Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A26152
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A discourse occasion'd by the death of the Right Honourable the Lady Cutts by Francis Atterbury ...
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Atterbury, Francis, 1662-1732.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing A4149; ESTC R35288
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17,784
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48
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A DISCOURSE Occasion'd by the DEATH OF The Right Honourable THE Lady CUTTS By FRANCIS ATTERBURY Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-moon in St. Paul's Church-yard 1698. TO The Right Honourable JOHN Lord CUTTS Baron of Gouran c. My Lord AT Your Command I preach'd this Discourse but upon so short a warning that nothing less than Your repeated Commands could have excus'd me for publishing it The Subject of it is Death a thing which You my Lord have very familiarly convers'd with and seen in all its Shapes but never I believe found it so truly terrible as in the Face of my Lady All that were about You were witnesses with how Sensible a Concern You bore the Loss of Her and indeed it was such a Loss as even all Your Courage was but little enough to bear I pray God it may turn to account to Your Lordship another way and may furnish You with such Reflections and inspire You with such Resolutions as if well pursu'd will make You amends for any Loss on this side Heaven Your Lordship has chosen to express some part of Your Grief this way by giving the World an Opportunity of grieving with You which it will certainly do wherever my Lady Cutts's Character is truly known and I have endeavour'd to make it known in the following Pages with all the Sincerity that becomes my Profession a Quality which I must own to Your Lordship I would not forfeit upon any account no not tho' I were sure of doing the greatest Good by it Some part of what is there written I know and the rest I do in my Conscience believe to be true after a very strict and particular Enquiry If I may be so happy in what I have said as to contribute any ways towards fixing a True Opinion of my Lady's merit and spreading the Interests of Vertue and Piety by the means of it I have all the Ends I propos'd to my self in this Discourse beside the Honour of publishing to the VVorld that I am Your Lordship's Most obedient and most humble Servant Francis Atterbury A DISCOURSE Occasion'd by the DEATH of the Right Honourable the Lady CUTTS ECCLES vii 2. It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to go to the House of Feasting for that is the End of all Men and the Living will lay it to heart THE first Step to Happiness is to correct our false Opinions and to learn to esteem every thing according to that Rate and Value not which the World or our own mistaken Imaginations may have plac'd upon it but which in it self and in the accounts of right Reason and Religion it really bears The Wise Hebrew therefore has in this Chapter lay'd together a Sett of Religious Paradoxes which however they may startle aud shock us a little upon the first hearing yet when closely examin'd will appear to be very serious and weighty Truths and such by which the whole course of our Lives ought to be steer'd and govern'd In the first Verse of this Chapter the Verse before the Text he tells us that a Good Name is better than precious Oyntment and the day of ones Death than the day of ones Birth A Good Name is better than precious Oyntment i. e. rich Oyls and sweet Odors in the use of which those Eastern Countries mightily delighted are not half so grateful or valuable as a good Reputation well founded This is more truly fragrant more diffusive of its influence more durable it gives a man greater comfort and refreshment while Living and preserves him better when Dead than the most precious Embalmings And agen The day of ones Death is better than the day of ones Birth i. e. the day of the Death of such an one as has and deserves a Good Name of such an one as has liv'd well and dy'd well is preferable by far to the day of his Birth for it enters him upon a State of perfect rest and tranquility of undisturb'd joy and happiness whereas the Day of his Birth was only an Inlet into a troublesome World and the beginning of sorrows And then it follows very naturally in the words of the Text that It is better also to go to the to House of Mourning than to go to the House of Feasting as Death to a Good man is more advantageous than Life so to a Wise man the Contemplation of the one is more desirable than all the Enjoyments of the other He had much rather be present at the sad Solemnities of a Funeral than partake of those Festival Rejoycings which are usual in all Nations but especially among the Iews at the Birth of a Child Hard Doctrine this to the Men of Liberty and Pleasure who have said to themselves Come on let us enjoy the things that are present let us fill our selves with costly Wine and Oyntments and let no Flower of the Spring pass by us let us crown our selves with Rosebuds before they be wither'd Hard Doctrine I say it is to such men as These and which will run the hazard of not being entertain'd by ' em The Wise man therefore has condescended to prove as well as assert it and to back the severe Rule he has lay'd down with very convincing Reasons for that says he is the End of all men and the Living will lay it to heart As if he had said This Dark and Melancholly State it will one day certainly come to our share to try and what must some time or other be undergone ought now and then to be consider'd beforehand this is the End of all men and all men therefore should have their Eye and their Thoughts upon it And then further We are most of us so immers'd in the Pleasures and taken up with the Follies of Life that we need all methods of reducing our straggling Thoughts and Desires and of giving our selves a Serious Frame and Composure of Mind and of all Methods this of repairing to the House of Mourning is best adapted to that Good End and will soonest and most effectually bring it about The Living will lay it to Heart I have largely explain'd the Connexion and Meaning of the Words which have been pitch'd upon to imploy Your Thoughts on this mournful Occasion The next thing should be to excite You to a Complyance with the Direction there given by the particular Arguments of the Text and by several other powerful and moving Considerations to prove to you the Folly and Emptiness of a Life led all in Mirth and Jollity and Pleasure the Wisdom and Reasonableness of shifting the Scene sometimes and of turning the Gloomy side of things towards us in a word of exchanging the House of Feasting for the House of Mourning and of making a discreet and decent use of those sad Opportunities of Reflection which God mercifully severe is pleas'd to put into our hands But I am prevented in this part of my Discourse by
may presume into her Intimacy and into her Bosome for their Minds were nearly ally'd and their Characters and Manners and ways of Life not unlike allowing for the difference of Stations I need not I cannot well say more of her and if therefore I have fallen short in any parts of her Character as I am sensible I have in many that I have mention'd and in more that I have left untouch'd I desire those particular Defects may be supply'd from this General account of her that She very much resembl'd Her who was the Pattern of all that is Good and Amiable in Womankind Whether She had this excellent Pattern in her Eye I am not able to say when soon after her Marriage She declar'd to several Friends her thoughts that Every Woman especially Women of Quality ought to do as much Good as they could in the World and that the shortest and surest way of doing this was to endeavour by all means to be as good a Christian and as good a Wife and as good a Friend as was possible She endeavour'd and she effected it for She fill'd all Characters that she fell into and rose up well nigh to all the Obligations that She lay under She was devout without Superstition strict without Ill-humor good-natur'd without Weakness chearful without Levity regular without Affectation She was to her Husband the best Wife the most agreeable Companion and most faithful Friend to her Servants the best Mistress to her Relations the most respectful to her Inferiors the most obliging and by all that knew her either nearly or at a distance She was reckon'd and confess'd to be one of the best of Women Solomon indeed in the Chapter from whence my Text is taken has a very severe Censure of the Women of His Time and Country Behold this have I found saith the Preacher counting One by One to find out the account which yet my Soul seeketh but I find not One Man among a Thousand have I found but a Woman among a Thousand have I not found by which he seems to intimate as if he had never met with One Good Woman among all the Daughters of Israel If that be his meaning I will be bold to say that had the Virtuous Lady we lament been in his Court and of his Acquaintance That Passage I read from him had not now been part of Holy Writ for even Wisdom it self could not but have born witness to the Goodness of her Character And yet all this Goodness and all this Excellence was bounded within the Compass of Eighteen Years and as many Days for no longer was She allow'd to live among us She was snatch'd out of the World as soon almost as She had made her appearance in it Like a Jewel of high price just shewn a little and then put up agen and We were depriv'd of her by that time We had learnt to value her But Circles may be compleat tho' small the Perfection of life does not consist in the Length of it if it did Our Saviour to be sure would not have dy'd so soon after Thirty Short as her Life was She had time enough in it to adorn the several States of Virginity and Marriage and to experience the Sadness of a kind of Widowhood too for such She accounted it when her Lord was long absent from her mourn'd as much and refus'd as much to be comforted till his Return As her Life was short so her Death was sudden She was call'd away in haste and without any warning One day She droop'd and the next She dy'd nor was there many hours distance between her being very easie in this World and very happy in another It seems as if God who had resolv'd to take her to himself and to Company more worthy of her did it hastily on purpose least if the account of her Illness had spread far and lasted long the Prayers of so many Good Men and Women as had surely been engag'd on her behalf should have prov'd unsuccessful their Importunities unavailable He may be thought unwilling I say to put such a Discouragement on the United Devotions of his best Saints and Servants and in order therefore to prevent their Applications to have remov'd her from hence e're they could be aware of it However tho' She was seiz'd thus suddenly by Death yet was She not surpriz'd for She was ever in preparation for it her Loins girt as the Scripture speaks and her Lamp ready trimm'd and burning The moment almost that She was taken ill She was just risen from her Knees and had made an end of her Morning Devotions And to such an One a sudden Death could be no misfortune We pray indeed against it because few very few are fit for it and the Church is to proportion her Forms to the Generality of Christians But where a Good Soul is in perfect Readiness there the sooner the sad Stroke is struck the better all Delays in this case are uncomfortable to the Dying as well as to those who survive ' em In truth She could not be call'd away more hastily than She was willing to go She had been us'd so much to have her Conversation in Heaven and her Soul had been so often upon the wing thither that it readily lest its Earthly Station upon the least becken from above and took the very first opportunity of quitting her Body without lingring or expecting a second summons She stay'd no longer after She was call'd than to assure her Lord of her entire resignation to the Divine Will and of her having no manner of uneasiness upon her Mind and to take her Leave of Him with all the expressions of tenderness When this was over She had nothing more to do with her Senses and therefore sunk immediately under her Illness and after a short unquiet slumber slept in peace Thus liv'd and thus dy'd this Excellent Lady whose Character I have here represented in short as my Time and the Measure of such Discourses as these would suffer me and endeavour'd to renew a faint Image of her several Virtues and Perfections upon your Minds I have done it in a confus'd manner and without the nice Divisions of Art for Grief is not Methodical It is enough if what I have said serve any ways to make her Resemblance present to your thoughts tho' it be not after the best and liveliest manner when the Life is gone a Picture drawn even by an unskilful hand has its Use and Value and those who Lov'd what it represents tho' very unequally will be touch'd at the Sight of it You all are so I question not at what has been said touch'd in various Manners and in different Degrees as Your Relation to her was nearer or further off as You knew more or less of her But You do not mourn alone many Living there are that do now and many more there are who shall hereafter when her Character has spread lay it to heart The World has had