Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A43723
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A sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable Julian Vicountess Camden at Camden Jan. 12, 1680/1
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Hicks, Henry, d. 1692.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing H1918B; ESTC R40987
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14,992
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36
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the Living he must have recanted his opinion or betray'd his faculties for it was in her embodied and he might have converst with it in an humane shape as if God had designed her to let us see how near to the divine Humane nature may approach So far was she from any indifferency in Religion that I dare challenge the most rigid Sectary I mean the most censorius Person in the world to produce one single suspition of the least hypocrisy formality or lukewarmness in her Profession and Devotion No the Religion of this excellent person was of another Constitution it took root downward in Humility and brought forth fruit upward in every thing that was praise-worthy If we know not what Vertue and Humanity are what is comely venerable what is lovely and praise-worthy what is fit and equal what is true and just we may learn by the words and actions and behaviour of this Noble person of a great and harmless Wit of chearful Gravity and obliging Behaviour She could be chearful without levity speak merrily without uttering folly adorn her self in rich apparel without pride and a phantastick dress She was constant to her promise and candid to others failures preferring fidelity before profit and mercy before rigour willing to reprove yet loath to exasperate Such an exact texture of Graces and Vertues that in her departure there is a universal Loss to the good because they 'l want the vertuous example which they love and to the bad because they 'l want the pious example which they need And for her several eminencies I may take up the speech of St. Paul in his Catalogue of those eminent Saints Heb. 11.32 and what shall I say more Thus lived this most Honourable Lady and thus she taught us to live Being so eminently pious we may well say with the true Emphasis that she lived to a good old age her years exceeding not only the lesser but the larger account given by Moses of Mans life 70 or 80 years being extended to 96 which we may look upon partly as a Guerdon of her pious Life and partly as a pledge and consignment of Eternal life hereafter But it is appointed to all men once to die and die she therefore must This house which our souls now inhabit is but earthly and sin hath put it into disorder and hath brought a Consumption upon it as well through God's anger as its own distempers and as it daily decays so it will so it must once dissolve and fall The pale messenger therefore comes to give her a summons to appear before her judge Death with all his gastly troops of Stone Spleen Aches storm and dismantle her body Est mihi crede virtuti etiam in lectulo locus said Seneca to his dear Lucilius Then are vertue and fortitude best displayed when our strength lies bed-rid and our diseases inwrap us in sheets of Torture And yet in the midst of all these pining agonies and faint languishings her patience stood unshaken and undisturbed in the face of Death And with that strength of faith and undaunted courage kept close to her God as if she would conquer Death before it encountered her still maintaining that firm trust in God through the merits of her Saviour that mortalitas potius finita est quam vita this frail body submitted to mortality and her heaven-born soul when death had opened the door breathed it self into the hand of her Redeemer triumphantly singing her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death has lost his sting and I have got the victory Thus this Heavenly Lady bequeathed her sacred body to the Grave in assured hopes of the Resurrection to Eternal life There shall these hallowed ashes be mummoyed up and preserved by the protection of Angels and from thence shall every atome of her sacred dust be rallied and recomposed into the glorious image of the Son of God Then shall this purified body as it were again woe its glorified soul and Christ being the High Priest Eternity the Ring the new-Jerusalem the Church Angels the Choyre Peace of Conscience the Feast Christs Righteousness the Wedding Garment Soul and Body shall be Eternally married together and her Saviour and the whole Trinity shall approve and applaud the union saying Well done good and faithful servant enter into thy Masters joy joy unspeakable and full of glory And now I should here conclude but seeing such a solemn appearance of such honourable Mourners before mine eyes I cannot but humbly crave leave to commend a word or two to their more personal Meditations and the good Lord make them Operative and Impressive She was the Rock whence ye were most hewen the Pit whence most of you were digged O that her name might be Immortal in her Posterity and her Posterity Immortal in her vertues I do not believe the transmigration of Souls I only desire transmigration of Graces that as ye are enriched with her Possessions and Legacies so ye may all be enobled with her Vertues and Excellencies Then shall her remembrance shine in her Relations and her Relations shine in her example Patern out her Piety her Charity patern out her Zeal and Devotion her Justice and Chastity her Courtesy her Constancy Constancy in all that was good all that was praise-worthy and yee shall become not only her Posterity but her Monument A Monument of Gold which if sin does not corrupt time can never deface Now indeed her Silver Cord is loosed and her Golden Bowle is broken yet she is not dead but liveth liveth in you as long as you live in piety shineeth in you as long as you shine in goodness And be ye well assured that those who live as Saints on earth shall undoubtedly shine as Stars in Heaven Avoid as this good Lady did all appearances of evil and then at the day of the Great appearance yee shall be as glorious among others as yee are Noble above others Blessed be God that you do not defile the dignity of your persons with the indignities of sin This were to bring a Cloud upon the lustre of your line for alass they are Apostates unto honor that are Apostates unto grace The times indeed in which you live are as truly the worst as the last of days Wickedness grown up to the excess of abominations triumphing every where effraeni effronti audaciâ without the conscience of Shame or the controlings of Punishment So that except a man be an Abraham in Mesopotamia a Job in the Land of Vz a Lot in Sodom or a Joseph in Potaphars house It is as hard to keep himself from the Temptations of the times as to reform the times from their headlong Temptations But it will be the honour of all your Honours to look higher then the days in which you live You have great Examples in your own Family Piety Loyalty Charity Temperance Continence Religion have for many years past found a Sanctuary there Remember then that to carry on these Christian excellencies is to carry on the dignity of your Ancestors High Obligations lye upon you for Piety not only from your God but from your bloud Look upon the Herse that stands before you it speaks though dead St. Timothy was sent back to consider the faith of his Mother and the faith of his Grand-mother You have here also in this deceased Lady a Grand-mother Lois and a Mother Eunice The unfeigned faith and unstained goodness that dwelt in her must dwell in you likewise This will be your kindness to her and make her Name precious this will be your kindness to your selves and make your Souls precious Blessed is that Family where holyness is cultivated as if it were quartered in their Escutchions as well as in their hearts they shall inherit the blessing For the Lord our God is a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him but shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandements FINIS