his graue in peace 1 King 22.19 20. and his eyes should not behold the euill that should bee brought vpon that place Contrariwise the want hereof is threatned as a curse to Ierâ—bâ—â—â—â— and Ahab Kings of Israel that they and their posterity should be deuoured with dogs And because Iehoiakim fell from God it was foretolde vnto him by the Prophet That hee should not bee buried honourably but he should be buried as an Asse is buried euen drawne and cast forth without the gates of Ierusalem Obiect But some will obiect that the faithfull often times want buriall some consumed to ashes some drowned in the waters some deuoured of wild beasts some hanged on gibbets of whom the VVorld was not worthy as the Prophet complayneth Psal 79.2 3. The dead bedies of thy Seruants haue they giuen to be meate to the Fowles of the Heauen and the flesh of thy Saints vnto the heasts of the Earth their blood haue they shed like waters round about Ierusalem and there was 〈◊〉 to bury them I answer Resol all temporall chastisements are common to the godly and vngodly as famin plague pestilence sword nakednesse and such like punishments which God shooteth as his arrowes against the sonnes of men The fauour of God bringing saluation standeth not in these outward things for as it cannot profit a wicked and wretched man to bee solemnly interred and costly buried dying out of the fauour of God As is noted in the Parable of the rich glutton so it shall not hurt a righteous man Luk. 10 22 23. to want a sumptuous solemnizing of his funerall Yet let vs make a difference betweene the body of man and beast for as man differeth from the beast in his life Gen. 2.7 Made after the image of God fashioned to looke vpward created with a reasonable soule and sundry other prerogatiues so hee should in his death and buriall The bodies of beasts are drawne forth being dead to lie in the open aire to be deuoured one of another and it skilleth not but it is vnseemely and vnlawfull against order and honesty that the dead bodies of men should be cast out vnburied into ditches and dunghils or such foule and filthy places And therefore Iehuspeaking of Iezabel cast downe out of her window and hauing her blood sprinckled vpon the wall said Visit now yonder cursed woman 2 King 9.34 and bury her Seeing then that the dead carkasse of man is so vnsauoury and loathsom by reason of sinne and seeing buriall is a blessing where it is bestowed and a curse where it is denied we conclude that it is a courteous and commendable duty testifying our loue and reuerence to the dead so soone as life is departed and death hath arrested them to commit the body to the graue And thus haue I albeit in a weake measure particularly set downe what I could touching each duty of mercy both to soule and body desiring and humbly beseeching all those into whose hands this Treatise shall happen so to shew mercy vnto others as they would haue mercy as the hands of God towardes themselues Les vs therefore hee mercifull as our Heauenly Father is mercifull Thus much touching the precept The President In these words As your father which is in heauen is merciful FIrst whereas Christ teacheth vs to call God father wee are emboldned to make our suits vnto him least we might say as Abraham what be we Gen. 18.27 which are but dust and ashes to talke vnto God Secondly when wee confide him as a father in the very beginning of our prayer wee acknowledge his bounty and grace For first this name of father is a name to moue vs to come vnto him The wandring sonne said Ibo adpatrem I will goe vnto my father Luk. 15.18 Secondly it is a name of priuiledge Rom 8.18 Hee hath giuen vs saith the Apostle his spirit whereby wee cry Abba father And thirdly it is a name of prouidence your heauenly father careth for you 1. Pet. 5.7 But how come wee to call God by a name of loue of priuiledge and of prouâ—dence Surely hee that willeth vs to call God father hath made him our father Hee hath giuen vs power Ioh. 1.12 to become the sonnes of God In the old law God is called by the name of Lord Ego Dominus I the Lord there his people are called seruants now from the name of the Lord he is called father his people from feruants are become sonnes and all by the meanes of Christ Iesus Ascende ad patrem meum patrem vestrum I go to my father and your father my God and your God Now calling God father as it is a name of dignitie for it is thought to goe well with the children of a rich and louing father so is it a name of duty And as he hath the properties of a rich and louing father to loue to care for and to pitty so should wee haue also the quallities and properties of good children to honour him to serue him and to obey him lest it bee said as it was once of some Nutriui filios Esay 1.2 I haue nourished children and they haue rebelled aganist me Secondly as Christ called God here by the name and title of a father so in like manner hath he to the comfort of vs his chosen children and seruants entituled himselfe by the name of our father After this maÌ„ner pray Our Father which art in heauen c. And first this may teach vs with bouldnesse to call and cry vnto God being our so mercifull so louing and so carefull a father in all our necessities and afflictions Call vpon me sayth almighty God Psal 50.15 in the time of trouble and I will heare thee and thou shalt praise me Secondly this teacheth vs when wee pray to pray all in one Let not the rich and mighty therefore dispise the poore and needy it is the will of our blessed Lord and Sauiour Christ Iesus to haue vs altogether to call to God our father why then should any one contemne or disdaine others Thirdly this may admonish vs to loue one another and to haue a participation or fellow feeling of the wants and miseries of our brethren according to the counsell of the Apostle Rom. 12.16 Reioyce with them that reioyce weepe with them that weepe and bee of like affection one towards an other Iohn 13.34.35 A new commandement I gine you that ye loue one another By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if ye loue one another This so commendable a vertue nature her selse hath taught the wise men euen among the heathen which were wont to say Nihiltam esse secundum Naturam quam iuuare consortem nature nothing is more agreeable to nature then to helpe them that pertake with vs in the same nature especially seeing the creator of nature hath indued vs with the same condition of nature that no man should
on the hornes of the altar and so the Lord did bring his bloud vpon his owne head Aelianus reporteth of one Cratenas who vilanously slew Archilaus tirant of macedonia of whom hee was entirely beloued that hee might make a compendious way vnto the kingdome but hee tasted of the same sauce For he had scarce enioyed the kingdome three dayes before hee was also slaine fulfilling the verse of Dramatus Qui struit Insidias alijs sihi damna dat ipsi wrought Hee that hath snares for others Himself the â—n is likwise caught This shall suffice to shew how God in his deepe and vnsearcheable prouidence punisheth yea in this life cruell and vnmercifull persons with the same measure that they meate vnto others Messem saith S. ' Bernard habebis semente dignam thy haruest shall be according to thy sowing Immisericordiam seminasti habe quodamasti hast thou sowed vnmercifulnes receiue what thou louest Fugisti misericordiam te fugit misericordia Didst thou fly mercy mercy will fly from thee Detestatus es pauperem detestabitur te qui propter nos factus est pauper Doest thou hate the poore He will also hate thee who for our sakes became poore Where is become the large liberallitie of old benefactours towards the poore members of Iesus Christ Is not all with many scant sufficient to maintaine our excesses The pride of the world in attire and the maintenance thereof in lauishing the the needlesse superfluity of diet hath eaten vp hospitality and mercy toward many hungry soules it causeth that wee haue little to leaue at our departure for the good of others Neuer more at table neuer lesse at door neuer more sumtuous in cloathing our selues neâ—er lesse respect of others Nature is content with few things all will not serue out excesse Let vs therefore be so sparing in superfluous expences that we may be the more liberall towards mercifull and charitable vses yea let vs be kinde merciful on towards another as wee hope for mercy â—at the haÌ„ds of our heaueÌ„ly father Let vs therefore be merciful as c. Thus much touching the sixt worke of mercy to the body Condo THE last worke of mercy towards the body consisteth in burying the dead touching which duty the Wise man saith My son poure forth thy teares ouer the dead Ecclesiasticus 38.16 then couer his body according to his appointment and neglect not his buriall The same commandement giueth Tobit to his Sonne Tobit 14.10 My Sonne when I die burie me honestly VVhence we may gather that sunerall rites decent interring of corpes exequies and seemely mournings which Saint Austen calleth Officium postremi muneris our last duties of loue are not vnfitting the practise of those amoÌ„gst whom all things should be done in order The Israelites in burying so honourably their Parents and Gouernours did shew themselues to be people of good and orderly dispositions Abraham the Father of the faithfull Gen. 23.4 bought a possession of buriall of the Hittites who by the sight and light of nature had their Sepulchers And therefore answered Abraham Thou art a Prince of God amongst vs in the chiefest of our Sepulchers bury thy dead none of vs shall forbid thee his Sepulcher but thou maiest burie thy dead therein Gen. 25. So when Abraham yeelded the spirit and died in a good age and was gathered to his people his Sonnes Isaac and Ismael buried him in the care of Machepelah in the field of Hephron where Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife The like wee see done to Isaac when hee gaue vp the ghost being old and ful of daies his two Sonnes Esau and Iacob buried him Now as Iacob did to his Father so his children doe to him according as he had coÌ„manded them For they carried him into the Land of Canaan and buried him in the caue of the field of Machpelah which Abraham had bought The like may be said of Moses Deut. 34.56 for albeit the people buried him not neither knew of his Sepulcher lest they should abuse it to Idolatry yet rather then hee should want buriall he was buried of God The men of Iabesh Gilead 2 Sam. 2.5 6. are praised of God and rewarded of Dauid because they buried King Saul and his Sonne and aduentured their liues to doe vnto him their last duty The same might be saide of the rest of the Patriarkes Prophets Iudges Kings Gouernours and Priests Yea the new Sepulcher Luk. 23.53 the cleane linnen cloathes the sweet ointments and the assembly of men of reputation shewed how our Sauiour was respectiuely regarded and entembed with sâ—leâ—â—nity These examples teach that it is a Christian and commendable duty of the liuing to bee performed to the dead of Children to be performed to their Parents of the people of God one towards another to commit the body of the deceased to the graue to put dust to dust and so to couer earth with earth And certainely those bedies which haue beene the Temples of the Holy Ghost and shall bee at the day of doome changed into a condition of glory should haue that decencie performed as is agreeable both to comely practise Christian sâ—omlinesse wherefore as they are very highly to bee exalted whose honourable care to the dead is such as to erect them Tombes and to repaire and beautifie their decayed Monuments so on the other side they are greatly to bee reproued and found fault withal that carelesly attend to the funerals of their brethren departed But what shall I say to such as deface the Monuments of the dead Surely such deserue to haue their names to be blotted out of good mens remembrance for such their cruell inhumane and barbarous dealing whereas they ought rather to beautifie the blessed memories and repaire the decaied tombes of their Ancestors and Forefathers Let vs I say in this last point of loue also so shew mercy vnto others as wee would likewise expect in the same case to be performed towards our selues especially it being a matter of so great weight and moment For first amongst all creatures Man is most loathsome and vgly when his life is departed as in his birth bringing forth into the VVorld of all Creatures hee is most fraile and feeble without strength to stand without helpe to defend himselfe so being dead he is become noysom gastly and deformed hee that a little before gloried of his beauty comelinesse feature and proportion is now become the mirrour spectacle of a deformed mishapen and noysom carkasse such a confusion and wracke hath sinne wrought and brought into our nature This is noted in Lazarus Ioh. 11.39 who hauing lien buried but foure dayes his body stunke Secondly buriall is promised as a blessing from God and the want of it threatned for a plague and iudgement God offereth it as a mercy to Abraham Gen. 15.15 that he should be buried in a ripe age and to Iosiah that he should be put in
meanes yet God neuer reiects a charitable meaning it is the mind not the gift the will not the worke the affection not the action that God esteemes and therefore Saint Paul commendeth the Corinthians For that they had begunne not onely to doe but also to will 2 Cor. 10. for there may bee a doing of good and no good will there may be giuing without charity and curtesie without mercy In some either fashion not compassion or humour not vertue or hypocrisie not Christianity produceth strained fained maimed acts of mercie Such a giuer doth but cast off his superfluity superfluously hut the truly compassionate like the widdow puts into Gods treasury of his substance really the one giues externally the other giues internally As Saint Gregory saith he giues Extra semetipsum Somewhat without himselfe this de semetipso a peece of himself And albeit this kinde of mercy be most vsuall when it meeteth with vnderserued misery yet must there be a pitty euen of a iust calamity both in priuat men that in others see daily Gods righteous iudgements and in Magistrates that vsually punish malefactours vnlesse the fault be out of measure some heynous offence either against God or his annointed wherein to be merciful were to be miserable and to be compassionate very vniust Let vs not therfore grieue yea let vs rather reioyce with a great and vnspeakeable ioy when traytors murtherers or the like are worthily brought to confusion Psal 85.10 Seeing mercy and truth they then doe meete righteousnesse and peaoe therein kisse one another But in regard of our own priuate wronges wee are taught to loue our enemies To blesse them that curse vs Mat. 5.44 45. and to doe good to them that hate vs and to pray for them which hurt vs and persecute vs that wee may be the children of our Father which is in Heauen for hee maketh the sunne to arise on the euill and on the good and sendeth raine on the iust and on the vniust Let vs not so feast the body onely that the soule should fast as many doe who are mercifull but in part Yea in regard of the soule they are altogether mercilesse For what good doe these men towards the redemption of a soule from the bondage of sinne and Sathan more then they doe to a dog a horse or a hog yet as the miseries of the soule are more dangerous so should they more carefully be regarded pittied Let vs not whilst we carefully feed the soule suffer the body to pine in want and penury as also some do who being ouer-clogged with the terrestriall affayres of this life may not part with a penny what neede socuer should be Howbeit as man consisteth of soule and body and is subiect to miseries in them both so must wee be charitable to him in relieuing of both If you aske saith Lactantius why God created the world It was because man should be created If you demaund why man was created It was because hee should worship his creator If you aske why hee should worship his creator It was for no other cause but that he might be rewarded by him These are the bowels of Gods mercy who had no other cause of his mercy but his mercy no other end but his owne glory and our good wherein there is no end of his goodnes no number of his mercies no measure of his wisdom no depth of his bounty whose great loue to maÌ„kind was apparent in this when he purchased our redemption with the effusion of the most precious blood of his deere onely begotten Sonne And therfore saith Tertullian si tanta in terris moraretur fides quanta merces expectatur in Coelis were there so great faith on earth as there is reward to be expected in heauen how great should our loue be one towards another to tender the good one of another to releeue the wants and necessities one of another And surely man hath but two pleas before the throne of Gods iudgement seate the one of Innocency the other of mercy the former neuer any that Immaculate Lambe excepted could plead what interest shall man challenge in the plea of mercy who hath denied the same to his brother For saith Christ our Sauiour Mat. 18.33 oughtest not thou also to haue had pitty on thy fellow euen as I had pitty on thee Let vs then Col. 3.1 2. so many as bee risen with Christ seeke those things which are aboue where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God the father Set I say your affections on things which are aboue and not on things which are on earth Worldly minded men fitly resemble the earth in these fiue points first the nature of the earth is cold and dry so are all worldly affections to deuotion and charity Secondly the earth standeth still and hath the circumfereÌ„ce carried round about it so are Gods benefites about earthly men and they are not at all mooued Thirdly the earth doth oftâ—ntimes keepe downe many hot exhalations which naturally would ascend so doe worldly affections many charitable motions Fourthly the earth is heauie and heauie things goe downeward so worldly men set all their affections onely vpon the terrestriall things of this life according to the saying of the Apostle Phil. 3.18 19â— They are enemies to the Crosse of Christ whose end is damnation whose God is their belly whose glory is to their shame who minde earthly things Lastly yet the earth is fruitfull after tilling and manuring so to conclude till the heart of man be fully manured with the graces of Gods holy Spirit it can bring forth no good fruite of deuotion charitie Let our compassion therefore so largely extend it selfe towards the consolation of others as in like manner we would expect from the hands of the Almightie towards our selues ending with this of our Sauiour Let vs be mercifull as our heauenly Father is mercifull Now the God of grace mercy so guide you in the wayes of holinesse good workes that both in life death you may glorifie God your creator to whom with the Sonne and holy Spirit be giuen and ascribed from the bottome of our hearts all power praise might maiesty and dominion both now and for euer Amen FINIS