with Tears and pour out my matter in a Sorowfull and Dolefull Complaint of our loss Curie leves loquun ur Ingentes Stupent I could willingly I confess now give scope to mine and your Passion that we might sit down a while in silence and onely by the Language of our Tears speak the sence of our Loss But then I conceive I should be Injurious to this Solemn and Sorrowfull Assembly to God's Honour our Friend's Memory and others Profit since by paying the Tribute of Praise to God's dear Servants we advance God's Glory and Perpetuate their Remembrance and add Spurs to the Pious endeavours of those who survive I could speak much having known her from a Childe to the Glory of God's Rich Grace in the Embalming her Name with a pretious Memory but I shall not need to Expatiate my self in her just and Due Character But some things that were very Remarkable in her towards her latter End I must not Omit Give me leave therefore for your Imitation to break this Alabaster box of pretious Oyntment and to pour it forth upon you that the Savour thereof may fill the whole house of God with a Sweet Perfume and that such an Example and Precedent of Piety may incite and Encourage you to remember your Creatour in the Daies of your youth before the Evil Day of your Death comes Indeed I know the Applause and Welcom that the Saints and Angels have given her in Heaven and the Blessed Euges that the Authour and Finisher of our Faith has now Recieved her into these These are the true and full Commendations that he Soul now rests in Onely this we must know that as the Death of this Illustrious and Vertuous Person is in God's Eyes so in ours also it ought to be Honourable and Pretious And because Saint Bernard's Speech is most true Pretiosa Mors Sanctorum quam commendat vita pretiosa A pious Life makes a pretious Death I might trace this young Lady through her whole Life and observe many remarkable Passages in it by which as by so many Steps and Paces she walked on daily to the Attainment of this right Christian and Comfortable Death First For her Birth and Parentage t was of good Note and Esteem being born at Stoke in Lincolnshire and descended from an Antient Family having Grave Ingenuous and Religious Parents Honourable Noble and Generous Persons to her Relutions and though I confess the Dignity of Birth if alone and unattended with moral Accomplishments be but a cold and slender Commendation Et genus proavos quae non fecimus ipsi Vix c. Yet this when it stands in Conjunction with Virtue it sets a Price and Lustre upon it 't is Splendor Virtutis it casts a Varnish upon Virtue it self and makes it more Conspicuous But Secondly If you surveigh Her in the Moral and Practick Part of Her Life you 'd finde many things in it very observable Take Her in Her familiar Conversation and so she was a Loving Faithfull and Constant Friend thankfull for any Kindness and studious to requite it She was wont to extenuate not to aggravate any Injury or Unkindness offered Her she would not Scintillam in Flammam nec festucam in Trabem enatare as Saint Augustine speaks of some Contentious Persons In a word in all her Deportment as ever I perceived she was Regular and Just Affable and Virtuous to all Thirdly Take Her as to Her Relations and so she was an obedient Childe to her Parents a loving Sister to her Brethren and an indulgent and kinde Wife to her Husband and though it pleased Almighty God to divorce them by Death almost as soon as they were married yet she shewed her Affection to the last for when I asked Her what she would leave her Husband as Memorial of her true Love amongst those small Legacies she had Power to dispose off she replyed She would leave him her Hearty Prayers that God would bless him and direct him in all his Ways And I hope he will live to reap the Benefit of her Prayers The best Legacy certainly that a good Wife can leave her Husband These I know you will all grant were lively Virtues in the Sphere of Morality but yet there were two Graces more remarkable in Her of an higher Pitch more Divine and Spiritual more immediate Fruits of her Christian Religion viz. her Charity and her Piety her Compassion to the Poor and her Devotion to her God First for her Charity to the Poor She was not only a Friend but a Mother Her Bowels of Compassion were enlarged toward them not onely in her Life but at her Death for to my Knowledge she has left to two Parishes in Lincolnshire five pounds a piece to be distributed to the Poor and five pounds to the Poor of this Parish wherein she is to be interred and to the Ministers in these three Places twenty Shillings a piece as a Token of her Affection for them The Age we live in though it has the Lamp of Profession yet God knows liâ—tle of this Oyl of Charity Many though they have floutrishing Estates yet they have withered Hands and cannot stretch them out to good Uses this Lady had but a small matter left in her Hands to dispose of and she left it freely to those that had most need She had indeed a free and noble Soul to all but most generous and bountiful to the Poor what should I say of Her She sowed plentifully and she has reaped plentifully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Basil speaks she was merciful and no Question but she has obtained Mercy Secondly for her Piety Though it was diffused in a constant Tenour through the whole Course of her Life yet it appear'd most glorious near her Death then she bitterly bewail'd the pretious time she had spent in worldly Vanities in unnecessary and complemental Visits and she said If God should lengthen out her Days the World should see such an Alteration and Change in her how she would endeavour to redeem that time she had so mispent by a double Diligence in the Practice of Holiness When I prest her to finish that great work of Repentance and Sorrow for Sin before she 〈…〉 Course â—… telling her that 't was Sin that made Death bitter and until that Sting be taken out by true Repentance and Faith in Christ's Merits we cannot finish 〈◊〉 Course with Joyâ—… Lord 't was admirable to me to see how low she sunk her Spirits humbling her Soul to the Dust by an hearty Confession loathing the went thoughts of her former Transgressions abhorring her self for all her Sins and saying with that blessed Martyr in the Point of Justification None but Christ none but Christ throwing her self into his Arms by a lively Faith acknowledging no Name under Heaven by which she expected Salvation but onely in and through Jesus Christ our Lord Sublimis Patria sed humilis via Heaven is high but the Passage to it is low we must stoop 〈…〉 our Death by an humble Confession of our own Vnmorthiness and the Worthiness of Christ or we shall never come thither Non aestimator meriti sed veniae largiâ—… when all is done will prove the best Divinity and must for dying Persons and I 'le assure you our deceased Sister had learn'd this Lesson very well for I never saw if I can rightly judge a Soul more truly penitent and â—…ble then hers was The time she lay upon her sick â—… was not very long but very sharp and as I am informed in the time of her Sickness so patient so contented so willing to be at God's Dispose either for Life or Death so full of sweat holy and heavenly Instructions Exhortations Counsels to her Relations Friends and Servants lifting up her Soul Night and Day in Prayers and devout Ejaculations for Mercy upon her own Soul and for all that were about her Not long before she dyed she sent for mer and after I had prayed by her she intreated me to administer the holy Sacrament to her which I could not deny and if you had seen but with what Devotion she hungâ—…d and thirsted after this her last Viaticum with what Fervency of Spirit she received it you would never forget her 't was the last Manna she fed upon on this side Jordan now she is in the Land of Promise 〈◊〉 cortice Sacramenti sed adipe frumenti saginaâ—… Now she is at the Well-Head and Fountain of all Joy and Bliss Thus she both liv'd and dyed like in Lamb liv'd meekly and dyed quietly 〈…〉 onate Husband or loving Allies 〈…〉 inordinately she dyed young indeed 〈…〉 her time her Days were but as an hand 〈…〉 cause not before she was ready for Death She was cut down by the sickle of Death I confess betimes in her best Estate I but yet she was not cut down before she was ripe for the Harvest Youth and flourishing Days you see cannot privilege any from the Grave the Beauty of Rachel will not keep her from the Dust neither is it Parentage or Wealth can put Death out of Commission Riches avail not in the day of Death no nor Holiness nor Piety can deliver any from the Grave It preserves indeed from eternal Death but not a Temporal We see this by dayly Experience I need not expatiate my self on this Theme Our dear Friend and Sister is now at Rest And in that blessed Rest we shall now leave her assuring our selves that she dyed in the Favour of God in the Faith of Christ in the Peace of a good Conscience Nothing now remains but that we render all humble thanks to Almighty God for this so blessed a Departure of his Faithful Servant Beseeching him to grant that when the Hour of our Visitation comes upon us we may be found of him with Peace appear before him with Comfort and may be received with Joy into those Heavenly Mansions which our Blessed Saviour has purchased for us AMEN So be it FINIS
his Pilgrimage is exactly cast up it amounts but to threescore Years and ten and if by reason of Strength they be fourscore years yet is their Strength Labour and Sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flee away Psal xc 10. Again Job vii 6. Man's Life is assimilated to a Weaver's Shuttle My days are swifter then a Weaver's Shuttle The Septuagint renders it thus My days are nimbler then a Word or Speech now nothing moves faster or passes away more lightly then a Word a word is gone suddenly hence the Similitude is used Proverbially We spend our days as a Tale that is told Psal xc 9. Swifter then a Weaver Shuttle which is an instrument of a very sudden Motion which spends the Yarn with speed and what remains from the Web is cut off Again at the 7 vers Man's Life is resembled to the Wind that blusters for a day and at night passes away none knows whither the Life of man is like Wind in two things as 1. The Wind passes away speedily so does man's Life 2. The Wind when it is past returns no more as you cannot stop the Wind or change its Course so all the Powers in the World cannot recal a man's life when it is gone Psal lxxviii 39. He remembers that they were but flesh a Wind that passes away Again man's Life is resembled to a Bubble Hos x. 7. now a Bubble ye know rises and falls again in one and the slef-same Moment To a Vapour Jam. iv 14. which is disperst as soon as raised as soon as it appears it disappears 't is as one calls it a little Spot of time between two Eternities Saint Augustine doubts whether to call it a dying Life or a living Death Again the Brevity of man's Life is set forth in Scripture by the Flower of the Field Is xl 6 7. by the Grass by a Shadow by a Dream 't is compared to Pilgrims and Travellers who take up their Inn for a short Time not to abide there for ever Heb. xi 13. and Psal xxxix I am a Stranger and a Pilgrim sayes David as all my Fathers were We have no abiding City Job ix 25. My days are swifter then a Post whose pace is all upon the Speed and Spur so our days flee away as the swift Ships as the Eagle that hasts to the Prey Pliny mentions a certain Plant called Ephemeron a Plant of one day's duration such a Plant is man planted by the Rivers side to bring forth his fruit in the due season of that Day And he tells us also of a certain Worm about the River of Hispany in Pontus which lives but one day and is gone termed Hemerobion such a Worm is man A Worm and no man as David said Psal xxii 6 born in the Morning dead at Night alive and in perfect Health one Day and dead the next Now man is a Worm in a fivefold Respect 1. Look upon his Original and Constitution he is from the Earth as the Worm is 2. Look upon him in his Natural Estate and Condition he lives upon the Earth and earthly things as Worms do 3. He 's a Worm because continually subject to danger every Foot may crush him 4. He 's a Worm because as the Worm is subject to danger so likewise unable to resist or make Defence the Worm is a naked Creature and wears no Arms neither offensive nor defensive such an one is man unable to defend himself unless the Lord be a Shield and a Defence to him round about Lastly man is a Worm because he must shortly return to the Earth where the Worms are housed He is going to Worms as a Worm As the Lord said Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return so we may say A Worm thou art and to Worms thou shalt return Thus you see man is a very poor contemptible thing A Worm Why then should we envy any man What envy a Worm What if another have a little more Glory Riches Beauty Strength Power then thou hast what though he have a little more Knowledge and better gifted then other yet he is but a Worm still and why should a Worm envy a Worm what though some are Silk worms a little better furnished and richer then others in Mind and Body yet they are but Worms in Silk and many who appear so now a days are but Glow-worms which shine a little but have no Consistence Again Seeing we are but Worms let 's take heed of vexing one another why should Worms rise up against VVorms Why should VVorms destroy Worms cruelly and bloodily We are weak as Worms Let us therefore rather engage that little Strength we have for supporting not ruining one another But this you will say is a Digression To proceed therefore Man's Life is nothing else but a little warm Breath Tun'd in and out by the Nostrils a narrow passage and soon stope Methinks by all these Scripture Similitudes which I have cited we may be put in mind of our Frailty and they may serve to check those proud Desires which are in man of an Eternal abode and lasting Happiness of this Life You may see a Monument of man's Frailty set forth in all the Elements Go to the Land and there is a Post see Time 's there upon the Spur Go to the Sea and there is a swift Ship Go to the Air and Time 's upon the VVing in the swift flying Eagle Go to the VVater man's Life a Bubble a Vapour T were to trifle away precious time to shew Resemblances in other things I only produced these to shew you the swift passage of man's Life And therefore not to stay long upon that which moves so swiftly Give me but leave to shew you in what Respects Man's days are said to be so short as an hand-breadth which may serve as the Grounds and Reasons of the Point and so I 'le apply it that I may proceed to the next As 1. The Days of man are of short Continuance if we consider them in themselves That 's not long which is no longer then an hands-breath take it which way you will in the largest extent for a Span or the whole space between the top of the Thumb and the little Finger stretched out or in the lesser extent for the Breadth only of the four Fingers and indeed this is but a short space that 's the First 2. The Days of man are of short Continuance if we consider them Comparatively and that two ways 1. As man may be compared with man 2. As man is compared with God 1. We collect the fewness of man's days by comparing him with man under a twofold Consideration 1. Of what Number the Days of man once were 2. Of what Number the shall be 1. The Days of man are few compared with what his days were before the Flood then many men liv'd six seven eight nine hundred and some almost a thousand Years Now if any man attain fourscore or an hundred Years he is
therefore in every thing give thanks and I must tell you also that if we thus bless God in our Afflictions our very Afflictions will prove Blessings to us Let us therefore when God takes away such blessings from us Bless God for it and submit our Wills to his Will and pray that he would Sanctifie these things to us and then all things shall prove best for us Set not your Hearts too much on any Earthly Comforts I have been the longer upon this Use Because t is so pertinent to the occasion Seeing our Days are of such short Continuance let us be Admonished to live all our Days some lose many out of a few and live not one of their few days we live no more of our time then we spend well An Heathen could say He liv'd no day without a line i. e. He did something Remarkable every day What a shame is it then that a Christian should live a day without a Line do nothing in it worth the doing Secondly Is a man's life so short but an hand-breadth as a thing of nothing then they are in a great Errour who place their chiefest Happiness in this life 'T is true life is sweet and Dear unto us I but there is a better life which is Dearer and Christ is dearest of all unto us for when Saint Paul said He was not only ready to be bound but also to dy at Hierusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus Acts xxi 13. if to live on Earth were our best being in vain were the Apostle's desire of Dissolution if to dy and to live with Christ were not best of all Phil. i. 23. Thirdly Seeing this time of our life is short and hastens out of our hands Let us make hast to lay hold upon Eternal Life all our days are but few and every man living hath liv'd a few days already possibly thy few days past are all that thou shalt pass Say not therefore that thou wilt repent to Morrow Boast not thy self of to morrow says Solomon Prov. xxvii 1 for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth Possibly this Day may bring forth thy Death and then how shall to morrow bring forth thy Repentance We say of some men that they do much in a little time and truly how much soever any man ha's to doe I am sure he ha's but a little time to do it in and indeed these few days are all the working days that ever we shall have Let this be a Spur to Diligence and to Duty Let us now work out our own Salvation c. for the Night of Death will shortly come upon us and then none of us can work any more In Heaven there is nothing but Rest and in Hell though there be no Rest yet there is no Letbour In Hell there is nothing but Wages and in Heaven there is nothign but Reward Our whole work lies in this short time we live That 's third Inference Fourthly Seeing this time of our Life is of so short Continuance How vainly do men reckon upon many Years yet to come when as their whole Time past present and to come can make but a few Days an hand-breadth See how the Apostle rebukes such Jam. iv 13 14. Vide locum So also the Apostle Paul pleads down a wordly Spirit with this Argument 1 Cor. vii 29 30. Vide locum Now methinks this Consideration should make us take up or draw in our Affections about worldly thing because our time in this World is short Fifthly This should make us patient in all our Afflictions all our days are but few and therefore out days of Sorrow cannot be many Let us not reckon the Suffering of this present time to be Worthy c. A Little Time and he that shall come will come and will not tarry For Our light Affiction which is but a Moment works for us a far more exceeding and Eternal Weight of glory 1 Cor. iv 14. Lastly Seeing Man's life is short let this teach us not to trust in man Cease from man whose breath is in his Nostrils place not the hope of your life in man's Protection but in God's in whom we live move and have our being Be not solicitous for the shortness of thy life but use it as an Inducement to live well and to walk with God to make thy Election sure and certain whilst it is called to day The Benefit of life is not in the length of it but in the pious use of it He sometimes lives the least that lives the longest and he allwaies lives the longest that lives the best When therefore thou goest out of thy doors say to thy self Perhaps I shall never Return home alive When thou risest from thy Bed Perhaps I shall never sleep more When thou lyest down to Rest Perhaps I shall never wake more this will add wings to thy desires to spend thy short time well In a word and so to shut up this first point from the first General Let the certain Knowledg of thy life's uncertainty and Brevity perswade thee like a wise Steward to perfect thy accounts and set thy House in order for shortly thou must dy and not live Isa xxxviii 1. Behold thou hast made my days as an hand-breadth mine c. Man's life here is of short Continuance That 's the first point the Brevity of man's life Come we now to the second General part and that Demonstrates Man's Vanity in the last words Verily every man at his best Estate c. The Point Observable from hence is this That Man frail Man in all his wordly Pomp and Glory is a meer Vanity Job says Chap xi 11. The Lord knows Vain man or he knows the Vanity of man he knows that man is naturally full of Vanity very full of Vanity It is an Hebraisme that Noting how full of Vanity man is who is called a Man of Vanity and how false he is who is called a Man of Falshood Generally man has 1. Much Falsness of Spirit 2. Much Rashness of Spirit and he has also a double Rashness 1. Rashness in not considering his End Deut. xxxii 29. Oh! that they were wise that they would consider their latter End Wisdom looks to what is coming upon us Folly stayes upon what is present with us 2. Rashness in not considering the way or means that lead unto a good End many men see such an End I but he goes a way quite contrary he sets up a Resolution for Heaven that 's his End but he walks Hell-ward This also is Vanity and unless timely foreseen and turn'd from will prove the greatest Vexation of Spirit in the End Now you must know the Scripture uses this word Vanity under a fourfold Notion and in every one of them Man is included First Emptiness comes under the Notion of Vanity Psal ii 1. Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing i. e. An Empty thing a thing that shall take no Effect so Vain