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A23806 A funeral handkerchief in two parts : I. Part. Containing arguments to comfort us at death of friends, II. Part. Containing several uses which we ought to make of such losses : to which is added, Three sermons preached at Coventry, in December last, 1670 / by Thomas Allestree ... Allestree, Thomas, 1637 or 8-1715. 1671 (1671) Wing A1197; ESTC R14326 214,765 404

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went to the Cross with much care and many agonies nay the Apostle tells you that he feared Heb. 5.7 Did he die comfortless Answ 1. Consid It is one thing to have true comfort another thing to have the sence of it The sence of it as Divines say may be taken away for a while through the violence of the distemper or through Satans malice who is most busie at such a time to disturb a good man's peace The Devil that roaring Lyon who at all times goes about seeking whom he may devour 1 Pet. 5.8 at such a time plays the Devil indeed and exerciseth what cruelty he may because his time is short Rev. 12.12 But though the sence of comfort for a while may be taken away yet their comfort is not quite gone See Isa 54.7 8. The holy Ghost the comforter where he once takes possession abides for ever John 14.16 2. Consid Our Saviour Christ He who was the only begotten Son in whom alone God was well pleased Mat. 3. last As he had not alwayes a sence and feeling of Gods love Mat. 27.46 so nor of spiritual and heavenly joy Mat. 26.38 39. His soul was exceeding sorrowful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declarat animum undique moerore obsessum circumvallatum His soul was besieged with grief and sorrow compassed it about So Luke 22.44 He was in an agony 3. And lastly Consid Though a good man seem to dye comfortless yet his end is comfortable Ps 37.37 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace If peace did not enter into him whilst living yet being dead he enters into peace Isa 57.2 He shall enter into peace that walks in his uprightness The Godly through tedious conflicts as the Israelites through a crooked and tedious wilderness come to the promised Land at last Did desperate words idle vain talk unseemly gestures and speeches proceed from him Answ Indeed many of God's dear servants have given sweet exhortations at the time of their death heavenly discourses have proceeded from them Jacob blessed his Sons Gen. 49. so Heb. 11.21 See the sweet carriage and pious discourses of Moses a little before his departure Deut. 31 32 33 Chapt. So Joshua dying exhorts the people to obedience Jos 23.14 and Chap. 24. So David when he was dying professeth his faith in Gods promises and declares the different state of the wicked 2 Sam. 23. beginning and instructs his son Solomon 1 Kin. 2.2 Blessed Stephen made a sweet end praying for his enemies Act. 7. latter end So blessed Peter about to put off his tabernacle ceaseth not to give good instructions and exhortations 2 Pet. 1.13 14 15. Such serious discourses of dying Christians as they instruct by standers and make deepest impressions upon their spirits so they afford abundance of comfort to living Friends to see so blessed a departure But if it fell out otherwise with thy Godly-Friend Consider for thy comfort That these frenzies and raving unseemly speeches and carriage if they proceeded onely from the person while sick did not proceed ex animo but ex animi morbo they proceeded not so much from the person as from his distemper fuming up into the brain or from want of sleep c. So it was with Job that God boasts of for his Servant as a Nonsuch Job 1.8 2.3 when he was sadly diseased in body he was sadly distemper'd in mind for in chap. 3. he curseth the day of his birth and chap. 6. so chap. 9. wisheth God would destroy him and cut him off And Job 13.14 like a mad-man he takes his flesh in his teeth And chap. 16.9 he said God hated him What unseemly speeches and carriage were in this good man in the time of his sickness So David under bodily distemper said he was cut off Psal 31.10 22 compared Asaph behaves himself as strangely see Psal 77.7 c. but these desperat words proceded from him in his sickness v. 2. Such speeches as these proceed not from the disposition of the heart but from the distemper of the head lightness of the phansie caused by the distemper of the body Mr. Smith's Essex-Dove T. 3. p. 143. A Christian may dye saith a Godly Divine of so strange a disease of the Flux Burning-Ague Stone Convulsion when either the Choler shooting up into the head or the disease working furiously upon the tender vital parts the party may dye strangely talk idely c. nay he may have his face and mouth drawn awry yet for all this be a dear Child of God Some may dye of an Apoplexy or dead Palsy in which case a man shall have his senses benum'd so as he may dye like a block without shew of judgment or reason yet may be in a blessed state For though the state of his body be changed yet the state of his mind and soul remains untouched August Tom. 9. de Disciplin c. 2. We may conclude for our comfort as St. Austine saith Non potest malè mori qui benè vixerit Audéo dicere non potest-malè mori qui benè vixerit I dare say it and say it again that he cannot die ill that hath lived well Another cryes out 9th Apology answered This Friend of mine was much tortured with his disease Oh the sad casts of his countenance how did he tumble and toss upon the bed of languishment without any intervals of rest nothing could tempt his eyes to let their curtains down Groans and sighs and sobs were his soul's passing-bell There was a sad parting betwixt soul and body And this troubles me Answ Indeed many are sore troubled to consider God should deal so severely with their relations in the time of their sickness They cannot chuse but sympathize with them and sadly reflect upon the groans and pains of deceased Friends But Consider 1. God is absolute Lord over all his creatures and his dispensations towards them are various God deals with some as with Enoch he takes them away and they hardly see or feel death whereas many others as dear to him are with Elijah carr●ed to Heaven as it were in a fiery-Chariot and by a Whirlwind Luther Abel Redivivus in Life of Luther without any bodily pain that could be discerned departed this life whereas Calvin was miserably wrack'd before he dyed having the Gout Feaver and Cholick all at one time Nah. 1.3 The Lord hath his way in the Whirlwind We cannot give a reason of all God's dealings towards the sons of men but considering he is absolute Lord over all his creatures this is reason sufficient we should submit unto him 2. Consid Thy Friend dyed not so cruel a death as many of God's dear Servants have done Christ himself dyed the death of the Cross which was a painful as well as a shameful death Phil. 2.6 7 8. Heb. 12.2 Naboth was stoned 1 Kin. 21.13 so was Zacharias 2 Chron. 24.22 and the Protomartyr St. Stephen Act. 7.59 You
may read Heb. 11. that Chapter is a little Martyrology ver 35 36 37. how some were tortured scourged stoned sawn asunder slain with the sword c. Mr. Fox or Mr. Clark in his Martyrology will tell you that many Martyrs had their skins pulled off joynts racked bodies torn in pieces c. willing to endure for Christ's sake what the wit of man could invent or cruelty impose Now God might have called thy Friend to such a death which would have been far more sad cruel and painful as to outward appearance Well then consider God might have delivered thy Friend into the hands of cruel man which would have been very sad as appears by David's speech 2 Sam. 24.14 but God cast him on a soft Bed amongst Friends who did carefully attend him and minister unto him 3. Consid The greater thy Friends pain was the more fervent prayers were put up for him You find David in Psal 38. lying under God's afflicting hand what servent ejaculations he sent up towards the Throne of Grace So Asaph Ps 77.2 In the day of his trouble sought the Lord. So Jesus Christ in his Agony prayed more earnestly Luke 22.44 Great Miseries make the loudest Eccho's in the ears of Mercy And as the afflicted party himself so all that saw him or heard of his misery would be ready to pity and pray for him Methinks the sad groans of a dying Friend are sufficient to dissolve an heart of stone into prayers and tears especially godly Friends would pray fervently for him And these are most likely to prevail for Jam. 5.16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much That Ship saileth the surest to the haven of Heaven which is driven with the breath of godly mens prayers 4. Consid The greater the pain was the shorter was the continuance of it Dolor si gravis brevis si longus levis We reade how Aeneas kept his bed eight years and was sick of the Palsie Act. 9.33 We read of one that had an issue of blood twelve years Mat. 9.20 and had suffered many things of many Physicians and had spent all that she had and was nothing bettered but rather grew worse Mark 5.26 So John 5.5 there we read of one that had an infirmity thirty eight years Now if thy Friend's pain had not been so great he might have continued still a burden to thee and to himself but the greatness of his pain hastened death which put an end to all trouble and grief his great pangs and struglings as throes of a travelling woman made way for deliverance And therefore 5. And lastly Consider Thy Friend is now at rest Rev. 14.13 Let them die of never so cruel a death if they die in the favour of God they are blessed for they rest from their labours It may be thou grievedst but little whilest thy Friend laboured for rest and wilt thou grieve much when he rests from his labours Whilst thy Friend was ground with the Stone or burnt up with a Feaver and rouled upon his bed without sleep thou hadst cause to weep and it was thy duty to sympathize with him Rom. 12.15 but being dead he is at rest Isa 57.2 for death to a Child of God is but a sleep Joh. 11.11 12 13. so Act. 7.60 and being buried he hath laid his head upon the lap of his mother for so the Earth is called Job 1.21 to be awakened again at the last Trump to the everlasting comfort both of soul and body And shall we now weep Surely this sorrow is unseasonable We prayed or else we were to blame whilst our Friend was in pain that God would deliver him and therefore when God by death hath put an end to all his pain we should give thanks to God and rejoyce rather than weep The Church our careful Mother hath taught us as much in the Funerals of the Dead We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our Brother or Sister out of the miseries of this sinful world Another cryes out 10th Apology answerd This Eriend of mine dyed of a sad mischance he fell into the Fire or Water or was kill'd of Lightning fell off a Horse or Cart or was shot in War or otherwise or he was kill'd by Thieves or wicked men c. or he fell suddenly sick groan'd sigh'd dyed And this troubles me that he dyed such a sudden violent and untimely death Answ From sudden death i. e. from death not thought-of and so not provided-for good Lord deliver us not only for our own sakes but for our Friends sakes too they 'l take it the less sudden it is the more patiently See how sadly Jacob takes the supposed death of his son Joseph upon the sight of his bloudy coat he too rashly concluded his son was dead that he was devoured by some cruel beast Significans in●ternum animi dilacerationem seu moestitiaē And the Text tells you Gen. 37.33 34. He rent his cloaths in token as Pareus saith upon the place that his heart was rent through with sorrow and he put on sackcloth a coarse and sorry stuff which was the usual Mourning-Weed in those times And he refused to be comforted Thus his father wept for him for Joseph who dyed as he thought a sudden death David himself proclaimed a solemn and publick Funeral-Mourning for the death of Abner who was cowardly and suddenly slain when he did least suspect it by one that pretended peace and friendship And David himself laid aside his Royal Dignity and attended the Corps joyning with the People in that sad Consort as you may reade 2 Sam. 3. towards the latter end of the chapter So David weeps excessively for the space of three whole years because his son Amnon dyed so unnaturally untimely unexpectedly being kill'd by Absalom 2 Sam. 13.28 c. And we reade how the true Mother of the living Child had rather her Adversary should have the comfort of her Child than that it should dye a violent and untimely death 1 King 3.26 And in that appeared both the truth of her affection towards it and that she was the true Mother of it v. 27. Job hearing the heavy tydings of the sudden death of his Children could no longer contain but vents his grief in words being more affected with the sudden loss of his Children than all the rest of his Goods Job 1.18 19 20. But for your comfort 1. Consid It hath been the lot of some of Gods dear Servants to dye so Thus righteous Abel was suddenly butchered by his brother Cain Gen. 4.8 So old Eli though indeed he had his failings in not correcting and severely punishing his wicked Sons 1 Sam. 2.23 c. and 1 Sam. 3.13 as he should have done being chief-Magistrate as well as Parent yet questionless was a good man as may be gathered from sacred Story and the manner of his death was sudden he fell off from his seat backward and