Transcribed from the 1697 Walter Kettilby edition by DavidPrice, . Many thanks to Kensingtonand Chelsea local studies for finding this in their archive andallowing it to be transcribed.
A
Funeral Sermon
PREACH’D ON THE
Decease of the RightHonourable
The LADY ElizabethCutts,
Late Wife ofthe Right Honourable
The LORD Cutts,
On the 5th ofDecember, 1697. at
Kensington Church.
By William Wigan, Chaplainin Ordinary to
His Majesty, and Vicar of Kensington.
LONDON,
Printed for Walter Kettilby,at the Bishop’s-
Head in S. Pauls Church-yard, 1697.
p. 1AFuneral Sermon
Preached onthe Decease of the Right Honourable
The Lady ElizabethCutts.
Numb. xxiii. v.10. latter part.
Let me die the death of the Righteous, and let mylatter end be like his.
This Lord’s Day being one ofthe Sundays in Advent, wherein, by Order of the Church, weare put in mind of Christ’s second coming to Judgment: Andit being also a day on which we are to partake of the HolySacrament, shewing forth Christ’s Death till He come again;it might not be unseasonable on it to meditate also on our latterends, if so be we had not this special Mournful occasion from theDeath of the Honourable, the Vertuous, and the Religious LadyCutts.
There is not indeed before your Eyes one part of the outwarddoleful appearance usual at such Solemn Services: To theMonuments of her p.2Lord’s Ancestors, to the place of their Burial, areremoved 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 createattention, or the want of Expressions suitable to her Worth, will(it is hoped) be supplied by your Remembrance, or rather View (asit were) of her so late presence in this Congregation: And byyour knowledge of her Religious Deportment, her ExemplaryDevotion, and Holy Life, truly imitable by any who prepare for abetter World. And therefore, as none, who have the hope ofChristians, but may wish they may pass their appointed Time inthe same regular, modest, and pious Manner: So, tho Her days werefew (in regard of what might have been expected, and was by allwho knew Her, earnestly pray’d for) yet no Christians butmay wish that they may die the death of the Righteous, andthat their latter end, tho so sudden, may be likeHers.
Therefore, since these Discourses are intended for theEdification of the Living, and not for comfort, or any advantageto the Deceased, vouchsafe seriously to co