Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A17458
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A handkercher for parents wet eyes vpon the death of children. A consolatory letter to a friend.
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I. C.
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1630
(1630)
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STC 4279; ESTC S120682
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16,348
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71
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him the second day as the first No griefe hath so much violence in the continuation as in the first Accesse Take the simplest Country-Mother the weakest Nurse of a Village that wrings her hands and teares her haire laues the Ground on which she wallowes with eye-water and takes on neuer so impotently for her departed Child and the space of a few dayes will slake the rage of her sorrow and anon bury it in vtter forgetfulnesse That which Time worketh in the ignorant shall not Time and Reason together effect as easily in the wise CONSIDERATION 5. Fiftly But you will say your Son might haue liu'd longer And hee might as well haue dyed sooner Who can shew me a Lease of his life vnder Seale for one houre Why may not euery day proue our last day Some are suffocated in the wombe others crowz'd to death in the Birth One is snatcht away in the Cradle Another mow'd off in his May of youth being onely shewne to the world like a curious picture finisht and straight the Curtaine drawne and remou'd away againe It s the priuiledge but of few to step down vpon the Griece of Old Age. Our life from the first houre to the last gallops on towards death And who seeth not with what speed it conquers euen the longest way in this iourney If Time then be the thing you stand on for your Sonne how small a matter of Oddes is a little more or lesse Time in so fugitiue and swift a Race It 's scarce discernable A Cart full of Prisoners are brought to execution what skills it which is first or third or sixt or tenth or sixteenth All must dye What gets hee that is delayed till the afternoone aboue him that was executed in the morning Perhaps to be superafflicted with longer expectance and pre-apprehension sighing that his turne had not beene with the formost But the Prisoner may not appoint his owne course that is in the Iudge or the Sheriffe to dispose of The whole world is but a Cart of condemned persons God culls out euery day some and some for Execution This very Minute a Slaue dyes foredone with toyle and hardship Instantly a King or great Lord mounts the Scaffold By and by a Mechanick a Rusticke a Pesant a Milk-maid a Cow-heard a Schoole-boy or Girle suffer Straight after a Royall Lady or Princesse stoopes her faire Neck to the Blocke Anon a fresh louely actiue vigorous Youth a beauteous young Damsell Ornaments to the world are presented to the Axe Behold now a feeble old man is led vp hauing scarce life inough left to be kild c. The oldest of these hath not liu'd a minute ouer his Time nor the youngest a minute vnder for neither might the one budge any sooner without summons order nor the other tarry any longer being call'd away But you will say He had no cause to complaine that was respited to Old Age which brings with it a saciety of liuing Nor You by the same reason For when God hath decreed I shall liue no longer This fall it when it will is my Old Age. Wee are not Caruers of our owne Times Hee onely that predestinated the houre of our Birth from all Eternity hath power to decree the houre of our Death You neither could cause your Child to bee borne sooner or to dye later Times Maker knowes the fittest Times for all his purposes He hath not appointed all to liue the same terme of yeeres Some goe before Serius aut citius metam properamus ad vnam Ouid. some after But first or last all arriue at the same marke The Husbandman reapes not all his Akers at once but one sooner another later as they are sooner or later ripe Let God alone hee knowes better then any Farmer the number and condition of his Akers where he findes one forward turn'd white betimes though but the other day greene and in the blade there he puts in his Sickle and carries it into the Heauenly Barne A Place of safety Which with longer standing might haue spilt shed or beene wansled and come to nothing Long lasting euen to the frostiest old Age is not the matter Puer centum annotum Esa 65. for there may bee a Child of a hundred yeeres old that yet is not ready for Heauen God hath reserued to himselfe alone the sight of the running out of the Glasse Man knoweth not his Time and End but vnperceiuingly slides into it as the Fish into the Net or the Bird into the Snare God pushing on meanes to vs vndreamt of and vnsuspected to serue his Decree It is with men in the world as with the Vessels in a Potters Shop There are of all sorts sizes and fashions That which to day is whole handsome and vsefull to morrow with a knocke or a fall may bee broken to sheards Your Vessell was sheene and new of a firme making likely to haue lasted many a faire yeere euen till it had flawed and moudred away of it selfe but it stood in harmes-way disease and sicknesse gaue it a knocke and a cracke which could not bee soldred And indeed the sleekest the sweetest the trimmest Dish of China is but a China Dish handle it or set it vp as charily as you can deuise Wee would haue our Candle burne downe into the socket but God hath a wind to blow it out sometimes as soone as lighted or a Thiefe to consume it with guttering ere any Eye heed it Few of our liuing Candles not one amongst a Thousand last burning to the last Inch. Hee that numbreth all our Times and houres hath numbred your Sonnes also and set him his day beyond which he could not passe Honour him with free yeelding this preeminence to him and let it stop your mouth and stoope your heart I held my peace Psal 1. Sam. Iob. because thou didst it It is the Lord let him doe whatsoeuer he pleaseth He giueth he taketh blessed be the Name of the Lord. But he doth nothing but for the best to them that loue him Many times Life is not so much taken away as Death giuen for a speciall Fauour Iust and Mercifull men are taken away from the Euils to come Esay How many times ouer haue some dyed by liuing long Righteous Abel the second Sonne of the sole Emperour of the whole Earth was cut off in his Youth The Eternall Son of God himselfe died a young Man Our Estimate of Life is wrong and false quite odde and different from Gods We measure it like Canuas by the Ell God like Gold by the Graine Our Examen is by the Tale so many Scores Gods by the Touch so vertuous so exemplary of such an Allay Now God hauing thus qualified Your Sonne with Grace made him early ready for Heauen hee had attain'd his due and true Seniority and could not complaine that hee lackt Time or had liu'd too little while M. B. Hol. in Transtat of Pers Action not Time does
too soone for then the Teares turne backe to drowne the heart Iobs Friends said not a word to him for the first seuen daies but let passioÌ„ haue his course and tire it selfe themselues sitting sad and silent by him But on the other side you must not stay it too long for then it playes the Tyrant and killes and slayes without mercy â— Cor. 7. Worldly sorrow causeth death and disease It 's like a foraigne power call'd in to the Ayde of a distressed Kingdome which cannot be got out againe but proues a worse enemy then that it came to expell You haue already plaid the part of a louing Father wept the Teares of Nature you must now change your Copy withdraw your finger from the sore and play the part of a wise and constant man And that is either to preuent a mischiefe when it is approching or if it happen to amend it and labour to make it as little as may be According to the old precept Bona quà m maxima facere mala contrahere atque imminuere Extend and inlarge any Good to the vtmost Hebetant Rationis â—ciem miseriae Omnes in monendo sapientes sumus cuÌ„ aure ipsiâ— liquâ—d faâ—mus no intelligimuâ— Eruâ—mid but contract and diminish what you can the euill But because generally all succours faile vs in aduersity passion sending vp such Fogs that the vnderstanding is blinded though we haue beene in our owne wel-faring neuer so able to minister words of comfort to others in their distresses giue me leaue at this Time to take you by the hand and onely to set you in the way to the doore of Consolation Multa etiam ab Olitore recte atque in loco proferri possunt Eu'n an Herb-wife sometimes may Things right and to the purpose say CONSIDERATION I. FIrst call to your remembrance that great Statute That all must once dye And that doome for sinne Heb. 9.27 Gen. 3. Dust thou art and into Dust thou shalt returne Herod Omnibus vna manet nox Fit calcanda semel via lethi One darksome night awaits each liuing wight And Deaths high-way must once be trod despight Nascimur morimur is euery ones Motto Wee are all borne mortall What maruell to see that cut asunder which may bee cut asunder That melted which is fusible and apt to melt That burnt which is combustible The Sonne die as well as the Father being borne vnder the same Condition of Mortality that the Father was All vnions in this world must be dissolued Fathers and Children must bee seuered Friends Friends Husbands Wiues as they had a Time to come together so they must haue a Time to part asunder Sic Natura postulat nec graue putandum fieri quod necesse est So Nature craues nor thinke it much to see The Thing so done that needs so done must be CONSIDERATION 2. SEcondly consider that it is the case of others with you If you had beene the first or onely Father that had lost a Sonne and no other had drunk of this Cup before you then you had some Colour to complaine and to continue and spin out your laments But the worme is spred euen vnder Royall Branches Kings and Princes are depriued of their Children as well as meaner men yea those Children that should keepe their Kingdome from staggering Histories are full of instances Whence you that are so conuersant in those readings can easily store your selfe let it bee inough for me to reach you onely three or foure familiar Ones within the reach lâ—en of our owne memory That Noble Lord of the North lost three of his Sonnes In florentissima aetate in the very bloome of youth and lustihood One before his aged Eyes by the ruggednesse of an vnbroken Horse and Two together out of a Boate passing ouer a rough Ferry You know but a little since A worthy Knight of our Country lost one of his Sons a lusty yong Gentleman in our owne Riuer his Horse leaping with his Rider plum ouer the Boates side A Noble Gentlewoman our neighbour after the losse of a deare and excellent Husband lost in the Circle of a few yeeres sixe of her Children all growne Men and Women three faire Daughters and three braue Sonnes the yongest in a Tempest of Bullets at the assault of an vnfortunate Iland The Prince Palatines losse of his First-borne Sonne by the vnlucky running of a Ship with full saile ouer his Barge is fresh in all minds Perishing by misfortune is a greater Cut then leauing the world by Gods Visitation So that your case being common with others and more easie then diuers others That may stifle some sighs and calme a many repining complaints Inter arma lituos Am. Mar. lib. 26. c. 13. conditionis aequatio leuiorafacit pericula Euen among weapons and sounding Trumpets the equality of Condition makes the danger lighter and lesse sensible Who reckes his life or dreads death when in the whirle and Din of warre hee seeth not onely his fellow-Soldiers knockt downe beside him but a many valiant yong Nobles resolute and hardy Knights and Commanders that erewhile cleft the crowdes and hewed themselues a way thorow the thickest Rankes of the Enemy fallen to ground also and lying breathles among Thousands of other dead bodies What a Rowe might bee presented of weeping Fathers and Mothers for their Sonnes accomplisht at their no small charge with learning and breeding sodainely hurried out of the world vpoÌ„ a Sword or Rapiers point in desperate quarrels or Challenges and Duells within the compasse of halfe Your Time Age desine intuonsque aliorum miserias Tua lenius feres Goe to giue ouer and by view Of others Griefes your owne subdue CONSIDERATION 3. THirdly the impossibility of recouering your losse Prorsus nö sunt tentäda impossibilia Sopho Optimum est obliuisci quodrecuperari non potest The best salue for an irrecouerable losse is Obliuion Non placet istud factum Terent. Adelph Act. 4.5.8 si possem mutare nunc cum non queo aequo animo fero This fact likes me not if I knew how to help it now that I cannot what remedy but patience If your Sonne were to bee bought and brought to life againe at a set price of sorrow I beleeue you would bid frankly for him But The Graue returnes no Men. You shall goe to him he shall not come againe to you And therefore to sit day by day with folded armes and dropping eyes a heart heauy as lead for the Losse cannot possibly be regayned as it is vnprofitable to the bemoaned so 't is a hurt to the bemoaner yea of one harme to make Two Nay it is to resist the high and heauenly Will and to bee found Striuers against God In which number I know you would be loth to be ranked You haue not so learned Christ CONSIDERATION 4. FOurthly Time it selfe may minister some Physicke to your Affliction A Prisoners Irons seeme not so heauy to