no man is able to bear the reproach of singularity. It was in honour spoken of St. Malachias, my predecessor in the see of Down, in his life written by St. Bernard; "Apostolicas sanctiones et decreta Ss. pp. in cunctis ecclesiis statuebat." I hope to do something of this for your help and service, if God gives me life, and health, and opportunity: but for the present I have done. These rules, if you observe, your doctrine will be axará yvworos,—' it will need no pardon ;' and ȧvéy×λ,— never to be reproved in judgment.' I conclude all with the wise saying of Bensirach: "Extol not thyself in the counsel of thine own heart, that thy soul be not torn in pieces as a bull straying alone."P

P Ecclus. vi. 2.

A

SERMON

PREACHED AT THE

FUNERAL OF THAT WORTHY KNIGHT

SIR GEORGE DALSTON,

OF DALSTON, IN CUMBERLAND.

Sept. 28, 1657.

A

FUNERAL SERMON,

&c. &c.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are, of all men, most miserable.-1 Cor. xv. 19.

WHEN God, in his infinite and eternal wisdom, had decreed to give to man a life of labour and a body of mortality; a state of contingency and a composition of fighting elements; and having designed to be glorified by a free obedience, would also permit sin in the world, and suffer evil men to go on in their wickedness, to prevail in their impious machinations, to vex the souls and grieve the bodies of the righteous, he knew that this would not only be very hard to be suffered by his servants, but also be very difficult to be understood by them who know God to be a 'Lawgiver' as well as a' Lord;' a Judge' as well as a King,' a Father' as well as a Ruler,' and that, in order to his own glory, and for the manifestation of his goodness, he had promised to reward his servants, to give good to them that did good; therefore, to take off all prejudices, and evil resentments, and temptations, which might trouble those good men who suffered evil things, -he was pleased to do two great things which might confirm the faith, and endear the services, and entertain the hopes of them who are indeed his servants, but yet were very ill used in the accidents of this world.

1. The one was, that he sent his Son into the world to take upon him our nature; and him, being the Captain of our salvation, he would perfect through sufferings;' that no man might think it much to suffer, when God spared not his own Son; and every man might submit to the necessity when the

Christ of God was not exempt; and yet that no man should fear the event which was to follow such sad beginnings, when it behoved even Christ to suffer, and so to enter into glory.'

2. The other great thing was, that God did not only by revelation, and the sermons of the prophets to his Church, but even to all mankind competently teach, and effectively persuade, that the soul of man does not die; but that although things were ill here, yet they should be well hereafter that the evils of this life were short and tolerable, and that to the good who usually feel most of them, they should end in honour and advantages. And, therefore, Cicero had reason on his side to conclude, that there is to be a time and place after this life, wherein the wicked shall be punished, and the virtuous well rewarded, when he considered that Orpheus and Socrates, Palamedes and Thraseas, Lucretia and Papinian, were either slain or oppressed to death by evil men. But to us Christians, εἰ μὴ ἐπαχθές ἐστιν εἰπεῖν, πάνυ ἱκανῶς, ἀποdédia, as Plato's expression is; we have a necessity to declare, and a demonstration to prove it, when we read that Abel died by the hands of Cain, who was so ignorant, that though he had malice and strength, yet he had scarce art enough to kill him; when we read that John the Baptist, Christ himself, and his apostles, and his whole army of martyrs, died under the violence of evil men; when virtue made good men poor, and free speaking of brave truths made the wise to lose their liberty; when an excellent life hastened an opprobrious death, and the obeying God destroyed ourselves it was but time to look about for another state of things, where justice should rule, and virtue find her own portion; where the men that were like to God in mercy and justice should also partake of his felicity; and, therefore, men cast out every line, and turned every stone, and tried every argument, and sometimes proved it well; and when they did not, yet they believed strongly; and they were sure of the thing, even when they were not sure of the argument.

Thus, therefore, would the old priests of the Capitol, and the ministers of Apollo, and the mystic persons at their a Phæd. c. xxxvii. Fischer, p. 368.