Philosophy return from whence it came I had rather tell you which is the very truth that the spirits of Gods people being let loose from the prison of the body mount upwards and are gathered to their people * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil p. 128. Death is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Abolition but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only a dissolution of the Compositum or separation of the soul from the body 2. He was gathered to his people in respect of his body in that he was buried in the cave of Macpelah in the feild of Ephron in the next verse to the text where Sarah had been buried before The body is the Caske of a precious jewel the temple of the Holy Ghost and therefore is decently to be laid up and lodged in the Chambers of the Earth It hath been accounted a curse either to have no burial or the burial of an Asse And as all Nations have had a care to bury their dead So I know noâ—ite wherein they differ more than in the manner of their burials the Aegyptians were very prodigal of their spices in Embalming their dead quantum redolent duo funera Christ was anointed to his burial Mat. 26.12 The Romans burn their dead and put their ashes in Urnes some put their dead into figures of glasse and so dryed them in the Sun others being more barberous eat them up and intombed them in their own bowels Yet it hath been the desire of most people to be buried by their Ancestors and to mingle their dust with that of their friends as if the clods f those vallies where their allies have been buried had been most sweet Jacob gave strict order to be buried in the Land of Canaan Gen. 50.5 Joseph also gave the same order concerning his bones 2.25 Ruth told Orpha where thou dyest I will die and there will I be buried Ruth 1.17 Eutichius Patriarch of Alexandria tells us that Adam with all his posterity unto Noah were buryed in Spelunca Alcamne in a cave called Alcamne Sure I am the old Prophet by reason of his disobedince was threatned that his Carkass should not come into the Sepulchre of his Fathers 1 Kings 13.22 After that ancient and laudable right which hath been accounted no smal priviledg in former ages our worthy Patriot is come to sleep with his Fathers and to be gathered to his people And so having performed the Obsequies due unto the Father It is time order also requires the same to celebrate those rights which belong to the Son A genuine Son of his Father Abraham and well may he so be called his very * Puresoy Pure Faith name imports as much his profession and practice were suitable to his name in maintaining and contending for that faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Now you see according to my first prediction I am conducting you to another funeral and in order thereunto I am faln upon a new text I must also beg your patience to hear another Sermon only I shall quicken and refresh your attentions as that Philosopher in Aristotles Rhetoricks did his weary and almost tyred auditors with Hem demonstrationem If you have any devotion left listen now to that which may be for your great advantage and is worth no small summe the learning Many of those flowers which I shall strew upon this Hearse you may gather into posies for yourselves their smell shall be as the smell of Lebanon whilst I open a box of Spikenard and shed amongst you the oyntment of his name your senses may not only be delighted but your faces may be made to shine I shall not mount into panegyrical flourishes in the honour of the man though his excellent vertues would worthily bear if not exact them in the words of our own Historian concerning H. 7. But I shall use the words of sobriety and truth His name hath no need to be imbellished with any strains of Rhetorick Nullius laudibus crescat nullius vituperatione minuatur as Macrobius of Virgil The stature of his fame can receive no addition of Cubites from my oratory As it cannot be obscured and sullied by any black mouthes whatsoever for himself I dare say though against my presant enterprize that I should never have procured his approbation or allowance in steering this course He had rather his own work should praise him in the gates Pro. 31.31 than that Homer himself should set forth the praises of him or them only give me leave first to assert and make good the way I am going in vindicating it in the general from the slanderous charge and unreasonable imputation of superstition we have not only the Romans and Graecians for our presidents but the primitive Fathers by their many Elegies and funeral orations have given pregnant Testimonies that they never thought it unlawful to give the dead their due A Nostrate Philosophia non est alienum Ser. 26. in fratrem Caesarium It is no way repugnant to Christian philosophy or sound Divinity So Naziauzen But we have more authentick authority yet David himself compiles a panegyrick in the commendation of Saul and Jonat after their deaths Saul Jonathan were plesant in their lives And again the beauty of Israel was slain on the high places 2. Sam. 1.19.23 The Prophet Je. 22.15.16 does the like for Josia He tels Jehoiakim that his Father did eate and drink do judgement and justice he judged the cause of the poor and needy No fear then of superstition The first Topick to be spoken too is the birth and extraction of this lamented Genleman both which were very Noble and ancient by the help of some Records which I have seen I could lay before you a glorious Scheme of a numerous pedegree I could lead you many generations backward if not to the conquest it self and all along point at the Eminency of his illustrious Progenitors But I must leave this taske to better Heraulds and Historians than my self If you understand these Escutchions you may be your own Heralds Had not some inhumane Scrilegious persons like so many Gothes and Vandals defaced some monuments in this place you need not have gone far to have seen what I say The losse is so much the lesse in that 't is repair'd and his Geneology in several branches of it redeemed from injurious time by the dexterous and happy pen of a living * By the Right Reverend Father in God Robert the now Lord Bishop of Lincolne library who voluntarily transmitted unto him in his life time an accurrate portraiture of the same besides Note that Eleven of his ancestors were slain at the battle in Bosworth feild in asserting the right of H. 7. against the or cruel usurper R. 3. the gallantry of his family cannot be forgotten in this place so long as Bosworth is so neer I say it again The gallantry of his family shall not be forgotten so long as Bosworth feild hath a
A SERMON PREACH'D AT THE FUNERALS Of that Worthy Personage GEORGE PVREFOY The Elder of Wadley in Berks Esq Who was buried by his Ancestors at Drayton in Leicestershire April 21. 1661. By Jo. Hinckley Quid in obitu dolendum cum ad vitam miseriarum expertem proficiscitur ubi nulli plagarum dolores mortui potius superstites misereantur ut carcere inclusos Greg. Nyss Ser. de mortuis p. 586. LONDON Printed for T. Basset in S. Dunstans Church yard in Fleetstreet 1661. Gen. 25.8 Then Abraham gave up the Ghost and died in a good old age an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people IT is observ'd of St. Paul that in the Entrance of his Epistles like a compleat Tertullus or ready Orator he did first Captare benevolentiam demereri populum that is insinuate himself into the good opinion and liking of the people to whom he wrote courting them as it were with winning terms and appellations as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved my Son Timothy and the like exstolling their Faith Love and Saint-ship melting them too with kind and hearty salutations Grace and Peace St. Luke also that learned Evangelist begins with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most excellent Theophilus And St. John ushers in one of his Epistles dedicating it to the Elect Lady These were all expert fishers of men and so well knew how to bait their hooks that they might catch the Soules of men That doctrine is swallowed most sweetly and that Sermon digested most soundly which is wrapped up in a sugard and savory conceit of the Preachers worth learning affectionate tendernesse and integrity Imagination here is most operative This subdues the hearts of men unto the obedience of the word as once the very fame of Alexander did not a little conduce to the conquering of puissant Armies Fain would I at this present at this Solemnity in this Auditory observe the method and walk in the footsteps of so grand Exemplar's I mean I would gain your Penelope by the assistance and conspiracy of your own Maides Captivate your judgements and wills to the attention and imbracing of the ensuing discourse by the innocent Lenocinium or harmless trechery of your own affections To this end I shall level the Artillery of my weak Rhetorick make my Battery and invasion first upon you my Friends Neighbours country-men you that like the Sons of Israel have accompanied our Father Jacob Patrum Patriae a Father of our Country hither to his Mamre his Cave of Macpelah you that like those devout men Acts 8. have brought Stephen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed our Crown our Glory to his burial And now me thinks I could gladly descend this Mount and goe aside with you into the Vally of Baca or to Mizpeh to draw water full buckets of water at the Conduits of our eyes I could even deal with you as Jacob did with his Son Joseph Gen. 46.28 Fall upon your necks and vie tears with you until we have made a great mourning as once was made for the death of Josiah setting all our notes to the tune of Hadadrimmon For Alas Sirs what a poor desolate viduated infeebled gloomy Country shall we find at our return After we have parted with such a Father out of our Israel such a Stake out of our hedg such a Ceder out of our Lebanon such a Luminary out of our Hemisphear But whither am I now going It is time to break through this cloud and to stop this tragical veine My ay me at first was not so much to condole as to congratulate with you and to thank you for your company in the deads behalf you have done the greatest favour that either he was capable to receive or your selves to bestow we can but bring our friends to the grave and there for a time we must leave them You also the Natives and Inhabitants of this place let me preface and bespeak you in a word or two A Stranger to Strangers Sirs although we injoyed the company of this worthy personage gratias agimus quod illum habere meruimus may we never be unthankful to God Bernardus in Cant. Ser. 26. for the society of such a neighbour yet his thoughts were much upon you and his discourse frequently off this place and at last he bequeathed part of himself to you His Body to rest with your bodies his Bones with your Bones So King Edward the first in our own Chronicles signifieth his great affection to the Holy Land by ordering his heart to be buried there after his death And as the place of Homer's birth was thereby made famous and illustrious so shall this village receive no small honour from this Heroes birth and burial Tell me now Can we be but too welcome that have brought such a legacy along with us Can we be but too welcome that have brought the rich spoil of our own Countrey to adorn your Temple But I must supersede these complemental insinuations I must leave the Son too for a while and come to the Father for here are no lesse than two funerals The first of Abraham the Father of the faithful The second of this Son of Abraham But it is fit the Father should have the precedency Then Abraham gave up the Ghost and dyed in a good old age an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people Though the foregoing verses acquaint us with Abrahams Testament and therein his great care in disposing and setling his outward estate to prevent differences and controversies among his posterity lest tedious suits should be entail'd upon his Children together with his Land and his other substance And this hath been the providence of Hezekiah and many other Saints to set their houses in order before they have gone to the place where all things are forgotten The manner of his Will is also very observable He gave all that he had unto Isaac v. 5. yet this cannot be any plea much lesse afford any excuse or patronage to such cruel and injust Fathers whose younger Children fare no better than their Hogs as once was said of Herod who either for light causes disinherit their Children or else make one of them a Gentleman and leave other beggars for Isaac was the only Son of Sarah his lawful and legitimate wife his other children were the Sons of Concubines v. 6. Now Concubines were for the bed indeed but not for the honour of the family taken without espousals and so might be put away again neither could their Children inherit Therefore Judg. 11.2 the Sons of Gilead told Jephtah He should not inherit in their fathers house because he was the Son of a strange woman To this St. Paul alludes Gal. 4.30 The Son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the Son of the Free-woman They only had some smaller gifts bestowed upon them In Denmark the second wife had no part of the mans inheritance but gifts out of his
estate called Morgengab Dr. Hammond So Abraham gave gifts to his other Sons v. 6. A Learned man observes that the same custome is in Denmark to this day yet waving any further disquisition or search further into the context I shall come at last to those considerable circumstances which are in the Text it selfe concerning the death and burial of Abraham 1. The Person dying Abraham 2. The manner of his death He gave up the Ghost and dyed 3. The time when he dyed In a good Old Age an old Man and full of yeares 4. How he was disposed of after death and was gathered to his people These parts are plainly in the text without either straining it or obscuring them with any termes of art I must begin with 1. The Person dying Abraham And Abraham gave up the Ghost Abraham a great Prince a great Prophet a great man in estate the friend of God the Father of the faithful Titles enough one would have thought to have struck a we into death it self as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impudent or disrespecter of persons as it is yet notwithstanding all this pomp and grandeur Abraham gave up the Ghost and dyed No prerogative whatsoever will exempt us from death though we be the favorites of Heaven the Potentates of the Earth the darlings of the people yet our breath is still in our Nostrils we are as much obnoxious exposed to the arrowes of death as the poorest Mushroom or Shrub the meanest peasant that crawls on the surface of the Earth The Psalmist puts it to a negative question What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Psa 89.48 The word is not Adam or Enos but Geber What rich what mighty what great Man is there that liveth and shall not see death And that we might not passe from that text without serious considering the purport of it he arrests our spirits with that signal and emphatical note Selah First or last we must all travel this common road which hath been beaten by the feet of all our forefathers And indeed this is also a common beaten truth that I am upon none doubt of it in their understandings retired thoughts yet because there is a great difference betwixt a simple notional and speculative knowledge of a truth swimming upon the understanding and a practical sanctified experimental reduplicative knowledge when we know the truth as we ought to knowing by influencing our wills tempering our affections and steering all the courses and passages of the outward man which is called by the Apostle a knowledge according to godliness or Knowing of the truth as it is in Jesus I fear we do not know this truth in this sense as common as it is else what means the bleating of the Sheep and the lowing of the Oxon in our eares what is the reason that so many live as if they should never dye set their hearts upon their habitations as if their habitations should endure for ever As if they should dye in their Nests and multiply their daies as the Sand Job 29.18 They are ready to say with David in his prosperity that they shall never be moved or with the Whore of Babylon I shall sit as Queen for ever Had those Atheistical wreches learned this lesson who put far from them the evil day and said Come I will fetch wine and we will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant Esa 56.12 David well knew the difficulty of taking forth this truth therefore about to make a Sermon of mans frailty he begins thus I will encline my ear to a parable I will open my dark sayings Ps 49.4 And the Prophet being about to proclaim All Flesh is grasse and all the goodlinesse thereof as the flower of the feild He brings it in with a solemnity of a dialogue betwixt a voice from Heaven and himself The voice said cry and he said what shall I cry Isa 40.6 That saying was so dark and our natures so averse to digest it that there is need of crying and crying again Hence it is that as it was in the daies of Noah and Lot So it is in our daies ther 's eating drinking building and beating by oppression of our fellow servants untill the Flood of death like the river Kison sweep us away Hannibal ad portas the great Philistin or last enemy is upon us yet we are not drawn forth into battalia mounted our battlements or have our weapons fixed The Bridegroom is coming a pace yet our lamps were neither trim'd nor furnished with oyle Did Abraham give up the Ghost though he was the friend of God then let us not only make a good use of good men whilst we have them by sucking and drawing from them the hony of advice and Counsel for there is no direction or knowledge in the grave though the lips of faithful and able Ministers whilst alive may drop as the hony-comb yet their Sepulchres cannot edifie or instruct us the living the living shall praise the Lord. But since Abraham Gods familiar and intimate friend gave up the Ghost and dyed sure death is not so terrible as most apprehend it to be otherwise his dearest servant should not have tasted of it The Apostle casts some spice into the cup of affliction and endeavours to sweeten chastisements by this argument because they fall upon the Sons and children of God Heb. 12.7 8. As the grave it self methink's is perfumed for us in that Christ himself was pleased to sleep in that Chamber Though Abraham was great in power estate yet he gave up the Ghost and dyed therefore let 's not make flesh our arm in relying upon any of the Sons of men though never so mighty They are but as so many dreams shadowes or puffes of wind cease from man whose breath is in his Nostrils for what excellency is there in him Isa 2.22 Trust not in Princes nor in any of the Sons of men Psa 146.3 And lest we should be left utterly destitute of any support to bare us up David adds v. 5. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God As if all staies were but as so many broken Reeds in comparison of this Rock of ages Alexander as great as he was once the Idol of his Court was content at last with a coffin And Diogines Sarcofago contentus erat Juv. is brought in by Lucian as jearing the Ghost of Alexander after death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is Alexander dead as well as Diogenes Alexander had then learned that he was not immortal and could say T is ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. p. 61. no wonder that I am dead seeing at best I was but a man Saladine also that great Commander who won Jerusalem gave order