I Need not tell you the occa­sion of our Meeting; The sad Object lying before your Ey declares that. And though He who is gone be principally concerned in drawing you to this House of Mourning, yet must ye not repute your selves wholly unconcern'd, [Page 2]The benefit will redound to you, who Eccl s. 7 3. who know by whom ye are told how good it is to enter into it; I wish ye may think so too.

I read of one Philoromus Galata who was so much in love with Death, he liv'd some years in a Tomb to prepare Him­self for it

This Spectacle, and this Discourse tends to this Preparation; So that I hope ye will not repent an hours stay here with me.

The Grave is commonly as powerful an Oratour as the Pulpit, and by presen­ting the fears of an III Death instructs us in the Rules of a Good Life: My assu­rance, is that as the winding Sheet fits eve­ry Body by dilating or contracting it self to each ones size, so my discourse will suit it self to every Hearer. Like Philipp's Boy, it holds out to Youth a Skull, to Age, a Coffin.

Who next amongst us is likely to fall into this low Centre may be doubtfull; 'Tis sure at one time or other we all must: And probably we shall not all of us a few dayes hence meet here again.

Therefore wheresoever that final Lot may chance to fall, whether on some Hearer, or on the Speaker, You will al­low this Text a pious remembrancer to Those who stay behind, and an antidated valediction to those who next go hence. So then as St. Paul told the Corinthians; Whether it be I or You, so I Preach, 1 Cor. 15 11. and so Yee justly must believe, That happy shall their condition be in the Next world, who after a Religious life dye well in This.

For Precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of His Saints.

I trouble you not with any Curious but a Plain Division. Division The First Joint whereof is (that which disjoins Nature, 1. D [...]ath. and must Divide us from One another, Yea makes a Division of us from Our selves by Disuniting Soul and Body, and taking asunder those Essential Parts by which we subsist) Death.

Then follows the Subject of our Fu­neral, 2. Saints. Sancti All are concluded under the Necessity of Dying, Men, the Best of Men, Saints.

Yet Thirdly there is a mixture of Com­fort to sweeten the Meditation of Death, 3. Pretious. It is Mors Pretiosa, Pretious.

• 1 In that it puts an end to all Cala­mity.
• 2. Pretious for that Their Memory survives when They are gone.
• 3. Pretious in the Sight of Men, as being Honoured in their Exe­quies.

Lastly it is Pretiosa in conspectu Dei. 4 In the s [...]ght of the Lord.

Not Pretious only in the Ey and Estimation of the world, But Precious in the Sight of the Lord. He who sees all things is a Spectator of the Death of his Servants, and shews how dearly he values Them.

• 1. By Avenging their Blood, if shed by violence in this world.
• 2. By Rewarding Them in the Next.

This is the Frame on which my ensu­ing Discourse is carried; whose Founda­tion you see is laid as low as the Grave.

I begin there where all must end, 1. Patt. Death. with Death; The full Period and Close of Na­ture. A Subject better defin'd by silence, [Page 7]than speech, and sounds more patheti­cally from a Tomb than a Pulpit. The Arguments of this place are (or should be God and His VVorks, But amidst the whole Catalogue of those works of His we find not Death: A thing of so unblest a Being It cannot derive it self from His Hand and Facture who made All other things.

Light was his Creature, Strook out and Kindled by His Fiat Lux, Gen. 1.3. Let there be Light: And Life was inspired by His Powerful Breath who breathed Spiracu­lum vitae into Man. Gen. 2.7. But Darkness and Death are Children of other Parentage. God made no Privations to Smother His Works, No Extinguishers of Light or Nature; No Sickness to supplant Health, nor Infirmity to dissolve Strength; VVis. 1.14 The Generations of the World were healthful, and there was no Poison of destruction a­mongst them. Darkness is but a defect of Light, and Death a Privation of Life, therefore none of His, ver. 13 For God hath not made Death, neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living.

If you would have Death's Pedigree, search not in God's Book of Creatures, amongst the Records of Life, but see the Annals of Sin. That and Sin were Twins nursed up together, engendred of two accursed Parents, the Serpent's Active Malice, and Man's Disobedience. From hence do we derive this Monster, This Enemy to Nature, and Opposite to God: For so it is.

This demolisheth what He Builds, The goodly frame of Mankind is by Death ruined and layd in Farth; This Revers­eth what He enacted, Marrs and un­makes all that He made before.

You see at what Breach Death enter'd, The breach of God's Covenant. There the Inundation ran in, whose furious tor­rent will not be stopp'd until it hath overwhelm'd and cover'd the Universe.

From Adam did this Tyrant begin his dangerous Reign: On his Fall was Death's Throne crected; his Body be­came the first Stair of the Ascent, since which time he hath still raised that fatal Mound by heaping on it all the Bodies of [Page 7]his Children, For in Adam we all dye; 1 Cor. 15.22. His Fall maim'd and Creepled Posterity, which hath ever since complained of that bruise; The Earth yet groans under the barren Curse thrown upon it for Adam's sake; Rom. 8.22. And Every Creature groans with us also travailing in pain unto this present.

Thus as Ashur was the Rod of Gods vengeance to scourge the rebellious Israe­lites, Esay 10.5. so Death became God's scourge to punish the Sin of Man: Aug. Ser. 21. in Mat. Neseis quia poena est, necesse esse ut moriamur?

Here then you see, though Death were none of God's works, Yet is it over All His works: This Thing of No being, this Privation, this Nothing, devours All things; For what is free from this Gan­grene? what Plant doth not this Worm strike? what Elementary Body Animate or Inanimate is not subject to Corrup­tion? Templa, Saxa, Marmora, Aug. Ser. 17. Ferro plum­boque consolidata tamèn cadunt, Miserable experience shews that Temples are not privileg'd from ruine; Those sheets of Lead wherein the Dead sleep tast of Cor­ruption.

—Sunt et sua fata sepulchris,

Tombs themselves have their Dying day, And those Marble Quarryes which stand over Princes moulder to dust as do the Bodies lying under them

If then an inevitable Necessity of Death or some decay like it lies upon Metals and those solid Bodies which scarcely retain a Cause of Putrefaction within them, Certainly Man whose complexion is not Stone, nor his Ribbs Brass, must be better acquainted with Dust and Rottenness: Job 17.14. Say to Corruption thou art my Father, and to the worm Thou art my Mother and my Sister. Yea so far is He unable to bear off by any Armour he can buckle on, the assaults of Death, That not the Armour of the Apostle, of more curious Temper and better proof than Steel, Ephes. 6.16. The Shield of Faith and Brest­plate of Righteousness, which are able to resist the fiery Darts of Satan, can guard him from Death's Dart; For even the Best of Men, Gods dearest Servants and Saints are the subject of Deaths triumph, 2. Of Saints. It is Mors Sanctorum, the Death of Saints.

That Nolite tangere Christos meos, Psal. 105. Touch not mine Annointed, which encircles God's Servants, and like a Charm Exorcises all other dangers, cannot guard Them from this Fiend, Death. Moses his Body found a Champion to defend It from the Devil. Jud. epist. ver. 9. He found no Champion to fight for Him against Death; The Decree is past and not to be reversed, Deut. 34.5. He must up to Mount Nebo and there Dye.

There is no Gluttony like Death; The greatest Practitioners in the School of Ryot have at length met a Surfet which hath done that, nor Sea nor Land (Granges too narrow to serve their ex­cess) could ever do, Choaked their boundless Appetite: But Death is a Glutton unacquainted with Surfet or Satiety, Of whom I may say as the Sci­thian Embassadour once did to Alexan­der, Q. Curt. Ʋnus es omnium qui satietate parasti famem, Satiety to Thee only serves to beget Hunger. Not all the Gross Meals, the Grand Feasts which Warr or Pesti­lence have drest, could make Him say It is Enough: Not all those Messes in the [Page 10]Revelation, Revel. 19.18. The Flesh of Kings and Cap­tains, the flesh of Bond or Free-men, Small and Great, (Provision sufficient for all the Vultures invited to that Supper) could make a Competent Meal for Death. ver. 17. Not all the Rarities of Nature, the choi­cest fruits the world affords, Youth ga­ther'd in the Bud, and Beauty cropp'd in the flower, could satisfie Deaths Palate. But after all these services, He must have a Feast of Saints cooked in all the bar­barous fashious Tyranny and Cruel in­vention could devise, They were Ston'd, were saw'n in sunder, Hebr. 11.37. Rosted in the Fire, Broyl'd on Grid-irons, Flead, Torn in pieces, Brayed in Mortars; I have not memory nor language to recite this hor­rid Bill of Fare, Search the Histories of the Church and see it upon Record.

We should not grudge at this large Al­lowance made to Death, did He feed on Those that would not be missed amongst us, Lucan. Vulgares Animas, trivial Soules and — Frustrà peritura cadavera, Those un­usefull burchens of the Earth who only walk about and talk out their Time, ha­ving [Page 11]no profession but that of the Athe­nians, to Hear and Telt News. Act. 17.21.

Well were it for the world, did Death remove such unprofitable things as These, who like the fruitless Tree in the Gospel only cumber the Earth; Did He only exenterate Nature which at first hatch'd this devouring Cokatrice, and did not also eat through the Bowels of the Church, destroying those Holy Births which lye within her Womb.

To our grief we must remember those heavy Stroaks have fallen thick upon us. You had one Famous Light, Dr. Fern. Bp. of West Chester. whose Learning and Exemplary Life shone brightly in the Orb of our English Church extinguished very lately; And when that Earth which covered Him is scarce­ly made up, behold here Another worthy follows, ready to take his final Lodging in the same Dust.

Thus doth this Tyrant double His Blow, depriving us of Two such incom­parable Persons, that though you search Their whole Order and Run through our Hierusalem with Lanterns (as once the [Page 12]Prophet did) you shall not match a­gain.

Tune duos unâ saevissima vipera caenâ, Juven [...]l. Tune Duos? —

Let me play the Satyrist with Death: Cruel Viper as thou art, Could not One suffice thy ravenous appetite, but thou must have Two to gorge upon? I need not stay for the answer, I find it ready made there— Septem, Septem, si forte fuissent, were it possible to find out Seven more like Them, His dart is lifted up, as ready now to strike as He was then.

We have cause (God knows) too much to lament these great Losses in such a barren Time as ours which produceth very few Saints, And where Good men are thinly found, Like the shaking of the Olive Tree which amongst many Leaves yield perhaps here and there a Berry. Knowing that Ten Righteous Persons (if so many may be found) are able to bear off a Showr of Vengeance and Fire nor less violent than that which fell on So­dom and Gomorrah. G [...]n. 1 [...] 91. Nay One Aaron is [Page 13]authoriz'd to stand in the Gapp betwixt an Offended God and a Sinfull Peo­ple.

Indeed the World is now in it's Do­tage Creepled and Bed-rid, In the last and worst Age: So that had it not some few sound Crutches to support it, some few Pillars not eaten in by the vices of the Time, nor Canker'd by those Opi­nions which madly fly about, not only to the disfiguring our Churches Decency and Order; but the shaking and undermining even Her Fundamental Truths, It could not subsist. Whensoever then a Good man dyes a Shore of the declining world is taken away, and a Pillar of the Church, [...], Greg. Nazi anz. ora. [...] Land. Pa [...]ris. threatning a Ruine to that part where the Stay was broken out.

It is our best Course therefore to strengthen our remaining Stayes by our Prayers; Knowing that the Devil's ma­lice is ever planted against our Best Forti­fications, assaulting Those most hotly who stand in the Breach.

For he doth not wound us blindly or [Page 14]by chance, but by Election and Judge­ment. So doth his Agent Death cull out the Best, Garbling the Race of Men, and Commonly leave the refuse, Moes optima rapit, deterrima relinquit; Making us know to our grief that of Hieron: to be most true, Peccatores terrae habitatores, Justi pe­regrini Sinners are the proper Inhabitants here, Saints only sojourn in the world, I am a Stranger, Psal. 39.13. and a Sojourner as all my Fathers were.

They who justly consider how many Hundreds of Men yield one Saint, How many years Religiously spent are required for His probation, and How many Vir­tues go to the Making up of a Saint: They who Corsider again how hard a th [...]ng it is to Pair and fellow Goodness when Death hath mis-matched it, and how unequally the successions of Virtue are preserv'd amongst us, who seldome [...]nherit any thing of our Fore-fathers worth, but only their Imperfections and [...]nfirmities: They I say who in all these unfortunate consequences justly appre­hend the loss of Good men, will not [Page 15]blame us to set that value upon their Death at which Sorrow and Affection de­servedly prizes Them, Confessing that Sanctorum Mors Pretiosa. Their death is Pretious.

Pretious indeed: 3. Pretious. For how ill soever the bargain proves on our parts, it is good to Them, as in a hard Purchase what the Buyer loses, the Seller gets. 'Tis Mors pretiosa to Them in an other Capaci­ty, That gainful sense the Apostle means, Mors Lucrum, Death is their Advantage, Phil. 1.21. whereby They gain an end to those Mi­series Life exposed and the Worlds con­verse cast upon Them, and may seal their valediction to both in those words of the Poet,

— Finitis gaude tot mihi Morte malis. Ovid. lib. 3. trist. El. 3. Hear how St. Bernard exalts Death's Market, and raiseth the Price of it. Pre­tiosa planè tanquàm finis Laborum, Bernard. tan­quàm Victoriae consummatio, tanquàm vitae Janua, tanquàm perfectae Securitatis ingres­sus; It is Pretious, as being an Antidote against all Infirmity; Though the Potion hath some bitterness, Ecclus 41.1. O Mors quàm ama­ra! [Page 16]The effect is sweet. He who takes it down, in that draught takes his ever­lasting Quietus Though the infected Air spreads new diseases over the World, that infection pierces not so low as the Grave, such an Armour of proof are five feet of Earth: It is a Pretious Re­ceipt for Sleep beyond all the Opiate or Mandragoras Physick can prescribe: He who is lodg'd in Earth lies in an Inner Chamber which Noise cannot disturb: The wars of the Elements are not heard in that Quarter, The Wind contesting with the Wave, Nor the Breach of Wa­ters, Nor the Tongue of Thunder, None of these can dispossess them of that slum­ber which only the Archangel's Trump shall waken, Nor any other way disturb their quiet habitation, upon whose door the Characters of Eternal Peace are en­graven: Revel. 14.13. Write, Blessed are Those that dy in the Lord (so saith the Spirit) for they finally rest from their Labours.

How Pretious the death of Saints is, all from hence must graunt, who from the sense of Pain can understand the benefit [Page 17]of Ease, Or from the miseries of war are instructed in the Blessings of Peace, And from the Worlds perpetual disquiet have learnt what price they ought to set up­on an endless Rest: This meerly con­cerns Themselves.

There be other differences which conti­nue Their value unto us when They are gone. First, the Honour due to their Memory after Death, which distinguisheth Persons of Desert from Those of no Consideration.

The whole circumference of natural Be­ing meets in one Centre. Eccles. 3.19. That which befall­eth the sons of Men befalleth Beasts, as the one dieth so dieth the other (saith the Prea­cher) And Wise Men Dy as well as Fools. Psal. 49.10. But yet in this Fatal Heraldry there are differences to discriminate the Elder and the Younger house; Tacitus will tell you Mortem ex Naturâ omnibus aequalem oblivione apud posteros vel gloriâ distingui, Tacit. An­nal. lib. 1. Death which is equal to all is distinguish­ed by the honour shewed to the Decea­sed, or the neglect to them when gone. Thus did the Romans distinguish their Two Emperours Augustus and Tiberius [Page 18]the Successor in his Empire though not in his Virtues: Augustus They Deified, but their hate to Tiberius was such, They would have His Memory survive no where unless in Hell: Sueton. in Tiberie. Deos Manes rogâ­runt, ut mortuo sedem nullam nisi intèr impi­os darent. Such is the fate of wicked ones to be forgotten, Psal. 149.9. and such honour have the Saints to Live in their Posterities remem­brance.

VVhich Honour is by a Second evi­dence demonstrated in their Exequies. Datur hoc illustrium virorum posteritati ut Exequiis à promiscuâ sepulturâ separentur. Tacitus. The Prophet could not threaten a grea­ter Curse than to be cast out as unwor­thy of the Rites of Burial; Paricides and Traitors, Murtherers of Parents or Murtherers of Princes who are our Ci­vil Parents of the whole Kingdom were thus used amongst the Heathen. [...], let them ly unburied, And [...], let Dogs eat their Flesh upon earth as they did Jezabel's, and Fowls of Prey devour their Carcasses when hanging in the Air. So God tells [Page 19]the King of Babylon, Esai. 15.19, 20. Thou art cast out like an abominable Branch, Thou shalt not be joined with them in Burial.

True it is that Heraclitus is Charg'd by Origen, Origen. cont. Cels. lib. 3. That He did think a Dead Bo­dy not worth a Grave or Rites of Burial, but to be cast out to the Frost of the Night and Heat of the Day as a contem­ptible Relick eternally lost in it's separa­tion from the Soul.

So Hieron: Hieron. lib. 3. contra Vi­gilant. chargeth Vigilantius as one wedded to the superstition of the Sama­ritan and Jew, who reputed the Bodies of the Dead unclean Things, reproaching the Coemeteries & Consecrated Ground wherein they are lay'd, as follies to be laught at, and terming Those who Buri­ed Them, Cinerarios & Idololatras qui mortuorum ossa venerantur, Traders in dust and Idolaters of Dead Mens Bones.

The Brownists in their Apology come as neer These I have named as may be, Against the Oxford an­swer 1602 [...]o the Mini­sters Petiti­on. Affirming Burial to be no Ecclesiastical Action, because not named by Timothy a­mongst the Ministerial duties.

Barrow and Greenwood take it at [Page 20]b [...]wnd from Them, Vid. Their Answer to Gifford. 1591. and ask where it was made an Ecclesiastical duty, or why to be performed in Hallowed Ground? as if we had no Fields. They forgot (it seems) Devout men carried Stephen to His Burial. Act. 3.2.

And I must tell you, our Preciser sort of late have run in the same line; They would by no means endure the Body to come within the Church, but it must be left without in the Church-yard; Nor would They use in Committing the Corps to Earth any word or Ceremony, but put it into the Ground as one would bury the meanest Creature that lay Dead; Let me ask without offence, what doth this differ from that Curse denounced by the Prophet against Jeho­jakim, Jer. 26.19. The Burial of an Ass?

S. Augustin teaches Them more Ci­vility if They would learn; Aug. de Civ. Del lib. 11. c. 13. Non contem­nenda sunt & abjicienda Corpora Defuncto­rum, The Bodies of Dead Christians are not to be thus slightly and Contempti­bly cast into the Earth. Mat. 23.24.

Tender and soft Conscienc'd men as [Page 21]They are, who strain at Gnats and swallow Camels. They made no scruple to Preach up the Highest Rebellion in the State, & Fowl [...]st Disorder in the Church, that any Age ever knew; Yet their umbrageous Phantasies startle now at any thing of Decency & Order. As if Popery were ob­truded in that Sign which hath no other meaning but to signify to the world that we are not ashamed of the Cross of Christ cru­cified, [...]iturgy in Publick Ba­p [...]ism. Or Antichrist lurked under that In­nocent habit used in the Ministerial Office.

But I am upon a Theam of Burial due to Christians, and in Christian Charity I would Bury these weaknesses too, if They be so, or not rather Obstinacies; only putting Them in mind, There can­not be too much Dignity given to the Bo­dy when Dead, which Living was a Tem­ple of the Holy Ghost; That Body which Christ assumed when He took our Flesh; That Body In which and For which He Died, paying the price of his unvalua­ble Blood to redeem it; Lastly, That Body which He will hereafter Glorify and make it Like unto His own Glorious and Incorruptible Body. Philip. 3.1.

Sure if the Prophet tells you with sor­row That it pitty'd all Eies to see the ruins of decay'd Sion, and that the dust and rubbish of it was priz'd and favour'd by them, Psal. 102.14. Let none disvalue the Bodies of Saints demolished by Death, which are more Considerable than the Stones of Sion in her greatest beauty. But ra­ther let it be a motive in the Honour of their Funeral Rites to declare how Pre­tious their Death is in the sight of Men, when the Text assures you that it is Pre­tious in the sight of God. 4. In the sight sight of God.

Should man's ingratitude lose the Remembrance of Those who in their time have best deserved in the World, Yet God is not as Man to forget His Servants; They need no Monument to preserve, nor Epitaphe to innoble them who live in God's Remembrance; The Memorial and Name of the wicked Men perisheth like the Dung, Psal. 9.5. and rotts faster than their Corrupted Bodies, but the Just shall be had in everlasting Memo­ry. Psal. 111.6

There can be no greater motive for [Page 23]Christians to live well, than to think Deus videt, Senec. God is a spectator of all their Actions whilst They live here; Nor can there be a greater terrour to any who by Violence deprive them of that life, Than to consider He is the A­venger of His Servants and Saints. So the Price He puts upon Them is in Rewar­ding Them in the next world, and Aven­ging Their Blood in This.

Yet I must tell you, 1. He Aven­geth. this speculation of God's Vengeance upon their Destroyers, if taken by our own Perspective, may de­ceive us. As God doth not alwaies at first Call hear our Prayers when we In­voke His Mercy, but takes His own Time to perform what we desire; So He doth not ever when we implore His Ju­stice let loose His Thunder to strike Those Men of Blood to whom His se­verest vengeance is due. Thou God to whom vengeance belongeth shew Thy self, Psal. 93.2. is the Prophets excitation of Him; And yet for al this Cry He tells you in an­other place God makes as if he heard not; Yea though he hath pronounced that [Page 24] the Blood-thirsty and deceitful should not live out half their dayes, Psal. 55.23. we have seen the Gray-hair'd Murtherer finish a large Account of Time and number many years, Nay dye in his Bed; when Those who deserv'd to be Canoniz'd for Saints and Martyrs have dy'd upon the Scaffold.

If These men dy the Common death of all men, Num. 16.29 then the Lord hath not sent me (saith Moses) with some indignation in the case of Korah and his fellow Conspi­rators.

O Beloved! Yee must neither mis­doubt us who preach the Certainty of God's Judgments, If in Your Ey these Judgments fall not on Them so soon or so severe as you expect: Much less must you misjudge God Himself either from the delay of His Vengeance or by per­mitting them to enjoy Augustus his [...], Suetor. a quiet and Calm Death.

We are no competent Judges of God's motion to Revenge, no more than of the Means by which He doth ac­complish it.

God sayes Their foot shall slide in due time, Deut. 32.35. But then he asks who shall appoint Me the time? Jer. 50.44. If He strikes not presently we must not think Him slow or forget­full, 2 Pet. 3.9. The Lord is not slack as some men count Slackness.

Or if He permits any notorious Of­fenders to finish their dayes by a Natural Death in their Bed, do we know Qualem in conscientiâ sustinent Gehennam? what hard contests, what sharp Conflicts, what Hell their Consciences endure?

When God threatens He will cast Jesabel upon a Bed, Rev. 2.22. Think you this done in favour of Her, who seduced His ser­vants to commit Fornication? No, but to revenge Her Adulteries upon the very Bed whereon she committed them.

So when He suffers the fowlest Assasi­nates to dy in their Bed, it is not alwayes Mercy, but rather as if He Hanged Them at their Own Door, making those very Beds on which they proudly stretcht themselves, Amos 6.4. and where They contrived their Hellish Machinations, the Place of Execution and Torment to Them.

For my part, I shall ever reckon these inverted forms of Justice among the Prodigies which Christ predicted of the Last and worst Times, When the Stars should fall from Heaven, Mat. 24.29. the Sun be dark­ned, the Moon turn'd to Blood.

How many Stars in the Sphear of the Church (for those Lights are Stars in the Spirit's compellation) have since these unhappy times been darkned? Rev. 1.20. How many Nobles have been strook off by violent Death? who are Stars in the Orb of the Kingdom: How hath the Moon languished under Her Eclipse, Queens mourned in Widdowhood and Exile? Nay (which is a Portent grea­ter than that) how hath the most Glo­rious Sun which ever shone in the Fir­mament of our English Throne been turn'd to Blood?

It was a Bloody Time wherein we liv'd of late; and sure it was believ'd the New Modell'd State could not thrive un­less, like the Vine, Blood were powr'd at the Root of it. Tertullian tells us the Heathen Persecutions gave the President; [Page 27]who if the Seasons prov'd unkindly, or the Aspect of Heaven frown'd on them in ill weather, If they suffer'd Famine or Pestilence, If their Designs miscar­ried by Land, or their Adventures by Sea, they ran down to the Amphitheater, crying, Christiani ad Leones, Tertui. Apologet. Some Chri­stians must be sacrifized to the Teeth of Beasts to mend those Mischiefs.

You may remember how some Sedu­ced People were incited to run down with Tumultuous Petitions, and Con­fused Clamours for Justice upon Delin­quents; Alleging their Trade was im­prosperous for lack of execution done upon Delinquents.

When they had prevayl'd, and by Gross prevarication ( Law and no Law, Laws made for that purpose, then Ab­rogated when the Turn was serv'd;) when (I say) by these Juggles they had got off some of the wisest Heads in the State, and Highest in the Church; Nay when they had struck the Vena Basilica, emptying the Blood of the Principal Veyn which gave Life and Spirit to the [Page 28]whole Kingdome, how well those abused People have thriv'd, and the Trades improv'd, Themselves feel to their utter undoing, and we all see.

God grant this Unvaluable, this Guiltless, this yet unexpiated Blood, with many Thousands besides shed since the last eruption of our Civil War, be not charg'd upon the Heads of every one of us who survive.

It is the Positive Law of God, Gen. 9 6. He who sheddeth Man's Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed. And I know not what Power upon Earth can dispense with it. If there be any who frame excuse, or by Sophistry and False Reason endeavour to Palliate the Crime, let them take heed lest they pluck down the Guilt upon Themselves.

This Loud crying Sin will not easily be silenced: The Tongue of Blood is ne­ver hoarce by long crying; Gen 4.10. I have heard the Voyce of thy Brother Abel's Blood crying to me from the Ground (saith God,) And This Blood (though shed so many hundred years past) Cryes still. Heb. 11.4. Indeed how can [Page 29]it be otherwise? Psal. 56.8. He who Bottles every Tear shed in sorrow or contrition, and who numbers every drop of water di­stilled from the Eyes of His servants, shall He not much more keep a Tale of every Drop of Blood? Certainly He will, and in His Calculation each Drop hath its just value, to bring a fearfull recompence upon the Heads of all their Murtherers.

Surely I have seen yesterday the Blood of Naboth, and the Blood of His sons, 3 King 9 26 and I will Requite Thee (saith the Lord.) 'Tis an Asseveration; He sees to Pity It, and He sees to Revenge it upon all the House of Ahab. It is ever in Conspectu ejus, In his sight. So precious is the death of His Saints. He puts a price upon Their Loss in His Revenge, and He puts a price upon Their Virtues in His Reward.

You see how God looks down upon His servants, 2 Reward. with what Aspect He be­holds their Sufferings here; They must now look up to Him from whence cometh their Salvation. Psal. 121.1. The Apostle directs their Eye, Hel. 12.2. Looking up to Jesus the [Page 30]Authour and Finisher of our Faith, who for the Joy set before Him endured the Cross, &c.

There needs no better Reward, than to be in Conspectu Domini, Psal. 16.11. In Gods sight; In Thy sight, and in Thy Presence there is fulness of Joy for evermore. The Pain of the Cross was eas'd to that poor dying Man Hanging upon it in the promise of his Saviour, Luke 23.43. Hodiè mecum eris, Thou shalt be where I am. Those who can summ up the Sorrows of a Miserable Life, may best collect the Blessings of the Life to come.

It were a vain thing for us on Earth to attempt the defining of those Joyes in Heaven which be [...] & [...], Eye hath not seen, nor Tongue can utter, nor Heart conceive Them.

This onely is the dictate of our Faith and best Evidence of Those unseen Joyes, That the Beatifica Visio, The Sight of God, will both recompence all the Crosses laid on us, and supply all the Comforts which we wanted upon Earth; That Blessed Vision whereby we [Page 31]shall see God, not under the Dim Cloud of His Promises, but in the Clear Light, the Performance of His Reward.

We must know for all this, Luke 16.26. there is [...], A great Gulph betwixt our expected Bliss and us; Deut. 1.19. Perhaps A Red Sea, and a Terrible Wilderness are enter­pos'd, and must be passed through be­fore we can arrive at the Land of Pro­mise. Happy shall Those be who are nor afraid to wade through a Red Sea discolour'd by their own Blood, if God's Honour or His Cause require it; nor faint in the apprehension of a Wilde Great Desart, if He think good to lay that te­dious probation upon their Patience; Let this assurance Cheer both Their and Our dejected Spirits, we shall undoubt­edly receive the Reward, if we Faint not, Heb. 12.3. And what contempt soever we endure in the Eyes of Men, we shall finde a full Reparation In the Sight of God.

I Have done with the Text. And now according to the Custome of a Funeral, You will expect I should say [Page 32]somewhat concerning the Subject of it.

I confess My self an ill Herald, and unversed in These Displayes, It being the first time which brought me to per­form this Office for the Dead; And if God so pleas'd, I wish from my Soul I might have missed it now.

I cannot but remember at this Time was a Twelvemonth in the Highest Ce­lebrity which our English Court can Boast, the Solemn Feast of St. George held at Windsor, His Infirmity Forced Him, by Particular Licence and Approbation of His Soveraign, to Depute me unto That Office, which in That place properly belong'd to Him.

I little thought that in a Mournfull Solemnity where Himself became the Subject, I should the following Year, and the very next Day after that Tri­umph, be Deputed to this Last Service at His Grave.

But thus You see how Joyes and Sor­rows by course exercise their several Ju­risdictions over us, And how the Greatest Triumph Earth affords is attended at the [Page 33]Heels by such a Gastly follower as Death.

That I heartily Lov'd, and from the converse of many younger years Valued the Owner of that Dead Relick lying before me, is a real Truth: For that cause Ye therefore must not expect any large Panegyricks from me, lest happily Yee might think He needed them.

Though Praise be a fit Gloss set up­on Desert, there is danger, at least sus­picion in the excess: As unskilfull Painters by laying on too much Varnish dead the Colours and marr the Piece they would set off. Indeed in any Mournfull Arguments, Invention is com­monly most free, where with least in­terest and Concern it looks upon the Object. Passion or Affection mingling with them, render it too serious for any Rhetorick but Sorrow. This I profess to be my Case; And if it would not be­tray more of the weaker Sex than is fit for me to own, I could make good the words of St. Augustine, Potius libet flere quàm aliquid dicere, My Eyes could easily prove more fluent than my Tongue.

Yet lest Ye fail of all Ye look for, As the Evening Sun immediately before his Set Unites, and in some short flashes casts forth his Beams before he bury them in that Cloud wherein he Sets, I will briefly summ up the Passages of His Life even from his Youth, which was His Sun-rise, unto the Declination of His Age, which brought Him to this Bed of Darkness.

He was Born of Worthy and Virtu­ous Parents.

His Education was in This Famous School, In This very College where He was admitted a Kings Scholar of that Noble Foundation, which hath sent out so many excellent Proficients in Learn­ing to each University. For Both those Fair Rivers doth this Spring by contributing some Supplies to Them annually feed.

Here He had the greatest Dignity which the School could afford put upon Him, to be the Paedonomus at Christmas, Lord of His Fellow-Scholars: Which Title was a pledge and presage that [Page 35]from a Lord in Jeast, He should in His riper Age become One in Earnest.

From Hence He was translated by Election to Christs-Church in Oxford: where having run through some Offices in the College conferr'd both as Re­wards and Trials upon the best Deser­vers, He was remov'd to All-souls; and when His Degree and Time made Him capable of Publick Employment, Cho­sen Proctour of the Ʋniversity.

After the taking His Degree of Do­ctor, in some few years He was by His Royal Master (whose Chaplain He had been) made Dean of Christ-Church, so becoming Head of that College into which He was first admitted Student.

The more Publick Office of Vice­chancellour was then cast upon Him by that Martyr'd Archbishop, who well un­derstood the Universities advantage from so deserving a Substitute.

These Offices he supply'd with such Ability and Integrity, That His Gracicious Master thought Him worthy to receive the Greatest Trust He possibly [Page 36]Could plant in Him, To be the Tutour and Educator of our Soveraign in His Minority, together with His Princely Brother.

This Trust brought on Him the Ho­nour of a Bishoprick for His Reward, first Chichester, then Salisbury. Thus be­ing lifted up Two Ascents by the bounty of His Old Master, He was easily raised to the Third by His Present Soveraign, The Bishoprick of Winchester, in which He became Ex Officio Prelate of the Gar­ter. That Honour being alwayes an­nexed to This Office He so well Became, That None before Him Did, nor Any who follow can Better. For He was eve­ry way Qualified, both in the Comeliness of His Person, and the Gracefulness of His Deportment, and the Excellency of His Parts: All which Capacities ren­dred Him worthy the service of a Court, and every way fit to stand before Princes. Prov. 2 [...]. [...]9.

He had this happiness, That from the very First Relation to those Tender years of His Gracious Soveraign du­ring [Page 7]His Care and Tuition of Him, He held the same Degree and Station in His Favour, which never abated in the least measure, but continued to His Death.

And as He was ever acceptable to the Presence of His Master whilst able to make His approaches to the Court: So when Infirmity (which confin'd Him to His Chamber) render'd Him fit onely to be visited, He wanted not those Royal Visits made to Him by His Lord. Who though He could not say, as Christ to the Centurion imploring His Goodness to His sick servant, Ego veniens sanabo, I will come in presence to perform His Cure; Yet He perform'd the First part, Ego veniens, He came, not seldome neither, both to see Him in His weakness, and to comfort Him amidst His Pains.

I must not omit to tell you, As once the King of Israel came to see the Dying Prophet Elisha, 2 King. 13.14. that he might take his Farewell, and with that Farewell a Blessing from One he never should see again: So did a Better King than He, [Page 38]the King of our Israel, repair to This dy­ing Prelate a few hours before His Expi­ration, not onely to See, but to require a Benediction from Him at Parting; which in the lowest Posture of Humi­lity He besought. And let me tell you (not to Flatter Him) amongst His other Virtues, never was there a more affable Sweetness, or less Pride in so great a Prince. Both which He fairly expressed, when Kneeling down at the Bed-side He begg'd His last Blessing, which He like Jacob on His Death-bed (and now as Dim-sighted as Jacob) with one Hand laid upon His Masters Head, Gen. 48.10. and the other lifted up to Heaven, He with a most Passionate Zeal Bestowed. And I Hope and Pray that, like the Last Blessing of Old Jacob pronounced over His Princely Son Judah, It shall remain in all Glorious Successes confirmed to Him. Gen. 49.10. That unto Him the People may be Gathered in all Loyalty, never seduc'd a­gain to Run after the Seditious Trum­pet of Those Sons of Bichri, 2 Sam. 20.1. who in these late Years usurped His Scepter. [Page 39] That His Hand may bee upon the Neck of His implacable Enemies, Gen 49 Vers 8. whom no Acts of favour or Indulgent Clemency can Re­concile: And lastly, that the Scepter may not depart from Him and from His Royal Tribe untill Shiloh come. Verse 9.

I have very little more to say, Onely tell you in addition to His former Ho­nour, He was dignified with the Office of High Almoner, being intrusted with the bestowing His Majesties Charity; which like a faithful Steward He so just­ly dispensed, That in evidence of His Integrity He Copy'd out that Office in his own Practice; Not only in His Lega­gacies to Christ-Church in Oxford and to Alsoules, to the Churches of Salisbu­ry, of Chichester, and Winchester, But to a Famous Almehouse erected at His pecu­liar charge in Richmond, the place of His retirement, whch stands a Conspicuous Monument and Memorial of Him whilst the World lasts. 'Tis well when our Good deeds follow us, but much better when they goe before. In works of Charity perform'd whilst we live here [Page 40]we are God's immediate Almoners, what is done when we are Gone is more pro­perly Our Executors than Ours. They are happy who by any hand bestow their Almes, but it is more honour and better sarisfaction when Our Charity needs no Executor but the Doners Hand to dispense, nor overseer but His own Eye.

From His Charity you will easily Cal­culate His other Virtues. His Bounty was alwaies eminent according to His ability; And when He came to be ow­ner of a large and full Fortune He so well practis'd St. Pauls Lesson, 1 Tim. 3.2. A Bishop must be given to Hospitality, that in His generous way of living, to His own, and the Honour of His whole Order, He demonstrated That his Heart was no way undersiz'd or too Narrow for His Fortune; Nor did He since His Advance­ment study the sordid Art of Gain, but rather how He might nobly Spend and Lay out what He got.

His Disposition was most free & open, His Heart without close Angles or ob­lique [Page 41]Corners: And in His long Relation to the Court had never studied that first Principle of the Court Grammar, Erasmus [...]gust. To speak one way and mean Another: Ʋbi­que sentires Illum hoc assici quod loquebatur, As Erasmus said of St. Augustine.

His Learning was Great and General, and as Nicephorus Gregoras said of One, He was [...]. A walking Library: His Gifts in Preaching elegant and very excellent, yet not intended to delight the Eare, but to inform the Conscience. And I heartily wish Those elaborate Peeces of Devotion may not die with Him, but in their Publication remain amongst His other Legacyes bequeathed to the World.

I may apply to Him that Eulogy which Nazianzen bestowes upon His Father, Gregor. N [...]ziarz [...] Orat. in Landem Patris [...] he was alwaies so faithfull to God in the service of His Church wherein He liv'd, that He never receded from His first Principles in any slackness either to­wards Hir Doctrine or Hir Discipline. In­somuch that His Sacred Majesty desirous [Page 42]to preserve the Succession of His English Church, & sensible of His Bishops Decay, Most whereof were Dead, & Those Few who remaind not likely to last long, was pleas'd to commit this Trust principally to His Solicitation. In discharge whereof how industrious He was, some who yet live know, and none better than My self, who was His only associate in several travels undertaken to bring it to effect.

'Tis true, divers waies were propoun­ded, yet all found dangerous, Under the Inquisition we then liv'd, both to the Undertakers and the Actors.

His Majesty therefore at last thought of a safer & more certain Expedient, to call over to Him Two of the remayning Bishops, Bp. [...]hall now L. Pri­mate of Ar­mach. who joyned to a worthy Prae­late residing with Him in His Exile might Canonically Consecrate some of Those eminently deserving Divines who then attended Him; Thus Preserving the Order in a Few, untill God gave opportunity to fill up the Other Vacan­cies.

This desire was by a trusty Messenger [Page 43]sent over by His Majesty communicated only to Five; Rom. 11.31. whereof (I shall not Mag­nifie my Office to say) My self was One, who in the integrity of my Conscience can profess that in the willing accep­tance of this Summons I never declin'd any hazard when I might doe the King my Master or the Church Service. But great Age and greater Infirmity denying the concurrence of any One of the Rest (though otherwise most ready) that designe fell: And God hath in the Mi­raculous Restoration of His Sacred Ma­jesty Restor'd the Church to that Luster wherein (blessed be His Name) you now see it.

He in whose presence I here stand bears me record, I mention not these Circumstances to any other End than my Soveraign's Honour; For it is not fit so meritorious an Act should be con­ceal'd and smothered, but that all might take notice how Carefull He was to Preserve and Support the Church, at that Time when in His Exil'd condition He could not well Support Himself.

To conclude; This worthy Person now gone before us, often professed to Mee, that He desired only Two Blessings in this World, and then He should cheer­fully sing His Nunc Dimittis, Depart in Peace; To see the King His Gratious Masters Return unto His Throne, And the Churches happy Restitution to Hir Rights.

God gave Him the desire of His Lipps: He liv'd to see Both, And, in a good old Age, full of Dayes, having compleated Seaventy and three yeares, Psal. 90.10 (which is above the Standard of Humane Life in Moses his Calculation,) with some few dayes over. He exchanged His Painful Life for an everlasting Rest. Leaving His Vir­tues to bee Imitated by Those that can, And His Loss to be Lamented by All who are left behind.

God for his Mercies sake grant, Our Death may be so Pretious in His sight, That when the Eyes which see us now, must see us no more, We may with These Eyes of Ours Aeternally see Our Redeemer in His Kingdome. Amen.