fights against this nosemet,' and 'secher' is his portion; his lot is a lie ;' his portion is there where holiness can never dwell.

And now to conclude: to you, fathers and brethren, you who are, or intend to be, of the clergy; you see here the best compendium of your studies, the best abbreviature of your labours, the truest method of wisdom, and the infallible, the only way of judging concerning the disputes and questions in Christendom. It is not by reading multitudes of books, but by studying the truth of God: it is not by laborious commentaries of the doctors that you can finish your work, but by the expositions of the Spirit of God: it is not by the rules of metaphysics, but by the proportions of holiness: and when all books are read, and all arguments examined, and all authorities alleged, nothing can be found to be true that is unholy. "Give yourselves to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine," saith St. Paul. Read all good books you can; but exhortation unto good life is the best instrument, and the best teacher of true doctrine, of that which is according to godliness.'

And let me tell you this, the great learning of the fathers was more owing to their piety than to their skill; more to God than to themselves: and to this purpose is that excellent ejaculation of St. Chrysostom, with which I will conclude: "O blessed and happy men, whose names are in the Book of Life, from whom the devils fled, and heretics did fear them, who (by holiness) have stopped the mouths of them that spake perverse things! But I, like David, will cry out, Where are thy loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old?' Where is the blessed quire of bishops and doctors, who shined like lights in the world, and contained the word of life? Dulce est meminisse; their very memory is pleasant.' Where is that Evodias, the sweet savour of the Church, the successor and imitator of the holy apostles? Where is Ignatius, in whom God dwelt? Where is St. Dionysius the Areopagite, that bird of Paradise, that celestial eagle? Where is Hippolytus, that good man, ȧvàg Xenoròs, 'that gentle sweet person?' Where is great St. Basil, a man almost equal to the apostles? Where is Athanasius, rich in

* Lib. de Consummat. Seculi, inter opera Ephrem Syri.

virtue? Where is Gregory Nyssen, that great divine? And Ephrem the great Syrian, that stirred up the sluggish, and awakened the sleepers, and comforted the afflicted, and brought the young men to discipline; the looking-glass of the religious, the captain of the penitents, the destruction of heresies, the receptacle of graces, the habitation of the Holy Ghost?" These were the men that prevailed against error, because they lived according to truth: and whoever shall oppose you, and the truth you walk by, may better be confuted by your lives than by your disputations. Let your adversaries have no evil thing to say of you, and then you will best silence them: for all heresies and false doctrines are but like Myron's counterfeit cow, it deceived none but beasts; and these can cozen none but the wicked and the negligent, them that love a lie, and live according to it. But if ye become burning and shining lights; if ye do not detain the truth in unrighteousness; if ye walk in light, and live in the Spirit; your doctrines will be true, and that truth will prevail. But if ye live wickedly and scandalously, every little schismatic shall put you to shame, and draw disciples after him, and abuse your flocks, and feed them with colocynths and hemlock, and place heresy in the chairs appointed for your religion.

I pray God give you all grace to follow this wisdom, to study this learning, to labour for the understanding of godliness; so your time and your studies, your persons and your labours, will be holy and useful, sanctified and blessed, beneficial to men and pleasing to God, through him who is the wisdom of the Father, who is made to all that love him wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: "To whom with the Father," &c.

A

SERMON

PREACHED IN

CHRIST'S CHURCH, DUBLIN,

July 16, 1663,

AT THE FUNERAL

OF

THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,

JOHN,

LATE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH, AND PRIMATE OF ALL IRELAND.

A

FUNERAL SERMON.

SERMON VII.

But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. -1 Cor. xv. 23.

THE condition of man, in this world, is so limited and depressed, so relative and imperfect, that the best things he does, he does weakly, and the best things he hath, are imperfections in their very constitution. I need not tell how little it is that we know; the greatest indication of this is, that we can never tell how many things we know not; and we may soon span our own knowledge, but our ignorance we can never fathom. Our very will, in which mankind pretends to be most noble and imperial, is a direct state of imperfection; and our very liberty of choosing good and evil is permitted to us, not to make us proud, but to make us humble; for it supposes weakness of reason and weakness of love. For if we understood all the degrees of amability in the service of God, or if we had such love to God as he deserves, and so perfect a conviction as were fit for his services, we could no more deliberate for liberty of will is like the motion of a magnetic needle toward the north, full of trembling and uncertainty till it were fixed in the beloved point; it wavers as long as it is free, and is at rest when it can choose no more. And truly what is the hope of man? It is indeed the resurrection of the soul in this world from sorrow and her saddest pressures, and like the twilight to the day, and the harbinger of joy; but still it is but a conjugation of infirmities, and proclaims our present calamity, only because it is uneasy here, it thrusts us forward toward the light and glories of the resurrection.