A SERMON PREPARED To be preached at the FUNERALL of WALTER NORBANE Esq BY W. HAYWOOD Dr. in DIVINITY One of the Chaplains in ordinary to his late MAJESTY of Glorious Memory LONDON Printed for Richard Thrale at the Cross-Keyes at S. Pauls-Gate entring into Cheapside 1660. To the truly Virtuous and Worthy Mistress Mary Norbane Relict of Walter Norbane Esq deceased THat I had no desire or meaning thus to appear in print when I first undertook this Funeral Sermon I suppose on my single asseveration will easily be believed But that the Sermon should be at the very instant of the delivery in so honourable so full an Audience defeated and silenced is a thing not so easie to be believed without the attestation of many Witnesses That one single person usurping the Office of a Minister but neither a Graduate nor in Orders nor scant of Age to be nor ever intending as I am informed any way old or new to be should by his clamorous impudence and shameless railing confound such a Solemnity silence the Preacher appearing in the Pulpit and drive all that met to do honour to the memory of so worthy a Gentleman out of the Church without any Sermon is an example of pity and boy-like petulance such as I think can hardly be paralelled Especially sith neither the deceased Gentleman for ought I know nor the Preacher had ever affronted or provoked the said insolent Party in word or deed My own wrong I thank God I least value having learned by experience to bear many causeless injuries with patience But the wrong done to the deceased a singular Ornament to this Countrey and to his Profession together with the injury and contempt of so noble an Auditory consisting of Lords Knights Parliament-men Esquires Gentlemen Officers of the County and Reverend Divines so many as in divers years hath not been seen in Caln-Church the like Congregation such an insolence may not so well be passed over in silence nor so Worthy a Company utterly defrauded of what they came to hear I have therefore yielded to the request of divers friends that the Sermon may be published and not buried with him whose Memory and Vertues deserves never to be buried And I have thought fit to dedicate it to you by whose request it was undertaken and who can best witnesse how little I sued or sought for the employment Beseeching God it may help to mitigate your sorrow for so invaluable a losse and add somewhat to your comfort and remain as a Monument of his good will to you and yours who is many wayes obliged to be and to continue Your truly loving Friend and Neighbour WILLIAM HAYVVOOD A SERMON At the Funeral of Walter Norbane Esq April 13 1659. at Calne Church in Wiltshire prepared to be preached ROM 6.5 For if we have been planted together into the likeness of his Death we shall be also into the likeness of his Resurrection OF Christs Death and Resurrection it is that the Apostle here speaks exhorting us to be planted into the one that we may attain to the likeness of the other The time of the year borders upon the annual Memory of our Saviours Death and Resurrection and it is a season also of planting and growing up but God hath made it to our great sorrow a time of felling and hewing down We have beheld the fall of this worthy Gentleman whose remainders lie here before us as the fall of some great Tree under whose shadow many lesser plants were shelter'd A Tree of no little ornament benefit relief and comfort to the poor Inhabitants of this place wherein he lived And much to our sorrow it adds that there appears not so near again any of like dignity age and fair abilities to compare with him Howbeit if we could be perswaded this cutting down were but a new Plantation and a plantation of great advantage to him how much loss soever to us that might avail somewhat to mitigate our sorrow And that I suppose this Text may help to perswade us for there we hear of a plantation into Christs Death so that Death it self to them that are in Christ is but a kind of plantation and their burial a kind of sowing So our Apostle 1 Cor. 15.42 It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weaknesse it is raised in power So our blessed Saviour Except a Corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit John 12.24 Christ himself therefore chose to die and his Burial to him proved but a planting His Body in three dayes rose again with an encrease of Immortality and Christ neither died nor rose for himself but is become the first fruits of them that sleep and the pattern of them that shall rise again For as is the Heavenly Adam so they also that are heavenly And as we have born the Image of the earthy we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly But there must be a change first for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither may corruption inherit incorruption There must be a plantation therefore first into the death of Christ a fellowship with his sufferings as St. Paul calls it a conformity to his Passion which if we patiently undergo the Text then hath a comfortable promise that will not fail us For if we have been planted into the likeness of his Death we shall be also into the likeness of his Resurrection But it will be said Saint Paul speaks not here of our planting into Christ by a natural death but rather by a moral or a mystical for immediately before he instanceth in Baptism Buryed saith he by Baptism into death That like as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father so we should walk in newness of life And at the eleventh ver Likewise reckon ye your selves also to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that the planting into our Saviours Death which Saint Paul here intends is by a death unto sin not by a death in the grave And this we deny not And even in this respect we have not only a comfortable Scripture over the dead but full of good instruction also and edification to the living So would Funeral Sermons be They are for the behoof of the living rather than the dead That as the Apostle saith of Prophesie He that prophesieth speaks unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort so by such preaching Christians might not only be comforted but edified likewise and exhorted Now for edification a Scripture more effectual can hardly be found than this For it comprehends the summe of all vertuous and godly living To be planted into Christs Death that thereby we may grow to his Resurrection that is To die to sin and live to Righteousness Cease to do evil and learn to do well Put off the
old Man that we may be planted into the New And what is there more in Christianity to be done Yet though this be the nearest and most genuine Exposition of the Apostle so to understand him as speaking of mortification and rising to a new life the other way of applying this Text to men naturally dying or pressed with great tribulations may not be excluded as altogether improper For even to that purpose also Saint Paul in other places applyeth this very Metaphor of dying and rising with Christ as 2 Cor. 1.8 We are troubled on every side but not distressed Persecuted but not forsaken alwayes bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be manifest c. And though resembling Christs Death and Rising by true Repentance and a holy Life be the most excellent and most profitable way of imitating him as without which outward suffering availe little and therefore that sense needs most exhortation Yet we cannot deny such a conformity to Christs Death by our sufferings to be a neerer way and more fully resembling the likenesse of his plantation As our rising from corruption to glory draweth neerer the likenesse of Christs Resurrection than our rising to newnesse of life onely So our planting into Christs Death by a fellowship of his sufferings and by being brought down to the grave with him is a neerer and fuller resemblance of his passion than the Death of true repentance and mortification to sin only if no other affliction be added But how much more full if both be joyned together As in this our deceased brother to my knowledge they were an afflicted Body and a penitent soule a self-deniyn life and a patient and lamb like death a flesh crucified with the affections and lust and a spirit raised and revived with hope of immortality a soule aspiring to heaven while his body sunk to the earth What nearer what fuller what truer or more immediate planting into the death and Resurrection of Christ And he that is so farre incorporated what Text can fit him better For if we have thus been planted into the likenesse of our Saviours Death We shall be also into the likenesse of his Resurrection We proced to a division of our Text. Two plantations in this Scripture appeare joyned in connexion and inferred one upon the other The one a sad and heavy plantation the other a joyfull and comforting the one in weeping and mourning the other in triumph and rerejoycing the one may be called our Winner plantation the other our Summer If not rather the one our seed time the other our harvest out Winter planation or seed-time For if ye have been planted together into the likenesse of Chirsts Death And our Summer plantation or harvest Ye shall be also into the likenesse of his Resurrection The former of these containes our conflict the later our Crown Not more bitternesse and pains in the one than comfort and sweetnesse in the other We begin with the former which is our Winter plantation or sowing in tears For if we have been planted into the likenesse of Christ's Death Where the first word that meets us is the Conjunction Si implying a Condition Si complantati fuerimus If we have been planted Giving us to know that these two plantations are so connected one to the other as our labour and our reward our warfare and our victory that without having our part in the former there is no hope of attaining the latter unlesse we first communicate in the Winter plantation of our Lords Death at the summer plantation of his Resurrection there will be no arriving Except we first suffer with him no hope of reigning It is the Apostles way of arguing for some length together whereby he perswades Timothy to endure hardnesse as a good souldier of Jesus Christ 2 Tim. 2.3 If a man strive for Masteries yet he is not crowned except he strive lawfully The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits Remember that Christ first died before he rose againe and it is a faithfull saying If we be dead with him we believe we shall also live with him So the two plantations are inseparable and rightly we may conclude if any man misse his part in the later it is for lack of the former if any attaine not to the Resurrection of Christ it is because he failed in the suffering which may be the reason perhaps why the Apostle thus puts it upon an If as a thing to be doubted of If we have been planted into his Death For so hard appeares the condition and so rate the number of them that are truely so planted that it may well be doubted and doubted of the best of us all Insomuch that the Apostle speaks here in the first person as if he doubted of himself for company If we have been planted fully and throughly into the likenesse of Christs Death And it is but what ye find in the third to the Phillipians All things I account but dung that I may be found in him with the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death If by any meanes I might attaine to the Resurrection of the dead Not as if I had allready attained or were allready perfect But I follow after if I may apprehend Phillip 3 12. If I may apprehend So that he doubts of his own sufferings likewise and whether this first plantation be compleat with himself Ye see therefore that he useth the preterperfectense also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we have been planted Have been that we desire to be that we intend to be every one will be ready to say and no If no doubt upon that All the feare is whether or no we have allready enough of this plantation Which makes him say in another place I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh Coloss 1.24 As if somewhat in this kind were still wanting on his part and therefore well may he utter it with Si si Dubitantis If we have been allready planted sufficiently into the likenesse of his Death Doubted it may be the rather because of the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here added Si complantati faith the latine if we have been planted together which is diversly expounded together with Christ or together with one another Together with Christ If we have been obedient as he was to the Death not shrinking from our pattern so much as in a wish but resolved with him who when he saw the cup coming prayed not my will O Father but thine be done And then together with out brethren If we have not deserted out companions in suffering As St. Paul complaines of Demas that he had forsaken him and embraced this present world 3 Tim. 4.10 And at my first answer to wit before Nero No man stood with me but all forsook me Si complantati may teach us that suffering together in a good
death of Christ is strong and mighty indeed as the contrary discovers a weake Christian For Thirdly if our conformity be right it must add Patience a vertue in Christs suffering most eminent Who As a sheep led to the slaughter and as a lamb before the shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth He shall not crie nor strive neither shall any man heare his voyce in the streets I became dumb and opened not my mouth faith David for it was thy doing this silent submitting this patient bearing this still lying and making no noyse is that which proveth us true Gold indeed for that melts in silence and makes no noyse as wheat also abides quiet under the flayle while Chaffe flieth in the face of them that smite it Fourthly Constancy the Crowne of all the rest for only He that indureth to the end shall be saved Most eminent this was in our Saviours Crosse when all the bitter scoffes of his enemies could not move him to come down Let Christ the King of Israel come down from the Crosse and we will believe him No they are not to be believed that say it Christ having loved his own continued to love them to the end and would not leave the work of our Redemption unperfect and lose the fruit of all for lack of constancie let patience saith St. James have her perfect work And the perfection of Patince is Constancy that we be not weary of well doing nor tired out with innocent suffering But wait on the Lord till he deliver us committing the keeping of our soules to him in well doing as to a faithfull Creator I know whom I have beleeved and he is able to keep what is committed to him 2 Tim. 1.12 Add these foure vertues together and then your sufferings may appeare somewhat like your Saviours Let them be humble without confidence in your selves Charitable having compassion and praying for others patient and silent without complaint or murmurring Constant and continued to the end without wavering or revolting And then your plantation is proved to be sound and firme ye are thus without doubt Planted into the similitude of Christs Death Especially if you be faithfull to the Death for that makes all sure Be faithfull to the Death and I will give thee a Crown of life Death ends the conflict puts all out of hazard gets the Conquest and crowns the conqueror for it foils the last and worst of all our enemies even Satan and all his forces As by the Crosse of mortification we die to the flesh and by the Crosse of Tribulation we die to the world so by the Crosse of a naturall Death we die to all the temptations of Satan And are then past our winter plantation without doubt and stand ready for our summer that followeth in the Text as the second General of our division and the Reward annexed to the painefull coudition For if we have been planted into the likenesse of his Death we shall be also into the likenesse of his Resurrection A promise I told you this part is and such a one as cannot faile us if we faile not with the condition The condition that indeed is proposed hypothetically and doubtfully If ye have been planted into his Death But so is not the promise that is direct and Categoricall without any If in t. Ye shall be also into the likenesse of his Resurrection Shall be without doubt if you continue unmoveable in your Winter plantation and pluck not your selves from the Tree of Christ Crosse That Cro-sse is a Tree of life that will not suffer you to die or wither but shoot you forth again into a better plantation Howbeit Take heed of presuming for though we cannot perish while we continue fast joyned to the root we may break our selves from the root and so perish If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a witherd branch Iohn 15.6 Behold the goodnesse and severity of God On them that fell severity But toward thee goodnesse if thou continue in hi goodnesse otherwise thou also shalt be cutt off Rom 11.22 So that in our unstedfastnesse there may be danger but in his promise is no unstedfastnesse If we continue not yet he abideth faithfull he cannot deny himself more than one or two places of Scripture like this assure us that we cannot misse of a glorious and high plantation if we abide firm in a lowly one and be constant in true Repentence then it is a faithfull saying For if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall reign with him 2 Tim. 2. Knowing that as we have been partakers of the suffrings we shall be also of the consolation 2 Cor. 1.7 For ye are dead and your life is bid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appeart then shall ye also appeare with him in glory Col. 3.4 He that raised up the Lord Jesus shall also quicken our mortall bodies Ro. 8.11 Numbers of the like Testimonies assure us that our diying in Christ is but the Gate of rising to life we cannot be lost in the first plantation if we wait with patience for the second And as true that the two plantations are inseparable as was said no arriving to a glorious summer but through a hard winter no happy rising with Christ unlesse we die with him And if any rise not by a new and holy life after their repentance and conformity to his suffrings it is a sign they were never well planted into the similitude of Christs Death So then the connexion of the two plantings is undeniable they may not be severed But as touching this latter plantation into Christs rising wherein ye will aske consists that Or what is it to be so planted Interpreters are here divided some because the chapter throughout is an exhortation to good life and the words before are Baried with him in Baptisme into death That like as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father so we to walk in newnesse of life conceive by this planting into the resurrection of Christ is meant onely our sanctification as by the other planting into his Death is meant our true Repentance and Mortification Others again because the two parts appeare in the nature of a Promise and Reward conceive this latter plantation to point at our eternall reward and the likenesse of Christs Resurrection to be that state of immortality wherein Christ now abides and which at the end of the world all his true members shall partake of both expositions are profitable both usefull and both have great abettors for the former of sanctification are Ambrose Jerom Bede and Cajetane for the latter of glorification are Chrysâ—stome Theophylact Euthymius and Athanasius we shall God willing touch upon both as the time will permit and so conclude with a word of Application And first we shall be planted into the likenesse of his Resurrection that is by our sanctification In nature
end it proved I doubt not that he was so long a planting into the Death of Christ The Crosse of mortification from the time of his full maturity might seem to be his daily practice whereby he learned to die to the flesh The Crosse of Tribulation he had his share in too having tasted of persecution as far as imprisonment and loss of goods for his Conscience whereby he was taught to die to the world The Crosse of natural Death was his last tryal whereby he learned to dye to mortality it self and to all the temptations of Satan and long he was a planting on this manner into the similitude of Christ's death Near upon two years I have perceived him declining when as his outward man perished so his inward seemed to renew day by day During which time the Vertues before-mentioned as peculiar to the Crosse of Christ might seem more and more to encrease in him To say nothing of his Piety addicting himself to read Books of Religion as his time would permit And of his justice so true and upright in his dealing so exact in paying every one his own The four Vertues of the Crosse ye heard commended to wit Humility Charity Patience and Constancy appeared more and more to manifest themselves in him the nearer he drew to his end Humility for he was courteous to the meanest ready to put off and yield reverence to any as fast as any to him nay to prevent in Courtesie and to give place to some his inferiours Charity for he excelled in bounty to the poor witnesse his last charitable Gift to this Parish and divers pious Legacies in his Will to the value well nigh of a thousand pound witnesse his loving invitation of his poor Neighbours in his weaknesse at Christmass last even when himself could not eat yet it joyed him to walk by and see others eat and drink at his cost And for an eminent proof of his Charity but a little before he took his bed in his last sicknesse he lent freely to one that had dealt falsely enough with him and was like for so doing to be utterly ruined by the fraud of another he lent I say to him notwithstanding a considerable summe of money to preserve him from perishing So notable was his Charity in returning good for evil and so well he seemed to remember If thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink c. It pleased God to enlarge his patience by the manner of his last sickness which seizing at length on his lungs deprived him of the use of his speech for any length or continuance of speaking during which time I never observed in him the least impatient carriage in word or deed or any repining at the heavy hand of God upon him but silently he submitted himself under the scourge like him that said I became dumb and opened not my mouth for it was thy doing Psalm 39. 10. And lastly For his Constancy as he approved it in the course of his life so to the death constant he was to the Religion he had been born and bred up in an obedient Son of the Church of England as he had ever professed himself to be and suffered for Heartily he answered to all questions that were asked him about the profession of his faith willingly and readily submitted himself to Gods will for leaving the world gladly forgave all that had offended him and wherein he had offended any professed himself willing to ask forgivenesse and to make restitution Being put in mind of the Sacrament he would not for reverence sake receive it in the evening but deferr'd it till the next morning and then most piously and devoutly like one that bowed the knees of his heart when those of his body failed him with eyes lifted up and hands bent to Heaven he received it and when he heard after both kinds taken Lord grant it may nourish you to eternal life chearfully and audibly he said Amen After which he dismissed us from longer praying by him being desirous to be left for the present to his own private devotions and requested us to pray by him again in the afternoon as if he had foreseen the certain time of his departure and in the afternoon according to his own appointment at prayer we continued by him till toward five in the evening at which time most meekly and silently and like a Lamb he departed and quietly slept in the Lord. And now being so rightly planted into the Death of Christ having thus sowed in teares we doubt not he shall be planted into the likenesse of his Resurrection one day in body as he is already in soul and reap in abundance of joy which God of his mercy grant unto us all for Jesus Christ his sake Amen FINIS