LONDON,
Printed for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop’s-
Head in S. Pauls Church-yard, 1697.
A Funeral Sermon
Preached on the Decease of the Right Honourable
The Lady Elizabeth Cutts.
Numb. xxiii. v. 10. latter part.
Let me die the death of the Righteous, and let my latter end be like his.
This Lord’s Day being one of the Sundays in Advent, wherein, by Order of the Church, we are put in mind of Christ’s second coming to Judgment: And it being also a day on which we are to partake of the Holy Sacrament, shewing forth Christ’s Death till He come again; it might not be unseasonable on it to meditate also on our latter ends, if so be we had not this special Mournful occasion from the Death of the Honourable, the Vertuous, and the Religious Lady Cutts.
There is not indeed before your Eyes one part of the outward doleful appearance usual at such Solemn Services: To the Monuments of her Lord’s Ancestors, to the place of their Burial, are removed the last earthly remains of that Excellent Person. But tho that spectacle of Mortality that object of True Sorrow, be not here present; the want of it, in order to create attention, or the want of Expressions suitable to her Worth, will (it is hoped) be supplied by your Remembrance, or rather View (as it were) of her so late presence in this Congregation: And by your knowledge of her Religious Deportment, her Exemplary Devotion, and Holy Life, truly imitable by any who prepare for a better World. And therefore, as none, who have the hope of Christians, but may wish they may pass their appointed Time in the same regular, modest, and pious Manner: So, tho Her days were few (in regard of what might have been expected, and was by all who knew Her, earnestly pray’d for) yet no Christians but may wish that they may die the death of the Righteous, and that their latter end, tho so sudden, may be like Hers.
Therefore, since these Discourses are intended for the Edification of the Living, and not for comfort, or any advantage to the Deceased, vouchsafe seriously to consider, how just an Occasion, and how lively an Admonition all here have, in this deplorable instance of the frailty of all Humane Satisfactions, to mind their own latter end, and to Pray, and provide that, at any warning, or without any, they may be ready to obey God’s summons, and depart hence.
For, Who is there in this Assembly, of what Condition, or Age soever, that, not Weeks since, might have expected survivance to this Honourable Person: To whom, as none but would have wisht, so none but would have been ready to promise, very many, and very happy days. But, (so vain and brittle are all our confidences!) Behold! How soon is all the expectation of Honourable Families defeated? How soon by a sudden stroke, is Health chang’d into Sickness, Sickness into Death, and the hopes and joy for an Heir, into a double Funeral? How little have availed the respects of Friends, the Honours and Titles of the Great, the Skill of the Learned, and the most unfeigned Prayers of the nearest, and most dear Relations? In the midst of all the contents of a High and Noble Condition, the near Promises of Posterity, the Vigour of Youth, with the Lustre of Beauty, and the esteem of all that honour’d such Vertue, Goodness and Piety. How without any warning by an immediate command, dust is return’d to dust, and the Spirit return’d to God who gave it. Since then we are all made of the same Clay, and know not how near our appointed change may be, may we all prepare to give an account for what we have done in the Flesh. What is it then that will afford us True Consolation, while we look on the frail estate of our Bodies, or the guilt of our Souls? What will support us when we behold the Pit which may soon gape for us? and when our selves shall stand on the brink of Eternity? What is it will enable us to endure the thoughts of having our Bones crumbl’d to dust, and of our Souls appearing before the Judgment Seat of the Great, the Living God?