and the attendance upon his Duty This I confess to One who thought it always common and easie for Men to talk like Philosophers but rare and difficult to be so in good earnest gave me that Idea of his Piety and Patience and Firmness of Mind which made me then begin to know the Man and raised my Honour for him ever after Lastly The only remaining Inference That of Contentedness with the Disposals of Almighty God in this World was likewise very visible and exemplary in him That equality of Mind with which he struggled under a narrow Fortune and a numerous Family many now present must needs be well acquainted with and a Temper so far from Greedy that even in things of right his own he rather chose to depart from what he could ill be without than have recourse to Rigour and extreme Justice He hath frequently declared that he wanted no increase of Honour or Preferment for himself but purely for the sake of his Children nor did he upon Their Account desire more than might preserve them from Contempt and set them above the Temptations of Want and hard Necessity And This was so modest and so remarkable in a Person of such Learning and Labour in his Profession that it engag'd Mens Wishes at least and Affections in his Favour Insomuch that He I believe was one of those few whose any Additions of Good Fortune gave a general Satisfaction and instead of envying every body who knew him wou'd have rejoyced to have seen them more and greater What now remains but that Each of us from hence gather such Inferences as may make this Example of Benefit to us by applying it to our own respective Circumstances More particularly 1. That You first the Orphans of this Deceased imitate his Patience and Meekness and Holy Resignation to the Will of God His Charity and Justice and great Industry The Generation of the Righteous shall be blessed and a good Man leaveth an Inheritance for his Children says the Scripture Even the best of all Inheritances the Love and tender Regard of him who is the Father of the Fatherless Think not then his Virtues are lost and buried with him no They will live and as He We ought not to doubt now reaps the unspeakable Advantage of them in Heaven so will they shed a happy Influence upon You on Earth too Provided always that they live in your Practice and careful Imitation also and keep you effectually from all things which would be a Reproach to the Children of such a Father 2. That You next of this Parish seriously consider how far you are accountable for the long and laborious Ministry of such a Pastor that a faithful and painful Guide of Souls is One very considerable among those Talents which God will reckon with Men for at the last Day And therefore it highly concerns you to recollect and practice those Doctrines with a Diligence proportionable to His that inculcated them For if so much good Seed through your neglect produce not much good Fruit the Ground assure your selves will be cursed and condemned for its Barrenness And the more you might have learned and done by the Influence of such Instruction and such an Example the heavier shall Your Account be and the more deservedly dreadful Your Condemnation 3. That We Thirdly who have the Honour of the same Profession do like him dedicate our Lives and Labours entirely to the Service of God and the Promotion of his Glory by setting forward the love and practice of Virtue and the Salvation of Mankind Especially that we make it our chief Care to establish and secure the essential and most necessary parts of Religion which the shameless Insolence and Impiety of the profligate Age we live in seems now as much as ever to require from us And though all of us cannot do this with His Learning and Abilities yet it will be our own Fault if we do not all attempt it with a Diligence and Zeal equal to His. Which if we do our faithful Endeavours will be accepted and approved even of Men but if this Expectation should fail us too and we find our selves unable to effect the Good we intend yet it is Incouragement sufficient for us to abound in the Work of the Lord that we are sure our Labour shall not cannot be in vain in the Lord. With these Reflections and Holy Resolutions let us commit the mortal Remains of this Reverend Worthy Good Man to the Dust In sure and certain hope of a Resurrection to Life Eternal and that if we be careful thus as you have heard to approve our selves God's Children we shall not faâ—l in his due time to be made in the best the most beneficial and most perfect and glorious Sense of the Text Heirs of God and Joynt-Heirs of Child Which he of his infinite Mercy grant for the sake of the Same Jesus Christ his Dear Son and our P 〈◊〉 Saviour To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit Three Persons and One God be all Honour and Glory Thanksgiving and Praise now and for evermore FINIS SEcond Remarks upon an Essay concerning Humane Understanding In a Letter address'd to the Author Being a Vindication of the First Remurks against the Answer of Mr. Lock at the End of 〈◊〉 Reply to the Lord Bishop of Worcester The Occasional Paper Numb I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII Printed for M. Wotton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet
Christ for their proper and adequate and only Foundation Suppose a Servant of the greatest Diligence imaginable His Behaviour may possibly deserve better of the Family than That of any Child in it But yet the greatest Diligence will not procure that Servant an equal Share of Affection with those Children nor any Title to the Estate among them This Instance makes it plain that the standing in such a Capacity and bearing such a particular Relation to the Master and Disposer of those Possessions is the true and fundamental Ground of Inheritance and accordingly we find the Stress of St. Paul's Argument in my Text laid here If Children then Heirs The Doctrine then of meriting by Works properly so call'd and the Notion of inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven can never stand together Because our Pretensions to inherit commence with our Son-ship and depend upon our Second and Spiritual Birth Now it is acknowledg'd on all hands and affirmed by this Apostle Ver. 15. that we are the Sons of God by Adoption and that this is a Privilege owing wholly to Christ and peculiar to Faith in Him It is also confest that we become Sons and consequently Heirs in our Baptism So that by the Practice of even Those who stand up for the merit of Good Works the Generality of Christians are now admitted to a Right of Inheritance at a time when they cannot have any Works of their own at all And tho' it shou'd be granted that what is promised then be in the Eye of God look't upon as perform'd with regard to the Intention of the Engagers and the present Incapacity of the Party promised for yet even those Works which follow after are not so much the Cause as the Proof of our being Children They demonstrate us to be faithful indeed They convince the World that we answer our Character and They support the Conscience with unreprovable Assurances that provided we persevere in doing so we shall not fail hereafter to be in actual Possession those happy glorious Heirs which at present we can but be in Expectation and Reversion only Thirdly By being styled Heirs of God we are inform'd how stable and lasting a Good this Happiness will prove The Certainty of it with respect to Us I have already spoken to in my First Particular That which I regard at present is the Continuance and Certainty of the Thing in it self All other Tenures are subject to Limitations and determine at a certain Period of Time but Estates of Inheritance know no term of Years These descend on in the same Line and are as sure as any thing in the changeable State of Affairs we now live in can possibly be made When therefore the Holy Spirit makes choice of this Comparison he justifies those Comforts Good Men take that a small Matter will not shake their Title to Heaven at this distance And that when once those Joys are in our Hands nothing can ever deprive us of them more I know very well they have enough to command our Esteem and engage our very vehement Pursuâ—â— without respecting then Continuance and that a longer or a shorter Term does not change the nature of Things but is a foreign and additioâ—â— Perfection only But yet methinks we may allow this Consideration to have more weight with regard to Another World than it can possibly carry in any temporal Enjoyment whatsoever And it may be said with great 〈◊〉 that the Life to come could never make us â—appy if it were not Eternal 〈◊〉 it could noâ— but be a terrible Disturbance and Damp to those Pleasures to think that they must one Day be parted with And though that Day were set at never so great a distance yet the Mind of 〈◊〉 is perpetually looking for ward and â—â—â—ally dâ—â—posed to anticipate 〈◊〉 own Loâ—â—es 〈◊〉 Miseries I need not â—rge with Argaments 〈◊〉 what all of 〈◊〉 feel at this very Moment and 〈…〉 Mâ—â—tality now before us 〈…〉 have what we highly value and 〈…〉 love torn from us And the more 〈◊〉 Concern this present Affliction gives us the moâ—â— easily may we convince 〈…〉 the Loss and how 〈…〉 losing That Bliss must needs be to which no Good on Earth can bear any Proportion So then The more reâ—in'd and worthy 〈◊〉 ceptions we have of Heaven in other Respectâ— the more absolute necessity we find for the coâ—â— pleating our Happiness there to conceive off 〈◊〉 a Continuing City and a Mansion of Evâ—â—lasting Glory For it could nâ—t be Heaven 〈…〉 for our Contemplations and Hopes to dwell upon it with a perfect Acquiescence and untroubl'd Satisfaction were we not well assured that the Joys of it out-live the utmost stretch of Time and are such as no Man taketh from us Fourthly By this Similitude of an Inheritance the Scripture might design to intimate the sufficient the plentiful the exceeding abundant Provision made for every Heir of this Bountâ—â— Heavenly Father Younger Branches of a â—â—â—ly we know must be content with such Proportions as their Parent 's Wisdom thinks fit to set out for them And this is most commioâ— done with great Tenderness and Caution reseving the Honour and Estate of the House to be supported by the Heir himself But We 〈◊〉 seems are All of us Heirs of God and Joyâ—â— Heirs with Christ not put off with the too â—â—ring Distributions of a partial Father but admitted into a full and equal Enjoyment of the Wholâ— For though the Inheritances upon Earth are consin'd to One or a very Few and must be for because they are short and narrow yet the Heavenly one is much otherwise by reason of its infinite Nature and Extent A Nature and Extent for large and vast that not no one Person hath a whâ—â— the less for any other Persons great Abundance It is an Excellency peculiar to this Heritage that according to * Haereditus in quâ Christi coheredes sumus non mirtuitur copiâ Possessorum nec fit angustior numerositate cohaeredum sed tanta est multis quanta paucis tanta singulis quanta omnibus Comm. in Psalm XLIX St. Austine's description of it The Plenty which the Possessors find and use there never diminishes the Thing possessed Nor does the innumerable Multitude of Partakers cramp up any Man's Enjoymant or incroach upon his Partion It is as large to Many as to Few 〈◊〉 each single Possessor enjoys it as fully as all put together Indeed the Proportions of our Bliss are so 〈◊〉 from being scanty there that all considering 〈◊〉 sons have believ'd one part of it to consist in 〈◊〉 Enlarging and Exalting our Faculties and putting us into a Condition of receiving more then than now we are capable so much as of imagining Should those Joys be imparted to us in this mortal imperfect State a small measure of 〈…〉 in comparison would overwhelm 〈…〉 let in Pleasures Torrents of Plâ—â—ces too many and too exquisite for frail Nature 〈…〉 What vast Idea's then should we 〈…〉 to forth what a
Ministry from him but the Nation in general have been convinc'd by those â—â—â—thy Labours which appear in Publick Wâ—â—tings so much the more valuable as the Subject and Design of them is of greater and more general Importance That of establishing the most concerning Truths of the Christian Religion and illustrating those common Principles which our Excellent Church hath thought necessary for forming the Lives and Judgments of all her Members And this he hath done if not by all the artful and enticing Words of Man's Wisdom yet with solid and substantial Arguments from Reason with proper Authorities from Scripture and Antiquity and with such happy Force and full Conviction as to deserve a Recommendation from one of our * Lord Bishop of Sarum in his Pastoral Care Reverend Prelates for the Study and Instruction of those whose business it is to instruct others To render his indefatigable Pains of yet more diffusive Influence he hath likewise composed a †Tractat. in Epist ad Philipp Tract in a Language more generally understood which not only our own but other Countries may I hope shortly reap the benefit of In a Word His Time was employ'd and his Delight seem'd wholly to be placed in Divine Studies These were his Business his Entertainment his Company his Diversion So careful was he to employ the Hours of a most retir'd Life in the best and most beneficial manner These were his Comfort in Afflictions his Support under Hardships and Cares These preserv'd his Mind from all criminal degrees of Anxiety and as himself hath professed with great Satisfaction softned those Troubles which a Man more addicted to the World must even have been swallow'd up in But by Their means his Soul was disengag'd and raised above the World and his Conversation in Heaven Happily indeed for himself tho' in the common Judgment of Flesh and Blood less so for those he left behind since those unwearied Labours which manifestly contributed to his more speedy removal thither hath deprived Them of his longer Direction and Assistance upon Earth The Second good Effect I mentioned as naturally flowing from my Text was That of an Obedience full of Thankfulness and Humility And this appear'd so eminently in Him that notwithstanding all the Goodness so conspicuous in his Conversation no sign of Censoriousness or Spiritual Pride was to be found in him But though this Particular relate more immediately to Men's deportment towards God yet I must beg leave in the Application to extend it something farther Gratitude to God is due not only for Spiritual but Temporal Mercies for He is our Great Benefactor and the sole Author of all our Blessings of every kind And Since those Blessings are often convey'd to us by the ministry and mediation of Men no Man can be truly thankful who is wanting in his Acknowledgments to those Persons whose Hearts God hath disposed to become the Instruments of handing down his Kindness to us Here also our deceased Brother performed the part of a truly good Christian and took due Care to let no good Offices of any sort be buried in Oblivion He cou'd not content himself with a silent and private Sense of them but had in particular prepared * Epist Dedicator to his Tract on the Philipp to Archbishop Tillotson a lasting and publick Expression of his Thanks to our late Excellent Primate Who among other Marks of his Care to prefer worthy and useful Men procur'd his promotion to another Benefice and endeavour'd to make his Worth more visible by placing him in our Capital City Nor did he think it any Indecency in an Address to so Great a Man to make grateful and honourable mention of that seasonable Addition to his Fortunes made by a * Dr. Tudor late Rector of Tewing in Hertfordshire Reverend Person in this Neighbourhood So sollicitous was he upon all Occasions that no Man's Friendship who had remember'd him should leave behind it the Reproach of not being as respectfully transmitted to Posterity as it had been worthily placed at the first Disposal Thus again His Humility gave a peculiar lustre to the rest of his Accomplishments For in the midst of all those Endowments both Natural and Acquir'd he seem'd the only Person insensible of his own Worth His Temper was Easie and Gentle so engaging and inoffensive as to win over even Strangers and Men of different Opinions to a sensible Concern and Kindness for him His Conversation Affable and Courteous full of Deference and modest Reserve And which of all other Qualities best proves a true Greatness of Soul so Free and Communicative and Improving withal so perfectly void of Envy and engrossing any sort of Knowledge or Commendation to himself that he seem'd to have copy'd after that great Pattern of Meekness Moses who * Numb xi rebuked the Narrowness of those Spirits who grudged the Advantages of others for his sake and wish'd with all his Soul that all the Lord's People were Prophets Thirdly Another Virtue resulting from the Text was abating the Fears of our own Death and moderating our Concern for That of Others Of the former that general Resignation of Temper very observable in him upon all Occasions was an abundant Proof and that Indifference for Life which I have often heard him chearfully express excepting only for the sake of Those whom yet he committed to God with a becoming Dependence upon his Providence over them And more bright no doubt this Virtue wou'd have shone in his last Hours had not the Disease of which he dy'd so violently attack'd his Understanding and left him only some few and those very short Intervals for the exercise of it So few and so short as allow'd no time sufficient for the Performance of those Duties most necessary and usual in his Condition But we ought in all Reason and Charity to presume that as his Life was the Life of the Righteous so had the Faculties of his Mind been free his Death wou'd in a very exemplary manner have manifestly appeared to be the Death of the Righteous too For the other Branch of this Argument Many here present I suppose can recollect with what a Mixture of tender Affection and Christian Constancy he supported the loss of his nearest and dearest Relation And this too though it found him then smarting under the fresh deep Wound of a sad and * A Son drowned in the Mote of his House surprizing Disaster and happen'd at a time when upon all other Considerations the Circumstances of his Family could not but render that Blow very sensible and heavy upon him One Instance whereof relating to my self I must beg your leave to mention 'T is that presently upon that occasion proffering him my Assistance in the supply of his Cure he made me this to me then surprizing Answer That Blessed be God for his Grace he had soon conquer'd the disorderly part of his Grief and found no Relief so great as employing himself in his Study