MEMENTO MORI A SERMON Preached at St. Dunstans in the West AT THE FUNERAL OF Mrs. ANNE SEILE The 18th of Iuly 1678. BY GILBERT BURNET LONDON Printed by Mary Clark 1678. A SERMON On Ephes. v. 15 16. See then that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise Redeeming the time because the days are evil THis Text seems very proper on this occasion since what is here recommended agrees very near to the Character which I have had given me of the Person to whom we are now paying the last duties but having been a stranger to her my self and she being much better known to you all among whom she led her life I shall say no more of her But apply my self to the Text. This is an Exhortation following very naturally upon the preceding Discourse in which St. Paul had been comparing the state of Christians under the Gospel to Light opposing it to the darkness of the former superstition under Heathenism Which was made up of many mysterious Riddles and unaccountable Rites and Performances the chief design whereof was rather to darken than enlighten its blind Votaries But the Gospel being a plain and clear direction how to attain eternal life in the practice of the most excellent Rules that ever were delivered is therefore fitly as well as frequently in the New Testament compared to Light in which there are no dark secrets which must be known only to a few Priests But all is laid open and made plain to every discreet and diligent Reader And though it contains several things which are dark and mysterious as in the clearest light places at a great distance seem black yet the darkness is not in the manner of Revelation which is explicite and plain but rises from the remoteness of the object which being at such distance from us and so far above us cannot be made so visible to us as those things that are before us and lie in our way About which not only the Precepts are plain and express but the reason of them is so apparent that like publick high ways the Rule is so plain that without some art a man cannot be mistaken so that if the History of past Ages and the sad prospect of the present did not give us an unanswerable objection to the contrary one that considers the thing in it self would hardly think it possible that a man could be mistaken about it This being then laid down The Exhortation in the Text I have read does naturally follow He that walks in the dark though he stumble often it is forgiven him and if he makes but any tolerable progress in his way it is wondered at But if we should see a man stumbling who walks in full day light and if he made no considerable progress we must needs conclude him under some distemper of body or mind So how justly soever we admire the vertues of the Heathens whose Religion tended rather to corrupt than purifie them yet it will be an eternal reproach on us if we who are enlightned by so heavenly a Doctrine do not far outstrip them both in the exactness of our deportment and our constant progress in vertue I shall without any accurate Division follow the thread of my Text and offer from it such Considerations as may be most profitable and suitable to the present oâ—casion and shall consider First What is imported in this walking circumspectly or exactly and accurately Secondly The Character given of such a walk That it is the consequence of true wisdom and that the contrary is the greatest folly in the world Not as fools but as wise Thirdly That we ought to be making a daily progress in vertue Either making up what we have lost by our former idleness and folly or cutting off those superfluities of naughtiness which consume so much of our time Redeeming the time And Lastly The reason given for all this Because the days are evil To walk circumspectly according to the true notion of the word is to live with all possible strictness and accurateness Not affecting a Pharisaical Sowrness nor a nicity about some lesser matters This exactness consists not in a coarse habit sullen looks an affectation of odd gestures or a peevish scrupulosity about little things These are the arts of hypocrisie which though a discerning mind see through and despise them yet have in all Ages wrought much on the feeble and easily deceived multitudes It is true a man cannot be religious in good earnest but let him use what secresie and care soever he can to conceal it it will shine in his deportment and even in the external parts of it there will appear so much of a composed gravity tempered with a just mixture of sweetness and good nature that he will shine as a light in the world Yet there is such a variety of mens humours and dispositions some being naturally melancholy others more gay and jovial that we ought never on the one hand to be taken too much with an outward appearance how fair soever nor be on the other hand too apt to censure people for such things in their external behaviour which do perhaps rise from their natural tempers and dispositions But to walk circumspectly is a thing of far greater Importance It is in a word to govern our hearts and inward affections and our lives and outward actions by the rule of the Gospel It is not only to be so far good as to live without scandal in the world nor to quiet the clamours of Conscience which may rise upon us after some more notorious sins but it imports somewhat beyond all these That a man should dedicate himself to Religion making it his business and as the bloud circulates over the whole body in greater vessels thorough the nobler parts and in smaller ones even thorough the remotest members so the true spirit of Christianity runs through a mans whole life with a due proportion of care and application Not putting his whole strength to lesser matters and doing the greatest slightly and carelesly but applying his greatest Industry to things of chief concernment yet so as not to be too remiss in the smallest matters He therefore that would walk circumspectly must First Lay down to himself a complete Scheme of his whole life that he may form distinct rules to himself in all the parts of his business by which he shall govern his life and actions He that has not thus digested into his thoughts a clear model of what he resolves to be lives at random and cannot walk circumspectly For he knows not what it is An Architect that builds by Rule has a plane or model according to which the house must rise and without which all must be irregular and out of order If therefore we set about the raising of this spiritual building we must both lay down a regular frame of it and cast up the expence of what it rises to Therefore he that will
be an accurate Christian must consider himself in all the circumstances of his life What his station calls him to How he is obliged to his relations how he ought to imploy his time both in his retirement business and diversions that upon all these he may agree within himself to such rules as shall be the measures of his actions This Scheme being once laid down we must by frequent thinking so infix it in our memories that we need not run to any books for our Rules but have them always before our eyes and by firm and positive resolutions we must engage our selves as deep as we can to the observance of them Secondly We must frequently compare our lives and actions by the Rules thus laid down And this not only in some transient thoughts but in deep and serious reflexions No business can go well on unless the accounts and progress of it are often ballanced and much considered If men therefore do so carefully manage their fortunes that they set off large portions of their time either daily weekly or yearly to examine their accounts How can it be imagined that a thing of that importance upon which all the hopes of our eternal state depends should be so easily transacted Therefore we ought often to search our hearts and try our actions that we may discover if there be any evil way in them The Tradesman does often and anxiously apply his Square to the Work left little irregularities which the eye cannot discover should by an undiscerned progress amount to so notable an errour as might spoil the whole design We slip into many habits without reflection which as an unsensible motion of dust upon our cloaths does not stain them so visibly in any one minute but after a little time do cover and discolour them So many little things that pass neglected will at length run on to a greater matter in the total sum of them Thirdly He that walks circumspectly does by an even and steady course avoid extremes on all hands he must not allow himself any one fault For willingly to consent to a small sin makes it a great one He must therefore keep himself at a distance from sin by avoiding it in its first beginnings in which it is easily resisted Nor must he only avoid things in themselves sinful but every thing that leads out of the way There are many things which in their own nature are innocent and therefore fall within our liberty But if those things by an unlucky hit with our tempers and other circumstances prove snares to us then a man who walks accurately must avoid them as he who is exactly regular in his diet does not only consider food as it is wholsom in it self and pleasant to his taste but if upon frequent experiments he feels it does not agree with him he therefore restrains his appetite and rejects it This Rule is so much the more necessary in moral matters as our souls are of greater importance than our bodies These are the measures and Rules by which he that walks accurately and circumspectly governs himself and upon a sober application of these to our selves we may be able easily to judge whether we have complied with St. Paul's Exhortation in my Text. Do we satisfie our selves in some Forms and Ceremonies of our Religion and imagine that if we perform these with some care and solemnity we may live at large all the rest of our time Are we such strangers to our selves that we have never so much as considered what our Callings and relations oblige us to Vainly conceiting that if we pray a little all is well Do we often and narrowly review our life that we may discover past errors and correct them for the future Count we nothing small that offends God and blemishes our own Integrity And do we readily and willingly throw up every thing which proves really a scandal or stumbling to us even where it is dear as a right eye or a right hand is to us If we put those Queries to our Consciences and hear what answers they make to them we may be soon satisfied whether we walk circumspectly or not I shall not use any other argument to commend this course of life but what is taken from the following words Not as fools but as wise The second thing I proposed to speak to Wisdom consists in two things The first is to balance things aright and to judge well of them The second is to direct our practice by judgments so well framed The one is Speculative the other is Practical Wisdom Now in both these a man that walks circumspectly carries himself as a wise man No man can judge aright till he has considered all things well To pronounce rashly is an evident sign of folly The loose Libertines run on headlong and never stay to think or examine what they do Then resolutions are not the effect of judgment but rise either from the hurry of Passions the violence of Appetite or the force of some popular Customs and Habits Men therefore that view things so slightly cannot judge maturely but he that walks circumspectly brings all his actions into the Light and tries them by a Test that cannot deceive him I speak now to persons who believe the Gospel and may be supposed upon the present occasion to have something more than ordinary tenderness upon their hearts And therefore I shall not pursue this further but certainly as much as things Eternal are preferrable to things Temporal as much as the Soul is better than the Body and as much as the enjoyment of God is above the possession of a small parcel of this Earth by so much he makes the better choice who dedicates himself to Religion and supposing those principles are to be acknowledged certainly it is much the better choice to resolve to walk circumspectly than to live at the rate of our ordinary Christians For if we believe that God sees and takes notice of our actions that he will call us to an account for them and reward and punish us eternally according to them Then we cannot be too accurate and careful in the ordering of our lives Nor is there any folly in the world equal to this of thinking that some slight or low Form of Religion will serve the turn and that it is needless to strain for high degrees of holiness but that God Almighty will take any thing off our hands If a mans Life or whole Estate be put upon the issue of a Trial the exactest diligence and carefulness is necessary And remissness then is a crime not to be excused But of how much greater consequence is Eternity Eternity Rewards are proportioned to the services that are expected No man is raised to the greatest honours for going on an Errand To expect then Eternal life upon some trifling performances is to conclude that God keeps no proportion between the rewards he offers and the services he enjoyns
be not infected Evil communications corrupt good manners An ordinary diligence will not serve the turn where the hazard is great and the danger near If therefore we either take care of our selves or be concerned in the honour of our holy Profession we will employ our utmost care both to preserve our selves pure and undefiled and to free our Religion from the blemishes which the ill-willers of it are apt to cast upon it for they wait for our halting and are both industrious to draw us into snares and censorious enough to cast an Imputation on Religion if we do any thing unworthy of it The second sence of this Phrase relates to calamities and adversities under which the Christians did then groan and had reason rather to look for an increase than a diminution of them They who were exposed to the malice of the World had the greater reason to walk with that strictness that might maintain peace and quiet in their consciences which alone could balance all the other troubles they lay under and the interrupting of which made their lives indeed most miserable and uncomfortable of all other men They had also the more reason to walk with all possible strictness since they did not know but the malice of their enemies might very speedily put an end to their days For to be a Christian then was to die daily in its most literal sence These then who believed Eternity and were every day almost in sight of it had the greatest reason possible to look to themselves with the strictest caution It is true we are not under those circumstances the profession of our Religion is not matter of hazard to us we may be securely as religious and vertuous as we will yet we are still exposed to all those miseries and calamities which naturally follow man in this mortal life And what is the just support of a man under those trials He that can say with the Prophet unto God Thou art my hope in the evil time may well with great assurance subsume with David Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil When a man is overwhelmed with calamities and troubles what miserable comforters prove all those other things in which he formerly rejoyced they rather increase his trouble and add to his pain those perhaps who are of heavy hearts may drink till they forget poverty and remember their misery no more but when the fumes of Wine are gone and that fit of frolick mirth is over their sorrows will return on them with the greater violence They dare not ask comfort from their own hearts which are black and defiled there being no such terrible companion in misery as an evil Conscience which will be importunately putting in its accusations at every turn But on the other hand that inward peace and joy which a good Conscience affords entertains a man with a continual feast even in the midst of troubles and is Musick to him over a dinner of herbs He can look up to God and look within himself with much inward joy and though all things about him are black and dark yet those set his thoughts inward more frequently and with the greater pleasure to that most agreeable prospect which a good conscience opens to him This is a sufficient counterpoise to all other weights that hang about us and will steadily balance a man though walking on the the most slippery ground and therefore Because the days are evil we must walk circumspectly redeeming the time The last sence of this Phrase is that by the evil days are meant the approaches of death so we are commanded to remember our Creator in the days of our youth before the evil days come after which follows a most Poetical description of the decays of Old Age. When Persecutions seem'd near there was a more visible cause to look on death as approaching But if we consider how frail we are and how short a time we have all to live upon the Earth we must acknowledge it most reasonable for us so to number our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom This that is now before our eyes with the many other spectacles of mortality which daily occur together with the decays we feel within our selves do sufficiently assure us that we must remain here but a very little while So that there is nothing in this life in which our days are both few and evil that is of any great consequence to us unless it be according to the relation it hath to another state How can he that is daily thinking of dislodging be much concerned about the house he is so soon to leave But if we believe that there is another state a just Judge and a severe account then the consideration of the shortness of our life should engage us with our utmost industry to prepare for that other state which will soon come on and never have an end since upon the improving of so short a time depend all our hopes of Eternity and if we do now walk circumspectly and redeem our time we may assuredly hope that within a very little we shall be delivered from all the frailties and miseries which sin and infirmity keep us under and shall be admitted into the presence and enjoyment of God where as we hope this our Sister now doth who after a long vertuous life led according to these Rules having attained almost to the age that in the Psalm is called the full age of a man of threescore years and ten has now entred into the rest prepared for the people of God we shall for ever rejoyce with all the companies of Angels and Saints With whom that we may eternally rejoyce let us now and all the days of our life offer up to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost all honour praise and glory Amen FINIS Mat. 4.16.5.14 Joh 1.4 5 8 9.3.19 20. 2 Cor. 4.4 6. Eph. 5.8 1 Pet. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 5.16 Phil. 2.15 Psal. 119.6 9 30 106. Luk. 14 2â— Psal. 119.11 15.24 Psal. 139.23 24. James 1.10 Psal. 119 1â—3 Psal. 26.45 Mat. 5.26 2 Cor. 5.10 1 Joh. 4.18 2 Joh. 8. ver Jer. 8.9 Psal. 111.10 Prov. 16.32 1 Pet. 4.3 John 21.23 Phil. 2.15 Gal. 1.4 Phil. 2.15 1 Pet. 2.12 15. 1 Cor. 15.33 Jer. 20.10 Psal. 37.19 Amos 6.3 Eph. 6.13 Jer. 1â— 17 Psal. 49.5 Prov. 31.6 Prov. 15.15 Eccles. 12.1 Psal. 90.12 Gen. 47.9