works do follow them WHen Moses died God himself Interr'd him with the expence of a Miracle * Deut. 34. 6. and bestowed the highest Title of Honour upon him in this Epitaph Moses my Servant is dead Josh 1. 2. And here we have a Voice from Heaven directing John the Divine to write a Text proper for the Funeral of a Prophet in Israel such an one as gives us the sad Occasion of paying him the last Office of our Duty and Charity at this Mournful Solemnity Sad it is to us For knowest thou not that the Lord hath taken away 2 King. 2. 3. thy Master from thy head to day as the Sons of the Prophets said of Elijah But to him who lived to Christ to dye is gain and the day of his death better than the day of his birth The one brought him into a Vale of Misery where his days were to be few and full of trouble the other we hope has advanc'd him to a Region far above assaults of Mutability where his Happiness shall be as Eternal as God the Author and the Object of it Where they who dye in the Lord shall sing an everlasting Requiem to their Souls nothing of the busle of this life attend them but their Works and they from thenceforth as saith the Spirit rest from their labours Some Criticks read the words thus Blessed are the dead that are in the Lord which die within a while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And then by the Connexion this Verse seems to have with the former which speaks of the patience of the Saints by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render Labours they understand Persecutions and so take the Text to be a particular Prediction of the bloody and severe Tyranny under Dioclesian when they were happy most happy who were gathered unto their graves in peace where the wicked cease from troubling that their eyes should see all the evil which was coming upon the Church of God. Now thô perhaps this may be the Strict and Primary meaning of the Heavenly Voice yet the words are but too applicable to our present Times even in this sence for thô we are not now under the Persecution of Heathen Emperours but have Kings for our Nursing Fathers yet 't is Scripture still All that will live 2 Tim. 3. 12. godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer Persecution Satan has his Agents even in the outward visible Church Have not I chosen you twelve and one of Joh. 6. 70. you is a Devil and these have so much of the Hellish temper and Complexion of their Father that they rejoyce and triumph in running down all the practices of an Holy life which in the Judgment of the Holy Ghost if perhaps they have heard whether there be any Holy Ghost or no is looked upon as Persecution as plainly appears by comparing Gen. 21. 9. with Gal. 4. 29. in the case between Ishmael and Isaac I hope some mens Consciences will tell them what Unchristian opposition this most Pious and Right Reverend Prelate has been forced to contest with purely for his steady resolution of Religiously executing the weighty Charge of his Sacred Function and so save me the ungrateful task of doing it But I shall take the Words in the most obvious and easie sence as they in general import the Blessed estate of those who dye in the Lord. And to handle this in the best method I am able to reduce my hasty and troubled Meditations to 't will be requisite that I first explain what it is to die in the Lord. After which I shall endeavour to shew wherein the blessedness of that Estate consists Which I shall illustrate First by representing unto you the Emptiness and Dissatisfaction of all Worldly Enjoyments from which they are delivered suggested in these words for they rest from their labours Secondly by shewing that positive and superabundant Satifaction that glorious recompence of Reward which they shall meet with in a better World couched in these words and their works do follow them First then What it is to die in the Lord. To die in the Lord is to die in the true Christian Faith. But then by Faith we must not mean the bare profession of an Historical belief but the Cordial and Sincere Embracing of the Promises of the Gospel upon the Conditions they are offered to us This is so comprehensive a Subject that it implies the whole Duty of Man and cannot be fully described unless I should either present you with the Original the New Testament or with the lively transcript of it in the History of our departed Fathers life in which the Severest Eye might gratisie its Curiosity in viewing those refined stroaks which the Pencil of God had drawn upon his Soul in beholding with Veneration the awful and Majestic Character of his Maker Signally imprinted upon all the Powers and Faculties of his Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T was indeed an Instructive sight to those who had the honour and happiness of his more immediate Converse to see the many Originals of Christianity which lay scattered and dispersed in the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists elegantly contracted in the System of his Actions unto a perfect Man of God unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ How exemplary was his Meekness in bearing the rudeness the Insolence and Indignities of some whom the common Obligation of Religion as well as the more special Tyes of their peculiar Subjection might have taught more duty and observance How familiar was his Converse and of how easie Access was he to the meanest Christian treating them more like Brethren than Sons in Christ Having always before his eyes both the Command and Precedent of his Saviour He that is greatest among you shall be your Servant With Math. 23. 11. how tender and compassionate a sence did his Bowels earn upon the Necessities of his poor Brethren whom he freely relieved with the most enlarged Heart and open hand O how often have the Loins of the naked blessed him for being warmed with the fleece of his Sheep His Job 31. 20. Liberality and Charity were as Extensive as the obligation of his duty His Riches consisted most in good Works he was indeed a faithful Steward who carefully employed the Talent God intrusted him with to the use and service of Christs Members upon Earth for the only Usury he ever put his Mony too was in thus lending to the Lord which he did not out of any Pharisaical affectation of Popularity or Applause to avoid that he so industriously studied a modest Secrecy that his left hand knew not what his right hand did By which means he lost indeed what he never valued the Fame and Reputation of it being seen of men looking up rather unto him who then saw him in secret and will one day reward him openly How admirable was his Humility both in his Civil and Spiritual Capacity which his earnest desire
of being Interr'd among the meanest of those that own the same common Saviour and Redeemer will testifie to all Posterity As for the Pageantry of Funeral Pomp and the Artificial voice of Monuments he looked not upon them as Ensigns of Honour but rather as Trophies erected by Death in memory of that fatal Victory Sin got over us in the Garden of Eden when we became like the Beasts that perish But thô his Merit and Vertue do loudly call for all the Justice Oratory can do them yet I dread to disturb his Sacred rest by prophaning the Religion of his last peremptory dying Command that I should to express my self in his own words be very sparing in any Character of him But yet the Modesty of the dead must not rob the living of the comfortable and happy Influence the manner of his death may have upon every one that hears it My Text leads me directly to that And indeed his was such a Ravishment to all that beheld it that their Hearts grew warm within them ready to break out into that pathetic Expression of the Apostle Let us also go that we Joh. 11. 16. may die with him And whenever thou O God the Lord to whom belong the Issues of Life and Death shalt call us to follow him O let us die the death of this righteous person Num. 23. 10. and let our last end be like his 'T was admirable to observe with what submissive Humility and chearful Devotion he received his last Sickness as the Messenger of Death How steadily he maintained a Divine temper of Mind without the impertinent and vain interruption of Secular Concerns vigorous Ejaculations fervent Prayers holy Meditation seasonable prudent and pious Advice were the constant Employment of his heavenly Soul till his weak and languishing Voice concluded the Period of his life with this pious and submissive Expression God has now taken from me the use of my Tongue but I desire you all to employ yours in Prayers to him for me This sweet disposition of Spirit was so pleasing to God that he therefore seemed to dissolve his earthly Tabernacle without either pain or sickness on purpose that the Troubles of a Body might not interrupt the Calmness and Serenity of his Soul. Thus he lived Copying out through the whole tenor and series of his Actions the Noble draught St. Paul has left of a good Bishop 1 Tim. 3. adorning his Sacred Function with the glorious variety of all those Graces which qualifie the Man of God to bear the Character of Ambassador from Heaven And thus he died in the Lord. Is not he then blessed Yea saith the Spirit And this leads me in the second place to shew wherein the blessedness of that Estate consists And First In being delivered from the toyl and fatigue the emptiness and dissatisfaction of things below To read the many Noble Discourses the Heathen Philosophers have transmitted to Posterity of the emptiness and insignificancy of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the outward enjoyments of Life those Toys and Bables upon which we fool away the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the precious time God has put into our hands to secure unto our Selves a blessed Eternity were sufficient to give any thinking man an Eternal disgust against them So little happiness could those refined Wits and great Masters of Reason find in the fluttering Pomp of temporal Grandure But if you are not satisfied with the Authority of the Heathen thô herein they uttered the genuine Oracles of Nature why then let us refer the Determination of the Point to Solomon a person peculiarly qualified to be Judge in the Case both in respect of the Excellent Spirit of Wisdom that was in him and because he is one that stuck not to gratifie his Curiosity in trying all Experiments of that Nature for he gave his heart Eccl. 1. 17. to know madness and folly as well as wisdom And what was the result of all Why after this glorious and potent Monarch had made Silver in Jerusalem as Stones for abundance and 1 King. 10. 27. 1 King. 11. 3. had taken him a thousand Wives and Concubines erected him Magnificent Buildings planted him delicious Vineyards fruitful Orchards pleasant Gardens adorn'd with Lillies more splendidly arrayed than he himself in all his glory after he had gotten him great Possessions Numerous choice of Men Singers and Women Singers and the delights of the Sons of Men and denied himself nothing that his Eyes desired nor withheld his heart from any Joy and having thus contracted unto himself an Epitomy of the Worlds glory he might well ask What can the man do that cometh after the King yet this King confesseth that when he had looked on all the works that his Eccl. 2. from ver 1. to ver 13. hands had wrought and on the labour that he had laboured to do behold all was vanity and vexation of Spirit and there was no profit under the Sun. Believe it if Solomon whom both Nature and Art so highly conspired to divert and please yet Nauseated all as Vanity 't were but common Prudence in us to set our Hearts at rest who have neither the thousandth part of Solomons Grandeur nor of his Wit neither to improve the small stock we have to the best advantage Yet say we had all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them as they were most artificially drawn to the life in a tempting Landskip presented by Satan to our Saviours Imagination yet since all that is in the World is but either the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes or the pride of life i. e. Pleasure Riches and Honour as we are told by S. John who liv'd long enough in the World to know what it afforded 'T is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grand Fundamental Error and folly of our whole lives to look for any happiness in the Enjoyment of them Human Beatitude consists in the gratification of those Faculties which make Man i. e. Intellect and Will the perfective qualifications of which are Truth in the Understanding and Rectitude or Holiness in the Will. Now could any of the fore-mentioned Enjoyments make a man either more Wise or more Vertuous than his Neighbour Could they secure us from being impos'd upon by false Notions Ignorance and Error and Enlighten the darkness of our Minds with clear Conceptions of Truth that Secret of the Most High GOD with certain knowledge of the admirable Works of Nature and GOD the Mysterious Author of them or with Prudence in the rational Conduct of our Actions which would be the Glory and Ornament of our Understanding Could they redeem us from the shameful Captivity of sordid Appetites and Vile Affections which like Rebel Vassals dethrone the Sovereign Goodness that should Reign within us Could they restore again that generous Magnanimity Temperance Justice and Universal Complacency in what is good and honourable to its Empire in the Soul which would be the
Piety and real Worth. His Father Mr. Thomas Rainbow was a Reverend Divine noted for his Learning and Vertue who after his being educated at Christ's College in Cambridge was first presented to the Rectory of Bliton above-mentioned and then to that of Wintringham in the same County of Lincoln situate upon Humber that great Aestuarium where so many Rivers meet e're they pay their Tributes to the Ocean Both which Places were conferr'd upon him by the Worshipful Family of the Wrays of Glentworth And he is said to have well deserved such Advancement being a Man who preached as well to his Parishioners by his exemplary good Life as by his sound Doctrin and when he dy'd thô I cannot learn certainly when that was left the Odor of a good Name behind him Nor was his Mother Mrs. Rebecca Allen Daughter to Mr. David Allen Rector of Ludbrough in Lindsey-Coast aforeseid an unfit Consort for so Worthy a Man. For to many of those good qualifications of a Woman mentioned by the wisest of Kings she added that of the knowledge of the Scriptures even in the Original Languages being trained up by her Father to the understanding of the Latin the Greek and the Hebrew So that if the Female Sex Eustochium and others have been so much commended by S. Hierom for their great Skill in the Sacred Writings the Praise that this excellent Matron merited in this kind ought not to be forgotten Which is also a pregnant instance that the other Sex is not incapable of some of the most profound Studies and not altogether unfit to walk in the most retired Paths of Learning Our Edward Rainbow had the Name of Edward given him from his Godfather Mr. Edward Wray of Rycot who was younger Brother to Sir John Wray the elder and who was a great Courtier and Favourite of the elder George Duke of Buckingham by whose Interest Mr Wray married the Heiress of the Honour and Fortune of the Lord Norris of Rycot and to whom joyntly with his Brother Sir John Wray his God-Son Mr. Rainbow afterwards dedicated his first printed Sermon Preached at S. Pauls Cross Entituled Labour forbidden and commanded But to return whence we have digressed a little From such pious Parents who can doubt but Edward Rainbow met with a good Education Goodness is diffusive of it self by Nature and most especially when seated in those of so near a Relation as Parents to Children The sense of their Duty in the first quickens their desires of propagating their Vertues in their Off-spring as well as continuing in them their Names to Posterity And accordingly this vertuous Couple took great care early to instil into this their Son the Principles of Religion a great and cordial Love for his Heavenly Lord and Master and a just Fear to offend him in the breach of any of his Divine Commands They taught him to aspire to the possession of that Celestial Country where that love for true Piety would be as unbounded as that God who is the Original of it And doubtless the early cultivating of so hopeful a Plant was not ineffectual as the Sequel shew'd He had been taught that this Life was but a Pilgrimage and what would be the conclusion of minding his walking therein soon which made him hasten his pace to Heaven-ward For Travellers never hasten so much as when they expect good Lodgings at their Journeys end His Infancy being past about Nine years of Age he was sent to Fillingham a Village in the so often mentioned County of Lincoln where his Grandmother Allen and his Ant Peachel his Mothers Sister lived At which place he begun to lay the Foundation of Secular Learning which his Parents observing him to be very capable of improving to a considerable height sent him in A. Dom. 1619. to the publick School of Gainsborough and from thence in April 16â—0 to Peterborow in Northamptonshire to be one of the Scholars of Dr. John Williams who was then Prebend of that Church And it was upon his account that Edward Rainbow was sent to Westminster School in June 1621 Dr. Williams old Mr. Rainbows great Friend being advanced to the Deanry of Westminster and the Bishoprick of Lincoln and consequently had thereby better opportunities to gratifie his Friends Son in Westminster where he then chose to reside In all these short Stages of his Youth he was so far from frustrating the Hopes which his Parents had conceived of him that the great Proficiency under his several Masters adorned with his meek and obliging humor easily gained him the Favour of his Instructors and the Esteem of his more diligent School-Fellows In which state he continued till fitted for the University and then he was sent to Corpus Christi College in Oxon in July 1623. at the Age of Fifteen where his elder Brother John was admitted and died Fellow of that House He had before this viz. in March 1621 lost his dear Mother which loss gave him all the disturbance that a dutiful Son was capable of for the Death of so prudent and tender a Mother and whom he never mentioned without Honour Nor did she dye lamented by him alone but by all those who were acquainted with her extraordinary Parts and religious Conversation and who were not generally Enemies of or Strangers to true Vertue Having paid the Debt due to the memory of his good Mother I am obliged to resume the Thred of his History and consequently to mention that during his stay in Oxford he applied himself to his Studies with that attention which became the Son of so Learned a Father which course he held on in Magdalen College in Cambridge whither he was transplanted in June 1. 1625 and that upon the following occasion The Right Honourable and truly Noble Lady Frances Countess Dowager of Warwick and Daughter to Sir Christopher Wray sometimes Lord Chief Justice of England as she inherited her Fathers Liberality who had been a great Benefactor to the last mentioned College of Magdalen in giving Lands and Moneys to it for the Founding a Fellowship and two Scholarships so did she also inherit the kindness of her Family to that of Edward Rainbow and therefore in her life time did him that honour to nominate him one of her Scholars there Upon which account as hath been already hinted he removed from Oxon thither and was admitted into that College and Scholarship at the time above-mentioned He took his Degree of Bachelor of Arts there in Anno Dom. 1627 and commenced Master of Arts in 1630 a Year which is sufficiently remarkable in History for the Birth of our late Gracious Sovereign Charles the Second and for the descent of Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden into Germany where till death put a Period to his Martial Atchievments Victory seem'd to be his constant Attendant In July after he had proceeded Master of Arts he was sent for to teach the Free-School at Kirton in Lindsey Coast three or four Miles from Bliton which was profered
betwixt them which continued for several years before it was compleated by the Conjugal Tye by reason of the Iniquity and the Threatning of those to give them a soft Epithet Cloudy Times In the Year 1639 our Mr. Rainbow was chosen Dean of the College which Office he discharged with great care and prudence discouraging and punishing the Vicious and encouraging the diligent and sober young Students Upon the 20th day of April he fell into a dangerous Swoon so that that Day wherein he first drew Breath had like to have proved the day of his death And hence after his Recovery he had Meditations suitable thereto to be seen in his Diary I have already mentioned what Favour he had gained of the Earl of Suffolk one of whose Ancestors had founded that College Consequent of the high Opinion that Earl had of Mr. Rainbows Integrity in making a Settlement of his Estate in the Year 1640 he did him the Honour among other Trustees to make him one as remembring not only how careful a Tutor he was over his Sons but how happy an Instrument he had that year been in reconciling a Difference betwixt himself and his Eldest Son. This great Trust Mr. Rainbow because young undertook with some unwillingness but he discharged it afterwards with all imaginable Fidelity therein not proposing to himself the least improvement of his own private Fortunes but the Advantage of that Noble Family And while he continued therein after the death of Earl Theophilus which happened in June in the Year last mentioned thô his Care for the Estate of his Honourable Charge was great yet was it no less for the great Concern of their Souls without which the other had been less valuable and over whom agreeable to his Function he was very watchful and diligent and God was not wanting to bless his Pious endeavours therein with a suitable Return Which Happiness was not confined to those Noble Youths he had under his peculiar Tuition but extended to other young Persons of the Nobility who frequented that Family For he observing some Extravagancies in them too incident to men of their Figure and who meet with many Temptations and especially with one that of Flattery the bane of Youth wrought so upon their Spirits by his cogent Reasons and insinuating Rhetoric that they gratefully accepted of some Prayers composed by Mr. Rainbow which were suited to their particular condition as was apparent by some Papers seen after his death And those Noble Persons had ever afterwards a just veneration and a true kindness for him Hence became he so much the Favourite of the Families of Suffolk Northumberland Warwick and Orrery And since I have mentioned the last I cannot forbear to add that he who first bore that Title hath in his Divine Poems which he wrote in his declining years bating the difference of the Languages outstript those of Prudentius who also composed his in his old Age in the richness of Fancy and in delicacy of Expression And as he had in other Topics composed for his diversion shewn that he wanted not a chast and elegant Style even when he treated on less severe and serious Subjects so hath he in those his Poems on the Festivals acquired a Reputation which will never be deny'd his Merit till Wit and Judgment be exil'd the World no more than Posterity can without the higest Injustice refuse the Title of a most acurate Experimental Philosopher to his yet surviving Brother and our Bishops Friend the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle a Gentleman who is no less happy in and respected for a sweetness of Temper than for his Ingenuity And the present Age seems so much in love with his Philosophical Experiments and Discourses upon them by which he hath signalized himself to the greatest part of Europe that even a Critic of another Nation not very ready to bestow Complements upon others but when even compelled thereto by Truth cannot deny but that his Experiments and Reflexions have always an Air of Solidity To which may be justly added that as he hath enriched Natural Philosophy with his choice Observations so hath he in contradiction to the trite Objection of such Students being near Neighbours to Atheists made that dear Mistress an Handmaid to Religion But I now forget that I trespass against the Readers Patience by this long digression as well as hereby offend this Religious Gentlemans Modesty for which after I have craved pardon of both I shall return to Mr. Rainbow whom we shall according to the Series of his History find ready to attend the young Earl of Suffolk James to the Long Parliament in October 1640. A Parliament a small part of which afterwards under the specious pretence of a thorough Reformation brought one of the best of our Kings Charles the Martyr to the Block and laid waste that Church of England which hath been long the Glory and Bulwark under God of the Reformed Religion and the Envy of the Romish In 1642 Mr. Rainbow had the Honour to Marry the Right Honourable Algernoon Earl of Northumberland to the Lady Elizabeth Howard His great Friend Dr. Henry Smith dying and the Mastership of Magdalen College become thereby vacant in October 1642 Mr. Rainbow having formerly had a Promise and Grant of that Place upon the first vacancy from the Right Honourable Theophilus Earl of Suffolk was now admitted into it with the concurrence of his Son Earl James And now seeing himself set upon an higher ground and consequently his Actions thereby exposed more to the Public view and censure his next and chief Care was to discharge his new Trust conscientiously and therefore having while he was a Fellow of that same College taken notice that some very hopeful young Men had upon their being too early Advanc'd fallen from their former studious and vertuous course of living into Debauchery He upon his accession to the Mastership resolved not to admit any man to a Fellowship who had not first commenced Mr. of Arts that their longer stay before their Preferment might give the College a clearer demonstration of their Worth and they thereby might become as it were Probationers for three Years He took the Degree of Dr. of Divinity in the Year 1646 when his chief Question on which he made his Thesis was That Ecclesia Anglicana tenet omnia ad salutem necessaria A Point which he durst defend in the worst of Times when that Church was so much oppress'd for asserting her Loyalty to God and the King for her agreement with the Primitive Church in not rebelling against a lawful Magistrate and in owning the Jus Divinum of the Episcopal Hierarchy and Liturgy But that Black Storm which occasioned by the Sins of this Nation then surfeiting of Ease and Plenty was permitted a while to hover over our Heads in Black Clouds broke out at last in dreadful Thunders upon our Trembling Israel and tore down all that oppos'd its way In this common Calamity Dr. Rainbow had his share
Holy Spirit and Wisdom and grant that I may improve my left Talent and all the remaining Moments of my Life to gain a comfortable assurance That Death shall open a Gate to let my Soul pass out of the old Prison of this Body into that Freedom to which the Son of God gives right even to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. O that I might so preach him in his Kingdom of Grace that I may be one thô the meanest in his Kingdom of Glory Meditations on Jan. 30. 1652. after a Recovery from a Cold with a Cough LOrd thy Mercy is most seen in Judgment when it is not lengthened to Eternity If I had not now felt the smart of this one Twig of thy Rod I had utterly persevered in an incorrigible Disobedience But by this Touch thou hast graciously healed me of that giving me time and opportunity to look up at thee now admonishing by thy Finger From this I see nothing but the sweetness indulgence and mercy of a wise Father In my self nothing but the stubbornness and rebellion of a perverse Child O how have I abused a longer reign of Health for now well nigh Thirty years If I should write all his Meditations I might transcribe a good part of his Diary You have here had a Specimen of his private Devotion in the next and last place we shall consider whether his Liberality to the Poor and Needy was agreeable to his Sacred Character or no. In examining his Actions by the Test of this Vertue we shall find that he left a large Inventory of charitable Deeds And as Nerva Coesar was called Pater Patrioe the Father of his Country by reason of his gentle and kind Government so might he be termed Pater Pauperum the Father of the Poor for his liberal Donative to them unto whom his Compassion was never deny'd nor his Hand closed up without something to warm their Hearts and chear their Spirits and what was still more obliging what he bestowed was with a free heart taking pleasure in the good Offices he did any of those Mystical Members of Jesus Christ To descend to particularize the several methods of this Bishops Charity after he came to be so would look something like Flattery such variety did he use in the dispensing the Goods of Fortune to his Indigent Brethren since the Proverb in these Dregs of Time proves too true which asserts the great disuse of that most extorting Usury when the Use out-strips the Principal To proceed He usually gave 20 s. to the Poor at Carlisle when it was his turn to Preach there that his Liberality might tempt them to listen to his Doctrin His Allowance to the Poor of Dalston Parish within the Limits of which Rose Castle stands was 30 s. a Month besides what was given them at his Castle-Gates and to Sick People not to mention what was given them at Sacraments and upon other occasions In Dear Years when his own stock of Corn was spent he ordered Barley to be bought at 12 s. or 14 s. per Bushel and to be given to the Poor which came then in such great numbers to the Gates that the Porter who served them having sometimes the curiosity to tell them affirmed that he often serv'd Seven or Eightscore People in one and the same day He allowed Mony to a School Master for teaching Eight Poor Children to Read at Dalston He put out Poor Boys to Apprentices In Pensions to Poor Scholars at the University and to some Indigent Persons he gave 32 l. per Annum constantly for several Years To which may be added his share with other Bishops in yearly Pensions to Forein Converts and to other publick Charities as the Rebuilding of S. Paul's Church to French Protestants large Sums c. Nay his Charity was often so extensive that he forgat his own Secular Interest to lend unto God by his Largesses to the Needy At his Death he gave to the Poor of eight or nine Parishes and in some other Modes of Charity which amounted to the Sum of 200 l. And what that pious Prelate left his Widow punctually performed For as she loved him entirely so did she shew her true respect for his Memory in enlarging his gift And thus that Religious Couple as they strove whether should love more so did they rival each other in Charity Moreover I should be injurious the memory of this good Bishop if I should not further add that besides these Public Acts of Liberality his Charity was yet in some respects so secret according to our Blessed Saviour's Advice that he kept a Private Purse for that end and that so private that even his dear Consort the Partner of all his Joys and other Counsels was a Stranger to it not knowing how he disposed of it till he himself discovered to her a little before his death whereabout 20 l. of that Mony lay which he desired might be given to three or four of the French Protestants or to some decayed Gentleman of honest Conversation and that without naming of him Which his Loving Consort accordingly performed This last Act is not only a plain demonstration of his extensive Bounty but how far he was from that pompous and ostentous Charity which is made by too many the foundation of Merit in another Communion And as his Kindness was unlimited to the corporal Wants of the Needy so no less compassionate was he to those who went astray from the true Fold To such he used lenity and mildness endeavouring to bring them into the way by strong Argumenrs and soft Words convincing their erronious Judgments by Reason and Scripture rather than by affrighting them with Corporal punishments out of that by-way into which they had fallen by mistake As to his own Practice none could be more observant of the Rules of the Church of England than he was thô he pitied the Errors of others who differed from him in Opinion To conclude May this mean Monument which I have erected to the Memory of this Right Reverend Prelate suffice to continue his Name and the History of his Vertues to succeeding Ages and that thereby the lustre of his Pious Actions may so shine forth in this debauched and profligate Age that others may be induced to Copy after so fair an Example serving God faithfully and sincerely in this Life and enjoying him eternally in that which is to come Ephes 3. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages World without end Amen FINIS A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God Edward Lord Bishop of Carlisle REV. XIV 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their
grace and perfection of the Will Could they but secure unto us the Vnum necessarium the blessed Hopes of an immutable Felicity in the next World when we leave them behind us and bid them Adieu for ever which is the only Foundation whereupon we may build a firm peace and uninterrupted comfort I grant they were richly worth all the Care Anxiety and Toil we expend in the prosecution of them But alas they are meer Emptiness and nothing so phantastical and airy that they delude our Embraces when we think to enjoy them most As for Riches the Eye is not satisfied with them Eccles 4. 8. thô we labour and bereave our Souls of good first to procure and then to keep them and after the Poor Wretch hath spent himself in drudging for them he shall leave them in Jer. 17. 11. the midst of his days and at his end shall be a Fool. And pray what is Honour that Idol of Worldly men We know that an Idol is nothing in 1 Cor. 8. 4. the World so is Honour too too thin and too airy to yield any solid real satisfaction It puffs a man up indeed and blows him a little bigger than his Neighbour but the Timpany renders him uneasie both to himself and others and when God sends him a Thorn in the Flesh it pricks the Bladder and the gawdy Bubble vanisheth This is Pharaoh and all his multitude Ezek. 31. 18. And as for Pleasures such I mean as the Voluptuary calls so why grant the Epicure which yet he rarely meets with a lucky concurrence of all that can possibly advance a delight the Spirits are presently exalted into a Rapture and so the goodly Transport dies in a moment leaving Penitential Nature to repair the damage and Prodigal expence of a short Extravagance What profit then hath he that hath Eccl. 5. 16. laboured for the Wind So little Satisfaction can the Creatures afford which themselves groan and travel in pain under the bondage of Vanity the primitive Curse of Sin. Indeed had Man been created like the Angels in Heaven all Soul and Spirit and not tyed to the cumbersom luggage of a Body he had then been free from all the Troubles and Calamities which attend a Mortal State. But since we are doom'd to dwell in these Houses of Clay whose foundation is in the dust Every man in his best Estate is altogether Vanity And yet while we do Sojourn in these tottering Tabernacles the Natural Respect we bear to the Noble Guest that lodges in them puts us to a vast expence and trouble in Repairing the Decays and patching up the Ruines of them This indeed is but good Husbandry But when I observe the prodigal and luxurious Ornament some bestow upon this mean Cottage I can hardly hold from asking them Socrates his Question What do you mean to make your Prison so strong And yet when they have done all the Tenure of them is but for life under an Arbitrary Lord and how soon that Lease may expire we none of us know perhaps this Night may our Souls be required of us However at the furthest the Age of Man is threescore years and ten or if he Psal 90. 10. come to fourscore years yet is his strength then but labour and sorrow so soon passeth it away and we are gone Thus much concerning the Blessedness of their Estate who dye in the Lord in their being delivered from the Toyl and Fatigue the Emptiness and Dissatisfaction of things below The second and last Topic I purposed to shew it from was that positive and superabundant satisfaction that glorious recompence of Reward which they shall meet with in another World couched in these words and their works do follow them When Man apostatized from the Allegiance he owed his Maker he fell under the Power and Dominion of Sin and Sin delivered over the Captive Rebel to the Bondage and Tyranny of Death which gnawed revengfully upon his Flesh in the Grave and tortured his polluted Soul upon the Eternal Rack of Anguish and Despair in Hell Hell originally prepared for the Arch-Rebel of Heaven the great Leviathan of Sin and his Accursed Train but now become the common Gaol of Men and Devils Such a Prince of Terrors is Death when arm'd with the poysonous Sting of Sin. But the Captain of our Salvation has conquered Death and disarm'd it of that power it had got over us by Sin. See how the Apostle triumphs over it in the Lesson appointed for this Solemnity O Death 1 Cor. 1â— 55 56. where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law i. e. There is nothing makes Death like a Serpent able to hurt us but Sin without which the Grave is but a Bed wherein we take a long Lethargic Sleep And that which impowers Sin to do us mischief is the Law which prohibits it and consequently involves us in the Curse due to our Guilt But thanks be to God who giveth us Ver. 5â— the Victory thrô our Lord Jesus Christ Blessed be the Father of Mercies who by what Christ hath â—one for us hath gotten us the Victory over Sin and by this happy Conquest has made Death only a Silent passage to a glorious Immortality where they who dye in the Lord shall for ever for ever enjoy such Divine Transports of Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it is not lawful for a man to utter 2 Cor. 12. 4. said the Eloquent S. Paul when the over flowing sense of them rapt him into Extasie Blessed Souls which always behold the Face of God in whose presence is fulness of Joy for evermore A sight even a bare sight able to transform us into his own likeness and make our Faces like the face of Moses too bright and dazling for any mortal Eye to look upon We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3. 2. Blessed are those that-stand before the Lamb of God in his Throne of Glory that are admitted into the Society of the Cherubims and Seraphims those sprightly Choiristers of Heaven where nothing is heard but the voice of Joy and Gladness There 's no Sin to stain their white Robes of Purity or eclipse the glorious Emanations of Light which they receive from the Sun of Righteousness no Jealousies or Fears to disturb their Enjoyments neither can any imperfection taint that state where God shall be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. Surely now the Blessedness of dying in the Lord is so ravishing a Contemplation as even to make S. Johns Wish the language of all our Souls Come Lord Jesus come Rev. 22. 20 quiokly And indeed the happiness of our future Life is not fully and sensibly revealed unto us but seems on purpose to be hid with Christ in Col. 3. 3. God that we might not be too restless and impatient under the burden of Mortality
nor break the Prison of our Bodies to redeem our Souls into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. Dii coelant homines ut vivere durent quam sit dulce Mori So then the same blessed Providence of God which in mercy to his Church continued our Departed Father so long among us has now in mercy to himself translated him to the Church Triumphant and exchanged his Mitre for a Crown for a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory And he who turn'd many to Righteousness now shines as the Stars for ever and ever Thus I have done with the Doctrin of my Text and shall only beg your patience for a short Practical Inference or two and then you shall see this Right Reverend Prelate pay his last Debt to the Law Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt Gen. 3. 19. return The first Inference shall be for such as are more particularly concern'd in the Loss of a great and worthy Friend a dear and kind Relation which I draw from the Consideration of the blessed Estate of those that are departed in the Lord And 't is this in the Apostles words that ye sorrow not as others 1 Thess 4. 13. which have no hope Were we Heathens and looked upon Death as the Annihilation of our Souls or Sadducees who deny that there is Luke 20. 27. any Resurrection or Papists who dream of a frightful place called Purgatory we might then justly either bewail the utter perishing of the Dead or the Misery of their State. But since we believe the Spirit that they are blessed in resting from their labours and that their works follow them what reason have we to lament the End of that Life which is the Period of our Misery and the beginning of a happy Eternity Ay but said the Jews when our Saviour wept over the Sepulchre of his Friend Lazarus See how he Joh. 11. 36. loved him Alas they mistook the cause of our Saviours Tears which flowed only from his Compassion to poor Lazarus who was now again to lanch into the deep after he had weathered the Harbour where his Soul was at Rest 'T is like indeed we would have been glad to have enjoyed him longer he was so kind a Friend but is it not preposterous to commemorate the kindness of a Friend with so high an Argument of Ill nature as to repine at his being happy sooner than we expected God was more merciful to him than it seems we should have been that would have kept him longer out of Abraham's Bosom only that we might have hugged him in our own Could he but look down as low as us he would certainly say Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves I am comforted having received the Wages of my Labours in the Evening of my days but you are tormented that have the heat and burden of the day to bear Wherefore comfort one another with 1 Thess 4. 18. these words The other Inference is the common concern of all that hear me taken from the Consideration of the toil and labour of this World viz. to wean us from too passionate love of it 'T is so Childish an Infirmity to doat upon Shadows and catch at them that methinks we should blush when we are become men not to have put away such Childish things but still to walk on in a vain shadow and disquiet our selves in vain But thô we have all of us sufficiently experienced the Cheats and disappointments of a false uneasie World yet the Magnetism of the Earth does so powerfully attract our Affections that thô we live long and see not the Grave yet we are apt to complain with Theophrastus of the shortness of our days and are still crying O spare me a little as if we were in love with impotence and pains and loath to retire to the only place where the weary be at rest But if all Arguments drawn from the Vanity of what we pursue be ineffectual to convince us of the folly of it yet certainly 't is a Perfidiousness below the Ingenuous Spirit of a Christian basely to Espouse his Soul to what he most solemnly renounced in his Baptism That were equally our Sin in prevaricating with God who will not be mocked and our Misery too in meanly placing our Affections upon the Sordid things below that bear no proportion to the Appetites of a Rational Agent because they are too capacious and sublime ever to be satisfied with any thing less than the full Display of GOD himself in the glory of all his Attributes But this I say Brethren the time is 1 Cor. 7. 29. short it remaineth that both they that weep be as thô they wept not and they that buy as thô they possessed not and they that use this World as not abusing it for the fashion of this World passeth away And I pray God give us Grace so to pass thrô things Temporal that we finally lose not things Eternal for the sake of Jesus Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life To whom with the Father and the Eternal Spirit of Grace be ascribed all Power Glory and Praise for Ever and Ever Amen FINIS