Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	die_v	think_v	4,534	5	4.2966	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93662	Aphonologos. A dumb speech. Or, A sermon made, but no sermon preached, at the funerall of the right vertuous Mrs Mary Overman, wife to Mr Thomas Overman the younger. Of the parish, formerly called, Saint Saviours, or vulgarly Mary Overis, in Southwarke. By B. Spencer, minister of Bromley.	Spencer, Benjamin, b. 1595?	1646 (1646)	Wing S4942; Thomason E1180_3; Thomason C.54.aa.1(3); ESTC R208123	32,914	87

Eccles 7.2 It is better to goe into the house of mourning then of feasting because that is the end of all men and the wicked will lay it to his heart For when I see a man die I get this by it to remember my end also that my day of accompt will come too When I see one die willingly it comforts me against death that it is to be embraced rather then seared If I see one die resolutely it gives me advantage to be valiant also and so make the blood of the Martyrs to be the seed of the Church When I see one patient in sicknesse and hopefull in death I gaine some confirmation of my assurance that surely there is a reward for the righteous and the patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever For I see there is hope laid up in their bosomes from which Death cannot make them start And thus the dust of the dead is like fresh mold cast into a garden which makes all things spring the better Quot justi tot miserationes So many good-men so many mercies if they live to keep off judgements if they die to guide us by examples that they and we may at last meet together in one CHRIST JESUS who hath left us an example that we should follow his steps that he may both in life and death be of so great power with us that death may prove a gaine to us and we a glory to him To whom together with the Father and the holy Spirit three Persons and one onely true and ever-living Lord God be rendred as is most due all honour and glory and praise now and for ever AMEN Memoriale Sacrum AN APPENDIX TO THE Pious and Learned Sermon OF Mr BENJAMIN SPENCER To the perpetuall Memory of the most Vertuous Gentlewoman Mrs MARY OVERMAN Who departed this life to live with the Saints on a double Saints day being that of S. Philip and Jacob. BEING A Speech written not spoken by her sorrowfull Husband THOMAS OVERMAN PROV 10.7 The memory of the just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot PSAL. 112.6 The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance 164● Memoriale Sacrum To my friends at the Funerall not at the Sermon YOu all had I Confesse deare friends upon the sad occasion of this Invitation an undenyable Civil Right to this Funerall not Factious Sermon falsly so christned by some ill-meaning men who would give it no other name before it went to Church or the Pulpit but what a factious Conventicle begat Which it seemes has this priviledge unknowne till now to miscall any thing And since Innocence never is in greater danger then when Detraction acts its part against it be pleased now to see what would not then be suffered in your hearing this dumbe Sermon speake both for it selfe and your deceased Sister a choice young Christian silenced by death Whose blessed innocence hath made her uncapable of speaking here but by a proxie who being dead yet speaketh by her surviving husband her proximated friend by Gods appointment Who as hee must not be injurious in the least respect to a deceased loving Wife that being wholy inconsistent with his last dutie to her to whom he must ever owe a pretious memorie so must he now publish to the impartiall world that she had an unquestionable right as dying a Christian to a peacefull buriall For as she lived in faith fixt so she died in the full hope of a very good Christian What Antichristians then were they that hindred it I leave for you to judge I will therefore crave leave to be at this present what indeed I am your sorrowfull Historian yet my historie must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sad glad relation of this our sister who is now gathered to her heavenly Father I have therefore first presented you with the Sermon it selfe which was then supprest but not obliterated as you may perceive you need not feare what Faction saith against it here 's no such infection The Sermon you shall finde attend the Text and the occasion onely and after take its leave of you So that all the way till it bring you home it will entertaine you with no other discourse but the livelie Character of a true Christian dead to the world betimes And the example of our deceased friend will doe no lesse A good and full account she made of that pretious time God left her here which you will plainly perceive both by the rejoycings she had in her well-spent life and with firme hopes in earnest of a full assurance of a comfortable death And withall have her dying example for your living patterne which will guide you like wise how to make up your accompts well that you may be happie too when ere you goe hence and be no more seen which wee all sooner or later inevtablie must So that it highly concerns us whilst wee are here to make good our accompts first if at last wee would not misse of that happinesse of good Christians And blessed be God that of his fullnesse this our deceased sister did receive grace for grace Who driving on towards the marke of her high calling and aiming at perfection went on from one degree of grace unto another till glory came upon her So that wee doubt not in the least measure of her fullnesse of glory whither she is gone A Progresse you shall see she had and that in goodnes being well acquainted with that truely divine maxime That not to goe forward is to goe backward and not to thrive in goodnes not to be good at all But she stood not at such an unhappy stay for I may safely affirme that piety throve with her even from her infancy humilitie with either both strove to out-strip each other neither came to full stature yet perseverance crowned all She well knew she must carry her goodnes to the grave if shee meant to goe to heaven For without holynes no hopes of that happinesse to see the face of God Minoritie and Sanctity do not usually meet yet here both we see a young Woman dead to sinne and ready for death which is no lesse admirable then rare A reason then you see I am ready to give you of our good hope wee have of this dead Sister t was such indeed of which wee need not bee ashamed no more then she was So truly lively that I may confidently say The just mans and the just womans hope were here all one Her end then must needs be like his I will therefore first shew you how she led the life of the righteous and next how shee dyed the death of the righteous too And this taske I shall truly performe if you please to consider with me First What she did And in this I must beare her witnes that in all her actions God had her early day for in them she constanstly looked heaven-ward first and let religion in Full oft have I been an eye-witnes with joy

of her constancie in reading nay and in writing too some divine tract or other throughout the day to exercise her hand as well as heart and both to God-ward thereby on earth to traine her selfe for heaven And to my knowledge who have perused her pious papers since her death both these were daily busied and piously lifted up her heart in ejaculalory devotions and her hand in devout transcriptions So that nor here nor else where neither is any handwriting against but for her Who was so sincerely constant in all her devotions that she seldome I may say never willingly missed her dutie to God in prayer either in closet Church or familie This was her piety to God And for the prosecution of the dutie or obedience to her Mother I have veiwed the deep impressions of it long since to expresse it will give it you in her Mothers owne phrase as neere as I can as she was heard to utter this spontancous good testimony of her This dutifull daughter was alwayes won by love not feare and that by a motherly admonition onely but never did I force her to her duty by a severe correction So that conclude of her we may justly from these good premises That the innocence of her nature made this meek reverence coupled with love not feare in her behaviour to her mother Give me leave yet farther to go within the sphere of mine owne knowledge in her due commendations in some other relations Her love and loyalty to her husband with whom she ran a five yeares race so even that I may justly say we were true yoak fellows and good fellowes well met Our loves were reciprocall and equally swayd us both till Death dissolv'd this Gordian knot and left me alone to mourne for this lost Turtle For though this match on earth was made in heaven for her she rested unsatisfied till she reached heaven to obtaine a better which will admit of no divorce by death where marryed now she is to that eternall Bridegroome of her soule Christ Jesus Stay here with her faine I would but I must leave her to goe on This Jewell had more Diamonds which did adorne her other spirituall graces which were resplendent endowments in her I will make them transparent God had given her that discreet piety in her deportment as that she constantly held a respective carriage towards her superiours a friendly correspondencie towards her equalls being ever ready to pleasure all and loth to offend any A love she bore to her kindred both naturall and adopted and an innate curtesie to all she knew Besides she had Sobriety and Moderation in her selfe and lastly Modesty and Humility in the possession of all these All which deserve our Commemoration Imitation and Admiration also Hereby adorning not her selfe alone but spreading the pious care of her parents in her religious education And thus you see how in all relations she ran the course of her health constantly well So that by this time I hope you are resolv'd to say what you see That she led the life of the righteous and all good men will be glad thereof I shall now draw on my Speech towards her better end that you may not doubt but that she dyed the death of the righteous too And indeed her last end was like his in perfect peace For having thus wholly dedicated her first fruits of sanctity to God by a pious life her next studie is to triumph in the assurance of a comfortable death endeavouring thereby to adjoyne her selfe to him who is become the first fruits of them that sleep Nothing doubting but as she was Gods servant on earth so to be his Saint in heaven It should seeme sicknesse was to this good woman no other then as indeed it is Death 's elder brother For Omnis passio being Janua lethi every paine giving to the soule of every Christian an Item of his mortality she beganne to thinke with her selfe what she afterwards felt by experience that her Consumption might crack her earthen vessell and reduce her to her first principles Whereupon shee gave that attention to sicknesse which sick Hezekiah gave to Esaiah she put her house in order that shee might die and so composed her selfe wholly in heavenly meditations the better to prepare her soule for heaven as well as her body for death Seeming thereby to say Quo propinquior morti eo latior that the neerer she was to her dissolution the firmer she was in her resolution Et vicinior coelo longior à terrâ the neerer she was to heaven the farther her thoughts were from the earth In her sicknesse being often asked How she did she still answered Not sick as if then she would thank God for being heart-whole And having laid one hand on her heart and lifting up the other heaven-ward said sighing I am opprest yet thy grace Lord from above gives no roome to sicknesse Each day was to her a new life and that daily life but one continued sicknesse ever in a Consumption and decaying daily Yet had God so sanctified this her tedious visitation that she did every day promote her owne good by it in so much that it did rather improve then impaire her for it did not onely draw her nigher to her end but to God also So that it seemes this fornace did but refine her from her drosse and purifie her for God himselfe Death came not to her more sudden then expected not feared but embraced yea earnestly desired For being conscious every day what might befall her ere the next betaking her selfe at last wholly to her bed she doth likewise to her continuall prayers Which she ceased not till her selfe ceased to be And having now armed her selfe for death feared no more to goe to her grave then to her bed since she was certainly assured both tended to her rest When shee lay downe to sleepe she thought it her last knowing then onely she should truly be at rest when she should be no more here And having obtained the end of her dying prayers and of her never dying hopes having thus set her house in order for a more durable repaire sweetly composeth her selfe for death and falls asleep in peace When she awakes againe she will account her life not continued but restored which shee was ascertained should be made good to her at the Resurrection of the just And thus our friend sleepeth Now blessed be the God of peace who gave her his peace so abundantly both in life and death For she being one of Christs disciples whilst she lived tooke her Masters legacie hee left his Saints on earth to heaven with her Where shee enjoyes God the Father of peace her Redeemer the Prince of peace his Angels her fellows the messengers of peace and heaven her inheritance the place to perfect peace as well as her For in the presence of all these must needs be the fullnesse of peace else in a word we know not what it

may die with him Joh. 11.16 Love sleights death A certaine Neapolitane leapt into the Sea when his wife was taken by Pyrates Tiberius Graocus having two snakes in his house male and female was told by the Southsayer that if he killed the female his wife should die if the male himselfe should He killed the male and dyed first himselfe Beauxamonts wife the Moore would be buryed with her husband Porcia the wife of Brutus dyed by eating hot burning coales for griefe her husband was dead But all these sorrowed as men without hope and did not prepare for death but provoked him against themselves Others of the Heathen dyed with lesse passion though for ought I know with as little hope As great Augustus in a faire complement with Livia Conjugii nostrimemor esto vive vale saying Be mindfull Livia of our wedlock bands live still and prosper But there is more to be done in this businesse First therefore be acquainted with death by dying to one sinne or other that liveth in thee or by killing that love to the world ease riches friends which makes death so bitter as saith Syracides Ecclus. 41.1 O Death how bitter is thy remembrance to a man that lives at ease in his possessions Secondly be temperate in all things against this fight So the Apostle counselleth the Corinthians 1 Cor. 9.25 They that strive for masteries are temperate in all things lest when he comes to fight you are loth to lose your delicates as many are loth to die so long as they can but receive meat These are such who make their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.19 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For banquetting is vinculum animae the bond of the soule and the fetters of the affections As we read of Philoxenus who would not leave the Polypus his head behind him though his Physitian told him that what he had eat already would kill him in seven houres Many there are Qui Curios simulant who seeme abstemious a while yet scarce a Fasting day but like the fish Musipula they suck up their frie againe which they had formerly vomited Thirdly Challenge death in thy shirt strip thee naked of all worldly habiliments He fights but as some Souldiers doe for booty If he finde nothing to spoile thee of he hath no spirit to fight with thee Job wooed him to wound him but he would not Job 4.13 It is our hugging of the world which makes death violent and our security that makes him so eager to obtain a Habeas Corpus But if he finde a man that Nil nisi cutem morti concesserit atrae Horat. who has nothing for death but his skin he is willing to let him alone till some better advantage happen to his liking Fourthly yet doe not take deaths part against thy selfe by lying at too open a ward of despair For that is it he would have and therefore makes thee beleeve that he will end all thy paine and grief shame and sorrows if thou wilt betray thy life unto him by some violent death Whereas indeed then begins thy misery for while there is life there is hope I waited long and at the last God heard me Psal 40.1 Know ye not that Blessed is the man that endureth temptation Jam. 1.12 for he shall receive at last a crown that fadeth not away You must like a faithfull Sentinell wait till your change come No Souldier is praised for marching without the word of command nor no Christian for spending his life till God take it I read of a Roman Conful that whipt a builder for using other timber then he had appointed though it may be more fit for the purpose If a practicall Carpenter was so served wanting onely the complement of obedience what have your pragmaticall builders deserved who out of the spirit of disobedience will have no cake but of Thamars making though it prove their owne ruine Well let us not call death upon our selves by the errour of our lives but prepare onely for it Dediscas vivere oportet si discas mori You must forget to live if you would learne to die as Saint Paul did who said By the rejoycing I have in Christ Jesus I thanke God I die daily 1 Cor. 15.31 Nor count death evill as those that dye without hope as one Mecaenas of whom Seneca saith He was of so weak a heart that he would refuse no torment Nec acutam crucem dummodo inter haec mala spiritus vita prorogentur He was content to endure any torment so his life might be prolonged Which saith Seneca was pessimum votum the worst desire and wish and argued him effeminate and base Quia distulit id quod est in malis optimum supplicii finē because Death is the end of all misery and punishment Yet the man could not be much blamed not knowing with Adrian what life was to come after whether any or none Which made him so discourse with his soule Animula vagra blanda quae nunc abibis in loca Little vagrant tender soule into what regions art thou posting hence And indeed if we know not that I wonder not to see folké loth to die for a living dog is better then a dead lion But death is not evill in it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not to die is evill but to die ill is evill Which that we may not doe wee must so prepare our selves that we may look back upon our lives with comfort and forward upon the object of our hope with joy that so it may prove an advantage to us So I come to the other thing in death which is proper to a true Christian viz. a Gaine Death is to me a gaine Obj. Death is a privation therefore a losse How is it then a gaine Ans Not in it self but in regard of the over-ruling power of Christ who hath conquered him and altered his nature so that of a privation it is become but a commutation from a losse to a gaine Therefore those that live to Christ lose nothing by death but gaine by it All things else lose by it as either life or pleasure or wealth But all these are gained by a good man in death first life Christ came that wee might have it more abundantly 1. Joh. 10.10 And for pleasure and joy In his presence is the fulnesse of joy and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 And for wealth there is no want Luk. 12.32 Wee change a Cottage for a Court and a Farme for a Kingdome This is not hard to prove if we could beleeve Scripture which tells us that no eye hath seen nor care heard nor tongue is able to expresse what God hath laid up for them that love him 2 Cor. 4.17 Saint Paul tells us of a crowne of Righteousnesse of a weight yea an everlasting weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17

Now it is not so in this life For all that wee have here is either toilsome to get carefull to keep or fulsome to continue with as Seneca saith of satiety Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris Mori velle non tantum fortis miser sed etiam fastidiosus potest A man would die with wearinesse of reiterating the same thing though he were neither valiant nor miserable The best thing here is of a perishing nature but our inheritance there is incorruptible undefiled and fadeth not away and reserved in heaven where there is no feare of robbing 1 Pet. 1.4 or spoiling us of it either by the violence of the Souldier or the crast of the deceiver or the deceitfulnesse of the Lawyer But all things here are fading saving Grace and yet that hath much adoe to stick by us as saith Saint Paul I find a Law in my members fighting against the law of my mind Rom. 7.23 Who feels or sees not this decay except those whose eyes are too much fixed upon the worlds toyes whom the god of this world hath blinded Excellens sensibile destruit sensum They look too much much on the world and so are blinded by it They hold it not at a just distance from God and Godlinesse or look not upon it with a right spectacle of Gods Word which discovers to us all her adulterate ware That is the Reason why we see not the envie of honour the allurements of pleasure the inconstancy of riches the impediments of Poverty the temptings of the flesh the baits of beautie the infirmities of the body the certainty of evill and the danger of losing good What then is all this to what wee lose by being absent from the Lord whilst we are in the body 2 Cor. 5.6 Wee lose the blessed vision the sight of God the presence of Christ the full enjoyment of the holy Ghost the company of Angels and the Society of Saints all which we know but in part here but then we shall know even as we are knowne To ensure your self hereof look you that you have the fruit of this confidence that Christ is your life The fruit of this confidence and death is your gaine included in the word For which hath relation to that Resolution which this confidence bred namely to glorifie God in his body whether by life or death because Christ was his life and death was to him advantage And surely hee that desireth so to doe cannot chuse but find the other For Christ being his life makes him apt to glorifie God in life and in death And this he resolving to doe must needs produce this effect that death must be his gain For he that will lose his life for my sake shall find it Mat. 10.39 And not such a life simply but better an hundred fold in the happinesse of it and for the continuance everlasting The summe then of all is this Consider we are Christians which doth give us a right to a better life then nature can viz. a spirituall life in Christ and an eternall life with Christ To obtain either of these we must avoid the voluptuousnes of life naturall and let Christ be our contemplation and his example our pattern This is in mundo vivere vana mundi contemnere to live in the world Gal. 6.14 and yet despise it to use the world as not using it The world must be crucified to me as looking on it as a cursed thing Totus mundus positus in maligno and I must be crucified to the world by its hatred of me So that we must live as Saint Paul directs our loynes girded with truth lamps burning in our hand viz. shining in good workes and lastly watching in devotion lest we be found sleeping This being done we may bid death welcome for he brings advantage with him And if yet our infirmities present death formidable Consider what is death but a fall to rise like the setting of the Sunne A medicine to those miseries which sinne brought upon us For we having fallen by sinne into all manner of woe it was mercy as well as Justice in God to make us mortall lest we should live for ever miserable Pluto guessed well when he said Death was the Law of Nature Adrian said better and more full that Death was Paver divitum pauper is defiderium the feare of the rich and the desire of the poore Seneca said more divinely that it was Finis or Transitus an end to the wicked mans happinesse a passage to the good mans blessednesse Death cannot bite Innocence but smiles upon it Which made Saint Augustine to say He desired to see death as Christ had made it Secondly consider not so much the seares it has as the joyes it brings It is strange to see how light they made of it who had no such hopes as we have I meane the Heathen And we that count our selves the true Israelites need not be ashamed to borrow a jewel of these Egyptians Cato sent Caesar word that he feared more his pardon then his pain The joyes of death are such to those that live well as that they rejoyce when it draweth nigh For it is but a sleep and the grave a dormitorie where men rest from their labours In vitâ vigilant justi ideo in morte dicuntur dormire saith Saint Augustine Righteous men watch while they live and therefore are said to sleep when they be dead A certaine wise Roman said Non puerascam si Deus mihi largiatur He would not be a child again though God would permit it His reason was because now sayes he Ex hospitio ad domum discedam I shall goe from my Inne to my home For indeed the soule Non est ubi nunc est is not where it would be It looks ad futura to that which is to come And he that doth not beleeves not certainly the soules immortality nor the paine of death which being once apprehended makes us impatient to live in Mesech Ps 120.5 and desirous of dissolution with S. Paul Which gaine if thou wouldest make of death die to the world betimes He that begins a journey early makes a pleasure of it rather then a paine Such men are neither ashamed to live because they have lived well nor affraid to die because they are are but going whither they have beene alwaies travelling Remember therefore thy Creatour in the daies of thy youth Eccl. 12.1 before the evill day come Like the Bee and the Ant let not your provision be to make in the winter Christ taught us to prevent impediments of safety when he said to the people concerning the destruction of Jerusalem pray Mat. 25.20 that your flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day because hee knew their opinion of the Sabbath would hinder their flight one way as the winter another So provide against this blustring day of death lest it hinder you in your passage to heaven

In a word let sin die before thee and then it cannot follow thee to judgment Feare not death but looke to the errour of your life break off sinne by repentance and entertaine Christ and death will be found without sting yea no crosse but a crowne no dart but a scepter shalt thou find in Christs hand or an olive in token of our victorie As confidently thou maist passe deaths teeth as once Ignat. did the teeth of wild beasts who said before hand when he was condemned I care not what death I suffer for seeing I am Gods corn I care not with what flaile of death he please to beat me out for I am willing to beground even by the teeth of these beasts that I may make cleane bread for Christ who became the bread of life for me How cheerfully may we then say Egredere anima mea egredere Goe forth my Soul Ps 142.9 to meet thy Saviour with David pray Lord bring my soul out of this prison that I may praise thy Name And with Saint Aug. Creasti nos ob te and Lord thou hast created us for thy selfe and I cannot be quiet til I come to thee And then shall begin that heavenly Epithalamium or wedding song of foure parts sung in Antiphona's and Responsories The Lamb saith Come and the Spirit saith Come and the Bride saith Come and thy soule shall say Come Lord Jesus come quickly So did this our deceased Sister Mrs MARY OVERMAN descended of an ancient and worthy Family of the Breretons marryed into an accomplished Family of the Overmans with whom though she found sufficiencie and satisfaction to her owne hearts desire yet she breathed after another life Not because she was sullenly faln out of love with the world but in love with Christ as appeared by her dying words which must eternize her memory when as a little before her dissolution this earnest and pious prayer departed from her first Lord when shall I come and appear before the presence of Christ my JESVS Dying MARY it seemes by this was ready for living CHRIST and living CHRIST as willing to receive dying MARY for soone after he took her to himselfe Who though she was weak in body yet was she strong in faith and hope which viaticum she had with her to strengthen her in her journey and to convey her soule into the hands of her Redeemer Herein as well approving as professing her selfe a true MARY in choosing that better part which now shall never be taken from her Next to Christ her Head in heaven she loved her Head on earth whom God had given her and like the Turtle loved her Mate yet was not like Rachel importunate for children nor yet dejected for want of them She spent her time not idly as many of her degree too usually doe even in these times whose miseries call to baldnesse and sackcloth but like another Dorcas she seemed to those that have seene her constant employment so farre from being idle that she was most an end well busied and full of good works So that as it was written of the Ladie Paula so it may be of Her too that she spent most of her time either in good workes or Gods worship Her chamber was not onely a shop of Confection as the fashion is but an Oratorie for Devotion Thirdly In a long and tedious consumption she behaved her selfe very patiently and knowing under whose hand she suffered opened not her mouth in any discontent and well perceiving it was the Lords doing thus to permit her to suffer she laid her downe and possest her soule in patience only with the meeke spirit of Iob intending Saint-like to imitate him in this her sanctified affliction in the depth of her consumption yet in the height of her devotion applyed ever and anon Jobs deploring words to her languishing selfe and like him wholy submitting her selfe to Gods dispoall said My months are moneths of vanity and sad nights are appointed for me And at other times in Davids words for she conversed much with dead Saints whiles she was living and had therefore learnt to use their language now she was dying when in his prayer he deciphered his miseries that he might the easier implore mercy Psalm 31.10 My life is consumed with greif and my years with sighing So that as Saint Ambrose said of one dying of such a disease so may we of hers that it seemd a martyrdome Yet was she not childishly afraid of death nor struggled she much to retaine life as some doe from whom God is faine as it were to teare away their soules but she offered up hers as a free-will-offering with a contempt of the world saying Away with all these things and with an earnest desire besides to be with Christ who having beene her life made death her gaine Which Text it seemes was some time since her owne meditation as appeares by her notes under her owne hand with this her devout paraphrase found upon them Heaven is my home I am a stranger here Which undoubtedly was the language of her heart as well as of her hand And if so what can we lesse perswade our selves she is then what she made her selfe by her pious endeavours a true a very MARY that is by interpretation Excellent Excellent in Contemplation thereby anticipating the joyes of heaven whilst she walkt upon the earth and excellent in action too her actions speaking her a perfect servant of the Almighty And therefore now no doubt after death a partaker of his glory with her fellow Saints for right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of such Saints so deare that he takes them into his bosome And for our parts we may say of her as Saint Hierome said of Fabiola Ex annulo Ecclesiae monile perdidimus We even wee have lost a precious jewell out of the Ring of the Church But lost she is not I doe her wrong to say so of her whom God hath found She is not dead but sleepeth And her flesh doth rest in hope that what is sowne in weaknesse shall rise in power according to his mightie working who is able to subdue all things unto himselfe who bringeth downe to the grave and raiseth up by whom death is already swallowed up in victorie and so made an advantage to us Thus passed this precious Saint from sicknesse to perfect health from weaknesse to perfect strength from bondage to perfect freedome from trouble to perfect peace from losse to perfect gaine from heavinesse to perfect joyes In a word she is passed from death to life and from earth to heaven to be for ever in perfect happinesse where wee leave her safe and come to cloze with you Now therefore as the death of Christ doth for us make a gaine of death so may the death of good men and women worke some advantage also for us in that point and so their death may be a gaine to us Therefore Solomon sayes

what happened to my greater griefe I speake it for it added much to my affliction then you were dismist without your spirituall banquet Uncivill men dispoyled you of your Feast and having fasted from it ever since you needs must have it now And here it is Fall to it when you please I doe perswade my selfe you came so well resolved as that you meant to profit by the dead why should I frustrate this chiefe end of yours I need not others did who promised well but ill performd it They spake of peace yet would not let it follow her to the grave If to excuse themselves they aske What profit is a Sermon to the dead I must answer it is the businesse of the living who were by them defrauded of this excellent Sermon wherein the Prophet Ezechiels dead and dry bones are gathered together to a happy Resurrection Death it selfe enlivened by the pious Authors eloquence into a profitable life By whose skilfull guidance thou mayst be instructed so to live that thou shalt never dye and so to dye that thou shalt live for ever What kind of Adders then were those who did not onely stoppe their owne but others eares against the voyce of this wise Charmer here Who how injuriously he was accused upon suspicion for this Sermon has by the publication of it made you judges and the world besides And now high time it is to cloze with you deare Mother and to remove my foot a little from this house of sorrow at least from the depth of it to comfort you And you will give me leave to say after the story of so much goodnesse eminent in our departed friend wee have something to rejoyce in in the midst of all our teares that she both lived and dyed so exemplarily well It hath pleased God indeed to call you and me in a more especiall manner to the house of mourning A sad truth if wee consult with flesh and blood onely God hath of late deprived us of a very neere relation to each of us You of an obedient daughter in her youth Me of a bosome friend too soone Both these were deare relations in our affections which having had a Benjamins portion in our love must needs have the same proportion in our sorrow for her losse I can no more forget my wife then you your daughter I must acknowledge the separation of an obedient daughter from an indulgent mother to be cause sufficient of lamentation yet you will pardon me if I say that I have more If you consider us in those sacred bonds wherein heaven had joyned us where I met with so much mutuall conversation and affection with such an union that as living I could not over-love so neither now over-grieve the separation The tribute of my teares must needs be larger then who beare a larger share in the same losse But we will not vie teares in this sad contention but rather strive to beare our selves as Christian Mourners Not so full of teares as hope She dyed in hope let us mourne too as for our Freind who is but gone before to that place of joy whither we hope to follow her in Gods due time Hee onely make us ready as she was and then wee shall not need to feare our Masters call how soone or late soever So shall not death over-master us but we shall conquer it through him that tooke away its hurtfull sting And let us now remember all teares are wiped from her eyes why should ours then stand full of teares for her If all her sorrowes be fallen asleepe and buried in the grave Why should ours live too passionatly to bemoane her Let us not then drop a teare more here but rather lend each other both our hands to helpe us beare this weighty crosse betweene us I must confesse no crosses doe so much affect us as those which teare away the things wee dearliest love and when the cheife object of our affections is taken from us a generall lamentation followes it through all the powers both of soule and body We cannot suffer it to be divided from us without abundance of teares I neede not applie it Yet must I give my Soule this consolation for the losse If I doe not so miscall the blessed death of my deare Spouse she is not dead but sleepeth And if no more I may thinke further Worldly occasions have many nights separated our bodies when the next morning has rejoyned us and it is but one night one short night of this dull life she shall be from me when the morning of glory shall appeare wee shall appear together And since this comfort of my life could not here stay with me this comfort is my stay of life that a little time of patience will bring mee to her And for you deare Mother the Argument is as good you may mourn excessively as David did for Absalom Yet you must expect a loab to chide you for it So much the more in that David had more cause to bewaile his Absolom then you your Mary hee knew not how God would deale with that rebellious Sonne but you cannot doubt but he has dealt well with your obedient daughter My advice therefore to you shall be no other then this in briefe neither too much to remember nor altogether to forget so good a daughter Could she not have dyed it had been worthy of wonder not at all that she is dead I might save you and my selfe this quere Whether we loved her whom we lately have forgone and could we love her and not wish her happie Could she be happie and not die God gave you this daughter as a gift and me this wife and hee hath againe taken her as his due may hee not doe with his Theodosia his owne gift as hee pleases It was Iobs saying in the midst of all his losses The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the Name of the Lord. In all afflictions we must consider both what we have lost and what we have left and blesse God in every losse that we have lost no more having so many things to be deprived of T is some comfort in calamity not to be altogether miserable And it is as much as we can expect whilst we are here to part with our earthly happinesse by degrees t is but a kindlie passage to those eternall ones above which will sufficiently recompence all our losses here below This must be the consideration which in this and the like occasions must satisfy both you and me For any other satisfaction we must not expect Nor must the deniall of that Christian solemnity which was designed for her more honourable interment afflict or trouble us we know the times and men And if we looke abroad we shall behold great noble farnous persons thrust into their graves with lesser ceremony And we must not thinke much to sympathize a little with the disquiet of the times And if yet any be so censorious to look upon this speech or that Sermon with an ill aspect in respect that it is now made publicke It suffices me that I have hereby given my cheife freinds their owne content which is my duty For sure I am they were sufficiently discontented with what befell at the Funerall And I have hereby decently interred my deare Wife having no ether way left me to performe it as became the last duty of an affectionate Husband For till now she was buried in silence whom no man can blame me if I perpetually speake of as well as continually remember And I must further professe that both the Preacher and my selfe have modestly and truly deciphered her proper Character as became her by the law of Christianity to be reported of If now all this vertue and goodnesse make thee whoever thou art that readest presse forward to the same practise Thou wilt sufficiently justifie the justnesse of this true though ceremonious commendation And you my freinds as you will acknowledge that I have thus but paid the honour I owed to her beloved ashes So you will confesse your selves honoured by the interests and relations you once had to so deserving a Saint And for her sake retaine with love the antient respects and freindship to her lately beloved Husband and still your freind and Servant THO OVERMAN FINIS