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A69531 The dead mans real speech a funeral sermon preached on Hebr. xi. 4, upon the 29th day of April, 1672 : together with a brief of the life, dignities, benefactions, principal actions, and sufferings, and of the death of the said late Lord Bishop of Durham / published (upon earnest request) by Isaac Basire ... Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676. 1673 (1673) Wing B1031; ESTC R13369 46,947 147

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most men doat so much because they have no care for nor hope of a better life 2. The state of a Life after Death that is the Life of Glory implied in these words He speaketh for Speech is the evidence of a living man Ergo Abel though dead in the Body yet is still alive in the Spirit The first is a Corrosive to the state of Nature but the Second comes in as a Cordial to all those who are in the state of Grace This Text appears much like the Israelites Guide in the Wilderness 't was a Cloud and that no ordinary Cloud but such a Cloud as was Dark on the one side and Light on the other side dark towards the Egyptians but Light towards the Israelites Even so is Death dark and sad to the Unbelievers and Impenitent but lightsome and welcome to all true Penitents and Believers 1. To begin with the first The state of Death Man in the state of Innocency was created capable of three Lives the Life Corporal Life Spiritual and Life Eternal The first is the Life of Nature a Transitory Life The second is the Life of Grace a Life permanent upon condition of perseverance in uniform obedience to God The third is Life Eternal the Life of Glory the Life of the Saints Triumphant of the Elect Angels yea the Life of God himself and therefore a Life immutable interminable 2. Two of these three Lives the Life natural and spiritual man had then in present possession and the third in a sure reversion after the expiration of but one Life and that a short one too but a span long this present life is no more by King David's just measure Behold thou hast made my days as it were a span long 3. Man by his Apostasie from God through the first original sin of willful incogitancy and through pride did soon deprive himself of all these three Lives at once and so according to the just sentence of God pronounced upon man aforehand for a fair warning Morte moriêris Thou shalt die the Death man was justly precipitated from that high state of Innocence into the base and damnable state of sin and misery whereby every man none excepted but the God and man Christ Jesus is now by original sin become subject to a threefold Death First Corporal Secondly Spiritual and thirdly without Repentance Eternal The first is Death Corporal which is a total but not final separation of the Soul from the Body the sad Real Text before our Eyes The second is Death Spiritual a far worse kind of death a state of sin which is a separation of the soul from the Grace and Favour of God which is life it self without which we are all by nature dead in trespasses and sins Children of wrath no better The third and worst of all is Death Eternal and therefore called in Holy Scripture The great Death the second Death because it is a final total and eternal separation of both Soul and Body from the Glorious Presence Beatifical Vision and admirable and unspeakable Fruition of God himself whom as to serve here on Earth is the Life of Grace so to enjoy in Heaven is the Life of Glory which is life everlasting 4. The first of these three Death Temporal none of us can avoid die we must die we shall God prepare us all for it But as the thing Death is certain for the matter so for the manner how we shall die in or out of our wits as in Frenzies c. where we shall die amongst Friends or amongst Foes when we shall die whether in youth or in old Age how we shall die whether by a suddain violent or painful Death which God in mercy avert from us all none of us all knows and therefore our best course is while we may by a lively faith timely repentance and real amendment of life to prepare for Death and then come Death in what shape it will and welcome we shall not die unprepared Yet it concerns us all frequently and seriously to think of these great Quatuor novissima Death Judgment Heaven and Hell 'T is Moses his passionate wish O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Since 't is appointed for all men once to die and after that comes Judgment The Vulgar Translation renders it statutum est Death is an universal Statute Law to all mankind and so it is both for authority of coaction and certainty of execution for it is grounded upon two of the greatest Attributes of God which are First God's infallible Truth for the Commination was directed unto man and that also in mercy to forwarn him that he might not sin Secondly God's exact Justice which requires the execution of the Divine Sentence to be done upon the same nature that had sinned Man did sin therefore man must suffer that is man must die and because the first man Adam was the Original Root and General Representative of all mankind Adam's off-spring therefore all men must die pray God we all may die well or if they live to the end of the world yet they must suffer a Change at the least at the last which Change whatever ever it be for 't is a Mystery will be equivalent to a Death so that there lies an universal necessity to undergo a Death some kind of Death In the Antient Register of the Macrobii those long liv'd Patriarchs Adam liv'd 930 years and he died Methuselah the longest liver of all Mankind lived 969 years and he died c. that is the burthen song of them all Neither Methuselah the antientest nor Sampson the strongest nor Solomon the wisest of men could exempt themselves from the fatal necessity of Death Seneca himself though but a Heathen Philosopher being ignorant of the original cause of Death yet observing the generality of the event of Death drew his Topick of Consolation to his Friend Polybius sad for the Death of his Brother from this necessity of Death But God be thanked we Christians have better Topicks of Comfort for the Death of our Christian Friends past or our own Death a coming by opposing through Faith against the terrour of our Dissolution by Death the consideration of our admirable and comfortable conjunction with Christ our Head after Death This glorious state is by St. Paul styled the manifestation of the Sons of God for which by a natural instinct the whole Creation groaneth with an earnest expectation of the accomplishment The word in the Original is very significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which betokens the looking for some Person or thing with lifting up of the Head or stretching out their Necks with earnest intention and observation to see when the person or thing looked for shall appear as a poor Prisoner condemned looks out at the Grates for a gracious Pardon And if the Creatures inanimate c. do so earnestly
pant for the Final Redemption of the Sons of God how much more we being the Parties principally concerned This made St. Paul as it were with hoised-up sails of Hope and Desire the Affections of his Soul to long to be dissolved and to be with Christ The Original imports to loosen or to launch forth as a Ship from a Forreign Port for a happy voyage towards her wished for Haven at home 5. I have so much Christian charity for the surviving noble Relations of the Great man deceased as to believe that if they could with their wishes and tears waft him over back from Heaven to labour again on Earth they would not do it if they loved him indeed and not rather themselves 'T is an excellent observation of Isidore Pelusiota he lived above 1200. years ago who commenting on these words of our Saviour's compassion for Lazarus expressed by his tears that it was not at the Death of Lazarus but that it was at his Resurrection that Jesus wept a real demonstration of his Humanity both natural and moral This Father's note upon that difference is this That our Saviour Christ's Love towards Lazarus was a Rational Love yea a Divine Love not as Ours towards our dead Friends too too oft too carnal or natural or at the best a humane love if not a self-love we wish them alive for our own ends True it is that 't is very lawful and also very fit to pay our deceased Friends their due Tribute of Grief and to let Nature have her course lest we should seem or appear without natural affection but provided always that the Current of Nature do not overflow the Banks of Reason much more the Banks of Religion settled by St. Paul who would not have Christians to be sorry for their deceased Friends as others who have no hope For there is a lively hope of a joyful meeting again in the state of Glory if we in the state of Grace do follow the Saints deceased Upon this consideration is worth the observing the different manner of mourning of Joseph for his Father Jacob his dear and near Relation for Joseph mourned seven days only and of the Egyptians mourning seventy days for the same Jacob a stranger to them The reason of the difference is because the Egyptians were unbelievers but Joseph was a Believer of the Resurrection and of a glorious meeting once again with his deceased Father from thenceforth never to be separated This Posie of sacred Meditations I do now present to the Noble Relations of the deceased desiring them to accept this offer and to use it as a Spiritual Handkercheif to wipe off if not drain the Spring of Tears for this their deceased support 6. Mean-while our main care must be not to forfeit that glorious meeting by a course of life contrary to the good example of the Saints departed but instantly to resolve earnestly to study constantly to endeavour to live well that is to say To make the Will of God the Rule of our Life and the Honour of God the End of our Life This is to live unto the Lord that is in Subjection unto him and then we may be sure to die in the Lord that is under his Protection both of Body and Soul for evermore 7. You may be pleased to remember that our Text was two faced and therefore we compared it to the Israelites Guide through the Wilderness a Cloud we are now past the dark side of it Death He being Dead we must now face about and chearfully behold the bright side of the cloud wherein the Dead speaketh and here we have 1. The Speaker He 2. The Speech implied He speaketh 3. The time expressed Yet that is after Death He being Dead yet speaketh 8. First the Speaker is Abel whose name bears mankinds universal Motto in the Holy Tongue that is Vanity for when all is done Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity until the Spirit of man return to God who gave it till then whatever Pride may prompt vain man verily every man living in his best estate is altogether vanity Selah Secondly For his Trade he was an Heardsman for he offered to God the best of his Flock in due Homage and as a Figure of that Lamb of God which was to come to take away the sins of the World no doubt he was well instructed by his Parents Adam and Eve of whose Conversion and Salvation to doubt since the promise of the Blessed Seed preached unto them by Almighty God himself after their fall and which we must in reason suppose was apprehended and applyed by them to themselves through Faith lest God's preaching should prove vain such a suspicion or doubt of their eternal state were in us their Posterity an odious want of charity and against the Current of the Antient Fathers who give for it this probable reason That God did expresly curse the Serpent and the Earth but God did not at all curse either Adam or Eve but contrarywise God in mercy did bestow upon Adam and Eve the original and fundamental blessing of the Promised Seed the Messiah which is Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour in whom all Adam and Eve's Posterity should be blessed and therefore they are not to be concluded within the number of the damned crew upon whom shall be pronounced that dreadful final sentence of Ite maledicti Go ye cursed As a clear evidence of Adam and Eve's Faith we produce their Works namely the Godly Education of their Children Cain and Abel in God's true Religion to offer corporal sacrifices c. with a spiritual reference and therefore with faith in the only expiatory and satisfactory sacrifice to be performed in the fulness of time by the person of the Messiah the second Adam for the saving of mankind as the first Adam was in the damning of mankind both the Adams being publick Representatives of all mankind as the first in the Fall so the second in the Resurrection 9. This just Apology for our first Parents Adam Eve I thought it my filial duty to offer unto all mankind Adam's off-spring once for all to stop the mouths of censorious Children unmindful of their original duty and of the Rule Parentum Mores non sunt Arguendi Shem and Japhet were blessed for turning away their faces from their Father's nakedness but wicked Cham was for outfacing it cursed with a grievous curse 10. 'T is very observable that God had respect unto Abel first and then to his sacrifice to intimate that God first accepts the Person and then his service for Abel offered by Faith but Cain without Faith for want of which God rejected the person of Cain though the Elder Brother and consequently his sacrifice Hence observe that two men may come and worship God with the same kind of outward worship and yet differ much in the inward manner and success of their service
none of Solomon's Proverbs to be sure This great Man here lying before us may be a standing Monument for a real confutation and may rise up in judgment against all such base slanderers of our Church and Religion Behold how great and goodly works one single English Prelate hath done in so short a time and that after twenty years long Sequestration and voluntary Banishment only for his Religion and Allegiance Neither doth this our Bishop want his Peers even in this present age our great Arch-Bishops Dr. Laud that glorious Martyr Dr. Juxon Dr. Shelden Bishop Warner those constant Confessors and how many more whose eminent magnificence may on the other hand choak the mouth of that English Bel and the Dragon and of all such Rabshakehs who out of their Bulimia or the greedy worm do eat much but as it is observed thrive little are still gaping after the sweet morsel of Sacriledge though in the digestion it will prove first or last a bitter Pill in the maw of their conscience They I say looking upon the Bishops and Clergy with the squint eyes of envy and malice shoot out their venemous tongues against these good men and their whole order inhancing by a false rule of hyperbolical multiplication the Bishops revenues in Fines c. never talking the ingenuous pains to ballance in the account their Incomes with their just deductions in their vast publick and pious expences but through a diabolical detraction and malignant subtraction they do wilfully suppress the great Out-lets of these great Revenues This Example may restrain a third sort of censorious men who being more jealous than zealous of good works object the suspicion of vain Glory in the case wresting to their own damnation that passage of our Lord Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth though this Caution be expresly restrained by our Lord to secret Alms far different from the case of publick works of Charity concerning which our Lord gives an express command to the contrary else what mean these words Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven That they may see your good works not as though the sight of them should be intentio operantis but conditio operandi thereby to provoke others to a Godly imitation to the Glory of God which must be the ultimate end of all our actions for whilst we praise the Instruments such worthy men as in life and death have endeavonred to be beneficial unto their Generations We must not forget the Principal which is God the Father of lights from whom cometh down every good giving and every perfect gift Enough once for all to gagg those evil men who being out of charity with Charity it self want that Christian Charity which thinketh no evil His Passions or Sufferings For Multa fecit tulitque 1. Publick and that first at home Annis 1640 and 1641. when he was both Sequestred and Angariated before a Sacrilegious and Rebellious Assembly of Lay-men which the seduced Crew did nick-name A grand Committee for Religion his Magnanimity and Constancy in maintaining the truly Apostolick and Catholick Doctrine and Religion of our Holy Mother the Church of England was such that he came off clear from all calumnies laid to his charge in base Articles and Pamphlets to the notorious amazement disappointment and shame at last of his malicious false and furious Adversaries And this I can the better depose for that I had the honour then and there to be a fellow-sufferer not only by Sympathy with him and for him but also by my own Idiopathy yet God delivered him and my self out of all these troubles 2. His sufferings abroad as in France where he underwent another Tryal only for upholding under the King then in the French Court the Publick Liturgy or Common-Prayer-Book of the Church of England for wherever he was he retained still and exerted a publick spirit And his Constancy the Character of sincerity was so much the greater that for all those his Tryals both at home and abroad he was never moved much less removed from his stedfast Belief and Uniform Practice of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England when at home swarms of unstable men were carried away with the terrible torrent of the Times both from the True Religion and their due Allegiance For this great Man was resolved and resolute to be one of those not too many who would never defile his Holy Garment neither his Surplice when a Priest nor his Rochet if he could then have been a Bishop with any Sacrilegious Covenant or Rebellious Engagement and I thank God so was I whereby he saved himself the labour of a sad Repentance and requisite Recantation before God and Men for those great sins of Perjury Rebellion and Sacriledge and so he did wisely prevent that scruple or singultum cordis the hiccough of Conscience for so some do translate it which they of the Clergy who against their multiplyed Oaths to God the Church and the King have committed may be put upon here or hereafter which is the best way to clear themselves from shame and reproach 3. His Personal Sufferings which were by his frequent Sicknesses 1. By Nature acute as the Stone c. which usually he called his roaring Pains whereby he was at last overcome together with a Pectoral Dropsie 2. The length of his Disease for two years before his death he was much crazed by many furious fits and so he did bend his chief care to prepare for his latter end fore-feeled in himself and fore-told by himself to his private Friends and forespoken in his Last Will. 'T is the Observation both of Divines and Philosophers That when the Soul of Man is near its final though not total separation from the Body it withdraws it self and so becomes receptible of a kind of Prophetical or Prognostick Inspiration concerning its departure It was his blessing from God to give him such forewarnings and so to hear his prayer in the Letany to deliver him from suddain death which though to a Godly Man it may prove suddain in respect of expectation for the manner or circumstance concerning time and place for all things come alike to all yet in point of preparation for the matter and substance it 's never suddain This fore-sight of his departure at hand made him often in his sicknesses to ingeminate in the Royal Prophets words O that I had wings like a Dove for then would I fly away and be at rest His Death And thereat his last Actions as 1. His Benedictions to his Children and at their desires his blessing also upon the Divines then present and upon God's Church chiefly for Purity and Peace 2. His Solemn Invitation to God's Priest for his last Viaticum and then the Priest about him asking him whether by reason of his weakness he would have