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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	time_n	world_n	2,761	5	4.2527	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48846	A sermon preach'd at the funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God, John late Lord Bishop of Chester At the Guildhall Chappel, London, on Thursday the 12th of December, 1672. By William Lloyd, D.D. Dean of Bangor, and one of his Majesty's chaplains in ordinary.	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1698 (1698)	Wing L2707; ESTC R213713	15,403	64

venture to displease one for his good and indeed he was the man that ever I knew for that most needful and least practised point of Friendship He would not spare to give seasonable Reproof and wholsome Advice when he saw occasion I never knew any that would do it so freely and that knew how to manage that freedom of speech so inoffensively It was his way of Friendship not so much to oblige men as to do them good He did this not slightly and superficially but like one that made it his business He durst do for his Friend any thing that was honest and no more He would undertake nothing but what well became him and then he was unwearied till he had effected it As he concerned himself for his Friend in all other respects so especially in that which went nearest to him of all earthly concernments He would not suffer any Blot to be thrown or to lye upon his Friend 's Good Name or his Memory And that Office I am obliged to requite in giving some account of that which has been spoken by some to his disadvantage I shall neglect for he did so any frivolous Reports but that which seems to have any weight in it as far as I have observed is That he had not that Zeal for the Church that they would seem to have that object this He seemed to look upon the Dissenters with too much Favour to their Persons and Ways As to the Persons No doubt that Goodness of Nature that true Christian Principle which made him willing to think well of all men and to do good or at least no hurt to any might and ought to extend it self to them among others But besides he was inclin'd to it by his Education under his Grandfather Mr. Dod a truly Pious and Learned Man who yet was a Dissenter himself in some things Not that he had any delight in contradiction or could find in his heart to disturb the Peace of the Church for those matters He was so far from it that as I have frequently heard from this his Grandchild and others when some thought their Dissents ground enough for a War he declared himself against it and confirmed others in their Allegiance He profess'd to the last a just hatred of that horrid Rebellion Now his Relation to this Man and Conversation with those of his Principles might incline him to hope the like of others of that Way And when he found them farther off from the Unity of the Church he might possibly overdo through the Vehemence of his desire to bring them off of their Prejudices and to reduce them to the Unity of the Church in which his Grandfather lived and died Why might he not hope the same of other Dissenters As for himself he was so far from Approving their ways that in the worst of times when one here present bewailed to him the Calamities of the Church and declared his Obedience even then to the Laws of it He encouraged him in it he desired his Friendship and protected both him and many others by an Interest that he had gained and made use of chiefly for such purposes How he demeaned himself then is known in both Universities where he governed with Praise and left a very grateful Remembrance behind him How in the next Times since I cannot speak in a better Place And when I have named this City and the two Universities I think he could not be placed in a better Light in this Nation There were enough that could judge and he did not use to disguise himself I appeal to you that conversed with him in those days What Zeal he hath express'd for the Faith and for the Unity of the Church How he stood up in defence of the Order and Government How he hath asserted the Liturgy and the Rites of it He conformed himself to every thing that was commanded Beyond which for any man to be vehement in little and unnecessary things whether for or against them he could not but dislike and as his free manner was he hath oft been heard to call it Fanaticalness How this might be represented I know not or how his design of Comprehension might be understood Sure I am that since he came into the Government of the Church to which he was called in his Absence he so well became the Order that it out-did the expectation of all that did not very well know him He filled his Place with a Goodness answerable to the rest of his Life and with a Prudence above it considering the two Extremes which were nowhere so much as in his Diocess Though he was as before very tender to those that differed from him yet he was as before exactly conformable himself and brought others to Conformity some Eminent men in his Diocess He endeavoured to bring in all that came within his reach and might have had great success if God had pleased to continue him But having given full proof of his intentions and desires it pleased God to reserve the fruit for other hands from which we have great cause to expect much good to the Church He was in perfect Health in all other respects when a known Infirmity from an unknown cause that had been easier to cure than it was to discover stole upon him and soon became incurable He was for many days in a prospect of Death which he saw as it approached and felt it come on by degrees Some days before he died he found within himself as he often said a Sentence of Death In all this time first of Pain then of dreadful Apprehensions at last in the presence of Death Who ever saw him dismay'd Who ever found him surprized Or heard a word from him unbecoming a wise man and a true Christian It was my infelicity to be so engaged that I could not duly attend him and so deceived with vain hopes that I believed him not dying till he was dead But at the times I was with him I saw great cause to admire his Faith towards God his Zeal for his Church his Constancy of Mind his Contempt of the World and his Chearful hopes of Eternity I have heard much more upon these heads from those that were with him Some of you may have heard other things from other men It hath been the way of our Adversaries to entitle themselves to dying men even those whose whole life was a Testimony against them Thus after the Death of our Famous Jewel the Papists were pleased to say he dyed of their Religion Militiere hath ventured to insinuate the same of our late King of blessed and glorious Memory Mens Tongues and Pens are their own but least they should abuse them and you and the Memory of this worthy Prelate as they have abus'd others though nothing needs to be said to such groundless Calumnies I declare and that upon most certain grounds That he died in the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Communion of the Church of England as it is by Law established He died only too soon for the Church and so his Friends But for himself he had lived long enough He has lived long enough that dies well For whatsoever he wants of that which we call Time it is added though it adds nothing to Eternity As for us that are now to try how we can bear the want of those many blessings we enjoyed in him What shall we say We must submit to the Will of God Our Comfort is that we shall follow and come together again in due time Till when Farewel pious and virtuous Soul Farewel great and excellent Man Farewel worthy Prelate and faithful Friend We have thy Memory and Example Thou hast our Praises and out Tears While thy Memory lives in our Breasts may thy Example be fruitful in our lives That our Meeting again may be in Joy unspeakable when God shall have wiped away all Tears from our Eyes FINIS

good Bishops departed this life Our remembrance of them doth not differ in kind but in degree from what we owe to the memory of others 'T is a Duty we are to pay them above others in our Thoughts in our Affections in our Words and in our Actions and Lives First In our Thoughts 't is not a simple remembrance that God requires for that being an act of the sensitive soul as I conceive doth not directly fall under precept For it is not in our power to remember or forget either what or when we please But it is in our power to do those acts which conduce to the exciting or to the helping of our memory This is that which God requires at our hands that we should endeavour to turn our minds towards such objects and contemplate in them the gifts and graces of God That as oft as we think of them we should acknowledge that good which was in them and which we have received by their means That we should pay them that honourable esteem which we owe to our spiritual Parents and Benefactors If we think upon them heartily in this manner it will work something upon our Affections We cannot but be sensible of the want of such men and therefore grieved for our loss when they are taken from us as the Asian Bishops were at those words of St. Paul when he said they should see his face no more Though God intended it for their gain whom he takes to himself and he takes them in that time which suits best with their Circumstances Yet even then we have cause to grieve for our selves and for the presence and use of such men How much more when for ought we know they are taken away for our sins When for ought we know it was because the age was not worthy of them For ought we know 't is in order to some Judgment of God which will come the sooner when they are gone when we have filled up the measure of our iniquities When Elijah was taken away in a very evil age Elisha cried out O my Father my Father the Chariots and Horsemen of Israel What will become of Israel now thou art gone We dare not think so highly of any one man We have no such cause to despond of our Nation When it is bad we are to do our parts to make it better to pray that God would send more Labourers into his Harvest that he would double his gifts and blessings on those that are left And for those we have lost we must resign them to God both acknowledging his bounty in giving them to us and submitting to his Will in taking them to himself So St. Bernard on the death of his Brother Gerard Lord says he thou hast given and thou hast taken away though we grieve that thou hast taken away yet we cannot forget that thou didst give him Yea we owe not only submission to God but thankfulness too for their sakes who are delivered by this means from so great and such manifold evils as continually hover about us in this life From sickness and pain from labour and danger from sorrow and fear and care and what not Being delivered from Sin which is the Cause and from that Flesh which is the Center of all this They are past all evils else that have overcome Death They leave sorrow to us who call our selves the living Their life the only true life is immutable Joy eternal Rest Peace and Felicity Which if we seriously believe if we desire to be with them we cannot sorrow for our loss without joy for their gain and thanksgiving on their behalf to that good God who hath given them the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But thus much we owe upon the death of every true Christian tho' of never so mean a rank and condition We are to be thankful to God for his mercies and to profess it as we are taught in the Offices of our Church which have the same words of burial for the meanest of our Communion as for those that are highest in their Graces and Gifts But there is a remembrance in Words that is due to these and not to the other namely the due praise of those their excellent Graces and Gifts which though they have not of themselves but through the bounty and liberality of God who is therefore to be chiefly respected and glorified in all the praise that we give to his creatures Yet since he is pleased to do them this honour above others and to make choice of them whom he so dignifies we are bound to allow it them we are to follow God's choice to give them praise whom he hath so qualified for it Only with this care that we do it truly not to flatter the dead and profitably for the example and imitation of the living We have so much reason to do this that they who had only reason to guide them the Gentiles upon the death of any eminent persons had Orations made publickly in their praise The Jews without any particular Law for it had honour done to the Memory of Worthy persons at their Funerals 2 Chron. 32. ult The Rites of it are partly described 2 Chron. 16.14 They laid their dead in a bed full of the richest perfumes which also were publickly burnt at the Interment To which I conceive the Preacher alludes Eccles 7.1 where he says A good name is better than precious oyntment and the day of ones death than the day of ones birth When one cometh into the World none knows how he may prove if he do well in it he goes out with this publick testimony After which the Jews never mentioned such Persons without a blessing on their memory But above all others the Primitive Christians were very observant this way They saw it was the Will of their Lord and Master That the good work which was done upon him by Mary should be kept in perpetual memory and is therefore recorded in the Gospel They saw how the works of Dorcas were shewn at her death the Coats and Garments which she made for the poor They saw what need there was of great Incentives in those days when Christianity was a most dangerous Profession It is of no small force to make men love a Religion when they see it infuses excellent Principles that it excites so suitable Practices that it is proof against suffering and death And the experience of that power it hath in some provokes and animates others to the same Upon these and the like considerations and perhaps with allusion to that Text where St. John is said to have seen the souls of the Martyrs under the Altar They had their Memorias Martyrum their places of Worship where they placed the Altars over the bodies of their Martyrs What with any intention to worship the Martyrs It was so suggested by the Adversaries and as vehemently denied by the Christians of those times By those of Smyrna in the undoubted acts of