3. When the keepers of the house shall tremble and the strong Men shall bow themselves Is it Nimbleness and Agility Use it not to be swift to shed innocent blood to execute evil offices with wicked Men but to be quick in the measures of thy duty to God thy Neighbour and thy Self I will run the way of thy Commandments satih the Psalmist when thou hast enlarged my Heart Because the same evil days come when the Almond Tree shall flourish and the Grashopper shall become a burden And in the withered stalk of Old Age thy joynts shall deny their Offices Is it Beauty Use not this as a snare to thy own or thy neighbours Soul to become a Trap in the hand of the unclean Spirit but further to set off the virtues of the mind as an Emerauld in pure Gold or as Solomon terms Words fitly spoken Prov. xxv 11. As Aples of Gold in Pictures of Silver Because these evil days also come upon thee when these that look out at the Windows wax dim The most sparkling Eyes shall become Dull and Lifeless They shall move no more in the Head or entice into the works of Darkness but in a little their Imperial Seat shall become the Windows of a Lizard or a loathsom Toad Such is the End and Exit that all the powers of the Body do make at Death and in the house of the Grave So likeways it is with all the natural endowments of the Mind as existing in Conjunction with the Body as I have already said and as acting upon temporal Beeings and Objects Profound searches and nimble Wit and Facetious Humour and all evanish Psal cxlvi v. 4. When his Breath goeth out and he returneth to his Dust in that very day his thoughts perish So III. It is with all the great Acts and Conquests of a Mans Life We have heard of the House which Solomon built 1 King 10. v. 4 5. And of the Ascent by which he went up to the House of God admired by the Southern Queen for the Temple it was ordered by a Greater Architect We have heard of the great Babel which Nebuchadnezzar built and of the Tower and Cities of Nimrod Of the Conquests of Alexander and of the great Atchievements of all both Roman Emperors and Hero's And whatever may be the fullest Extent of Mens Acquests or the most beautiful Ornaments of their Habitations from all these doth Death make a total and final Separation even from all the Enjoyments of this Life And which is yet of far greater Importance The Second Serious Thought which I offer to you That they are concluded under an Irreversible State and Condition of Felicity or Misery in another World As the Tree fallcth so it lyeth and as Death leaveth so Judgment findeth This is the Import of all that Doctrine which our Blessed Lord Saviour delivered when he was in the World and of all these Parables by which he represented the State of another Life As in that of the Sheep and the Goats Mat. 25. How plain are the Words And he said to these upon his Right Hand Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Again to those upon the left Hand Depart from Me ye Cursed into Everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And in the Conclusion of all and these went into Everlast Punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal So in that Parable of Dives and Lazarus Luk 15. There is made mention of a great Gulf betwixt the two and declared to be Impassible so that the one cannot come to the other Pray for what is all this but to tell us of an Irreversible State as of Bless and Glory to the One so of Misery and Sorrow to the Other and that without End or Period And as this was the Doctrine of the Blessed Jesus so of all his Servants the Apostles in their time and under the Trust put into their Hands Rom 2.6 Who will render to every Man according to his Works and so forward in the 7 8 9 10 Verses To them who by patient Continuance in Well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life But unto them that are Contentious and do not obey the Truth but obey Unrighteousness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth Evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But Glory Honour and Peace c. And now if it be so whence hath arisen the new Doctrine of some of our late Discanters upon the State of another Life who quite Annihilat the Punishments of the Wicked to the great Encouragement and Increase of Atheism and Irreligion Nay though there were no revealed Religion owned amongst Men as these New and Dark Tapers would have it who take the Boldness to set themselves in the Light of the Sun which is a Supposition so contrary to all the Motives of Credibility the History of our Saviours Life Death Resurrection and Doctrine doth give us the plain Analogy and Proportion betwixt Him and all the Types and Prophecies which have been concerning him throwout the whole Jewish Dispensation the Confession of Enemies both Jews and Heathens and the Acknowledgment of Devils themselves That a Man may alsewel deny every thing that he hath not seen though never so convincingly instructed Which were a Practice so absurd that the whole Learned World should run to his Condemnation Far less ground of Certainty do Men acquiesce in and rest upon in other Matters which concern not Religion No Body denies a Hector and an Achilles a Pompey and an Alexander And it is much they deny not a Julius Caesar because an Augustus is made mention of in the New Testament But I say supposing all this only absit Blasphemia yet if we own the Beeing of a God which none amongst all the new sprung spawn of Deists or Demi-Atheists hath yet denied then we must own Him among all the rest of His excellent Attributes to be purely Just and Righteous But how shall He be so if He have not reserved Rewards and Punishments for another Life while in this we see prosperous Villany set before our Eyes throughout all the Ages of the World and the most excellent Virtues groaning under the heaviest Oppressions So that we may easily stumble upon the stumbling Block of the holy Prophet Ps 73. passim throughout the same I was envious at the Foolish when I saw the Prosperity of the Wicked They have no Bands in their Death neither are they in trouble as other Men. And further is he led unto the very brink of Atheism In vain have I cleansed my Heart and washed my hands in Iunocency for I am Plagued and Chastned every Morning But immediately he pulls in the Roynes amd gives himself the Check from the 15. Vers and downward When I sought to know this it was too Painful for me Until I went into the Sanctuary of God
Funeral Sermon AT THE Interrment of the very Great and Noble CHARLES LATE Earl of Southeske Who Died at His Castle of Leuchars in the Shire of Fife upon the 9th of August And was Interr'd at His Burial-place near His House of Kinnaird in the Shire of Angus upon the 4th of October 1699. By R. S. D.D. CHRYSOST in x. MATTH Offeramus Deo pro munere quod pro debito tenemur reddere PHILIPP i. 23. Having a desire to depart to be with Christ which is far better AUGUSTIN de Civit Dei Mala Mors putanda non est quam bona vita praecessit EDINBURGH Printed by James Watson in Craig's-Closs M. DC.XC.IX TO The right Honourable truely Virtuous and truely Noble MARY Countess Dowager of Southeske MADAM I Know nothing can offer it self with more Advantage for Acceptance at your Hands than what bears the Name of Him who is gone that other part of your Self whom it hath pleased Almighty God to Call sometime before you to the Blessedness of another Life Whose Image in Writing or the just account of His signal Virtues must do Him and all Men of the like Endowments more Honour than the most beautiful Stroaks of a skilful Pincil Whatever Sweetness was in His Nature shining thorow every Line of His Countenance what Sageness what Honour what Authority yet to know Him better and have a fuller scheme of the Capacities of His Soul expanded and laid open the Philosopher * Plato would have found his Experiment to good purpose in Him who thus expressed the Trial he took of a Man Loquere ut te videam i. e. Speak that I may See thee Whose Words never missed to set forth a clear and wel-digested Mind I have said but what is just of His Virtues in the short following Narrative and I conceive all this may contribut to stir again your wonted Sorrows for the Loss of Him against which I have often laboured to fortify you but I hope the Grace of God with the measures of Natural Prudence you are endowed with shall secure agninst the Alarm of these few Lines And I shall further excuse them on this head because I know that a generouâ— and affectionat Regret hath its own Sweetness in it only make it Christian and all is safe And do His Memory so much Honour and the Christian Laws so much Justice as to imitat His Excellent Virtues and add your own to them which I will not flatter you to name And I am hopeful you will go very near to compleat the Chain which is the earnest Prayer alsewel as the humble Request of MADAM Your most affectionat Well-wisher and most obedient humble Servant R. S. Christian Reader I Set before thee what I hope thou art careful every Morning to take a view of that the August Roman may not out-do the serious Christian Severus Imp. who caused make his Coffin and set it by him to mind him of his End and Exit out of the World which the Business of our Life is but too ready to make us forget I only add this That none of the Advantages of this World can secure thee against it else neither That nor This Great Man had died Farewel JOB xxx 23. For I know that Thou wilt bring me to Death and to the House appointed for all Living THESE Words exhibit and set forth to us a Truth carefully to be Remembered and seriously Pondered as by all the Individuals of Mankind so by every particular Person in this Great and Noble Audience as containing a Mene Tekel and irreversible Sentence of our being necessarly and inevitably separated from all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory thereof They are spoken to us by the Excellent Job as bottomed upon a two-fold Certainty 1. The Infallible Forsight of his own particular Fate For I know Thou wilt bring me to Death Words obliging us to a Serious Pause and a very Inquisitive Recollection What a Me is this and by whom are these Words uttered Not by one of the Common Rout of Mankind at a venture whose Pretensions commonly are but very small to the Indulgences and Dispensations of Heaven but by a great and singular Friend of the most High Characterised by Him in the first Chapter of this Book of Job and 8th Verse in these Words spoken to the most exact Check and inveterat Destroyer of Mankind the Devil Hast thou considered My Servant Job that there is none like him in the Earth a perfect and an upright Man one that feareth God and esheweth evil And in the view and prospect of Death what Favour think we might he justly have expected was Enoch translated and did not see Death had Elijah a fiery Chariot to carry him to the Regions of Blessedness and might not Job have looked for some extraordinary way of being brought into the same Courts Nay but I know Thou wilt bring me to Death And since he hath said so let us make ready for it the more wretched Sinners of Mankind But 2. These Words are uttered not only upon the Forsight of his own particular Fate but upon the Inevitable Destiny and Fate of all Mankind And therefore doth he here term Death which is a Metonymie of the Effect for the Cause the House appointed for all Living The blessed Apostle expresseth it thus 1 Cor. 15.22 In Adam all die speaking of the Great Argument of the Resurrection Perfected and truely Instructed by the Death and Resurrection of the Blessed Jesus And when Men that are Vain upon the Antiquity of their Pedegree and Extract begin to Enumerat their Ancestors It 's to tell the World that so many more Mortals lived once upon the Earth And though never so Great and never so Wise though never so Rich and never so Potent yet behoved they to yeild to the Common Fate of Mankind And with one of them very lively to express their Conviction in that Matter who upon the Death of a Dear Child and the surprising Advertisement given of it made no other Account of it than this Scio me genuisse mortalem I know I did beget a Mortal To which we shall only add the Statutum est Heb. 9.27 It is appointed for Men once to Die Or if we need to say further upon that Point let the Experience of all Ages and our own daily Experience end the Inquiry And now how deeply is it to be regreted that however Death be the most familiar Comerad of Humane Life yet of all Others it is least Acquainted with it Though he that bears the Passing Bell in any tolerable Populous Place as he opens the Morning so he shuts up the Evening with it Besides the Noise of his Fatal Monitor at the Common Funeral Hours and Appointments and more Plentifully in these Times wherein God hath shewed his Anger against Us by breaking the Staff of Bread and with it the Common Stock of Health and gives Death so frequently in all the Streets of our Cities
the Virtues of Dorcas much talked of and the Product of her Handy-labour exhibited to her Praise in the sight of the Apostle who was allowed to raise her from the Dead The first two I shall make mention of are coupled together by our Blessed Lord and Saviour in the Eleventh Chap. of St. Matt. Gospel Verse 24. In a grand Lesson he offers unto and enjoyns upon his Disciples It is in these Words Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart And sufficiently to understand the Value of these Graces it will be fit to mention another Scripture Isa 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of a Contrit and Humble Spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble and to revive the Heart of the Contrit Ones Where it is obviously observable That these Virtue so qualify the Soul as to make it a Habitation for God and do make up a considerable part of the Image of Christ Nor do I say that these alone can qualify Us for an Union with God but that they are two of the most considerable Virtues in the exercise of which we may hope to attain to the Blessedness of an other World For the Meekness of our Great and Noble Friend it was such as that seldom he was found to be Angry For my self I have heard his Ears provok'd but never saw his Countenance changed And if we take in the Holy St. Augustin his Description of the Meek which is in these Words Commenting upon our Saviours Sermon upon the Mount mites qui cedunt Improbitatibus non resistunt in malo He knew to bear evil Offices done him in the World with as equal a Mind as any amongst Men Nor did he take pleasure to render Evil for Evil but rather in the Meekness of his Spirit to overcome Evil with Good And without either Fondness or Hyperbole I may adventure to say that if he came not up to the Meekness of Moses in the exercise of this Virtue he was one of the Meekest Men of all the Societies where he happened to be found For his Humility it was as Signal as it was Singular He ever shunned all pompous Appearances and proud Competitions He was assable and easy in his Conversation even with these of inferior Quality and yet with his Equals setting forth a Greatness suitable to his Birth attended with all the possibly attainable Effects that his Noble and Generous Education at Foreign Courts could have been expected to produce For his Table it was ever opulent and honest and upon all solemn and singular Occasions second to none amongst his Peers but nothing Vain or savouring of Ostentation In his Apparel though he never wanted by him the richest and finest yet he looked upon himself as Great in the Virtue of his Country as in the Product of the Indies and truely he was so Whatsoever he had to boast beyond his Neighbours in considerable acquired Parts he had no itch to shew them but industriously kept them up except when the common Benefit of others did require it Nor were his Attainments only in that which we call the Gentile-Learning especially the Classick Authors whereof a Copy is extant in his Library than which there can be none found finer in the Nation but in other Sciences that are of greater Use and require closser and more serious Application And I have been witness to his modest and bashful Concealing of them when he had good opportvnity to set them forth to his Praise making good that Description St. Bernard gives of Humility Gloriari non solet contendere non consuevit it doth not Boast it useth not to Wrangle The next Virtue that shined in him was his remarkable Justice in observance of that great Gospel Precept Matth. 7.12 All things whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do you even so to them For this is the Law and the Prophets This Virtue did he practise to a great Pitch in all the Transactions of his greater Affairs and in lesser Concerns in his State and Family still Allowing Approving and Commending upon all Occasions all Actions of that Nature And was frequently heard to say that however unjust any were to him he would be Just to all the World And in some time his Singular Justice in most Signal Acts of it may be made appear To these add his Eminent Charity and Bounty to all that were in want so necessary a Virtue in these pinching times and that likwise in obedience to a very great Gospel Precept Heb. 13.16 To do Good and Communicat forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased This is a Virtue that admits not of such publick Evidences because we are forbid to sound a Trumpet before it And that is indeed the great difference betwixt true Charity and vain Ostentation Only this I can say as upon certain Knowledge that sometimes I have been called to find out fit objects for his Charitable Distributions Now here is a short Catalogue of some of the most Excellent Christian Virtues which very eminently dwelt in him And might we stay longer upon this to highten the Morality of his Life we might call in as Auxiliaries the Cardinal Moral Virtues admired practised and recommended by the Ancients as founded upon the Light of Nature One of these is already touched to wit Justice the other three are Prudence Temperance and Fortitude of Mind Of the first of these he was Blessed with very large Measures And if we speak the Language of the Moralists nullum Numen abest si fit prudentia For his Temperance in eating he could shew himself Sober in the midst of great Abundance For the other part of it in Liquors many times have I heard him remonstrat against the use of them betwixt Meals And if at any time the corrupt Customs of the Age did impose upon his Gentle and condescending Spirit he bore both the trouble and Resentment of it to a Christian Measure For that of Fortitude of Mind which is indeed the Stay and Anchor of all the rest he was a Phaenix for it which cannot miss to be attested by all that had the Honour to Converse with him Never a more equal and immovable temper of Spirit found ordinarly amongst Men upon the Earth You ever found him where you left him and what he was he was unto the End So that Relative to all these both Christian Moral Virtues he seemed to inhaunce that Precept of the Blessed Apostle 1 Cor. xv 58. Be Stedfast and Immoveable Signal Evidences of this Fortitude of Mind did appear to a Wonder in the sight of many Witnesses at his Death his Noble and Honourable Friends whom he had called to the Christian Office of attending him at that Season There did he seem so far to Triumph over Death that the ordinar Temper of his Mind suffered no imaginable Change speakihg with