Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A64379
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A sermon preached at the funeral of Her late Majesty Queen Mary of ever blessed memory in the abbey-church in Westminster upon March 5, 1694/5 by His Grace Thomas Lord Archibishop of Canterbury.
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Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing T722; ESTC R6633
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10,042
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16
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Time that we may apply our Hearts unto Wisdom To have lost a very Wise and Virtuous Friend tho' of Private Condition had been no small Calamity but here we lament the Death of a Publick person who was as Publick a Good and that has made our Loss so much the heavier There are also Secondly Some Circumstances of Time which farther shew the greatness of it Great is our Loss of a most Pious Queen in an Atheistical and Profane Age the Seeds of which Impiety have been sowing for some years and now seem to spring up in greater plenty than ever Great is our Loss of a most Charitable Queen in an Age which takes up the Reverse of our Lord 's Saying and declares that it is more blessed to receive than give of a most Humble Queen at a time when Pride would bring all to such a Level as is the Parent of Confusion Again Great is our Loss with respect to this Iuncture a time of foreign War and domestick Discontent reigning in those whose Resentments are stronger than their Reasons A Person is taken away who was a Partner in all the Joys and Griefs and Fortunes of the King one who could Administer with the entire Confidence of all the People and without the Competition of the Great Likewise Great was our Loss by the Death of a matchless Queen as taken away in the midst of her Daies and in less than half the common standard of Human Life It is certain All Princes are Mortal Dust they are and to Dust they shal return But yet Good Princes are the especial care of Providence which often preserves them by striking a Terror into the Desperate themselves whilst Tyrants who have not God before their Eyes and observe not how he rules by the Eternal Laws of Equity do seldom die an unbloody death Moreover this Princess being a Person of the nicest Modesty and most regular Life and free from those uneasie vexatious Passions which wear out Nature before its Time we had entertained hopes that under the Shadow of her Protection we might have sate down many Years with safety and delight But Man's Expectation is often very vain and it is as often disappointed and when it is so That causeth Grief And there is a double Grief which it ought to awaken at this time a Grief for our Loss and a greater one for That which is a II. Second Consideration the principal Occasion of it Natural Causes had their share in this Evil but it was the Immortality the Sin of the Nation which hastened it as a Judgment A Sparrow falls not to the ground without God's Providence much less a Crowned Head God has guided and ordered this Affair as he does all things most suitable to his own Justice He is Righteous but we have been Wicked He shewed what a mighty Blessing he had for a People if they would become reform'd but we were not sufficiently sensible nor thankful Their Majesties Letters for Reformation were early issu'd out but how few had a just regard to them The Light shone and we followed not its direction and God has remov'd one Branch of it let us sin no more lest which God avert those which remain be extinguish'd also As yet we may be happy if we will amend for God hath shewed us by several Tokens that he has not yet given us up to Destruction He has afficted us but in judgment he has remembered Mercy And which is III. A third Consideration in this Day of our Trouble He has temper'd Prosperity with Adversity to make the latter the more supportable He hath set the One over against the other And thus much the following Remarks will prove The King's Life is blessed be God preserv'd and his Health re-established and is still pursuing the great Design of securing the Liberties of Europe He was Present in this Kingdom when our Loss happen'd for the keeping us from that Instability which this Accident might have procur'd He still more endear'd himself to his People by that Tenderness which he express'd upon this most sorrowful Occasion That went as far as Decence would permit and gave us an Instance of such true Greatness of Mind as is made up of Courage and Humanity The good Vnion of the Royal Family in this Realm confuted the Surmizes of Evil minded Men and disappointed their Devices The Great Council of the Nation was sitting at this Time and came to a speedy and seasonable Resolution for the Support of the King and his Government The Season admitted of little of such Actions as might disturb Affairs abroad And at the same Time that Foreign Countries had the sad News of the Queens Death they reciv'd Tidings of the Loyalty of the Kingdom These several Things by the Conduct of God's wise Providence have wrought together for Good And there is one Thing more to be considered under this Head that seeing God had determin'd this Good Queen must die the Christian Manner in which She went out of the World is in some sort an Alleviation of the Grief of those whom She has lef behind Her who have indeed Reason more than enough to mourn but yet not as Persons without Hope Some few Days before the Feast of our Lord's Nativity She found her Self Indispos'd That where it was known was I hope some Check to the Liberties of such who mispend that most Solemn Festival in very improper Mirth I will not say that of this Affliction She had any formal Presage But yet there was something which look'd like an immediate Preparation for it I mean her chusing to hear read more than once a little before it the last Sermon of a Good and Learned Man now with God upon this Subject Iob 2 10. What! shal we receive Good from the Hand of God and shal we not receive Evil This Indisposition speedily grew up into a dangerous Distemper As soon as that was understood the earliest Care of this Charitable Mistress was for the removing of such immediate Servants as might by distance be preserved in Health Soon after this She fix'd the Times of Prayers in that Chamber to which her Sickness had confin'd her On that very Day She Shewed how sensible She was of Death and how little she fear'd it She required him who officiated there to add that Collect in the Communion of the Sick in which are these Words That whensoever the Soul shal depart from the Body it may be without Spot presented unto thee I will said Shee have this Collect read twice every Day All have need to be put in mind of Death and Princes as much as any Body else On Munday the Flattering Disease occasioned from Hopes though they were but faint ones On the next Day the Festival of Christ's Birth those Hopes were raised into a kind of Assurance and there was Joy great Joy seen in the Countenances of all good People and heard from their Mouths and I believe it was very warm in their Hearts
But alas we saw what a few Hours could bring forth That Joy endur'd but for a Day and that Day was clos'd with a very Dismal Night The Disease shew'd it self in various Forms and smal Hopes of Life were now left Then it was that he who perform'd the Holy Offices believ'd himself oblig'd to acquaint the Good Queen with the Apprehensions all had of an unlikelyhood at least of Her recovery She receiv'd the Tidings with a Courage agreeable to the Strength of Her Faith Loth She was to terrify those about Her but for her self She seem'd neither to fear Death nor to covet Life There appear'd not the least sign of Regret for the leaving of those Temporal Greatnesses which make so many of High Estate unwilling to die It was you may imagine high Satisfaction to hear Her say a great many most Christian Things and this amongst them I believe I shal now soon die and I thank God I have from my Youth learned a true Doctrine that Repentance is not to be put of to a Death-bed That Day she called for Prayers a third Time fearing She had slept a little when they were the second Time read for She thought a Duty was not perform'd if it was not minded On Thursday She prepared Her self for the blessed Communion to which She had been no Stranger from the fifteenth Year of Her Age. She was much concern'd that She found Her Self in so dozing a Condition So She expressed it To that She added Others had need to pray for me seing I am so little able to pray for my Self However She stirred up her Attention prayed to God for his asistance God heard her for from thenceforth to the end of the Office She had the perfect Command of her Vnderstanding and was intent upon the Great Work She was going about and so intent that when a Second Portion of a certain Draught was offer'd Her She refuss'd it saying I have but a little Time to live I would spend it a better way The Holy Elements being ready and several Bishops coming to be Communicants she repeated piously and distinctly but with a low voice for such her Weakness had then made it all parts of the Holy Office which were proper for her and received with all the Signs of a strong Faith and fervent Devotion the blessed Pledges of Gods Favour and thank'd him with a joyful Heart that she was not depriv'd of the Opportunity She owned also that God had been Good to Her beyond her Expectation though in a circumstance of smaller Importance She having without any Indecence or Difficulty taken down That Bread when it had not been so easie for her some for time to swallow any other That Afternoon She called for Prayers somewhat earlier than the time apppointed time because She feared that was Her Reason that She should not long be so well compos'd And so it came to pass for every minute after this 't was plain Death made nearer and nearer approaches However this true Christian kept her Mind as fixed as posibly she could upon the best things and there were read by her direction several Psalms of David and also a Chapter of a Pious Book concerning Trust in God Toward the latter end of it her Apprehension began to fail yet not so much but that she could say a devout Amen to that Prayer in which her Pious Soul was recomended to that God who gave it During all this time there appeared nothing of Impatience nothing of Frowardness nothing of Anger there was heard nothing of murmuring nothing of impertinence nothing of ill sound and scarce a number of disjointed words In all these Afflictions the King was greatly Afflicted how sensibly and yet how becomingly many saw but few have Skill enough to describe it I 'm satisfyed I have not At last The Helps of Aâ—t and Prayers and Tears not prevailing a quarter before One on Friday morning after two or three smal struglings of Nature and without such Agonies as in such cases are common having like David serv'd her own Generation by the Will of God she fell on sleep Acts. 13.36 Thus piously thus resignedly thus calmly departed this Wise and Great and Good Princess who could never have learn'd the Art of Dying so well if she had not first well understood and duly practis'd the Art of Living so What becomes Vs who are left behind in this troublesome World is the IV Fourth and last Consideration And I will detain you with it but a very little Time Our Duty is manifold Towards GOD the King the Memory of the Queen the Blessed Queen and our own selves Towards GOD our Duty is to give Him the Glory Thankfully to commemorate the Excellencies of his Grace which shin'd in the Queen for by his Grace she was what she was to give Thanks to him for enjoying so wonderful a Blessing thus long without any murmuring because He was not pleas'd to continue it longer to us to own his Justice to tremble at his Iudgments to remove the Causes of them our grievous Sins and with frequent and earnest Supplication to cry to Heaven and say Spare thy People Good Lord spare them be not angry with us for ever Towards the King our Duty is to pray to God to double his Blessings upon him and to endeavour our selves to support him by the steddiest Loyalty Towards the Memory of the Queen our Duty is to mourn solemnly and deeply so much even Foreign Nations have done and yet to temper our Sorrow with the strong Hopes we have of her Everlasting Felicity To speak Good of her to observe and extol the mighty power of her Piety which conquer'd so many Hearts so to commend her Virtues as not to let them cool in our Practice but as far as we can and may to follow her Example who liv'd more that is to more purpose in three and thirty years than very many do in Seventy To conclude our Duty towards our selves is to weep not so much for her as for our selves and for our provoking Iniquities which have drawn down this Calamity upon us and speedily to amend our Lives and in order to that to think daily of Death and not to suffer the Splendor of any Thing that is Great nor the Conceit of any Thing that Good in us to divert us from the Consideration of our Mortality Seing the most VVise Pious Charitable Humble Queen is taken away in the flour of her Age how foolish how wicked is the wilful Forgetfulness of Death in the Dissolute the Bloody the Sick the Aged the Decrepid nay even in the Young and Healthful Let us consider we are Mortal which we must do if we have any Thought that way at all and let us carry that Thought forward to all the Purposes of the holy living For when a Man dies to concern is not how great or how rich he has been all that is come to an end but how good a Life he hasled May God give us all Grace to live as this Blessed Princess did that we may dye like her that we may fight the good fight and finish our course by all the Exercises of our Holy Religion and keep the Faith inviolate to the last minute of our days that from thenceforth there may be laid up for as a Crown of Life by our Lord Jesus the righteous Judge of all Men To whom with the Father and holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory world without end Amen FINIS 1 Pet. 5.5 Jul. Poll. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 4. c. 18.