Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A47541
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A sermon preach'd at the funeral of The Right Honourable the Lady Guilford, Nov. 18, 1699 by John Knight ...
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Knight, John, 1651-1712.
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1700
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Wing K689; ESTC R1128
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17,985
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A SERMON Preach'd at the FUNERAL OF The Right Honourable THE Lady GUILFORD Nov. 18. 1699. By John Knight D. D. Rector of Broughton in Oxfordshire LONDON Printed for George Thorp Bookseller in Banbury 1700. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Lord GUILFORD My Lord THE following Discourse is herewith humbly offered to your Lordship in Obedience to Your Commands And tho' I cannot doubt of its Acceptance there where I have receiv'd so many Pledges of Respect yet had I been left free this should have been the last Thing I would have chosen by which to express my Thankfulness and my Duty The sad Solemnity being perform'd late in the Evening I was obliged to drop several Paragraphs that I had prepar'd to speak which are here supplied in their proper Place As for the Defects which still remain I can only ask Your Pardon SIR but cannot remedy ' em I had neither Skill nor Colours to draw so bright and Heavenly a Life the Piety and Devotion She daily practis'd gave Her such Perfections as were easily Admir'd but scarce possible to be describ'd And now my Lord if instead of votive Tables to adorn Her Shrine Your Lordship shall preserve Her Memory by imitating Her Example You also shall be kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation which is the Prayer of Right Honourable Your Lordship's in the Humblest and most Dutiful Observance John Knight NUMB. XXIII Latter part of the 10th Verse Let me dye the Death of the Righteous and let my last end be like his WHICH Words are the Sober and Pious Wish of a very impious and otherwise very profane Man who tho' out of a greedy Appetite after Gain had sold himself to work a most desperate piece of Wickedness even to compass an Inchantment against Jacob and thereby ruin Israel God's only Heritage by Magick and Sorcery yet the Spirit of God so effectually over-ruled the Rage of the Prophet and the Malice of his Familiar that he could not curse nor defie but altogether bless'd them The King of Moab whose Drudgery Balaam was to do built his Altars to Baal the reigning Idol of that Age and Nation at his Oracles the Prophet was to consult and from them receive his Commission to go and curse Israel And after he had thus affronted God by sacrificing to the Devil he was one would think hopefully disposed both to curse and to bewitch his People But observe the turn God gave to his wicked Enterprize which will afford us equal matter of Comfort and Amazement the Devil had the Sacrifice but God gave the Answer and the Oracle stood dumb whilst the Angel of the Lord pronounc'd the devoted People Blessed Wherefore surely there can be no mischievous Divination against Jacob when Jacob's God resolves to bless the Augury and make the Magician his own Prophet And what could Balak or Satan do to vex Israel when their God proclaim'd Peace to them from the very Altars of Baal turning the Magick Circle into Holy Ground and forcing that Tongue of which the Devil had possession to declare his Goodness and Loving-kindness to his People For after many fruitless tho' very desperate Attempts to curse that People Balaam perceiv'd the Blessing was fatal and the Decree of it irreversible v. 20. insomuch that he saw cause to wish himself imbark'd in their Bottom that their final Lot might be his own Let me dye the Death of the Righteous c. From which Words and the Occasion of them were it suitable to that Occasion on which we are now assembled I could advance and prosecute several very grave and important Observations As 1. Obs That to be establish'd in the Divine Favour as the Lord 's Peculiar is certainly the safest and most honourable Condition of Being even in this Life For in this instance under our present Consideration you see neither Men nor Devils can annoy those whom God undertakes to vindicate and uphold 'T is all impotent Malice that sets upon any Opposition to them However they are threatned or how desperately soever they are exposed how bold soever their Enemies may be tho' they shew it first in defying God which bespeaks the utmost even an hellish Rage yet so obstinate is the Defence and so secure the Shelter which God's People have under his Protection that the very Messengers of Satan employ'd to buffet them shall find their Powers controul'd their Artillery turn'd upon themselves and the Holy Spirit will cast out Satan the mad Diviner shall revolt and become the Lord's Prophet to pronounce that People blessed whom he took Fees to curse 2. Obs The prevailing Force and Evidence of Divine Truths which prophane or Atheistical Wits either question or deny Those Articles upon the belief of which God has establisht his own Worship and thence challenges our Reverence and Adoration however they are exploded by the Lusts of Infidels the Wit of Atheists or the Malice of Devils will one time or other be effectually prest home to the Conviction of those that scoff at them For see here how unlikely a Man was Balaam to say any thing in Honour of the true God or to assert the peculiar Prerogative of his Providence in the Government of the World who was himself fallen into the grossest Idolatry giving Divine Honours to the Devil and in his Name and by his Power attempting to bring the utmost Reproach upon the Name and upon the Church of God And yet you see the prophane Wretch could not peaceably dye in his Impiety tho' 't is to be fear'd he did dye in it but renouncing his Magick he betakes himself to his Prayers and despising his own Idol when he consulted his own Happiness on that Occasion he gave Glory to God tho' he had so lately sold and devoted himself to celebrate and establish the Worship of a damn'd Idol 3. Obs The commanding Influence and awful Majesty there is in a virtuous and holy Life Its avowed Enemies in their sober moods and if ever they reflect do constantly commend its side The King of Moab's Treasury with all the Riches in it Balaam thought too mean to purchase the Reputation or the Happiness that attends a Righteous and a good Man nor now especially when he took the prospect of Death and Judgment could it calm the Tempest of his amaz'd Conscience To die the death of Kings or Statesmen was too stupid a wish even for such a Man as Balaam And this without that other Cognizance and Qualification which Piety and Holiness and Devotion to the true God gives a Man is to dye wretched and contemptible full of Horrours or void of sense That is a man must at the Apprehensions of his last End look either like a Beast or a Devil tho' he were a great Prince and had acquir'd the Reputation of being never so wise or powerful rich or learned 4. Obs From this early Instance of Heathenish Idolatry and Profaneness we may observe and bewail the desperate Degeneracy of the Age
shall again be quicken'd tho' it perish there and tho' sown in Dishonour yet not without hopes it shall be rais'd in Glory Wherefore in pursuit of the utmost intention of the Words the Altior Sensus Mysticus as Grotius speaks I shall hold my self accountable for this twofold Undertaking I. I shall shew the Doctrine of the Resurrection has not been only anciently and generally believ'd but the Reason of it which makes it necessary and therefore not without absurdity to be denyed II. The Article being prov'd I shall shew for what singular Reasons the last end of the Righteous is incomparably most desirable so that it will be our Wisdom not only to wish it may be our own but also seriously to endeavour it I. As for the Doctrine of the Resurrection we may the less wonder it has been so generally receiv'd it being an Article of so vast moment to be believ'd that Theophylact fears not to call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Capital Article of our Faith And a greater than he says If it be not true our Faith i. e. our Religion is good for nothing 't is a Scheme of Vanity 1 Cor. 15. Nay St. Paul esteemed it so considerable that as if the whole of our Religion was contain'd in it he calls it v. 1. of that Chap. the Gospel Yea we will absolve the whole Rabble of Deists Atheists Sceptics and Apostates from all their Blasphemy and Scurrility and say with them our Religion is an Imposture and its holy Author a Cheat if with any tolerable Sense or shew of Reason the Truth of it can be question'd Wherefore to be as clear and quick as may be in the dispatch of this Head I will 1. Evince the Truth of our Saviour's Resurrection And 2. Then shew the necessary Connexion there is betwixt his and ours i. e. Because he is risen we shall also infallibly be rais'd from the dead 1. My business is to prove that Christ is risen And if there had not been one Witness of it in the World the Prophecies that foretold it would have been infinite Satisfaction to every Man that had but Balaam's modesty to believe that God is not a Man that he should lie v. 19. The Spirit of Prophecy is that undeniable Testimony to Jesus and his Resurrection that to all Men that can believe the Truth or the Power of God it is and has been always esteem'd beyond any sort of Proof or Evidence whatsoever So strong an Argument of the Event are all the Predictions of the Holy Ghost that things are therefore said in Scripture to be done because they are foretold Were there then any Prophecies to this purpose which Holy Men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost This is so certain that our Saviour ventur'd the whole Credit of the Fact rather upon this than upon any other Testimonies insomuch that he told the Jews if they did not believe Moses's Writings neither would they believe tho' one rose from the dead And this method of Proof he took to perswade his own Disciples Tho' these Men had seen him often and had converst with him tho' they had eat and drank walkt and discourst with him and were hereby in no manner of doubt concerning the Truth of his being risen except Thomas for whose satisfaction he exposed his Wounds to be searcht and handled by him yet notwithstanding all this he urges what had been prophecy'd of his Resurrection to give them the greatest Assurance of it and confirms their Faith by a surer Evidence for then opened he their Understandings that they might understand the Scriptures saying thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the Dead Luke 24.45 46. The same Argument St. Peter though he was himself an Eye-witness urged as the chiefest Evidence of the reality of the Miracle and as the chiefest support of their Faith in it 2 Pet. 1.17 seq They were these Predictions that made him as well the Expectation as the Desire of all Ages Yea it was after all so plainly foretold by our Saviour himself and the Impression of his Prediction wrought with such Force upon the Minds of his Enemies that his very Murderers did expect it it being from hence they were prompted to guard his Tomb which by the unsearchable Wisdom of God was the occasion to these Wretches of such further Evidence that they were at Charges to stifle what they therefore wanted the Impudence to deny For next to the Angels the Guards that were hired to keep him Prisoner in the Grave were some of the first Evangelists to publish the Truth of his Resurrection Mat. 28.11 So that upon their Report the Chief Priests and Elders were confirm'd in their Belief on 't And how impossible must it have been for those Infidels to hold out in the real Disbelief of it when they had observ'd the ancient Prophecies were verified in him with respect to some of the minutest Circumstances and Transactions of his Life yea when they had seen several Persons whom they had known truly dead were restored to Life by him and one particularly Lazarus by Name not only dead but rotten Now was it likely or could they imagine that he that had given such Evidence of his Almighty Power and so openly display'd his Conquests over the Grave was liable himself to be held Captive by the Enemy he had vanquish'd Upon the whole then if Christ as you have heard laid the greatest weight upon and chiefly appeal'd unto the ancient Prophecies that foretold his Resurrection our modern Atheists and Infidels have nothing to do but to examin whether there are any Prophecies extant of such a Date And if they find any such they must in spight of their Teeth confess that the Accomplishment of them is an immoveable Testimony to the Foreknowledge and Wisdom to the infinite Power and Truth of God Again that what was thus prophecy'd of Christ and particularly of his Resurrection has accordingly been fulfill'd This God himself has born such undeniable Witness unto both with Signs and Wonders and divers Miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own Will as the Apostle speaks Heb. 2.4 that the Infidel has not the least colour of Pretence to dispute its Evidence Insomuch that his Wit and Malice is quite exhausted upon the Argument And except we will admit of Scoffs for Objections and Grimaces for Confutations the poor Atheist and his Cause are ruin'd for whatever Reasons he brings to weaken or subvert the Credit of this Doctrine or of them that have testify'd to the Truth of it will equally affect his own Credit tho' what he affirms be really never so true and tho' it were infinitely his Interest that it obtain'd Belief Wherefore all that I shall here further add upon this Argument is That upon the Credit of those Prophecies that foretold the Resurrection and those Eye-witnesses that saw Christ risen it was generally believed by