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A31344 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 ... Catherall, Samuel, 1661?-1723. 1692 (1692) Wing C1491; ESTC R35477 14,855 31

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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 ●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 * ●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 * Ga● 2● 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 Co● 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 Joh● 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
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 * R●● 10 1● 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