Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A59884
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A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Richard Meggot D.D. and late Dean of Winchester, Decemb. 10th, 1692 at Twickenham by William Sherlock ...
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Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing S3355; ESTC R11116
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9,300
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33
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labour and diligence in this it would be a delightful work were our Labours always blessed with success could we rescue the Souls of Men from the Dominion of their Lusts and from the Power of the Devil could we turn them from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God but we must often expect to labour all might and catch nothing we must contend with the Lusts and Vices of Men must bear their Folly their Frowardness their Reproaches and Censures and injuries be thought Troublesome Pragmatical and Busie-bodies for our charitable Exhortations and Reproofs and watchfulness over their Souls And when the Church is at ease and rest from without how often is it rent and torn in Pieces with Schisms and Heresies as St. Paul fore-warned Timothy the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and be turned unto fables 3 4. ver and what infinite Labours and Difficulties does this create to the Ministers of the Gospel to heal the Breaches of the Church to confute Heresies Atheism Infidelity and to be scorned and persecuted for it with a bitter Rage and Zeal That St. Paul might well add But watch thou in all things endure afflictions do the work of an Evangelist make full proof of thy ministry 5 verse We ought not indeed to be discouraged by such difficulties as these because our Reward will be great in Heaven but it will be a happy Day when Our warfare shall be accomplished when we shall cease from our labours and our works shall follow us when we can say with St. Paul I have fought a good fight I finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness 2. Thus to die is their gain Nevertheless it is more needful for the Church that they should abide in the flesh And a great loss it is to the Church when they die I need not use many words about this for the case is plain The Death of every good Man who is very useful to the World in what way soever he be useful is a very great loss for Death puts an end to his doing any more good in this World but as to take care of the Souls of Men is to do the greatest good to Mankind because the Happiness of our Souls is of the greatest concernment to us so to lose a faithful and a prudent Guide must be the greatest loss We indeed of this Church have great reason to bless God that he has sent forth so many able and painful Labourers into his Harvest that it is not the loss of every good Man that can much affect us at ordinary times For there are great numbers of wise and good Men to perpetuate a Succession of able and faithful Guides but a St. Paul is at any time and in any Age of the Church a great loss Nay Men who are much Inferiour to St. Paul but yet fitted with peculiar Abilities to serve the Church at some certain Seasons and in some difficult Circumstances are a very sensible loss at such a time when their service is most needful A Man of Council and Conduct who is fit to sit at the Helm and knows how to steer in a Storm is a great loss in times of Difficulty and Trouble when the Church is assaulted on all hands and it is hard to avoid one Mischief or Inconvenience without running into another A Man of Goodness and Temper who knows how to govern his own Passions and how to soften and manage the Passions of other Men is a very sensible loss when the Passions of Men are broke loose and disturb the Peace of the Church and even threaten the ruine of it A Man of Learning and sound Judgment who can distinguish between Truth and Errour in all its most artificial and flattering Disguises is a great loss when old Errours are revived and new ones broached when we must dispute over again the very Being of a God the truth of the Scriptures and Articles of the Christian Faith A Man of great Diligence and Industry Courage and Resolution to defend the Truth to oppose Heresies and Schisms to preserve the Unity of the Church and the Integrity of the Christian Faith is a very great loss when the Church is encompassed and assaulted with busie and restless Enemies A Man of an exemplary Life and untainted Vertue who shines like a Light in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation who maintains the declining Honour and Repuration of Religion and true Vertue is a mighty loss in a profligate Age when men are grown such Strangers to the sincere Practice of Vertue and Religion that they begin to think there is no such thing But I can go on no farther the very mentioning of these things brings the fresh Idea of our deceased Brother to mind and the afflicting Sense of that great loss which we suffer by his Death It becomes us to Reverence and Adore the Wisdom of the divine Providence even when we cannot understand the Reasons of it We are certain God is never wanting in his Care of his Church and yet had we been made Judges of this Case we should have thought it a very ill time to have spared him He was abundantly furnished with all good Learning both for Use and Ornament he was an accomplished Scholar and a well studied Divine he knew Books and read them and judged of them He was a Scribe instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven who like a Housholder could bring forth out of his treasure things New and Old 13 Matth. 52. He had carefully perus'd the ancient Philosophers Orators and Poets to discover what Nature taught which gave him a truer Knowledge and greater Value for the Excellency and Perfection of the Gospel-Revelation He had true and clear Notions of Religion and he was Master of them he knew why he believed any thing and was neither prejudiced nor imposed on by popular Opinions he was a hearty and zealously Assertor of the Doctrine Worship Government and Discipline of the Church of England he saw nothing material which could be changed for the better which made him jealous of Innovations as not knowing where they would end He was a Friend to all sincere Christians pittied their Mistakes and bore with their Frowardness but did not think that Christian Charity required him to sacrifice Truth or good Order and Government to the pretences of Peace and Unity He was for several Years a very diligent and constant Preacher to a numerous Auditory till his own Diocesan who knew his Worth and the weakness of his Constitution and was desirous to preserve him for the Service of the Church provided this place where we now are for his Ease and Health and Retirement where he lived many Years a constant Preacher though his Labours were then divided
between his two Cures which did not lessen his Preaching but made the Benefit of it the more diffusive For indeed he was an admirable Preacher not for Noise and Lungs but for well digested useful pious Discourses delivered with all that becoming Gravity Seriousness and a commanding Elocution as made them sink deep into the Minds of his Hearers and made them hear This I speak with Assurance and Confidence in this place which was so long blessed with his Labours with what fineness of Thought perspicuity and easiness of Expression instructing and entertaining Images of Things he expounded the Doctrines and inculcated the Laws of our Saviour how plainly he Taught with what Vehemence and Passion he Exhorted with what tender Sharpness he Reproved remember how he used both to Please and Instruct to Chide and Shame you without making you angry how he has warmed and chaffed your Minds into the most pious and serious Resolutions and sent you home from this place wiser and better then you came and if you grew cold and suffered your good Resolutions to die again consider I beseech you what Account you have to give As he grew in Years it was necessary by degrees to ease his Labours he could not Preach so often but yet continued to Preach And yet had he not Preached at all or much less then he did he had not ceased to be a very useful Pastor to the Church for he was a Man of great Experience and great Prudence and Fore-sight fit for Government and Counsel who knew Men and Things was dexterous in his Applications zealous without Passion or Peevishness steady and resolved without violent Oppositions and needless Provocations who served the Church and the Truth with little Noise and without making many Enemies And I am sure at such a time as this there is more need of such Men and a much greater scarcity of them than of good Preachers But he was not only a good Preacher and a prudent Guide but a very good Man he Preached continually by his Life and Example his Conversation was Innocent Entertaining and Useful he was a true sincere Friend very Courteous Affable Civil to all Men but never pretend Friendship where he had none he was ready to do all good Offices was Liberal Generous and Charitable a Man of a true publick Spirit who scorned to serve himself to the Injury of others who hated little Arts and Tricks mean and servile Compliances he was an open and generous Enemy if we may ever call him an Enemy who never wished never intended any hurt to any Man but my meaning is that when any Dispute and Quarrel happened as such things will sometimes happen he was open and undisguised any Man might know what he disliked and had no reason to fear any thing worse from him than what he would tell them In a Word he was a very good Christian and that made him good in all Relations and that Crowned all his other Labours he took care as St. Paul did Lest while he preached to others he himself should become a cast-away And now he is gone to rest and we must all shortly follow him God grant that we may all so run our Race and finish our Course that when we depart this Life we may rest in Him as our hope in this our Brother doth and may receive that Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge will at that Day bestow on all his faithful Servants and on all those who love his Appearing FINIS Books Published by the Reverend Dr. Sherlock Dean of St. Pauls Master of the Temple and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties AN Answer to a Discourse entituled Papists protesting against Protestant Popery Second Edition 4to An Answer to the Amicable Accommodation of the Differences between the Representer and Answerer 4to A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of the Reverend B. Calamy D. D. 4to A Vindication of some Protestant Principles of Church-Unity and Catholick-Communion from the Charge of Agreement with the Church of Rome 4to A Preservative against Popery being some plain Directions to unlearned Protestants how to dispute with Romish Priests In Two Parts with the Vindication in Answer to the Cavils of Lewis Sabran Jesuit 4to A Discourse concerning the Nature Unity and Communion of the Catholick Church First Part. 4to A Sermon Preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London on Sunday Nov. 4th 1688. 4to A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God c. The Second Edition 4to The Case of the Allegiance due to Soveraign Powers stated and resolved according to Scripture Reason and the Principles of the Church of England Sixth Edition 4to A Vindication of the Case of Allegiance due to Soveraign Powers c. 4to A Sermon Preach'd at White-Hall before the Queen on the 17th of June 1691. being the Fast-Day 4to A Practical Discourse concerning Death The Fifth Edition 8vo A Practical Discourse concerning a Future Judgment Third Edition 8vo A Sermon Preached before the Honourable House of Commons at St. Margarets Westminster January 30th 1691 92 4to A Sermon Preached before the Queen at Whitehall Febr. 12th 1691 92. 4to The Charity of Lending without Usury and the true Notion of Usury stated in a Sermon Preach'd before the Right Hounourable the Lord Mayor at St. Bridget's Church on Tuesday in Easter-week 1692. 4to A Sermon Preach'd at the Temple-Church May 29. 1692. and Printed at the Desire of the Bench-Table of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple 4to A Sermon Preached before the Queen at White-Hall June 26th 1692. 4to Printed for W. Rogers