the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him But how very effectual the fervent prayers of such men sometimes are appears sufficiently from the instance here before us of the great Elijah singled out by St James for the same purpose and alledged soon after the words already cited James 5. 17. He I say who tho a man subject to like passions as we are opened and shut the Heavens at his pleasure kept up the dew and rain but brought down showres of fire so that all things hapned according to his word 1 Kings 17. 1. The Ministers of Gods holy Word and Sacraments in respect of one part of their Function are Gods Ambassadours to the people but in this of prayer they are their Agents and Solicitours with God constituted by himself as a sort of Mediatours for and amongst men Masters of Requests resident on Earth appointed to present and offer up the petitions of the people to and in the name of the one great Mediatour between God and Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. And to him those addresses cannot but be the more acceptable as coming in his own Method and way and thro' those hands to which he has committed so great a power as to bind and loose in Heaven and on Earth a power not vouchsafed as St Chrysostom somewhere expresseth it either to Angels or Arch-Angels or any other of the most glorified favourites of Heaven If then persons set aside and consecrated for the service of God and his Church be ordinarily acceptable and powerfull Intercessours how much does this Church and Nation and indeed the whole Christian world owe to the pious Devotions of the Holy Prelate of whom we are now speaking Twice a day most duly besides his family Prayers He offer'd up to Heaven either in the Publick Congregation or when his health could not allow that more privately his daily Homage and Sacrifice of Morning and Evening Prayer and Thanksgiving according to the Prescript of the Church of England He that had so throughly studied and did so perfectly understand the Beauties and Excellencies of the English Liturgy and so frequently and affectionately recommended the conscientious and devout use of it to all both Clergy and others and had himself received great Spiritual Comfort and Advantages by a long and Religious attendance on it He I say as you will easily believe could not allow himself in the least neglect of it but went to it and called for it as his daily bread the necessary food and refreshment of his soul I need not tell this Congregation I am sure how Solemn and Reverend his approaches were to this Sacred place how Holy and Saint-like his behaviour here Almost every thing that Good man did or said was edifying and instructive but nothing could well be more so then his devout deportment when he had audience with his God The Faith and Fervency the Humble yet Restless and Irresistible importunity of his Spirit strugling and contending with God in Prayer could not be conceal'd from those that saw him but flam'd up from his heart into his eyes and discover'd it self by so many natural indications of Holy and transported Affections that the Example was enough to rouze and warm the most sluggish and frozen Devotion of any that did observe him It is no wonder that his devout Soul found so Divine a rellish in those Prayers to which He attended with so much Reverence and Religion The Prayers of the Church are a dead letter to none but such as bring dead hearts to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disc 16. as our Martyr'd Sovereign observed long since And I dare say that all that use them unless the blessed effect be hindred by prejudice or prophaness do experience that those united and well advised Devotions are most excellently contriv'd to kindle and keep alive in us such pious dispositions of mind as are most suitable to that duty I shall not presume to conduct you from the Church to the Good mans Closet or pretend to reckon how often in a day He was upon his knees He that did nothing for ostentation and understood so well the Reward reserv'd for good things done in secret knew how to conceal those Addresses from the eyes of man which He intended only for the notice of his God But his constant and steddy Practice of all Christian duties the general Holiness of his Life the visible delight He took in Prayer that great Priviledge as well as Duty of mankind besides other Evidences that could not always be kept from the observation of those that had the honour and happiness to be near him serve to assure us that He watch'd unto Prayer pray'd always without ceasing and at all seasons according to a due understanding of those expressions in Holy Writ It was to him a pleasant performance of which He could not be weary What a Benefactour I say then was He to this Church and State which had so great a share in his publick and private Petitions sent up to a Gracious God with such an unfeigned Piety and ardent Zeal Luke 18. 1. Shall not God hear his servants that cry day and night unto him He that ask'd such a question when He was on Earth will be sure to answer such prayers now he is in Heaven And then I am sure the publick has received manifold advantage from the Bishop's earnest supplications put up in the behalf of the whole Kingdom The interest of which was as dear to him as his own Soul and for which He was almost hourly breathing out fervent ejaculations Rev. 5. 8. and night and day praying exceedingly The prayers of Saints we are told are as golden vials full of odours and those odours are sacrifices of sweet savour unto the God of Heaven Such Sacrifices of Supplications Intercessions and giving of Thanks was this Holy Prelate almost constantly offering up unto Almighty God for the King and all in Authority for the Holy Catholick Church and for all Men. Three most signal Favours and Blessings on this Land within our memories I have often heard his Lordship mention with most feeling and affectionate expressions of Religious Gratitude and Joy The first was that Abundance of Heavenly Graces which adorn'd the Person of our late Martyr'd Sovereign and those particularly which did so Gloriously shine forth in him under the most barbarous indignities and bloody violence offer'd him by the Rebels Another was that stupendous revolution of Affairs brought about by the miraculous Providence of God in the Restitution of His present Majesty and the Church in Honour and Peace to the astonishment and confusion of the Adversaries of them Both. The Third was the wonderfull disappointment and most happy Discovery of the late Fanatical and Republican Conspiracy against the Life of His Sacred Majesty and His Royal Brother And to these He added that more Publick and General Mercy of God in appearing so seasonably and so mightily for the
the mourning of one place or people that I now invite you to there is not a good man alive that knew this Bishop but laments his death Were the greatness of the loss as generally known and as well understood as it is certain and sad there would be as many mourners for this death as there are Christians in the world and a lamentation as Universal as the Catholick Church Therefore when we discourse of this late Great man when in Him we lament our loss it will become us to entertain resentments and frame expressions as near as we can suitable to his worth and our sense of it There can be no danger of being too excessive in our weeping and mourning whilst our Grief is Christian and that we sorrow not as men without hope nor can the expressions of it be extravagant whilst they endeavour to signifie no more then a loss as great as could well happen by the death of one man It is one of the least considerations that we can have of him that he was ours If we will lament becomingly at this Tomb our cry must be double like that of Elisha in my Text it must mount apace rise still higher and express more and more abundantly in every note My father my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof Elisha you hear claims the interest of a son in the departing Prophet And I have reason to think that those of this Church and Diocess had as good cause to love and Reverence their late Bishop as a Father as any Congregation ever had so to esteem their Pastour since any less then Apostles have bin employed to feed and govern the Christian Flock But Elisha soon passes from so private and particular a consideration to the much more considerable interest which the publick had in that wondrous man The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof And that is it which in the case before us is most to be regarded We have lost a Father 't is true and such a one as your own memories and happy experience can better represent unto you then the best of words or the most affectionate and advantagious report that can be made But even that which seems so much yours must likewise be accounted to the Church He could not have been such a beneficial Father to you had he not been as usefull and as excellent a Son to the Holy Church All that we can say or think to imbitter our own particular share in this loss does but inhance and aggravate that much more deplorable of the publick For in your late holy Prelate the whole Catholick Church of God on Earth but in an especial manner this blessed part of it the Church of England did enjoy whatever almost could be Good and Great in a Christian and a Scholar He liv'd and dy'd the great Instance and Example of his age of extraordinary natural Endowments most wonderfully improv'd vast Learning grac'd with the greatest Modesty incomparable worth and profound Humility In him hath the Church lost one of the most perfect patterns of a Christian Bishop that She ever had Furnish'd he was with all the Gifts and Graces that are requisite to make a man most amiable and usefull His unfeigned and exemplary piety devout and holy Life his searching and comprehensive understanding lively and quick apprehension ready and retentive memory His solid judgement unwearied industry and an effect of these His accurate and almost Universal Knowledge especially in that which is the end and perfection of all the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and the whole sacred Text as they render'd him the wonder and delight of all that knew him whilst he was here so it is to be hoped those Great Accomplishments have shed abroad such happy influences in this Kingdom as will not perish with the present age but spread and propagate to succeeding times and both to us and our latest posterity bring forth fruit for the use and benefit of the Church And here methinks I am willing to enjoy with you a while the refreshment of this comfortable and well grounded hope and thence to take occasion to alter my stile a little and to speak of the Churches gain rather then Her loss to congratulate as well as condole with Her on the account of this great man For the Lives of such men as He even after death like the blood of Martyrs give nourishment and increase to the Church Their fame and memory remains when they are gone and shall be for ever blessed As they were honour'd in their Generation and were the glory of their times so have they left a name behind them that their praises might be reported And with that name an Example too which will live tho' they are dead And those their Praises and good Examples are most powerfull exhortations to suitable practice and imitation Their good actions are so many good Doctrines backt and seconded by the best motive and the most persuasive and convincing application 'T is thus that Holy Church enjoys Her Bishop still and I hope ever will by the blessed effects of his eminent abilities and exemplary Life tho' He himself is gone and is seen no more And it is thus that he being dead yet speaketh and teaches more powerfully from the Grave then he could formerly from the Pulpit For his Life was a better Sermon then He or any man else could ever preach A meer repetition of the chief Heads of it fully and faithfully perform'd would furnish you out a much more usefull one then this of mine hasty notes and imperfect and mostly taken at a distance and by the shortness of the time now to be made shorter It must be a juster account that must duly inform the world with what an excellent spirit He was indued how full of God and all good things how conscientiously and faithfully He spent his hours how industrious he was in private and how laborious in publick how covetously He hoarded up and yet how liberally He scattered abroad the richest treasures of knowledge Humane and Divine how holily He taught and as holily liv'd By this great instance amongst others the world may see and be convinced that a man may be as great and good in this as in any other age of Christianity That the highest and most Heroical representations of virtue are not meer scheme and fiction but very real and practicable things such as may be indeed reach'd and effectually attain'd For these did all live and appear and flourish in the Holy Prelate whom you lately lost and we now lament In him we have seen plainly and eminently exemplifi'd what before perhaps we had only read in the Rule conceiv'd in Theory or Idea or could apprehend and fancy as most desirable and lovely in the Character of a Bishop All which being well consider'd I hope I may be allow'd to insist on this Illustrious instance of glorifi'd Elias and the words of his renowned Successour Elisha
Name is a very Death only that it continues longer is more vexatious and tormenting then Death it self Born indeed we are but unto trouble Job 5. 7. as the sparks fly upward Cares and fears tears and temptations doubts and disappointments distract the mind whilst the body which partakes in those agonies of the soul is also miserably subjected to racks and tortures of its own to pains and diseases that would be desperate and insupportable were they not as it were the earnest and Harbingers of Death which puts an end to all those tragical miseries of life And is not this a goodly thing for men to be so fond of as generally they are that is it self so great a disease that nothing but death can cure That therefore is often call'd for even by those who yet are much unprepar'd for such a remedy But how welcome then are or ought to be the approaches of Death stingless Such it is to those that die the death of the righteous as they all do to be sure that have liv'd their life which was well known and consider'd by the Holy Prelate whom I now commemorate Conscious to himself of a race happily run of talents well improv'd and a fight well fought with a clear conscience and an undisturb'd mind in a well grounded reliance on the Mercies and Merits of his Redeemer the Holy Man like just and devout Simeon or this very Elias in the Text humbly pray'd for his departure in my hearing as I kneeled by him tho' as I have reason to believe against his will as well as without his knowledge For He seem'd to mind nothing but his God his eyes then shut and his words whisper'd tho' both before and after he spoke strongly and aloud It was the only Prayer I ever heard him make to which I could not heartily say Amen I could have wished that He should still have walked before the Lord in the Land of the Living and therefore must confess was afraid He would be heard and that God would not deny him the request of his lips but would bestow Death upon him so pressing and importunate was his Prayer for He seemed to groan earnestly like St Paul 2 Cor. 5. 2. to have that his earthly Tabernacle dissolv'd and to be cloth'd upon with his house from heaven And yet were those breathings of his soul sent up to Heaven with that same Christian resignation and submission to the Divine will which so qualifies and recommends a Good mans Prayers that they cannot fail of a favourable audience and success Thus He whose Conversation had been so much in Heaven even whilst Himself was on Earth did in heart and mind thither ascend even before his soul could get loose from the troublesome embraces of the body And thus like Elijah He was not only carried but went up to Heaven That Holy Prophet gladly mounted up into his Heavenly Chariot leaving most willingly Elisha and the world below The whirlwind it self was not in more haste then He the Chariot and Horses and Fire could not move quicker and fly swifter then did his own ardent desires toward his everlasting bliss So did our dying Bishop joyfully part with all that He valued here on Earth and in a chariot of fire mounted unto the Heavens if I may be allowed so to stile the Feavour that snatch'd him from us But if that may seem too remote a Metaphor I know I can truly say that his soul still soared higher and higher in raptures of fervent and devout desires of being dissolv'd and being with God his exceeding great Reward This indeed was most like the fire in which Elijah ascended unto Heaven A fire that needed no fewel but the devout mind that kindled it A fire that burn't but consumed not Such a fire as warms and heats the Holy Angels themselves and kindles those Divine Ministers into a flaming fire And perhaps They were the Chariot and the Horses in the Text. Prompt and ready they are to execute all the commands of their great Maker and most cheerfully do those Triumphant spirits of Heaven fly down to succour and assist Holy men on Earth and promote the happiness of Militant Saints But Angels or clouds or whatever it was fiery it did appear a fit embleme of that Heroick Zeal that did so illustriously discover it self and shine forth in the life of that great Prophet A zeal for the honour of him that sent him like that which afterwards in a more Divine manner appear'd in our blessed Saviour of whom Elias himself was a type and in some sence a forerunner as well as the Baptist who came in his Spirit and Power A zeal it was that even consum'd him stuck nearer and closer to him then any earthly concern of his own A zeal that He durst own and stand to before the Searcher and Judge of hearts 1 Kings 19. 10 14. I have been very jealous saith He more then once for the Lord God of Hosts It vex'd his righteous soul to see the Apostacy of a whole nation as He reckon'd from God and all goodness The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant thrown down thine Altars and slain thy Prophets with the sword the desolation of the Church lay heavy on the Good man's heart For Ahab walked in the sins of Jeroboam 1 Kings 12. 28 c. who for fear the heart of the people should turn again to their Lord the king of Judah that he might secure his usurpation and establish himself thought it necessary to invade the Religion as well as the Government of the Nation And so he sets up Gods of his own and made Priests of the lowest of the people such as were not of the sons of Levi and therefore having no lawfull Ordination uncapable to succeed in the holy Function Verse 33. and he ordained Feasts and made Sacrifices according to his own fancy even as he had devised in his own heart Ecclus 48. 1. Then stood up Elias the prophet as fire and his word burnt like a lamp as it is express'd by the son of Sirach Even then when there was not a man on Earth to second him did he couragiously keep his ground assert the Church and its cause and made stout and vehement protestations against the Schism and all their unreasonable and irreligious Innovations Full of God and the Commission that He had from Him He put himself in the gap withstood the torrent of Apostacy that had overrun the land boldly rebuk'd vice and called often and aloud both to Prince and People to return to God and his Holy Church The haughty and bloody Jezebel with all her cruel instruments and the many hundred Prophets of Baal and of the groves that did eat at her table could not persuade or fright him from his integrity still the holy fire was kept alive in his religious breast and flam'd brightly out on all occasions into acts of devotion and zealous undertakings for the
imitated by it the most Apostolick and truly Catholick Constitution that did arise from it and all the happy Advantages that were obtained by that blessed undertaking to which we owe as our Bishop with much thankfullness and comfort was wont to acknowledge and avouch that at this day by a singular felicity we enjoy the envied Communion of a Church the most exactly conformable to the Primitive and purest of any other Christian Society upon Earth On the other side He knew as well how most effectually to expose the Uncatholick impositions and Anathema's of the Romish Church and to shew plainly how unlike She is become to Her First Self how prodigiously deform'd and overgrown with monstrous Innovations in Doctrine and Discipline how unchristian in Her Usurpation and in Her Tyranny insupportable To explain and maintain such Truths as these was the business of the Bishop's study spent a great deal of his Time and was some part of his daily work even to the last But all this could not secure the Good Man from the malicious and impudent Calumnies and Railing of such as were Enemies to Him because they were so to Religion and the Publick The most Heavenly Innocence is not Antidote sufficient against the venome of the Tongue that is it cannot prevent the malignant assaults of a Serpentine brood of people that will be vomiting out poison tho' they cannot hurt Malice will be gnawing at the most entire and solid Virtue which tho' it be impenetrable armour and a sure defence yet is it still the Envy and Aime of those men Psal 57. 4. whose teeth are spears and arrows and their Tongue a sharp sword All the Zealous endeavours I say of our Learned Bishop against the Romanists and his many Victories and Successes in that Cause could not hinder as doubtless you remember and not without much indignation at the very thought of it but that the Faction voted and reported this unwearied Champion of the English Church a very Papist But it was at a time indeed when it seemed very behoofull for their purposes that the best Subjects and the best Churchmen should be so reputed And accordingly it was in such good company that the Bishop suffer'd For almost all the Loyal Nobility Clergy and Gentry fell under the same injurious imputation But all that popular Madness and Malice did but serve to exercise and Illustrate new Graces in our Holy Prelate and bring still further into the light the more hidden and undiscover'd Beauties of his soul By this means it did appear how smoothly and evenly He could go through or lie under good and evil report and how perfectly He had learn'd from the Apostle both to labour and suffer reproach 1 Tim. 4. 10. All their tumult and noise was not able to discompose the sweet calmness and serenity of his mind which the inward testimony and applause of his own Conscience had made sure and perpetual to him The slanders and clamours of people against him could not rise higher and louder then his Wishes and Prayers for them He bless'd as fast as they could curse And when the rage of the Rabble began to swell high and at last became threatning and dangerous yet was He not then concern'd for any interest of his own so much were his thoughts possess'd with the generous apprehensions He had for those miserable people themselves and the fatal Mischiefs which their unbridled Fury might bring upon the Government and the Publick But I have done The time will not admit of any more I must leave both the Death-bed and the Grave of this Great Man And I am e'ne glad that I am to procede no further You could bear it seems with the prolixness of my Discourse whilst I was speaking of his Life but may not perhaps so well endure the galling of your Memories with sad Reflexions upon his Death Elisha himself could not look on with Patience when Elijah was parted from him tho He saw him ascending into Heaven Nor can you I dare say reflect upon the last Hours of your late Bishop's Life tho' they were the last of his labours too without troubled and sorrowfull hearts For it is to your almost irreparable Loss tho' to his unspeakable Advantage that He was taken from you To conclude therefore Let Virtue have its perfect work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Peric that effect I mean upon you which the Moralist tells us is natural unto it that is to dispose men not only to Praise or Admire things well done but likewise to imitate the doers of them I dare say this Holy Bishops memory is precious to you and you would do it Honour Then use your best endeavours to practice his Doctrine and imitate his Virtues Recollect some atleast of the many Divine Precepts and Rules He has often with so much Religious vehemence deliver'd explain'd and press'd upon you from this place and make conscience to put in practice those his Pious Admonitions which you know the Holy Bishop recommended both by Word and Deed. This as it will best express your esteem of him by testifying your value of his Advice and your confidence in his Abilities and Integrity So will it likewise speak your care and kindness for your selves Such practice made your Bishop Famous and Honourable here and has rais'd him without doubt to a very high degree of Glory in another world The same means will produce the same happy effects for you that they did for him Imitate I say his Excellencies all of you in your several Stations as far as they are imitable by you and persevere in well doing And then you will not fail to be made partakers of those inestimable Rewards of Glory and Immortality which God hath laid up for them who diligently seek him which that we may all endeavour faithfully and constantly God of his infinite mercy grant to whom be glory and honour and praise now and for evermore Amen THE END