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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	dead_a	faith_n	lively_a	5,187	5	10.6802	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69531	The dead mans real speech a funeral sermon preached on Hebr. xi. 4, upon the 29th day of April, 1672 : together with a brief of the life, dignities, benefactions, principal actions, and sufferings, and of the death of the said late Lord Bishop of Durham / published (upon earnest request) by Isaac Basire ...	Basier, Isaac, 1607-1676.	1673 (1673)	Wing B1031; ESTC R13369	46,947	147

to God Witness Cain and Abel in the Old Testament and the Publican and the Pharisee in the New For the true Religion is chiefly inward for the substance and not only outward for the circumstance and ceremony the Religion of too many I had almost said of most formal Professors now a days an Artificial Religion as being moved chiefly if not only by outward Respects and Objects without any inward Life the want of which did make a wide difference betwixt Cain and Abel the Speaker here from whom to pass unto his Speech we shall interpret it by a three fold Exposition 1. Grammatical 2. Doctrinal 3. Moral 11. As to the Grammatical Exposition I am not ignorant that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original may be verbum medium and so may be translated either in the passive sence he is spoken of as some few Interpreters have rendred it or in the active sence to which I am rather carried by the clear and strong current of almost all Interpreters and the Harmony of eight Translations both Antient and Modern who all render it actively He speaketh This Translation is confirmed by a clear Parallel Hebr. 12. 24. where comparison being made betwixt the precious blood of Jesus Christ and that of Abel 't is expressed in the active sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not in the passive that the blood of sprinkling is better spoken of but in the active that it speaketh better things than that of Abel Ergo Abel being dead yet speaketh quod erat demonstrandum Enough of the Grammatical Exposition 12. We pass now to the Doctrinal Exposition The Doctrine is this That for the godly there is a life after this life for Abel being dead yet speaketh but we know that dead men are speechless and that speech is both a sign and an action of life Abel is not absolutely dead though dead in part he still lives We inlarge the instance from righteous Abel unto all the faithful the total summ is this That though good men die yet their good deeds die not but they survive and that in both Worlds First In this world to their due praise for their own good works praise them in the gates Secondly They live in the next world by their Reward and Coronation for their works do follow them So many good works so many living Tongues of good men after Death who are therefore styled in the Holy Gospel The Children of the Resurrection and again Abel still lives unto men in the memory of all good men for to such the memory of the just shall be blessed and the memory of their vertues calls for both our Commemoration and Imitation of them which leads me to the third point propounded which was the Moral Exposition 13. For I suppose none that hear this are so gross of understanding as to imagine a Vocal Speech of the Dead which would be a miracle but a Speech Analogical by such a Figure as the Heavens speak when they declare the Glory of God The parallel of St. Chrysostom upon the Speech of Abel our speaker in the Text the Father after his wonted Rhetorick amplifies it thus If Abel had a thousand voyces when he was alive he hath many more now he is dead speaking to our admiration and imitation But though the Dead Man's Speech be no vocal speech yet it is and will be a real speech for our conversion or condemnation to the end of the world for Abel being dead yet speaketh First He speaketh by his Repentance implied in his sacrifice not only for Homage due by all rational creatures whether Angels or men unto God their Creator but also as a tacit confession of sin to be expiated by the All-sufficient sacrifice of the promised blessed seed the Messiah to come and so Abel being dead yet speaketh and was by his typical sacrifice the first Prophet of the Old Testament The good examples of holy men are standing real Sermons For there are two wavs of preaching by word or deed The first is good the latter is better but both are best Secondly Abel being dead yet speaketh by his faith expressed here in the Text which faith is a never-dying Preacher to all Ages of the Church because it assureth all the faithful such as was Abel of both God's regard and reward of all his true Servants who follow Abel's faith Thirdly Abel being dead yet speaketh by his works of Righteousness the necessary and best evidences of a lively faith for which Abel stands canonized by God's own approbation and acceptance First of his person that he was righteous and then of his performance his sacrifice Therefore Abel is inrolled with Enoch vers 5. for his Communion of Faith Godliness and Happiness by which both Enoch and Abel pleased God The Jewish Rabbins and sundry Christian Interpreters offer as a tradition this sign of God's acceptance of the sacrifice of Abel to wit by sending Fire from Heaven as upon Aaron's and upon Solomon's and upon Eliah's sacrifice which kindled the sacrifice of Abel the younger Brother and not that of Cain who was the elder Brother Some Interpreters think that this acceptation of Abel's sacrifice was a designation of Abel the younger Brother to the Priesthood before Cain the elder Brother and that these were the occasion of Cain's envy and his envy the cause of Abel's murther By the way 't is worthy our observation that all that come to worship God are either Abels or Cains that is they come with faith or without faith and they speed accordingly Fourthly and lastly Abel being dead yet speaketh as in his Life by his Actions so at his Death by his patience and passion for as St. Stephen was the Proto-Martyr of the New Testament so was Abel the Proto-Martyr of the Old Testament for he died for righteousness sake Hence some Interpreters derive his name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in Holy Tongue signifies to mourn because he was the first man that did taste of Death for which and for whom his and our first Parents Adam and Eve did begin to mourn As it is certain that sin though but a beast hath a voyce and which is more strange in a beast sin hath an articulate voice and by a counter-passion which is lex talionis sin doth not only indite the sinner but also indorseth upon the sinners bill the parallel punishment for time or place person or action so that many times the punishment becomes the Anagram of the sin This even natural men do confess witness Adonibezeck As I have done so God hath requited me which was also King David's case Blood for Blood such was the voice of sin and of their own Consciences Sin hath a voice indeed and that a loud voice for it reacheth as high as Heaven to God's ear and from thence rebounds with an eccho upon a man 's own conscience We read

the Bread only dipt he answered No but he would receive it in both kinds according to Christ's Institution and being through weakness lifted up into his Chair and having a violent pain in his head for the ease whereof it was fast bound he would needs have it all undone and sit bare-headed and so he received it an hour and a half before his death from the hands of Mr. William Flower his Lordships Domestical Chaplain 3. And when being so near unto death he could not kneel he then devoutly repeated often that part of the penitent Prayer of King Manasses Lord I bow the knee of my heart 4. Having often reiterated his Invitation of Christ in the words of the Spirit and of the Church Lord Jesus come quickly His last act was the Elevation of his hand with this his last Ejaculation Lord wherewith he expired without pain according to his frequent prayer to God That he might not dye of a suddain or painful death such was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustus his wish and I pray God for every one of us that from heart and mouth our last breath may prove like that of our late Bishop Amen His Burial The Ecclesiastical Office was solemnly Celebrated by the Right Reverend Father in God Guy Lord Bishop of Bristol The Political Offices were performed decently and in order which was in all publick actions the method of our late Lord Bishop when living and the same he enjoyed at and after his death the particular Narration of which I do civilly recommend to those Dunmviri the worthy Heralds for the Funeral pomp was very solemn who did constantly attend his late Lordship's state at London and all the way to Durham and there and at Auckland the place of his Rest where requiescat in pace and from thence God send him a joyful Resurrection at which prayer none but ignorant or malicious men will take offence for the meaning is no more but that the dead may enjoy a happy Re-union of the Soul with the body at the general Resurrection and a final and full consummation of both in bliss and after the utter abolition of sin by death a blessed conjunction of us that survive with them that are dead which is the Orthodox sence of our Office at Burials the ancient sence of the Primitive Church when we pray over the dead whose Souls in Christian Charity we hope are past the necessity of our Prayers for their Relief or Release from any imaginary first Pagan after Popish Purgatory The Summ of all The Text and Sermon is a dead mans real speech To hear a dead man speak now were such a Prodigy as would certainly both stir up attention and strike amazement into us and all the hearers yet that Great Chancellour of Paris John Gerson relates a strange History which happened about the year 1060. at the Funeral of a Grave Doctor there a man otherwise reputed for the strictness of his life at the interring of whom when the Priest came to the then used form R●sponde mihi or answer me the Corps sat upright in the Biere and to the amazement of all there present the first day cryed out Justo Dei judicio accusatus sum At the Just Tribunal of God I am accused and so laid immediately down in its first posture the astonished Company deferring the burial till the next day when the dead man with a hideous noise cryed out again Justo Dei judicio judicatus sum By the just judgement of God I am judged whereupon the burial was deferred a day longer and the dead man rose up the third time and cryed out his last Justo Dci judicio condemnatus sum By the Just judgement of God I am condemned whereat as the whole company was sadly affrighted so Brimo then an Eminent Doctor in the same University being effectually affected calling his Scholars together retired from the world and as the manner of those Times was then became the Founder of the Order of the Carthusians A strange Prodigy and a loud warning-piece to us all living to admonish us not to confide much less presume upon our outward Righteousness for I dare not deny Historical Credit to this premised Relation from John Gerson But blessed be God dead Abel in the Text and the dead Bishop on this Hearse speak better things This Hearse is now our Bishop's Throne or his Pulpit and so our Bier must be the last Pulpit of us all of the Clergy high and low all must come to this God knows how soon I may be the next God send us all an happy Nunc dimittis of which we may live and dye assured if we imitate them for they being dead yet speak and as you have heard at large do preach unto us all Faith Hope and Charity the only strait way to Heaven all evidenced by their works of Piety which if not imitated by us may justly rise up in judgement against us To Recapitulate and summ up our Bishops Vertues under three Heads I will remind you with 1. His Intellectual 2. His Moral 3. His Theological Vertues 1. As to his Intellectual Vertues his Natural understanding he was endowed with a sound understanding which he enjoyed to the last a great blessing for though for the outward manner of death all things come alike to all and there may be one event to good and bad both may lose their understanding at their latter end through the malignity or vehemency of some acute sicknesses which should teach us all in health to make good use of our understandings yet for a man to dye sanâ mente or in his right wits is a great comfort both to the dying party and to the surviving friends 2. His acquired learning witness his writings fore-mentioned and his diligent researches into the magazine of the best Antiquity I may truly say Here lies now dead before us one of our Chief Ritualists 3. He was punctual in his Methods for to my knowledge he loved Order in his Studies and Functions and he often repeated and generally observed the Apostles Canon Let all things be done decently and in order He was so exact in putting in practice the Discipline of our Church that he strictly enjoyned according to the Rubrick the daily Publick Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer within the Churches of his Diocess which since the decay of the Primitive Devotion of daily Communions in the old Christianity is instead of the Juge Sacrificium of the Jews the daily sacrifice of a Lamb Morning and Evening And 't is both our sin and shame that since God is graciously pleased under the Gospel to spare our lambs we Christians should in requital grudge our good God except in case of real necessity the Calves of our lips to praise him daily in the publick Congregations Without vanity I have through Gods providence travelled and taken an impartial survey of both the Eastern and Western Churches and can assert upon

mine own experience that in the Eastern Churches the Greeks and Armenians c. constantly observe their daily publick Service of God and in the Western Churches I passing through Germany to take the like survey did with comfort behold the same daily publick Offices with full Congregations in those they call the Lutherans and Calvinists I do hate but through the iniquity of the times I cannot avoid those Schismatical names expressed only for distinctions sake nay to give Rome her due they in their way though erroneous observe the same daily practice strictly And truly when the Laity doth daily plow sow work and provide for the Clergy 't is but Christian Equity that the Clergy should daily offer publick Prayers and Praises for the Laborious Laity Item Our late Bishop did much reform and regulate the good Behaviour and Canonical Habit of the Clergy under his Government He did also regulate their Office in bidding prayer before their Sermons according to the common sence of our Churches Canon LV. and confin'd their conceived prayers too much abused and groundless in our Liturgy and also contrary to the ancient practice of our Church and other Reformed Churches and I who have lived in this Diocess of Durham forty years and have been an unworthy Arch-Deacon of Northumberland as also a Prebend of this Church for the space of thirty years never saw it more Regular since the sad twenty years of Schism and War and so of Confusion whereby his Successour whoever he be may enjoy the comfort of a Regular Diocess 2. His Moral Vertues 1. And first His liberal Hospitality at his Table according to the Apostolical Canon That a Bishop must be given to Hospitality which to maintain honestly he must in all reason and equity be allowed proportionable Revenues according to that Proverb Ne sit Promus fortior Condo This once again may strangle Bel and the Dragon 2. We have already mentioned his Princely Magnificence in his buildings 3. His Christian Magnanimity in his undertakings and sufferings we purposely omit some of them whereby he did prevent Innovations within his County Palatine because we would prevent malice and envy at the recital of them But we must needs express again the Royal Favour procured by him to exempt this See from the great burthen of eight hundred and eighty pounds per An. paid for many years by the Bishops of Durham to the Queens of England 3. His Theological Vertues Which were his Faith Hope and Charity 1. His Faith evidenced by his faithful constancy in the True Religion and by his full Confession of that Holy Faith in his Last Will the antient way of the Holy Fathers in their Testaments 2. His Hope expressed by his Patience under his sufferings knowing that Tribulation worketh Patience and Patience experience and experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed His sore fits of sickness especially for the two last years of his life often did break his crazed body but never did break his Christian patience 3. His Charity apparent by his pious Dedications to God and bountifull Donations to men so that I wish that in his Epitaph that character of Gods Servant might be stamped He hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the Poor his Righteousness remaineth for ever his born shall be exalted with honour a consequent blessing upon such Benefactors for this Godly Seed is a Metaphor taken from a Husbandman who by scattering of his Seed into the ground in due season reapeth a plentiful increase in due time And now here lies before us the remains of a great man indeed 1. Great by his Dignities lawfully obtained He was 1. A Fellow of Caius Colledge in Cambridge 2. A Priest in God's Church 3. Master of Peter-house in Cambridge 4. A Prebendary here 5. Arch-Deacon 6. Deane 7. At last by these orderly degrees he was through the providence of God and under God by the Royal Favour of our most Gracious King in Reward of his Constant and Loyal Services and Sufferings at Home and Abroad exalted to the Throne of a Bishop and such a Bishop as was a Count Palatine in England and so as I may say a petty King as having the Royalties in this County belonging to him but still with due Subordination to a Great King Transcendent above him and all Subjects within this Kingdome but still a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in our Translation a Noble Man in the vulgar Latine a Regulus in St. Hierome Palatinus a parallel Title to that part of our Bishops Dignity But now he is dead and who knows but that God took him away from the evil to come And as great as he was you may see now that a small plat of ground must contain and confine him Sic transit gloria mundi He can carry none of all those Dignities to his grave onely his Faith and good Works do attend him to his grave and beyond his grave for his Works do follow him and that as high as Heaven where he now rests from his labours but without Faith and good works when a man is dead vanity of vanities all is vanity 2. This great man was Greater yet by his Actions and great Benefactions concerning which when in the prosecution of his Great Buildings he was interpelled by some with the mention of his Children his usual answer was The Church is my first-born a Noble Speech yea a Divine Sentence worthy of a King who may envy it out of a Bishops mouth Indeed the Church is the Kings first-born and the best of his Titles is to be the Defender of it I am confident that his Noble Relations will Erect unto him a more lasting Monument than this our transient Speech or withering pen or failing Press can fully express Indeed for his time he did great things and he lived and died also with good intentions of doing greater things for he was pregnant of generous designs 3. He was greatest of all by his constant sufferings in which sence St. John Baptist is styled magnus coram Domino not so much for his doings though they were great for John did no Miracles as for his sufferings in which Sence our late Bishop was greatest for he was a constant Confessor for Christ and his True Religion and so but one degree removed from the Noble Army of Martyrs into whose blessed Society our hope is that he is now gathered to which blessed state of Glory he bring us all at last who hath both by his precious blood purchased and by his Free Grace prepared it for us even Jesus Christ the Righteous To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one God be ascribed again from Angels from us and from all men all Praise Power Majesty Dominion and Glory for ever and ever Amen AN APPENDIX Of the late Lord Bishop OF DVRESME's PROFESSION and PRACTICE And of his Last Will concerning RELIGION The State of us

of the cry of Sodom and of the cry of the hireling's wages kept from him and here Abel's blood hath a voice that cries aloud for Justice in God's eares and as it were prefers a Bill of Indictment upon which God the just Judge immediately arraigneth Cain passeth Judgment and doth Execution upon Cain the Fratricide stamping a curse both upon his person and estate saying What hast thou done the voice of thy brothers blood cries unto me from the Ground and now art thou cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thine hand When thou tillest the Ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth Now as sin hath a voice so grace hath a voice also calling upon us as for our Imitation of the vertues of the Saints departed so calling upon God for a gracious compensation of their works which follow them after death not at all by way of merit but of God's free mercy for what proportion betwixt man's works which are but temporary and therefore finite all our best works are no more and besides imperfect all and God's high reward which is Infinite both for weight and for duration to all eternity Some Interpreters add a fifth way by which Abel being dead yet speaketh to wit as a Type by his blood shed by Cain his Brother prefiguring the blood of Christ shed by his brethren the Jews And thus many ways Abel being dead yet speaketh And so all good men though dead yet speak by their good works of Faith and Patience In which blessed number this dead man before our eyes was through God's grace listed and so speaketh by his good deeds to his Generation and seems by his example to preach unto us all St. Paul's Apostolical Admonition Not to be weary of well doing for in due season we shall reap a reward if we faint not as our Christian hope is the deceased Prelate findeth it now to his everlasting comfort O how gladly would I make an end here and so come down Sorry I am that I must now pass and descend from the Literal Text to this our Real Text lying before us But 't is a Rule of Christian practice that when God hath been pleased to reveal his will by the event our humble resignation of our selves and friends and all with submission of our will to God's will is our duty and the best remedy to allay all our sorrows and to say in the words and with the spirit of Holy Job The Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord which is part of our office for burial in all this Job sinned not no more should we if we would be followers of Job's faith and patience which God grant us all through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be ascribed from Angels from us and from all men all praise power Majesty and Dominion now and for ever Amen A BRIEF OF THE Life and Dignities OF THE BENEFACTIONS AND Principal Actions c. OF The Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Bishop and Count Palatine of Durham c. LONDON Printed for James Collins at the Sign of the Kings-Arms in Ludgate-street 1673. THE Dead Man's REAL SPEECH BUt before we enter into this due Office of Commemoration for to preach or pray over the dead is Justa persolvere we must by way of prevention enter this solemn Protestation against this our censorious Age That we do abjure all manner of flattery passive or active being God be thanked settled above all slavish fear or base hope from the living much more from the dead Was King David a Flatterer for composing and publishing those goodly Epitaphs upon Saul and Abner who yet were no very good men or were the godly widows flatterers for shewing the Coats and Garments which Dorcas made whilst she was alive In the ensuing rehearsal our intention is and our endeavour shall be to publish nothing but vera utilia As for the verity as I am confident of the Ingenuity of my Instructors Persons of Quality and of good credit so as I said before I am convinced and confirmed of the verity of the matter by the last will a sacred thing in Law of our late Lord Bishop And as for the utility of this due office of Commemoration we commit our Meditations to Gods direction and commend them to your attention If there be any Adder that dare hiss against this dead Prelate or the liveing for giving the dead his due or shall object Was this man one in quo Adam non peccavit Was he a man all made of Vertues Had he no faults Our answer is that Proverb of Charity De mortuis nil nisi benè 't is an honest old say as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to gnaw on dead mens bones is an inhumane brutish unnatural humour Such Cannibals as do delight to feed on dead mans flesh by tearing of their Fame do take the Devils Office out of his hand Yet the Devil if one may say so was more a Gentleman more civil to Job for the Devil slander'd him indeed but 't was when he was alive and so might and did answer for himself Far be it from me to usurp the Office of a Coroner over the state of the Dead the Rule of Charity and practice of our Church in the Office for the dead have taught me better Divinity I know by experience that an evil eye looking upon the Dead through the wrong end of the perspective I mean Envy will not only spear out but also espy and that with aggravation the infirmities or faults of the dead I wish all such seriously to consider themselves and well to weigh St. James his Observation Was not Elias a man subject to the like passions as we are and yet by the Pens of the Prophets and Apostles dipt in Charity we read nothing but commendations of Elias nor of Job Ye have heard of the patience of Job not a word of his impatience tho' confessed by himself whom some think to be the Authour of the most part of that Book When I have done with the due praises of this Great Man some Shimei with his Serpents tongue may still hiss at though he can never hurt this dead man To stop all such foul mouths I wish them to reflect upon themselves and let them know that there must be faults as long as there are men and with a serious reflexion upon themselves let them fore-know that after him who lies here before us we must all every one of us be weighed in the ballance at last and for my own part I must confess I am perpetually afraid to have my share in that Article against Belshazzar I dread his Tekel that final doom Thou art weighed in the ballance and found wanting