BREVITY and VANITY OF Man's Life DISCOVERED IN A SERMON PREACHED At the FUNERALS of Mrs. ELLEN HARTCOVRT Youngest Daughter to the Virtuous and Excellent Lady CONY of Stoke in Lincolnshire Who was interr'd in Saint Andrews-Holborn-Church March 23. 1661. being married that Day five Weeks before By RICHARD HENCHMAN Man being in honour abides not Pallida mors aquo pulsat pede Pauperum Tabernas Regúmque Turres Hor. Od. 4. Hb. 1. Bulla Palustris Homo ventus stos pulveris umbra Incipit cessat nascuur moritur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by Tho. Royerost for William Grantham at the Black Bear near the little North-door in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXI To the Virtuous and my Ever-Honoured Lady the Lady SARAH Wife of Sir SUTTON CONY of STOKE in Lincolnshire the Sorrowful Mother of this Deceased Lady MADAM IT was not my intention when I Preached this Ensuing Sermon that it should spread further then the Pulpit I thought indeed being Your grief hindered You from the hearing of it You might perchance request a Copy of it for Your Closet but never dreamed You would have been so Importunate with me for the Press But if it may be any Allay of Your Sorrow for Your great Loss or of any use to the Publick I shall not Repent of gratifying your desires though of it self the expressions being so home-span and the Notions so common I cannot 〈…〉 thy to come forth 〈…〉 when I seriously considered my many 〈…〉 to 〈…〉 lf and Family and the Comforts 〈◊〉 I have 〈…〉 from You since I first knew you and Lived amongst you I thought I was bound to Exhibit a Testimonial of that Service and Respect which I dived unto You and therefore had rather Hazard my own Reputation if I may Advance the Edification of others and adventure once more the Censures of the world rather then have my own heart Censure me for Unthankfulness I do therefore most humbly offer it into Your Ladyship's Hands and if You think it Unworthy of that Honour cast it at Your Feet only let me Entreat You for Her sake who was the Occasion of it to cast a favourable Ey upon it now and then and Graciously receive it into Your Presence and it will Reckon it self highly graced and Dignifyed and not Ambitiously desire any other Patronage MADAM I know you are Sensible enough of the Afflictions of Your Family more Paticularly of this great Loss You have lately sustained the God of Patience and Consolation grant You to Study a quiet Submission unâ—… and an Holy Improvement of this his Afflicting hand If You do but Commune seriously with Your own Heart You will see Cause enough for this Holy silence and submission How pretious so ever this Jewel was in Your Ey and indeed she was very Pretious yet you see it 〈◊〉 of a Brittle Nature All the Sons and Daughters of Adam are Mortal Creatures and why should You be troubled to see a Mortal Creature Dy. To make complaint that our Relations are dead is to complain That they were Mortal good MADAM I beseech You look upon the hand of God that hath done what is done and this if any thing will quiet your Spirit because the stroke was given by God him self Remember that a Dear Childe is far better in the bosom of Christ then in the Bosom of the greatest Earthly Monarch Though You want her company yet she wants not yours you shall go to her if you dy as she did but she can never come back to you Though she was an Obedient Childe to you and did Honour her Parents whilst she lived yet God did not break his Promise with her because he did not grant her a long life here as long as he translated her to life Eternal therefore I would have you Sensible as you are indeed of God's Afflicting Providences but I hope you will not Murmure under them for as one saies wel He that sees not God's hand in his severest Dispensations disowns his Sovereignty but he or she that Repines denies his Righteousness MADAM I beseech you Excuse my Boldness that I use this freedom with you give me leave in three words to Counsel you as well as Comfort you and I shall trouble you no further First I beg that you would Meditate much on your own End you have lived a great many Years already and 't is not Probable you can live so many more Certainly Death comes near the Mother when it lays hold upon the Childe when your Dear Daughter departed this Life She left you this Memento that you must shortly follow Secondly Confider how uncertain all wordly things are Children the best of worldly Comforts yet they are but dying Comforts the loss of worldy Contentments Me thinks should make us love the world the less God grant it may work this Effect in you Lastly Study more to make out Your Spititual Relation to Christ this Relation can never be Dissolved though your Children your Husband your Friends may be taken from you yet this Union this Relation cannot be Obliterated Now the good Lord of Heaven and Earth grant you an Assurance of this Relation before you go hence and be seen no more And thus dear MADAM begging your Pardon I commend your self and all your excellent Relations to the Protection and Blessing of Almighty God beseeching him it it be his blessed will for a Continuing of the Remaining Comforts to you here and a full Consummation of perfect joy and Happiness with themh ereafter Which shall be the constant Prayers of MADAM Your Ladyships most obliged and perfectly Devoted Servants RICHARD HENCHMAN May 3d. 1661. PSALME XXXIX 5. Behold thou hast made my Days as a band-breadth and mine Age is as nothing before thee verily every man at his best Estate is altogether Vanity THE Text you see is suitable to the Occasion It contains a sad Story of man's Frailty Mortality and Vanity A Meditation never untimely but most seasonable upon such occasions as these are The Text divides it into these two general Parts First The Brevity of man's Life in those words Behold thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth Secondly The Vanity of man's Life in the last words Verily every man at his best Estate is c In the First there are these two things considerable of us 1. An Excitation of Attention in that word Behold 2. An excellent Description of man's sudden Dissolution Thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth Again in the Description there are two things also more worthy of our Notice 1. Who it is that limits mans Life it is God Thou O lord hast made c. 2. The Line wherewith our Lives are measured and that also it two fold 1. By is self if we consider is in its own Frailty so the just Measure of our Lives 't is an hand-breadth 2. If we consider it by the Line of Eternity so it is found to be as just nothing Mine Again as nothing before thee
that which is Something upon that which is All upon that which is Lasting upon that which is Everlasting upon that which is Truth it self and will not nay cannot deceive us upon that which will be more in Fruition then ever it was in Expectation Oh! let us not trust in lying vanities but in the Ever-living and Never-failing God Man will be trusting in some-what and he is so forward to trust in vanity which indeed is nothing that it is the hardest thing in the World to take him off We cannot press our selves or others too much to trust in God and we cannot Repress them enough from trusting vanity We say Such a man has deceived me once but he shall not deceive me a second time Why should we be so willing to be deceived a Thousand times with vanities God never deceived or failed any man that ever trusted in him Psal ix 10. Oh! therefore let this perswade our Hearts to trust in God we cannot trust him too much or the Creature too little If we make the Creature our Staff it will be our Scourge if we lean upon it as our Rock it will run into our Hands as a broken Reed The best way to keep up our Comforts in the Creature is to keep our Distance from the Creature and let me tell you this That they shall always finde most Comfort from the World who live furthest off it and expect least from it God is good and the more we trust in him the better he will be to us nay he will not be good to us at all unless we trust him Trust not therefore in man that is inconstant changeable mortal vain Rely not on him he 's a broken Reed but trust in God for he is the help of our Countenance and our God It is better to trust in the Lord then to put any Confidence in man Yea 't is better to trust in the Lord then to put any Confidence in Princes Psal cxviii 8 9. But blessed is the man that makes the Lord his Trust and they that know thy Name will put their Trust in thee for thou Lord never failest them that seek thee That 's the first Use Trust not in man which is but vanity Again Secondly Since Every man at his best Estate is c. Then this may check our Pride and pull down our proud Spirits what worth or Excellency is in any man to cause him to be blown up as a Bladder why is Earth and Ashes proud Seeing that when a man dyes he 's but Heir of Worms a Companion of crawling Worms The Unicorn may boast of his Horn which medicineth the poysoned Streams the Bezoar of his pretious Stone the Bever of his Skin the Panther of his Colours the Pink of its Sweetness the Tulip of its Beauty and many other Creatures of some singular Excellency but man vain man mushroom man has nothing of his own to animate Pride but rather should be exceedingly humbled for his manifold Wants and exceeding Vanities If a Beggar may be proud of his Rags or a Lazar of his Soars then have we cause to be proud not else That 's a Second Thirdly Seeing Man at his best Estate c why then this convinces and sharply reproves the Folly and madness of Worldlings who trifle away their pretious time in loathsome Vanities like Swine that root up Beds of Flowers and sweet Roses but wallow in the Mire Oh! ye Sons of Men how long will ye love Vanity Psal iv 2. Why walk ye after vanity and draw Iniquity with Cords of vanity Isa v. 18. Why do ye take pleasure in the vanity of Wickedness thinking it vain not to be vain in your Conversations Oh! how sweet soever it seems to you for the present I must tell you 't will prove very distructful in the End Oh! drink no longer of the pleasant Rivers of Damascus but on the wholsom streams of Jordan Do not affect vain Company or vain and Idle persons who have not the fear of God before their Eys who flatter with their lips and do speak with a double Heart Psal xii 2. Whose mouth speaketh Vanity and their Right-hand is a Right-hand of falshood Psal cxliv. 8. Oh! do not squander away your pretious hours in Vanities but know that whosoever travels with Vanity shall bring forth iniquitie which late Repentance must either drown or damnation Nurse And lastly seeing that every man c. Why then learn from hence to condemn thy vain life with all its Vanities and to seek for a new and better life where vanity is not admitted Oh! let us thirst after Heaven after Christ let our life be hid with Christ in God that so when Christ shall appear we may also c. Whilst we live let 's live by the Faith of the Son of God that so when we dy we may dy in the Faith and favour of Christ let our Conversation be in Heaven whilst we are here upon Earth let 's Meditate continually on Christ and his Merits our Redemption and the Glorious inheritance he has Purchased for us and let us say Thou O Lord Jesus art our Hope and our Stay seeing thou hast given us the World which we Contemn give us thy self whom our Souls desire let others strive for Temporal Kingdoms but let us strive for Eternal let others heap up Riches but let our hearts Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness let others Gape after the vanities of this World but let us pant and breath and gape after Christ desire to be desolved that we may be ever with the Lord whilst we live here one Earth let us Pray also that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our Mortal Flesh and then come Lord Jesus come quickly Though our lives here be but as a span-long and attended with as many Miseries as there be Stars in the firmament and vanities as sand by the Sea-shore Yet after this life is ended we shall have a building not made with hands but Eternal in the Heavens though we now for a time hang up our Harpes by the Rivers of Babylon and weep for the Floods of vanity that are ready to over-whelm us in our Captivity Yet after a while we shall be brought home with Triumph unto a Land Flowing with Milk and Honey to life without Death to Days without end to such Mufick as we never heard before by a Quite of Angels to a World without Vanity to a Condition without alteration and to Eternal Glory which Ey ha's not seen nor Ear heard c. Which he will give us that has purcha'st for us by his own most pretious Blood to whom with the Father c. So much for the Text I come now to the Occasion Sory I am to be an Actour in this mornfull Scene For truly here I can scarce speak for grief or give you a Funeral Eulogy of this Deceased Lady whose liveless Dust lies here before us unless instead of strewing of Flowers I bedew her Hearse
with Tears and pour out my matter in a Sorowfull and Dolefull Complaint of our loss Curie leves loquun ur Ingentes Stupent I could willingly I confess now give scope to mine and your Passion that we might sit down a while in silence and onely by the Language of our Tears speak the sence of our Loss But then I conceive I should be Injurious to this Solemn and Sorrowfull Assembly to God's Honour our Friend's Memory and others Profit since by paying the Tribute of Praise to God's dear Servants we advance God's Glory and Perpetuate their Remembrance and add Spurs to the Pious endeavours of those who survive I could speak much having known her from a Childe to the Glory of God's Rich Grace in the Embalming her Name with a pretious Memory but I shall not need to Expatiate my self in her just and Due Character But some things that were very Remarkable in her towards her latter End I must not Omit Give me leave therefore for your Imitation to break this Alabaster box of pretious Oyntment and to pour it forth upon you that the Savour thereof may fill the whole house of God with a Sweet Perfume and that such an Example and Precedent of Piety may incite and Encourage you to remember your Creatour in the Daies of your youth before the Evil Day of your Death comes Indeed I know the Applause and Welcom that the Saints and Angels have given her in Heaven and the Blessed Euges that the Authour and Finisher of our Faith has now Recieved her into these These are the true and full Commendations that he Soul now rests in Onely this we must know that as the Death of this Illustrious and Vertuous Person is in God's Eyes so in ours also it ought to be Honourable and Pretious And because Saint Bernard's Speech is most true Pretiosa Mors Sanctorum quam commendat vita pretiosa A pious Life makes a pretious Death I might trace this young Lady through her whole Life and observe many remarkable Passages in it by which as by so many Steps and Paces she walked on daily to the Attainment of this right Christian and Comfortable Death First For her Birth and Parentage t was of good Note and Esteem being born at Stoke in Lincolnshire and descended from an Antient Family having Grave Ingenuous and Religious Parents Honourable Noble and Generous Persons to her Relutions and though I confess the Dignity of Birth if alone and unattended with moral Accomplishments be but a cold and slender Commendation Et genus proavos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix c. Yet this when it stands in Conjunction with Virtue it sets a Price and Lustre upon it 't is Splendor Virtutis it casts a Varnish upon Virtue it self and makes it more Conspicuous But Secondly If you surveigh Her in the Moral and Practick Part of Her Life you 'd finde many things in it very observable Take Her in Her familiar Conversation and so she was a Loving Faithfull and Constant Friend thankfull for any Kindness and studious to requite it She was wont to extenuate not to aggravate any Injury or Unkindness offered Her she would not Scintillam in Flammam nec festucam in Trabem enatare as Saint Augustine speaks of some Contentious Persons In a word in all her Deportment as ever I perceived she was Regular and Just Affable and Virtuous to all Thirdly Take Her as to Her Relations and so she was an obedient Childe to her Parents a loving Sister to her Brethren and an indulgent and kinde Wife to her Husband and though it pleased Almighty God to divorce them by Death almost as soon as they were married yet she shewed her Affection to the last for when I asked Her what she would leave her Husband as Memorial of her true Love amongst those small Legacies she had Power to dispose off she replyed She would leave him her Hearty Prayers that God would bless him and direct him in all his Ways And I hope he will live to reap the Benefit of her Prayers The best Legacy certainly that a good Wife can leave her Husband These I know you will all grant were lively Virtues in the Sphere of Morality but yet there were two Graces more remarkable in Her of an higher Pitch more Divine and Spiritual more immediate Fruits of her Christian Religion viz. her Charity and her Piety her Compassion to the Poor and her Devotion to her God First for her Charity to the Poor She was not only a Friend but a Mother Her Bowels of Compassion were enlarged toward them not onely in her Life but at her Death for to my Knowledge she has left to two Parishes in Lincolnshire five pounds a piece to be distributed to the Poor and five pounds to the Poor of this Parish wherein she is to be interred and to the Ministers in these three Places twenty Shillings a piece as a Token of her Affection for them The Age we live in though it has the Lamp of Profession yet God knows liâ—tle of this Oyl of Charity Many though they have floutrishing Estates yet they have withered Hands and cannot stretch them out to good Uses this Lady had but a small matter left in her Hands to dispose of and she left it freely to those that had most need She had indeed a free and noble Soul to all but most generous and bountiful to the Poor what should I say of Her She sowed plentifully and she has reaped plentifully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Basil speaks she was merciful and no Question but she has obtained Mercy Secondly for her Piety Though it was diffused in a constant Tenour through the whole Course of her Life yet it appear'd most glorious near her Death then she bitterly bewail'd the pretious time she had spent in worldly Vanities in unnecessary and complemental Visits and she said If God should lengthen out her Days the World should see such an Alteration and Change in her how she would endeavour to redeem that time she had so mispent by a double Diligence in the Practice of Holiness When I prest her to finish that great work of Repentance and Sorrow for Sin before she 〈…〉 Course â—… telling her that 't was Sin that made Death bitter and until that Sting be taken out by true Repentance and Faith in Christ's Merits we cannot finish 〈◊〉 Course with Joyâ—… Lord 't was admirable to me to see how low she sunk her Spirits humbling her Soul to the Dust by an hearty Confession loathing the went thoughts of her former Transgressions abhorring her self for all her Sins and saying with that blessed Martyr in the Point of Justification None but Christ none but Christ throwing her self into his Arms by a lively Faith acknowledging no Name under Heaven by which she expected Salvation but onely in and through Jesus Christ our Lord Sublimis Patria sed humilis via Heaven is high but the Passage to it is low we must stoop 〈…〉 our Death by an humble Confession of our own Vnmorthiness and the Worthiness of Christ or we shall never come thither Non aestimator meriti sed veniae largiâ—… when all is done will prove the best Divinity and must for dying Persons and I 'le assure you our deceased Sister had learn'd this Lesson very well for I never saw if I can rightly judge a Soul more truly penitent and â—…ble then hers was The time she lay upon her sick â—… was not very long but very sharp and as I am informed in the time of her Sickness so patient so contented so willing to be at God's Dispose either for Life or Death so full of sweat holy and heavenly Instructions Exhortations Counsels to her Relations Friends and Servants lifting up her Soul Night and Day in Prayers and devout Ejaculations for Mercy upon her own Soul and for all that were about her Not long before she dyed she sent for mer and after I had prayed by her she intreated me to administer the holy Sacrament to her which I could not deny and if you had seen but with what Devotion she hungâ—…d and thirsted after this her last Viaticum with what Fervency of Spirit she received it you would never forget her 't was the last Manna she fed upon on this side Jordan now she is in the Land of Promise 〈◊〉 cortice Sacramenti sed adipe frumenti saginaâ—… Now she is at the Well-Head and Fountain of all Joy and Bliss Thus she both liv'd and dyed like in Lamb liv'd meekly and dyed quietly 〈…〉 onate Husband or loving Allies 〈…〉 inordinately she dyed young indeed 〈…〉 her time her Days were but as an hand 〈…〉 cause not before she was ready for Death She was cut down by the sickle of Death I confess betimes in her best Estate I but yet she was not cut down before she was ripe for the Harvest Youth and flourishing Days you see cannot privilege any from the Grave the Beauty of Rachel will not keep her from the Dust neither is it Parentage or Wealth can put Death out of Commission Riches avail not in the day of Death no nor Holiness nor Piety can deliver any from the Grave It preserves indeed from eternal Death but not a Temporal We see this by dayly Experience I need not expatiate my self on this Theme Our dear Friend and Sister is now at Rest And in that blessed Rest we shall now leave her assuring our selves that she dyed in the Favour of God in the Faith of Christ in the Peace of a good Conscience Nothing now remains but that we render all humble thanks to Almighty God for this so blessed a Departure of his Faithful Servant Beseeching him to grant that when the Hour of our Visitation comes upon us we may be found of him with Peace appear before him with Comfort and may be received with Joy into those Heavenly Mansions which our Blessed Saviour has purchased for us AMEN So be it FINIS