p. 109. r Lfanvaier or LlaofiBtir. See Dr. Richards's Welsh Noncon.
MenLp.3S6.
Hit brother, Timothy Roberts, a learned faithful minister of the gospel, eoning ftom London, when the plague was raging versable, but in discourse of the things of God, none more free and affable, or more ready to do good. He lived and died a great example of strict and close walking with God, and a heavenly conversation ; and his memory is very precious with many. He died in the seventy-third year of his age. When he lay on his death-bed, an aged friend of his, asking him if he had not comfort in reflection upon his labours in the work of God, he presently replied; -*'' I have nothing to boast of.'' He was buried in MichaeFs church, in Chester; and though, for some time before he died, such was the heat of the persecution, that he durst not show his face in the city, yet many considerable persons were very forward to do him honour at his death.
Mr. Jonathan Roberts, of Llvair,^ in Denbighshire, my dear and precious friend, and a faithful minister of Christ, died at Mr. Titus Thomas's house, in West Felton, and was buried there, September 26, 1684.*^ A true Nathanael, an Israelite indeed, for plainness and integrity; a silent sufferer for his nonconformity, for which he quitted a good living in Denbighshire. He was a learned man, a Master of Arts of Oxford ; he died with comfort in his nonconformity, and with confidence of a return of mercy in God's due time. The sununer before he died, he had been at Oxford, Cambridge, and London, where he heard and saw that which much confirmed him in his dissent
Mr. Zechariah Cawdrey, minister of Barthomley, in Cheshire, a learned and godly divine, was buried December 24, 1684 ;' a conformist, and formerly a great sufferer for the king, but in his latter times much maligned and reproached by some people for his moderation towards dissenters for his book of Preparation for Martyrdom, and for his zeal in keeping up the monthly lectures at Nantwich, and Tarvin. But he is gone to the world of peace and love, and everlasting praises.
Mr. Titus Thomas,*^ minister of the Independent congregation in Salop, was buried at Felton, December 10,1686. He was a worthy good man, and not so straight-laced as some others; we were six nonconformist ministers there at the funeral, and the seventh dead in the midst of us, saying to us,— Therefore, he ye also ready, Mr. John Cartwright, my worthy friend and brother, a faithful minister of Jesus Christ, was buried at Audlem, in Cheshire, February 17, 1687-8; formerly minister of West Kerby, in Wirral; afterwards chaplain to the pious Lady Wilbraham, at Woodhey.' there, was taken ill by the way, not far from Felton, and none taking him into house, he died and was buried in the highway. Philip Henry's Diary, in loe. from Mr. Matthew Henry's transcript. See the Noncon. Mem. t. a p. 354. i See the History of Cheshire, v. 3. p. 163. nt mpra. k See the Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 139.
1 See Ormerod'8 Hist v. 3. p. 190, &c. Also at Weston, near
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
Mr. Edward Gregg,™ of Chester, a worthy gentleman, and my dear friend, died Jaiy 9, 1689, of a fever, in the midst of his days. He was one that feared God above many, of a meek and quiet spirit, and eminently active and useful in his generation. The Lord is pulling our earthen props from under us, that we might lean upon, and trust in, himself alone, and might learn to ceiuefrom man.
Mr. Daniel Benyon, of Ash, my dear friend and kinsman, died June 25, 1690; a very serious, pious gentleman, and an Israelite indeed; a true lover, and ready benefactor to all good men, especially good ministers. He told me a little before he died, God had made use of me, though most unworthy, as an instrument of his conversion; for which I bless his holy name. He had a long and lingering sickness, which he bore with great patience."
Mrs. Crew, of Utkinton, in Cheshire, an aged servant of the Lord, was buried July 8, 1690. She kept her integrity, and abounded in works of piety and charity, to the last, and finished well; to God be praise.
Mrs. Hunt, of Shrewsbury, the relict of Colonel Hunt, another rare pattern of zealous piety, abounding charity, and eminent usefulness in her place, finished her course October 23,1690, after two days' sickness.
[In the house of this excellent lady, the dissenters in Shrewsbury, then of the presbyterian denomination, assembled for worship after the Indulgence in 1673. This was continued till her death, Mr. Tal-lents and Mr. Bryan** officiating as co-pastors. After Mrs. Hunf s decease, the congregation met, for one year, in Mr. Tallents's house, during which period a convenient place of worship was erected in the High-street.p]
The reverend, and learned, and holy Mr. Richard Baxter,*! died at London, December 8, 1691, aged seventy-six, and one month ; as much vilified' by some, and magnified by others, as most men that ever were. But it is a small thing to be judged of man's day. He was buried at Christ-church, London, with great honour.
Shirnall, in Shropshire, " the seat of that wise and religious lady, the Lady Wilbraliam, a sincere and generous fHend to all good ministers, whether conformists, or nonconformists, without any diflference." Tong's Life of Matt. Henry,«/ nrpra, p. 275.
1688. March. Ttiursday, 15. My Ikther preached at Mr. Buttre's, and my dear went to hear him; brought me home the sad news of Mr. Cartwrigbt's death; our neighbour; a nonconformist: the labourers are few, and God is making them fewer. Oh Lord God, cease, I beseech thee! Saturday. We were both at the funeral of Mr. Cartwright, at Audlem. There I saw many dear friends. Mr. Cole preached: gave him a high character. So he was laid in the dust Oh that God would raise up many Elishas in the room of EHjahs. Mrs Savage's Diary. Orig.BAS. m See Tong's Life of Matthew Henry,«/ itipra, p. 90. n Appendix, No. XXV m. o Palmer's Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 151. See Matt Henry s Life of the Rev. P. Tallents, in this volume. p MS. of tlie Rev. Job Orton. Authentic transcript
Mr. John Wood, my good friend, died September 19, 1692, at Mitton, in Shropshire, aged about seyenty; he was sometime Fellow of Magdalen College, in Cambridge, where he was outed for nonconformity ; a learned man, but wanted the faculty of communicating; one that feared God, and walked in his integrity to the last; had no certain dwelling-place upon earth, but, I trust, hath one in heayen. Hie tandem requieseit.
Mr. Richard Steele, my old and dear friend and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, died at London, November 16,1692, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. A man that had been greatly useful in his generation, both in the country, and at London.
Mr. Thomas Gilbert* died at Oxford, July 15, 1694, formerly minister of Edgmond, in Shropshire, aged eighty-three; a learned good man.
Luke Lloyd, Esq. of the Bryn, in Hanmer parish, my aged worthy friend, finished his course with joy, March 31, 1695, being Lord's day. He was in the eighty-seventh year of his age, and had been married almost sixty-nine years to his pious wife, of the same age, who still survives him.^ He was the glory of our little congregation, the top branch, in all respects, of our small vine, and my friend indeed. When he made his will, under the subscription of his name he wrote Job xix. 25, 26, 27. On which text of scripture,-*/ know that my Redeemer liveth, &c.—Mr. Henry, at the request of some of his relations, preached a sermon at the licensed house near Hanmer, some time after his funeral; in which sermon he bore a very honourable testimony to that worthy gentleman, who, as he saith, went to heaven without a blot, held fast his integrity, and was lively and zealous in the Christian profession to the end of his days. He was very exemplary for his love to tlie ordinances of God, and his delight in attending on them, his living upon Christ for strength and righteousness, his great humility and condescending obliging carriage in all his converse. He was a man of great courage and resolution ; and yet, in prayer, tender and self-abasing, to admiration, often q A miniature portrait in oil of this excellent man, now in tlse possession of Mr. Stedman, is said to have adorned Mr. Henry's study. It much resembles the best engravings of Mr. Baxter, by White.
" Our common usage or custome was ordinary in the olde age. to wit, that they had in their secret cabinets or studyes, the perfect image and purtrait of all suche as had in any sorte excelled in learning." The Forest, or Collection of Historyes, &c. 1576, 4to. cited in the Bibliog. Decam. by the Rev. T. F. Dibdin, v. L p. 139. See Dr. Gibbon's Memoirs of Dr. Isaac Watts, pp. 163,164. r In the Biog. Brit. v.'2. p. 18. ed. 1780. fol. is preserved a speci-men. It is an epitaph drawn up while Mr. Baxter lived, and published, that he might see how he was to be represented after his death. The author was Thomas Long, B. D. and Prebendary of St Peter's, Exon. t See the Noncon. Mem. v. 3 p. 145. t A daughter of — Whitley, of Aston. Life. Grig. MS. «/ nrpro.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
149 melting into tears in the confession of sin; and his charity and moderation were knotan unto all men. He lived and died a pattern of piety and primitive Christianity, and still brought forth fruit in old age ; his vigour, both of body and mind, being wonderfully preserved to the last; and, by the grace of God, he finished well, and bis sun set under no cloud. Such food men are intended to be to us as the star that led the wise men to Christ; and, as far as they do so, we are to follow them. Mark the perfect man, and hekold the upright, for the end of that man is peace, Mr. Samuel Taylor, an aged minister of Jesus Christ, and my true friend and fellow-labourer, died at Wem, June 26, 1695. He was turned out from Edstaston chapel, near Wem, by the Act of Uniformity; choosing rather to beg his bread than to wrong his conscience. He continued in Wem ever since, and preached there as his strength and liberty would permit. He had his house burnt in the dreadful fire that was there in 1676, and had a child born that very night. He was a man of a very tender spirit, humble and low in his own eyes, of approved integrity, and finished well. Mr. Henry preached his funeral sermon" at Wem, on 2 Corinthians iv. 7.— We have this treasure in earthen vessels.
September 21, 1695. I heard of the death of two holy and aged Bartholomew witnesses, Mr. Richard Mayo, of London, and Mr. Henry Newcome, of Manchester. Psalm xii. 1.
Mr. Edward Lawrence, of London, my dear and worthy friend, and a faithful minister and witness of the Lord Jesus, died November, 1695, about the seventieth year of his age; born at Moston, in Shropshire, of Magdalen College, in Cambridge, turned out from Baschurch, in Shropshire, by the Act of Uniformity, in 1662, was driven from Whitchurch by the violent persecution of the Conventicle Act, in 1670, when he removed to London, and there spent the rest of his days.
vide Eighteen Sermons by Mr. Henry, ut npra. Sermon XV. and the Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 146.
1605. June 3a Friday. My dear [husband] was at Broad Oak. My dear fiither was gone to the Tuneral of a reverend aged minister, a nonconrormist, Mr. Taylor, of Wem, who preached at the test fast, the 19th insL Now, before the 29th, laid in the dust God a making breaches on us taking of Told and young, that might (we ihould think) be serviceable in his church. But I would, witl) silence, adore bis wisdonL His work shall go on in the world, notwithstanding tbe opposition of men and devils. Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS.
Mr. Taylor ** was a clean, nice, little, slender man.'* Hist, of Wem, p. 2I3L mi tmyra. vDood. 1681.
* See tbe Noncoo. Mem. v. L p. 304. ut npra.
> 4ta 16961 At tbe end are given extracts from two letters, con-
He had many children, hut great affliction in some of them, which gave occasion to his book, entitled, " Parents' Groans over their Wicked Children."* It is a very high, but just, character, which Mr. Vincent,* hath given of him in his sermon" at his funeral; of which, let me take leave to add some few instances that occur to us, which may be instructive, besides those which we have already mentioned occasionally. At his meals, he would often speak of *' using God's creatures as his witnesses that he is good ;" and we cannot conceive how much good our God doth every moment. An expression of his great regard to justice, was that common caution he gave his children;—" Tremble to borrow twopence ;*' and, of his meekness and tenderness, this; —** Make no man angry nor sad." He ofteti said, — *^ I adore the wisdom of God, that hath not seen meet to trust me with riches." When he saw little children playing in the streets, he would often lift up his heart in an ejaculatory prayer to God for them, calling them " the seed of the next generation." When his friend chose to ride the back way into town, he pleasantly checked him, telling him, that his heart had been often refreshed, when he had looked out at the window, and " seen a good man go along the streets."J He used to say, that Cromwell did more real prejudice to religion by his hypocrisy, than King Charles the Second did, that never pretended to it. As, also, that he '* feared the sins of the land more than the French."*
A friend of his, in the country, writing to him not long before he died, desired his thoughts concerning the differences among the London dissenters, to which he returned this answer;—** I can say little concerning our divisions; which, when some men's judgments and tempers are healed, will be also healed. But when will that be? They that have most holiness are most peaceable, and have most comfort." taining some interesting particulars respecting him. Mr. Matthew Henry writing to Mr. Tallents, Feb. 3,169A.r*. thus notices the production. *' I could wish Mr. Vincent had drawn Mr. Lawrence's effigies in some proportion to tlie two letters, he might at least have let us know what countryman he was, and the day and year of his death. Surely so exemplary a life shall not be suffered to pass so." Orig. MS. See the Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 139. •
T *• Ipse aspectus boni virl delectat." Seneca. The very looks ol a good man delight one. Brooks's Crown and Glory of Christi anity, p. 6I8. 4to. 1602. s It was said of Cardinal Mazarine, that lie would change his countenance whenever he heard Oliver Cromwell named; so that it passed into a proverb in France, that he was not so much afraid of the Devil as of Oliver Cromwell. Wei wood, p. 109. ed. 1700.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY/
Over Mr. Henry's grave, in Whitchurch church, is a marble monument, with this inscription:—
PHILIPPU8 Hbitbt, de Brotd 0«k, ia ComlUtu nint, A. M.
Sdcri Mioiiter Erangelii; Pastor olim Wortbenburiensif; In AulA Regi& natus piis ct honotis Pureatibus; ScboUe WestmoDaifterienau, iodq; iEdis Chriiti Ozon.
Alnmoiu Regius:
Vir priacA Pietate at rcri ChriiHaDA, Jndicio subacio et limato, MemoriA pnea Unti, magno et fcecuodo Ing;enio, Eraditione peqwlitA, aummo Animi Caodore, Morum VeousUte
Iraprimts Spectabilia, et in exemplam natus:
Cui Sacra semper s«ia Fides alionimqae Fama:
Divini Numinis Caitor assidaus;
Dirini Yerbi Interpresexquisitissimos,
Alioram Affectus morere non miniis pollens, Qjuim suis moderari: Conscionando pariter ac Vivendo palim exbibens
Cbristi Legem et Exemplar Christum:
Prudens peritusque rerum; Lenis, Pacificus, Hospitalis, Ad Pietatis omnia Cbaritatisque oflicia usque paratus;
Suis Jucundus; Omnibus Humanus;
Continuis Erangelii Laboribus snccumbens Corpus, Nee tantse jam par ampliiis Animc, In dormitorium h!c juxti poaitum demisit, Jnn. 34« Anno Dom. M.DC.XCVI. iEutis LXV.
Viro opt mult Amque desiderato mceroDS poauit Gener ejus J. T. M. D.*
* The following words were afterwards substituted
Poauit hoc marroor in reris Uchrymis Katharina coiy«x viduata.
It appears from Mr. Matthew Henry's diary, that the mural tablet was subsequently obnoxious :— *^ 1704-5. I had a letter from Mr. Trayers of Lichfield, that the chancellor there designed to attempt the demolishing of my father's monument.''*
And afterwards, he writes :— " 1712, March 22. Wrote to Cos. Eddow, to return him-thanks for his care this week of the remains of my dear father and mother in Whitchurch church, where they are laying the foundation of a
Odg. IIS. b Ibid. e Human Life; a Poem; by Sam. Rogers, p. 65. Ilr. Rogers is [The following translation is from a copy p served by the family; and was most likely writ by the author of the epitaph, Dr. Tylston :— To the sacred memory Of Philip Henry, of Broad Oak,
In the County of Flint;
Master of Arts, and Minister of
The Holy Gospel;
Some time Pastor of Worthenbury;
Bom in the Royal Palace, of good
And honest Parents;
Of Westminster School, and chosen
Thence a King's Scholar
Of Christ's College, Oxford;
A man, early remarkable,
And born to be an example
Of truly apostolic and primitive piety,
A solid and well.polished judgment.
Excellent memory, and fruitful invention.
Most fine learning, candid temper,
And graceful behaviour,
Who always kept his own, and the
Reputation of others, inviolable;
A diligent worshipper of the Divine Majesty ; An exquisite interpreter
Of the Word of God.
And no less happy in moving the afiections
Of others, tlun in tempering his own;
Who, both in preaching and living,
Openly set forth Jesus Christ,
And his Law, as a Pattern;
A prudent manager of his affitirs.
Mild, peaceable, and hospitable;
To offices of piety and charity, ever ready;
Was pleasant to his friends.
And courteous to all;—
His body, wore out
With ministerial labours,
And so no longer a match
For so great a aoul.
He dismissed to the adjacent repository,
June 34, 1096. To the memory of this best Aged of men, his sorrowful son.in.law erected this monument, John Tylston, M. D.* new one, and have unworthily invaded my rig there.'"> " When, by a good man's grave I muse alone, Methinks an angel sits upon the stone; Like those of old, on that thriee-halloVd night.
Who sate and watch'd in raiment heav'nly-br\gh
And, with a voice inspiring joy not fear, Says, pointing upward,—That he is not here;
descended from Mr. Henry, being the great grandson of his secoi daughter, Eleanor, Mrs. Radford.
* From Mrs. Brett's band-writing.
A SERMON,
PREACHED AT BROAD OAK,
JUNE 28, 1696,
ON OCCASION OF THB DBATH OF
THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A.
WHO FELL ASLEBP IN THE LORD, JUNE 24, 1606, IN THE 6dTH YEAR OF HIS AGE.
BY HIS SON,
THE REV. MATTHEW HENRY, V. D. M.
Hebrews xi. 4. latter part.
Andhy it he being dead yet speaketh.
Dead and yet speaketh, speaketh and yet dead ! Is not this a paradox ? We always took the grave for a land of silence; and they that are gone down to the congregations of the dead, are said to dwell in silence; the dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go dawn into silence. Psalm cxy. 17. And if praising God be silenced in the grave, every thing else should. It is fit there should be silence,—for there is no knowledge, nor wisdom, in the gave where we arc going, Ecclesiastes ix. 10. And yet my text tells you of one being dead, and yet he speaketh. If you ask how can tiiis be ? The answer is ready in the text; faith, which makes other paradoxes plain and easy, makes this so; for by it, hy ftithf he being dead yet speaketh. Faith is a qaickeniug grace, a speaking gce. Faith calls things that are not, as though they were, by fastening upon the word of the eternal God, which doth ao. Romans iv. 17. The person spoken of is he who stands here in the imprimis of the Old-Testament worthies, that did and got such great things by faith: the first of God's witnesses called to appear to testify the excellency of the grace of faith. He was, for aught we know, the first man that died, the first that trod that darksome valley, the first begotten to the dead as Christ, the first begotten from the dead.' He died a martyr. So early did martyr-
The tint who went to the grave, went to heaven. God would not let the devil have the first firuita. ThoK were to be God's. dom come into the world: the first that died died for his religion. That is, the man of whom it is here said,—that, by faith he being dead yet speaketh. That we may give the text its full extent of usefulness,—Let us apply it to Abel himself; to all the saints; to the martyrs; and, especially, to faithful ministers; and, particularly, to him, whom the Lord hath taken from our head this day.
1. Let us apply it to Abel himself; he being dead yet speaketh. The margin reads it, he being dead is yet spoken of; and then it is but a particular application of that to him, which is said, in general, of all the Old-Testament saints,—that by faith they obtained a good report. Dead men used to be forgotten, and being out of sight are out of mind, Psal. xxxi. 12. but faith reasons from this in death. Abel, though long since dead, yet is spoken of. Our Lord Jesus spoke of him when he dated the great era of martyrdom from the blood of righteous Abel. Matt, xxiii. 35. And it was no small honour to be spoken of by him who was the fountain of honour, to whom all judgment is committed, and from whom the decisive sentence will be received. He is yet spoken of by the universal church ; for wherever thLs scripture is read, there shall this be told for a memorial of Abel, that, by faith, he offered anto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain; and for it, indeed, lost his life, but by it obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. Thus is the name of Abel made known and perpetuated as the P. Henry, firom Matthew Henry's US.
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
days of heaven.— Being dead he yet speaketh. So we read, and so the generality of interpreters take it; he speaketh against his brother Cain: so some would make it parallel with that, Genesis iv. 10. The voice of thy brother's blood cries. The cry of blood, innocent and righteous blood, is very loud, it reaches the ears of that God to whom vengeance belongeth, to whom the life and death of his saints is precious, and who will not suffer a drop of their blood to be spilt, but upon a valuable consideration. Being dead he yet speaketh. —The dying words of Zechariah were, 2 Chronicles xxiv. 22. The Lord look down upon it and require it; —and the cry of the souls under the altar was, Revelations vi. 10. How long, O Lord, holy and tnte. Thus he yet speaketh. The cry of blood is a continual cry, and will not cease till the Lord cometh to make inquisition for it at the great day, and to complete the recompence for the controversy of Sion. Abel's blood yet crieth against all that have gone in the way of Cain, as persecutors. Abel, as the foreman of that great inquest of suffering saints, speaks to you all, to convict the bloody generation that have eaten God's people as they eat bread. Or, he speaketh io us. There are many excellent lessons that are taught us by the life and death of Abel. He speaketh for our instruction and consolation. Scripture stories speak a great deal, and particularly this concerning Abel, who, being dead in the beginning of the world, yet speaketh, ybr our learning, upon whom the ends of the world are come, 1 Corinthians x. 14.— that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope, Romans xv. 4.
2. Apply it to other martyrs, who being dead for the testimony of Jesus Christ, and for their constant adherence to the word of his patience, do yet speak for the comfort and encouragement of those that follow after them, in that narrow, afflictive way, which tends to life. What is here said of Abel, who led the van, may be said of all the rest, even of those that bring up the rear in that noble army of martyrs, who, being dead, yet speak ;—speak to us, who are exhorted to follow them, and take them for our example. The martyrs of Jesus speak to us that the truths of God are precious and valuable things, and worth suffering for; and that there is a reality in future unseen things ; for the prospect of them hath administered solid comfort to them when they have been pressed above measure. They tell us that Christ is a good Master, and his cause a good cause; and that, as affliction for Christ hath abounded, consolation from him hath much more abounded. The gospel of Christ being thus handed down to us, sealed with the blood of the martyrs, hath been, upon that account, so much the more cheerfully embraced. How many were baptized for the b See the works of the learned Joshua Bingham vol 1. p. 478. fol. 1736. dead, 1 Corinthians xv. 29. that is, took upon them the profession of the Christian faith for the sake of the dead martyrs,** and upon the inducement of their patience and constancy in suffering for the truth. If there be no resurrection from the dead, nor a future state, that argument, which hath been cogent with so many, falls to the ground, and deceives them. This is the sense that a late learned interpreter gives of that difficult scripture. It were easy to give instances out of church history of those that were converted to the faith of Christ by the death of the mar-tjrrs ; and the things which happened to them, though hard things, fell out to the furtherance of the gospel. Hence the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church ; and they overcame the old serpent by not loving their lives unto the death, in defence of the word of their testimony. Being dead, they speak to others, to expect sufferings, and yet not to fear them; to count upon them; to count them but light, and for a moment. For our own parts, we have not yet resisted unto blood; but, if we should live to see such a day, when he could not buy the truth at any cheaper rate, than the laying down of that, for which a man would part with skin for skin, that is, his life; if it ever should come to this dilenmia, that we must either die for Christ, or deny him, (as who knows what event may be in the womb of time ?— let not him that girdeth on the harness boast as he that puts it off,) then let us hear what the martsrrs, being dead, yet speak, and take encouragement from them to choose affliction rather than iniquity; the greatest sufferings, rather than the least sin; for this yet speaks, and it is b, faithful saying, — If we suffer with Christ, we sliall reign with him, 2 Timothy ii. 11, 12< And, though we be losers for Christ, we shall not, we cannot, be losers by him in the end. Cruel persecutors sometimes, for politic ends, even then, when they thirst after the blood of the saints, think it enough to silence them, and not kill them. It was the course Julian,' the Apostate, took for the extirpating of Christianity : and the martyrs that were put to death in Queen Mary's days, in England, were forbid to speak to the people when they died. Nothing tormented the world more than their witness-speaking. But, let them do their worst, they may kill, but they cannot silence them; they may stop their breath, but they cannot stop their mouths; for, being dead, they yet speak to the confusion of their adversaries. 3. Apply it to all saints; — Being dead, they yet speak. The death of the saints is a very usual and common dispensation of Providence;—Ti godly man ceaseth, the faithful fail, and the merciful are taken away. Such providences as these have a loud voice, which crieth in the city to the survivors. The death of the saints speaketh the evil of sin, the remainder of which is in the best. It is owing to c A Roman emperor, bom November 6, A. D. 331. Ob. 963. Mr. Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, v. 19. p. 181, kc.
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A. that they die; for the body is dead because of sin. It speaks the vanity of life, and the delights and enjoyments of it; for, if the favourites of heaven are dying daily, and going out of the world, it is a sign the things of the world are not the best things, else those whom God loves best would not be taken soonest from them. It speaks, that all things come alike to all, and that one event happeneth to the right-emts €nd the wiched, so that none knows love or hatred by all that is before him in this world. But he that would know it must look before him into the other world. For, it is true of mankind abstractedly, from the destruction of saints and sinners, one dies in his full strength, and another in the bitterness of his soul. It speaks to us, that,— wliatsoever our kandj!ndeth to do, we should be doing it with all our might; and to worh the worh of him that sent vs while it is day, because the night cometh wherein no man can worh. Being dead, they speak to us what a cordial an interest in Christ is in a dying hour; and, therefore, death being found by them to be not the king of terrors, but one of the best friends they had next to Jesus Christ; the period of all their misery, and their passage to eternal glory; we cannot bat wish to die the death of the righteous, and to have our last end (or, as some read it, *' our future state") like his. And what greater inducement can there be than this, to live the life of the righteous, and to have our present state and way like his ? If the saints die, then there is no discharge in that war; and it is not the stroke, but the siing, of death, from which righteousness delivers. And if, sometimes, they have bands in their death, they speak to us to prepare for the like; for, if this be done to the green tree, what may the dry expect ? Lay your ears, this day, to the coffins and graves of departed saints, who, though they do not pray for us, yet preach to OS, in the words of Christ, Matthew xxiv. 44.— Be ye, therefore, also ready. They are gone, and we are going; their glass is run out, and ours is running; and, therefore, it concerns us to be always on our watch, with tnir loins girt, and our lamps burning; that, if at midnight the cry should be made. Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet Aim,—we may not have oil to buy when we should bum it; nor, with Saul, be hid among the stuff of this world, when we are sent for to enter upon the kingdom.
4. Let me apply it to the faithful ministers that have spoken unto us the word of God. They are God's spokesmen in the world; the watchmen set vpon your walls, which are not to keep silence. But re have this treasure in earthen vessels, which are «oon broken. What becomes of the treasure then ? Why, the treasure is God's, and shall not be lost; the word shall be spoken though the minister be silent in the dust, for it endures for ever. Nay, out of the eater comes forth meat; for ministers, being dead, yet speak. Particularly, let me apply it to your minister, (or, rather, Christ's, for you,) whom God hath now, by a sad and sudden stroke, removed from you, after he hath long been speaking to you the word of God. You sec, I hasten to what I principally intended, and you vrill not wonder why my thoughts, at this time, could not fasten upon any other subject, for, I am sure, yours cannot; and, to have spoken of any thing else to-day, would be a jar in the harmony of sorrow, wherein you and I are concerned. I confess, it may seem incongruous, that I, who stood in so near a relationship to him, should stand here to speak of him; and, truly, if his worth and honour were a matter of doubtful disputation, and were only to be found by secret search, it would seem so to me too. Were I to seek for his glory, it would look too much like seeking my own. But the matter is not so; we need not dig for it. He was one that had a good report of all men, yea, and of the truth itself; and, therefore, none can blame me, if I also bear record, since all of you, in this assembly, can bear witness that my record is true. Why should not I cast my mite into a common treasury? Nay, the general duty required in the fifth commandment, I think, obligeth me to take this opportunity of doing him honour at his death. I am sure I have as much reason for it, if I might speak the deep impressions of my own soul, as ever any son had. Those that have any sense of justice and gratitude, cannot but honour and respect a father that has been the instrument of their being; especially, if a kind and loving one;—cannot but respect a tutor, that has been the instrument of their learning; especially, if a skilful and faithful one; —cannot but respect a minister that hath been a spiritual father, that hath been the instrument of their regeneration; especially, if continuing a tender and faithful overseer. Now, if any one of these three relations challenge such a profound regard, what may justly be expected when these meet in one and the same person? Surely, I ought to reckon such a one worthy of double, nay, treble honour. The French have a proverb to this purpose, which I have many a time thought of with application to him;—"To father, teacher, and God All-sufficient, none can render equivalent." But, I must remember, I am preaching, not before you, but to you, and must therefore speak that which is profitable for you, and may be profitable to you, rather than that which may give vent to my own passions. Many a time he hath spoken to you in this place the things pertaining to the kingdom of God,—and now he is gone. The doleful accent of your sorrow is,—" Alas, we shall never hear good Mr. Henry more!" Yea, I am here to tell you, (Is it not good news to you?) that you may hear him again. He is dead, but not speechless; being dead he yet speaheth. What would you give to hear him preaching in this pulpit this Lord's
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
day, whom you had here but the Uut, teaching you to add to faith virtuey (which was his last subject, 2 Peter i. 5.) and to hear again those gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth? Why, my brethren, by faith, you may yet hear him. Faith, acting upon what you have heard from him, and upon the word of God compared with the proyidence of the day; for, by it, he, being dead, that is, notwithstanding his death; nay, he being dead, that is, by his death, yet speaketh. Now, to take in what I design, the products of a few broken thoughts, I shall observe both the readings of the text, which were hinted at before, with application to him.
I. He, being dead, is yet tpoken of
II. He, being dead, yet speaheth.
You see, the preacher of so many sermons among you must be the subject of this, so that it is to him that your serious attention is required.
I. He, being dead, is yet spohen of
1. I shall hint at this as his honour ;^ihBt, as many eyes were fastened upon him while he lived, (a city upon a hill cannot be hid,) so many tongues do and will speak of him in this country, and neighbourhood, now he is gone, and shall be seen no more. All that knew him, knew very well, that he was as far from seeking, or affecting, honour among men, as any could be. Humility was his master-grace, and that which he was most eminent for. Honour is like the shadow, that, as it flies from those that follow it,^follows those that fly from it And, in the honour which his friends and neighbours have done him at his death, and the honourable testimonies which are given to him by all sorts of persons, I cannot but read the fulfilling of that scripture,— Before honour is humility,^ A great name, like the names of the great ones of the earth, is usually very much withered by death. We read of those that bear their shame when they go down into the pit, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. Ezekiel xxxii. 25. But a good name is out of the reach of death; is not buried in the grave, but rather grows up from it. It is not for nothing that Solomon hath joined, that, — A good name is better than precious ointment, — with the day of one's death, which, upon that account, among many others, is better than the day of one's birth, —it completeth the character of those that finish well. The sun may be a great part of the day under a cloud, and yet is the sun still; and, perhaps, his reflected rays in the evening, after he is set, may be more illustrious than any of all the day before. It is so with humble souls, whom honour shall uphold. God hath said it, and no word of his shall fall to the ground,—TAem that honour me I will honour. And who can conceive what shall be done to the man whom the King of kings delighteth to honour ? Commonly, that man is Mordecai, who least expects; not a Haman, who thinks, whom should it be but himself. Those that honour God by self-denial, and self-abasement, God will honour with that good report which the elders obtained, though the other promises they received not. Hebrews xi. 39.
2. I shall speak more largely to it as your duty. If God will honour those that honour him, it becomes lis to be workers together with him, and to concur with his design herein. It is made one part of the character of the citizens of Zion, that he honoureth them that fear the Lord, not only while they live, but when they die. Why did the King of Babylon 'pay the respect of an embassy to Hezekiah upon the occasion of his recovery, and the wonder done in the land thereupon, but, perhaps, because the sun, which was the god the Babylonians worshipped, did him the honour to go back so many degrees for a sign to him ? And shall not we, then, honour those whom our God honours; and confess them before men, whom Christ will confess before angels ? That promise to the righteous,—-That they shall be had in everlasting remembrance, doubtless speaks duty to those that survive. Take it as speaking your duty to the memory of your translated minister; and not to him only, (though to him especially, I shall take leave, at this time, to apply it,) but to all other faithful ministers and Christians whom we have known, that are gope before to glory; though not all of one mind, or all of your mind in little matters. Let the memories of all those be precious, whether conformists or nonconformists, in whom you have seen any thing of Christ ;* for, in every nation, he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him, and should be so of us. While your faithful minister was with you, you know what a monitor he was to you, and a remembrancer at the throne of grace«'for you. I refer to that expression, Isaiah Ixii. 6, 7. He did not, he could not, forget you, any more than a woman can forget her sucking child. It will therefore be ungrateful if you forget him now he is gone. There are four things which I would particularly reconunend to you as profitable to be often spoken of concerning him :— (1.) Speak of his preaching. What that was b manifest before God and your own consciences. Though he was often driven into comers, he never sought them, nor needed them. Now he is gone, you should give the more earnest heed to the things you have heard from him, and not let them slip. Speak often of the excellent subjects he preached upon; the choice and method, of which he had a peculiar facility in above any minister I ever knew. Very successful he was in seeking to find out acceptable words, which I hope have been as goads to d An humble spirit inclines and enables a person to have low I towards God and man. Mr. Henry. Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS. and mean thoughts of himself, and to carry it accordi Dgly, both ■ e See Mr. Baxter's Penitent's Confeauon, pp. 87, 88.4ta 1091.
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A. quicken you, and are, and will be, as nails fastened in a sure place, (not to be dropt, or drawn out,) by the band of him who is the great Master of assem-hlies. Of all the subjects he has preached on in these last days of liberty, there was none that affected and filled him more than that concerning Christ, what he is made of God to true believers, in fourteen personal relations, and forty real benefits/ His heart was upon these things, and in them he was in his element; and those that heard him could not but take knowledge of him that he had been with Jesus. I know many of you wish that they were printed. Do you then print them upon the tables of your hearts, and that will do you more good than if they were graven with an iron pen, and laid in the rock for ever. Many other profitable subjects he handled; and you cannot forget how he endea-ronred, in the order of them, as well as in the manner of his treating them, and his repetition-sermons at the close of them, that, after his decease, yon might have these things always in remembrance 1 Peter i. 15. Let us not, therefore, receive the grace of Gody therein, in vain. Now, one good way to prerre in your memory what you haye heard, is to be frequently speaking of it. Let it be known by your pious and good discourse, that you were the hearers of such a minister, whose sayings you hare treasured up ; and bring out of that treasury, things new and old. My advice, therefore, to you is,—that you make much of what you have heard, because you are never likely to have more. Speak of his expositions on the Scripture, which were so very pleasant and edifjring, and are easiest remembered, because they attend the text so closely. Speak of what you have heard from him in the catechizing of children. The strongest of you may have occasion for the milk that was provided for hehes. Many of you have a good deal of his preaching in writing, that may be of great use to jrou in remembering what you have heard, and received, and learned; and, if it be preserved, and used as it might be, it may be ¥rritten for the generations to tome, that the people that may be created mag, for it, praise the Lord, (2.) Speak of his pattern. It hath been said by many, that his life was a continued sermon ; and, sore, it was both the explication, confirmation, and application, of his doctrine. Christianity, in the power and reality of it, was exemplified in his whole conversation. Those that conversed with him, (and it was no hard matter to do that, so easy he was of access,) could not but see the Spirit and grace of i See ttie Memoin of Mrs. Savage, p. 59. «/ nfta, 7Ur Ckri$i mof dwMt in ymn keartt by faith. Thus expressed in a ytne by my dear &ttaer, who is now in that full ei\joyment: -Bleit Guest, dwell thou awhile on earth with me; And let me dwell forever, in beav'n, with Thee '
Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig MS.
God in him, which, wherever it is, like the ointment of the right hand, betrayeth itself It may not be so proper in me to instance, in every particular, what you have both heard and seen from him, and those did not contradict each other. How exemplary was he in his family ! An instance, I think, scarcely to be paralleled for constancy in all the parts of family worship. He was one who made that, as all other branches of religion, his business ; and he was not slothful in it. How exemplary in his carriage to all men; and how much under the influence of that meek and quiet spirit, which is, in the sight of God, of great price ! Many of you have had occasion, one time or other, for personal converse with him, and cannot but have observed many things well worth your imitation. He being dead, let these things be spoken of. Let him be mentioned among the cloud of witnesses with which you are encompassed about, that you may be quickened, and directed to run with patience the race which is set before you. This is the best way to remember our guides; to follow their faith, considering the end of their conversation, —^that is, how well they finished, Hebrews xiii. 17. When he hath sometime been solicited to have his picture drawn, he would say,— *' No; a minister's best picture is drawn in the hearts of his people.'^ So a minister's best monument is in the hearts of his people. There let each of us erect a monument of love for him, and it will furnish us, —as the historians saith the monument of David did those who opened it long after,—with a rich and valuable treasure, if we follow him as he followed Christ. (3.) Speak of his profitableness, through grace, to you.
In other things, he used to say,^Let every man speak as he finds. When your deceased minister is to be spoken of, speak as you have found him; that is, as God hath made him to you; for that saying, he so often used, is applicable to himself;—^'Every creature is that to us, and no more, that God makes it to be.'' So he was but the earthen vessel, the ex-cellency of the power was God*s. By the grace of God he was to you what he was;'* and, as such, we should speak of him. To speak feelingly, and experimentally, is the surest way to preserve and promote the advantage we have had by him. There are some, nay, many, of you, to whom he was a spiritual father. Though you have many instructors in Christ, yet have you not had many fathers, for he hath begotten you again through the gospel. 1 Corinthians iv. 16. And it follows, verse 16. Wherefore, r Josephus. See the Antiquities of the Jews, book vii. c.l5. 3. h See 1 Cor. xv. 10. It was the rule of Bonaventure, whom the Romanists honour for a saint,—/Toe piafum meniium m/, 4^r. This is the part of pious souls, to ascribe nothing to themselves, all to the grace of God. Bishop llalL Works,«/ nrpra, v. 6. p. 303.
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
be ffe followers of me. Not that he was the aathor and giver of your grace. No; it is the Spirit's prerogative to be so. What are Paul and Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed ? 1 Corinthians iii. 5. But, though he was only the instrument of your gce, the shaft in the hand of the Lord, the minister by whom ye believed, yet God having honoured him, in making him so, you ought to honour him, by a grateful remembrance, as your spiritual father. And, if he could witness the bowels of a father, surely you ought to witness the respect of children towards him, and his memory. Remember how your hearts were opened by the key of David in his hand; how the strong holds were brought Aovm by the spiritual weapons of his warfare; and the powers of darkness vanquished and subdued by the sword of the Lord mnd of Gideon, Speak of the way he took in dealing with souls, not to terrify with thunder-claps from Mount Sinai, but to allure, and invite, in a still and small voice from Mount Sion; reckoning that the most kindly work upon the soul, which is the product of gospel grace, and redeeming love, revealed there. Others of you have found him a spiritual nurse, and a very skilful, careful, tender one, who had learned of the great Shepherd of the sheep to gather the lambs in his arms, and can*y them in his bosom. He hath fed you with milh, and with strong meat too, as you were able to bear it. Others of you have found him a faithful reprover, when at any time you had done amiss. Though it was much his temper not to make himself uneasy to any body, yet that did not hinder him from the discharge of his duty, in the rebukes of love, when there was occasion. You know how well he had learned to restore with the spirit of meekness, Galatians vi. 1.—to set in joint again,—so he used to observe the import of the word to be ; alluding to surgeons setting broken bones, in which you have heard him say,—" There is need of the eagle's eye, the lion's heart, and the lady's hand;" that is, prudence, courage, and tenderness ; and his practice was according to this spiritual operation. Others of you have found him a comforter in your sorrows, and a helper of your joys. Perhaps you have come to him labouring under doubts and fears ; cast down, and disquieted ; walking in darkness, and having no light; and have found his tongue so much the tongue of the learned, speaki " I am the more large and pressing upon this bead, because 1 have been sometimes greatly delighted (I hope edified) in hearing the old disciples of Jesus Christ tell ot their ministers that were dead before I was bom, to hear them tell of their texts, and sermons, and sayings, the good counsels they gave them, the instructions and comforts they ministered unto them, and what they got while they sat under their shadow; (for commonly, the first impressions of the word in young converts, are the most lasting;) and of what use it hath been to them many a time since, one such spiritual receipt, with a prdbatmm e$i annexed to it by one that speaks fVom experience, may do more good tlian twenty in a book. Thus you may be instrumental to comfort others, and to edify them with the same thing by which you yourselves have been ing a word in season to weary souls, that you have gone from him comforted and refreshed, and your countenance hath been no more sad. Well; he, being dead, let him, for this, be spoken of; and your former comforts, thus brought to remembrance may be present cordials and support to you.'
(4.) Speak of the providences of God that were concerning him. If it be our duty to look not at oor own things only, but at the things of others also, then, of theirs especially, who are set over hs in the Lord, He often spoke of the comfortable events of Providence concerning him, with a thankful sense of the goodness of God to him in them, that others might join with him in his thanksgiving. You would do well to remember them now he is gone, that your praises may be continued, and even pass unmixed with your sorrows. Let it be still spoken of; for, it hath been many a time that his habitation was blessed. The adversary might suggest, with the same envious grudging as he did of holy Job ;— Hast thou not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath round about ? Thou hast blessed the works of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. It was often observed, that all that he had, and all that he put his hand to, remarkably prospered, and that the dew lay all night upon his branch. Let this, now he is dead, be spoken of as the fulfilling of that scripture, Matthew vi. 33.— Seeh ye first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, and then all these things shall be added untoyoUj —as far as is for God's glory, and your own real good. Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and many times tlie performance of it,—if not in kind, yet in kindness. It was a maxim, which, among many that 1 remember, (and I fear many more that I have forgot,) as the result of his comparing his own experience with the word of God, that,—" When we are doing God's work, we may let him alone to do ours; and, while we mind our duty, we may comfortably trust God with our safety and success." I confess, as to this, God dealt better with him than with many others of hLs faithful ministers. By this consideration alone no certain rules can be taken by which to judge of the divine favours;*^ but when, at any time, God is pleased to crown remarkable piety' with remarkable prosperity in the world, we are not to pass by such comforted and edified under his ministry. And you will never have the less oil for rainistering to others; nay, to him that hath, and thus useth what he hath, and what he hath had, more shall be given;—be that trades with five talents, makes them ten." Mrs. Savage's Transcript of the Sermon. Orig. MS. k The hypocrite builds his hope upon such a thing as outward prosperity. I prosper in this world, therefore I shall be happy in the other world; as if a beggar should say,—Because such an one gave me a farthing, he will make me his heir. See Eccl. ix. 1- P. Henry, from Bfatthew Henry's MS.
1 For my own part, 1 can truly say, whenever I have set mj-self to form an idea of the primitive apostolic spirit, (torn what ha appeared of it in the good men of our own age, none ever more
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A. a dispensation of providence unregarded. Whoto it wise, and ohserveth these things, may, from thence, yokderstandthe loving-kindness of the Lord; and infer, —Behold, thus shall the man be blessed thatfeareth tki Lord, Surely, in him, that scripture was remarkably fulfilled, Psalm xxxvii. 11.—TAe meek ikall inherit the earth. His prosperity was likewise an instance of that truth;—That, doing good with an estate, is the only way to have the comfort of it; and there is that scattereth in bounty and usefulness, and yet increaseth. That good bond which we have ooder the hand and seal of the God of truth, still remains in full force, power, and virtue, and is not subject to any defeazance ;—That he who giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord, and that which is given he will pag him again with interest and rich advantage."* This scripture you have seen fulfilled in him, as in many others, who have dispersed and given to the poor. What good he did with that which the Lord had given him, notwithstanding his great humility in it, and care that his left hand should not know what his right hand did, you all know something of. I appeal to the poor concerning it, whose loins have blessed him, and whose hearts have blessed God for him. In this, according to the rule he was wont to give to others, he made his own hands his executors. And, when you speak of the providence of God concerning him, do not forget that measnre of health and strength, that God graciously gave him, to go through such a great deal of work, at home and abroad, on sabbath days and week days, with so much vigour and constancy, to the sixty-fifth year of his age; and, even then, his how abiding in strength, and renewed in his hands. This was the LonTs doing, and much beyond what all expected who knew the weakness of his body, and the liveliness of his spirit, at his first setting out. Nor will you forget the last scene of providence concerning him, (you all think now you will never for-get it,)—his removal from you. Among other things, let him be spoken of as one whom his Lord, when he eame, found so doing ; who took a very short step from the pulpit to the throne ; and was ravished out of your embraces, or ever you were aware. Speak of this to one another, not merely as a matter of talk, but as the Lord's controversy with you, which yon are concerned to hear, and lay to heart. I doubt not, but you are all sensible now of the loss yon sustain, as Israel was when Aaron was dead. Let readily occarred to my thoughts, than Mr. Philip Henry and Mr. William Bagshawe. Mr. Tongs Prefatory Letter to the Life and Character of Mr. William Bagshawe, by J. Ashe, l2mo. 1704.
B I rerily believe we all fare the better, even in this world, for my dear &ther*« charity to the poor. It appears by some of his pspCTs of accounts, that, out'of his small income, he gave, in money, fifteen pounds in one year, besides all that were relieved at his ^oot',-~he ^awimd Uberaiihimgt. Mrs. Savage. Diary, 1732, Sept. 18. Orig.lIS.
By the Rcr. James Owen. not the sense wear off, but continue,—that the remaining impressions of this providence, and your frequent tender expressions, may appear to be deep and sincere ; and that it may be said of you, as the Jews said of Christ,—JeAo/c, how he loved him! You know how free he was of his pains among you; and his ministry was not chargeable to any, but all the pay he desired for his labours was, your spiritual profit by them. In gratitude for which you are the more obliged to remember, and continue the payment, now he is gone ; keeping in remembrance the truths he taught you, and the copies he set you, that, as was said in the morning," that,— *^ while religion lives among you, the name of that blessed man, that is now in glory, may flourish with you."® And, when I say, you must speak of your minister, who is dead, your doing it to his honour is the least that I intended. No ; let him be spoken of,—
1. To the glory of God, whose instrument he was. I bespeak not a grain of that incense to be burned to his honour, which ought to be offered at God's altar. God forbid I should; for what is Paul, and what is Apollos?—(earthen vessels, while they live, and broken pitchers when they are dead ;)—but what God is pleased to make them unto us. Do as Paul did) 1 Thessalonians i. 2. 3. that thanked his God upon every remembrance of his friends. Let not your praise terminate in your minister, but pass through him to the Lord Christ, in whose right hand he was so long a bright and shining star.
2. With application to yourselves, and for your own spiritual benefit and edification. For in all our discourse, we must study that by which we may edify one another. So speak of your minister as to increase one another's good affections, and confirm each other's resolutions for Christ and holiness; and thus you may find meat in the eater, and sweetness in the strong ; the life of gospel grace by the death of gospel ministers.
I have but one hint more under this head, and it is this particular remark;—Since he came into the country, now almost forty-three years ago, you know that two places have had the benefit of his labours. The former enjoyed it about eight or nine years; and what a burning and shining light he was in that parish, we, that are young, have heard with our ears, and those of you, that are elder, do know, and remember. And yet, though he was so eminent an instrument of good there, within a few years after o *' Thus 1 have suggested to you some things which you should be frequently speaking of him, and, I am conscious to myself, that, could he have foreseen 1 should have spoken thus much in his praise, such was his great humility and self-denial, that he would rather have prohibited it than have taken any pleasure in it, but I thought myself obliged to it; and, 1 remember, that, when our Lord Jesus said to those that he cured,— 5m thou IM no nan, and they went and Md ntry body, they were not reproved for it} because as Christ, in his humility, gave them that order, so it was in their yood will that they went coiuiter to it." Mrs. Savage's Transcript of the Sermon. Orig. MS.
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
his remoyal from thence, he was, in a manner, forgotten. Those few that were his joy and crown were remoyed by death, and, as he himself observed, a new generation soon sprung up which knew not Joseph, You have had the happiness of his ministry above three times as long; but, if it be so soon forgotten here, and the fruits so soon withered, I doubt not you will have a sad account to give another day. But I have a great deal of reason to hope better things of you, my brethren, and you will never forget what you went into the wilderness to see.
II. He, being dead, yet speaketh ; that is, as some understand it, he yet liveth, and they think there is no more than that in it; that Abel, not only by faith, obtained witness that he was righteous, but by it, also, being dead, obtained eternal life, Cain killed his body, but he yet speaketh the praise of the Lord in heaven, with the blessed angels, those glorious morning stars, which sang together. We are told, Revelations vi. 9, 10. what was not only said, but cried, with a loud voice, by the saints under the altar, the souls which are slain; by which it is witnessed, that they live. Your deceased minister, being dead, yet liveth. If it be asked of your fathers, where are they ? Blessed be God, we know where they are,—not lost, but gone before to glory. They are where the great Shepherd of the sheep is. They are no longer in our assemblies; they are where they longed to be, and where we, through grace, hope to be with them shortly. For, he that was our father's God, is not the God of the dead, but the living; and they live to him, and with him. But I shall take it more particularly. There are some that he, being dead, speaketh against. There are others, nay, all, that he, being dead, yet speaketh to. Surely, you will hearken ; if not to Moses and the prophets, yet, when one speaketh to you from the dead.
1. Is it not a surprise to you, to hear that there are some that he, being dead, yet speaketh against ? I will tell you, in short;—all those which sat under his ministry in their impenitcncy and unbelief; all who attended on his plain and powerful preaching, from time to time, with unconverted, unsanctified hearts; all the hypocrites of this congregation, who 9 '* We must not be hypocrites, nor do any thing we do in hypocrisy. Even disciples must beware of this. It is the cry of the world against us, that we are such, but let us approve ourselves to Godt that we may not, and then no matter. We must not have a/orm of godiineu without the power. Nor a noma to live without being alive indeed. We must not do what we do to be seen of men. We roust not draw near to God with our mouths, when our hearts are far from hinu We must not make dean the outside, and be earekss what is vit Ain. We must not look one way, and row another,* as Jehu did. Suspect this evil $ search for it; watch and pray against it Contrary to all this is sincerity and truth. They differ like shadow and lubstance,—like the picture of a man, and a man." P. Henry. Origf. MS. q Consider, he would say, the worth of the soul. Matt xvi. 86.—
" AU ChrlatUnt lookf to heaven; iodevd, ve« ar** all for the earth; this takrth np otir thou|rhtt and aifectioiu, that w«e are like boat-men, thaklooke ann wajr, tut row another." Bajna'e ChritCiaa Lettcn, p. 879. nl utfrm. keep np secret haunts of sin under the cloak of a visible profession, and deny the power of godliness while they pride themselves in the form of it ;p that have a name to live while they are dead in trespasses and sins; (and we have reason to fear there aie such with you, even with you; it would be the happiest society on this side heaven if there were not;) these are they, he, being dead, yet speaketh against. Fair warning he gave, from the word of God, to every careless soul, and followed it with precept upon precept, line upon Utu. How often hath he called upon you to leave your sins, and turn to God, and close with Christ; and how did he order his cause before you, and choose out words to reason with you !i He hath set before you life and death; good and evil; the blessing and the curse. And many a time hath he told you, if you did not return and repent, after such warning, he had delivered his soul, and your blood would be upon your own head. And, perhaps, your hearts have, with Felix, trembled under such reasonings as these. Whether you think it, or not, your minister is gone to give up his account, not only of himself,—that, no doubt, he hath done with joy,—but of you too. It is said, Luke xiv. 21 .-^that servant, who had been sent to invite to the marriage, came and showed his Lord how he had sped in his invitation. Your minister was wont to ask you, sometimes, when he was sincerely putting to you the grand case of your eternal salvation, and earnestly pressing you to consent to the gospel offer,—what answer he should return to him that sent him? What answer you gave him you best know; but he is now gone to give up his accounts, and to make his presentments at the great tribunal, before which we must all appear .shortly. Nay, let me tell you, further, he will not only be a witness against you, but he will be an assistant with Christ in the judgment, to assent and subscribe to the sentence, which, at that day, will be passed upon you; for thus the saints will judge the world, 1 Corinthians vi. 2. especially ministers, Luke xxii. 30. Though, while he was with you, he loved you well, and earnestly desired your welfare, yet, if you perish in impenitcncy, the day is coming its original, Gen. ii. 7.—its operations, its duration, immortal-,— its nature, spiritual. Consider how God the Father bath loved it, in giving Christ for it! How Jesus Christ loved it, in coming to die! How Satan knows the worth of it, else he would never seek, as he doth, to destroy it; alluding to Gen. xiv. 31. Consider the wants of the soul, blind, naked;—its dangers, likely to be lost; its capacity, capable of heaven. Beware, then, of those things that hurt and wound the soul, Proverbs viii. 36. Ply those things that will make for its good, Prov. xi. 27. means of grace, oppor. tunities. Be acquainted with it; discourse much with thy soul; • Soul, whither art thou and I going!'—Seek to advance it; put it to a good service. Seek to adorn it; get on the best robe, righteousness, grace, Prov. xix. 8. Seek to enrich it; other riches are not soul-riches, Luke xii. Seek to save it, Phil. ii. 12,13. Provide for it; wife, children, the body, can say, • Here is for me;' but the poor soul hath nothing. It is the first thing thought of in conver. sion, Acts xvi. 30. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A. when he will be content to see you perish, and will join with glorified saints in applauding the sentence. HMelujah ; just and righteous are thy judgments I Revelations xix. 12. The dresser of tiie yineyard, that prayed so hard for another year's reprieve, and promised to take so much pains with the barren fig-tree, resolves, if he succeeds not, to say not another word in its favour. If it bear fruit, well; Luke xiii. 9. but, if not, then, after that, thou shalt cut it dincH; so shall its doom be, the dresser himself hath decided it. When the day of patience is over, the rrath of the Lamb will break forth, without remedy, against his enemies, who would not have him to reign over them. I speak this, if it may be, at last, to alarm and awaken some sleeping souls, and to revive what you have heard from him, that it may not be brought in evidence against you at the great day; and, if the death of your minister may but awaken some impressions upon you, so as to prevail with you to leave your sins, it vrill be, to such, a happy providence; and may Samson's story be again verified, that he slew more of the enemies of the Lord at his death than in his life.
2. There are those, and, indeed, all of us, that, being dead, he yet speaheth to. Your minister is, indeed, fallen, but the word of the Lord endurethfor ever: even that word, which, by the gospel, is preached unto yon, 1 Peter i. 25. Nay, not only notwithstanding his death, but by his death, he speaketh; he hath but exchanged this pulpit for another; the grave is now his pulpit; and methinks, I still hear him speak to us that are of his family and relations, —to you, that are of his congregation.—^«tn dead, ie yet speaheth. These are words of truth. Let us rightly divide them among ourselves, and each of us take a portion.
He, being dead, yet speaks to us that are his relations, and are, of all others, most nearly concerned in the stroke. Something he saith to us to comfort us under our present sorrow;— Weep not for me! Our loss is his great and everlasting gain. I shall especially observe what he saith to us by way of direction and exhortation. We are all here, by the providence of God, before the Lord this day,— all his children, and their yoke-fellows,—ten of us. We have observed, that, since we have been severally disposed of in the world into families of our own, we were never altogether here till yesterday; and a sad meeting it was; but, by this sadness, the heart will be made better, if we can but hear what oar dear father, being dead, yet speaheth to us. And, therefore, because the word of the day sounds r When I liear repeated prayers on my poor daughter's account, [Dear her confinement,] 1 cannot but think of what my dear father once wrote to Hie when I was in her circumstances;—We are ilaily miodfiil of you, to that sometimes we are ready to fear our heavenly Father abould be displeased, as if we doubted his ludience and acceptance,—as »f should, if so frequently minded of the ■»««<> bQiineaB;''lrat, we well know, his ways and thoughts best in its day, and, perhaps, we may be never all together again, (for death seldom strikes single in a family,) give me leave to preach a little to myself, and my dear relations, in your hearing, that if, at any time, we, or any of us, walk unworthy of the relation we stand in to such a father, this place may be a witness against us, that it was not for want of knowing our duty. While he was yet with us, he was often speaking for us at the throne of gace,' mahing mention of us, and others, always in his prayers. And this is now not the least part of our grief,—that we shall have such an intercessor to pray for us no more. Yea, Lord, help us to pray so much the more, and so much the better, for ourselves ! But, in reference to this part of our loss, I am comforted, not only with this thought,—that our Lord Jesus Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us, and he is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, —^but with this thought also, that the prayers of our dear father, who is gone, are upon the file, in heaven,* and, through the mediation of the geat Redeemer, will receive an answer of peace. When the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, were ended, yet he and his views were remembered, and his seed had the benefit of them. Psalm cxxxii. 1, 2. 7^ vision, in answer to prayer, is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speah, and not lie. Though we cannot say, now he is gone to heaven, he there prays for us.—No; Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledgeth us not, yet we have reason to think, the many prayers of faith he put up for us while he was in the world of prayer, may be heard for us now he is gone, and we and ours may fare the better for them long after; and shall do so, if we do not, by our unworthy walking, forfeit our interest in them. And. shall the children of so many prayers miscarry ? While he was yet with us, he did also speak to us, both by word and writing, as a faithful monitor, comforter, and instructor; but, we shall, in that way, hear from him no more. However, there are three things which he, being dead, yet speaketh to us: (1.) He speaks to us to be followers of him in the way of holiness, because we must follow him to the grave, and that we may follow him to heaven. It is of great use to us, both for our direction' and encouragement in our Christian course, to set before us the good example of the saints; for, blessed be God, as there is an old way, which wicked men have trodden. Job xxii. 15. so there is an old way, which godly men have trodden, Jeremiah vi. 16. But the nearer these examples are to us, the greater influence they should have upon us. If a vain conare as far above ours as the heaven is high al>ove the earth. Mrs. Savage. Diary, Orig. MS.
Children of many prayers, which are all upon tAe JfU i« Ataven." Mr. Case's Fnneral Sermon for Mrs. Scott, p. tw. duod. 1650. And see Oliver Heywood's Closet Prayer, p. 29 duod. 1671.
Dr. Owen, noticing Genesis iii. 15. says;—'* This promise hung
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
versation can, by this, recommend itself to some, as being received by tradition, 1 Peter i. 18.—compare Jeremiah xliv. 17.—Should not a holy and heavenly conversation, transmitted to us, be, with resolution, held fast by us ? Let the life of such a father, especially, seeing the end of his conversation, recommend religion, in the power of it, to us, and engage us in the steady practice of it. We, who had the happiness of free and frequent converse with him, could not but see a great deal that was excellent and exemplary, and which our own consciences subscribed to the goodness of. Let us, then, set ourselves, in the strength of divine grace, to transcribe it in our hearts and lives. Sure, never any one that professed religion did more recommend it to others, as lovely and amiable, than he did. We saw in him, not only the power of holiness, but the beauty of it. I have thought it the unhappiness of some that, otherwise, I had reason to think were good in the main, that, by the moroseness or melancholy of their temper and converse, have greatly hindered the success of the good instruction they have given to their children ; and have, thereby, rendered religion a dull, melancholy thing, and thus has religion been wounded in the house of her friends. But it was the felicity of our education, that we had a father, whose spirit and converse recommended a life of serious godliness to us, as the most sweet and easy, the most cheerful and charming, life that could be; which demonstrated to us that wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths paths of peace. Let us not, then, be slothful, but the willing, constant followers of him, who is now, through faith and patience, inhe Hting the promises. Let us tread in the steps of his humility and meekness ; his love and charity; his zeal and fervency in the best things; his self-denial and contempt of the world; his usefulness and beneficence to all; that those who see us may say,—Surely, these are the children of such a father." Let us be mild and gentle in all our carriage; moderate in the use of all our enjoyments. Let us love the Scripture; continue instant in prayer; and maintain an even, quiet composcdness of spirit under the varieties of providence; for, in all these things, we know very longest on the file before its accomplishment." Exposition or the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. v. p. 53. oct. ed. t " A roan truly humble is apprehensive of God's greatness, and his own vilenesB, when he appears before him, Gen. xviii 27; Ezra ix. 6. He highly prizeth God's favour;—mercy is sweet unto him. He is easily brought to acknowledgment and remorse for sin. An humble heart is tender and melting, as Josiah, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 27. He will worship God according to his own prescription, and dares not worship him after his own lancy, Col ii. 18, 33. He is much given to prayer, Ps. ix. 12; x. 17. He is often singing God's praises, 2. Sam. vii. 18. 1 Chron. xxix. 14. He desires God's glory, though with his own shame and disgrace, 2 Sam. vi. 22. John iii. 29, 30. It is not a nick-name, or a bye-word, that will make him leave off his profession. He will ever rejoice in the good of others. It is nothing but pride which makes men envious, Ps. xxxiv. 2. cxix. 74. He will do all things well, he set us an excellent copy. Let us, then, be followers of him so far as he was of Christ. It was the matter, both of his rejoicing and thanksgiving, that he saw his children walking in the truth; and it was his prayer, that they might continue so to do, and that none of his might be found at the left hand of Christ at the great day. Let us, then, as ever we hope to meet him with joy in the other world, follow him with diligence now.' Having begun in the spirit, let us not end in the flesh; having laid our hand to the plough, let us not look back, lest our latter end be worse than our beginning.
(2.) Being dead, he speaks to us, to be loving and helpful one to another. His common and undistinguished love to us all, was such that it could never be said which of us he loved best; and, it speaks to us, now he is gone, to love one another with a pure heart fervently. We know very well that our unity was the joy of his heart, while living; and many a time he hath, with us, blessed God for it. Let it, therefore, be the credit and honour of hb family now he is gone. I find it is, I may call it, his dying prayer forus, his children, not only that we may be built up in holiness and comfort, but that we may be continued in brotherly love, and be a bundle of arrows, which cannot be broken. Now we have lost him, who was wont to pray for us, and be a common helper to us, let us pray so much the more, one for another, and be so much the more helpful one to another, especially in the things that pertain to the kingdom of heaven; and let all our bands of unity be strengthened and confirmed; and let it be our constant endeavour, each of us in our place, to be mutually serviceable to each other's comfort and welfare, and jointly serviceable to the glory of God, and to the comfort of our dear surviving parent; that the Lord of peace himself may command his blessing upon us, and our families, even life for evermore, (3.) Being dead, he speaks to us,—^to make death and the grave, heaven and glory, familiar to us; and, in other things, to converse much with them. This place used to be our father's house, but now the place that knew him knows him no more. The grave, the place appointed for all the living, is our father's without murmuring and reasoning, Phil. ii. 2,3.** Rev. Arthur Hildersam. Orig. MS. Penei me.
The reader will have no dif Bculty in applying the preceding sketch to Mr. Henry.
1731, Feb. 23. Read 1 Thess. ii. I could not but apply some passages to my dear and honoured father, verse 9, &c. 1 remember his labour and travel. I can witness how holily, justly, and unblamably, he behaved himself among us, charging us to imO; worthy of God, 8fc. When he was forced from us to prison, as all the nonconformist ministers in that country were, at Monmouth's rebellion, his parting exhortation was that of the apostle;—IPWit oul yovr ownudvation. Mrs. Savage. Diary, Orig. MS. See ante, p. flB.
V If hope be right, it doth not work by pride, but by humility; not by idleness, but diligence; not by loose and careless, but by close and circumspect, walking. P. Henry. From Matthew Henry's MS.
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A. ko Qse. Let as, therefore, visit that house often in oar meditations: take a walk, now and then, into tke va Uey of the shadow of death. We could never say of this house, when at any time we left it, we were sure of condng to it again, but we may be certain that, sooner or later, we must go to the grave. Let us, therefore, be always ready. The nearer death approaches us, the louder are its calls to us to prepare for our change. It would help to apply OKr hearts unto wisdomy thus, to number our days ; for if there were more of death in our thoughts, there would be more of life and liveliness in all our actions.* He who is removed from us, was one that was very industrious to familiarize death to himself; he frequently thought, spoke, and wrote of it, not, as many who are thus all their lives subject to bondage, with a certain fearful, but with a certain cheerful, looking for that change. Let us, in like manner, converse with it; it will come never the sooner, but it will be much the more easy, and welcome, and less formidable to us, when it doth come. Every one im his own ordery that is, in the order appointed by him in whose hand our souls are." We must shortly be gathered to our fathers, and have no reason to count upon an exemption from it. Since, as Elijah pleaded, when he so passionately desired to die, we are not better than our fathers, 1 Kings xix. 4. We see a generation rising up to stand in our room, as we do in the room of those that are gone before us. But it is only the body, that poor, despised, broken vessel, that is laid in the grave, the immortal soul is translated to the heavenly regions; with heaven, therefore, we should converse familiarly, and dwell more in our thoughts among those mansions of light, where not only our heavenly Father is, but, which should be some inducement to us; he also that was the father of our flesh. Many a time we have, with much delight and satisfaction, visited here at this house, and now we can visit him here no more. If we have but boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, we may visit him there, converse with that glory which he is in possession of. Let our conversation, therefore, be in heaven, not only where Christ is, bnt where so many of our dear relations are, with whom we have taken sweet counsel. Now there is one loadstone more in heaven to draw our hearts thitherwards. Methinks, he being dead, yet spealu to us in those words that came from V "Die co Dsideration of sbortneoe of lire, may be matter of con-solilioD and comfort unto such as believe. What knowest thou, hot tiMt there is but a step between thee and hearen! Thou art here this yere; thou mayest be in heaven before the next. Thou irt here this month, thou mayest be with Christ before the next. Yea, tboa art here to-day; thou mayest be in blisse before to. Borrow. Oh, this happy estate! How would men admire the hsppioesse of such a begger as were in possibility every houre to be advanced to a kingdome! The Monument or Totnbe.stone; s Sennon at the FoneraU of Mn. Eliabeth Juxon, by Stephen DemsoD, daod. 1690. pp. 3S, 23. heaven to John, Revelations. iv. 1. Come up hither, —up hither in your thoughts and meditations; up with your hearts,^ and live by faith in those serene, quiet regions above ; and, blessed, blessed be God, in our father's house are many mansions ; the place is not too strait for us; we need not scatter there as we do on earth ; there is room enough for him who is gone, and all his family, him and his seed, and his seed's seed. God grant that a promise being left us of entering into his rest, none of us may seem to come short To conclude this head ;—being dead, methinks, he yet speaks to us in the language of Solomon, Proverbs xxvii. 10 Thine own friend and thy father s friend, forsahe not. The God with whom we have to do, is our Friend, and was our father's Friend, Psalm xxii. 4. The God in whom our father trusted. He found him faithful, and, from his own experience, recommended him to us as a good Master,—tAe God that fed him all his life long. Let us, therefore, avouch the Lord this day to be our God, and to walh in his laws, and to heep his statutes, and never be prevailed with to leave him, or to turn from following him. If God loves the children for the father's sake, as he is said to do, Romans xi. 28. sure the children should love God, and serve him, for the father's sake. Our father's relation to God, we may plead with him in prayer, as 2 Chronicles xxvi. 6. and, therefore, plead it with ourselves, as a strong inducement to duty and obedience. If we are born in God's house, and are the seed of his servants, truly we should be his servants; if he be our father's God, we must exalt him. He, being dead, thus speaketh to his children, Thine own God, and thyfather*s God, forsahe not and forget not, ^ 2. He, being dead, yet speahs to you of this congregation. Long, and often, he hath been speaking to you in the name of the Lord; and an account must be shortly given for all that he hath spoken to you, or rather God by him. Above thirty years he hath been among you. Part of which time was, indeed, a cloudy and dark day, when such a man as he was hid; and yet, some of you know that even then his labours were little the less. When he durst not do what he would, he did what he could. But, blessed be God, the evening of his day was more clear and bright. Hishavingbeen thirty years with you, brings to my mind a few lines which he penned on the death of a worthy minister, who had been the same number of years with his people, (Mr. Nevet, Oswestry.) ■
X So,—all the events and occurrences of every day of our life are ordered by God,—are at his dispose, Ps. xxxi. 15. This is a great truth. It was an expression 'oft used by my dear father s —We know in whose hands our times are. This should quiet us as to afflicting providences. Mrs. Savage. Diary. Orig. MS.
7 In the ancient church, when the people began to bring their offering unto the altar, the priest was to say— Atm rat xapatat,-Lift up your hearts. BCede's Works, p. 383. ut $upra.
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
The owner thought it much three years to come To a barren tree which hastened its sad doom. What then may they expect, who ten times three Had such a dresser, if they barren be? A faithful, self-denying shepherd, who Sought not the fleece, but flock; not yours, but you.
Thus, while he lived, he spoke to you; but, being dead, he yet speaketh: for, though he hath finished his testimony on earth, yet his testimony is not finished, but remains speaking still. When Elijah was translated, it should seem he left a writing behind him for a remaining testimony, so some understand it, 2 Chronicles xxi. 12. Five things there be which, being dead, he yet speaks to you. I shall mention them briefly, and so conclude.
1. He, being dead, yet speaks to you,—to repent of your sins. Especially, the sin of your unfruit-fulness under the means of grace. It was sin that was the procuring cause of this calamity ; it is that which now corrects you and reproves you; that is it which hath quenched your coal, and put out your light. If conscience be any wise awakened under this sad providence, you cannot but say,— We are verily guilty. Your unprofitableness and unfruit-fulness, your barrenness, your barrenness; your leanness, your leanness, —though you have been fed in the fat pastures of the ordinances,—was the sin that provoked God to remove your minister from you. Turn your tears, therefore, into the right channel, and weep not for him, but for yourselves, and for your sins. Now is a time to reflect on your management and improvement of the means of grace you have had, and to be by that humbled before the Lord for your carelessness and neglect. Now you ougt to remember against yourselves your vanity and hypocrisy, and how often you have come before the Lord as his people came, and sat before him as his people, and heard his words, but your hearts in the meantime have gone after your covetousness. He hath been to you as a lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, and, therefore, you have heard his words: but, have you done them? See Ezekiel xxxiii. 31, 32. and compare the next words, 33. When this cometh to pass, such a providence as you are now under, then shall you know that a prophet hath been among you: so easy is it to us to see the worth of mercies when we feel the want of them. Let this conviction take hold on your consciences now, and endeavour, henceforth, by the grace of God, to be more fruitful.
2. Being dead, he yet speaks to you,—to adorn your holy profession by a suitable conversation. I have been told he preached his farewell sermon at Worthenbury, upon that text, Philippians i. 27.—
There is no real deliverance from death, but to be carried well through it Dear fother's frequent prayer was,—That God
Only let your conversation be as beeometh the gospel of Christ, Will you take that scripture as his farewell to you, which, being dead, he yet speaketh ? I doubt not but you have all a respect for his name and memory, and could not contentedly hear him reproached and evil spoken of. Then do not you reproach him by doing any thing that may give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the name of Christ, and his doctrine. If any of you leave your first love, and return, with the dog, to his vomit; if you do any ill thing at any time against i the sacred laws of justice and sobriety, will it not be said, *'This was one of Mr. Henry's disciples?'' —And thus the just reproaches you bring upon yourselves, will unjustly fall upon him. Let the regard you have for his name be a bridle of restraint upon you. Many eyes are upon you, that watch for your halting; therefore, see that ye walk circumspectly,
3. Being dead, he yet speaks to you,*-to hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering. Remember what you have received and heard, and hold fast. Let it never be said concerning yon of this congregation, that your faith and religion were pinned upon your minister's sleeve, and that when he died, that died with him. God forbid; for we are built upon Christ, the chief comer stone. Ministers are the builders of the church, but not the foundation of it. Let me, therefore, exhort you all, in the words of Barnabas, that with purpose of heart, you would cleave to the Lord, Acts xi. 23. The shepherd is smitten, but it is only the itn<ier-shepherd of the sheep; the Great Shepherd is still the same, and will be with you while you are with him: to him, therefore, you must resolutely adhere,with a firm and unshaken constancy. I believe that God, who hath the residue of the Spirit, hath also such mercy in store for the congregation, that he will not leave it altogether destitute. When God hath work to do, he will never want instruments to accomplish his designs. Be not you wanting to yourselves, and the power and grace of God will not be wanting to you. Nor will the promise of the faithful witness fail,— Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
4. Being dead, he y speaks to you,—to prepare for death,* for sudden death. This is spoken plain enough if we do but consider the circumstances of his removal. For a man to be well and dead in fifteen or sixteen hours, may we not easily infer from hence, how much we are concerned to be always ready, that when our Master comes, we may cheerfully, upon the first intimation, go forth to meet him. We may, any of us, die as suddenly as he did, but are we prepared a& he was? To him who was dying daily, it was but a short cut over a stormy sea; but if we continue unready, such a sudden death will to us have another aspect. It would go with us down to death, and up to gloiy. Mrs. Savage. Diary. Orig. MS.
OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A. will be like the arrest of a traitor; a hurry out of the world, like the surprise of that wretched worldling,— Tkoufool this night shall thy soul be required (fthee. Let it, therefore, be our daily care, as we observed it was his frequent prayer, to be ready for that which will come certainly, and may come sud-denly."*
Lastly. He being dead, yet speaks,—comfort and encoaragement to those of you who belong to Christ, and are faithful to him. Is there any honey in the carcass of a lion ? Any sweetness to be extracted oat of so sad a providence ? Yes, there is. If Christ's leaving his disciples was (though then sorrow filled their hearts) matter of rejoicing to them, John xiy. 28. why may not the removal of a faithful minister furnish us vnth some comfortable thoughts ? He is gone before, as it were, to show you the way. His inheriting the promises is an engagement to those who (diough they stay behind yet) have made those promises their heritage for ever. You that were his joy in this world, shall be his crown in the other. You know in his monthly lecture in this place, he was preaching over the four last things, viz. death, judgment, hell, and heaven: the three first of which he had spoken very largely and excellently to; and, in the coarse of his ministry, he was next to have preached concerning heaven ;^ and, it is likely, if God had continued him a while longer among you, you might have heard many good words and comfortable words from him on that subject. But, as if the great God should say,—'' Come, my dear ser-
See the Fading of the Flesh, &e. by the Rev. George Swin-nock, pp. 34,36. 4(o. 1632. e See a like record in the Life and Death of the Rev. R. Bolton, p30.«/ tiy r a . vant, you arc not enough acquainted with that glory, you know but in part, and prophesy but in part; come up and see what it is; and leave your congregation to conclude what it is by the removal of one thither that was such a jewel in this lower world.'' —^We may make some faint guesses at heaven's glory, when we consider that it is both the perfection and recompence of the holiness of the saints. That is certainly a blessed and glorious place, that is the receptacle of all those who were the blessings and glories of this earth. Being deady he yet speaheth to you; that he is gone before, and is arrived, at last, into a safe and quiet harbour, and you shall not be long at sea. Though now we have parted with him in a melancholy shower of tears, yet, blessed be God, we sorrow not as those who have no hope: for we have good hope through grace, of meeting him again, and being for ever with him, and with all the saints,—and, which is best of all, with the Lord. Those who live up to these hopes in close walking, may live upon these hopes in comfortable walking. They who now sow in tears shall shortly reap in joy ; and those who, by patient continuance in well-doing J seek for glory, honour, and immortality, shall shortly return, as other the ransomed of the Lord, to the heavenly Sion, with songs of praise and triumph; and everlasting joy shall fill their hearts and crown their heads: tliey shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. With which words let all who mourn in Zion comfort themselves, and one another.** a From an authentic MS. in the poaseasion of the Rev. T. Sted. man. On comparing it with lirs. Savage's MS. copy it appears to have had the benefit of the author's emendations; and it should seem, fh)m their nature, for the press.
A SERMON,
PREACHED AT BROAD OAK,
JUNE 4, 1707,
ON OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF
MRS. KATHARINE HENRY,
RELICT OF MR. PHILIP HENRY,
WHO FELL ASLEEP IN THE LORD, MAY 25, 1707, IN THE 79TH YEAR OF HER AOE.
BY HER SON,
THE REV. MATTHEW HENRY, V. D. M.
7
PHOVERBS xxxi. 28.
Her children shall arise up, and call her blessed.
This is part of the just debt owing to the virtuous woman, that answers the characters laid down in the foregoing verses; and part of the reward promised and secured to her by him, who, in both worlds, is, and will be, the Rewarder of them that diligently seeh and serve him.
It is, indeed, enough to make them truly and eternally happy, that virtuous people are blessed of God; that the Lord Jesus is raised up in his gospel to bless them, will arise up at the great day to call them blessed,~^ome ye blessed of my Father; of him-they are sure to be blessed. He that sows righteousness, has that sure reward; and those whom he blesseth they are blessed indeed; his pronouncing them happy makes them so. This is enough to engage us all to, and encourage us all in, the study and practice of virtue and piety, that the praise of it, whether it be o/* men or no, is of God. If men should be unrighteous, yet God will not, to forget the work and labour of love; though men should put slights, God will put honours, upon those that fear his name.
Yet, ex abundanti, over and above, this is thrown in as the reward of virtue, that among men also ordinarily it hath its praise ; all that are wise and good, to be sure are of God's mind, and will say an he saith, and praise those whom he praiseth; and even in the consciences of others too, it is many times powerfully made manifest. If there be any virtue, saith the apostle, if there be any praise; which intimates that virtue is a praise, not only phiLiT. & praiseworthy, and the real praise of those who wear that crown, but is attended with the praises of others who praise it, and praise God for it What is heaven, but lioliness in honour, —grace crowned with glory? shining in the perfection of lustre to the blessed inhabitants of the upper world; and such praise as a dark and weak capacity is able to give in this distant and imperfect state is made likewise to attend virtue, and is one of the present recompences of obedience in obedience. In keeping of them there is this great reward.
It follows here, verse 30.— A woman that fearetk the Lord, she shall be praised; which is, (1.) A promise to those who are virtuous, that they shall have not only the comfort of it in their own bosoms, living and dying, but the credit of it also among their relations, friends, and neighbours, of whom they shall be had in honour, both present and absent. (2.) It is a precept to those that are about them, that they give them the praise of it That of Solomon the Jews read as a precept. Proverbs x. 7. Let ike memory of the just be blessed; and, therefore, when they make mention of any eminent saint, they add. Sit memoria ejus benedieta. Let his memory be blessed. We call the burying of our dead friends, the last office of our hve to them, but it is ^t so, there is B, further office of love owing to them, a debt to their memories, which we must always be paying, and must not, while we live, think ourselves discharged from.
A SERMON, &c.
106
ProTcrbe zxii. 1.
Though we most not make the praise of men our chief end» far be it from us to do so. If we seek honour from men, we implicitly slight that which comes from God, as not suflficient to reward our services, and balance our losses; yet in order and rabordination to the glory of God, we must have an Uatthew ▼ 16. ^^^ ^ ^^^ reputation with men. Let your light so thine before meUy in a good conversation, which is both pleasing and guiding as the light, that they may not only hear your good words, but see your good worhs, and glorify your Father which is in heaven, from whom proceeds every James L17. Pc«» and every good and perfect gift, and who, therefore, is the Father ofM those lights. Not that they may see your good works, and glo Hfy you; you must expect to be abased and vilified, and not seek your own glory; but see your good worhs, and glorify your Father, and that from him all your glory may result and be reflected.
We are to value things as they are rated in God's Eccl viL 1 books, and there we are told that a good name is better, not only than precious ointment, but than great riches, not only than all the pleasures, but than all the profits, of ft is world. A good name' is a name for good things with God and good people; and this is therefore to be valued, desired, and pursued, because it is an honour to religion; gives occasion for the thanksgivings of many to God; it is an advantage to us in serving God and our generation; and when we are gone will be an encouragement to those that shall come after us, to keep close to the ways of €rod and godliness. And, therefore, whatsoever things are honest and lovely, amiable and of good re-part, let us think of those things, and abound in them. The praise which particularly attends the virtuous woman, is here described to come, among others, from her own children; her children shall arise up and call her blessed. This virtuous woman, then, is not a recluse, one shut up and cut off from the business of this life, and the affairs of a family, under pretence of devotion, and separation to God. The church of Rome makes such only their religious, as they call them, and celebrates their sanctity, who abandon the relations they have, and abj ure those they might have, as if none but they entered into religion and professed it. But the scripture canon gives other measures by which to judge of religion, and other rules by which to steer in it, than their canons do. / will, saith the apostle, that they marry, bring up children, guide the house, and give ' no occasion to the enemy to speak re-
Be careful to walk ao that you may get and keep a good name, bat not by anlavrfol meana, Qeii. xi. 4. Many discommend them* •cl Tei to draw on others* commendation. Provide honest things. Bom. ait n. 9 Cor. viii. 91. Phil. iv. 8. Avoid all appearance of eril, EocL x. L I Tbeas. ▼. 22. Sin stains a good name,— Jiki not Paalmx. 14. proachfully, as they do, who, under pretence of overcoming the world, overrun it. And they that in these things faithfully serve God and their genera tion, not only give no occasion to the enemy to speak reproachfully of them, but give occasion to all to speak honourably of them; and, among the rest, their children shall atnse up and call them blessed,
1. It is here implied, that it is a great comfort to those who are good themselves, to see their children rising up, risen up. Many good people are taken away, and see their children but just come into the world, putting forth like flowers, when they that should have nursed them up are removed from them, leave them in the cradle, or leave them, as we say, to the wide world; this occasions them some sad thoughts upon their death-beds, and if other difficulties be got over, yet this makes them loth to die ; but in that case, it is a comfort that the fatherless, motherless children, may be, must be, left with one that will preserve them, and who has many a time remarkably owned and blessed the orphans, and proved himself the best of guardians ; he is the Helper of the fatherless that commit themselves to him.
But if God prolong the days of his people in the land he has given them, so that they live to see their children grown up, and applying themselves to the service of God in their generation, likely to honour God in their day, as the parents did in theirs ; it is very comfortable, and makes it easier to them, when they are called, to bid farewell to this world, and very comfortable to think that their children will be praising God on earth, when they are praising him in heaven. You that are parents, who see your children risen up, and bidding fair for usefulness on this earth, and happiness in a better place, bless God for it; look upon it as one of the comforts of the lengthening out of your life, that as you yourselves, through grace, grow riper for heaven, so you live to see your children, by the influence of the same grace, setting their faces thitherward. This may encourage you to say,^iVoic; let thy servant depart in peace.
When godly parents are removed by death, and the place they adorned and filled up must know them no more, it is a very happy thing, and bodes well to the land, to the age, to the next age, if their children rise up in their room, a generation of humble, holy, serious Christians, followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. It is very threatening, and an ill omen to the public, when (as Moses saith to the two tribes and a half. Numbers xxxii. 14.) a generation of sinful men riseth up, in the room licaviot. ir you honour Gk)d, he will honour you, 1 Sam ii. 30. Walk humbly.—This is a grace very much adorning, Prov. xviii. 12. Phil. ii. 8, 9. Be tender of the good name of others, Matt. vl|. 1,2. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
of their sinful parents, to fill up the measure of their iniquity, and augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord. But, on the contrary, it is comfortable to those who are concerned for the honour of Christ, and the prosperity of his church, to see a generation of godly people rising up in the room of their godly predecessors, to bear up the name of Christ in his truths, ordinances, and laws, and to be to him for a name, and a praise, and a glory, a seed to serve Aim, and the interests of his kingdom among men, which shall be accounted to him for a generation ; when it may be said, as it is of the church. Psalm xW. 16. Instead of the fathers shall he the children. It is for the honour of God's promises concerning the seed of the upright, and of his covenant with them ; it is for the credit of good education, and an answer to many prayers, when the children of religious families are religious, when the entail is preserved, and piety becomes an heir-loom to a house; but if it should be interrupted or cut off in particular families, we may, with comfort, assure ourselves that the sacred line shall be as long as the utmost line of time. Children shall rise up to bless the Lord, if not our children ; though there be a degeneracy in some families, we hope there shall be an improvement in others to balance it. So that in every age the Son of David shall not want those that will be his witnesses, though not always alike numerous, or alike conspicuous, yet one generation shall certainly praise his works to another; children shall be created, rather than fail, to praise the Lord; children raised up out of stones to Abraham, even out of the stones of Jerusalem, to cry Hosanna, The promise is sure, it is inviolable, it is what we may depend upon, that the name of Christ shall endure for ever, whether in our families or no we cannot tell, but somewhere it shall, and his throne as the days of heaven; so that as long as the world stands, there shall be a people in it, in one place or other, that shall fear God, and work righteousness, and be accepted of him. Let God alone, to secure his own interest, do his own work, and fulfil his own counsels. When the mystical body is completed then cometh the end.
Her children shall rise up. We will suppose the virtuous woman described here to harve finished her course, and then her children rise up, i. e. stir up themselves, with so much the more vigour and zeal, to pursue the same course, and do so much the more and better service to God and their generation. Note, The dying of old Christians should be the quickening of young ones. When our godly parents are removed, and an end put to their usefulness, it is time for us to rise up, to put forth ourselves with so much the more liveliness and resolution in serving Christ and striving against sin, that we may do something towards making up the breach, and reb Dear father would tell us;—It is not enough to be where pray
Joihuail
Job xvii. & cr la, (that is easy,} but we must fray—put a shoulder to every > Orig. BIS. pairing the loss. When good people are removed, it is time for those that are left behind to stir up themselves, and contrive what they shall do more for God, that those that are gone may be the less missed; to apply themselves with a double diligence to all the services of religion, that though there be fewer hands, there may not be less work done. Moses my servant is dead, saith God. Now therefore, Joshua, arise. Such and such good Christians are dead, that prayed much, and did much good, now, therefore, let us arise, that are left behind, and take so much the more care and pains in religion ; that though there be fewer praying, teaching, giving people, yet there may be no less praying,** no less teaching and exhorting one another, and no less good done. Holy Job, speaking of his own afflictions, and approaching death, saith, upright men shall be astonished at this, astonished to see such a useful man as Job removed in the midst of his usefulness; and many such astonishing breaches have been made upon us; astonished to see those soon removed, that could be ill spared. Sometimes the sun goes down at noon, and no marvel if at that we stand astonished, and know not what to make of such dispensations; the flowers are plucked up, while the weeds are left to grow. But shall we then succumb and sit still in astonishment ? Shall we lie down and despair of keeping up the work of God! By no means. The innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite, and resolve to make his part good with him ; shall neither desert the cause, nor despair of success, but exert himself so much the more for the gloiy of God, that religion's righteous cause may not sink for want of hands to bear it up. 2. The children of the virtuous woman that rise up, shall call her blessed. It is her honour that she shall be praised by them, by them that were best acquainted with her, and most indebted to her. It is their duty to praise her in return for all the care she has taken of them, the pains she has taken with them, and the pleasure she has taken in them; give her of the fruit of her hands, so the honours paid her by her children arc, and let her own works, those she bore, those she nursed, those she taught, praise her in the gates.
That this place has lately parted with a virtuous woman, I believe you will all own; one that was here a pious, prudent, generous, charitable housekeeper about threescore years; bom here, and that here spent almost all her days, and here ended them in a good old age, with a great deal of holy security and serenity of mind. One of whom it might be said as it was of Ruth, All the children of my people do know that she was a virtuous woman. You have been told of it from this petition to help to heave it heavenward. Mr& Savage. Diary.
Ruth iii. II.
OF MRS. KATHARINE HENRY.
167
3 John n.
place already,*^ and have been stirred up (God grant the excitement may not be in vain) to follow her and others, who are gone before us to the better country, Hebrews vi. 12.
But we must also bear record, and we may do it with the more assurance, because you know that our record is true; nor can we be suspected of partiality herein, but might rather be charged with injustice and ingratitude should we neglect to pay this debt You then will witness for us in this matter, that now the virtuous woman is gone to receive the reward of her virtue in a better state; her children, those of them that are left behind, rise up and call her blessed; while those of them that are gone before, are sharers with her in her blessedness. It is a comfort to us, and we reckon it a great instance of the distinguishing mercy and favour of our God, that we are the children of those whom we have reason to call blessed. The greatest honour that some children can do to their parents, is only, like Shem and Japhet, to conceal their shame, and cast a mantle over their follies: but, blessed be God, we need not that. Nay, we may go further than the daughters of Zelophehad did in the account they gave of their father, of whom they could say that he had not been any of the plagues of his generation. Numbers xxvii. 3. We can say more than that of our parents, that they were not only blessings to their family, but blessings to the country, blessings to the age in which they lived; and for this their children shall rise up and call them blessed.
Doctrine. That the children of virtuous and godly parents ought to rise up, when they are gone, and call them blessed.
Here I shall endeavour to show,
1. What is the character of those parents to whom this honour is due from their children.
2. What is the duty of the children, that they may, in a right manner, discharge this debt to the memory of their good parents.
For the first. What must the parents be, that their children, when they are gone, may call them blessed 1 If the parents be atheistical and profane, drunkards and unclean, swearers and sabbath-breakers, and scoffers at religion, or if they be mere carnal worldlings, if covetous and contentious, deceitful and oppressive, the children have no reason to call them blessed. If the way of the parents be their folly, let not their posterity approve their sayings, nor lihe a vain conversat'on ever the better for its being received by tradition from their fathers. They who train up their children in ungodliness and immorality, in prejudices against religion, and enmity to the serious professors of it, and so help to rain them, the day may come, when their children will rise up in judgment against them.
Palm xlix. 13.
the funeral sennon, by Dr. Benion. See ante, postscript, and Appendix, No. I. and call them cursed. But such black instances make ours shine the brighter.
Her children! Whose ? Why, the children of the virtuous woman here described. Her husband, he praiseth her, for his heart safely trusts in her, and that gives her no small conmiendation; yet that is not all, he takes all occasions to speak well of her. The children do the same, and both concur in the matter of praise. Now let us briefly inquire after some of the characters of those whose children must rise up and call them blessed; and this inquiry I intend, not only for a just encomium of her that is gone, and indeed of both our parents, but for instruction of myself, and others of you that are parents. Let us learn so to qualify ourselves, by the grace of God, and so to carry ourselves, that our children may rise up and call us blessed. As children should be afraid of losing their parents' good wishes, so parents should be afraid of doing any thing justly to lose their children's good word and good will.
Now for the drawing of the character of those whose children shall call them blessed, I shall look but little further than the two verses before the text, and the two verses after it; and there we shall find that such as are wise, and such as are kind, such as are industrious, and such as are charitable, such as are virtuous, and such as are truly pious and religious, their children shall rise up and call them blessed. Such, by the grace of God, our parents were. May the same grace make us such.
1. Those that are truly wise deserve praise. And this is part of the character of the virtuous woman here, that she opens her mouth with wisdom, verse 26; she is not doomed, nor hath she doomed herself, to perpetual silence; but what she doth say, wisdom has the dictating of it, and it turns to her praise. Wisdom not only mahes the face to shine for the present, but leaves a good report to succeeding generations, like the after-beams of the sun when he is set, surrounded with which he lies down in honour.
If we be wise, we shall not only be wise for ourselves, but wise also for our children, and for their good, especially if we open our mouth with wisdom, and so instil into their minds what they will afterwards have use for; if we know when to speak, and what, and how; if we speak calmly and considerately ; if our heart study to answer; if our lips bring forth wisdom out of a good treasure of it in the heart; if we put away all that foolish talking which corrupts good manners, and debauchetb the minds, especially of young people, and keep our mouth as with a bridle at all times, particularly when our children are before us, they will have reason to call us blessed for setting them an example of the good government of the tongue. Children learn to speak
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
from their parents and nurses: let them from us learn to speak well, and not to mix the lanage of Ashdod with the Jews' language. We haye the bending of the bough when it is yet young and tender, let us be wise in managing it, that we may set it right. We know how long a word ^ from a parent to a child, that is just coming to years of understanding, will be remembered. I know it by experience. What the vessel is then seasoned with, it will retain the savour of. Let us then open our mouths with wisdom, that our lips, if they do not feed many, yet at least may feed our own children, with wisdom and understanding.
Some of you will say, that you have now lost, I am sure I have lost, a very discreet and prudent counsellor, that not only ordered her own affairs with wisdom, but knew very well how to advise others, and was many a time eyes to the blind; one that was very well versed in Solomon's Proverbs, and the rules of wisdom which may be fetched from thence for the conduct of human life, and knew how to apply them, and to use hnowledge aright. Let us in like manner stock ourselves with the principles of wisdom, govern ourselves by the rules of wisdom, submit ourselves to the laws of wisdom, and be ready, on all occasions, to speak pertinently and to the purpose ; that, opening our mouths with wisdom, our children may suck it in when they are young, and show it forth when they are old, and then they will have reason to rise up and call us blessed,
2. Those that are truly kind deserve this honour. I say truly kind, for many are very fond, as David of Adonijah ; but are therein really unkind. Those are tmly kind that are wisely so; that are tender of their children's comfort, but not indulgent of their children's follies. That also is the character of the virtuous woman'here, that in her tongue is the law of kindness, not the humour of kindness, or the pang of it, but the law of it, such kindness as receives law from wisdom, and gves law to the whole conversation. Those parents that have this law in their tongues, in their hearts, and are always under the commands and regulations of it, gain their children's love, and are entitled to their good word; those parents who make conscience of that command, which we have more than once among the laws of Christ,— Parents, provoke not your children to wrath, by haughtiness and moroseness, and keeping them at an unreasonable distance, by constant chiding, and severe correction, lest they be discouraged; —but who are gentle towards them, as becomes parents towards those that are parts of themselves, and that derive their follies from them ; who reprove with the meekness of wisdom, restrain with reason and a due d See an instance in Mrs. Savage's Memoirs, p. 167. uinpra ;— 1696. Monday, Noy. 24. 1 went to Broad Oak.
Tuesday. One expression of Mr. Steel's 1 had from dear mother, which I daily find the truth ot Speaking of the back consideration of all circumstances, counsel and admonish with compassion and affection, and rule with a steady, gentle hand; such parents as these the children will rise up and call blessed.
And for this I am sure we have reason to call our parents blessed; never were any more under the government of the law of kindness, kindness particularly to their children, than they were. To be kindly affectioned is of good report with all men, recommends religion as that which softens and sweetens men's tempers, fits them for all relations, and makes them the joy of all the societies they are members of; by this, among other things, they obtained a good report.
Would we then be called blessed, let us study the art of obliging, and not only be pitiful, but be courteous ; pitiful to the miserable; courteous to all; let us be governed at all times by that wisdom from above, which is gentle and easy to be j^^g, yj j entreated ; let our passions be always under the check and conduct of religion and right reason; let all bitterness, and frowardness, and peevishness be put away from us, and every thing that is sour and supercilious; let us not be like Nabal, whose character it was, that he was sncb a son of Belial, that a man could not speak to him, —they that are so, trouble their own houses. But let us study how to put a due respect upon all, and particularly to convince our children that we love them, and seek their good ; let the law of love rule in our hearts, and the law of kindness in our tongues, and let us study to make ourselves and all about us easy, always easy: be pleasing; be pleased ; then shall our children rise up and call us blessed,
3. Those that are industrious and careful deserve this honour. This is the character of the virtuous woman here, verse 27.—That she looketh well to the ways of her household. And most of the characters gven of her in the verses before fall under this head, where she is commended for her diligence and consideration, in the management of her house and the affairs of it, which is her particular calling, and that in which she is to abide with God. It is not made her praise that she spends her time in reading and contemplation; no, nor that she spends all her time in devotion neither, though she has her stated time for that. But that she looks well to the ways of her household, appointing them their portion of meat and work too, in due season; has her eye upon all under her charge, to see that they both do and have what is fit. It is required from wives, that they guide the house, and they have need of wisdom to do it well. That is > Timothy ▼14. their place, their post. Man goes forth to his work wardnessofour hearts to duty:~When we have time, we want nearts i when we think we have hearts to seek and serve Qod« then we want time |— 7%e heart i$ tUeeii/iU above tM thimf$,- Wk» kMw it r Mrs. Savage's Diary, Orig. BIS.
OF MRS. KATHARINE HENRY.
109
Proverbs xir. L tnd to his labour, but the woman stays at home to liers. Where i* Sarah thy wife ? Behold, in the tent; where shoald she be else ? The Tirtuous woman is a good housekeeper; one that in magaging the affairs of the house, prudently avoids both the extremes of undue sparing and undue spending; that doth not on one hand over-work her household, and yet, on the other hand, suffers them not to mispend their time and neglect their business; that orders every thing to its proper time and place, and yet is not over nice or troublesomely curious: that is neither anxiously careful with that fear which has torment and amazement, nor yet careless and thoughtless of the morrow. This is the wise woman that huildeth her housej while the foolish, by neglecting it, doth, in effect, pull it down withher hands, and let it go to wreck and ruin. This is she that knows and observes a due proportion between laying up for her children, and laying out upon them, so as that neither unduly exclude or intrench upon the other, but both according to their place. Such a mother in Israel hath this place now lost, that provided well for her household, with a great deal of ease and order, and looked well to all the ways of it, and answered all the characters of the virtuous woman here described; and if her children that reap so much benefit by her good example, and the good education she gave them, do not call her blessed, let every body call them ungrateful, and you can call them no worse.
And let all parents thus merit their children's respects, by consulting the prosperity of their family, and providing for them food convenient, both for the present and for hereafter, so as that there may be an equality, so far as human prudence, in dependence upon God's providence, can order. If all be laid out, and none laid by, they must afterwards come down,* and that will be a temptation one way; if all be laid by, and none be laid out, they will afterwards rise, and that will be a temptation another way. It is neither the wisdom nor the kindness of parents to their children, to make it all their care and business, either to hoard for them,—we have seen riches kept for the owners thereofto their hurt, —or, on the other hand, to set them off with advantage to the world, by their making a show,—that likewise has been of fatal consequence to many,— but to give them an education according to their rank, to do all they can to fit them for business, for fte service of God, and their generation according to the will of God ; to give them good instructions, and good examples of humility, industry, beneficence, and honesty, to put up good prayers for them, and vrith them. And this is that care of children for which we must rise up and call our parents blessed.
If a man keep but of even hand, his ordinary expenses ought <o be bot to the half of bis receipts; and If be tbink to wax rich.
Ps. caii. 2,3,9.
4. Those that are charitable, and do good in their places, are worthy of this praise; and this is here made part of the character of the virtuous woman verse 20.— She stretcheth forth her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. Her prudence and diligence find out the poor and needy, the proper objects of her charity, and she leaves not the distribution of her alms with others, as if she thought it below her, but with her own hand relieves and succours the necessitous. Her charity is extensive to those at a distance, intimated in the stretching forth of her hand to them; it also intimates, that she doth it cheerfully and heartily, with a willing mind, and not grudgingly; drawing out her soul first to the hungry, and then reaching out her hand to them.
Those who do this, set their children a good example, going before them in good works; they likewise leave them, if not a great, yet a good, inheritance, which will be sweet and sure to them; and, though they may leave them so much the less of this world's goods, yet they will leave them so much the more of the blessing of God, which maketh rich, and addeth no sorrow. He that disperseth and giveth to the poor, has not only a righteousness which endureth for ever, but wealth and riches, also, shall he in his house, with which his posterity shall be blessed. What is so laid out is bread cast upon the waters, which will he found again after many days; it is good seed sown in good soil, which will come up again with a great increase; it is put out to the best interest, and upon the best security, for it is lent to the Lord, and shall certainly be re-payed more than a thousand-fold. This is another thing for which we have reason to rise up, and call our parents blessed; for they were rich in good worhSf as you very well know, yet without noise or ostentation. The loins of the poor blessed them, and, therefore, we should, in concurrence with the blessing of him that was ready to perish.
And let us, in like manner, recommend ourselves to those we shall leave behind, as Dorcas, who was celebrated for the abns-deeds which she did, not which she put others upon doing, or which she purposed hereafter, or which she would do by her will; no; but which she did herself out of her own estate,—making her own hands her executors. To do good, and to communicate let us never forget; for, with such sacrifices, both God and man are well pleased,
5. Those that are virtuous, their children shall rise up and call them blessed, especially those that excel in virtue, as it follows here, verse 28.— Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Those we call virtuous, that are sober and temperate, just and righteous in their conversation, con-but to the third part. Lord Bacon's Essaya Essay xxviii.
Acts ix. 38.
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
Philip, iv. 8. scicntious in all they say and do, in all they design and endeavour, fair and honest in all their dealings, that have no blot cleairing to their hands, or to their hearts; that have been exemplary for that integrity and uprightness which doth become Christians, and will preserve them, and study in every thing to conform to the laws of natural religion, which are not repealed, but confirmed and improved by our Christianity. Devotion towards God, without justice and sobriety, meekness and compassion towards men, comes far short of that universal righteousness which is requisite to our acceptance with God. Hands lifted up will not reach heaven, unless they be pure hands, and lified up without wrath and contention.
Virtue may be taken more strictly for vigour and boldness, and resolution in that which is good; courage and spirit in doing our duty, in facing difficulties, giving reproofs, bearing reproaches, improving opportunities, and pressing forwards towards perfection. The virtuous are those who are lively and cheerful in religion, that sing in its waySf and are fervent in spirit serving the Lord; and, in this sense, she was a virtuous woman whom we have now lost.
Now, where there is virtue, there is praise; there is that which ought to be praised, that for which the children must rise up and call the parents blessed, especially those who excelled in virtue, as ours did. Those who have only made a profession of religion, who have rested in the shows and formalities of devotion, while their lives and conversations have been disagreeable, little reason will either their children or their friends have to call them blessed; for the name of God, and his doctrine, is evil spoken of through them; but those who beautify their profession by that which is lovely and of good report, who thereby bring honour to their families, and set them a good example, their children, who shall be blessed for their sakes, must rise up and call them blessed.
6. Those that are pious and religious towards God are entitled to this honour; verse 30;—A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Moral virtue is a blessed thing, but it will not make us blessed without serious godliness. As righteousness towards men is an essential branch of true religion, so religion towards God is an essential branch of universal righteousness. It is the fear of God that crowns the character of this virtuous woman, without which, all the rest was of small account. Those that hereby honour God, he will honour, and will have us to honour.
Those that keep up a holy awe and reverence of f It ia recorded of Mrs. Hanmer, that the very much preferred the spiritual welfare of her children before their temporal; looking 00 the former as the true felicity, and on the latter, without it, but Asapleaaaut voluntary misery The last Work of a Believer, God upon their minds, that set him always before them, and have their eyes ever towards him, that have a regard to his authority over them, and, with an eye to that, submit themselves both to his precepts and to his providence; that make conscience of their duty to him, and are afraid of offending him; that devote themselves to his praise, and make it the business of their lives to glorify him, as the greatest and best of beings, and evidence it in all the instances of a steady, uniform, and andissem-bled devotion.
Those that make conscience of prayer in secret, and in their families; make a business of it, and take a pleasure in it; that delight in the holy word of God, and make it their meditation day and night; that converse much with it, and converse with others out of it; that call the sabbath of the Lord, holy and honourable, and honour God on that day; that call his courts amiable, and desire to dwell in his house, where they may be still praising him, and thus do the work of heaven while they are here on earth; that live a life of communion with God, conformity to him, and complacency in him; that have such a holy dread of God and his wrath, as drives them to Christ and his mediation, without which there is no standing before the just and holy God. Those that in their whole conversation, exemplify the fear of God dwelling and ruling in their hearts. Those that, not only by such a good example as this, but by their prudent and pious instructions, teach their children also the fear of the Lord, train them up in the ways of pure religion, under the conduct of the principles of catholic Christianity; not biassed to a party, nor soured with animosity and uncharitable prejudices; and in subjection to that kingdom of God, which is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, They that do thus, as they are accepted of God, so they shall be approved of men, and their children, in a particular manner, have reason to rise up and call them blessed. And such you know the parents were whom we are (his day calling so.
And let this engage all that are parents to do likewise. Live in the fear of God, be in that fear every day, and all the day long. Bring up your children in that fear; look upon true devotion to be true wisdom;' and do all you can to preserve the entail of it in your families, that your children may be praising God for you on earth, when you are gone to heaven, and you and they may be for ever calling one another blessed.
For the second ^What is the duty of children, that they may discharge this debt, which they owe to the memory of their good parents ? How must we prepared for the Funerals of Mary, the Widow, first of Francis Charlton, Esq., and after of Thomas Hanmer, Esq. By Richard Baxter, p. 148. duod. 1G62.
Psalm xxxiv. IL
OF MRS. KATHARINE HENRY.
171
Heb.xl.4.
peifonn this service to those who have recommended themae Wes by those characters ? I shall open this in six things.
1. We ought always to maintain a grateful remembrance, and take all occasions to make an honourable mention, of our godly parents. We cannot keep them from the grave, but we may keep them from the land of forgetfulneu; let their memories live with us when they are dead; live while we live, and be transmitted to those we leave behind; let them be always dear and precious to us, and being dead let them be like Abel, yet spoken of. Some think Laban's teraphim were the efl Bgies of his ancestors, which, therefore, he would by no means part with. Let the remembrance of them be preserved in our minds, and then we have the best pictures of them, and such as we cannot be robbed of. This is part of the duty required by the fifth commandment, (which is the first commandment with promise^) — Honour thy father and thy mother; honour their memories when they are gone. This we ought to do in gratitude for all their kindness to us, both as parents, and as godly parents, —their kindness to our bodies and our souls.
(1.) As parents, they took care of our natural life, and preserved that lamp from being extinguished when it was first lighted, and a little thing would have blown it out.— Why did we not die from the womb / why did we not give up the ghost when we came out of the belly ? It was because the hnees prevented usy and the breasts, that we should such. That tender, that earnest, care, which the God of nature put into the hearts of our parents concerning us, when we were in the helpless state of innocency; the pains they took with us, when we were unable to do any thing for ourselves, and perhaps froward with those that did any thing about us, is what we can never make a sufficient return for, either to them while they live, or to their memory when they are gone. The great favours God bestowed upon his people Israel, are represented by the compassionate relief gven to an infant, which intimates that that is a kindness never to be forgotten. (2.) As godly parents, and upon this account mnch more, we ought to do honour to their names, and their memory should be doubly precious to us ; lememberiDg, that, in the sense St. Paul writes it to Philemon, we owe unto them even our own souls also, under God. What shonld we have been that were bom like the wild ats*s eolty that brought into the world with us so much sin, and folly, and corruption, if we had not had good parents, who took early care, to the utmost of their power, to form us to tibat which is good ? What should we have been if we had not been catechised and instmcted in the principles of religion, —'Which we sucked in with our milk,—if we had not tSee Flivfll** Fmntain of Life. Woiki, voL i. p 2S7. •/ wpra.
EzekielzvL been restrained from sin, and the springing up of the root of bitterness checked betimes ? And, if we had not been directed and quickened in the way of our duty, and told plainly,— This is the way, walk in it ? Notwithstanding all the advantages of our education, it is bad enough with us, and we have reason to complain of our ignorance and mistakes, our defects in our duty, and our proneness to sin. But how much worse would it have been with us, if we had never had those advantages ! Perhaps we should never have learned to pray, if our good parents had not taught us when we were young, and trained us up to it; should never have been acquainted with the word of God, if they had not made us acquainted with it, and taken care, thai, from our childhood, we should know the Holy Scriptures, as Timothy did, who, being so conversant with the Scriptures when he was a child, when he became a man, a man of God, was by that means thoroughly furnished for every good word and work; and if we, by the same means, be not so, in some measure, it is our own fault. They did their part.
Blessed were they of the Lord that took pity on us in our folly, and taught us the good knowledge of the Lord, of the Lord Jesus, and led us into an acquaintance with Jesus Christ, and him crucified; showed us the difference between good and evil, that we might abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good; reasoned with us many a time about our souls and another world; set before us life and death, the blessing and the curse; followed us with precept upon precept, and line upon line; dealt with us as reasonable creatures, showing us what a rational thing religion is, and so drawing us with the cords of a man ; dealt with us according to the capacities of our childhood, teaching us the things of God as we were able to bear them, with tenderness, and a gentle conduct, and so drawing us with the bands of love. This is what we ought always to retain the remembrance of, not only for our own benefit, but for their honour.
Blessed were they of the Lord, who followed the good instructions they gave us with constant and earnest prayers to God for us night and day; having presented us to Christ in our baptism, pursuant thereunto they oft presented us to him in their addresses to the throne of grace, and pleaded our baptism. A good stock of prayers they laid up for us,* which we hope are upon the file in heaven, and that we, and ours after us, shall reap the benefit of them; for, it is true of prayer, what we say of winter, that it never rots in the skies. Such parents as these ought not to be forgotten, but to be daily remembered, and spoken of with respect, who daily remembered us, and whose prayers, like Cornelius's, came up before God for a memorial.
2. We ought to give God thanks for them; and And, Life of the Rev. T. Cawton, p. 45. nt tvpra.
A SERMON PREACHED ON THE DEATH
that is the best way of calling them blessed; blessing God for them, and for the benefit we had by them. They were themselves, and were to us, what the free grace of God made them, and no more; and, therefore, that grace must have all the glory. Whatever is blessed to us we must bless God for, for he it is that blesseth it, and so maketh it a blessing; he is the Author and Fountain of all that which is worthy to be praised; and, therefore, in him, as the Centre, all the lines of praise must meet. All is of him, and therefore all must be to him. We are not to pray to God for the dead, but we are to praise God for them.
Let us, then, who had godly parents, look far back in our thanksgivings, and bless God, (1.) For his grace in them, which carried them on with comfort, and enabled them to finish their course with joy. Now, we have seen the end of their conversation, and with what a holy security and serenity of mind they put off the body, and removed to the world of spirits, we have reason to give glory to him who was the Author and Finisher of their faith; who led them on in their way, and bore them as upon eagles' wings, till he had brought them safely and comfortably to their journey's end,—to that blessed state, where they receive the end of their faith and hope, even the salvation of thdr souls.
We have reason to bless God for her that is now removed, who bid farewell to the world "^ so very cheerfully,—said she had enough of it, and longed to be with Christ;—would not have her sickness called an aflliction, but a welcome messenger to fetch her home ;—and said, a little before she died, she hoped she knew, in some measure, by experience, what it is for a believer to have eternal life abiding in him; having little doubt of her future happiness.^ For this she blessed God, and so should we.
(2.) We must bless God for our benefit by that grace. Though they could not give us grace no more than they could give us being, yet God was pleased to make use of them, as instruments in his hand, in the beginning and carrying on of that good work. God enabled them to teach us, and pray for iis; he made them guides to us, and faithful monitors, and made their words to be to us as goads and nails. Now, Thanks be to God, who put 3 Ck)r. viil.W. . ^ * • . .i • i r that earnest care into their hearts lOr us, even to travail in birth again, till they hoped they saw Christ formed in us. Has there been in the hearts of our parents, ministers, or friends, an earnest care for the welfare, the eternal welfare, of h Thus beautifully expressed by Mr. Baxter, as a motto for his own picture.
Farewell, rain world t as thou hast been to me.
Dust and a shadow, such 1 leave to thee.
The unseen life and substance I commit
To him that's substance, light, love to it
Some leaves and fruit are dropped for soil and seed; Hcaveo'i heirs to generate -, to heal and feed: Paatm xlix. 13. our souls ? Blessed be God, that put it into their heart, and made it such a blessing to us!
David thanked God for sending Abigl to meet him, and, with her vidsdom, to stop him from going on in a sinful way. Surely, we have much more reason then to thank God for our parents, who directed us into the good and right way. Blessed be God, that sent them ; and blessed be their advice; and blessed be their memory.
3. We must own the goodness of that way of religion and serious godliness, which they chose, and wherein they walked,—even to the end, till they finished their course. Wc call them blessed, in calling that blessed which they so highly valued, and valued themselves by; in calling religion's ways, ways of wisdom, and those ways of wisdom, ways of pleasantness. It is a great matter to us, in the government of ourselves, whom we call blessed ; whom we think well of, as in the best and most desirable condition; whose sayings we approve, and with whom we wish to take our lot. Even Balaam desired to die with the righteous, and have his end with them; but we must think it desirable to live with the righteous, and have our way with them. The fundamental error of a carnal world is, that they call the proud happy, whom God resists, Malachi iii. 15. and bless the covetous, whom God abhors. Psalm X. 4. They think worldly people, that have abundance of the wealth, and mirth, and gaiety of this world, are the only happy people; now, it is necessary that this mistake be rectified, as the Psalmist rectifies it. Psalm cxliv. 6. where he owns it to be the sentiment of the most,— Happy are the people that are in such a oue* —that live at ease, and grow rich,—but pronounceth it his sentiment, that, rather,-*-/fappy are the people whose God is the Lord. There are, then, hopes of young people, that they will do well, when they call their godly parents blessed, and reckon that, though they made no great figure in the world, were not dignified with pompous titles, did not raise estates, nor obtain a name like the names of the great ones that are in the earth, yet they were truly honourable, truly happy.
(1.) We must reckon that they were truly honourable ; and value ourselves more upon it, that we are a seed of saints, than if we were a seed of nobles. This will quicken us to pursue honour in the same way in which they obtained a good report. Though there were those, perhaps, of the fools in Israel, that might reproach and despise them, and say all manner of evil against them, for Christ's sake, yet we