Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A61574
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Occasional sermons preached by the Most Reverend Father in God, William Sancroft ... ; with some remarks of his life and conversation, in a letter to a friend.
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Sancroft, William, 1617-1693.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing S561; ESTC R35157
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79,808
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212
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in Private and in Public His Behaviour was always exceeding Grave and Composed and when-ever present at the Public Service of the Church he had not only a Habit of Seriousness visibly dwelt upon his Mind and Spirit but a Reverend and Profound Humility which appeared in the great Devotion of his Heart In a Word he had all the Virtue and Qualification both of a Great and of a Good Man he was a Wise Prelate a most Learned Divine an Universal Scholar a Just Man a Faithful Friend an Excellent Councellor a Kind and Tender Master to his Servants a great Benefactor to others a Thankful Beneficiary where he was obliged himself a Zealous Asserter of his Religion against Popery on the one side and Fanaticism on the other and in short all the single Perfections that make many Men Eminent were United in this Primate and render'd him Illustrious Thus I have ventur'd in hast to give you my Thoughts of this most Reverend Prelate while he lived and I am confident you earnestly expect at the same Time I should say something how he Died. All that I shall observe is that his Retirement into the Country was wholly in order thereunto that he might lay his Remains in the very same Soyl where he first received his Being His Time was spent most in Preparation for his great Change which he expected with the same Joy and Pleasure of Mind as others are wont to do their Advancements to Honour and Greatness The World was what he never Loved but only for those Opportunities it gave him of doing Good He parted with his Life with the same Submission to Divine Providence as the Christians of Old did with an humble Chearfulness and Resignation of Spirit He spent most of his Time in Private Devotion and Charity in daily Prayers to God for Himself and the whole World in Reading and Meditations and whatever Duties are necessary for a Good Man and a Dying Christian. He was some Months before he Dyed seized with a Fit of an Ague which confined him to his Bed for many Weeks The third Fit proved so exceeding violent that it was in great Likelihood to have Mastered his Nature and Constitution and Carryed him off every one about him thinking and His Grace likewise finding His Strength so far gone that it seemed impossible for him to have Grappled with another However it was diverted though against his Inclinations by the Cortex Peruvianus being more desirous to Dye than Live He was for many Days in Prospect of Death which he saw as it approached and felt it come on by Degrees and to the very last Minute of his Expiring Breath having placed Himself in a posture of Dying and Ordering the Recommendatory Prayer in the Service of the Visitation of the Sick to be read to him He immediately Resigned his Spirit to Almighty God and thereby gave all that were about him great Cause to Admire his Faith towards GOD his Zeal to his Church his Constancy of Mind his Contempt of the World his Universal Charity to all Mankind and his Chearful Hopes of Eternity He Dyed on the Twenty Fourth of November between Twelve and One of the Clock and was Buried on the Twenty Seventh between Eight and Nine very Privately as He himself Ordered it in Fresingfield Church-Yard on the South-side as near the Wall as they could Lay Him A Place indeed of his Own Chusing Sixteen Years Since at which Time he was Nominated to the See of CANTERBVRY But before his Instalment he took a Journey down into SVFFOLK to see his Relations and his Native Place and then told his Friends they should Bury Him There in Case He should Dye in that Country Though afterwards he Changed his Intentions and made a Place for his Interment in his own Palace at LAMBETH But upon his Deprivation and Return to the Place of his Nativity he Re-assumed his former Resolutions and Disposed of his Body as above mentioned and his SOVL into the Arms of his Dearest SAVIOUR What then Remains for Us but to Preserve the Memory of his Great Virtue always fresh in our Minds and Express as far as we are able the Copy of them in our Practice for this will be the best Way of Remembring the Dead which brings in most Advantage to the Living and the truest Way to Honour Him is to Imitate what was so good and highly Commendable in Him When the Piety and Humility the Justice and Charity and all the other Excellent Endearments of this Great Person are kept Alive and shewn in the Conversation of those that Survive Him It is only these Virtues which have Carried those that have gone before Us and which can Carry Us too in the End to a joyful Resurrection Thus Worthy Sir I have at your Request ventured to give you a brief Account of this most Excellent Prelate and am very Conscious to my self the Character I have given you of Him is Infinitely short of his Extraordinary Merit I might have insisted upon many Peculiar Passages of the Life and Actions of this Great Man which would have been more Honourable to him there being no VVay so Advantagious of drawing out Excellent Persons as by shewing the Draught which they have made of themselves their own most Commendable Actions making them more truly Illustrious than all the Paint and Varnish of an abstracted Eloquence Especially because this is of more Use and a better Help to Imitation But I have chosen rather to give you my Thoughts of Him in the General not doubting but some more Perfect and Larger Account will in due Time be Published concerning Him However I have this Satisfaction that you will I am sure Accept of my poor Endeavours herein having obeyed your Command with the same Chearfulness and Readiness wherewith you are wont to Oblige Sir Your Most Humble and Obedient Servant M. M. A SERMON PREACHED In S. Peter's Westminster on the first Sunday in Advent at the Consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God JOHN Lord Bishop of Durham WILLIAM Lord B. of S. Davids BENJAMIN Lord Bishop of Peterb HUGH Lord Bishop of Landaff RICHARD Lord Bishop of Carslile BRIAN Lord Bish. of Chester and JOHN Lord Bishop of Exeter By the Most Reverend Father in God William Sancroft Late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Apoc. 1. 20. Septem Stellae Angeli sunt Septem Ecclesiarum LONDON Printed by T. B. 1694. REVERENDO IN CHRISTO PATRI AC DOMINO D no. JOHANNI EPISCOPO DUNEâ—MENSI EOQUE NOMINE JURA HABENTI COMITIS PALATINI SACRAE THEOLOGIAE PROFESSORI VETERIS SCRIPTURARUM CANONIS ADSERTORI ET VINDICI ECCLESIAE PETROBURGENSIS EX DECANO DVNELMENSIS DECANO DESIGNATO DIU CANONICO JAM ETIAM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ANGLIC ET FILIO ET PATRI OPTIMâ— ROMANAE HODIERNAE ET NUPRAE OPPUGNATORI STRENVO VETERIS ET PRIMITIVE UT CATHOLICAE DMIRATORI PERPETUO CVLTORI DEVOTISSIMO 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VIRO Qvl INUTRIUSQUE FORTUNAE SEU DURIS SEU LUBRICIS EODEM
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he pretended when we have Time and Opportunity and convenient Leisure which we read not that he ever found in plain English when we have nothing else to do or can do nothing else then wee 'l take forth this Lesson Learn Righteousness as Cato did Greek Iam Septuagenarius just when we are a dying Begin then to conâ—our part when we are ready to be hist off the Stage and Death is now pulling off our Properties But take we heed in time He may prove a false Prophet thaâ— promiseth himself to die the Death of the Righteous when he hath lov'd and pursu'd the Ways and Wages of Unrighteousness all his Life long Who thinks if he can but shape the last faint Breath he draws into a formal pretence of forgiving all the World and a sly desire of being forgiven Upon these two hangs the whole stress of his Righteousness he goes out of God's School upon fair Terms and thinks to render a plausible Account of himself No no the great Lesson of the Text is harder and deeper than so 'T is that we must sweat for 't is that we may bleed for 'T is all that Adam lost and All that Christ came to recover 'T is the Business of our whole Life and 't is desperate Folly and Madness to defer to learn it till Death when God now calls us to account for it Though the Verb in some Versions be Future as I said yet still 't is Discent Habitatores we must learn it while we dwell here in the World and who can secure us that beyond the next moment When once we remove hence there 's no School beyond The Platonic Eruditorum in ORIGEN a place under Ground I know not where in which separated Souls are suppos'd to learn what they mist of or neglected here as very a Fable as the Platonic Purgatory As there is no Work nor Labour so no Device nor Knowledge nor Wisdom in the Grave The Schools are all in this World All beyond is Prison and Dungeon and place of Torment for such as learn not their Duty here Fire without Light and utter Darkness 3. Again They did learn so the Syriac and the Interlineary Latin when thy Iudgments were in the Earth For there is an Ellipsis in the Original of the former clause and the Verb Substantive may be supplyed either way when thy Judgments Are or Were in the Earth And the Conjunction may seem to stand fair for the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in quantum or juxta quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as R. David glosseth it qua mensura aut modo and so the Syriac Qualia Iudicia talem Iustitiam dedicerunt So much Judgment so much Justice Righteousness they did learn just while God's Rod was over them and no longer Thus while God's Plagues lay heavy upon Pharoah even that stiff neck bow'd and that hard heart was softned As Iron in a quick Fire relents and melts but take it out of the Furnace and it grows hard again nay worse Churlish and Unmalleable And so he When he saw that there was Respite saith the Text or a breathing time He hardned his Heart Ex. viii 15. And do not we all the same Like teeming Women while the pangs are upon us we have sorrow when some great Affliction give us a smart Visit strikes home and deep we seem to be a little sensible Ay but the Throws once over 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Lord the Woman remembers them no more and so we If but for a little Space Grace be shewed us if God gives us but a little Respite in our Bondage like Israel newly returned from Babel we streight forget his Commandments which made the good Ezra ashamed and blusht to lift up his Face to Heaven Ezra Cap. ix Verse 8 10. Happy We if as Pliny adviseth his Friend Maximus Tales esse sani perseverimus quales futuros profitemur infirmi if we continue such in Health as we promise to be upon our Sick-Beds But alass Câ—â—â—â—uit Mansit ut ante How few with David pay the Vows which they speak with their Mouths when they were in Trouble Do not the engagements on the sick Bed vanish like the Dreams of the Sick forgotten as if they had never been I appeal to your own Bosoms though affected at first with this late dismal Accident doth it not prove to you a nine-days Wonder and your Thoughts though much startled at first by degrees reconcile to it Do not your Devotions begin to grow cold with the Fires rak'd up like those dying Sparks in dead Ashes and buried in the Dust Ignes â—â—ppositi Cineri doloso Just as our Prophet states it here While thy Iudgments were upon them they learn'd But as it follows immediately Fiat Gratia Impio Let Favour be shewed to the Wicked the least Intermission or kind Interval and he will not learn Righteousness saith the Text expresly he soon lays by his Book and gives over But 4. Lastly What is it that we learn Or to what good end or purpose The Chaldee Paraphrast interposeth here a very Material and Operative word Discent Operari they will learn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do or to work Righteousness And this Addition shews us another of our Defects cuts off I fear above half the Roll of our Learners at once We live as I said in a learned Age But in all this Croud and Throng of Learners how few put themselves in good earnest into God's School And of them that do how much fewer yet take forth their Lesson aright Learn any thing else they will but not Righteousness and if that any thing but to do it But this is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly to divide this is to mangle the Text and to saw Isaiah asunder again Would learning or talking or pretending serve the turn We might find Righteousness enough in the World We can define it and distinguish it criticize upon the Word and dispute of the Thing without end We stuff our Heads with the Notion and tip our Tongues with the Language and fill the World with our pretences to it But Little Children saith St. Iohn O ye World of Learners Be not deceived Let no Man seduce you into this piece of Gnosticism as if to learn or to know were sufficient No 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that Doth Righteousness he is Righteous Non fortiâ— loquimur sed vivimus saith St. Cyprian The life of Religion is Doing What we know we must practice too Whereto we have already attained we must walk in it saith the Apostle They that followed Christ were first indeed call'd Disciples that is Learners for there we must begin But they soon after commenc'd Christians at Antioch Anointed to Action as the word implies and this Name sticks by them still as the more essential Their Oyl must not be spent all in the Lamp In Schola Sapientiae that they may shine by