many so hardned in stupidity that contrary unto nature they are not affected with or concerned at the Death or going to the Grave of almost any person Secondly There is a natural Obligation on the Living to Mourn for the Dead for that Death is the thing which every Man in the world hath deserved as being lineally descended from Adam who brought Death into the World and inslaved not only himself but all his posterity unto its power So saith the Apostle Rom. 5. ver 12. Wherefore as by one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have Sinned Had Adam never sinned Adam had never dyed but in illo die saith God in that day thou eatest the Fruit thereof thou shalt surely dye or as it is in the Original dying thou shalt dye And indeed as he devolved Guilt so he entailed death the sad consequence of that Guilt upon all that should come after him unto the end of the World Oh! therefore how natural would such a reflection as this be at the news of any Mortals fall by the stroke of Death or at the sight of any deceased person going to his Long Home I am a Child of Adam as well as he and in the guilt and pollution of his original Disobedience was I shaped and subjected to all the Miseries that attended that iniquity did my Mother conceive me and bring me forth And surely I have added to the stock of original Corruption multitudes innumerable multitudes of actual Transgressions and therefore I have every way merited Death and deserved to be imprisoned in the Dungeon of the Grave as much as he that hath past through it and is gone down before me into it Should not I then be concerned at and deeply affected with what hath befallen him The extremity of pain that he was in the weary some nights that he enjoyed the tumblings and tossings that he under-went the bitter distress and anguish that possessed his Soul which enforced those doleful sighs and sobs those heart-fetcht-groans and shrikes from his dying Breast are all things that I in the same if not in a greater measure have deserved Oh! then that my Head were Waters and my Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I could mourn and weep and truly lament at this Mournful Spectacle and that from this consideration that as he the object of Mortality before my Eyes is deprived of life and all the comforts of it as he is snatcht away from all his Friends and Relations as he of a living Man is become a lump of dead Clay a piece of rotten putrifying Flesh fit for nothing but to feed worms in the Grave even so have I most justly merited in the like manner to be nothing hath befallen him but what is due to me Thirdly There is a natural Obligation on the Living to Mourn for the Dead for that there is no living person but must come to it himself Death is a debt we must all pay to Nature Job speaks of Man indefinitely thereby including every Man in what capacity so ever he is Chap. 14. ver 2. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not And we are elsewhere told that All flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fladeth even so when the Hand of God is upon Man upon any Man he maketh his Beauty to consume away like a Moth for that every Man is Vanity Selah We have an Interrogation concerning this which implies a vehement Negation for so the Scripture often expresseth it self Psal 89. ver 48. What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Selah That is there is no Man living but must see Death and come into the dominion of the Grave Now if Death be thus common to every Man then every Man ought certainly to be affected when he sees another under the power of it Would it not I pray you argue more than ordinary stupidity and sencelesness in that Malefactor that beholding a Partner in Guilt and Condemnation with himself dying a shameful painful Death according to the Sentence of the Law the which Death he himself must undergo the day following and yet not to be concerned at such a spectacle so much as to shed a Tear or manifest any meltings of Heart at so doleful a sight Oh! How unnaturally hard-hearted would you say this Man was Why Sirs this is our very case we are all real Malefactors before God condemned by him to death to the same death and sooner or later we must be laid on our sick Beds the common place of Execution and when we see any in pain and misery there before us Oh! we should remember it will be our turn ere long Do we see a dying Man in a languishing departing condition fetching his last sigh heaving for his last groan and giving up his last breath Oh! we should sadly reflect upon our selves as that Father of whom I have read did at the sight of any Coffin Ille hedie ego cras He is gone to day and so may I to morrow or to be sure must go one day or other then which nothing is more certain Fourthly It is not corrupted but refined Nature that especially enforces this duty of Mourning for the Dead and the more Nature is purged the more it is enlivened in the regular performance of this Work We find the Spirit of God inciting and calling upon Men solemnly to do it Jer. 9. ver 17 18. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Consider ye and call for the mourning Women that they may come and send for cunning Women that they may come And let them make hast and take up a wailing for us that our Eyes may run down with Tears and our Eye-lids gush out with Water Why What is the matter what is the cause there should be such a great general Mourning ver 21. For Death is come up into our windows is entered into our palaces to cut off the Children from without and the young Men from the streets Oh! When Death is taking its range about the streets it is an especial time for Mourners to be there to manifest a real Mourning under such a dispensation to put on Ashes for Beauty and instead of the Garment of Joy to be cloathed with the Spirit of Heaviness Religion doth not hinder any natural act it only regulates the mode and refines the end of the performance It doth not hinder natural love it only teacheth us how to love innocently nor doth it hinder natural sorrow it only guides us how to sorrow profitably As Divines say Though Religion be above reason yet it is not contrary to reason so though it be an enemy to all vitious corrupt motions of nature yet it obligeth no person to be unnatural that is to fail in doing
when the Marriage-knot between the Soul and Body is dissolved when there is a Writ of Divorce issued from the Court of Heaven to separate them then the Body is laid up in the Grave and there it remains a long long time even till the day of the Resurrection The Apostle speaks of an Home in this World 2 Cor. 5. ver 6. Therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we are at Home in the Body we are absent from the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here I conceive might be better rendred with than in and so the Sence will be supposing it as indeed we must the Breathings of the Spirit of Man we are here as strangers sojourning or dwelling with the Body as though we were at Home for a small time The Supersicies of the Earth is Man's Short Home the Bowels of it is his Long Home Now if we compare the time of the longest-lived-man that ever was upon the Earth which was Methuselah whose days amounted to Nine Hundred Sixty and Nine Years with the time that he hath since lived in the Grave we shall find the Grave to be his Long Home in comparison of the Earth notwithstanding his days were lengthened so exceedingly upon it Thus you see the Grave is a Long Home Comparatively But Secondly The Grave is a Long Home Really and Positivily The Time of Man's commoration in this dark Mansion is not for days or years but ages yea for many ages So that we may call it a small Branch of the vast Ocean of Eternity If we look at Abel the first Lord of this Mannor the first that took Possession of this retired Place how many Thousand Years hath he kept house in this gloomy Tabernacle of the Grave It hath been a long a very Long Home to him The Grave hath been an inhabited Tennament by Adam's posterity above Five Thousand Years And we that are yet alive waiting to go down into it how long our abode may be in it we are uncertain because We know not in what day or hour the Son of Man shall come to break open the Prison Doors of the Grave and to set us at liberty that are in the Prison-House Job speaks of the Grave as the House he was most certain to go unto and take up his dwelling in Chap. 30. vor 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me to Death and to the House appointed for all Living It is an House of a long standing and will be of long duration even as long as time it self it runs parallel with it The Creation of the World and the Resurrection of Man out of the Grave are the two Tropicks of time or the sacred boundaries that Heaven hath put to it A parte post a parte ante as the Philosopher speaks For as before the former it had no Existence so after the latter it shall have no longer continuance but be swallowed up in the fathomless Gulph of Eternity Time that now is always running Mobâ—li cursu with a swift pace will then be stopt in its motion and be no more But there are several things that must precede this Great and weighty Matters must be brought about by the hand of Divine Power before the End cometh as we may plainly see if we consult the sacred Oracles Anti-christ must be brought down with all his Usurpations and Idolatrys The Jews must be converted The number of the Gentiles must be brought in and the House of the Lord must be set upon the Mountains and exalted above the Hills that all Nations may flow unto it For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem But till this be done the Grave is the appointed house for all Living and therefore it is a Long Home Having thus considered the Grave as to its Duration It is a Long Home We will now speak a little of the Grave with respect to its Qualification what kind of Home it is In the general it is Man 's designed and appointed Home In the Text but now quoted out of Job it is said to be the House appointed for all Living God hath appointed by a decree like the Laws of the Medes Persians which never can be changed or revoked that the Grave shall be the one Repository for all the Carcasses of Adams Children to be laid up in and kept till the day of the Resurrection The Apostle speaks of the appointment of Death Heb. 9. ver 27 And as it is appointed unto Men once to Dye but after this the Judgment Men are appointed to Dye that they may go to their appointed home the Grave God hath appointed Mans being and the time of his being in this World as Job stedfastly believed All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come And he hath appointed Man a place of resting after he goes out of this World and that is the Grave Oh! How should this suppress Fears and banish Cowardise from the Hearts of all timorous Christians that are slavishly afraid of the Paleness of Death and tremble to think of going down into the darkness of the Grave Why Sirs though it be never so dark and gloomy though it be an house of Rotterness a place of Putrefaction it is the home prepared and appointed by our Heavenly Father for us And therefore Why should we scruple to lye down in it Or why should we have any fearful apprehensions about it Such persons and lose all the comfort of their lives as an Heathen well observed Qui metuit Mortem quod vivit perdit id ipsum Oh! We should be always remembring it and rest satisfied in it that the Wise the Righteous the Holy the blessed GOD hath appointed the Grave for our Long Home First God hath appointed die Grave as Man's proper suitable home the home that doth naturally suite with his Complexion and Constitution When Adam by his Rebellion had shaken off the glorious Theocrasy he was under which would assuredly have protected him from the power of Death however Homogeneal to his body by reason of the contrariety of qualities in it God left him and that justly to Fall to Dye according to the perishing nature of that matter of which his Body was composed Gen. 3. ver 19. In the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return As if he had said Hadst thou continued in thy Obedience and hadst kept thy self in thy Innocency sitting under the shadow of my immediate Government I would by my Almighty Power have preserved thy Body notwithstanding its Materiality from ever seeing corruption or being in the least tainted with putrefaction But now I 'le leave thee to go down to the caverns of the Earth where thy Body being dust naturally inclines with as much propensity as the Stone to its
those things which the principals of natural being do require as necessary to the demonstration of its being but rather provokes to a lively and regular doing of them And surely this duty under our present consideration is that which the spirit of a Man dictates to him though in a dark mistaken way and the Spirit of God suggests to him in a right safe justifiable way That there is a time to Mourn is past dispute since the Word of Truth speaks it and that a Funeral Solemnity or seeing Man go to his Long Home is such a time is also out of doubt since the Word of Truth enjoyns it Hence we may warrantably and not uncharitably conclude That Man void of Reason or Religion of Nature or Grace yea of Love to God or Man that brings not a Mourning-heart along with him to the House of Mourning Secondly Relatively There is a relative obligation upon the living to Mourn for the dead which Relation either in a more large or strict sence takes in the whole Race of Mankind First For that all men are related in Adam as springing from his Loyns Though men are now distinguished into many sorts of Nations and divers Kinds and Manners of persons yet they all come from the same Root the same Off-spring all Children of the same Father of the same Mother So we are told Gen. 3. ver 20. And Adam called his Wives name Eve because she was the Mother of all Living All the vast numberless multitudes of People throughout the Universe that have been or still are in the World came originally from her Womb. She is the Parent from whence so many Millions of Souls may derive their pedigree The highest and most certain degree of Relation in natures Climax Methinks then we should not be so unmindful of our primitive Extraction as to be wholly unconcerned at the departure of one of the same Race with our selves There is none so remote from us in Country or Acquaintance but he is near to us yea related to us Secundum esse as he is a Son of Adam And can we afford never a tear never a sigh never a compassionate sob to accompany such an one be he who he will or what he will to his Long Home Ah! 'T is sign we are hardned against our own Flesh and that we shamefully forget the Father that begat us and the Mother of whom we are all Born Oh! what a debauched abominable Age do we live in wherein Men are so senceless and horridly stupid so intoxicated with Lusts and Vanities so bewitched to the Allurements of the World so feared in their evil ways and courses that Death though it be even at their doors is disregarded by them and the going to the Grave of others though their very Neighbours is a thing they take no notice of nor in the least Mourn for so long as they have their strength and health to drink and swear and indulge themselves in their lusts and pleasures they care not who are Sick or who Dye or who go to the Grave it is all one to them Truly such persons are so far from being like Christians that they are ten thousand times worse than Heathens Oh! how will the Egyptians rise up in Judgment against the Men of this Generation and condemn them for their melting and mourning Deportment at the Funeral of good old Jacob notwithstanding he was of another Nation and Religion when they came to the Threshing-floor of Arad which is beyond Jordan 't is said they Mourned with a very great and sore Lamentation insomuch that the place was called Abel-Mizraim the Mourning of the Egyptians But ah How little Mourning is there found amongst us upon such occasions Secondly As there is a Relation in the first Adam wherein all are concerned so there is a Relation in the second Adam wherein not a few are tied and obliged to be concerned one for another especially at so great a change as that of Death Now this Relation is either more Large or more Strict More Large and so all that own Jesus Christ the Son of God to be come in the Flesh are within the reach of it who are therefore called by one general and Catholick name Christians But more Strictly and so it is restrained peculiar to Believers who by the same work of Grace are made true Members of the Church-militant and by the same act of Faith are expecting the glory of the Church-triumphant Who are engaged in the same cause Souldiers under the same Banner Wrestlers against the same Enemy even Principalities and Powers and spiritual Wickednesses in high places Who are sighting the same Battle Runners of the same Race Pursuers after the same Crown even that which is incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away Who are Inheritors of the same Promise Fellow-heirs of the same Kingdom Waiters for the same Adoption to wit the Redemption of the Body Who are Professors of the same Faith Believers in the same Christ Experiencers of the same happiness in the glimpses of Zion's glory and the fore-taste of the Joys of the Life to come In a word who are under the same Tye confirmed by the same Seals bound by the same Covenant to live according to the Rule and in the Fellowship of the Gospel This Relation is so near so great so obligatory that the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Brotherhood or a company of Brothers As all Men are Brothers in Adam naturally so Believers are Brothers in Christ spiritually and this nearness in Relation should certainly cause a Mourning when Death makes a Separation Oh! when a Godly Man goes to his Long Home then Godly-Mourning should Go about the Streets for that there is a great Loss and will be a real want of his Prayers his Tears his Holy Converse and the good he might farther have done in the World Upon this account Elishah Mourned for Elijah and sent his loud Acclamations of Sorrow to Heaven after him when he was taken up from him My Father my Father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof This made the Ephesians Mourn so dolefully at Paul's departure because they were never to see him again So saith the Text And they all wept sore and fellon Pauls Neck and kissed him Sorrowing most of all for the words that he spake that they should See his Face no more Paul was their spiritual Father that had begotten them to God and therefore they could not but Mourn to think of parting with so dear a Relation especially since it was to be an eternal Farewel How must they never see his Face more never hear the sound of that golden Trumpet more that had been so charming to their Ears yea so ravishing to their Souls Oh! This strained up their Sorrow to the highest Peg this made them Mourn with a Mourning truly Mournful And we read Acts 8. ver 2. And devout Men carried Stephen to his Burial and made great Lamentation over him
Chariot that he had and they brought him to Jerusalem and he Dyed and was Buried in one of the Sepulchers of his Fathers and all Judah and Jerusalem Mourned for Josiah And Jeremiah Lamented for Josiah and all the Singing Men and the Singing Women spake of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day and made them an Ordinance in Israel and behold they are written in the Lamentations He had not Lived out half his days but was unexspectedly taken off from farther doing of Good and this made them Lament so sorely over him And the same cause have we to Lament this day for this our Deceased Friend who contrary to the thoughts and expectations of us all was on a sudden snatched from us before he had arrived to the Thirtyeth Year of his Age. He was an healthy strong Man I remember not above two days before he sickned he was Jocosely telling me he looked upon himself as the most healthy and likeliest Man to Live in the Ship Indeed I thought he was But Ah! how soon was he gone A little sickness carryed him away Lord How vain a thing is Man How subject to Fade and Perish in his strongest and most advantagious state I will not say of our Friend as Virgil said of his Mecenas Longius annoso vivere dignus avo But 't was pity had it been the Will of God that a few Years more had not been added to his Life And his being so untimely removed bespake our greater Lamentation Fourthly Consider he is taken away in the midst of desires and wishes for his Life If Prayers if Tears if Endeavors of all sorts could have laved his Life this Sorrowfull and Mournful day had not been 'T is a great Judgment for a Man to Live undesired and to Dye unlamented And hence when the Lord would express his Anger to Jchoiakim for his wickedness he threatens him with this Judgment Jer. 22. ver 18 19. Therefore thus saith the Lord converning Jchoiakim the Son of Josiah King of Judah they shall not Lament for him saying Ah! my Brother or Ah! my Sister they shall not Lament for him saying Ah! Lord or Ah! his Glory He shall be buryed with the Eurial of an Asse drawn and cast forth beyond the Gates of Jerusalem But it is not so with our Friend I am consident not a Person here but does really Lament his Death I see the Characters of Sorrow engraven in all your Faces I know you Loved him Living and now Dead you are Mourners for him And I â—aâ—e farther 〈◊〉 had your Sorrow been as Effectual as it was Cordial you had prevented his Decease So that Hand opus est Calearibus There 's no need of any Spurs to your Lamentation that Labor is happily obviated I have indeed been shewing you for your Satisfaction and Consolation the just grounds of your Sorrow to secure you from the imputation of Irrational I shall now conclude only with a few words to put your Sorrow in the right Channel that you may sorrow as the Apostle phrases it after a Godly sort First Mourn for this Loss by way of Reflection That is Reflect on the condition you might have been in if God had called you to an account for your manifold Sins Is a Man of such Use and Worth taken away so suddenly by Death from us Oh! How should we Fear and Tremble to think what will become of us who are of so little Use in the World who have lived unprositably and unfruitfully all our days who have done little or no good in the several Capacities we have been How should it also incite us to a speedy and unfeigned Repentance lest a worse Death come upon us according to the advice of our blessed Lord Luke 13. ver 2 3. And Jesus answering said unto them Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell ye nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Oh! Sirs do you think that this our dear and worthy Brother was a Sinner above all of us because he is gone down into the shades of Death before us I tell you nay but except you and I repent we shall all likewise perish Oh! Therefore I beseech you let this sad providence be a loud call to Repentance and Reformation and to say with the Church Come let us turn to the Lord for he hath torn and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up Secondly Mourn for this Loss by way of Humiliation Oh! labor to be so sensible of this sad Stroke as to be humbled under it and to lye low before the Lord who hath so sorely visited us in this most grievous manner Humiliation is the great expected and designed End of Correction God led his antient People through the Wilderness and exercised them with manifold Temptations that he might humble them and consequently do them good in their latter end 'T is sign of an hardned and obdurate Heart induced when there is no humbling under the mighty Hand of God And Reprobate-Silver shall Men call them that are not Resined in the Fuâ—â—â—ce of Affliction 'T was spoken as an horrid Aggravation of Israels Iniquity and Impenitency that after all the Lashes and Scourges of God's Rod and all his proceedings in way of Judgment against them Yet says the Text they are not humbled even unto this day Ah! Sirs How Lamentably would our Sins be heightned how exceedingly would our Souls be ripened for Destruction if we should not be humbled under this present awful Dispensation For verily the Lord is risen up as in Mount Perizim He is Wroth as in the Valley of Gideon and is doing his Work his strange Work and is bringing to pass his Act his strange Act in visiting our Transgressions with this smarting Rod and our Iniquities with this wounding Stripe And shall we say the Shadow of the Mountain and make but a light thing of it Oh! God forbid But rather I beseech you let us whilst our Spirits are dejected by this Loss endeavor to have our hearts humbled in the Sence of the Lord's anger that he may not farther be provoked to bring worse evils and calamities upon us How was David humbled and melted at the News of the Death of Saul and Jonathan How did he brake forth into this bitter Lamentation 2 Sam. 1. ver 19. The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places how are the mighty fallen Truly we may justly take up the same Complaint in the same words The beauty of our society the glory of our company the excellency of our community is fallen and perished from among us this day which bespeaks not only Heart-contrition but Soul-humiliation Thirdly Mourn for this Loss by way of submission and resignation of your Wills to the good Will and Pleasure of Almighty God and ceasing to murmur or complain because that he has done it We should say of this Dispensation as the Magicians said of
the Lice Exod. 8. ver 19. Then the Magicians said unto Pharaoh This is the finger of God And Pharaoh's heart was hardned and he hearkned not unto them as the Lord had said Oh! Sirs we should say this is the handy work of God of that God Whose Judgments are unsearchable and whose Ways are past finding out and therefore we ought with all holy filial Reverence to submit to what he has done Fourthly Oh! Mourn for this Loss by way of preparations for your own turn whensoever it shall please God to call you to it This was Moses his wish for Israel and it is mine for you Deut. 32. ver 29. O that they were wise that they knew this that they would consider their Latter End So to consider of it as to prepare for it And especially to consider of it when we see others taken away from among us Oh! How should Objects of Mortality before us be as pressing Lectures of Divinity to us to put us in mind of the certainty of our own Dying and the necessary prae-requisites to a Dying State that when we come to the Borders of Death instead of fearing it we may sarcasmally triumph over it in the words of the blessed Apostle O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory And when like Aaron upon Mount Hor we are stripped of the Robes of Mortality we may be invested with the more beauteous and transcendent Garment of everlasting Glory in our Fathers House where are many Mansions to enjoy the Soul-ravishing Communion of blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heaven to sit under the shadow of our Glorified Lord Jesus with great delight and to have his Fruit for ever pleasant to our Tast wrapt up in the Joys and Consolations of the Spirit waiting for that one only additional Happiness even the Adoption to wit the Redemption of the Body In a word to be with our own God the God of all Peace and Comfort in whose Presence there is fulness of Joy and at whose Right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore FINIS AN ELEGY On the Death of the before-Named Mr. Rich Bernard Consecrated to his MEMORY BY ONE Who Loved him Dearly Prized him Highly And Laments him Greatly CAN Grief be silent Rather can Grief speak A Top-full Vessel scarce finds vent to Leak Hearts that are charg'd and over-press'd with Sorrow Deny to lend what Mourning Tongues would borrow Words may be form'd in saddest case no doubt But Sighs and Groans will stop their passage out Wonder not then we are so Mute even now Our Souls to Grief's most rigid Laws we bow And in the Dust seem liveless as we lye True Hieroglyphicks of our Misery Sense of our Loss deprives us of all Sense We more than Masters in Griefs-School Commence Like Weeping Niobes we are become Grief makes us sad but Horror strikes us dumb Our Tongues can't Accent what our Hearts direct Deep Groans and Sobs must be our Dialect We 'll Sob his Death and with an Heart-fetch'd Groan That Loss which ne're can be repair'd make known A Loss indeed beyond a Vulgar Loss As far as Ophir purest Gold 's from Dross Death hath not snatched one of our common Friends But one in whom the Life of Friendship ends The Soul of Love the Quintescence of Mirth Whose presence mid-wiv'd Joy into a Birth Who Lov'd and knew to blow where e're he came The Sparks of Pleasure to an open Flame So Apprehensive half-Ey'd Men might see He was ingenious to a Prodigie His rare and great Accomplishments inhanc'd His Price above all Value and Advanc'd Th' admir'd Capacity of his known Name To cope the glory of Machaons Fame In all the Rules of Physick he excell'd And very hardly to be Parallell'd Diseases own'd his Power and Heaven did Bless His Skill to most with wonderful Success Besides all this he had a greater Art To feel the Pulse of a Distemper'd Heart And by his Candid Carriage to unty The Gordian-Knot of inward Misery His Wit and Parts dispell'd the Clouds of Sadness And changed Sorrow into peals of Gladness Judge judge how Mournful now is our Condition That thus have lost a Duplicate-Physitian Well might the Cannons roar when he was gone The fittest Emblem of our general Moan They were our Organs thorough which we broke Griefs deadly silence and in Thunder spoke We sent by them our loud-mouth'd doleful Cryes Resounding Woe and Horror to the Skyes The Air was black with Smoke to let us see That Element did Mourn as well as we The Sea did Foam Neptune was full of Fears Lest he should shake his Kingdom 'bout his Ears And in our Fury rise to such a pass As to attempt the wresting of his Mace For having rob'd us of so rich a Jem More-priz'd by us than all his Diadem We needed not his Water for a Grave Unto our Friend each Tear more than a Wave Would soon have swel'd into a Sea for him And been enough for th' Coffin in 't to Swim Or rather sink true Sorrow 's such a freight To poize down more than many Thousand Weight I now despise great Aeolus and his storms Though represented in tremendious forms The raging of the Seas henceforth no more Shall fright my Soul thought Winds and Waves do roar Now he is there whose influencing charms Keep back their fury from inflicting harms And by his Art and Skill right Chymical Makes all their Waters more than Med'cinal 'T was often said The Sea abounds in Store More than the Earth I nere believ'd before But now I shall and readily submit With all my heart unto the Truth of it Since so much Learning Parts and Worth is in 't What can it be less than a peerless Mint Here stop my Pen no farther ' tempt to build Statues of Mourning in this sable Field Call for the Epilogue draw out the Screene And put Conclusion to this doleful Scene The Floods of Tears which from our Eyes have run With Sighs he 's wafted to Elisium The Epitaph FArewel dear Heart thy absence makes me sad The truest Friend that ever Mortal had My pleasant Sea-Consort the very Soul Of that delight which Sadness does Controul My Bosom-Friend to whom I could dispence The greatest Secrets with safe-Confidence My Counsellor with whom I could advise And learn by Imitation to be Wise A Brother dearer than by Nature can In Life and Death to me a Jonathan Rest rest in Peace within thy Watry-Urn Whilst I toss'd up and down shall Sigh and Mourn To think of my great Loss in losing Thee Once happy in thy sweet Society What! Art thou Dead My thought my Dream was so Ah! 't is too true a Dream the more the Woe Thou hadst thy Plea though cam'st unto thy Tryal Death was thy Judge and would have no Denyal Charles Nicholettes
and perish there For David personating him thus prophetically spake Thou wilt not leave my Soul taken here figuratively for the outward Man in Hell that is the Grave for so Sheol signifieth Neither wilt Thou suffer thy holy One to see Corruption Implying that all other bodies must see corruption under whatever circumstances they may be considered when they come to this common home this general receptacle of the Grave For as all must lye down and take up their dwelling there together so all must perish and rot and be consumed there and that from the same cause and after the same manner The Grave is a common home for the wicked in Judgment it is their Jail where they are kept safe till the great and general Assizes of the Day of Judgment when the last Trumpet will sound and the Eccho of it will be heard from the one end of the Earth to the other with this doleful Summons Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment When the Vision of John will be made good to a tittle And I saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it from whose Face the Earth and Heaven fled away and there was found no place for them And I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Book according to their Works And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell that is the Grave delivered up the Dead which were in them and thy were Judged every Man according to their Works And the effect of this great Tryal and dreadful Appearance will be the Bodies of the wicked shall be sent to Hell as well as their Souls and be Tormented there for ever God can and for the glorifying of his Justice he will Condemn both Body and Soul to Hell-fire at last Those Ears that have been always open to let in the Air of obscenity and tickled with delight in the hellish musick of prophane Language shall then be terrified with the doleful Howlings and Cryings and Gnashing of Teeth that will there be in an horrible manner among the wreached Miscreants Those Eyes that have been as Windows to let in Lust and all manner of wantonness and filthiness into the Soul shall then be punished with beholding the ghastly Looks of affrightning Devils that will be continually staring the damned in the Face Those Tongues that have been the Bellows of the Devil blown into from Hell always imploy'd in belching forth horrid Oaths blaspheming their Creator or thundring out direful Execrations cursing the Creature and that without either shame or remorse shall then be miserably scorched in that inextinquishable Fire which there burneth Day and Night In a word those Bodies that here have been vessels of uncleaness members of an harlot recepticles of all prophaness shall then be rowling on fiery Pillars in those everlasting Burnings in those devouring Flames which the Breath of the Lord hath kindled when that amazing and soul-confounding Sentence is pronounced upon them by the Month of the righteous Judge himself Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But now the Grave is a common home to the Saints and People of God in Mercy it is the place where their Bodies are clarify'd and refined from all dross and corruption and so made fit for Glory Oh! what a glorious Morning what a joyful blessed day will that of the Resurrection be to All that sleep in Christ For then with their bodily Eyes shall they behold their Saviour and in the re-union of their Bodies with their Souls shall they be for ever with him hearing him speaking in that soul-reviving soul-refreshing yea soul-ravishing Language to them Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Then the Body that is now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a body of meanness or a low abject vile Body by reason of its corruption shall in that day become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body of Glory for it will be changed and made like unto the glorious Body of the Lord Jesus and in conformity to that Glory put on Stolam immortalitatis the Garment of immortality The dead bodies of Saints shall live yea together with the dead Body of Christ shall they arise They shall awake and sing though now they dwell in the Dust for their Dew is as the Dew of Herbs and the Earth shall give them up as the Lord 's Dead Now then if the Grave be Man's proper home his seltled home his confined home and his common home Ah! How should all of us whether rich or poor high or low old or young be familiarizing this home to our selves as that which we must all come to Oh Sirs Methinks you should have serious and awful thoughts of your ghastly paleness your loathsome blackness and your habitations in the dark And so I pass from the Dying Mar's Destiny He goes to his Long Home To the Living Man's Duty He ought to be a Mourner in the Street I told you in the Doctrine there was a Mourning due from the Survivers to the Deceased I shall now labour to make it appear and that upon a four-fould account First Naturally There is a natural Obligation to Mourn when any Man goes to his Long Home and surely they are very unnatural that do not pay it First For that they that Live are of the same Mould with them that Dye All are made and composed of the same perishing Earth Hence David speaks not only of himself but of all Men when he inscribes Vanity on them Psalm 39. ver 5 6. Behold thou hast made my Days as an hand 's breath and my Age is as nothing before Thee verily every Man at his best estate is altogether Vanity Surely every Man walketh in a vain show surely they are disquieted in vain He heapeth up Riches and knoweth not who shall enjoy them Here is a general Rule without any exception that every Man be he never so great or high or rich or wise or learned in the world and that in his best estate take him under what circumstances you will is Vanity yea altogether Vanity a poor crazy empty evanid thing Now when Man that is so vain so perishing in his own Nature sees one of the same Mould with himself carrying to the Grave to be placed in his Long Home the Law of Nature exacts a tribute of Tears from him though he had no particular acquaintance with or obligation to the person deceased because he beholds a crumbling away and a fading of that Earth whereof himself is made at which Nature cannot but have a reluctancy and vent its sympathetical Passion But as the Apostle speaks of some Monsters in filthiness and uncleaness that they did that which is against Nature so we may see