could make good Servants who were not made to serve God as well as do their Masters Business And thus this Excellent Person being both at home and abroad the same that is in the Church in her self and in her Family devout and good and even to the Letter Praying always at least always willing and ready to Pray What in others happens but sometimes might of her be truly said that she was at all times Religiously dispos'd whose diligence in doing good was indeed unwearied it being still a new Accession of Pleasure to the doing good her self to see that others did the same But I am not ignorant that hitherto I have been little better than a Remembrancer to a great part of this great Audience I mean in the relation only of what concerns the more publick part of her Ladyships Character The Instance of this having still it may be suppos'd amongst you no less than the Evidence of a Cloud of Witnesses But then as to the great Light of this Ladies good Life which otherwise might have appear'd more unto Men so much of it by her humility was industriously kept secret and under a Bushel that much of her Demerits particularly that of her Charity is I doubt never likely to be fully discover'd till it be rewarded openly For indeed as Humility and Goodness were the natural so Charity was her Ladyships beloved Christian Vertue which she kept and enjoy'd as her secret bosome Delight And yet so far this Charitable Religious Love could not be hid but that when her Saviour in any of his poor distressed Members was in Prison she not only often visited him there but releas'd him thence When too she saw him destitute elsewhere or an hungry she gave him to eat and if he appeared any where naked likewise she was not asham'd to take him in and to give him Raiment as well as Food The rest indeed of her Charitable good Works were it must be own'd done as it were in darkness and yet no less than to the support of many poor indigent Families that to the publick shame might otherwise perhaps have starv'd in private And as those poor Wretches were always ignorant of the Bountiful Hand that kept them alive so did they but now know of her Death Without doubt the most convincing Eloquence to set off the Worth of her Ladyships Charity would be heard in the Mournful Crys and Lamentations of those poor Creatures who in losing her are like to find a sad Loss of it Thus having according to my poor Abilities represented to you the Life something now would be said as to the Death of this truly Righteous Person But as that part of this Subject is too Melancholy to be long dwelt upon so I must needs confess That though my Attendance upon her Ladyship plac'd me it is true near enough to observe the Noble Exercise of ner Patience and other Christian Vertues under the tedious Discipline of almost Twelve Months Pain and Sickness yet by no means can I pretend a Capacity now to relate what I could only see and admire then It is true indeed being she always thus exactly liv'd the Life of the Righteous it will easily be believ'd that she dy'd no otherwise than she liv'd But then Who is it that would attempt a particular Relation of all things that appear'd Remarkable and Exemplary in this great Persons Death as well as Life when indeed in both almost every thing was so However upon the whole it may be said that almost from the first Approaches of her Illness she had within her self such Apprehensions of her Change that what she did or said in this World was little else but in order to her Departure for the next so that after having prudently dispos'd all her Temporal Affairs and piously resign'd her self to the Will of Heaven tho' from the frequent Intervals of a seeming Betterness her Physitians talk'd often of the hopes of a Recovery yet would she by no means put any Confidence in Man but going still on with her Preparations for Death as one resolv'd upon nothing more than to live so as always to be fit to dye Not could her strictest Chamber-Confinement with the growing Incroachments of her Disease and Weakness abridge the Measure or Order of her Devotions that being constant and regular perform'd with her whole Family twice a Day out of the Publick Prayers of the Church and much oftner out of other proper Helps of Devotion whilst the chief Refreshment of her Soul and Body was still receiv'd by her every Month and sometimes oftner from the Administration of the ever Blessed Sacrament And when from keeping her Room she was reduc'd to keep her Bed the same Devotional Course was exactly continued as before so that in this Religious Order doing all things fit to be done the happy Reflections arising from hence where no doubt what enabled her Ladyship to maintain such Evenness of Temper such Calmness and Patience under the severest Tryals of it nothing Passionate or Querulous being upon any occasion to be forc't from her which was not very reconcileable with the most Christian Meekness and Resolution Insomuch that she might be said indeed to undergo her Extream Pains and Agonies with much more Patience and Temper than could her Relations and others that saw her suffer ' em And even then in the last Extreamities when the Earthly Tabernacle drew near to its Dissolution the use of her Sense and Faculties however still happily continuing as at first she did not spend the small Remainder of her Strength and Breath in fruitless Groans and uneasy Complainings but in seasonably adviseing others to prepare for their Latter End as she did for her own not suffering any Convenient Moments of her precious Time to pass without hearing those about her passionately pray for her whilst she as devoutly pray'd for her self still crying out in the Language of her Holy Mother Lord have Mercy upon me Christ have Mercy on me Till at last she recommended her Spirit into his hands that undoubtedly received it into Mercy And now that being dissolv'd as she desir'd she is with Christ which could only make this good Christians Life better Let us not mourn for her Joy nor be sorry that she thus happily dy'd that Death which we must All desire to dye if we would be happy For indeed since this truly great and now happy Christian has thus finisht her Course has thus liv'd and dy'd less I say we cannot and more we need not say of her than this Namely That happy was it that ever she was born Happy was it that ever she dy'd And Thirce Happy is she because she is for ever happy after Death Which holy Life and as happy Death may God of his Infinite Mercy Grant to all of us in his due time To whom with the Son and the Holy Spirit be ascrib'd all the Honour Power and Glory c. now and for ever Amen FINIS
some wicked Men in the World who by their Lives and Conversations would at least seem to have no hopes nor fears of any thing but in this Life only Yet suppose a Man never so great a Hater of God and Religion 't is scarce possible any Man should be suppos'd so great an Enemy to himself as to desire to Dye wrethedly or to be miserable after Death However I say great the Atheists may be that are or that have been there could never sure in the World be so wicked a Fool as this Who will therefore hate Happiness because he does not love Holiness And the Truth is amongst the most profligate and the most wicked Men there is no such thing as an absolute Atheist when Men as it * Heb. 9.27 is appointed come once to dye For as there 's no Man in the World that knows certainly what his Soul was or how it subsisted before it was united to the Body so let the Profane * 1 Cor. 1.20 Disputers of this World talk as they please yet no Man naturally can have any more certainty what condition his Soul will be in after it is separated from the Body But if the Atheist will say here that after Death his Soul will be nothing but that it will cease to be by the Atheists leave we must say that this is more than the most knowing Atheist in the World can pretend to know certainly And therefore since where there 's no certainty there will certainly be doubts and scruples especially in this great Business of Dying and somthing that may be Expected after Death It must necessarily follow that out of the meer principle of self-Love to a Man 's own well-being every where where it is possible for him to be the veryest Infidel therefore tho' He does not Express it yet in effect must be suppos'd at least implicitly to desire to dye the Death of the Righteous that is to dye so as that he may be well after Death and not miserable For the truth is the good Christian that lives a righteous and a Godly Life takes the safest and securest way let what will happen after Death Because if there be an Heaven as all good Christian 's do believe there is then the good Christian He is happy And if there be no such thing why then there is no harm done But then as for the Atheist and Ungodly it is not so with them For if there be an Heaven and an Hell as there may be for all the Fool has say'd in his heart to the contrary why then the Ungodly Wretches are for ever miserable and undone because they are damn'd for ever There is I know amongst the Lew'd and Prophane especially in these latter Ages a most strange and horrid way of Dying that in their Mirth and jollity some Men love mightily to talk of namely of dying hard that is in plain English of dying without any Fear or Apprehensions at all of either Heaven or Hell But whether such vain Men do really desire to dye such Horrid kinds of Death as they love thus prophanely to talk of is not so certain However thus much is most evident that every Man that lives in his senses and does not dye out of E'm desires to dye much otherwise For every Man in his Wits would desire to dye not so much without the sensible Belief as without the fear and Danger of Hell and Eternal Punishment From which horrid danger no man can be sure that He dyes free as long as it is possible there may be such an horrid State and Condition after Death unless indeed Men do take Care to dye the Death of the Righteous and then and only then they can be said to be safe and secure whether there be any such place of punishment or no. And indeed this bare possibility of there being such a Thing as Eternal Vengeance and an Hell for the Wicked is enough to make every man that does not dye Raving Mad or quite stupify'd to desire to dye the Death of the Righteous to the end that they may be safe and secure even as the Righteous are from the possibility of any such Dangers For indeed right Reason as well as Religion teaches Men to provide against all possible as well as against all apparent evils both in Relalation to this Life and that which is to come And therefore it being allow'd on all hands at least possible that there is both a * Ps◠〈…〉 Reward for the Righteous and a consuming * He◠〈…〉 fire for the Ungodly All men will upon this Account be apt enough when they come to dye to desire the better and the safer part Because tho' all wicked Men do hate Righteousness yet they cannot sure be in love with the Wages of Sin For let vain Men Love their sinful pleasures never so well Yet I think no man was ever so far in Love with his Sins as to be willing to be damn'd for e'm And this may be sufficient to prove the first particular namely that All men do at least desire to dye well tho' they live never so wickedly Which brings us to the next particular to be made good wherein we are to shew that tho' all men do desire it yet it is improbable if not impossible for Men to dye well unless they live well And indeed for Men to expect to dye the Death without living the Life of the Righteous is to expect that God should be that which He never was and He has said He never will be namely a * A◠〈…〉 Respecter of Persons in giving that for Nothing to the Wicked which is the peculiar lot of the Righteous viz. The * P◠〈…〉 hope of life in their Death Nay it is foolishly to expect too that God the Righteous Judge should give the Crown of Life to those wicked Men who never took Care to run the Race that was set before them In short it is an Expectation that implys the greatest Unreasonableness and Absurdities For it is to expect that God should give the eternal Mansions and the Childrens Bread to Dogs And that the unclean Sinner as well as the pure Saint should have equal Liberty to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven There is I know a very usual but a very unhappy saying wherewith too many Men perswade themselves to put off the necessity of a good Life and yet for all that hope to dye well and that is by a late Repentance which they say is never too late And by this they mean a Death-Bed Repentance But then alas let us not deceive our selves For tho' indeed a True Repentance is never too late Yet a Death-Bed Repentance truly and properly speaking is no Repentance at all For True Repentance is true sorrow for sin and as true Resolution to Sin no more But then what does a dying Man's Resolution signifie to sin no more when He is indeed not able to sin any longer Besides
True Repentance you know requires Amendment and Reformation But we know that Reformation is the Work of a Man's whole Life and not to be finisht in the Compass of a few dying Moments And indeed supposing all that is possible to be suppos'd a Death Repentance is such a Repentance and so feeble alas and weak like the dying Person that makes it that it may be term'd a faint desire and wish to repent rather than a True Repentance And should God thus bestow Heaven for a dying wish and Eternal Happiness for meer asking the question would not be who then could be sav'd but who then could be damn'd If the eternal Weight of Glory were so cheap a thing that well-wishing only upon our Death Beds would be enough to make the purchase of Salvation I am not I confess for shutting the Kingdom of Heaven against Men nor for making the Narrow Way that leads thither any straiter But thus much I must needs say that infinite Mercy has thought fit to declare but one Instance only of a Death Repentance sufficient and good Namely in the Instance of the Thief upon the Cross and that not without the Help of a Miracle to make it so And I must needs own I do think that nothing less than a Miracle of Mercy can make that Man dye a good Death who has not liv'd a good Life For after all that Miraculous Repentance of the dying Thief upon the Cross is no more than an Argument to disswade Sinners from hazarding their Salvation upon a Death Repentance And certainly as the Scripture speaks great and mighty is the Work of true Repentance When with the Advantages of a good Life the Righteous shall scarcely be saved And if it be so hard with the Righteous where then can there be any hopes for the Wicked Or how is it possible that those Persons who all their Life time have liv'd like Beasts should hope to dye like Men much less like Christians And yet alas Too many are there unhappy Wretches that in the worst of senses will believe against Hope and though their Lives are lead in an open hostility and war against God and all Goodness yet for all that these men will hope still when they come to dye that they shall depart in peace as well as the best And this indeed by the way may be said to be the true and unhappy Reason that Iniquity does so much abound amongst us and that though many even of the Righteous are dayly sick and weak amongst us and many sleep yet for all that we do not see the Ungodly and the Sinner take any Warning at these things or lay 'em to heart as they ought I say from this deadly and deceitful Root does spring all that abundance of Vice and Immorality that over-spreads the Lives and Conversations of most Men and that because Men do vainly hope that they can well enough dye good Deaths though they live never so wicked Lives And the Truth is herein do we prove our selves to be the foolish as well as miserable Sons of Adam because we first sin and then dye as he did because of * Heb. 3.19 Unbelief I say because of our Unbelief For indeed as our First Parents did so do we that is we do not heartily believe that we shall dye but that we shall live though we sin against God And as to this Matter though God himself had said If ye sin you shall surely dye yet the Cursed Woman because she would fain sin and yet live too will therefore believe the Devil that said she might sin and live rather than God himself who told her quite otherwise And alas We the cursed Seed of the Woman We I say that have all of us in this Case too much of the Woman are too willing to believe the Father of Lyes when he tells us that the practical Knowledge of a little Evil can never keep us out of Paradice And thus when the Chief Corner-stone of Belief is shaken and unsettled and Mens Hearts are not rightly establish't in the Truth as the Scripture says How then is it probable that Men should pay God the Homage of a good Life or obey him * Râ—â— 10 1â— in Whom they have not believ'd So that after this Rate we of the Ministry in order to Salvation and Mens dying well may preach up the necessity of a good Life and good Works as much as we please and it may be with Festus Men may be so civil as to come to Church and give us the hearing But then alas the foolishness of Preaching is not likely to have any great effects upon Mens Lives or Hearts as long as wicked men are resolutely possest of this vain Hope and Belief that without Holiness they shall see God and that they can well enough hope to enter into Life without being at the Trouble of keeping Gods Commandments But then alas It is not Unbelief only but it is as gross Ignorance too that keeps many Men from entring into the Course of a good Life in Order to dye well For indeed there are many Men that some how or other content themselves to live all their Life long under the Disadvantages of so much gross Ignorance in Religion and Spiritual things that as the Scripture speaks they cannot tell what to do to be sav'd And such Men as these instead of increasing in the Knowledge of the Lord and growing to perfect Men in Christ Jesus have as the Apostle speaks always need of Milk that is they are always untoward Children of disobedience and your Babes in Grace Having every thing of Children but their Innocence Such men being content to be Novices all their Life time in Religion And have as much need to be Catechiz'd on their Death Beds as they had in their Cradles They profess indeed a Faith and are Baptiz'd into it but have nothing alas to shew for it but the Name So that when the Minister comes to such Men or Women upon their Death Beds and there goes about as it is his Duty so to do to Examine the dying Persons state and condition and upon what Terms at their leaving this they hope to be receiv'd in the next World why alas All the Answer that many dying Persons are able to give upon these Occasions is only this namely that they believe in Christ And they hope they have made their peace with God! But then if the Minister proceed to ask E'm their grounds and Reasons for all this Or the meaning of justifying Faith and the Gospel Repentance Or how they understand or have observ'd the Covenant of Grace in Jesus Christ Why alas instead of answering you in any of these things Or of giving as the Apostle speaks any reasonable Account of the Faith that is in them the poor departing Wretches will only stare as the Psalmist in another case says and gape upon you with their Mouths But alas Beloved though by an extraordinary degree
of Charity we are apt to pass the most favourable Interpretation upon the Deaths of such poor ignorant Persons and to hope that they dye in the Lord Yet this is indeed is far from the true Notion of living and of dying well For indeed the effectual Knowledge that is able to save a Man in the hour of Death and in the day of Judgment is that only true and saving Knowledge applyed to the departing Soul viz. The Knowledge of Christ and him Crucified For this as the Scripture speaks is the one thing necessary This is Life Eternal not to be ignorant of but to * Joh. 17 3. Know the onely True God and his Son Christ Jesus And the Truth is upon the whole Matter it 's a most horrid thing to be consider'd that Men and Women both should make it their chiefest study in this World to live fashionably and to dye genteelly And yet in the mean time that so few should make it their business to learn the Holy Art of Living and Dying like true Christians And this leads us to the Discussion of the third and last particular propos'd Wherein we are to shew what it is truly to live well and what it is to dye well Now for a Man truly to live and truly to dye well is for him to live up to the Profession of his Religion and to dye in the sincere Practice of that Religion which he professes For this as the Scripture speaks is the Summ and All of the Christian Calling namely that we should continue â—ev 2.10 Faithful unto Death and then we may expect to receive the Crown of Life It was a most unhappy Cheat that the Devil put upon our first Parents in Paradice in perswading 'em that Man's happiness consisted not in the doing but barely in the knowing of good But Christ himself tells us that whatever good things we know we are not likely to be * â—oh 13.17 happy unless we do them And the Truth is the Christian Religion is the most active as well as the most nice sort of War and Business whereby Men are engaged not to act and fight against one another as they do but to fight against themselves For the Christian Life is indeed an holy Warfare and a Man by the Grace of God and the help of Religion must live down his own wicked self and the Christian Souldier can never expect to be at peace with God till he has warr'd down and destroy'd the whole body of Sin Indeed the good Christian may then be said to live when he lives unto the Lord But then no man can be said to live unto the Lord but he that dyes to Sin And in this Sence it might be that good King David said He was kill'd all the day long that is as St. Paul says He acted a constant Death upon himself in dying daily unto Sin So that then it is that a man begins to live himself up into a good Christian when he has happily out-liv'd his natural Corruptions that made him a bad man And thus the Life of the Christian and the New Creature as the Scripture speaks is form'd out of the Death of the Old Man with his Deeds And thus the good Christians Life and Conversation may be said to be in Heaven when himself and his * Gaâ— 2â— Affections are thus intirely Crucified to the World I say wholly and intirely Crucified For the good Christian does not at that time only begin to live soberly godly and righteously in this World just then when he is a dying and departing into the next Neither does the good Christian then only begin to think of sending for the Physitian of the Soul when there is no longer any hopes in the Doctor of the Body But the good Christian to make the Evening Sacrifice of his Death acceptable to God he takes care all his Life long to offer up himself and his whole Body and Soul a living Sacrifice unto the Lord Nor will this hearty and this holy Liver ever cease mortifying and subduing both his Body and Soul till he has reduc't brought down every proud and passionate every rebellious Thought to the * 2 Coâ— 10.5 Obedience and to the Will of God so that the good and thorow-pac't Christian that is every way thus Religiously mortified may without the strain of a Paradox be said to out-live his Death For this holy Liver and Dyer as the Scripture speaks is already * 1 Johâ— 14. pass'd from Death to Life since having dy'd once unto sin Death has no more Dominion over him And so such a Christian as this cannot be so properly said to dye as to lay down his Life onely that he may take it up again To put off what was mortal that he may be cloath'd with Immortality In a Word the good Christian's Death is yet more than Life to him for thereby he exchanges Earth for Heaven and lays down the Life of a Man that he may take up that of an Angel But whilst I am thus endeavouring to set before your eyes a Scheme of Holy Living and Dying a more advantageous and inviting Prospect of both must I am sensible entertain and present it self to the thoughts of all those that are come hither to Celebrate the Memory and Merits of this Great and Honourable Persons Life as well as attend the Melancholy Solemnities of her Funeral For this indeed is what at once justifies and recommends the use of Preaching upon these Occasions when the shining Vertues of the Deceas'd are sufficient to make the clearest Comment upon the Text and when the Exemplary Life of the Dead survives and yet speaks as the best proof of the Preachers Doctrin Otherwise indeed a Funeral Solemnity would in a Literal sense be no more than the Dead burying their Dead And a Funeral Sermon instead of speaking well of the Dead might pass for little better than a Satyr both upon the Dead and Living But whatever as a motive to our Living well has been here said of the Death of the Righteous makes but a faint Description of this no less good than great Person who most certainly liv'd so as to dye one of that blessed Number And by so living and dying has indeed left behind her to Posterity such a Legacy and stock of vertues as few have equall'd but All I am sure are concern'd to imitate and commend That this is not the Language of Designing flattery or a servile Dependance All Persons who had the Honour of knowing Her Ladyship will need no other Conviction And then I am sure that they who knew any thing of Her Ladyship's Temper and Qualifications could not but observe those degrees of meekness and humility in her Life that could never design a Panegyrick at her Death And indeed that this meek and good Person intended nothing of Harangue in her Funeral Sermon is yet more evident from the humble Choice she was pleased to make of
A Sermon Preach'd at the FUNERAL OF THE Right Honourable The LADY Viscountess Dowager Cholmondeley At MALPAS in Cheshire on the Last Day of February 1691 2. By Samuel Catherall M. A. and Chaplain to the Right Honourable Hugh Lord Viscount Cholmondeley LONDON Printed for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in St. Pauls-Church-yard 1692. To the Honourable MADAM EGERTON Only Daughter of the Right Honourable The Lady Viscountess Cholmondeley c. MADAM THere need no other Considerations to recommend and perpetuate the Memory of my Lady Cholmondeley than the Merits of her Life it being hardly possible to think the World should forget so Great a Good as long as any sense of Piety or Gratitude continues in it But since your Ladyship and your Honourable Relations are pleas'd to command my poor Mite should be cast in towards that pious End I am neither to dispute the Doing nor Event of it but to shew my Obedience in both And as for the Disproportion the Funeral Discourse upon the Perusal must be found to carry to the dignity of the Subject it would be Vanity in me to attempt any thing of Apology for this being it may be well suppos'd nothing more could be expected from me than to draw below the Value of so high a Character However as far short as the Representation falls of being perfect I doubt there are few Persons who survive so good but if they would endeavour to come as near the Life of the Honourable Original as that does they might be better And indeed when all is done the most effectual Method to transmit the Vertues of so rare an Example to her Posterity is not so much to write as to live 'em down thither In which respect your Ladyship is likely to afford the most natural and lively Transcript who have been always known to live so as well to imitate as to honour so truly Great and Honourable a Parent And it must be confess'd in so happy an Imitation your Ladyship will make the greatest Recompence that can be for the Loss of so Excellent a Person by making your self as Great and Good as She was Your Ladyship will please to take this as it is intended not to direct but to wish you constant success in that Vertuous and Religious Course your own judicious Choice as well as so Dear an Example has all along induc'd you to pursue And as the perfect Accomplishments in that way I mean in the way of Vertue and Religion are indeed the highest Felicity your Ladyship will meet with on this side Heaven So next to that if your Ladyship vouchsafes your Acceptance of this and the Continuance of your Favour to him that humbly offers it This will be the greatest Happiness and Honour to MADAM Your Ladyships most Obedient And most Obliged Humble Servant Samuel Catherall A Funeral Sermon On the DEATH of the Right Honourable The Lady Viscountess Dowager Cholmondeley Numb xxiii Ver. 10. Let me Dye the Death of the Righteous and let my Last End be like his THE Reasoning of Righteousness and of Judgment to come put wavering Faelix * Acts. 2â— 25. into a Fit of Trembling But the Death here of the Righteous consider'd puts a bad Man into good Wishes that his Latter End might be like theirs So true it is that though Religion and Religious People are sometimes the most persecuted and ridicul'd Things in the World amongst bad Men yet when once the worst of Men come to consider seriously and reason the Matter throughly true Wisdom in the end is always found to be justified by her Enemies as well as by her Children And all good Men and Women will at last be admir'd if not imitated that are so wise as to be wise indeed unto Salvation And that Religion and all good Christians do not always meet with this deserv'd Honour and Esteem is for no other Reason but because wicked and ungodly Men whilst they continue so have indeed neither the Sense nor Civility to give either God or good men their due For indeed a godly Life * â—1 Cor. â—1 18 as well as the Preachers of it appear equally Foolishness and a Jest to the Natural and to the sinful Man because the Truth is as the Scripture speaks Men whilst they walk in a vain shaddow in pursuit of their Vices and in the course of their Wickedness * Psal â—9 20 have no Understanding but must be compar'd to the Beasts that perish And that wicked Men do put off their Understanding and Reason before they can shake off the respect due to Vertue and Religion is very plain and evident in the Instances of the wicked Prophet Balaam in the Text Who for the Wages of Unrighteousness being tempted to curse the righteous and innocent People of God ran greedily as St. Jude says and spurr'd it on in that curss'd way till the Bruit Beast was forc'd to admonish the blind Rider and * â— Pet. 16. the dumb Ass as the Text has it to rebuke the Madness of the Prophet But then indeed as soon as the dreaming Offender open'd his eyes to see at once his Error and the Glory of the Lord he presently saw with fear and trembling that nothing but * Isa 59.7.8 Unhappiness and Destruction was in the way of the wicked And he perceiv'd too at the same time that the end of the upright Man only that is * Psal 37.37 Peace And seeing all this this true scene of happiness on the one hand and the as terrible scene of misery on the other it is no wonder that the declining Old Sinner desir'd at last to be happy that is that he might Dye the Death of the Righteous and that his Latter End might be like theirs From the Words thus consider'd in their proper relations I shall at present endeavour to make good these Three Particulars First I shall shew How natural it is for all Men to desire to dye well though they live never so wickedly Secondly I shall shew How improbable if not impossible it is for Men to dye well unless they live well Then Thirdly I shall shew What it is truly to live well and what it is to dye well And last of all will follow the Application suitable to the present Mournful Occasion And First I 'me to shew How natural it is for all Men to desire to dye well though they live never so wickedly Now for a Man to desire to dye well is to desire an happy and easie passage from Life to Death and to be happy after Death And the desire of both these is so agreeable and interwoven in the Nature and Temper of every Man that the very worst of Men cannot be suppos'd so unnatural or so unkind to themselves as to desire otherwise but that all Men do as necessarily desire thus to dye well and to be happy after Death as they desire their well-being in this Life For though there is and has been always