Preach up the Highest Rebellion in the State Fowlâ—st Disorder in the Church that any Age ever knew Yet their umbrageous Phantasies startle now at any thing of Decency Order As if Popery were obtruded in that Sign which hath no other meaning but to signify to the world that we are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ crucified â—iturgy in Publick Bapâ—ism Or Antichrist lurked under that Innocent habit used in the Ministerial Office But I am upon a Theam of Burial due to Christians and in Christian Charity I would Bury these weaknesses too if They be so or not rather Obstinacies only putting Them in mind There cannot be too much Dignity given to the Body when Dead which Living was a Temple of the Holy Ghost That Body which Christ assumed when He took our Flesh That Body In which and For which He Died paying the price of his unvaluable Blood to redeem it Lastly That Body which He will hereafter Glorify and make it Like unto His own Glorious and Incorruptible Body Philip. 3.1 Sure if the Prophet tells you with sorrow That it pitty'd all Eies to see the ruins of decay'd Sion and that the dust and rubbish of it was priz'd and favour'd by them Psal 102.14 Let none disvalue the Bodies of Saints demolished by Death which are more Considerable than the Stones of Sion in her greatest beauty But rather let it be a motive in the Honour of their Funeral Rites to declare how Pretious their Death is in the sight of Men when the Text assures you that it is Pretious in the sight of God 4. In the sight sight of God Should man's ingratitude lose the Remembrance of Those who in their time have best deserved in the World Yet God is not as Man to forget His Servants They need no Monument to preserve nor Epitaphe to innoble them who live in God's Remembrance The Memorial and Name of the wicked Men perisheth like the Dung Psal 9.5 and rotts faster than their Corrupted Bodies but the Just shall be had in everlasting Memory Psal 111.6 There can be no greater motive for Christians to live well than to think Deus videt Senec. God is a spectator of all their Actions whilst They live here Nor can there be a greater terrour to any who by Violence deprive them of that life Than to consider He is the Avenger of His Servants and Saints So the Price He puts upon Them is in Rewarding Them in the next world and Avenging Their Blood in This. Yet I must tell you 1. He Avengeth this speculation of God's Vengeance upon their Destroyers if taken by our own Perspective may deceive us As God doth not alwaies at first Call hear our Prayers when we Invoke His Mercy but takes His own Time to perform what we desire So He doth not ever when we implore His Justice let loose His Thunder to strike Those Men of Blood to whom His severest vengeance is due Thou God to whom vengeance belongeth shew Thy self Psal 93.2 is the Prophets excitation of Him And yet for al this Cry He tells you in another place God makes as if he heard not Yea though he hath pronounced that the Blood-thirsty and deceitful should not live out half their dayes Psal 55.23 we have seen the Gray-hair'd Murtherer finish a large Account of Time and number many years Nay dye in his Bed when Those who deserv'd to be Canoniz'd for Saints and Martyrs have dy'd upon the Scaffold If These men dy the Common death of all men Num. 16.29 then the Lord hath not sent me saith Moses with some indignation in the case of Korah and his fellow Conspirators O Beloved Yee must neither misdoubt us who preach the Certainty of God's Judgments If in Your Ey these Judgments fall not on Them so soon or so severe as you expect Much less must you misjudge God Himself either from the delay of His Vengeance or by permitting them to enjoy Augustus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suetor a quiet and Calm Death We are no competent Judges of God's motion to Revenge no more than of the Means by which He doth accomplish it God sayes Their foot shall slide in due time Deut. 32.35 But then he asks who shall appoint Me the time Jer. 50.44 If He strikes not presently we must not think Him slow or forgetfull 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack as some men count Slackness Or if He permits any notorious Offenders to finish their dayes by a Natural Death in their Bed do we know Qualem in conscientiâ sustinent Gehennam what hard contests what sharp Conflicts what Hell their Consciences endure When God threatens He will cast Jesabel upon a Bed Rev. 2.22 Think you this done in favour of Her who seduced His servants to commit Fornication No but to revenge Her Adulteries upon the very Bed whereon she committed them So when He suffers the fowlest Assasinates to dy in their Bed it is not alwayes Mercy but rather as if He Hanged Them at their Own Door making those very Beds on which they proudly stretcht themselves Amos 6.4 and where They contrived their Hellish Machinations the Place of Execution and Torment to Them For my part I shall ever reckon these inverted forms of Justice among the Prodigies which Christ predicted of the Last and worst Times When the Stars should fall from Heaven Mat. 24.29 the Sun be darkned the Moon turn'd to Blood How many Stars in the Sphear of the Church for those Lights are Stars in the Spirit 's compellation have since these unhappy times been darkned Rev. 1.20 How many Nobles have been strook off by violent Death who are Stars in the Orb of the Kingdom How hath the Moon languished under Her Eclipse Queens mourned in Widdowhood and Exile Nay which is a Portent greater than that how hath the most Glorious Sun which ever shone in the Firmament of our English Throne been turn'd to Blood It was a Bloody Time wherein we liv'd of late and sure it was believ'd the New Modell'd State could not thrive unless like the Vine Blood were powr'd at the Root of it Tertullian tells us the Heathen Persecutions gave the President who if the Seasons prov'd unkindly or the Aspect of Heaven frown'd on them in ill weather If they suffer'd Famine or Pestilence If their Designs miscarried by Land or their Adventures by Sea they ran down to the Amphitheater crying Christiani ad Leones Tertui Apologet. Some Christians must be sacrifized to the Teeth of Beasts to mend those Mischiefs You may remember how some Seduced People were incited to run down with Tumultuous Petitions and Confused Clamours for Justice upon Delinquents Alleging their Trade was improsperous for lack of execution done upon Delinquents When they had prevayl'd and by Gross prevarication Law and no Law Laws made for that purpose then Abrogated when the Turn was
serv'd when I say by these Juggles they had got off some of the wisest Heads in the State and Highest in the Church Nay when they had struck the Vena Basilica emptying the Blood of the Principal Veyn which gave Life and Spirit to the whole Kingdome how well those abused People have thriv'd and the Trades improv'd Themselves feel to their utter undoing and we all see God grant this Unvaluable this Guiltless this yet unexpiated Blood with many Thousands besides shed since the last eruption of our Civil War be not charg'd upon the Heads of every one of us who survive It is the Positive Law of God Gen. 9 6. He who sheddeth Man's Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed And I know not what Power upon Earth can dispense with it If there be any who frame excuse or by Sophistry and False Reason endeavour to Palliate the Crime let them take heed lest they pluck down the Guilt upon Themselves This Loud crying Sin will not easily be silenced The Tongue of Blood is never hoarce by long crying Gen 4.10 I have heard the Voyce of thy Brother Abel's Blood crying to me from the Ground saith God And This Blood though shed so many hundred years past Cryes still Heb. 11.4 Indeed how can it be otherwise Psal 56.8 He who Bottles every Tear shed in sorrow or contrition and who numbers every drop of water distilled from the Eyes of His servants shall He not much more keep a Tale of every Drop of Blood Certainly He will and in His Calculation each Drop hath its just value to bring a fearfull recompence upon the Heads of all their Murtherers Surely I have seen yesterday the Blood of Naboth and the Blood of His sons 3 King 9 26 and I will Requite Thee saith the Lord. 'T is an Asseveration He sees to Pity It and He sees to Revenge it upon all the House of Ahab It is ever in Conspectu ejus In his sight So precious is the death of His Saints He puts a price upon Their Loss in His Revenge and He puts a price upon Their Virtues in His Reward You see how God looks down upon His servants 2 Reward with what Aspect He beholds their Sufferings here They must now look up to Him from whence cometh their Salvation Psal 121.1 The Apostle directs their Eye Hel. 12.2 Looking up to Jesus the Authour and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy set before Him endured the Cross c. There needs no better Reward than to be in Conspectu Domini Psal 16.11 In Gods sight In Thy sight and in Thy Presence there is fulness of Joy for evermore The Pain of the Cross was eas'd to that poor dying Man Hanging upon it in the promise of his Saviour Luke 23.43 Hodiè mecum eris Thou shalt be where I am Those who can summ up the Sorrows of a Miserable Life may best collect the Blessings of the Life to come It were a vain thing for us on Earth to attempt the defining of those Joyes in Heaven which be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eye hath not seen nor Tongue can utter nor Heart conceive Them This onely is the dictate of our Faith and best Evidence of Those unseen Joyes That the Beatifica Visio The Sight of God will both recompence all the Crosses laid on us and supply all the Comforts which we wanted upon Earth That Blessed Vision whereby we shall see God not under the Dim Cloud of His Promises but in the Clear Light the Performance of His Reward We must know for all this Luke 16.26 there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A great Gulph betwixt our expected Bliss and us Deut. 1.19 Perhaps A Red Sea and a Terrible Wilderness are enterpos'd and must be passed through before we can arrive at the Land of Promise Happy shall Those be who are nor afraid to wade through a Red Sea discolour'd by their own Blood if God's Honour or His Cause require it nor faint in the apprehension of a Wilde Great Desart if He think good to lay that tedious probation upon their Patience Let this assurance Cheer both Their and Our dejected Spirits we shall undoubtedly receive the Reward if we Faint not Heb. 12.3 And what contempt soever we endure in the Eyes of Men we shall finde a full Reparation In the Sight of God I Have done with the Text. And now according to the Custome of a Funeral You will expect I should say somewhat concerning the Subject of it I confess My self an ill Herald and unversed in These Displayes It being the first time which brought me to perform this Office for the Dead And if God so pleas'd I wish from my Soul I might have missed it now I cannot but remember at this Time was a Twelvemonth in the Highest Celebrity which our English Court can Boast the Solemn Feast of St. George held at Windsor His Infirmity Forced Him by Particular Licence and Approbation of His Soveraign to Depute me unto That Office which in That place properly belong'd to Him I little thought that in a Mournfull Solemnity where Himself became the Subject I should the following Year and the very next Day after that Triumph be Deputed to this Last Service at His Grave But thus You see how Joyes and Sorrows by course exercise their several Jurisdictions over us And how the Greatest Triumph Earth affords is attended at the Heels by such a Gastly follower as Death That I heartily Lov'd and from the converse of many younger years Valued the Owner of that Dead Relick lying before me is a real Truth For that cause Ye therefore must not expect any large Panegyricks from me lest happily Yee might think He needed them Though Praise be a fit Gloss set upon Desert there is danger at least suspicion in the excess As unskilfull Painters by laying on too much Varnish dead the Colours and marr the Piece they would set off Indeed in any Mournfull Arguments Invention is commonly most free where with least interest and Concern it looks upon the Object Passion or Affection mingling with them render it too serious for any Rhetorick but Sorrow This I profess to be my Case And if it would not betray more of the weaker Sex than is fit for me to own I could make good the words of St. Augustine Potius libet flere quà m aliquid dicere My Eyes could easily prove more fluent than my Tongue Yet lest Ye fail of all Ye look for As the Evening Sun immediately before his Set Unites and in some short flashes casts forth his Beams before he bury them in that Cloud wherein he Sets I will briefly summ up the Passages of His Life even from his Youth which was His Sun-rise unto the Declination of His Age which brought Him to this Bed of Darkness He was Born of Worthy and Virtuous Parents His Education was in This Famous School
A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the R ' Reverend Father in God BRYAN Lord Bp. of WINCHESTER At the Abby Church in Westminster April 24. 1662. By HENRY L. Bp. of Chichester LONDON Printed for Henry Herringman and are to be sold at his Shop in the Lower Walk in the New Exchange 1662. A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God BRYAN Lord Bp. of Winchester At the Abby Church in Westminster April 24. 1662. Pretious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of His Saints Psal 116.15 I Need not tell you the occasion of our Meeting The sad Object lying before your Ey declares that And though He who is gone be principally concerned in drawing you to this House of Mourning yet must ye not repute your selves wholly unconcern'd The benefit will redound to you who Eccl s 7 3. who know by whom ye are told how good it is to enter into it I wish ye may think so too I read of one Philoromus Galata who was so much in love with Death he liv'd some years in a Tomb to prepare Himself for it This Spectacle and this Discourse tends to this Preparation So that I hope ye will not repent an hours stay here with me The Grave is commonly as powerful an Oratour as the Pulpit and by presenting the fears of an III Death instructs us in the Rules of a Good Life My assurance is that as the winding Sheet fits every Body by dilating or contracting it self to each ones size so my discourse will suit it self to every Hearer Like Philipp's Boy it holds out to Youth a Skull to Age a Coffin Who next amongst us is likely to fall into this low Centre may be doubtfull 'T is sure at one time or other we all must And probably we shall not all of us a few dayes hence meet here again Therefore wheresoever that final Lot may chance to fall whether on some Hearer or on the Speaker You will allow this Text a pious remembrancer to Those who stay behind and an antidated valediction to those who next go hence So then as St. Paul told the Corinthians Whether it be I or You so I Preach 1 Cor. 15 11. and so Yee justly must believe That happy shall their condition be in the Next world who after a Religious life dye well in This. For Precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of His Saints I trouble you not with any Curious but a Plain Division Division The First Joint whereof is that which disjoins Nature 1. Dâ—ath and must Divide us from One another Yea makes a Division of us from Our selves by Disuniting Soul and Body and taking asunder those Essential Parts by which we subsist Death Then follows the Subject of our Funeral 2. Saints Sancti All are concluded under the Necessity of Dying Men the Best of Men Saints Yet Thirdly there is a mixture of Comfort to sweeten the Meditation of Death 3. Pretious It is Mors Pretiosa Pretious 1 In that it puts an end to all Calamity 2. Pretious for that Their Memory survives when They are gone 3. Pretious in the Sight of Men as being Honoured in their Exequies Lastly it is Pretiosa in conspectu Dei 4 In the sâ—ght of the Lord. Not Pretious only in the Ey and Estimation of the world But Precious in the Sight of the Lord. He who sees all things is a Spectator of the Death of his Servants and shews how dearly he values Them 1. By Avenging their Blood if shed by violence in this world 2. By Rewarding Them in the Next This is the Frame on which my ensuing Discourse is carried whose Foundation you see is laid as low as the Grave I begin there where all must end 1. Patt Death with Death The full Period and Close of Nature A Subject better defin'd by silence than speech and sounds more pathetically from a Tomb than a Pulpit The Arguments of this place are or should be God and His VVorks But amidst the whole Catalogue of those works of His we find not Death A thing of so unblest a Being It cannot derive it self from His Hand and Facture who made All other things Light was his Creature Strook out and Kindled by His Fiat Lux Gen. 1.3 Let there be Light And Life was inspired by His Powerful Breath who breathed Spiraculum vitae into Man Gen. 2.7 But Darkness and Death are Children of other Parentage God made no Privations to Smother His Works No Extinguishers of Light or Nature No Sickness to supplant Health nor Infirmity to dissolve Strength VVis 1.14 The Generations of the World were healthful and there was no Poison of destruction amongst them Darkness is but a defect of Light and Death a Privation of Life therefore none of His ver 13 For God hath not made Death neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living If you would have Death's Pedigree search not in God's Book of Creatures amongst the Records of Life but see the Annals of Sin That and Sin were Twins nursed up together engendred of two accursed Parents the Serpent's Active Malice and Man's Disobedience From hence do we derive this Monster This Enemy to Nature and Opposite to God For so it is This demolisheth what He Builds The goodly frame of Mankind is by Death ruined and layd in Farth This Reverseth what He enacted Marrs and unmakes all that He made before You see at what Breach Death enter'd The breach of God's Covenant There the Inundation ran in whose furious torrent will not be stopp'd until it hath overwhelm'd and cover'd the Universe From Adam did this Tyrant begin his dangerous Reign On his Fall was Death's Throne crected his Body became the first Stair of the Ascent since which time he hath still raised that fatal Mound by heaping on it all the Bodies of his Children For in Adam we all dye 1 Cor. 15.22 His Fall maim'd and Creepled Posterity which hath ever since complained of that bruise The Earth yet groans under the barren Curse thrown upon it for Adam's sake Rom. 8.22 And Every Creature groans with us also travailing in pain unto this present Thus as Ashur was the Rod of Gods vengeance to scourge the rebellious Israelites Esay 10.5 so Death became God's scourge to punish the Sin of Man Aug. Ser. 21. in Mat. Neseis quia poena est necesse esse ut moriamur Here then you see though Death were none of God's works Yet is it over All His works This Thing of No being this Privation this Nothing devours All things For what is free from this Gangrene what Plant doth not this Worm strike what Elementary Body Animate or Inanimate is not subject to Corruption Templa Saxa Marmora Aug. Ser. 17. Ferro plumboque consolidata tamèn cadunt Miserable experience shews that Temples are not privileg'd from ruine Those sheets of Lead
wherein the Dead sleep tast of Corruption Sunt et sua fata sepulchris Tombs themselves have their Dying day And those Marble Quarryes which stand over Princes moulder to dust as do the Bodies lying under them If then an inevitable Necessity of Death or some decay like it lies upon Metals and those solid Bodies which scarcely retain a Cause of Putrefaction within them Certainly Man whose complexion is not Stone nor his Ribbs Brass must be better acquainted with Dust and Rottenness Job 17.14 Say to Corruption thou art my Father and to the worm Thou art my Mother and my Sister Yea so far is He unable to bear off by any Armour he can buckle on the assaults of Death That not the Armour of the Apostle of more curious Temper and better proof than Steel Ephes 6.16 The Shield of Faith and Brest-plate of Righteousness which are able to resist the fiery Darts of Satan can guard him from Death's Dart For even the Best of Men Gods dearest Servants and Saints are the subject of Deaths triumph 2. Of Saints It is Mors Sanctorum the Death of Saints That Nolite tangere Christos meos Psal 105. Touch not mine Annointed which encircles God's Servants and like a Charm Exorcises all other dangers cannot guard Them from this Fiend Death Moses his Body found a Champion to defend It from the Devil Jud. epist ver 9. He found no Champion to fight for Him against Death The Decree is past and not to be reversed Deut. 34.5 He must up to Mount Nebo and there Dye There is no Gluttony like Death The greatest Practitioners in the School of Ryot have at length met a Surfet which hath done that nor Sea nor Land Granges too narrow to serve their excess could ever do Choaked their boundless Appetite But Death is a Glutton unacquainted with Surfet or Satiety Of whom I may say as the Scithian Embassadour once did to Alexander Q. Curt. Vnus es omnium qui satietate parasti famem Satiety to Thee only serves to beget Hunger Not all the Gross Meals the Grand Feasts which Warr or Pestilence have drest could make Him say It is Enough Not all those Messes in the Revelation Revel 19.18 The Flesh of Kings and Captains the flesh of Bond or Free-men Small and Great Provision sufficient for all the Vultures invited to that Supper could make a Competent Meal for Death ver 17. Not all the Rarities of Nature the choicest fruits the world affords Youth gather'd in the Bud and Beauty cropp'd in the flower could satisfie Deaths Palate But after all these services He must have a Feast of Saints cooked in all the barbarous fashious Tyranny and Cruel invention could devise They were Ston'd were saw'n in sunder Hebr. 11.37 Rosted in the Fire Broyl'd on Grid-irons Flead Torn in pieces Brayed in Mortars I have not memory nor language to recite this horrid Bill of Fare Search the Histories of the Church and see it upon Record We should not grudge at this large Allowance made to Death did He feed on Those that would not be missed amongst us Lucan Vulgares Animas trivial Soules and Frustrà peritura cadavera Those unusefull burchens of the Earth who only walk about and talk out their Time having no profession but that of the Athenians to Hear and Telt News Act. 17.21 Well were it for the world did Death remove such unprofitable things as These who like the fruitless Tree in the Gospel only cumber the Earth Did He only exenterate Nature which at first hatch'd this devouring Cokatrice and did not also eat through the Bowels of the Church destroying those Holy Births which lye within her Womb. To our grief we must remember those heavy Stroaks have fallen thick upon us You had one Famous Light Dr. Fern. Bp. of West Chester whose Learning and Exemplary Life shone brightly in the Orb of our English Church extinguished very lately And when that Earth which covered Him is scarcely made up behold here Another worthy follows ready to take his final Lodging in the same Dust Thus doth this Tyrant double His Blow depriving us of Two such incomparable Persons that though you search Their whole Order and Run through our Hierusalem with Lanterns as once the Prophet did you shall not match again Tune duos unâ saevissima vipera caenâ Juvenâ—l Tune Duos Let me play the Satyrist with Death Cruel Viper as thou art Could not One suffice thy ravenous appetite but thou must have Two to gorge upon I need not stay for the answer I find it ready made there Septem Septem si forte fuissent were it possible to find out Seven more like Them His dart is lifted up as ready now to strike as He was then We have cause God knows too much to lament these great Losses in such a barren Time as ours which produceth very few Saints And where Good men are thinly found Like the shaking of the Olive Tree which amongst many Leaves yield perhaps here and there a Berry Knowing that Ten Righteous Persons if so many may be found are able to bear off a Showr of Vengeance and Fire nor less violent than that which fell on Sodom and Gomorrah Gâ—n 1â— 91. Nay One Aaron is authoriz'd to stand in the Gapp betwixt an Offended God and a Sinfull People Indeed the World is now in it's Dotage Creepled and Bed-rid In the last and worst Age So that had it not some few sound Crutches to support it some few Pillars not eaten in by the vices of the Time nor Canker'd by those Opinions which madly fly about not only to the disfiguring our Churches Decency and Order but the shaking and undermining even Her Fundamental Truths It could not subsist Whensoever then a Good man dyes a Shore of the declining world is taken away and a Pillar of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nazi anz ora 〈◊〉 Land Paâ—ris threatning a Ruine to that part where the Stay was broken out It is our best Course therefore to strengthen our remaining Stayes by our Prayers Knowing that the Devil's malice is ever planted against our Best Fortifications assaulting Those most hotly who stand in the Breach For he doth not wound us blindly or by chance but by Election and Judgement So doth his Agent Death cull out the Best Garbling the Race of Men and Commonly leave the refuse Moes optima rapit deterrima relinquit Making us know to our grief that of Hieron to be most true Peccatores terrae habitatores Justi peregrini Sinners are the proper Inhabitants here Saints only sojourn in the world I am a Stranger Psal 39.13 and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were They who justly consider how many Hundreds of Men yield one Saint How many years Religiously spent are required for His probation and How many Virtues go to the Making up of a Saint They who Corsider again how hard
In This very College where He was admitted a Kings Scholar of that Noble Foundation which hath sent out so many excellent Proficients in Learning to each University For Both those Fair Rivers doth this Spring by contributing some Supplies to Them annually feed Here He had the greatest Dignity which the School could afford put upon Him to be the Paedonomus at Christmas Lord of His Fellow-Scholars Which Title was a pledge and presage that from a Lord in Jeast He should in His riper Age become One in Earnest From Hence He was translated by Election to Christs-Church in Oxford where having run through some Offices in the College conferr'd both as Rewards and Trials upon the best Deservers He was remov'd to All-souls and when His Degree and Time made Him capable of Publick Employment Chosen Proctour of the Vniversity After the taking His Degree of Doctor in some few years He was by His Royal Master whose Chaplain He had been made Dean of Christ-Church so becoming Head of that College into which He was first admitted Student The more Publick Office of Vicechancellour was then cast upon Him by that Martyr'd Archbishop who well understood the Universities advantage from so deserving a Substitute These Offices he supply'd with such Ability and Integrity That His Gracicious Master thought Him worthy to receive the Greatest Trust He possibly Could plant in Him To be the Tutour and Educator of our Soveraign in His Minority together with His Princely Brother This Trust brought on Him the Honour of a Bishoprick for His Reward first Chichester then Salisbury Thus being lifted up Two Ascents by the bounty of His Old Master He was easily raised to the Third by His Present Soveraign The Bishoprick of Winchester in which He became Ex Officio Prelate of the Garter That Honour being alwayes annexed to This Office He so well Became That None before Him Did nor Any who follow can Better For He was every way Qualified both in the Comeliness of His Person and the Gracefulness of His Deportment and the Excellency of His Parts All which Capacities rendred Him worthy the service of a Court and every way fit to stand before Princes Prov. 2â— â—9 He had this happiness That from the very First Relation to those Tender years of His Gracious Soveraign during His Care and Tuition of Him He held the same Degree and Station in His Favour which never abated in the least measure but continued to His Death And as He was ever acceptable to the Presence of His Master whilst able to make His approaches to the Court So when Infirmity which confin'd Him to His Chamber render'd Him fit onely to be visited He wanted not those Royal Visits made to Him by His Lord. Who though He could not say as Christ to the Centurion imploring His Goodness to His sick servant Ego veniens sanabo I will come in presence to perform His Cure Yet He perform'd the First part Ego veniens He came not seldome neither both to see Him in His weakness and to comfort Him amidst His Pains I must not omit to tell you As once the King of Israel came to see the Dying Prophet Elisha 2 King 13.14 that he might take his Farewell and with that Farewell a Blessing from One he never should see again So did a Better King than He the King of our Israel repair to This dying Prelate a few hours before His Expiration not onely to See but to require a Benediction from Him at Parting which in the lowest Posture of Humility He besought And let me tell you not to Flatter Him amongst His other Virtues never was there a more affable Sweetness or less Pride in so great a Prince Both which He fairly expressed when Kneeling down at the Bed-side He begg'd His last Blessing which He like Jacob on His Death-bed and now as Dim-sighted as Jacob with one Hand laid upon His Masters Head Gen. 48.10 and the other lifted up to Heaven He with a most Passionate Zeal Bestowed And I Hope and Pray that like the Last Blessing of Old Jacob pronounced over His Princely Son Judah It shall remain in all Glorious Successes confirmed to Him Gen. 49.10 That unto Him the People may be Gathered in all Loyalty never seduc'd again to Run after the Seditious Trumpet of Those Sons of Bichri 2 Sam. 20.1 who in these late Years usurped His Scepter That His Hand may bee upon the Neck of His implacable Enemies Gen 49 Vers 8. whom no Acts of favour or Indulgent Clemency can Reconcile And lastly that the Scepter may not depart from Him and from His Royal Tribe untill Shiloh come Verse 9. I have very little more to say Onely tell you in addition to His former Honour He was dignified with the Office of High Almoner being intrusted with the bestowing His Majesties Charity which like a faithful Steward He so justly dispensed That in evidence of His Integrity He Copy'd out that Office in his own Practice Not only in His Legagacies to Christ-Church in Oxford and to Alsoules to the Churches of Salisbury of Chichester and Winchester But to a Famous Almehouse erected at His peculiar charge in Richmond the place of His retirement whch stands a Conspicuous Monument and Memorial of Him whilst the World lasts 'T is well when our Good deeds follow us but much better when they goe before In works of Charity perform'd whilst we live here we are God's immediate Almoners what is done when we are Gone is more properly Our Executors than Ours They are happy who by any hand bestow their Almes but it is more honour and better sarisfaction when Our Charity needs no Executor but the Doners Hand to dispense nor overseer but His own Eye From His Charity you will easily Calculate His other Virtues His Bounty was alwaies eminent according to His ability And when He came to be owner of a large and full Fortune He so well practis'd St. Pauls Lesson 1 Tim. 3.2 A Bishop must be given to Hospitality that in His generous way of living to His own and the Honour of His whole Order He demonstrated That his Heart was no way undersiz'd or too Narrow for His Fortune Nor did He since His Advancement study the sordid Art of Gain but rather how He might nobly Spend and Lay out what He got His Disposition was most free open His Heart without close Angles or oblique Corners And in His long Relation to the Court had never studied that first Principle of the Court Grammar Erasmus â—…gust To speak one way and mean Another Vbique sentires Illum hoc assici quod loquebatur As Erasmus said of St. Augustine His Learning was Great and General and as Nicephorus Gregoras said of One He was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A walking Library His Gifts in Preaching elegant and very excellent yet not intended to delight the Eare but to inform the Conscience And I heartily wish Those elaborate Peeces of Devotion may not die with Him but in their Publication remain amongst His other Legacyes bequeathed to the World I may apply to Him that Eulogy which Nazianzen bestowes upon His Father Gregor Nâ—ziarzâ—â— Orat. in Landem Patris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was alwaies so faithfull to God in the service of His Church wherein He liv'd that He never receded from His first Principles in any slackness either towards Hir Doctrine or Hir Discipline Insomuch that His Sacred Majesty desirous to preserve the Succession of His English Church sensible of His Bishops Decay Most whereof were Dead Those Few who remaind not likely to last long was pleas'd to commit this Trust principally to His Solicitation In discharge whereof how industrious He was some who yet live know and none better than My self who was His only associate in several travels undertaken to bring it to effect 'T is true divers waies were propounded yet all found dangerous Under the Inquisition we then liv'd both to the Undertakers and the Actors His Majesty therefore at last thought of a safer more certain Expedient to call over to Him Two of the remayning Bishops Bp. â—â—â—â—hall now L. Primate of Armach who joyned to a worthy Praelate residing with Him in His Exile might Canonically Consecrate some of Those eminently deserving Divines who then attended Him Thus Preserving the Order in a Few untill God gave opportunity to fill up the Other Vacancies This desire was by a trusty Messenger sent over by His Majesty communicated only to Five Rom. 11.31 whereof I shall not Magnifie my Office to say My self was One who in the integrity of my Conscience can profess that in the willing acceptance of this Summons I never declin'd any hazard when I might doe the King my Master or the Church Service But great Age and greater Infirmity denying the concurrence of any One of the Rest though otherwise most ready that designe fell And God hath in the Miraculous Restoration of His Sacred Majesty Restor'd the Church to that Luster wherein blessed be His Name you now see it He in whose presence I here stand bears me record I mention not these Circumstances to any other End than my Soveraign's Honour For it is not fit so meritorious an Act should be conceal'd and smothered but that all might take notice how Carefull He was to Preserve and Support the Church at that Time when in His Exil'd condition He could not well Support Himself To conclude This worthy Person now gone before us often professed to Mee that He desired only Two Blessings in this World and then He should cheerfully sing His Nunc Dimittis Depart in Peace To see the King His Gratious Masters Return unto His Throne And the Churches happy Restitution to Hir Rights God gave Him the desire of His Lipps He liv'd to see Both And in a good old Age full of Dayes having compleated Seaventy and three yeares Psal 90.10 which is above the Standard of Humane Life in Moses his Calculation with some few dayes over He exchanged His Painful Life for an everlasting Rest Leaving His Virtues to bee Imitated by Those that can And His Loss to be Lamented by All who are left behind God for his Mercies sake grant Our Death may be so Pretious in His sight That when the Eyes which see us now must see us no more We may with These Eyes of Ours Aeternally see Our Redeemer in His Kingdome Amen FINIS