4. Those who converse with the seals of the new covenant without preparation : 1 Cor. xi. 29, ' He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body ; ' fxj] BcaKpivcov, not putting a difference. There is a discern- ing speculatively and a discerning practically. The discerning specula- tively is when we are able to discourse of the meaning of these mystical ^ rites ; practically, when we are suitably affected ; not discerning when we carry ourselves as if it were common meat and common food. The
122 SERMON UPON HEBREWS XII. 24.
impressions of reverence, delight, holy awe, discover our practical dis- cerning. To stamp upon the king's picture or coin in contempt is a contumely to the king. The injuries done to man, or killing a man, is aggravated because man is the image of God, Gen. ix. 6, James iii. 9.
Use 4. Direction to us what to do when troubled with the terror of sin. There is a cry attributed to our sins ; the cry of our sins is gone up over our heads unto heaven. Sometimes they clamour in our con- sciences. Oh ! remember the cry of Christ's blood; that speaks aloud in heaven, let it also speak in our consciences. Inanimate things speak by our thoughts ; Abel's blood by Cain's despairing fears, so Christ's blood by the joy of our faith. Eemember the apostle's challenge and triumph : Eom. viii. 33, 34, ' Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifieth ; who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.' And Paul's boast : Gal. vi. 14, ' God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.' If you have felt the virtue of it, you will remember it.
FUNERAL SERMON
PREACHED UPON THE DEATH OF THE REVEREND AND EXCELLENT DIVINE
DR THOMAS MANTON,
WHO DECEASED OCTOBER 18, 1677.
BT
WILLIAM BATES, D.D.
FUNERAL SERMON.
And so shall toe ever he with the Lord. — 1 Thes. iv. 17, the last clause.
The words are a consolation, brought by the apostle from the third heaven, where he was, by extraordinary privilege, raised, and saw and understood how great an happiness it is to be with Christ. And they are addressed to believers, to moderate and allay their sorrows for the death of those saints, who, by their conjunction in blood or friendship, were most dear to them. Thus he speaks in the thirteenth verse, ' I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not as others which have no hope.' The heathens, that were strangers to a future state, and thought that, after a short course through the world, mankind would be lost for ever in the dead sea, might with some pretence abandon themselves to the extremity of their pas- sions ; but christians, to whom life and immortality are revealed by the gospel, who believed 'that as Jesus died and rose again, so all that sleep in Jesus,' that persevere in faith and holiness to the end, ' God will bring with him,' are forbid, upon the most weighty reasons, to indulge their grief in excess. The union between Christ and believers is inviol- able ; and from thence it follows, they shall be partakers with him in his glory. The soul immediately after death shall be with Christ. While the body reposes in the grave, it is in his presence who is life and light, and has a vital, joyful rest in communion with him. And in the appointed time the bodies of the saints, those happy spoils, shall be rescued from the dark prison of the grave, and be sharers with their souls in immortal glory.
This consummate happiness of the saints the apostle assures from highest the authority, ' The word of the Lord ; ' and describes his glorious appearance so as to make the strongest impression on our minds : 'For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord.' Then death, the last enemy, so fearful and feared by men, shall be destroyed ; and the cap- tive prince of the world, with all the powers of darkness, and all other rebellious sinners that obstinately joined with him, shall be brought in chains before his dreadful tribunal ; and after the great act of the universal judgment shall be completed, then all the saints shall make
126 DR manton's funeral sermon.
their triumphant entry with the captain of their salvation into his kingdom, and ' shall ever be with the Lord/
The general proposition from the words is this : The saints after the resurrection shall be completely and eternally happy in the presence of Christ.
To make this supernatural blessedness more easy and intelligible to us, the scripture describes it by sensible representations ; for whilst the soul is clothed with flesh, fancy has such a dominion that we can conceive of nothing but by comparisons and images taken from material things. It is therefore set forth by a feast and a kingdom, to signify the joy and glory of that state. But to prevent all gross conceits, it tells us that the bodies of the saints shall be spiritual ; not capable of hunger and thirst, nor consequently of any refreshment that is caused by the satisfaction of those appetites. The objects of the most noble senses, seeing and hearing, the pleasure of which is mixed with reason, and not common to the brutes, are more frequently made use of to reconcile that glorious state to the proportion of our minds. Thus sometimes the blessed are represented placed ' on thrones, with crowns on their heads ; ' sometimes ' clothed in white, with palms in their hands ; ' sometimes singing songs of triumph to * him that sits on the throne,' and to their Saviour. But the reality of this blessedness infinitely exceeds all those faint metaphors. Heaven is lessened by comparisons from earthly things. The apostle who was dignified with the revela- tion of the successes that shall happen to the church till time shall h& no more, tells us, ' it does not appear what we shall be in eternity.' ' The things that God has prepared for those that love him ' are far more above the highest ascent of our thoughts than the marriage-feast of a great prince exceeds in splendour and magnificence the imagination of one that has always lived in an obscure village, and never saw any ornaments of state, nor tasted wine in his life. We can think of those things but according to the poverty of our understandings. But so much we know that is able to sweeten all the bitterness, and render insipid all the sweetness of this world.