a man with due qualifications for the service of the Church and Common-wealth England doth not so abound with pious zealous and faithful Gentlemen at this time but that it may sensibly feel the loss of such a man. Secondly More particularly let the Ministers of Christ lament his fall as Ieremiah did the fall of Iosiah in the Text. He was a true Friend to Christ's faithful Ministers and had them in honour for their work sake 'T is true he hath no more need of us he is now wiser than his Teachers but we greatly need him and men of his Spirit in such a dull degenerate Age as we live in Thirdly And most particularly I shall apply and close all with a few words of Counsel to the dear and now desolate Relict of this Worthy Person whose sad lot it is this day to over-live the mercies and comforts she once enjoyed in him Madam God hath this day covered you with Sables written bitter things against you broken you with breach upon breach Your sorrows need not be excited but regulated 'T is my trouble that I cannot discharge my duty to the memory of your dear Husband without exasperating your Griefs which alas were too acute before but Rods have their voices Blessed is the man whom God correcteth and teacheth him out of his Law. Hear you the Rod and who hath appointed it and oh that your Soul may this day take in these necessary Counsels and Cautions without which your Afflictions cannot be sanctified to the advantage of your Soul. And 1. Learn from hence the vanity of the Creature the emptiness and nothingness of the best things here below How hath God made your best comforts on Earth to shrink up and vanish into nothing How do our fancies varnish and guild over these empty Bubbles What great expectations are we apt to raise from them How apt to fall asleep in the bosoms or laps of earthly Enjoyments and say with Iob I shall die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand When loe in a moment the projects and expectations of many years are over-turned Oh what a difference will you find betwixt hope founded in Christ Comforts drawn out of the Promises and the flattering Comforts and vain hopes founded in the Creature whose breath is in its Nostrils 'T is time for you and for us all to wean off from this vain World mortifie our Fancies and Affections to it and place them where they shall not be capable of disappointment 2. Guard carefully I beseech you against those Temptations which probably may accompany this Affliction It may be Satan will suggest to your heart what he once put into their lips Mal. 3.14 What profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and walked mournfully before him Where is the fruit of Prayer What good have I seen of Fasting What hath Religion availed Do not prayerless and ungodly Families thrive and prosper Beware of this Madam I doubt not but you will acknowledge there have been sins and provocations within your walls yea within your heart for which God may as justly and severely judge your house as he did Ely's Remember the rewards of Religion are not in this World and should we speak thus we shall offend against the generation of his Children All we must expect from Religion is to save our souls by it 3. Call not the love of God into question to your self or yours because of these severe stroaks of God upon you and them You know Iosiah was dear to God yet he died in the prime of his days by a violent hand remote from his own home and was brought home in the second Chariot to Ierusalem a Spectacle of far greater sorrow than your dear Husband was and yet notwithstanding all these sad circumstances of his death the Promise of his God was punctually performed to him that he should die in peace and not behold the Evil that was to come There is a vanity saith Solomon which is done upon the earth that there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked again there be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous Eccles. 8.14 But then remember that it is but in the Earth here or no-where God must chastize his Children 4. See that you maintain that holy course of Religious Exercises in your Family and in your Closet wherein he walked so exemplarily before you Let Religion live though he be dead and convince the World I pray you that it was Gods influence and not your Husbands only which was the Spring and Principle of this holy Course 5. Strive not with your Maker nor fret against the Lord under this irksome and painful Dispensation Remember there is a Woe hanging over this sin Isai. 45.9 10. Woe to him that striveth with his Maker There is a twofold striving of men with God one lawful and commendable when we strive with him upon the knee of importunity in Prayer thus Iacob wrestled with God and prevailed Hos. 12.4 the other is highly sinful and dangerous when we presume to censure or accuse any of his works as defective in wisdom or goodness He that reproveth God let him answer it i. e. at his peril be it This sinful striving with God is twofold either Vocal or Mental 1. Vocal when men in bold blasphemous language arraign the Wisdom Power Goodness or Faithfulness of the Lord at the bar of their own Reason and there condemn them setting their mouths against the Heavens Psal. 73.8 9. this is the sin of the wicked yea of the first-born sons of wickedness 2. Mental in inward frets murmurs repinings against God Prov. 19.3 The foolishness of man perverts his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord. The heart may cry out impatiently against God when the tongue is silent And if the frets and murmurs of the heart be as indeed they are interpretatively no better than a striving with our Maker then this sin will be found more common among good men in the Paroxisms of Affliction than we imagine It will be necessary therefore for your sake and the sakes of many more in a like state of Affliction with you to stay a while upon this head and consider these following Queries Query 1. How far we may enquire expostulate and complain in times of Affliction without sin Query 2. Wherein lies the sinfulness and danger of exceeding these bounds Query 3. What Considerations are most proper and powerful to restrain the afflicted soul from this sinful excess Query 1. How far we may enquire of God expostulate with him and complain to him in time of Affliction without sin 1. We may humbly enquire into the causes and reasons of Gods displeasure against us not to seek matter for our Iustification but Direction in the work of our Humiliation So David enquired about the three years Famine and the Lord inform'd him for whose sake and for what sin it was 2 Sam.
21.1 And thus Iob addressed to him in the day of his Affliction Iob 10.2 Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me i. e. convince me what special sin it is for which I am thus afflicted This is so far from being our sin that it is both our duty and the excellency of our Spirits 't is a Child-like temper willing to know that we may be particularly humbled for that sin and for ever the more careful to shun it That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34.32 Thus far we are safe 2. We may plead by Prayer and put him in mind of his Mercies Relations and Promises in order to the change of his providential Dispensations towards us we may say to him under the smartest Rod as the Church did Doubtless thou art our Father Psal. 74.20 Have respect to the Covenant or as Iacob Gen. 32.9.12 Thou saidst I will surely do thee good 3. We may complain to God under our sufferings and spread them before him in all their circumstances and aggravations as Iob Heâ—an Asaph Hezekiah and David did He allows his Children to complain to him but not of him I poured out my complaint before him I shewed before him my trouble Psal. 142.2 To whom should a Child make his complaint but to his Father So far we are safe 4. We may submissively pray for the removal of his hand from us and entreat that his anger may cease that he will turn again and heal us and our Families and not draw forth his anger for ever So did David Psal. 39.10 Remove thy stroke away from me I am consumed by the blow of thine hand Q. d. Ah Lord I am not able to endure another stroak All this while we are safe within the bounds of our Duty But then Query 2. Wherein lies our sin and danger in exceeding these bounds I answer Sol. When forgetting God's Soveraignty and the desert of our Iniquities we arrogantly censure his effecting or permitting Providences as if they had no conducency to his own glory or our good This is both sinful and dangerous for 1. This is a proud exalting of our own Reason and Understanding above the infinite Wisdom of God. God hath made our Reason a Judge and Arbitor in matters within its own Sphere and Province but when it comes to summon God to its Bar and article against Heaven it is an insufferable arrogancy and we do it at our own peril God will have all men know that he is an unaccountable being Iob 33.13 yea he will have us to know that the foolishness of God is wiser than men 1 Cor. 1.25 that is that those very works of God which mans proud Reason adventures to censure as not so wise a method as their own would be hath more wisdom in it than all the deep-laid designes of the greatest Polititians in the World. And it is strange that men should dare to attempt such a wickedness as this after God hath so severely punished it in the fallen Angels 2. It is no less than a spurning at the Soveraignty of God from whose pleasure we derive our Beings and all our Mercies Rev. 4.11 In these quarrellings of Providence and frets at divine appointments we invade his Throne and controul his soveraign Pleasure How monstrous were it to hear a Child quarrelling with his Father that he is not so and so figured or the Clay to chide the Potter for moulding it as it is 3. 'T is destructive to our own inward peace and tranquility of mind which is part of the punishment of this sin and a smart stripe a sore rebuke it is from the hand of God upon us Contention is uncomfortable though but with a Neighbour worse with a near Relation but a quarrel with God is destructive to all comfort in the World. Afflictions may disturb a good mans peace but a mutinous Spirit against God destroys and stabs it at the very heart What is the sin and torment of the Devils but their rage against the Lord and swelling against the methods of his Grace He seeketh rest but findeth none Mat. 12.33 The peace of our Spirits is a choice Mercy and might be maintain'd amidst all our Afflictions were but our interest in his Promises and the true level of his Providences cleared to us 4. 'T is irrational and highly unjust to give the cause and quarrel at the effects God hath righteously and inseparably linked penal with moral evils sin and sorrow by the Laws of Heaven are tackt and united together he that doth evil shall feel evil Gen. 4.7 We adventure upon sin and then fret at Affliction Prov. 19.3 The foolishness of a man perverts his way and his heart fretteth against the Lord. Is this becoming a reasonable Creature Doth not every man reap as he soweth Can the seed of sin bring forth a crop of peace and comfort Why doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Lam. 3.39 Search your hearts and search your houses and you will quickly find that all your Afflictions in this World were they ten thousand times more and heavier than they are do not come near to the desert of one sin All sorrows losses afflictions on this side Hell are quite below the value of sin the meritorious and provoking cause of them all 5. 'T is foolish and vain to strive against God and contest perversely with him Can our discontents relieve us or our murmurs ease us Will they turn God out of his way No no He is in one mind and who can turn him aside Job 23.13 The Wheels of Providence go straight forward and turn not when they go Ezek. 1.17 We may bring them over us to crush us by standing thus in their way but cannot turn them out of their way Impatiens oegrotus crudelem facit medicum If ye still walk contrary to me then will I walk contrary to you and punish you yet seven times for your sins Lev. 26.13 14. or I will walk in the rashness of mine anger smiting you without moderation as men do in the height of their rage and fury This is all we shall get by fretting against God. Never expect relief under or release from the Yoak God hath laid on your necks till you be brought to accept the punishment of your iniquities Lev. 26.41 6. 'T is a sin full of odious ingratitude towards your God Which appears 1 in murmuring because it is so bad when we should be admiring that it is no worse Are there not millions in Hell that never sinned at higher rates than you have done Is this Affliction as bad as Hell Hath God pardoned you and saved you and yet doth he deserve to be thus requited by you 2 In murmuring that our condition is so bad when we may every day see others in a far worse case who are equal with us by nature and were equal with them in guilt and provocation If we
under-propp'd A bowing Wall doth not more need a strong Shore or Butteress than the mind of man needs â— strong Support and Stay from Heaven when the weight of Affliction makes it incline and leaâ— all one way Unless thy Law haâ— been my delights I should then havâ— perished in my affliction Q. d. Whaâ— shift other men make to stand the shock of their afflictions I know not but this I know that if God had not seasonably sent me the relief of a promise I had certainly gone away in a faint fit of Despondency O how seasonably did God administer the Cordials of his Word to my drooping sinking Soul This weakness in the mind to support the burdens of Affliction proceeds from a double cause viz. 1. From the sinking weight of the Affliction 2. From the irregular and inordinate workings of the thoughts under it 1. From the sinking weight that is in Affliction especially in some sorts of Afflictions they are heavy pressures ponderous burdens in themselves So Iob speaks O that my grief were throughly weighed and my calamity laid in the balances together for now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea therefore my words are swallowed up Q. d. If all the Sand that lies upon all the shores in the World were shovelled up into one heap and cast into one scale and my sorrowâ— into the other my grief would weigh it all up How heavy are the hearts of the afflicted what insupportable sorrows do they feel and groan under especially when God smites them in the dearest and nearest concerns they have in the World 2. But especially the reelings and staggerings of the mind are occasioned by the inordinate and irregular workings of its own thoughts Were it but possible to keep the mind in a serene sedate and ordinate frame our burdens would be comparatively light to what we now feel them to be but the falling of the thoughts into confusions and great distractions spoils all Upon this account iâ— is that Afflictions are compareâ— to a stupifying Dose which casâ— the Soul into amazement Thâ—â— hast shewed thy people hard thingâ— thou hast made us to drink the wiâ— of astonishment Afflictions are called the Wine of Astonishment from their effects upon the mind for under a great and sudden stroke of God it is like a Watch wound up above its due height so that for a time it stands still neither Grace nor Reason move at all and when it begins to move again O how confused and irregular are its motions It is full of murmurs disputes and quarrels these aggravate both our sin and misery 'T is our own thoughts which take the Arrow God shot at us which did but stick before in our Clothes and was never intended to hurt us but only to warn us and thrust it into our very hearts For T1houghts as well as Ponyards can pierce and wound the hearts of men Luke 2.35 A sword shall pierce through thine own soul i. e. thy thoughts shall pierce thee They can shake the whole fabrick of the Body and loose the best compacted and strongly joynted parts of the Body Dan. 5.6 His thoughts troubled him and the joynts of his loyns were loosed And thus a mans own mind becomes a Rack of Torment to him a misery which no Creatures except men and Devils are subjected to O how many Bodies have been destroy'd by the Passions of the Soul they cut through it as keen Knife through a narrow Sheath Worldly sorrow works death 2 Cor. 7.10 Proposition II. The merciful God in condescension to the weakness of his people hath provided the best supports and reliefs for their feeble and afflicted Spirits In the multitude of the thoughts I had within me thy comforts delight my Soul. Carnal men seek their relief under trouble from carnal things when one Creature forsakes them they retreat to another which is yet left them till they are beaten out of all and then their hearts fail having no acquaintance with God or special interest in him for the Creatures will quickly spend all that allowance of comfort they have to spend upon us Some try what relief the Rules of Philosophy can yield them supposing a neat sentence of Seneca may be as good a remedy as a Text of David or Paul but alas it will not do submission from fatal necessity will never ease the afflicted mind as Christian resignation will do It is not the eradicating but regulating of the affections that composes a burthened and distracted Soul. One word of God will signifie more to our peace than all the famed and admired Precepts of men To neglect God and seek relief from the Creature is to forsake the Fountain of living Waters and go to the broken Cisterns which can hold no water The best Creature is but a Cistern not a Fountain and our dependance on it makes it a broken Cistern strikes a hole through the bottom of it so that it can hold no water I even I saith God am he that comforteth thee The same hand that wounds you must heal you or you can never be healed Ouâ— compassionate Saviour to asswage our sorrows hath promised he wiâ—â— not leave us comfortless Our God will not contend for ever lest the Spirit fail before him Isai. 57.16 He knew how ineffectual all other comforts and Comforters would be even Physicians of no value and therefore hath graciously prepared comforts for his distressed ones that will reach their end Proposition III. God hath gathered all the materialâ— and principals of our relief into the Covenant of Grace and expects that 〈◊〉 betake our selves unto it in times oâ— distress as to our sure sufficient and only Remedy As all the Rivers run into the Sea and there is the Congregation of all the Waters so all the Promises and Comforts of the Gospel are gathered into the Covenant of Grace and there is the Congregation of all the sweet streams of Refreshment that are dispersed throughout the Scriptures The Covenant is the Store-house of Promises the Shop of Cordials and rare Elixirs to revive us in all our Faintings though alas most men know no more what are their Virtues or where to find them than an illiterate Rustick put into an Apothecary's Shop What was the Cordial God prepared to revive the hearts of his poor Captives groaning under hard and grievous Bondage both in Egypt and in Babylon Was it not his Covenant with Abraham And why did he give it the solemn confirmation by an Oath but that it might yield to him and all his believing Seed strong consolation the very spirit of joy amidst all their sorrows And what was the relief God gave to the believing Eunuchs that kept his Sabbaths took hold of his Covenant and chose the things in which he delighted To them saith he will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a namâ— better than that of sons or of Daughters Though
to it are both put out of hazard by that invaluable Promise They shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand Thus are all the Essentials of a Believers Happiness secured in the Covenant and these being safe the loss of other enjoyments should not much affect or wound them because if he enjoy them they add nothing to his Happiness and if he lose them he is still happy in God without them And this unriddles that AEnigmatical Expression of the Apostle As having nothing and yet possessing all things i. e. the substraction of all external things cannot make us miserable who have Christ for our portion and all our happiness intire in him If a man travelling on the Rode fall into the hands of Thieves who rob him of a few shillings why this doth not much affect him for though he have lost his spending Money yet his stock is safe at home and his Estate secure which will yield him more Or if a man have been at Court and there obtain'd a Pardon for his Life or a Grant of a Thousand pound per annum and returning home should chance to lose his Gloves or his Handkerchief sure if the man be in his wits he will not take on or mourn for the loss of these Trifles whilst the Pardon or Grant is safe Surely these things are not worth the mentioning 'T is true the loss of outward earthly things are to a Believer real Tryals yet they are but seeming Losses and therefore they are expressed in the Apostles phrase with a Tanquam sicut As chastened and not killed as sorrowful yet always rejoycing And if your losses be but as it were losses your sorrows should be but as it were sorrows Much like a Physick sickness which we do not call a proper sickness but as it were a sickness because it conduceth to the health and not the hurt of the Person as all God's medicinal Afflictions on his People also do Indeed if the stroke of God were at our Souls to cut them off from Christ and Heaven to raze our Names out of the Covenant or revoke the pardon of sin then we had cause enough to justifie the extremity of sorrow cause enough to weep out our eyes and break our hearts for such a dismal blow as that would be But blessed be God you stand out of the way of such strokes as these let God strike round about you or lay his hand upon any other comforts you possess he will never smite you in these essential things which is certainly enough to allay and relieve all your other sorrows My Name is blotted out of the Earth but still it is written in Heaven God hath taken my only son from me but he hath given his only Son for me and to me He hath broken off my hopes and expectations as to this World but my hopes of Heaven are fixed sure and immoveable for ever My house and heart are both in confusion and great disorder but I have still an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure I cannot say my son liveth â—ut I can still say I know that my Redeemer liveth The grass witherâ—th and the flower fadeth but the word of the Lord abideth for ever Isai. 40.8 Argument VI. As God strikes none of the subâ—stantial Mercies of his covenanâ— People so when he doth smiâ—â— their external and accidental Comâ—forts the Covenant of Grace 〈◊〉 sures them that even those strokeâ— are the strokes of Love and mâ— Wrath the Wounds of a Frienâ— and not of an Enemy which another singular relief to the afflâ—â—cted soul. The most frightful thing in an Affliction is the mark or characteâ— of God's Wrath which it seems 〈◊〉 bear take away that and the Afflâ—â—ction is nothing O Lord rebuke 〈◊〉 not in thine anger neither chasten 〈◊〉 in thy hot displeasure He doth noâ— deprecate the rebukes but the aâ—â—ger of God not his chastening but his hot displeasure Gods aâ—â—ger is much more terrible than hiâ— rebuking and his hot displeasurâ— than his chastening Thereforâ— he intreats that whatever God diâ— to him in the way of affliction he would do nothing in the way of wrath and then he could bear any thing from him A mark of divine anger ingraven upon any Affliction makes that Affliction dreadful to a gracious soul. But if a man be well satisfied that whatever anguish there be yet there is no anger but that the Rod is in the Hand of Love O how it eases the soul and lightens the burden Now this desirable point is abundantly cleared in the Covenant where we find a clear Consistence yea a necessary Connection betwixt the Love and the Rod of God Psal. 89.31 and Heb. 12.6 nay so far are the Afflictions of the Saints from being marks of his Wrath that they are the Fruits and Evidences of his Fatherly Love. Two men walking through the Streets see a company of Boys â—ighting one of them steps forth â—nd singles out one of those Boys â—nd carries him home to correct â—im which of the two think you is that Childs Father The câ—â— standing thus with all Gods People surely there is no reason foâ— their despondencies whatever theâ—â— Afflictions be Argument VII Lastly the Covenant doth noâ— only discover the consistence anâ— connection betwixt the Love anâ— the Rod of God but it also givâ— full satisfaction to the Saints thâ—â— whatsoever temporary Mercy theâ— are deprived of which was with in the Bond of the Covenanâ— when they enjoyed it is noâ— lost but shall certainly be restoreâ— to them again with a rich imâ—provement and that they shall enâ—joy it again to all eternity What a rare Model or Platforâ— of Consolatory Arguments haâ—â— the Apostle laid down to antidoâ—â— our immoderate sorrows for thâ— death of our dear Relatives whicâ— died interested in Christ and thâ— Covenant I would not have yoâ—â— â—gnorant brethren concerning them which are asleep v. 13. They are not dead but asleep Sleep is but 〈◊〉 Parenthesis to the Labours and Travels of this Life and it is but a partial privation not of the haâ—it but acts of Reason to which â—pon awaking the soul returns again Just such a thing is that â—hich in believers is commonly â—alled Death And we do not â—se to bewail our Friends because â—hey are fallen asleep And thereâ—â—re it no way becomes us to sorâ—ow as those that have no hope or to look upon them as lost 〈◊〉 as he strongly argueth and concludeth v. 14 their restoraâ—ion to their Bodies yea and to â—ur enjoyment again is fully seâ—â—red both to them and us by the Resurrection of Jesus from the â—ead The influence of his Reâ—â—rrection is by the Prophet Isaiah â—ompared to the Morning-dew 〈◊〉 shew that what vertue there is 〈◊〉 the Morning-dew to cause the â—nguishing Plants of the Earth to â—ive and flourish that and much more there is in the Resurrectioâ— of Christ to revive and quickeâ— the dead
not one pleasant bunch to be found none but sower Grapes to increase his Hunger and set his Teeth on edge 3. And that which much more aggravates the loss is this when it falls in a time wherein the spring and succession of good men is obstructed In this case Death like a storm of Wind overturns the fairest pleasantest and most fruitful Trees in the Orchard when there is no Nursery from whence others may be taken to plant in their rooms Lastly There is just cause to lament the removal of publick and pious men when we consider what influence our sins and provocations have had upon those Judgments and Calamities our unworthiness of them unthankfulness for them and non improvements of such mercies have bereaved us of them I look upon every good man as a good Book lent by its Owner to another to read and transcribe the excellent Notions and golden Passages that are in it for his own benefit that they may remain with him when the Owner shall call for the Book again but in case this excellent Book be thrown into a corner and no use made of it it justly provokes the Owner to take it away in displeasure Thus you see upon what account our sorrows for the death of good men are restrained and upon what accounts and reasons they are due debt to the death of eminent and useful Instruments for God. What remains is the Application of this point And First The Point before us justly reproves three sorts of men 1. The worst of men such as secretly rejoyce and are inwardly glad at the removal of such men they took no delight in them while they lived and are glad they are rid of them when they are dead Those that persecuted and hated them when alive may be presumed to be pleased and gratified with their death But alas poor Creatures they know not what they do The innocent preserve the Island Except the Lord of hosts saith the Prophet had left us a small remnant we had been as Sodom we had been like unto Gomorrah Isai. 1.9 It 's a Proverb among the very Jews Sinè Supplicationibus non staret Mundus The World stands by the Prayers of the godly Let the World think what they will of them I tell you these men are a Screen a Partition-wall betwixt them and destruction 2. It reproves the insensibleness of good men who are apt too slightly to pass over such tremendous stroaks of God for this it was that God reproved his own People Isai. 57.1 No man layeth it to heart Where the want of affection is charged upon the want of consideration none considering their worth their use or the consequences of their fall Such Rebukes of God do certainly call for a deeper sence and sorrow than is found in most men 3. It reproves the very best of men who though they do bewail and lament the loss of such men yet they do not lament it in the due manner They lament it one to another saying Alas alas such a Worthy is fallen such an eminent Instrument in the Church or State is dead but they do not lament it in Prayer to the Lord they mourn not over the matter to him as David did Psal. 12.1 Crying Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth Help Lord the remnant that is left help Lord to repair the breach made by their death let the God of the Spirits of all flesh raise up a Man to fill the room and supply the want Alas how insignificant are the Lamentations of most men upon this account Secondly This point invites us all this day to bewail the stroak of God that is upon us I could wish that he that looks upon this Text and then upon the countenance of this Assembly might be able to discern the agreeableness of the one to the other in such a sad and solemn occasion O let all that love Sion lament this day the fall of one of her true Friends and Lovers I know Funeral Panegyricks are apt to be suspected of flattery but as I want a Rhetorical Tongue for such a work so if I had it it should never be saleable for so base a use and purpose I am sure by sending the generality that die to Heaven many are confirmed in the way to Hell. Nor can I but think of that serious Line in Chrysostom What a poor comfort is it to be praised where a man is not and to be tormented where he is But yet the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance Psal. 112.6 Expect nothing from me on this occasion but what may be spoken with greatest assurance of truth and that intended for the benefit and imitation of all that hear it Some may think it a strain too high to compare a private person with such a glorious King as Iosiah was but if Christ compared and preferr'd the very Grass of the Field to Solomon in all his glory I know no reason why we may not compare and parallel the precious Graces of a private person with a royal Saint especially since the comparison is only made in the religious not in the civil capacity I am sure the Graces and gracious Performances of David Hezekiah and Iosiah with all the other dignified Saints were intended and propounded as Patterns for our imitation and no doubt but private Christians may measure by their Pattern Beside it is abundantly more safe to relate the Vertues of the Saints when they are dead than whilst they were alive for now there is no danger of provoking pride and vain-glory in them that are praised but much hope of provoking an holy emulation and imitation in them that hear them Well then Absit invidia verbis Suffer me this day to erect a Pillar to perpetuate the Memory of this deceased Worthy to pay the tribute of my Tears due to that mournful Hearse and to engage you to imitate those Excellencies of his which I shall with equal truth and modesty display this day that we also may be duly affected with the Rebuke of God upon us and mourn over it before him If when an eminent Commander in any Army falls the whole Army is affected and concerned with his death The mourning Drum the Lance and Ensignes trail'd The Robes of Honour all in Sables vail'd Let it not be thought much Christians should express their sense and sorrow in sighs and tears for so useful and worthy a man as God hath this day removed from among us whose Character I shall give you in the following immitable particulars 1. That worthy man whose fall we lament this day was seasoned with Religion in his Youth by God's blessing upon his pious Education in this he had the advantage of Iosiah His Progenitors were men of Piety and himself a Child of many Prayers and as Monica said of her Son Austin it was not likely that a Child of so many Prayers should perish How importunately did they request the fervent Prayers of their