A79008:29
A pattern for all, especially for noble and honourable persons, to teach them how…A patterne for all, especially for noble and honourable persons, to teach them how…
A pattern for all, especially for noble and honourable persons, to teach them how to die nobly and honourably. Delivered in a sermon preached at the solemn interment of the corps of the Right Honourable Robert Earle of Warwick. Who aged 70 years 11. months, died April 19. And was honourably buried, May 1. 1658. at Felsted in Essex. By Edmund Calamy B.D. and pastor of the church at Aldermanbury.A patterne for all, especially for noble and honourable persons, to teach them how to die nobly and honourably. Delivered in a sermon preached at the solemne interment of the corps of the Right Honourable Robert Earle of Warwick. Who aged 70 years 11. months, died April 19. And was honorably buried, May 1. 1658. at Felsted in Essex. By Edmund Calamy B.D. and pastor of the church at Aldermanbury.
London: printed for Edward Brewster, 1658
Title page typeset from the transcription.
A SERMON Preached at the Funeral OF THE Right Honourable ROBERT EAR… › Doctrine 1: Doctrine 1.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1Now then, if they who lived so long died at last, much more must we, who are dwarfs in years in comparison of them, and who are nearer death when first borne, than some of them were when an hundred years old. Let me beseech you frequently, solemnly, and seriously to consider, That though we live never so long and labour by physic, and temperate diet, and wholesome air to prolong our lives, yet we must die at last. As the King of Persia told Constantine 2the Emperor, when he had showed him all the wealth of Rome; These are indeed (saith he) wonderful things which you show me, but I plainly see, that as in Persia, so in Rome also men are subject to death. For dust we all are and to dust we must all return. We must say to corruption thou art my Father, and to the worm, thou art my Mother and my sister. We have here no abiding City. As we had a day to come into the world, so we shall have a ⟨p. 5⟩day to go out of it. The nature of man is wonderful prone to dream of an eternal abode, and of a lasting happiness here upon earth. Saint Austin tells us of certain heretics called Aeternales, because they held the world to be eternal. We have many such Eternalists, who fancy to themselves a kind of eternity here upon earth, and are ready to say with the rich fool in the Gospel, Soul 3take thy ease, eat drink and be merry, thou hast goods laid up for many years, and in the mean time forget what God said to him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? It is said of wicked men, Psalm 49. 11. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations, &c. They are ashamed to utter any such thing, but their inward thought is that they shall abide for ever. Then it followeth, ver. 13. This their way is their folly, yet their posterity approve their 4sayings. Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not, &c. Though he thinks he shall abide, yet neither he, nor his heirs shall be continued, but he shall be like the beasts that perish. Therefore we had all need to pray Davids prayer, Lord make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days