Force whereof and the Assistance of Heaven they at length become Proof to all the Assaults of their Enemies Hither to have we seen that a Raging Sorrow is not the Debt we owe to the Memory of the Dead Neither did David whose Practise upon the removal of His beloved Childe doth clearly discover his Temper upon the like occasions intend any such thing when he saith Know ye not that there is a great Man fallen this day in Israel Neither is a sullen negligence of the Providence of God the Stilnesse Virtue requires Betwixt these two doth the Writer to the Hebrews direct our course For he wrote My Son despise not thou the Chastning of the Lord nor faint when thou art corrected of Him When therefore the Fall of a Great Person doth allarum us we should diligently heed and Observe the Voice of it We should hear our selves thereby called to an Elevation of Soul beyond all Earthly Enjoyments and to consider how little our Hearts should be fixed on such things May be that Love hath made us forget our Work and the Lord by snatching it from us doth court our Kindnesse Yea forceth us to it by the retiring us from the bewitching enchantments of Sublunary Contentments that so being beaten of the other Objects of Desire He may be unrivall'd in the Possession of our Heart The least slip of Adulterous Love will be accounted unpardonable and quench all the others kindnesse or rather inflame it into a Fury and Revenge Thus the Jealous Eye of God if it find us gadd a whoring after strange Loves and give the Highest of our Love to the Creature then an Incensed Creator removing His Rival doth loudly call us back to the duties of our wedlock And Further then must we also have a just value of the Worth and Virtue of Him who is fallen by numbering up his severall Excellencies which will never shine so bright as Then While the Person is alive His present Worth doth so choak us with Joy and Complacency that scarce have we leisure to run over the foregoing instances of his Life which when He is Gone being summed together in Our Remembrance and endeared to us by the Privation of our equally Beloved and Admired friend cannot but Highly encrease our esteem of Him That so when Dead He may live in our Memories as that Queen who thinking no Tomb worthy of her deceased King and Husband did drink over over his ashes and so buried him in her own Bowels And sure those Impressions of Love and Affection which are outlived by the Person or worn off by Separation or distance either were never real or at most Skindeep For the Character of true Friendship is indelible A Bacchick Fury or Flouds of Tears or Languishing Fits do well prove the Strength of Passion but only a Lasting Esteem demonstrateth the Reality of Love Neither ought such resentments to be expressed only with Sad Face and Doleful Voice But chiefly by proposing such a rare Person as an Example both for our own and others Imitation The Sun is in the Firmament not to be gazed at but to Guide and Beacons are Lighted not for show but service Many run his Fate who looking to the Stars did not mind his way but fell into a Ditch So their diligent attention to the Virtues of Another is so far from provoking them to endeavour a resemblance of them that it proveth but a Scandal while that remembrance galls them either fretting them into agonies of Grief and Sorrow or benumming them into Idle Heavinesse Thus as the Brazen Serpent proposed for a Cure became an Occasion of Idolatry So an Exalted Soul lifted up to Glory being set forth to draw us after it doth indeed prevail over many to draw them away not to but from their Duty So Corrupt man can suck poyson from the sweetest flowr It is now time to bring what is set down in General to our Occasion Let not then the Death of this Great Person choak our Hearts with that Pusillanimous and sordid Passion of Sorrow He is not Dead but is Asleep Neither hath Death triumphed over him but He hath obtained the Victory What though in the Heat of the Combat He hath thrown his cloaths from Him and striped himself of such burdensome apparel which yet will be rescued from the Jawes of Death in the last scene of His Triumph The Morning of the Resurrection Then shall He shine as the Brightnesse of the Firmament Let Us not therefore Envy his Glory but rather Congratulate his Happinesse Neither should the Apprehension of Our Misery in his being Torn from us Possess our souls with an uncomforted Melancholy The Fellowship of our Saviour the Supreamest of all Earthly Comforts was when removed made up to their advantage that were blessed with that Mission of the Holy Ghost Upon which Consideration did our Saviour say It is expedient for you that I go away So ought we believe that no Satisfaction on Earth is so great but can be exceeded by these inward Ioyes which the Gracious Lord God will bestow on us in that measure that is most fit and expedient for us Labour we therefore seriously a subjection of Mind to the Good Acceptable and Perfect will of God Let his Memory also be dear and precious to us and we stirred up to Active Attempts after those Virtues He possessed Was He Meek Humble Temperate Charitable Patient Pious and Devout Let Us not onely flauntingly Talk of those Excellent Graces but silently Study the Practice of them Let the Impious and impudently Wicked be ashamed and be You remembered by the death of this Great Man that you must all once die and after that come to Iudgement Me thinks this Thought should start you and stop your carreer lest you drive into these unquenchable Flames ere you be aware Learn you that are satisfied with the Praise of being no ill men from the Example of this Great One not to Halt betwixt two Gods You must either love God or Mammon It was said by Him that spoke never amisse He that is not with me is against me Be therefore Holy as your God is Holy and be ye Followers of this blessed Disciple as he was a Follower of Christ. You also that are entered into the School of Christ Be not as Babes ever Learning and never coming to the Knowledge of the Truth But go on to Perfection Be not Cripled with or detained under the Pedagogy of Forms but Imitate this Great Man by Tasting and Feeling the Power of the Divine Life transforming and uniting your Souls unto God And Love one another and let nothing be done through Strife or Vain-glory. Learn that Wisdom that is from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And for these whose Souls have not overly tasted of the Waters of Life but are vigurously wrought upon by the Mighty Power thereof seeing this Great Soul with that Cloud of Witnesses that are passed into Glory they will be animated to run with Patience that race that is set before them Forasmuch then as Your Labour is not in vain in the Lord be ye stedfast unmoveable alwayes abounding in the Work of the Lord. It is now time to Conclude for I doubt not but upon such a Speaking Occurrent as this Every one will be ready to supply themselves with such fit and suitable Considerations as may most conduce toward that End we all ought to aim at So that I shall need to say no more but know ye not That there is a Great Man fallen this day in Israel FINIS
Lands designed and marked only in his Conceit But he choosed rather to Mantle over that which he knew by a Shadow than to pretend to that which he had not In fine rare was it to see so much Worth vailed under so much Humility Which keeped him so from the Knowledge of Others but most of all from himself Yet as the Sun beams when stopped in their even course and refracted in a Cloud do appear in that rare Contexture of Light and Shadow the Rainbow so the Vail of Humility though it a little interrupted yet it had not the force to keep up the Glancing light of that shining Soul but rather as a Shadowed Picture appeared he with advantage And as the rare endewments of his Mind did not intoxicate him so the Virtues of his Soul however valued by others were ever counted few and mean by himself For he had Perfection in his eye His Aimes Designs stooping no lower Whence the recurring defects of the daily imperfections which annoyed him in his Pilgrimage represented alwayes himself in the blackest shape disdain could set him in And there was nothing more grating to his Ears than his own praises Is there not then a Prince and a great Man fallen this day in Israel The Soul of Man being by the Power of the Divine Spirit rescued from the bondage of Corruption is brought into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God For these staining Tinctures of Passion Lust and Pride are not done of that He should continue as a whited Wall or a Fleece of Wool Nor are these Divels only cast out that the house be empty Sweeped and Garnished No we need not fear so great preparations shall end in Nothing We are uncloathed of our Filthy Garments in lieu whereof we receive Change of Raiment And the Treats of the Image of God are drawn on the Soul Thus the Mind is Transform'd by that Participation of the Divine Nature whereby it is united and knit unto God with that bond of Perfection Love which having consum'd all that fewel of Lust and Vanity which had so long smothered the Divine Life but becoming Victorious it inflameth the whole Pile and offereth it up in one Burnt-offering to God And the Soul being agitated by the Love of God shed abroad in it as by an Active Principle of Life is ever in its Desires and Meditations mounting thither where it hopes to be for ever Our Saviour compared this establishment of the Minde on God to Hungering and Thirsting Which is not caused by Reason but by Life Thus the Supream Exaltation of the Soul is in being so fixed on God that we need not be jogged up to it by Arguments but by a natural and unforced emanation of Spirit to be ever Breathing after and Panting for Communion with God This is to have our Fellowship with the Father and with the Son To place our whole Affiance and Confidence on God who through the Mediation of his Son is become Our Mercifull and Gracious Father To bestow on him the Supremacy of our Love and Affections and by uncessant Motions to be springing towards Him Thus the Soul maugre the Load of its Body that separateth it so far from Heaven will not be delayed of its Glory untill Vnbodied but will be snatching the Summer-fruits even before Harvest come Which though they be not ripened to the delectableness of Angels-food yet that Antepast of Glory will yeeld the Mind such sweet Solaces and Pleasures so Sublime and Highly Divine as will beget a Loathing of the most unmixed Delights Earth can afford For that Original sin that they be of the Earth will sufficiently discredite them The Soul having now found an Object that will both deserve and attract its more Fixed Thoughts With what silent Admiration will it be considering these Divine Adorable Excellencies wherewith the Glorious Lord God is cloathed as with a garment which will sometimes choak them to a stillnesse next to Ecstasie and at other times will burst forth in Halelujahs and Thanksgivings Could we trace the steps and Sacred Soliloquies of a Devout Spirit in those blessed retreats it makes from the Loud disturbances of the World into the Presence of Him who is its Hiding place and strong Habitation whereunto it will continually resort We should see it with delight sum up all the passages of the Power Providence and Goodnesse of God whereby it rouseth it self and all that is in it To blesse his Holy Name and to forget none of his Benefits And if the World offer it self to its View It will quickly say with S. Paul These things that before were gain to me are now become losse through Christ. Yea doubtless I count all things but losse for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Iesus Christ my Lord. Yea I will account them but dung that I may win Christ. Thus are the Meditations of God sweet unto it Neither is this only the Holy-dayes Imployment of the Soul For God doth not come to a Soul as a way-faring Man to tarry for a night But he dwelleth and abideth in it The Soul is Acted Moved and Directed by Him in all its goings And when its Station to which God hath commanded it in the world calls it from these immediate Adorations it resolves quickly to return again and leaves the Heart with God in Pawn So that however it may be busied yet all passionate fervour is blunted and quenched And it is so exactly regulated by the Divine Will into which its own is changed that it Cares Desires Joyes and Sorrows for Nothing Earthly But all the Methods and Steps of the Divine Providence are by it judged to be both Wise Good and Just as flowing from an unerring Skill an unchanged Goodnesse and a spotlesse Iustice. Therefore in Patience doth it possesse it self and with an Unreserved Submission equally welcomes as well the Ebbings as the Flowings of Earthly Satisfactions As being none of them of a nature capable of promoting or retarding that Happinesse it expects and desires from God alone Thus with open face as in a Glasse beholding the Glory of the Lord we are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Order of this Discourse doth call for the Applying what hath been spoken to the Glorified Saint that hath now left us In doing whereof several Instances must be disclosed which in his life were unknown to all save to his other self his Friends His Soul was even fraughted with adoring and Magnifying thoughts of his Maker His Frequent and Fervent entertaining himself with Divine Meditations did let us all know wherein he placed his Happinesse Every day many Hours of his Time were spent in the Outer Court of Heaven in those approaches to God No Company was so bewitching as to make him forget him who had inhanced all his desires and delights But when the entertainment of Friends did seem to hinder him from that Imployment yet still He either
found or made a shift to excuse himself for a while that he might converse with his God Which an ingenious Modesty did so contrive that it was not so much as suspected to be done upon design Yea when he was so pressed that he could get no time in the Day stollen He made it up in the Night Often he used to be Eight hours a day in the immediate Service of God beside His diligent observance of the Lords Day which was indeed Singular He used a constant Method in reading Scripture wherein he was much conversant Neither did the Translation satisfie him but He searched the Original carefully For he could quot the New Testament and Psalter as easily in the first Language as most can do in their Mothers Tongue In his daily Reading he did still choose some place which he fixed in his Mind To the Consideration whereof he recollected his Thoughts all that day when ever he found himself at leisure Which he used to say was his Sanctuary whither he retreated from the Persecution of Idle Thoughts Many such Methods used he to wing up His soul to the work of Cherubims ever to behold the Face of his Heavenly Father Yea a Radiant Splendor which possessed his Looks when he returned from his Closet could make us easily discern what joyfull and pleasant work he had been about He used often to separate whole dayes for the Worship of God wherein He denied himself any other Refreshment save what was ministred to his Soul He performed himself the duties of his Family constantly at two returns each day where you might have heard both Reading Singing and Prayer and that with such a true and unaffected Devotion as discovered how little Formality may be in the Observance of Forms The first arrest of that Fatall sicknesse had exhausted the Active Vigour of his Spirit so far that the Keennesse and Fervour of his Soul was somewhat blunted which drew him into Sadnesse judged Melancholy by Beholders For he complained that then when these Attaques of God did alarum him up to a greater diligence He was become more languid and tepid This Trouble was but of short continuance for he found the union of his soul to his God as close as ever though a Mistuned Body could not bear up in a Concord with it The last Lords Day of his Life was he diligent in the search of his Heart and earnest in wrestling with God the Issue whereof was a Quiet and Composed Mind Which was apparant in the Cheerfulnesse of his Spirit which was greater that Night than it had been all the while of his sicknesse Two dayes after he was seized with a spotted Feaver or rather His Sicknesse did evidently discover it self to be such Which having in a sudden disturbed his Fancy what after that came from him like himself was rather Curt though raised and Divine Contemplation than any fixed and well ordered conceptions Often did He pray often did He speak of the Glory of His God and of His Redeemer Yea never mentioned he either but his Soul seemed to go out with Fervour The Last Night of his Life Five times did he direct his desires to God in the words of the Lords Prayer About the Morning His Raving seemed to have taken leave of Him for about a Quarter of an Hour did he with great seriousnesse and in well fitted words call upon the Lord and invocate his aid Neither did he forget His Soveraign the Church His Nation or His Family He had no sooner ended when the Fury of his distemper as if it had given him Truce only for that blessed work did again invade him It was a few hours after that for he scarce spoke any more that the Cords of his Tabernacle begun to be slackened and before we were awar He gave up the Ghost and fell asleep passing into Glory Is there not then a great Man fallen this day in Israel Having thus viewed the Greatnesse of that Soul wherein I do protest no Hyperbole hath been used neither hath ought been said but what I certainly knew to be true Those who are little acquainted with True worth and who Imagine there is no such thing in the World but that it is a Chimaera contrived to amuse and overaw the sons of Adam will may be look on what hath been said as a Flaunting Story But it will gain credit with such as are neither strangers to Virtue nor to Him What was seen of him was so fair and alluring that every one will not stick to believe the Vnseen and Hidden parts of him must be the most Glorious All will believe the Closet of a Palace to exceed the Glory of the Walls But it is a Sad Conclusion to say There is a great Man FALL'N I shall rather invert the words There is a Great Man RAIS'D up The Soul and Body are wreathed into unity by such a Congruity of Life that forgetting the Difference of their Natures they come to be so linked in the embraces one of another as to move joyntly in all their Operations Whence followeth such an Eccho of the One to all the Affections of the Other that they both gain or losse according as their Yoak-fellow is Pleased or Prejudged Which being a Riddle too hard for the crazed Vnderstanding of Man whose sight hath not yet reached the inside of Beings their Natures some take a Compendious way to extricate themselves by saying It is but agitated and subtile Matter that keeps us in Life How well this may be applied to such Agents as are devoid of Ratiocination and to the Plantall and Animal Actions of a Man I am not now to examine But that Cogitation can be an effect of Matter even when it acts on Immaterial Objects and in Self-reflexions will be found a greater difficulty than that they intended to shun And sure in the Conception of a Cogitating Being there is no greater Absurdity than in that of an Extended One After the Soul hath lodged in the Body that space of Pilgrimage and Probation appointed it by God Then the time of its Dissolution draweth nigh When it is to be unfettered then through the dark shades of Death must we passe to Immortality And though there be nothing more dreadfull to them whose Leud and Atheistical life doth fill them with just apprehensions of approaching Miseries Yet the Lord God who can out of the Eater bring forth Meat and out of the Strong give Honey hath ordered that to be the Fore-runner of a Blisse so far elevate beyond the mean and lo apprehensions we Frail Mortals can conceive that the most Fluent Eloquence can do it no Right May we but Imagine what an Amazement a Holy Soul will be struck in when it finds it self of a suddain freed from the Depressions of a Grosse and Terrestrial Body the Allurements of a Debauched Mind the Entisements of a Foolish World the Contagion of Evil Company the Stings of Sicknesse and Pain and from an Unactive
Vnchristned Reason taught these Philosophers to argue And sure if they Lived as they Talked they shall rise in Judgement against many called Christians who see a Clearer Light and yet walk in Greater Darknesse and Disorder It is no Disgrace neither to Our Religion nor to the Grace of God to magnifie the Morality and Worth of the Heathens Methinks it saith and that strongly for the Honour of it to find among the Rubbish of Ruined Nature still remaining some Impressions of Virtue But if we attempt a Comparison betwixt that Sacred Doctrine delivered in the Bible and the Writings of the more Moralized Heathens you may as justly compare a Fish eye to a Pearl or a Diamond to a peece of Christal Natures Light being as the First Dawning of the Morning pleasing to One wearied with the Blacknesse of Night which may well delight the Eye with its Beauty but will hardly guide the Traveller on his way But the Divine Light like the Noon Beams which clearly discovers all things here below and maketh us easily discern every Object save it self not for any dimness in its Self but an Excessive Brightness So after one hath been vexed with looking on the Darknesse of Heathenish Idolatry and finds in Greece something of a higher strain He cannot choose but be somewhat satisfied But will find himself little furthered Their Doctrine being able excellently to inform how he is to be unhinged but Prescribing no foundation to fix on nor furnishing any helps towards such an Atchievment This is Peculiar to the glory of the Latter House whose radiant splendour doth discover to us all the Instances of our Duty and fills our Hearts with true Understanding for the perfect knowledge of every thing in our course Only He whose Glory it is to be incomprehensible cannot be found out to Perfection The truth whereof shall be now applied to the Affair in hand Religion then teacheth us That in this life we are but Pilgrims and aiming at but not attaining Happinesse and that the very Essence of all Earthly Enjoyments is to be Transitory For we have no lease of Life nor of the Comforts thereof There is a wildernesse betwixt and Canaan in which we must Sojourn We must not then fret although we have no water at every Station But with all cheerfulness ought we to follow every Remove of Divine Guidance For Here we live in Hope and expect that after we have walked through the Valley of Baca we shall appear before the Lord in Sion in that Rest that remaineth for the People of God Being thus in the Gospel assur'd of that approaching Glory How Irrational is it to Reckon upon our Present Troubles which last but for a moment No Traveller will deeply resent the losse of Company he encountered on the way much lesse if he be assur'd to find them at home before him Why should the Death of an Excellent Person be accounted a losse when we know the Separation shall last but a few hours compared with the Boundlesse length of that Eternal fellowship wherein we shall enjoy one another Further the Gospel tells us that all things here below are managed by the exactest Skill and a well ballanced Providence The most despicable of Creatures are no forgot by Him much lesse the Masterpeece of his work Man in the greatest concernment thereof Life The hairs of our head are numbered much more the years of our Life the End whereof never approacheth but in the fittest and best chosen time For we are not exposed to the uncertain Chances of Accidents nor folded under the Fatality of Stoicks or the influence and aspects of Stars but led by an unerring Wisedome that doth all things in Number Weight and Measure It is then but a well set off Blasphemy against the Wisdom of God to be offended with his Government of the World Again Christianity informs us well what Death is That it is no Extinction of the Soul nor doth it carry us to still and dark Caverns where in an unactive Drowsinesse we shall sleep over our Time much lesse to any Violent though Temporal pains as some dream But the Instant of a Christians Dissolution is the time He shall be invested with all Glory and Dignity and possess'd of all Blesse and Happinesse How strong a curb must this be to any Believers sorrow when without being Criminal in a Secret Envying their deceas'd Friends Glory they dare not regrate his Death For all their Complaints do carry in their bosome so many wishes that the Ground of their trouble had not been and Self-interest and Satisfaction is preferred to the unspeakable Advantage of him that is Dead Even true Friendship would command one to say Since my Happinesse cannot come at any other rate than my friends being detained from His which is a good degree of Misery with all contentednesse of mind shall my losse redeem my friends Gain Further there be Comforts and Delights of the Mind of a Higher nature than those of the Sense and Fortune which can never be shaken by any thing without us These true Delights which a well grounded assurance of the Love of God doth bring into the Mind are so far beyond all the World can promise much more give that when weighed in a true Ballance they prove lighter than vanity The Lord God out of his Love to Man doth use all means leaving none unessayed that He may obtain the Mastery of the Soul when Earthly Satisfactions do carry on this Design they are allowed us But if they prove Retardments the same reason doth call for their Removal An absolute Belief of the Fulnesse of the Love of God who maketh all things work together for good to them that Love Him will secure the Peace of the Soul so entirely that none of all the Batterings of Passion will brangle it And it is by these scorchings of Affliction that God draws in many to dwell under the shadow of his Wings where they are in safety whereby they come more actively to attempt and carry on a Triumph over all the Entanglments of Sense and Passion Thus the Foundation of our Joys and Hopes the Love of God in Christ remains unmoved however the Outside of our Condition which is but our Exteriour happinesse may be subject to Change It is by these Considerations of the Truth whereof by the interiour operation of the Spirit of God we are perswaded That the Faith and Fear of God doth guard our Minds and preserve them in Perfect Peace So that we are not afraid of evil Tydings every one whereof carrieth that Strength and Evidence with it that to it quickly the Assent of the Mind is gained And although the Fetters of Nature and Passion not being wholly while in the Body broke off they will as a Hurrican master for a while the whole powers of the Soul Yet that fury being over in cold blood do they begin to condemn themselves and to amass those comforts of the Gospel by the