many so hardned in stupidity that contrary unto nature they are not affected with or concerned at the Death or going to the Grave of almost any person Secondly There is a natural Obligation on the Living to Mourn for the Dead for that Death is the thing which every Man in the world hath deserved as being lineally descended from Adam who brought Death into the World and inslaved not only himself but all his posterity unto its power So saith the Apostle Rom. 5. ver 12. Wherefore as by one Man Sin entered into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have Sinned Had Adam never sinned Adam had never dyed but in illo die saith God in that day thou eatest the Fruit thereof thou shalt surely dye or as it is in the Original dying thou shalt dye And indeed as he devolved Guilt so he entailed death the sad consequence of that Guilt upon all that should come after him unto the end of the World Oh! therefore how natural would such a reflection as this be at the news of any Mortals fall by the stroke of Death or at the sight of any deceased person going to his Long Home I am a Child of Adam as well as he and in the guilt and pollution of his original Disobedience was I shaped and subjected to all the Miseries that attended that iniquity did my Mother conceive me and bring me forth And surely I have added to the stock of original Corruption multitudes innumerable multitudes of actual Transgressions and therefore I have every way merited Death and deserved to be imprisoned in the Dungeon of the Grave as much as he that hath past through it and is gone down before me into it Should not I then be concerned at and deeply affected with what hath befallen him The extremity of pain that he was in the weary some nights that he enjoyed the tumblings and tossings that he under-went the bitter distress and anguish that possessed his Soul which enforced those doleful sighs and sobs those heart-fetcht-groans and shrikes from his dying Breast are all things that I in the same if not in a greater measure have deserved Oh! then that my Head were Waters and my Eyes a Fountain of Tears that I could mourn and weep and truly lament at this Mournful Spectacle and that from this consideration that as he the object of Mortality before my Eyes is deprived of life and all the comforts of it as he is snatcht away from all his Friends and Relations as he of a living Man is become a lump of dead Clay a piece of rotten putrifying Flesh fit for nothing but to feed worms in the Grave even so have I most justly merited in the like manner to be nothing hath befallen him but what is due to me Thirdly There is a natural Obligation on the Living to Mourn for the Dead for that there is no living person but must come to it himself Death is a debt we must all pay to Nature Job speaks of Man indefinitely thereby including every Man in what capacity so ever he is Chap. 14. ver 2. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not And we are elsewhere told that All flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fladeth even so when the Hand of God is upon Man upon any Man he maketh his Beauty to consume away like a Moth for that every Man is Vanity Selah We have an Interrogation concerning this which implies a vehement Negation for so the Scripture often expresseth it self Psal 89. ver 48. What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Selah That is there is no Man living but must see Death and come into the dominion of the Grave Now if Death be thus common to every Man then every Man ought certainly to be affected when he sees another under the power of it Would it not I pray you argue more than ordinary stupidity and sencelesness in that Malefactor that beholding a Partner in Guilt and Condemnation with himself dying a shameful painful Death according to the Sentence of the Law the which Death he himself must undergo the day following and yet not to be concerned at such a spectacle so much as to shed a Tear or manifest any meltings of Heart at so doleful a sight Oh! How unnaturally hard-hearted would you say this Man was Why Sirs this is our very case we are all real Malefactors before God condemned by him to death to the same death and sooner or later we must be laid on our sick Beds the common place of Execution and when we see any in pain and misery there before us Oh! we should remember it will be our turn ere long Do we see a dying Man in a languishing departing condition fetching his last sigh heaving for his last groan and giving up his last breath Oh! we should sadly reflect upon our selves as that Father of whom I have read did at the sight of any Coffin Ille hedie ego cras He is gone to day and so may I to morrow or to be sure must go one day or other then which nothing is more certain Fourthly It is not corrupted but refined Nature that especially enforces this duty of Mourning for the Dead and the more Nature is purged the more it is enlivened in the regular performance of this Work We find the Spirit of God inciting and calling upon Men solemnly to do it Jer. 9. ver 17 18. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Consider ye and call for the mourning Women that they may come and send for cunning Women that they may come And let them make hast and take up a wailing for us that our Eyes may run down with Tears and our Eye-lids gush out with Water Why What is the matter what is the cause there should be such a great general Mourning ver 21. For Death is come up into our windows is entered into our palaces to cut off the Children from without and the young Men from the streets Oh! When Death is taking its range about the streets it is an especial time for Mourners to be there to manifest a real Mourning under such a dispensation to put on Ashes for Beauty and instead of the Garment of Joy to be cloathed with the Spirit of Heaviness Religion doth not hinder any natural act it only regulates the mode and refines the end of the performance It doth not hinder natural love it only teacheth us how to love innocently nor doth it hinder natural sorrow it only guides us how to sorrow profitably As Divines say Though Religion be above reason yet it is not contrary to reason so though it be an enemy to all vitious corrupt motions of nature yet it obligeth no person to be unnatural that is to fail in doing
Garments to view which she had made to cloath the Backs of the Naked with and set them before Peter and the rest that accompanied him to justify the ground of their Mourning or rather to heighten the Passion of their Sorrow from this sadning consideration that she was ever uncapable of making any more that the Poor were never like to be the better for her again They could not but Mourn that she was so soon taken off from prosecuting the many good projects she had in her Head arid Heart of being useful to the Poor and them that were in Distress Ah Sirs when we see a Man going to his Grave we may sadly cry out He will never he can never do any more good His opportunity of glorifying his Creator or of serving his fellow-Creature is past and gone and will never return again It is impossible he should be any farther serviceable in Church or Common-Wealth And surely this should enforce a Mourning from all who take delight in or are capable of receiving Comfort from the doing good of others But it may be you will say there are many Men that do no good at all while they Live but a great deal of harm who are so far from being useful that they are wholly unprofitable yea very prejudicial to God's honour and Man's welfare in their Generation That are a Plague to the place where their abode is and a Curse to all whose unhappiness it is to be near them Now should we Mourn for them should we Grieve when they are taken out of the World should we go as Mourners about the Streets when such barren Trees are cut down and carried to their Long Home Yes verily we should because while a wicked Man is alive there is hope or at least a possibility of his Recovery from his wicked State of his being washed and sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God But when he dyes there is no possibility of his reclaiming or being renewed to Repentance for there is no work no device no invention and I may add no reformation in the Grave whither we are going Fourthly For that when a Man Dyes and goes to his Long Home we shall never see him more he vanishes as it were out of our sight and we are never more to behold him or cast our Eyes upon him He is both actively and passively in an invisible state So Job Mournfully speaks of himself chap. 7. ver 7 8. Oh remember that my Life is wind my Eyes shall no more see good The Eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more thy Eyes are upon me and I am not What more cutting Expression what more sadning Inculcation what more provoking Incitation to Mourning can there be than the Sence of this that we shall behold the Face of our beloved Friend after his departure from us no more Were Man to Return though after never so many Years absence from his home or continuance in the Grave Were he to visit his habitation again and become the objective delight of his poor Mourning Friends and Relations it might be some alleviation to their Grief when he takes his journey to his Long Home But Oh! What a prick to the Heart what a stab to the Soul what a deadning to the Spirits what an inundation of Sorrow like the opening of Pandora's Box is this lamentable Thought to an ingenious Man that he must never never never more behold the Face of this or that Relation in this Region of Mortality nor have any converse with him on this side the Bank of Eternity What Husband can think so of his Wife and not melt what Wife can have such a thought of her Husband and not faint what Parent can consider this with respect to his Child and not mourn what Child can reflect upon the impossibility of ever seeing his Father or Mother more and not be overwhelmed with grief In a word What Friend or Relation can ponder on such an eternal Farewel as is then given and not be dissolved into Tears yea and not to Mourning like the Mourning of Hada-drimmon when Cloystered up in Megiddo's Vale It is the opinion of Divines That the chiefest of the Saints happiness consists in Vision or in the use of the visive faculty which will then be enlarged and made glorious to perfection for they shall see the Face of God in Righteousness and be satisfied with his likeness they shall be for ever with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord and be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Sure I am the Saints greatest comfort in this World consists in Vision or beholding God's Image in his People and that not only the work of his Power in their comely Features but the work of his Grace in the divine Characters of Wisdom engraven in their Souls and immediately reflected upon in all their Actions Therefore it cannot but cause Mourning when such delightful Objects are removed out of sight and never more to be beheld Fourthly Modifically There is a modifick Obligation upon the Living to Mourn for the Dead in respect of the manner of Mens Dying or the circumstances they are under in that great Hour First For that Sickness is the Prologue of it the Paleness of Death is generally ushered in with the Pains and Sorrows of Sickness Thus it was with the Child of the great Shunamite that had so courteously entertained Elisha and built a Chamber for him Furnishing it with those Utensils which she knew were most acceptable to a contemplative Man In requital of which kindness he promised her from God a Child and a Child she had but it Dyed but before it Dyed it fell Sick and was tormented with Pains So we are told 2 King chap. 4. ver 18 19. And when the Child was grown it fell on a day that he went out to his Father to the Reapers And he said unto his Father my Head my head and he said to a Lad carry him to his Mother And when he had taken him and brought him to his Mother he sate on her Knees till Noon and then Dyed His Head first Aked before his Breath Departed And this is the usual way of Men's Dying first to complain of some Disease in their Bodies before there is a separation between that and their Souls One crys out of his Head another of his Bowels one is Sore-pained another is Heart-sick upon his taking his leave of the World And as the Apostle Peter speaks of the last times The Sun shall be turned into Darkness and the Moon into Blood before the great and notable Day of the Lord comes So it is most true in this case Health shall be turned into Sickness Strength into Weakness Pleasure into Pain Delight into Sadness before the great and notable Day of Death comes Which indeed in it self considered abstracted from the hopes of
and perish there For David personating him thus prophetically spake Thou wilt not leave my Soul taken here figuratively for the outward Man in Hell that is the Grave for so Sheol signifieth Neither wilt Thou suffer thy holy One to see Corruption Implying that all other bodies must see corruption under whatever circumstances they may be considered when they come to this common home this general receptacle of the Grave For as all must lye down and take up their dwelling there together so all must perish and rot and be consumed there and that from the same cause and after the same manner The Grave is a common home for the wicked in Judgment it is their Jail where they are kept safe till the great and general Assizes of the Day of Judgment when the last Trumpet will sound and the Eccho of it will be heard from the one end of the Earth to the other with this doleful Summons Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment When the Vision of John will be made good to a tittle And I saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it from whose Face the Earth and Heaven fled away and there was found no place for them And I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things that were written in the Book according to their Works And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell that is the Grave delivered up the Dead which were in them and thy were Judged every Man according to their Works And the effect of this great Tryal and dreadful Appearance will be the Bodies of the wicked shall be sent to Hell as well as their Souls and be Tormented there for ever God can and for the glorifying of his Justice he will Condemn both Body and Soul to Hell-fire at last Those Ears that have been always open to let in the Air of obscenity and tickled with delight in the hellish musick of prophane Language shall then be terrified with the doleful Howlings and Cryings and Gnashing of Teeth that will there be in an horrible manner among the wreached Miscreants Those Eyes that have been as Windows to let in Lust and all manner of wantonness and filthiness into the Soul shall then be punished with beholding the ghastly Looks of affrightning Devils that will be continually staring the damned in the Face Those Tongues that have been the Bellows of the Devil blown into from Hell always imploy'd in belching forth horrid Oaths blaspheming their Creator or thundring out direful Execrations cursing the Creature and that without either shame or remorse shall then be miserably scorched in that inextinquishable Fire which there burneth Day and Night In a word those Bodies that here have been vessels of uncleaness members of an harlot recepticles of all prophaness shall then be rowling on fiery Pillars in those everlasting Burnings in those devouring Flames which the Breath of the Lord hath kindled when that amazing and soul-confounding Sentence is pronounced upon them by the Month of the righteous Judge himself Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels But now the Grave is a common home to the Saints and People of God in Mercy it is the place where their Bodies are clarify'd and refined from all dross and corruption and so made fit for Glory Oh! what a glorious Morning what a joyful blessed day will that of the Resurrection be to All that sleep in Christ For then with their bodily Eyes shall they behold their Saviour and in the re-union of their Bodies with their Souls shall they be for ever with him hearing him speaking in that soul-reviving soul-refreshing yea soul-ravishing Language to them Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World Then the Body that is now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a body of meanness or a low abject vile Body by reason of its corruption shall in that day become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body of Glory for it will be changed and made like unto the glorious Body of the Lord Jesus and in conformity to that Glory put on Stolam immortalitatis the Garment of immortality The dead bodies of Saints shall live yea together with the dead Body of Christ shall they arise They shall awake and sing though now they dwell in the Dust for their Dew is as the Dew of Herbs and the Earth shall give them up as the Lord 's Dead Now then if the Grave be Man's proper home his seltled home his confined home and his common home Ah! How should all of us whether rich or poor high or low old or young be familiarizing this home to our selves as that which we must all come to Oh Sirs Methinks you should have serious and awful thoughts of your ghastly paleness your loathsome blackness and your habitations in the dark And so I pass from the Dying Mar's Destiny He goes to his Long Home To the Living Man's Duty He ought to be a Mourner in the Street I told you in the Doctrine there was a Mourning due from the Survivers to the Deceased I shall now labour to make it appear and that upon a four-fould account First Naturally There is a natural Obligation to Mourn when any Man goes to his Long Home and surely they are very unnatural that do not pay it First For that they that Live are of the same Mould with them that Dye All are made and composed of the same perishing Earth Hence David speaks not only of himself but of all Men when he inscribes Vanity on them Psalm 39. ver 5 6. Behold thou hast made my Days as an hand 's breath and my Age is as nothing before Thee verily every Man at his best estate is altogether Vanity Surely every Man walketh in a vain show surely they are disquieted in vain He heapeth up Riches and knoweth not who shall enjoy them Here is a general Rule without any exception that every Man be he never so great or high or rich or wise or learned in the world and that in his best estate take him under what circumstances you will is Vanity yea altogether Vanity a poor crazy empty evanid thing Now when Man that is so vain so perishing in his own Nature sees one of the same Mould with himself carrying to the Grave to be placed in his Long Home the Law of Nature exacts a tribute of Tears from him though he had no particular acquaintance with or obligation to the person deceased because he beholds a crumbling away and a fading of that Earth whereof himself is made at which Nature cannot but have a reluctancy and vent its sympathetical Passion But as the Apostle speaks of some Monsters in filthiness and uncleaness that they did that which is against Nature so we may see
Steven was their brother and companion in the Faith Patience and Tribulation of the Gospel and therefore they looked on themselves obliged to Mourn bitterly and Lament sorely when he went to his Long Home But alas there is little of this Sorrow in these days wherein Iniquity doth so much abound and the Love of so many waxes cold to every good Work There is no Mourning in the Streets of our Jerusalem no Lamenting in the City of our Zion when the Godly Man ceaseth when the Faithful fail from among the Children of Men. The Prophets complaint was verily never more just and pertinent than now The Righteous perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and Merciful Men are taken away none considering that the Righteous is taken away from the Evil to come Thirdly There is a Relation by Affinity which obligeth Men to Mourn at the Departure or going to their Long Home of any so Related to them This Relation is by Marriage or joyning Families that were remote and wholly unacquainted by Hymens bands together Thus Hamor and Shechem desired That themselves and all their Citizens might be Related to the Family of Jacob when they communed with him in the Gate These Men are peaceable with us therefore let them dwell in the land and trade therein for the land Behold it is large enough for them let us take their Daughters to us for Wives and let us give them our Daughters As if they had said Let us contract a Relation by making interchangeable Marriages that so we may be near to them and better acquainted with them And surely in the compass of this Relation it ought to be a sensible Affliction when Death is Marring the Glory of their Society and breaking the Hedge of their Unity by taking one away This was the cause of the Mourning of Orpah and Ruth at the parting with their Mother Naomy who was indeed their Mother but by Marriage Ruth 1. ver 14. And they lift up their voice and wept again and Orpah kissed her Mother but Ruth clave unto her They could not think of a Farewel without powering out floods of Tears Nay so strong were Ruth's Affections that when it came to the pinch she would not leave her But was resolved to accompany her in all her Travels and Troubles whatever she should undergo or meet with for it and therefore she told her Thy God shall be my God and thy People shall be my People where thou goest I will go where thou dyest I will dye and there will I be buried Now as Solomon sayes Go to the Aut thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise So I say in this case Go to this Moabitish-Woman thou hard-hearted Christian that canst with dry Eyes and a sottish Spirit behold a Relation entombed in the Earth consider the depth of her Affection the pureness of her Love the tenderness of her Heart and be Religiously Wise in knowing how to carry it under a parting-dispensation Oh! remember that as there may be an innocent and lawful Mirth when Relations first meet to begin their acquaintance or contract their proximity together so there ought to be a Mourning in a moderate way when there is any parting or separation by the hand of Death Fourthly There is a Relation by Consanguinity which not only obliges but enforces Tears from the Eyes of all persons unless unnatural bruits accompanying any so related to them to their Long Home This Relation comes not only by a general deduction from Adam but by a more near and immediate alliance and conjunction in Blood whereby they become Bone of one Bone and Flesh of one Flesh Such is the Relation between Husband and Wife Parents and Children Brothers and Sisters c. Now what Husband can forbear Tears when his dear Wife is snatched out of his Arms by Death when the delight of his Eyes is taken away with a stroak Who can then but imitate affectionate Abram of whom it is said Gen. 23. ver 2. And Sarah dyed in Kiriath-Arba the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan and Abram came to Mourn for Sarah and to Weep for her She was the companion of his youth the wife of his delights the mother of his Isaac yea the better half of himself and therefore he could not but Weep when she was gone from him What Wife can refrain Mourning when her beloved Husband is going down into the shades of Death and she to be left a poor desolate disconsolate Widow as Naomi and her two Daughters in the land of Moab were And how can poor Parents keep in Sorrow when they see Death preying upon the Children of their Bowels and confining their tender Limbs to the cold Grave Hence we find David giving vent to his passion for the Death of Absolom in this pathetical Exclamation 2 Sam. 18. ver 33. And the King was much moved and went up to the Chamber over the Gate and wept and as he went thus he said O my Son Absolom my Son my Son Absolom would God I had dyed for thee O Absolom my Son my Son Indeed Divines conjecture the reason of David's so great Mourning was the fear of Alsolom's miscarrying as to his eternal State his doubt that it was not well with his Soul he dying in a state of Rebellion both against his earthly and heavenly Father Though this might have some impression on David's Heart yet questionless 't was Nature it self drew out his Sorrow from this very consideration that he was his Son and there needs no other to enforce a Mourning From this sprung that Voice of Lamentation and Weeping and great Mourning which was heard in Ramah poor Rachels pittifully Weeping for their Children and refusing to be Comforted Because they were not And then reciprocally what Children can be so hard-hearted so stony-spirited as not to wait upon their Parents Coffins with Tears to the Grave When Jacob was gathered to his Fathers and had yielded up the Ghost in a good old Age we read that his Son Joseph fell upon his Face and wept upon him and kissed him And truly this Mourning is but an expression of Love and where it is not we may safely infer that those persons had no love no affection at all for their Relations when alive Thirdly Morally There is an obligation which none that pretend to any principles of Morality will disown upon the Living to Mourn for the Dead First For that a Man is lost by Death As to the enjoyment of him and society with him he is perished from among Men. Now Man being a sociable delightful Creature the Loss of him is considerable and ought to be laid to heart by all that survive him Man is to be lookt upon as the chief peice of Workmanship in the Creation the glory of all the Works of God in the lower Region So wonderfully was he made so strangely was he fashioned so excellently was he adorned that the good Angels admired him and the Bad envyed him
a future Being is a day of Wrath a day of Trouble and Distress a day of Wastness and Desolation a day of Darkness and Gloomyness a day of Clouds and thick Darkness a day of the Trumpet and Alarum against the senced Cities and against the high Tower Now who can behold a Friend in any pain or under the power of any Distemper upon a sick Bed and not Grieve at it What Object calls more for Pity and Commiseration yea for Grief and Lamentation than a pained Heart-sick-man who cannot help himself or receive Ease from any Application especially of that pain that precedes his Dissolution for Contra vim mortis non est medicamen in hortis And as Distempers are coroding and tormenting in their Natures so they are Multitudinous in their number There are innumerable Diseases that go before Death that are as pursivants in the same Livery warning the Sons of Men to be ready at Deaths approach according to the Poet Mille modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat And as another well expresseth it Mille modis Morimur miseri sed Nascimur uno There is but one way of our coming into the World but a Thousand of our going out 'T was a Curse upon Man after his Fall that he should live by the Sweat of his Brow and the same Curse hath entailed this misery upon him that he must Dye in the Anguish of his Soul As he Lives in Sweat so he Dyes in Pain and this Pain cannot but enforce Mourning from all tender-hearted Spectators that are about him Secondly For that a Dying-man is really himself a Mourning-man When Man is going to his Long Home his Soul is clad with Cypress his Spirits are drooping and in a sorrowful trembling posture he is waiting the finishing of Deaths last stroke He lies groaning and pitifully crying out on his sick-bed and with rowling-eyes lifted-up hands and panting breasts he sighs he sobs he dyes And from this condition good Men are no more exempted than wicked at their deaths nay we find the best of Men even buried in Sorrow in the day of his humiliation when he was going to his Death Matth. 26. ver 38. Then saith he unto them my Soul is exceeding Sorrowful even unto Death tarry ye here and watch with me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifies Fear on every side The faculties of his Soul were as it were beset and besieged with Grief Sorrow went round about him Indeed Aristotle would not own that a Man of Spirit could be capable of such a Sorrow but 't was his ignorance in the things of God which made him think so And our Saviour's sorrowful posture is a sufficient confutation of that Notion Verily Sirs when the terrors of Death notwithstanding the Sting of it is taken away takes hold upon the most Heroick-spirited yea upon the most gracious qualified among the Sons of Men it makes him presently hang his Harp upon the Willow-tree and hide his Face within the drawn Curtains converting his Songs into Sighs his Laughing into Mourning and all his Rejoycing into heavy Groans Emblematically be speaking to all that are round about him with a shaking head and ghastly look what Job did so passionately Have pity upon me Oh ye my Friends have pity upon me for the Hand of God yea the hand of Death hath touched mt Help help O Wife O Children What shall I do my Spirits are fainting my Breath is going my Soul is departing and I must leave you all And then turning sighs and sobs to that sorrowful Note of Jobs Oh that I were as in Months past as in the day when God preserved me When his Candle shined upon my Head and when by his Light I walked through Darkness as I was in the dayes of my Youth when the Secret of God was upon my Tabernacle Thus poor Man concludes the Tragick-Scene of his troublesome Life inbreathing out such doleful Epicediums He came into the World Crying and he goes out Sighing He Crys the first thing he does after he is Born and he Sobs the last thing he does before he Dyes Now what Heart can be so obdurate to behold Man expiring in the midst of his Sigh and not say as Thomas said of Lazarus Lord let its go that we may Dye with him So let me go and Sob with him and bear him company in the bitter Agony he is now in Thirdly For the great change Death makes in the person Deceased of an active lively Man he is become a dead lump of Clay so changed and wholly altered in the Physiognomy and outward appearance of the Body that we may say with the Poet Qui color albus erat nunc est contrarius albo The Man that a day or two ago lookt so fresh and fair Oh how pale how wan how ghastly how affrightning does he look now The Man that was so pleasant so every way desirable in his conversation a little while ago how loathsome and detestable does he appear now That it makes his dearest Relations say of him as Abraham said of Sarah Gen. 23. ver 4. I am a stranger and a sojourner with you give me a possession of a Burying place with you that I may Bury my Dead out of my sight Sad was the Change death made in Sarah which enforced this so seeming unnatural Resolution in Abraham to put her out of his sight He could no longer look upon her as his delightful Wife to sleep in his Bosom but as a rotten piece of Flesh that must be removed away Man in his Coffin is like a growing flower how splendidly does it look how fragrantly does it smell whilst upon the stalk but no sooner cropt but it presently fades and in a few hours is trodden under foot as dirt So that we may say of him as the Nations said of the King of Babylon His Pomp is brought down to the Grave and the noise of his Viols the Worm is spread under him and the Worms cover him Oh! Sirs All Man's Pomp his Beauty his Glory is then withered away And as it was said of our Redeemer in his state of humiliation There is no from or comeliness to look upon him nor no beauty in him that we should desire him His Body is then a contemptible despicable abominable thing Hence the Apostle makes use of these expressions of meanness and contemptibleness concerning man's going to his Long Home elegantly shewing thereby what his Body under those circumstances is It is sown in corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a state of filthiness and contamination Again It is sown in dishonor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a state of ignominy and contempt Again It is sown in weakness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a state of inability to withstand the Power of Death Once more It is sown a natural Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Body subjected to all the miseries appertaining to and entailed upon Apostate Nature From all this we may gather the proper
the Lice Exod. 8. ver 19. Then the Magicians said unto Pharaoh This is the finger of God And Pharaoh's heart was hardned and he hearkned not unto them as the Lord had said Oh! Sirs we should say this is the handy work of God of that God Whose Judgments are unsearchable and whose Ways are past finding out and therefore we ought with all holy filial Reverence to submit to what he has done Fourthly Oh! Mourn for this Loss by way of preparations for your own turn whensoever it shall please God to call you to it This was Moses his wish for Israel and it is mine for you Deut. 32. ver 29. O that they were wise that they knew this that they would consider their Latter End So to consider of it as to prepare for it And especially to consider of it when we see others taken away from among us Oh! How should Objects of Mortality before us be as pressing Lectures of Divinity to us to put us in mind of the certainty of our own Dying and the necessary prae-requisites to a Dying State that when we come to the Borders of Death instead of fearing it we may sarcasmally triumph over it in the words of the blessed Apostle O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory And when like Aaron upon Mount Hor we are stripped of the Robes of Mortality we may be invested with the more beauteous and transcendent Garment of everlasting Glory in our Fathers House where are many Mansions to enjoy the Soul-ravishing Communion of blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heaven to sit under the shadow of our Glorified Lord Jesus with great delight and to have his Fruit for ever pleasant to our Tast wrapt up in the Joys and Consolations of the Spirit waiting for that one only additional Happiness even the Adoption to wit the Redemption of the Body In a word to be with our own God the God of all Peace and Comfort in whose Presence there is fulness of Joy and at whose Right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore FINIS AN ELEGY On the Death of the before-Named Mr. Rich Bernard Consecrated to his MEMORY BY ONE Who Loved him Dearly Prized him Highly And Laments him Greatly CAN Grief be silent Rather can Grief speak A Top-full Vessel scarce finds vent to Leak Hearts that are charg'd and over-press'd with Sorrow Deny to lend what Mourning Tongues would borrow Words may be form'd in saddest case no doubt But Sighs and Groans will stop their passage out Wonder not then we are so Mute even now Our Souls to Grief's most rigid Laws we bow And in the Dust seem liveless as we lye True Hieroglyphicks of our Misery Sense of our Loss deprives us of all Sense We more than Masters in Griefs-School Commence Like Weeping Niobes we are become Grief makes us sad but Horror strikes us dumb Our Tongues can't Accent what our Hearts direct Deep Groans and Sobs must be our Dialect We 'll Sob his Death and with an Heart-fetch'd Groan That Loss which ne're can be repair'd make known A Loss indeed beyond a Vulgar Loss As far as Ophir purest Gold 's from Dross Death hath not snatched one of our common Friends But one in whom the Life of Friendship ends The Soul of Love the Quintescence of Mirth Whose presence mid-wiv'd Joy into a Birth Who Lov'd and knew to blow where e're he came The Sparks of Pleasure to an open Flame So Apprehensive half-Ey'd Men might see He was ingenious to a Prodigie His rare and great Accomplishments inhanc'd His Price above all Value and Advanc'd Th' admir'd Capacity of his known Name To cope the glory of Machaons Fame In all the Rules of Physick he excell'd And very hardly to be Parallell'd Diseases own'd his Power and Heaven did Bless His Skill to most with wonderful Success Besides all this he had a greater Art To feel the Pulse of a Distemper'd Heart And by his Candid Carriage to unty The Gordian-Knot of inward Misery His Wit and Parts dispell'd the Clouds of Sadness And changed Sorrow into peals of Gladness Judge judge how Mournful now is our Condition That thus have lost a Duplicate-Physitian Well might the Cannons roar when he was gone The fittest Emblem of our general Moan They were our Organs thorough which we broke Griefs deadly silence and in Thunder spoke We sent by them our loud-mouth'd doleful Cryes Resounding Woe and Horror to the Skyes The Air was black with Smoke to let us see That Element did Mourn as well as we The Sea did Foam Neptune was full of Fears Lest he should shake his Kingdom 'bout his Ears And in our Fury rise to such a pass As to attempt the wresting of his Mace For having rob'd us of so rich a Jem More-priz'd by us than all his Diadem We needed not his Water for a Grave Unto our Friend each Tear more than a Wave Would soon have swel'd into a Sea for him And been enough for th' Coffin in 't to Swim Or rather sink true Sorrow 's such a freight To poize down more than many Thousand Weight I now despise great Aeolus and his storms Though represented in tremendious forms The raging of the Seas henceforth no more Shall fright my Soul thought Winds and Waves do roar Now he is there whose influencing charms Keep back their fury from inflicting harms And by his Art and Skill right Chymical Makes all their Waters more than Med'cinal 'T was often said The Sea abounds in Store More than the Earth I nere believ'd before But now I shall and readily submit With all my heart unto the Truth of it Since so much Learning Parts and Worth is in 't What can it be less than a peerless Mint Here stop my Pen no farther ' tempt to build Statues of Mourning in this sable Field Call for the Epilogue draw out the Screene And put Conclusion to this doleful Scene The Floods of Tears which from our Eyes have run With Sighs he 's wafted to Elisium The Epitaph FArewel dear Heart thy absence makes me sad The truest Friend that ever Mortal had My pleasant Sea-Consort the very Soul Of that delight which Sadness does Controul My Bosom-Friend to whom I could dispence The greatest Secrets with safe-Confidence My Counsellor with whom I could advise And learn by Imitation to be Wise A Brother dearer than by Nature can In Life and Death to me a Jonathan Rest rest in Peace within thy Watry-Urn Whilst I toss'd up and down shall Sigh and Mourn To think of my great Loss in losing Thee Once happy in thy sweet Society What! Art thou Dead My thought my Dream was so Ah! 't is too true a Dream the more the Woe Thou hadst thy Plea though cam'st unto thy Tryal Death was thy Judge and would have no Denyal Charles Nicholettes