Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A51401
|
A sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable Roger Earl of Orrery, who dyed the 16th of October, at Castle-Martyr, and was buried at Youghall in Ireland the 18th of the same month, in the year 1679 by Thomas Morris, M.A. ...
|
Morris, Thomas, M.A.
|
1681
(1681)
|
Wing M2812; ESTC R16333
|
20,753
|
48
|
A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ROGER EARL of ORRERY WHO Dyed the 16th of October at Castle-Martyr and was Buried at Youghall in Ireland the 18th of the same Month in the Year 1679. By THOMAS MORRIS M. A. His Lordships Domestick Chaplain LONDON Printed by J. M. for John Wickins at the White-Hart over against St Dunstans Church 1681. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MARGARET Countess Dowager OF ORRERY May it please your Ladiship THE high esteem I have for the extraordinary worth of my Deceased Patron hath I confess such an influence on me that I cannot but think my self obliged to do him all the honour and service I can now he is Dead as well as when he was Living And I should think my self unjust as well as ungrateful should I not lay hold on all opportunities to do it However I must also say that I am so conscious of my own Defects that I should have been willing these following Meditations on the sad occasion of his Death should have lain only in Private hands had not your Ladiship exprest a a willingness to have them more publick Not that I have any design to avoid or suppress the Publication of your Noble Lords worth whose Memory I shall always honour but that I fear my weak endeavours will rather Eclipse than render it Illustrious But your Ladiships Commands having superseded all excuse I dare not be backward in paying this my last duty to him in doing which though my Expressions have been short of his Due yet I have hopes my zeal will Apologize for that defect which however illy expressed I am sure is hearty and real I have not the vanity to think that by what I have said either in the Sermon or Character I have added any thing to your Ladiships Comfort or knowledge since as to the first I am sure your Ladiship is no such stranger to Christianity as to be destitute of those good grounds it affords for that purpose And as to the second it would be a great piece of impudence in me to think your Ladyship should not know and retain a livelier Idea of this your Noble Lord than what in my rude draught I have represented All therefore that I have done will serve more to inform others than your Ladiship who as they come hereby to be acquainted with the admirable Excellencies of one more of the worlds most Famous Worthies so in the perusing and considering what is here said of him they may be further provoked to follow his steps Since therefore this unpolisht piece must by your Ladiships order come abroad I cannot but take the confidence to crave your Ladiships pardon for as well as Patronage of it which by reason of its meanness I confess is as unworthy of the latter as it stands in need of the former Hoping that though I have not drawn things so well to the life as they have deserved yet my endeavours that way may be accepted because in them I have chiefly aim'd to give a testimony to the world of the great Honour and Esteem I have for the memory of the Deceased and also to shew how much I am Right Honourable Your Ladiships most obedient most faithful and most humble Servant in Christ Jesus Thomas Morris A SERMON Preached at the Funeral of the Right Honourable ROGER EARL of ORRERY REVELATIONS xiv 13. And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me write blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them SUCH and so many are the troubles and afflictions which by divine appointment Christians are likely to meet with in this vale of tears that had they hopes of no other happiness than what in this world they partake of they would be of all men the most miserable Insomuch that even Death it self which Nature shrinks at and abhors would be desired by them though not as a door that opens to an happy state yet as a period to all their calamities and sorrows as well as their beings But there is no such bad news for sound and sincere Christians they are happy even in their very Afflictions which they are assured from Gods spirit will work for them an exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 They are so far from being without the hopes of enjoying a more blissful state than here they are in that they only of all men in the world have the most sure and certain hope that way For Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God hath by his precious death and sufferings procured for those that are his sincere followers all things that may conduce to their felicity He being the Saviour of all men 1 Tim. 4.10 2 Tim. 1.10 especially of them that believe 'T is He that hath brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel Which they Rom. 2.7 who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Coloss 2.14 shall undoubtedly enjoy 'T is in a word he that hath blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances that condenm'd us And having taken away our Sins and nail'd them to his Cross hath thereby disarmed Death of his sharpest sting so that now of a King of Terrors he is become the sweet harbinger of bliss and peace to all that live and dye in Christ 'T is therefore an utter mistake to think that sound and sincere Christians though grievously afflicted here are in an hopeless condition on the contrary 't is Infidels and Hpyocrites are so they who will not have Christ reign in their hearts but rather a beastly lust they who do not and will not strive to conform their lives to Gods holy precepts these indeed as long as they continue in their hypocrisie unbelief and disobedience are of all men the most miserable for they can have no solid hopes of any other happiness but that low mean and pitiful one that in this world only is to be enjoyed and Death is so far from being a friend to them that the very thought thereof terrifies them and marrs all their pleasant enjoyments and when it does draw near to execute its fatal Office upon them it comes arm'd with its most dreadful sting and opens upon them a floodgate of Vengeance and Misery This is their portion But now on the contrary the truly godly have infinite reason to look upon Death as their reconciled friend through Jesus Christ it being through him now made but an happy manumission of their pious souls from the labours and drudgeries they underwent in the flesh and a sending of those Immortal Beings into those regions of rest and bliss where the enjoyment of Gods presence together with the sense of all those good things which through grace they have been enabled to do in the body will be an eternal solace and refreshment to them And the evidence we have for the certainty of this future bliss is so
great that to question it will be to injure Christianity and affront our reasons for besides the many other places of Scripture which bear witness to this truth this of the Text also is a most full and unexceptionable proof of it where we have an account from one infallibly inspired by the spirit of truth that he heard a voice from Heaven declare this Blessedness and that the spirit of God said as it were an Amen to it to confirm it For so saith the Holy Pen-man And I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me write blessed are c. Which words as they contain in them admirable matter of comfort against the death of our selves or others that dye in the Lord so they will afford me a fair opportunity of speaking something concerning the admirable worth of this Noble person Deceased whose Funeral Obsequies we are here met with loads of grief to solemnize of whom should I say nothing I might well deserve to be branded with ingratitude and injustice His noble Birth and Parentage his honourable Alliance his high Titles and places of honour and trust which the bounty of his most Sacred Majesty thought good to confer on him without repenting though they sufficiently declare to the world that he was a person of no mean Merit and Quality yet for as much as Honour may be possessed by the unworthy as well as worthy therefore I shall here pass by these things of him as the least part of his praise and in the close speak a little of those singular Virtues he was eminent for which have render'd his Memory glorious and happy and his Decease comfortable to his Friends and Relations though our loss of him be most deplorable In the mean time I shall crave leave to consider the import of the Text and discourse so much only of the matter contained in it as will lead me to what I have further to say of this Noble person The sacred Pen-man of this last part of Scripture being in the foregoing Verse acquainted with the invincible patience of the Saints under their afflictions is in the words of the Text acquainted with their blessedness also Where we have First A future blessedness after Death declared and recorded write blessed are the dead Secondly The persons described who are declared to be thus blessed viz. such as dye in the Lord Thirdly The time when these persons are blessed viz. from henceforth from the time of their decease to all Eternity Fourthly the evidence afforded us of the undoubted certainty of this truth Which is twofold 1. The testimony of a voice from Heaven declaring this thing and commanding it to be Recorded which voice was heard by one of the Holy Apostles and attested by him when inspired by the spirit of truth I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me write blessed c. 2. 'T is moreover attested and confirm'd by the Holy spirit of God who is truth it self and cannot lye yea saith the spirit that is the spirit of God saith this is true Fifthly The nature of this blessedness wherein it consists and that we find is in two things 1. In a freedom from those evils which holy persons undergo in the flesh they rest from their labours 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In enjoying the good of all they have done their works do follow them or accompany with them as the words in the original properly signifie I should exceed the bounds of a Funeral Sermon and consequently be too tedious should I take the liberty to say so much as on this Text and on this occasion I might both which afford such a plenty of matter that it is hard to distinguish which is the most copious subject I would do no wrong to the Text and I am as unwilling to be so injurious to the happy memory of this Noble Peer as to pass by in silence those things of him which are worth our knowledge and imitation and I would not exceed my due bounds To be as brief therefore as the subject matter I am to discourse of will handsomly permit I shall crave leave to make no other observations from the words of the Text than what will lead me to speak pertinently though briefly too on the subject of this present sad occasion First And here first 't is worth our while to observe That there is for certain a blissful state to be enter'd upon after Death by those that dye in the Lord for we find in the Text a voice from Heaven from God himself declaring that blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord and this is one of the greatest evidences of the truth of a thing that mortals can expect Exod. 20.1 By such a voice God declared his will upon Mount Sinai By such a voice Christ is declared to be the Son of God Matt. 3.17 And by such a voice they are declared blessed that dye in the Lord. And lest we should have any doubt about the truth of this declaration upon the account of the reporter who perhaps may be thought to be deceived or deceive to obviate such a doubt we find an inspired person reports this one acted by the infallible spirit of God records this and that by a special command too of that voice which he heard declare it and lest yet there should be any place of doubting the spirit of truth peremptorily asserts and confirms it But to speak a little more particularly of this important truth I shall in brief consider 1. Who may be said to dye in the Lord. 2. What rational grounds we have to be perswaded that such are blessed after their death 1. As for dying in the Lord by Lord here we are to understand our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and to dye in him implies two things 1. A being baptized into Christ for a persons dying in Christ doth necessarily suppose his being in Christ before he dyes else he cannot be said to dye in Christ Now Baptism is the ordinary way by which persons are brought to be in Christ for 't is said Gal. 3.27 as many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ 2. It implies also a living and dying suitable to that profession of Christ which is made in Baptism for all that are baptized do not dye in Christ because many fall away from that profession they made in baptism and so dye in a wicked Apostasie from Christ They therefore only dye in Christ who live and dye suitable to their Baptismal profession believing with all their hearts in Jesus Christ and taking care to yield such unfeigned obedience to all the Gospel precepts as to be always heartily sorry for the committing of any sin or omitting of any duty They that thus live conformable to Christ and his precepts and continue unto the death in such a conformity may be truly said to dye in the Lord Joh. 15.14 Joh. 8.31 for Christ owns such to belong unto him that do whatsoever