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A51159 Sermons preached upon several occasions (most of them) before the magistrates and judges in the Northeast-auditory of S. Giles's Church Edinburgh / by Al. Monro ... Monro, Alexander, d. 1715? 1693 (1693) Wing M2444; ESTC R32106 186,506 532

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to them which made the holy Patriarchs command their Children to transport their bodies from one place to another that their ashes might sleep with their Ancestors How boldly did the first Christians venture their Lives to procure the bodies of the Martyrs which the cruelty of their Persecutors left unburied And S. Cyprian tells us how dangerous it is to omit it and that we should expose our selves to all hazards rather than leave it undone Neither did the Piety of the ancient Christians confine it self to those of their own Religion but frequently did bury the Pagans deserted by their Relations and they thought it not enough to inshrine the remains of their fellow Christians in Tombs and Sepulchres but also prepared their Bodies for their Funeral with the richest odours spices and perfumes the best drugs and ointments they thought but too mean to express their tender regard to their deceased Friends So Tertullian in his Apology tells us that the most curious Spiceries the Sabeans could afford were employed this way When Mary Magdalen poured Ointment on our Saviour's Head he approved it as done to anoint his body to the burial And the good women mentioned by S. Luke prepared their ointments and sweet odours to embalm his body All this was done because they looked upon the body as the expectant of a joyful Resurrection And hence we commit it unto the earth in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection For when they have varyed all forms and figures they are again built up immortal and more delicate habitations for our Spirits 3. LET the thoughts of the Resurrection comfort us concerning our departed Friends and Relations It s S. Paul's own inference But I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that are asleep that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope Vers 16. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first wherefore comfort one another with these sayings 4. LET the thoughts of the Resurrection comfort us in our present troubles O happy day when we are brought again into the light after so many nights of darkness and solitude when our bodies appear with their brighter robes when flesh and blood are Spiritualised and invigorated with the warmth of the Sun of Righteousness and our heavy Earth is calcined and purified for its true Imployment that it may serve the Soul in its swiftest thoughts and vye with the Seraphims of Light and Zeal in their attendance on their Creator Now the Earthly Tabernacle drags and pulls down the Soul to low and despicable Enjoyments then the Body is made strong and refined to comply with the highest Capacities and Inclinations of the Mind We shall mount aloft from the Earth into the Air we shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever when we are got loose from the Prisons of Darkness and the Fetters of Corruption are broken off When we see the Glories and Empires of this little Globe below us and we our selves beyond danger and temptation far above its frowns and flatteries HOW strongly do we then feel our selves united to our true and immovable Happiness and assimilated to the Blessed Temper and Imployment of the Hosts of Heaven and the Spirits of just men made perfect When instead of this load of clay the uneasie weight that holds our Spirits in Captivity we shall then be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven when mortality shall be swallowed up of life The very thoughts of this Elevation and Purity to think that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is might fill our Souls with the strongest Ardors and Impatience to be with Christ to be above the Clouds and the vicissitudes of this unquiet World WE cannot express the glory of the Body after the Resurrection better than in the language of the Scripture There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another of the stars so also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption it is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body And thus we are told by the same Apostle to the Philippians That he shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body by the power whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself What a mighty support is it for us at the approach of death to reason our selves out of our fear and diffidence to get above the terrour and the thought of our dissolution and strengthen our selves in view of the Glory that is to come Let us say in the words of the Psalmist Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God The Meditation of this joyful Day puts us beyond all Calamities sets our feet upon a Rock and makes us look down with Magnanimity on all the changes of this lower World for when our Eyes are fix'd upon those purer Pleasures what can disturb the peace and tranquillity of our Spirits For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory The prospect of that state and felicity makes us forget this foolish World and trample on all its glories with a generous disdain and contempt when we remember that we are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ of that inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away 5. But fifthly THE belief of the Resurrection arms us more immediately against the terrours of Death Thus St. Paul discourses in the fifteenth Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians and 54. verse So when this corruptible hath put on incorruption and this mortal hath put on immortality then shall be brought to pass this saying that 's written Death is swallowed up of victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The King of terrours is rifled his Forces are broken we have an Antidote against his Poison Let him come in his blackest dress in his most dismal Robes of darkness and fear Let him appear with all the Solemnities of terrour and sadness yet the Christian in the midst of all this meets him with undaunted Courage He is like mount Zion which cannot be moved he sees beyond those Clouds he defies all those frowns he strengthens himself in the death of Jesus and his Resurrection from the dead and the belief of both makes us more than Conquerours This is
the true Philosophy that animates against the pale fears and gloomy apprehensions of the Grave The merry Atheist that braved Death at a distance begins to tremble when it makes its approaches nearer then his Jests and his wanton Efforts of Fancy vanish into fearful expectations He flies to his desperate Complaints uneffectual Wishes and fruitless Prayers for the time of Prayer is over but the Christian gathers his Forces and strengthens himself in the Victory and Sacrifice and Power of our Lord Jesus Christ O how sad is it to delay the examination of our Consciences the confession of our Sins the amendment of our Lives until we have no more time than the few moments that just enter us into the Grave 6. WHEN we think of the Resurrection it should spiritualize our Souls and teach us in our desires and designs to fly above this terrestrial feculent Globe How come we to be so unwilling to leave those Habitations of sin and misery How come we to admire nothing and vanity when we are Candidates for a heavenly Kingdom If ye be risen with Christ set your affections on the things that are above c. Let the belief of the Resurrection put us in mind of the future Judgment For he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Can we think of that solemn Appearance without fear And if we call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his works Let us pass the time of our sojourning here in fear Let our zeal appear more and more in trimming and preparing our Souls for Eternity That we may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death if by any means we may attain unto the resurrection of the dead THE third thing I proposed to speak to is the Interest that our faith gives us in a happy Resurrection I mean such a lively faith as is recommended to us in the Gospel Not every one that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven I mean the faith that purifies the heart and overcomes the World and assimilates us to the temper and Spirit of the blessed Inhabitants above and makes us more than Conquerors through Jesus Christ that loved us MY Lords and Gentlemen so far have I discours'd of this Consolatory Argument to ease our mind upon this sorrowful occasion But you see another Text viz. the earthly remains of the noble Viscount of Strathallan When I remember his true Vertues I despair to say any thing proportionable to his worth the naming of him once suggests greater thoughts than ordinarily occur When we form to our selves the most perfect Idea's of Valour and honour and generosity then we have the best Notion of that great Soul that once lodged in that Tabernacle All the Projects of his Mind were beyond the common Level The generous Inclinations he derived from his Ancestors began to appear very early A Family too well known in Britain for every thing that is great ancient loyal and generous to need any particular descants of mine I am not to act the part of a Herauld from this place there is none capable to be my Hearer but knows already how needless it is to tell Scotchmen of the noble Atchievments and many Illustrious branches of that Cedar of which our deceased General is descended He began to bear Arms when as yet he had not strength enough to manage them the vigour and alacrity of his Spirit out running the growth of his body He then when but a Child lodged no thought in his Breast but such as were daring great and difficult When he was a Boy at St. Leonard's College he gave all the proof of a docile and capacious Spirit far above any of his School-fellows but his Mind that always entertain'd extraordinary Enterprises began to be weary of an unactive life Then it was that he was made Captain in that Regiment that went to Ireland against the Rebels under the Command of an old and experienced Officer In that expedition he behaved with so much life and resolution as drew upon him the eyes of all men and every body concluded the young Captain was calculated for the greatest actions There are no words so proper for this period of his life as those we meet with in the life of Agricola Nec Agricola licenter more juvenum qui militiam in lasciviam vertunt neque segniter ad voluptates Commeatus titulum tribunatus inscitiam retulit Sed noscere provinciam nosci exercitui discere à peritis sequi optimos nihil appetere jactatione nihil ob formidinem recusare simulque anxius intentus agere And this without the change of one word was his deserved Character when first he appeared in the Fields HE came over from Ireland some years after and assisted those Forces that beat the Rebels once at Stirling and all those Loyal Gentlemen engaged in that Expedition upon all occasions bestow'd upon him the most ample Applause and unforced Commendations that were truly due to his skill conduct and fidelity AFTER this General Drummond and all his Associates became so odious to the prevailing Faction of the Covenanters that until the Mock-repentance after Dunbar fight he was not suffered to engage in his Majesties Service Mean while he went to London and the Forces commanded by his Friend were disbanded And there he was a Spectator of that Tragedy that pierced his Soul with the most exquisit grief I mean the Martyrdom of King Charles the First The Scene he saw and the preparations to the fatal blow but more he could not endure He himself could not afterwards give an account of that consternation that seized his Spirits All that 's black and terrible invaded his Soul at once the most dismal Passions struggled within his Breast confusion and indignation possest his Heart and nothing but the force of Christian Religion and the belief of Providence could have preserved his Mind from sinking How can his great Soul but burst forth into all expressions of Sadness to see prosperous Villany lift up its head withy so much rage and insolence and defie the Justice of the Almighty and pull down his Image upon earth and sacrifice the best of Men the best of Kings to the fury and hypocrisie of the Rabble O Heavens Let not the Plagues due to the Cry of that sacred Blood fall upon Britain Next day after with all speed he went to Holland to the Prince and there he was the first that saluted him King He came over with his late Majesty and commanded a Brigade of that Army that went to Worcester where his Courage and Magnanimity appear'd to the highest