Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A47332
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The life of the Reverend Anthony Horneck, D.D., late preacher at the Savoy by Richard Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells.
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Kidder, Richard, 1633-1703.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing K407; ESTC R31552
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23,210
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63
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frequently did if he were not in great pain all the answer that I could get from him was that the pain he felt was tolerable There was nothing wanting that could be thought of towards giving him ease The ablest Physicians were consulted and they consulted and advised upon his case and attended him with great diligence and tenderness but without success On Sunday Morning January 31st he was worse than ever he had been insomuch that those about him thought him dying about eleven in the Morning I was then at Westminster-Abbey and was sent for out of the Church to pray with him I found him very sensible I asked him if he were sensible that he was dying he replied that he was I asked him if he were also resigned and willing to die he replied very readily that he was willing to die I asked him if he had considered the words Heb. II. 14 15 and whether or not he found himself delivered from all the slavish fear of death he replied very quick looking up to Heaven that he was delivered from that fear He was in an excellent frame and joyned with the Prayers which the Church appoints on such occasions with great expressions of Devotion Sometime after this I found him delirous and not long after speechless After some few hours Groans he expired viz. at Eight a Clock that Evening being then about the 56th year of his Age * Before this last Iâ—huss of which he died he fell in the year 1678 into along and languishing Sickness occasâ—â—ed through his indefatigable Application to the Duties and Funllions of his Ministry It brought him well nigh to his Grave The good Man ascribed his Recovery under God to the tender Care of his veritutus Wife with whom he always liv'd in great Cournâ—ed and Union and to the Prayers of pious People put up to Heaven on his behalf as appears from some devent Meditations which the compos'd on that Subject and which have been found since his De. case among his Papers In Thanksgiving to God for his Preservation at that time which he himself look'd on as next to miratulous he kept a Day Monthly in his Family ever after and preach'd yearly a Commemoration Sermon to his beloved Congregation at the Savoy wherein he rehearsed God's Mercies to him and excited others to â—epâ— and trust in him in the like Extremities He also distribute a laâ—gâ—ly to the Peer upon that Day This was his constant Method to treasure up God's Previdences to him and to sanctifie and improve them 〈◊〉 only to his own Use but to the Use and Benefit of others His Body was opened and it appeared quickly what was the cause of his Death Both his Ureters were stopped One of them was stopped as a Bottle with a Cork with a Stone that entered the top of the Ureter with a sharp end the upper part of which was thick and much too big to enter any farther The other was stopped also with Stones of much less firmness and consistence than the other His Body was interred on Feb. 4. in the Abbey Church of Westminster with great Solemnity and a vast number of Attendants Several of the Lords the Bishops very many of the most eminent Clergy about the City and an incredible number of other Persons were present on that occasion And it must be said that the Church of Westminster shewed the great kindness they had for him by the great care they took of his very decent and solemn Interment Before I proceed any farther I shall reflect upon his undaunted Courage when Death look'd him in the face 'T is certain that there were a great many considerations that might have disposed him to desire a longer life at that time I well knew his circumstances and those of his Family and how desirable his life was upon many accounts But yet this pious man was not only willing to die but was entirely delivered from the fear of it and did with great chearfulness and alacrity receive the tidings and sentence of Death St. Hierom * Hieron vit Hilarion tells that Hilarion just when he was expiring spake these words Egredere quid times Egredere anima mea quid dubitas Septuaginta propè annis servisti Christo mortem times i. e. Go out O my Soul why dost thou fear Why dost thou doubt Thou hast served Christ near seventy years and art thou afraid to dye There was it seems some fear and some doubt in Hilarion This Servant of God was by his Grace delivered intirely from all such fear or doubt I say by the Grace of God he was delivered and special Grace it was Very good Persons when they come to die have their doubts and their great sears too It is an easie thing to discourse wisely and Philosophically of the Contempt of Death but they which do so have not the same Presence of Mind when Death looks them in the face We have a famous story to this purpose concerning the Father of Clinias who was wont to despise Death in his Health and was in great dread of it when it drew near to him as Plato relates it * Platon Axiochus It must be confessed that this good Man had taken the right course to be freed from the fear of Death by leading a very painfull and laborious a very usefull and charitable a very devout and pious Life His Life was very painfull and laborious Few men ever took the Pains which he did He was mortified to all worldly Pleasures and sensual Satisfactions and used himself to great Labours and most exemplary Diligence There is nothing renders us more afraid to die than a soft and voluptuous Life Oh Death how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth in rest in his possessions Ecclus XLI 1. We have an example of this in Agag He came delicately and was pinguissimus tremens * Vulg. lat in locum i.e. very fat and trembling and no wonder then that he should complain of the bitterness of death For so certainly he does however our Interpreters come to render his words Death must be bitter where voluptuousness makes life sweet His Life was also very usefull and very charitable Multitudes they were that received relief and advantage by him And there is a particular promise to such men that God will strengthen them upon the bed of languishing and make their bed in their sickness Psal XLI 3. Our Saviour wou'd have his followers pray that their flight might not be in the Winter or on the Sabbath One of the Fathers †Theophylact on Matth. 84. accommodates the words to my present purpose Happy is that man that does not when he leaves this World lead an unfruitfull life nor yet an idle one The Winter is the barren time of the year and the Sabbath was a time not of Labour but of Rest His Life was also very devour and pious of which more afterward I mention only in this place
his very devout and frequent receiving the Holy Communion which is a great Preparative to a comfortable Death I will repeat the Doctor 's own Words which many years ago fell from him to his hearers at the Savoy and which were verified in him many years after A worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper says he is the best preparative for death Crucisic Jesus p. 557. No man can die uncomfortably that makes it his business as often as be comes to this Table to receive worthily Death cannot hurt him c. for by his worthy receiving he hath laid up a good foundation for the time to come c. I shall now more particularly give the Character of this excellent Person and the kindness I had for him shall not prevail with â—ne to exceed in his commendation First I shall begin with his Religion and Piety towards God of which he was a very conspicuous Example His Religion had its full power and foreâ— upon him it transform'd him into the image and likeness of God It hath always been esteemed safe advice imitare cum quom tolimus i. e. to imitate him whom we worship On this account some of the Heathens excused their vices because their Poets and men of the Stage represented their Gods as having practised the same things He worshipped the true and living God the holy and mercifull the God of truth and righteousness and not only the greatest and most powerfull but the best of Beings He was a follower of God and his Divine Image was fairly stamped and impressed upon his Soul He imitated God in those two things which one of the Ancients tells us will make us like God viz. speaking truth and bestowing benefits A man of greater simplicity and veracity I never knew and there are multitudes that will witness that he went about doing good He did vow in his Baptism to renounce the Devil the World and Flesh Some men go no farther All their Religion comes from the Font. This good Man perform'd his Vow he cast out of himself the Evil One and renounced all his Works overcame the World in the noblest sense and subdued and mortified all the sinfull desires of the flesh He was a Conquerour and more than Conquerour He devoted himself intirely and without reservation to the service of his God It was not only his business but his choice and delight his meat and drink I need not say that he was much in Prayers and Fastings in Meditation and heavenly Discourse very frequent in devout Communions in reading and hearing the Word in watchings and great austerities He wisely considered that these were the means and not the end of Religion that these are not godliness but only helps and the way to it He arrived at the end of these things He had an ardent love of God a great Faith in him and was resigned to his Will He had an unspeakable Zeal for his Honour a profound regard to his Word and to his Worship and to all that had the nearest relation to him or did most partake of his image and likeness He was a Man after God's own heart He lived under a most gratefull sense of his Mercies he was governed by his fear and had a lively sense of God's special Care and Providence He had that sense of God's Mercy in giving us his Son to die for us that it was observed of him that when he discoursed of that Argument he used no measure no bounds or limits of his Discourse His heart was so affected with that Argument that he cou'd not put a stop to himself Jesus was his Lord and Master and he had his Life and Example always before him and conformed himself to it in the whole Tenour and Course of his Life His Religion was unaffected and substantial it was genuine and primitive and so great a pattern he was that he might have passed for a Saint even in the first and best times of Christianity He was of the Church of England and a most true Son of that Church and gave the greatest proofs of it Far was he from the Innovations of the Roman Church on the one hand and from Enthusiasm on the other His Writings are a sufficient proof of this I very well know that when the Church of England hath been traduced and disparaged he hath not forborn to make so vigorous a Defence that he lost a very great Man's friendship by it and felt the Effects of it afterwards by the loss of a considerable worldly advantage which he would otherwise have flood very fair for He shewed his Zeal for the Church of England when she was in greatest danger from many Enemies especially from the Church of Rome At that time when some were so wicked as to change their profession and others so tame as to sit still and not to concern themselves when the Enemies were at the Gates for there were too many that professed to be Sons of this Church and do so still who were over-awed and durst not appear with that Courage which God and all good Men might justly have expected from them then did this good Man bestir himself and lifted up his Voice like a Trumpet and undauntedly defended the Church when she most needed it God be praised there were others who did so likewise with great vigour and resolution and great hazard of their liberty and worldly Comforts And many of these had the hard hap to be traduced by their lukewarm Brethren who cry up the Church as if these were not the genuine Sons of this Church It hath not been for the advantage of the Church that those Men have been decried as not genuine Church-men who have done her the greatest service on the other hand some vaunt themselves to be such who have never been any support to their Mother in her greatest distress There are some of these who are like the Images we see in many Churches that are so placed in that bending Posture as if they bore upon their Shoulders the weight of the Building whereas in truth they are only the fancy of the Architect and bear no weight at all The Doctor believed the Doctrine of this Church obeyed her Injunctions and conformed to her Constitutions He admonished and diligently instructed his Charge kept Multitudes in her Communion and lived up to her holy Rules and was ready to sacrifice all that was dear to him in the World to promote the true Interest of this Church He would not indeed take the Cure of Souls and then put them out to nurse to some cheap and negligent Curate receive the profits and leave another man to take the pains He would not take a Vicarage and swear residence before his Ordinary and afterwards refuse to reside on pretence of some privilege or exempt Jurisdiction c. as very many have done But a Church-man he was notwithstanding Indeed the best of men have been mis-represented And there are a Number of the most useless men that