believeth with his heart this grand Principle in Religion of every mans being after Death and of the good mans being happy nor lastly to him who in our present Case shall be so just as to believe that this good man to whom we are paying these last Offices of Piety is entred into the perfections and joys of Eternity Whose Glory though it be shut up and skreen'd from our eyes below yet as the Sun in an Eclipse it opens and Displays it self Illustriously to them above Min gling beams with those bright Stars of the Morning the Angels and Cherubims he is now securely placed in the City of God actually Triumphing over Death and Sin for he can now sin no more and therefore can Die no more His Soul may defy them both and say O Death Sting me now if thou canst O Sin Poison me now if thou art able His Body also resting in hope may say to the Grave Rejoyce not against me O mine Enemy for though I am faln I shall rise again Mich. 7.8 Though I ly in Darkness the Lord shall be a Light unto me What our Saviour said of Jairus's Daughter is true of our Departed Friend that he is not Dead but Sleepeth or indeed but one part of him sleepeth his Body for his Soul is awake and sings in Heaven Nay he Lives on Earth too for in many respects Death had no Dominion over him His Fame still Lives and will for ever in the Mouths of all good men that knew him His Blood is still warm and flows in the veins of his promising Issue His virtues and the noble Idea of his great mind still Lives and fairly Dawns forth in the hopeful Heir of his Family which God grant he may as fully inherit as he doth his outward Fortune Or rather may a double portion of the Fathers spirit rest upon the Son that he who Succeeds may if possible Exceed him also in all things that are great and honourable virtuous and praise-worthy That he may grow up to be a support to all the tender Branches and a Joy to the Disconsolate Members of that Large family And that in time he may fill up the great vacancies made by his Fathers Death in all stations whether private or publick both with satisfaction to others and honour to himself and so become an Ornament both to his Name and Country To conclude with St. Paul in his words following the Text Let us give thanks to God for giving us and all Christians the victory over Death and the Grave and Sin Through our Lord Jesus Christ Let us give thanks to God for this particular victory which we assuredly hope he hath given our Departed brother over all his Enemies Let his Dear Consort give thanks to God and Rejoyce not that the beloved guest of her bosom is snatched from her but that He is now in the Embraces of his Blessed Saviour and Ravished with Extasies of Divine Love. Let his Dutiful Children give thanks and Rejoyce not that He who gave them a being in this world is taken out of it himself but that they had a Father who in his Life gave them an Example of great virtue and left behind him at his Death a Name more fragrant than pretious Ointment Let us all rejoyce and give hearty thanks to God for the great Ministeries and Comforts which he vouchsafed us in him during his abode with us and for the Merciful and seasonable Deliverance of him out of the Dangers Temptations and Miseries of this sinful world Beseeching him in the Churches excellent prayer That of his Gracious goodness he would shortly accomplish the Number of his Elect and hasten his Kingdom That we meeting again with this happy Soul and All those other that are Departed in the true Faith of his holy name may have our Consummation and bliss both in Body and Soul In his Eternal and Everlasting Glory through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen FINIS
Apostle by its various and doubtful senses hath afforded a large field to the Criticks to shew their Reading and Judgement in is here to be understood neither the Prison of the damned nor the state of the dead but the Mansion of our Carkasses till the Resurrection And though Death and the Grave are here distinguished by the Apostle yet in effect being the same to us we shall in the sequele of this discourse for the most part speak of them as but One. This is the enemy then we have to deal with and how Dreadful it is to the Children of Corruption needs no other proof than a bare appeal to the Universal sense and suffrage of mankind Job 18.14 which Job hath roundly summ'd up in his description of Death by the King of terrours and after him Aristotle much to the same purpose in styling it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There 's nothing in the World can beget a greater dread or create a more exquisite horrour in the minds of men than the black and Melancholly apprehension of descending into the dismal state of everlasting darkness and solitude oblivion and senslesness There 's nothing we are not willing to do to suffer or to part with rather than be brought under its power We are ready to undergo all labours and pains fasting and Physick shame and tortures nay I had almost said death it self to avoid it So much of truth is there in That of the Father of lies Skin for Skin and all that a man hath Job 2.4 will be give for his Life And this is so well grounded a passion that it seizes and shakes the mind and shrivels up the Spirits of the stoutest the wisest and most virtuous men Our natures are agast and recoil at the very thoughts of death and our countenances wax wan at the sight of the Grave We are so unfit to enter the lists with these Combatants that we are scarce able to support our selves under the bare prospect or mention of them These Basilisks dis-spirit us at their approach and kill us with their very looks The sound of their names like that of Hunniades to the Turks strikes a dread into our Soul and shoots a chilness through our Veins which Lewis the 11th was so apprehensive of that he would not endure the mention of them either in health or sickness but charged his Servants when ever they should see him weak and languishing to exhort him to confess his Sins but in no wise to name death to him least that alone should kill him before the time The reason of all which must be sought for in our Inbred Antipathy to Annihilation The fear of Death lies as close to our essence as the Love of Life and to offer to reconcile a man to the thoughts of his dissolution is as contradictory an attempt as to perswade him to fall out with his nature and renounce his being And if it be a Natural it must also be a Necessary and unavoidable passion and consequently 't is as impossible to throw off the Fear as the Fate of dying This Enemy is not only Formidable and operative meerly upon the fancy but it s really Hurtful and Mischievous Death smites us in all our Capacities in our Relations and our Persons It turns us out of our Stateliest Houses and Palaces and Sequesters us from our greatest possessions and Empires It blasts our fairest Hopes and dashes in pieces our finest Models Breaking our purposes and the thoughts of our heart It snatches our tender Children out of our Arms and tears away the dearest Guest of our bosom from us It plunders us of our beauty and our strength of our honours and our pleasures It not only deprives us of our liberty and the light by shutting us up in a close dark prison but it layeth us in a bed of dishonour and loathsomness among worms and serpents It throws us into a Pit of stench and rottenness where it preys upon our bodies putrefies our flesh and consumes our bones It not only lops off some of our choicest comforts but lays the Ax to the root of all our Enjoyments in making a divorce betwixt the dearest Couple in nature our Body and Soul and drawing after it if not timely prevented an utter destruction of both eternally Add hereunto that this is an inveterate and implacable Enemy with whom there can no league be struck no amity purchased no reconciliation had It gives quarter to none but shews the like mercy of the Sword to all Indeed beaten captivated destroy'd it may be so it hath been by Christ but appeased reconciled never The Devil who is General and Parent of this Enemy being the Father of Sin who is the Mother of Death hath like an infernal Hannibal sworn all his Offspring to have no peace with the Posterity of Adam Nevertheless Death could do us no great mischief if he came not armed with his Sting which is The second particular the weapon with which this Enemy assaults us The meaning and reason of which Title is next to be examined The Apostle declares the former briefly and plainly in the next words The sting of death is sin A dangerous and deadly weapon The congruity of their names might be deduced from their common relation to a Serpent whose natural weapon is a sting as Sin is the proper hurtful Instrument of that old Serpent the Devil But the dreadfulness of this Weapon and its analogy to a Sting will more fully appear from a distinct consideration of the Pungent and Poisonous nature of Sin. 1. Sin is of a Pungent and Painful nature It usually approaches us indeed with a courtly address and a fawning salutation like Solomons strange Woman her lips drop as an hony comb and her mouth is smoother than oil but the end is bitter as wormwood sharp as a two edged sword A prosperous and harden'd Sinner who resolves to go on in the way of his heart and in the sight of his eyes knowing what smart and anguish the reflection upon his guilt and the very thoughts of the Divine Vengeance will necessarily give him industriously beats out of his mind all notices and remembrances of these things and bears down the first essays of Conscience either to inform or restrain him The Voluptuary indeavours to drown its voice with the louder noise of his Tabret and Harp. The Mammonist tries to hide if not smother this Vice-God as Rachel did her false ones among his Worldly Stuff and Furniture The Atheist and Hypocrite strive to over-rule its Plea with Erroneous Principles and Specious Pretences But at last when the Conscience hath thrown off her chains and servitude and asserted her rightful authority and dominion over the Sinner be it in old age or sickness when he is smitten of God or Man she will change the whole scene of affairs she will set up a true light in his soul and give him a juster apprehension of things and another sense of his own
a King who acknowledged the Absolute Soveraignty and general success of this Monarch in asking the question What Man is he that lives and shall not see death and shall he deliver his Soul from the hand of the Grave Psal 89.48 And not only David the Man after Gods own heart but the Son of David the Man to whose heart God himself was hypostatically joyn'd the Blessed Jesus was for some time his Subject and Captive Who then can expect an Exemption from walking in this way of all the Earth And yet we should the less envy him the glory and universality of this Victory if the effects of it fell not so ruinously upon us If the overthrow were no more than the greatest Temporal Destruction nay which is greater than an Eternal Annihilation so that as our hopes were only in this life our fears might be of no other Our Case were the less Deplorable We should then at worst be but Negatively Miserable But when the death of the Body is but a Prologue to the death of the Soul and when this second Death is so far from being nothing that it is an everlasting and unconceivable torment when it is such a forlorn state as that the greatest Evil the utmost Misfortune of this VVorld even Death it self would be the greatest Good and only Comfort and yet not only the hopes but the very Possibility of Dying is there extinct seeing it is an Immortal Death This advances our Misery not more above the Patience than the Imagination of Mankind These Considerations of the Dreadfulness of the Enemy of the Deadliness of the VVeapon of the generality of their Success and the necessary Consequent thereof our extream Desolation may give us just occasion to cry out Rom. 7.24 O wretched Men that we are who shall deliver us from the body of Sin and of this Death VVho shall rescue us from the All-devouring Mouth of this Grave Certainly neither Man nor Angel can deliver us from the force and fury of these Enemies yet from the fear of them we may be delivered by the happy tidings of a perfect Victory over them all which is brought us by 2. The second General The Author and Absoluteness of this Victory Sed quis nobis Hercules But alass who will venture to go forth and fight this Goliah for us that thus Dismaies and Defies the whole Host of Mankind and dares them to match him with an Equal Combatant Let no Mans heart fail for there is one who will undertake him and he though not a David Heb. 2.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet his Son according to the Flesh one who hath already gone out smitten and set his foot upon him 'T is Our great Champion Christ Jesus who came down from Heaven on purpose to fight this bloody Battle for us to enter the Lists with Death and the Grave and Sin and all the Black Legions of Darkness who had held us so long in fear and bondage And though his whole Life was but one continued Dispute with them yet the sharp and doubtful Encounter was at his Passion when he was not only sore thrust at bruised and wounded but slain Not only lost Blood but Life too and his Body closely Imprisoned in a Tomb. So that now one would think Death might be able to answer the Question of the Text to purpose and say Behold here 's my Sting fixed in the Body of the Lord of Life see the deep wound it hath made in his Side which hath let out his very Hearts Blood. The Grave might also vauntingly reply My Victory was in Golgotha and behold here 's my Prisoner whom I have in safe Custody in this Cave But stay a while and you shall see the salvation of the Lord Exod. 14.13 who though he fell to the ground rose up again and that Antoeus-like with renewed force and vertue when he charged his Enemies afresh broke all their strengths and gave them a final overthrow when he disarmed Death of his Sting and quenched its Poison in his Blood and by taking away the guilt thereof destroyed both the power and enmity of Death though he suffered the Enemy to continue till the General Resurrection He conquered the Grave also making his way through all its Guards and Rampiers it having no more power to detain him than the travelling Woman hath the struggling burden of her Womb when it comes to the Birth For how was it possible that a narrow Sepulchre should hold him whom neither the Temple of Solomon nor the Heaven of Heavens are able to contain It was a glorious Miracle for him to open the Graves to unlock those Chambers of Death for others when he was alive but infinitely more to break its Iron Bars asunder and throw open its Doors when he lay Dead and buried in it himself and to rise up and march out like the Sun in his full strength A Victory this sufficient to father it self and which visibly points to no less than a Divine Author and an Omnipotent Arm. It could be no other than our Spiritual Sampson the strength of our Salvation who when the Enemy thought him sure and sealed up even to an Impossibility of a Resurrection awoke thus out of the sleep of Death shook himself and carried away the gates of his Prison to the Heavenly Mount giving eminent proof of his ability and fitness for this mighty Enterprise by beating the Enemy at his own Weapon and in his own Strongest Holds the Grave and Hell and all this in the weakness of Humane Nature which had been so often foil'd by the Adversary And yet this Victory was not more Eminent for its Author nor more wonderful for its Manner than Compleat for its Effect It was so absolute that it not only presented us with our Capital Enemy in Chains but extended it self to all its Associates so as not to leave one Adversary behind to lift up his hand against us There 's no more Condemnation now from the Law Rom. 8.1 to them who are under Grace Sin hath no more Dominion over us ch 6.14 though it still keeps a Residence among us Death hath never an Instrument of Cruelty or Terror left him but being disarmed of his Sting he is a naked gentle and innocent Enemy He is destroyed also who had the power of Death that is the Devil And now the Serpents Head being thus broken though his Tail may still move and seem to threaten yet it cannot hurt us We may safely play with the Scorpion that hath lost its Sting for though we may find some loathing and abhorrence in our selves to it yet we shall receive no harm from it To die now for Christians is but to fall into a quiet and sound sleep to renew our vigour for the Actions of an Everlasting and Divine Life when we awake in the morning of the Resurrection The Grave likewise is so absolutely vanquished that it
even that faith he gives us also whereby we overcome the World. He hath not only ransom'd us from the Insolencies and Severities of our Enemies loos'd our Bands knock'd off our Shackles and scatter'd our fears but bids us fly in upon the Rich Spoils seize the glorious Prize and advances us to the greatest Priviledges and Perferments He not only settles us in a State of Peace and Security but of Grace and Glory He hath not only pluck'd the Sting out of Death but hath left Honey in its stead so that we may suck sweetness out of that Strong One Judg. 14.14 and find Meat and Manna in that Eater That which was threatned as the greatest Punishment under the Law is by our Saviours Victorious Resurrection become a real Blessing and under the Gospel 't is little less than a Promise and Priviledge that we shall all be changed It was formerly esteemed an unhappiness that we should dye it would now be one if we should not We should be forc'd to sojourn in this Mesech and be confin'd to dwell for ever in these Tents of Kedar were it not for Death which is the happy gate to Everlasting Life Wherefore we have no reason to look upon it as Satan's Serjeant or as our Executioner but as Christs Messenger and our Usher to Glory Socrates his Divinity raised him to such a heigth as to tell his Philosophical Friend that his Enemies might kill but could not hurt him sure our Christianity then will enable us to look upon Death not so much as a tolerable Evil but as the most desirable good and the greatest of Mercies fitter for our Love and Courtship than for our Fear and Abhorrence So that if an Angel from Heaven should bring us the news that we should never die we ought to account it as no Gospel no good Tidings but rather as an Anathema to us We need not shrug at the Grave neither for that cold and hard Lodging by our Saviours lying there is become as warm and soft as a Bed of Down That place of Stench and Noisomness since this Rose of Sharon was planted there is more fragrant than a Bed of Spices 'T is now not a Dungeon but a Repository wherein the Sacred Dust the only Reliques of the Saints are to be inshrined till the last Trump shall call for them again to be built up into a new and living Temple for their own blessed Souls and the holy Spirit of God to cohabite in for evermore And as we have little cause to fear so less to love these Enemies or to enter into any secret friendships and Alliances with them any more to make a Covenant with Death Isa 28.15 and to be at an Agreement with Hell or the Grave in the Prophets sense i. e. to persist in the way of Wickedness and cherish those Sins in our bosom which are both His and Our Mortal Enemies which cost him so dear as his own Blood to subdue and which if they be suffered to revive will be the death of our Souls Let us have a care that while he hath fought our Battles we do not thus make war upon him That would make this Victory over our Enemies the greatest overthrow of our selves and call for a Lamentation instead of a Triumph For such a perverse Requital of so great Salvation must proportionably inhance our future Everlasting Punishment What then shall we render unto the Lord for all these mighty Benefits Let us light all our brightest Torches of Joy and Gladness and kindle all our Sacrifices of Praise and Thanksgiving to this Eternal and glorious Conqueror who hath wrought such wonders of Mercies for us and destroyed those our Potent and Cruel Enemies Let us praise him not only with our Voices but with our Affections in our Hearts and in our Lives in Pious Remembrances and pure Conversations The grateful Heathens used to Consecrate the Memory of those Heroes who subdu'd their Enemies and freed their Countries from infesting Monsters and Giants not only making them their Kings while they were on Earth but their Gods afterward in Heaven And can we do less to our Victorious General who hath vanquished so many Abaddons and Monsters for us who hath destroy'd a greater Devourer of Mans Flesh than the Minotaur even Death it self in its own Labyrinth the Grave and hath quell'd a more terrible Serpent than the many-headed Hydra even that whose name is Legion Certainly then to obey him as our King and to adore him as our God is both Rational and Christian Why should we not Erect a Statue to his Honour as Victors use to have not of Silver or Gold or the Work of Mens Hands but the Divine Image of himself in our Hearts for a perpetual Remembrance Let us take the Cup of Salvation and sing Everlasting Praises to this Immortal Lord of Life who was content once to die that we Mortals might live for ever and when by his own Nature it was impossible for him so to do assumed ours to qualifie himself for Death for our sakes To this Victorious King of Glory who rose again to give us the fuller assurance of the truth of his present and of our future Victory at the Resurrection lastly to this Triumphant God who ascended visibly and gloriously into Heaven to shew us the way thither and to take possession of it for us who hath in his Gospel thrown wide open the Everlasting Gates of Glory and exposed to our view all the Riches the Beauties and Honours of his Kingdom that we might behold the glorious Furniture of those Eternal Mansions he hath prepared for us and the never fading Crowns of Immortality hung out to edge our Appetites and inflame our Ardors to be partakers of them and to support and animate us in all Difficulties and Conflicts in our passage to this new Jerusalem To him I say let us give as is most due all possible Praise and Adoration both now and for evermore And it could be no less than a firm assurance of this blessed Victory over Death and a clear prospect of this glorious Scene of Immortality beyond it which fixed this great and good Man whose Obsequies we are now Celebrating in so steddy and uniform a Course of Christianity in his Life and Composed him into such a Chearfulness and Serenity of Spirit at his Death In shadowing out a more particular though but faint Idea of this Excellent Person I need not borrow any Colour from his Blood nor reflect any Lustre upon his Character from the shining Vertues and Noble Acts of his Ancestors which have Adorned his Family with many Royal Badges of their Loyalty and Eminent Services to the Crown though the Honourary Augmentation of a Hand and Banner to their Arms and of the Mannor of Hanley with its Franchises and Priviledges to their Estate will never suffer the brave Atchievements of Advancing the Black Princes Standard at the famous Battle of Cressey and the taking Prisoner Count Tanquervile
according to Solomons Advice Prov. 3.9 as well as with cheaper services and will cast an Eternal Glory about his Name and Memory This honour of building a House for the Almighty to dwell in Holy David was more Ambitious of than of being the Founder of the Royal Palace in Sion for himself and the succeeding Kings of Israel Which though God denied him yet he dismist him not without both a Commendation and Reward for his desiring and designing to do it And that Mans praise is inroll'd in the Everlasting Register of the Gospel who loved his Nation and built them a Synagogue Luke 7.5 But notwithstanding the largeness of his Heart and the liberality of his Hand his constant Hospitality and Private Charities his Publick Expences and Pious Works and Donations yet at the foot of the Account at his Death his Personal Estate rose up to such an unexpected heigth as can hardly be Accounted for upon any other Hypothesis than that Divine Principle That the Blessing of the Lord maketh rich Prov. 10.22 And that he replenisheth the Treasures of those that love him Prov. 8.21 when emptied in his Service Accordingly this good Man seems to have shared in the promis'd Reward of Godliness in this life and that in a higher degree than the Widow of Sarepta for while her Hospitable Barrel and Cruse kept at a stand only and wasted not his Wealth by his Religious Disbursements overflow'd 1 King. 17.14 and like the true Riches of the Mind improved by using and so became an eminent Instance and Justification of that sacred Paradox That there is that scattereth and yet increaseth Prov. 11.24 In short This Excellent Person like an unspotted Pearl was a Man of many and bright Vertues without the least stain of any known Vice. In whom we found the Loyalty and Charity of a Church of England Man the Piety and Purity of a Primitive Christian the Publick Spiritedness and Magnanimity of an Heroe with the Zeal and Constancy of a Martyr All which Vertues were in him such Originals in their several kinds as taken apart may challenge our Imitation but in Conjunction demand our Wonder And now reflecting upon what I have done in attempting to draw a Character where 't was fitter to pay Admiration as it may appear to be my Crime so also my Justification the former for the Essay the latter for the ill success of it For though the Excellency of the Theme may Impeach my Confidence for undertaking it at all yet it will at the same time Apologize for my Deficiency in performing it no better the worth of this great Man being such and so well known that it doth not need though it deserve a better Orator Besides the great commotion which I feel in my own Breast for the particular share I bear in this general loss hath so scattered my thoughts that it ought to be admitted not only to excuse a negligence of Style and a disorderly Method but to justifie them too as most proper for an Argument too bulky for the Undertaker and most becoming the tumultuariness of that Passion which hath possessed my Soul. Having now attended this Extraordinary Man through the more remarkable and Illustrious Passages of his Life we come to the last dark scene of it that of his Death which was uniform and of a piece with all the rest For as he lived the Life so he died the Death of the Righteous in the Unity and Communion of the Church of England thereby giving the most absolute Pattern of an Excellent Christian in both This sad cloudy part he adorned with the most vigorous exercise of all those glorious Graces Faith Hope and Charity wherewith he had so richly furnished himself in his life time and of all those other Divine habits peculiar to that state not only of Patience and Meekness Christian Courage and an Entire Resignment to the Divine Disposal but of Earnest Longings and Breathings of Soul to be with Christ In all things performing this last part so gracefully as when he went off the Stage not only to deserve the Plaudits of all good Men and Angels to whom he was a Spectacle but to receive an Euge and a Crown from his great Master who hath doubtless exalted him to a State of full Recompence and Transcendent Glory with himself in Heaven to his great and unconceivable Comfort though to our no less great and inexpressible Sorrow His setting like that of the Sun whose unlimited influence and bounty he emulated though it creates a Day and Joy to the other World leaves us in the Night and Darkness of gloomy thoughts for our loss A loss which must be beholding to time to be understood and to Eternity to be forgotten in a loss that is not confined within the narrow limits of a Family or a Town within the Precincts of a Hundred or a County but t is National and Epidemical t is the loss of so great and good a Man that the Gentry could not have lost a more faithful Friend the Magistracy a more worthy Associate nor the Country a more Nobler Patriot Than whom the King could not have lost a more Loyal Subject the Clergy a Stouter Champion the Church a truer Son nor the World a greater Example of all that is truly generous vertuous and praise worthy Yet we ought not only with patience but chearfulness to Contemplate and acquiesce in this great Conjugation of our losses they being also infinitely over-balanced by his gain of that Eternal and exceeding weight of glory which we are all aspiring unto and wherewith he is now certainly Crown'd amidst an innumerable company of Angels and of the Spirits of Just Men made perfect in the City of the Living God in whose presence is fulness of Joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore What we have hitherto heard and seen from both these Texts I mean the Word and Work of God may yield some useful Inferences that may reach those who are nearest concerned in this sad occasion If it be true that Death to the godly is now not only a Conquered Enemy but a real and a Confederate Friend not so much a Curse or a Cross as a great Deliverance and Blessing and if we ought to rejoyce and give thanks unto God for the Victory he hath gained and given us over it then surely we ought to be far from murmuring or immoderate Mourning when either we or any of our fellow-Souldiers are called out to Triumph over this Enemy and take possession of those Conquests as we do in part at Death But on the contrary rejoyce and give thanks Hence we may inferr a Double Duty First the Abstaining from excessive sorrow Secondly Admitting of moderate and suitable Joy. First we should hence Learn to Abstain from Excessive sorrow The voice of nature in the Heathens granted a Toleration for men to Lament their Deceased Friends and to wait upon them with Tears and Sorrow to their
Graves But she bestowed her Praises and Encomiums upon those only who bore themselves bravely above it Among the Jews a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Vit. Mosis l. 3◠though mourning was not accounted a Sin yet such a Defect and Defilement as Excluded them for a certain time from the use of holy things And though Christianity it self hath not Entertain'd so much of Stoicism as to cancel all natural affections and to recommend a perfect Apathy to her Disciples yet she undertakes to Limit and Direct their Motions to assign them their proper Objects and their due Measures She knows that Love is such a Powerful Cement as works not only a close and firm Adherence but such a strange Coalition nay such a perfect unity of the Lovers hearts that death cannot snatch away the one without Tearing a piece from the other also and so leave the survivor under a kind of necessity of smarting and bleeding for it She therefore expects not that men should be insensible of their loss but only temperate in their sorrow She desires they would not show themselves so much Friends to the Dead as to become enemies to the Living to God and to themselves Hence S. Paul's admonition to the Thessalonians 1 Thes 4.13 concerning them which are asleep is not that they sorrow not at all but that they sorrow not as others who have no hope What a great disparagement and a Reproach would it be to our Religion if we could not shew an equal courage at least with the Heathens under the loss of Friends which many of them sustained not only with moderation but unconcernedness Could we in truth urge that Argument for our Lamentation which Rachel alledg'd for her refusing comfort upon the Death of her Children because they are not or did we not really believe a Resurrection and eternal Life we might have more pretence for an exorbitance in this kind but now seeing it appears from what has been said and all Christians acknowledge that death can have no other force upon a man than was ascribed of Old to Gyges his Ring not to unmake but only to make him Invisible for a season why should we so grosly and meanly deny that in our practice which we so openly and constantly avow in our Creed and in despite of all the evidence of Scripture and Specious profession of our Faith by our unreasonable despondency tell the world that in truth we are destitute of all hope that we not only question but quite despair of the being or the well being of the dead For can we believe that they shall rise again and yet thus bitterly bemoan them what should we have done if God had left them under the power of Death without any Resurrection nay what should we have done if we had reason to believe that he had doomed them to the second and Everlasting death we hereby give too just occasion to the Enemies of our Religion to deride and expose our Hypocrisy and the Contradiction of our Lives to our Principles and to wound it through our sides nay in effect we doe it our selves for every impatient exclamation is a kind of Blasphemy against our holy Faith and every deep sigh and groan a palpable Mockery and Ridiculing the Article of Eternal life Upon which considerations a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys in Heb. c. 2. Hom. 4. St. Chrysostom judges the indulgence of immoderate mourning at Funerals so scandalous as to deserve Excommunication and indeed whatever may be the pretence there 's nothing at the bottom but a deep tincture of Infidelity which gives birth and nourishment to this unruly passion For who can believe that the Son of God himself died and yet so impatiently lament that any of the Children of men should die also who can beleive that he conquer'd Death and the Grave rose again and ascended triumphantly into Heaven and is there sate down at the right hand of the Father and yet lye under such distractions of mind when any of our Relations are call'd out of the body to follow him into his Kingdom We doe hereby raise an evil report of that good Land the Heavenly Canaan we discover a mean esteem of that blessed seat Abrahams bosom whither good men are carryed at death by the Angels nay we offer an affront to our Saviour himself in deploring their condition as miserable whom Faith assures us to be with him in Paradise partaking of his Glories and made like unto him And hence St. Paul who had been rapt up into the third Heavens reckon'd it a Gain to him to dye and to be with Christ And doubtless one assur'd thought of the Christians Heaven one single glance of the Glories wherewith our Friend is Crown'd would effectually quash and becalm all those stormy passions and impetuous commotions of Soul which we suffer for him So that in final resolution Immoderate mourning is so unchristian a passion that it evidently betrays our want of those Gospel-Graces either Faith in the Doctrine of the Resurrection and future happiness or hope and Charity if we bewail our Friend as if he had no share in them Whereas both his Life and Death were the greatest indications to the contrary for as he liv'd not the common Life so he dyed not the common Death of all men but the peculiar and distinguishing one of Gods Children amidst the Ministeries and in the embraces of those who would willingly have sacrificed their own lives to have redeemed his amidst the prayers of his dearest Relations returning them his last Counsels and Blessings under the greatest calmness of Spirit and clearness of understanding to the Fatal moment his happy Soul being constantly exercis'd and inflam'd with the purest and most ardent devotion overflowing with Spiritual Comforts and glorious Expectations till at last it went off as it were in a holy Extasy on the wings of Divine Love and Heavenly Meditations into the boundless Regions of Light and Glory and Immortality 2ly and Lastly let us not only shut up natures Flood-gates and quit our selves like men but let us open the Channels of grace and rise up to the Dignity of Christians and to the Example which the great Apostle gives us in the Text by taking up a song of Joy and Thanksgiving to God for the happy deliverance and exaltation of our Departed friend There is nothing more usual nor perhaps more natural for human Minds than in their affections and inclinations especially to fly from one extreme to another Mans whole life is but a Constant Vibration betwixt the opposite Passions of hope and fear of Grief and Joy which are the Systole and Diastole of the Mind Alternatly and almost necessarily succeeding one another And Tears are as natural Expressions of Extraordinary Joy as of common Sorrow Let us try then the Experiment in the present Case and see how happily we can Change the Irrational and dull Passion of sadness into that Angelick and Spritely one of