condition she will pull off the vails and hypocrisies of sin and bring her forth in her own horrid shape and native deformity she will tear away the dress and wash off the Paint wherewith Satan hath set off this Jezebel she will present the Sinner with the right end of the Perspective which will give him the true image the full size and the dire prospect of Divine Wrath and Everlasting Burnings which will then prove so far from being a Painted or Poetick Fire that the meer speculation of them i.e. the very intelligible species past through a clear understanding will like beams through a Burning Glass immediately kindle a resembling raging flame in his Breast One way or other Sin will manifest it self to be a Sting indeed either in the sharpness of remorse to the Penitent according to the hainousness of his guilt or in the prickings and lancings of despair to the Obdurate Sinner What pangs and throws what anguish and torment it breeds even in good Men may be learned from David's mourning all the day long Psal 38.6 3. and having no rest in his bones by reason of his sin from St. Pauls vehement exclamation O wretched man that I am and from St. Peters bitter tears Rom. 7.14 And if it be so with the green tree what will it be with the dry If the true Penitent suffer such whips what wonder if the Despairing Sinner be lashed with Scorpions Nam mens sibi conscia facti Lucret. Praemetuens adhibet stimulos terretque flagellis The most exquisite torments will be his perpetual entertainment stings and poisons fires and furies feed daily on his Marrow and drink up his Spirits who is both the Malefactor and his own Executioner first forging and sharpening the Knives and Goads and all instruments of pain and cruelty in the dark and sinful recess of his mind and afterward in a cool and sober reflection desperately sticking them into his own Soul. It is in vain for such a person to expect relief from outward applications who hath the Wolf within his Breast the Gangrene in his Conscience Bloody Nero may remove from one appartment to another may change his Bed every night and his Companions every day but the Fiend still haunts him his murder'd Mothers Ghost follows him through all the crouds of Men and labyrinths of Business through Solitudes and Entertainments through the Court and the Camp the Closet and the Theater making his Face as ghastly as the Spectre that occasioned it and filling his mind with the distractions and black horrours of that place from whence it came and though he consulted his chiefest Magicians in the case yet he could find no Charm able to lay the Phantasm or free him from its importunity Cain may wander from one Climat to another seeking rest but findeth none for so long as he carries Blood-guiltiness in his soul he has not so much a Cerberus dogging him at his heels as a Fury lodg'd within his bowels and whilst that fatal sting his guilt remains he must needs bleed within languish and sink under Insupportable horrour and fearful looking for of Judgment Nay let a Judas or a Spira not only change Countries but Worlds when their souls through extremity of despair choose strangling in Jobs phrase seeking to Death for a Lenitive and running to Hell for sanctuary as if the Rolling in Infernal Flames would be a refreshment to them in comparison of that more intolerable Top het within and the Devils themselves prove less cruel than their own Consciences yet in the issue they will find themselves most dreadfully mistaken for the Conscience is not to be put off with the Body but the immortal worm will for ever stick to the immortal part and will not cease to gnaw within when the Fiend lays on without Those external sulphurous heats and scorchings will be so far from calling out or allaying the internal that they will reverberate and enrage them more and heat the Furnace seven times hotter Besides our blessed Lord who only lay under the Imputation of sin felt greater sharps and acuter pains in it than in those Nails and Thorns and Spear which pierced not only his Hands and Head but his Heart for this Sting went deeper than the Body and made its way through that into his very Soul throwing him into such vast Extremities such strange and horrible Convulsions as exceeded all things but the infinit demerit of our Sins which occasioned them What oppressions of Spirit What heaviness of soul unto death What dreadful Agonies What bloody sweat did it cast him into What vehement and reiterated Prayers Mat. 26.39 42 44. What doleful Cries under the Paroxysms of the Conflict did it extort from him And if Imputative guilt was thus terrible and tormenting to the holy Jesus what will Inherent be to the wicked Reprobates when they come to labour and struggle under it 2. Sin is of that virulent nature that like an Invenom'd Indian dart it not only Wounds but Poisons which appears from two particulars its quick spreading Contagion and its fatal Influence 1. It is of that subtle and quick Efficacy that it immediately diffuses its contagion through the whole Man through all the members of the Body the faculties of the soul and the spirit of the mind It mounts up into the Brain and fills that with unsound notions it corrupts all the senses making them the Panders of Vice and Vanity inflaming the Eyes with Lust and Anger and stopping the Ears like the Deaf Adder against the most charming and wholesom Instructions Ps 140.3 It sharpens the tongue like a Serpent and lays the poison of Asps under the lips so that nothing but Corrupt Communication proceeds thence Eph. 4.29 It breaks out in the hands in all gross acts of Violence and Injustice Yea from the sole of the foot even unto the head it leaves no soundness nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores Isa 1.6 It sinks into the inward man also darting its venom through all the secret channels and paths of life seizing the noblest appartments of the soul and the chief offices of reason It transforms all its faculties into the powers of Satan darkening the understanding that it cannot discern or determine aright of truth disabling the will for embracing and holding fast what is good and infeebling the memory that it can neither retain nor return the notions that are stampt upon it It converts the affections and inclinations of the Mind into Carnal Lusts and Appetites and infects the fountain of them the Heart so as to make it swell and rankle with all manner of malice and wickedness In short it turns the whole Body into a body of Sin changes that Incarnate Angel the Soul into a Fiend and taints our very Spirit that Divine Breath of Life making it stink in the nostrils of the Almighty Nay Sin is such an exalted Elixir of Poison that the least grain of it is
the Norman that bitter Enemy to the English Monarch and Nation to be forgotten not to mention that the most Noble Order of Bannerets wherewith several of his Progenitors have been honoured sufficiently proclaim their Martial Vertues and Performances But it being not from an Imputed but Inherent Worth that I design to transmit his Memory to Posterity I shall rather observe that the greatest Excellencies of his Ancestors seem'd to Concenter in his Person The singular Piety of his Grandfather Sir Peter the extraordinary Charity and Benignity of his Uncle Francis the Constancy and Fixedness in Religion of his Father the quickness and Gaiety of Spirit of his Mother with the untainted Loyalty of his whole Line conspired with united Rays to render him the more Illustrious These hopeful Seeds of Vertue and Excellency being cast into his Original Elements were so well water'd and cherish'd by his Careful and Pious Parents in the first Education of his Green Age so Cultivated and Improved by the Liberal Sciences at the University in his Blooming Youth and so Refined and Finished afterward at City and Court as render'd him a most Accomplish'd and Useful Gentleman both to his Prince and Country The Natural Talents of his Mind were above the Common Standard He was Endued with a large Capacity and generous Amplitude of Soul. His Understanding was able to penetrate and Master whatever he thought fit to turn it to His Memory so faithful as to retain every thing it laid hold on but Injuries and Vanities His Judgment solid and clear His Apprehension quick and sagacious and his Will always well disposed and in a posture to act as well as embrace every thing that was good and praise worthy He had an absolute Command over all his Passions save only those Divine ones which 't is the greatest freedom and honour to obey for though there were many things that might displease yet none could disturb him He had no Anger ever sparkling in his Eyes no Malice rankling in his Breast no Envy gnawing upon his Bowels He knew no hatred of any thing but Sin no fear of any thing but God. His whole frame was so mixt and interwoven of so smooth and even a Web that what Philosophy denies to the finest of Bodies was the peculiar Prerogative of his inward Composition Temperamentum ad Pondus In the happy Acquaintance and Converse I had with him for almost twenty years I never perceived in him the least Inclinations to any Immoral Indecent or Dishonourable Action He was free from all guile and disguise both in his Dealings and Discourses not using to wrap himself up in Clouds the more undiscernedly to carry on any mean or dark Designs But esteem'd it below him to dissemble or disown what he judged fit to be either thought or done He was not so Complaisant indeed as to indulge in himself or brook in others the Modish Humour of a Prophane Unclean or Abusive Wit much less the too fashionable Dialect of Oaths and Maledictions so that none came nearer to St. James's Character of a Perfect Man the not offending so much as in word No Pride strain'd his Behaviour Jam. 3.2 no Superciliousness distorted his Looks no Cynical Humour sowred his Expressions But I must not stand on these inferior Commendations for though a Negative Description be the highest we can give of God yet it is the lowest that can be given of a good Man. His Social Qualities and Ornaments were too excellent in their kind to be omitted He had all the Natural Charms and Graces of a most winning Address and a sweet Conversation which few that came within their happy Influence could defend themselves from being taken with None was ever endued with more Candor and Ingenuity more Frankness and Affability He affected a Singularity in nothing but in a sincerity and pitch of vertue above the Age. In every thing and under every Condition he was so easie free and well pleased as made every one so too about him which was not the fruit of any Labour'd Art of Popularity but the result of his happy Genius Chearfulness and Delight being as inseperable from his Company and streaming as easily and as naturally from him as Light from the Sun. His Temper and Deportment were so calm and gracious so sweet and obliging that he attracted the Esteem and Love and entertained the Eyes and Hearts of all People So that in him if ever that saying was really verified That none ever departed sad out of his Company except that they so soon departed He Acquitted himself no less Incomparably in all his Private Relations He was the best of Husbands to a most Accomplish'd Vertuous and Excellent Lady which he chose out of the Honourable and Renowned Family of the Chicheley's and by whom he was answered with an Equal Agreeableness Fidelity and Conjugal Affection He was the Tenderest of Fathers to a hopeful and numerous Issue of which the surviving six Sons and five Daughters do according to their Age shew Pregnant Symptoms of their Excellent Dispositions and the fair Fruits of his Paternal Care in their Gentile and Liberal Education in all things becoming their Sex and Quality and especially in their seasoning with the true Principles of Honour Vertue and Religion How cautious and tender he was in Marrying any of them without their full Consent their hearty Affection and free Choice he put out of doubt to others by raising one in himself and offering it as a Case of Conscience Whether it was Lawful for a Man to bend or incline the Affections of his Children if Advantageous and Honourable Matches were proposed and finding the Negative maintain'd he resolved to abide by it And according to these no less Prudent than Indulgent Measures a little before his Death he disposed both his Eldest Son and Daughter into very suitable and happy Marriages To his Tenants he was a good Landlord if that Epithet could be purchased either by his so moderate and kind usage of them when he came to his Estate as raised an envy in some of his Neighbours or his frequent demanding no greater Fine for three Lives upon an Expired Lease than what he offered to give them for their surrendring up his Lands into his hand sagain His Friendships not being founded on Fancy or Interest but on solid Reason and Vertue were durable and generous He was faithful to his Trusts of which he had many True to his Professions and Promises which he held as sacred and inviolable Constant to his Friend in the greatest extremity of an Adverse Fortune and a ready Minister to him in all Offices of Love and Service a Counseller in his Doubts a Comforter in his Distress a Pillar in his Weakness and a Pilot in his Danger That he was Master of a fair Estate was only his good Fortune and the praise of his Ancestors but it was his Commendation that he was a prudent Manager and a Considerable Improver of it particularly in the
cheerfulness and gladness of Heart By ingaging our passionate and melting Souls in the Divine and Pathetick transports of Joy and Exultation with this Triumphing Saint By Lanching as it were out of the Body to fly up after him into those Orbs of Blessedness above to be present at his Coronation and to behold how he Reigns and Shines in the Kingdom of Glory At least let us turn our Condoleances into Congratulations Anoint our Heads and put on both Festival Robes and Spirits at this time of his happy Inauguration How unsuitable are our mourning weeds to those white Raiments with which he is now Array'd How Incongruous are our sad cries and Ditties to his Joyful Hymns and sweet Hallelujahs Sure his blessed Condition which hath Advanced him above the Benefit though still below the Addresses and Adorations of our Prayers is a fitter subject for Thanksgiving than Lamentation One of the best Arguments of true Love is the sympathizing in both fortunes with the party beloved But what a Strange and Ridiculous proof do they offer of their Affection who break their hearts with Sorrow because their friend is Transported with Joy who suffer their own spirits to be the more Dejected by how much his is exalted like the Representation of the heavenly bodies in the water the higher the Objects are in Reality above its surface the Lower doth their Image and Counterpart seem to sink beneath it Let us rather Ascend with him in Divine Meditations and rais'd Affections into the highest heavens Let us Rejoyce with him who doth now Rejoyce and Sing with him who is now Singing a new song of glory and praise and thanksgiving to Him that sits upon the Throne for the infinite mercy of this his happy Translation There 's none who had any true affection for him here but would be desirous to have as much Converse with him still as is possible Now the only way and the highest degree of keeping up a spiritual Correspondence a holy Communion with him is by doing Gods will on Earth as he is doing it in heaven by gloryfying our Creator at his footstool as he is doing before his Throne by bearing though it be never so mean a part in that Universal Consort and Anthem of Divine praise which is Maintain'd by the Church OEcumenical whereof he is singing the highest and sweetest Notes in the August Cathedral of heaven There is Doubtless joy among the Angels at the Coronation of a Saint as well as at the Conversion of a Sinner and if there be no Expressions but of Sorrow amongst men on that Occasion what is this but to walk directly opposite to the Inhabitants of that upper world and to justify this Churches title of Militant on Earth upon this if there were no other reason that it Clashes with the ways and interests of that which is Triumphant in Heaven Let us wipe off this black Infamy from the glorious name of Christians Let Atheists and Libertines whose hopes Expire with their breath go whining about in the Low and Lamentable style of Melancholick and Doleful Elegies at the Death of their friends and of Despairing Declamations and bitter Curses upon the Cruelty of the Fates It becomes the Inlightned Race of Christs Disciples who profess themselves heirs of Eternity to make a higher and nobler Flight and in a generous and heroic strain to sing a Triumphant Song at the Departure of those who Die in the Lord and to Congratulate their happy Advancement with a chearfulness of Spirit not inferiour to that wherewith they now possess it This which I propose is no Impossibility in Nature nor Romance in Divinity but a practical Mystery and a Noble eminence of Religion The loving our Mortal Enemies and the rejoycing at the Death of our dearest friends are perhaps two of the greatest heights in all Christianity and the latter seems no harder a task than the former The one being but a Reconciling the Antipathies the other the divorcing the sympathies of humane Minds A pitch this which was oftner Reach'd by the Strength of Nature and reason in the more considering Heathens than the former The Thracians who mourned at the Nativity used to rejoyce at the Funerals of their Friends The Egyptians Celebrated the Obsequies of their Prophet Isis The People of Salamis of their King Evagoras and the old Massilienses of their Chiefest Friends not with sorrowful Lamentations and Cries but with Feasts and Entertainments with Plays and Showes with Musick and Dancing with Songs and joyful Acclamations as for those who were entering upon great Honours and Preferments Whereas we run counter to the common stream of nature as well as to the custom and reason of those Nations if at the birth of our Friends when they weep we rejoyce and at their Death when they rejoyce we weep and lament And though the Author of nature our blessed Saviour wept for Lazarus yet if we allow the a Doluit Lazarum non dormientem Christus sed potius resurgentem Hieron Consol ad Tyras It. Concil Toletan 3. Can. 22. Fathers Descant it was not for his death which freed him from the Miseries of this world but for his rising from the Dead which would again expose him to them And Religion recommended to the first and best Christians this more suitable and chearful practice of Rejoycing at their friends Death not only for the Pagans consideration that they rest from their Labours and all the troubles of this Life but upon a higher reason also that their works follow them and that they are admitted a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. 4 in Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. in laud. Cesarii Hieronym ad O ean Epitaph Fabiolae It. ad Eustach Epitaph Paulae into the Joy of their Lord. For the Ancient Church had their gladsome Torches and joyful Hymns and Psalms in their Offices of burial which they sung at their Funerals in Testimony of their hope in the Resurrection and in token that the Christian Combatants having now Conquer'd were Crown'd and advanc'd to glory praising and thanking God for the same taking Comfort to themselves and giving Honour to the person departed some Footsteps of which Primitive usage seem still Legible in the Customs of those places among us where Psalms are sung all the way while the Body is Carried to the Grave Antiquity celebrated the anniversary memorials of their Saints also not with the drooping and Melancholick ceremonies of tears and cries nor in the Mourning habit of Sackcloath and Ashes but with the most splendid Scenes of Mirth and Festivity with the sweetest expressions of Joy and Thanksgiving And Doubtless if we had the same vigorous faith and hope which they had we should not fail of shewing the same serenity of brow and alacrity of spirit upon the like occasions This is neither an unpracticable nor a very difficult province to him that hath learned to Live by Faith to him that not only confesses with his mouth but
able to transmute a whole World in a moment into its Malignant nature Which unhappy Projection hath been actually made already by our first Parents who no sooner toucht it but its Rancorous Ferment impregnated the whole Mass of Humane Nature stream'd through all the Blood of their Posterity and so turn'd the happy Golden Age into this wretched one of Brass and Iron 3. Sin is of a deadly Influence it may make its entry as Ehud did to Eglon with a Present in its hand but will at last leave a secret Dagger in our Bowels In a day or less it brings forth death Judg. 3.17 21. In the day thou eats thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 For though Man did not then presently die yet in the same instant he became Mortal that deadly infusion was then let into his Veins and mixt with his Spirits which was sure to be his Bane in the conclusion Whereas without this nothing in the World could have been destructive to us neither Weapon nor Distemper Bliting nor Thunder 't is Sin alone that gives an edge to the Sword an infection to the Air and points to the flames of Fire 't is this that gives malignity to Feavers virulence to Poisons and arms every Creature with instruments of death against us so that had we not been so wretched as to be Sinners we had been so happy as to be Immortal Our naked Innocence would have been greater security to us and more impenetrable than a Coat of Mail. Had it not been for this Sting Death it self could never have reach'd us no nor so much as had any being in the World. For Sin brings forth Death James 1.15 And though our Saviour who knew no Sin tasted of it yet that was not of necessity but a voluntary undertaking that as the first Adam by Sin brought Death into the World so he the second by Death might cast Sin out of it This is the bitter Root from whence springs all the Misery both for degree and kind which ever befell Humane Nature All the steps and advances towards our greatest sorrow from the first indisposition and slightest pain to final Death and utter Damnation derive from hence We were once so hardy and firm in our uprightness that nothing could pierce or annoy us but that unhappy fall that Sin gave us so bruised and loosened our Constitution and made us ever since so feeble and tender that we are now brought under the power of the weakest and most Contemptible Creature The least Fly wants not a weapon to wound us and the smallest Kernel hath been the fatal Instrument of Death The Lamp of our Life is now easily blown out we being ready to expire with any extraordinary Passions even those soft and gayer ones of Mirth and Joy. 'T is this that often makes the ordinary means of our health the occasion of our sickness and not only fasting but food mortal To this the several kinds of Death whether Temporal Spiritual or Eternal owe their Original The wounds which this Weapon gives are so fatal as to destroy not only Nature but Grace also and Glory working such a Miracle of Mischief as to extinguish that Life which is everlasting It is so dreadful and ruinous that it kills the Soul as well as the Body and sends not only to the Grave but to Hell. It destroy'd the old World of Men by a Flood laying waste the Primitive Paradisial Earth and turning it into a great ruine It swept away at once a great part of the Inhabitants of Heaven arresting the faln Angels before the Throne of the Almighty and hurrying them headlong into the bottomless Pit and it will at last people the woful Kingdom of Darkness wich an unknown number of miserable deluded Wretches There is no sort of it whether Original if its poison be not washed out in the Laver of Regeneration or Actual how small soever if the Viper be not crushed by Contrition and Repentance but will prove mortal One single act of it if it were possible to stop there nay the least omission entitles to eternal Death That is the wages that will be sure to be paid us even for not doing our work A petty neglect of Charity will deprive us of the inexhaustible Treasures of the Divine Mercy and we may purchase to our selves a portion in the lake which burns with fire by denying a Cup of cold Water Not only an idle word but sometimes silence it self consigns to Damnation Thus deadly is this Sting in all its kinds and degrees which is the Weapon wherewith this Enemy assaults us 3. The success which this Enemy usually meets with in his Conflict with Mankind is Victory If this were not sufficiently implyed in the Question Where 's thy Victory As if he should say thy Victory hitherto hath been notoriously both known and felt but where is it now yet all Countries and Ages Histories and Observation shew how he hath gone on Conquering and to Conquer what spoils and devastations he hath made throughout the World what slaughters and massacres he hath committed upon the sons of Men. There was never any universal Monarch upon Earth besides this King of Terrors to whom all living Creatures sooner or later must bow and obey The mightiest Princes as well as the meanest Subjects are his Tributaries he neither favours the Scepter nor forgets the Spade but calls for them all in and piles them up in one confused heap to raise a triumphal Pyramid to his name Cyrus and Alexander Caesar and Tamberlane after all their glorious Conquests and Trophies their Temples and Statues have at last let fall their Victorious Arms at the feet of this great Conqueror and laid down their Heads on the cold Clod in homage and obeisance to his unbounded Empire Those Heroick flaming Spirits who were so fierce and keen for Victory and Honour and so unsatiable with All this World could give them that they were impatient even to the Effeminacy of tears that there was no more then this to Conquer and Triumph over have yet in fine had all their heat and vigour quenched and tamed by the cold hand of Death their Glory covered with Darkness and themselves led in triumph by this great Triumpher who might insult them too in the Prophetick Stile saying Is this the Man that made the Earth to tremble Isa 14. and shaked Kingdoms That made the World a Wilderness and destroyed the Cities thereof How art thou faln from Heaven O Lucifer Son of the morning O thou who didst weaken the Nations Art thou also become weak like other Men Ezek. 32. Dost thou lie among those that are slain with the Sword And bear the shame of them that go down to the Pit How come thy once glittering weapons of War to lie so quiet and rusty by thee while those Despicable Enemies the Worms assault and prevail over thee intrench within thy bosom and prey upon thy Vitals He was as great a Warriour as