OUr Life is divided into labour and rest, which Na­ture wisely hath contrived into waking and sleeping, in an admirable manner provi­ding the preservation of our being by a see­ming dissolution of it. We must intermit it to continue it: Die we must one half of the natu­rall day, that we may live the other; Lie down and sleep (as it were) to die in the night, that we may awake and arise to live on the morrow; so well acquainted is our Life with Death, that our whole age appeares the Changes and Intercourse of both. Nay this kinde of death is that which continueth life: Such is the frailty of the Creature, that it immedi­ately owes its being to a kinde of not being, to a priva­tion, though not simply of life, yet—Tali— to something very well like death. For tell me, strongest C [...]nstitution! how long canst thou labour without the relief of rest? how long canst thou awake without refreshment of sleep? Jacobs an­swer— Few and evil would our dayes be. Gen. 47.9. Those losses and de­cayes [Page 2] the body suffers (by labour) in the day, are repaired by rest at night: as if the feigned plague of Titius liver were our reall blessing; ‘Sen Thyest. sc. 1.Et nocte reparans quicquid amisit die.’ The animal and vitall spirits wearied with sore travel of the day, retire to recruit new strength to their comfortable logings, that in the brain, this in the heart; refr [...]shed by sleep, inable the mor­ning body with new and lively vigour, which [...]elfe would fall into its principles, dead d [...]st and earth. Now crazy and infirm bo­dies requ [...]re longer and more frequent sleeps; whereby we see the breaches of Nature are for a while made up and fortified: b [...]t when the body is irreparably wasted, beyond the remedy of these often but short sleeps, then is it necessary it fall into tha [...] long sle [...]p▪ then perpetuus sopor urget, the whole night of death must recover such a losse; no repairing this tenement, but by pulling it down to the ground. Though to Man Death may seem a Murtherer, yet to Humanity it is a Physitian; to the hope­lesse Heathen the Grave is (a [...] was theirs) a fire, and Death [...] perishing; but to the faithfull Christian the Grave is a bed, and Death sleeping: all such we may unite into Christs singular, what he sayes of one we may of all, They are not dead but sleep.

1 Thes. 4.13, 14. But I would not have you to be ignorant, Brethren, concerni [...]g them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, as others that have [...] hop [...]: For if we believe that Jesus dyed and rose againe; even s [...] them which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him, as affirms St. Paul. John 11.12. Whence it appeares, that if she sleep, she shall do well: and shall we take it ill, that our friends are we [...]l? shall we be troubled upon earth, because our friends are at rest under it? Forbid it Religion!Aug. pereat contristatio, ubi tanta est cons [...]la [...]i [...], Be not ye sad because your friend is gone to a state of joy.

If Nature sadned at departure, will let fall a tear, let Faith g [...] ­ned with hopes of meeting again, wipe away that teare. Wre [...] not with the decrees of Heaven, nor murmur at the proced [...] [Page 3] of its providence; 'twas God that closed her eyes in sleep, that forbids your eyes to weep. Weep not, (for) she is not dead but sleepeth.

The division of this Text is made to my hands by the meeting of this Congregation, three parties are visible in the presence. Which discover three parts legible in the words:

• 1. The Dead, — Shee.
• 2. The Mourners, — All wept.
• 3. The Preacher, — he said, Weep not.

These parts, upon review, are like those sheep, Cant. 4.2. whereof every one beares Twins:

• 1. In the Dead is considerable
  • 1. Her Person.
  • 2. Her Condition.
• In her Person her
  • Age — Short.
  • Sex — Wretched.
• Her Condition, which is —
  • Negative, not dead.
  • Affirmative, but sleepeth.
• 2. In the Mourners remarkable
  • 1. Number of Mourners - All
  • 2. Weight of Mourning — Wept and bewailed.
• 3. In the Preacher,—
  • 1. His Doctrine — Weep not.
  • 2. His Reason, for ye mistake her case—She is not dead, &c.

Begin we with the Dead: But is not mors ultima linea? 1 Cor. 15.26. Sapiens semper incipi [...] à sine. Death the last? shall the last be first? Is not Death the end? shall we begin at the end? Yes, wise men do so; our endea­vours, thoughts, devotions, come to no end, if not begun at the end to come.— Remember thy beginning and thou wilt seldom do amisse; (that dust will allay thy pride) but remember thy end [Page 2] [...] [Page 3] [...] [Page 4] and thou wilt never, (those ashes will quench thy wild-fires▪) The consideration of Death gives life to our considerations, and our thoughts doe then flourish, when we are thinking our thoughts shall perish. The Egyptians sold their funerall balmes in the Temple of Venus; that where they prayed for Nativity, they might be remembred of Mortality: our first voice is Crying, our Baptisme a Buriall, our first Character Christ crosse, the tree of Death; nor is it improper to enter early on death for our Instruction, since death entred so early on us for our Destru­ction,John 8.44. even from the beginning; a woman speaking with the ill spirit brought death first to our party, in counter-working by the good spirit, we in the beginning will speak of a woman brought to her death, which is the first party,— Shee.

Mark 5.42.Shee was of the age of twelve yea [...]es, as is marked by the Evangelists; miserable brevity, is it not? for if one thousand years upon account with eternity, make not up one present day, are but as yesterday p [...]st, worn out, and gone, as it is Psal. 90.4. surely twelve yeares, nay stretch life to its old standard-number of seventy, and all will not amount to an houre, a minute; no, a minute may challenge some proportion with six thousand yeares, because it is a Chip or Drop of time, but sixe thousand yeares cannot pretend to any share or neighbourhood with Eternity: Because the Angel makes an Affidavit that time shall be no more. Therefore David (though he did very foolishly to number his people,2 Sam. 24.10. swelling the l [...]st to hundreds of thousands, that he might appeare something be­fore men;) yet did he very wisely to number his dayes, shrink­ing the account beneath the least article of time, that he might be nothing before God. Mine age is as nothing before thee, Psal. 39.5. Before God! nay nothing before us. For the son of David that sifted vanity even to the husks,Eccles. 3.2. sayes, there is a time to be borne, and a time to dye, none it seemes to live, for that which is past of our age, is dead in transaction, and will not be recalled because it cannot return. Quicquid aetatis retrò est mors tenet, that which is to come, is dead in uncertainty: so that nothing but the very pres [...]n [...] is life, & that present is so near to nothing, that it will not stay with us whilst we can say it is. It is gone before we can say it is here. Well said that Oracle of [Page 5] God, Surely every man walketh in a vaine shadow; Psal. 39.6. but nearer home to our frailty spo [...]e that miracle of men, He shall flie away as a dreame, Job 20.8. the slow pace of Walking is improved into Flying, and the Shadow emptied into a Dream. Two Nothings, which can never make any one thing; though they have been long since married together by Pindar, who calls life the dream of a shadow. Good God! what vainer than a shadow? which is nothing in it self, being but a privation of light framed by the opposition of a thick body to a lu­minous. Is any thing so empty as a Dream, which hath no sub­sistence, but in the hollownesse of a sleepy brain? A Fairy-round of Chimericall Semblances, a dance of Phantasies Antiques, neither of them having any reality or true being in na­ture.

So vain, so frivolous a thing is man— is she— that in the strength of youth may fall to dust, whose very Noon may be eclipsed into a shadow, nay so highly uncertain, so slippery our station, that we cannot assure our selves from falling, that short while we can say we stand; nor can I tell whiles I am spea­king, whether I shall have breath enough to end this pe­riod.

But grant our lives to be Digitis à morte remotae quatuor aut septem, a span long,Juvenal. Psal. 39.5. yet is that life but as a span forced from a gouty hand, the farther it reacheth, the more it torments the owner. Spinne we this thred of life to eighty, yet is it but la­bour and sorrow, we are but as she is in the next considera­tion.

A woman (that is) a miserable creature,Sexus. She the Ocean where misery is in its originall, and still at home the Channell, through which it is conveyed, and walks abroad; sorrow was not onely invested on her person, Gen. 3.16 but generally intail'd on her posterity, Job 14.1. Every birth is heire to a new cala­mity, Job 5.7. the sorrowes of women are so many, so compre­hensive, as that when they who speak as m [...]ved by the holy Ghost, would expresse the multitude and grievance of those calamities which war, and ruine, and finall desolation leave upon a people, they wrap up all in this, The sorrowes of a travailing w [...]man shall come upon him, Hos. 13.13.

Christ about to describe that prodigy of vengeance on the Jewes, that irresistible subversion of their state, burying their Temple in its own ashes; [...]. Josephus de ex cid. l. 5. c. 28. Mat. 24. crucifying their persons, till there were no Crosses left to beare Bodies, nor ground left to beare Crosses; burning a thousand in one fire, and scattering the remainder into the state of Slaves and Vagabonds upon the face of the earth by Titus, encompassing Jerusalem with Ar­mies. The prologue to this wofull Tragedy, he calls [...], the beginning of throwes and pangs of a woman in tra­vaile.

Titus having taken it (to pay the Jewes in their own coyn) impressed on his Medalls (made for the celebration of this Conquest) a woman leaning her back to a Palm, with this In­scription on the reverse, Judaea capta.

But the sorrowes of Woman, it seems, exceed the calamities of a single Nations ruine; for when S. Paul would expresse the universall suffering of the whole Creation from Adams first groan to the last sigh of the last creature he sayes but [...],Rom. 8.22. it travaileth in pains together.

Not onely the suffering of the Creation but of the Creator, those unparalell'd and unexpressible pains of Christ on the Crosse to redeem us from paines under the Crosse. St. Peter having no word of heavier or bitterer signification, sayes [...] Act. 2.24. the paines, or pangs, or travaile of death, indeed the sorrows first threatned to woman for her first being in transgression.Gen. 3.16.

Now tell me, Beloved, is not she a fit emblem of misery, who is so fruitfull a mother of it? Must she not have a mighty spawn of misery at home, who brings forth such numerous sholes of sorrows every day and every where?De venenis ob­ser. 1. schol. Or is woman in general like her in Forestus, healthfull in her self and poysonous to all others? Shall the whole Creation groan,Est. 4.13. and she only sing? Shall Esther think to escape more than all the Jews? No: but as Mary weeping at Christs Sepulchre, did represent the state of mankind, so is wo­man here not only the occasion but figure of all humane misery.Ecclus. 25.24. 1 Tim. 2.14. Psal. 16.11. Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die. Quemcunque miserum videas hominem scias. Misery is the pro­per heraldry of mankinde, man is no longer man, than whiles [Page 7] he is calamitable; advance him above woe,Wisd. 7 3. and you shall seat him in heaven, There onely is pleasure for evermore. The world is a sea, into which we lanch upon the water of our own teares; the first voice is crying, as do all; and the first salutation the Mexicanes give their Infants is, Thou art come into the world to suffer; endure, suffer and hold thy peace. Et vita nostra navi­ganti similis, we faile through our lives in sorrow for others,Greg. and sufferance for our selves, in a valley of teares; and at death, drawing nigh the port, they that follow us, land us in the grave with their teares. So the circle of life is made up, beginning and ending in teares, as the old world, Gen. 1.2. begun, and Gen. 7.24. ended in waters.

Moreover, we have an unhappy kind of thrift to improve this stock of sorrow, by study, memory, and anticipation.Eccl. 1. ult. In much wisdome is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge inc [...]easeth sorrow, by searching into possible evils, which the unthinking man avoids; the memory of neglected opportunities, and the fear of accidentall evills torment us; whatsoever the mis-conceit presents to the phantasie, straight we are posse [...]sed with it, the smallest probability arising from any omen that may forespeak an ill, distracts our minds with an excesse of feare, so we torture our selves with that which may be a long time coming, and per­haps not light at all.

Not to grieve you with farther consideration of our griefs, be it enough to say, That the misery of our body is the body of misery; but the misery of our soul is the very soul of misery.Job 14.1. And as man that is born of a woman is of few dayes, and full of trouble, so woman that is begotten by man, is not of long time, nor empty of trouble. Certainly — She is not.

Thus have ye the Chronicle and Map of our life, the time and state, short in number, deep in sorrow; a considerati­on able to batter downe all imaginary palaces wheresoever erected, either to Eternity or Felicity, in this world. Non sumus hujus mundi incolae, sed advenae; A lapi [...] Dan. 2. an Indian Prince told Ale­xander. We have here no abiding City, no city for pleasure, nor abiding for duration: But few and evil have the dayes of my life been, is the summe of all; Ex una disce omnes, Here she was, [...]g. but is not.

Is not dead. Her Condition Negative: Her soul is absent from her body, yet I cannot say it carried away all life, since the body is as it were animated with hope; for where hope is there is some life; Hope is lively, 1 Pet. 1.3 which is something more than living: Hope hath a reviving faculty, Gen. 45 7. Jacobs hope to see Joseph revived his spirit: And David [...]balmes his body with this hope of resurrection, Psal [...]6 9 My flesh shall rest in hope. So dye we may say she did, but de [...]d she is not.

Neither Mortalis mortua, nor m rti obnoxia, as the Schooles interpret,Rev. 14.13. not actually depriv [...]d or all life, so are not the righte­ous that die in the Lord, who are bego [...]ten to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from [...]he dead; 1 Pet. 1.3. whence the Jewes called their Church-yard Domus viventium: nor liable and sub­ject to death, as a condemned malefactor; no, death hath no power over them, either way —She is not dead.

But what? Exclusively; some others are as if Death and Love had really changed quivers; the arrow is aimed at our breast, they who die in the Lord are not dead, but we who live in the flesh;Revelat. 3.1. Paulus in som­nio. Scip. Tul. We have a name that we live, but we are dead, a life falsely so called, Vestra verò quae dicitur vita mors est, said the dead to the living, our life is but imaginative and suppository, Esay 29.8. Custome more than Reason, makes us believe we live. Stand not our feet in the gates of Death? Psal. 9.13. Is not our walk in the shadow of Death? Psal. 23.4. Do not we dwell in the body of death?Sen Ep. 98. Rom. 72.4. mortale est omne morta­lium bonum, said Metrodorus to his sister, all things about us die; the yeare dies piece-meal, the Spring dies into the Summer, and in Funerall pomp is deck'd with flowers; the Summer dies into Autumn,Concreto riguit vinct [...] repentu gelu. Mart. l. 4. Ep. 95. Heraclitus. and is cut down by the sithe and sickle; the Autumne dies and is buried (as Martialls viper) in the frozen grave of Winter. Each day is shrowded in its evening, and covered over with the black of night, as a departed thing. So die the Elements; the Fire is buried (as Mahumet) in the Aire; the Aire (as the old world is buried in Water;Sen. Ep. 24: Quotidiè mori [...]ur, we that are made of them die as fast: our life but a frequent dying, our severall ages so many funerall dayes; our Infancy dies into our Youth; our Youth is dead and buried in the wrinkles of old age, and Age is soon interr'd in dust and ashes; [Page 9] for where death hath entred his plough to furrow up our cheeks, he means ere long there to bring his sithe,Quomodo dici­tur vita tot ge­nerans mortes? A Kempis de imitatione Chri­sti. lib. 3. c. 20. to mow down the stalk; Cum crescimus vita decrescit, the taller we grow, the shorter our lives; how dare we then call that life which is but the variety of the severall Stages and Scenes of Death?

Again, if (Non est vivere sed valere vita) Health be the cha­racter of life, consider the multitude and frequencies of Diseases, the ill disposure of theIn medio Tibu­re Sardinia est. Mart. l. 4. Epig. 60. Aire, the arrests of the Gout, and earth­quakes of the Ague, an haire in the Throat, or the errour of a Crumb in its passage down: consider those killing Griefs, those piercing Sorrowes, these wounding Cares, which continually annoy us; from these calamities we may confesse we die daily; 1 Cor. 15.31. Sen: ep. 15. and from others calumny we are killed all the day long. Once more, if valere be Philosophari, and to live in sin is to be dead, the Egyptians cry will fill all our mouths, Exo. 12.33. we are all but dead men.

Who sits not down apposed with S. Austin (nescio utrum) I know not whether best to call the time we spend here, a dying life, or a living death; but for the faithfull departed, they— She is not dead but sleepeth.

Exclusively again, as much as to say, we shall not all sleep; or,But. 1 Cor. 15.51. but, As for the ungodly it is not so with them, Psal. 1.5. the act of the soul's relinquishing the body is the same in all, though it may differ in some circumstance according to the person: yet the condition of all after death is not the same. Some are truly dead, not losing their [...], but [...], not ceasing to be,Hierocles. but conti­nuing to be miserable, others are not dead but sleep. The death of the righteous is but for the moment wherein he is changed, & begins his sleep; but of a sinner that expires his soul in guilt, it is for ever: his death I may call immortall, a death without death, of whose death Christ is not the death, as he hath promi­sed the pious, Hos. 13.14. ero mors tua ô mors.

How can ye think they shall sleep, whose damnation sleeps not? A Worm alwayes gnawing within them; a Fire perpetu­all flashing about them;Mark 9.44: and the fury and scourge of Vengeance still upon them; their Sorrowes and Woes ever awaking; their Conscience eternally pricking and wounding, every Sin prin­ting [Page 10] a particular Plague on them, their souls thus afflicted in a place of restlesse torment, their body an accursed thing, which even a Devil can assume; and though it want a soul, yet is it strangely animated with confounding horrour, that it must be the vessel whereinto God will poure endlesse and everlasting wrath. Can such sleep (think ye) who lodge in beds of flaming Brimstone, & in sheets of boyling Lead? Those forlorn expressions which Scripture delivers their departure in, denies us all such hopes. They are dead, they shall not live, they are fallen, they shal not rise, Esay 26.14. Mark, dead from this life, and shall not live in the other; fallen now, and shall not rise then, or if rise, but as Pharaoh's Baker,Gen. 40.20. and 22. Psal. 1.5. from the prison to the gibbet, for they shall not be able to stand in judgement, Psal. 1.5. I am sure not stand to what they have done. Sad Strapado! to be hoys'd in­to the clouds to fall into the bottomlesse pit! miserable advance of a shell fish by a bird into the aire, to receive his death by a fall!

Consider this all ye that forget God, lest he take you away suddenly, and there be none to help: consider that Gods wayes are not as Mans; the guilty and innocent doe lie in like cu­stody till the great Assize and Gaol-delivery; through one gate a Citizen may walk to his recreation, and a thief be led to his execution; the Sheep & Goat may feed together during life, but the Sheepherd of our souls separates them by death: the Wheat and Chaff may lye together in the floor, But he whose fan it i [...] his hand, Mat. 3.13. will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat i [...] his garner, but will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. Death as the red Sea, divides the Israelite from the Egyptian, Exod. 14.13. they shall see each other no more for ever. Recept [...] est pauper, Aug. tract. in Joh. 46. receptus dives; Lazarus into Abrahams bosome, where is fulnesse of joy; Dives into Hell, where is the complement of misery; misery so extreme, it stupifies our thoughts, excee [...] our commiseration; for how can we lament what we cannot ap­prehend, what we cannot remedy, unlesse we weep [...] Solon for his Sonne's death, because weeping could n [...] help?

On the other side, could our sickly faith but apprehend the transcendent happinesse of those that sleep, could we confide [Page 11] that they who serve at the Altar on earth,Rev. 6.3. lie under the Altar in heaven, safer far from condemnation than those that flee to the Altar here; that they who leaned on Christs bosom here, and sucked the sincere milk of his Word to their spirituall growth, now lie in Abrahams bosome, that is in the familiarity and so­ciety of God; that the servants of God do presently from death enter into their Masters joy; We should be ravished with joy,Dear friends are in the bo­some, Ioh. 1.18 not a teare should fall unlesse for private respects; not weep for them, but for our selves; not that they are absent from us, but that we are not present with them; indeed not weep at all, but for joy that one is gone, whose good life and our charity suggests her translatted into a state of rest and sleep. Weep not, She is not dead but sleepeth. Sleepeth.

—Her Affirmative Condition.

The journey of an Israelite indeed towards the heavenly Ca­naan, is like that of the Israelites in name toward the earthly: much hindered by the many evil reports that are brought up of the way to this good Land.Iob 18.14. Numb. 13.32. Death they say is the King of ter­rours; the Grave a Sarcophagus, a land that eateth up the inha­bitants thereof, a land of darknesse and oblivion, Psal 88.12. Now that we may not fear where no fear is, God is pleased to pull out this sting of Death, and shew us our dissolution in the most pleasant representation of sleep, — Not dead but sleepeth.

So well was Nature's Secretary instructed,Lib. 3. cap. 6. Lib. 5. cap. 1. that although in his Ethicks he startles at Death as the most terrible, yet in his De Ge­neratione he tells us, the interval of living and not living, is sleep, and his reason is, because Nature proceedeth but gradatim, from one extreme to another, as if he knew the onely medium to bring the evening of Life to the dawn of the Resurrection, were the night of Death. Some of their own Poets say much like it; Sleep in Seneca is Frater durus languidae mortis, in Ovid, Herc. sur. Nihil morti e [...] tam simile quam som [...]us. Cic. de Senec. Ecclus 34.3. mortis Imag [...], Death's younger Brother and resemblance. Awaken your attention to some Analogies which passe betwixt them, we shall conclude as Siracides of the visions of Dreames, That sleep and death are the resemblance of one another, as the likenesse of face to face.

Sleep and Death like two irresistible Conquerours agree first in their generall invasion.

Sleep with his poppy Scepter seizeth the universall World▪ all ages, sexes and degrees, submit their eyes to the captivation and victory of Sleep.

And is not Death as Catholique a King? Doth not he in­vade us as David did the Geshurites? He smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, 1 Sam. 27.9. as Tacitus observes in the confusion of Antonius war, Nec dignitas nec aetas prote­gebat. So Death reverenceth not the gravity of age, not pi­ties the tendernesse of youth; the softnesse of sex he spareth not; the meanest escape not through poverty, nor doth dig­nity protect the highest, but without distinction destoyes all. [...]— Death is bold as Caesar to tax the whole world, Theog pag. 19. line [...]07. Luke 2.1. The grave is without any order, Job 10.22. for there are small and great, Job 3.19. Goliah and David, the Giant not too big, the Dwarf not too little to fill a Tomb; Sculls of all sizes in Golgotha: The wise men die as well as the fool, Psal. 49 10. Solomon and Rehoboam, Old and Young, Me­thusalem and Jeroboams child.1 King. 16.12.

Good and Bad, Cain and Abel; Rich and Poore, Dives and Lazarus, Luke 16.22. The nimblenesse of Asahel could not out­run it; the beauty of Absalom could not charm it; nor could Sampsons strength wrestle with it without receiving a fall.2 Sam. 2.18, 29. Epist. 12. A reason you may have from Seneca, Non enim citamur ex cens [...], Death examines not the Register-book for our Age, nor the Rate-book for our Estates, nor the Heraulds-book for our Ho­nours: But death passeth upon all, for that all have sinned, Rom. 5.12. Nay Death found a passage where Sin had made none, even the most holy Jesus was dead and buried. Nec potuit ali [...] habere exitus, Aug. Acts 17.3. It behoved Christ to suffer, Luke 24. saith Christ himself; being born he lay not under a possibility, but ne­cessity of dying.Psal. 89.48. What man is he then that liveth and shall not f [...] death? since the Prince of life did die, since God himself did not, would not, indeed could not escape it. Thus Death's invasion is a generall rule without any exception, or exception of any.

Well then (beloved) since all we that live must die, let us all die whilst we live; there is no countermine against the death of the body without us, but by killing the body of death within us; to die daily is the onely way to live for ever; Mortification is Immortality; pluck out the sting of death, and there will be no smart in it, but Death and Sleep will be alike. A mortified man is not dead but sleepeth.

2. Their second agreement is in the manner of their invasion, which is by surprizall.

The Septuagint relates the drunken sleep of Lot in the Mascu­line, He perceived not when he lay down. Gen. 19.33. The same is affirmable of the most sober, No man can tell how or when he falls a­sleep.

Nor can any man tell me after what manner, or at what time he shall die. That we cannot live long, is most infallibly certain; how long we shall live as highly uncertain. Rupertus observes when God pronounced the sentence of death on Adam, (a blacker Theta was never fixed on any forehead) Dixit indefi­nitè, till thou return unto the ground; Gen. 3.19. Prudens futuri temporis exitum caliginosa nocte premit Deus. Hor. l 3. od. 29. he said not till thou hast filled so many set yeares, or dayes, but indeterminately—Till the time come— come it when it will. His wisdome hid that knowledge in that thick darknesse which clouds him from mor­tall eyes; So that day and hour knoweth no man. What wise Prog­nosticator (that dares bespeak the event of Battails, and the pe­riods of Kingdomes) can tell whether he shall die on his bed or on a tree? Alas! Death comes in an hour when ye think not, Luke 12.40. in a day he looketh not for him, v. 46. When they shall say peace, peace, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, 1 Thes. 5.3.

In the midst of life we are in death, and in a moment goe downe to the grave, Job. 21.13. Sometimes the Wombe be­cometh the Tombe,1 Sam. 4.20. and preposterously we die before we are born; sometimes the Child-bed proves the Death bed, as to Eli's daughter-in-law; and so are we Parricides in the birth, and Murtherers from the beginning. Sometimes the Wedding-sheets serve for the Winding-sheets, as to Raguells seven sons-in-law,Tobit 3▪ 8. [Page 14] and to Sophonisba, who tasted the bitternesse of Death in the sweets of the Marriage-bed.2 Sam. 13.28. Sometimes Death meets us at the table; Ammon is kill'd when his heart was merry with Wine: and not seldome do men poure in others healths, till they are forced to vomit up their own lives.Lotus nobis­cum est, hilaris caenavit, & in­ventus mane est mortuus An­dragoras. Mart. l. 6. Epist. 53. S [...]e Iob 21. v. 23, 24, 25. He that conquered the world, was overthrown with a Goblet of Wine. Andragoras bathes, and sups, and sports it with his friends at night, and is dead in the morning. So Holofernes being sunk with Wine, is drowned in Blood: Death may seize us in the treachery of a Salutation, so Joab complements with Abner, and Judas be­trayes our Jesus with a Kisse. Nay Death may meet you at the Sanctuary of life, for the same Joab was slain at the Altar, and an Emperour was poysoned in the Sacrament:Herod, Acts 12. Adrian the 4th. Let's Wife loo­ked back, and never more looked forward: a King was killed by a Louse, and a Pope choked with a Fly. The accidents of every day discover the certainty of this uncertainty, — That man knoweth not his time, Eccles. 9.12.

De Trinit. l. 3.The use of this S. Bernard and Rupertus give us, Ʋt semper solicitum reddat, the uncertainty of Sleep by Death should be­get a certain watchfulnesse in Life: a Watch more jealous than besieged Cities keep, when they have their eares open to all alarmes, and eye open to each approach and single motion of the enemy. Parmenio greatly wondred to see Alexander sleep when Darius was in view withRawl. Hist. l. 4. c. 2. ss. 9. 14 hundred thousand men in armes, all ready to dispute a title to the Persian Empire in Ar­bela's battail. How much more of amazement may it raise in us, to see the drowsie world so sleepy in the very jawes of more, and more cruell spirituall enemies? When not our estate, but souls are on the hazard; When the Kingdome (not of Persia) but of Heaven, 1 Tim. 6.11. depends upon the welfare of this present. Can we see our Neighbours taken and beaten by Death, even before the Judgement Seat of God, as unconcern'd, as Gallio look'd on Sosthenes, and cared for none of those things, Acts 18 17 Shall the Harbingers of death, Aches, Infirmities, and Changes, seize on us, yet we not hear the sound of their Masters feet be­hinde them, 2 Kings 6.32. 'Twas Ephraim's fault to have gray haires here and there, and know it not, H [...]s. 7.9. But it was Ja­cob's wisdome by the fall of his leaf, to judge the approach of [Page 15] his winter. Shall the second coming of Christ to Judgement in Fire, find the world as s [...]cure as his first coming to judgement in Water? Luke 17.27. forbid it Religion; since Death waits every day to change us, let us as Job, Iob. 14.14. Mark 13.33. All the dayes of our appointed time wait till our change come. Let us not sleep as do others; but watch and pray for ye know not when the time is. Death as a Ba­silisk kills with his sight, but if foreseen by man, he dies himself: If we aprehend Death before it apprehend us, we kill Death by dying; For a man prepared for death, is not dead but slee­peth.

3.Hippoc. Somnum à deo factum non so­lum ad corporis recreationem, sed [...]iam ad animae libertatem. Scal. exer. 286. Their third Parallel is in their advance and extent of their invasion, which is no farther than the body. Corpore dormien­te anima insomnis agit. Sleep captives the body only, & makes no conquest on the soul. The Body fetter'd by sleep upon the bed, the Soul in her imaginative chariot is transported in an un­bounded liberty, conversing with the far remote, the dead, An­gels, and not seldome with God himself.

Thus Death in any shape conveyed, if in the close insinuation of a penetrative Poyson, or in the open violence of a clamorous Canon, or by what instrument soever the wit of Cruelty did ever invent, yet can it but kill the body,Luke 12.4. but not able to kill the soul; Mat. 10. [...]8. that is an immortall substance, breathed by God into man to make him a living soul, Gen. 2.7. and when man becomes a dead body breathed out again to God, Eccl. 12.7. The dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God that gave it. Sathan's commission terminated in the body, Job 2.6. and the soul is not left in the grave, Psal 16 10.Si anima ignis est, in caelum de­bet eniti ne ex­tinguatur, hoc est ad immo [...]talita­tem Lact. l. 2. Luke 23.46. Acts 7.56. Upon this account Death in the ancient stile is called a Sacrifice, wherein the earthy part falls down to ashes on the earth, and the spiri­tuall climbs heaven-ward in the active flame. Why e se did wise and pious men commend their souls into the hands of God as a faithfull Creator, as the blessed Jesus; and the leader of the Army of Martyrs, but that they are in a safe & centrall life? For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, Matth. 23.32. Have ye not seen the Sun dart forth a beam (a little [...]hild of Light) and anon to suck it in again? And is not that beam as safe and lively in the body of the Sun, as when it was display'd in the aire? So when God sends forth a soul into us, and again [Page 16] calls back that soul to himself, is not that soul as safe in the hand of God as it was in the body of Man? He must have forfeited both Faith and Reason that dares deny it. David implyes no mean danger of death, when he sayes, My soul is in my hand, Psal. 119.109. but when he commends his soul into the hands of God, Psal. 31 5. he is safe as the eternall life: which certain­ty of eternall life after death, S. Paul hath confirmed by affix [...]ng it to the condition of Christs soul after the Resurrection. Christ died for us, 1 Thes. 5.13. that whether we wake or sleep we should live to­gether with him. Not sleep, but live, that is, doe the acts of a li­ving spirit. Tell me, was Abel's soul slain with his body? whence then the voice of his blood,Gen. [...].10. which is the receptacle of a spirit? were they (as the Italian threatned his enemy) run through bo­dy and soul, who were slain for the Word of God? Rev. 6 9. sure then they could never have cryed with a loud voyce for vengeance, ver. 10. If S. Paul upon his dissolution could not have been with Christ, it had been far better not to have been dissolved, Phil. 1.23. And if in this life onely we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. The Miser and the Epicure (who have their portion in this life,1 Cor. 15.19. Psal. 17.14.) are not onely the wiser, but the happier people: But ridendi sunt, saith Jerom, they are to be derided, I think rather much to be lamented, who to con­tinue a beastly life, think they shall end in the death of a beast, soul all and body at once. No; [...] life and soul are inse­parable; and though the soul may for a time be absent from, yet never extinguished with the body: but when Christ calls, all our spirits (as hers in the text) shall return, Her spirit was living, it came again, v. 55.

See Causins H [...]ly Court. Maxim 16.If yet there be any soul so brutish, so swinish, that after satisfaction he may receive from the writings of Heathens, the dictates of Reason, and authority of Scripture, will ye [...] wilfully deny the deathlesnesse of the Soul; I confesse with Pi­neda— Cum hoc non verbis sed fuste agendum— the best confuta­tion of such a one is to put him to death,in Eccles c. 12. that he may in h [...]ll confesse with horrour, what on earth he denied with plaisance But if there be any spark of Ingenuity within us, let me kind [...]e it into an assent by that art which Alamandurus a King of the Saracens, used to confute the Eutychean Heresie. This Heres [...] [Page] held that the Divine Nature of Christ suffered Death upon the Crosse together with his Humane; and this Heresie much pe­stred his Court. He to suppresse it, gave free liberty to a pub­lick Dispute; but before hand appointed a Post to be dispat­ched to him with a packet: in the midst of the disputation brea­king the Letters, and reading himself into a sadnesse the Court­faction that were Hereticks desired the reason; he sadly tels them, this packet came from heaven, with the heaviest newes could fall on his nation; for, said he, Michael the Archangel and our Prince is dead. The Hereticks tell him that one or other had imposed on him: for say they, Michael is an Angel, and An­gels are Spirits, and Spirits are immortall, they never die. Oh! replyed the King, if Angels cannot die, sure God who is a Spirit cannot die, and so surprized them into an acknow­ledgement of the truth. So say I, Souls are Spirits, and there­fore cannot die.

Awake therefore thou that sleepest, and dream not whilst thou livest, that thy soul shall die when thou art dead: for as soon as she departs the prison of the body, either she ascends an a­ctive sphere of joy, and pleasure, and glory, or descends into a passive hell of horrour and torment, as unexpressible as it is un­avoidable: the soul is either a Brand in hell, or a Star in hea­ven immediately upon her expiration, and that for ever. Laza­rus staid not for his comfort, nor Dives for his torment till the last day.— But now, saith Abraham as soon as they were dead, but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. Luke 16.25.

Seeing therefore such a diverse entertainment waits us at the gates of death,2 Pet. 3.1 [...]. What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse? How should your Charity make to your selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousnesse, Luke 16.9. that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. What spirituall prov [...]dence to [...]et Oyl into our lamps, and a Wedding garment on our backs, that we be not left either in nakednesse or darknesse? When S. Austin would open the fountain of all disturbances in this world, and miseries [...]n the next, he sayes it is because men do uti datis tanquam innatis. the mis-placing of immortality is all; the volup [...]uous removes it from the soul, and [Page] the covetous place it on the body, or goods, or both, though they speak it not out, yet their inward thoughts are, that their houses shall continue for ever, Psal. 49 11. Hence proceed those cares and labours,Nil non mortale tenemus, Pectoris ex [...]ptis ingenii que bonis. those frauds and violences in the world to se­cure our interests here. But (beloved) the soul onely is immor­tall; the world may leave us whilst we live, but we must leave it when we die: be it our care to use all holy arts, to lay out our dayes in all devout preparations, to secure our eternall inte­rests.John 6.27. Labour not for the meat that pe isheth, lest you perish for your labour, but for that which endureth unto everlasting life; for it is the body onely, not the soul, which is not dead but sleepeth.

4. A fourth proportion is in their government, which is like that of Solomon— in rest on every side, 1 Kings 5.4. Ovid met. 11. [...], O [...]phem. h [...]mno in [...]omnum. T [...]{que} o donicor somne laborum, &c. Sen. Here. fu [...] Eccles. 9▪ Iam 4 1 [...] Somnus quies reru [...], [...], the toyles and cares of the day are slumbered all in the quiet of sleep at night. Our life is a day of travail and vexation: Death is the night wherein are buried all our cares and labours. Man is (as I have said) Misery, then Death which is the end of man, must be the end of Misery. Al their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished, said Solomon of the dead. Those wars and fightings arising from those lusts, have not onely a cessation, but an oblivion and fi­nall peace in the grave. The ratling murmur of the drummes, and trumpets surly noyse, fright not the dead; the artificial lightning and mimick thunder of the gun nothing disturbs the quiet of the grave.Chrysost. [...], dead men do not bite; op­pression, revenge, and cruelty, are not the businesse of our car­kasses; There (saith Job, pointing to the grave) the wicked cease from troubling; Job 3.17. There the prisoners rest together, they hear not the voice of the oppressour, and the servant is free from his master, the labourer complaines not of the heat and burden of the day, nor the fisherman of toyling all night to catch nothing, for there the [...]a [...] are at rest, Luke 5.5. as Job affirms. Nay that Christian duell, those un­extinguishable skirmishes in the breasts of Saints, between the flesh and the spirit whilst we live, are determined into a cessation by the hand of the grave. Could I present you an inventory of all those sins and sorrowes, those anxieties and cares, that swe [...]t and labour, those troublesome attendants on the heirs of Adam's [Page 19] curse, through this vale of misery: we should easily confesse with Rupertus, that it was not Iratae justitiae, Pater miseri­cors illis mertae­lia faciebat vin­cula. Plato in Timaeo. but miserantis gra­tiae, an act not of Judgement, but Grace, that sinful man was made mortal: And with Pl [...]tinus say—pater misericors,— the Lord was great in mercy when he made our dayes few in mise­ry: Of Issachers judgement all, who saw that rest was good, Gen. 49.15. We should flie to S Paul's cupio dissolvi, and desire to be dissolved with higher appetite than Misers court gold, or the embossed Hart the springs, the sweaty Labourer the shadow, or the wearied sleep, which to the labourer is sweet. Since here we not onely rest from our labours, Rev. 14.13. as oxen unyoak'd, but in all most eminent and sweet advantage, we rest in hope,Psal. 16.9. that is, in hope to rise again, which is another agreement 'twixt Sleep and Death.

5. The next agreement is in the expectation of rising again. This admits three observations.

1. Men lye down at night with design to awake on the morrow: so we make the beds of the dead in the dark, & lay them down— in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life.—Christ was the first-born from the d [...]ad, and my flesh shall rest in hope, that he will daign me the priviledge of a younger brother, to rise after him. Cur desperabo quod poterit in me, quod demonstravit in se, Aug. propter me? If Christ when he was dead could raise himself, I doubt not but being alive he can draw me to him. It is an Ar­ticle of my Creed, and needs no other explanation to invite be­lief, than what our Church saith, It may be proved by most cer­tain warrants of holy Scriptures: yet to satisfie the curious questionist, S. Paul descends to a naturall illustrat [...]on of the an­niversary resurrection of a Corn-field, 1 Cor. [...]5 36, 37. and be­fools him that can see each field bring forth the grain sown in it, yet think the Church yard is the onely barren ground, as if those bodyes which are sown in the Faith, and water'd with the teares of the Church, shall not flourish as an Herb, as Esay af­firmes, Esay 66.14. and that herbs may be awakened from their ashes to their former flourishing state,Quoted by Mr Gregory. is now no great secret in the Chymical Art, sayes Gaffarell.

This hope then may revive our fainting spirits, that after a long silence in the grave we shall awake,Psal. 17.15. shake off the shackles [Page] of the tyrant Death, and rise in triumph. We have a sure word of prophesy for it,Hosea 13.14. I will ransome them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death, O death I will be thy plague, O grave I will be thy destruction. Let not the length of time a­fright you, for in death is no difference betwixt this young wo­man of twelve years old, and Moses old man of threescore and ten; all corn is not sown at one season, yet it is all ripe at har­vest: so also is the resurrection of the dead, they shall arise both small and great.

Tertull.2. Secondly, Somnus est redintegrator virium. Sleep doth not onely give rest to bodyes, but refreshment: the same body in­deed that slept doth awake, but not such as it was; it lay down a worn, wearied, spiritless trunk, but it awakes a fresh, active, and sprightly body.

So a [...]so is the resurrection of the dead, as S. Paul most myste­riously discourseth, 1 Cor. 15.42.43, 44. it is sown in Corrupti­on, it is raised in Incorruption; it is sown in Dishonour, it is raised in Glory; it is sown in Weakness, it is raised in Power; it is sown a Natural body, it is raised a Spiritual body. In these words the Apostle remarks those four cumbersome defects which lessen the nobleness of this mortal life, and to each defect applies a gracious date, which glorifies the life immor­tall.

1. The first is Corrup [...]ion, which subjects the body to Diseases, the Gout, the Stone, and even to Death it selfe, and to all those punishments which God layes on sinfull bo­dyes.

Against, this is Incorruption, which is a state free from all defectiveness or dissolution; no sicknesse, no death in hea­ven, no crying out or complaining in the streets of the new Je­rusalem.

Beza.2. The second is Dishonour, that is, Decoris expers, ugli­nesse and deformity, a gate so unsupportable, that many have shortned their dayes to hide their dishonours in the grave.

To this is opposed Glory, a state of transcendent beauty; The righteous shall shine as the Sun in the firmament, Mat. 13.43. nay (when that gorgeous body of l [...]ght shall be a Cinder) glorified bodies shall exceed that splendour seven-fold, Isa. [Page 21] 30.26. What an exact symmetry and proportion shall glorified bodyes have,Ephes. 4.13. when they arrive to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ! what an outward smoothnesse beyond the face of mirrours! what an inward light shining through a bo­dy of chrystall, when it shall be raised in the clarity of glory!

3. The third defect accompanies the body is Weakness, a state of such infirmity, that men move slowly from place to place and waxe faint and weary: as Christ himselfe to shew the weight of a mortall body, was wearied with his journey, John 4 6.

To confute this, it is raised in Power, both of agility and cele­rity; a glorified body treads light as an Angel, and can walk on the Sea, and climb to heaven in the foot-steps of a cloud, and move nimbler then thought, and penetrate solid bodies, and all without pain or faintness.

4. Whiles the body is here, it is a naturall body, that is, a bo­dy that must be maintained by eating and drinking, and preser­ved by propagation and generation; or else hunger, and thirst, and weariness will destroy it.

But in Heaven it is a Spiritual body; the Inhabitants there hunger no more, nor thirst no more, Rev. 7.16. and in the Re­surrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage (to pro­pagate their like) but are as Angels, Mat. 22.30. The inhabitants shall not say I am sick, Esay 33.24. No weariness there—and all teares wiped away.

These are the glorious improvements, to which the sleep of death translates [...]ur vile bodies,Phil. 3.21. making them like his glorious body: the privative blessings are inestimable Jewels, freedome from Diseases: What would they give for it, who (as that wo­man) spend all on Physitians?

A delivery from Ugliness: how precious were it to those, that like Elephants loath to see their own face; or as Jesabel, use sinful arts to mend them?

Ease from Weariness is o [...] great price to a Traveller.Plin. in Lycurg. Lysi­michus gave himselfe, his Army, and his Kin [...]dome, for one draught of water, to free himself from the tyranny of thirst. If to be unclothed of these m [...]series be so valuable, how inesti­mable [Page] a blessing is it to be cloathed upon with these felicities?2 Cor. 5.4. When mortality is swallowed up of life, and corruption hath put o [...] in [...]orruption; that we possess for Sickness Health, Beauty for Ashes, Agility for Weariness, and Spirit for Nature; M [...] caelo non potest jungi genus, Sen. in Her. fur. 1 Cor. 15.50. Flesh and bloud cannot inherit the King­dome of God; not such as is layen in the grave, yet the same, and such as it is raised thence.

Had I now shewd a child a new gay coat, how cheerfully wo [...]ld his childish wit have put off his old rags to be new clad I H [...]d [...] but told him to morrow should be holy day, how willingly had he gone to bed! yet notwithstanding this precious vestu [...] shewn you, how loth do [...]e divest our sinfull habits! how un­willingly put off our corruptions! And though we hear of th [...] state of freedome and jubilee in Heaven, yet, like the degenero [...] slave, Exod. 21.5. we too plainly say we will not go out free▪ nay, as he we bring our ear to be bored, endure any hardship— Facito debilem pede, manu, hand-gout, feet-gout, Dum [...] superest bene est, so as they live it matters not, though as [...] for ever. Death I confesse is t [...]rrible, Quis enim vult [...]il prorsus nemo, Aug. de verb. Apost. ser. 33. the man Christ was very sad at the approach of [...]; 'tis a going whither Nature would not, John 21.18. But look beyond Death, draw by this black curtain, and see what [...] [...] hind it. Thus the same holy Christ, for the joy that was set befor [...] him, endured the crosse, and despised the shame. So the Martyrs cared not to be delivered, that they might obtain a better resurre­ction, Heb. 11.35. So would a man enter into the chambers of Death, and lye down willingly in the bed of the Grave, if [...] considered, that then he is not dead but sleepeth.

3. As a sleeping person is easily awaked by the summon [...] of [...] Cock, the rising of the Sun, or some sudden noyse; Dem [...] tanta facilitate excitabit de sepulchro quantâ tu non excita [...] [...] ­mientem à lecto: The rising of the Sun of righteousnesse will [...] the dead bodyes, as we have an essay, Mat. 27.52, 53. A [...] t [...] are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth Job. 5. [...] suddenly, and easily, in a moment, in the twinkling of an [...] the l [...]st trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, 1 Cor. 15.52. What should hinder it? [...]o [...] length of dayes; whether the body sleep longer than E [...] ­mie [...], [Page 23] or lesse while then Adam while Eve was forming, is not considerable to an agent that works not by time. Not the mul­titude, since the Nations are but as the drop of a Bucket to him:Esay 40.15. he that rose out of his sealed Sepulchre, without so much noise as to waken the Watch, will unlock our marble Tombes, and call our bodies thence as easily and indiscernably, as he made them in the Wombe, though our bodies were buried in the Sea, coffined in the maw of Fishes, consumed in flames to ashes, though a Leg were lost here, and an Arm in Tartary; yet reso­lutio sit in elementa, thou dost but returne to the dust from whence thou camest; from whence he may as easily say,Psal. 90.3. Come again ye children of men, as at first he did in the Creation. Nay, couldst thou sink to nothing, the Almighty Arm can as easily make thee something, as at first it made all things of nothing. Thus shall we at last as insensibly awake, as at first we sl [...]pt, for how dead soever a Corps appears to the judgement of Man, yet in the judgement of God it is not dead, but onely sleepeth.

Collect all this, that Life is short and miserable, that Death is universall, uncertaine, yet reacheth but to the body, that it is quiet, easie and peacefull; that the body shall awake to a state of high advantage, of eternall health, beauty, strength, and Angelicall perfection; thas this arising shall not be as a Man­drake, shreeking and painfull, but gentle, at the noise of a Mu­sicall instrument, a Trumpet; consider this, and there needs no screw to draw in the next part, Weep not.

Weep not. This (I said) is the mourners comfort, to im­prove it into practice, thereby to lessen the number, or to ligh­ten the weight of their mourning. I professe my self unfurnish­ed of any other Argument, then the numberlesse felicities and weight of glory, which crown those that are not Dead but Sleep.

David upon news of his innocent childs death, and well per­s [...]ded that of such is the Kingdome of Heaven; declines the act of weeping, and the posture of sadnesse, and arose from the earth, and washed and anoynted himself, and changed his Ap­parell and passion too, 2 Sam. 12.20. his Courtiers who admire this alteration, he satisfies with two Authentick reasons, v. 23. first the vanity of tears for the dead, can I hring him back again? [Page 24] the voice of we [...]ping recalls not departed Souls. Secondly, a joyfull apprehension of their glorious state, reflecting a con­fidence on his Soul to enjoy the like, I shall goe to him; I see Heaven open, and after death [...] shall be as happy as he that is gone before, therefore I weep n [...].

Yet because whilst we live in this valley of Tears, naturall affection will so far prevaile upon [...]ur Reason, that even the Father of the Faithfu l, when he was to sow his nearest relative in the Earth, cou [...]d not but water it with a showr from his eyes. For Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. Gen. 23.2. And because relations in Nature are like Members in the Body, the remaining Member weeps carnation teares for that which is cut off; and good men adjudge it their duty to pickle up the memory of their departed friends in the brine of their own eyes,1 Thes. 4.13. so to pres [...]rve it; That therefore ye sorrow not as others that have no hope. Observe that Antheme which Esay hath set, for a Christian parentation to be sung at the grave, Isa 26 19.Isa. 26.19. Thy dead men shall live, (that is the leading voice by the Prophet) together with my dead body shall they arise, (that is the Counter tenor sung by Christ); Awake and sing ye that dwell in dust (that is the Chorus song by the whole Qui [...]e in Heaven) there is not a word in it, but if seriously weighed, will turn our sorrow into joy. 1. That Men shall be dead, not alwaies lye under the pressures and miseries of this life. 2. That they are Thy Dead, Dabit deus his qu [...]que-finem. that is, God owns them. 3. They shall not st [...]ll continue in the d [...]shonours of the grave, but shall live againe. 4. That we have so good security for it as to rise with Christ; w [...]th him, though not in time, yet with him in power, and with him in glory: the man hath no sense, no relish of Hea­ven, that sings not upon these appr [...]hensions, at least sayes not to himself▪ Weep not.

Attend the fi [...]st wo [...]d [...] Christ spake to a Woman after his Re­surrection,Joh. 20.15. was it not, Why weepest thou? Joh. 20.15. Indeed before [...]hrist had opened the [...]tes of D ath, Mary, nay the whole world (which say the F [...]thers was representative in her) had cause enough to w [...]ep. [...]ut now Chr [...]st th [...] head was rise [...] and had made way for all h [...]s Members to follow; now Jes [...] had beaten Death at his own weapon, and kill'd it by dying [Page] since he hath changed the Grave into a Bed, Death into Sleep, and made the Land of Darknesse the ready way to the place where Light dwelleth. Teares are b [...]th unreasonable and un­seasonable, Why weepest thou? is as much as weep not.

Considerable are the Syren and the Swan, Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 2. c. 32. whose different fate is thus: the Syren sings away her life in wanton ayres, and charms of Lust, the treacherous inticements to destruction,Et lug [...]bunt quasi filiae Sir [...] ­num. Hieron. in Mich. c. 1. Tom. 5. p. 331. but when she dyes, she breaths out her soul in howlings, sighs and sobs, in pangs and horror. The Swan who spends her dayes in innocence as white as her livery, in pensive notes of sadnesse, mournfull and black as her feet, when she dyes she expires in joyfull Anthemes, the voice of joy and gladnesse.

A wanton life ushers in a wailfull death, but an innocent life ends in a joyfull death; they who laugh all their life, may weep at their death, but who weep in their Lives, at their Deaths weep not.

Good people, had you the Reversion of a rich Living,Hic fletus non habet pietatem. Hieron. ad Ty­ras. Improbius nihil his fletibus esse potest. Mart. l. 10. Ep. 71. Luk. 23.2. or Of­fice, would you weep because it is faln into your possession? Invidi non amantis, 'twere more of Envy then Love to bewaile an earthly happinesse. I close, as Jesus to the Daughters of Jerusalem, Weep not for me, but weep for your selves, not for me that am dying, but for your selves that are living; for your selves that have refused my Doctrine, despised your Saviour, condemned your innocent and righteous Prince; for your selves, over whose heads a cloud is teeming with the heaviest wrath that ever fell upon a Nation; for your selves who will not own your God on Earth, and therefore shortly not to be own'd by your God in Heaven; and he that would now have bought you with his blood, will shortly sell you to an utter and irreversible desolation. For the sins and sufferings of the living, I confesse, there is weeping work enough for him who hath Jeremies wish, [Page] His head a fountain of teares to weep day and night: But for the d [...]ad that dye in the Lord weep not. Weep not, she is not dead but sleepeth.

The Application,

Being already partly discharged in parcels, the remaining summe which we will put to use, that you may have Interest in it, and profit by it, is onely this humble advice w [...]ich I have borrowed from Plato. Sic ad somnum proficisci corporibus affe­ctis ut nihil sit quod arimo perturbationem aff rat; Since the fate of Rest in the state of Separation, and happ [...]nesse, at meeting again of Soul and Body, depends upon the holinesse at parting: let us be composed in both, that neither the disorder of the Bo­dy, nor multitude of businesse, either ill done, or undone, may disturbe the quiet of the Soul, and give her occasion to say to the Body, as the discontented Lover to his affected. In me no­stra Ven [...]s noctes exercet amaras; Properi l. 1. eleg. 1. Thou searchest me with Dreams, and terrifiest me with Vision, Job. 7.14.Iob 7.14. For the memo­ry of every unrepented sinne (though the Body sleep in the Grave) lodges the Soul in a bed of Scorpions, which sting her with plagues as incessant, as invisible, and as insufferable as either.

To procure rest, the Physitian may apply Mandragora and Opium, may administer a cup of slumber to stupifie his Patient, but the Divine must give more active and stirring potions. Therefore,

First know, that he who will sleep well at night, must not sleep much in the day. Sleep not the sleep of Death, i. e. sloth and security in your life, that you may sl [...]ep the sleep of life in Death.2 [...]am. 11.2. Davids once sl [...]eping by day, disquieted many of his nights rests afterward. Watch whilst y [...]u live, and you shall sleep when you dye. Sleep is a shutting up the s [...]nses of the Soul, and watching a freedome of the r exercise upon their proper ob­jects: Now that no other obj ct might claim any sence, ob­serve how [...]he blessed Jesus hath apted himself to each; to the Eye he isIoh 10.8. Light, to the Eare the [...]. 1 Word, to the Smel his name isCant. 1.3. Oyntment, to the Tasteoh. 6.35. Manna, to the Touch he hath aHeb. 10.5. Body: Thus unlesse your Soul doth wilfully lock up her [Page] Cinque-ports, she may see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch a Jesus; let your Soul exercise her sense on her Saviour, and her Saviour will suffer no sinne to exercise its sense on the Soul.

2. Before men goe to Bed they put off their Cloaths, or else they sleep both unhandsomely and uneasily. So let your Souls divest those habits which sinne and custome hath too long made fashionable. Habits of the Body are 1. Garments, 2. Arms,Vestes, aerma, Infulae. Ps. 109.18. Iude 23. Isa. 9.5 3. Ornaments. Hath any one cloathed himself with cursing? or worn the Garment spotted with the fl [...]sh in Saint Jude? or that rolled in Bloud in Esay. 9.5? or the poor mans taken to pledge, or made Aprons of excuses as Adam? unstript, and that early too! Caesar the Praetor dyed whilst he was putting off his Shoos; 'tis forgetfulnesse to goe to Bed with any Garment of the day about you.

For armes,Rom. 6.13. if any one hath made the Members of his Body the weapons of unrighteousnesse to sin,Cap 3. or us'd his tongue as a sharp sword, that hath wounded the honour of God, or his Neigh­bour. Put off those Hostilities, 1 Pet 2. yea and those Lusts which war against the Soul: Then Ornaments, which are the Pomps and Vanities of this sinfull world. If any one hath as Tamar, put on whorish attire to draw in the passenger, they must, as she, Gen. 38.19.Gen. 38.19. Arise and depart, and lay by her vail from her. Nemo enatat cum sarcinis; Encumbred people cannot sleep.

3. Lastly, good men before they goe to bed they alwaies pray. Saint Paul adviseth, Pray alwayes, 1 Thes. 5.17. though not with the Lip, yet with the Life; for as Prayer is a good work, so every good work is a Prayer. Set Prayer is condemned by some as Lip-labour. Extemporary Prayer is blamed by others as Brain-labour, but Life-prayer is praised by all as heart-labour:In manu opera in ore locutio fo­let intelligi. Greg. Mor. The lifting up the hands (that is, our works) which at once pleaseth God, and perfumes the company. When survivors see a Soul that hath lived long in this Region of holy Duty, to ascend to Heaven as the Angel, Iudg. 13.20. In the flames of the Altar, their Charity and hopes are sufficiently instructed to say, Nolite flere. Weep not, she is not dead but sleepeth.

The Character.

I have done with the Text that I brought hither to you, and now apply my self and discourse, to that Text that brought you hither to me; from that I presented to your Eares, to that pre­sented to your Eyes: I close the book of Life, and now open the book of Death.

So Saint Ambrose interr'd Theodosius; Nazianzen, the immortall Athanasius; and Saint Hierome, the excellent Lady Marcella: nay, Saint Iohn hath taken short notes of a Sermon made by Christ at the Funeral of Lazarus, Ioh. 11.12, 13, &c. wherein are discourses of Faith, resurrection and Glory, [...]ised from the Dead, and applyed to the Living, I need no other, be cause I can follow no better precedent. Therefore hear me, or rather hear her speak, for the Dead can speak, He [...]. 11.4.

This Consideration speak [...] Caution to our Conversation [...] since our Actions dye not with our Persons, but are recorded in the Leaves, and published by the Lips of Fame, it should provoke as to walk circumspectly, as Wise, not as Fools, the our Survivors track us not in irregular strayings, that there be no great blots in our history. Plutarch reports a strange wantonnesse in some Milesian Women, who in a corrupt pro­digality of their lives, would, without any reason or provoc [...] ­tion, be their own Executioners, and made it a fashion to ha [...] themselves against Reason, Counsel, and Nature, untill, the Mi­lesians decreed their naked bodies,Ut eae omnes nu­dae cum eodem [...]aqueo quo essent prae victae [...]ff [...] ­rentur. Aul. Gellius l. 15. 10. with the same halter they ended their lives in, to lye unburied on Dunghils, exposed to the scorne of men, and the sepulture of Beasts. This unhandsome usage of their bodies after death, converted that wilde humor of self-killing, into a carefull self preservation: truly, respect [...] our reputation after death, is a great obligation to an holy con­versation whilst we live: the care of the living (no doubt) b [...] to live and dye well,Eccl. Poli. l. sect. 75. must needs be somewhat increased, wh [...] they know that their departure shall not be folded up [...] silence.

Our dead Sister speaks first in the dignity of her extraction,Si quid est in no­bilitate bonū, id esse arbitror so­lum ut imposita nob libu [...] necessi­tudo videatur, ne à maj [...]ram vir­tute degenerens▪ Boeth. de cons. phil. l. 3 pro. 6. fairly proclaim'd to you by the Herauldry of her Hearse, but fairer for in the suitable Character of her life; the worthinesse of her bir [...]h had no other influence on her, but to engage her to wo [...]thiness of action, which she so nobly improved, that the vertue of her life dignified the honour of her descent; so the glo­ry she received from her father on earth, by the acts of humility and charity she enhansed to the glorifying her father which is i [...] heaven.

Her Beauty, which was a depositary from heaven, she beautifi­ed with so much Piety, and adorned with so much Religion, as if she had been intrusted to preserve both the lustre and the ver­tues of the celestial bodies in her Epitome.

But the beauty of her soul was a sun to this taper, from whence her starry actions received a mighty splendour.

When she spake, wisdome dictated and wit delivered, she hung her language at your ear as Jewels, much of worth in a smal bulk; and as jewels her speechSpeech. was rich, both in lustre and in medicine; the conceits of her mirth would raise a smile, but the gravity of her conveyance commanded reverence.

Her Reproofs, like lightning, quick, but short, such as would melt the blade, yet not singe the scabbard; kill the sin, but pre­serve the sinner.

Her Promises were made in her head, but kept in her hand; as a naile fastned in a sure place, driven by Understanding, and clenched by Affection.

Her AttireHer Attire. neither sordid nor curious, not too early in, nor too late out of fashion; not like those Mushrome gentry, who declare their late rise from peasantry and poverty by the her aul­ [...]y of the dirt and rags o [...] their back.

Her TableTable. was both wholsome and handsome enough to sa­tisfie the stomach of the hungry, and well enough to fancy the palate of the curious: yea when the sword had carved her meat to the fifth part, her good cheer was as much as ever.

Her VisitsVisits. were like the Sun's, beneficial where ere she came, and treading in her Saviours steps, She went up and downe doing g [...]od.

Her Accesse was free but not loose, her door, as her heart,Neighbour­hood. [Page] was open to all friends,Neighbour­hood. so that without much shifting the Sce [...] she would easily m [...]ke her Ho [...]se a Court, an Almes-house, a School, and an Hospital all in a day.

She had treatments for the greatest, who came as Agrippa and Bernice with great pomp. She had Relief for the poore [...], who as Lazarus, Acts 25.23. lay at the gate; Instructions for the ignorant, and Charitable remedies for the sick; Christian applications for all, feeding the Hungry, cooling the [...]h [...]rsty, cloathing the Na­ked, visit [...]ng the Sick, and h [...]bouring the Travailer; what God requires in acts of Neig [...]bour-hood h [...]re,Mat 25.35, 36. and reward hereafter, the whole Voyzenage can witness with me, and for her, that she was a great parallel to Dorcas, Acts 9.36. This woman was sa [...] of good works and almes-deeds which she did.

Phil. 4.8. Finally bre [...]hren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, she did them, therefore if there be any vertue or any praise, let her have it.

Her Relation as a Wife, shewes her, without disparagement, a rare example and standard to her Sex.

Society is the most precious comfort in Nature, the riche [...] jewel in her Cabinet. Adam not in perfect Paradise, not happy without it: of all societies with Man, that of a Wife is neerest, being made of his own rib; and dearest, lying in his own bosome [...]

Her Aff [...]ction was great as Jonathans, wonderfull and passing the love of women. 2 Sam. 2.26.

Marriage made her husband and her one flesh, but love made them one soul. She married not onely his person, but his inte­rests and concernments, loved his loves, wished his desire, as in­separable as Ruth and her mother-in law, Ruth 1.16, 17. not to be parted but by death. She owed him an affection equ [...]l to her life, being often ready to lay it down for his preservati­on, as appeares by her swouning at any newes might threaten ill to him, as if her soul conceived it but duty to be bayle for her husband.

The head of the woman is the man, 1 Cor. 11.3. so her husband wore the principality, she received influence from him, and g [...] conformity to him: But a vertuous woman is a crown to [...]r [Page 31] head, Prov. 12.14. so she gave safety, plenty,Prov. 31.11, 12. and honour to her head, as Crown may signifie. The heart [...]f her husband did [...]afely trust in her, she did do him good and not ill all the dayes of her life. Longer she is not obliged; — Till dea [...]h us depa [...]t— was their agreement: Death ends her natural relation, a [...]d enters her in­to a Divine; which she began here by her Religion.Religion.

Her Religion was not as her Sex, Female; that is, all face and tongue, but pure and solid, not despising the form, but de­lighting in the power of godliness. She attired n [...]t her devoti­on as the Lacedemonians did their Gods, according to the seve­rall fashions of each city, so to gain reputation from man; but she persevered in the constant substantials of Religion, so to gain grace and favour from God. Holiness and righteousness are the summe and tenour of the Covenant 'twixt God and Man; ho­liness to God, and righteousness and just dealing tow [...]rds Man. These two dutyes she had so learned from her two Husbands (the first being a Civilian, this last a D [...]vine) that she proved a very perfect proficient in both. Thus she ha [...]ing done her duty on earth, let us do our duty to her laid under it: which I leave with you n the command of Christ for his Spouse; Can [...] 8.4. I charge you ô ye daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor a­wake her. Ye daughters! for your tongues are most busie, and most aspersive, you soonest both make faults and find f [...]ults, do not you awake her with loud and l [...]bellous d [...]famat [...]ons, nor with close and corner-whisperings: let your silence suffer her errors (for who can say be is pure?) to sleep with her ashes. And if you will be st [...]rring, rouze & awake your own drousie souls fr [...]m the sleep o [...] sin, that when you dy you may rest in Christ, as our h [...] e is this our S [...]ster doth: [...]at we with her and the rest departed in the true faith & fear of Gods most holy name, may at the last be awakened to p [...]ssess the consumm [...]te bliss both of body & soul, in that state of an eternal and everlasting co [...]junction in glory, which was purchased by the B [...]ood, and is promised by the Spirit of the L [...]rd Jesus Christ. To whom with th [...] Father and holy Ghost, be glory and honour, now and for ever.