IF it were but a Veniall Solicisme, to Pre­face that Sermon with Sighs, and Tears; the Text of which forbids our Weeping, or lesse Ominous to my De­signe of Comforting others, then some men phansy stumbling at the Threshold. My Preaching (with­out a Parable) should be a Mourning to you; Luke 7.32. We have mourned to you, and you have not wept. And just astonishment should strike me dumb, which were the onely Eloquence on this occasion. And by a meet Metathesis my Lipps, and Eyes should change their Offices, and these should be your Oratours (for tears are very Vocal) and in the Prophets Phrase, should Drop my Words; (though soft and silent, Ezech. 20.40. yet warme and melting ones) and my Doctrine (not in a meta­phour) [Page 2] Should distill like the Rain, Deut. 32.2. and descend upon You as the Dew.

Neither should I dispair of drops enough, if not to soften, yet to smooth the stoniest, and most un­natural breast; And to be pledg'd abundantly by those, To whom the Lord hath given tears to drink in so great Plenty, Psal. 80.5.

But this were, at once, to be both Rude and Cruell; and to Ʋpbraid your Humanity, & hazzard your safe­tie. The one as little needing Provocation to more sorrows, as the other can bear it, after such Floods of grief, Oculi mei refor­bebant fontem suum usque ad siccitatem. Aug. Confess. Lib. 9. Cap. 12. whose eyes have drain'd their very Fountaines dry; as St. Augustin of himself upon his Mothers Death.

Yet if there be any eye so strangely Anomolous to all the Laws of Nature and Civility, like Gideons Fleece (which yet was not without a Miracle) to continue dry, while all about is bedewed and drencht in tears. I'le try his Obstinacy, and tempt his Stoi­cisme with the Dark and Cloudy side of my Text; — Behold a dead man was carried out, the onely Son of his Mother, and she was a Widow. [...] Saith St. Gregory Nyscene, Cap. 25. De opi­ficio hominis. The meer Narra­tion is a great and manifest Lamentation; what say­est thou Friend, canst thou hear this and not La­ment? Hath the Holy Spirit set so mournfull an Asterick upon it, and canst thou read it, unmoved, and unconcern'd? Where are thy Bowells? What Ostrich hast thou chang'd them with? Or from what Tygre were they derived to thee?

But if thy Ear will not affect thy Heart, thy Eye will doubtless: and that thine Eye again. See then before thee, in that solemne Herse the Killing Resur­rection of this Mournful Story, the darker Scene of this black Tragedy. Behold here a Dead Man, a young Man, in the blossome of his Man-hood, scarce in the Flower of his Youth, and not arrived at the Zenith of his Age or Honour, and the onely Son, Yea, Sauciabatur a­nima mea, & quasi dilaniaba­tur vita quae una facta fuerat ex mea & illius. Aug. Conf. Lib. 9. Cap. 12. the onely one of his Right Honourable Parents, whose very Lives were bound up in his; being inexpressibly Dear to them in numberless regards. Snatcht from the closest Embraces of a Dearest Con­sort, and rent from the tenderest bosome, yea, from the very Soul, of the best of Mothers, who Lov'd him, with a Love, Better, and Greater, then the Love of Women; If thou beholdest this with dry Eyes, surely thou art somewhat more then Man, an Angel; or rather somewhat, yea much lesse, a Brute, a Stock.

You easily see, there lye two mournful Texts be­fore us, the one in the Volume of Gods Book, the other in the Book of Providence; And the Second, alass, too full a Counterpaine of'th First, and too too sad an Exemplification of it. I shall touch them both in Order, and Order Commands me, and Invites you first, to the words I have Read; which are parcel of a very Remarkable History of one of the most Signal Works of Christ, which stand upon Record in the Sacred Registers. The raysing [Page 4] of the Widows Son of Naim, and worthily are they ushered in with that quickning incitement of our at­tention, Behold. For if single wonders command our rediest notice, then much more this, which is like Ezekiels Vision, Ezek. 1.16. a Wheele in a Wheele, a Miracle in a Miracle, a miracle of Compassion in a Miracle of Power, a miracle of Greatnesse in a miracle of Good­nesse, Relieving Pitty, meeting dispairing Necessity, and preventing even requests, as much as exceeding hopes of help.

Omnia adeo mi­nute narrantur, ut fidem auge­rent Historiae Maldon.Many Circumstances offer, and almost force them­selves upon us, tending to the Verifying, and Magnify­ing of the work; to manifest both how True, and how Great it was; but I must resist their importunity in my present hast, and fixing this fourfold remarke upon the Whole, single out the Branch I am ingaged to persue.

Observe first the kind of Christs Miracles; Heal­ing, Inlivening, the sweetest Emblems of that Grace and Gospel which they were wrought for Confirma­tion of; Moses, the Law, was a Minister of death, the Letter killeth, so did his Miracles, Blood and Storms, Exod. 7, 19.9.22.10.21.12.29. Fire, Darknesse, Desolation, Death, were those he wrought.

He made but one Dead thing Alive, which was a Rod before, but then became a Serpent; In cujus morsu mors, Exod. 7.9, 10. grew from a Smart Instrument of Correction to a more Nocent one of Destruction as Rehoboams Scor­pions were more cruel then the Rods of Solomon, Exod. 7.9, 10. 2 Kings 12.11.

[Page 5]2. This Miracle exemplifies the Strength and Greatness of his Grace, as well as the Sweetness and Goodness of it; A dead man is the lively Picture of a Sinner; Sin is the greatest death, Amplius est re­sascitare semper victurum, quam suscitare iterum moriturum. Aug. Ser. 4. de­ver. Domi. Initio Tom. 10. it kills the Nobler part, the Soul, and a dead man carried out, is the Coppy of a Sinner, not newly such, but a good while lying in it, ready to stink above ground in his noy some Lusts; Yet such can Christ raise up, as here; Yea, them who are Entombed in the customes of Sin, and rott and stink with Lazarus; Augustinus ubi supra. Liberat enim & de mala Consuetudine Dominus quatriduanos mortuos

3. This Miracle proclaims the superlative pre­venting Goodness of him who is found of them who seek him not, Isa. 65.1. Rom. 10.20. and made manifest to them who enquire not after him, Non Rogatus adest. Mal. [...].

Those whom Christ help't while he was on Earth, are ranck't into this threefold Order.

1. Some upon their own importunate, and earnest Prayers, as blind Bartimeus, Crying, Mark 10.47. Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on me; And the Leper, Mark 1.40. who beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, said; Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean. Blind Sin­ners! let the first be your Letany, and the last your daily Collect your unclean ones.

2. Some upon the Requests and Intercession of others, as him sick of the Palsie, Mark 2, 3. brought by his Friends; St. Luke 7.2. 8.41. the Centurions Servant for whom his Master and the Jewes interceded, and Jarus's Daughter [Page 6] whom he raised at the humble Importunity of her destressed Father. Learn hence you that have Ser­vants, Friends, Children to go to Christ for them with Faith and Prayer for Spiritual Health and Life, and engage Good Christians with you, as he did the Jewes, and be full of good works, that they may not want Arguments to plead before the Lord in your behalf, as they — Lord he loveth our Nation, and hath built us a Synagogue. St. Luke 7.5.

3. Some without other motions made to him then the silent Oratory of their own deep Misery, which cryed prevailingly in the eares of his Mercy, Ipsa pro miseris miseria, vocise­ratur. as this Woman whom he saw and Pittied, and Com­forted, and Helpt, and all unask't; and how much more will he relieve those who Cry unto him Day and Night? Luke 18.7, 8. And whose Condition is as sad as hers? I tell you, he will assuredly relieve them.

Lastly, This Miracle declares the exact watch­fulnesse of Divine Benignity, which comes so pat, so seasonable, just when the Corps was carrying out. This never comes too soon, this never stayes too late, but is alwayes ready where and when tis ne­cessary, stayes till there's need, that help may be the sweeter, but never stayes longer then tis fit and safe; Therefore you that wait for help, give not over look­ing, nor say Complainingly, Mine eyes faile while I wait for thy Salvation; Psal. 69.3. But, though it tarry, wait for it, Habb. 2, 3. for it will come, and will not tarry (longer then is meet) and it will speak, and will not lye; and that in [Page 7] so apposite, so sweet, so fit a manner, time and place, that it will make thee cry out with wonder; Behold what hath the Lord wrought; as the Holy Pen-man ushers in this Narrative; Behold — Que particula Ecce, temporis unitatem & loci propinquitatem significat. He cannot expresse it without holy admiration, that Christ should come so seasonably, so pat, as we use to speak; just then, in the very Nick and Article of time, When the dead man was carried out, who was the onely Son of his Mother, and she a Widow, and much People of the City was with her, And when the Lord saw her, he had Compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

Which words are Chequer-Work of Black and White, like Moses Pillar, party per pale Darkness and Light, as Davids Song of Judgement and Mercy, Exod. 14.20. and we may use St. Pauls Language whilst we view them, Psal. 101.1. behold the Severity and Goodness of God. Rom. 11.22. So that my Text is a Tragy-Comedy begins with a mourn­full Prologue, but ends with a joyfull Epilogue; a rayny, lowring day, breaking up into a bright and pleasant Evening.

She comes forth weeping and bearing Precious Seed, Corpora sancto­rum Semen laetae resurrectionis. Psal. 126.5, 6. the seed of the Resurrection, and she hath an early, sudden, unexpected Harvest, and carries home a Sheaf in her Bosome, which she reapt with ravishments, and extasies of joy.

The whole of the Text may genuinely be re­duced to these two heads.

• [Page 8]1. Mans Misery.
• 2. Christs Mercy.

Humane Passion, Divine Compassion.

The First, in Verse the 12. which presents us with a sad and dolefull Object.

The Second, ver. the 13. which gives us an account what impression that object made on Christ, who came so seasonably to behold and help.

Or if you will; Observe,

• 1. A Solemn and Mournful Funeral.
• 2. A seasonable and Comfortable Cordiall.

In the First, the Funerall, are presented to us.

• 1. The Herse; a dead man carried out.
• 2. The Mourners; his Mother the chief, and much People with her.
• 3. The process of the whole, they carry him forth.

In the second, the Cordiall.

• 1. The Cordiall it self, Weep not.
• 2. The Holy Lymbeck, from whence tis distilled, the tender bowells of Jesus Christ; He was moved with Compassion;—
• 3. The fire that gives it operation; the seeing of this pittifull object; a Desolate, Disconsolate Mo­ther When he saw her; — Then he was moved with Compassi n, and when he was so moved, then he said, Weep not.

I begin with the First; the Funeral, and in that, [Page 9] 1. The Herse, 2. Then the Mourners, and this order, Custome approves, Nature Compells, Ceremony ap­points, and Necessity constrains; the Herse leads, the Mourners follow; Our Noble Lord is gone before, we must go after.

1. The Herse, And that as harsh and dark as if the Pall, were of the Coursest Hair-Cloath, and made more black and Heavy, with these six sable Escutcheons, which are its load and burden, rather then its Orna­ment.

• 1. A Man dead.
• 2. He a Young Man.
• 3. That young man, a Great man.
• 4 That Great man, an Only Son.
• 5. That only Son, as Childless at his death, as his decease did leave his Mother.
• 6. That Mother a Widow, like to continue Child­less, Heirless, concluded and shut up under dispaire of having more to comfort, and relieve her Solitude.

Each circumstance calls for an heavy accent, and needs a mournful circumflex, let's drop them with our tears in Order, that every Escutcheon may be Guttee, only suppose those drops of Pearle and Argent, to charge the dispairing Sable Field of Death, with brighter hopes of an approaching Resurrection. 1 Tim. 2.7. [...] preco Caduceator, predicator [...] pre­dicare publice laudare. Excuse this phrase; a Preacher is properly an Herauld: but chiefly so, at such a time. Each word, like a slip of Ci­prus, sprouts up into a mournful Stem, the Blazon of each Escutcheon is a dolefull Sentence, in Order thus,

[Page 10]1. Man is Mortall.

2. Even Young men may dye, and often do.

3. Great Men must fall as well as others.

4. Onely-Children cannot escape.

5. Whole Families may fayle in Childless Heirs.

6. Former Sorrows do not excuse us from Succeed­ing Ones; She that was made a Widow by her Hus­bands death, may yet be rendred more desolate by the loss of Children. One comfort gone secures not the rest.

By the glimmering light which these six dim and lowring Tapers cast about the Herse, you may di­stinctly read, the Impress of each Shield.

1. Man's Mortal. This truth's so obvious, we cannot suppose the Ecce prefixt to it. The wonder is greater that any man out-lives his Mothers travel, then that he dyes so soon.

The many witty Emblems of our frailty, devis'd and used by gravest Sages, Ethnick and Christian are abundantly excused from all suspicion of Hyperbole's, by what the holy spirit speaks so frequently in the same Argument; Isa. 40.6, 7. Psal. 103.15. Job. 13.25. 1 Pet. 1.24. Jam. 4.14. Job. 7.7. Psal. 144.4. Isa. 40.17. comparing man to Grass, to Flowers, to dryed Leaves, and Stubble, to Dust, to Vapours, to Wind, to Vanity, to less then vanity and nothing.

And no truth is written in Gods Book, with more Indelible, and larger Characters, then that It is ap­pointed unto all men once to dye; A time to be born, a time to dye; Mark how close they stand together, nothing parts them. Jos. 23.14. 1 Kings 2.2. 'Tis the way of all the Earth, an univer­sall [Page 11] Rule that doth admit of no Exception, Gen. 5.5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, the con­stant conclusion of all mens History: — And he dyed. So that the challenge was very safe; What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death, Psal. 89.48. and shall he deliver himself from the hand of the Grave? And the determination as warily made, No man can give to God a Ransome for himself, or Brother, Psal. 49.9. that he should still live for ever, and not see Corruption.

2. And 'tis as obvious to common notice, we need not Revelation to perswade our Credence, they give assent, who never saw the Bible, and tis become a Pro­verb, nothing so sure as death; where seeing is believing, there need no other Topicks, to make a demonstration.

3. And Natural Reason gives its perfect suffrage, that must decay, whose foundation is i'th dust, as ours is, who are but the sub-divisions of Adams red Clod, crumbled into multiplied Atomes; the stream cannot ascend beyond the Altitude of the Fountains Scitua­tion. From Corruptible Principles no Product can proceed, Incorruptible; Man that is born of a Woman, is of few dayes, it carries its own Evidence, because he is so born.

A Tabernacle patcht together of sappy sticks, Job. 14.1. and rotten straw, and mouldring dirt cannot stand long, especially exposed to Storms without, and Fire from within; and such is mans body, [...]. — Greg. Nyss. Orat. de Mortuis. tost and consu­med with dayly strife, of hot and cold, moyst and dry, [Page 12] and which soever Conquers, leads life it self a Captive to its Victory, [...] — Greg. Nyss. ubi supra. — And Dust returns to dust.

4. And there is a Moral cause ith' Soul, as mortall as any Natural one ith' Body, Eze. 18.20. Gen. 2.17. Rom. 6.23.5.12. the Soul that sinneth it shall dye, In the day thou eatest thou shalt dye the death, death is the wages of sin, which shall be surely paid. By one man Sin entred into the World, 1 Kin. 8.46. and death by sin. And in as much as no man liveth and sinneth not, you may conclude that no man liveth, Mors interficit omnes quos na­tura presentem perducit ad vitam; ducit Reges, trahit Populos, gentes impellit, non divitiis redimi non flecti precibus, non lachrimis molliri, non viribus potuit illa unquam superari, Chrysologus Serm. 118. and dyeth not.

With what words then shall we bewaile, or up­braid rather, the Atheistical security, and stupid mad­ness of those men, who will not be perswaded of this truth? or, which is ten times worse, under con­victions and confessions of it, live here, as if, they should live here for ever; and tempt us to believe they judge their Souls are Mortal, they take so little care to save them; and their Bodies Immortal, they heap up so long provisions for them.

2. Even young men may dye, and often do. Ours in the Text is expresly called so, [...] in the ver. next following, your common saying is, Old men must dye, and Young men may, Senibus mors in januis, Juvenibus in obsidiis, sayth St. Bernard. Tis very remarkable how the Scripture Records the Death of Haran, And Haran dyed before his Father Tera, Gen. 11.21. in the Land of his [Page 13] Nativity. Most Children dye before their Parents, not one of an hundred that are born, lives to be old, and consequently, far the greatest part of men dye young. Death passeth upon them who have not sinned, after the similitude of Adams Transgression; Rom. 5. that is actually, and therefore dye whilst young. Rachells Children are not, while she remains to bewaile them, be­cause they are not. Death keeps no turns, observes no order, that they should go first, who came so, but in this tis often, The last shall be first, and the first last. Not only man, but man in his best Estate is altogether vanity; Tis an Arabian Proverb, Psal. 39.5. the old Camell often carries the young Camells Skin to Market; And the Jewish Scholler told his Master, as an Argument, to urge him, to teach him betimes the Art of dying well; that there were little graves in Golgotha. When Jonahs gourd was fresh and green, Jon. 4. fullest of sap and verdure, then the worm smites it, and tis gone. And no wonder, for their less confirmed constitution, is sooner discomposed, and out of temper; Their fresher blood is more susceptive of Infection, their warmer and agile spirits more easily blown up into a Feaverish heat and flame, and in a word, are so much less safe from death, by how much they are the fairer marks for him to Levell at.

Awake then presumptuous Youths! Sleep not so soundly in the Lap of Dalilah, without the thoughts and care of rest in Abrahams bosome; Put not the evil day far from you, upon such slight and slender grounds, [Page 14] Make no agreements with the Grave, nor covenants with death and Hell, Isa. 28.18. least he forbid the banes, and disanull it, in whose hands your breath is; but Re­member your Creatour in the dayes of your youth, Eccl. 12.1. and learn to live betimes, yea and dye too, (for you may dye betimes) and seek God early, while he may be found, knowing they are most welcome who come soonest, and remembring the young Disciple, was the best beloved Disciple. Put not off, no not a day, Nescis quid se­rus vesper tra­bat Adag. a work of such concernment, because thou knowest not what a day may bring forth, least thou be put to worse complaints then his, who bitterly bewail'd his stay, Too late O Lord did I begin to Love thee; Nimis sero te amare caepi, and least if thou think the Morn and Flower of thy age too good to give, God judge the dreggs and twigh-light of it too bad to be accepted, and take no pleasure in those dayes, Of which thy self shalt say, I have no pleasure in them, Eccl 12.1. O know in this thy day, the things that concern thy peace; Vide Gr. Nyss. Contra Bap. delat. Sed dices tu qui es Juvenis, nondum consenui. Noli ergo decipi, non definitur mors certo tempore aetatis, neque timet eos qui sunt in ipso flore aetatis in solos autem senes obtinet dominium. Hujus enim accipe magistrum quotidianam experientiam. Vides enim quo mortui efferuntur feretrum quam in aequaliter & ut contingit omnem effertae tatem hodie senem cras florentem & elegantem adolescentem paulo post cui caeperat lanugo apparere, russus virum robustum valentem viribus & russus vetulam simul & virginem. Si non nunc, quando?

3. Great Men must fall as well as others, this in our Text was such an one; his Mother is termed Prima­ria Civitatis Matrona, one of the Chief Ladies in the City where she dwelt. We dye, as Men, as Sinners, and what makes them greatest, makes them not more then men, nor less then sinners. Therefore he who [Page 15] calls them Gods, yet saith that they must dye like men; Psal. 82.6, 7. The lofty Cedars of Lebanon, and goodliest Oakes in Bashan, must down as sure as the Sycamors in the Vally, or Willowes by the Water-Brookes.

Job told us long agoe, Job 34.19, 20 that God accepteth not the Persons of Princes, nor regardeth the Rich more then the Poor, for they are all the work of his hands; In a moment they shall dye, and the Mighty shall be taken away without hand.

Man though in Honour abideth not; Psal. 49.12. when God takes away the breath of Princes, even they returne unto their dust, and their thoughts perish. Though the Rich Mans Wealth be his Tower, Pro. 10.15. and a strong hold in his conceite, yet Death can scale his Walls, and storm his Fort, or pick his Locks, and creep in at his Windows, or slide in at a Loop-hole; and Riches cannot bribe him, nor a Golden Shield bear off his darts. That Rich Fool in the Gospel, who blest himself with Barnes-full, as if nothing would destroy but star­ving, was confuted with a vengeance when the sum­mons came, Stulte hac nocte, Thou Fool, Luke 12.21▪ this night thy Soul shall be required of thee. Solomon and Craesus, Alexander and Caesar, Constantine and Charles, and all the Magni & Maximi, are such loud Instances of this, it were superfluous to weary you with more.

Be wise now therefore O Ye Kings, Psal. 2.20. be Instructed Ye Judges of the Earth, Serve the Lord with Fear, Kiss the Sun least he be angry, and when you dye, (as dye you must,) you dye again, and perish Everlastingly. [Page 16] Know ere it be too late, Prov. 11.4. that Riches will not profit in the day of wrath, or be accepted as your Ransome, and therefore trust not in them, Psal. 62.10. and when they encrease, set not your hearts upon them. I shall shutt up this with those Golden Words of St. Augustin, which con­clude the third Tome of his Works.

Thou pridest thy self in thy Riches, and the Nobility of thy Ancestors, thou boastest of thy Country, and the Beauty of thy Body, and the Honours conferr'd upon thee; But consider thy self, that thou art Mortal, that thou art Dust, and must return to dust; Look upon them, who before thee, glistered with like gayeties; Where now are those who were incircled with a traine of Citizens? Where the Inconquerable Emperours? Where those who called, and could appoint Publick Assemblies, and Solemn Meet­ings? Now all is Dust, all's Ashes. Now a few Verses comprehend their story. Look now into their Graves, and see which was the Servant, which the Lord, which the Poor Man, which the Rich, distinguish if thou canst, the Captive from the King, Divitiis, flo­ribus & majo­rum Nobilitate te jactas, & ex­ultas de Patria, & pucritudine corporis, & Ho­noribus qui tibi ab hominibus deferuntur: respice te quia mortalis es, & Terra es, & in terram ibis. Circumspice eos qui ante te similibus spendoribus fulsere. Ubi sunt quos ambiebant Civium Potentatus? Ubi in Superabiles Imperatores? Ubi qui conventus dishonebant & Festa? Ubi equorum spendidi invectores? Ubi exerci­cituum duces? Ubi Satrapae Tyrannici; Nunc omnia pulvis, nunc omnia favillae, nunc in paucis versibus eorum vitae memoria; Respice Sepulchra, & vide quis Servus, quis Dominus, quis Pauper, quis Dives, Discerne si potes Vinctuma Rege, Fortem a Debili Pulchrum a Deformi; Memor sis itaque ne extollaris aliquando. Memor autem eris, si te ipsum respexeris. the Strong from the Weak, the Comly from the Deformed; think of this, and it will keep thee humble, and thou canst not but remember it, un­less thou forget thy self.

[Page 17]4. Onely Children cannot escape; [...] Ʋnigenitus, Quod plus est quam unicus, quem solum genuerat, The onely begotten on her that bare him; these are our Darlings, as we translate [...] Ʋnicam meam. Psal. 22.20. No Argument moves pitty more, then when those are taken from us; yet Death knows none to spare them to us; the Widow of Sarepta's Onely Son dyes, 1 King 17.17. and so doth Jarus's Onely Daughter; St. Luke 7.42. and Abraham must Offer up his Onely Son Isaack whom he Loved, Gen. 22. and Jephtha his Onely Daughter. Jud. 11.39

Death aymes so right, hee'l hit a single mark, and needs not shoot at Herds; and God often guides his Darts this way:

1. Because they are Over-loved, and stand so full betwixt their Parents heart, and Him, He cannot be Lov'd Himself, till they are Removed out of'th way.

2. To Try their Obedience, Faith and Patience, Gen. 22.1. as He Tempted Abraham.

3. To Honour them before the World, and make it known how quietly they'l part with any thing He pleases to call for, though never so dear.

Lastly, to fit them by so deep a sorrow for some more Excellent and lasting Good, and Joy, He hath in readiness to give them in Exchange; It being Gods usuall Method, as Luther Observes, when He hath some Eminent Comforts to bestow, or some Signal Ser­vice to imploy us in, to Ʋsher them in with some great Tryal, and Temptation.

Oh therefore let not those, whose Store is so Com­pendious, too fondly hug those dearest Pledges, least God grow jealous, and be forc't to deal with them, as he is used to do with his Rivalls; and those who stand in Competition with Himself.

5. Whole Families may fail in Childless Heirs. Death takes root and branch, and doth not onely deal by Re­tale, Tota cum Regi­bus regna popu­lique cum genti­ous tulere satum futum, Sen. but slayes by Whole-Sale, and with compendious and stupendous stroaks, mowes down a Family at one blow, and sweeps away the hopes of all Poste­rity, as if he gap't for the Inheritance and all, and had resolved with those bloody Rebells, St. Mat. 21.38. Come, this is the Heir, let us slay him, that the Inheritance may be ours.

Thus fayled the two Young Sons of Greatest Alex­ander, Heirs of their Fathers Conquests, all the World; Thus half the Provinces Escheated into the hands of the People of Rome when they were Lords-Paramount of the Earth; Vespasian, An­toninus Philoso­phus, Severus, Valerian. Domi­tian Commodus, Bassianus, Gal­lienus. and of Forty Emperours, from Julius Caesar to Constantine the Great; but four, left Heirs of Lineal Descent, and all of them the Worst, which ever wore the Roman Purple; Their Fathers Vomicae & Carcinomita, Soars and Ulcers, as Augustus called his Daughters, Faelix Infortunio qui caret liberis, Sen. three of whom had been happy unto Envy, had they dyed Childless, as Augustus wisht he had Lived.

Oh! therefore let not your Inward thoughts be, that your Families shall continue for ever, and your Dwelling-Places bear your Names to all Generations; [Page 19] Their way, is their folly who do so, Psal. 49.13. But know that Riches are not for ever, neither doth the Crown Endure to all Generations. Prov. 27.24. And let not such blows too much deject those on whom they Light, be­cause nothing is befallen them, but what is common to Man, 1 Cor. 10.13.

6. Former sorrows do not excuse us from succeeding griefs. The poor Mother in the Text, whom the last Funeral made a Widow, is made Childless too by this. All thy Waves and Billowes are gone over me, Psal. 42.7. one in the neck, or on the back of another; troubles are often born out of the Womb of Providence, as Esau and Jacob came from Rebecca, linckt together, and hold­ing each other by the heel.

Take we heed then we flatter not our selves, nor say with Agag, The bitterness is past, nor listen to a Despe­rate and Blasphemous suggestion, now let him do his Worst, Not wickedly, as the Poet wit­tily. Nil quod istic agat tertia tussis habet, Mar. Mich. 6.9. I have no more Marks left for his angry Ar­rows, nor other Blots to hit; but with Submisse and Humble Reverence, lets hear the Rod at present, and fear it for the Future, and by the first lash, be warned to prepare for, or to prevent the second, and so to stand in awe, that we sin not, Psal. 4.4. John. 5.14. least a worse thing come upon us, and what we judge the worst, prove but the be­ginning of our sorrows.

I might have added (and the rather because, the case is Paralel.

7. That this Great, Young Man dyed not i'th Coun­try in some Remote Obscure Ville, the Relatives of [Page 20] them who dye so, 2 Chron. 16.12. being ready with Asa's Spirit, to say to some Great Physitian, as Martha did to Christ; Sir, John 11 21. If thou hadst been here, my Brother had not dyed. But in the City, Inter Turbam Medicorum, where pro­bably no Ayd was wanting, which Able, Skilfull Phy­sitians could afford.

And 8. In his Mothers House, and Bosome, who now was his Nurse, the second time her self; and therefore he wanted not most Carefull looking too, tis not for want of Physick, or good Nurses, that Men are cast away, or lost, as some too often speak; but where ever they be, and whatever help they do enjoy, whom Death comes for, he will not go without them; but will force them out of the most Skilfull, Faith­full, Painfull, Carefull, Loving and Tender hands, and all the Strongest Guards which those can set about them.

Thus have you seen the Herse passe by, and heard its Scutcheons Blazoned; wee'l view the train of mour­ners with a quicker glance. And that deep mour­ner following next-the- Beir, is his Distressed Mother, close-hooded, with a Cloud, of thick, and blackest sorrow; and over that, a vayle of Love, of Womans Love, of Mothers Love, of Mothers Love unto an Onely Son, [...]? Nyss. in func▪ Palch. the truest Mourning dress; and over all, a dark Ʋmbrella, made of the Shaddow of Death, sup­ported by the fatal Sisters. She's the Chief Mourner, not in Pomp and Cerimony, but in deep Anguish, and bitterness of Soul. She brings him forth; — And [Page 21] this is the second time she Travells of him (and no Travells so difficult as of dead Children) he came from her Womb before, but now, and never untill now he comes from her Inmost Bowells, St Luke 2.35. A Sword shall pierce through thy own Soul. her former Pangs might rend her Flesh, these smarter throws do Rack and Tear her very Heart and Soul; and as before, he was born for her Ease, though with her Paine, so now doth she bring him forth for her Safty, though with great Danger; she is in danger to weep to death at parting, yet must they part; If she'l not send out him, he'l sent out her; one House cannot hold them now, such is our sad necessity, Gen. 2.34. We must bury our dead out of our sight and smelling; but she's resolved to see him Hous'd and Lodg'd, in his Long home; and while he passes thither, the Mourners go about the Streets. Much People of the City was with her.

Tis a Custome without date, and might have urged prescription many Ages since, Antiquorum p [...] ­storum [...] curati sunt, & exequiae cele­bratae, & sepul­tura provisa. Aug. de cura pro murt. for Friends to give at­tendance at the Obseques of their disceased Wor­thies; this we read practised, and approved, both, in Sacred and Common Story; thus, at the death of Abra­ham, his Sons are said to bury him, so Isaac, so Jacob, of whom it is Recorded, Gen. 25.9.25.29, 50, 7, 8. that Joseph went up to bury his Father, and with him went up all the Servants of Pharaoh, and the Elders of his House, and all the Elders of the Land of Aegypt; And all the House of Joseph, and his Brethren and his Fathers House; and they went up with Chariots, and with Horse-men, and it was a very great Company, and they Mourned with a very great and sore Lamentation.

2 Sam. 25.1. 1 Kings 14.13. 2 Chron. 24, 15, 16. Acts 8.2.So all Israel Lamented Samuel, and buried him, so David and Jeroboams Young Son, and Jehojada, and Josiah, 2 Chron. 35.25.

So St. Stephen in the New Testament, Whom de­vout men buried, and made great Lamentation for him. Not that this avails them any thing as to their state in the other World; For Corpori humano quicquid im­penditur, non est presidium salutis, sed humanitatis offi­cium.

But 1. Is for their Honour here, being a decent Re­spect we pay to their Name and Memory, it being a fa­vour to live Desired, and dye Lamented, and a Curse, and Reproach to be buried, Jer. 22.19. with the burial of an Ass, as was threatned against Jehojakim, and others, They shall not be lamented nor buried, Jer. 6.4. but be as dung upon the face of the Earth, which is an Earnest that their Names shall Rot.

2. Charitatis ergò, In Charity to the Living for their Comfort, and alleviating of their sorrow, while their burden is made lighter, by many helping them to bear it, as the Jewes came lovingly to Comfort Martha and Mary because of their Brother Lazarus. Curatio funeris, John 11.31. conditio Sepulturae, pompa exequiarum, magis vivorum solatia sunt, quam subsidia mortuo­rum. August. Ubi Sup [...]ra.

3. Pietatis ergò, For their own advantage, and in­crease of piety; Tis good to go to the House of Mourn­ing, Eccl. 7.3. for by the sadness of the Countenance, the heart is made better, while the living lay it to their heart. The [Page 23] House of Mourning is the School of Wisdome, the Grave hath a Teaching, as well as a Devouring mouth, and the Coffin is a Pulpit from whence the Dead yet speak, and warn us to behold our mortality in their frailty, and to prepare to follow them, to dye to this uncertain World, to mortifie our sins that they may dye before us, and to make sure of the first Resur­rection, that as we must dye once, we may dye but once.

4. Fidei testisicandae ergò, Propter fidem resurrectionis Astruendam. to testifie our Faith in that great Article of the Resurrection of the dead, which is the Basis of a Christians Comforts, Tota spes Christianorum Resurrectio mortuorum; For, 1 Cor. 1 [...]. if in this life onely we have hope, we are of all men most Mi­serable.

Now in this Solemn Equipage these Mournfull Friends bring forth this Corps, Hinc coll [...]ge [...] ­deos Sepulch [...] sua habuisse non in Urbe sed extra Urbem idque tum obnitorem tum ob [...] ­n [...] cada [...]era s [...]o foetore & pu [...] ­dine a [...] [...] ­cerent [...] Lap. are carrying him out of the City, both as the Jewes and Romans used to bury; Ob nitorem, sanitatem, legalem munditiem.

1. For Decency and Splendour that the Graves and Sepulchers might not deface the comliness and beauty of their Cities.

2. For Safety and Health, that the fetent exhala­tions, and noysome and noxious vapours of the Graves might not infect the ayre, and hazzard the health of the Living.

3. For legal purity and cleaness, that neither them­selves nor habitations might be defiled by the dead; and our present custome of burying in or about our [Page 24] Churches and places of our Solemne Assemblies for Gods Worship, was brought in upon Opinion that it would advantage the dead to be buried near some holy Martyr, over whose Graves usually those Basilicae, Stately Edifices were Erected; and the answering of that case, propounded to him by Paulinus Bishop of Nola, Ʋtrum prosit alicui pest mortem, quod corpus ejus apud sancti alicujus memoriam sepelitur, gave oc­casion to St. Augustin to Write that Book, De Cura pro Mortuis gerenda, in the 4th Tome of his Works, where he resolves it in the Negative.

Thus have you past the cloudy side of the Text, which hath besprinkled you with showers of sorrow, whilst you were viewing of the Herse, the Mourners, and their Solemn March, while they attend deaths Chariot, thats carrying home his prisoner to the house of darkness.

And now we have compast it so long, untill the brighter side begins to glimmer and appear, for Behold, yea behold and wonder at the seasonable mercy, the Lord of Life and Death most unexpectedly appears; Jansenius in Loc. Christ, Cujus occursus & obtutus, semper faelix est & faustus, Comes and meets them at the very Gate, and brings relief and rescue, and gives a cordial to the fainting Mother, — Weep not.

The Order is thus,

1. He meets the Object seasonably, both the Course, and Mourners, — He saw her.

[Page 25]2. That moves his heart effectually, — He was moved with compassion.

3. That commands his tongue to speak good words and Comfortable; — Weep not. Observe. Affectum cordis, affatem oris effectum operis commitatur. Bonivent.

1. The Lord is near, and ready, in our greatest streights.

2. Christ was exceeding full of tenderest humanty and Bowells.

3. Christs compassions are active and relieving, full of help, He pitties, then He speaks.

1. The Lord is near, — not in his essence only in which respect he's never far from any; Acts 17. For in him we live and move and have our being, but in his gra­cious compassions, willing to meet us, in our moans and plaints. Yea, ready to prevent us, and before we call, to answer. Our streights are often such they cannot bear those tarda molimina, those succours which are slow, though sure. He knows, that hope defer'd, destroys, therefore will not defer, but comes on Eagles wings, and often doth un-askt, what we are taught to aske him; O God make speed to save us, O Lord make hast to help us. He that hath charged us, Not to with hold good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of our hand to do it, Prov. 3.27, 28. nor to say to our Neighbour, go, and come again, and to morrow I will give, when thou hast it by thee; will not do so him­self.

2. Christ was exceeding full of tenderest bowells; He wept over Lazarus, and He wept over Jerusalem, — [Page 26] Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that thou hadst known the things which do concern thy peace; Mat. 9.36.14.14. — His Bowells yearned here, and He was moved with Compassion often towards others.

Christ in the Flesh, is the Visible Image of the Invi­sible God, Psal. 111.4.112.4. and to our sence and sweetest experience he makes it manifest, that the Lord is good to all, and that his tender mercies are over all his works; that the Lord is full of Compassion and Gratious; and while he sees the Mother weeping, and not able to forget her Son, it minds him of his promise, Isa. 49.15. Can a Woman forget her Child, that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Leo, ut fortis­simus, ita cle­mentissimus, Saith the Na­turalist. He is the Lamb, the Dove, the Lion, (which is as kind as strong) Emblems all of Clemency.

It argued great sweetnesse to vouch-safe to look on mournfull objects, when he met them, and more to go and find them out, as here. Casu & fortuito si causas secundas spectes occurrit Christo sunus, sed Christo hic occursus erat previsus, provisus & destinatus ut mortuum sanaret. He came not by chance, but on de­signe to help.

Oh then, let us not despond in any of our sorrows; Tis well worth while to be distrest, to have the Lord Com­passionate us; and doubtlesse he is as ready now to do it, As St. August. Of his Mother. as when he was on Earth. Absit ut vita faeliciori factus sit credelis, God forbid we should suppose him lesse kind by being more Glorious and Happy; though he be in Heaven; from Heaven he beholds the [Page 27] Children of Men, and considers not our sins only, but our Sorrows also; We have him still, such an High Priest, As can be touched with our In­firmities, though he be Passed into the Heavens, As the Apostle expresly Speaks, Heb. 4.14, 15.

And Let the same mind be in us which was, Phil. 2.5. and is also, in Christ Jesus; Let us not turn a­way our eyes with Cruell, Proud, or Coy disdain from the sorrowfull objects which meet us in every Street; Turn not thine eye away from thine own Flesh.

Let our eye affect our hearts with Sympathy, Lam. 3.51. and let us have compassion on one another, 1. Pet. 3.9. and Love as Brethren, and be Pittifull and courteous.

3. Christs compassions are Active and R lieving.

First, He Pitties, then He Comforts, then He Helps.

His Office is to comfort them that mourn in Zion, to bind up the broken-hearted, Isa. 61.1, [...], 3. and to give the Oyle of gladness for mourning, and he is faithfull, and will dis­charge his Trust, and his Title is, He that comforteth them who are cast down? He hath not onely a Bag for our Iniquities, to seal up them, but a Bottle for our tears to put them up. He doth not delight to grieve us, and when he is constrained to do it, In all our Af­fliction he is Afflicted, and Sympathizeth with us, and the wounds he makes, he heals, and bindeth up, and causeth the bones which he hath broken to rejoyce. Prov. 12.25.

And because a good word makes glad the heart, which stoopes with heaviness, and is the earnest of far­ther help, therefore he speaks good words, and com­fortable words: Woman, why weepest thou? be of good chear, Desiste mortuum fl [...]re, qu [...]m mo [...] vivum [...]surg [...]re videbis, A Lap. — Weep not, — and many more like these. He dry es her eyes with his Word, whose heart shall be relieved by his work: these words, weep not, do not forbid Naturall Affection, but inordinate pas­sion, not tears simply, but their excess, (for all excess is sin) not tears of Sympathy and parentall tendernesse, and pious Bowells, for he wept for Lazarus himself; but repining tears, dispairing tears, the tears of them who sorrow as Men without hope; and he that said unto her, Weep not, was resolved to give her Cause, to take his Council, and to sluce up effectually those griefs, he there indeavours to asswage.

And although from this particular and special case and Miracle we cannot argue that we may expect the same or like in kind; yet, in it may we read his heart and hand, and be assured both of his Ability and Wil­lingness to help in greatest streights; yea of his Wis­dome too, that he knows how and when to do it, so as shall be best; and that he will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear, but will fit our burdens to our backs, or else our back to our burden, and will counterpoize our sorrows, with some equi­valent joyes, or will so strengthen our Faith, increase our patience, and calme and sedate our minds with [Page 29] silent Acquiescence, and through Resignation, that all the Ʋneasiness, and discomposing Molestation of our heaviest burdens, shall be removed. Quia hoc auxi­lium est extra­ordinarium mi­raculum nos sane non habemus specialem promissionem quod Deus tali extraordinario modo nos velit sub­levare. Sed hoc miraculo confirmatur generalis promissio & fides quod habemus talem pontificem qui conspectu nostrarum calamitatum ad sympathiam commovetur, quique licet differat tamen fidelis est, nec sinit nos tentari ultra quam possumus, 1 Cor. 10.13. Sed vel liberat, vel mitigat, vel cor consolatione perfundit, patientia confirmat, fide erigit, & sustentat & haec est vera explicatio istius, beati qui lugent quia consolationem accipient.

GARDE TA FOY.

‘JÁY GARDÉ LA FOY. 2. Tym: 4:7.’

Ex Hoc momento Aeternitas. 1664

I now come to my other Text, a Text indeed, dark and most intricate; Though all the Texts of Providence are hardly commented, yet some are more abstruce; and needs must th [...]s be such, which is an intangled compli­cated heap of difficulties; a Text that is written in Text Letters (the blackest of all Characters) in the Vo­lume of Gods works. You have heard One Sermon, and if your Eares be tyred, let your Eyes relieve them; (but I must confesse tis sad relief) come see another; and, As, we have heard, so have we seen, St. Luke 4.21. t [...]is day is this Scripture fulfulled in your cares, and eyes. Lo, here is an heavier Comment on our heavy Text alas, but too exact a Counterpayne of that sad Narrative! the Ser­mon translated into such a Language, as your eyes can understand. A Sacrament added to the Word, to con­vince you, and confirm your Faith, of Mans Morta­lity, beyond recoyle or hesitancy; En magnum fragili­tatis humanae Sacramentum, the word confirmed by visible signes. My Text of Death so painted to the Life, that he, that runs may read it; If e're twere true, tis now, that, Pictures are Idiots Books; Look on that dolefull Picture of fading Youth and Greatness; and you that can never a Letter in the Book, may spell the whole Story, word for word, without Instructer.

Oh you Ingenious, but Fruitless, and so unhappy searchers, for an universall character, which may with still and silent glances, conveigh and whisper to our Intilect, the natures and notices of things. [...], we find alas too soon, what you have sought too long. Though I were dumb, or had forgot my Text, one glance repeats it unto them, recalls it unto me.

In paucis verbis quantae calami­tates & miseriae?In that visible Sermon; Behold,

• A Dead Man.
• A Young Man.
• A Great, a Noble Man.
• An Onely begotten Son.
• An Heir without an Heir. — Each w [...]rd's a wound.

Here are all the mournfull circumstances but one, Quot verba, tot vulnera; and blessed be God that we meet a full stop, before we read to the end of the line. — And she was a Widow, let us lay hold on't as a better Omen, there may be yet a blessing in it; Let this a while sustaine you till I can run, and fetch you some more Cordialls; which you must stay a little for, because my way lyes round the Herse again, the viewing which, will stop my hast.

1. That Mournfull sable Pall, tells us sad tidings, that a Man is Dead, and shrouded under it; and tis alas too true, the dead remains of him, who this day Seven-night was alive, and this day Fort-night was a Lively, Likely Man to live; Verily every Man living is altogether vanity. Hear what advice he whispers, Watch, for whats my case to day, may be thine to morrow; Hodie mihi, eras tiöi. Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man [Page 33] cometh when you think not, St. Luke 12.40. and in an hour when ye are not aware.

2. A Young Man in the Flower and Blooming of his Age, not fully yet of Age, not of Disposing Age, in the Laws and Stile of England; Yet at Age to be dispos'd of in the Chambers of Death: An Ear, nay, an whole Sheaf, nay, an whole Field, Reapt by Death's Fatall Sickle, before 'twas ripe, or set, or Kern'd; As if in an immature Harvest, you should reap to Being in May. morrow; a Rose Bud gather'd ere 'twas blown; a Torch puft out, not half consumed; [...]. Greg. Nyss. de Pulch. an Hour-Glass dash't, and pash't in peices, and all the Sand spilt, and lost, before it was a third part run: What Age is safe from Fate? In the very mid'st of Life we are in Death; Of whom may we look for help, but from thee O Lord, who for our sins most justly are displeased? Psal. 90.12. Oh Teach us to Number our dayes, that we may apply our hearts to Wisdome, and that we may know how frail we are.

3. But those Coat Armours, Ruby and Topas, Dia­mond and Pearle, speak him some Noted Personage. Nobilis quasi no­scibilis. I need not aske the Question here, which David ask't over Abner's Herse; Know You not that a Prince and a Great Man is fallen this day? You know it well, unto your Cost and Sorrow; and see, by Dear Ex­perience; In this Fourth dolefull Instance, in one Fa­mily, all of Recent, and Fresh-bleeding Memory; that Earldoms, and Perage Nobility, and Honour, Lordships, [Page 34] and Manours, Possessions, and Apparances, Gold, and Silver, Pallaces, and Parks, and store of Rich­est Lands, and Tallest Timber; and what ever else the World calls Noble, Grand, and Stately; cann't shade, or hide their Lords from Death, are no good Brest-Works against his Bullets; nor best charg'd Shields, security against the Arrows of Mortality. Death with his ill-match't-pair, of Pale and Sable Hackneyes, out-drives the goodliest Sets of Sixes.

'Twere as impertinent, as the Philosopher's reading a Lecture of War-like Discipline in the presence of Hanniball; for me to unfurle his crimson Ensigns, and Ʋnfold and Display his Splendid Banners, or paint out, and Deliniate his thrice Honourable Stem, amongst those to whom they have been now so long Familiar; and as superfluous to Blazon his Scutche­ons in that Country, which hath to long been irra­diated in every corner, with the Illustrious Rayes of his cross-Crossets Sol, in their Field Mars; or inrich­ed and secured by those Ruby Shields, glistering with Topaz.

'T would but Adorn Deaths spoyles, and more In­haunce his Triumphs, to tell you that his Captive, was the Onely-Son of an Antient Hereditary Earle­dome; By Blood, and Marriage, The Son of Two, the Grand-Child of Four Eminent Earls; and as many Countesses; and Nephew to more Peers, then all Arithmetick hath Digits; Deriv'd from, or Alli'd to, almost all the Noble Blood, that runs in English, and in English-Irish Veins.

A Branch of two Families: The One the Grand Nursery of Antient Piety: His Mother was the Lady Mary Boyl, Daughter to the Earle of Corck. the Other the Happy Source of Newest Ingenuity; a Society of virtuosi with­in themselves; the Original, and Architypes of those, Insigniz'd with that Noble Character; In a word, the Son of Two Bloods, which I may boldly call; not the least Ornaments, of two Great Kingdomes: And indued, with all those Generous, Lovely, Inno­bling Excellencies, which might Retribute what he Borrowed from such Blood, and would (Oh unhap­piness he hath not!) have Transmitted it to his Po­sterity, Inrich't (if it be capable of more, and hath not attain'd its Acme) with increased glory; Yet now must lye down in Obscurity and Dust, under the Dishonours, Reproaches and Squallidness, of Death; Stript and Desrobed of all his Amiable, Manly, Goodly, Beauty, Proportions, Features; calling Corruption, Rottenness, and Worms; Mother, Brother, Sister.

Cease then from Man whose breath is in his Nostrills; Isa. 2.22. for wherein is he to be accounted of? Psal. 146.3, 4. And Trust not in Princes, nor in any Son of Man; for when his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his Earth, in that very day his thoughts perish: Surely all Flesh is Grass, yea, the goodliness thereof, as the Flower of the Field.

4. The next Impaled Shield, tells me he was a Son, and those unwelcome Labells hint immature death; nay an Onely One, yea an Onely Begotten One; (griefs in a cluster,) huic illae lacrymae, this gives the killing Accent.

What the good Woman feared in a Parable, is here fullfilled without one, 1 Sam. 14.7. and his perplexed Mo­ther, may with anguish of distress cry out, My coal that was left is quenched, and to my Husband is not left Name or Remainder upon the Earth: This is so deep a Key, no Base can touch it, but the hoarsest sobbs and groans; A Note so superlatively above Ela, no female trebble's shrill enough to Reach it, and keep Tune; 'Twill crack our sorrows into Schreeks and Squeling, but to venture at it; and would be some Apology, if Rachell like, his dearest Mother, should be ob­stinate in sorrow, and refuse to be comforted.

Fugientis naturae in successore pig­nus remanet, & extinquentis jam luminis lucerna ex parte accensa.5. Childless too himself; more sorrow still, had he but left an Heir, and lived a vicarious life; liv'd in another, though he had dyed himself; left but an Hostage in his steed; rack't up one spark to kindle more, we could have spared him better; had he Knit on an end, Nodosa aeterni­tas successio li­berorum. Aetatis incrementum. to lengthen out his Line, and fixt one Linck to keep the Chain intire, the Wound had been Curable, and the breach more Repara­ble.

Jer. 15.18.But now the pain is perpetual, therefore will we Wayle, Mich. 1.8. and Howle, and go strip't and naked, and make a Wayling like the Dragons, and Mourning as the Owls.

But Lastly, because no Sorrows are Superlative, which want the Emphesis of Widow (that ours may be more then such) that's here with full Advantage. Though his Right Honourable Mother be not so; yet is his Sweet, and Dearest Lady such, with so much [Page 37] forer agravation, as her tender years are less accu­stom'd to endure it: and be distressed, with the dole­full Epithite of Dowager, so immaturely. So soon, so suddainly, is she bereaved of him, as if she had onely had him to be made miserable by loosing of him: and in him such an Honour, and Happiness, as his High Ranck, and Higher Sweetness, Kindness, Nobleness of mind, possest her of in Him. The smart and sorrows of our losses, have no true Stan­dard, but the content and joy, we had in their frui­tion.

But I forget my Self and You, 'tis Cruelty to gall your bleeding hearts afresh; To Rake in your wounds, and longer vex those eyes, are half wept out already; and draw more sluces, when all the Banks run over; Claudite jam rivos; what I have drawn already, was not to hurt, but help you, to give your sorrows vent, least they should fester inward.

Now let me hasten to refresh you, and reassume, the [...]ht side of my Text; Weep not; at least, No more, when we have wept enough already: Not that he can soon, or easily, be sufficiently bewayled; but we must not shed so many tears as he deserves, least we shed abundance more then he needs, or we can spare, or God allowes.

Nihil difficilius quam magno do­lori paria verba reperire. Senec.And though the task, be hard to counterpoize your sorrowes, yet Accept these Anodines, which may dissolve, and mollifie the tumour, asswage the smart, and ease the throbbing; they are Collyria fitted for such eyes. And let me speak as if more of the most-concern'd were present; [...] for if any thing be spoken worth the carriage, you that are present, may trans­mit it, to the absent; As Gregory Nyssen spoke in his Funeral Oration for Young Pulcheria.

But because they must digg deep, who will build sure; and begin below, who would ascend. I will lay the First Stone under ground; within the Earth of his Mortality; and lead you gradually to higher Comforts.

Utrum stultius, mortalitatis le­gem ignorare, an recusare? Weep not; for he was Mortall, he must have died ere long: What wise man sheds his tears, because his Roses shed their leaves? He came into the World under this Law; Seneca. Nulli contigit impune nasci; No man is born on cheaper terms, then a necessity of dy­ing. He answered as became a Gallant man; who entertain'd the Message of his Sons discease, with, Ego cum genui tum moriturum scivi; I knew when I begat him, he must dye; huic rei sustuli. [...] 'tis but a little, Maximum sola­tium est cogitare id sibi accidisse, qu d ante se passi sunt omnes, om­nesqu [...] pass [...]i & ideo mihi videtur rerum natura quod gravissi­mum fecit, commune fecisse, ut crudelitatem fati consolaretur aequalitas. Sen. ad Polys. little sooner that he's gone. A few more changes of the Night and Day, and fewer of the Summer and Winter, would have brought him, and will bring us, where we shall change no more. We all must follow in the Order set us; had you a [Page 39] View, (larger then that which Xerxes) took, of all Man-kind at once; You might conclude with him, not one of them should be alive, within an hundred years. Fate's impartiality, makes some amends, for it's Severity. Yea, the end of all things seems to hasten, and not to be at such a distance, as secure Atheists. would fain perswade themselves.

Weep not; he dyed not in a Forreign Land, Ubi non licuerit matri ultima fi­lii oscula gra­tumque entremi sermonem oris. haurire. Sen. ad Martiam. at a neglected distance (the Seas return'd him safe;) But in a Mothers Bosome, where she both might, and did, assist his Soul and Body with the most pious tender­ness; and was her own witness, with what faithfull­ness and Care, Chaplain, Physitians, Nurses, all Atten­dants, performed towards him.

Weep not; He dyed not suddenly, by a surprize, or ambushment of Death; which grants no liberty to trim a Lamp. He dyed not in a Broyle or Duell; Mat. 25.7. he dyed not Flagrante Crimine, in any Notorious Sin, or with symptomes of unusuall Vengeance; but in the way of all the Earth, the common death of all Men; Numb. 16.29. Num. 27.3. Et suâ & siccâ morte; In his own sin; as Zelophehad's Daughters, spake of their Father, in opposition to dying for any signall provocation.

Weep not; He's gone unsoyled, Redditur illi ae­quale testimoni­um omaiam ho­minum, deside­ratur in tuum honorem lauda­tur in suum. Sene. ad Mort. free from reproach­full blots of Scandalous Enormities, and needs no tears to rinsh him. He did not out-live a good Re­port, but hath left a Memory behind him, Clean, and Ʋnstained: a Lovely Shaddow of his Lovely Person, and his Fairer Mind. His Part was Acted well, and [Page 40] He's gone off the Stage, as Great Augustus Caesar thought he did; and may with him require your Plaudite.

2 Kings 22.20. In hoc tam pro­celloso & in om­nes tempestates ex posito mari, navigantibus, nullus portu. ni­si mortis est. Seneca. He's come into his Grave in Peace, which was the Great Promise to Gods Friends of Old.

He hath escap't the storms, and is Arrived in the Port with safty. He's lay'd to rest with Honour, and his Ʋnstain'd Ashes, are shrined in immortall Ʋrns; whose Gold no rust can cancker, and which will Try and Vex, the teeth of Time it self, to injure; and the most spitefull Malice, dares nor attempt, once to besmear his Marble.

Weep not; He's taken from an Evil World, which is very full of sin, and therefore cannot be void of sorrow; Evasit omnia vitae incommoda. Though he hath left some good, Quis divinat an mors inviderit, an consulucrit? he hath escap't more evills; and Death did consult his Ease, and Safety, more then Envy his Felicity: With the wings of a Dove he is flown away, [...]. Nyff. and is, out of the reach both of Tempta­tion and Trouble, and shall no more offend a Good God; nor be offended by bad men. He is taken from the Evil to come, and shall not hear or see, what may make our hearts to ake, and our Eares to Tingle, to hear the Relation of; Si bene computes plus illi re­missum, quam ereptum; Non miser quod amisit sed Bea­tus quod non de­siderat. If you reckon right, you'l find him gainer by his loss; 'Tis better not to need, then to injoy whatever he hath left; to be above them, then to have them.

Weep not; for he is not Extinguisht but Removed; Non amissus, sed praemissus; He ceaseth not to be, Ciprian: but to be here. The House indeed's pull'd down, in or­der to repairing, and raysing up, more glorious and splendid. But the Inhabitant was neither crushed with its Ruines, nor soyled with its dust: The Bird, the Angell flew away, at the disturbance of the Nest; And the Immortall Man, made his escape, when Death unlock't the Prison Doors. The Spirit is return'd to God.

'Tis a good Observation, one of the Ancients makes upon that passage of God's rewarding Job. Chap. 42.10. The Lord gave Job twice as m [...]ch as he had before; or, as 'tis in the Hebrew, Ad [...]ed all that had been unto Job, unto the double; for h [...] had Fourteen Thousand Sheep, for his Seven Thousand and Six Thousand Camells, for his Three Thousand; Job. 1.3. with 42.12. and a Thousand Yoake of Oxen; and a Thousand Shee-Asses; for Five Hundred of Each. But He gave him but Seven Sons, and Three Daughters, the even Num­ber which he had before; Greg. Nyss. O­ratione fu [...]eb, pro pulcheria in fine, Compare Chap. 1, 2. with Chap. 42.13. And he gives the reason of it; because, [...]. — He gave him twice as many Cattle, as he had before; but only the Even Number of his Children, because they perish't not, (as did the Cattle) though they dyed; and so the Equal Num­ber prov'd Double in Effect; and Job had twice Ten Children, half in another World, and half in this, at [Page 42] the same time; though in so distant place. I need not heap Arguments, to prove the Souls Existence, after Death; St. Luke 12.4. St. Mat. 10.28.22.32. when Christ hath so plainly told you, It cannot be killed. And that He who is the God of the Living, not of the Dead, is still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; who therefore do still live.

1 King. 17.21.The Prophet pray'd, that the Childs Soul might return again into him, not a new one be made for him; And St. Paul, speaks most expresly, that when we are absent from the body, we shall be present with the Lord, 2 Cor. 5.8. and therefore desires to be dissol­ved, that he may be with Christ, Phil. 1.23. Which were a most absur'd Argument, if the Soul should bear the Body company in dying. And the Souls under the Altar call for vengeance against them who shed their blood. De consolatione ad Marti. Cap. 24.

Seneca could tell disconsolate Mercia; Imago dun­taxat Filii tui periit, & Effigies non similima, ipse quidem aeternus, meliorisque nunc Status est; despolia­tus oneribus alienis, & sibi relictus. The Image only of thy Son is perished, and the Picture (which was not very like him neither) is defac'd; But he himself is Eter­nall, in a better state eas'd of his uneasie burden, and now at freedom to injoy himself.

Arguments for the Souls imor­tality and Ex­istence after death.And if I may suggest an Argument or Two: It would be a Chasma and Hiatus in Nature, if some Crea­tures being wholly Immortall, others wholly mortall; there were not one made up of both, Fibula utriusque mundi, the Button and the Buckle of both Worlds, [Page 43] which knits and clasps them into one; Connubium vi­sibilis & invisibilis; The Beast and Angell mixt into one, which makes a medium betwixt both, and contain­eth both.

Doth the Image of the King Perpetuate his Coyne, and render it Treasonable to Melt it down? And shall not Gods Image, much more preserve, what that is stamp't upon, from perishing?

It acts without the body, and above it, here, that is an Earnest it can be without it afterwards; It is a Spirit, consists not of Contrarie's, of Corruptible, of Self-destoying Principles; therefore abides for Ever. Hath Vast and Everlasting Expectations; which Na­ture would never have imprest, if they had been in vaine: Lastly, consent of Nations Seals to this Truth: These, if neither most nor best, are such as lay up­permost amongst my sudden thoughts, and may suf­fice.

Weep not; for He shall Rise again; Non solum re­presentata, sed expectata resur­rectio, luctum nobis minuere debet ob mor­tuos, Grotius. He shall not continue Death's Everlasting Captive, or the Graves E­ternall Prisoner: Thy Husband, Son and Friend is but asleep, he shall do well, and wake. The Grave hath been forc't and broken up, and our True Sampson, hath carried away, the Gates, the Bars, and Posts, of this Philistian Gaza. O Death where is thy sting? O Grave where is thy Victory? And when that glorious Morn, draws back the Curtains, and dispells the Night, then shall he wake Refresh't; and Rise, and Dress himself, and be re-married to his Flesh.

Each Mornings Sun, each Summers Verdure is a loud instance, and presage of this; both Testaments, the Old, and New confirm it, as well in Examples as Pre­dictions: Christ is risen as a Man, to shew 'tis pos­sible, as an head to assure 'tis certain; And God is Just, therefore the dead must Rise; that what hath been so much a amiss in this Life, may be amended, and better ordered in the Next; where it shall be, Bonis Benè, Malis, Malè.

They that need more to satisfie their reason, or con­firm their Faith; let them consult the 1 Cor. 15. Chap. at their leisure, where they shall find good measure, Prest, and Heapt, and Running over.

Illud te non mi­nimum adjurerit si cogitaveris nihil profiturum dolorem tuum, nec illi nec tibi: percamus lachri­mis nihil profici­entibus, Sen. Weep not; Your sorrows now are fruitless; where­fore should I fast, Now he is dead, can I bring him back again? Was the wise Argument of Holy David, 2 Sam. 12.23. Could you weep Aquafortis, your tears would not dissolve the chains of Death. Si fletibus fata vincuntur eat omnis inter luctus dies, sed si nullis planctibus defuncta revocantur, desinat dolor qui perit; Was the grave Council of the Sage Moralist [...]; let Reason master Passion, and spare those Tears you know are Fruitless, and but spent in vain.

Weep not; Tears may hurt you, though they bring him no help, 2 Cor. 7.10. and kill your selves, though they'l not quicken him; The sorrow of the World worketh Death; Facilius nos illi dolor adjiciet, quam illum nobis reducet; Too many tears reproach you both, Him, as if he need­ed them, and dyed like Absolom, whose Body onely [Page 45] he resembled, not his Manners, Mind, or End. Your selves, for their Excess no less upbraids your Manhood, then their defect would have reproached your Huma­nity; Non sentire dolorem non est hominis non ferre, non est viri: Yea, your Patience, Faith and Christianity, as if you sorrowed like those who have no hope.

Weep not; A [...] hac te infa­mia vindica, ne videatur plus a­pud te valere u­nus dolor, quam tam multa Sola­tia. Least you provoke the Lord to Multi­ply his stripes; as Children often suffer more for sul­lingness, and sobbing, then for the first occasion of Correction; take heed you forfeit not the mercies which are left.

Weep not; For 'tis the Work of God. Lev. 10.3. Psal. 39.9. Aaron held his peace, in a case more difficult; and David was dumb with silence, because God did it; 1 Sam. 3.13. and Good Eli thus submitted, 'Tis the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. He that hath Ruled the World now near Six Thousand Years, and never yet committed over sight or errour, guided this blow. He call'd him back, Iniquus est qui muneris sui ar­bitrium danti non relinquit, avidus qui non lucri loco habet quod accepit, sed damni quod red­didit Ingratus qui injuriam vo­cat finem volup­tatis. Senec. who gave him, and had more Right and Title to him, then a Wife or Mother; and they too ungratefully forget God, and themselves, who reckon it an Injury for him to take his Own. Gods absolute, and Indis­putable Sovereignty, his Infallible, and un-erring Wis­dome, and his constant and faithfull Goodness, should at least make us lay our hand upon our heart, and mouth; that we may neither speak, nor think amiss, [...]. Nyss. of what he doth; Knowing that he doth all things [Page 46] well: But rather say with Holy Job, The Lord giveth, and the Lord hath taken away, as it pleaseth the Lord, so come things to pass, blessed be the Name of the Lord.

But because sorrow is very querulous, witty to afflict it self, and pregnant [...]f Arguments to aggravate its burdens; And he saith little to the purpose, (talk he never so much) who takes not the Mourners Tears and Sighs, from their own Eyes and Lips, and mea­sures out returns proportionable; Let us suppose we heard them (as we have heard them) thus complaining.

Objection. First, that he Dyed Young, in the very Spring and Flower of his Age, when all their Comforts were expected from him; and these budding pregnant hopes, are nip't and blasted, and suffer a sad Abortion, Nimis cito periit & immaturus; [...].

Answer. I know the wound is tender, and will not bear such handling, therefore I shall not Answer so roughly, as to say, Optimum non nisci, proximum quam citissime mori. the sooner he dyed, the better; because the First best is not to be born, the next best after that, is to dye as soon as may be: But I will refer you to what the Authour df the Book of Wisdome speaks concerning Enoch. Honorable Age is not that which stands in length of time, Chap. 4.8. nor that is measured by number of years; Quicquid, ad summum perve­nit ad exitum properat. Eripit se, ausertque ex oculis perfecta virtus. Nec ulti­mum tempus ex­p [...]ctant, quae in privio maturaerunt. Indicium imminentis exitis Maturitas. but Wisdome is the gray hair unto men, and an unspotted life is Old Age. Speedily was he taken away, least wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul: He being made perfect in a short time, ful­fill'd a long time; for his soul pleas'd the Lord, therefore [Page 47] hasted he to take him away, from amongst the Wicked; and admit this be not the true Solomon, yet He hath told us, Eccl. 7.1.4.1. The day of Death is better then the day of ones Birth; and again, I praised the Dead which are already dead, more then the Living which are yet alive.

He dyes not too soon, who dyes in the time that God hath set; and so dyed he, and this should stay your hearts. Job. 7.1.14.5. Is there not an appointed time to man upon the Earth? his days are determin'd, the Number of his Months is with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds which he cannot pass; and the Phylosopher could see this; Nemo nimis cito moritur, qui victurus, Soluitur quod culque promis­sum est, Habe­bit quisque quae­tum diis Pri­mus ascripsit, Ser, diutius quam vixit, non fuit, sixus est cuique terminus: manebit semper ubi positus est: No man dyes too soon, because no man hath less of life, then was design'd, and promist from the first.

And because Examples of the like sufferings, sof­ten those stroaks, which are most pungent, when they are conceiv'd least common, and Esteemed Singular. Take these few Instances in a Case, where multitude hath made our choyce more difficult.

Thus dyed Blest Abell, the First that ever dyed, and Consecrated Early Death; Thus the Good Son of that Bad Father, Jeroboam; Thus dyed the Holy Josiah, Octavia & Li­via altera soror, Augusti altera uxor, amiserunt filios juvenes, u­traque spe futuri principis certa. Octavia Mar­cellum, Livia Drusum. like whom was none in Zeal for God; Thus dyed Marcellus, and Drusus, successively both Heirs Ap­parent to Augustus Caesar, and the Worlds Empire; Thus dyed sweet Titus, Deliciae generis humani, the Darling and Delights of Man-kind; Thus dyed [Page 48] that Glory of the Roman Caesar; Alexander Seve­rus, Paganus Christianizans; and Happy had it been for Nero had he dyed so, and his Quinquennium and his Life had had the same Period; and the kinder hand of Death had drawn a preventing Vayle, after the Glory of those rare beginnings, Quam multis diutius vixisse nocuerit? to cover the Re­proach of what succeeded, in the Obscurities of Ever­lasting Night.

But to come nearer home; So dyed that Miracle of Grace and Greatness, Edward the sixt; So dyed Prince Henry le boon, le grand; So dyed of Later Date, the much Admired Young Lord Hastings, and that Early Confessour, Son of the Royal Martyr, the thrice Illustrious Duke of Glocester.

Sed ridiculum est mortalitatis exempla coll [...]gere; and therefore I conclude with him, whose Example is a­bove all Paralel; So dyed our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, in the very Strength and Vigour of his Age.

And notwithstanding sorrow, mostly st [...]ps its ears, against the charms of sober reason: yet let me modestly debate the Case.

Nihil est [...]am fallax quam vita humana; nihil tum infidiosum: non m [...]h [...]rcle quisquam acce­pisset nisi daretur in scii, Sen. What is the life that he hath parted with, you so bemoan his loss? look back and see what Comforts it afforded You; What had You lost, if You had dyed as Young? would it quit cost, to live it over, if you might, again: Has the World been so kind a Step­dame to your Selves? Was your Apprentiship so sweet, and gentle, you grudge so much his Earlier Freedom? [Page 49] What is it, but a constant hurry, and a druging Bon­dage? A wearisom delight, and vexing vanity; A little-ease; a great Temptation; a slippery Good, which slideth through our fingers, and leaves nothing, Quid aliud in mundo quam pugna adversus diabolum quoti­die geritur, — cum avaritia no­bis, cum impudi­citia, cum ira, cum ambitione cōgressio est, cum carnalibus vitiis, cum illecebris sae­cularibus assidua & molesta luc­tatio est, Cipra. but its slime upon them; A Glutinous and clammy Evil, which stains us with a guilt, that sticketh faster to us, then our Skinns. A leakie ship, and an infected house; a peevish neighbour, and insulting master, which like to Joab, 2 Sam. 2.14. makes our miseries and torment, his sport, and play; ‖ which daily keeps us floating, on the un­constant waves, of fears, and hopes, of grief, and anger, of fainting joyes, and sullenest dispair: Now tell me, is it not a mercy; Beneficium mortis contra tot vitae injurias habere? To lye still, and to be quiet, Job. 3.13, 17, 18. to sleep, and be at rest; to be where the Wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary be at rest; where the Prisoners rest together, and hear not the voice of the Oppressour.

And with the great Bishop of Nyssa, Vide Nyss in fu­nere pulcheriae. let me de­mand yet farther, — [...]. [...]—Tell me what good, and loveliness, thou seest in old Age, to render thee so fond on't? Is it a shrivel'd cheeke, and wrinkled brow, a toothless mouth, and faultring tongue, a head grown bald, and crazed; A stooping back, and trembling leggs, and every part made impo­tent, and all unable for their Offices? To be an Hos­pital of pains and aches, a bagg of Rhumes, and Flegme, the constant Prisoner of the Gout, or Stone: Onely the Ruines and Reproach of thy own Comliness, the [Page 50] Confutation and Revers of former Ʋsefulnesse and Beauty.

To be, in paenam vivax, to out-live thy Sences, Phancy, Memory, and Judgement; and to live Blind, and Deaf, and, tantum non, to Dote, to be a Burden to our selves, a Trouble and Temptation unto others; to be our own moving Sepulchers, and to conclude our strength, Psal. 90.10. in Weakness, Labour, Sorrow: In a word, to have so long a Reckoning, and Account to make; and to go late to Heaven: as if that were only a reserve, when we can stay no longer here, and not a place of Choyce.

Objection. 2 But He was our All, and all is gone in him, and we are undone. Answer. Not so: All is not gone, while God and Christ's not gone; Though He be Dead, yet the Lord Liveth, and Blessed be the God of our Salvation. His Life or Death had no Affinity with your Eternall State. No loss undo's us, but the loss of Christ; 'Tis a Miserable Happiness, which stands upon so weak a bot­tome, as the Life of Man. He that gave Him; can give another; Eve once observed, that God gave her another Seed in the stead of Abell; and Jobs submis­sive patience was rewarded with a Full Return. Abra­ham believed God to very good purpose in no unlike a case; With God nothing shall be impossible: A Phoe­nix may arise out of the Ashes; the harder is the streight, the more is He ingaged to Relieve, who sel­dome doth Extraordinary Things, in Ordinary Cases; By how much our sorrows are more smart and pressing, [Page 51] by so much the more we may expect his help.

All those we read of Rais'd by Miracle, in Scripture, were Onely Children, except Lazarus; and he was to Mary and Martha, as is an Onely-Son unto the ten­derest Mother: The Widows Son of Zereptha, 2 Kings 17. rais'd by the Prophet Eliah; the Shunamites by Elisha; 2 Kings 4. Jarus's Onely Daughter, and this in my Text, who was a Widows Onely Son; and though we have no ground to hope for help in kind; yet may we in pro­portion; The Key of the Womb is in his hand; or He can give a Name and Place within his Sanctuary, Isa. better then of Sons and Daughters. He can vouchsafe to be instead of all Relations, who calls them Mother, Sister, St. Mark 3.35. Brother that obey his word. He can give Faith, and Patience, and a Sanctified advantage by our Tryalls. He can make a Bee-hive of the Lions Carkass, Jud. 14.8.14. and bring forth meat out of the feircest eater; and leave us gainers in the issue, by our soarest losses: and tis like he will; Our deepest, and our hollowest miseries, send up the loudest Eccho's in the Ears of Mercy; and, mag­no vulneri, majora Adhibebit remedia; He hath greater remedies, for greatest wounds.

But now the Family is dead, and fallen with Him, Objection. 3 and the Line, and Name, will fayle, by his departing Childless.

That's more then any man can tell; Answer. you had better hope the best, then apprehend the worst: He Treats himself unkindly, that antidates his fears. But sup­pose it true; then He, nor His, shall never taint the [Page 52] Blood, nor foul his Shield with any Stainant Colours, nor blot his Honourable Impress. GARDE TA FOY. Twere Endless, to Recount how many Noble English Families have seen their Period: In hoc uno se ceteris exaequari hominibus, non injuriam, sed jus mortalitatis ju­dicaverunt Two Right Honourable Earls, have None betwixt them Now, whose Patents and Creati­ons, (I have been assured) differ Two Hundred Years; and None Remain of those, who were Crea­ted, in so long a space; Hic habere se dolet liberos, hic perdidisse; And if Children cause us grief, that's least uneasie, which concerns their want.

Do we rejoyce when single persons have performed handsomly? and shall we do less for Noble Families, laid up unblemish't in the Bed of Honour, and whose Names are sufficiently Embalmed with Renown, and Virtue, [...]. and Entred in the Registers of Fame and Hi­story, to be Coevall with the Sun and Moon? and need not Succession to Eternize them.

Objection. 4 But I fear most, that I sinn'd him away, and 'tis for my Transgression, that God hath snatch't him hence.

Answer. This is an Holy, and a commendable fear; and not unseasonable at such a time. Art thou come to call my sin to Remembrance, and to slay my Son, said the poor Widow, 1 Kings 17, 18.

I am well content you listen to the Rod, take its A­larum's, and would promote your doing so, unto my power. Right hand Errours, are least dangerous. We had better ten times admit that supposition, which will make us hate our sins; then that but once, which will incline us to indulge them. While your heart is hot, [Page 53] pursue the Murtherer, and be aveng'd of whatever sin, you can suspect as accessory to a Sons, an Husbands, or a Kins-mans Death.

But let me add, we sometimes are too curios, with the Disciples, in the blind mans case; Who sinned, this Man or his Parents, that he was born blind? St. John. 9.2, 3. To whom Christ Answered; Neither hath this Man sin­ned, nor his Parents, but that the Works of God might be made manifest in him: Not but they all were sin­ners, but it was not for any Extraordinary sin that that blindness hapned to him, as Saint Chrisostome Ob­serves.

Sometimes too Censorious, both of our Selves, and Others, to aggravate our sorrows, and add Affliction to the Afflicted, instead of the alleviating of them; which evil Spirit, Christ twice rebukes, in one Chap­ter. St. Luk 13.2.4. Suppose you these Gallileans were sinners above all the Gallileans, or those Eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell; — I tell you now nay; — And with the like words would I comfort you: No wise, or sober Christians, will make dishonourable reflecti­ons upon such a Providence, but Sympathize, and tenderly Compassionate you; Be not you too severe upon your selves.

but I have better comforts yet, and 'twas from Christs Example, that I Learned, to keep the best Wine unto the last; the former were Collyria to cool your Eyes, these are Cordiacall's to warm your hearts. 1 Tues. 4.13. I would not have you Ignorant concerning them [Page 54] that sleep, that you sorrow not as men without hope.

I shall speak first in Hypothesi, upon the Charitable supposition that he dyed in Christ; and then give you the Grounds upon which that supposition is bottom'd.

Rev. 14.13. Weep not; for him that's gone to rest; Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord, for they rest from their la­bour; Beatum deflere Invidia est. He's nearer our envy then our pitty. Gaudendum potius, quam do­lendum; Nec accipiendas esse nobis atras vestes quando illi alba indumenta jam sumpserunt, Cipria. de Mo [...]t. as Saint Cyprian. Our blacks should not be of too deep a Dye, when they are Cloathed in their long white robes, and are incircled with Golden girdles under their Papps. It's very incongruous, to blur our faces with excess of tears, for them, from whose Eyes all tears are wip't, and from whom sighing, and sorrow shall fly away; which is the happiness of all in Heaven; if we believe this, how can we mourn? if we believe it not, how are we Christians? but, Fidei & spei no­strae prevaricatores, as St. Ciprian; but the cheats and abuses of our hope and confidence; If we will weep, 'tis fitter, that we do it for our selves, then them; not that they are gone before, but that we stay still behind; They have obtained, what we have but in hope; though we be Elder, yet are we Minors, they of Age, though Younger; and have attain'd to the Inheritance, Incorruptible and undefil'd, [...] Greg. Nyss. de Mortu. and which fadeth not away; which we must yet breath after, wait and pray for; That state knows neither Widow-hood, nor Orphanage, where God is all in all; they who are ever with the Lord, shall never feel woe or want, but are posses­sed [Page 55] of that Fulness of joy, which is in his presence, and drink of those Rivers of pleasure, Psal. 16. ult. which are at his right hand for evermore.

And that he is one of those: what follows is a ground of hope: [...]. Gr. Na­zian Orat. deci. iá laudem Caesa. frat. You know the Family from whence he sprang; what Education and Example he was Nurst up under? what Womb he lay in; (though grace be not extraduce) 'twas well for Augustine that holy Mo­nica was his Mother; Her Zeal, (next to free grace) first Canoniz'd him, and her Blood was the blest earnest of his following Saint-ship; well did St. Ambrose assure her, that a Child of so many Prayers (and such Prayers as hers) could not miscarry; and we speak modestly enough, while we depress our present case, to be but Paralel.

I might here touch his Natural accomplishments, and Moral Excellencies: In that Fair mansion, of his Goodly Body, Dwelt happily a Fairer, and move Love­ly Mind; Humble, Modest, Pregnant, Civil, Truly No­ble; Large, not with swelling pride, but Solid Worth; Free yet not frolick, Reserv'd, but not Morose; Cour­teous, where not Familiar, Kind, though Great; which could keep distance, yet without disdain; A Con­versation clear from soul deboyshe's; which 'slave, and debase, not few of Highest Birth; No Ʋnclean Riots, or Blaspheming Oaths Ʋnman'd him, as too many, in­to to beast, or feind: And because Relative duties well discharg'd, best speak us Reall Christians; He was Eminent in these.

A most Obedient, and Obsequious Son; A Chast, Affectionate, and Tender, Husband; A Civil, Faith­full, and Obliging Friend.

But that our hopes may be the more Explicite, the good discoveries he gave of better then all this, were neither late, nor faint, nor forced from him. Accept of these few Instances; He freely gave up himself to God, and was not solicitous for any thing in the E­vent, but Life Eternall; professing himself most wil­ling to dye, and would Indent with God for Nothing, but the pardon of his sins, which he was sensible he wanted, and begg'd most heartily, and joyn'd with them, who sought it for him, Earnestly, and Prest them to do it frequently.

He made firm Resolutions (of his own accord) that if it pleased the Lord to spare him, he would spend four hours every day, in Reading, Prayer, and Meditation, and such like Holy Exercises, as might concern his Soul's Salvation. And when with a Holy Jealousie his Pious Mother Answered: But I fear Child, when thou ar't well, thou'lt think it tedious, and forget this promise, and alter the num­ber; He with some passion (but 'twas devout and holy passion) reply'd; by the Grace of God Madam, if I ever change the number, it shall be to make them more. And we humbly hope God took him at his word, and hath Inlarg'd his Vacancy, and chang'd his Four, into Twenty Four; fetching him thither, where they serve him continually, the whole of every day, and [Page 57] never cease, or sin. And as he seriously profest, he should for ever take more Contentment and delight in his Good Mothers Company, and such as are like to Her; in whose Converse, he should be alwayes Hear­ing and Seeing what might promote his Everlasting Good; Now God, we hope, hath taken him to Better Company, the Family of the First-Born in Heaven.

And as a loud Testimony, how little Worldly things were to Him, He Sacrificed his Youthfull Friends (which usually are the dearest pieces we possesse) which he Exprest with such an Emphasis, and Force, as is too hard to imitate. I now well see, what little good, my Feathered-Friends can do me, and what they sig­nifie.

It was the Law for Sacrificing Fouls, that the Feathers should be cast beside the Altars, Levit. 1.16. by the place of the Ashes; and full so low he laid the Vanity, and Gayness, of himself and others. Saint Anselme, us'd to compare the Soul, into the Body; to a Bird with a string about its legg, and a weight tyed to it; His String's uniyed, His Snare is broken, and as a Bird he is escaped, yea like a Dove, whose wings are of Silver, and her Feathers of Yellow Gold; He's hastned to the winged Cherubims, to sing for ever in the Lords pre­sence, and to be sheltred under the most immediate Protection of his Feathers.

'Tis true, his hopes were very modest, somewhat verging upon fears and doubts; which his Sollicitous inquiries discovered. Whether his delaying, (for he [Page] [...] [Page] [...] [Page 58] bewail'd, his not conforming sooner, and more through­ly, to his Good Mothers pious Admonitions) could be forgiven: and whether God would accept his late Repentance, and the Resolv's made on a Bed of Sick­ness? And when these, and the like, were Answered, with Prudent, and Faithfull Caution; and then with such Incouragements, as the manner and heartiness of his Expression seem'd to Intitle him to. He Answer­ed, Well! Then I will Cast my Self on God. And he is a God, who casts not them away, that do so in good Earnest; Therefore with Him, we'l leave him, and Conclude;

Beseeching you to bear from him, what possibly you would not bear from me; the free discovery of your Vanities, and let this pull down your Plums, and make you serious.

And You that survive Him, do Him the Kindness, and Your Selves the Right; to Act what He Resol­ved. Spend every day some good Proportion of your time, as all Good Men, and Wise, shall spend Eter­nity. Delay not your Return to God. Submit to wholesome Councils Early; Delight in Company, may make you Better. Sue-out most Earnestly, the Pardon of your sins; Solicite those, who are the Fa­vorites of Heaven, to assist you in it. Adorn as he, all your Relations: Study his Herse, and listen what he whispers thence; and when you se't, Remember, that be'st thou Young, or Great, or Darling of thy Dearest Parents, Stem of thy Family, or whatever [Page 59] else, that's Man, thou certainly must dye; therefore prepare: for, Ex Hoc momento Aeternitas.