degrees and shoots its envenomed Arrows in the dark we are wounded and we know not who it is that bends the Bow the blasting of our good name is a Persecution of the worst kind 't is one of the most refined Stratagems of Hell and such as slander their Neighbour either know not what they do and then they are Fools or they do it wilfully and then they are Devils they smell rank of Fire and Brimstone Some are as forward to put off all the Productions of their gangreen'd ulcerated Spirits as if they had got a Patent for Lying as if they had engross'd and monopoliz'd this Sin they think a little Backbiting has no great harm in it whereas there may be Death in a Whisper as well as Murther in a Wish We may pray against Anguish and Terror of Soul which is like a fiery Furnace and scorches us on every side and imbitters all that others call the Pleasures and the Sweets of Life Especially must we pray that when sickness or pain robs us of our Health sin may not at the same time rob us of our Faith and Hope in God as also that it would please him not to allow Satan to rake in our wounds and when his Almighty hand has smitten us that he would not leave his Enemy and ours to touch us to the Quick as he did Job and that at last all his malice may be defeated and that thirst extinguished whereby he so eagerly thirsts and longs for our Ruine and if we patiently wait we must in all our Pains maintain a most entire Compliance with the Will of our Corrector both as to the continuance and removal of our Sufferings And while they last let us open with all the freedom imaginable our whole Case and all its circumstances to the Father of our Spirits and when we open our Griefs his Bowels will earn over us our very miseries have with him a pleading and a moving Eloquence This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him You may cry to the Lord which implies a vehement eager motion of the Soul and an outward expression of your sense of Grief The best of men have not been insensible of pain and trouble Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the other Patriarchs felt these Inconveniences of Life as well as other men 'T is said of Jacob Gen. 48.1 that he was sick and ver 10. that his eyes were dim for age so that he could not see he was bedrid sometime before his death and no doubt had his Groans and his Crys like other Aged men David with all his Musick could not preserve an undecaying Youth nor charm away the cold Winter of his Life When he was old and stricken in years they covered him with clothes but he got no heat 1 Kings 1.1 And in other seasons of his Life he says the pressure of his grief was so very weighty that it made him groan all the night and he was weary with his groaning and his bed swimmed in an inundation of overflow-Tears Ps 6.6 and Ps 38.8 I am feeble and sore broken I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart This Roaring notes the Loudness and Vehemence of his Cries And says the poor desolate Job when his melancholy and terrors were upon him chap. 30.28 I went mourning without the Sun I stood to and cryed in the Congregation I had during my tempestuous Night scarce a glimpse or beam of Joy I was in such flaming Anguish that scorcht my Body and preyed upon my Soul I was in such dreadful and amazing fears that I was not able to keep silence My inward torment even when I was in any publick Assembly made me shriek and cry aloud And Hezekiah says of his sick and languishing condition Isa 38.14 Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter I did mourn as a Dove His Cry was quick and frequent and loud and frightful with a very sorrowful and doleful Tone His Eyes failed with waiting and his Heart was even like to break These Examples I alledge to shew you that the best of men may be sensible of pain and yet be submissive to the Author of it Loud Groans and Crys are no marks of an inward Impatience and disorder for by these troubled Nature gives it self a little vent and it gives a little ease tho' indeed but very little because our returning Grief makes our Groans and Crys return Tho' they are innocent and unavoidable expressions of some weighty sorrow that is like to crush us Grace does not overthrow Nature tho' it corrects all its excesses and disorders We know that the Language of the Sick has not the livelyness the briskness and strength of those that speak in health their Countenance their Looks their Actions their words are all changed All indeed are not equally sensible for some persons have a finer set and contexture of Spirits and consequently a quicker sense of Pain than those that are of a heavier and duller Constitution The delicate temper of the Body of our Saviour was more susceptible of grief than the Bodies of the Thieves that were Crucified with him 2dly When you pray do not wonder if you are not immediately answered do not murmure at the slow pace of Divine Mercy You shall have help in the most beautiful season when the glory of God and your good may be most promoted If he as yet delay to hear your very earnest and importunate Crys remember that his Elect cry to him day and night and he will at length avenge their Cause The Souls under the Altar cry all Nature Groans and Crys to be eased of the miseries that our sin has brought upon it We must pray but not presame to tell our Benefactor what and when he is to give 'T is an excellent posture to be found waiting on our Knees tho' mercy and deliverance come not just when we would have it 1. Those things which we many times most earnestly ask might be vastly prejudicial to us Many an one says give me this or that or else I die and the very things they prayed for when obtained prove a curse and those in which they hoped to rejoyce many years send them betimes mourning to the grave Rachel said to Jacob give me Children or else I die There was in her speech a great deal of childish weakness and impatience She hoped the having a Child would prolong her life and she smarted for her wish she died in her Lying In. Many are very importunate with God and nothing will serve them but this or that particular Comfort I must have it or I am undone and when they have the Idolized Vanity that they doted on they quickly find cause to repent of their hasty follies The Israelites were fond of a King but they had a long time wherein to repent of that fondness You may perhaps have what you ask but you may have it with a frown with such displeasure as will change your Wine to Vinegar
THE HAPPINESS OF A Quiet Mind BOTH In Youth and Old Age With the way to Attain It. In a DISCOURSE occasioned by the Death of Mrs. Martha Hasselborn who died March 13th 1695 6. in the 95th year of her Age. By TIMOTHY ROGERS M.A. LONDON Printed for Iohn Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhill MDCXCVI THE Epistle Dedicatory TO Mr. Jacob Hasselborn Merchant THere is nothing Men are more apt to value themselves upon than the being descended from Great and Honourable Persons who have either had Noble Blood running in their Veins or have signalized themselves by a series of Heroical Actions for the good of their Countrey and by this means have delivered their names down to Posterity Crowned with those Garlands which the thirst of Glory made them to desire And yet many thus descended stain the Memory of their Predecessors and as far as in them lies make all their Laurels wither by Lives led according to their own humour and fancy and the contagious Examples of a depraved Age. But you have the Honour to be akin to one who was on earth related to the family of Heaven Your Good Mother after having with continued Patience sustained the troubles of her weary Pilgrimage calmly at length arrived at her dearest home where she longed to be The Remembrance of her I doubt not is a great help to you in your Christian Race such an example of goodness so unaffected and sincere whilst it is always brightly shining before your Eyes gives you both light and strength to follow her in the same happy path wherein she went The frequent thinking on the Holiness of her Life will be a great Motive to quicken you to be like her in every commendable and praise worthy thing To think of her Faith and Meekness and Patience will make you flourish in the same Vertues As young Painters encrease their skill by frequently Copying old and excellent Originals In your pious Mother you have seen living and exemplified Religion a quiet Mind not as represented in the coldness of Precepts but as warmed and animated by the blessed Spirit and Patient holding out to the Conclusion of a great Age such a Patience as is to be admired but not to be described for no Colours can be soft enough to draw this Admirable Grace St. Paul rejoyced in his beloved Timothy and expressed a very lively pleasure upon the thought of one that had very good Parents and was himself ve-very good When says he I call to remembrance the unfeigned Faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy Grandmother Lois and thy Mother Eunice and I am perswaded in thee also wherefore I put thee in remembrance c. I hope that the pure and constant Faith that was in your Mother is passed into you not by a propagation of Blood but of Spirit not of Nature but of Grace That you and your Relations may meet her and all the blessed Saints with comfort at the Great Day live together in that place where there will be no Sin nor Pain nor Old Age but an Eternal Holiness Spring and Youth and where our present Weakness shall be swallowed up of Strength is the hearty Prayer of Your Real Friend And Servant T. Rogers Psal XL. Verse 1. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry AS of all the Ages of the Life of Man Infancy is the most Innocent and Childhood the most Vain and Youth the most Brisk and Daring so Old Age is the most clog'd with Pains and Miseries In other Stages of our Journey we are annoyed now and then with Trouble and Calamity with Sickness and decayes of Strength but this last part of our Pilgrimage this feeble part of Life is its self a Disease 'T is so weak that generally the Powers of the Soul as well as the Members of the Body have not the Liveliness and Vigor that they had in their greener Years the Evening is much more Cloudy and Tempestuous more Dark and Frightful then the Morning of their Days And yet there are found some Blessed Souls that flourish even in Winter neither the sharpness of the Weather nor the uncomfortableness of the Season hinders their being over Green Such an one was David as he was all his Life Musically given of an Harmonious Heavenly Temper in his pleasant Angelick Airs he had often mounted up to Heaven and at last with praise he took his Flight thither to change his Hymns into sweeter Hallelujahs 1 Chr. 29.10 He blessed the Lord before all the Congregation v. 20. He said to all the Congregation Now bless the Lord. V. 28. He dyed in a good old Age full of Days Riches and Honour So old Jacob when the decays of Strength and the weakness of his Age would not allow him to be long in his Devotions he improved the more easie Intervals of his Illness to breath after God Gen 49.18 I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord His Expression was short but his Faith and Patience were very great So Moses prepared his Soul for the Joyes of Heaven by tuning his Harp below he Sung before he dyed Deut. 32. And before his death he blessed the Children of Israel Ch. 33. And after this he went up to the Mount and put off his Body to be Cloathed upon with Life and Immortality Deut. 34.5 And good old Simeon who had a Promise that he should not depart till he had seen the Lords Christ He did not hide himself from the glorious sight tho' he knew that after that he must quickly dye but he came by the Spirit into the Temple and there he met with the Child Jesus that for many past years he had long'd to see And having seen the Blessed Babe he took him up in his Arms and was full of Transports saying Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luke 2.27 28. I might alledge the Example of Paul the Aged who was then in Chains and near his Execution by the Lyon Nero and yet after having served several Years under the Banners of Christ neither the Cruelties of his Imprisonment nor the prospect of death nor all the weight of Age that laid upon him did abate his hope in God nay his hope was ripened to assurance when he says I have fought the good fight He spoke as if he had been in Paradise as if the Crown of Glory had been already on his Head to all these I may joyn that daughter of Abraham for whom I Preach this Funeral Sermon who served God with chearful hope many years and bore all the advances of Death as well as her declining Age with admirable Calmness and Resignation and long continued Faith and Hope and dyed near an Hundred Years old dropping into the Grave like Fruit from the Tree when 't is fully Ripe She had no Clouds and Darkness in her Soul she was all calm and serene she lived in Joy and she
is as the sin of Witchcraft but to stay till he that sends trouble think fit to call it off shews a temper truely Christian and is an evidence of a subdued and a resigned Will. Secondly We are to consider the Reasons that should oblige us to this patient Waiting Reas 1. We should patiently wait on God for our many miseries and sorrows call for such a frame of Soul The Thorns in our flesh and the troubles of our minds our pains and our fears call for it our Voyage to Heaven may prove very full of Storms and by this patience we shall escape Shipwrack and not be left to the mercy of the Waves but have a wise Pilot to steer us and a sure Anchor within the veil God may give the Devil leave to vex us an Angel of Satan may buffet us he may torture and distress us very sore tho' he have not leave to kill us The roaring of the Lyon makes the Beast tremble tho' they are not within his devouring Jaws The Devil is often instrumental to bring sickness and pain upon us The worst of Men serve for common Executioners and the basest of Spirits may serve to bring Judgments And besides God will have no Creature useless even Storms and Vapours and Lightning and Thunder fulfil his Will But now by our patient hope in God the Malice of the Devil will be turned to Good his buffeting will teach us the need we have of Christ it will make us watchful it will make us full of gentleness and pity to such as he falls upon when we are escaped our Bowels will earn over them This waiting upon God will reconcile us to the most painful and the sharpest methods of his Providence this disappoints the Devil who would have us when the hand of God smites us to torment our own Souls he will be disappointed if we are not fretful tho' we be diseased by patient waiting we pull out the sting of troubles we Conquer Sin that would otherwise embitter all our Comforts and rob us of our Peace and Hope and make God to be our Enemy and every frown of his is more frightful and astonishing then the united threats of Men Every touch of his hand is heavier then their combined strength one drop of his Anger will overwhelm us more then the floods of many Waters Innumerable Evils in this Life will assault us both as we are Men and Christians and therefore we have need of Patience Patience to steer a right course to Heaven for we shall meet with many rough and contrary Winds that will blow upon us from every quarter Only by this quietness of waiting we shall be happy as to have no Tempest within though there may be Storms abroad We have need of Patience for we may meet with many Tribulations that will shake our confidence and put our strongest Faith to a very sharp Tryal and make the bruised Reed bend very much though it do not break If we have never so many years of smiling shining Light the days of darkness will at length come and the shadowes of the Evening be stretched out Our greener Youth knows but little sorrow but it hangs with a mighty weight upon decaying age A thousand Miseries come crouding thick upon old folks and after all these comes the shady veil and bitter death When we stand upon the shoar and view the blustering Winds and the rough Seas that we are to encounter surely we need a deal of patience of waiting and of prayer and our great afflictions will not be well born with a little Grace fiery Tryals will consume us if we are not fortifyed before we are thrown into the Furnace We need a vast Treasore of Grace when we consider what paint we may live to feel and what stinging troubles and provocations we may meet withal Reas 2. We should patiently wait upon God for by our most painful troubles he designs our Welfare and if we are not wanting to our selves in a due improvement of our Crosses we may reap unspeakable advantages The ruggedness of Adversity may be more useful to us than all the smoothness of our most unclouded and most easie days our Souls may thrive with the fairest and most lasting qualities When our Bodies languish and decay as 't is commonly observed that the People in cold Northern Climates are more robust and longer lived than those that are nearer to the South who are daily broiled with excessive heats which by quick degrees melt their Lives away In our most overflowing afflictions we are like those that are at Sea Ps 107.24 We see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep a thousand strange things are discovered to them that are in the midst of the gaping Waves that are not seen by those that are upon the Land they see the wonders of his Power in their support the wonders of his Wisdom in finding out ways to save them in the midst of danger We should particularly wait on God in all our sickness for he then teaches us to know our selves our weakness our ignorance and the folly of our careless unthinking health he teaches us to see that we and others in our best estate are altogether Vanity The smartness of our pains makes those instructions that are given us by the Rod to be more remembred and more abiding we cannot after bitter experience forget what a terrible thing Sin is that makes our Body pine and our Souls droop Our troubles that are deep and lasting teach us to see that none of our fellow Creatures in the very height of their Grandeur and Prosperity are to be the marks of our envy for they may in one moment be as low as we We that have been scorcht with fiery Tryals must pity those poor Men that have been singed in the Flames We should not be uneasie nor grieved at the Cross for our pain will soon be past and our past pain gives a mighty relish to our present ease and we may hope that in the midst of those Sorrows that God sends he will give us the most refreshing discoveries of his Love and by the Inconveniencies that sieze our Bodies remedy and abolish the far greater disorders of our Souls such as unbelief and ignorance and self-conceit and vain glory and a too great admiration of the world No Books nor no Preachers can teach us that which our own painful feeling and sensation does a few days sickness causes a mighty alteration in all our thoughts and apprehensions by this we judge of all things by a different and a truer Light We look upon this alluring world with other fort of eyes then we did before all its paint and varnish does not change its bewitching quality nor after having seen it at the borders of the Grave can we think it beautiful or doat upon it And such a discovery we then make of our selves and our own evil hearts as we never had before We could not have imagined that
Traveller goes to Bed He looked for the finishing of his Course with submissive regular Desires and Quiet Hopes So refresh'd and satisfied with living are those that are good in Age but a Sinner an hundred year old is accursed Cursed in his neglect of the Business of Life Cursed as condemned by a perpetual Desire of Longer and Longer Time he is pained with Trouble and afraid to die The Sins of his Youth have a Resurrection in his Thoughts and scare him with the sight of Death as knowing they will not only lye down with him in the Grave but rise with him thence And yet amidst such hideous Views and Apprehensions he has an unquenchable and painful Thirst after those Pleasures that are past away His Lust is fresh and lively when his Head is grey every thing about him grows old but his Sin and a long Life to such an one is but a continued Load of Guilt a daily treasuring up of Wrath against the Great Day But nothing is more Decent or more Lovely than to see a remaining Green under the Snow of Age The Beauty of an old Man is his Grace as well as his Years To be full of Days and to be full of Grace full of Faith and Hope and Joy in God is to be as beautiful as ever any was in the most blooming gayest Youth Job 5.26 Thou shalt come to thy Grave in a full Age like as a Shock of Corn cometh in his season It sheds and spoils if it stay too long if it be not gathered when 't is fully Ripe and the Season of it is as well lost as when 't is taken too green Do you that are Old take care of all the Evils proper to your advanced Age of Peevishness and Moroseness and Sourness and Covetousness and let those that are Young be Temperate and Sober and useful to the World that they may either live to be old or get to Heaven betimes Do you that are Aged improve your leisure Hours to prepare for your Change and do you that are Young listen to the Speeches and Directions of those that are near their latter end In your old Age recreate your selves with looking forward to a better State and when you do but very faintly draw your Breath yet be breathing after Heaven and your sincere Sighs and Groans shall be as acceptable as all the Motions of your swifter Youth And when your Tongues begin to faulter let your Actions speak your Patience and Submission to the Will of God And when you are even like to sink with Pains and Miseries Oh remember you are almost at home you have but a little while to run and you shall obtain a little while to fight and you shall be Crowned Watch a little longer the Sun is just setting and in a few Moments you may be allowed to go to sleep there is but a little Sand left in your Glass your Life is like a Candle burnt quite to the bottom And though the Religion of young People is very pleasant in the Eye of God their Graces send forth a sweet Perfume and when he walks in his Garden 't is agreeable to him to see the moist Flowers breath out their Morning Incense yet he loves old Disciples too and he gives them his Word and his Promise for their tottering Age to rely upon Be sure to improve the leisure of your declining Years to the best Purposes and be thankful that you are now retiring from the Noise and Hurry of the disagreeing busie World As Sir Henry Wotton said after a kind of tempestuous Life I have a great Advantage from my God that makes the Out-goings of the Morning to Praise him I daily magnifie him for his particular Mercy of an Exemption from Business a quiet Mind and a liberal Maintenance even in this part of my Life when my Age and Infirmities seem to sound a Retreat from the Pleasures of this World and invite me to Contemplation in which I have ever taken the greatest Felicity You may make use of all the Remembrances of the places where you have lived to help you in the best things As Mr. Walton tells us of the aforesaid Politician that he said upon his being in his old Age in Winchester School My being in this School and seeing the very place where I sate when I was a Boy occasioned me to remember the Thoughts of my Youth that then possessed me Sweet Thoughts indeed that promised my growing Years numerous Pleasures without mixtures of Cares and those to be enjoyed when time which therefore I thought slow paced had changed my Youth into Manhood But Age and Experience have taught me those were but empty Hopes for I have always found it true as my Saviour did foretel Sufficient to the day is the Evil thereof I have says he to Mr. Hales then of Eaton in my passage to my Grave met with most of those Joys of which a discursive Soul is capable and have not wanted those that were inferior Nevertheless I have not in this Voyage always floated on a Calm Sea but have often met with cross Winds and Storms with many Troubles of Mind and Temptations to Evil. And yet though I have been and am a Man compass'd about with Humane Frailties Almighty God has by his Grace kept me from making Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience the thought of which is now the Joy of my Heart and I most humbly praise him for it and I humbly acknowledge that it was not my self but he that hath kept me to this great Age and let him take the Glory of his Mercy And now my dear Friend continues he I now see that I draw near my Harbour of Death that Harbour that will secure me from all the future Storms and Waves of this restless World and I praise God I am willing to leave it and expect a better that World wherein dwelleth Righteousness And to him I add the Example of Mr. George Herbert that blessed Man that other David that tuned his Soul with Heavenly Thoughts and Musically lived and Musically died Mr. Walton in his Life tells us that in the time of his last Decays he did often thus express himself to Mr. Woodnot and his other Friends that attended him in his Languishing Condition I now look back upon the Pleasures of my Life past and see the Content I have taken in Beauty in Wit in Musick and pleasant Conversation are now all past by me like a Dream or as a Shadow that returns not and are all now become dead to me or I to them And I see that as my Father and Generation has done before me so I also shall now suddenly with Job make my Bed in the dark and I praise God I am prepared for it and I praise him that I am not to learn Patience now I stand in such need of it and that I have practised Mortification and endeavoured to die daily that I might not die Eternally And my Hope is
humble and very patient in her illness she had no fretful disordered Expressions she bore her burden laid upon her by God tho' her earnest desire to see him made her now and then say O why does he tarry On her Sick Bed she kept her Eye fixed above and sent before her arrival at Heaven her longing Prayers thither begging that her Iniquity might be blotted out and wishing to be with Christ. And when her Daughter attending on her Ministred to her support with a language proper for one just in the close of Life and told her God would receive her into the Arms of his Mercy she with the composure of a Soul bordering upon Happiness answered She had laid her self as the feet of Jesus Christ and had submitted to him who was able to save to the uttermost which words she often uttered in her former and latter Years And a Night or two before she was called away she repeated part of 39th Psalm Verse 8 9 10. and such was her Faith and Hope that she was able to apply to her self those Triumphant words of that patient Job I know that my Redeemer lives and that she should see him for her self and this Redeemer she is now gone to see In his Arms we leave her till he and all that sleep in him shall come together at the last day And now my Friends from all that I have said concerning this departed Saint we may without any difficulty observe that Meekness and Patience is the ready way to long Life I do not believe this good Woman had lived so long had she not been of a calm and quiet Spirit Those that are furious and passionate and ill-natured corrode and vex themselves and with hast snap asunder the Thread of Life There are two things to be wondered at with respect to this Person First That she should live so long as being one of the weaker and feebler Sex and Secondly That her Patience should not be tired during so long an abode in this World as 95 Years but be continued to the last moment of her Life How illustrious is that Power that kept so frail a Vessel from being dash't in pieces How glorious is that Grace that enabled her to persevere in the Love of God We may further consider that Death is the Lot of all those that are the most Aged are not immortal they most at length go to their Long Home tho' many Thousands go with quicker and more hasty steps then they The Oak that is the oldest Father of the Forest that has survived many scorching Summers and many cold blasts of Winter must at length feel the decays of Age and perish as surely tho' not as soon as the little Trees the longest day will have a concluding Night Those that are an hundred years old and those that are but Twenty must both in a while lye down in a Bed of Dust Methusalem lived many long Years but he did not live for ever O let us by the thought of this be moved to lay hold on a Life that is Eternal a Life that has no mixture of Corruption and has no fears of decay and such a life the blessed live in Heaven there is no death Again Let none here fancy because they now and then hear of such an one that has attained to almost an Hundred that therefore they shall live as long and having such a prospect may spend their present days in Jollities and Mirth as believing they have an huge deal of time lying on their hands For what a surprize will it be to stumble into the Grave in Youth when they imagined they should not come thither till they were Old If you Examine the weekly Bills you 'll find few dye of Age comparatively to what dye of other Diseases more dye before thirty then live to Fourscore The youngest here have seen younger then themselves snatcht away by Death and many a Flower is withered when it just began to open The Sun with many goes down at Noon As well might every Disciple of Christ expect to live as long as St. John who was to tarry longer on Earth than most of the rest and Died at 93. Simeon the Son of Cleophas Brother of our Lord lived an 120. Length of Life is not of all other Blessings the most desirable and as one observes it was not peculiar to Grace or the Holy Line for there are reckoned of the Fathers to the Flood Eleven Generations but of the sons of Adam by Cain only Eight Generations so as the Posterity of Cain may seem the longer lived The good Men and good Women too sometime lived very long as Abraham to One hundred seventy five Isaac to One hundred and Eighty Jacob to One hundred forty seven Sarah whose years only among Women are Recorded dyed in the One hundred twenty seventh year of her Age an excellent Mother and a good Wife Luke 2.36 37. Anna is said to be of a great Age a very patient Person For when she was about Eighty four she departed not from the Temple As to you that are the Relations of this good old Disciple do not water the Grave of your Friend with useless Tears There is indeed great cause to Lament when an useful serviceable Person is taken away by sudden or untimely death 't is the falling of Fruit before Autumn come But such as have been a Blessing and a long example of Piety to the very last step of Humane Life are not so to be lamented as having most regularly finished their Course and were not cut off in the middle of their Race And yet as one says it is to be observed that the Saints of God tho' never so Old and brought never so low through the Miseries attending them when they changed this Life for a better were still buried with great Lamentation Abel-mizraim Gen. 5. was a place never to be forgot either by the Egyptians or the Canaanites and not Jacob only but Moses and Aaron and Samuel were buried by the People of Israel and great Publick Mournings made made It would be very unreasonable for you to Mourn and needless for me to desire you not to do it She prayed and longed to be with Christ and would you mourn that God has heard her Prayers and that she now is where she longed to be It would be a most unjust thing to be sorry that a Labourer is gone to rest or to bewail the death of one that is Ninety Five who was not gathered till the fullest time of Harvest and when she was duely ripe for Glory Oh be thankful that God has at length comforted this Handmaid of his that waited for his Consolations Be thankful that you so long have had the benefit of her good advice her shining example and her holy prayers Let the remembrance of her Faith and Patience and Hope and her other excellent Qualifications kindle in you the like Graces Consider the end of her Conversation with what peace she lived and with what joy she dyed Do nothing unworthy of the Children of so good a Mother tread in her steps and follow her in the practise of all praise worthy things that so she and you may comfortably meet at the last day and never never part again Amen The End ERRATA's Page 5. line 5. after that Read it is P. 13. l. 16. for Eaden R. Endor P. 1â— l. 13. after it R. is P. 19. l. 9. R. Beasts P. 26. l. 11. R. Pillow P. 36. l. 11. R. dwindling P. 41. l. 25. R. God's P. 52. l. 9. for thus R. this P. 75. l. 21. R. Amiable P. 88. l. 15. after Land R. in Storms P. 90. l. 20. R. Amiableness THE Changeableness of this World with Respect to Nations Families and particular Persons with Practical Applications thereof to the various Conditions of this Mortal Life By Timothy Rogers M.A. Price 1 s. Printed for J. Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhill