those crimson Capital offences that as the Orator said 2 in Verrem They might Cure not cover the wound and labour to profit raâ—her then to please the Patient So Clerus Romanus ad Cyprianum inter ejus opera tomo 1. ep â— That neither the wicked might be incouraged by their Facility nor religious minds disheartened by their Cruelty and yet of the twaine it was better with Domitius to be thought severe in punishing then dissolute in praetermitting passing by the wickedness Thus were some strengthened in Faith and armed against Lapses others were made to see the greatness of the sin and terrified against Relapses All were framed ordered tuned to a most wished happy harmony in the Church of God Reply p. 41. Yet Mr. Cartwright that disturber of Sions peace will cry out against the Churches severity extream excessive severity and though he somewhere tells us That Murderers Adulterers and Incestuous persons must die the death the Magistrate cannot save them such is this mild Moses's mercy toward those yet here pardon Ibid. p. 36. pardon pardon And lest he might seem any way to favour the proceedings of the Roman Church though when she was younger by fourteen hundred years then now she is Ibid. p. 149. He tells you That if Offenders be not meet to receive the holy Sacrament of the Supper they are not meet to hear the Word of God they are not meet to be partakers of the Prayers of the Church and if they be for one they are also for the other But this is he who thinks it more safe for us to conform our indifferent Ceremonies to the Turks Ibid pag. 131. Calvin Institut lib. 3. cap. 3. sect 16. Ibid lib. 4. â— 12. sect 8. which are afar off than to the Papists which are so near Indeed his Master tells us That the Church did use too much rigour And would know Si Deus tam benignus est ut quid Sacerdos ejus austerus vult videri God saith he is merciful and gracious why should his Priest be so austere and rigorous Ibid. lib. 3. c. 4. sect 10. Art 33. And yet Calvin here in our case will have the Sinner yield sufficient testimony of his sorrow That the scandal which the offender hath given may be obliterated and taken away And it must be palam in Templo and so doth our Church teach The Offender must be openly reconciled by Pennance Indeed we might be as unreasonably plausible as other some are and with those Hesterni as Tertullian calls Praxeas Cyprian tomo 1. epist. 10. Prov. 22.28 we might remove the ancient bounds which our Fathers have set We might be as unhappily undiscreetly merciful as Foelicissimus in Cyprian or another if it be true Tom 1. ep 40. lib. 6. cap. 9. in Socrates we might after a welcome-home admit them to the Church and Sacraments Cyprian de lapsis but it would prove a worse persecution then the first and we should call them A medela vulneris Idem tomo 1. ep st â—â— Serm de Benedicto Abbate it were the way to kill out-right and not to cure the disease Quae nimis propere minus prosperè The words are Bernards but it is a Proverb of our own More haste than good speed This made some Holy men of old pray That those which had fallen might know and acknowledge the greatness of their fall that so they might learn non momentaneam neque praeproperam desiderare medicinam That they might with all fearful humbleness expect Clerus Romanus ad Cyprianum inter ejus opera tomo 1. epist. 31. and not audaciously presume a pardon But to soder those rents to daub the breach with untempered mortar to incarnate on the splintred bones to cry peace peace in a present peril and the greatest danger what is this else but to precipitate and plung a poor distressed Soul into a more perplexed case and desperate disease It is a terrible lenity as saith St. Augustine Terribilis lenitas blanda pernicies stulta misericordia Bern ser 24. super Cantica a courteous mischief as St. Cyprian a foolish pity as St. Bernard Misericordiam hanc ego nolo God keep all poor sin-sick-souls from such Physicians Let the righteous rather smite me friendly and reprove me but let not their precious balms break my head Let me know my danger and whence I am fallen that I may repent and do the first works If much be remitted of the ancient severity as we see there is and the punishment be much less then those primitive Times did usually inflict it is not because the Sin is now less or the Compassion of the Faithful greater for that ancient discipline is to be wished for again but these delicate Times will not suffer it And the Church is forced to condescend to the weakness of her Children Church-book ante Comminat Tertul de poenitent cap. 1. Many men are become pudoris magis memores quà m salutis They will rather hazard the loss of Heaven than endure disgrace so they account it on earth And this is the very cause why many and as I am informed many hundreds are Musmans in Turky and Christians at home doffing their Religion as they do their Cloaths and keeping a Conscience for every Harbour where they shall put in And those Apostates and circumcised Renegadoes think they have discharged their Conscience wondrous well if they can Return and the Fact unknown make profession of their first Faith These men are Cowards and flexible before the fall careless and obstinate after it but what good will it do them saith Lactantius Bern. in Psal Qui habitat serm 11. l. 6. c. 24. non habere conscium habere conscientiam To have no witness without and one within To hide their sins from men and to appear as they are to the righteous Judge from whose eyes nothing is hid nothing is secret To be baptized with Simon Magus and yet live in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity Cyprian de lapsis These are those cursed wretches to whom proprius interitus satis non fuit who will not perish alone but both by their example and their exhortation draw others into the same pit of perdition also who do add sin to sin and multiply and aggravate their offences by hiding denying excusing translating sin So that they may be Men here they care not to be Devils afterward If any such be here who hath received the Mark of the Beast and lives unknown yet for Gods sake for his own sake for that sweet Name by which he is named the Name of Christ by the hope of Heaven by the fear of Hell by his Friends on Earth and the holy Angels in Heaven who joy at the Conversion of a sinner by whatsoever is dearest unto him Gregory Nyssen in the end of his Homil. of Repentance Si vis curam agnosce languorem P. Chrysolog
can do no worse by us than did that Lion by the man of God 1 Kings 13. kill the body and gaze upon the Carcass But Animae non habet quod faciat as Bernard said the best part of us is without the reach of the Lion and Dragon too You know that story of Anaxarchus when the Cyprian Tyrant caused him to be pounded with brazen Pestles in a Mortar Tunde saith he Tunde sacculum Anaxarchi Pound pound the bag the Case of Anaxarchus himself you cannot hurt They may have that power upon us as the Devil had upon Job we may suffer in Children Goods Body There 's one part of us they cannot hurt Keep we our Conscience sound and God will preserve our soul intire In the mean time their day is coming when they must hence and shall be no more Yea happy they if they might be no more indeed if soul and body might perish everlastingly But they must know a Day of Retribution is at hand when God shall render unto every man according to his works Return they shall but not to life Not to those Monuments of Bloud Avarice and Ambition which by their Cut-throat cruelty they shall leave behind Those places from which they must shall see them no more Psal 103. What say we then to Apparitions To the raising up of Samuel at the instance of Saul c. 2 Kings 4. A Child 2 Kings 13. A man restored to life again A thing frequent in the New Testament and afterward One in the Bed another in the Bier Lazarus from out his Tomb And after the Passion of our Saviour the Graves were opened and many Bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many Matth. 27.52.53 Some body tells us of one Curma sent b ck again from the Judgment-Barr because Death or the Angel of Death had mistaken him for another of the same Name And a Jesuite tell us of one who a good whâ—le dead and buried by prayers and permission came back again enjoyed his wife and kept his former habitation To these two last my Answer is No Scripture no Belief I may call these mens return from Hell or wheresoever 't was a Fable more safely than doth Beza call the Descent of our Saviour thither Fabulam Fabulam a Fable and againe saith he a Fable I do not bely St. Beza you shall find it in his greater Notes upon the Twenty seventh Chapter of St. Matthew Verse 53. As for those frequent Apparitions there may be such Sed non ego credulus illis But these are most while pretended for the Soul alone Though I deny not some such power to the Devil as to put on what shape he please For he that can transform himself into an Angel of Light 2 Cor. 11 14. may easily make or take some body at his pleasure Though most times I conceive such things to be Illusions And some such thing was that of Samuel God forbid we should once imagine any such skill or prevalency in Witches or their great Master either by whom they work that they should have any power upon the Souls of the Godly that are departed out of this Life No no The Scriptures tell us They are in the hand of God and no evil can touch them As for those others restored to life by Elisha in the Old or our Saviour in the New Testament Quod lego credo And God forbid any man should stagger at such plain Evidences Christ hath the Keys of Hell and Death Rev. 1.18 And he can open and shut at his pleasure But this takes not off that General Rule Hebr. 9.27 It 's appointed unto men once to dye where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once and once for all One Death one Judgment for all men Yet Enoch and Elias were excepted as also these others in the Gospel A few Priviledges or Exceptions break not the General Law But what is this to David and to us We must go hence and shall be no more No second Return And therefore as our Saviour said we must agree with our adversary quickly and while we are in the way We have Adversaries enough and too many God knows and some of them will not agree with us But do we our best for Reconcilement especially at such a time as this and such Adversaries as by our doing injuries we have made such There are some Adversaries we may not agree withal No casting in our Lots amongst the Wicked no shaking hands with those whose Religion is Rebellion And therefore no peace with such unless we will be at Enmity with God and there were an Adversary indeed 'T is good agreeing with him and that quickly too no delay and while we are in the way For once gone and no returning back again Si Deus nobiscum If we can get him our Friend no matter if all the World be our Enemies O Lord do thou pardon and forgive Do thou return and refresh us O Lord spare us that we may recover our strength before we go hence and be no more Deo Patri c. A SERMON Preached before His MAJESTY King CHARLES the II. In the ISLE of JERSEY 2 TIM IV. 10. Demas hath forsaken me I Shall rather be perswaded esse Lunares Homines quà m Joculares Daemones To be for Signs and Seasons Gen. 1. doth not exclude those capacious Bodies from other purposes And I know what Heraclides Cardan and others have said touching those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Creatures of a middle condition between Men and Angels As also what Hermes Apollonius and Plotinus have said for the Genii These may be the fancies of men But sure wherever Cornelius à Lapide found his Merry Devils I am confident he could never find any well-affected to Mankind The malicious and wrathful Dragon is ever at war with the seed of the Woman and that same Ponam inimicitias is almost as old as Adam If once the Woman the Church or any Child of hers do parere masculum any vertuous and masculine work that old Serpent is ready with his floud of poyson to destroy both Root and Branch His first attempt is to stifle it in the birth if he fail there then by allurements to make it Deviare in its calling and subjection If he prevail not here then una eurúsque notúsque ruunt Earth Water and all must conspire its utter ruin and destruction Take for this St. Pauls example and where should a man find a better First he is armed with Authority and Commission against the Church A shrewd Temptation which once over-blown and the sometime Persecutor become a Preacher Next there 's a plot to kill him in Damascus at Lystra he is lapidatus scourged and imprisoned at Philippi His death sworn at Hierusalem suffers shipwrack at Malta at length post varios casus he comes to Rome lives in an hired house
if they had missed the cutting of their Fore-skin And so likewise in the New Testament many are said to receive the Holy Ghost before they received Baptisme Wherefore as St. Peter said of some of them Act. 10. Can any man forbid Water I may say Could any man forbid Heaven if they had died without Water If any say Vid. Dom. Soto in 4. Sent. dist 5. q. unic art 2. The Votum or desire might suffice them because they were Adulti and come to years of discretion Let them know here could be no Votum because no knowledge And ignoti nulla Cupido In Comment in 2 Pet. 3. habet Sixt. Senens bib lib 6. Annot 340. Ambrosius Catharinus is more favourable to Infants He thinks they shall live in that New Earth which shall be at the end of the World in all pomp and jollity and shall there praise God for ever Thus do our Adversaries pass their Judgment on holy Innocents and that Rule of their Aquinas is forgotten Deus non alligavit gratiam suam Sacramentis Gods hands are not bound nor hath he tyed his Mercies or confined them to the Sacraments The Conclusion of this point is That Baptisme is the ordinary appointed Means for our Salvation And therefore neglect it not Yet hath God his special favour and his extraordinary Grace saving oft times saving without Means where the Means cannot be had Vid. Mortons Apol. not 6. c. 41. p. 121. jos Angl. par 1. q. 1. de Bapt. art ult con 3. And many learned Papists as Cajetan Gerson Gabriel are of our Opinion vid. Dom. Soto in 4. Sent. dist 5. q. 1. art 2. ubi de Aliis Part 5. The Benefits obtained by Baptism and how they are conveyed unto us Vide Chemnit exam Concil Trident part 2. p. 20. Many Schoolmen attributing too much to the outward Signs tell us That Grace is given in them and by them not only Instrumentally but either Effectivè or Dispositivè by an inherent vertue in the Elements You heard of some in elder times Vid Danaeum in Aug. de haeres in fin who did wholy slight this Sacrament The Socinians have done as much in our daies And some have done but little better whilst they make the Sacraments distinctive only nought but bare Signs or Notes of our Profession whereby from Jews Turks Pagans we may be discerned But we acknowledge Power in these holy Mysteries and that they are not meerly significative but exhibitive also Offering and conferring Grace Sed ex Institutione promissione c. Not of themselves but by the mercies of God in Christ they carry and conveigh the blessings of our Redemption and seal unto us those Promises which God hath made and Christ hath purchased with his precious blood Thus Augustine Tract 80. in Joh. How and whence comes this power to the Water that touching the Body it doth cleanse the Soul The Word the Word sa th he is cause of all not because spoken but because believed And thus Cyril of the Pool Bethesda Joh. 5. Tom. 1. in Evang Joh. l. 6. c. 14. That it did cure Diseases not by its own Nature for then it should have alwaies done it but only at the coming of the Angel 'T is so saith he in Baptisme where not the Water but the Water sanctified by the Holy Spirit doth wash away sins In Nazianz tom 1. Orat 6. de Sp. Sanct. ipse Nazianz in funere Caesarii fratris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To these I add Elias Cretens in Nazianz. He tells us How the Water doth renew us unto Regeneration but the Grace and Blessing cometh from above And thus have you the fruit the benefit of Baptisme 'T is Opus Spiritus Sancti 'T is a work of the Holy Spirit Enough were said and say no more but it doth offer and confer Grace wash away sins and cleanse and sanctifie Ephes 5.26 'T is Janua Ecclesia Janua Coeli The Door through which we pass into the Church Militant and from thence into the Church Triumphant 'T is our New Birth our Second Birth There is a double Birth From the first Adam as Sinners from the second Adam as Saints By the first we are liable to Death by the second we have a right to Glory In the first we come crying with that of the Apostle Quis me liberabit Wretched Men that we are who shall deliver us In the second we come with Gratias in our mouths Thanks be to the Lord who hath so graciously bestowed upon us that worthy Name that good Name by which we are called James 2.7 Christians Christians All saving Graces all our Comfort all our Hopes are comprised within that Name Our next care must be to walk worthy that Name We must be New Creatures 2 Cor. 5. for as the Apostle said of Circumcision Gal. 6. we may say of Baptisme Baptisme or no Baptisme all is one unless we become New Creatures 'T was one of Jovinians Errours August de Haeres cap. 82. That the vertue of Baptisme could not be lost Homines non posse peccare Men could not sin Ergo Men could not perish And we in our Catechisme say That we are made Members of Christ and Children of God But rotten Members must be cut off and disobedient Children must be disinherited If you will hold of the head you must hold with the Head Do what he commands you Do as you have seen him do John 13. Are ye Christians Live like Christians Remember what John Baptist told the People when they came to his Baptisme Luke 3. The People all of them must be Charitable The Tax-gatherers and Excize-Men must be no Exactors The Souldiers must be content with their Wages and do violence to no man And all this under the Law And doth our Christianity require less No sure New Men New Manners And he that said Discite à me Math. 11.29 sends us elsewhere to School amongst those Little Children Learn of them Math. 18 3. Except ye be converted and become as Little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of God And so Peter in the first Epistle second Chapter and second Verse As New born Babes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desire the sincere Milk of the Word I so do you Sermons Sermons All for Sermons And that 's well done but that 's not all Look what follows and what went before First lay aside all malice guile hypocrisie envy and the like the very sins the reigning sins of those times Be Children in Malice 1 Cor. 14. And as the same Apostle elsewhere 1 Thess 4.6 Let no man oppress and circumvent his Brother No Oppressing that 's for the Gentlemen No Circumventing that 's for the Chapmen Here be Children here be Innocent This is the way Ambulate in ea the ready way to Heaven I spake but now of a double-birth Lo here 's a Third The last day will be our best day
Thus lie the Words and thus lie they in their own order to be handled and first for the Physician that Shepheard and Bishop of our Sculs as St. Peter calls him GOD. 1 Ep. 2.25 There are two waies especially by which miserable man doth dishonour his Maker and rob him of his Glory The one is by taking from the other is by adding to the Sacred Deity Of the first are those Irreligiosi who strike at the Divine Majesty and either acknowledge none or such an One as by disâ—bling Him they mâ—ke none Of the second are those Superstitiosi who such is their Holiness acknowledge a God yet afford him for which they shall never receive th nke certain Coadjutors this same Deos populares or Miâ—orum gentium Angels or Saint or Stocks or what they most fancy and unto these in all Necessities do these miserable wretches address themselves Of the first sort was Diagoras and he flatly denies a God secondly Protagoras and he is doubtful and makes a question whether there be a God thirdly I add unto these both another as bad as both David's Fool Dixit insipiens in corde Psal 14. and 88. The fool hath said in his heart there is no God This is some religious outside of which God help the World is too full in these daies who together with his Dog comes to the Church and perchance dares stare the Preacher in the face He will tell you there is a God and a Religion after which that God is to be worshipped and perchance he shall talk and tumble out as much Divinity as may win him the Name and Reputation of a Zealous Gentleman but Dixit in corde all this while He can distinguish of Quota pars to rob the Church And as the Jews could plead a Law to put Christ to death Joh. 19.7 We have a Law and by our law he ought to die so can he find Law to manacle those hands which reach to him the Blessed Sacrament and find a Law to dishonour those the Sacred Writ pronounced worthy of double Honour 1 Tim. 5. As much will he do by Fatherless or Widows or ought else accounting whatsoever his pretences be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6. His Gain is his Godliness and his Revenues his Religion After this Fellow comes there in another and he Confesseth and with halting Agripâ—a is half-perswaded of the matter His heart tells him there is a God But what Eliâ—haz casteth in Jobs teeth Epicure-like he proposeth to himself That God walking in the circle of Heaven cannot through the thick Clouds see our misdoings And therefore after his Master Ennius he concludeth Ego Deûm esse genus semper dixi dicam coelitum sed eos non curare Either for their Greatness they may not or for their Goodness they will not behold the things that are done here beneath upon the Earth His Gods are Gods upon the Mountains not in the Valleys Gods in Heaven and not in Earth Gods only somewhere and therefore no where Gods so confined to places and Cases as he is yet to seek for his Religion And therefore with the Samaritans 2 Kings 17. He dares be of any or of all Religions yet Lions taught them a lesson how to fear God and that roaring Lion 1 Pet. 5.8 will teach him when 't is too late to acknowledge Gods Providence In a word to him and all the rest I say no more but what Michaiah sometime did to Zidchiah The day is at hand and you shall see in that day when you shall go from Chamber to Chamber to hide you when you shall say to the Mountains fall on us and to the Hills cover us You shall see there is a GOD who beholdeth all that is done here beneath upon the Earth Bern. You shall see there is a GOD too great to be terrified too wise to be deceived too Just to be corrupted when your selves against your selves shall be forced to confess Verily there is a Reward for the Righteous doubtless there is a God that judgeth the Earth Now after Irreligion steps forth Superstition who believeth a God and a Righteous God yet with Jacobs How should it hath not yet learnt to put away those Deos alienos those strange Gods other Gods no gods which He and his Father worshipped He hath found out for every Town and every Trade and every Sickness and every Any thing a god proper and peculiar to that purpose he would employ him in St. Gallus shall keep his Geese St. Wendolin his Sheep St. Eulogie his Horses St. Anthony his Piggs One is good for the Tooth-ach another for the Plague One is for the Mariner another for the Tanner c. In a word He hath his Angelos Tutelares and his Sanctos Tutelares and nothing makes me more wonder then that so many dear Friends will after all this suffer his poor Soul to fry in Purgatory Well I say no more but with the Apostle 1 Cor. 8. Though there be that are called Gods whether in Heaven or in Earth as there be many Gods and many Lords yet unto us there is but one GOD which is the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him But every man hath not knowledge the Publican had and therefore doth he invocate God alone GOD be merciful to me a sinner And indeed thus must He thus must all do whether we regard his Mercy or his Justice the favours he hath bestowed on us or the punishments he may inflict upon us This made David somewhere cry out Tibi soli peccavi 't is in that penitential Psalm of his after his Murder and Adultery Against Thee onely have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight Bathsheba is dishonoured Vriah is murthered Davids posterity disgraced the whole Realm endangered yet Tibi soli Against Thee onely have I sinned O my God though my Sins be never so many never so bloudy never so hellish never so execrable yet Tibi soli peccavi The Sin against Thee alone is more than all the rest more many waies more infinitely I have offended Thee my God my good and gracious God I have offended Thee who mightest justly expect much of me to whom thou hast given much Thy eyes cannot behold Vanity and lo thou spiest out all my waies I could blear others Eyes Thine I cannot For thou O Lord knowest the very Thoughts of my heart long before Thou hast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Thou art Oculus ille insopitus Thy Eyes will neither slumber nor sleep but every Creature is manifest in thy sight Heb. 4. and all things are naked and open unto thy Eies with whom we have to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod And therefore Deus quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereby intimating that Fear and Reverence due to so infinite a Majesty of whom the Prophet David somewhere saith
with that Vetus parsimonia so much heretofore esteemed and still exercised by all wise and sober persons After he had taken enough for himself his Friends and his poor Neighbours he carefully laid up the remainder wherewith he hath made a competent provision for his Family which being so honestly gotten and so honourably saved will doubtless carry Gods blessing along with it as it had his Nor was his Religion towards God less than his Loyalty to his Prince or his Charity to his Neighbour it lay not so much in the tongue as in the heart He manifested his Faith the surest way by his Works He was no Pharisaical Christian he did not blow a Trumpet when he gave Alms not tell the People by his looks when he fasted nor call for a witness when he prayed He had got such an art in Giving that one hand know not what the other gave He had a way to conceal his Fasts by the chearfulness of his Countenance and he cared for no other eye to behold his Devotions but Gods and his holy Angels And as he had God for his Father so he had the Church for his Mother which next to God he still respected and reverenced sympathizing with her in what condition soever she was in If she wept then did his eyes gush out with water if she rejoyced then was his mouth filled with laughter and his tongue with joy How have I seen him droop at the news of Gods Ark being in danger to be shaken and how would his spirits revive again at any good tidings of its peace and settlement how did he hate all those that had evil will at Zion yea he hated them as David did with a perfect hatred And how did he delight in all such as did seek the peace of Jerusalem In a word they that were friends to the Church were his friends and he had no enemies but her Adversaries As to his dealings amongst men they were all square and above-board He was a perfect lover of Justice and hated falshood more than death His love where he profest it was without dissimulation He was a true Nathaniel in whom there was no guile And have you heard of the patience of Job why such was his I can compare it to no other As they were both upright men and such as feared God and eschewed evil so was God pleased to afflict them much alike Job was cast out of his own house and so was he Job was plunder'd of his Cattel by the Sabeans and so was he of all that he had by worse than the Sabeans if possible by the rebellious Sequestratours Job lost his Children so did he only in this his misery was not so great Jobs Children were taken away rioting in a Banquetting-house but his died honourably in the service of their Prince Job was afflicted in his Wife too and so was he but in a quite contrary manner Job in having the worst of Wives He in losing the best But the manner of his losing her could not but add much to his sorrow for she was snatcht out of the world in a tempest and swallowed up quick by the merciless waves having all the remainder of the treasure he had about her to a very considerable value and a far greater treasure in her arms then that even his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his young and darling Daughter who chose rather to embrace Death than leave the embraces of her tender Mother and so both sunk together with a Maid-servant that attended her into the depth of the Sea There are some as I think at this time present who were then with her who remain the Monuments of Gods mercy in their deliverance and faithful Witnesses of the truth of what I speak Whose Courage whose Constancy but Jobs or His would not have stagger'd at such a shock whiles he like Job having the Anchor of his Hope both sure and stedfast stood like the Center unmoved And in the midst of all these Crosses and sad events that befel him he lookt upon the Divine hand invisibly striking with those sensible scourges against which he durst not either Rebel or Murmur All those extremities did but exercise his Faith not weaken it which like a well wrought Vault grew the stronger for the many pressures which were laid upon him In all this he did not sin against God by his Impatience nor charge God foolishly but with holy Job resigned himself wholly up to Gods will saying with him The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. Nor were they more unlike in their Deaths than in their Lives The Lord blessed the latter end of them both more then their beginning Job died being Old and full of daies and so did he so full of Daies that he was satisfied if not weary with long life desiring rather to be dissolved and to be with Christ And so he died with Moses at the mouth of the Lord God gently drew out the breath which he had breathed into him quietly impinn'd his Tabernacle and so took him to himself in peace And now I find my self like to that bad Orator who could not desinere knew not how to make an end which I cannot but be the more unwilling to do because I know that as soon as I have finisht my discourse he will be carried from us into the silent retirement of the Grave and will be no more seen And methinks 't is some comfort to enjoy him even thus But we must part The Grave beckens him and methinks I see him beckning us to follow him O my Father my Father Nature would speak more but Religion commands me silence Could our Prayers have prevented his death we should have sighed out our Souls to God to have begg'd his life and could our tears yet restore him I see by those watery planets in your eyes we could command a deluge like to that in the floor of Atan or that of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo But he cannot come to us and that 's his happiness but we shall go to him and that 's our comfort Let us not mourn for him therefore as men without hope 'T is but his Body that is dead his Soul is still alive as well as ours but far more happy being already free of the glorious Company of Saints and Angels And we shall meet again I trust in Glory both our Souls and our Bodies where all sorrow shall be wiped from our eyes where there shall be no more fear nor death nor sin but we shall be all as the Angels of God And so Lord thy Kingdom come so come O Lord Jesus come quickly In the hour of Death and in the day of Judgment good Lord deliver us Give us grace so to live in thy fear that we may die in thy favour that so after this mortal life ended we may be received by thee into those heavenly habitations where we trust the Soul of our Dear Father here departed together with the Souls of all them that sleep in the Lord JESVS enjoy perpetual rest and felicity Unto which GOD of his infinite mercy bring us all for Jesus Christ his sake Amen FINIS