A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROGER EARL of ORRERY WHO Dyed the 16th of October at Castle-Martyr and was Buried at Youghall in Ireland the 18th of the same Month in the Year 1679. By THOMAS MORRIS M. A. His Lordships Domestick Chaplain LONDON Printed by J. M. for John Wickins at the White-Hart over against St Dunstans Church 1681. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MARGARET Countess Dowager OF ORRERY May it please your Ladiship THE high esteem I have for the extraordinary worth of my Deceased Patron hath I confess such an influence on me that I cannot but think my self obliged to do him all the honour and service I can now he is Dead as well as when he was Living And I should think my self unjust as well as ungrateful should I not lay hold on all opportunities to do it However I must also say that I am so conscious of my own Defects that I should have been willing these following Meditations on the sad occasion of his Death should have lain only in Private hands had not your Ladiship exprest a a willingness to have them more publick Not that I have any design to avoid or suppress the Publication of your Noble Lords worth whose Memory I shall always honour but that I fear my weak endeavours will rather Eclipse than render it Illustrious But your Ladiships Commands having superseded all excuse I dare not be backward in paying this my last duty to him in doing which though my Expressions have been short of his Due yet I have hopes my zeal will Apologize for that defect which however illy expressed I am sure is hearty and real I have not the vanity to think that by what I have said either in the Sermon or Character I have added any thing to your Ladiships Comfort or knowledge since as to the first I am sure your Ladiship is no such stranger to Christianity as to be destitute of those good grounds it affords for that purpose And as to the second it would be a great piece of impudence in me to think your Ladyship should not know and retain a livelier Idea of this your Noble Lord than what in my rude draught I have represented All therefore that I have done will serve more to inform others than your Ladiship who as they come hereby to be acquainted with the admirable Excellencies of one more of the worlds most Famous Worthies so in the perusing and considering what is here said of him they may be further provoked to follow his steps Since therefore this unpolisht piece must by your Ladiships order come abroad I cannot but take the confidence to crave your Ladiships pardon for as well as Patronage of it which by reason of its meanness I confess is as unworthy of the latter as it stands in need of the former Hoping that though I have not drawn things so well to the life as they have deserved yet my endeavours that way may be accepted because in them I have chiefly aim'd to give a testimony to the world of the great Honour and Esteem I have for the memory of the Deceased and also to shew how much I am Right Honourable Your Ladiships most obedient most faithful and most humble Servant in Christ Jesus Thomas Morris A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the Right Honourable ROGER EARL of ORRERY REVELATIONS xiv 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me write blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them SUCH and so many are the troubles and afflictions which by divine appointment Christians are likely to meet with in this vale of tears that had they hopes of no other happiness than what in this world they partake of they would be of all men the most miserable Insomuch that even Death it self which Nature shrinks at and abhors would be desired by them though not as a door that opens to an happy state yet as a period to all their calamities and sorrows as well as their beings But there is no such bad news for sound and sincere Christians they are happy even in their very Afflictions which they are assured from Gods spirit will work for them an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 They are so far from being without the hopes of enjoying a more blissful state than here they are in that they only of all men in the world have the most sure and certain hope that way For Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God hath by his precious death and sufferings procured for those that are his sincere followers all things that may conduce to their felicity He being the Saviour of all men 1 Tim. 4.10 2 Tim. 1.10 especially of them that believe 'T is He that hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel Which they Rom. 2.7 who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Coloss 2.14 shall undoubtedly enjoy 'T is in a word he that hath blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances that condenm'd us And having taken away our Sins and nail'd them to his Cross hath thereby disarmed Death of his sharpest sting so that now of a King of Terrors he is become the sweet harbinger of bliss and peace to all that live and dye in Christ 'T is therefore an utter mistake to think that sound and sincere Christians though grievously afflicted here are in an hopeless condition on the contrary 't is Infidels and Hpyocrites are so they who will not have Christ reign in their hearts but rather a beastly lust they who do not and will not strive to conform their lives to Gods holy precepts these indeed as long as they continue in their hypocrisie unbelief and disobedience are of all men the most miserable for they can have no solid hopes of any other happiness but that low mean and pitiful one that in this world only is to be enjoyed and Death is so far from being a friend to them that the very thought thereof terrifies them and marrs all their pleasant enjoyments and when it does draw near to execute its fatal Office upon them it comes arm'd with its most dreadful sting and opens upon them a floodgate of Vengeance and Misery This is their portion But now on the contrary the truly godly have infinite reason to look upon Death as their reconciled friend through Jesus Christ it being through him now made but an happy manumission of their pious souls from the labours and drudgeries they underwent in the flesh and a sending of those Immortal Beings into those regions of rest and bliss where the enjoyment of Gods presence together with the sense of all those good things which through grace they have been enabled to do in the body will be an eternal solace and refreshment to them And the evidence we have for the certainty of this future bliss is so
an heavy sense of divine vengeance and fill us with such unspeakable horror shame tortures of mind and regret as will render our condition there infinitely sad and dismal Matt. 24.51 represented in Scripture under the direful expressions of Weeping and gnashing of Teeth Mar. 9.48 the stings of a never dying Worm and a burning in unquenchable fire 2. But I pass on to a second thing observable in the words of the Text where from the time when they that dye in the Lord are said to be blessed it may be observed that they who dye in Christ do immediately after their departure out of this life enter upon a blessed state 't is not said they that dye in the Lord shall be blessed but they are blessed or blessed are they and 't is not said they are blessed hereafter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but from henceforth from the time of their departure and so forward for ever And their works that is the joyful sense and reward of their good works do follow or rather accompany with them All which expressions methinks do shew that holy separate souls do immediately upon their separation from the body enter upon a blessed state Hence Christ tells the penitent Thief that that day he should be with him in Paradise Luk. 23.43 Because that day he was to dye in Christ and the Apostle makes no middle state betwixt the dissolving our Earthly House of this Tabernacle and an having a building of God 2 Cor. 5.1 an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens nor betwixt departing hence and being with Christ Phil. 1.23 But immediately upon the finishing of this course says that henceforth is laid up for him a crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.7 8. But what should hinder any that dye in Christ from being immediately blessed not the guilt of sin for that we are told is so done away upon our unfeigned Repentance that it shall not be so much as once mentioned Ezek. 33.16 Not the habits and customs of Sin for the same time that God forgives Joh. 1.9 he cleanses also from all unrighteousness Acts 15.9 and the grace of faith which God gives to all that are saved Hebr. 9.14 is said to purifie the heart and Christs blood is said 1 Joh. 1.7 to purge the Conscience from dead works and to cleanse us from all sin And therefore there needs no purging by an I know not what Purgatory fire But is it satisfaction for sin which the soul must yield by suffering certain pains after it is out of the body that hinders it from an immediate entrance upon a blissful state That cannot be for Jesus Christ hath in his own person made a sufficient and compleat satisfaction to Gods justice for our sins insomuch that he is in an eminent manner said to be 2 Joh. 2.2 The propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world He hath paid the full price of our Redemption by suffering the value of that in our stead which we should have suffered to all Eternity And upon this account we that are in Christ Rom. 3.24 are said to be justifyed freely through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ and if freely then there is no satisfaction to be yielded by our sufferings 1 Tim. 2.6 Heb. 9.12 For Christ hath given himself a ransom and obtained an Eternal Redemption for us by his own blood or sufferings So then if none of these things can hinder holy souls from an immediate entrance upon a blessed state after death then nothing else can But though from this very Text much more might be said of this matter yet lest I should turn a Funeral Sermon into a Polemical Discourse I shall crave leave to say no more of it here but shall now proceed to the last thing observable about the the nature of that bliss which they that dye in Christ shall immediately be partakers of And from hence we may observe Thirdly That the blessed state of those that dye in the Lord consists in their being freed from the labours and evils which in this life they underwent and in enjoying the good things which God hath promised and declared are and shall be the reward of all the good works they have done Now in the handling of this observation I shall give a brief account 1. Of the evils and labours Holy Souls rest â—â—â—n 2. Of the good they enjoy 1. As for the evils and labours which pious souls rest from after their death they are such as these following 1. They are freed from the burthen of sin and rest from all those fears and horrors which sin in this life is often the occasion of good men are grievously troubled here for offending God in any thing and under this grief and trouble they a long while labour till being by Death translated to that blessed condition wherein they are no longer in danger of sinning and then they happily rest from these sad labours 2. They are freed from the grief and trouble of seeing others sin which like righteous Lot they are grievously vexed with here 2 Pet. 2.7 8. Revel 21.27 For no sumer or wicked person can breath in those Regions to which the souls of those that dye in the Lord are by death immediately transplanted 3. They are freed from the labours and toils of their Callings and Employments in which all persons in this world are in some degree or other continually and necessarily engaged 4. They are freed from all bodily infirmities pains and distempers under which many persons groan a long time in this world without relief these no longer trouble the pious soul in its separate state because it 's then freed from the Body by its strict union with which it only became capable of being so affected 5. They are freed from all those crosses and afflictions that cruelly perplex the mind here because after death they are out of that imperfect condition where such things only are afflicting 6. They are freed from all Satans temptations and from all his cruel injections with which pious souls are much disquieted in this life For there is a great Gulph fixed betwixt Satan and the Spirits of just men made perfect Luke 16.26 which keeps that infernal Spirit from being able to molest any in those blissful habitations where holy separate souls are 7. Lastly They are freed from all fears despondencies and doubts about the love and favour of God which create great labours and troubles of mind in this imperfect state 1 John 3.2 for they shall see God as he is and consequently be perfectly sensible of his love and favour And thus all those tears of grief which in the body pious souls laboured under Rev 7.17 shall be wiped away from them in their separate state And so I pass on from the labours and evils pious souls rest from at death
which is but the negative part of their bliss to consider the positive part of it viz. the good they enjoy and here we shall find that 1. They enjoy a ravishing sense of Divine love and favour an enjoyment saith the Psalmist Psal 63.3 better than life 1. They enjoy a sweet calm and peace in their own breasts which is indeed but a necessary result from the former enjoyment for he that is in God's love and favour and is at peace with him cannot but have a sweet peace and calm in his own mind 3. They are filled with a joyful sense of the good works which through Grace they have been enabled to do for they will reflect with infinite satisfaction upon the vertuous and pious actions of their lives the sense of which even in this world fills the soul with some glimpses of ravishing joy and therefore will be likely much more to do so in the next where they see and know things more clearly than here they can 4. They enjoy also that peculiar reward which God hath promised to all that love and fear him and keep his Commandments which is shadowed forth to us in Scripture under divers parabolical expressions John 14.2 call'd mansions in our heavenly fathers house Jam. 1.12 a crown of life which the Lord hath promised to those that love him Heb. 11.26 Matth. 25.21 the recompence of the reward the joy of our Lord and to mention no more 't is called by the Apostle the Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 which upon the finishing of his course he was sure was laid up for him and not for him only but for all them also that love Christ's appearing These are in brief the good things which are immediately enjoyed by those that dye in the Lord besides that exceeding eternal weight of glory which when soul and body are united at the general resurrection of the dead they will be partakers of For though they who dye in the Lord immediately enter upon a blessed condition as soon as their souls are separated from their bodies yet they are not then compleatly happy only they enjoy so much bliss as in a separate state they are capable of which though imperfect will be infinitely satisfactory But the perfect consummation of all bliss both in soul and body will be entered upon at the resurrection only and so be enjoyed thenceforward for ever 1 Pet. 5.4 For when the chief Shepherd shall appear viz. to judge the world then shall we receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away that is an eternal perfection of all bliss in both natures Thus then blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their works do follow them And now having done with the Subject matter of the Text I have hereby made way for what I have further to say on the Subject of this sad occasion Where because what hath been said concerning that future blessedness which they immediately enter upon that dye in the Lord affords matter enough of comfort to alleviate our griefs for the decease of any of our Friends that so dye I shall therefore take an occasion to consider and represent that only in this noble Lord deceased which may as well provoke us to follow his steps as tend to the comforting of us and moderating our sorrows under so great a loss A loss of such a nature and so considerable to all sorts of persons as well publick as private that if we will but look a little into it we shall quickly see how great a need his Relations his Neighbours yea and the three Kingdomes have of something to keep their sorrow upon this account within due bounds for the admirable endowments of mind with which this Excellent Person was above his Fellows blest and by which he became every way publickly useful and the care and excellent courses he took to employ his honours places of trust interest and endowments for the honour of God and the good of his Majesty and these Kingdomes were things he was so eminent for that they all seem to conspire together to make his death a much lamented loss to all his Survivers So publick a spirited man was he that all those abilities and opportunities of doing good which God and the King vouchsafed him were always carefully employed by him for the publick weal of Church and State in doing which every one knows he was so faithful and industrious that as his sacred Majesty was far enough from repenting of the trust and honour he had bestowed on him so we may have reason to believe the great Majesty of Heaven and Earth to whom all the world must bow and obey did not repent of the gifts and abilities his Divine Goodness had conferred on him For that infirmity of Body which he so long laboured under though it deprived him at last of the free use of most of his limbs yet it did not take away from him the use of his head and hands by which he had been and was to the death eminently serviceable in the world Neither did the Divine Providence let him fall into any of those crimes that might justly have occasioned his rejection nor did it permit his reputation so much to suffer under the black mouth'd Obloquy of malicious tongues as to occasion his removal from all capacities and opportunities of doing good But through the good hand and Providence of God he was to the last kept firm in the sincere profession and practice of all Christian Duties and loyal Principles and consequently was preserved in an unfeigned repute in the World and that notwithstanding the attempts were made by his enemies to fully his innocence with those black crimes which nothing but his own integrity and Parts could wipe off before the severest and highest Tribunal of the three Kingdoms the Parliament of England These things may make us think God did not repent of the gifts and abilities he was pleased to bestow on him only now our sins and the sins of these Kingdoms may possibly have done us the prejudice to provoke the Divine Majesty to remove him from us as not deserving any longer so useful a Person among us and that too at the very nick of time when there is most need of such men who by their prayers and counsels and by their interest with God and men may be fit to stand in the Gap as he did So that now indeed we may see what reason we have with the most brinish tears to lament our loss in his decease and our sins as the main cause of it And now also we may apprehend the necessity of having something to set bounds to and alleviate our just sorrows And here as there was enough in him to provoke us to a just grief for the loss of so excellent and useful a Person so we shall find enough in him also that being considered with a respect to what is contained