AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST IMMODERATE SORROW for the Death of our Friends Taken from an assured hope of our Resurrection to Life and Glory DELIVERED In a SERMON preached in the Parish-Church of North-Wraxall in Wiltshire The 12 th of Aprill 1660. At the FUNERAL of S WILLIAM BVTTON Baronet By FRANCIS BAYLY his Houshold Chaplain Transfertur vitae morte non aufertur Chrysologus All the dayes of mine appointed time will I wait till my Change come Job c. 14.14 St. Aug. Serm. 33. de ver Apost Deus factus homo mori resurgere voluit ut qued futurum esset homini in hominis carne ostenderetur deo tamen non homini crederetur But now Christ is risen from the dead and is become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 London Printed by W. Godbid for Richard Thrale at the Cross Keys at St. Paul's Gate entring into Cheapside 1660. An Antidote AGAINST IMMODERATE SORROW THE TEXT 1 Thess c. 4. v. 14. For if we beleive that Jesus dyed and rose again even so them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him CUratio funeris Vivorum solatium the funerals of the dead are then best performed St. August civit dei l. 1 Cap. 12. when the living are most comforted and what greater comfort at a funeral then to treat of a Resurrection without the hope of which Christians of all men were the most miserable for this is it which doth recompence our wet seeds-time with a serene and joyful Harvest Should I therefore study to chear your drooping spirits and wash away those briny tears from your blubbered Cheeks for the losse of our dear friend or to comfort and fortifie your hearts against the sad approaches of impartial death which way could I better compasse my design then by telling you though we must dye yet we shall rise again that this mortal must put on immortality and that those that sleep in Jesus God will bring again with him to glory When the Ship wherein our blessed Apostle St. Paul floated upon the raging billows of the foaming Ocean was driven by a tempestuous Euroclydon insomuch that not only the Soldiers but Mariners despaired of safety how comfortable think you if credited was that saying of the Apostle there shall not be the losse of any mans life save only of the Ship and shall it be lesse to us that though for a time Acts 26.22 out body the Ship of the Soul which carries her about in the raging Sea of affliction be at length swallowed up of the grave yet our souls shall safely arrive at the haven of happiness and at the last day the Sepulchre that devouring Leviathan must disgorge her self of her prey that so the happiness both of Soul and body may be consummate and compleat and both together partake of that inheritance which is laid up for those that love his appearance With what cheerfulnesse doth the laborious husbandman undergoe his Winters employment out of an expectation of a Summers return would the Soldier think ye undergoe the Battail with so much courage and resolution were it not to gain the Victory and wear the Crown an Heir though in present want to day yet receives comfort from the expectation of a next dayes Inheritance we though by nature we are the children of wrath yet by grace and adoption we are the Sons of God and Heirs to heaven and death doth but convey us to the possession well therefore might St. Peter tearm the hope of life after death Spes viva a lively hope for the hope of life immortal is the very life of this life mortal and that joy and gladnesse with which it doth affect the heart is vitae eternae initium the very beginning of eternal life That answer doubtlesse of the Angel at the Sepulchre to those early but superfluously pious women who came to reimbalme the body of our Saviour resurrexit non est hîc he is risen he is not here was received by them not onely 〈…〉 but joy and may still sound much of comfort to us his being the very pledge and assurance of ours who by the Apostle Saint Paul is termed primitiae dormientium the first-fruits of them that sleep Sen. Nat. Quest lib. 6. cap. 1. the Stoick therefore erred when he said non majus mortalitatis solatium quam ipsamertalitas that there is no greater comfort against mortality than mortality it self for the consideration of our immortality is a greater it is indeed a strong encouragement against mortality to think that we must dye yet it is a far greater that we shall live again that may cause us to neglect the stroke of death but this to embrace it for the best way to make death seem easie is to look through death at glory not to think so much that we shall dye as to believe that we shall rise again the former may take away the fear of death this mitigates our sorrow I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning those that are asleep that ye sorrow not as others that have no hope for if we beleeve that Iesus dyed and rose again even so them also that sleep in Iesus will God bring with him The sum of my Text is a reason pressing Moderation of Sorrow taken from the certainty of Resurrection to life of it he layeth two grounds First The Resurrection of Christ If you beleeve that Christ dyed c. Secondly The power of God will God bring with him and withal limits out the persons to whom this blessing belongs those that sleep in Jesus Having now shewed you the sum of my Text and drift of the Apostle give me leave to explain the meaning of some of the words as they lye in order and then I shall lay down a proposition or two to enlarge my selfe upon Si enim if ye beleeve and your mindes are not infatuated but Lyra would have si to be taken here for quia because because ye beleeve for saith he it belongs unto the Articles of Faith to beleeve that Christ dyed and rose againe even so those that sleep or depart out of this world for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original to sleep signifies likewise to dye to depart out of this world and it is a word which is proper to expresse the death of the righteous whose death is but a repose of their Bodies in their Graves and a rest of their Souls in Gods hands But why doth the Apostle expresse the death of Christ and the faithfull by two several names he sayes of Christ who rose and shall never dye mortuum fuisse that he dyed if ye believe that Jesus dyed but the faithful he only calls dormientes sleeping Haino gives this reason Christum appellat mortuum saith he he calls Christ dead because whilst we hear and know that he was dead and rose again we also may hope that we shall rise againe by vertue of his Divinity but he
calls the Elect dormientes sleeping because no man can so easily stir up his friend from sleep as they shall be raised from the sleep of death In Jesus some would have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Jesus for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Jesus because when men dye for Jesus by occasion of him or for Christianity sake God will bring them with Christ to a glorious Resurrection But others take the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to signify the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Jesus that is in the faith of Jesus sub spe fidei hujus saith Saint Ambrose Adducet cum eo shall bring with him into Heaven to enjoy that blessed immortality not that the Resurrection shall be partial that the wicked shall not rise for all shall rise but all shall not be brought with him for adduci significat raptum inductionem undique in nubibus cum honore ad judicem saith Oecumenius upon this place for true beleevers shall be snatcht up in the Clouds to meet Christ with honour but unbeleevers shall exspect him coming down as unworthy to meet him for all which I shall observe these three things First The Resurrection of Christ is not onely the pledge and assurance but the effective principle and the procuring cause of our Resurrection Secondly Those and onely those who by a true and living Faith have an interest in Christ shall God bring with him to glory Thirdly The death of the faithful is but a sleep a repose of their Bodies in their Graves and a rest of their Souls in the hand of God I shall first of all and chiefly insist on the first of these treating of my second in the close of my first and refer the last to a particular Application and first of the first of these The Resurrection of Christ is not onely the pledge and assurance but the effective principle and the procuring cause of our Resurrection If ye beleeve that Christ dyed and rose again even so those that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him But stay here seems to be a rub at the entrance and that on which all is to be built is questionable for all depends upon a for and an if for if ye beleeve the Family of Love beleeve it not accounting the Histories of Christs death and Resurrection a meer allegory Cerinthus the Heretick acknowledged that Christ should rise but not that he was risen so thought and so think the Jewes at this day grounding their belief upon the false relation of those suborned Soldiers his Disciples came by night and stole him away O infelix astutia saith S. Augustine O unhappy craft O insana stultitia saith Rhemigius fond dream of sleeping Watchmen O sleepy and sottish spirits that can beleeve such drowsie witnesses and give no credit to them that were waking Si milites dormicbant saith Chrysostome if the Soldiers slept how could they perceive the theft if not perceive it how could they witnesse it how came the Grave cloaths to be laid in such order if they had taken away the body linteamina non reliquissent they would not have left the Linnen cloaths if stoln sudarium involvere non curassent they would not have taken such a care to have laid them in order and therefore the same Father concludes non enim adeo stultus fuisset fur ut in re superflua tantùm laborasset if the world had a thief so honest yet not so foolish to have taken such care in a matter so superfluous yet if both quam oportunitatem habuisset what time could he have to strip off those cleaving Cere-cloths so many Soldiers so many Watchmen being present and therefore not taken away nor yet stoln but is risen not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is raised but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is risen and as it is in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who rose again and this shews us the difference between his and the Resurrections of others others before were raised but he rose againe we need the help and power of another but Christ by his own power for saith he Have not I power to lay down my life and to take it up again they rose iterum morituri to dye again and therefore saith Aquinas that was but an imperfect Resurrection but Christ rose to dye no more Death hath no more dominion over him saith the Apostle it was impossible saith the Psalmist that he should be holden of it or that his holy one should see corruption It is for a sinner to say to Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother but for our Saviour he took no Corruption with his Flesh the Flesh therefore that he took felt no Corruption he had not lived among us had it not been to dye for us he had not dyed but to rise againe a necessity there was for both ought not Christ first to Suffer and then to enter into his glory a Grave could not engrosse him whom a Throne did expect the jaws and belly of Hell could not alter much lesse consume his substance for this mortal must put on immortality not that the Humane nature was changed into the Divine but the substance being the same the qualities were altered resurrectio domini non finis fuit carnis sed commutatio saith Leo the resurrection of the Lord was not the annihilation but the change of the Flesh The Body was adorned with refined qualities but not divested of its former nature that body which before could be wounded is now incorruptible that Body which before could be slain is now immortal therefore saith Chrysologus gloria resurrectionis sepelivit morientis injuriam the glory of the Resurrection hath buried the disgrace of the Grave To Mary Magdalen he said noli me tangere touch me not to signifie he had cloathed his body with immortality to his Disciples videte palpate see me and handle me to give security he had not changed the substance but the quality in the one saith Aquinas he shewed gloriam resurgen is the rare endowments he had adorn'd it with upon his rising Aq. 3. p. q. 55. art 3. in corp in the other he declared veritatem resurrectionis the evident truth of his resurrection But suppose that Christ dyed and rose again and we beleive it Quid nobis What benefit is all this to us Yes very much because we by Faith have an interest in both for saith Calvin Non sibi Christus sed nobis mortuus est resurrexit Christ dyed and rose again not for himself but us for all the hope of ours depends upon that of his so saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.3 We are begotten again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and the Prophet Isaiah tells us there goes an influence from this resurrection which shall have an operation like that of the dew of the Spring which when he will let fall the earth shall yield
prodigal Spend-thrift who dost spend all thy time in hunting after the vanities of this world whose God is thy belly and glory thy shame what felicity what contentment canst thou find in it perhaps son a time thou mayest please thy pallace with some delightful vast delight thine eye with some exquisite Beauty and hug thy self with that Eplcure an Lullâ—bie edâ— bibe lude soul ear drink and take thy rest thou hast much good laye drup for thee for many years but what follows thou sool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee Thou covetous wretch and griping miser thou that are alwayes gaping after the much of this world and knowes no other God but thy weaâ—â— who do's not use but serve the world what foelicity canst thou find in that wherein there is no fulnesse why dost thou 〈◊〉 after that with so much eagernesse which is to be preserved with so much care and trouble why dost thou become thus cruel to thy self that thou mayest be beneficial to thou knowest not whom and heapest up riches and knowest not who shall enjoy them therefore our Saviour Christ to take away this carking and caring out of the minds of Christians having first sent them to School to the fowls of the Air and the Lillies of the field who could read unto them a lecture of Gods providence makes this inference therefore take no thought what ye eat or what ye shall drink or wherewith ye shall be cloathed but seek yee first the Kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof majora quaeritis ad majora nati ye are born for greater things and therfore seek them upon which saith Chrysologus miserumcui cum detur regnum suspirat panem miserable is that man on whom a Kingdom is bestowed who is still carking and caring for bread that saying of Alexander the great when but a Prince was a notable one and may serve for our instruction who when he was invited by some to run in a race with certain Plebejans replyed regis filio non convenire ut in stadio curreret nisi cum regibus it became not the Son of a King to run with any but such who were like himself Princes Is it for one who is running a race for some rich prize to catch at every fly or to stoop to take up every pebble or for an heir apparent to the Crown to play with toyes or to delight with rattles no the child of God moves in a higher Sphear and fixeth his contemplations on better objects they account heaven their home this life a pilgrimage and themselves but strangers therefore saith our Saviour Christ to his Disciples ye are not of this world the wicked are of this world as well in mind as body the children of God although they live in this world yet they are not of this world for saith St. August Qui non diligunt mundum non habitant in â—o quâ—d non diligunt they that do not love the world may not properly be said to dwell in that which they do not affect for our conversation is in heaven saith St. Paul whence we look for the coming of our Lord Jesus who shall change our vile bodyes that it may be made like unto his glorious body Phillippians 3.20.21 Thirdly Use 3 Since the death of the faithful is but a sleep a repose of their bodies in the grave and a rest of their souls in the hands of God why should we thus immoderately grieve and sorrow for the death of our friends for their eternal Good for their Welfare and Happiness Lord if he sleep he shall do well said the Disciple of Christ concerning Lazarus upon which saith St. Aug. Solet enim somnus aegrotantium salutis indicium The sick mans sleep is a fore-runner of his health and Death is no more to Gods Children for it not only mitigates but wholly takes away our griefs Ut remedium videatur non paena St. Amb. de Cain et Abel lib. 2. cap. 10. that it might seeme a remedy and not a punishment Chrysologus tells us that death is therefore called a sleep because no one can so easily raise his friend from sleep as God can us from the grave for saith the Text it is in a moment in the twinckling of an eye But Aquinas on my Text tels us that death is called a sleep because it resembles it in these two things first because he that layes down to sleep doth it spe resurgendi out of an hope to rise again and Death is but asleep somewhat longer then ordinary Man saith Job if he dye shall not be awakened again until the heavens be no more Job 14.12.2 Men usually rise from sleep refreshed with it in a better plight then they were before so saith the Apostle this mortal when it awakes shall put on immortality when I awake up after thy likeness I shall be satisfied with it Psal 17.15 Why then these blubbered cheeks this immoderate Sorrow for the death of our friends since they are but asleep in the Lord and shall be brought with him to glory plangere non est eorum qui spem habent tu autem qui expectas resurrectionem cur luges lamentaris let wretched and hopelesse infidels lament why dost thou grieve that expects a resurrection yea it is the very reason why the Apostle calls death here but a sleep in the Lord because from the hope of the resurrection we might moderate our Sorrow I would not have you ignorant brethren concerning them that are asleep that you sorrow not as men without hope for the godly deceased are not lost for ever but left for a time not gone away from us but sent to heaven before and there secure of their own immortality and sollicitous of our safety desire our society For if that be true that life without Christ is death then this is as true that death in Christ is life for blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord Hast thou then lost a Son or a father a wife or a husband why shouldst thou grieve at their advancement for they have but changed a cross for a crown a vale of misery for eternity of happinesse who could they now speak with us they would advise us with our Saviour weep not for me but weep for your selves I have lost a Clod of earth and inheritance of a Span but I have found an everlasting Crown of Glory Mourn indeed we may so saith St. August Contristemur in nostrorum mortibus we may mourn for the death of our friends because we have lost them but comfort our selves because we shall one day enjoy them Mourn indeed we may for them but moderately so sayes the son of Sirach thus did Abraham for Sarah the Children of Israel for Moses and 't was a custome among the Jews no lesse venerable then ancient man goeth to his long home and the Mourners walk about the Streets Ecclesiast 12.15 't was accounted no lesse then an act of love in
our Saviour when Lazarus was dead because he wept see how he loved him Pietas plorare jubet for love indeed commands a tear but faith forbids a deluge That Counsel which Seneca gave his friend Polybius may serve for a Christians imitation reason hath done enough if she restrain the Excesse of Sorrow but to have it wholy rooted out no man ought either to hope or desire it let our hearts flow let them be stayed let our sighs be drawn from the bottome of our hearts but let them have an end for though we may enbalme our dead friend with a charitable tear yet we 〈◊〉 take heed that we deluge not our faith in the Gulph of despair Sorrow we may so far as it is agreeable with the rules of humanity and true piety but if it exceed the bounds of Christian moderation we shew our selves rather hopelesse Infidels then believing Christians That advice of the Son of Sirach is good and remarkable Ecclesiasticus 38.16.17 My Son pour forth tears over the dead and begin to mourn as if thou hadst suffered great harm thy self and then cover his body according to his appointment and neglect not his burial Make a grievous lamentation and be earnest in mourning and use lamentation as he is worthy and that a day or two least thou be evil spoken of and then comfort thy self for thy heaviness and as it is verse 23. seeing the dead is at rest let his remembrance rest and comfort thy self again for him when his Spirit is departed from him where he shews that there are three things that are due to the dead Sepulture mourning and moderation in mourning the two former you have and are still performing 't is my part though interessed in the losse to moderate the last not to perswade you to become senselesse Stoicks unconcerned in the losse of a friend but true Christians Nam non lugere inhumanum est nimium lugere muliebre illud rigidi est pectoris istud mollis abjecti not to be sensible of the loss of a friend is little lesse then inhumanity to grieve above measure womanish the one argues a flinty the other a faithless heart But perhaps thou wilt say I have lost a dear friend a most loving husband one in whose breast dwelt nothing but goodnesse and piety shall thy passion still make thee senselesse wilt thou make that an argument to encrease thy grief which should be the chiefest motive to augment thy comfort for thus dying they are happy for the death of such are precious in the sight of God who therefore takes them out of this miserable world that he might take them to himself could you love them and yet greive that they are happy could they be thus happy and not dye in truth nature knows not what she would have we can neither abide our friends miserable in their stay nor happy in their departure True if they were perished or utterly lost I could not blame you if you then took up Rachels complaint but since Death is their preferment such love which moves you still to lament is injurious Saint Chrysostome puts this question why Children and Patents Wife and Husband enjoy not one the other so long now as in the dayes of the Patriarchs and gives this reason speaking of Sarahs behaviour towards Abraham Quoniam e◠vivente deum praetulit because whilst he lived she preferred God before him And again speaking of Abraham towards Sarah Quoniam câ etiam vivâ deo magis audivit quà ipsam because whilst she lived he hearkned more to God then her Neither for the love of Husband nor of Wife nor for the care of Childe did any one provoke God to anger and concludes ne diligas maritum plusquam deum nunquam senties viduitatem love not thy Husband more then God and thou shalt never feel Widdowhood for thou shalt either enjoy him or God who will be better to thee then ten Husbands for God many times robs us of those friends which we nay which God himselfe loves best and that both for their and our sakes for their sakes he takes them from the evill to come for our sakes weaning us from the love of the World by depriving us of those Jewells which did seem most precious unto us and therefore let God have them with cheerfulnesse and we shall one day enjoy God with them in glory Thus David comforted himself for the death of his Son I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Lastly Is Death but a Sleep Use 2 why then should the sad tole of Mortality dishearten us or the approaches of death terrifie us do men fear to sleep especially when they beleeve they shall wake again true were Life so pleasant the long sleep of Death might seem somewhat dreadfull doe but ask the Patriarch Jacob. and he will rell that life is not onely short but soure For and evil are the dayes of my Pilgrimage here how prettily St. Augustine emblemes it in his tender Infant nondum loquitur tamen prophetat Tears are the first Rhetorick that he useth by which before he can speak he Prophesies and by a dumb kind of Divination wailes out the story of Mans sorrow here Well therefore might the Graecian call the first day of our life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of conflicts and therefore the Thracians did celebrate the day of their Death with Mirth and the day of their Birth with Mourning yea saith the wise Son of Sirach better is the day of our Death then the day of our Birth Saint Augustine gives this reason for it quia per vitam transitus ad mortem because by Life we passe to Death and by Death we return unto Life some therefore derive the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it brings us unto God that made us for death doth not only free us from miseries but conveighs us to happiness here we have but arrham spiritus the earnest of the Spirit there we have pretium the full price here we dwelt but in Cottages whose foundation is in the Dust but Death brings us to an habitation made without hands now we have conversed with Men there we shall have the communion with Saints and fellowship with the Angels enjoy visionem illam beatificam the immediate fruition of God and Christ let them spruce Agags cry out amara mors Death is bitter faint-hearted Adrians expostulate with their trembling Souls Quaenum abibis in loca whether art thou going O my doubtful and trembling Soul whilst confident and faithful Hilarions cheerfully resigne their Souls into the hands of him that gave them with an egredere anima mea quid times egredere quid dubitas get thee gone O my Soul what dost fear get thee gone what dost thou doubt hast thou served Christ almost these seventy years and now dost thou fear to dye Christians should be of that courage that they should
Romans but Gods ancient people the Jews and the Primitive Christians whose funeral Orations are still extant nay that little good we find in bad men deserves a register David himself penn'd Saul an Epicaedium Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided ye Daughters of Israel weep over Saul who cloathed you in Scarlet with other delights a Sam. 1.23 To begin therefore from whence he had his beginning he was descended from an antient and Worshipful Family which hath been alwaies accounted no small blessing as a strong obligation and spur to Worthy and Noble actions which were such in him that his personall Vertues did adde a lustre to his naturall Honour After the care of his Parents and Master had fitted him for Oxford he spent some time there under the care and tuition of Dr. Prideaux Thence travailing in the company of Sir Arthur Hopton the Kings Agent through France into Spain and returned by Geneva having his soul untainted either with the pompous superstition of the one or the Phanatick novelty of the other neither affecting the supercilious gravity of Spaniard nor the fantastick levity of the French the usual disease of travail but returning with so much of either as might serve to make him an accomplish'd Gentleman serviceable to his Country had he not lived in an age wherein honesty and loyalty hath been accounted a crime and a bar to honourable Employments Afterwards marrying with a virtuous and pious Lady descending from an ancient and worshipful family in Devonshire living together all their time in true Love and Amity having not only their hands in marriage but as it is said of Jonathan and David their souls knit together in true affection and though God blessed them not with any off-spring yet his love was such to her that he might well have said as Elkannah did to to Hannah am not I better to thee then ten Sons and though he had none of his own yet some Orphans might say of him that they found in him a father witness his care and expence towards his Nephews and Neeces whose Charity was not only confined to his own relations but that it overflowed to others breeding up the child of a neighbour deceased minister at School and not leaving him there but maintaining him at Oxford whose necessity I doubt not will still be supplyed by his charitable Lady Yea such was his charity in general unto all not only those of his own and neighbouring parishes but whomsoever else necessity doth comprize under that title that I beleive none ever went away unsatisfied or not having ample occasion to blesse God for him so that I may say of him as Nazianzen said of himself ne mihi accidat ut dum pauperes egeant ego ditescam illorum inopiae non succurram the necessity of whom he charitably supplyed so far from ostentation or pharisaical pride that I may say of him that his left hand knew not what his right hand did stealing opportunity to supply the necessity of those who formerly had lived in a condition to supply the wants of others For his Hospitalitie towards all rich and poor that which St. Paul so much commends and Abraham so loved yea so loveth still saith Chrysologus Serm. 121. ut parum se beatum eredidit c. that he would scarce think himself happy in heaven if he were deprived of the use and exercise thereof it was such that by it together with his prudence and affability he won so much upon the affections of all that he became the love and darling of his Country who doubtless would have testified it in an ample manner by their free and voluntary choice of him to have served as a Member in this succeeding Parliament on which the eyes of most next under God I hope are fixed for the settlement of this distracted and almost distructed nation had not God thought it fitter by a writ of remove to take him from this Lower to that Upper house and to make him a Member of his own heavenly Court For his Piety towards God he was a constant frequenter of his Ordinances making his house a little model of a Church where besides his own private Devotions Morning and Evening Sacrifices were daily offered unto God and I doubt not acceptably they being presented unto him in the same language and form which the Church prescribed greatly admiring at the Piety and Prudence of the Church in her choice composure from the which none of his Servants could presume to be absent without a severe check resolving with Joshuah I and my houshold will serve the Lord. But when his Sicknesse which began with a Cold and continued with a violent Cough had confined him to his Chamber and his Friends became more fearfull of his recovery I began a serious discourse with him concerning Death and Mortality and a due preparation thereunto he replyed that if God thought it fittest to take him out of this world he could patiently submit to his Will but if God would be pleased to spare him he should be thankful and was resolved by Gods grace to spend that time which he should add to his dayes more to Gods glory much like that of the Prophet David O let my Soul live and it shall praise thee returning me hearty thanks for my spiritual advice and Counsel telling me withall that the oftner my discourse was to this purpose the welcomer I should be into his presence which encouraged me unto the performance of my duty with the greater cheerfulnesse and alacrity ever finding his discourse so full of Piety and true contrition enough to have confirmed a Christian and converted an Atheist But growing weaker in Body but increasing in Spiritual strength he desired to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper which he did with Humility Devotion and Cheerfulnesse spending the remainder of his time which was some two dayes and nights almost wholly in Prayer which was performed by my selfe and a neighbour-Minister he in the interim preaching unto us such Sermons of Piety and Contrition expressing so much grief and sorrow for his sins such a true and and lively Faith in the Mercy of God for the merits of his Saviour for the pardon and remission of them that it were little lesse then uncharitablenesse it selfe to doubt his Salvation And when his loving and careful Consort who would never leave nor forsake him untill Death writ the Bill of Divorce lay by him bemoaning her losse and bathing his Pillow with her Tears he prayed her to be more cheerfull and not endeavour to keep Death from him which would soon bring him to Christ the like he said to his Servants standing about his Bed lamenting their losse in him But when his Tongue which had been an instrument to blesse and praise God could no longer perform its office his eyes and hands became his Orators to Heaven for mercy with which emploring the assistance of those that stood by in prayer which being ended he turned aside and not long after fell asleep resigning his Soul into the hands of his Redeemer In fine he was I had almost said what was he not he was a good Christian a loyall Subject preferring his duty and a good Conscience of the which too many have made Shipwrack before his Fâ—â—are 〈◊〉 Son of the Church a lover of the Orthodox Clergy a releiver of the wants of those that suffered for the testimony of a good Conscience a most indulgent Husband a loving Brother a fast Friend a good Landlord a just man a charitable benefactor to the Poor loving and liberal to his Servants and now doubtlesse is entred into his Masters joy But perhaps thou wilt reply what no drosse among all this gold yes doubtlesse otherwise he had been more then Man he had no question his failings his sins and infirmities so had and so have the best of Saints which he did acknowledge with humility and sorrow what they were is not my businesse to proclaim if thou knowest any let me advise thee to learn by him to amend them in thy selfe and since he had so much grace to repent of them God so much mercy to forgive them do thou have so much Charity to forget them burying them in his grave where we are going to lay his body that chamber of rest untill Christ 〈◊〉 to awake him and us altogether with him to the 〈◊〉 blisse both of Body and Soul Amen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS