{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_67032/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_67032","id":"gutenberg_67032","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/67032","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Church of England -- Sermons","Funeral sermons","Sermons, English -- 19th century","Thistlethwaite, William, -1837 or 1838"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1838 John Heaton edition by David Price.\n\n\n\n\n\n                                 A SERMON\n                               PREACHED AT\n                       ST. GEORGE\u2019S CHURCH, BOLTON,\n                   _On Sunday_, 7_th_ _January_, 1838,\n\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                        OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                  THE REV. WILLIAM THISTLETHWAITE, M.A.,\n                    LATE INCUMBENT OF THAT CHURCH, AND\n                       PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF\n                            THE CONGREGATION,\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                        BY THE REV. J. SLADE, M.A.\n\n                             VICAR OF BOLTON.\n\n                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~\n\n                                 BOLTON:\n\n                    PRINTED BY JOHN HEATON, DEANSGATE.\n\n                       And Sold by all Booksellers.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nSERMON.\n\n\n                                 ROM. XIV. 8.\n\n    _For whether we live_, _we live unto the Lord_; _and whether we die_,\n    _we die unto the Lord_: _whether we live therefore_, _or die_, _we\n    are the Lord\u2019s_.\n\nTHE text refers to the foregoing verse: \u201cNone of us liveth unto himself;\nand no man dieth to himself.\u201d  We are very apt to feel and act, as if we\nwere independent creatures.  Perhaps if examined, as to our particular\ncreed, we should readily confess ourselves to be placed under the\nsovereignty of the Almighty; and to be accountable, as Christians, at the\nbar of Him, who will \u201cjudge both quick and dead.\u201d  But few are daily\nconscious, as they ought to be, either of their dependence or their\nresponsibility.  Their creed is not in their heart; they live chiefly and\npractically under a system of self-government; grievously forgetting the\ndominion of the Lord who created and redeemed them.  A proud spirit is,\nas it has been from the beginning, the bane of man: he fell through\nimpatience of his Maker\u2019s mild yoke, and an intolerance of his Maker\u2019s\nsuperiority: and the poison, thus whispered into his ear by the evil one,\nstill lurks within him; corrupting his feeling and principle, and\nrendering him greatly insensible to the divine superintendence and\nblessing.\n\nThis pride and selfishness however the gospel is designed to humble and\ncorrect; and it does produce the mighty change in the heart of every\nsincere believer; of all who feel its vital power, \u201cthe power of God unto\nsalvation.\u201d  Of all such it must be said, in the utmost latitude, in the\nmost unqualified sense, \u201cnone of us liveth unto himself.\u201d  There is no\ntrue disciple of the Lord Jesus, who makes earthly interest, gain or\npleasure, ambition or lust, his ruling and absorbing object.  Such is the\ncharacter of the degenerate and lost world: there is no fitter\ndescription of a worldly man than this, that he lives to gratify his own\nhumour, and carry out the schemes of his own wilfulness, and promote his\nown prosperity during his little career: earth is his sphere of action,\nand all centres in self.  But every follower of Christ is called out of\nthe world, effectually called and chosen and delivered: he has another\nmind, another spirit, another view.  He cannot live for himself: it is\nnot merely against his conviction, his sense of propriety, his professed\nand deliberate principle, it is against his new nature: he is born of\nGod, with new affections, new desires, new purposes, new prospects; the\nSpirit of the living God dwells within him; cleanses him from all fleshly\ncorruption; and brings his will, brings all that he is, and all that he\nhas, into subjection to the Godhead.  This is the character, the certain\nand essential and distinguishing character of all who belong to Christ:\nthey live not, in any regard or in any matter, for themselves.\n\nNor do they die unto themselves.  They die not, either like the beasts\nthat perish, or for their own disposal and glory; not to make bodily or\nearthly provisions; not to give orders for their funeral; not to hand\ndown their name and style to posterity upon a blazoned escutcheon; not to\nbequeath their riches to others: \u201cafter all these things do the Gentiles\nseek.\u201d  But a grand and glorious change has been made by the gospel: the\ntrue nature of death stands now unfolded in all its awful and stupendous\nreality: it is a passage to another state of being: the disembodied soul\nflies and lives elsewhere: not, as on earth, for a few short years, but\nfor eternity.  And what may be thought or said of me, whether by the\npresent or by future generations, whether by friends or foes; what may\nbecome of my property, baubles or possessions; what may be done with my\ncorpse, whether meanly or superbly coffined, whether laid without\nwinding-sheet or clothed with purple and fine linen,\u2014all these are\nmatters of minor note, of comparative indifference.  I shall have been\nliving and dying for another, an eternal world; and the great\nconsideration is, where and what that world shall be.\n\nWe are thus led, as by the Apostle\u2019s own hand, to enter more immediately\non the text.  \u201cWhether we live, we live unto the Lord.\u201d  It is the Lord,\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, who hath done these marvellous things for us; He\nhas removed from us the burden of the wrath of God; He has rescued us\nfrom the bondage of corruption, and changed the curse into a blessing; He\nhas given unto us the Spirit of holiness, and thus re-created in our\nnew-born soul the image of the righteous God.  He moreover has dispelled\nthe clouds that rested on the tomb, and has \u201cbrought life and immortality\nto light by the gospel.\u201d  And O remember the mighty cost, the precious\nsacrifice, by which He purchased us unto Himself.  The eternal Son of God\nstooped down from heaven to earth; the Word, which was in the beginning\nwith God and was God, was made flesh; \u201chumbled Himself and became\nobedient unto death;\u201d \u201cbore our sins in His own body on the tree:\u201d died\nand rose again, rose as the first fruits of a sleeping world.  Thus have\nwe \u201cpassed from death to life,\u201d from nature to grace, from ruin to a\nstate of salvation.  And no believer can deny, that he is bound,\n\u201cwhatsoever he does in word or deed, to do all in the name of the Lord\nJesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.\u201d\n\nYet, brethren, it is not merely what we are bound to do or to be, as\nbaptized into Christ and believing in His name; it is what we _are_,\nactually _are_, as partakers of His gospel, and cleansed by His blood.\nSt. Paul says, \u201cwe live unto the Lord;\u201d we _do_ so live as a matter of\ncourse and necessity: our life is altogether devoted to Him: such is the\nvery meaning and essence of our Christian fellowship.  Being His real\nproperty, \u201cnot our own, but bought with a price,\u201d we place ourselves at\nHis disposal: \u201cour meat is to do the will of Him that sent us.\u201d  This is\nour decided character, by which we desire to be known; known of God and\nknown of all men.  \u201cThe life which we now live in the flesh we live by\nthe faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us.\u201d  It\nmust unquestionably and inevitably be so, for \u201cour life is hid with\nChrist in God;\u201d this, if we are Christians, is the well-spring of our\nthoughts and desires and feelings and principles and habits; and though\nthey contract a taste and taint of evil in their passage through the\ncorrupt channel of nature, still do they always retain the proof and\nprevalence and ascendancy of their heaven-born character; and do clearly\nmark us, in the eyes of every spiritual and right-judging person, as\nmembers of Christ and children of God.\n\nSuch are all the sincere followers of the Lamb, the faithful and elect of\nGod: all in their various spheres of life, high and low, rich and poor;\nliving in the same Spirit and by the same gospel, unto the same redeeming\nLord; and travelling together in one way to the same everlasting kingdom.\nThey are all brethren; all of equal privileges in the sight of their God\nand Saviour; all, however wide their worldly differences, however\ndiversified their appearances or acquirements, distinguished by the same\nholy signs\u2014by the sign of the cross in their forehead; by the image of\nthe cross in their heart; by the bearing of the cross in their lives, and\ntreading in the footsteps of their divine Master.  \u201cTo me to live is\nChrist:\u201d this is the common language, this the good confession, this the\njoyful, thankful assurance of each and every one: this their watchword,\nthis their safeguard and defence, this their abounding consolation, one\nwith another, amid all the dangers of an ensnaring and harassing world.\nThe rich man has no other protection, and no other does the poor man\nneed; Christ is \u201call in all,\u201d and \u201cnone can pluck them out of His hand;\u201d\ndwelling together, as in a strong tower; \u201ckept by the power of God\nthrough faith unto salvation.\u201d  Each of them still, while in the body,\nattentive to the duties of his own calling: no earthly business or\noccupation, belonging to their respective conditions, despised or\nneglected; but all \u201cdone heartily as unto the Lord, and not as unto men:\u201d\nall earthly desires so regulated, all earthly plans so formed, all\nearthly objects so pursued, as not to interrupt, much less to stifle, the\nlife of God in the soul.\n\nHaving lived unto the Lord, we shall die unto the Lord: having continued\nHis property through life, He will claim us as His own in death.  The\ntyrant of the grave shall have no power, no dominion over us; his spear\nis broken; the battle fought, the victory won: Christ has conquered, and\nwe are \u201cmore than conquerors through Him that loved us.\u201d  Christ is Lord\nof the immortal spirit: \u201cHe is able to keep that which is committed to\nHim against that day;\u201d and when the soul escapes from its prison-house,\nHe sends a guardian angel to take the charge, and conduct it safely to\nAbraham\u2019s bosom, to the rest that remaineth for His people.  Brethren, we\nhave the Lord\u2019s own word and authority, for the establishment of our\nfaith and the comforting of our souls.  He said to the penitent thief,\n\u201cTo-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.\u201d  He admonished those who\nbelieved not, that Jehovah was declared to be \u201cthe God of Abraham and the\nGod of Isaac and the God of Jacob\u201d long after their bodies were laid in\nthe grave: and \u201cGod is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all\nlive unto Him.\u201d  In this entire confidence and security, His pious\ndisciples in every age have welcomed their latter end, and fallen asleep\nsweetly.  The first martyr Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, worshipped\nand prayed to Jesus in his dying moments, saying, \u201cLord Jesus, receive my\nspirit;\u201d at once a plain indisputable testimony, that Christ is an object\nof divine worship, and that He does receive the souls of the faithful,\nwhen delivered from their earthly tabernacle.  And the Apostle, who said,\n\u201cTo me to live is Christ,\u201d said also, in the same breath, \u201cto die is\ngain:\u201d death could not be gain to him with any thing less than Christ: it\nis evident, that St. Paul was rapt in the contemplation of the immediate\npresence of his Lord: whilst living, he was with Christ; when dead, he\nwould be with Him more blessedly still.\n\nIn truth, the proper representation of the matter is this; \u201cthe Lord\u2019s\nkingdom is an everlasting kingdom,\u201d that which He has won by His victory\nover sin and death and the grave, that which He has opened to all\nbelievers, that of which every abiding believer is an actual and\nirremovable member.  It is a kingdom never ceasing or suspended; reaching\nonward without a broken link, from time to eternity.  The present state\nof being should be regarded as the threshold of this boundless kingdom;\nas but the foreground of trial, in which the Lord\u2019s servants are\nexercised and matured and made meet for their full and final inheritance.\nDeath is called the gate of life, that life for which the present is but\na prelude and preparation.  Earthly graces will be perfected in heaven.\nThe Lord\u2019s dominion over us is whole and uninterrupted: He calls us from\none division of His kingdom to another, from one state to another, at His\nown time and in His own way: \u201cHe has the keys of death and hell,\u201d of\ndeath and the unseen world.  \u201cHe openeth and no man shutteth, and\nshutteth and no man openeth.\u201d  \u201cPrecious in the sight of the Lord is the\ndeath of His saints.\u201d  He keeps them by His almighty power, keeps them in\nHis wisdom and mercy, till they are ripe for glory.  None can delay and\nnone can hasten his work.  And what faithful soul would desire it?  Nay,\nLord, come and call when Thou wilt; but make Thy servant ready.\n\nO how refreshing, delightful, encouraging to us, on our way to Zion, to\nperceive around us those who are \u201cliving unto the Lord,\u201d with their eyes\nand hearts fixed upon the heavenly inheritance.  And O still happier\nsight, and yet an awful rejoicing, to behold a brother \u201cdying unto the\nLord;\u201d to witness the triumph of our holy faith, in nature\u2019s last hour\nand Satan\u2019s last buffeting; to observe the trophies of divine love\nadorning and cheering the melancholy bed\u2014the tranquil smile, the\nunwearied trust, the patient contented thankful resignation; the uplifted\nhand and eye, the illuminated countenance, the peaceful spirit all the\nwhile ready to wing its flight.  Go boastful science, go vain philosophy,\nand visit the death-beds of your votaries; mark well the doubts and fears\nbetraying themselves under the mask of a bold profession; mark the\nimpatience and vexation; the present burden and the miserable foreboding;\ngo and discover your infidel champions, the proud Goliaths of your\nkingdom, trembling and quailing under the lifted stroke of death; and\ndespairing under the load of unforgiven sin, under the terrors of an\ninsulted and avenging God.  Go to your despisers of the crucified Jesus,\nto those who have been too wise to seek or too busy to find Him; see\nthem, as I have seen, stretching out their hands in agony, and saying,\n\u201cIs there none to save a fellow-creature from destruction?\u201d  Then, when\nye are sickened with such scenes, repair to the bedside of a departing\nsaint, and see how a Christian can die.  Go and study a lesson, more\ninstructive and more precious than all your pages of human lore and\nlearning; go and learn from a lovely example, how to live and how to die.\n\nIf I seem to be describing these blessed truths and facts with a\nminuteness and a particularity and a real resemblance, it is because I am\ndrawing from the life; because they have been so recently embodied before\nmy eyes in the person of a Christian friend and minister\u2014your deceased\npastor.  You know that he lived unto the Lord: and I have enjoyed the\nprivilege of attesting the fruit of that living in his latter days\u2014days\nof severe pain, but days of comfort and serenity.  He spoke thereof in a\nmanner, which convinced me, that he wished his views and experience to be\nmade public; possibly looking forward to the day, when I might be\nfulfilling this very office.  He said \u201cI wish you distinctly to\nunderstand how I am: I have no ecstasies, no rapturous flights, but a\ncalm composure, a quiet resting, a peaceful waiting for the Lord: and I\ndesire the Lord to deal with me as seemeth to Him good: to give me\npatience, to give me his grace that I may endure unto the end; and to\ncontinue or remove me at His pleasure.\u201d  It was an affecting\ncommunication, an overcoming moment.\n\nBy these and similar words, it was manifest that he set his great value,\nnot upon any peculiar notions or points of doctrine, but upon a living\nand fruitful faith, upon the practical influence of the spirit of God;\nupon the state of mind and heart and character and life, as resulting\nfrom christian principles and views.\n\nSuch undoubtedly then has been the scope, such the transcendent object of\nhis ministerial endeavours and exertions\u2014to produce like faith and fruit\nin you: and you, brethren, will bear a willing testimony to his holy zeal\nand faithfulness; through a period of well nigh thirty years have you\nmade trial of him, yea full proof of his labour of love.  The memory of\nhim is bound round your hearts by a multitude of the tenderest holiest\nties.  Many of you he baptized into the church of Christ; he has been all\nalong your spiritual guide, training you up from childhood in the way you\nshould go.  To many has he delivered the blessed elements, the signs of\nthe body and blood of Christ, as ye were assembled around him at the\ntable of your Lord, and feasted together upon redeeming love.  Many has\nhe visited on beds of sickness, relieving your wants and comforting your\nsorrows, and teaching you to improve them all.  And not a few of your\nrelatives and friends, gone to rest, he attended in their last moments;\nand instructed and confirmed and soothed their lingering spirit.  You\nremember the scene: you saw and loved him there: and you owe him now a\ndebt of gratitude.  And in many a walk of kindness and usefulness, and\nmany a place of righteous resort, you have watched and honoured and\napplauded him: but his race is run; he is gone; and the place that knew\nhim, shall know him no more.\n\nNor were his services confined within the precincts of his own\ncongregation, but always ready to be extended far and near.  Various\nsocieties and charities have rejoiced in his help and activity, and will\nheavily feel their loss.  But I must forbear and leave the fond strain of\nregret, for a word of serious and spiritual improvement.  Was he\nfaithful?  Then the larger account have you to render.  Did he preach the\ntruth in love?  Then the more will his preaching condemn those hearers,\nwho have failed to be convinced and converted.  He has expounded and\nillustrated for you the whole of the sacred volume, from Genesis to\nRevelation; he dug deeply into that precious mine in the field of the\nword of God, and presented for your acceptance the treasures and the\njewels in all their intrinsic worth and brightness.  The Bible, the\ninexhaustible stores of the whole Bible, he laid open before you in all\ntheir vast and magnificent abundance; and led you, by precept and by\nexample, to \u201cthe way and the truth and the life.\u201d  If you have not\nreceived the word and the spirit of grace, if you have not laid the\ndoctrine to your soul, if you have not in earnest begun the goodly work,\nif you are not far advanced, the fault is not with the departed: you will\nnot seek to charge him with neglect.  Whom then? and where does the\nburden lie?  \u201cSon of man, speak to the children of thy people and say\nunto them, when I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land\ntake a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he\nseeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the\npeople: Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not\nwarning; if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his\nown head.\u201d  The trumpet has sounded in your ears, long and loud; the\nclear, thrilling, evangelical trumpet.  The herald of God has done his\nduty; would to God that every conscience could whisper, \u201cAnd I have done\nmine.\u201d\n\nAnd all you, who have listened to him with teachableness and sincerity,\nwho have caught from his lips the word of life into your willing ear, and\nlaid it up in your heart, take comfort and be thankful.  You have not\nprofited as you might, as you would now fain have done: you lament your\ninfirmities and corruptions; your minister lamented his: but the Lord\nloveth sincerity, and pardoneth the transgressions of His people.  You\nvalue your past privileges; and you adore that divine goodness, which\nmade them profitable to your salvation.  You dwell, not with the tear of\nsharp regret for a ministry slighted, for opportunities unregarded and\nlost; but with tears of grateful love, in the remembrance of one, who was\nordained by God to lighten your darkness, and to be the messenger of\npeace to your soul.  And while you are gathering here the plentiful\nfruits of righteousness, you are looking forward to the far more glorious\nharvest in the end of the world; looking to the day, when the shepherd\nand his flock shall stand together for presentation before the eternal\nthrone; and he shall say, \u201cLord here am I, and those whom thou hast given\nme.\u201d\n\nO my brethren, no sheep of his, no true member of the Lord\u2019s flock, shall\nbe forgotten on that day.  The world knows them not; the earthly shepherd\nhimself may not have known them all: but \u201cthe Lord knoweth them that are\nHis.\u201d  Rich or poor, honoured or despised, loved or hated among men, if\nthey have lived unto the Lord and died unto the Lord, the Lord will\nconfess them at last, will infallibly select them every one out of an\nassembled world, and set them on His right hand.  \u201cThem which sleep in\nJesus will God bring with Him.\u201d  Be this my sleep, come soon, come late:\nBe thine the time, good Lord, and mine the blessing.  Lord, hear my\nprayer; I make but one: \u201cLet me but die the death of the righteous, and\nlet my last end be like his.\u201d","title":"A Sermon preached at St. George's Church, Bolton, on Sunday, 7th January, 1838: occasioned by the death of the Rev. William Thistlewaite","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":3664}