Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A41561
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Some observations upon the keeping the thirtieth of January, and twenty ninth of May by J.G.G.
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Gailhard, J. (Jean)
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1694
(1694)
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Wing G129; ESTC R17606
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41,903
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64
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comes to that though palliated under another Notion to Pray to the Dead for the Dead or in such occasion as this to mention the Dead is contrary to the Word of God which commands us * 1 Thess 3.22 to abstain from all Appearance of Evil. Wherefore let that Thirtieth of January go out of doors and if we keep a day let it be to God and not to Man let upon occasion days of Humiliation be kept very often too to mourn and be humbled for Personal as for the great many and Epidemical Sins of the Nation whereof I named some before and some are mentioned in * Jer. 6.2 3 10. Jeremiah but no constant set day for any Man whatever whether they be Humiliation or Thanksgiving days The Gun-powder-Treason-day we keep it only to God for such a Deliverance no mention of Man in it This did the Church of the Jews after their Deliverance from the Wicked Designs of Haman but not to the Praise and Honour of Esther or Mordecai though they had been God's Instruments to prevent it To return to King Charles's Death to mourn for it once had been enough When Joseph's Coat was brought to Jacob he might unblameably have expressed as he did a great Sorrow and Grief thereupon even to have kissed it to lament the Death of so dear a Son but if he had hanged it about his Bed or any where else in his Chamber there every Evening and Morning or at every Meal given it such Salutations and done the like as at the first time thereby he might have countenanced many Branches of Superstition once and no more is Diseretion about those things whose continual use degenerates into Abuse Now here we have been so unhappy as to take wrong Measures not only in keeping a day of Humiliation as I shewed already but also a Thanksgiving-day such as that of the Birth and Restoration of King Charles II. the 29th of May for the which we have also a set day once a Year to hear a Sermon preached a Collect an Epistle and a Gospel upon the occasion * Gal. 3.1 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you This clearly shews the Humour of those Times when some People almost distracted kept no Moderation but went from one Extream into another After his Death in King James's days they thought fit to continue keeping the day but to put a new Face and under another Notion but the thing was the same in Substance So the Children of Israel kept a Feast to the Golden Calf which was proclaimed before and the * Exod. 32.5 6. People sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play For such a Restoration we must be very glad and make God concerned in our Joy his House must be the place hitherto 't is well if we bring no Idol into it I mean nothing of Man's Merits Worth and Perfection no Inventions devised of our own Heart and things which God hath not commanded We read how after the Rebellion and Death of Absalom the * 2 Sam. 9.14 Men of Judah sent unto David Return thou and all thy Servants But though he was as good a King as any I do not find there was any set day appointed yearly to be kept in any place of God's Worship by way of Thanksgiving for his Birth or Restoration our Religion now is more Courtly and Flattering I do not deny but that upon such an occasion a moderate Joy may be expressed for a while but to entail it upon Posterity is such a piece of Flattery Popery and Pageantry as cannot be warranted by any Laws of God or reasonable Christians * Defence of Perkins p. 886. Dr. Abbot saith That Offerings yearly made for the Dead and for Birth-days were first brought in by the Heretick Montanus who thereby made gain of them Now this reacheth our Case for an Anniversary or every Year keeping a set day for a dead Man is a kind of Offering made for the Dead and keeping the 29th of May in the same manner is keeping a Birth-day as a Restoration-day for upon this day Charles II. was born Now let us see how great a Cause we had to fall into so high and exceeding Demonstration of Joy Let the Event shew how great a Blessing this Restoration proved to the Nation Hos 13.11 We know sometimes God gives Kings in his Anger and takes them away in his Wrath Plague War and Fire came in with King Charles but all little enough in comparison of that Flood of Vice and Corruption in the way of Prophaneness Impiety Debauchery c. which being encouraged by Example and Impunity followed him and like a mighty Stream have so overflow'd the Nation that in all likelihood it will require more Judgments and many Years to come to purge the Land of it 't is over-spread almost from the Child in the Cradle to the Old Man going down to his Grave But I must break off for it defiles my Thoughts my Tongue and my Pen therefore no wonder if this took away our Hearts for * Hos 4.11 Whoredom and Wine take away the Heart and our Understanding too which made us grow an effeminate Nation Contemptible to our Neighbours and made us cast away the Honour and Interest of the Country and become Tools of the Ambition and Greatness of those whose growing Power we ought to have opposed and which since made Europe groan and labour to be delivered from that Bondage or Danger we helped to bring it under We slighted the Suits and Offers of many Princes and States and Addresses of Parliaments who offered their Lives and Fortunes to stop the growing Power of France which had her Emissaries of both Sexes in our Bosom By whose Councils Parliaments were Adjourned Prorogued and Dissolved whilst on the other side in our most Solemn Assemblies the Fidelity of some was Corrupted to Betray their Trust and Country In one we have seen a List of no less than 212 Pensioners to find Monies to satisfie the unsatiable Desires and Idle Expences of Whores Pimps Bawds and Bastards whilst in less than two Years time above 100000 Souls for Religion sake forsook the Kingdom to go into the Plantations Holland and Germany These things and many more which I omit are known to the whole Nation only I must take notice how the Design of ruining Laws Liberty and Religion was driving on and whilst Popery enjoyed Favour and Advantages 't was Treason to say the King was a Papist or Popishly affected though during the whole Course of his Reign he appeared and there are grounds to believe he died such All these things are so recent and late that it were in vain to enlarge upon it only I ask Whether one who set some of the worst of Men upon the Benches in Westminster took away Charters caused Innocent Blood to be shed under pretence of Justice and had some Men to frame Mischief by a Law * Psal 94.20
to remember the Death of the young Prince our Reformer Edward the Sixth with Grief and Sorrow though Heylin was of another mind the Death of so Pious a Prince not without Suspicion of Poison was a great loss to Religion and the Nation but yet such set days as the Thirtieth of January and Circumstances must be avoided such a Memory may to this day be well continued by lawful Means as his very Funeral Sermons Epitaphs and such things remaining as were published in or about that time as Jeremiah's Lamentation upon that Subject might be read and sung in after-Ages The Memory of good Princes and other pious Men ought to be precious and dear to Posterity but we must not bestow any thing of Religious Relation upon them but strictly avoid every appearance of it Saul's Death was a Judgment upon him but Josiah's Death was a Mercy to him Because thine heart was tender 2 Chron. 34.27 28. I will gather thee to thy Fathers and to thy Grave in Peace neither shall thine eyes see all the Evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the Inhabitants of the same Now Things and Persons being compared in the Reigns of Josiah and Charles to say no more we shall find a vast Difference The third case is that of Gedaliah whom 2 Kings 25.25 and Jer. 41.2 after the taking of Jerusalem the King of Babylon made a Governour of the Cities of Judah which was treacherously killed by Ishmael the Son of Nethaniah This indeed was a sad Blow to the People that was left in the Land but in the two quoted places in the Margin nor in the Book of Chronicles nothing is said of any publick mourning of the People for it yet some would if possible upon the Opinion of the most Judicious Interpreters as he calls them screw something out of Zech. 7.5 as if their Mourning there was an Ordinance for that lasted till the time of their return from their Captivity but 't is easie to find the true cause of it namely Levit. 23.27 29. a positive order from God On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of Atonement it shall be an holy Convocation unto you and ye shall afflict your Souls c. And whatsoever Soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day he shall be cut off from amongst his People This is the true cause of the Mourning in the Seventh Month and 't were in vain to fancy any other A very good Use may by present and future Ages be made of such sad Effects of God's Providence as to warn us of our Mortality of the Uncertainty of Life of the Vanity of Honours and to prepare us for Death to shew how our Life is in the Hand of God which he disposeth of how and when he pleases It is good always to be Thankful to God for Mercies always to be humbled and to Mourn for Sins for as we do constantly Sin so we must constantly repent what doth befall others as well as what happeneth to us ought to work upon us And so we have cause enough to keep days of Humiliation both in Publick and Private and this is to make a right use of such Occasions and not to flatter and chuse God's House to make Panegyricks of Dead Men over and over every Year in such a Strain as Papists do for their Pretended Saints and Dead Men. After this way Mr. Newman in his Sermon Page 17 18 19 c. maketh King Charles a great Poet nay a Laureat one a great Orator He saith He was Master of a Sublime Grandure of Language and in Points of Controversie and in Cases of Conscience so great a Divine as he might have challenged the Theological Chair upon the account of meer Worth If he had but attributed some Miracles then we might have said as Jesuits use to speak of their Ignatius Franciscans of their Francis and Dominicans of their Dominick upon their days And all this he affirms upon hear-say and by relation if this be not Flattery 't is too much like it this is a studied Discourse to make a shew of his Parts to flatter the Dead deceive the Living but edifie none To say the setting apart such days is not intended as if thereby they were made Holier than others but only to appoint them to an Holier Use is not enough to excuse the thing we all know 't is not in the power of Man in that kind to make one day better than another that 's the Work of God alone and of all the days of the Week the Seventh his Sabbath-day * Gen. 2.3 and Exod. 20.11 he sanctified it blessed and hallowed it Nay the other Feasts which were but Typical and for a time which we read of in the Book of * Chap. 23. Leviticus were of God's own special Appointment So that to Institute such days is an Act of Religion And though we agree that the Church may make Rules for Order-sake as to Circumstances yet under the Gospel no Man may upon Humane Account Institute days wherein is a Cessation of Work God having commanded Six days to labour and do our work Thus there would be no end one day this Year another or more the next as we see it in the Church of Rome where every new Saint hath a day allowed him every Year By the same reason it is done for one it may be done for an hundred All Orthodox Divines do agree That in the First and Second Commandment not only Idolatry but also Superstition are forbidden whereby the Fixedness of the Minds of Men which ought to be upon God is tossed and distracted here and there upon different Objects Prayers of Mourning Repentance or Thanksgiving must be directed to God for they are part of his Worship without any Collateral regard to the Merits or Sufferings of any Man Dead or Alive And here by the by I must take notice of a Clause which some of our Ministers use in their Prayers to thank God for his Servants deceased which in my opinion is very Improper for those who own we ought not to pray to or for the Dead the Gospel and God's other Mercies is What we ought to thank God for And though a Minister may make mention of those Faithful Servants of his remembred in his Word and exhort us to follow their Example and Divine Rules they were acted by the Faith of Abraham the Patience of Job the Repentance of Peter yet the Case is different when he is in Prayer for then he is the Mouth of the People to God in that Condition of Supplicants no Humane Rule or Example is to be mentioned to God especially now when so gross an Abuse about it is committed by Papists whereof we ought to avoid the very Appearance The Dangers of bringing such things into the Church is very great though at first not perceptible sometimes great Evils had but small beginnings the Devil is