in charge that when he had put his Vail over his Face no Man should uncover it And Epiphanius his Body was rescued from inquisitive Eyes by a miracle Let it be interr'd after the manner of the Countrey and Laws of the Place and the Dignity of the Person for so Jacob was Buried with great Solemnity and Joseph's Bones were carried into Canaan after they had been embalmed and kept 400 years and devout men carried St. Stephen to his Burial making great lamentation over him And Aelian tells us that those who were the most excellent persons were buried in publick and men of ordinary Courage and Fortune had their Graves only â—…rim'd with Branches of green Olives and mourning Flowers together with a few sprigs of Rosemary and Bays But nothing of this concerns the dead in real and effective purposes nor is it with care to be provided for by themselves but it is the duty of the living for to them it is all one whether they be carried forth in a Chariot or a wooden Bier whether they rot in the Air or in the Earth whether they be devoured by Fishes or by Worms by Birds or by Sepulchral Dogs by Water or by Fire or by delay Concerning doing honour to the dead the consideration is not long anciently the Friends of the dead used to make their Funeral Orations and the Custom descended and in the Channel of time it mingled it self in the Veins of the Earth through which it passed And now a days Men that dye are commended at a price and the measure of their Legacy is the degree of their Vertue But these things ought not so to be the reward of the greatest Vertue ought not to be prostitute to the doles of common Persons but preserved like flourishing Laurels and Coronets to remark and encourage the noblest things But that which is most considerable is that we perform the will of the dead the Laws oblige us and will see to it but did they not certainly it is the noblest thing in the World to do an act of kindness to him whom we shall never see again but yet hath deserved it of us and to whom we would do it if he were present And unless we do so our Charity is Mercenary and our Friendships are direct Merchandize and our Gifts are Brokage but what we do to the dead or to the living for their sakes is Gratitude and Vertue for Vertues sake and the noblest portion of Humanity Kindness and Love The Reasons why we shut the Eyes and Mouth of the Dead IN the first place when our dear Friends and Relations are dead we close their Eyes and Mouth which a Learned Author says is a Custom that was used by the Primitive Christians to represent that the death of the Faithful is according to the Oracles of Scripture nothing else but a Repose since after having been asleep for a while they shall be awaked to Eternity Moreover by shutting their Eyes and Mouth we do intimate that the dead are no more to take delight in the Objects of this visible World their Employment now being stedfastly to behold all the Ravishing Beauties of the other World and continually to praise God who is the Glorious and Bountiful Dispenser of them The Reasons why Dead Bodies are often Kissed Washed Perfumed and Cloathed Together with the Customs of several Nations in the Burial of their Dead MAny Persons 1. Kiss and kindly Salute their dead Friends and Relations to shew the natural tenderness and love they had for the deceased but this Custom is now quite abolished with us in many places though this practice ought not to be altogether discommended 2. As for the usage that is in some Countreys of washing the dead St. Chrysostom tells us that it was derived at first from the Person of our Lord and Saviour whose precious Body was washed as soon as they took it down from the Cross. And we read in the ninth Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles that a Woman of Joppa called Tabitha whom St. Peter restored to Life had been wash'd before she was laid out for the Grave The Indians burn their dead 3. The Custom of Perfuming and Embalming the Corps hath in our days been especially in England much observed And indeed the very reason why the Primitive Christians were so careful to perfume the dead was because they regarded them as so many Members of the Mystical Body of the Redeemer of the World Tertullian in his Apology upbraiding the Heathens with the vast expences of sweet Scents and Perfumes consumed in the Temples tells them that those Odours would be better employed in perfuming and embalming the Bodies of Christians and their dear Friends departed At the Canary Islands they bury their Dead with a Bottle of Wine standing by them 4. As concerning the manner of Apparelling the Dead all Christians use not the same practice for some do only cover them with a large Winding-sheet as they do in France And others dress them in the very same Cloaths they were wont to wear as in Italy and several other places And others dress them and lay them in their Coffin in a white Shirt a clean Cap with their Toes tyed with a black Ribband and sometimes as a late Act of Parliament enjoyns in Flannel this is the Custom in England And likewise here it is the Custom to set the Body when drest in order to the Grave either in the Entry or the principal and most publick Room of the House and that for this reason and that by this sight those that pass by it at the Funeral may be taken off from Terrestrial things and fix their thoughts on those that are Heavenly by being thereby put in mind of their latter end and that it will not be long before they must lye in the like posture too in order to be carried on their Friends Shoulders to their Graves as this their Friend or Relation is now to be carried The Chineses always before they Bury their Dead if he was a Married Man bring him to his Wife that so she might first kiss him and biâ—… him farewel The manner of Burying the Dead in England with the Reasons of the Pomp and Ceremony wherewith the English carry their Dead to the Grave NOW having thus for taken care of the dead Body the next thing is to consider the reasons and manner of the Pomp and Ceremony wherewith the English carry their dead to the Grave the manner is thus The whole Company of Invited Guests being the Relations Mourners for and Friends of the deceased march in a sorrowful Procession first to the Church and then to the Grave attended with more or less Pomp and Ceremony according to the Quality of the Party deceased At the Head of this solemn attendance the Minister that is to bury the Corps walketh before the Corps and if the party deceased was a Person of Quality or Fashion then goes a vast number of young Blew-Coats Boys
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
Son and Holy Spirit O Sacred Trinity which art without beginning and in whom there is no division receive the Soul of thy Servant in peace who is put to death for thy Cause and Gospel After which he submitted his Head to the stroaks of the Executioner Suffering Anno Christi 96 and of his Age 110. The Death of JUSTIN Martyr AFter his having painfully preached the Gospel in many Countreys he came to Rome where he had many Contests with the Philosophers and Sages and was at last by the procurement of one Crescens Condemned and accordingly Beheaded Anno Christi 139. and as Epiphanius has it under the Reign of Adrian some time before he Prognosticated his death So fell this Faithful Labourer in Christ's Vineyard He used to say Thaet which the Soul is in the Body that are Christians in the World For as the Soul is in and not of the Body so Christians are in but no part of the World And also It is best of all not to sin and next to that to amend upon the Punishment Furthermore Tâ—…t it is the greatest slavery in the VVorld to be subject to ones Passions The Death of IRENAEUS THis Holy Man being taken with several of his chief Friends they were led to the top of a Hill on which were placed Crosses on one Hand and Idols on the other and they put to their Choice either to embrace the Idols and Live or be Crucified Upon which they joyfully chose the latter suffering Martyrdom Anno Christi 182. and of Irenaeus his Age 60 or as some will have it 90. He compared the Hereticks and Schismaticks to Aesop's Dog that lost the Substance of Religion whilst they gaped too earnestly after the Shadow Concerning the Vanity of Earthly things he said VVhat profit is there in that Honour which is so short-lived as that perchance it was not Yesterday neither will be to Morrow And such Men as labour so much for it are but like Froth which though it be uppermost yet it is unprofitablest The death of TERTULLIAN HE died Anno Christi 202. and of his Age 63. He used to say of Repentance If thou beest backward in thoughts of Repentance be forwards in thoughts of Hell the burning flames whereof only the tears of a penitent Eye can extinguish Of Satans Power If the Devils without Christs leave had no power over the Gadarens Swine much less have they power over Gods own Sheep Of Faith We should not try Mens Faith by their Persons but their Persons by their Faith Of forgiving Offences It 's in vain to come to the God of peace without peace or to pray for the remission of our Sins without forgiving others We must not come to make an Atonement with God at his Altar before we have made an Atonement with our Brother in our Hearts The Last Sayings of CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS AFter the death of Pontenus Clemens succeeded him in that Office from whence he received the Name of Alexandrinus He was Famous for all manner of Learning and was ordained Presbyter in Alexandria where he propagated the Christian Faith His Sayings were these Such as adorn themselves with Gold and think themselves bettered thereby are worse than Gold and not Lords of it as all that have it ought to be Out of the depth and bowels of the Earth hath God discovered and shewed Gold unto Men and they have made it the occasion of all Mischief and Wickedness Gold to many Men is much dearer than their Faith and Honesty And the love of it makes Man so Covetous as if they were to live here for ever The Death of ORIGEN HE died in the Reigns of Galluâ—… and Volusianus Anno Christi 220. â—…nd of his Age 69. Concerning Gods Providence he used to say That Gods Providence hath ordained all things for some end and purpose He made not Malice and though he can restrain it yet he will not for if Malice were not Vertue would not have a Contrary and so could not shine so clear For the Malice of Joseph's Brethren was the Means whereby God brought about many admirable works of his Providence The death of St. CYPRIAN CYprian said to his Exocutioner Do whatever 〈◊〉 shall be in thy power and thereupon he putting 〈◊〉 his Cloaths delivering them to his Deacons â—…idding them give his Executioner five Twentyâ—…ces of Gold for the kindness he was to do him â—…express he freely forgave him Then pulling a â—…il over his Eyes he kneeled down and had his â—…d sâ—…itten off with a Sword suffering Martyrâ—…m for the Testimony of his Lord and Master â—…o 259. and in the 70 year of his Age as some â—…e it He used to say of Charity Let not that sleep â—…n thy Treasury that may be profitable to the Poor â—…of the Heart and Tongue Two things never wax old in Man The Heart ever imagining new Cogitations the Tongue ever uttering the vain Conceptions of the Heart Of Resignation That which a Man must necessarily part with it 's Wisdom for a Man to distribute it so that God may Everlastingly reward him Of Pride Women that Pride themselves in putting on Silk and Purple cannot lightly put on the Lord Jesus Christ. â—…gain They which Colour their Locks with Yellow and Red begin betimes to Prognosticate of what Colour their Hair shall be in Hell Again They which love to paint themselves in this World otherwise than God Created them may justly fear that at the Resurrection their Creator will know them Of Alms-deeds He that gives an Alms to the Poor offers a sweet-smelling Sacrifice unto God Of Injuries All Injury of Evils present is to be neglected for the hope of good things to come Twelve Attributes he said was in the Life of Man viz. A Wise Man without good works an Old Man without Religion a Young Man without Obedience a Rich Man without Alms a Woman without shamefac'dness a Guide without Vertue a Contentious Christian a Poor Man that is Proud a King that is Unjust a Bishop that is Negligent People without Discipline Subjects without Law The Last Sayings of ARNOBIUS HE was a Famous Professor of Rhetorick in Sicca a City in Africa after his Conversion he applied himself to some Bishops with great earnestness to be Baptized and admitted into the Church When he was Master to Lactantius he used this Expression That Persecution brings Death in one hand and Life in the other for while it Kills the Body it Crowns the Soul He lived under Dioclesian between 300 and 330. The Death of EUSEBIUS HE lived to a good old Age. for the most part in Peace and Tranquility Dying Anno Christi 340. He used to say That Moses wrote the Old Law in dead Tables of Stone But Christ writ the perfect Documents of the New Testament in Living Souls The Death of LACTANTIUS HE was a Man of great Parts both Morally and Divinely Wise he was always Liberal for â—…hatsoever he received he again distributed it to â—…ch as were in want