We house. Let us, therefore, visit that house often in | heaven to John, Revelations iv. 1. Come up hither, our meditations: take a walk, now and then, into-up hither in your thoughts and meditations; up the valley of the shadow of death. We could never with your hearts,' and live by faith in those serene, say of this house, when at any time we left it, we quiet regions above; and, blessed, blessed be God, were sure of coming to it again, but we may be cer- in our father's house are many mansions; the place tain that, sooner or later, we must go to the grave. is not too strait for us; we need not scatter there as Let us, therefore, be always ready. The nearer we do on earth; there is room enough for him who death approaches us, the louder are its calls to us is gone, and all his family, him and his seed, and to prepare for our change. It would help to apply his seed's seed. God grant that a promise being our hearts unto wisdom, thus, to number our days; left us of entering into his rest, none of us may for if there were more of death in our thoughts, there seem to come short. To conclude this head ;-being would be more of life and liveliness in all our ac- dead, methinks, he yet speaks to us in the language tions. He who is removed from us, was one that of Solomon, Proverbs xxvii. 10.—Thine own friend, was very industrious to familiarize death to himself; and thy father's friend, forsake not. The God with he frequently thought, spoke, and wrote of it, not, whom we have to do, is our Friend, and was our as many who are thus all their lives subject to bond- father's Friend, Psalm xxii. 4. The God in whom age, with a certain fearful, but with a certain our father trusted. He found him faithful, and, cheerful, looking for that change. Let us, in like from his own experience, recommended him to us manner, converse with it; it will come never the as a good Master,—the God that fed him all his life sooner, but it will be much the more easy, and wel- long. Let us, therefore, avouch the Lord this day to come, and less formidable to us, when it doth come. be our God, and to walk in his laws, and to keep his Every one in his own order, that is, in the order ap- statutes, and never be prevailed with to leave him, pointed by him in whose hand our souls are.* or to turn from following him. If God loves the must shortly be gathered to our fathers, and have children for the father's sake, as he is said to do, no reason to count upon an exemption from it. Romans xi. 28. sure the children should love God, Since, as Elijah pleaded, when he so passionately and serve him, for the father's sake. Our father's desired to die, we are not better than our fathers, 1 relation to God, we may plead with him in prayer, Kings xix. 4. We see a generation rising up to as 2 Chronicles xxvi. 6. and, therefore, plead it with stand in our room, as we do in the room of those that ourselves, as a strong inducement to duty and obeare gone before us. But it is only the body, that dience. If we are born in God's house, and are the poor, despised, broken vessel, that is laid in the seed of his servants, truly we should be his servants; grave, the immortal soul is translated to the hea- if he be our father's God, we must exalt him. He, venly regions; with heaven, therefore, we should being dead, thus speaketh to his children, Thine own converse familiarly, and dwell more in our thoughts God, and thy father's God, forsake not and forget not. among those mansions of light, where not only our 2. He, being dead, yet speaks to you of this congreheavenly Father is, but, which should be some induce- gation. Long, and often, he hath been speaking to ment to us; he also that was the father of our flesh. you in the name of the Lord; and an account must Many a time we have, with much delight and sa- be shortly given for all that he hath spoken to you, tisfaction, visited here at this house, and now we or rather God by him. Above thirty years he hath can visit him here no more. If we have but bold- been among you. Part of which time was, indeed, ness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, a cloudy and dark day, when such a man as he was we may visit him there, converse with that glory hid; and yet, some of you know that even then his which he is in possession of. Let our conversation, labours were little the less. When he durst not do therefore, be in heaven, not only where Christ is, what he would, he did what he could. But, blessed but where so many of our dear relations are, be God, the evening of his day was more clear and with whom we have taken sweet counsel. Now bright. His having been thirty years with you, brings there is one loadstone more in heaven to draw our to my mind a few lines which he penned on the death hearts thitherwards. Methinks, he being dead, of a worthy minister, who had been the same number yet speaks to us in those words that came from of years with his people, (Mr. Nevet, Oswestry.) 2 The consideration of shortnesse of life, may be matter of consolation and comfort unto such as believe. What knowest thou, but that there is but a step between thee and heaven? Thou art here this yere; thou mayest be in heaven before the next. Thou art here this month, thou mayest be with Christ before the next. Yea, thou art here to-day; thou mayest be in blisse before tomorrow. Oh, this happy estate! How would men admire the happinesse of such a begger as were in possibility every houre to be advanced to a kingdome! The Monument, or Tombe-stone; a Sermon at the Funerall of Mrs. Elizabeth Juxon, by Stephen Denison, duod. 1620. pp. 22, 23. M 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; -We know in whose hands our times are. This should quiet us as to afflicting providences. Mrs. Savage. Diary. Orig. MS. y In the ancient church, when the people began to bring their offering unto the altar, the priest was to say-Ayw Tas kapdias,— Lift up your hearts. Mede's Works, p. 293. ut supra. z See ante, p. 144. The owner thought it much three years to come Only let your conversation be as becometh 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 re Sought not the fleece, but flock; not yours, but you. proached and evil spoken of. Then do not you re proach 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 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 1. He, being dead, yet speaks to you,-to repent | you. Many eyes are upon you, that watch for your of your sins. Especially, the sin of your unfruit- | halting; therefore, see that ye walk circumspectly. fulness under the means of grace. It was sin that 3. Being dead, he yet speaks to you,-to hold was the procuring cause of this calamity; it is that fast the profession of your faith without wavering. which now corrects you and reproves you; that is Remember what you have received and heard, and it which hath quenched your coal, and put out your hold fast. Let it never be said concerning you of light. If conscience be any wise awakened under this congregation, that your faith and religion were this sad providence, you cannot but say,- We are pinned upon your minister's sleeve, and that when verily guilty. Your unprofitableness and unfruit- he died, that died with him. God forbid; for we fulness, your barrenness, your barrenness; your are built upon Christ, the chief corner stone. Minisleanness, your leanness,-though you have been fed ters are the builders of the church, but not the in the fat pastures of the ordinances,-was the sin foundation of it. Let me, therefore, exhort you all, that provoked God to remove your minister from you. in the words of Barnabas, that with purpose of heart, Turn your tears, therefore, into the right channel, you would cleave to the Lord, Acts xi. 23. The shepand weep not for him, but for yourselves, and for herd is smitten, but it is only the under-shepherd of your sins. Now is a time to reflect on your manage- the sheep; the Great Shepherd is still the same, and ment and improvement of the means of grace you will be with you while you are with him: to him, therehave had, and to be by that humbled before the Lord fore, you must resolutely adhere, with a firm and unfor your carelessness and neglect. Now you ought shaken constancy. I believe that God, who hath the to remember against yourselves your vanity and hy-residue of the Spirit, hath also such mercy in store for pocrisy, 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. a There is no real deliverance from death, but to be carried well through it. Dear father's frequent prayer was,-That God 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 yet 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 as 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 glory. Mrs. Savage. Diary. Orig. MS. vant, you are 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." will be like the arrest of a traitor; a hurry out of the world, like the surprise of that wretched worldling,-Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. 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--We may make some faint guesses at heaven's denly.b Lastly. He being dead, yet speaks,-comfort and encouragement 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 out 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 xiv. 28. why may not the removal of a faithful minister furnish us with 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 (though 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 course 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, &c. by the Rev. George Swinnock, pp. 34, 36. 4to. 1662. • See a like record in the Life and Death of the Rev. R. Bolton, p 30 ut supra. 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 dead, he yet speaketh 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, 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: they 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. d From an authentic MS. in the possession of the Rev. T. Sted. man. On comparing it with Mrs. Savage's MS. copy it appears to have had the benefit of the author's emendations; and it should seem, from 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 AGE. BY HER SON, THE REV. MATTHEW HENRY, V. D. M. PROVERBS 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 seek 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,- —come 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 of 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. Phil. iv. 8. virtue, saith the apostle, if there be any praise; which intimates that virtue is a praise, not only 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 holiness 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 feareth 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 the memory of the just be blessed; and, therefore, when they make mention of any eminent saint, they add, Sit memoria ejus benedicta, Let his memory be blessed. We call the burying of our dead friends, the last office of our love to them, but it is not so, there is a 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 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 as 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 | from. Matthew v. 16. Though we must not make the praise of men our | proachfully, as they do, who, under pretence of overchief end, far be it from us to do so. If we seek coming the world, overrun it. And they that in honour from men, we implicitly slight that which these things faithfully serve God and their generacomes from God, as not sufficient to reward our tion, not only give no occasion to the enemy to services, and balance our losses; yet in order and speak reproachfully of them, but give occasion to all subordination to the glory of God, we must have an to speak honourably of them; and, among the rest, eye to our reputation with men. Let their children shall arise up and call them blessed. your light so shine before men, 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 works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven, from whom proceeds every grace, and every good and perfect gift, and who, therefore, is the Father of all those lights. Not that they may see your good works, and glorify you; you must expect to be abased and vilified, and not seek your own glory; but see your good works, and glorify your Father, and that from him all your glory may result and be reflected. James i. 17. Eccl. vii. 1. Proverbs xxii. 1. 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. Psalm x. 14. 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,-Now let thy servant depart in peace. We are to value things as they are rated in God's 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 this world. A good namea 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 God and godliness. And, therefore, whatsoever things are honest and lovely, amiable and of good report, 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 abjure 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. I will, saith the apostle, that they marry, bringing, 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 1 Timothy v. 14. up children, guide the house, and give a Be careful to walk so that you may get and keep a good name, but not by unlawful means, Gen. xi. 4. Many discommend themselves to draw on others' commendation. Provide honest things, Rom. xii. 17. 2 Cor. viii. 21. Phil. iv. 8. Avoid all appearance of evil, Eccl. x. 1. 1 Thess. v. 22. Sin stains a good name,-Judas, not 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 threaten Iscariot. If you honour God, 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. vii. 1, 2. P. Henry. Orig. MS. |