us to the fulness of Grace perfection of glory inseparable fellowship with Christ and to settle us in our own Countrey of Paradise True Christians should fear Sin and not Death for that Soul that is afraid of dying is but in a bad case for Heaven the fears of Death multiply evils but Faith diminishes them the good man durst dye and desires to dye it shews a true Christian courage to desire Death through which he is spying at immortal glory beholding life that never dyes and sees the glorious beams of that morning spreading over the spacious Chambers of Heaven that hath no eve nor ending compare this life with Death and you will clearly see how Death which seems to dispossess us of all we esteem dear in this World put us in possession of more than we deserve alas here we covet to be cottaged up in a house of clay whose foundation is dust when Death would bring us to an habitation of everlasting joys so mistake not the term of happiness by calling that Death which is life for ever more Death is the regeneration of the Soul it is new born when man dies for this new birth let no trepidations or qualms of fear breed on your heart Death only comes to revive you in his arms of serenity joy and peace alass had death been evil Cain had been slain for his barbarous fratricide his pardon of life not his punishment of marking made him to cry out My punishment is greater than I can bear he had rather have been seated in the house of Death than have been a vagabond as he was upon Earth for all motions stirring towards the end of life tend to rest call then for Death to release your heaven born soul from this earthly confinement be not daunted like Atheists for fear of a non esse nor startled like Libertines for fear of a male esse for there is certainly an endless futerity which the Soul shall dwell in after this life and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved as soon as Death has discoursed with you your Soul shall sup that night with Christ in Paradise this is the true transmigration of souls from misery to joy and not from body to body as Pythagoras vainly thought how consolatory then might we make Death to us by thinking on his arreption of souls to Heaven Death only comes to give a superhumane Being to Man and to let us no more seek the Benedictions of God but eternally to enjoy the GOD of Benedictions Nothing is so profitable as Death therefore no misery can be more capital to Man then the frailty of humane life from whence all crosses discords and perturbations of mind are derived how many feeling extremities a man goes through before his life reaches the winter of hoary age which makes a strange transformation of his weak nature his head shaking his sight dimn his jaws fallen his gums toothless his veins wither'd his marrow dry'd his bones sapless his stomach phlegmatick his joynts feeble his limbs numb'd his blood cold in a word the whole Machine of his feeble body out of order so if it may be said without offence to Heaven it is better for that Man that must be born to meet his Grave as soon as he enters the Verge of this troublesome and always perplexed life There remaineth a rest to the people of God who then would be so besotted with a lethargick drowsiness of mind as not to leave Father leave Mother leave Brother leave Sister leave Relarions leave Friends and all things whatsoever we esteem most dear in this World to enter into the rest of God For he that is entered into his rest he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his O! let us who are in love with our precious Souls labour therefore to enter into that rest where peace redounds for ever more Through the House appointed for all living we pass to Heaven the glorious Kingdom where the Elect and faithful Servants of God shall for ever Reign with him Death transports us to sit under the Canopy of that Throne where is joy without sorrow rest without labour dignity without fear riches without loss health without sickness abundance without defection perpetuity without corruption and bliss without calamity Heaven is the Region where no bitterness takes place a Region where no Thunders Lightnings Tempest Hail extream cold nor excessive heat shall annoy us more there Prodigies shall not fright us with the dire aspects of jarring Planets there the harsh language of sorrow shall no more invade our ears with terrors the dialect in the bright Empyrean where is erected on the supreamest loft of Eternity the Throne of God is all ecstatical joy once Death conveys us to those Regions of never deficient happiness there shall we be in communion with Seraphins and Cherubins Archangels and Angels there shall we be familiar with blessed Michael who cast proud Lucifer and his rebellious associates from Heaven there shall we be correspondent with Gabriel who on the happy Day of Man's Salvation with Legions of the Heavenly Hosts sang to admiring Shepherds the sweet Carol of gloria in excelsis Death brings our Souls to be spectators of the glorious Cavelcade of blessed Confessors triumphantly holding the Cross over the immaculate Lamb changing then the Motto in hoc signo vinces for in hoc signo obtinuimus coelum by this sign have we won Heaven Death having separated the pure substance of our Souls from these clods of dirt then Adam shall see all his Grand-Children the Sons of Enos together Abraham all his faithful seed Job shall see his Children then shall John the Baptist see his Penitents Peter his Converts Paul his Followers the Prophets of the Lord see all the Lord's People then shall God see all his Sons and Christ all his Members when Death has brought all Mankind to Heaven what a glorious appearance will there be what a ravishing Heavenly Quire what an Anthem shall there harmoniously be sung and we be made welcome by the mutual admirable and ineffable embracements of God and Christ methinks I see Jesus and his believers like Joseph Benjamin falling upon each others Necks not weeping but shouting for joy how will the whole Hierarchy of shining Spirits rejoyce to see the Saints Apostles the whole Army of Martyrs the holy Church throughout all the World meet in Heaven with Palms in their hands and Crowns on their Heads to sing hallelujah hallelujah to the King of Kings for ever and ever Ah! Death is welcom to a good Man at any time he is sensible he sends Souls to enjoy themselves to eternity with the knowledge of one another Death guides us to the Land where the Father shall find his Children the Children their Parents Kindred know Kindred and Friend his Friend for if Dives in the state of Damnation knew Lazarus when he lifted up his Eyes from Hell and saw him in Abraham's
THE CONSOLATION OF DEATH As it was Presented to Her Highness the Princess Ann of Denmark On the immature Loss of William late Duke of Gloucester By Richard Burridge LONDON Printed for William Pinnocke at the Black Dog and Ball over against Bride-Lane in Fleetstreet 1700. The Epistle Dedicatory To Her Royal Highness THE PRINCESS ANN Of Denmark MADAM ALthough Death may be stiled the summum bonum of Mankind yet now has he proved fatal to mortality by depriving three Kingdoms of that Jewel which promised Posterity eternal happiness the many vertues of your royal Child which outstript his tender years made Heaven take notice of his early piety thought him a blessing too great for Mortals to enjoy the immature dissolution of the late hopeful Branch has caused weeping grief to fly over this Island for which unexpressible loss can not we be happy till Death transports us to the Celestial Regions where we may eternally be admiring that object which the whole Nation so much adored whilst surviving the absence of such a sacred Child without whose conversation the joyes of Angels could not be compleat must needs cut to the heart the greatest Orators that ere the World produced cannot sufficiently â—ndole the royal Family 's sorrow therefore I do not presume to comfort such an insupportable affliction I only attempt to lay this Tractate of the Consolation of Death on the shrine of your benigne favour because it was occasionally written on the too late unhappy misfortune of England for I am highly sensible that any thing of devotion finds grace in your sight whose dazling beams of unparelleld godliness strike your admiring beholders with as much stupefaction as the brightness of the overshadowing Cloud did the amazed Disciples on Mount Tabor Matchless Lady of Piety your royal self being the only hopes great Brittain has now left to make her happy I pray the Almighty King of Kings may lengthen your life with a Nestorian age that by your resplendent Vertues we may be guided to those evelrasting Mansions where the blessed Duke now sits crowned with immortality so divine Princess I rest Your most humble and obedient Servant Richard Burridge THE Consolation of Death DEATH what is it it is the only recess of the Soul from the Body into the eternal Mansions of celestial joys where we shall be cloathed with the glorious robes of immortality and triumphantly rejoyce in the peaceful Shades of undisturbed Rest As our days encrease life decreases so that we are hourly dying and as it is appointed unto all Men once to die what need we be desirous of that which is always flying from us if Man would but seriously meditate on the clogs of humane life he would not though many years younger than that Emperour who joyfully writ to his Nephew Caius that he had escaped the Climacterical year desire to live in the miseries thereof if rich he is envyed if poor he is slighted various scenes of sorrows are daily set before the eyes of mortality as Sickness War Fire Famine Pestilence Losses Crosses and a thousand other calamities which attend the wretched state of Mankind where then can we fly from this Bochim or Valley of Tears for shelter no where but in the Regions of Death when Israel thought his beloved Joseph had been slain he refused to be comforted by his Sons and Daughters saying I will go down into the Grave unto my son mourning by which mournful expression he pathetically intimated that no comfort could mitigate his grief till he had seen Death likewise that most patient Man who dwelt in Vz the metropolis of Chaldean superstition in his great distress and unparalleld afflictions cryed out Why died I not in the womb why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly For now should I have lien still and been quiet I should have slept then had I been at rest thus we are plainly shewed Man is not at peace till in his Tomb there Kings are quiet from the seditions of their Subjects Courtiers from the emulation of their rivals in Honour Favourites from the disgrace of their Princes displeasure Prisoners from their Oppressours and Slaves from miserable Bondage Amaz'd at Death no the comforts of it are such that it delivers Infants from running into actual sin Youth from filling the Catalogue of abominable vices Mankind from the incumbrances of worldly affairs and Old Age from supporting his tottering frailty on the Crutch Death gives ease to the diseased and health to sickness wherefore if you find him any time visiting you be not surprized be not daunted at his alarm but cling to him as the Moabitess did to Naomi crying whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I will lodge struggle with him for thy Soul's enlargment as Jacob did with the Angel at Peniel be not faint hearted for to die is gain seeing Death stand before your Face do not timerously say as Ahab did to Elijah Hast thou found me O mine enemy for he is no enemy he is a friend to all flesh and to shew you entertain him as such courageously like Saint Paul cry I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Every Man endued with true Christian courage wisheth to be acquainted with Death the Harbinger of bliss he would willingly sit the Saddle of his pale horse for instance when it was revealed to Simeon that he should not see death before he had seen the Lords Christ as soon as he had took Jesus up in his armes and blessed God he claimed being sensible of the inequality between humane nature and immortal blessings his dissolution in a charming ecstacy he sang Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word in fine those who seriously weigh the difference between Earth and Heaven they would not with Hezekiah pray to have the thread of life spun longer but impatiently wish the golden Planet may hasten his course on the Dial of Ahaz that their pure Souls might follow the Shadow of his reflecting Beams to the all-glorious Habitations of an indulgent God none startle at Death but such whose Conscience is not passport sufficient through the Shadows of an eternal Change 't is such who dread any Distemper they feel to be the Messenger of Death and by the advice of able Physicians would countermand the decree of Nature if Gold and temporal Presents were admitted ransomes at such a time but as it is written in the Gospel whosoever will save his life shall lose it therefore by a godly life make a preparative against Death brings your summons and then Christ tells you whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Nay so greatly have the Ethnicks been ravisht with the glory of a future being that Cleombrotus and others if we may believe Plutarch reading a Treatise of the immortality of the Soul killed themselves so eager were they of their Souls happiness before their times came shall we
launch out into the Ocean of Eternity to sail to the Port where none but Angels harbour with Saint Augustine cry out to God quaeram te ut vivat anima I will seek thee that my Soul may live despising according to your baptismal Vow all the pomps and vanities of this wicked World take care you have your wedding garment on against Death comes to give you notice that Jesus is coming to see how your Lamps are plyed with Oyl and being thus prepared for your Saviour's reception he leads you to the presence of his Father where is fulness of joy and pleasures ever turning on the axel of eternal years thus Death to the Righteous is but the change of a bad life for a better and Saint John the Divine assures us that he heard a Voice from Heaven saying Write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them No Man is out of the reach of Fate so knowing he must die and every man shall draw after him as there are innumerable before him imbrace Death as a bosome friend besides what Man is so unwise to shun it when he might have an immortal life for a life of pain and misery for a life that gives nothing without trouble as the Poet hints Nil sine magno Vita labore dedit mortalitas Ah! if we would but weigh Death in an even Ballance we should soon find the great difference between living and dying by an utter detestation of mortality we should be so far from solliciting to reside in the weak frailty of humane nature that we should be ever wishing Death would break the chain of brittle life to release the Soul from the imprisonment of a corporeal Goal the Greeks very significantly call the Body soma quasi sema that is the Sepulcher of the Soul for so long as Man was surviving so long they reckoned the Soul contrary to its immortal nature confined in the frail Mansion of a carnal Grave consider then this confinement of the Soul and by how much the more we should be in love with life by so much the more we should rejoyce at the news of its dissolution Death bringing the tidings of translating us to immortality would be more harmonious to our ears than the sweet harmony the Sphears joyn to the melodious notes of ever rejoycing Angels the echo of the tidings would parallize the ravishing concord of those charming lays which filled the etherial Pallaces of Heaven when the Morning Stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy commenting seriously on the perplexities of this life what can we count the rich man's riches Death what can we count the poor man's happiness Death what can we count the sick man's case Death what can we count the melancholly man's mirth Death or what can we count the healthy Man's best health Death all this and much more is Death Death gives us a total discharge from all miseries whatsoever on Earth I have read of a sort of People called the Drausie who at the birth of their Children weep but at their death rejoyce and with their Friends make merry thus if we would reflect on the miseries mankind is born to as well as them we should not much deviate from their custome alass how great and many are the sorrows which a man runs through from the Womb to the Tomb the poor Babe comes weeping into the World as if by an instinct of Nature it was sensible of the calamities it was to undergoe in the sorrowful pilgrimage of this instable life Alas who would desire to live upon Earth where such imperfections of Nature is daily presented to our sight some lame some blind some deaf some dumb some lunatick some possessed some bewitched some leprous some sick so that we may properly call the World an Hospital cram'd with all the maladies of Gods displeasure or a House of mourning where Parents are daily weeping for the loss of Children Children for Parents Widdows for Husbands Friends for Friends some for losses by fire some for losses by debts some for losses by Robbers some for losses by Sea some for one loss and some another insomuch that if they would rightly apply these grievances to practical considerations of Death he would be oftner called upon than he is to relieve their afflictions dear Death it is the Compass by which we must steer our course to the Haven of everlasting safety of Death is born immortality of immortality a celestial Empire and of a celestial Empire eternal rest for so great benefits and comforts shall we not love Death not admire him not think on him we are then ingrateful to our selves and envy our own happiness of which were we but sensible we should scarce was a destroying Angel to fly over our Houses now as he did over the Egyptians to slay our first-born or our selves either sprinkle the lintels of the doors as the Israelites did unless it was a command of God as that was to escape the wrath of the Heavenly slaughterer yet Man is so enveloped with the deceiving pleasures of this life that though he sees so many miserable spectacles daily before his Eyes yet he desires to live doth he desire to live yes though ten thousand times as many miseries more were thrown from Heaven to afflict him for his darling sin That Man should be afraid of a thing that is no Creature Death is no substance therefore when Adrian the Emperour asked a Philosopher what Death was he answered an eternal sleep the dissolution of Bodies the rich Man's fear the poor Man's wish an inevitable event an uncertain pilgrimage a robber of life the father of sleep the flight of life the departure of the living and resolution of all things As Death and diseases know no faces but will compel all to pay the debt that is due to Nature pay it without pining and when all comes to all you will find Death no Death but a going to God and God's coming to us if a Man dyes he shall live again The brightest days have gloomy dawnings But rise again in splended mornings Had man been capable of knowing the misery of life before he received it he would have been very loth to accept it and again if Death were not in our power how willingly should we desire it more than we fear it but Man is always of a cross nature the Mariner sails through all weathers to gain the Port but when Death comes to put us into our safe Port we shun it as a Rock or Quick-sand alass if we are so loth to go to God it is a manifest token of little love to God who only sends Death to free us from all worldly injuries to put a period to misery to free us from corporal infirmities to free us from bodily labours and ease us of all cares and troubles God sends Death to invite