Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A86479
|
A letter from Sr Matthew Hale, Kt. sometime Lord Chief Justice of England: to one of his sons, after his recovery from the small-pox
|
Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676.
|
1684
(1684)
|
Wing H247A; ESTC R228016
|
15,415
|
40
|
A LETTER FROM S r MATTHEW HALE K t Sometime Lord Chief Justice of ENGLANDâ— To One of his SONS After his Recovery from the SMALL-POX LONDON Printed by J. Playford for W. Shrowsbery at the Sign of the Bible in Duke-lane 1684. A LETTER FROM Sir MATTHEW HALE To One of his SONS Son ALthough by reason of the Contagiousness of your Disease and the many dependents I have upon me I thought it not convenient to come unto you during your sickness yet I have not been wanting in my earnest Prayers to Almighty God for you nor in using the best means I could for your recovery It hath pleased God to hear my Prayers for you and above means and hopes now to restore you to a Competent degree of health for which I return unto him my humble and hearty thanks and now you are almost ready to come abroad again therefore I have thought fit to write this little Book to you for these reasons 1. Because it is not yet seasonable for you to come to me in respect of these same reasons above mentioned which hitherto have restrained my coming to you 2. Because at your coming abroad you will be subject to Temptations by young and inconsiderate Company which instead of serious Thankfulness to God for his mercy to you might perchance persuade you to a vain and light jollity And I thought fit to send you these Lines to prevent such inconsiderate impressions and to meet you just at your coming abroad to season you with more wise and serious principles 3. Because you are even now come out of a great and sore Visitation and therefore in all probability in the fittest temper to receive the impressions of a serious Epistle from your Father And I have chosen to put it into this little Volume because it is somewhat too long for a Letter and may be better preserved for your future use and memory God Almighty hath brought you to the very Gates of Death and shewed you the Terrour and Danger of it and after that he had shewn you this Spectacle of your own Mortality he hath marvellously rescued and delivered you from that danger and given you life even from the dead so that you are as a man new Born into the World or returned to Life again which now you seem as it were to begin You have passed through those two great Dispensations of the Divine Providence those two great Experiments that God is pleased sometimes to use towards the Children of men namely Correction and Deliverance his Rod and his Staff And therefore in all reasonable conjecture this is the most seasonable time to give you a Lecture upon both and those admonitions which may be render the one and the other profitable unto you And this I shall endeavour to do in these following Lines First you shall not need to fear that I intend to upbraid you with the errors of your Youth or to expostulate with you touching them For I do assure you I do from my heart forgive you all your follies and miscarriages And I do assure my self that you have repented of them and resolved against them for the time to come and that thereupon God-almighty hath also fully forgiven what is past And this is a great assurance thereof to me in that he hath so wonderfully restored you and given you as it were a new Life wherein you may obey and serve him better than ever you yet did And therefore if in this Letter there be any touches concerning former vanities assure your self they are not angry repetitions but only necessary Cautions for your future ordering of your Life The business of these papers is principally to commend unto you two general Remembrances and certain Results and Collections that arise from them they are all seasonable for your present Condition and will be of singular use and benefit to you in the whole ensuing Course of your Life First I would have you as long as you live remember your late Sickness in all its Circumstances and these plain and profitable inferences and advices that arise from it Secondly I would have you remember as long as you live your great deliverance and the several Circumstances of it and those necessary duties that are incumbent upon you in relation thereunto It is evident to daily experience that while Afflictions are upon us and while deliverances are fresh they commonly have some good effect upon us But as the Iron is no sooner out of the fire but it quickly returns to its old coldness and hardness so when the Affliction or Deliverance is past we usually forget them count them common things attribute them to Meanes and second Causes And so the good that Mankind should gather from them vanish and men grow quickly to be but what they were before they came their sick-bed promises are forgot when the sickness is over And therefore I shall give you an account of your sickness and of your recovery And let them never be forgotten by you as often as those Spots and Marks in your Face are reflected to your view from the Glass as often as this paper comes in your fight nay as often as you open your Eyes from sleep which were once closed and likely never to open again so often and more often remember your sickness and your recovery and the admonitions that this paper lends you from the Consideration of both First therefore touching your late sickness I would have you remember these particulars 1. The Disease it self in its own nature is now become ordinarily very Mortal especially to those of your Age Look upon even the last years General Bill of Mortality you will find near Two Thousand dead of that Disease the last Year and had not God been very merciful to you you might have been one of that number with as great likelyhood as any of them that Dyed of that Disease 2. It was a Contagious Disease that secluded the access of your nearest Relations 3 Your sickness surprised you upon a suddain when you seemed to be in your full strength 4. Your sickness rendred you Noysom to your self and all that were about you and a spectacle full of deformity by the excess of your Disease beyond most that are sick thereof 5. It was a fierce and violent sickness it did not only take away the common supplies of nature as digestion sleep strength but it took away your memory your understanding and the very sence of your own Condition or of what might be conducible to your good All that you could do was only to make your Condition more desperate in Case they that were about you had not prevented it and taken more Care for you than you did or could for your self 6. Your sickness was desperate in so much that your Symptoms and the violence of your distemper were without Example and you were in the very next degree to absolute Rottenness Putrefaction and Death it self Look upon the foregoing Description and
remember that such was your Condition you were as sad a Picture of Mortality and Corruption as any thing but Death it self could make Remember it And Remember also these ensuing Instructions that may make that Remembrance profitable and useful to you First Remember that Affliction cometh not forth of the dust nor doth trouble spring out of the ground Job 5.6 But this terrible visitation was sent to you from the wise overruling Providence of God It is he that bringeth down to the Grave and bringeth up again It is true that this Disease may seem common but you may and must know that there was more than the common hand of God in sending it upon you in such a manner and such a measure and at such a season when you were grown up to a Competent Age and degree of understanding to make a due use of it that you might see his justice in Afflicting you and his goodness in delivering you from such a danger Secondly Remember that Almighty God is of most infinite Wisdom Justice and Mercy he hath excellent ends in all his dispensations of his providences He never sends an Affliction but it brings a message with it his Rod has a voice a voice Commanding us to search and try our ways and to examin our selves whether there hath not been some great sin against him or neglect of duty to him a voice Commanding us to repent of what is a miss to humble our selves under his mighty hand to turn to him that striketh us to seek to him by Prayer for deliverance to depend upon him by Faith in his mercy and power to amend what is a miss to be more watchful circumspect and obedient to him in the future course of our lives to fear to offend him And if a man hear this voice God hath his end of mercy and goodness and man hath the fruit benefit and advantage of his Affliction and commonly a Comfortable issue of it Read often and attentively the 33th Chapter of Job from the beginning to the end Thirdly Remember how uncertain and frail a Creature man is even in his seeming strongest Age and Constitution of health even then a pestilential Air some evil humour in his blood some obstruction it may be of a little vein or artery a little meat ill-digested and a thousand small occurrences may upon a suddain without any Considerable warning plunge a man into a desperate and mortal sickness and bring a man to the grave Remember this terrible sickness seized upon you suddenly pulled down your strength quickly and brought you to the very brink of the Grave And though God hath recovered you you know not how soon you may be brought into the like Condition Fourthly Remember therefore that you make and keep your peace with God and walk in his fear in the days of health especially after so great a deliverance and that for very many reasons 1. You know not whether you may not be overtaken with sudden Death and then it will be impossible for you to begin that work 2. If you have sickness to give you warning of the approach of Death yet you know not whether that sickness may not suddenly take away your senses memory or understanding whereby you may be disabled to make your peace with God or to exercise any serious thoughts concerning it 3. But if that sickness give you fair warning and take not away your understanding yet your own experience cannot chuse but let you know that pain and weakness and distraction of mind and impatience and unquietness are the common attendants of a sick bed and render that season at least very difficult then to begin that greatest and solemness and most important business of a mans Life 4. But if your sickness be not so sharp but that it leaves you patience and attention of mind for that great business how do you know whether your heart shall be inclined to it Repentance and Conversion to God is his gift though it must be our endeavour And though the merciful God never refuseth a repenting returning offender yet how can a man that all the time of his health hath neglected Almighty God refused his invitations and served his lusts and his sin expect reasonably that God in the time of sickness when the man can serve his sins no longer will give him the grace of repentance What ever you do therefore be sure you make your peace with God and keep it in the days of your health especially after so great a deliverance from so desperate a sickness Fifthly Remember that your Condition is never so low but that God hath power to deliver you and therefore trust in him But remember withall that your Condition is never so safe and secure but you are within the reach of his power to bring you down You are now by the mercy of God recovered from a terrible sickness think not with your self that your turn is now served and that you shall have no more need of him and therefore that you may live as you lift and never regard your duty to him deceive not your self herein remember that this sickness within two or three days brought you upon your knees even from a seeming state of health The Case is the same still nay much worse if this Affliction make you not better Almighty God called you to love and serve and obey him by the still voice of his word by the perswasion of your Friends by the advises and reproofs of your Father and when these were not so effectual as I know you now wish they had been He sent a messenger that spake lowder that would be heard even this terrible sickness and most certainly if you have heard the voice of this Rod as I am hopeful you have and thereupon entirely turn to your duty to God in all sincerity and obedience it is the happiest providence that ever befell you and you will upon sound Conviction conclude with the Prophet It was good for me that I was Afflicted But on the other side if notwithstanding this voice of the Rod you shall after your recovery turn again to folly and vanity and excess and harden your self against this messenger know for certain you are within the reach of the Divine Justice and Power And if you walk contrary to him he will walk contrary to you and punish you yet seven times for your sins Levit. 26.24 I therefore give you that Counsel that our Lord gave to him that he had healed Behold thou art minde whole go thy way and sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee There is no contesting with Almighty God he is ready and easie to be reconciled to the worst of men upon humiliation and true repentance but he is not to be Mastered or Conquered by obstinacy and opposition Who hath hardened himself against him and prospered Job 9.4 Sixthly I would have you Remember that sickness as well as death doth undeceive Mankind and shews them where