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
misery and all the inconveniencies of poverty be a sufficient plea against it for that Gods friendship which is entail'd upon the childrens children of them that fear him is a far better provision than the Mammon of unrighteousness For he is the Father of the fatherless and the defendor of the Widdow and the committing of them to his care is a kind of obligation upon him to provide for them and therefore since his blessings make rich and that many from small or no beginnings have been rais'd by him to great fortunes and preferment in the world that should fortifie them against such solicitudes and induce them to busie their thoughts in studying how to make them vertuous and religious and to leave it to God to make them rich or at least to provide food and raiment for them And to this end it is very necessary that they give them a charge touching the fear of God as Moses Joshua and David and others of the Saints of God have done The last words you know of our dying friends make the deepest impressions and are usually best remembred and this being the weightiest point on which the happiness of our whole life depends ought not to be forgotten And thus having conducted the dying man as well as I could through all the streights and duties necessary to be perform'd by him in order to his dying in the favour of God and to give him comfort and assurance thereupon in the very conflict it self I shall now before I come to any particular application or to the performance of the saddest part of my task prescribe a few such tame and gentle Cordials as may onely help to keep up his spirits and in some measure allay the pains of death in its more immediate and nearer approaches and that is to mind him of the instances of Gods presence and faithfulness in trouble that he will not suffer any to be tempted above his strength And being there are many who suffer more from the fears of losing their reason for want of rest and their patience through the extremity of pain and so offend God they must know that the favour of God cannot be forfeited by the distempers of the brain or such accidents as are occasion'd by the disease and if while the body is free from such distempers they do for prevention hereof settle and confirm the Conscience in the love of God they may be sure that those passions of idleness raving swearing or blasphemy it self shall not be laid to their charge because that they are not of their own election For as a Father pitieth his son Psal 103. so doth the Lord those that fear him As touching the pain of death I am verily perswaded it is not neer so great as men apprehend nor comparable to a fit of the Cholick Gout Stone or Toothach it self and that for this reason because that in such diseases as are long and sensitive strength so much forsakes the body before death fecks it that a man cannot feel himself dye Whereas in sharper sicknesses it is otherwise for that nature not being wasted is able to make resistance and so renders its pain more pungent But yet the shortness of them makes them more supportable for that a man is cut off as it were at a blow and surpriz'd by death before he has time to consider of it However though this be so yet to encourage and fortifie the dying person against death it will not be amiss to have recourse to the assistance of God in it as that of the Psalmist Though I walk through the valley of death Psal 23. yet will I fear no evil to Christs Victory over death who by his death hath taken away its sting to the assurance of glory which shall succeed to the presence of Christ and of his Saints and Angels and lastly to oppose the very rest from labour which death shall shortly bring to the sharpness of the present pain And in the agony it self when the party is at the last gasp and the soul hovering in a trembling quandary between its desires of being freed from a Prison and its unwillingness to part with its old lodging Then the great business must be to recollect the miscarriages of his life past that so he may rally his forces to consummate his graces and to perfect his repentance and calling to minde that Christ sits at the right hand of God to be his Advocate he may confidently commend his spirit unto him as into the hands of a merciful Creator And when through the loss of his speech or senses he is rendred uncapable of such pious performances then they that are about him are to supply his inability with earnest prayer unto God for the pardon of his sins for the grace of Christ for the rebuking of Satan and for the guard guard and transport of the holy Angels and lastly when the soul is parted as we pray Thy will be done so we must rest satisfied therewith when it is done comforting our selves with S. Pauls Doctrine concerning the Resurrection and the coming of Christ And his bringing them that dye in him with him again in glory As touching the Funeral though it may seem neither agreeable with my title or purpose to speak any thing of it at this time yet I must needs say that as we are not on the one hand to bring in hired mourners like so many Tisiphones out of S. Ratricks Purgatory to fill the Church with howlings which has been deservedly condemn'd by the primitive Bishops as disagreeing with the Doctrine of the Resurrection and the life to come So on the other hand we must take heed that we run not into a contrary extreme with some Fanatical Innovators and insteed of a Christian burial bring in a dumb shew having not so much as the least expression of a Christian faith or hope Though it be true that it was no prejudice to the blessed Martyrs that their bodies were consum'd to ashes or devoured by ravenous beasts or drown'd in the sea for the sea shall give up her dead And in this case that of the Poet holds true Coelo tegitur qui non habet urnam Yet in an ordinary way there is a respect due to the bodies of the Saints deceased as to the Temples of the Holy Ghost the organs that he us'd to all good wash'd in the laver of Regeneration whose members were the weapons of Righteousness which did partake of the body and blood of Christ by which they glorified God in their bodies and which being rais'd again in due time shall be made conformable to the glorious body of Christ Hence are those offices we owe them to wait upon their Herse Luke 7.12 as David upon Abner and the Citizens upon the Widows Son to inter them decently in the earth our common Mother And some respect is likewise to be had to a consecrated place for Joseph desir'd that his bones should be buried in the
room for Christ whom he confess'd they had before so often justled out of his heart And with no less abhorrence of himself then hatred of his sin while the justice of God is ready to overwhelm him with dispair he supports himself with the consideration of his former mercies Then it was that he approved himself not onely a good Textuary but a good Divine for that as often as his memory or they who assisted him in that charitable Office furnisht him with Scriptures suitable to his condition his own experience enabled him to make the application Now he confesses that it is no time to dissemble with God nor to cheat his own Soul And therefore endeavours by his redoubling of his sorrow for his sin and by the fervency of his Prayers to evidence the truth of both And being alarm'd with the brisker approaches of death and finding a sensible decay in his Spirit after he had taken as long a time as his condition would admit of to prepare himself and acknowledged with fear and trembling that seeing Christ sent his Disciples to prepare a room for the celebration of the Passeover How much more need of preparation did he stand in for receiving of Christ himself And having added unto this an humble and penitent confession of his sins he received the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper accompanied with some especial freinds with a reverence and devotion becoming so Sacred a Mystery His own Lady Mrs. Ford Sir Richard Kenedy the Provest of the Colledg and others and being overtaken with a short nod he checkt himself with a what Could'st thou not watch with me one hour The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weake O Lord pardon my infirmity And now with old Simeon having taken Christ into his arms he finds a calme in his conscience which without doubt was an antepast of that Everlasting rest which he now enjoys He takes a soleme farewell of all his freinds and addressing himself more particularly to one of them gives him this last Charge and evidence of his persevering Loyalty fear God serve your King and lead a good life And then after he had more than once committed his Soul both actively and chearfully into the hands of God with a sweet Jesus receive my Spirit and Come Lord Jesus come quickely His speech felt a stop forsome time but neither our prayers nor his understanding for a little after the biâ—d of Paradise being ready to fly out of his Cage gives us notice of his departure by singing with a tunable voyce some few verses of the 25 Psalm And then his speech quite forsaking him his hand and his eys were faithfull interpreters of his inward devotion And thus have we brought this honorable Person to the borders of Eternity and have said no more of him then what was requisite for your instruction And to the end that what was excellent in him and therefore imitable may have the deeper and fresher impression on your memories I shall once more tell you in a word that he was a learned Scholler a profound Lawyer a wise States-man a just Man a true Freind a thankfull Person where he was obliged a munificent Benefactor to the Church a loyal Subject to his King a faithfull Servant to the house of Ormond a zealous professour and maintainer of the Doctrine and discipline of the Church of England abhorring Popery on the one hand and Phanatacism on the other and that whatever the particular failings of his life were I am confident he dyed a Penitent and a good Christian in the Communion of that Church in which he accounted it his greatest happyness to have had his education And now if any hereafter shall out of envy go about to uncover his nakedness or to revive the memory of any of his infirmities or for want of charity unto me look upon what I have now said as the products of affection or assentation I shall onely make this defence for my self that I profess in the presence of God whom if I speak the truth I desire may be my justifier but if a lye my punisher that I have given you here as true and impartial a relation of his end as if I were now to make my last account to God and as this cannot but satisfie all those who are able to distinguish colours and to discern truth from falshood So I shall take no other pains for the satisfaction of those peevish and perverse dispositions who are resolv'd before hand not to be satisfied with any thing then to tell them that I account it a small thing to be judg'd by men for that I must stand or fall to my own Master and that it much more concerns them to amend what they find defective in themselves then thus uncharitably to censure others that so they may not oneâ—y deserve to be well spoken of here but at last be admitted into that everlasting rest from labours which now as we have good cause to hope that honorable person whose Funerals we have Solemnis'd is in Possession of FINIS Oratio Funebris HABITA In Aula Collegii S. S. Individuae TRINITATIS Coram Academia Iudicibus clero inter celebrandas exequias Insignissimi viri MAVRITII EVSTACE EQUITIS AURATI Hiberniae Cancellarii Ejusdemque olim Regni Justitiarii 5 o. Julij 1665. FRequens hoc dicendi genus Auditores Solitaque haec perorandi consuetudo innocua haec cum Manibus colloquia unà cum ipsis creverunt saeculis temporique coaeva sunt adeo ut ne ipsa quidem mors inter Heroas velim magis familiaris sit quam funerum solennitas id enim privilegii semper habuerunt viri Illustriores ut facundè expirarent quas hauserunt animas inter Oratores ponerent eas in exitu saltem ex Harmonia compositas probaturi faeliciori in hoc fato functi quod eorum vel exequia inter delicias numerarentur Absit itaque hodiernae Pompae invidia neque is assentandi libidine lascivire existimetur qui defunctorum gesta modestè recitat hoc enim non tam artis quam pietatis est officium inter leviores Rhetoras habendus est qui studet cineribus adulari vel tumulorum umbras captitare at neque crescenti nepotum famae haec consecramus encomia ne Vicariè quidem adblandientes sed ut novos ediscant potius quam antiquos vindicent honores Egregiae quippe animi dotes nulli haereditario jure devoluuntur nec in asse virtus est Individua haec Aeternitati comes per inexplicabilis gyri ludens miracula nec incipit nec desinit sed ultrà omnes limitum terminos luxurians inse usque usque redit suumque sibi complementum est Quam imparem subeunt provinciam quantumque in magnis argumentis laborant ingenia vestrum Auditores testor dolorem Oratorem itaque praesenti quam apprimè utilem negotio nacti estis Gravitati consonum ignaris etenim nulli melius