THE Dead Man's REAL SPEECH.
KNow you not that a great man is faln in Israel? 2 Sam. 3. 38. This was David's noble Epitaph over Abner, though his Rebel: and how much more may this be our Just Preface to this solemn Funeral (to be sure) over a better Man than was Abner? Therefore in King David's [Page 2] words I may truly say again, Know you not that a great Man is now faln in our Israel? A great Man indeed, as shall appear before we take our Final Leave of him: We may be sure greater than Abner, not only in his State, but, which is the crown of all true greatness, in his Graces and Beneficence; in this indeed, and in truth, greater than Abner: yet Abner was a great man, for he was a General in the Field; (but on the wrong side, the Rebels side:) Our great man a General not only in the FieldThe Lord Bishop of Durham is Lieutenant General of this County, as ab Antiquo ex Officio, so, ex abundanti per Mandatum, by the Kings gracious Commission, cumulativè and so still under the King, who is always the Sovereign of all Estates in his Realms., but, which is much more, a General in this Church, I mean, his Diocess (a great one) and in both these great Capacities constantly Loyal, ad Exemplum: And yet, as high as this great man was so lately, behold how low he is laid down now, who yet must be laid down lower, as you shall see by and by. Such Spectacles of Mortality ought to be to us Survivours tot Specula, so many true [Page 3] Looking-glasses, wherein whatever our Artificial Looking-glasses may flatter us, with what our living faces seem to be now, this Natural Lookingglass tells us plainly, to our faces, what all our dead faces shall be, must be then (God knows how soon:) He being Dead, yet speaketh out Mortality to us all; so many Funerals, so many Warning-pieces to us all to prepare for our last and greatest Issue. This,Eccles. 70. 2. in the Judgment of the wise man, is the best use we can make of our Access to the House of Mourning, such as this house is at present; therefore the Living should lay it to his Heart, which that we may all do:
Let us pray with the Spirit, and in the words of KingDavid:
THe Scope of this Text (which must be the Aim of the Sermon) is this, to stir up all the faithful living to imitate the faithful that are dead;Hebr. 11. whereof this Chapter is the sacred Roll upon the Divine Records, down from Abel unto the Patriarchs, the Judges, the Kings, the Prophets,Hebr. 6. 12. &c. that is, that we should endeavour to become the followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
The Text is short, but the Lesson is long (that is) to live so now, as we may die well at last, and, by our good works, speak when we are dead.
The Parts are two, which do express two States of Man.
1. The state of Death, [He being dead] which is the privation of the life of nature common to all men, (on which frail life most men doat so much, because they have no care for, nor hope of a better life.)
2. The state of a Life after Death, [Page 5] that is, the Life of Glory, implied in these words [He speaketh] for Speech is the evidence of a living man: Ergo Abel though dead in the Body, yet is still alive in the Spirit.
The first is a Corrosive to the state of Nature, but the
Second comes in as a Cordial to all those who are in the state of Grace.
This Text appears much like the Israelites Guide in the Wilderness; 'twas a Cloud, Exod. 14. 20. with Hebr. 12. E. and that no ordinary Cloud, but such a Cloud as was Dark on the one side, and Light on the other side, dark towards the Egyptians, but Light towards the Israelites: Even so is Death, dark and sad to the Unbelievers and Impenitent, but lightsome and welcome to all true Penitents and Believers.
1. To begin with the first, The state of Death; Man in the state of Innocency was created capable of three Lives; the Life Corporal, Life Spiritual, and Life Eternal.
The first is the Life of Nature, a Transitory Life.
The second is the Life of Grace, a [Page 6] Life permanent upon condition of perseverance in uniform obedience to God.
The third is Life Eternal, the Life of Glory, the Life of the Saints Triumphant, of the Elect Angels, yea the Life of God himself, Ephes. 4. 18. and therefore a Life immutable, interminable:
2. Two of these three Lives [the Life natural and spiritual] man had then in present possession, and the third in a sure reversion after the expiration of but one Life, and that a short one too, but a span long; this present life is no more, by King David's just measure:Psal. 39. 5. Behold thou hast made my days, as it were a span long.
3. Man by his Apostasie from God, through the first original sin of willful incogitancy, and through pride, did soon deprive himself of all these three Lives at once, and so according to the just sentence of God, pronounced upon man aforehand (for a fair warning) Morte moriêris, Gen. 2. 17. Thou shalt die the Death, man was justly precipitated from that high state of Innocence into the base and damnable [Page 7] state of sin and misery, whereby every man, none excepted, (but the God and man Christ Jesus) is now by original sin become subject to a threefold Death, First, Corporal, Secondly, Spiritual, and thirdly (without Repentance) Eternal.
The first is Death Corporal, which is a total (but not final) separation of the Soul from the Body [the sad Real Text before our Eyes.]
The second is Death Spiritual, a far worse kind of death, a state of sin, which is a separation of the soul from the Grace and Favour of God which is life it self,Psal. 30. 5. without which we are all by nature,Ephes. 2. 1. dead in trespasses and sins, Children of wrath, no better.
The third and worst of all, is Death Eternal, and therefore called in Holy Scripture,Revel. 20. 6. The great Death, the second Death; because it is a final, total and eternal separation of both Soul and Body, from the Glorious Presence, Beatifical Vision, and admirable and unspeakable Fruition of God himself; whom as to serve here on Earth is the Life of Grace, so [Page 8] to enjoy in Heaven is the Life of Glory, which is life everlasting.
4. The first of these three [Death Temporal] none of us can avoid; die we must, die we shall, God prepare us all for it: But as the thing, Death, is certain for the matter, so for the manner, how we shall die, in, or out of our wits, as in Frenzies, &c. where we shall die, amongst Friends or amongst Foes; when we shall die, whether in youth or in old Age; how we shall die, whether by a suddain, violent, or painful Death (which God in mercy avert from us all) none of us all knows: and therefore our best course is, while we may (by a lively faith, timely repentance, and real amendment of life) to prepare for Death;St. Aug. and then come Death in what shape it will,de Discipl. and welcome, we shall not die unprepared.cap. 2. non potest malè mori qui benè vixerit, Audeo dicere, non potest malè mori qui benè vixerit. Yet it concerns us all frequently and seriously to think of these great Quatuor novissima [Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell.] 'Tis Moses his passionate wish; O that they were wise, that they understood this, Deut. 32. 29. that they would consider [Page 9] their latter end: Hebr. 9. 27. Since 'tis appointed for all men once to die, and after that comes Judgment. The Vulgar Translation renders it statutum est, Death is an universal Statute, Law to all mankind; and so it is both for authority of coaction, and certainty of execution, for it is grounded upon two of the greatest Attributes of God, which are,
First, God's infallible Truth; for the Commination was directed unto man, and that also in mercy, to forwarn him that he might not sin.
Secondly, God's exact Justice, which requires the execution of the Divine Sentence, to be done upon the same nature that had sinned. Man did sin, therefore man must suffer, that is, man must die; and because the first man Adam was the Original Root, and General Representative of all mankind (Adam's offspring) therefore all men must die (pray God we all may die well) or if they live to the end of the world, yet they must suffer a Change at the least,1 Cor. 15. 51. at the last, which Change whatever [Page 10] ever it be, (for 'tis a Mystery) will be equivalent to a Death, so that there lies an universal necessity to undergo a Death, some kind of Death.Gen. 5. 5. In the Antient Register of the Macrobii, those long liv'd Patriarchs, Adam liv'd 930 years, and he died; Methuselah, the longest liver of all Mankind, lived 969 years, and he died, &c. that is the burthen song of them all: Neither Methuselah the antientest, nor Sampson the strongest, nor Solomon the wisest of men, could exempt themselves from the fatal necessity of Death. Seneca himself, though but a Heathen Philosopher, being ignorant of the original cause of Death; yet observing the generality of the event of Death, drew his Topick of Consolation to his Friend Polybius, sad for the Death of his Brother, from this necessity of Death: But God be thanked, we Christians have better Topicks of Comfort for the Death of our Christian Friends, past, or our own Death a coming, by opposing, through Faith, against the terrour of our Dissolution [Page 11] by Death, the consideration of our admirable and comfortable conjunction with Christ our Head after Death. This glorious state is by St.Rom. 8. 19. Paul styled the manifestation of the Sons of God, for which, by a natural instinct, the whole Creation groaneth with an earnest expectation of the accomplishment: The word in the Original is very significant [ [...]] which betokens the looking for some Person or thing with lifting up of the Head, or stretching out their Necks with earnest intention and observation to see when the person or thing looked for shall appear; as a poor Prisoner condemned looks out at the Grates for a gracious Pardon: And if the Creatures inanimate, &c. do so earnestly pant for the Final Redemption of the Sons of God, how much more we being the Parties principally concerned? This made St. Paul as it were with hoised-up sails of Hope and Desire (the Affections of his Soul) to long to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Phil. 1. 21. [...] The Original imports to loosen, or to launch forth, as [Page 12] a Ship from a Forreign Port for a happy voyage towards her wished for Haven at home.
5. I have so much Christian charity for the surviving noble Relations of the Great man deceased, as to believe that, if they could, with their wishes and tears, waft him over back from Heaven to labour again on Earth, they would not do it, if they loved him indeed, and not rather themselves. 'Tis an excellent observation of Isidore Pelusiota (he lived above 1200. years ago) who commenting on these words of our Saviour's compassion for Lazarus expressed by his tears, that it was not at the Death of Lazarus, John 11. 35. but that it was at his Resurrection that Jesus wept, a real demonstration of his Humanity both natural and moral: This Father's note upon that difference is this, That our Saviour Christ's Love towards Lazarus was a Rational Love, yea, a Divine Love, not as Ours towards our dead Friends too too oft, too carnal or natural, or at the best a humane love, if not a self-love, we [Page 13] wish them alive for our own ends. True it is, that 'tis very lawful, and also very fit to pay our deceased Friends their due Tribute of Grief, and to let Nature have her course,Rom. 1. 31. lest we should seem or appear without natural affection; [...] but provided always that the Current of Nature do not overflow the Banks of Reason, much more the Banks of Religion settled by St. Paul, who would not have Christians to be sorry for their deceased Friends, as others who have no hope:1 Thes. 4. 13. For there is a lively hope of a joyful meeting again in the state of Glory, if we in the state of Grace do follow the Saints deceased. Upon this consideration is worth the observing the different manner of mourning of Joseph for his Father Jacob, his dear and near Relation, for Joseph mourned seven days only,Genes. 50. 3. 10. and of the Egyptians mourning seventy days for the same Jacob, a stranger to them. The reason of the difference is, because the Egyptians were unbelievers, but Joseph was a Believer of the Resurrection, and of a [Page 14] glorious meeting once again with his deceased Father, from thenceforth never to be separated. This Posie of sacred Meditations I do now present to the Noble Relations of the deceased; desiring them to accept this offer, and to use it as a Spiritual Handkercheif, to wipe off, if not drain the Spring of Tears for this their deceased support.
6. Mean-while our main care must be not to forfeit that glorious meeting by a course of life contrary to the good example of the Saints departed, but instantly to resolve, earnestly to study, constantly to endeavour to live well, that is to say, To make the Will of God the Rule of our Life, and the Honour of God the End of our Life: Rom. 14. 7, 8. This is to live unto the Lord, that is, in Subjection unto him; and then we may be sure to die in the Lord, that is, under his Protection, both of Body and Soul for evermore.
7. You may be pleased to remember that our Text was two faced, and therefore we compared it to the Israelites Guide through the Wilderness, [Page 15] a Cloud: we are now past the dark side of it, Death, [He being Dead] we must now face about and chearfully behold the bright side of the cloud, wherein the Dead speaketh; and here we have
- 1. The Speaker, He
- 2. The Speech implied, He speaketh
- 3. The time expressed, Yet, that is, after Death: [He being Dead yet speaketh]
8. First, the Speaker is Abel [...], whose name bears mankinds universal Motto in the Holy Tongue,Eccles. 1. [...]. that is, Vanity: for when all is done, Vanity of Vanities, Eccles. 12. 7. all is Vanity: until the Spirit of man return to God who gave it: till then, whatever Pride may prompt vain man,Psal. 39. 7. verily every man living, in his best estate, is altogether vanity, Selah!
Secondly, For his Trade, he was an Heardsman, for he offered to God the best of his Flock, in due Homage, and as a Figure of that Lamb of God, [Page 10] [...] [Page 11] [...] [Page 12] [...] [Page 13] [...] [Page 14] [...] [Page 15] [...] [Page 16] which was to come to take away the sins of the World: John 1. 29. no doubt he was well instructed by his Parents Adam and Eve, of whose Conversion and Salvation to doubt, (since the promise of the Blessed Seed preached unto them by Almighty God himself after their fall,Gen. 3 15. and which we must in reason suppose was apprehended and applyed by them to themselves through Faith, lest God's preaching should prove vain: such a suspicion, or doubt of their eternal state) were in us their Posterity an odious want of charity,Iren. Epiph. Chrysost. Augustin. &c. and against the Current of the Antient Fathers, who give for it this probable reason, That God did expresly curse the Serpent and the Earth, but God did not at all curse either Adam or Eve; but contrarywise God in mercy did bestow upon Adam and Eve the original and fundamental blessing of the Promised Seed, the Messiah which is Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour, in whom all Adam and Eve's Posterity should be blessed; and therefore they are not to be concluded within the number [Page 17] of the damned crew, upon whom shall be pronounced that dreadful final sentence of Ite maledicti: Mat. 25. 41. Go ye cursed. As a clear evidence of Adam and Eve's Faith, we produce their Works, namely the Godly Education of their Children, Cain and Abel, in God's true Religion, to offer corporal sacrifices, &c. with a spiritual reference, and therefore with faith in the only expiatory and satisfactory sacrifice to be performed in the fulness of time by the person of the Messiah, Galat. 4. 4. the second Adam, for the saving of mankind, as the first Adam was in the damning of mankind; both the Adams being publick Representatives of all mankind, as the first in the Fall, so the second in the Resurrection.
9. This just Apology for our first Parents, Adam & Eve, I thought it my filial duty to offer unto all mankind, Adam's off-spring, once for all to stop the mouths of censorious Children unmindful of their original duty, and of the Rule Parentum Mores non sunt Arguendi: Genes. 9. 22, 23. Shem and Japhet were [Page 18] blessed for turning away their faces from their Father's nakedness, but wicked Cham was, for outfacing it, cursed with a grievous curseThis Curse sticks to this day (above 4000 years) as a foul brand upon Cham in his cursed Posterity, for the Egyptians and Ethiopians or Blackamoors are the Descendants of cursed Cham [Lexic. Geographic. Ferrarii ad vocem Aethiopiam. Sam. Bochart. geographia saera parte 1. lib. 4. cap. 1.] A People of all Nations most inconvertible, even to a Prophets Proverb [Jerem. 13. 23.] Can the Ethiopian change his skin &c. A standing dreadful Monument, and a thundering Warning piece to all such young Chams, as dare to disgrace their Parents privately, or rebel against them publickly..
10. 'Tis very observable that God had respect unto Abel first, and then to his sacrifice, to intimate that God first accepts the Person, and then his service,Vers. 4. for Abel offered by Faith, but Cain without Faith, for want of which God rejected the person of Cain (though the Elder Brother) and consequently his sacrifice.
Hence observe, that two men may come and worship God with the same kind of outward worship; and yet differ much in the inward manner, and success of their service to God: Witness Cain and Abel in the Old Testament,Luke 18. and the Publican and the Pharisee [Page 19] in the New. For the true Religion is chiefly inward for the substance, and not only outward for the circumstance and ceremony; the Religion of too many, I had almost said, of most formal Professors now a days; an Artificial Religion, as being moved chiefly, if not only, by outward Respects and Objects, without any inward Life, the want of which did make a wide difference betwixt Cain and Abel, the Speaker here, from whom to pass unto his Speech, we shall interpret it by a three fold Exposition.
- 1. Grammatical.
- 2. Doctrinal.
- 3. Moral.
11. As to the Grammatical Exposition, I am not ignorant that the word [ [...]] in the Original may be verbum medium, and so may be translated either in the passive sence [he is spoken of] as some few Interpreters have rendred it, or in the active sence, to which I am rather carried by the [Page 20] clear and strong current of almost all Interpreters.Syriack, Vulgar, Aethiopick, Arabick, French, English, Germain, Italian., and the Harmony of eight Translations both Antient and Modern, who all render it actively, He speaketh. This Translation is confirmed by a clear Parallel (Hebr. 12. 24.) where comparison being made betwixt the precious blood of Jesus Christ and that of Abel, Clem. Alex. Chrysest. Vatablus, Zege [...]us, Grotiu [...], Tena. 'tis expressed in the active sence [ [...]] Not in the passive, that the blood of sprinkling is better spoken of, but in the active that it speaketh better things than that of Abel. Ergo, Abel being dead, yet speaketh, quod erat demonstrandum: Enough of the Grammatical Exposition.
12. We pass now to the Doctrinal Exposition. The Doctrine is this, That for the godly there is a life after this life, for Abel being dead yet speaketh, but we know that dead men are speechless, and that speech is both a sign and an action of life, Abel is not absolutely dead, though dead in part, he still lives. We inlarge the instance from righteous Abel unto all the faithful; the total summ is this, [Page 21] That though good men die, yet their good deeds die not; but they survive, and that in both Worlds.
First,Prov. 31. 31. In this world to their due praise (for their own good works praise them in the gates.)
Secondly, They live in the next world by their Reward and Coronation,Revel. 14. 13. for their works do follow them: So many good works, so many living Tongues of good men after Death; who are therefore styled in the Holy Gospel,Luke 20. 38. The Children of the Resurrection: and again, Abel still lives unto men, in the memory of all good men, for to such the memory of the just shall be blessed, Prov. 10. 7. and the memory of their vertues calls for both our Commemoration and Imitation of them, which leads me to the third point propounded, which was the Moral Exposition.
13. For I suppose none that hear this, are so gross of understanding, as to imagine a Vocal Speech of the Dead, which would be a miracle, but a Speech Analogical, by such a Figure as the Heavens speak when they declare the Glory of God. Psalm. 19. 1. The parallel [Page 22] of St. Chrysostom upon the Speech of Abel, our speaker in the Text: the Father, after his wonted Rhetorick, amplifies it thus; If Abel had a thousand voyces when he was alive, he hath many more, now he is dead, speaking to our admiration and imitation. But though the Dead Man's Speech be no vocal speech, yet it is and will be a real speech for our conversion or condemnation to the end of the world: for Abel being dead, yet speaketh.
First, He speaketh by his Repentance implied in his sacrifice, not only for Homage, due by all rational creatures, whether Angels or men, unto God their Creator, but also as a tacit confession of sin to be expiated by the All-sufficient sacrifice of the promised blessed seed, the Messiah to come, and so Abel being dead, yet speaketh, and was by his typical sacrifice the first Prophet of the Old Testament. The good examples of holy men are standing real Sermons: For there are two wavs of preaching, by word, or deed: The first is good, the latter [Page 23] is better, but both are best.
Secondly, Abel being dead, yet speaketh by his faith expressed here in the Text, which faith is a neverdying Preacher to all Ages of the Church, because it assureth all the faithful (such as was Abel) of both God's regard and reward of all his true Servants,Hebr. 11. 6. who follow Abel's faith.
Thirdly, Abel being dead yet speaketh by his works of Righteousness, James 11. 18. the necessary and best evidences of a lively faith,Hebr. 11. 4. for which Abel stands canonized by God's own approbation and acceptance, First of his person, that he was righteous, and then of his performance, his sacrifice: Therefore Abel is inrolled with Enoch (vers. 5.) for his Communion of Faith, Godliness, and Happiness, by which both Enoch and Abel pleased God.Theodotian. Theophyl. & Alii. The Jewish Rabbins, and sundry Christian Interpreters offer as a tradition this sign of God's acceptance of the sacrifice of Abel, Lev. 9. 24. 2 Chron. 7. 1. to wit,Kings 8., 8. by sending Fire from Heaven (as upon Aaron's and upon Solomon's and upon Eliah's sacrifice) which kindled the [Page 24] sacrifice of Abel the younger Brother, and not that of Cain, who was the elder Brother.Cornel. B [...]rtram. Some Interpreters think that this acceptation of Abel's sacrifice was a designation of Abel, the younger Brother, to the Priesthood before Cain the elder Brother, and that these were the occasion of Cain's envy, and his envy the cause of Abel's murther. By the way, 'tis worthy our observation that all that come to worship God are either Abels or Cains, that is, they come with faith or without faith, and they speed accordingly.
Fourthly and lastly, Abel being dead yet speaketh, as in his Life by his Actions, so at his Death by his patience and passion; for as St. Stephen was the Proto-Martyr of the New Testament, so was Abel the Proto-Martyr of the Old Testament, for he died for righteousness sake: Hence some Interpreters derive his name from [...], which in Holy Tongue signifies to mourn, because he was the first man that did taste of Death, for which, and for whom his (and our first) [Page 25] Parents Adam and Eve did begin to mourn.
As it is certain that sin, though but a beast, hath a voyce, and which is more strange in a beast, sin hath an articulate voice, and by a counter-passion, which is lex talionis, sin doth not only indite the sinner, but also indorseth upon the sinners bill the parallel punishment for time or place, person or action, so that many times the punishment becomes the Anagram of the sin: This even natural men do confess,Judges 1. 7. witness Adonibezeck, As I have done, so God hath requited me: which was also King David's case,2 Sam. 12. 10. Blood for Blood; such was the voice of sin, and of their own Consciences. Sin hath a voice indeed, and that a loud voice, for it reacheth as high as Heaven, to God's ear, and from thence rebounds with an eccho upon a man's own conscience.Gen. 18. 20. We read of the cry of Sodom, James 5. 4. and of the cry of the hireling's wages, kept from him, and here Abel's blood hath a voice that cries aloud for Justice in God's eares, and as it were, prefers a Bill of Indictment, upon [Page 26] which God, the just Judge, immediately arraigneth Cain, passeth Judgment and doth Execution upon Cain the Fratricide, stamping a curse both upon his person and estate, saying, What hast thou done? Gen. 4. 10, 11. the voice of thy brothers blood cries unto me from the Ground, and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thine hand: When thou tillest the Ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. Now, as sin hath a voice so grace hath a voice also, calling upon us as for our Imitation of the vertues of the Saints departed,Revel. 14. 13. so calling upon God for a gracious compensation of their works which follow them after death: not at all by way of merit, but of God's free mercy; for what proportion betwixt man's works which are but temporary and therefore finite (all our best works are no more,Rom. 8. 18. and besides imperfect all) and God's high reward which is Infinite both for weight and for duration to [Page 27] all eternity? Some Interpreters add a fifth way, by which Abel being dead, yet speaketh, to wit, as a Type, by his blood shed by Cain his Brother, prefiguring the blood of Christ shed by his brethren the Jews. And thus many ways, Abel being dead, yet speaketh; And so all good men, though dead, yet speak by their good works of Faith and Patience: In which blessed number, this dead man before our eyes was through God's grace listed, and so speaketh by his good deeds to his Generation, and seems by his example to preach unto us all St. Paul's Apostolical Admonition,Galat. 6. 9. Not to be weary of well doing, for in due season we shall reap [a reward] if we faint not, as our Christian hope is, the deceased Prelate findeth it now to his everlasting comfort.
O how gladly would I make an end here, and so come down! Sorry I am that I must now pass and descend from the Literal Text to this our Real Text lying before us; But 'tis a Rule of Christian practice, that when God hath been pleased to reveal his will [Page 28] by the event, our humble resignation of our selves and friends, and all, with submission of our will to God's will is our duty, and the best remedy to allay all our sorrows, and to say in the words, and with the spirit of Holy Job, Job 1. 21. The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord, (which is part of our office for burial) in all this Job sinned not, no more should we if we would be followers of Job's faith and patience, which God grant us all, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed from Angels, from us, and from all men, all praise, power, Majesty and Dominion, now and for ever. Amen.