diseases and incline us to many lusts and passions and the more we pamper them the greater burden they are unto our minds they impose upon our reasons and by their steams and vapours cast a mist before our understandings they clog our affections and like a heavie weight depress us unto this earth and keep us from soaring aloft among the winged Inhabitants of the upper-Regions But those robes of light and glory which we shall be cloath'd withall at the Resurrection of the Just and those Heavenly Bodies which the Gospel hath then assur'd unto us they are not subject to any of these mischiefs and inconveniences but are fit and accommodate instruments for the soul in its highest exaltations And this is an argument that the Gospel does dwell much upon viz. the Redemption of our bodies that He shall change our vile bodies that they may be like unto His glorious body and we are taught to look upon it as one great price of our Reward that we shall be cloath'd upon with our house which is from heaven that this corruptible shall put on incorruption and this mortal immortality that as we have born the image of the earthly so we must bear the image of the heavenly Adam who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of heaven heavenly as the first man was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the earth earthy And therefore I think the Schools put too mean a Rate upon this great Promise of the Gospel The Resurrection of our bodies and I believe it might be demonstrated from the principles of sound Philosophy That this Article of our Christian Faith which the Atheist makes so much sport withall is so far from being chargeable with any absurdity that it is founded upon the highest Reason for seeing we find by too great an experience that the Soul has so close and necessary a dependence upon this gross and earthly Mass that we now carry about with us it may be disputed with some probability whether it be ever able to act independently of all matter whatsoever at least we are assur'd that the state of conjunction is most connatural to her and that Intellectual pleasure it self is not onely multiplied but the better felt by its redundancy upon the body and spirits and if it be so then the purer and more defecate the Body is the better will the Soul be appointed for the exercise of its noblest operations and it will be no mean piece of our reward hereafter that that which is sown 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an animal shall be raised a heavenly body We are sure that we shall then be free from fin and all those foolish lusts and passions that we are now enslaved unto The life of a Christian it is a continual Warfare and he endures many sore conflicts and makes many sad complaints and often bemoans himself after such a manner as this Wo is me that I am forc'd to dwell in Mesech and to have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar that there should be so many Goliah's within me that defie the host of Israel so many sons of Anak that hinder my entrance into the Land of Promise and the Rest of God that I should toil and labour among the bricks and live in bondage unto these worse than Egyptian Task-Masters Thus does he sit down by the Rivers of Babylon and weep over those ruines and desolations that these worse than Assyrian Armies have made in the City and House of his God And many a time does he cry out in the bitterness of his soul Wretched creature that I am Who shall deliver me from this body of death And though through his faith and courage and constancy he be daily getting ground of his spiritual enemies yet it is but by inches and every step he takes he must fight for it and living as he does in an Enemies countrey he is forc'd alwayes to be upon his Guard and if he slumber never so little presently he is surpriz'd by a watchful Adversary This is our portion here and our lot is this but when we arrive unto those Regions of bliss and glory that are above we shall then stand safely upon the shore and see all our enemies Pharaoh and all his host drown'd and destroyed in the Red Sea and being delivered from the World and the Flesh and the Devil Death and Sin and Hell we shall sing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb an Epinicion and Song of eternal triumph unto the God of our Salvation We shall be sure to meet with the best company that Earth or Heaven affords Good company it is the great pleasure of the life of man And we shall then come to the innumerable company of Angels and the general Assembly of the Church of the First-born and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant The Oracle tells Amelius enquiring what was become of Polinus's soul that he was gone to Pythagoras and Socrates and Plato and as many as had born a part in the Quire of heavenly love And I may say to every good man that he shall go to the Company of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses David and Samuel all the Prophets and Apostles and all the holy men of God that have been in all the ages of the World All those brave and excellent persons that have been scattered at the greatest distance of time and place and in their several generations have been the salt of the earth to preserve mankind from utter degeneracy and corruption These shall be all gathered together and meet in one Constellation in that Firmament of Glory O Praeclarum diem cùm ad illud divinorum animorum concilium coetumque proficiscar atque ex hac turba ac colluvione discedam O that blessed day when we shall make our escape from this medly and confused riot and shall arrive to that great Council and general Randevouz of divine and godlike Spirits But which is more than all we shall then meet our Lord Jesus Christ the Head of our Recovery whose story is now so delightful unto us as reporting nothing of him but the greatest sweetness and innocence and meekness and patience and mercy and tenderness and benignity and goodness and what ever can render any person lovely or amiable and who out of his dear love and deep compassion unto mankind gave up himself unto the death for us men and for our salvation And if St. Augustine made it one of his wishes to have seen Jesus Christ in the flesh how much more desirable is it to see him out of his terrestrial weeds in his robes of Glory with all his redeemed Ones about him And this I cannot but look upon as a great advantage and priviledge of that future State for I am not apt to swallow down that Conceit of the Schools that we shall spend Eternity in gazing upon the naked Deity for certainly the happiness of man consists in having all
his Wit and Judgment so considerable was the largeness and freedom of his Spirit for truth is plain and easie to a mind dis-intangled from Superstition and Prejudice He was one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sort of brave Philosophers that Laërtius speaks of that did not addict themselves to any particular Sect but ingenuously sought for Truth among all the wrangling Schools and they found her miserably torn and rent to pieces and parcell'd into Raggs by the several contending Parties and so disfigur'd and mishapen that it was hard to know her but they made a shift to gather up her scatter'd Limbs which as soon as they came together by a strange sympathy and connaturalness presently united into a lovely and beautiful body This was the Spirit of this Great Man he weighed Mens Reasons and not their Names and was not scar'd with the ugly Vizars men usually put upon Persons they hate and Opinions they dislike nor affrighted with the Anathema's and Execrations of an infallible Chair which he look'd upon only as Bug-bears to terrifie weak and childish minds He consider'd that it is not likely any one Party should wholly engross Truth to themselves that Obedience is the only way to true Knowledge which is an Argument that he has manag'd rarely well in that excellent Sermon of his which he calls Via Intelligentiae that God always and only teaches docible and ingenuous minds that are willing to hear and ready to obey according to their Light that it is impossible a pure humble resigned God-like Soul should be kept out of Heaven whatever mistakes it might be subject to in this state of Mortality that the design of Heaven is not to fill mens heads and feed their Curiosities but to better their Hearts and mend their Lives Such Considerations as these made him impartial in his Disquisitions and give a due allowance to the Reasons of his Adversary and contend for Truth and not for Victory And now you will easily believe that an ordinary Diligence would be able to make great Improvements upon such a Stock of Parts and Endowments but to these advantages of Nature and excellency of his Spirit he added an indefatigable Industry and God gave a plentiful Benediction for there were very few Kinds of Learning but he was a Mystes and great Master in them He was a rare Humanist and hugely vers'd in all the polite parts of Learning and had throughly concocted all the ancient Moralists Greek and Roman Poets and Orators and was not unacquainted with the refined VVits of the later Ages whether French or Italian But he had not only the Accomplishments of a Gentleman but so universal were his Parts that they were proportion'd to every thing and though his Spirit and Humour were made up of Smoothness and Gentleness yet he could bear with the Harshness and Roughness of the Schools and was not unseen in their Subtilties and Spinosities and upon occasion could make them serve his purpose and yet I believe he thought many of them very near akin to the famous Knight of the Mancha and would make sport sometimes with the Romantick Sophistry and phantastick Adventures of School-Errantry His Skill was great both in the Civil and Canon Law and Casuistical Divinity and he was a rare Conductor of Souls and knew how to Counsel and to Advise to solve Difficulties and determine Cases and quiet Consciences And he was no Novice in Mr. I. S. new Science of Controversie but could manage an Argument and make Reparties with a strange dexterity He understood what the several Parties in Christendom have to say for themselves and could plead their Cause to better advantage than any Advocate of their Tribe and when he had done he could confute them too and shew that better Arguments than ever they could produce for themselves would afford no sufficient ground for their fond Opinions It would be too great a Task to pursue his Accomplishments through the various Kinds of Literature I shall content my self to add only his great Acquaintance with the Fathers and Ecclesiastical Writers and the Doctors of the first and purest Ages both of the Greek and Latine Church which he has made use of against the Romanists to vindicate the Church of England from the Challenge of Innovation and prove her to be truly Ancient Catholick and Apostolical But Religion and Vertue is the Crown of all other Accomplishments and it was the Glory of this great Man to be thought a Christian and whatever you added to it he look'd upon as a term of diminution and yet he was a Zealous Son of the Church of England but that was because he judg'd her and with great reason a Church the most purely Christian of any in the World In his younger years he met with some assaults from Popery and the high pretensions of their Religious Orders were very accommodate to his Devotional Temper but he was alwayes so much Master of himself that he would never be governed by any thing but Reasons and the evidence of Truth which engag'd him in the study of those Controversies and to how good purpose the World is by this time a sufficient Witness But the longer and the more he consider'd the worse he lik'd the Roman Cause and became at last to censure them with some severity but I confess I have so great an opinion of his Judgment and the charitableness of his Spirit that I am afraid he did not think worse of them than they deserve But Religion is not a matter of Theory and Orthodox Notions and it is not enough to believe aright but we must practise accordingly and to master our passions and to make a right use of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and power that God has given us over our own actions is a greater glory than all other Accomplishments that can adorn the mind of Man and therefore I shall close my Character of this Great Personage with a touch upon some of those Vertues for which his Memory will be pretious to all Posterity He was a Person of great Humility and notwithstanding his stupendious Parts and Learning and Eminency of Place he had nothing in him of Pride and Humour but was Courteous and Affable and of easie Access and would lend a ready Ear to the complaints yea to the impertinencies of the meanest persons His Humility was coupled with an Extraordinary Piety and I believe he spent the greatest part of his time in Heaven his solemn hours of Prayer took up a considerable portion of his Life and we are not to doubt but he had learn'd of St. Paul to pray continually and that occasional Ejaculations and frequent Aspirations and Emigrations of his Soul after God made up the best part of his Devotions But he was not onely a Good Man God-ward but he was come to the top of St. Peter's gradation and to all his other Vertues added a large and diffusive Charity And whoever compares his plentiful Incomes with the
inconsiderable Estate he left at his Death will be easily convinc'd that Charity was Steward for a great proportion of his Revenue But the Hungry that he fed and the Naked that he cloath'd and the Distress'd that he supply'd and the Fatherless that he provided for the poor Children that he put to Apprentice and brought up at School and maintain'd at the University will now sound a Trumpet to that Charity which he dispersed with his right hand but would not suffer his left hand to have any knowledge of it To summ up all in a few words This Great Prelate he had the good Humour of a Gentleman the Eloquence of an Orator the Fancy of a Poet the Acuteness of a SchoolMan the Profoundness of a Philosopher the Wisdom of a Counsellor the Sagacity of a Prophet the Reason of an Angel and the Piety of a Saint He had Devotion enough for a Cloyster Learning enough for an University and Wit enough for a Colledge of Virtuosi 〈…〉 and had his Parts and Endowments been parcell'd out among his poor Clergy that he left behind him it would perhaps have made one of the best Diocese in the World But alas Our Father our Father the Horses of our Israel and the Chariot thereof he is gone and has carried his Mantle and his Spirit along with him up to Heaven and the Sons of the Prophets have lost all their beauty and lustre which they enjoy'd only from the reflexion of his Excellencies which were bright and radiant enough to cast a glory upon a whole Order of Men. But the Sun of this our world after many attempts to break through the Crust of an earthly Body is at last swallow'd up in the great Vortex of Eternity and there all his Maculae are scatter'd and dissolv'd and he is fixt in an Orb of Glory and shines among his Brethren-stars that in their several Ages gave light to the World and turn'd many Souls unto Righteousness and we that are left behind though we can never reach his perfections must study to imitate his Vertues that we may at last come to sit at his feet in the Mansions of Glory which God grant for his infinite mercies in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father through the Eternal Spirit be ascribed all Honour and Glory Worship and Thanks-giving Love and Obedienee now and for evermore Amen FINIS Books and Ser 〈…〉 written by Jer. Ta late Lord Bishop of Down and Conor ENIAUTOS A Course of Sermons for all the Sundays of the year together with a discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial in folio 2. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ the 3d. Edit in fol. 3. The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living in 8. 4. The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying in 8. 5. The Golden Grove or 〈◊〉 of daily Prayers fitted 〈◊〉 days of the Week together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness in 12. 6. A Collection of Polemical and Moral discourses in 〈◊〉 newly reprinted 7. A Discourse of the Nature Offices and Measure of Friendship in 12. new 8. A Collection of Offices or forms of Prayer fitted to the needs of all Christians taken out of the Scriptures and Ancient Liturgies of several Churches especially the Greek together with the Psalter or Psalms of David after the Kings Translation in a large 8. newly published 7. Ductor Dubitantium or the Rule of Conscience fol. in two Volumes 10. The Doctrine and Practice of Repentance describing the necessities of a Strict a Holy and a Christian Life Serving as a necessary Supplement unto the Rule of Conscience 11 ` 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Supplement to the ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or course of Sermons for the whole 〈◊〉 All that have been 〈◊〉 published since the 〈◊〉 to which is adjoyned his Advice to the Clergy of his Diocese 12. The Worthy Commu 〈…〉 cant or a Discourse of the Nature Effects and Blessings consequent to the worthy receiving of the Lord's Supper Printed for J. Martin 13. A Discourse of Confirmation in 8o. new 14. A Dissuasive from Popery in 8o. new First Part 15. The Second Part of the Dissuasive from Popery in vindication of the First in 4o. new A Funeral Sermon preached at the Obsequies of the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Down All sold by R. Royston