Disciples who had indignation at the Act and therefore said To what purpose is this waste Yea he reproved them and said unto them Why trouble ye the Woman For she hath wrought a good work upon me For in that she hath poured this Ointment on my Body she did it for my Burial Mat. 26. 8 10 12. She hath done what she could she is come aforehand to anoint my Body to the burying Mar. 14. 8. Here I find was Ointment to embalm him and here were also Tears at his Funeral And yet so far was Christ from blaming her for her Tears that he not only decreed the publishing of this Act through the World where the Gospel should be preached and that for a Memorial of her Mat. 26. 13. but he likewise upbraided Simon with the tears of the sinner and said unto him I entred into thine house and thou gavest me no water for my feet but she hath washed my feet with Tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head c. Wherefore her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Luke 7. 44 47. Weep then I may upon this sad occasion yea and weep may my Friends too Tears are as proper at a Funeral as Smiles at a Wedding We have two Marriages the first whereof is to living Dust the last to the cold and silent Earth At the former we rejoyce for it was an institution of God before Man had sinned Gen. 2. 24. At the latter we weep for it is the effect of sin We cloath our selves in delightful Colours when we celebrate the former But our Blacks at the latter are our Wedding Garments The Rosemary is served about at each The Gloves and the Favours attend at each The Wine and the other accustomed Entertainments are given at each We go to the Church for the consummation of each Only here is the difference that at the one we rejoice but at the other we mourn Every Guest that is willing to comply with the present occasion must as well be sad at this as be merry at the other Weep we may and weep we must especially my self who have lost my self But yet let me take heed that I offend not in my Tears lest that which is my Duty be turned into a Crime I must especially take heed that I err not in the cause of these Laments for if I grieve at the happiness of him that is departed I discover an Envy rather than Affection If I grieve for the loss which my self sustaineth I must take heed that I wrong not my confidence in God I may not offend in the number of my Tears for if I weep too much I may forfeit my hope or at least I may occasion those that behold me to think that I doubt of the salvation of the Dead Weep I may and weep I must but for fear lest I offend in these my Tears in my earnest Prayers I will beg that they may be sanctified To my God will I go for his Direction and Assistance And in this storm of my Tears I will shelter my self under his Protection The Dying Knell Or Tears for the Death of a beloved Brother and may likewise serve at the Decease of any other faithful Friend A Friend saith King Solomon loveth at all times and a Brother is born for adversity Prov. 17. 17. Friendship which is begotten by the outward form or any other sinister and by-respect liveth no longer than that ground of affection but nature is stronger than our election can be and Religion obligeth far more than both O how great then is my loss of my dearest Brother in whom both excellency of Feature nearness of blood and a gracious conversation conspired together to render him matchless To me he was a Friend but now to the Grave and what loss can be greater than the loss of a Friend To me he was a Brother but now to the Worms And what loss can be more deplorable than the loss of a Brother But to me he was yet more he was a Friend in his Love and courtesies a Brother by his blood yea and an instructer a teacher of Religion and goodness And yet nor love nor blood nor Religion could preserve him mine O what Sorrows do accompany all things transitory His love could not die but his body could And so I am deprived of the Society of my Brother because my Brother was subject to Corruption But is this the adversity for which he was born according to King Solomon Did the Wise Man intend that a Brother is born to bring Adversity Or rather to comfort us in the time of Adversity Had he been a cause of my least disturbance while he was living he would have eased my grief by grieving himself He would have comforted me in the time of trouble had he lived to see my grievous mourning But now alas I am left to lament alone and so much the more for the want of his comfort I now must grieve for him who was my joy and my laments and my griefs increase the higher because for his sake they arise who cannot allay them Had we lived in hatred his death peradventure might have been my Comfort Had we loved but slightly a tear or two I might have thought enough to pay at his Funeral But our Love was firm it was strong yea strong as death and who then can blame me if my sorrows in some measure keep pace with my love O what tie can be so great as that of affection What love so great as of a Brother and Sister And yet so vain is Man so frail are Mortals that either our affection or our persons must have a divorce Had my deceased Brother forgotten the tie and bond of nature and in his life had he turned his love into hatred yet his fault ought not to have lessened my Love to which both Nature and Religion did strongly oblige me Had he loved me but coldly and faintly as divers do yet I ought to have warmed his affection with the fervency of mine But oh he dearly loved he cordially affected me and yet his love and his affection could not prolong his life Had my Brother and I been Idolaters together I might have believed that that sin had slain my Brother But as our Love was constant so our Religion was undefiled yea the strength of our Love was founded on the purity of our Religion and yet he hath payed his debt to Nature The Lord did threaten to set the Egyptians against the Egyptians and that they should fight every one against his Brother Is. 19. 2. Those Egyptians were heathens and Enemies to the Church but my Brother and I were united both in the Profession and the Love of Christianity and yet through our sins I fear that even we destroy each other My sins are partly punished in his death and his death hath given me so deep a wound that peradventure I shall not long survive him Our love was so
Another turmâ—…iling Torments Another the continual throng of Clients This Man grieves that he has Children another that he has lost his a third that he never had any We shall want Tears before the occasion of shedding them Dost thou not see what a kind of Life Nature has promis'd us that has order'd Weeping to be the first Omen that attends our Birth This is our beginning with this the Series of our Years agrees and thus we spend our Days This is that which most deserves our Tears and which they never can sufficiently wash away that none of us seriously considers that there is a time when we must leave this Habitation We consider it 't is true but cursorily and as it were dreaming Hence we live as if we were always to live Our Frailty seldom pierces deep into our Minds Nor do we observe how much time has slid away but as if it were out of an inexhaustible Stock we trifle away so many Hours so many Days so many Months and so many Years We are most profuse of our Time and never mind the irreparable loss of it in which only thing Covetousness is allowable Thus the greatest part of Life slips away from Evil-doers the greatest part from those that do nothing and the whole from those that are active in another way Who is he that sets a value upon Time that prizes a Day or understands that he dies daily Hence it is that we forget what is past neglect the present and foresce not what is to come But when we shall come to the last push then miserable as we are too late we shall understand that we were ill employ'd while we did nothing Let us do this therefore let us embrace every Hour as if this Day to die So let us order the Narration of our Life as if present we were to make our Epilogue while Life is delay'd it runs beyond us Sect. 34. All Life short even the longest MOst truly said Annaeus There is no Life but what is short For if we regard the Nature of Things the Lives of Nester and Statilia were short who caus'd it to be writ upon her Tomb That she liv'd Ninty-nine Years Behold how a little old Woman glories in her Age what would she have done had she compleated the Centure Amaranthus in the Fables speaking to the Rose Oh what a Flower is the Rose how fair how lovely Deservedly men call thee happy for thy Beauty for thy Odour for thy Colour O Queen of Flowers To whom the Rose Indeed said she O Amaranthus I excel in Beauty however I flourish but a very short time and though no hand touch nevertheless I quickly fade But thou flowrest continually and livest always fresh and gay I had rather have less beauty and enjoy a longer life The Life of Mortals is like that of the Rose short and quickly fading and though no outward force extinguish it yet naturally and insensibly it vanishes Not without cause therefore the greatest of Physicians exclaims We understand not how our Life passes but we perceive it is stoln away The Space of Time granted to us flies with such a swift and rapid Motion that unless it be some few Life forsakes some as it were in the very Cradle We have but a little time and the most part of that we trifle away in Sloth and Luxury O improvident Mortals the Body which we bear about us is not a Mansion but an Inne which is to be left when thou art burdensom to the Master of the House Therefore O Christian make haste to live piously and believe every Day to be so many Lives He that shall so prepare himself shall securely dare Death no Man shall die ill that lives well Sect. 35. Not the longest but the honestest Life is the best WE are not to strive to live long but so long as is sufficient that life is sufficient which is fulfill'd That life is fulfill'd when any man passes from his own into the divine Will and well employs that little time which is allotted him What does fourscore years avail that man that idly spends them He did not live but was dead while he lived Nor did he die late but every day for to live imprudently and wickedly is not to live ill but to die daily But thou sayest he lived fourscore years but consider from what day thou reck'nst his death Another is snatch'd away flourishing in the midst of his course but he had done the duty of a good Man and a good Christian though his Age were imperfect his Life was perfect The other numbred fourscore years certainly he did not live so long but he was in being unless thou wilt say he lived in the same manner as Trees are said to live Life is to be measured by the Act and Offices of Vertue not by Time therefore let us praise and place him in the number of the Happy who well employed that life he had the Just shall remain in eternal remembrance the memory of the just with praises For he saw the true light he was one of many and he lived and now lives in Heaven Why enquirest thou how long he lived he liv'd to Immortality he has out-stript Ages and erected his own Remembrance And as a body of mean stature may be perfect so in a lesser space of time a life may become perfect Happiness is not fixt in diuturnity of time but in Vertue neither is he that sings oftenest to the Harp but he that sings best is to be commended While thou art only in being 't is anothers When thou art a good Christian it is thy own That require from thy self that thou mayst not measure out thy Time ignobly in Vice so to lead thy life that thou mayst not be carried beyond the Mark Thou demandest what is the utmost space of Life to live to true Wisdom to confirm thy Will in all things to the Will of God is the truest wisdom When we die 't is not the longest but the chiefest end concerns us Death walks over all nor is it any very long space that we precede one another He that kills follows the slain 't is the least thing of which we are most sollicitous about For what is it to the purpose how long thou shunnest what cannot be avoided The best life is not the longest but the most upright Sect. 36. We do not live the greatest parts of our Lives I Cannot doubt the truth of what the Ancient Poet said 'T is but a liâ—…e term of life That we are said to live All the rest of our life is not life but only time both urgent Business encompasses us and Vices importune us lull'd in pleasure we have hardly any leisure to return to our selves we are held on at leisure for our selves but for others No man is his own man so that we spend the greatest part of our lives in not living at least we do not live to Heaven nor to God How much time does
'T is too late to layter here we strive in vain against the Stream Nature is a Mother not a Step-dame Dost thou accuse Nature O Tâ—…eophrastus as if less favourable to Man than Beasts certainly â—…e intended more to him than to them For which is best to suffer quickly what thou art no more to fear or to fear long what thou art slowly to endure Nature gives a long torment to Man when she grants him a short Life For always all Men must expect Their Day perfix'd What art thou then afraid of Is thy Life tak'n from thee Not only so but also the fear of Death and most Evils of Life This is the general choice of most Men rather to suffer quickly what we ought than to continue long in fear and pain There is little difference saith the second Pliny between suffering and expecting Misfortunes Only that there is a Measure of Fear and not of Grief For thou mayst bewail and grieve for what thou knowest has happened thou fearest what may happen Therefore come Death I am thy Debtor I will pay what I owe when ever God requires me Therefore freely willingly Will I the number of my days compleat And straight surrender up my soul to sate Hoping to ascend from the dark Grave to everlasting Light Death is not an Evil but Punishment after Death is an Evil. Sect. 8. They fear Death who foresee it not MOST certain it is that nothing terrifies so much as an unexpected necessity of dying Behold how they who are subject to the power of another being commanded a long Journey pack up their things in haste sollicitous and sad how they murmur because they had no longer warning As they are upon their departure they often look back pretending this and t'other Obstacle Now there is no longer Journey than to Die no way more crabbed more dark more hard to find none more suspitious and infested with Robbers Besides there is no return again Therefore we must tâ—…e more heedfully take care that we leave nothing behind There is a necessity of going thither fellow Souldiers said the Roman Captain from whence there is no necessity of returning There is only one remedy to answer being called and to obey being commanded Alas How improvident are they who never take care to provide for thy Journey They take care to fare well the rest they commit to Fortune Smyndirides that debauched young Man was wont to brag that in Twenty Years he had not seen the Sun rising or setting being continually either a Bed or at his Riot I fear one of you may find many like him among the Christians who make Gluttony Playing and Drinking their greatest Business To these will happen that which Cicero in his Epistles foretold to Brutus Believe me saith he you will be ruined unless you provide well Thus it will happen to all unwary People that want fore-sight Foresight is necessary in all things especially in those things that are never to be done but once where one mistake draws a thousand along with it This is the Condition of Death one Error causes a thousand Mistakes To err once there is to perish eternally O blind Mortals it will happen to you as it happens to them that shut their Eyes against their Enemies Swords in a Battle as if they were not to feel the danger which they see not Ye shall be smitten ye shall die ye shall be sensible and feel the stroke but whether blind or seeing that is at your choice You refuse to think upon Death which you must shortly think upon and feel The sufferance would soon follow when the Consideration precedes Sect. 9. They fear Death who are negligent of Life NEither is there any Question to be made of this They chiefly fear to die who know not how to live who believe no other Happiness but that of the Body Who only know how to eat well drink well and sleep well and place all their Heaven in pleasure persons certainly most obedient but to their Bellies not to the Divine Will Of whom St. Gregory truly said They know not what the Celestial Souls desire who set their Hearts upon Earthly Delights A prudent Christian that takes no more care of the Body than of a mean and abject Slave looks upon Death no otherwise than a Morning departure out of a dark unpleasant and incommodious Inn. Whoever thou art thou canst not fear thy Exit as of this Life if thou hopest to enter into the other Thy fear arises from hence For though there are many causes vulgarly given of this fear yet they all vanish upon the hopes of a more blessed Life He who seriously aspires to Heaven fears not these Baubles To such a Man Labour Sadness Grief Contempt Ignominy Loss Servitude Poverty Old Age are nothing else but the School of Experience the Time of Patience and the Honour of Victory Sect. 10. Three Things hardly supportable in Sickness IN almost all Sickness three things are hardly supportable Fear of Death Pain of the Body Discontinuance from Pleasure But as hot Diseases are Cur'd by cold cold by hot Medicines so are they Cur'd by their own Antidotes Therefore the fear of Death is to be Cur'd by Love but by Divine Love a little Dose of Divine Love will dispel the fumes of vain fear He that loves Christ will the less love Life and shall perceive the love of Christ to him By words alone this is not prov'd Love Marcus love if thou wouldst be belov'd Pain of the Body is to be asswag'd by tranquility of Conscience A guiltless Mind is a wonderful Consolation to the Sick And indeed a pure Conscience is a potent remedy against all Torments That also asswages pain as St. Gregory intimates in these words More easily will the Sick Person endure pain if he bear but this in his mind The most Just God will have me suffer this But Discontinuance from Pleasure will nothing at all afflict him who thinks upon Eternal Joys Those which leave are vain short and filthy and before they are forsaken frequently leave their admirers those which we promise our selves Immense Stable and Eternal He easily contemns Fading Delights who sincerely hopes for Eternal Sect. 11. Sickness the Sport of Vertue THou art well smitten if they Conscience be smitten Sickness is the School of Vertue it is also called a kind of Slaughter-house of Vice whoever is sick is a Scholar in this School On the other side Sickness is the Slaughter-house of Vertue to some and the School of Vice while they are well they are mad While they are well they have a hundred Businesses the Business of God is their last care How many are Chaste while they are Sick when they recover they return to their former filthy Lusts. Such people would do better Sick to whom health is so dangerous These therefore God tyes them to the Bed of Sickness that they may be at leisure to themselves and may mind their Salvation Forsake Vanity and