Sermon Preached Upon the Death of Queen Mary, Half title – Dedication
Dr. BATES's SERMON UPON THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN.
A SERMON Preached upon the much Lamented DEATH Of our Late Gracious Sovereign QUEEN MARY. To which is Added the Address of Condolence TO His MAJESTY BY THE Dissenting Ministers. By WILLIAM BATES, D. D.
Psalm 112. 6.
The Righteous shall be in Everlasting Remembrance.
LONDON, Printed for Brabazon Aylmer, at the Three Pigeons in Cornhil: M DC XCV.
TO The Most Illustrious WILLIAM Duke of BEDFORD.
May it please your Grace,
IN this Season of Griefs that overspreads Three Kingdoms, I thought it not unbecoming me, to add one Voice to the Consort of Mourners.
The Universal Goodness of the Queens Life, is attended with a Sorrow of Equal Compass at her Death. If we Consider the Causes of it, our Sins, the just Incentives of Gods High Displeasure, and the Chain of fearful Consequences that may ensue; What Heart is such a frozen Fountain as not to Dissolve, and mix flowing Tears with the Current that will be permanent in Times to come.
I have presum'd to inscribe your Most Honourable Name in the following Sermon, knowing that notwithstanding the meanness of the Composure, the Subject of it will be very pleasing to your Grace, as being the Expression of Homage to the Memory of the Incomparable Princess, our Sovereign by a Double Title, by her Resplendent Virtues, and by her Crown. I am
My Lord, Your Graces very Humble and Obedient Servant, William Bates.
A SERMON Preached upon the much Lamented DEATH Of our Late Gracious Sovereign QUEEN MARY.
PSALM 102. verses 26, 27.
They shall perish, but thou shalt endure, yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
THIS Psalm was according to the judgement of the best Interpreters Composed during the Captivity in Babylon: And in the former Verses the Prophet reflects sadly upon the Churches Afflicted State, and his own Misery and Mortality: Verses 14, 23, 24. He extends his view to the Ruinous Prospect of the Fabrick of Heaven and Earth: They shall decay, and, be destroyed, either in their substance, or qualities and use: Perish by Consuming, or be changed by a purifying Fire. From this Consideration he turns his Thoughts to the immutable Constancy and Eternity of God, But thou art the same; thy Compassionate Favour and Power never decline; and thy years shall have no end. Upon this ground he raises his Hope, that God will revive and restore his Church; the children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.
The Proposition that I shall Discourse of is this.
That the Unchangeable Everlasting Perfections of God are the sure Foundation of the Churches Hope in its Desolate State.
In the managing of it, I shall first consider the unchangeable Perfections of God.
2. How they are the Foundation of the Churches Hope.
In Discoursing of the first Head I shall premise, that the most sublime Spirits in Heaven cannot fully discover and comprehend the intimate and unsearchable Perfections of God. He dwells in that Light which is inaccessible, the astonishing Glory of his Essence. How little then of his Nature is known here? In the present state of Union with the Flesh, we cannot contemplate things purely Spiritual without some material resemblances. Humane Knowledge and Language begin by the Senses, and in the ascent of the Mind to the Supreme Region, we are constrained to make use of the most refined sensible Representations of Divine Things, as rising steps, lest our Thoughts, by their own weight, fall into gross matter.
The Holy Spirit in great Condescension reveals God to us, in Expressions suitable to our Capacity and Conception; but the Understanding must be attentive to correct the Imagination, that we may not offend his Majesty, and lessen his Glory. In the Text, the Eternity of God is set forth, His years shall have no end: And he is stiled, The antient of dayes: Which signifie the unequal spaces of transient Time, and are proper only to created things that have a successive duration, and are Metaphorically attributed to God. Eternity that is proper to God, is a duration permanent, indivisible, and wholly present in it self. All the numbers of motion and measures of Time are comprehended and lost in the vastness of Eternity, as a few drops of Rain that fall into the immense Ocean. 'Tis said of God, He is, and was, and is to come. There isRev. 1. 4. no past or future in God, but with respect to his Works. Our Saviour declares, I am the first, and the last; wherein he attributes to himself a Perfection truly and manifestly Divine.
The absolute immutability of the Divine Nature is by a comparison declared in Scripture: God is stiled, The Father of Lights, in whom there is no Isa. 44. 6.variableness nor shadow of change. The great Luminary of Heaven has various Aspects and Appearances in its Rising and Meridian, and Setting; is changeable in its Approaches and Recesses, from whence different Shadows are cast: But the Father of Lights has an invariable tenour of Glory, he is without motion and mutation. God is absolutely exempt from all change in his Nature, and from all accidental change. The Reason of this is evident from the consideration of his necessary self-existence, and from the absolute simplicity of his Being. Selfexistence is the intrinsical Property of Gods Nature: He defines himself by it, I am that I am. He directs Moses to tell the Israelites, I am hath sent Exod. 3.me unto you. This and the Wonder working Rod were his Credentials to authorize and dignifie him in their esteem, and to induce them to believe his Message. Jehovah, which is the same with I am, is the essential, supream, and singular Name of God, whereby he is distinguished from all Created Beings: It exhibits the clearest Character of the Deity. There are other Divine Titles that signifie particular Attributes, but Jehovah declares his Being from himself, independent upon any cause; his necessary Eternal Nature the Root (if I may so speak) from which his Perfections spring and flourish. All other things are from his Causality; every spark of Life, every degree of Being is from him: But the most excellent Creatures compared to him, are but as dark shadows without reality. Therefore God assumes to himself, I am, and there is none besides me. 'Tis said the whole World compared to him, is like a drop of the bucket to the sea, or the dust of the ballance to the globe of the earth; nay, is less than nothing. There is a greater distance between God and the Angels, than between the Angels and their native nothing: For they have derived, and dependent, limited Beings, but God is all Perfection, all Greatness and Goodness from himself.
This necessary Self existence of God is the Foundation of his Immutability: Thus he declares, I am the Lord Jehovah, I change not: He is necessarilyMal. 3. 6. and eternally himself, and all that he is, without the least change for a moment. Absolute necessity of Existence invincibly infers the infinity of Existence: For the limits of any Being are determined by the productive cause of it. Of Created Beings some excel in one thing, some in another, according to the Will of the Maker. Every change in the substance of things is either perfective or corruptive, and both are equally impossible in God. For nothing can accrue to Infinite Perfection, and nothing can be wanting to it. Any accession to his Excellency implyes, there was a defect before, if any impairing, there would be a defect afterward: From hence it follows, either that he was not God before, or that he shall cease to be God afterward, it being absolutely impossible that any Perfection be wanting in the true God.
The absolute simplicity of the Divine Nature does infer the immutability of it. 'Tis true the Perfections of God are exprest by different titles, and are apprehended by us under different conceptions, yet they are all the same Infinite Nature. There is no composition and mixture of Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness in God, but he is all Perfection in the Unity of his Essence.
Eternity is a resultance from his independent Nature: For we cannot conceive of a Being necessary in it self, but it must be Eternal; From everlasting to everlasting thou art God. Whatever is made is perishable, either from the principles of its composition, as the Bodies of Animals, which being made of jarring Elements, dye by Natural Expiration, or may be destroyed. The Angels, tho' Spiritual Substances, are mortal to God, he can by a word annihilate them: Nay, their Immortality depends upon his Power, the productive and conservative cause of their Beings. He only has Immortality, the inseparable1 Tim. 6. Perfection of his Nature, and bestows it upon others.
The Eternity of God is inseparably connexed with his Immutability: For that Being that cannot change, cannot cease to be. These Attributes infer and illustrate one another. Those things which Time bestows, it takes away: Flowers that are of a springing accomplishment, gradually wither: But the Sun shone with as much lustre and force the first day as ever since, and continues in its perfection. God was from Eternity, and therefore is alwayes the same in himself. He is not more Powerful when he Works, nor Wise when he Governs, nor more Just when he Punishes, nor more Good when he bestows his Benefits. The Immutability of the Divine Nature is proper to every Perfection: I will mention some of them.
The Divine Wisdom is so perfect there can be no addition to it. From Eternity it fixed the best end of all things, the Glory of the Creator; and appointed the fittest means to obtain it. His all-discerning Eye with one imperious view comprehends all events necessary and contingent. He sees all real effects, and all possible in himself: For he perfectly understands his own Power, and his own Will. To his Coeternal Knowledge nothing is past, or to come: Nothing occurs new, or appears old.
The Divine Power is not capable of accession or diminution. In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. 'Tis a Perfection inseparably inherent in his Nature: O Lord be exalted in thine own power. Psal. 21. Esay.The Lords arm is not shortened: With the least strain of his Power he can do all things. We have a constant visible demonstration of the unchangableness of these Attributes: For the same Infinite Wisdom and Power are requisite to manage the World as to make it. Without his directing Light and supportting Power, that Frame of the World would disband, and the full Harmony of it be turned into confusion. He upholds all things by the word of his Heb. 11.Power. The manner of sustaining and governing this great World, is as Divine as the thing it self. For no less than Infinite Power can do things by a commanding Word.
The Mercy of God endures for ever. This is renewed every Morning and Moment: 'Tis from his never-failing Compassions that we do not fail. This is our continual Advocate to deprecate the Evils we deserve, and obtains all good things for us. 'Tis Mercy supports and sweetens our Lives, that are so frail, and so often forfeited. The unwasted Treasure of Mercy supplyes our Wants, satisfies our Desires, allayes our Sorrows. The Divine Mercy vanquishes our Fears, comforts us in the Hour of Death, and crowns us after it with Everlasting Life.
The Holiness of God, the brightest Ornament of his Essence, is unchangable: 'Tis without spot or wrinkle, that may stain its Absolute Purity. This is the Radical, Fundamental Rule of Order in the Divine Government. 'Tis as impossible the Will of God should decline from Moral Good, as that his Understanding should not discern it. From hence our Saviour declares, That Heaven and Earth shall pass away before the Law shall be abolished. If the Pillars of Heaven should fall, and the Foundations of the Earth be overturned, there would be no loss to God: For by one Act of his Will he can Create a New World; but if the Law, the Copy of his Holiness, were altered or abrogated, it would be an Imputation upon his Holy Nature, as if it were Arbitrary and Mutable, and consequently he should cease to be God.
Briefly, Divine Immutability is the full and constant State of Perfections in the Deity. And the Blessedness of God▪ that consists in the fruition of himself, has a necessary connexion with this Attribute. Immutability is the ground that supports it, and the perfection that crowns it.
Secondly, The Churches hope in its extremity, is supported by the unchangable Perfections of his Nature that establish his Covenant with his People. 'Tis stiled, An Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. This will be evident by considering the Immutability of his Counsels and Decrees, and of his Words and Promises.
1. His Counsels and Decrees that concern the recovery of the Church from its despised and desolate State. The unchangable Perfections of his Nature are the Foundation of his unchangable Decrees: For there can be no change of them from within, and no controlling of them from without. The Perfection of his Knowledge is such, that he can never be surprized with a sudden new event, that should induce him to alter them: And his Power that is truly Infinite will effect them. His Decrees are exprest to be the Council of his Will; those Determinations being most compleat that are the product of Council. There are no Temporary Decrees that begin upon an unforeseen emergency, for it would then follow, there were a Change in God: But they were before the Foundation of the World, and shall be accomplished in real Effects, either immediately by his own Power, or by secondary means. The Counsel of the Lord shall stand. The Decree of Election, the Original Spring of all the good his People enjoy or expect, is of infallible accomplishment. 'Tis the Observation of *Adhuc usque in finem seculi multiplicandi & justificandi sunt: Tamen verba praeteriti temporis posuit de rebus etiam futuris, tanquam jam fecerit Deus, quae jam ut fierent, ex aeternitate disposuit.St. Austin, that although the number of the Elect shall not be actually compleat till the end of time, yet the Apostle speaks of Eternal Predestination, as if it were finally accomplish'd already: Whom he predestinated, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. For his Eternal Will, the product of his Eternal Love, can never be frustrated.
2. His Word endures for ever: 'Tis more stable2 Pet. 1. than the Centre. The strength of Israel cannot lye; 1 Sam. 15. 29.for he is not a man that he should repent. The Immutability of his Nature gives Firmness to his Counsels, they are unretractible, and Fidelity to his Promises, they are inviolable. The Apostle confirms Believers in the hope of Eternal Life, which God, that cannot lye, promised. His Truth is an Attribute so Glorious to him, that in the solemn proclaiming of him to the Israelites, 'tis peculiarly mentioned and placed next to the Deity, The Lord thy God is God, the faithful God, that keeps Covenant Deut. 7.and Mercy. 'Tis so sacred and dear to him, that he magnifies his Word above all his Name. Therefore he revealed himself by the Name Jehovah to Moses, which implyed, he would be the same in performing as he was in promising; and accordingly by the Miraculous Strokes of his Power delivered his People from the Bondage of Egypt. This is the ground of the Psalmists Confidence, Thou O Lord shalt endure for ever, and thy remembrance Psal. 102.unto all generations. Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Sion, for the time to favour her, the set time is come. From the Immutability of the Essence of God, he infers the constancy of his Promises, which declared by his Prophets the fixed time of their restoration.
In short, by the Covenant of God, his Church is received into Communion with him, and because he lives, 'tis impossible they should perish. In this the force of our Saviours Argument consists against the Sadducees, who denyed the Resurrection: That Jehovah was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, therefore they should be raised to a Glorious Immortality.