this kinde though probably he might be able to give better excuses then any of these forementioned yet nothing would satisfiy till God did speake pardon and peace In his relation to the Church he shewed himself to be a true member by his compassionating of the missereies and relieving the necessities of the members even of forrein Churches when oportunities were offered and also by his lamenting the divisions and fearing the dangers of our own Church at home He was a lover of good men and especially of good ministers that for their work sake And in testimony thereof it was his desire and endeavour that in all places either in Church or Common-wealth that were in his power to dispose of there might be such set up as be judged able and like to do good in them Neither was he willing that this affection should die with him But he commended it as one of his last charges to him whom he desired to be an heir to God and his grace as well as to him and his estate In his relation to the commonwealth I meane the common good of his country He was a resolute assertor of his countries liberties not fearing to reprove or withstand the irregular actings of any to their prejudice How much was he grieved at his countries sufferings How earnestly did he desire the hastning of her deliverance How sorry that the way and meanes of deliverance were so much and so often obstructed His judgment was as he was pleased with some freedom to expresse himself even in the greatest excesse of all the actings to the contrary that the only person under heaven that was likely to heal our breaches was he whom we trust the Lord in mercy hath made to be such indeed even our gracious soveraign And whereas some have been apt to conceive some prejudice against him because he suffered not himself to be perswaded into that height of action which was expected when they thought it seasonable I doubt not but that he did concurre with them in their generall end but might not be so well satisfied in the meanes It was not I am assured through want of will and readiness to do his Country service but because the wayes proposed appeared to him more likely to increase then ease her burdens There is none that knew him laying but their passions aside that would easily judge it to be sloth or cowardise that he was not more apt to hearken but rather prudent warinesse Decipi non potest qui non est facilis audire He is hard to be deceived that is not easie of belief The simple believeth every word but the prudent man looketh well to his going Prov. 30.6 Peritia est non segnities quum sensum miles veteranus accendit It ought to be esteemed wisedom or skillfullnesse when an experienced soldier doth stir up and awaken his sense to looke before he leap He was not apt to be rash in undertaking but what ever he undertook for the service of his country he was resolved to go thorough with it with all faithfullness and integrity professing himself ready to loose all but a good conscience Yet even then when others were censuring of him he was not wanting to do his country good and that in such wayes as were more safe and sure And doubtlesse a wise patient will preferre the leysurely working of a skillfull Physitian in a way that is safe before the violent attempts of such as may pretend to a speedier cure As knowing that violent actings are even hazardous and doe but seldom prosper In his relations to his family friends and neighbours he was not wanting in any respects that might belong unto them As to his compassionating of and liberality towards the poor in relieving them in their necessities I cannot deny him this testimony that in requests of that nature I have not only obtained what I desired but also thanks for the motion His sobriety temperance and moderation in his health his meeknesse and patience in his sicknesse were known to all that converst with him In a word he was such a one as deserved to be honoured in his life and to be lamented in his death Be therefore sensible all ye his relations and lament your losse Children you have lost a dear and tender father who as his expression was feared nothing more then that he should love you too much Brethren and sisters I nead not mind you who may be apt to be more then enough sensible of the reality and constancy of his love towards you and delight in you even unto the last Kinred and friends and neigbours rich and poor I need say no more but that you have lost a great friend and truly that is a great losse Servants you have lost a master that loved you while he lived and was not unmindfull to make some provision for you when he was preparing for death I shall adde no more but this The Church hath lost a generous and an uncorrupted patron and his country a constant and a faithfull patriot But yet if any there be that shall be ambitious of adding to their own praise by detracting from his or of extenuating their own errours by aggravating of his I know detractors may be apt to mutter and whisper saying it were well if all this were true and it were well if somthing else were not true And why are not his failings censured as well as his virtues praised Such I shall answer as our Saviour doth those importunate Jewes who were so severe in demanding justice upon others He that is without sin let him cast the first stone at him Joh. 8.7 There is no doubt but he had his failings and sins yea and if you will hear and believe him bearing witnesse against himself They were many and great But yet this is the manner of Gods proceedings 1 Cor. 11.31 such as judge and condemn themselves shall not be judged nor condemned of the Lord. And shall mortall man be more just then God shall a man be more pure then his maker Job 4.17 Yea but peardventure some good men may be troubled because he did no more good Brethren It is desireable that good should be done by others But it is more profitable for us to be found doing of good our selves I have said that I have often found him ready to do good and willing to communicate and had the Lord given him but a little more time I have reason to believe that he would have done much more good and that he did no more I cannot but in part impute the blame unto my self in that in some respect I had not been his remembrancer more seasonably The truth is in great men it is something to find some good and not rare to find much evill their actions are subjest to many observers if they do well they lose no praise if they do evill no reproach If Jeroboams son hath but some good thing found in him towards the Lord
A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THE Honourable Colonel Robert Rolle of Heanton Sachville in the County of Devon Esq By William Trevethick M.A. and Pastor of Petrockstow in the same County Hier. Ad Marcellam de laudibus Asseilae Nemo reprehendat quod in Epistolis aliquos aut laudamus aut carpimus cum in arguendis malis sit correptio caeterorum in optimis praedicandis bonorum ad virtutem studia concitentur LONDON Printed by T. R. for Edward Brewster at the Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1661. TO THE Noble and hopefull young Gentleman Mr. SAMUEL ROLLE the only Son and Heir of the Honourable Colonel Robert Rolle of Heanton Sachville in the County of Devon Esq late deceased SIR THE honour and esteem which I have born unto your family ever since I had the happiness to be acquainted with it together with the many favours which I have received from it and especially from your Parents of happy memory have sufficiently ingaged me with all readiness to lay hold upon any opportunity of giving testimony thereof in the best manner that I can In order whereunto I was not unwilling to answer the call to the performance of that last though sad office of waiting on the funeral Solemnities of that worthy Gentleman your dear father and my honoured Patron An account whereof since you could not be a hearer that you might have a sight of it is here presented to your view It was hard for me to think any thing of mine worthy of such publick notice and it was no less difficult to withstand the desires of such as with me are able to command Such as it is I here humbly submit it to your ingenuity and candor not doubting although there were little in it that might merit your acceptance but that any remembrance of such a father to such a son will â—nd some favourable entertainment And now Sir If with your good leave at least upon this occasion I may use the liberty of being your remembrancer that the Lord in his wise and holy providence hath deprived you of both your parents It is to give you to learn betimes to have your dependance on him alone who is your heavenly father who ever liveth and careth for you whose eye you are alwayes under where ever you go and whatever you do if you cleave unto him he will never leave you Psa 17 10 Isa 49 15 nor forsake you When my father and my mother forsake me saith the Psalmist then the Lord will take me up That you have so early as it were in your first setting forth met with the cross it may seem tedious at present but yet I trust it will be for your profit hereafter Et mage principio grata coronis erit Martial The Lord is a wise Father That son whom he loves Pro. 13.24 he chasteneth betimes He knows how apt our minds are to be corrupted especially in youth with ease and prosperity Luxuriant animi rebus plerunque secundis It is therefore good saith the Prophet for a man that he bear the yoak in his youth Lam. 3.27 Quam utile est ad usum secundorum per adversa venisse Plin. Paneg ad Trajan If the Lord begin to teach you in your youth I trust when you are old he will not forsake you Esteem that I beseech you the best breeding to be bred up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Account no gain like to the gain of wisdom and godliness no loss like to the loss of the favour of God and your time Titus the Emperor who for his humanity and moral vertues was stiled Deliciae humani generis if any day had passed without doing of some good Pezel mellif hist part 2. p. 174. was wont 〈◊〉 complain Amici diem perdidi my friends I have lost a day The eyes of all your friends and relations are upon you hoping to find their loss in their honoured and beloved friends your dearest parents to be made up in you And that their expectations may not be frustrated Now is your time to furnish your self with those abilities by which you may become serviceable to your God and your King an honour and ornament to your Country and family and a rejoycing to all that love you and desire your happiness Let neither those endowments of nature nor these principles of education and grace which the Lord in a gracious measure hath blessed you withal be either lost or corrupted The truth is you are in the midst of a world of temptations and snares ready to beset you on every side But alas what is the world with all the pleasures and allurements thereof but vanity and vexation of spirit like Creusa's Ghost Par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno Virgil. Aenid l. 2. What is the pleasure of Hawks and hounds but a mungril pleasure What are gaming 's at Cards and Dice but the firebrands of passion and the consumption of treasure and time What is there in rioting and drunkenness in chambering and wantonness but the impoverishing of the Estate the distempring and weakâ—ing of the body and without repentance the ruine both of body and soul unto eternity Those that are the first with Abner to call forth the young men thus to arise and play will be the first with him to cry out at length 2 Sam. 2.14.26 This will be bitterness in the latter end He that will not be warned of them in time will mourn at last when his flesh and his body are consumed and say How have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof Prov. 5.11 12 13. and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me Let it not seem tedious or grievous unto you that for a time your condition requires that you be subject to Tutors and Governours It is but to this end that by learning first how to govern your self you may be the better qalified to rule and govern others and the readiest way to know how to command is first to learn how to obey If you perswade your self as I am apt to believe you do that those your worthy friends and relations to whose care and inspection the Lord by your father hath committed you are both faithfull and wise and will omit nothing that in conscience towards God and Love towards you they judge necessary nor advise you to any thing inexpedient or superfluous and that their affections towards you are so real and tender that nothing will be more their grief then your not profiting nor rejoycing then when they shall see through the blessing of God upon their endeavours that as you grow in years and in stature so as is said of our Saviour that you increase in wisdom and favour with God and man This will incourage you to attend unto them with patience and content and to observe and practise their councels and prescriptions with
somewhat sensible that while I have been pleading for others I may be thought to need an Apology in the behalf of my self for that I have presumed so far upon the patience of the reader who may be apt to blame me for making the porch too large for the house or for prefixing such large Epistles to a single Sermon But for this I shall say That the sin of uncharitablenesse is great and spreading and we cannot lightly raise the feuce too high against it And for both I shall say no more but this That when we speake or write or hear or read for God or our souls to caution against sin or to quicken to duty we should not easily suffer our selves to complain of tediousnesse The Apostles of Christ though their Epistles be not very short yet say they had written breifly in few words as to shew the excellency of the matter and their zeal to their duty so also to intimate that as themselves had not been weary in writing Hebr. 13 22 1 Pet. 5.12 so neither should they to whom they had writen be weary in reading If that which is here tendred thou shalt receive and use with profit neither of us shall have cause to repent of our labour And that it may be so I shall make this my only request Isa 48.17 that we may mutually commend each other to him who hath said that he is the Lord our God which reacheth us to profit Thine in the service of Christ William Trevethick JOHN 11.25 Jesus said unto her I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live THe historicall narration of Christs miraculous raising Lazarus from the dead as also of the preparations to it and the consequents of it are the main subject matter of the Evangelists discourse in this chapter That we may know who this Lazarus was he is set forth v. 1. by the indisposition of his body he was sick and also by the place of his abode he was of Bethany Which place is described 1. By some others of its inhabitants as it seemes better known to the disciples then Lazarus was It was the Town of Mary and her sister Martha 2. By its Scituation it was nigh unto Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs off v. 18. At this time the condition of the place was suitable to its name Bethany according to the notation of the word signifying a house of sorrow or mourning Lazarus a noted man of the town is dead and there is much sorrow and many mourners Mary and Martha his sisters are weeping the Jews also that came to comfort them weep yea even Jesus Christ himself wept v. 33 35. Here was a great mourning at Lazarus his grave We read of one Lazarus mentioned by Jesus Christ Luke 16.20 But whether that discourse be parabolicall as a Theophilact Justin q. 60. Theophilus Antiochen l. 4. Allâ—gor Eucher in quaest in Lucam Alius preterea nemo quod sciam Quin om â—â—s alii auctores historiam esse dicunt inquit Maldonâ—t in loc some or historicall as b Tertull an l. de anima c. 2. Ambrâ—s Jren. l. 2. c. 62. plures alâ—â— apud Mal donat Calvin in loc most of the ancients affirm c Tertullian adversus Marcionem l. 4. p. 274. edit Basil 1562. d Pet. Martyr in 1 lib. Sâ—m c. 28. p. 161. Some of which understanding by the rich man to be meant Herod and by Lazarus John the Baptist supposing as it seemes that Christ conceald their proper nam 's to avoid the odium of the times Or whether that be a mixt discourse partly historicall and partly parabolicall as a Maldon in loc Menoch in loc others conceive however otherwayes they differ they generally agree that Lazarus spoken of there was not the same with him whom Jesus raised from the dead As it may also farther a pear by his outward estate and condition in the world Lazarus spoken of in Luke is said to have been a poor miserable begger ready to perish through want But this whom Christ raised again was no way likely to be such His sisters whose affection towards him sufficiently manifected in this discourse would not fuffer them to see him beg seem to be persons of wealth and repute to omit the conjectures of b Vid Calvin Maldon Menoch in loc some even by that magnificent act of Mary in powring that precious ointment on the head of Christ which Judas said might have been sold for c 300 pence after the rate of 7 d. ob the value of their penny amounts to 9 l. 07 s. 06 sterling Bunting Itinerarium p. 391. 300 pence Joh. 12.5 yea and for more Mar. 14.5 An act so graciously accepted and so highly honoured by Christ Mat. 26.13 that it is followed with a memorial of as larg extent and of as long continuance as the preaching of the Gospel Sufficient to argue her condition was not very mean Besides the great concourse of the citizens of Jerusalem to visit and comfort them which was saith Maldonat propter Marthae Mariaeque nobilitatem aliasque virtutes Mos erat JudaeoruÌ„ mortuos praesertim honorabiliores in Sepeluncis Sepelire for the respect they did bear to their nobility and other vitues And also the manner of his interment being buryed in a cave or vault which as is said was most usual for such as were more honourable and of the better sort But to passe by those things which are of the lowest concernment There are other intimations given by the Evangelist by which they are rendred more truly remarkable and of eminent worth and note to us which are 1 Their mutuall love manifested each to other by their cohabitation or dwelling together not only in the same town but also as it seemes in the same house And farther by their mutuall care for each other as here when Lazarus was sick their first and chief care was to send for Jesus Christ the great physitian both of soul and body 2 Their love to Jesus Christ evidenced by their frequent attending on him and entertaining of him taken notice of and commended in all the Evangelists Matth. 26.6 c. Mark 14.3 c. Luke 10.38 39. Joh. 12.2 3. 3 Jesus Christ his love to them all as is expressed in the fifth ver of this chapter where it is said that Jesus loved Mary and her sister and Lazarus Which he also makes manifest by his sympathizing with them in their sorrowes instructing them where they are ignorant strengthening their faith comforting them in their afflictions raising up again of Lazarus from the dead c. Thus they that love Christ and love one another are beloved of Christ The preparatory acts that go before this miracle are 1 the message which his sisters sent to Christ to acquaint him with his sicknesse That they went not themselves but sent might proceed from the regard they