some wicked Men in the World who by their Lives and Conversations would at least seem to have no hopes nor fears of any thing but in this Life only Yet suppose a Man never so great a Hater of God and Religion 't is scarce possible any Man should be suppos'd so great an Enemy to himself as to desire to Dye wrethedly or to be miserable after Death However I say great the Atheists may be that are or that have been there could never sure in the World be so wicked a Fool as this Who will therefore hate Happiness because he does not love Holiness And the Truth is amongst the most profligate and the most wicked Men there is no such thing as an absolute Atheist when Men as it * Heb. 9.27 is appointed come once to dye For as there 's no Man in the World that knows certainly what his Soul was or how it subsisted before it was united to the Body so let the Profane * 1 Cor. 1.20 Disputers of this World talk as they please yet no Man naturally can have any more certainty what condition his Soul will be in after it is separated from the Body But if the Atheist will say here that after Death his Soul will be nothing but that it will cease to be by the Atheists leave we must say that this is more than the most knowing Atheist in the World can pretend to know certainly And therefore since where there 's no certainty there will certainly be doubts and scruples especially in this great Business of Dying and somthing that may be Expected after Death It must necessarily follow that out of the meer principle of self-Love to a Man 's own well-being every where where it is possible for him to be the veryest Infidel therefore tho' He does not Express it yet in effect must be suppos'd at least implicitly to desire to dye the Death of the Righteous that is to dye so as that he may be well after Death and not miserable For the truth is the good Christian that lives a righteous and a Godly Life takes the safest and securest way let what will happen after Death Because if there be an Heaven as all good Christian 's do believe there is then the good Christian He is happy And if there be no such thing why then there is no harm done But then as for the Atheist and Ungodly it is not so with them For if there be an Heaven and an Hell as there may be for all the Fool has say'd in his heart to the contrary why then the Ungodly Wretches are for ever miserable and undone because they are damn'd for ever There is I know amongst the Lew'd and Prophane especially in these latter Ages a most strange and horrid way of Dying that in their Mirth and jollity some Men love mightily to talk of namely of dying hard that is in plain English of dying without any Fear or Apprehensions at all of either Heaven or Hell But whether such vain Men do really desire to dye such Horrid kinds of Death as they love thus prophanely to talk of is not so certain However thus much is most evident that every Man that lives in his senses and does not dye out of E'm desires to dye much otherwise For every Man in his Wits would desire to dye not so much without the sensible Belief as without the fear and Danger of Hell and Eternal Punishment From which horrid danger no man can be sure that He dyes free as long as it is possible there may be such an horrid State and Condition after Death unless indeed Men do take Care to dye the Death of the Righteous and then and only then they can be said to be safe and secure whether there be any such place of punishment or no. And indeed this bare possibility of there being such a Thing as Eternal Vengeance and an Hell for the Wicked is enough to make every man that does not dye Raving Mad or quite stupify'd to desire to dye the Death of the Righteous to the end that they may be safe and secure even as the Righteous are from the possibility of any such Dangers For indeed right Reason as well as Religion teaches Men to provide against all possible as well as against all apparent evils both in Relalation to this Life and that which is to come And therefore it being allow'd on all hands at least possible that there is both a * Ps◠〈…〉 Reward for the Righteous and a consuming * He◠〈…〉 fire for the Ungodly All men will upon this Account be apt enough when they come to dye to desire the better and the safer part Because tho' all wicked Men do hate Righteousness yet they cannot sure be in love with the Wages of Sin For let vain Men Love their sinful pleasures never so well Yet I think no man was ever so far in Love with his Sins as to be willing to be damn'd for e'm And this may be sufficient to prove the first particular namely that All men do at least desire to dye well tho' they live never so wickedly Which brings us to the next particular to be made good wherein we are to shew that tho' all men do desire it yet it is improbable if not impossible for Men to dye well unless they live well And indeed for Men to expect to dye the Death without living the Life of the Righteous is to expect that God should be that which He never was and He has said He never will be namely a * A◠〈…〉 Respecter of Persons in giving that for Nothing to the Wicked which is the peculiar lot of the Righteous viz. The * P◠〈…〉 hope of life in their Death Nay it is foolishly to expect too that God the Righteous Judge should give the Crown of Life to those wicked Men who never took Care to run the Race that was set before them In short it is an Expectation that implys the greatest Unreasonableness and Absurdities For it is to expect that God should give the eternal Mansions and the Childrens Bread to Dogs And that the unclean Sinner as well as the pure Saint should have equal Liberty to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven There is I know a very usual but a very unhappy saying wherewith too many Men perswade themselves to put off the necessity of a good Life and yet for all that hope to dye well and that is by a late Repentance which they say is never too late And by this they mean a Death-Bed Repentance But then alas let us not deceive our selves For tho' indeed a True Repentance is never too late Yet a Death-Bed Repentance truly and properly speaking is no Repentance at all For True Repentance is true sorrow for sin and as true Resolution to Sin no more But then what does a dying Man's Resolution signifie to sin no more when He is indeed not able to sin any longer Besides
of Charity we are apt to pass the most favourable Interpretation upon the Deaths of such poor ignorant Persons and to hope that they dye in the Lord Yet this is indeed is far from the true Notion of living and of dying well For indeed the effectual Knowledge that is able to save a Man in the hour of Death and in the day of Judgment is that only true and saving Knowledge applyed to the departing Soul viz. The Knowledge of Christ and him Crucified For this as the Scripture speaks is the one thing necessary This is Life Eternal not to be ignorant of but to * Joh. 17 3. Know the onely True God and his Son Christ Jesus And the Truth is upon the whole Matter it 's a most horrid thing to be consider'd that Men and Women both should make it their chiefest study in this World to live fashionably and to dye genteelly And yet in the mean time that so few should make it their business to learn the Holy Art of Living and Dying like true Christians And this leads us to the Discussion of the third and last particular propos'd Wherein we are to shew what it is truly to live well and what it is to dye well Now for a Man truly to live and truly to dye well is for him to live up to the Profession of his Religion and to dye in the sincere Practice of that Religion which he professes For this as the Scripture speaks is the Summ and All of the Christian Calling namely that we should continue â—ev 2.10 Faithful unto Death and then we may expect to receive the Crown of Life It was a most unhappy Cheat that the Devil put upon our first Parents in Paradice in perswading 'em that Man's happiness consisted not in the doing but barely in the knowing of good But Christ himself tells us that whatever good things we know we are not likely to be * â—oh 13.17 happy unless we do them And the Truth is the Christian Religion is the most active as well as the most nice sort of War and Business whereby Men are engaged not to act and fight against one another as they do but to fight against themselves For the Christian Life is indeed an holy Warfare and a Man by the Grace of God and the help of Religion must live down his own wicked self and the Christian Souldier can never expect to be at peace with God till he has warr'd down and destroy'd the whole body of Sin Indeed the good Christian may then be said to live when he lives unto the Lord But then no man can be said to live unto the Lord but he that dyes to Sin And in this Sence it might be that good King David said He was kill'd all the day long that is as St. Paul says He acted a constant Death upon himself in dying daily unto Sin So that then it is that a man begins to live himself up into a good Christian when he has happily out-liv'd his natural Corruptions that made him a bad man And thus the Life of the Christian and the New Creature as the Scripture speaks is form'd out of the Death of the Old Man with his Deeds And thus the good Christians Life and Conversation may be said to be in Heaven when himself and his * Gaâ— 2â— Affections are thus intirely Crucified to the World I say wholly and intirely Crucified For the good Christian does not at that time only begin to live soberly godly and righteously in this World just then when he is a dying and departing into the next Neither does the good Christian then only begin to think of sending for the Physitian of the Soul when there is no longer any hopes in the Doctor of the Body But the good Christian to make the Evening Sacrifice of his Death acceptable to God he takes care all his Life long to offer up himself and his whole Body and Soul a living Sacrifice unto the Lord Nor will this hearty and this holy Liver ever cease mortifying and subduing both his Body and Soul till he has reduc't brought down every proud and passionate every rebellious Thought to the * 2 Coâ— 10.5 Obedience and to the Will of God so that the good and thorow-pac't Christian that is every way thus Religiously mortified may without the strain of a Paradox be said to out-live his Death For this holy Liver and Dyer as the Scripture speaks is already * 1 Johâ— 14. pass'd from Death to Life since having dy'd once unto sin Death has no more Dominion over him And so such a Christian as this cannot be so properly said to dye as to lay down his Life onely that he may take it up again To put off what was mortal that he may be cloath'd with Immortality In a Word the good Christian's Death is yet more than Life to him for thereby he exchanges Earth for Heaven and lays down the Life of a Man that he may take up that of an Angel But whilst I am thus endeavouring to set before your eyes a Scheme of Holy Living and Dying a more advantageous and inviting Prospect of both must I am sensible entertain and present it self to the thoughts of all those that are come hither to Celebrate the Memory and Merits of this Great and Honourable Persons Life as well as attend the Melancholy Solemnities of her Funeral For this indeed is what at once justifies and recommends the use of Preaching upon these Occasions when the shining Vertues of the Deceas'd are sufficient to make the clearest Comment upon the Text and when the Exemplary Life of the Dead survives and yet speaks as the best proof of the Preachers Doctrin Otherwise indeed a Funeral Solemnity would in a Literal sense be no more than the Dead burying their Dead And a Funeral Sermon instead of speaking well of the Dead might pass for little better than a Satyr both upon the Dead and Living But whatever as a motive to our Living well has been here said of the Death of the Righteous makes but a faint Description of this no less good than great Person who most certainly liv'd so as to dye one of that blessed Number And by so living and dying has indeed left behind her to Posterity such a Legacy and stock of vertues as few have equall'd but All I am sure are concern'd to imitate and commend That this is not the Language of Designing flattery or a servile Dependance All Persons who had the Honour of knowing Her Ladyship will need no other Conviction And then I am sure that they who knew any thing of Her Ladyship's Temper and Qualifications could not but observe those degrees of meekness and humility in her Life that could never design a Panegyrick at her Death And indeed that this meek and good Person intended nothing of Harangue in her Funeral Sermon is yet more evident from the humble Choice she was pleased to make of
one the least qualify'd of her Servants to Preach it So that not pretending here to praise a Person of whom Every Body speaks well But to recommend the Credit and Advantages of being Vertuous from this great Example of Vertue This must be said That whether it were by an Extraordinary Gift of natural temper and goodness Or by the effects of a no less singular and Religious Care and Education she was always known to be a Person that had an absolute Government of her self And withal of that discreet pious and obliging temper that made her remarkable through every scene and Condition of her Life For if we consider her as a single Person or as a Wife Married into and become the Mistress of a great and Noble Family If I say we consider her as the happy Mother of Children and in the State of her Widdowhood or in the Relations of her Friendship and Correspondence in all these it may with great Truth be said she always manag'd her self with that Honourable Reputation and Conduct that she appear'd to have all the Vertue and Goodness but none indeed I think none of the Vanities or Imperfections of her SEX It is true indeed the Happy Attainments and Government of her self in all these respects was owing to her strickt Observance of the Rules of Vertue and Prudence the bounds of which no Considerations whatsoever could prevail with her at any time to Trangress So that tho' her Table of Hospitality was constant yet there was still a provident Eye had to frugality And if her Friendship was open and Free of Access yet it never went so far as to admit any thing of Riotous or unseasonable In short she was a Person of an exact Life and Conversation without the affectation of Puritanical preciseness or rigid moroseness being ever easy in her self and never troublesome to others And yet puting on always so much of Religious Gravity in her Conversation as to encourage Vertue and discountenance vice One Thing it must be confest was peculiar in this great Persons Character Which is rarely to be found amongst that of Women That as she was a Person who would never do or speak ill of any Body So she would never hear at least never believe any ill of her Neighbours For she was indeed of a Temper very inclinable to have a good Opinion of every Body of Both sexes except the loose and prophane And she was indeed an Enemy to none unless it were to the Tatling Gossippers as S. Paul speaks and the Busie-Bodies of her own And yet even there where she had Occasion sometimes to shew a dislike she did it always with so much Candor and Moderation that her severest Rebukes could not be call'd provoking And in Consideration of so agreeable and just a Deportment through all her Actions if my Lady Cholmondeley were as she was indeed generally spoken of as the happy Person who had not one Enemy there is no doubt but that Character was in a great measure as true as it was publick Since without question if ever any Person were so it was she that was so good and inoffensive as never to do any thing at least willingly to displease either God or Man Neither should it be thought a thing impossible to advance humane nature to these heights of goodness perfection when as the Scripture speaks Faith and a good Religion have their full work upon good Morals and a vertuous Mind In which happy method that this Excellent Person compleated her Accomplishments by adding to her other Vertues the Beauty of Holiness is very Evident She being indeed not less eminently a good Christian than a good Woman For being early sensible that the Glory of God and the Good of Mankind was the end whereunto she was born it was above all things her care to live so that she might not dye without the Accomplishment of both these And as she wisely believ'd Religion and the Church could best prescribe the ways of being and of doing good so she did not barely believe but liv'd according to this Belief not accustoming herself as too many do to dispute and talk down the Religious Institutions of the Church because they would be excus'd from the practice of 'em nor exclaiming against the severities of a Spiritual Life because they had rather live after the Flesh But in all these things making the will of Heaven that of her own in Obedience to that Will she heartily obeyed the Discipline as well as embrac 't the Doctrines of the Church Evidencing this her Observance of both not in a few single Acts now and then but in a constant course of Piety and good Works so that for the health of the Body and good of the Soul this Honourable good Christian did always think it necessary as the Church does to fast and pray often at other times as well as in the Time of Lent And because this sort of mortifying Religious Exercise must not be without it 's Spiritual Food to support it therefore in all her Religious Intercourses and Meditations she had constant Recourse to the holy Scriptures where she read devoutly and often because there she found the Book as well as the Bread of Life Nor did the Closset-Devotion Rob the publick Service of the Church of it's due For as she came constantly to Church because she believ'd this is no other than the House of God so she always took care to come to Church so as to come time enough to joyn the Prayers of the Church with her own because she was perswaded that God Almighty would keep his promise of being particularly there where two or three are gather'd together in his Name in the House of Prayer In fine this Holy and Exemplary Liver was not onely a constant comer and Worshipper in the Temple but she came yet further and that not once a Year onely but every Month she came even to the Holy of Holies and so was indeed a constant comer to the Blessed Sacrament because here too she fed upon the Bread of Life and not only so but tasted and saw how good and gracious her God was in giving her freely the Cup of Salvation and so sealing to her the Mysteries of her Redemption in the Blood of his Son JESUS Christ But when all this was done she thought her self but an unprofitable Servant in only coming to Church to hear if she did not return home as Abraham was a Teacher of Righteousness to her Family her great Concern for which as of my own knowledge I can evidence after the Performance of all her own private and publick Devotions would not however suffer her to rest satisfied till she had first by her Presence and Example oblig'd and encourag'd all her Servants to perform all their Christian Duties because indeed with good Old David as it was this good Ladies Resolution to suffer no wicked Person to dwell in her house so she could not believe that those