A SERMON Preach'd at the FUNERAL Of the RIGHT HONORABLE Sir MAVRICE EVSTACE Kt. Late Lord Chancelor OF IRELAND At St. Patrick's Dublin the fifth day of July 1665. Together with a short account of his Life and Death By W. S. B. D. sometimes Chaplain to his Lordship Memorare novissima in Aeternum non peccabis Seirach Dublin Printed by John Crook Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Maiesty and are to be sold by Sam. Dancer in Castle-street 1665. TO THE Most Reverend FATHER in GOD JAMES by Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Armagh Primate and Metropolitane of all Ireland His Grace May it please Your Grace AS Your Graces Commands for publication of this ensuing Sermon has put it beyond my power to conceal that from your Eye which I thought very unwothy of your Ear though your Grace was pleas'd out of your great respect to my deceased Lord to Honor it with Your presence when it was deliverd so the small opinion I have of its worth and the no advantage which I am sure it will add to my reputation being designed for a Country Auditory where the Funeral was intended to be Selemnis'd forces me to prefix Your Graces Name unto it that I may not onely by its being own'd by Your Grace be secur'd from the many censures which I have cause to fear shall pass upon me but also that the thing it self may be render'd the more considerable and carry the greater authority with it I know my Lord Your Grace cannot be offended at this presumption because it makes for the vindicating of of a person who I am certain was no less Your Grace freind then Your Grace most justly deserv'd for that now your Grace has given the most convincing proofs of your Freindship by Your endeavouring seeing he cannot be his own compurgatour to wipe of that dirt which some 〈◊〉 out of malice and others for the supporting of their tottering interest bave cast upon him to which if what I have here said may give but the least assistance I have next unto your Graces pardon for this my confidence all I desire because I thereby discharge my duty unto my honored Lord and have this oportunity offer'd of publishing to the world that I own my self to be in the deepest sense of duty and gratitude imaginable May it please Your Grace August 22. 1665. Your Graces most obedient and most obliged Humble Servant William Sheridan 2 KINGS 20.1 ISA. 38.1 Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live LIfe and Death are the two Poles on which all the Creatures rowl Life is the first act moveable and continual of the living thing and Death is the cessation of the same act And there is such a mutual successive change of the one into the other that the whole World has no other employment but to conform it self to their respective commands and Man himself though his soul be as it were a little god within him and therefore might be thought not to need any other help for the preservation of his being than what flows from his own essence yet lives not but by the groans of Creatures and they are forc'd to sacrifice their lives to preserve his yet at last he findes that the same day that lengthens his life in the morning shortens it in the evening and in the end he is reduced to the common fate of Mortals And God has decreed that this should be so because he hath designed man for noble things and ordained this life onely for a passage into another in which rewards and punishments are irreversibly adjudged with respect to his actings And being that Eternal happiness is the ultimate end which every man should propound to himself it ought to be his chief care to perform all that is requisite for the attainment thereof and that is to live and die well The latter whereof which does also implicitely comprehend the former cannot better be learnt than from the example of King Hezekiah to whom God sends a Message by the Prophet Isaiah admonishing him of his death in the words of the Text which does naturally divide it self into these two parts an Admonition and a Reason The Reason is first in order of nature Thou shalt dye and not live and the Admonition last Set thy house in order First of the Reason Thou shalt dye Where to omit speaking of the changeable state of our life now sick and now well now deliver'd out of one trouble and now entring into another which is the lot of all but especially of the godly otherwise Hezekiah might have pleaded an exemption I shall first enquire what death is yet not so as to seek an exact definition of it but to limit my Discourse with these particulars First its cause Secondly its effects Thirdly its attendants Which being discovered will assist us to conceive more rightly of it First then God is the cause of death though he did not in the first order of nature appoint it to have a place in our kind for notwithstanding that the body of man was of corruptible matter dust of the earth yet had he continued in his obedience the Tree of life as a supernatural remedy perhaps also as a Sacrament of the immediate communicating of life to mankinde had preserv'd him from death but in his secondary intention in case man should break his allegiance God ordained it as by the words Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye does appear for then came death by Gods appointment in right though not in event upon Adam and his whole off spring which is also confirm'd by S. Paul Rom. 5.12 By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so that man was the wilful bringer in of death on himself by the permission and appointment of God who left him in the hands of his own choice to live by obedience or dye by sin Yet you are to take notice that this death is not in us as in other living creatures a final destruction of the soul nor is it fully understood by the names of sleep Joh. 11.13 1 Cor. 15.26 and of enemy given to it in scripture for they are not of its common and universal nature but are attributed unto it by way of similitude both in respect of our bodies which are in sleep as without sense and of the minde which does after sleep more freely exercise its functions as the minds of good men shall after the resurrection It is call'd an enemy for that it destroys the being of the Creature and is therefore hateful and hated even where no sin was as appears by our Saviours Agony before his death yet this enemy does Gods Saints a good turn for that it brings them to everlasting rest though that it does so is not from its self but from the grace of Christ Heb. 2.14 who by his death has overcome death and the Devil who had the power of
make their wills and to set their houses in order and such mine own experience findes to be amongst us do but either discover weakness of judgement or that which is yet worse a selfish design that the estate of the sick person for want of such timely disposals being divided into fractions by the claims of several pretenders they themselves might hope to fish in troubled waters and with the Dog in the Apologue run away with the bone while others are contending for it But to return to our purpose In the second place you are to take notice that it is not improbable but that the Prophet knew that Hezekiah was not unprovided for his soul Or Thirdly Perhaps the Scripture gives us here onely the sum or chief scope of his advice But whether this will satisfie or not yet this is most certrin that as our Saviour first bids Seek the Kingdom of God Matth. 6.33 so it ought to be our chiefest care for the attainment of that to order our souls and consciences aright because that imports more than all the world besides and every one is interested therein though every one has not outward estates and houses to settle and that the rather too because the Will cannot be made until the conscience be rightly inform'd for that some things may appear to be unjustly gotten which cannot be bequeathed but must be restor'd Wherefore if there be not some tolerable preparation of the Conscience before that must above all things be our first main care and business And all that is requisite to be done herein may be reduc'd to one of these two intentions First To bring a man to dye in the favour of God or Secondly To give a man comfort and assurance thereupon in the very conflict it self and that a man may dye in favour of God he must first get it and then secondly keep it First then Gods favour is to be gotten for all mankind is fallen from it and so are liable both to temporal and eternal death and until the offence committed against God be removed death is arm'd with sin as with a sting which being taken away it has no more power to hurt Hear then that which is first taught is how a sinner may be justified and reconcil'd to God which for order sake I reduce to two heads First Repentance from dead works And secondly Faith towards God Heb. 6.1 both which are joyn'd together by the Apostle I understand here by Repentance that which has to do with sin both before and in conversion And it includes these four things First Knowledge of sin not onely in general that we are sinners but also in particular how and wherein Which knowledge is by the Law because that is the rule of our life Rom. 3.20 by which we are to square our particular actions and the glass which being look'd into clearly shews us our selves And it is very advantagious in order to repentance to examine our selves by this Rule and to look into this glass that if not all for who can do so seeing no man knoweth how oft he offendeth yet at least we may discern as many of our sins as we can Secondly as it includes the knowledge of our sins so likewise it includes our abhorrence and hatred of them which must be accompanied with grief and shame and confusion of face for that we have offended so bountiful a Father and sin'd against all the obligations of duty and gratitude imaginable Not that this kind of sorrow is in it self simply necessary or pleasing unto God for he onely requires our amendment and delights not to afflict willingly Lam. 3.34 nor to grieve the children of men but because there is such a strict coherence between this grief and amendment of life that the one as the needle makes way for the thred serves to usher in the other though if we consider the constitutions of our nature we have otherwise also just cause to be griev'd for our sins for that we are made thereby not onely deform'd in our selves but also odious in Gods sight and deserving of his just wrath and subjected to the extreamest severities of the Divine Vengeance And this kind of sorrow is call'd Contrition and Compunction both which seem to be one and the same thing in different forms of expression But if there be any difference between them Contrition implies more than Compunction for that by the one is usually meant the honour of punishment and the sting of Conscience which ensues upon the committal of sin and by the other is understood sorrow for the offence without respect to the punishment Thirdly This Repentance includes likewise confession of our sins Psal 32.51 Dan. 9. that so we may not onely see what we have done but what we have merited thereby giving glory to God before he cause darkness and before our feet stumble on the dark mountains I shall not here start that Question so much controverted betwixt us and the Papists Whether we be bound to confess our sins to men The Romanists themselves acknowledge that we are not bound to confess them before Baptism and the truth is we are not bound to confess them after as to the obtaining of forgiveness from and reconciliarion with God especially after such a Sacramental plenary particular inforc'd manner under pain of damnation and by virtue of Christs institution which they have in these last ages obtruded on the world though indeed as to the obtaining forgiveness from men whom we have injured and for the making of publique satisfaction to the Church for a notorious scandal given and sometimes for obtaining counsel and direction in the anxieties and scruples of an erroneous Conscience and how to lead our lives in a penitential way of pleasing God it is very expedient to confess them unto men but most especially in the distresses of mind for sins committed when the conscience gives a man caeca verbera blind blows like the vulture that continually gnaw'd upon the liver of Titius Vir. Aeneid that so the Ministers unto whom God has committed the Word of Reconciliation might assure the Conscience of pardon and procure peace by pronouncing a Sacerdotal Absolution a power which God neither gave to Angels nor Archangels Chrys de Sacerdotio But herein lies the wonder saith a Father that men inhabiting the earth should dispense those things which are in heaven forgiveness of sins Fourthly This Repentance must not stay here but must carry us further to beseech the Lord for his mercy and promise sake to forgive us our sins But because this presupposeth Faith which is the next point I shall reserve it until I speak of that and indeed faith and repentance are so link'd together that I onely separate them for Doctrines sake For never can true and compleat Repentance be without Faith nor true Faith be without Repentance I confess that some degree of Repentance may be onely in a sight of sin and
sorrow for it and some kinde of Confessions like that of Cain and Judas But such a Repentance is not with hatred of the sin but horror of the punishment And thus I come from speaking of Repentance which is the first particular requisite for obtaining the favour of God to speak of Faith which is the second wherein we must consider first What it is and secondly how it may be obtain'd First As touching what it is You are to take notice that the Scriptures sometimes call by the name of Faith that credit which we give to Gods Word sometimes power to work or to have a miracle wrought sometimes trust in God as in a storm Christ rebuking the fear of the Disciples askes Where is your Faith sometimes perswasion that we shall receive something from God as when he bids us ask in faith without wavering and sometimes as if it would exclude nothing that the word signifies But that Faith which reconciles to and justifies before God and which is here principally meant as it must be a Faith working by Charity so it has for its next and immediate object Christ the Redeemer and for its final and ultimate the whole Trinity Yet it is confest that this Faith presupposes credit to be given to Gods Word especially to the Doctrine of the Gospel that it is Divine and true and it produces a perswasion of receiving the accomplishment of Gods promises upon performance of the conditions but the former not onely evi men but the Devils themselves may have for they believe and tremble And the latter many times they that are reconcil'd to God have not especially in their first Conversions or Relapses into grievous sins before their restauration which happens because it is a consequent of the former and a fruit then onely present when God vouchsafes to grant it For as we see the Rose tree bears flowers but not in Winter or it may be the first year it was planted yet is apt to do so in convenient time so this justifying Faith is apt to produce perswasion though it does not always do so Secondly As to the obtaining of Faith It is most certain that we have not power of our selves to deserve or acquire it yet God has appointed some means in order to the attainment of it which he usually assists by his Spirit and in the conscientious practise whereof he gives it in certain degrees as First By hearing the Word preach'd he opens the understanding and so illuminates it that it may see what is deliver'd Secondly he convinces the judgement that attends and considers well what is said and from the Majestie Holiness Power and Consonancy of the Doctrine concludes it is from God Thirdly When a man is thus convinc'd he is not far from the Kingdom of heaven for that he onely then lacks time to deliberate Whether it be not most fit for him all things being considered to submit unto and obey this Doctrine Whereupon being mov'd by Gods Spirit he desires Christ which is the first degree of faith in him and prays the Lord for his sake to have mercy on him Which Faith thus gotten receives new additions of growth and strength by the practise of pious exercises as the familiar hearing of Gods Word Prayer Meditation and the frequent and holy use of the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper and this Faith being added to the remorse for our sins will be imputed to us for righteousness God thereby giving us Christ and the life which he hath in him given to the world John 5.13 And when the sinner is thus reconcil'd to God the great care must be to secure his favour For the doing of which he must First Abstain from his former sins for God pardons sinners as Princes do Rebels on condition they rebel no more Go thy way saith Christ and sin no more John 8.11 For as when the wicked turns from all his sin which he hath committed and does that which is lawful and right God will not remember his former wickedness So when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness Ezek. 18.24 and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mention'd but in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he dye Therefore we must not think it enough to have repented of our former sins unless we so repent as to forsake them and so forsake them as never to return to them again But we must mortifie the flesh by the Spirit and not consent unto the lusts thereof that so we may evidence the reality of our repentance Which while we do though our infirmities will not suffer us to give a perfect and impartial obedience to the whole Law yet this shall not be imputed unto us for that we have a Law of liberty whereby our actions are favourably interpreted according to the sincerity of our endeavours and the uprightness of our intentions and not according to the rigour of Justice and the measures of our weak performances And while we walk in this light so as our hearts condemn us not we have communion with God and the blood of his Son cleanseth us from all sin Secondly We must walk circumspectly considering our actions weighing our words and watching over our thoughts ere we give consent unto them setting our selves in Gods sight continually desiring him to direct us and to lay out the way before us doing all the good we can not conforming our selves to the world but transforming our selves by the renewing of our minds that we may prove Rom. 12.2 what is that good that acceptable and that perfect will of God And though we may through the frailty of our nature and the prevalency of a temptation fall again after reconciliation into Gods disfavour we must not altogether be disheartned thereby but renew our faith and repentance being assur'd that if while we were enemies we were reconcil'd to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5. we shall much more be saved by his life And this done the great care must be that we die well In order whereunto it is observable that oftentimes it so falls out that the state of the person is not always discern'd by himself and that though he is in favour with God yet he is not assur'd thereof Therefore it would be worth your inquiries to know how the Conscience may be ascertain'd of Gods favour presupposing that we now speak of such as are in Christ and have a right thereunto 1. Then this is general That whatsoever the cause of the doubt is it is requisite to evidence the truth of Repentance and Faith and to lead the party so affected to the renewed exercise of them and to an earnest invocation of God whereto may be added the special use of the Ministry of Reconciliation and the power of the keys after the