believeth with his heart this grand Principle in Religion of every mans being after Death and of the good mans being happy nor lastly to him who in our present Case shall be so just as to believe that this good man to whom we are paying these last Offices of Piety is entred into the perfections and joys of Eternity Whose Glory though it be shut up and skreen'd from our eyes below yet as the Sun in an Eclipse it opens and Displays it self Illustriously to them above Min gling beams with those bright Stars of the Morning the Angels and Cherubims he is now securely placed in the City of God actually Triumphing over Death and Sin for he can now sin no more and therefore can Die no more His Soul may defy them both and say O Death Sting me now if thou canst O Sin Poison me now if thou art able His Body also resting in hope may say to the Grave Rejoyce not against me O mine Enemy for though I am faln I shall rise again Mich. 7.8 Though I ly in Darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me What our Saviour said of Jairus's Daughter is true of our Departed Friend that he is not Dead but Sleepeth or indeed but one part of him sleepeth his Body for his Soul is awake and sings in Heaven Nay he Lives on Earth too for in many respects Death had no Dominion over him His Fame still Lives and will for ever in the Mouths of all good men that knew him His Blood is still warm and flows in the veins of his promising Issue His virtues and the noble Idea of his great mind still Lives and fairly Dawns forth in the hopeful Heir of his Family which God grant he may as fully inherit as he doth his outward Fortune Or rather may a double portion of the Fathers spirit rest upon the Son that he who Succeeds may if possible Exceed him also in all things that are great and honourable virtuous and praise-worthy That he may grow up to be a support to all the tender Branches and a Joy to the Disconsolate Members of that Large family And that in time he may fill up the great vacancies made by his Fathers Death in all stations whether private or publick both with satisfaction to others and honour to himself and so become an Ornament both to his Name and Country To conclude with St. Paul in his words following the Text Let us give thanks to God for giving us and all Christians the victory over Death and the Grave and Sin Through our Lord Jesus Christ Let us give thanks to God for this particular victory which we assuredly hope he hath given our Departed brother over all his Enemies Let his Dear Consort give thanks to God and Rejoyce not that the beloved guest of her bosom is snatched from her but that He is now in the Embraces of his Blessed Saviour and Ravished with Extasies of Divine Love. Let his Dutiful Children give thanks and Rejoyce not that He who gave them a being in this world is taken out of it himself but that they had a Father who in his Life gave them an Example of great virtue and left behind him at his Death a Name more fragrant than pretious Ointment Let us all rejoyce and give hearty thanks to God for the great Ministeries and Comforts which he vouchsafed us in him during his abode with us and for the Merciful and seasonable Deliverance of him out of the Dangers Temptations and Miseries of this sinful world Beseeching him in the Churches excellent prayer That of his Gracious goodness he would shortly accomplish the Number of his Elect and hasten his Kingdom That we meeting again with this happy Soul and All those other that are Departed in the true Faith of his holy name may have our Consummation and bliss both in Body and Soul In his Eternal and Everlasting Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS
a King who acknowledged the Absolute Soveraignty and general success of this Monarch in asking the question What Man is he that lives and shall not see death and shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Psal 89.48 And not only David the Man after Gods own heart but the Son of David the Man to whose heart God himself was hypostatically joyn'd the Blessed Jesus was for some time his Subject and Captive Who then can expect an Exemption from walking in this way of all the Earth And yet we should the less envy him the glory and universality of this Victory if the effects of it fell not so ruinously upon us If the overthrow were no more than the greatest Temporal Destruction nay which is greater than an Eternal Annihilation so that as our hopes were only in this life our fears might be of no other Our Case were the less Deplorable We should then at worst be but Negatively Miserable But when the death of the Body is but a Prologue to the death of the Soul and when this second Death is so far from being nothing that it is an everlasting and unconceivable torment when it is such a forlorn state as that the greatest Evil the utmost Misfortune of this VVorld even Death it self would be the greatest Good and only Comfort and yet not only the hopes but the very Possibility of Dying is there extinct seeing it is an Immortal Death This advances our Misery not more above the Patience than the Imagination of Mankind These Considerations of the Dreadfulness of the Enemy of the Deadliness of the VVeapon of the generality of their Success and the necessary Consequent thereof our extream Desolation may give us just occasion to cry out Rom. 7.24 O wretched Men that we are who shall deliver us from the body of Sin and of this Death VVho shall rescue us from the All-devouring Mouth of this Grave Certainly neither Man nor Angel can deliver us from the force and fury of these Enemies yet from the fear of them we may be delivered by the happy tidings of a perfect Victory over them all which is brought us by 2. The second General The Author and Absoluteness of this Victory Sed quis nobis Hercules But alass who will venture to go forth and fight this Goliah for us that thus Dismaies and Defies the whole Host of Mankind and dares them to match him with an Equal Combatant Let no Mans heart fail for there is one who will undertake him and he though not a David Heb. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet his Son according to the Flesh one who hath already gone out smitten and set his foot upon him 'T is Our great Champion Christ Jesus who came down from Heaven on purpose to fight this bloody Battle for us to enter the Lists with Death and the Grave and Sin and all the Black Legions of Darkness who had held us so long in fear and bondage And though his whole Life was but one continued Dispute with them yet the sharp and doubtful Encounter was at his Passion when he was not only sore thrust at bruised and wounded but slain Not only lost Blood but Life too and his Body closely Imprisoned in a Tomb. So that now one would think Death might be able to answer the Question of the Text to purpose and say Behold here 's my Sting fixed in the Body of the Lord of Life see the deep wound it hath made in his Side which hath let out his very Hearts Blood. The Grave might also vauntingly reply My Victory was in Golgotha and behold here 's my Prisoner whom I have in safe Custody in this Cave But stay a while and you shall see the salvation of the Lord Exod. 14.13 who though he fell to the ground rose up again and that Antoeus-like with renewed force and vertue when he charged his Enemies afresh broke all their strengths and gave them a final overthrow when he disarmed Death of his Sting and quenched its Poison in his Blood and by taking away the guilt thereof destroyed both the power and enmity of Death though he suffered the Enemy to continue till the General Resurrection He conquered the Grave also making his way through all its Guards and Rampiers it having no more power to detain him than the travelling Woman hath the struggling burden of her Womb when it comes to the Birth For how was it possible that a narrow Sepulchre should hold him whom neither the Temple of Solomon nor the Heaven of Heavens are able to contain It was a glorious Miracle for him to open the Graves to unlock those Chambers of Death for others when he was alive but infinitely more to break its Iron Bars asunder and throw open its Doors when he lay Dead and buried in it himself and to rise up and march out like the Sun in his full strength A Victory this sufficient to father it self and which visibly points to no less than a Divine Author and an Omnipotent Arm. It could be no other than our Spiritual Sampson the strength of our Salvation who when the Enemy thought him sure and sealed up even to an Impossibility of a Resurrection awoke thus out of the sleep of Death shook himself and carried away the gates of his Prison to the Heavenly Mount giving eminent proof of his ability and fitness for this mighty Enterprise by beating the Enemy at his own Weapon and in his own Strongest Holds the Grave and Hell and all this in the weakness of Humane Nature which had been so often foil'd by the Adversary And yet this Victory was not more Eminent for its Author nor more wonderful for its Manner than Compleat for its Effect It was so absolute that it not only presented us with our Capital Enemy in Chains but extended it self to all its Associates so as not to leave one Adversary behind to lift up his hand against us There 's no more Condemnation now from the Law Rom. 8.1 to them who are under Grace Sin hath no more Dominion over us ch 6.14 though it still keeps a Residence among us Death hath never an Instrument of Cruelty or Terror left him but being disarmed of his Sting he is a naked gentle and innocent Enemy He is destroyed also who had the power of Death that is the Devil And now the Serpents Head being thus broken though his Tail may still move and seem to threaten yet it cannot hurt us We may safely play with the Scorpion that hath lost its Sting for though we may find some loathing and abhorrence in our selves to it yet we shall receive no harm from it To die now for Christians is but to fall into a quiet and sound sleep to renew our vigour for the Actions of an Everlasting and Divine Life when we awake in the morning of the Resurrection The Grave likewise is so absolutely vanquished that it
condition she will pull off the vails and hypocrisies of sin and bring her forth in her own horrid shape and native deformity she will tear away the dress and wash off the Paint wherewith Satan hath set off this Jezebel she will present the Sinner with the right end of the Perspective which will give him the true image the full size and the dire prospect of Divine Wrath and Everlasting Burnings which will then prove so far from being a Painted or Poetick Fire that the meer speculation of them i.e. the very intelligible species past through a clear understanding will like beams through a Burning Glass immediately kindle a resembling raging flame in his Breast One way or other Sin will manifest it self to be a Sting indeed either in the sharpness of remorse to the Penitent according to the hainousness of his guilt or in the prickings and lancings of despair to the Obdurate Sinner What pangs and throws what anguish and torment it breeds even in good Men may be learned from David's mourning all the day long Psal 38.6 3. and having no rest in his bones by reason of his sin from St. Pauls vehement exclamation O wretched man that I am and from St. Peters bitter tears Rom. 7.14 And if it be so with the green tree what will it be with the dry If the true Penitent suffer such whips what wonder if the Despairing Sinner be lashed with Scorpions Nam mens sibi conscia facti Lucret. Praemetuens adhibet stimulos terretque flagellis The most exquisite torments will be his perpetual entertainment stings and poisons fires and furies feed daily on his Marrow and drink up his Spirits who is both the Malefactor and his own Executioner first forging and sharpening the Knives and Goads and all instruments of pain and cruelty in the dark and sinful recess of his mind and afterward in a cool and sober reflection desperately sticking them into his own Soul. It is in vain for such a person to expect relief from outward applications who hath the Wolf within his Breast the Gangrene in his Conscience Bloody Nero may remove from one appartment to another may change his Bed every night and his Companions every day but the Fiend still haunts him his murder'd Mothers Ghost follows him through all the crouds of Men and labyrinths of Business through Solitudes and Entertainments through the Court and the Camp the Closet and the Theater making his Face as ghastly as the Spectre that occasioned it and filling his mind with the distractions and black horrours of that place from whence it came and though he consulted his chiefest Magicians in the case yet he could find no Charm able to lay the Phantasm or free him from its importunity Cain may wander from one Climat to another seeking rest but findeth none for so long as he carries Blood-guiltiness in his soul he has not so much a Cerberus dogging him at his heels as a Fury lodg'd within his bowels and whilst that fatal sting his guilt remains he must needs bleed within languish and sink under Insupportable horrour and fearful looking for of Judgment Nay let a Judas or a Spira not only change Countries but Worlds when their souls through extremity of despair choose strangling in Jobs phrase seeking to Death for a Lenitive and running to Hell for sanctuary as if the Rolling in Infernal Flames would be a refreshment to them in comparison of that more intolerable Top het within and the Devils themselves prove less cruel than their own Consciences yet in the issue they will find themselves most dreadfully mistaken for the Conscience is not to be put off with the Body but the immortal worm will for ever stick to the immortal part and will not cease to gnaw within when the Fiend lays on without Those external sulphurous heats and scorchings will be so far from calling out or allaying the internal that they will reverberate and enrage them more and heat the Furnace seven times hotter Besides our blessed Lord who only lay under the Imputation of sin felt greater sharps and acuter pains in it than in those Nails and Thorns and Spear which pierced not only his Hands and Head but his Heart for this Sting went deeper than the Body and made its way through that into his very Soul throwing him into such vast Extremities such strange and horrible Convulsions as exceeded all things but the infinit demerit of our Sins which occasioned them What oppressions of Spirit What heaviness of soul unto death What dreadful Agonies What bloody sweat did it cast him into What vehement and reiterated Prayers Mat. 26.39 42 44. What doleful Cries under the Paroxysms of the Conflict did it extort from him And if Imputative guilt was thus terrible and tormenting to the holy Jesus what will Inherent be to the wicked Reprobates when they come to labour and struggle under it 2. Sin is of that virulent nature that like an Invenom'd Indian dart it not only Wounds but Poisons which appears from two particulars its quick spreading Contagion and its fatal Influence 1. It is of that subtle and quick Efficacy that it immediately diffuses its contagion through the whole Man through all the members of the Body the faculties of the soul and the spirit of the mind It mounts up into the Brain and fills that with unsound notions it corrupts all the senses making them the Panders of Vice and Vanity inflaming the Eyes with Lust and Anger and stopping the Ears like the Deaf Adder against the most charming and wholesom Instructions Ps 140.3 It sharpens the tongue like a Serpent and lays the poison of Asps under the lips so that nothing but Corrupt Communication proceeds thence Eph. 4.29 It breaks out in the hands in all gross acts of Violence and Injustice Yea from the sole of the foot even unto the head it leaves no soundness nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores Isa 1.6 It sinks into the inward man also darting its venom through all the secret channels and paths of life seizing the noblest appartments of the soul and the chief offices of reason It transforms all its faculties into the powers of Satan darkening the understanding that it cannot discern or determine aright of truth disabling the will for embracing and holding fast what is good and infeebling the memory that it can neither retain nor return the notions that are stampt upon it It converts the affections and inclinations of the Mind into Carnal Lusts and Appetites and infects the fountain of them the Heart so as to make it swell and rankle with all manner of malice and wickedness In short it turns the whole Body into a body of Sin changes that Incarnate Angel the Soul into a Fiend and taints our very Spirit that Divine Breath of Life making it stink in the nostrils of the Almighty Nay Sin is such an exalted Elixir of Poison that the least grain of it is
will not withold one of its Prisoners but must at the appointed time surrender up all both good and bad Our Saviour hath so broken the Teeth and Jaws of this Devourer that it may swallow but it cannot grind us it may receive us into its Belly as the Whale did the Prophet but not being able to hold us must of necessity cast us up again upon the Land of Immortality The Righteous shall come forth of that close Cell of Darkness and Corruption into spacious Regions of Light and Glory The Wicked shall be brought forth too but it will be to a Bar that will doom them to a far more Dismal Place They shall rise out of one Pit only to fall into another more horrid and bottomless They shall be roused out of a state of Insensibility and still Silence to be driven into another of Sharpest Sense and most shrill and terrible Shriekings They shall enter upon Miseries which are no more possible to be undergone by them than understood by us We may now be able to make some Competent Estimate of the greatness both of the Victory and of the Mercy to us therein A Victory over the Enemies of this Life is valuable to those who have groaned under a Tyrannizing Conquerour or smarted in some Bloody Battle Those Israelites seem to have fully understood its price who having been long harassed by their Enemies offered to God whatsoever he pleased for one Do thou unto us say they Judg. 10.15 whatsoever seemeth good unto thee deliver us only we pray thee this day The Romans were not more satisfied with any Conquest than with those they had over the Germans because they were so near Neighbours and had been so long and vexatious an Enemy to them Surely a right apprehension of the Enemies in the Text will recommend this Victory over them as far more glorious in it self so more Comfortable to us For of Enemies some are Noble and Generous aiming like Pyrrhus only at Glory and Triumph Others are Imperious and Tyrannical designing like Carthage Domination and Oppression yet the bitterest Feuds and Hostilities in this World all Bodily Servitudes and Temporal Sufferances whatsoever are perfect friendships freedoms and Entertainments in comparison of that Mortal shall I say Immortal Enmity that Spiritual Bondage that Eternal Misery which we are delivered from by this happy Victory 3. VVhich shews the Reasonableness of Triumphing and Rejoycing for the same It was one of the Fundamental Laws of the Roman Triumphs Val. Max. l. 2. c. 8. sect 1. that there should be five thousand Enemies slain in the Battle but that could not debar our Victorious Lord from a right to this Honour who had virtually slain infinitely more in destroying the whole Body of Sin and Death and in spoiling Legions of Principalities and Powers Wherefore as at his Resurrection he got the Victory so at his Ascension he Rode in Triumph when he went up towards the Heavenly City with a Shout Ps 47.5 and the sound of a Trumpet Eph. 4.8 having the Clouds for his Triumphal Chariots leading Captivity Captive Coll. 2.15 and making shew of the Spoils openly When he was doubtless met in the way to the upper Jerusalem by numberless Troops of Angels and Seraphims with Psalms in their Hands and Hosanna's in their Mouths as the Daughters of Israel met his Father David with Musick and Dancing in his return from slaying the Philistin and by them Conducted with the greatest Magnificence and Jubilation into the Holy of Holies 1 Sam. 1.8 6. And as he hath given us the benefit of his Victory so the honour of a Triumph too though at present in the Inferour Kind We may have our Christian Acclamations now proportionable to the Pagan Ovations and our Hosanna's to answer their Jo Paean's and that upon better ground then any they ever had seeing by it we are not only delivered from the power and malice of our Cruel Enemy but also from those mighty fears and insuperable Apprehensions we had of them He hath dispersed all those horrours and amazements that unavoidably sprung up in our Minds under the thoughts of our dropping into an Abyss of Darkness and of nothing if not of endless and Exquisite Misery He hath released us from that pepetual anguish and perplexity that formerly stuck to the Soul in spite of all Humane Relief That scorn'd all the powers of Reason and mocked at the attempts of Philosophy to remove it He hath freed us from two greater Evils than Death it self the precedent fear of it in this Life and the dismal Consequence in the next so that we may now lift up our heads and hearts with joy and behold those Insulting Egyptians our proud and inhumane Taskmasters lying dead on the Shore or their Carkasses floting on the Waves We may take a new Song in our Mouths or else that old one of Moses with a little variation Exod. 15.1.21 The Lord hath Triumphed Gloriously the Pale Horse and the Rider hath he thrown into the Sea even into the Red Sea of his Blood. Or else resume this Apostolical Hymn of the Text in a holy defiance of those Enemies upbraiding and boldly challenging them now to do their worst and chearfully singing O Death Where is thy Sting Come bring forth all thy Instruments of Mischief let loose all thy Plagues and Poisons exert thy destructive Victorious Power to the utmost and hurt me now if thou canst but alass thy Weapon is wrested out of thy Hand thy Sinews are Cut and thy Meager Paleness is now not more the symptom of thy Envy and Malice than of thy fainting and languishing Spirits O thou great Destroyer of Mankind thou art now utterly destroyed thy self O Grave Where is thy Victory Keep me in durance now if thou art able make fast all thy Prison-doors and throw thy strongest Chains and Fetters upon me yet these as in the case of St. Peter shall all fall off and the other fly open O thou Devourer of all Flesh thou art now swallowed up in Victory thy self by him whom thou hadst devour'd Who can forbear now not only to Sing but Dance for Joy who could not forbear before to Cry out and Tremble for fear under the sight or sense of these hideous Bugbears to the Heirs of Mortality seeing they are now so weaken'd and wounded that there 's little left for us save the honour and pleasure to stand upon and insult these Sons of Anak who lie thus prostrate before us Let us then bravely despise and deride Death with all his Associates and Seconds Let us not so far disparage this great performance of our Lord as to receive the Spirit of Bondage again to fear any of them This would be to blemish the glory of his Victory as if he had left it imperfect whereas he was not only an absolute Conqueror of them all himself Rom. 8.37 But hath made us also more than Conquerours through faith in him and
even that faith he gives us also whereby we overcome the World. He hath not only ransom'd us from the Insolencies and Severities of our Enemies loos'd our Bands knock'd off our Shackles and scatter'd our fears but bids us fly in upon the Rich Spoils seize the glorious Prize and advances us to the greatest Priviledges and Perferments He not only settles us in a State of Peace and Security but of Grace and Glory He hath not only pluck'd the Sting out of Death but hath left Honey in its stead so that we may suck sweetness out of that Strong One Judg. 14.14 and find Meat and Manna in that Eater That which was threatned as the greatest Punishment under the Law is by our Saviours Victorious Resurrection become a real Blessing and under the Gospel 't is little less than a Promise and Priviledge that we shall all be changed It was formerly esteemed an unhappiness that we should dye it would now be one if we should not We should be forc'd to sojourn in this Mesech and be confin'd to dwell for ever in these Tents of Kedar were it not for Death which is the happy gate to Everlasting Life Wherefore we have no reason to look upon it as Satan's Serjeant or as our Executioner but as Christs Messenger and our Usher to Glory Socrates his Divinity raised him to such a heigth as to tell his Philosophical Friend that his Enemies might kill but could not hurt him sure our Christianity then will enable us to look upon Death not so much as a tolerable Evil but as the most desirable good and the greatest of Mercies fitter for our Love and Courtship than for our Fear and Abhorrence So that if an Angel from Heaven should bring us the news that we should never die we ought to account it as no Gospel no good Tidings but rather as an Anathema to us We need not shrug at the Grave neither for that cold and hard Lodging by our Saviours lying there is become as warm and soft as a Bed of Down That place of Stench and Noisomness since this Rose of Sharon was planted there is more fragrant than a Bed of Spices 'T is now not a Dungeon but a Repository wherein the Sacred Dust the only Reliques of the Saints are to be inshrined till the last Trump shall call for them again to be built up into a new and living Temple for their own blessed Souls and the holy Spirit of God to cohabite in for evermore And as we have little cause to fear so less to love these Enemies or to enter into any secret friendships and Alliances with them any more to make a Covenant with Death Isa 28.15 and to be at an Agreement with Hell or the Grave in the Prophets sense i. e. to persist in the way of Wickedness and cherish those Sins in our bosom which are both His and Our Mortal Enemies which cost him so dear as his own Blood to subdue and which if they be suffered to revive will be the death of our Souls Let us have a care that while he hath fought our Battles we do not thus make war upon him That would make this Victory over our Enemies the greatest overthrow of our selves and call for a Lamentation instead of a Triumph For such a perverse Requital of so great Salvation must proportionably inhance our future Everlasting Punishment What then shall we render unto the Lord for all these mighty Benefits Let us light all our brightest Torches of Joy and Gladness and kindle all our Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving to this Eternal and glorious Conqueror who hath wrought such wonders of Mercies for us and destroyed those our Potent and Cruel Enemies Let us praise him not only with our Voices but with our Affections in our Hearts and in our Lives in Pious Remembrances and pure Conversations The grateful Heathens used to Consecrate the Memory of those Heroes who subdu'd their Enemies and freed their Countries from infesting Monsters and Giants not only making them their Kings while they were on Earth but their Gods afterward in Heaven And can we do less to our Victorious General who hath vanquished so many Abaddons and Monsters for us who hath destroy'd a greater Devourer of Mans Flesh than the Minotaur even Death it self in its own Labyrinth the Grave and hath quell'd a more terrible Serpent than the many-headed Hydra even that whose name is Legion Certainly then to obey him as our King and to adore him as our God is both Rational and Christian Why should we not Erect a Statue to his Honour as Victors use to have not of Silver or Gold or the Work of Mens Hands but the Divine Image of himself in our Hearts for a perpetual Remembrance Let us take the Cup of Salvation and sing Everlasting Praises to this Immortal Lord of Life who was content once to die that we Mortals might live for ever and when by his own Nature it was impossible for him so to do assumed ours to qualifie himself for Death for our sakes To this Victorious King of Glory who rose again to give us the fuller assurance of the truth of his present and of our future Victory at the Resurrection lastly to this Triumphant God who ascended visibly and gloriously into Heaven to shew us the way thither and to take possession of it for us who hath in his Gospel thrown wide open the Everlasting Gates of Glory and exposed to our view all the Riches the Beauties and Honours of his Kingdom that we might behold the glorious Furniture of those Eternal Mansions he hath prepared for us and the never fading Crowns of Immortality hung out to edge our Appetites and inflame our Ardors to be partakers of them and to support and animate us in all Difficulties and Conflicts in our passage to this new Jerusalem To him I say let us give as is most due all possible Praise and Adoration both now and for evermore And it could be no less than a firm assurance of this blessed Victory over Death and a clear prospect of this glorious Scene of Immortality beyond it which fixed this great and good Man whose Obsequies we are now Celebrating in so steddy and uniform a Course of Christianity in his Life and Composed him into such a Chearfulness and Serenity of Spirit at his Death In shadowing out a more particular though but faint Idea of this Excellent Person I need not borrow any Colour from his Blood nor reflect any Lustre upon his Character from the shining Vertues and Noble Acts of his Ancestors which have Adorned his Family with many Royal Badges of their Loyalty and Eminent Services to the Crown though the Honourary Augmentation of a Hand and Banner to their Arms and of the Mannor of Hanley with its Franchises and Priviledges to their Estate will never suffer the brave Atchievements of Advancing the Black Princes Standard at the famous Battle of Cressey and the taking Prisoner Count Tanquervile
Graves But she bestowed her Praises and Encomiums upon those only who bore themselves bravely above it Among the Jews a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Vit. Mosis l. 3◠though mourning was not accounted a Sin yet such a Defect and Defilement as Excluded them for a certain time from the use of holy things And though Christianity it self hath not Entertain'd so much of Stoicism as to cancel all natural affections and to recommend a perfect Apathy to her Disciples yet she undertakes to Limit and Direct their Motions to assign them their proper Objects and their due Measures She knows that Love is such a Powerful Cement as works not only a close and firm Adherence but such a strange Coalition nay such a perfect unity of the Lovers hearts that death cannot snatch away the one without Tearing a piece from the other also and so leave the survivor under a kind of necessity of smarting and bleeding for it She therefore expects not that men should be insensible of their loss but only temperate in their sorrow She desires they would not show themselves so much Friends to the Dead as to become enemies to the Living to God and to themselves Hence S. Paul's admonition to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 4.13 concerning them which are asleep is not that they sorrow not at all but that they sorrow not as others who have no hope What a great disparagement and a Reproach would it be to our Religion if we could not shew an equal courage at least with the Heathens under the loss of Friends which many of them sustained not only with moderation but unconcernedness Could we in truth urge that Argument for our Lamentation which Rachel alledg'd for her refusing comfort upon the Death of her Children because they are not or did we not really believe a Resurrection and eternal Life we might have more pretence for an exorbitance in this kind but now seeing it appears from what has been said and all Christians acknowledge that death can have no other force upon a man than was ascribed of Old to Gyges his Ring not to unmake but only to make him Invisible for a season why should we so grosly and meanly deny that in our practice which we so openly and constantly avow in our Creed and in despite of all the evidence of Scripture and Specious profession of our Faith by our unreasonable despondency tell the world that in truth we are destitute of all hope that we not only question but quite despair of the being or the well being of the dead For can we believe that they shall rise again and yet thus bitterly bemoan them what should we have done if God had left them under the power of Death without any Resurrection nay what should we have done if we had reason to believe that he had doomed them to the second and Everlasting death we hereby give too just occasion to the Enemies of our Religion to deride and expose our Hypocrisy and the Contradiction of our Lives to our Principles and to wound it through our sides nay in effect we doe it our selves for every impatient exclamation is a kind of Blasphemy against our holy Faith and every deep sigh and groan a palpable Mockery and Ridiculing the Article of Eternal life Upon which considerations a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in Heb. c. 2. Hom. 4. St. Chrysostom judges the indulgence of immoderate mourning at Funerals so scandalous as to deserve Excommunication and indeed whatever may be the pretence there 's nothing at the bottom but a deep tincture of Infidelity which gives birth and nourishment to this unruly passion For who can believe that the Son of God himself died and yet so impatiently lament that any of the Children of men should die also who can beleive that he conquer'd Death and the Grave rose again and ascended triumphantly into Heaven and is there sate down at the right hand of the Father and yet lye under such distractions of mind when any of our Relations are call'd out of the body to follow him into his Kingdom We doe hereby raise an evil report of that good Land the Heavenly Canaan we discover a mean esteem of that blessed seat Abrahams bosom whither good men are carryed at death by the Angels nay we offer an affront to our Saviour himself in deploring their condition as miserable whom Faith assures us to be with him in Paradise partaking of his Glories and made like unto him And hence St. Paul who had been rapt up into the third Heavens reckon'd it a Gain to him to dye and to be with Christ And doubtless one assur'd thought of the Christians Heaven one single glance of the Glories wherewith our Friend is Crown'd would effectually quash and becalm all those stormy passions and impetuous commotions of Soul which we suffer for him So that in final resolution Immoderate mourning is so unchristian a passion that it evidently betrays our want of those Gospel-Graces either Faith in the Doctrine of the Resurrection and future happiness or hope and Charity if we bewail our Friend as if he had no share in them Whereas both his Life and Death were the greatest indications to the contrary for as he liv'd not the common Life so he dyed not the common Death of all men but the peculiar and distinguishing one of Gods Children amidst the Ministeries and in the embraces of those who would willingly have sacrificed their own lives to have redeemed his amidst the prayers of his dearest Relations returning them his last Counsels and Blessings under the greatest calmness of Spirit and clearness of understanding to the Fatal moment his happy Soul being constantly exercis'd and inflam'd with the purest and most ardent devotion overflowing with Spiritual Comforts and glorious Expectations till at last it went off as it were in a holy Extasy on the wings of Divine Love and Heavenly Meditations into the boundless Regions of Light and Glory and Immortality 2ly and Lastly let us not only shut up natures Flood-gates and quit our selves like men but let us open the Channels of grace and rise up to the Dignity of Christians and to the Example which the great Apostle gives us in the Text by taking up a song of Joy and Thanksgiving to God for the happy deliverance and exaltation of our Departed friend There is nothing more usual nor perhaps more natural for human Minds than in their affections and inclinations especially to fly from one extreme to another Mans whole life is but a Constant Vibration betwixt the opposite Passions of hope and fear of Grief and Joy which are the Systole and Diastole of the Mind Alternatly and almost necessarily succeeding one another And Tears are as natural Expressions of Extraordinary Joy as of common Sorrow Let us try then the Experiment in the present Case and see how happily we can Change the Irrational and dull Passion of sadness into that Angelick and Spritely one of