habitum non datur regressus our Philosophy tells us that is though it be possible to recover the sight when the Organ of the Eye is only inflam'd or distemper'd or grown over with a film yet when a man is stark blind and his Eyes are dropt out of his Head then such a recovery is utterly impossible and so Death being a total privation of motion sensation and all the acts of the animal life there is no returning after that has once pass'd upon us to any such vital operations we are says the Prophet Samuel 2 Sam. 14. and 14. ver as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again that is as Water spilt upon the ground presently vanishes out of sight and sinks into the Earth and by the diffluence of its parts is so disperst and wasted that there is no gathering it up again in the same quantity that it fell so Death causes such a dissolution of the parts of our Bodies that there is no reuniting them in the same manner or forming them into the same orderly lively Fabrick by all the power and art in the World Can these dry bones live says the Prophet is a Question that might very well be askt as being a thing almost incredible but that nothing is impossible with God But then how is it that these dry bones will live surely not in the same way as formerly nor can they be enlivened by any humane power or Art but they shall be quickned by a miraculous power by the same power which raised Jesus from the Dead but at present during the time and reign of mortality they must remain rotten and shatter'd and liveless and only in a possibility to return to life by the wonderful power of God in the Morning of the Resurrection And Job in the 24. c. and 14. v. asks much the same question If a man die shall he live again where Job does not so much doubt or question the truth of a Resurrection as puts it out of all doubt by so propounding it if a man die shall he live yes he shall but not by any power of nature to restore it self nor that there is any remains of spirit in man after death which can quicken into new life of its own accord nor that there is any seed of immortality in humane Bodies as some of the Jews did fondly conceive when they imputed the Resurrection to the vertue of a Worm in the back-bone which never dies And therefore though we are to believe another life yet we must believe it in another place For when our life here is once expir'd there is no return of it till God breath into us a new spirit of life and inspire us with new vigour and motion And therefore pray'd in another place that God would continue his life a little longer upon Earth as verily believing he should never see it any more when he had once left it Spare me O Lord a little longer before I go hence and be no more seen Ps 39. and 13. v. Man sayes Solomon goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets long indeed whence there will be no moving or stirring a foot till the great day of Judgment And not improper to our purpose is that observation of the Fox in the Fable who when he was much urg'd and importun'd to go and pay a Visit to the Lyon in the time of his sickness and told that his Company would be more useful and serviceable to the Lyon in order to the helping him to make his will as being one famous for his wisdom and sagacity answered by no means for there was a great deal of danger in going to visit this King of Beasts For he had observ'd a great resort to the Lyon but saw no marks or footsteps of any that ever return'd from him Vestigia nulla retrorsum and so may we say that we have known millions that have enter'd into the shades below but none that ever came back from thence and therefore we find that when Dives was in torment and made this earnest request to Abraham that one might rise from the dead and inform his Brethren of the truth of Hell torments and by such a wonderful information might scare them from doing any thing that might bring them thither yet this request was denied him upon this account Joh. 7. and 9. v. there being so great a publication of a future State by Moses and the Prophets and other divine testimonies and besides Abraham told him that between us and you there is a great Gulf fixed which place is enough to evince the impossibility of a return to this World after Death and therefore we imagin that David at the parting of his Child took his final leave of him bidding him an Eternal farewel and an Everlasting good night For he considered that there was no hopes of seeing him again under the same circumstances or conversing with him in the flesh and therefore having decently committed his Body to the ground and laid him in the bosom of our common Mother Earth and perhaps dropping a tear or two upon the Hearse and besprinkling the Grave with tears as our Saviour did Lazarus in testimony how much he lov'd him he retires from the Funeral with great Solemnity we may imagine but without any further Lamentations saying wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me But then perhaps several may be ready to tax this Discourse with impertinency and say what needs there all this stir and ado to prove a thing that never was gainsaid or contradicted as namely the impossibility of the dead coming to life again and rising out of their Graves to live anew in this World who is so silly or credulous as to expect such a thing or who would desire to see the Ghosts or any representations of their Friends when they are dead and gone To which I answer That I believe there is none so silly or whimsical or deeply melancholy as to expect a return of their Friends and Relations from the Grave But then people make a great Argument against themselves and do highly condemn themselves of the greatest folly in their inordinate sorrowings for the Dead For why should they take on and weep so bitterly for the loss of a Child or Relation when they believe no such thing as a return from Death why do they wound themselves with such mighty and piercing sorrows for their Relations when they know they are dead and gone and that there is no hopes of seeing them again as long as the World endures This indeed is their folly to grieve for an irrecoverable loss and to weep incessantly at the remembrance of deceased Friends For t is the vainest idlest thing that can be to mourn when all the mourning in the World will do no good neither to us or our Friends and therefore this consideration that all our
should I fast Why should I trouble and grieve my self any longer But how oddly and strangely may some say doth this look in a Father to dry his Eyes and clear up his Countenance presently upon the death and loss of his Child Is not this a thing out of course and a very strange temper to sorrow so much for the Child when it was sick and to cease sorrowing when it was absolutely dead and gone Surely this giving over mourning at the death of so near and dear a Relation as a Child must needs proceed fromhard-heartedness or the want of natural affection and of common humanity But then we may observe that David both to excuse and justifie his not mourning for the Death of his Child nor taking on so grievously as he did before alledges these good and substantial reasons as first The consideration of the necessity of his own dying and secondly The impossibility of his Childs coming to life again And we may also suppose that he had some further considerations at that time which helpt to allay and silence his sorrows as namely First the consideration of the Childs dying in its Age of Innocency Secondly That it was gone out of a wicked and troublesome World Thirdly That it was freed from those pains and sicknesses and diseases which are incident to this mortal condition Fourthly That it was released from those pains and miseries which it underwent And fifthly That it was the will of God it should be so And it is but very reasonable to imagine that all these considerations though not verbally exprest might occur to Davids mind or any mans else upon the like emergency I begin with the first consideration that put a stop to Davids sorrowing for the loss of his Child and that was the necessity of his own dying Can I bring him back again I shall go to him David considered that Death was common to all and that 't is appointed for all men once to die What man is he that liveth and shall not see death in the 89. Ps and 48. v. And I know says Job that thou wilt bring me to death and to the House appointed for all the living and so David was convinced that he must as surely die as he was then alive and that life is but a short preamble to death and why then should he grieve and torment himself for the loss of his Child when nothing had hapned to that but what must also happen to himself and to all men living For he was only gone the way of all flesh and had paid that debt to Nature which every one must do at one time or other sooner or later His Child indeed was dead but that was but a common natural and unavoidable thing and the beaten road to the Grave and the usual way of going out of the World He considered wisely with himself that his Child was only gone before him and that he must prepare to follow that his death indeed was somewhat early and immature and sooner than ordinary but the Father must not stay long behind He saw that sometimes the buds and blossoms were nipt and fell to the ground and that ripe fruit would certainly drop off He observed that sometimes the Lambs went to the slaughter and that there was no escaping for the old Sheep And therefore it was in vain to be troubled at a thing which was past and gone and could not be helpt and which all must submit to young and old the Father as well as the Child And what though it was a Princely Babe and Heir to a Crown and if it had liv'd might have been valued at as great a rate as his Father worth ten thousand of the ordinary sort of people yet Death was no respecter of persons makes no distinction and takes the ignoble and noble the Prince and the Peasant and sweeps away all alike 't is not a Crown or a great Inheritance that will purchase life or deliver from Death 't is not a high descent or being of the Royal Blood that will priviledge or exempt from the Grave But David himself must surrender up and lay down his Scepter at the summons of the King of Terrours which had so lately cut off and prevented his Sons Inheriting the Fathers Glory the branch is now lopt off and ere long the root will be taken up and carried away And therefore 't is not long says David before I shall go to the same place and be laid equal with my Child in the dust He has only made the first hancel of my Tomb and taken the first possession of my Grave He has had the misfortune or rather priviledge to go before me but I am going apace to meet him He was snatcht away betimes and I only wait Gods leisure and look when my change will come and expect every day to be called away and therefore I do not think it reasonable to imbitter this short life or to make my self uneasy and uncomfortable the rest of my days by a great and violent sorrow for the loss of my Child when I know that I have not much longer to live and that the days of my Pilgrimage will shortly be at an end and that his condition will shortly be mine and we shall both meet together in the Grave and be fellow Lodgers in the Dust and sleep together in the same Chambers of Darkness and therefore says David why should I fast why should I macerate and wast my self why should I grieve and pine away why should I go and throw away my life in sorrowing for the Death of my Child when I know that all the sorrow in the World will do no good and that my Child has passed those Gates of Death which I my self must after a little while strive and struggle to get thorough and that he is now in his Grave out of which I cannot keep long and why then should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me But he shall not return to me That 's another Consideration which might well serve to pacify Davids sorrow and discontent at the loss of his Child namely the impossibility of its coming to life again or returning to the same condition as formerly I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Death is that which puts a perfect and absolute end to this present life and when we are committed to the Dust and laid up in the Grave there is no breaking forth no expecting our liberty or enlargement till the day of the general Resurrection We are Prisoners of hope sayes the Prophet that is though we have a Promise and assurance of our rising again and being delivered from the Grave yet still we are Prisoners till the time of our Redemption comes and consequently must remain in hold and under the strict custody and durance of the Grave Death is a total privation of life and à totali Privatione ad
dealings of an afflicting Providence when it comes home to them and touches them in part of themselves and such as they profess to love as dearly as their own Souls whereas 't is an utter fault in them thus to repine at the hand of God and they know not what Spirit they are of when they fall into such fits of Passion and paroxysms of discontent refusing like Rachel to be comforted because their Children and Relations are not and wish like Elijah in a pet that God would take away their life too for they are no better than those that are gone before them But is this like men or like Christians to be absorpt and swallowed up in a vortex of sorrow and to be carried away with such an Euroclydon and violent storm of Passion O the great folly and wickedness that is in the hearts of men thus to grumble at Providence and to be so much out of humour as to fall sick as Ahab did for very vexation that we cannot enjoy what we have a mind to and a great longing to possess So great and stupendous is our stubborness and obstinacy not to yield to Gods will nor submit to his pleasure but to take on and rave like mad people and to complain grievously like Laban that we have lost our Gods our greatest hopes and comforts when God has only taken away our Idols But we had best have a care that we be not so very impatient and outragious when God takes away our Relations from us and so cause and provoke him to write more bitter things against us and bereave us of all our Worldly Comforts and of the light of his favour and the supports of his Spirit which would be the greatest and sorest loss that can possibly befal us Secondly By way of Exhortation to Parents and all others who may be concern'd in the loss of Relations and Friends that they would endeavour to compose themselves to a quiet and humble and patient submission to the will of God in the severest of his dispensations that they would comport and demean themselves with that temper and moderation at the Death of their Friends as becomes Christians who profess a firm belief of a future Resurrection and a future life in glory and that they would banish all unkind and uncharitable thoughts of God when he is pleased to take away their Darlings and Favourites and quietly acquiesce in his Providence and endeavour to believe that what God doth is best both for themselves and their Relations saying with all humility and submission of Soul It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good Thirdly It would be wisdom in all Parents and others to consider that their Children and Friends are mortal and of humane race and that they are born in order to die And so Seneca advises his Friend Marcia not to grieve or take on desperately for the loss of her Son but to consider that mortality was an appendage to humane Nature Et ex quo primum lucem vidit iter mortis ingressus est that he no sooner began to live but he began to die and that life is a constant journeying and properation to the Grave And 't is well worth our remembring what is reported of Anaxagoras that when he was warmly ingag'd in a Philosophical Disquisition and word was brought unto him that his Son was dead he did not seem in any disorder or to be discompos'd at the news but went on with his Discourse very smoothly and only made this reply That he knew that he was the Father of one that was mortal Anaxagorae inter familiares suos de natura rerum disserenti filii mortem nunciatam tradunt nihilque aliud ab eo responsum nisi se illum genuisse mortalem Cicero de Consola And therefore all persons to prevent the being so much troubled and startled at the Death of their Relations should often meditate on Death and be frequently possess'd with thoughts of their own and others mortality and when they live in a daily expectation of their own Death and those that belong unto them they cannot be amaz'd at the early Death of their Relations or sorely afflicted when it pleaseth God to take them away first For the looking upon the life of their Relations to be altogether as uncertain as their own must needs make their death more tolerable than when they reckon and depend upon their living quae multo antè praevisà sunt languidius incurrunt sayes Seneca When we think of a thing long before-hand it loses of its terror and we are not so much troubled at it when it actually comes So that if we did but consider that our Children and Relations are as mortal as our selves and that 't is no rarity for them to die before us we should not proceed to break our hearts with overmuch grief or to bury our selves in sorrow at the death of our Relations come it sooner or later But as Seneca observes In hoc omnes errore versamur ut non putemus ad mortem nisi senes inclinatosque jam urgere cum illò infantia statim juventa omnisque aetas ferat 't is a general error and popular to think that the Aged and the Decrepit must needs die first whereas the youngest are as liable to Death as they and are taken away every whit as soon And again in the same Consolatory Discourse Tot praeter Domum nostram ducuntur exequiae de morte non cogitamus tot acerba funera Nos togam nostrorum infantium nos militiam Paternae haereditatis successionem animo agitamus There are sayes he so many Funerals and spectacles of mortality pass by our doors every day and we do not regard them nor lay to heart this Death of others But we are thinking to make our Children fine and great and what great Heirs they will be after our decease But we think of nothing less than our Childrens dying which makes their death so very grievous and surprizing unto us Whereas by a due premeditation on death and forestalling it in our thoughts both our own death and that of our Relations would become less terrible and astonishing as being a thing which we every day expected and stood looking for Fourthly It would be very reasonable and prudential to command or check our passion in due time and not to let it spin out to too great a length For as Seneca tells Marcia that our tears cannot always flow nor our mourning last always Dolorem dies consumit quamvis contumacissimum a little time or a few days will exhaust the Fountain of our tears and drain it dry and overcome the most obstinate grief And Cicero says the same thing Quòd etiamsi nolis tempore tamen ipso extenuatur evanescit that is we must give over sorrowing at last whether we will or no and when we have wept so long that we can weep no more and therefore 't is a stark shame that our
yet there may be ways of unhallowing Marriage and turning that into a sin which was at first ordained for the greatest Blessing For if only Interest or Humour or Lust be the chief foundation and ingredient of our Choice or if some sinful pre-ingagement or lewd Amours make Marriage necessary for the hiding our shame or if any of these things do cause a Contract or make up the match we may expect that God in justice may blast and curse the fruits of our Body for the sin of our Soul and for the sins of our flesh too An instance whereof we have in Gods decreeing the death of Davids Child which though it was born in Marriage yet God utterly dislik'd the Conjunction the first occasion and grounds thereof being laid in Adulterous Embraces David making no scruple to murder the Husband that he might obtain the Wife But when David heard that heavy sentence against his Child that he should surely die for his sin might not he have confest himself altogether in the fault and desired to suffer wholly himself and have said as in another Case 1 Chron. 21. 17. It is I have sinned and done evil indeed but as for this Lamb this Innocent Babe what has it done Let thy hand be upon me or my Fathers House and not on this Child that that should be plagued I say one would think that David should have set himself to deprecate Gods displeasure against his Child upon his account and desired to have sustained the burthen of his own sin But the sentence was gone out and what was written was written and there was no reversing the Decree And therefore all they that intend to change their condition and desire that they may leave their Inheritance to their Children had best look to it and have a care that they do not make Lust or any sinful Pre-ingagement a Preamble and Introduction to Marriage for fear God disappoint them in their hopes and desires and either write them Childless or take away their Children in wrath for their folly and wickedness For though God spared David and gave him a grant of his own life that he should not die yet there is no begging the life of his Child the Prophet reading its Destiny the Child that is born shall surely die So that for people to couple together in a scandalous and sinful way and to make Lust the basis and foundation of Marriage is to murther their Children in the Womb and in a manner to predestinate them to destruction But then when David heard that his Child should not live but was under a sentence of Death and that according to the words of the Prophet it presently fell sick and was desperately ill How then did he behave himself Truly like a very kind and indulgent Father for it was no sooner struck with sickness but David besought God for the Child And David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the Earth and the Elders of the House arose and went to him to raise him up from the Earth but he would not neither did he eat bread with them in the 16 and 17. v. of this Chapter Here we see David in a sad and mournful posture expressing all the symptoms and signs of a mighty sorrow and being earnest in Prayer to God for it which if all Parents would do the like upon the same occasion when their Children are sick or any ways afflicted they would find their Prayers to be a more efficacious way than all the Drugs of the Apothecary or the numberless prescriptions of the Physicians for the recovery of their Children For the effectual fervent Prayer of the Righteous availeth much But then we may consider that David had great reason to bewail the sickness of the Child as first being the effect and punishment of his sin and secondly upon the account of natural affection First He had a great deal of reason to grieve and be troubled at the sickness of his Child it being sent as a punishment for his own personal sin and therefore when he saw it in misery and pain and great anguish and considered that it suffered all this principally for his sake that he had the greatest hand in bringing all this trouble and sorrow upon it and that he was the great Actor in the Tragedy and this his sin occasion'd this great scene of sorrows How could he do otherwise than lay the sickness of it to heart and take on bitterly to think that by the murder of Vriah he had caus'd the Death of his Child and that by committing folly with Bathsheba he had brought such an affliction upon their Issue I say such a consideration must needs wound David to the very heart and cause him to make great Lamentations over the Child And truly the same sorrows would become even the best Parents and it might not be amiss for them to make some like Reflections For the Parents are generally apt to impute the Distempers the Sickness the Death of their Children either to want of due care in their Nurses or to the badness of the Air or the unwholesomness of the Season or ill diet or the irregular course of the Physician I say though we are apt to ascribe the sickness and Death of our Children to these outward and secondary Causes yet we should do well to suspect our sins as the cause of their misery and sufferings and to believe that there is something more than ordinary in the afflictions of such harmless and innocent Creatures Surely the Parents have sin'd though these poor Lambs suffer and therefore it is good and convenient that all Parents do examine themselves and see whether they need go any further than themselves to find out the true cause and original of those many weaknesses and distempers which they see in their Children and for which they seem so much concern'd and troubled How mightily are some Parents troubled to see their Children grow crooked and deform'd and yet little consider that possibly their Children are the unhandsomer for their being so proud of themselves and glorying in their Beauty others are griev'd to see their Children prove such Punies so feeble and infirm and of such a weak Constitution and do not reflect upon the debaucheries of their life and how they have lost their strength in Dalilahs Lap. And it is a general complaint and observation that every Age declines more and more in strength and virility and that the latter Generation of men are dwindled almost into Pigmies in comparison of what they were formerly and yet men do little consider that Luxury and riotous Living may be assigned as the grand Causes and Reasons of this great Degeneracy And we also see that new and strange Diseases do creep up daily and multiply and invade humane Bodies and yet we seldom impute these decays and breakings of nature to the vices of our Progenitors Whereas we have just reason to grieve at the sight of those many Diseases which
to heart the death of our Friends and Relations and to pine away meerly for sorrow that they are gone whereas they are now freed from all the sorrow and contagion of bodily distempers and have escaped those sore burthens which we are like to feel and suffer if we stay here Methinks we should rather comfort our selves as we may well suppose David did to think that our Relations when they are dead and gone are past the shock and fury of a Disease that they have endured one brunt for all that they have charg'd that Enemy home which we so much fear and must expect every day to encounter withal so that considering how we that are left behind are to run the Gantlet through Troops of sorrow and to pass the Pikes of a thousand Diseases 't is highly unreasonable to mourn and sorrow for the dead they being past all possibility of Diseases and far removed from this Climate of Sickness and Death Sixthly Another thing which might restrain Davids sorrowing for the loss of his Child might be this consideration That it was releas'd from the great pains and miseries which it lately felt and endured 'T is certain and indubitable that the Soul does not quit its Mansion of the Body without great strivings and reluctancy and though it be consider'd that the Child was but in its Infancy and newly in possession of life and that the Soul and Body had contracted but a late acquaintance and that the Friendship was very new yet where there is such a strict Conjunction as there is between the Soul and the Body though but for a moment of time the separation cannot be without great grief and sorrow where there is such a close union and intimacy there is no parting without pain and trouble and consequently though the Soul of the Child was now just enter'd into its New Tenement yet it was so firmly setled and had taken that deep rooting that it could not be remov'd or ejected out of possession without great disturbance And therefore to see a Child strugling for life and to have only breath enough to intitle it to life could not but wonderfully affect and produce great Agonies of sorrows in the hearts of the Spectators And we may observe that men have naturally that compassion as to pity even a Brute when it lies in pain and misery and look upon it as an act of mercy to dispatch it out of the way And therefore David seeing his Child in that extream anguish and distress in that sickness to Death and that there was no way to ease and relieve it could not but reflect upon it as a singular mercy of God to take away the Child and to put an end to such a painful and miserable life David could not forbear weeping and sadly lamenting over his Child when he saw it in the pangs of Death and in those frightful Convulsions which were precedaneous to its dissolution But when it pleas'd God to seal up its breath and to give it a happy Issue out of this troublesome World then David began to be better satisfied and to be somewhat comforted with the consideration that God had in mercy released his Child from that pain and misery which it lately underwent and the sight whereof would have pierc'd the hardest heart living So that all those that have the sad opportunity of standing by their Relations and Friends when they are upon their sick Beds and in the approaches of Death and there to observe what a tumult and commotion nature is in at that time and with what pain and trouble the Soul and Body take their leave one of the other must needs conclude their parting and separation to be a more dismal and amazing sight than a Divorce between the most desperate Lovers Let us but be present with our Friends in the heat and rage of their Distemper or in the ultimate efforts of life and we shall then see a tremendous and ghastly spectacle which is hardly to be related without tears and cannot be seen without horror and astonishment O the hollow sighs and the deep sobs and pierceing groans of our dying Friends which are enough to wound any heart living and to strike that dread upon us that the sound of their cries and groans shall never be forgotten and can we pretend to pity them when we see them in so much anguish and distress and in the depths of misery and shall we so contradict our pretences to sorrow and our compassion for them in the bitterness of Death as to be troubled when they are out of misery and to deplore their going to rest Shall we weep and mourn to see our Friends upon the Rack and in great torment and shall we take on the more when they are past the sense and feeling of any pain How can we reconcile this Posthumous Passion to common reason Or can we think to perswade people that we lov'd our Relations dearly when they see us grieve when they were in misery but to grieve more when they are stept into happiness In a word we may yield to the meltings of nature or the tenderness of our affections and gratify our compassions in mourning for our Friends when they are in great misery and the Agonies of Death For a compassionate grief is both natural and reasonable and if we have any spark of good nature we cannot but be mollify'd at the mournful accents of the most despicable Creature when 't is in pain and great extremities But then to mourn excessively for our Friends when they are out of pain and the bitterness of Death is past is both unreasonable and unchristian unreasonable because they have endured and pass'd the worst and are perfectly discharg'd from those troubles and sorrows which those that remain alive are subject unto and 't is unchristian because it gives occasion to people to suspect our belief of a Resurrection and a future Life and that we are not really perswaded that our Friends are removed for the better and much for their advantage And therefore the Apostle in the first to the Thessal 4. ch and 13. v. admonishes Christians not to grieve and take on for the dead as others which have no hope lest they should by that means scandalize their Religion and render their belief of a Resurrection suspected and dubitable so that we are concern'd as Christians and as we tender the reputation of our Christian Faith not to be lavish of our tears nor over profuse in our expences of sorrow for the dead lest we should be suspected of believing our Friends happier here than they will be hereafter But we should rather in a manner rejoice at the departure of those who have liv'd well and innocently and die in the Lord Forasmuch as the Apostle tells us they shall rest from their labours and have all tears wip't away from their Eyes Revel 7. 17. And we should as our Church wisely directs us in the office for the Burial of
the dead give hearty thanks to God that it hath pleased him to deliver our Dear Friends and Relations out of the miseries of this sinful World which may furnish us with another consideration that might possibly incur into Davids mind and help to suspend and allay his sorrowing for his dead Child and that is this That it was remov'd far above the power of sin and temptation We at present as the Apostle Paul complains carry about us a Body of sin and death We are subject to manifold sins and temptations and have brought with us into the World those corruptions which in time will ripen into and sally forth in great actual transgressions Job makes a kind of wonder at it that any man should think he can be perfectly pure and innocent in this body of flesh For what is man that he should be clean or he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Job 15. 14. and so David tells us Psal 51. 5. That sin is the Inheritance of our Parents that we are infected with it in the Womb and that we are born with propensions to evil Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother conceive me So that the seeds of disobedience are lodged in our nature and the ground-work of sin is laid deep within us and there is nothing wanting but time and opportunity to make it bring forth in abundance So that when our Children die very young and go early to their Graves we may comfort our selves with this consideration that we lose them in good time and before they have added any actual to original sin and that if they had liv'd much longer they would have contracted a new and further guilt and perhaps have advanc'd in sin as they did in Years for 't is certain that the strength of nature gives strength to our sins too and 't is only Age that qualifies and fits us for great and notorious wickedness So that that sin which was only in Embryo in our infancy comes within a few years to a perfect shape and our propensions to evil in a small process of time are reduced to real and visible acts My meaning is that although there is a natural aptness and proclivity in Mankind to sin and err from the Laws of our Maker yet sin does lie hid and brooding in the time of our infancy and is only hatcht into perfection by the addition of longer time and although we have all the principles of wickedness inherent in us at the very first moment of our Nativity yet we are too impotent to commit evil and to offend God at that rate as when we come to a full stature in Years and knowledge We may be full of bad inclinations when we are young and Children but 't is only Age that can make us capable of doing mischief and to be workers of iniquity and we cannot so highly provoke God when we are ignorant and childish and know nothing of him as when we come to the perfect use of reason and to know his will and yet run Counter to it And therefore the Death of our Children may be a happy prevention of their sining and if they live so long as to receive the benefit of Baptism and to be regenerate and born anew of Water and the Holy Ghost and so be made lively members of Christs Church we are bound to thank God for the mercy of their Regeneration and that they had their sins wash'd away in the laver of Holy Baptism so as that they go much purer out of the World than they came into it whereas if they had liv'd longer in the World they would have contracted a greater guilt and had more sins to answer for they would have been continually liable to temptations and in danger of falling into great and grievous sins and to be corrupted by the bad examples which abound in all places of the World And therefore there is no reason why Parents should so much lament their Childrens leaving them so soon if they do seriously consider that 't is a naughty World we live in and that mens love and practice of wickedness is exceeding great and that 't is impossible to escape all the pollutions that are in it and if they do further consider how much humane nature is tainted with original sin and corruption which prompts us on to evil continually and what a subtile and vigilant Adversary we have who is always seeking to beguile and destroy us and how thick set the World is with snares and temptations I say if this consideration did but enter into our minds it would be of great force and power to asswage our Passion and to allay our sorrow for the death of our Friends and Relations it being a very comfortable thing to contemplate the happiness and priviledge of those that have shook of the clogs and fetters of the flesh and let fall their Bodies the troublesome Mantles of their Souls and are now expatiating in Regions of Bliss and Happiness and live in the pure Element of Goodness and where 't is impossible that any temptation should approach or sin have any Dominion over them Lastly Another thing which might stop Davids sorrowing for the loss of his Child might be this consideration that it was the will of God it should be so He considered that it was altogether foolish and in vain to enter into any controversie with God about his dealings with his Child or to stand expostulating the justice of God in taking it away For he was convinc'd that Gods will ought to be a Law unto us and that there is no need of disputing the Righteousness and Equity thereof it being always rul'd and determin'd by his wisdom and justice and goodness For though God be of an infinite and uncontroulable power and can do whatsoever he pleases both in Heaven and Earth yet there is a Maxime in Theology as well as Policy That the King of Heaven can do no wrong It must be acknowledg'd by us all that our life and being is the gift and blessing of God and so is the life of our Children too and therefore when God does in mercy give us Children so he may with justice take them away For may not he dispose of his gifts and do with his own as he pleases God lent us Children for a little time on purpose to please us shall we be troubled when he resumes them to himself or griev'd when he requires them back we are to observe that there is a great difference between Gods way of disposing his gifts and that of mens For though it be common with men to make a Deed of Gift and to transfer their own right to a thing wholly to another so as to lose all propriety in it yet God does not make the same disposition of his gifts in that absolute manner but when he gives us Riches or Honour or Children or any other gifts he does not make over to us all
believe it why do we bewail the Death of our Friends with so much bitterness and lamentation as if they were utterly lost and gone as if they were past all joys and comfort and were to perish for ever Si enim à miseriis abstrahit si in meliorem vitam inducit si neque misera ipsa est nec ullius particeps miseriae cur mala censetur sin hoc largitur ut sempiternis bonis potiamur vitamque quam mortalem habemus aeternam adipiscamur quid morte beatius esse possit that is says Cicero if we do really believe that death doth abstract and deliver us from the miseries of this World and sets us far out of harms way and that 't is an entrance and introduction to a better life then what reason have we to look upon it as such a sad and grievous thing to die But if it be further granted that Death puts us into the possession of Eternal and never-failing blessings and that it slides us from a short and fading to an Everlasting Life we are then to repute Death our best and dearest Friend in that it leads and ushers us to such Endless Happiness But if we do not believe a Resurrection why are we so rash and formal as to own an Article that we dare not rely on Ah! We little think that the greatest Atheist in the World cannot make a greater Argument against our Religion than we do our selves when we let loose the reins of our passions and refuse to be comforted for the dead and wound and pierce our hearts thorough with great and mighty sorrows thereby testifying that we little believe a Life to come or a better State than this is or that our Friends have exchang'd for the better and therefore we had best look to it and endeavour to curb and check our passions that we do not give occasion to our Enemies to blaspheme and say where is that Heaven that place of rest and blessedness which you so much talk of where is that Faith of a future Life and a judgment to come which you so zealously profess how can you perswade us that you believe what you profess seeing that upon the trial you are ready to kill your selves with very grief for the Death of your Friends and Relations and thereby give a strong suspicion that you think this World the best Paradise for your Friends to live in and the other the best only to talk of To conclude Let us endeavour to possess our hearts and minds with a firm hope and perswasion of a future State and Eternal Life and then we shall be the freer to think of our own Death and be less troubled to part with our Friends and Relations when God thinks fit to take them away Simplicius in his Comment upon Epictetus cap. 33. does rightly observe how variously we are affected at the Death of others and the Death of our own Relations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If we hear sayes he of the Death of anothers Wife or Children we are not much concern'd but put it off very slightly and say that their dying is no wonder at all and that there is no reason to be much troubled at it forasmuch as Death is natural and common to all But then sayes he when we happen to lose any of our own Relations we seem to have another guise opinion of Death and to change our note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is We hear of and see the death and burial of others patiently enough and without being much troubled or inwardly concern'd but when it comes home to our selves and we lose any of our own dear Friends and Relations we are presently in a storm and rise into a supream passion and in the bitterness of our Souls cry out that we are miserable and undone and the unhappiest people in the World and that there is no loss like our loss and that none has such great afflictions as we and then there is nothing to be heard or seen but great Lamentations and Mourning and a huge Scene of sorrows In which words the Philosopher does rightly note our partiality to our selves and how that we esteem and look upon Death to be only unkind and cruel to our selves and those that belong to us and that we can hear and think kindly enough of it at a distance but when it comes nigh us and touches us in our Relations then we are all mutiny and confusion And therefore it is a great Argument of our folly and indiscretion to waver and alter so much in our opinion of Death as to entertain worse thoughts of it at one time than another For albeit the more than ordinary sympathy that is between us and our Relations may defend and justifie our sorrowing somewhat more for them than for perfect Strangers yet it is against common sense and reason that we should be so desperately disquieted at that Providence which deprives us of our Relations whereas we are so little concern'd at the common fatality of Mankind And therefore it behoves us in point of Prudence to labour to have always the same thoughts and opinions of Death and to count it no more cruel no more an Enemy when it seizeth upon our own flesh and blood than when it seizeth upon the rest of humane race And if we make no great matter of the death of others whom we see daily fall to the ground looking upon it as a natural thing for them to die so let us consider that 't is every whit as natural for our Relations to die and nothing happens to them but what is common to all flesh living And this consideration the Philosopher looks upon as very just and reasonable and prescribes it as an excellent Remedy and Antidote against all immoderate sorrowing for the loss of our dearest Friends and Relations But alas why do I urge such a poor consideration as that of Death being common to all men to asswage and mitigate our sorrows for the Dead as if any consideration in the World could do it more effectually than our Christian Hope and the belief of another and better life hereafter Some indeed may attempt and endeavour to quiet and silence their sorrows by Arguments drawn from reason and the acute sayings of Philosophers and think they may be able from meer natural courage and some bold principles to laugh at and despise Death as well as the Stoicks did in their high rants and sullen moods but no Arguments or the most stubborn Principles in the World can be of equal force with our Christian Hope for that purpose A Hope that opens to us the Casements of Heaven and represents to us in a great measure the glories of the Resurrection the exact and full knowledge whereof cannot be attain'd in this narrow state of mortality and is far transcending all humane reach and comprehension so that for me to go about to make a full and compleat description of the excellencies and perfections