A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the Reverend and Learned MR. GEORG RITSCHEL Late Minister of Hexham in Northumberland By Mr. MAJOR ALGOOD Rector of Symon-burn in the same County With an Elegie on his Death LONDON Printed for Joseph Hall Bookseller and Bookbinder on tyne Bridge Newcastle upon Tyne 1684. Ecclesiastes 12 part of the 5 verse Because man goeth to his long home THe great matter necessary to be thought of in this life is what shall become of us after death and whither we shall goe when we goe hence For here we have but a short time to stay we are on our journey and every moment brings us nigher to the end thereof but wherever we goe to after death it is for ever and ever Solomon tells us in his distribution of time that there is a season to every purpose under heaven and amongst the rest he reckons a time to be borne and a time to dye but he tells us of no time to live because our life is uncertaine death follows in some soon after the birth and their cradle seems to stand on your graves and those that live longest are but of few dayes in respect of eternity So that our life is to be reckoned rather a moment then time and yet on this moment doth depend our everlasting happiness in the next life This all is allowed us to make provision for our long home In the words we may consider 1. The subject man 2. His transitory estate and condition expressed by way of travaile goeth 3. The end of his journey to his home 4. The duration of that home it is a long home To the first man Man in general that is every man every woman when our glorious God had by his infinite wisedom made the world in a wonderful manner and furnished it with all varietie and creatures for profit and pleasure at last after a most exquisite manner he consulted with himself for the shape of Man and finding no creature fit enough for a pattern concluded with himself to make mankind as a lively ressemblance after some sort of his own majesty that he might both in soul and body represent his creator Adams soule did most lively shadow out the divine essence not onely in the simplicity invisibleness and immortality therof but also in that power which it enjoyed to know and to will 1. For mans body it did likewise resemble God in several respects but more especially in that immortalitie wherin it was at first created The whole Man then mixt of body and soule was in the creation in a glorious state of immortalitie bordering upon everlastingness but it was not absolutely but conditionally So it is true he had a power not to dye if he had not sinned but there was a necessity he should dye when he had sinned for so the unalterable charge runs * Gen. 2 17. in the day thou eatest therof thou shalt surely dye Thus was the statute enacted that all must dye which is not to be repeated It hath bin put in execution from the beginning of the world to this time and so shall be to the end of the world We all come by the wombe and we must go by the grave from the arreast of death there 's no releasement from its sentence there 's no appeale Balthazar 's embleame is now written upon every mans wall thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting and therfore thy life is divided and given to death It is not the Majesty of a Prince nor holiness of a prophet nor the gravity of a prelate that death respecteth It is not strength of body nor comliness of person not tender years nor the wisedom of the aged not profound learning nor an abiss of riches can plead a priviledge against the grave In other dangers there may be some way contrived by the will of man to escape them power treasure flyght counsel and policy may serve the turn but there 's no power in man to bannish death no riches will buy it of nor can we fly from it neither prevent it by counsel nor turn it back with pollicy The greatest and best of men as well as the meanest and worst must say with Job * Job 17 14. to corruption thou art my Father to the worm thou art my Mother and my Sister Abel whose sacrifice was accepted as well as Cain whose offerings were rejected Abraham the Father of the faithful as well as the infidel Abimelech Jacob whome God loved as well as Esau whome he hated and David a man after Gods own heart as well as Saul from whom he toke his holy Spirit have bin all alike subject to the empire of death and to the decree of God so that then death is the common roade of all the world of Man in general without exception 2. His transitorie state and condition goeth We are heere in this life performing a journey which we must one day finish One goes before and another followes after one body rotts in the grave and leaves room for another Whether we go softly or run swiftly our time still spends and every moment brings us more forward towards our journeys end and nigher to our home our bodies are but earthen cottagies houses of dust which fall before we are aware our life runs on apace and death rides post after and often overtakes men before ever they thought it was nigh them and when they least thought of 't Our life is like a candle in the body in one the wind maketh it sweale away in another it is blown out before it be halfe spent and in other though it burn out to the end yett it continues not long at last vanisheth into smoake and exspires Whether we sleep or wake whether we stand sitt or walk still the course of our life goes on till it be finished we never make a step forward on the ground but it is a slep nigher to death My dayes saith Job 7 6. are swifter then a weavers shuttle and in the 9 chap. vers 25.26 now my dayes are swifter then a poste they flee away they see no good they are passed away as the swift ships as the eagle that hasteth to the prey Where he reckons our life by dayes and not by yeares as if it depended on moment and not on time but if on time it must be that which is present not that which is to come But although in these places he allowes men dayes to live here yett in another place as if he had bin so prodigal in his account he lakes up and therfore he will have him to be a ereature but of yesterday Job 8.9 for we are but of yesterday and know nothing because our dayes upon earth are a shadow And in deed we may be very properly tearmed creatures of yesterday for a dying houre hastens on us so fast that we cannot assure our selfs of the light of another day and the time of our journey end is so uncertaine
S. Paul * Act. 24. v. 25. go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season I will call for thee All delay in this great concern is too hazardous the present time is still the fittest and onely fit to Cast up the accounts of our soules In deed if we could arrest time if we could strike of the nimble wheels of its chariot and could Joshuah like command the sun to stand still and make opportunity waite our leisure then there were some thing of excuse for delay but since we can noe more command the future then we can call back the by past time it is but extreame madness to delay our hours It is now in our power under the influence of Gods grace to prepare for death to repent of our sinns and make our peace with God before we goe hence and be no more seene but it is not in our power to live till to morrow our dayes may close up with this day our life sett this very evening with the sunn nay the next moment If we loose this opportunity which presents its self it can never be recovered no not by most earnest wishes nor fervent desire nor a flood of Teares Remember the sad condition of prophane Esau for once despising the blessing he loosed it for ever and found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with teares To go on still in a sinful course of life with hopes that we may repent when we dye is to venture all upon a very uncertaine after game and just as if a mariner should be content to have his ship cast away upon bare hope that he may escape on a planck and gett safe to shore How fondly do such dispose of that time which is not in their power but in Gods hand whilst they vainly lett go that which God has given them The stork the brane the swallow know their seasons they know their appointed time and how much more should man a creature whom God has endowed with reason especially since it is so very uncertaine how long we shall enjoy this opportunitie All creatures under the sunn doe naturally intend their own preservation and desire that happiness which is agreeable to their nature and shall man their Lord be impiously careless of his eternal and everlasting welfare Death stands ready to snatch us away conscience persuades Hell threatens and heaven invites to prepare to lay up a good foundation for the next life for a long and happy home Lett us not then be secure but sett to work whilst it is called to day for as the wise preacher * Eccl. 9 10. tells us there 's no work nor device nor knowledge in the grave whither thou goest What a sad and fatal thing is' t for men to run head long to their long home like the rich glutton in the ghosple who never was sensible of his estate till he was in torment he then found to his sorrow that out of the pitt there 's no redemption He leads a life suetable to his Christian profession who dayly is in expectation to leave it The best guide of our life here is the often consideration of our death and what shall become of us when wee go hence Wee need not wonder to see men so very industriously carefull to avoide death it is naturally terrible but this is it which all good men and even Angels may admire at to see Christians so generally careless to lay up a good foundation for a future life For there 's nothing certainly which makes death so terrible as the estate which followes after if our long home be in heaven death is a joyful birth day and the day of it better then the day of our first birth but if it be in the Divels mansions it is but the beginnig of endless miserie Let us therfore be persuaded to make use of our time and learn in this our day the things which belong to our peace before they be hid from our eyes before our feet be manacled in the dust and our arms rott of from our shoulders in the grave Do that before death which may doe you good when you are dead but can never be done after Live the life of the righteous and dye the death of the righteous dye the death of the righteous and live for ever in a long and happy manner That I may press this further behold ther 's before your eyes a spectacle of mortality the body of our deceased Brother which wee are mett together to bring to its own house as the prophet Esay * Esa 14 18. calls the grave to lay it up in the dust after all its great labour long journeys and tedious travaile on earth his soule being gone before to take possession of its long and happy home I must therfore now leave the other and apply my self to this text To say nothing were to be injurious to his worth and to hide those vertues which shined bright in him and may serve for our imitation Whatever the envious may say or think it is no fault to commend them at their death who have bin commendable in their life It was the ancient custome of the church to celebrate the memorie of holy men that thereby others might be moved to follow their examples As for his extraction I must be silent in it he being a Bohemian borne and that perticuler unknown to us yett let me say a man of meane observation by his deportment might guess it was of more than an ordinary ranck I shall therfore onely speake my knowledg of him haveing had an intimacie with him for a bove twenty yeares togeather As for his moral honestie it was very exemplar I appeale to you all here present whether he has not left a good report behind him and a good name which is better then precious ointment not one of this parish or elswhere can I am confident complaine of any unjust dealing by him nor can the poore this day send cursses to his grave I may justly in his behalfe take up Samuels * chalenge whose ox has he taken whose ass or whom has he defrauded whom has he oppressed or of whose hand has he received any bribe to blind his eyes therewith and I promise to restore it So critical was he even to the minute parts of honesty that if thorough inadvertency he had done any thing which did but looke like unjustness though no person was prejudiced by the same it was an affliction to his mind And as he did practice honesty himself as if he had known nothing else so did he allwayes love honest men and sett a just value on such but when he found any man to be otherwise how would he condole his condition and heartily sigh for him his looke at the same time speaking the thoughts of his heart how sorry he was that any man should be a knave how seriously would he endeavoure to reclaime such In his conversation and friendship
he was a Nathaniel one in whom there was no guile cordial and faithful without baseness and low dissimulation and loved a true friend as himself As for his learning it would require a more able encomist then my self but in magnis voluisse sat est His memorie was great his judgment greater and his paines in study all most infinite so that I may truly say of him had he but had encouragement conveniently and opportunities answerable to his great parts he might have bin a great light to this northern corner of the land made himself the envie of this age and a shadow to obscure learned men about him Had he not bin more then ordinarily learned when he came a young man into England the famous universitie of Oxford renowned thoroughout the civilised part of the whole world had not taken so much notice of him nor had some learned men there contracting an intimacy with him at his first comeing to that place continued a correspondencie with him till a little before his death From Oxford he came to the deservedly renowned and antient corporation of Newcastle upon Tine where he was master of the free Schoole for several yeares and how he behaved himself in that station I appeale to those that knew him there Being wearied out with that toilsome employment he removed to this town of Hexam famous in the time of the saxons and yett in history for that it was then a Bishops seate and enjoyed ten Bishops successively John of Beverly who as some historians note was the first master of Arts of the Universitie of Oxford being placed as the second Bishops here now made famous againe by enjoying the Learned Ritschell as its vicar for above twenty yeares together He is now dead yett he lives amongst learned societies and will I doubt not to many generations in his imetaphysicks prized so highly abroad that Germany but of late desired the reprinting of them and they were so with some addition By his other books concerning the rites and ceremonies of the church of England published immediately after his majesties happy return he shewed what stamp he was of that he was an enemie to all innovation in the church This seasonable defence of the church of England was very pleasing to that famous 〈◊〉 of the same Dr. John Cosins late Bishop of Durham especially being performed by a forreigner born and he did ever after him a venerable respect I hope for what I wish that God will stir up some of the reverend fathers of this church to cast a favourable eye upon his two hopeful sons both educated in Oxford and reward them for the fathers paines But that which did crown all his other excellencies was his piety which was singuler In his familie he was a Joshuah he and his house serveing the Lord dayly what he was in the church I need not inform you but call your conscienses to wittness hopeing that you will nevers forgett those good instructions he sowed amongst you so plentifully I may as well as any give this testimonie of him he had not much of the form nor outside of religion but was very carefull for the power therof and the essential parts which might make him truly be rather then seeme religious Such was this wise this worthy this learned and religious gentleman who on weddens day sevennight was sodainlye struck with a fatal palsie which brought him in a weeks time to the end of his journey that he might go home and rest from his labours By what means I know not but it seemes some way God did conveigh it to his spirit that his dissolution drew nigh before ever death made any shew by any natural signification Whether he did it designedly or not is more then I can say but I find that the last sermon he preached might very well have passed for his own funeral sermon takeing in a prophetick way for his text 2 Tim. 1 12. For the which cause I allso suffer these things nevertheless I am not asshamed for I know whom I have beleeved and I am persuaded that ' h is able to keep that which I have committed unto him unto that day nor was this onely his last text but these words the very last that he spoke I know whom I have beleeved c. commending his soule now to God to whom he had before committed it and resting on Christ with a firm certaintye of salvation Thus did he shutt up his dayes as he lived so he dyed piously and religiously and this may be some ease to his sorrowful relations some guide to our life and death He is gone before we are following after God of his infinite mercie enable us to travaile thorough a life of cares and miserie so that at last we may come to a long and ever happy home To which God c. FINIS An Elegie upon the Worthy and Reverend Mr. Georg Ritschel c. Vivitur ingenio LEt no fond tears bedew thy herse Bid the favorite Muse rejoyce And with triumphant verse The musick imitate of thy exalted voyce Bid her do something to comply With the empyrean poetry 2. From noisy mirth tumultuous pleasures free Let her ascend like thee Above the bounds of this tempestuous air Above the storms of grief or clouds of care There in smooth thoughts and notions best refined Enjoy the serene 〈◊〉 of the mind 3. Alas our â—â—llow wings in vain Attempt that airy leight And tired with too sublime a flight To their connatural earth return again Thy mind was all of purest flame And well could bear that place from whence it came Thy strong devotion and thy lofty witt This did to heaven-assend that brought heaven down to it 4. Tell how thy spatious soul could fathom all Which we august and sacred call And all the joy contain which from them spirings And yet desend so low As after this to know The least affections of the meanest things 5. Evanid matter could not scape thy eye Though in a thoms and shapes conceiled it lye Proteâ—s of nature to thy sharper sight Chaos it selfe was light To the its in most secrets it betrayed And shew'd a midst the gloomy shade Th' imperfect Embryo of the world unmade 6. Thou sowest that hidden chain With which we strive in vain And in the midst of seeming liberty When most we boast of being free No more then prisoners at large remain Thou knowest the laws of nature and of fate Nay what is more of fancy too And kept within thy view What ever God or poets did create 7. Enjoy thy fruitfull contemplations now For they the same continue still And thy enlarged understanding fill Nor one poor grain for humane frailty allow 8. Enjoy thy fate and if our low affaires Can touch thee not disturb thy breast Nor interrupt thy eternal rest Look upon us whom empty cares And frivolous doubts unquiet keep Nor yeild to better thought or thoughtlesse sleep So may our suns slide softly as thine away And our 〈◊〉 dyes let in an everlasting day I. H.