Enochs Walk and Change, Title page – To the parishioners
ENOCHS WALK AND Change, Opened in a SERMON At Lawrence-Jury in LONDON, Febr. 7th. 1655. AT THE FUNERAL Of the REVEREND Mr. RICHARD VINES, Miniſter of the GOSPEL. there. With a ſhort Account of his LIFE and DEATH. With ſome Elegies, &c. on his death.
By THO. JACOMBE, Miniſter of Martins-Ludgate in the City of London.
The Second Edition.
ZECH. 1.5.
Your fathers, where are they? and the Prophets do they live for ever?
LONDON, Printed by T. R. and E. M. for Ralph Smith at the Bible in Cornhil, near the Royal Exchange. Anno Dom. 1656.
To the Inhabitants of Lawrence-Jury, in the CITY of LONDON.
Honoured, and Beloved in our Lord Jeſus,
HOw many of our Starres in this City have of late fallen, or rather aſcended into a higher Orbe, I nee… not tell you: What is your duty under this threatening Providence, you alſo know; and it will be well if you do it as well as know it. The Eclipſes of glorious lights-have been as frequent and as ſad with you, as any; and I feare (whatever the over-daring Aſtrologers of our times do ſay from their Eclipſes, to amaze and terrifie us,) theſe do portend ſomething in a way of judgement. Tis not long ſince the violent axe bereaved you of one; a milder blow from God Himſelfe hath now taken away another, the Reverend Mr. Richard Vi…es, an able and godly Miniſter; a man of ſingular worth; none but himſelf would deny it, none but himſelf could expreſſe it.
I here preſent you with the Sermon, which not many weeks ago I preach'd at his Funeral. He was your Paſtour, called and preſented by your ſelves: whileſt he liv'd, …e …eceived much love and encouragement from many of you; ſince God took him, your bounty and cha…ity hath been highly expreſſed to his ſad and mournful widow, (for which I hope the Lord will abundantly requite you): whileſt I weighed theſe things with my ſelfe, I could not but make uſe of your Parochial body in this Dedication. But (alas!) in ſo poor and worthleſſe a Preſent, why do I ſo much trouble you or my ſelf about it?
Give me leave to tell you, I was very unwilling to engage in this work; for though I looked upon it as very honourable, yet I judged my ſelf every way unfit for it. Importunity prevailed with me, and meerly that; And now 'tis done, let me aſſure you, many would have done it with more-ability, none with more affection to him who was your precious Miniſter, my loving Countreyman, and worthy friend.
I was forc'd into the Pulpit then, and now unto the Preſſe, though I confeſſe more willingly, and with leſſe reluctancy; for though love to the perſon of the deceaſed could hardly make me preach, yet that being done, love to his name and memory did more eaſilie encline me to print. I look for many cenſures, but I muſt ſhadow my ſelf under the name of Mr. Vines. Well, ſuch as the Sermon is, you have it; and this Epiſtle doth not come to beg your Protection. (Alas, 'tis below envy, who will meddle with ſo harmleſſe and inconſiderable a thing) but your Acceptation, (and I hope your candour) will run parallel with Gods mercy, which accepts of goats haire, when no ſilver or gold can be brought.
For the matter here handled, 'tis weighty and very neceſſary. Mercy and Duty are the two poles, upon which all Religion turnes; you have them both here ſet before you. Here's your duty in a holy life, here's Gods mercy in a happy death. If I be not miſtaken, it may be a word in ſeaſon to you. God hath endowed many of you with great parts and underſtanding; take heed of being headſtrong or top-heavy. Oh, walk humbly! God hath bleſſed you with great eſtates, you have pounds to others pence, bleſſe God for it, but yet be above all theſe things. Walk with God, and be Heavenly minded! your thouſands will be but ciphers when you come to die; your cheſts will not take away the feares of a coffin. Oh, do not loſe Chriſt and the Power of Religion in the croud of worldly emploiments. You are a people that make Profeſſion of the wayes of God; look to ſincerity. This is well; but ſee that Jacobs voice and Jacobs hands go together. Let the great fervour of your ſpirits, appear in the intereſt of Religion, and in the concernments of Gods glory. I might runne over many things which are here handled, which as I conceive, do hit you very right; (for indeed this Diſcourſe was not ſo much calculated for the meridian of the dead, as of the living) Reade and ponder, and the Lord give you a right underſtanding in all things.
I have taken the boldneſſe in the cloſure of my Sermon, to ſuggeſt a word or two to you by way of advice, which the ſad occaſion leads me to Again and again I would put you upon this, to look back upon the precious Labours of your removed and dead Ministers, and live up to them. The Sower is gone, but yet the ſeed may grow up. This your laſt deceaſed Miniſter was very averſe to printing, and we are very ſorry for it; what good might the Church of God have reaped, had he made publick his excellent notions by printing, (which is foreign) yet we are not under deſpaire as to this,Clem. Alexand. Strom l 1. but that by the help of his faithful and learned *Mr. A Burgeſſe.friend, (once your Paſtour too) ſome of his Papers may ſee the light. But whether we have this mercy or not, you that were his Auditours and Pariſhioners, do you live ſo holily, ſo ſpiritually, ſo firmely establiſhed in the Truth, and eſpecially in the Doctrine of Juſtification, (which he was almoſt perpetually clearing up to you) that we may ſee his Sermons printed in your Lives. That's a bleſſed thing, when Ministers die, and their Sermons live, and are made publike in the carriage of them that heard them.
I thought to have inſerted ſomething here, concerning the ſuddenneſſe of his death, upon which may be, ſome are too forward to paſſe ſtrange Interpretations. And this I thought the rather to do, becauſe I underſtand, in his own Pulpit one lately gave this as his obſervation, that ſince ex tempore prayer, he had obſerved there was more ex tempore death, then ever there was before. But upon ſecond thoughts I blotted out all this as very unneceſſary. I ſhall only advertiſe you of one thing in order to the Sermon, and I have done. When I preach'd I reſolv'd I would not be tedious, and therefore omitted many things. Here I have taken the liberty to inſert them, as being very neceſſary to the ſubject in hand. And yet here too I have put them in with much brevity, without any great enlargement, leſt the work ſhould ſwell to too great a bulke,Ne duplo te oneret minus ſuavis oratio, ſi & longa fuerit. Bern. de confid l. 1. and ſo come to you rather as a Tractate then as a Sermon; or rather, leſt it ſhould be doubly burdenſome, by its prolixity and weakneſſe too.
I commit you to God, and to the Word of his grace, praying that your Miniſters here may ſee your faces with joy, and that you may ſee their faces with joy at the day of judgement. I am
Your Friend and Servant in Chriſt, THO. JACOMBE. March 12. 1655.