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A18351
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A sermon preached at Snarford in Lincolnshire at the funerals of Sir George Sanct-Paule, knight and baronet, December the 9. 1613 by Iohn Chadvvich ... ; together with a briefe and true relation of his vertuous life and holy death.
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Chadwich, John.
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1614
(1614)
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STC 4930; ESTC S1548
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20,059
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34
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A SERMON PREACHED AT SNARFORD IN LINCOLNSHIRE AT THE FVNERALS of Sir GEORGE SANCT-PAVLE Knight and Baronet December the 9. 1613. By IOHN CHADVVICH Doctor in DIVINITIE AND ONE OF HIS Maiesties Chaplaines in Ordinarie TOGETHER WITH A BRIEFE and true RELATION of his vertuous life and holy death ESAY 57. v. 1. The righteous perisheth and no man laieth it to heart and mercifull men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the euill to come LONDON Printed by William Stansby for William Barret and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the three Pigeons 1614. A SERMON PREACHED AT SNARFORD IN LINCOLNESHIRE AT THE Funerals of Sir GEORGE S ct PAVLE Knight and Baronet the ninth of December 1613. THE TEXT PSAL. 37. v. 37. Marke the perfect man and behold the iust for the end of that man is peace THe saying is old and true that those things which are differing in their end doe most oppositely disagree Diues and Lazarus were of some likelihood whilest they liued in the world They were both made of one mould informed with one specifical forme breathed in one aire moued on one and the same earth yet if we obserue their conditions in their ends we shall finde as great oddes therein as is betwixt felicitie and miserie death and life heauen and hell which are such contraries as cannot bee reconciled nor made at one Dauid was much troubled to see the prosperous estate of the wicked and the meane and troublesome condition of the Lords children But God who will not leaue his seruants in erronious conceipts nor vnder the wearisome burden of fainting discontent counselleth his kingly Prophet not to be disquieted though he see the workers of iniquitie to flourish like a greene bay-tree and the righteous to vndergoe much feare and trouble for if hee marke but their ends hee shall behold the wicked which draw out their sword and bend their bow to slay such as bee of vpright conuersation that their sword shall enter into their owne heart and that like the grasse they shall soone bee cut downe and like the greene hearbe they shall wither away But for the man that hath the law of his God in his heart his steps shall not slide For marke the perfect and vpright man hee neither fadeth nor rotteth in his name nor falleth nor faileth in his profession and hope for finis illius pax his end and vpshot is peace Which point when Dauid had learned in Gods Sanctuary both by direction and obseruation he doth not keepe the knowledge thereof vnto himselfe but being established in the truth endeuoureth to confirme others in the same by exhorting them to obserue the conclusion of good men wherin they shall find such matter of desired comfort as may encourage them to passe thorow all the difficulties which this present euill world can oppose against them The words now read containe two parts The first part sheweth what be the properties of a good man The second part setteth downe what the end of a good man is to wit peace The properties they are two which I may call the essentiall parts of a Christian The former is perfection the latter righteousnesse For as man consisteth of two parts the soule and body so a good man is composed of two constituting properties And as by the motions and actions of the bodie wee conclude that it is informed with a liuing soule so by the workes of righteousnesse we proue that there is an inward perfection of holinesse in the soule And on the contrary side as the soule is said to bee flowen away when the body doth putrifie and corrupt so wee may inferre that the soules inward beautie is gone when the workes of iustice are not to be found For saith the Prophet When the Kings daughter is all glorious within her garments without are of wrought gold and therfore obserua perfectum vide iustum by the latter know the former as a true demonstration thereof The end of a good man thus described is peace Which words I confesse are diuersly vnderstood but I follow the last and best translation which is most agreeable to the originall And thus hauing broken the words into their naturall parts let vs see what nourishment wee may get by euery seuerall cantill for sure I am that there is not a crumme in any parcell of these words but it containeth good meat for a Christian soule to feed vpon Obserua perfectum Irenaeus saith that hee is perfect which was not made Perfectus infectus and that is only true of God who is that g Exod. 3.14 I am that sent Moyses to Pharo who is that h Gen. 17.1 all-sufficient that spake vnto Abraham that i Reu. 1.18 Alpha and Omega as S. Iohn calleth him For as Iustin Martyr saith the perfection of God is to bee of himselfe and of no other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and whatsoeuer tendeth to perfection is from him as the Author and k Iames 1.17 giuer of it Which being true what then should our Prophet meane to call any man perfect of whose weakenesse and wants besides the report that the sacred word doth make which is both fidei morum norma our daily experience doth let vs see what lamentable defects are in all the seede of Adam To soile this doubt I answere that there is a perfection in euery Christian which is that excellent forme by which hee differeth from all the sonnes of darkenesse and out of which issueth streames of a vertuous conuersation But this perfection is not in an absolute freedome from sinne but in our vnion with Christ in l Coloss 2.9 whom doth dwell all the fullnesse of the God-head bodily and through whom all beleeuers are made partakers of the godly Nature as Saint m Pet. 2.1.4 Peter speaketh and out of whom they receiue grace for grace as saith n Iohn 1.16 S. Iohn The greatest perfection that man can attaine vnto is suae imperfection is cognitio the knowledge of his wants and therefore almightie God out of his infinite loue appointed a high Priest euen Iesus Christ the Mediator of the new couenant to make that perfect which by none other could be done And therefore Epiphanius saith that the perfection of a faithfull man is in cognitione Christi whom truly to know is o Iohn 17.3 eternall life as our blessed Sauiour witnesseth But to come to the point The two first are attained in this life The last is partly attained in this life and more fully in the world to come The perfection of a good man is either quoad 1. partes 2. veritatem or 3. mensuram For the first those that are regenerate of water and the holy Ghost as the Euangelist speaketh are by the Apostle called new borne Babes Now as euery child so soone as he is borne is a perfect man because hee hath all the parts and
man is not to be condemned because a crue of sinfull wretches that looke through the mirrour of their mis-informed mindes crie out crucifige neither is any ill man good because the multitude of sinfull drunken wretches prefer him before Christ then obserua vide will bee a good ground whereon to build our determinations and then shall we iudge righteous iudgement and neyther suffer our selues to bee beguiled with supercillious lookes nor condemne the iust whose end is peace The last point I entreat you obserue in the obseruation of my Text is That a good life is graced and blessed with a happy death August de doctrina christiana non male moritur qui bene vixerit vix bene moritur qui male We haue only one example of a man that liued ill and died well and yet his repentance is set down with the fruits thereof as short time as he had but wee haue no example of any man that liued well and died ill which Balaam did vnderstand when hee wished to die the death of the righteous Of these Baalamites there be no few who dedicate their liues to vanity and yet forsooth if wishing would preuaile they would haue heauen for their inheritance But bee not deceiued my brethren for since they sow in the flesh they shall therof reape corruption and who so soweth in the spirit shall of the spirit reape life euerlasting Labour therefore my brethren to spend the short time of your life which remaineth in the truth of holinesse without hypocrisie in righteousnesse without sinfull vncleanenesse so shall your end be peace in your selues peace with men and peace with God which passeth all vnderstanding And thus you see the whole of a Christian man both in the premisses and conclusion the premisses two perfection and iustice the conclusion well suting both Maior Minor finis illius pax A Demonstration of which truth giue me leaue to set before you in the life and death of that honorable Knight and Baronet for the solemnizing of whose direfull obsequies we are at this time met together of whose life and death if I should say nothing I might iustly bee accused of vnthankfulnesse to God for passing by such excellent vertues as I know the Diuine Maiestie had bewtified him withall And if I shall say much I feare the ordinary aspersion of flattery which blacke-mouthed enuie spitteth out to disgrace vertue withall may perhaps be cast vpon mee and therefore to auoide Silla on the one hand and Caribdis on the other I will speake nothing but that I dare auouch for truth before the Angels in heauen and which many in this place can witnesse of their owne knowledge before men vpon earth My regard of this honourable Knight while he liued was not mercinarie and my report of him at this time is not in hope of reward and therefore without any further Preface thus much in the Front of my speech I may say That he was a Gentleman of as ancient and honourable continuance as any in this Kingdome and therfore not to be blamed that he was desirous being resolued that in law and conscience it was equall as himselfe confessed he was to vphold the honour of his house in his name which for nine descents hath continued at this his house at Snarford This truely-honoured Knight and Baronet if you please may be remembred in the gifts of nature of art of grace or in the practise of them all In the first he was for person and naturall endowments very complete and by the second the former were so well disposed that in his behauiour Adamant-like he drew the hearts of many people to affect and to speake plainly the eyes of the inhabitants in this Countrey was set vpon him as vpon a worthy obiect in his place and calling In the gifts of grace this may I report that he knew the truth We were euer graced by him and in whose company hee tooke great content so doe many wicked men He loued the truth and the instruments that published the same so doe none but the good He was couragious for the truth and so are none but Gods secret ones and from his knowledge the ground of his faith and from his loue the fruit of his beleefe and from his courage the pledge of his sanctitie he had the ground of S. Pauls reioicing which is a good conscience For the practise of all these graces let mee intreat you consider him as a husband to a wife a Master of a family a friend to his acquaintance a Magistrate in his country and a Christian in all For the first hee dwelled with his wife as a man of knowledge free from inhumane austeritie on the one side and voyde of fond and idle complementing indulgence on the other which wise and Christian behauiour was answered by his vertuous Ladie For the second as he was a Master of a Family whilest he was a father though God knoweth that was but for a short time he vsed that blessing as though hee had not possessed it And as he was a Master ouer seruants this was his care that all vnder his charge were bountifully rewarded for their seruice and wanted no means though to his great charge to know God Such as were vertuous wanted no encouragement such as were lesse tractable to goodnesse in the spirit of mildensse he vsed all good means to reclaime them In briefe he was to his seruants a fatherly Master in authoritie in care in counsell in countenance in loue and in bountie I say in bounty to them whilst he liued and in his large portions he hath cut out of his estate for them after his death so that if any that followed him be irregular like Gehesie annointing his fingers with bribes or ryoting with the euill seruant in the Gospel I say no more but this They haue not so learned Christ neither by precept nor by their Masters practise For the third point as he was a friend let enquirie be made when euer he failed any that had occasion to vse his helpe and for true affection hee was as often he said of a friend alter idem or as Salomon speaketh one that loueth at all times rather with Mordach enquiring how his friends did and in what case they stood then staying till hee was sought vnto for his helpe and more reioycing to do good to those he loued in case they wanted his help then fawning vpon such as were happed with the thicke clay of worldly prosperitie He was a right and true-hearted Ionathan and such a friend may I say he was as I feare I shall neuer finde till my soule rest with his For the fourth point which concerneth him as he was a Magistrate If Iethro were liuing hee would haue called for him as one fit to assist Moses Hee wanted no courage for a good cause and to out-face and resist the wicked attempts and practises of vniust and vnlawfull disorders his feare of God