without this the Hopes in Death which the Text mentions will avail nothing For many men are full of Hope who have no just Cause for it and on the contrary others are afraid to Dye who may justly meet Death with comfort The melancholly of some and the Sanguine Complexion of others fill them with hopes and fears which are not owing to the Reason of things but only to their natural Tempers So that to shew any man a dying Saint that has Cause to rejoice in Death it is not enough that he have Peace of mind but also that he have just ground for it too And thus having shewn who this righteous man is to whom this Priviledge belongs I proceed now 2. To shew what are his Hopes that make Death a desirable thing to him which to others is the King of Terrors Now this Hope is of the favour and friendship of Almighty God and of all those Blessings which may be expected from it What those Blessings are was not so well known in old times when God led men on by more dark and indefinite expectations of the Future Happiness But when Christ came he brought Life and immortality to Light and has told us plainly that at their Deaths all Righteous men shall be translated to the unspeakable and eternal Joys of Heaven And these are so great that no heart can wish for more For the blessings of that Place are so large as to fill all our Capacities so pure as not to have the least mixture of Sorrows so constant as to admit of no abatements or intermissions We shall always desire and always be satisfied and when we have injoy'd the most we shall never be cloy'd nor wearied with it We shall live in Gods Presence and share in his Likeness and shine in his Glory and have Fellowship with the Saviour of the World and all the spotless Angels and all the Glorified Saints and Godlike Persons whose Society alone is enough to turn any Place into a Paradise And all these we shall enjoy without all fear of Misfortune either theirs or our own without all danger of displeasing them or fear of losing them without seeing any thing either to pity or blame in them or any damps of Friendship and intermission of Affection In sum we shall never see any ill nor suffer it nor ever want any good thing or when we have it fear to be deprived of it But we shall be infinitely happy and ever think our selves so and continue in that State for evermore This is that Eternal Life which God promises and whereto Death now conveys all Righteous Persons And since it is the way to our injoyment of all this Bliss it is no longer a Spoyler of our Joys but a Step to them and a thing to be desired by all Godly Souls It is indeed like churlish Physick very ungrateful in it self tho' it may be most desireable in the effect It brings a Dissolution of Nature which strikes Horror and that into the best men who would desire not to Dye if they could come at the happiness of the other Life without dying And this St. Paul testifies of himself confessing that as for the way of receiving the Heavenly house i. e. the glorified Body he had rather be found alive and have it superinduced by a translation than be stripp'd of this Body first by Death and afterwards be cloath'd again My wish says he is not to be uncloath'd i. e. to put off this Body first but to be cloathed upon by having the other superinduced that mortality may not so truly be put off as swallowed up of Life 2 Cor. 5. 1. 4. But it is most incomparably advantageous in the Event Tho' the way be hard and rugged yet 't is short and the Prize at the end is wonderfully Rich and Pleasant So that every considerate man who looks beyond Death hath the greatest Reason to desire it To them as St. Paul says it has quite lost its Sting and is become the truest Gain Phil. 1. 21. All sense of what it takes away is drown'd in the boundless apprehension of what it gives and Death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 15. 54. It confers on them all their hearts can desire and therefore if they rightly consider it ought not to be a matter of their Fear It takes them from a Dunghill to a Throne and invests them in all the Glory and Riches of an everlasting Kingdom I come now 3. To apply this to allay our Grief and Sorrow on the Death of Friends I do not seek to suppress all Grief for a dying Friend for that is an impossible Task Friendship is a close thing and lies near to our Hearts so near indeed that a Friend is said and that very justly to be a Second self And therefore to be insensible when a dear Friend is torn from us is as impossible as to have no sense when a Finger is rent off from our Hand or our Heart is plucked out of our Bodies Some Course Nature will have in spite of all Arguments and no man can restrain it Yea and what is more it is not fit he should do it if he could For some sorrowful concern is necessary to shew we are sensible of our Loss and to evidence our Affection for the Person that is gone As the Jews when Jesus wept for Lazarus cryed out Behold how he loved him Jo. 11. 35. 36. The unconcernedness of the Living seems a reflection upon the Dead and argues they were not beloved while they lived but that the World was weary of their Company and even their pretended Friends very willing if not glad to be quit of them And therefore it is reckon'd as a Part of Gods Judgment upon the Jews that when they died there should be no wailing for them Ezek. 7. 11. But with this Grief for our own Loss in the departure of our Friends we must at the same time shew our selves sensible who it is that has taken them and that too for their own Gain and that he still continues to us a thousand Blessings when he only calls back one And therefore with Sorrow for them we must be sure to joyn Submission to God to resign up our Wills to his and be not only outwardly silent but inwardly renconciled to what he has done and to be heartiful thankful both for all the Kindnessess he shew'd our departed Friends and for that vast Number of others he still continues to our selves These things will not be perform'd as they ought when Grief grows strong Whilst it keeps within due bounds such as suit with the Apprehensions and Hope of Christians it is what Natural Affection will force from us and what Religion allows But when it becomes ungovernable and boisterous in Degrees or obstinate in Continuance it is in it self an ill thing an irresistible Temptation So that when we do grieve we must be careful to keep back from all excess and to do it with
A Funeral Sermon FOR THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lady Frances Digby Who Deceased At Coles-Hall in Warwickshire on the 29th of September 1684. BY JOHN KETTLEWELL Vicar of Coles-Hill in Warwickshire LONDON Printed for Robert Kettlewell at the Hand and Scepter over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet MDCLXXXIV TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Simon Lord Digby BARON DIGBY Of GEASHILL My Lord IN compliance with Your Lordships Desire I here present You with this faint Portraicture of your Dear and Excellent Lady Those rare Virtues that endow'd her Noble Soul had mightily endear'd her Person and will always embalm her Memory among those that knew her But as they rendred her a Blessing to this so they prepared her for the Converse of Angels and Blessed Spirits in a better Place And to compleat all his other Mercies God has Crown'd all his Graces in her which were ripe for Glory by taking her to be Happy with himself Had he lent us the Blessing for a longer Time her Life would have been most truly instructing and had the daily use and benefit of a Sermon But since it has pleased him to take away the Original 't is pity the World should want the Copy too and lose the Benefit of her Example Your Lordship has already reaped much Profit and is still in hope to receive more by reflecting on it Your self And You trust it may bring a like Advantage and serve to kindle and cherish like Inclinations in the Hearts of many others also I am sure it is very fit for General use and will do good to all that hear of it if they are not wanting to themselves For she was a very lively Draught of many excellent Virtues and they must either be perfectly Good as none are in this World or extremely bad Souls who cannot improve by being set in the Light of such Patterns One main Hindrance of this good Effect my Lord is the suspicion of Flattery and Insincerity in these Discourses as if in them Men were not careful of strict Truth and sought not so much what may be truly said as what may set off their Subject I cannot promise this Relation any Security from such Censures since the truest and most faithful Accounts in this kind cannot always avoid them But I have this Testimony in my self That in the Description I have given of this excellent Person I have spoken nothing to deserve them I have represented her as most exemplary and imitable in Modesty and Sincerity and I am sure I have had a great Concern upon me not to lose either in Discoursing of her I know there is not only Sincerity but Care too required in every one who will take upon him to be a Reporter And this I have held my Eye upon in all the Parts of her Character I freely confess to Your Lordship my Aim has been to speak too little for fear of saying too much and that I have designedly used wariness in several Expressions lest venturing to the utmost Bounds of Truth I might happen to step beyond them And whatever Judgment they may pass who knew little of her I have this to satisfie my self and the World too that they who knew her best and especially Your Lordship will say this is not only a True but a Modest Character I heartily wish my Lord this Draught of Your Dear Lady were fitter than it is to serve Your Lordships Ends of rendring her Example useful to the World and doing Honour to her Memory I hope thro' the Grace of God and Your Piety and discreet Care that the Representation of her Virtues will not renew Your Grief which shews her to be set above it For it would trouble me to think I have sent a Companion into Your Retirements to minister to Sadness and dejected Thoughts and render this Service which is perform'd with willingness uneasie in the Remembrance of it to My Good Lord Your Lordships most Affectionate Humble Servant John Kettlewell From your Lordships house near Coleshill Oct. 23. 1684. A FUNERAL SERMON For the Right Honourable The Lady FRANCES DIGBY Preached Oct. 5. 1684. at Coles-Hill in Warwickshire On Prov. XIV 32. But the Righteous hath Hope in his Death THese words describe the different State of Good and bad men and shew how happy the one and how wretched the other are when some great Affliction especially when Death seizes them In the Time of Health and Prosperity the Wicked often seem the happiest Persons they injoy so much of the Bounty of Providence as if God were pleased with them which puffs them up with a conceit of their own Happiness and makes others envy them But when any great Distress especially when Death comes that always makes the Discrimination Transgressors then are in a most deplorable State and most destitute of Comforts when they most need them But the Righteous have a good Support and begin those Joys which will never end or be diminished The faster they are flying from the World the nearer they approach to Almighty God When their Condition seems at the worst 't is really almost at the best for then they are upheld by a chearful Hope and are presently to be instated in the joyful Possession of an everlasting Kingdom The Wicked is driven away in his Wickedness i. e. When great Distress especially when Death comes he can promise nothing to himself but is driven from all his Hopes by the Conscience of his own Wickedness which bids him still expect more and greater Miseries But the Righteous knows he shall be a Gainer by it and has hope in his Death This difference is not always true in Point of Fact as if good Men alwaies left the World with a quiet Mind and comfortable Hope and ill men in Horror and Astonishment Thus indeed it often is For the Righteous ordinarily die in Peace and that is enough to verifie the Text which is a Proverbial Speech For Proverbs do not express a Rule that never alters but that doth not alter ordinarily in the usual Observation and Course of things And the Wicked oftentimes are full of Fears especially when they have been guilty of Gross and Crying Sins which are more apt to strike Terror upon the Conscience But tho' in the Case of good men this do generally fall out and in the Case of bad men very frequently yet in neither of them is it constant For some Righteous Souls are misled in judging of themselves by Scrupulous Principles or are full of melancholly which is a timorous Passion and betrays them to unrreasonable Fears And they it may be dye with troubled and terrified Consciences And many of the Wicked are possessed with a presumptuous belief of Gods Goodness or are full of Pride and Self-Flattery and by mincing and hiding their own Faults and unreasonably magnifying every little Performance and Attainment think too well of themselves And they dye swoln big with hopes and vain Confidences So that in Fact tho' it be ordinarily
yet sometimes it is not true that good men have Hope in their Death and ill men want it But tho' it be not always true in Point of Fact yet it always is in the Ground and Reason of it A wicked Liver has always Cause to be dismay'd tho' he will not believe it till he feels it And a Righteous man has always Cause of hope in Death if he has but the understanding to discern it And whether he see it or no he shall be sure to find the Benefit and be a Gainer by it And in this Sense the Words admit of no exception that when the Wicked wants the Righteous has hope in his Death i. e. he has most just Reason so to do In discoursing upon these Words I shall shew 1. Who the Righteous man is to whom this Priviledge belongs 2. What are his hopes that make Death a desirable thing to him which to others is the King of Terrors 3. Apply this to allay our Grief and Sorrow on the Death of Friends 1. I shall shew who the Righteous man is to whom this Priviledge belongs And that is every man who has lead a good Life and has not allow'd himself in any known Sins but had a regard to all Gods Commandments He is one that has led a Godly Life This is the true Test to descry who are Righteous which we are to judge of not from some Religious heats or transient Convictions or good wishes but from the Tenor of a Pious Practice He that doth good saith St. John is of God 3 Joh. 11. and again let no man deceive you in this Point for he that doth Righteousness is Righteous even as he is Righteous 1 Jo. 3. 7. And it is the only sure Ground of Hope for dying Persons He must have lived Holily who would dye happily for it is nothing else but an holy Life that can make happy That is the only sure Preparation for Death since it is the main thing to be inquired of after Death for then men shall all be judged according to their Works Rev. 20. 13. In one Case 't is true good Purposes will make happy tho' a man has never practised them And that is in the Case of such dying Penitents as God sees have both Sincerity and Strength enough of Godly purpopose and by means thereof would certainly Practise well if they had but Time But as for these they are so very few that they seem not to be of any great account in the Description of the Righteous Conversion in the ordinary course goes on by steps Gods Grace is infused and our wicked Lusts are mortified by degrees and without an unwonted and extraordinary Grace which no man must expect and least of all they who have slighted all Gods Gracious offers to the very last it is not to be begun and finished in the last Moments The Righteous ordinarily are only such as have done Righteousness in their Lives and among all the numerous Attempters 't is hard to find those who can succeed and become Righteous by forming good Resolutions upon their Death-beds And as for those who do then become such it is more than they can know themselves For no man that is only beginning to resolve well can know the strength and efficacy of his own Resolutions till he comes to try and Practise them And till he knows that tho' he may have the Safety yet he can not have the Comfort and the hopes of a Righteous man Bare purposes rarely give Safety but never Comfort to a dying Person so that the Hopes of the Righteous must not rest on them alone but have something else viz. a well led Life to bottom on And this Life must have been uniform in all Duties when a man has not allow'd himself in any known Sins but has had a Regard to all Gods Commandments Some parcel out the Law of God and think to be Righteous for performing some particular things This some of the Jewish Doctors made very easie declaring that a man might be Righteous by observing any one Commandment which he pleased For these are some of their Rules Qui dat operam Praecepto liber est a Praecepto He that exercises himself in any one Precept for that time is freed from minding any other And again whosoever shall perform any one of the 613. Precepts of the Law for so many they are according to their reckoning without any worldly respect for Love of the Precept shall inherit thereby Everlasting Life But when they would be more secure and act more commendably they would not content themselves with any of the Precepts indifferently but make a choice according to the estimation which they thought God himself had of them For they fancied that he did not rate all his Laws equally but esteem'd some more than others As the Lawyer plainly shew'd when he desired to be satisfied which was the great Commandment of the Law Mat. 22. 36. and the young man when he ask'd what good thing he should do to have Eternal Life i. e. of all the good things whereto Life is promised whether was the Sabbath or Sacrifices or which other Precept best what was that good thing which would most secure it Mat. 19. 16. And fancying there were some such darling Precepts they thought he was most sure to be acceptably Righteous who had the good luck to hit upon that Command which God most accounted of And the like Opinions tho' God be thanked not authorized by the common sayings of our Doctors are most unhappily got into the Hopes and Practice of too many among our selves nay alas of the generality of Christians For they too often think to pass for Righteous men only on the score of some particular Observances as being constant in Prayers or Liberal in Alms or zealous in Gods Cause especially if that be in some notable instance and perform'd with great hazards without having an Eye all this while to their whole Duty and whilst at the same time they allow themselves in some known Sins But whilst after this rate they mangle the Law of God and parcel out their Duty their thoughts of Righteousness are but a Dream and all their hopes a vain Presumption No Duties will save us when they are singled out from the rest and stand alone but only when they are all in Conjunction St. Paul instances in two viz. Giving all he has to feed the Poor and giving his Body to be burnt in Martyrdom which will easily be allow'd to have preference before all others But yet says he if these go by themselves and have not Charity which as he describes it v. 4. 5. c. besides Alms contains in it many other instances it profits me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 3. The Righteous man then is one who has an eye to all Gods Laws and whensoever he transgresses any doth not allow himself in that breach but rises again by Repentance This is Righteousness in any Person And