The Decrease of Lazarus, Title page – Dedication
THE DECEASE OF LAZARUS CHRIST'S Friend. A Funerall Sermon ON Iohn. Chap. 11. Vers. 11. Preached at the Buriall of Mr. JOHN PARKER Merchant and Citizen of LONDON.
By THO. GATAKER B. of D. and Rector of Rotherhith.
LONDON. Printed by E. G. for Edward Brewster, and Fulke Clyfton, and are to be sold at the Bible on Fleet-bridge, and on New-Fishstreet-Hill. 16…0.
TO THE RIGHT VERTVOVS and Religious Gentlewoman, Mrs. JOANE PARKER, the Relict of Master Iohn Parker lately deceased.
HAving beene, with much importunity and renewed reqests, aQotidian… …onviti… es flag…tatu… Fa…iu… Instit. pr…f.incessantly solicited, by divers, who either had themselvs heard, or from others heard of, what was delivered at the enterrement of your late wor…hy Consort, and either had knowne him in his life time, or taken notice of his course of life then related, to make that more publick, that was then uttered, in the audience but of a few to speak of, and by reason of the lownesse and feeblenesse of my voice, of the fewer; I was at length overwrought (though having formerly no such purpose) to condescend thereunto: the rather hoping that his examplary course of life and cariage, with the good effect and comfortable issue of it, might be a meanes, through Gods blessing working together therewith, to invite, incite, allure and winne others to the like. Experience teaching, that bVivi…ur exemplis. Nec tam imperio nobis opus est qam exemplo. Plin. Paneg. …lus succendunt exempla. qàm praedicamenta. Gregor. Dialog. l. 1. prae…. & qi praeceptis non accenduntur, exemplis saltem excitantur. Id. moral. l. 9. c. 43. Plerum que ad exercenda bona opera, aliena nos utiliter exempla persuadent. Ib. l. 22. c. 7. & grex, qi pastoris v… c…m mor…s que seqitur, per exempla melius qam perverba graditur. Id. de Past. l. 2. c. 3. Facilius suadent exempla qam verb…. Ambr. in 1 Cor. 14mans nature is of it selfe more prone to walke by example then by rule; and to follow precedents rather then precepts. Those also having this advantage of these, that cforeign. Arist. Probl. lib. 18. q. 3. Longum e…st iter per praecepta; breve & essi ax, per exempla. Senec. Epist. 6. Insuevit …a…er optimus hoc. me, u… fugerem, exemplis …i…orum q… que notando, Formabat dictis puerum sic, sive j…bebat ut f…ce…em qid, sive vetab…. Flac. Satyr. 4.they shew not only what things are enjoyned, and how things enjoyned may be done; but they dAdmonetur audi…aetas omnis, fi…ri posse qod factum est… Cypr. ad Donat. Melius homin…s exemplis docentur; qae in primis hoc in se boni habent, qod approb…t …ieri posse qae praecipiunt. Plin. in Paneg. Sermo qidam vivu… & efficax exemplum ope…is est, …acilè pers… adens q…d intendimus, dum factibile probat esse qod suademus. Bern. de Resur. 2. Adjuvari se ex…m…lis exoptat humana in…irmitas, qo facilius ipsa etiam nunc faciat, qae alios secisse ante cognosca… Salvian. contr. Avar lib. 3. Ex aliorum enim factis fieri posse credunt, qod fo…te dum putant fieri non posse, pigrescunt. August. Epist. 134.take away also that common counter-plea of impossibility, which against all exhortation and admonition is by the multitude usually objected; by shewing, that such things as are required of them, are no other then have beene done by eforeign. Acts 14.15. Ia…es 5.17.men like themselves; and may therefore be done by others also, and among others fforeign. M. An…on…n. l. 6. Sect. 19. Tes…es suos contra nos Dominus ins…a…r…t, eum bora qae f…cere ipsi negligimus. ad correptionem nostram, ab a…iis facta demonstrot: ut in recti tudini… appe…i…u nil sibi mens nostra di…si ile aes…imet, qod ante peragi ab aliis videt. Gr. Mor. l. 9. c. 43. Nescio qo modo amplius ad c…o…it…tē excitamur, per fidem, qâ cred. mus vixisse sic aliqē; & spe… qa nos …o que ita posse v…vere, qi homines sumus, ex co qod aliqiho…ines ita vixerunt, mi…i. …è desp…ramus. A…g. de Trinit. l. 8. c. 9.by themselves, if they will but as those before them have done, endeavour and enforce themselves thereunto. I remember a good saying of a Reverend Divine now with the Lord, that gMr. William Bradshaw in his Meditations on Christ. Tempt. MS.a good great man is a great Moat in the Devils Eye: for that the exampls of those that are in eminent places, as they are hMatth. 5.14. Tu to totius medio telluris in o…e Vivere cognoscas: cunc…is tua g…ntibus esse Fac…a palam: nec posse dari regalibus unqam secretum viti…. Nam lux al…issima fati occultum nihil esse s…nit, latebras que per omnes Intrat, & abst…usos explo…at fan are…ssus. Cla…dian de Honor. Coss. 4. foreign. Herodim. l. 4. Perluc…t omne regi…e vitium domus. Sen Agam. 2.1. Tibi nullum secret…m liberum est: in mult… l…ce fortuna …e posuit. Idem ad Po…yb. c. 25. Nost…os motus …auci sen…i…nt: …ibi non magis qam so…ila…ere conti…gi…: multa circa te lux est: omnium in istam conv…rsi oculi sunt. Id…m de Clem. l. 1. c. 8. foreign. Greg. Naz. in Patr. Qi m…gro imp…rio praed…i in excelso aetatem agunt, corum facta cuncti mortales novere. Sal…st. ad Caesar Ad …e oculos aures que tra…is: …ua facta notamus. Pedo ad Liv.more eyed of others, so iforeign. Basil. apud Anton. …l ss. l 2 c. 1. foreign. Nicet. in Al…x. Comn. l. 2. c. 4. Vua principis censura est, ae que perpetua. ad hanc dirigimur, ad hanc convertimur. Flexibiles qamcun que in partem d…cimur a princ…p…: at que ut ita d…am, se…ac…s s…mus: huic enim cari, huic prob…ti …ss… cupimus: q…d d…ssimiles …rust… asperant. Plin. paneg. Rex veli… honesta, ne…o n…n …adem v…l…t. Se…. Thyest 1.1. Nā totus componitur orbis Regis ad exemplū; nec sic inflect…re sensus Humanos edicta valent, qam vi…a regentu. Claud. ut sup. R…ctè facere princeps s…os sacie…do docet. V…lleius Hist l. 2. & contra, Vitia principes non selū ipsi concipi…, e…iam in civi…a…es infundun…; plus que exemplo qam pecc…to n…cent. Cic. de leg. l. 3.they draw the more after them, either to good or to evill. And I may well adde, that a r…ligious rich man is likewise (witnesse blessed kIob 1.10.Job) a great Moat in the Devils Eye: not only because such an one, having his heart enlarged answerably to his hand, may lIob 29.13, 15, 16. & 31.16, 20.by his bounty and beneficence do a great deale the more good, and that mGal. 6.10.where the Devill least liketh: but because also in such it is made to appeare, that by honest courses and nProv. 10.22.Gods blessing upon them, men may attaine unto wealth, as well as by fraud, deceipt, extortion, oppression, and such indirect wayes, as oHab. 2.9, 12.most strive to raise and advance their estates by, and pVaro, regustatum digito terebrare saelin… Contentus per…ges, si vivere cum Iove tendis. Pers. sat. 5. hoc est, qod Flac. l 2. Sat. 4. S…mp…r p…uper eri….without which they think wealth cannot possibly be compassed. Yea, let me adde in the third place, that a religious industrious man (and yet I see not well, qEphes. 4.28. 1 Tim. 5.8.how they can be severed) is a great Moat in the Devils Eye. For that by his… aven and wise practise such an one maketh it manifest, that a man may well serve God in a constant course, and yet follow also the duties of his speciall calling; and that there is therefore no such necessity, as many, on either side faulty, pretend, of neglect of the one, if the other be diligently attended; but that r1 Cor. 7.20, 24. Vbi vo…atio duplex, in qâ, ad qamboth of them may have their due time and place, without enterfering or justling out either of other, as the s1 Thes. 4.11. 2 Thes. 3…7, 12.rules both of reason and Religion require. The common, yea, almost generall abuse of the times, might well require me to adde, that a sober and temperate, as well as a religious (and yet tEphes 5.18. Rom. 13.13, 14…what Religion can be, where excesse reigneth?) but yet, that a sober and temperate Merchant or Tradesman, may well be reckoned among those Moates, that disturbe the common adversaries eye: since that by such it appeares, that men may have ordinarily, in orderly manner, mutuall commerce, trade, and traffick either with other, without uforeign, ut Athen. dipnos. l. 11. Persa…um ritu, qibus foreign. vid. Plut. Sympos. l. 7. c. 9.10.beating every bargaine they make over a Wine-pot, and concluding it with braines equally distempered on either side. In these therefore and divers other respects, I supposed the example of this our worthy friend and faithfull servant of Christ might be usefull to many: and was in that regard the rather induced to satisfie the desire of those, that so instantly pressed me in it. Which having once concluded on, I knew none fitter to addresse it to, then to your selfe; who had chiefe interest under God in him, xG…n. 2.24. 1 Cor. 7.4.by Gods own ordinance, while he lived; and may with fairest title and plea lay best claime to the memory of him now deceased. To you therefore, beloved in our common Saviour, I tender it to remaine by you; for my selfe, as a monument of mine entire a…fection to him, who is now with the Lord, and to his surviving for him; for your selfe, as a memoriall of what a precious Iewell it pleased God sometime to possesse you of, and to grace you with: yet not thereby to renew your griefe for your temporary losse of him, (if it may be so tearmed, when he is but, as yPhilem. 15. Deside an…us …s… tibi, q…si absens, n…n q…si …: u… illum expectare, n…n amisisse videa…is. H…er. de N…p.he saith of Onesimus, gone from you for a time, that you may after a while againe receive him and enjoy him for ever) joyned with his eternall and incomparable gaine; but zforeign. Basil orat. 5. Ne doleas, qod talem amiseri…; s…d gaudeas q…d t…lem habueris. Hi…ron. in Nepot. Non …oeremus, qod ta…ē amisimus; sed gratias agimus, qod habuimus, imò habemus. Idem in Paul. Non contri…lor, qod accepisti; s…d ago g…a…tias, qod dedisti. Idem ad Iulian. E…si dolemus ablatum, non oblivis…imur tomen, qod datu… suit: gratias agimus, qod habere illum meruimus, qo carere in tantum non volumus, in qantum non expedit. Bern. in Ca…t. 26. & de Humberto Ser. 110. Tulisti, q…niam tuus erat. Nec pro nobis, qibus ille sublatus est, murmurandum; magis gratias agendum, qod tam di… concessus est …obis.to minde you of his goodnesse who bestowed him upon you, and of thankfulnesse to him for the continuance of such a favour so long unto you. So beseeching God abundantly to blesse you, and all yours and his, with all spirituall blessings and sweet comforts in Christ, I take leave, and rest
Yours ever in all Christian office, THO. GATAKER.