to be above the power of Physick that he had neither hopes nor fears in him he did not expect to live nor was he afraid of Dying And this Courage in Death is a further Evidence of a good Life that being the time as Plato observes when Guilt and an ill Conscience discover themselves in their full Vigour which may have been stifled all along before by the many Enjoyments of Life and the removal of the evil day far from them And hence it is that Vicious Men are most fearful and under the greatest horrour in this Circumstance as being then about to receive that sad Doom which their own mind does suggest to them And therefore those that are chearful and unconcerned at the approaches of Death supposing they still enjoy the full use of Understanding and know the Scene that they are then acting affords us a very probable Presumption that they are indeed good Men and have no reason of remorse in them And as for that necessary Vertue of a Christian which may be urged upon Rulers from the prospect of Mortality contained in these Words That ye shall dye like Men viz. Humility he was a famous example of it certainly never any that was so great condescended more or made himself so equal and affable as he did 'T was the peculiar Miracle and Instance of this Man that having that natural greatness of mind and understanding that he had and these improved to those high measures of acquired knowledge and learning that he should still maintain himself so courteous aâ—â— be of so free and so easie a Converse Extraordinary Endowments commonly raise Men to a slight and contempt of others and indeed upon this Argument he might have slighted almost the whole World 'T was therefore most certainly his goodness and Consideration that influenced this Lowliness and prevented that which would have been the natural effect of great parts in a bad Man And he was so far from becoming mean by this deportment that he raised his respect thereby and gained a new accession of honour and reverence from it which will always attend his memory to the World's end This is the best method if pride would permit one to see things truly to advance ones Name and Esteem among all Persons All other tricks of inconversable State to secure it lose it and only obtain an odious Reflection and contempt in the room of it These things being so conspicuous and to such a degree in our present Theme I have often perswaded my self and I am confident I do none of my Friends any injury in it that I never saw more of Christian good nature in any Person then in him I mean a benign temper as it was farther improved by those Gospel Vertues of Humility Love and Kindness implanted upon it Thus I have run through the Characters of a good Governour that I mentioned before in this Discourse and found them all concenter'd in this excellent person and indeed he was the great Object that lay before me and informed every part in the composing of it And I am far from having exhausted the Subject doubtless he had more rules of just Government then any else but such a wise and good Man as himself was could either think of or would propose for their direction But however I must not neglect to mention one thing more which has a particular respect in it and did not fall within the compass of my Text that relating to Governours in general and that is the duty of a Subordinate Magistrate to him whose Commissioner he is But this indeed is included in the Character before mentioned He that does Justice and is Faithful and Loyal to his Creator cannot be otherwise to his Soveraign Sin or Duty is exprest to both of them in the same action But however I am not contented only to say of the present Subject that he paid a just observance and obedience to his Prince which every good Men certainly does but that he had more of Duty and Affection to him than any other could parallel and would have exposed himself to more imminent danger in the procurement of his safety and Welfare This was his constant Temper and Resolution to his lives end Never man had a Heart so full of Allegiance and Love to his Sovereign as he had which both his Actions and his Discourse did well express upon all Occasions And as 't is affirmed of Love that it overcomes all things so I am sure he through the Strength of this Affection would very readily have adventured himself upon any the most difficult Enterprizes for the Just Prerogatives of the Crown and either have overcome or been content to suffer in them This Interest he truly espoused with his Life and Fortunes and he was never transported to such Severity of Speech for his Disposition was not to dwell upon the worst side of things or to entertain himself and his Company with Censure or invective Language I say he was never transported to such Severity of Speech as when he met with ill affected men to this honest Cause and 't was the necessary Vertue of a good Man and a good Subject to be so And now if any should unworthily surmise that all this I have here spoken concerning him might only be a put on thing an outward comportment and not the very expression of his mind and temper first they plainly discover a very unchristian humor in fixing an ill sense upon things which are capable of a better but then his very nature which always manifested so much plainness and freedom in it and was so removed from Disguise or Covert will undoubtedly convince the contrary to all that knew him And besides what motive could he have to put on another person to be at the continual trouble of opposing his own temper and inclinations and so deprive himself of the mighty pleasure of free acting I say what motive to this could he have whose high exaltation had placed him above the Reason of complying with any from fear or favour and so obtained him a perfect liberty to move and behave himself as he pleased But then lastly let such men consider what they suppose How difficult it is if not wholly impossible to act a perpetual Hypocrite or in a constant tenour to appear otherwise then they really are Perhaps one may counterfeit one single Fit or action pretty well and deceive the spectator as to the Reality of it altho it be very great odds but the want of a Right accent in the performing of it some impropriety or other will declare the imposture but an habitual thing that is to be expressed in every particular instance of our actions and in the whole course of them cannot so well if possibly be dissembled some undue word or motion will now and then burst forth to discover the fallacy in case it do not truly proceed from a constant habit of mind and a Steddy disposition that is naturalized to
signifie to walk always as it were in Procession to be attended with continual throngs of Guards and Admirers wheresoever they go to have Trumpets always before them to sound out their Greatness and to imprint a just terror and sence of it upon the astonished Multitude to fit in a seat of Majesty and dictate their Will to a whole Nation What can all this signify to found any lofty conceit upon when one reflects on himself that he is still no more than a Man and must be subject to all the Fatalities and Circumstances of that poor Creature And doubtless if we could hear him speak that is lately gone from us to another Kingdom who was once instated in all this greatness and now sees the better enjoyments of a second World and is a Possessor of them he would confirm these very words to us and make them more affecting by his heavenly Eloquence Indeed we may take his word beforehand he always entertain'd the same Opinion of this Worlds greatness and often spoke the same things whilst he was living and to prove the unfeigned sincerity of his words he voluntarily retired from it A Second Influence that this should have upon Magistrates viz. That they must die like Men is to make them Just and Honest in all their Proceedings The reason why Men manage such Self-designs and Unrighteous Judgment in the World is because they do not advert to the business of dying or else they remove the evil day far from them they find their bodies hail and vigorous as having no sensible Distemper in them and so conclude that they are out of all present danger of Death and have made a Covenant and an Agreement with the Grave in the Phrase of the Prophet Isaiah 28.15 for a long Season if they should but attend to the condition of Men that some time or other Death will have the Dominion over them and then contract the distance that this may happen immediately after such an action in the very next succeeding moment For Death has a thousand ways to vanquish poor Man and the stronger and more lusty the Constitiuton is the more lyable is it to violent Distempers and these if they once begin in a Vigorous Body the more they inflame the Blood and Spirits and the more they fortify Death against us So that there is no presuming upon any condition of body against the present Approaches of Death nay often Health it self is the most effectual means of a sudden Dissolution if Men had but this Apprehension upon them that they were then acting the last Scene of Life as indeed it may be for any thing they can tell what demure Creatures would they be and how would they start from the very first motions and thoughts of Sin and I am confident with St. Chrysostom that 't was one Reason why God made the Term of our Life unknown and uncertain to us that so by this means we might have the terrour and influence of our last moment upon all our actions This then is another effect that the necessity of dying should have upon us to make us Holy and Righteous in our whole Demeanour But Thirdly we may hence observe this Lesson of Comfort That those who have managed themselves well in this high Station altho they dye after the common manner of Men yet they leave a sure hope behind them that even through the Gates of Death they are entered into a better Life and more perfect Happiness and so preclude all the reason of Immoderate grief for them And I think this Inference and great truth does exactly hit the case before us There was not one Character of a good Governour that I mentioned before but was transcribed from the just Original of all Power by this great Person now with him in his Heavenly Kingdom and made the Measure of his Actions and although I had not the happiness of his Converse for so it truly was to a wonderful degree for any long time nor then when he was in his high Province and so could not observe from his actual management of things yet I have heard such occasional Sayings from him that did so plainly discover the Immovable Temper and Habit of his Soul that I am very confident I do know how he did transact his Publick Affairs and how he would always have done if he had been concerned in them to the Worlds end One might easily discern a great and generous Spirit in him that mov'd always towards the proportionable Object of a publick good He often manifested a strange disregard of self or any private interest indeed there was nothing to give him any Temptation to this he being by Temper as well as Improvement of Mind much above those Trifles that are called the goods of Fortune certainly none ever slighted them more these little things could not answer his large Capacity and therefore he passed them by as inconsiderable and unworthy of his Thoughts that indeed were design'd for higher entertainments I remember I heard him once say that Judicious Truth That none but mean Spirits could be covetous and he urged the Observation of his whole Life for the proof of it that he never saw it otherways Now this being inverted he dis-respecting the things of the World to such a high degree will give us a sure Argument of the greatness of his mind Indeed others might more profusely throw them away as many do upon some Lust or other but then this is no Slight or want of Value for the things themselves that being always founded upon a just Opinion of the meanness of them it is rather a Trade and Merchandize managed upon them they having no Dis-esteem properly to them but only they are under the Dominion and Slavery of a more darling Inclination which they would by all means excite and gratifie And if that once chance to fail they may possibly appear as covetous and nigardly as any others And now we may well imagine how such a Spirit as this that had no private Intrigues of its own would behave it self in a publick Station How it would design a General Advantage in the whole Compass of its Proceedings I shall not give any Instances of this kind let his Enemies prove it and produce the Example of one Action that had not a publick Respect in it or was only a narrow Reserve for his own particular He had a strange Apprehension to discern Good not only present but in the remote Consequence of things and the long effects of them Whereas others could not look so far And this I am perswaded was one great Reason why so many were dissatisfied with his Proceedings and turned Adversaries to him because he understood better than they and would have forc'd them into their own Good which they apprehended not This is the only Account that can be given of those loud Clamors against him as one that was bringing in Popery and Arbitrary Government He wisely saw that such
it and therefore when I observe actions to proceed in a continual series without any uncouth step or contradiction in them I cannot but conclude both in the exercise of Charity and Judgment that what they manifest is the very spirit and temper of such a Person Thus I have made a short Application of my Discourse and must in all reason beg Excuse for this mean Representation of so much Greatness especially before some in this Presence who best knew him and are best able to express him in the same Stile with his high Performances I did what I have done merely to please my self in dwelling a little and entertaining my Thoughts upon such an excellent Object and that from the present View of so much Worth in him I might found an Argument of Eternal Comfort to all those that were related to him Not to be sorry as those without hope for those that die in the Lord. And this we may conclude of that excellent Spirit departed from us that he died in this happy Circumstance as being possest of all those Vertues that are proper and requisite both for a Christian and a Governour And now to add a word of Comfort as to the common Condition of Men although Death be here denounced as a threatning yet it is the exceeding happiness and advantage of a good Man What a sad thing would it be to spend an Eternity in this Life altho we should be always in our full Vigour and never have any of the Infirmities of Age or Desease upon us to live in a continual Warfare always fighting against the ill Inclinations and Lusts of Flesh and the more florid and vigorous we are the more shall we experience these evils to be ever concerned in that Impertinent Imployment of a Reasonable Soul to manage and think of the trifling Objects of this World things that are so unsuitable to it to be continually at the mercy of a dull Body that is so often indisposed whether we shall freely meditate or no and then when we are in a fit posture of thinking we must beg the favour of our outward Affairs that they would be quiet and offer no disturbance or of some Anxiety of Spirit that it would intermit a little or of a degenerate habit of mind that it would suspend its wordly concernments or else we shall use this great faculty of thinking only upon vile and abject things such as are most unworthy of it but never be able to raise it up to any suitable Contemplation Now to be thus eternally detain'd by these low Entertainments and the ineptitude of Body from any free converse with the great object of our Happiness that Almighty Spirit that made us always to have our Felicities such an accidental thing depending upon so many hits and chances of Temper that it seldom happens not to recompence the thousandth part of our other Miseries and when it does happen is in such a Poor Muddy and Imperfect manner What a sad thing would it be to be for ever in this State and Circumstance or indeed for any considerable length of time 'T was certainly no Punishment upon Mankind but rather an Instance of Divine Love and Mercy to us that God should contract our Days and Abode in this World from well nigh a Thousand Years to Threescore and Ten a sufficient time still in such dull Enjoyments and if we had but the True Faith and Hope of Christians in us we should thank God for it Little reason have we therefore to lament for those that God has removed from such a World of Troubles but rather lament for our selves that are still left in it and want those Improved Felicities that they are instated in to all Eternity To which God Almighty in his due time bring us all to a second Enjoyment and happy Communion with our Pious Friends gone before us to whom with his Blessed Son and his Eternal Spirit three Persons and one God be ascribed all Honour Thanks-giving and Praise for evermore FINIS In chartula hac vacuâ Lector qui possit cupiat haec habeto à Typographo vel Errata vel praetermissa Ad. pag. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zenoph ed Steph. pag. 444. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Ad. pag. 12. lin 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Item Ad pag. 12. pro Plato de Repub. lege Plato Polit. ed Serran 294. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Ad. pag. 17. pro de legibus 18 19. lege 28 29. Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dyon Cas Ed. Steph. p. 559. Idem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad. pag. 24. St. Chrysost Tom. 6. p. 694. Item Tom. 7. p. 755. Ed. Savil. Item Basil Ed. Basil p. 220. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ad. pag. 37. Plato De Repub. Lib. 1. p. 3. 330. Ed. Serran 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ERRATA PAge 8. Line 15. for we read he Pag. 29. lin 21. for convinced read convince Pag. 38. lin 23 24. for I do none any injury in it read I do none any Injustice in it