found or made a shift to excuse himself for a while that he might converse with his God Which an ingenious Modesty did so contrive that it was not so much as suspected to be done upon design Yea when he was so pressed that he could get no time in the Day stollen He made it up in the Night Often he used to be Eight hours a day in the immediate Service of God beside His diligent observance of the Lords Day which was indeed Singular He used a constant Method in reading Scripture wherein he was much conversant Neither did the Translation satisfie him but He searched the Original carefully For he could quot the New Testament and Psalter as easily in the first Language as most can do in their Mothers Tongue In his daily Reading he did still choose some place which he fixed in his Mind To the Consideration whereof he recollected his Thoughts all that day when ever he found himself at leisure Which he used to say was his Sanctuary whither he retreated from the Persecution of Idle Thoughts Many such Methods used he to wing up His soul to the work of Cherubims ever to behold the Face of his Heavenly Father Yea a Radiant Splendor which possessed his Looks when he returned from his Closet could make us easily discern what joyfull and pleasant work he had been about He used often to separate whole dayes for the Worship of God wherein He denied himself any other Refreshment save what was ministred to his Soul He performed himself the duties of his Family constantly at two returns each day where you might have heard both Reading Singing and Prayer and that with such a true and unaffected Devotion as discovered how little Formality may be in the Observance of Forms The first arrest of that Fatall sicknesse had exhausted the Active Vigour of his Spirit so far that the Keennesse and Fervour of his Soul was somewhat blunted which drew him into Sadnesse judged Melancholy by Beholders For he complained that then when these Attaques of God did alarum him up to a greater diligence He was become more languid and tepid This Trouble was but of short continuance for he found the union of his soul to his God as close as ever though a Mistuned Body could not bear up in a Concord with it The last Lords Day of his Life was he diligent in the search of his Heart and earnest in wrestling with God the Issue whereof was a Quiet and Composed Mind Which was apparant in the Cheerfulnesse of his Spirit which was greater that Night than it had been all the while of his sicknesse Two dayes after he was seized with a spotted Feaver or rather His Sicknesse did evidently discover it self to be such Which having in a sudden disturbed his Fancy what after that came from him like himself was rather Curt though raised and Divine Contemplation than any fixed and well ordered conceptions Often did He pray often did He speak of the Glory of His God and of His Redeemer Yea never mentioned he either but his Soul seemed to go out with Fervour The Last Night of his Life Five times did he direct his desires to God in the words of the Lords Prayer About the Morning His Raving seemed to have taken leave of Him for about a Quarter of an Hour did he with great seriousnesse and in well fitted words call upon the Lord and invocate his aid Neither did he forget His Soveraign the Church His Nation or His Family He had no sooner ended when the Fury of his distemper as if it had given him Truce only for that blessed work did again invade him It was a few hours after that for he scarce spoke any more that the Cords of his Tabernacle begun to be slackened and before we were awar He gave up the Ghost and fell asleep passing into Glory Is there not then a great Man fallen this day in Israel Having thus viewed the Greatnesse of that Soul wherein I do protest no Hyperbole hath been used neither hath ought been said but what I certainly knew to be true Those who are little acquainted with True worth and who Imagine there is no such thing in the World but that it is a Chimaera contrived to amuse and overaw the sons of Adam will may be look on what hath been said as a Flaunting Story But it will gain credit with such as are neither strangers to Virtue nor to Him What was seen of him was so fair and alluring that every one will not stick to believe the Vnseen and Hidden parts of him must be the most Glorious All will believe the Closet of a Palace to exceed the Glory of the Walls But it is a Sad Conclusion to say There is a great Man FALL'N I shall rather invert the words There is a Great Man RAIS'D up The Soul and Body are wreathed into unity by such a Congruity of Life that forgetting the Difference of their Natures they come to be so linked in the embraces one of another as to move joyntly in all their Operations Whence followeth such an Eccho of the One to all the Affections of the Other that they both gain or losse according as their Yoak-fellow is Pleased or Prejudged Which being a Riddle too hard for the crazed Vnderstanding of Man whose sight hath not yet reached the inside of Beings their Natures some take a Compendious way to extricate themselves by saying It is but agitated and subtile Matter that keeps us in Life How well this may be applied to such Agents as are devoid of Ratiocination and to the Plantall and Animal Actions of a Man I am not now to examine But that Cogitation can be an effect of Matter even when it acts on Immaterial Objects and in Self-reflexions will be found a greater difficulty than that they intended to shun And sure in the Conception of a Cogitating Being there is no greater Absurdity than in that of an Extended One After the Soul hath lodged in the Body that space of Pilgrimage and Probation appointed it by God Then the time of its Dissolution draweth nigh When it is to be unfettered then through the dark shades of Death must we passe to Immortality And though there be nothing more dreadfull to them whose Leud and Atheistical life doth fill them with just apprehensions of approaching Miseries Yet the Lord God who can out of the Eater bring forth Meat and out of the Strong give Honey hath ordered that to be the Fore-runner of a Blisse so far elevate beyond the mean and lo apprehensions we Frail Mortals can conceive that the most Fluent Eloquence can do it no Right May we but Imagine what an Amazement a Holy Soul will be struck in when it finds it self of a suddain freed from the Depressions of a Grosse and Terrestrial Body the Allurements of a Debauched Mind the Entisements of a Foolish World the Contagion of Evil Company the Stings of Sicknesse and Pain and from an Unactive
only by which we must essay to climb up to Heaven Our Heros was behind few Mortals in this atchievment Did we not see an unclouded sweetnesse and serenity so possesse his Looks that easily we might conclude how little his thoughts were disturbed For being ever the same the elevations of Joy did not transport him neither could the depressions of sorrow crush him Hymens pleasures had not so mastered his Soul as to make him neglect the duty he owed his God Neither did the death of his deservedly beloved children imbarasse his Spirit Those who by injuring Him intended his disturbance missed of their Design for he knew that no man could wrong him and that Malice and Revenge only bricole on the Doer without prejudging the Party against whom they are directed For then only doth one suffer when he permits himself into a Passion and Wrongs done us in this world are rather the Occasions than the Causes of our Misfortune Which he was so fully perswaded of that if at any time Passion peeped it did but give opportunity for the exercise of Reason in the quelling so strong an Enemy He wisely considered the Tongue to be that whose intemperate speeches do give Rise Growth and Continuance to Passion It being the Rudder which when dexterously managed holds us in an even and steady Course but if let loose makes us fluctuate and move at randome His thrift of discourse was great but his sparingnesse in Censuring Rebuking Reproaching and Detracting was such as perhaps in all his life he was never accus'd by any yea I believe scarce by himself the most severe Critick upon his ovvn Actions of this fault So studious was he to evite every occasion of affronting his Reason So that justly we may say there is a Prince and a Great Man fallen this day in Israel Well! we have considered Reasons first Triumph over Passion Its next Conquest is the Trading on the cares and concernments of this Life Our Bodies are the Case which contains the Jewel The Shrine for that Stem of Divinity So the Cares and Concernments of the Body must never come in consideration but as Vassals to our Souls But now this order is inverted Are not mens Bodies become the Prisons if not the Tombs of their Souls The Caring for the One is accounted a Debt but Thinking on the other is thought an act of Charity and Benevolence How many impoverished Souls are lodged in Bodies whose cabinets are well stored with Riches Many a Plump body is the Receptacle of an Hunger-starved Mind Me thinks they resemble Egypts Temples whose Outside had a tearing show but when admitted to the interiour recesses of that Idol-house with the wan light of an half extinguish'd Torch they could discern an Ape So what a sight should it be if we could unfold the Plicatures of the Garments wherein many souls are invelopt Within these Cloutes vvould vve see pitifull Brates on whom if one look he will be at a losse whither he shall have Pity Contemn or account them Unworthy of all his thoughts Is it possible that so Sublime a being as the soul of Man made and shaped for high things can be drencht in the dirt of sensuality and luxury or grovel on this Earth Far different from this are the Apprehensions of a transformed Spirit which laboureth to forget its being detained in a Body when it finds it self hailed to and depressed in Earthly Imployments doth with Sorrrow and Pity regrate the distance it is at from the Object of its Ioy and Desire the smart of which the Body will feel in severe Mortifications being denied the wanton Jolleties and unnecessary Flatterings which are craved by a luxurient temper Yea the formerly bewitching pleasures become more bitter than Gall and Wormwood And even Life it self the Preservation whereof carrieth away the Supremacy of our Affections and Desire doth prove a Burden since it detaineth from that which the purified Soul so vehemently longeth for And while the Pilgrimage continueth what time they bestow on humane Affaires is rather Complying with the Providence of God who ordereth every one to their Post and several Imployments in this world than out of any Pleasure they have in it or any Desire of self-satisfaction And when their Occasions and Hours of Divine employment do avocate them they quickly disingage Themselves and their Craving Appetites unsatisfied with every thing beneath God will with an unexpressible satisfaction suck in those comforts that are sweeter to them than the Honey or the Honey comb With how little Flattery what I have been saying may be ascribed to Him who now enjoyeth what he much desired His freedome from Covetousnesse did discover it self in the pain he was at when Crouding Affairs did invade many Portions of his Time Careful was he to rid himself of that Load And though he was dexterous enough so to order his affairs as to throw away nothing Vnnecessarily which may be occasioned mistakes in some Yet these to whom His Soul was known could well discern it flowed from no sordid ground And his frank and large Charity did fully discover of what Mettal he was Yea a Resolution of his which his modesty keeped unknown to all save those who shared in the secreter motions of his Soul never to have encreased his Estate but to offer what improvements he could make of it to God by relieving the Necessities and Wants of the Poor and Needy Such a design I say to those who knew what a Plentiful Fortune he enjoyed and what Children he had will make them believe that he counted the things of this world but Dung. Little did they know of him who know not how regardlesse he was of his Body He was notar for his Temperance sparing in the enjoyments of his lawful pleasures Neither could the weaknesse of his Body extort from him Care and Tendernesse but rather draw from him Pity and Contempt The Society of Drunkards he hated and shunned as much as a Toad Yea so little force had all the Enjoyments of this life although even of these God had bestowed on him a large Share on his Spirit that he was ever desiring to be rid of them all and to be where no Affair could avocate him from that he so much desired That being uncloathed of his vile Body he should be fred from Grosse and Material Conceptions of Spiritual things from the Tribute he owed his Body and from the trouble he was at with businesse but most of all from the dregs of corrupted nature which pinch the Soul and make it long to be with Christ. Some dayes ere he died being desired not to wrong himself with the Apprehensions of Death his Answer was That having exercised himself so long with the thoughts of it He did not apprehend it with fear as an enemy and therefore with Joy did he receive the approaches of it It was the last morning of his life that He said even in the midst of high and furious raving occasioned
Difference from brutes Which if now they so much desire what wil their wishes be when with their Master Leviathan they shall be shut up in that Lake of Fire and Brimstone Their Triumph is that no argument can reach them for they deny the Certainty of all those Principles whence any Argument can be drawn And yet in the maintaining their own Hypotheses how many Absurdities are they driven to suppose which could never have captivated any mans Reason but his who hath consented to that slavery and resolves to believe any thing but Religion Further if all things be uncertain Then that there is no God must be so likewise and as their Principles yeeld to this so they could never pretend to any positive argument for this Monstruous tenet If it followeth then that for ought they know there may be a God it will be easie for every one to collect hence whether Atheism or Religion be the safer Course How much these hellish Doctrines begin to be received among us is too notar the daring boldnesse of those blaspheming Rascals telleth us they fear Man no more than they do God This Great Person that is now fallen although He needed no such foil to set off his Glory Yet it cannot choose but make Him the more Considerable and his Fall the more Lamentable How much the degeneracy of This Nation grieved him hath been touched already Great was his Indignation against that divellish crew of Atheists that one should thought so Calm a mind could not be stirred to so much spight Much was he incensed against some Pretenders to the Mathematicks who ranked themselves under Leviathans Banner for He believed that from these Sciences more then One or Two arguments could be brought for the Principles of Religion In fine He judged the greatest Right could be done to Reason was the belief of Christianity which is in all things so proportioned to our Faculties that the very proposing of them will gain credit from any unstained mind which is freed from the polluting tinctures of Lust and Passion and converseth much with its own Faculties in still and serious Reflections upon it self His Spirit was too large to shrink into the narrow Orb of a Party or Interest No His Charity taught him to dispise none of his Brethren For though he believed his Conscience to be his own Rule which he carefully and diligently observed and followed yet he judged it an Impudent peice of Antichristian Arrogance to assume Authority over the Consciences of Others and to dictate to them In Fine he judged none of our Debates to be about matters essential to Religion but found himself oblieged to all Love and Kindnesse for those that lived Holily and whose Souls had taken on that Light and Easie yoak of Iesus and had stouped to his Government however they might disagree about the Outside and model of Church-Polity And howbeit He was of Opinion that Episcopal Government moderating over but regulated by Presbyters might have as strong a Plea for the Chair as any other Form yet He judged Forms to be but Forms which of their own nature are neither so Good as to make Men Good nor so Evil as to make men Evil But would prove Succesfull according to their skilful management or Vuneffectual by the furious overdryving of These to whose care that work was trusted By this Description the Truth whereof was so fully known to all perswasions yea the last morning of His Life did He cordially pray that the Lord would heal our Breaches and poure out the Spirit of Love and Meeknesse on this divided and furious People and fell out in a noble Panegyrick on the Power and Exaltedness of the Great Truths of our Religion and concluded that God who had not denied us the Knowledge of his Son would never have envied us a clear Discovery of these Opinions had they been Necessary for His Church Hence we must conclude that Now his Advantage is our great and unspeakable Losse For He was one of a Thousand a Burning and a Shining Light blamelesse and harmlesse as a Son of God in midst of a Crooked and Perverse Generation O Scotland Doth None of you lay it to heart that this Righteous and Mercifull Man is taken away And who knows but it is from the Evil to come Hath not the Loud Cry of the Iudgements of God awakened you And doth not the Musick of his Mercies Charm you Hath not the Preaching of His Word Converted you nor the Life of His Servants wrought upon you Yet let the Death of his Saints Allarum you Know that the Lord God is angry And that the Cry of your abominations is going up to Heaven and a Cousumption from the Lord is come out upon you The Power and Vitals of Religion are daily decaying and the True Seekers of God are melting away as Snow before the Sun They are the Pillars of the Earth and it is for their sakes that the End of Time is not already come Justly may we then Fear that the Lord shall be gathering in those Excellent Ones to himself and so His Fury shall run out upon us without a stop Therefore let me excite you to notice this great losse And so I say to you Know you not that there is a great Man fallen this day in Israel Here is offered to our Consideration what kind of Notice the Death of such a Great Person doth call for Which that we may the better Understand I shall remove that Great Errour of many who think the Violent Touches of a Passionate Sorrow to be a Debt they owe the Memory of their deceas'd Friends wherein they so obstinately harden themselves That their Wit and Spirit is put to task to Defend and Justifie these daily Affronts they receive And if the Force of Reason or Length of Time be rescuing them from that Vassalage then their Vitiated Minds become incensed against themselves and they wil challenge their hearts of Insensibility and Forgetfulnesse Shall we then see how Iust their Sorrow is Will we step into a Gallery of Heathens there shall the Stoicks teach us Wisdom From them may we Learn to look upon Nothing without us as our own but count them of a lower nature and to have nothing in them that can render Us truely Happy but to be so Fluctuating that when we think our selves most secured in the Possession of them we are to remember they may be removed from Vs And so we are to preserve Our Minds from the Bondage of Passion and Fondnesse on ought that is Earthly For an Opinion of Excellency in any thing and the Apprehension of that to be Ours doth make the losse of it unsupportable They will also teach us never to be troubled For that we cannot Help For they Believed All Things to be Governed by a Fate which was Inevitable They therefore judged it Irrational to be busied in a Fruitlesse Labour since that nor Tears nor Sorrow can recall the Life that is gone Thus