The Test of True Godliness, Title page – Dedication
THE TEST OF TRUE Godliness. A SERMON PREACHED At the Funeral OF Phillip Harris late of Alston in the County of Devon Esquire. August 10th. 1681.
So teach us to number our Days, that we may apply our Hearts to Wisdom. Psal. 90.12.
By J. Q. Minister of the Gospel.
LONDON. Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church yard. 1632.
TO THE RIGHT Honourable AND TRULY RELIGIOUS LADY LAETITIA ISABELLA COUNTESS OF RADNOR.
MADAM.
THE Relation Mr. Harris had unto your Illustrious Family, by reason of his near attendance on your Honour; occasions this Address unto you. It pleased the infinitely wise God to smite him, and no sooner was he smitten with his last Sickness, but he apprehended himself a dying Man, one that had the Sentence of Death past upon him. I was then but newly returned from my English Church of Middleburg in Zealand, when he heard of my Arrival, and desired my Presence with him, and Prayers for him. The Interest he had in my Respects and Affections from his Childhood (Upon the Account of his dearest Friends who ordinarily attended and incouraged my Ministry at Kingsbridg in Devon, more than twenty years ago,) and that Grace of God I knew in him, ingaged me most readily to any Service for his Soul.
Waving all unnecessary Discourses, I fell presently as a Spiritual Physitian into an inquiry about his Spiritual Estate; and shall speak it without Vanity or varying from the Truth, that of the many dying Persons I have visited, rarely had I more satisfaction as to their everlasting Condition from any, than from this Deceased Gentleman. He had such a deep awakned sence and feeling of Sin in its Filth and Guilt, in its Pollution and Curse, such Groanings under that Body of Death, Sin indwelling in him, as exceedingly humbled, Abased, melted him. Sin was unto him a most grievous and intollerable Burden; not the Porters Burden, that he could easily and chearfully subsist under; No, but the Captives Burden, the sick mans Burden, a Burden too heavy for him to bear, from which he would be most willingly and cordially rid and freed. Hence he cryed out as that great and Holy Apostle; O wretched Man that I am! who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death?
This made him long, and long earnestly for a Saviour, to close seriously with a Christ, to value the Lord Jesus infinitely; because none but Immanuel could save him from his Sins, deliver him from the bondage of his Corruptions, and redeem him from that Wrath to come. He had chosen this Christ for his All, accepted him as his Lord and Lawgiver some years before; so that now he lived as a just and justified Person, by his Faith in his sick and Death-bed. When he spake of Christ's doing and dying for him, of his Passion for him, and Compassions on him, it was with an admiring Spirit, wondering at his transcendent Condescensions to so vile and worthless a Creature; wondering at his glorious Undertakings for so great a Sinner. He was much taken up (as all sanctified Souls are) with the heights and depths, the lengths and breadths, with those unfathomable Dimensions of the Love of Christ, surpassing all Understanding. From those unsearchable Riches of Christ he fetcht Treasures of Grace to supply his Souls wants, his present Spiritual Necessities, and Mines of Glory for his future Felicity; He had a singular Calme, and Serenity upon his Spirit. All was well between his Heart and Head, between him and his God; and so was above the Love of Life, and fear of Death. He was indeed weary of this World, weary of living in it, not upon the account of his present Distemper and Afflictions, (he was a Christian of a far more noble temper, and Master of greater Patience than to faint under such Exercises,) but he was weary of it upon the score of his Sins, and therefore panted after a full Salvation from them, and desired to be dissolved, that he might be with Christ, to be satisfied with his likeness, and to be among those blessed Spirits of just men made perfect. 'Till the violence of his Disease was extream, the inward frame of his Soul, as far as could be guest from his Words and Actions, was very holy, serious, and spiritual: and in the Paroxysms of his Fevor nothing undecent, nothing unbecoming a Christian, a dying Saint dropped from him. What lucid Intervals he had were spent by him in fervent Prayers, and he was ever praying: and the God-hearing Prayer graciously heard and answered him, unstung Death for him, gave him by Death a Writ of Ease from all his Pains and Troubles; a glorious Victory over all his ghostly Enemies, and instated him into an Inheritance with his Saints in Life Eternal. A rational Charity obligeth me thus to hope and write of a dead Saint. Your Honour hath lost a religious Servant, but God hath gained him.
This Sermon preached at his Funeral, craves your Honour's Acceptance, and that you would vouchsafe to pardon his Presumption in prefixing your Great Name to so poor a thing, who is
Of your Honour, The most Humble and most Obedient Servant in Christ Jesus, John Quicke. London Sept. 23d. 1681.