spiritual ODOURS TO THE MEMORY OF PRINCE HENRY IN FOUR OF THE LAST SERmons preached in St JAMES after his highness death, the last being the Sermon before the body, the day before the Funeral.  
BY DANIEL PRICE then Chaplain in Attendance.  ECCLUS. 49.1. 
The remembrance of josias is like the composition of the perfume made by the Apothecary.  
AT OXFORD Printed by joseph Barnes and are to be sold by john Barnes dwelling near Holborn Conduit. 1613.   

TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY, VIRTUOUS AND GRACIOUS PRINCE, PRINCE CHARLES, THE BEAUTY OF THE covert, AND THE BLESSING OF THIS COUNTRY, DANIEL PRICE, WITH HIS MOST DEVOTED OBSERVANCE, OFFERETH THESE HIS LAST SERVICES TO BLESSED PRINCE HENRY.   
PSAL. 90.15. 
Comfort us now, according as thou hast afflicted us.  
HONOURABLE, mournful, worthy Auditory  
I stand here, as that amazed servaunt of Elias, crying & lamenting for my MASTER feeling the pain, fearing the peril of his loss; 
Ps. 19.5.  o what a thunderbolt of astonishment is it to us all, that the sun, coming forth as a bridegroom, out of his chamber, and reioicng as a Giant to run his course, should set even before the Meridian and midday! it is a thought that beats the breath out of my body and makes my soul ready to fly from me: yet seeing it is your own desire and expectation that we should frequently gather to these sad, and solemn exercises in this holy place of this house of mourning, though my worthy Colleagues sickness and mine own weakness might be Apologies, I forbear rather the excuse then the exercise, seeing Apologies be as obvious as odious, not only Heralds to blanch, but ushers to blame such delinquency.  
You have heard how our Saviour his servants, his disciples, daily waiters, were scattered; 
Mat. 26.13.  in the same chapter, I find small argument of comfort for these distressed dispersed souls, but at the same time, as may be collected out of S. john, our Saviour comforteth his servants thus, 
joh. 16.22.  Ye are now in sorrow but I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice: which meditation now hath moved me, 
Gen. 8.  to bring you an Olive branch, in these waves and waters of sorrow, not thereby to wish an end, to your mourning, but to season it that it may be better and stronger, 
Gen. 8 8. Mat. 3.16.  and hereafter more for your pleasure, more for your profit: when the Ark was on the waters the Dove was sent out, when Christ was in the waters the Dove was sent down, 
Greg. in Moral.  Columba est spiritus consolationis saith Gregory, the Dove representeth the spirit of comfort, and when the flood is come to full tide, the Dove shall be sent that the waters may cease, when sorrow is at full age, sweet wood must be cast into the bitter waters, 
Psal. 85.8.  peace shall come saith the Prophet, Comfort shall have a time, worldly contentments may end in bitterness, 
joseph. Antiq.  jordan may run a long race, sweetly and pleasantly, and afterwards fall into the dead sea, and never recover itself again, but the joy, and comfort of God's servants (notwithstanding all eclipses) shall finally never be obscured, 
Chrysost.  times twins day and night shall be changed, the four colours of the vail of man's Temple, the Elements, shall be consumed, the soul and body of the world, Heaven and earth shall be destroyed, but the comforts of God's children shall never be extinguished, you may believe him without an oath, but I have sworn by my holiness saith the Lord, 
Psal. 89.25. 1. Kings. 19.12  I will never forsake David. As he dealt by Elias, to send first the whirlwind, than the Earthquake, than the fire, but then the small still voice, so hath he dealt with all his Prophets after all the threatenings, and thunderings, he sends messages of Consolation, by Esay thus, Comfort ye, Comfort ye, 
Esay. 40.1. jer. 31.13.  my people, will God say; By jeremy thus, I will comfort them & give them joys for sorrows; By Ezechiel thus, 
Ezek 14 22.  ye shall be comforted concerning all the evil I have brought upon you; By Zachary thus, The Lord will yet comfort Zion, 
Zech. 1.17.  & as Christ spoke, so may COMFORT say, of me all the Prophet's bare witness: but among all Prophecies, none so comfortable, none so watered with the dew of heaven, as the book of Psalms, this is the Spouses garden, 
Cant. 4.12.13  here be the lilies and roses, here be Apples and Pomegranates, and sweet fruits, here be the myrrh, aloes, Cassia and sweet spices, here be the fountains of the garden, wells of living water, the springs of Lebanon, sweet waters: every Psalm is as the fount of Bethel, 
Basil. in. 1. Ps.  & as Basil by experience speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, every Psalm is a message of Peace, & embassage of mercy. Hence had the servants of God in all ages the balm of Gilead to apply to their sores & sorrows. 
Euseb lib. 12. & prep. cap. 13.  I need not tell you how many Prophets and Apostles in the old and new Testament have used authorities hence, 
Euseb.  or how Plato is by Eusebius reported to receive instruction from this book, or how Babilas the Bishop, or Mauritius the Emperor seasoned the misery of their Martyrdom with a Canticle of a Psalm, or how many holy Martyrs, all the ancient Fathers, all the Saints of God have made blessed use of this book, that gins with blessedness, 
In Maz. & Concord.  and contains nothing but blessedness, being repeated in the Concreat 27. times in this one book, which like the tree that beareth fruit every month twelve times a year, 
Reu. 21.  so the Church hath appointed every month that this book bring forth fruit in due season, 
Ps. 1.  and among all uses of Comfort our blessed Saviour hence commended his soul sent up in a Psalm unto his father, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.  
This Psalm I have taken up for your use, in this sad and sable time, it is the first of all the Psalms in order, though not in number, it was made 300. years before David or this book were extant; for when Moses the man of God, 
Deut. 32.  had passed the Meridian of his life, 
Mart. in. Is.  being now in the afternoon of his age, seeing & foreseeing the night of death approaching, God's heavy indignation increasing, Israel still disobeying, he entereth into the consideration of man's transitory station, showing how many waves are ready to devour this little I'll of man, how he is turned to destruction, scattered and consumed, cut down, 
Psal 90.  dried up and withered: our misdeeds (saith Moses) are before thee, our sins are in the fight of thy countenance, our years are a tale that is told, our strength is but labour and loss, so far you see man's sun is in the Eclipse, here is nothing but lachrymae & suspiria, tears, sighs, sobs, & sorrows, deploration, lamentation, fit meditations for our souls. But behold what followeth, 
Amb.  O turn thee unto us again, O be gracious, O teach us, O satisfy us, O comfort us, O show us the light of thy countenance, O prosper thou the works of our hands unto us, O prosper thou our handy works. Here be preces & vota, prayers and Consolations, amulets of comfort, the Sunshine in brightest lustre and splendour. Our of those five stones that David took out of the brook, he used but one, 
1 Sam. 17.40.  so out of all these I have singled this singular petition for consolation. Comfort us now, according as thou hast afflicted us. And my hearty desire is as that of S. Austin in the like kind, Deus faciet hunc textum tam commodum, 
Aust.  quam accommodatum, God grant it may be as fruitful and profitable as it is fit and commendable for these sorrowful seasons. The text itself is a prayer; and a prayer you know is a present help in trouble, it is the language of heaven, it is a messenger as speedy as happy, faithful for speed, fruitful for success, and partaketh much of omnipotency, no hindrance of the way, no difficulty of the passage can hinder, Prayer dispatches in a minute all the way betwixt heaven and earth, and as a fiery chariot mounteth into the presence of the Almighty to seek his assistance: Si in terrore mentis, si in agone mortis, if in any anxiety of mind, if in any agony of mortality▪ 
Chrys.  thou fly to this Tower here be the arms and Armoury of the strong men, it is the incense of the Church, it is the spikenard of the Tabernacle, it was Moses rod, 
Can. 5 5. Exod. 30.34. Exod 17 5. jam 5.17.  it was Elias key, it was to jacob his sword and bow, it was to David his sling and spear, so is Prayer in general; and this one text in particular, to make no more excursions, is as the Angel that came down into the pool of Shiloa, it is a healing prayer, a prayer never is more necessary than now, especially this kind of prayer, Comfort thou us now according as thou hast afflicted us. [Comfort thou] thou hast plagued, as in the former verse, Thou turnest man to destruction, turn thou, therefore unto us again, it is the same God, vulnus opemque tulit, he casteth down and raiseth, killeth and quickeneth, scattereth & gathereth, plagueth and comforteth. [Comfort thou] God is Lord of the soil, as well of the waters of Mara as the waters of Shiloa. Comfort thou us now, The eyes of us all look up and trust in thee, thou givest us meat in due season, O give us comfort in due season, in this needful time of trouble, 
Divisio.  now that sorrow clothes us, and mourning clouds us.  
I might divide this fountain into many streams, God plaguing, Moses praying, the time when he prayed, the cause why he prayed, the manner how he prayed, but I remember that position to divide a little into many parts, is to make every part less than it should, and the whole less than itself. 
2ae Parts.  My meditations shall only be fixed upon these 2. The Comforts desired, and persons afflicted, and of these in that order.  
Comfort is the soul of a Christians soul, the sweetest Companion, that ever accompanied man in this vale of mortality, never did the dew of Hermon, so sweetly fall upon the hill of Zion, as comfort when it is distilled into the distressed soul of a Christian. In our travail through the wilderness of SIN, hateful for the name harmful for the nature of the place, comfort is the fiery pillar to lead us through this wilderness of our wills, it is the brook in the way to refresh us, the Manna of the desert to feed us, the Angel of the Lord to conduct us, 
Psal. 121.  I may truly say as David in the Psalm, It is our defence upon our right hand so that the sun shall not burn us by day nor the moon by night, it is even this that shall keep our soul. The names of mercy & love and grace and Peace, be precious and glorious, 
Zeged.  sweeter than honey and the honey comb, 
Ps. 19  more to be desired then gold yea then fine gold, and where these be there is truly, The family of Love: But I may say, that Comfort is as much as all these, 
Greg. in Mor. in job.  for as Gregory writing upon that, Manna habuit omne delectamentum, saith that no variety of delicacy, in the touch & relish of the taste was wanting in that Angel's food; and as the Opal resembleth in itself the fiery lustre of the Carbuncle, the fieldy greenness of the Emerald, the heavenly clearness of the Diamond, the airy azure of the sapphire, so Comfort containeth in her regiment the effects of peace, the comforted soul is reconciled to God, it containeth the adjuncts of grace, the soul is endowed with heavenly gifts, it containeth the protection of mercy, the soul is compassed with defence on every side: In a word it containeth in it, the affections of love, the comforted soul loveth others as friends, God as a father, loveth his enemies for God's sake, loveth affliction for hits own sake, remission of sins, communion of Saints, protection of Angels, faith, hope, charity, repentance, fasting, praying, obeying, all blessed spirits, all Tutelar powers dwell in such a comforted sanctified soul, the soul is then like the King's daughter all glorious within, her clothing is then of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle work, 
Ps 45.13.  the virgins that be her fellows shall keep her company, so that soul, that is blessed with these five, Comfort, and Peace, and Grace, and mercy, and love, is attended as Abigail when she went to meet David, she was followed by her five virgins. 
1. King. 25.42  In the Canticles I find that there is hortus conclusus, and fons signatus, a garden enclosed, & a fountain sealed, in the Gospel I find that there is Thesaurus absconditus, 
Chrys. Aug. Greg.  a hidden treasure; I want not testimonies of some ancients applying there, both the fountain sealed, and the Treasure concealed unto comfort, for as the Lord only knoweth who are his, so they only that are his, know what his comfort is. To all others comfort is hortus conclusus, a Paradise closed up, kept with the brandishing swords of two heavenly soldiers. These seek and find not, because they seek amiss, 
Mat. 7.  they knock and it is not opened because they knock being not prepared. 
Aust.  Non nisi post pluviam sequitur serenitas, sunshines be never so pleasant and seasonable as after showers: Such as are not acquainted with sorrow never knew the mystery of godly holy comfort, which is the Christians heaven upon earth, joy in life, hope in death, prosperity in adversity, staff in affliction, anchor in desperation, breastplate of preservation, golden Chain of glorification in the heavens. Which we hope to possess in joy, as the Saints do now enjoy in glory.  
Sorrow is the burden of every Christian, Confidence is the shoulder to hold up this burden, Comfort is the hand to help this shoulder, he that is without comfort in the world is without God in the world. If the well of God's mercies be deep to him, and he have nothing to draw, 
Eccl. 12.  If the silver cord be not lengthened, and the golden Ewer be broken, and the pitcher broken at the well, 
Bucer.  and the wheel broken at the Cistern, illic desolatio, non consolatio, to such there is misery, and an unspeakable degree, an unmeasurable measure of misery, they are dead being alive as S. Paul speaketh, for the comfort of God's holy spirit is taken from them. And how great a loss it is to lose God's spirit, and to lose the comfort of God's spirit, David mentioneth in the Psalm of his sorrow, 
Ps. 51.  when he ingeminateth O take not away thy holy spirit from me, O give me the comfort of thy spirit. He found how great a curse this loss was to his Predecessor, for God took away the comfort of his spirit and an evil spirit came upon Saul. 
Bernard.  S. Bernard comparing the Repentance of David and Saul observeth, that when they both had sinned, and God had answered them both, the answer unto both was, Dominus transtulit, the Lord hath taken away. Saul repenteth, and his word is Peccavi, 1. Sam. 15.24. David sinneth & repenteth, 
1. Sam. 15. 2 Sam. 12. 1 Sam. 15. 2 Sam. 12.  his word is Peccavi. 2. Sam. 12.13. The words of confession the same. The answer to Saul was Dominus transtulit, 1. Sam. 15.28. The answer to David was Dominus transtulit, 2. Sam. 12.13. They were both Kings, both sinned, both were warned by 
n =" *" Sam. & Nath  Prophets, both confessed, both repent, both were answered, their both words alike to the Prophet, their answers both alike in part from the Prophet, Dominus transtulit. Yet never so much difference between words as between these two answers, for to David the answer was transtulit peccatum the Lord hath taken away thy sin, but to Saul a double transtulit, but a curse with both Dominus transtulit regnum, the Lord hath taken away thy kingdom, 1. Sam. 15.26. again, 
1. Sam. 15.  Dominus transtulit spiritum, the Lord hath taken away his spirit 1. Sam. 16.14. This latter was the greater, 
1. Sam. 16.  it was the plague, and the utter overthrow of Saul, God's spirit was taken from him, the sun was for ever ecclypsed to him, the life of his life was extinguished, his soul was dead within him, Dominus transtulit spiritum. David knew this and remembered it O take not the comfort of thy holy spirit is his prayer, he prayeth not, take not away my children, or my health, or my goods, or my subjects, but spiritum sanctum tuum ne aufer as à me. 
Psal. 51.  In which words Athanasius proveth that David doth manifest that the holy Ghost was known to the jews under the law, and especially by this place, which that father thus readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Take not from me that spirit of thine which is holy, 
Athan. in Ep ad Scrap. long.  & as that father expoundeth this place of the third person, 
Hier. in. Ps. 51.  so S. Hierom upon the words following, Give me the comfort of thy salvation, again proveth the knowledge of Christ foreknown & foreseen by the jews, for that father readeth it. Restore me the comfort or joy jesutui, and the Hebrew word there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is expounded by the learned in that tongue to be jesus. But to the purpose.  
Moses here, as David there, showeth that all comforts come from God: Take not the comfort of thy spirit, saith the one, O comfort thou us, saith the other; from which this observation necessarily ariseth, No comforts are truly comforts, 
Obseru.  unless they be divine proceeding from God. No dew to Hermon, no joy to heaven, no food to the Manna of God, no content to the mercy of God, Summa consolatio, saith S. Bernard, non à creatura, sed à creatore concipitur▪ quam cum conceperis nemo tollet à te, 
Bern. Ep. ad Vig.  cui aliunde quodcunque comparatum, omnis iocunditas maeror est, omnis suavitas dolor est, omne dulce amarum est, omne postremò quod delectare potest molestum est; The chief comfort is that which is conceived in the Creator not in the creature, unto which whatsoever thou dost compare, all sweet is sour, all pleasure is pain, 
Gen. 3.16. Gen. 26 31. Rev. 17.4.  all things that seem delightsome, prove loathsome; Adam's apple losing the blessing, Esaws broth selling the birthright, Babylon's cup full of poison, or judas sop the earnest of perdition: 
Mat. 24.23.  the pleasures taken by them in the time of Noah, were ended in bitterness, they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage, but saith the Text, The flood came and took them away. 
job. 21. & 24.  The Rioters in job are described often especially in the 21. and 24. Chapters, but his sons might have served for examples, 
job. 1.18.  they were eating and drinking in their eldest brothers house, but saith the Text there came a wind from the wilderness, and smote the house and it fell upon the young men. Or if there be not curses upon these assimilated comforts, 
job. 15.  yet some cross or other will fall upon them; Branches may be green saith job, but they fall of before their days, the sweet vine may have sour grapes, or the fair olive may cast her flowers. Adans' Paradise notwithout a serpent, jonas guord notwithout a worm to destroy & engaster it in the most time of use of it. Whereas true, solid, real, comforts they shall never be divorced, or sequestered from God's Saints, they will ever look upon them with a mutual, reciprocal, interchangeable aspect, as the cherubins from the mercy seat; they will ever be inseparable individual companions, peregrinantur, 
Pro Arch. Poet  rusticantur, as the Orator spoke of Arts, these divine comforts, will sleep and feed, and travel, and live and die, with those that be possessed of them. How therefore are the gallants of the world, as well passive as active gulls, in this that they suffer themselves to be cheated by becoming slaves to the pleasures of the world, 
Tit. 3 3.  as S. Paul to Titus calleth them! they believe Satan upon his offer, and believe not God upon his oath, whereas Satan promiseth to some that which he can not, to others that which he will not give, to some seeming to give what is not his, to others giving that which were better not theirs. Moses' in his last farewell to the world, considers this, & lamenteth for his people, 
Deut. 32.29.  o that they were wise, than they would consider this, they would remember the later end; it is the end, that doth give grace, to every action, the world could not be possessed with a general witchcraft, if they considered the end: 
Innocentius.  they than might find, that of Innocentius true, that all sublunary passages, had either a vain, a vile, or a wicked object, ex opibus prava, ex voluptatibus turpia, ex honoribus vana, Honours make men vain, pleasures make men vile, riches make men servile: wretchedness and wickedness beget these, vanity and servility attend these, sin brings them in, shame leads them out, and when the world hath been glutted with them, the Apostles question is what comfort have ye in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed?  
I will end amplifying of this point, if before we leave the Court, we may be bold to go through the best and bravest rooms therein and see, now our MASTER is gone, whether any thing can give us a sure, and settled comfort, nay, I say more, whether any thing remaining may give us any manner of content. At the best state of Court, he spoke true that said, Paucos beavit Aula, plures perdidit, & quos beavit ipsos perdidit, 
Bern. ad. Eugen  at the best state Courtly offices are consciences burdens, and favours bondslaves; courtly services, daily attendances, hourly encumbrances; courtly feeding, the body's surfeit, and the souls surquedry; courtly clothing, worms excrements, worms make them, moths eat them: courtly friends, affections weathercock, a north-wind settles them, & a southwind turns them; courtly hopes they be the airs atoms, a sunshine engenders them, and a frost kills them. This house of this Court where we thought, Comfort had said, as God sometimes spoke, here will I dwell for ever, this house now is the prison of our sorrow, as our bodies be the prison of our souls, we sit here as Rahell sat, 
jer. 32.15. Mat. 3.18.  weeping and weeping refusing comfort, so that unless comfort come from God, who is the God of all comfort as the Apostle speaketh, we may sit here, till our eyes fall into the holes of our heads, & we ourselves become as stupid as the seats we sit on: wherefore beloved let us all take up this Petition, this part of my Text, Comfort thou us now O Lord.  
Use. And seeing that God is the author of Comfort, & not only so Deus Consolationis, but Deus omnis consolationis the God of all consolation, & that we may take the wings of the morning and fly into the uttermost parts of the earth we may travel from the East to the West, even to the nethermost parts of the sea and not obtain Comfort, but only from God. Let our use hereof be that of martial, 
Martial. Episc.  Quid ad nos consolatio mundi? what doth the pleasure of the world belong to us? the world is vices nurse, Nature's stepmother, virtues murderer, it is Thefts refuge, whoredoms Pander, Nil mundum in mundo, the comfort of the world, is a Strens' song, 
Philo.  Sodoms' fruit, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo calleth it, a bitter sweet, pleasure a spur, riches a thorn, honour a blast life a flower, glory a feather, beauty a fancy, joy a frenzy, every one of these like the book in the Revelation, sweet in the mouth, bitter in the belly. The mercy-seat stood not in atrio Gentium nor in Templo judaeorum, nor near Altar sacerdotum, but in Sancto Sanctorum, in the holy place: Comforts be ever in scripture either attributed to God, or derived from him, God is the God of comfort 2. Cor. 1.3. 
2 Cor. 1.3.  Christ Jesus the Saviour sent to comfort, Esay 61.2. The holy Ghost is the comforter▪ joh. 16.7. His Angels deliver glad tidings of comfort, 
joh. 16.7. Luk 2.10. Esay. 40 1.  Luke. 2 10. His Prophets are commanded to pronounce comfort, Esay. 40.1. The office of his Apostles was to teach comfort, Act. 16.40. 
Act 16.40. Ferus.  Deus intùs exhilarat animum sibi bene conscium, etc. God doth make the bones that he hath broken to rejoice, the soul that is truly humbled he doth comfort and satisfy, no other means, but his, can do it, he and he only can bring it to pass. Pompilius may write epistles to Tully, 
Theat..  as that he should rid away his sorrow by reading, Antimachus makes verses to rhyme away sorrow, Archilochus calls for wine to drink away sorrow, some call for mirth to jest it away, others for music to play it away; but the Saints of God, 
job 19.23. Psal.  they know all this serves not, job comforts himself by remembering his redeemer, David by hoping to see the Lord in the land of the living, jonas by looking back to the Temple, Paul by assuring himself that he shall be holpen. 
jon 2.7.  Confidence hath been the Comfort of the Saints in all ages, in all places, joseph in the prison, job on the dung hill, jeremy in the dungeon, Abraham in exile, jacob in the field, David in the Cave, Daniel in the Den. 
Abulens.  It is God that comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, 
2. Cor. 4.1.  by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted, here is comfort transient, immanent, permanent, God's comfort descending to us, & by us derived to others, that as the Apostle there speaketh if we be comforted it is for the consolation not only of our selves but others.  
Applic. To apply therefore in these our sorrows those our comforts. In this inundation wherein we are overwhelmed though not drowned, or rather as jonas drowned & devoured yet not dead, let us take breathing, and dry our eyes a little. Paul bids be wise according to sobriety, so say I, sorrow, but according to sobriety, let comfort interchange and have her time, it must not be a Quotidian fever to dry up our souls in this salt liquor of discontent. Oramus, fiat voluntas Domini saith Zanchius, we pray thus, 
Zarch.  let thy will be done facta est voluntas Domini feramus, Gods will is done, let us bear it, shall we think either God to be so angry that he will not, or heaven so poor that it cannot help us, shall we pray every day, that God would perform his will one day, and shall we repine at it when he hath performed it. It is true, our blessed PRINCE had such Princely, holy, gracious, religious endowments, that we would have rather thought him sent from heaven to us, than so soon to be called thither from us. It is true, the very outside and rind, the very raiment of his soul, his body was so fair and strong that a soul might have been pleased to live an age in it. It is true his soul kept tune so well, that reason sat regent, and the understanding counsellor, never captivated with violence of passions, nor hurried with the virulence of affections, virtue and valour, beauty & chastity, arms and arts, met and kissed in him, and his goodness lent so much mintage to other Princes, that if Xenophon were now to describe a Prince, Prince HENRY had been his Pattern. All this I confess, & I confess when I think on this, my soul almost refuseth comfort, because we shall never enjoy him again.  
Yet in our best ordered, recollected thoughts, who that duly honoured him, can repine that he is freed from the world, and now being enfranchised enjoys greater good in greater liberty? when like a true Hebrew, he hath gone his Passover from death to life, where there is more grace and more capacity, where a soul cannot be surbated with fears, nor surfeited with riots, where earthly bodies shallbe more celestial, than man in his innocency or Angels in their glory, for they could fall: He is there with those Patriarches that have expected Christ in earth, longer than they have enjoyed him in heaven; He is with those holy Penmen of the holy spirit, they be now his partners, who were here his teachers; He is with all the Elect Angels, with the Congregation of the first borne; In a word HE is with him by whose precious blood, his blessed soul is bathed, and sealed by his death to the day of redemption; He is in joy, though we in sorrow. Shall we be in sorrow, because he is in joy? No; my Beloved be ye not deceived, so sure as ye have sorrow, so sure shall ye be comforted if ye can faithfully and fervently pray with Moses, Comfort thou us O Lord, after thou hast plagued us. And so I pass from the comforts desired, to the persons afflicted my second aim.  
Part. 2 Now after thou hast plagued us. The life of a Christian hath no other Passage than jonathan & his armorhearer had, a sharp rock on the one side, 
1. Sam. 14.4.  & a sharp rock on the other side, Bozez on the one side, Seneh on the other, an anfractuous, dangerous passage, that flinty stones under him, briars and thorns on the side of him, mountainous craggs and promontories over him, sic petitur coelum, so heaven is caught by pains, by patience, by violence, affliction is the most inseparable associate. Cor contritum & humiliatum non despicies, 
Ps. 11.19.  saith David, a broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise. The ancients have observed that David offered no offering, no sacrifice, for that sin which he acknowledgeth in that 51. Psalm; he had shed blood, and knew that the blood shed of sacrifice would not serve to expiate. Thou desirest no sacrifice, 
Ps. 51.18.  thou delightest not in  offerings, saith the Prophet. Did not God delight in sacrifice? not require burnt offerings? when he had so precisely commanded them, distinguished the divers forms of them, segregated especial times for them, & been so well pleased with them. And yet Noluisti sacrificium, Did not God delight in  offerings? when the son of David at one time, in one place, offered a sacrifice of peace offering of twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep, 
1. King. 8.62.  the greatest sacrifice that ever was read of, either in divine or profane, in rude or polite story. Yet you hear, Noluisti sacrificium, is David's words; 
Cass.  Noluisti holocaustum, voluisti cor humiliatum, saith one, a  sacrifice will not serve, but a broken sacrifice thou requirest, it is the speech of Christ to the Spouse, the smell of thy ointments is better than spices, 
Cant. 4 10.  Meliora unguenta quàm aromata, ointments better than spices: which words Nyssenus expounds of this place, 
Nyss. Hom. 9 in Cant.  broken hearts rather than  sacrifices are accepted of God. Broken hearts, whether they be broken moerore interno, 
Greg.  as Gregory expounds the place, by inward grief, or broken humiliation as Innocentius interpreteth, 
Innocent.  by humiliation, or broken by frequent tribulation, as Cassiodore glosseth, or broken by vehement grief and anguish of spirit in repentance, 
Cassiod.  as Thomas and the Schools do judge; the meaning of all is this, that the heart that is softened and mollified, the heart that hath been the anvil for sorrows & afflictions, is most fit to be consecrated to God. joel mentions a rend heart, 
joel 2.13.  David a broken, a contrite heart, S. Chrysostome of both them speaketh, fractum cor haud quaquam se in altum extulerit, 
Hom. 4. l ●. 2. ad Cor. & hom. in epist. ad Hebr.  contritum haud quaquam exurrexerit, scissum non inflatur ad superbiam, non concitatur ad vindictam; A broken heart is not exalted on high, a contrite heart hath made no insurrection, a rend heart is not inflamed by pride, not incited to revenge. The sacrifice of God is a broken and Contrite heart. God in the old Testament, would accept no sacrifice, if it were maimed, yet will now admit no sacrifice unless it be broken and bruised, he that then commanded sacrifices of the Law to be offered by fire, will now receive no sacrifice of the gospel, but offered by water. The earth, yields not corn, till it be ploughed, the grape yieldeth no wine, until it be pressed, gold is not pure, till it be fined, the stones of the Temple not brought into the Temple till they were polished, 
Rev. 7.9.  the Saints in the Revelation are not clothed with white robes and have palms in their hands, before they have passed through many tribulations, the Prophet Moses here expecteth not comfort, before affliction; & as in Ecclesiastes a time of weeping, 
Eccl. 3.4.  a time of rejoicing, & no weeping, no rejoicing, so here first affliction than consolation, Comfort thou us, according as thou hast afflicted us. It were impertinent I should roave so far back to Deuteronomy to show how they were afflicted, seeing the Psalm hath no other Tenor, than the memory of mortality, and Moses himself being the Prince of the people, being himself presently to pass the way of all the world, whether it were that his people might be comforted for his loss, or whether for the lives of those many, that had died in the desert. You see that the manner of his prayer yieldeth us this observation. Observe. That the comforts of God's spirit are not ministered by God, nor can be expected by man, until man hath been thoroughly seasoned with sorrow. None can come to Paradise, but by the burning Seraphins of affliction none return from Canaan, but they must pass by the waters of Marah; no passing back to jerusalem, but by the valley of weeping, no seeing of Mount Zion, before we have sit at the waters of Babylon. Christ came only to comfort the mourners, 
Esay. 61.2.  Esay 61.2. The second blessing that he pronounceth in his first sermon is to mourners, 
Mat. 5.4.  Mat. 5.4. appointeth none to be marked in jerusalem to be preserved but mourners, Ezech. 9.4. 
Ezek. 9.4.  Our Saviour then only promised comfort to his disciples when they were mourners; 
joh. 16▪ 22.  Ye are now in sorrow, but I will see you again, & you shall rejoice, & your joy shall no man take from you. All the days of our life be as the fits of a fever, as the changes of day & night, darkness and light, the moon hath not more alterations than man; so that as that of jeremy must be acknowledged, 
jerem. Lam.  were it not for the mercies of the Lord we should be utterly consumed, 
Hierom.  so also that of S. Jerome his observation upon Arcturus in the heavens, semper versatur numquam mergitur, may be applied unto the sons of men, 
2. Cor. 6.  these are often turned never overwhelmed, but especially unto the sons of God, they are, as Paul speaketh, as dying and behold they live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor and yet make many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things: for God doth so sweeten his visitations, & sendeth such a gracious dew upon his inheritance, as that in affliction and after affliction he sendeth unspeakable consolation. In die tribulationis exaudiam te, in the day of Tribulation I will hear thee. is his promise, and more than so, it is not only, that then he will hear, and afterwards will help, but both in the day, and after the day he will hear, he will help, he will comfort. In the affliction, because the affliction remaineth for a moment, after the affliction, 
2. Cor. 4.17. 1. Cor. 11.32. Prov. 3.12.  because when after we are chastened of the Lord, we are sure not to be condemned with the world; Comforted in the affliction for we know, he correcteth only whom he loveth, Comforted after the affliction, 
Ps 64.16. 2. Cor. 1.5.  for he hath assured us that according to the multitude of Troubles that are in our hearts his comforts shall refresh our souls, and again by S. Paul, as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation aboundeth by Christ. So that here it is manifested which was in the observation proposed, no comfort but after affliction, no consolation but after Tribulation and therefore Moses' prayer is, Comfort us according as thou hast afflict us.  
Use. How blessed then ought our afflictions to be esteemed, seeing that in them we shall be comforted, after them we shall be rewarded, and by them we shall be admitted into glory, for through many afflictions, we must enter into heaven. Are there comforts therefore laid up in store for the Godly? are there pleasures at Gods right hand for ever more? O than come, & hear, & so, and taste how good the Lord is, O come unto him all ye that labour and are heavy laden under the burden of your sorrow. It is impossible to escape Esau's sword, or Ismaels' tongue, 
Gen 27.41. Gen. 21.9. 2. Sam. 16.  or Shemeis stones, or Doegs' slander, or Hamans' envy, or joabs treachery. When there were but four in all the world there was a Cain, and afterwards when there were but eight that number but doubled, there was a Cham, Philistines shall be left in the land to try and to exercise the Israelites: or suppose thou escape all these yet either loss of health, or loss of friends, or want, or some means or other shall be appointed to polish thee if thou belong to heaven. The Martyrs and Saints of God who now carry Triumphant Palms they have been thus afflicted, and hereby their glorious lustre like unto the sun, gave greatest light in the lowest places, and in their patiented content & contempt of affliction, they gave grace to the greatest miseries Tyranny could devise, God distilling into their souls, the apparent supply of his grace, in the midst of their pressures to encourage and enable them in their perseverance. 
Esay. 3.  O ye then that with those mincing dames in jerusalem, are loath that the soles of your feet should tread upon the face of the earth, ye may be hurried between heaven and earth, but never will be carried as Elias unless in a fiery chariot. Ye that set more by Agar then Sara, more esteem your bodies then your souls, fear and tremble if no afflicton hath ever visited you; 
Luk. 16.25.  you know whose words they be, son remember thou in thy life time receivedst all thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, now he is comforted, and thou art tormented: it is a time if ever to lay the axe to the root of the tree, especially of those trees that bear nothing but leaves and lifeless branches, you know what a stroke is given to the fairest Cedar of the gorrest, our fig tree is blasted even before it was its time to beat fruit, the green tree, the glory of the trees is stricken, & were it not I should break the peace of my meditations of comfort, I should draw Paul's sword, and make use of jeremies' hammer to lay home some strokes to your consciences in this point. But I proceed.  
If the Saints of God and their afflictions will not invite you I say not to endure, but to welcome sorrow, yet let the brave resolutions of heathens as gallant as the most, nay more glorious than the best of you, amaze you: they bore their troubles with undaunted comfortable honourable minds, so that neither force of fire in Scaevola, violence of poverty in Fabritius, perplexities of banishment in Rutilius, Torments in Regulus, Poison in Socrates, Ingratitude in Scipio, Persecution in Caesar, 
Guevar. in Ep.  or death in Cato could ever eclipse their valour or honour. How few such noble martial spirits breath among us!  
How many of those that do live, be truly humbled among us! Alas, none ever shall be truly comforted, but those truly humbled. Think ye any to be truly comforted, whom nothing did ever amate? Think they that are in opinion obstinate, in good purposes inconstant, resolute in evil action, in humility false, in charity feigned, in desires violent, in mischiefs virulent in hate implacable, to be truly comforted? They that are so rash in censuring, peremptory in hearing, hard hearted in obeying, hypocryticall in professing the word of God think they to be truly comforted? They whose sins are so many, whose prayers so few, their oaths so frequent, their alms so few, that serve themselves by the Ephah, and scarcely serve God by the Gomer, think they to be truly comforted? I assure my self, that all ye of this expiring family have better learned Christ jesus, my knowledge of many, hope of others, charity to all makes me believe it. And therefore I hope ye shall be truly Comforted, even according as ye have been afflicted, in as full measure as ye have been humbled. Yet I know in this last close, you can be scarcely persuaded of this [according] my own soul silently tells me, it is beyond expectation, that we should so recover our losses as that according to our sorrows we should receive Comforts. 
Cambden. Brit. 164 1 Ed. 1. son to Hen. 3. 2 Edw. black Prince son to Edw. 3. 3. Rich. of Bordeaux son to Ed. black Prince 4 Hen. son of Hen 4. 5 Ed. son, H. 6. 6 Ed. son K. Hen 4. 7 Ed. son K Richard. 8 Arthur son to Hen. 8. No more created but those: Ed. 6. not invested by Patent, nor created.  For if the Romans called the heir apparent Princeps Inventutis, Prince of the youth, and Prince Edgar the last heir male of that blood royal was long after called England's darling, and when Prince Arthur died, the Poets than complained that Arcturus was vanished in the heavens; what can we say of him, that would have been subject for all pens, and object for all eyes, as if the worthiness of all the eight created Princes of Walls of the English blood, and of the eight Henries his highness Royal Ancestors, had met in him as in the Confluence I will say of him as S. Paul to the Hebrews spoke of those with whom our Master is now in Company, Prince HENRY was he of whom the world was not worthy. Yet beloved let me still say as my Text, God may Comfort us even according to the greatness of our loss, his power is not weakened, his arm is not shortened: It was a blasphemous speech in the Governor in the days of Elisha that doubted whether there might after that great dearth be so great plenty, though, 
2. Kings 7.3.  saith he, God would make windows in heaven. He is able to do, whatsoever in faith we are able to believe. We have yet the sun and moon, and stars of a Royal firmament; and though we have lost the morning star, yet we have Charls-waine in our Horizon; we have a Prince, if stars be of any truth, like to be of long life, & great learning, most hopeful for his time, most fruitful for his hopes: we hope that God hath said to our jacob, 
Gen.  as jacob said of his judah, sceptrum non auferetur à juda, so the sceptre shall not be taken from our jacob till Shiloah come again into the world. Let this Comfort serve us, so long as we are God's servants, so long he will be our Lord. Send out Comfort in ambush against all fears, all enemies, and when she returneth with conquest, 
judg. 5.  say to thy soul as Deborah did to hers, thou hast marched valiantly O my soul. Think not that our Master is dead— Musa vetat mori: say as Christ said of Lazarus, He is not dead but sleepeth. 
joh. 11.3.  In a word after all these Clouds be past, the sunshine will appear, or we shall appear before God our selves: sure I am this Text will be uncontrolled for ever, Heaven and earth shall pass, but no jot of this word shall pass; 
Act. 1.  After the Lord hath afflicted us, he will comfort us. Let us therefore with the Apostles who stayed at jerusalem expecting the Comforter, continue in holy devotions, hearing, praying, fasting, falling down before his presence for he is holy: And thou O Lord, that seest all hearts, unto to thee let our cry come, and let comfort descend unto us, in this house of mourning and valley of tears. Now like poor distressed sinners we beseech thee then with thy Saints and Angels we shall glorify thee: Lord grant this for thy promise, for thy mercy, for thy Zyon, for thy sons sake CHRIST JESUS.  
Amen.   
2. SAM. 12.23. 
Now he is dead wherefore should I fast, can I bring him again, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.  
THE story showeth you David the king in a sorrowful case, weeping, mourning, crying for his son, lying all day and night on the earth; Hewept, & wept, and would not be comforted. S. Bernard mentioneth, 
Bern. in Passione Dom.  Heb domadam dolorum, a week of sorrows David had no less, the child died the seventh day, 
2. Sam. 12.18.  & the 7 day David arose from his low & lamentable lodging; his meditation could be no other than this, O who shall deliver his soul from death? His cause of mourning was non propter vitam, sed propter animam, 
Chrys.  non propter animam, non propter filium, sed propter adulterium, not so much for the life, as for the soul of his child, not so much for his son, as for that sin by which his mother conceived him. The child was messis in herba, life was spes in mess, but the soul of the child was gloria messis, the joy and glory of the harvest, this is the cause that David mourns bitterly.  
There is a strange sentence in the former verses, Non Morieris, thou shalt not die, David's sin is acquitted, sed Morietur filius, but thy child shall die, the innocent babe is punished. 
2. Sam. 12.13.  I need not to uncover the nakedness of this father further than scripture takes away the vail from him: he committed adultery, heaven sees it, God sends Nathan, 
2. Sam. 11 4.  Nathan wounds David through the sides of one of his own subjects, David sentenceth himself in another thus, He that hath done this shall die and pay fourfold. At hoc justum est, & iniustum judicium, This judgement is both just & unjust. The trespass is but a lamb, to pay fourfold is satisfaction enough for a lamb: if it be the life of a man, to die for it is the satisfaction required, enough for a Man's life, but suppose it what it may be to die and pay, pay and pay fourfold is injustice, it is to much. Therefore God took one part of David's sentence against himself; though Non morieris stood as God had promised, 
2. Sam. 28.  yet David shall pay fourfold as himself had sentenced, 1. He paid the life of Ammon his son, 
2. Sam. 18.9.  by the sword of Absalon, here is one satisfaction, 2. he paid the life of Absalon, hanging in the Oak by the sword of joab, the 2 satisfaction. 3 the life of Adoniah by the sword of jehoiada, 
1. King. 2.25.  the 3 satisfaction; and four the life of a child here by the sword of God, the fourth satisfaction. For the life of one Urias, no less than four of his own children must die the death. 
vers. 14.  The first of this Tragical Chorus is this child, sentenced in the 14 verse; in the 15. ye find him sick, poor infant, silly innocent, after his panting and striving for breath he is deceased in the 18. verse. 
ver. 15. vers. 18.  while he was sick, David did sorrow, wept, and fasted, & prayed, and lay on the ground; but being dead, rises, apparelleth, washeth, worshippeth, eateth: hereupon his servants expostulate, What thing is this that thou dost, 
ver. 21.  thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive, but when the child was dead, thou dost rise and eat? David answereth, and the best part of his answer is this my Text, Being dead, why should I now fast? Can I bring him again any more, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. These two be points very remarkable, that usher the meditations of my Text; the first the punishment of the child: for the father David commits adultery, the child dies for it, as after, David numbers the people, 
2. Sam. 24.14.  the people die for it.  
Secondly, when the child is sick, David sorroweth, the child being dead he riseth, and eateth. He will be no longer in pain then the child is in peril. Benoni is the son of sorrow at his birth, this shallbe no longer the subject of sorrow than his death: He is dead, no hope, no help, no recovery, it is impossible  
Revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, David cannot infuse life into him, the child is dead, he is gone, all the world cannot revine him, David must follow, the child must not return. Thus the words were occasioned, thus opened, thus they fall in sunder & impart themselves unto us.  
Divisio Textus. 1 David's patiented consideration in forbearing further sorrow. Being dead why should I now fast? 2. His wife resolution implying the impossibility of reviving him. Can I bring him again? Thirdly, his considerate acknowledgement of the inevitable stroke of death, I shall go to him, he shall not return to me. I confess there be many disproportions between this story and our state, our misery is without all parallel, scripture doth nor yield a fitting example, no king of Israel or juda had such a loss, I had almost said nor such a son. I am therefore constrained to choose not as I would but as I may, though not so plentifully fitting the subject, yet sorrowfully fitting with our sable thoughts: In these therefore I crave patiented attention, the rather because the 1. part offering itself to us, is David's patiented consideration in forbearing more mourning.  
Some have observed that it was a custom in David to fast and pray, 
1. Part. Lor. in Ps. Ps. 35.13.  and mourn, for the sickness of his friend, his own words give warrant, Psal. 35.13. when they were sick, 1 clothed myself with sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting. And these both were used either in sorrow, or repentance; in sorrow, so the Orator testifieth, sackeloath and fasting be moeroris insignia, 
Tully.  the ensigns of sorrow: in repentance, so S. Hierome witnesseth, they were Penitentiae arma, the weapons of Repentance. In this place by fasting David means all the Circumstances of mourning. 
Aret. Flac. Illyr.  To mourn and weep is common and commendable in sickness, or death of friends; profit there may be in it, but you will think there is small pleasure, yet saith the Poet, Est quaedam flere voluptas, There is pleasure in this pain of weeping, to disburden the soul, to open the sluices, to discharge conchas in canales, 
Bern.  the cisterns into conduit pipes, to eclipse the light of our etes with tears, because those eyes shall never behold those dear deceased friends till we ourselves pass into the Chambers of death. This is natural and common, yet I may say Christian. But to fast in these occasions is not so common, as commendable, and profitable; for indeed in true sorrow there should be a neglect of all the offices of the body, a sequestration of all contentment, a forgetting and forsaking of ordinary food, a shutting up and imprisoning of the body from all pleasures of life, thereby to pull down the height and strength and pride of the soul, that the soul hear not, think not, mind not mirth, that the body see not, touch not, taste not meat, such should be our sorrows when we see Corporal punishments for spiritual judgements. Such was David's diet, it was a real, hearty sorrow, not countenanced with a heavy look, or with a solemn sigh blown from the lips and lungs, but it was a weeping, watching, fasting sorrow.  
I hate excursions, but seeing I meet in the words of my Text with so great a stranger as fasting, give me leave to salute it. It was the first precept that ever was given, it is as ancient as Paradise, jeiuny canitiem sivelis, 
Epise. Lond. in jon.  perscrutare jeiunium prime homini coaevun. The forbidding of that tree, was the first rule of abstinence. The antiquity, necessity, perpetuity of it enforce it, Nature law, Gospel enjoin it, Divinity commands it, Physic commends it, law prescribes it, it is the life of the Saints, and the food of the soul, in the court of heaven there is no other diet, and in the Church on earth the children of the bride-chamber must be acquainted with it; as David was, whose fasting days I could easily conjecture, if I should look but into the Galender of the Psalms: but my Text telleth me, at this time he did eat and drink and therefore here he seemeth to be, as in the Psalm he speaketh, 
Psal. 42.4.  as among those that keep holy-daie. His fasting endeth the seventh day, and he questioneth, why should I now fast? which words do bring forth this observation, Obs. 1 That as there is a time to sorrow, so also a time to leave of the act of sorrowing. His example proveth this, Nemo in lachrymis, nemo in Canticis, no man was more frequent in songs or sorrows than David, 
Lud.  his meat were his Tears, he mingled his drink with Tears, washed his bed and watered his couch with his tears: you would scarce believe, that he ever enjoyed good day, that ever the sun shined on him, he is so full of anguish and care, and feat, sometimes biding, some times flying, 
Psalm. 32 10.  still almost lamenting. Yet how frequent be his joyful acclamations in the Psalms, Rejoice in the Lord; 
Ps. 103.1.  Be glad o ye righteous; Be joyful all ye that are true of heart; Praise the Lord O my soul, & all that is within me praise his holy name; Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits: how sweetly doth he exalt his exultation of joyful praise, 
Ps. 145.  I will praise the Lord my God, I will praise his name for ever and ever, every day will I praise the Lord, and praise his name for ever and ever: and again, Praise the Lord O my soul, while I live will I praise the Lord, I will sing praises to my God, while I have any breathing. Look upon this good King at other times you would scarcely think that ever he could have had joy to cast his eyes up to heaven, 
Psal.  you may find him on a couch, nay more on the cold earth, crying out, I am at the point to die, from my youth up thy Terrors have I suffered with a troubled soul. Yet after all this, you shall find him rejoicing, triumphing singing, harping, dancing, making melody unto God, and calling for his consort Trumpets, Timbrels, Psalteries, haps, Organs, Cymbals, 
Ps. 150.3.4.5.6.  Pipe and string, low and loud instrument, nay heaven and earth must bear a part, nay every thing that hath breath must praise the Lord. Hear be the passages through fire and water, here he is brought from the wilderness into a wealthy place. Here be his fits good & bad days, crosses and comforts, joys and sorrows.  
Dolour & volupt as invicem cedunt— Brevior voluptas; 
Seneca.  his grief and pleasure came successively, but his comforts were not extended to the same measure, that his sorrows, yet as the cause gave occasion, so he ever altered his note.  
Yet is it a wonder to observe how upon the same passion God's best servants have been diversely affected, the same persons, & the same passions, and yet so strangely altered, and their passages in and upon the very same causes so diametrally opposed, as if they were not the same men. In some miseries how sweetly have they carried themselves, In others how boisteroufly; Shiloa never ran so quietly as they have in some, in others Torrents never so raged. 
job. 1. Pineda in job.  Look upon job in his 1 chapter, he is Patience mirror, never did or could man behave himself better in such a bitter storm. His Oxen taken away by the Sabeans, Camels by the Chaldeans, fire devours his sheep, his servants slain, his children killed, yeet being so near touched, he opens not his mouth against heaven, 
Ps. 3.  but as if with the Psalmist he had laid down to sleep and taken his rest he makes no other exclamation, or lamentation, but this, Dominus dedit, the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. You may wonder to see the same man, 
job. 13.  so contrarily affected afterwards; Challenging God to his face, I will dispute with the Almighty, I will fill myself with arguments, what is it that God can answer me; Cursing his birth, let the day perish wherein I was borne, 
job. 3.  let that day be darkness, let not God regard it, let darkness and the shadow of death stain it, let the Clouds remain upon it, let it be a fearful bitter day, let it not be joined with the days of the year, desolate for ever be that night, let the stars of the twilight be dim, let it look for light but see none, let it never see the dawning of the day. What tragical & bloody heavy cursed clamours be these! Nay look upon our own Prophet, how did grace attend him in all the ambushments between Saul and him! Saul was his enemy, he hath now his opportunity, the place, the privacy, the obscurity of the Cave might incite him to kill his enemy, but he bows down and cries, 
1. Sam. 14.  O my Lord the King, I will not lay hand on my Master, he is the Lords anointed, the Lord keep me from doing this unto my Master: how sweetly, how graciously, how wisely, doth he carry himself in the time that Shemei cursed him, 
2. Sam. 16.  and cast stones ' at him! he endures him, and rebukes them that reprove him, The Lord hath bidden him curse, suffer him, the Lord hath bidden him who shall forbid him? But look upon him in the story of Nabal you would think him another Saul, 
1. Sam. 25.  Nabal only denies him a request, he swears and frets, and girds to his sword, takes 6 hundred men with him, vows to kill Nabal, nor only so but whatsoever is Nabals, yea and before the dawning of the day he will not leave a man, no not a creature of Nabals alive. Nabal only denied him, Shemet cursed him, Nabal was but a fool, 
1. Sam. 25.25. 2. Sam. 16.7.  Shemei a Dog, as the Text termeth him, yet he is much more violent against Nabal then against Shemet. Look upon him in this particular, job was not more patiented than he is here, while the poor innocent infant is sick panting, and fainting, and striving for life, he weary, the child died, he riseth, and apparelleth, washeth, worshippeth, eateth, goeth into Barsheba answereth all the world, that should ask him his resolution is, calmly & religiously this, being dead, why should I fast? Nothing could savour more of Religion, wisdom, patience, & a holy spirit: what a sweet behaviour & heavenly temper is here, Pattern him with Patriarch, or Prophet, or Apostle, or Angel, None could go further than he did. But look upon him in his obsequies for his Absalon, he was oppressed, surcharged, distracted, he continueth his note as if with the Philomele he would never give over. 
Ovid. Met.  O Absalon, Absalon my son, my son, Absalon my son! No content but Absalon, his dainty pretty Absalon, 
2. Sam. 18.  his darling, fondling Absalon, Absalon the Idol of his affection, as if Absalon had been the beauty of his name, and the glory of his Nation, as if Absalon had been the best of his seed, and the chiefest of his sons, Absalon, so fair and ruddy, as that none in all Israel was so commended for beauty, from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, no blemish in Absalon; O entreat the young man Absalon well, and if Absalon die, David will not live, he will dislolue into tears, O my son Absalon, 
2. Sam. 18.31.  my son, my son Absalon, would God I had died for thee o Absalon my son, my son. Observe the circumstances; 1. the King was moved, exceedingly moved, great alteration in his affection, there was an earthquake in his soul, his passions were as flames, his eyes as floods. 2. He avoids the room; joseph weeps & puts all out of the room but remains there himself; 
Gen. 45.3.  David puts all out, and goeth himself out, putteth even himself out of himself. 3. He cannot contain, breaks forth on the stairs, his sorrow must have a vent, it is a precipitat torrent, with Oceans in his eyes, & a tongue fired at the altar of his heart. 4. He calleth (the traitor) Absalon, his son. Happy had it been that Absalon's birth had been his burial, the sun in the firmament never beheld such a disobedient son on earth, yet his burden is my son, my son. David remembers not how Absalon had slain his brother, enveigled the subjects, betrayed the Crown, aspired to the kingdom, en tread jerusalem with violence, abused his Concubines upon the top of the house in the sight of heaven, none of these be remembered; David will not live, if Absalon be dead. He considereth not, that Absalon's beauty was but effections fancy and nature's frailty, a blister might blast it, dor a fever blemish it, but age would surely parch and perish and whither it: 
Ludolph.  he considreth not, that Absalon was neither unigenitus, no nor primogenitus neither the first begotten, nor the only begotten son of his father, that he so bewaileth him. 
Aust.  Abraham pater credentium the father of the believing could not have deplored his son Isaac had he been offered, Nor Aaam, pater viventium the father of all things living could have more wept over his slain Abel, than David over Absalon. What great alteration is in the carriage of this passion, in the death of one son, from this calm contentation this holy patiented resolution in the death of this other, Being dead, why should I now fast?  
Use. Hence than we may learn, that seeing the best of God's children have been so various in their passions, and so subject to infirmity in some others of them, we ought to crave the assistant power of God's spirit in all sorrows, so to season and sweeten them, and to direct them to right ends, that we look not only upon the power of God, herein as to forget his favour, we so much consider not the greatness of the affliction, as the goodness of his affection, that hath laid it on us for our good: and therefore so to cast anchor in all storms of our life, 
Pet. Martyr. Common places.  as that this Passion of sorrow (as Peter Martyr compareth it) may direct our sails as a prosperous wind to the haven, & not rend our souls and sink our ships, that the masts of our faith be shaken, & the anchors of our hopes broken, that we show ourselves wise men, not mad men, not distracting our spirits, not distrusting our God, but with David here temper our souls, or rather tune them to that song of his, 
Ps. 121.1.  I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help; Help shall come from the Lord which hath made heaven and earth.  
Hence also we may learn, to stay our carnal, and to increase our spiritual sorrow, bodily labour availeth not, bodily sorrow profiteth not. Fasting spoken of in the Text of itself is but an outward ceremony, 
Externum signum saccus & jeiunium. Hier.  true abstinence consisteth in holiness of life: mistake me not as if I derogated from fasting, that venerable daughter of repentance one of the best mothers in Israel. I would we might imitate either Patriarches or Prophets herein, or even at this time the French and Dutch Churches in this city, who in consideration of God's judgement upon us lament with fasting and praying as may be seen in their congregations weekly. But I say fasting is but the outward countenance, it is the inward motions that God is pleased with. And in them none more acceptable unto him, than an humble obedience to his will, when his hand hath given the stroke, & the Lord hath done what pleased him, 
jon. 2.  a sweet and comfortable carriage of our afflictions will be pleasing unto him, and a blessing to us.  
Priamus in Homer bewailing his son Hector, 
Homer.  fasteth, and mourneth after his death, David doth this before his sons death: when it is past, he riseth, washeth eateth, worshippeth & doth comfort himself. How did the patriarch jacob carry all those pressures laid upon him with a holy calm disposition, 
Gen.  ye never find him tempestuous, & yet who ever endured so successive storms: In all the days of his pilgrimage scarce any fair weather, he is rend from his father's family, flieth for the fear of his brother, he is cheated by his uncle, his place vile and servile, 
Gen. 31.40.  in the day the drought consumed him, in the night the frost, the sleep departs from his eyes, serves for Rahel seven years, and a blear eyed Leah is given him, serves seven more for Rahel and she is barren, at length a child she shall have, but the child's life is the mother's death; when his children increase, his sorrows increase, not Benjamin alone, but almost every one of them is Benoni, the son of sorrow, Incestuous Reuben, Adulterous juda, Levi that is to be consecrated to God in his Church, is bloody, Er and Onan struck dead before him, joseph lost, Simeon imprisoned, Benjamin endangered, his only daughter young Dinah, his darling, ravished by an alien from Israel. Yet you never find in all these perils among his own, that he staggereth. These meditations be best fitting, the practice and imitation of these examples will be fruitful. And as the Apostle speaketh give no place to wrath, so say I, give not place to sorrow, especially to worldly sorrow, 
2. Cor. 7.10.  for Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repent of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death, & yet cannot redeem from death, as it followeth in David's words, Can I bring him again? His wise resolution implying the impossibility of his reviving him.  
Part. 2 The first speech was drawn ab inutili, there is no profit, no hope, no help, no means by fasting to recover him, Being dead, why should I fast? this second is ab impossibili from the improbability and impossibility of recalling him, Can I bring him again? David was not ignorant of the reduction, restitution, resurrection of the body▪ there be no less than 13. places that may be collected out of the Psalms to this purpose, Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, 
Ab●lens.  nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption; Thou O Lord, shalt raise me up at the last; I shall see the Lord in the land of the living, etc. These & other frequent places be commonly noted to this purpose. The Resurrection as it is most certain, so also most comfortable; job had nothing to sweeten his dunghill but the hope of the resurrection, 
job. 11.  and Paul had no other doctrine to preach to the devout Greeks' at Thessalonica, 
Act. 17.3. Act. 17.32. Act 23 6. Act. 26.23.  to the Stoics at Athens, to the pharisees at jerusalem, to Festus the Governor at Caesarea, nay almost in every place he preacheth the resurrection of the dead; and our blessed Saviour of all other mysteries of our redemption, maketh none more plain than this points and though it seem a doctrine so far beyond all sense, yet he hath so sensibly proved it to all the senses by his own rising, that all the world may with S. Paul confess, 
1. Cor. 15.  Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that sleep. Christ is risen and we shall rise, and this is the manner how. He manifested himself by sight, 
C. proveth his resurrection by the 5. senses.  when he showed his wounds, by hearing, in his salutation Peace be unto you, by tasting, he did eat of the broiled fish with them, by touching, Thomas put his fingers into the print of the nails, by smelling, for he breathed upon them. Here be the senses: They that have seen this have believed, and blessed, saith Christ, are they that have not seen, and yet believed. But because our Saviour foresaw that upon his resurrection the ground of this point would for ever be settled, He as Luke speaketh showed himself to be alive by many infallible arguments, by necessary, true, evident proofs, such as the Philosopher calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Act 1. Arislot. in Rhet. c. 2.  He left no circumstance of time, place, persons unmanifested, that this might be believed he appeareth after his resurrection, early in the morning & late at night, in both the times of the day, to the disciples abroad and gathered together in the house, in both the places, to the soldiers & Apostles, both conditions of men, to the jews and Gentiles both religions of men, to men and women both the sexes, to the living in the world, to the dead in the grave, both states, to Angels, devils, friends, foes, disciples, strangers; all shall bear witness that Christ did rise from the dead, and is become the first fruits of them that sleep. And he only can by his power whereby he subdueth all things to himself, raise us again from the dead; no other power, or means but his: & therefore every man may say with David here, Can I bring him again? which in some copies is read thus, I cannot bring him again, and ministereth this observation. 
2. Obs.  That though it be not in the power of man to raise any from the dead, yet there is a power whereby all shall be raised and revived. Our Prophet proveth it before Christ came, It is thou O Lord that shall raise me up at the last. This power shall change our vile bodies, to be made like his glorious body, our weak diseased, naked, mortal, sickly, earthly, momentary bodies shall be like his glorious body. Iewes did know this, Gentiles did confess this: The jews before Christ's coming, had knowledge and made faith of this point, how soever S. Chrysostome maketh doubt whether or no this mystery were revealed in the old Testament. 
Chrys. Hom. 1. de Lazaro.  Indeed it was not so generally or so manifestly delivered till Christ came who was to be Oriens ex imo, as Oriens ex alto, 
Aug.  the day sprung from an high, and the truth budding out of the earth sprung from below. But known it was, and taught it was; Esays' testimony is this, The dead men shall live, 
Esa. 26.19.  with my body they shall rise, awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust. 
Ezek 37.10.  Ezekiel proveth it by the Emblem of the dry bones united together. Daniel thus, They that sleep in the dust shall arise. 
Dan. 12.2. Hos. 13.14.  Hosea pronounceth this in the person of God, I will redeem them from the power of the grave. 
Hier. in Ep. 61 & 101.  job as S. Hierom collecteth hath most absolute proof for this, I know that my redeemer liveth, and when worms have consumed this body, I shall see God in my flesh, yea I myself shall behold him, and mine eyes shall see him, as if job had been the Prophet of the resurrection, 
job. 9.13.  or the trumpet sounding to judgement, or the star to lead to this mystery of Christian belief. And Gentilism was not without some notions of this restoration and reparation of bodies; 
Lor. in Act 24.  and they among them that believed this were esteemed as worthy men, and favourers of the good of the Commonwealth. So that it being plain that jews and Gentiles before Christ knew & professed it, it is manifest that among the jews, the sweet singer of Israel, David the man after Gods own heart, the Type of Christ, the Penman of the holy Ghost was not ignorant of the resurrection, as not only in the Psalms, especially in the 15. it is plain, and by implication out of these words, Can I bring him again? enforcing thus much; Brought again from death he may be, but in my power it is not. Before I land this point I must not omit one place for proof of the resurrection, 
Exod. 3.6.  known even to the Israelites in their younger days in Exodus. It is the only place of all scripture that our Saviour maketh show of to convince the Sadduces, God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 
Mat. 22 32.  the God of jacob, but God is not the God of the dead but of the living. Therefore these holy Patriarches, they are not dead, but in respect of the resurrection they sleep in peace, and to use the phrase of David, 
Psal. 3.  they laid them down in peace, and have taken their rest, but the Lord shall raise them up at the last. But this one question being resolved will make way to some fruitful use of that already spoken, why could not David bring again the soul of his son? Elias besides his many miracles in this kind could do so much and Elisha did more than Elias, for the spirit of Elias was doubled upon Elisha, that as he received a mantle from Elias at the first time he saw him, 
1. King, 19.9.  and another mantle fell from Elias, at the last time that Elisha beheld him, when he was caught into heaven: 
2. King 2.13.  So also a double spirit, as appeared by his wonders, was bestowed upon Elisha. For Elias caused that the oil in the widows one vessel, 
2. King. 4.6.  wasted not; But Elisha caused the Pot of oil of another woman to increase to the filling of many vessels. 
1. King. 17.27.  Elias revived the dying son of the woman of Sarepta, Elisha by prayer did obtain a child to the barren Shunamite, and obtain life to this child being dead. Elias in a great famine obtained rain, 
1. King. 4 18.  but Elisha in another famine, obtained incredible plenty without rain, 
1. King. 18.41.  incredible victory without bloodshed. 
1. King 17.  Elias raised but one from death in his life, 
2. King. 13.20.  but Elisha being dead, his bones in his grave raised the dead. Can Elias, & Elisha do so much, and cannot David do it? 
Ludoloh.  No. Non est Davidi donum hoc concessum, this gift was not granted to him, David may kill the bear, the lion, Goliath, David may overcome the Philistines, the Ammonites, but cannot deliver a soul from death, cannot bring back a soul to life. David by prayer may bring back his soul from sorrow, 
Bernard.  Hezekias by prayer raise himself from sickness, Elias and Eliseus by prayer raise from death, but alteros non seipsos, others, not themselves, as Bernard noteth. Only Christ by his power did raise himself & others, 
Aust.  Praedixit & revixit, as Austin noteth, he foretold it, & by rising he performed it: 
Tertul.  Mori dignatus ex voluntate, sed resurrexit ex potestate, He died by his own will & was raised by his own power, a gift never given to any of the sons of men. S. Paul's speech to the Corinthians may serve to this purpose, 
1. Cor. 3.  secundùm gratiam mihi concessam, according to the grace given to him, every man may perform what Gods spirit doth enable him, he can go no farther, he can do no more. God's spirit sayeth as God's son, 
Math.  sine me nihil potestis facere, without me ye can do nothing. To life we may be revived, and when these our bodies shall be laid low in the womb & tomb of the earth we shall be raised, 
Phil. 3.  but it can only be by that power which is able to subdue all things to himself.  
Use. And is it so? let us then with acknowledgement of our own weakness, rejoice in the power of our God, who shall raise our vile bodies, let us so express the virtue & power of the first resurrection in this life, as that we may receive the honour and joy of the second resurrection, in the life to come. 
Rev. 20.6.  That divine speech of john in his revelation should rap us up into heaven with Paul. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, for on such the second death hath no power. The Godly only die once, but rise twice, they die only the death of the body but rise in soul and body: the wicked they die twice, & rise but once, they rise in body but die the death of soul and body, a part they have in the second death of the damned, but no part in the second resurrection of the just, or if any part, such a part as judas had in the Sacrament, a sop that poisoned his soul, or such a part as Simeon and Levi had in their father's legacy; 
Beaux in Harm  Parten habent non redemptionis etiamsi resurrectionis, a part not of redemption, though of resurrection. O then, who will cause his eyes to be the Pander for his lust, if with these eyes he hope to behold God? who will cause his body to be the curse of his soul, if he hope in his soul and body to attend God for ever more? When that all that have been kept fast and fettered in the chains of death, from all the ages of the world shall meet, their bodies cursing their souls, crying against them, that either the soul should please the body that loathsome lump; or the body should be the snare, and prison for the soul, either to abuse it or abase it to perdition by subjection.  
What shall then be the comfort of the Godly! who shall rise to joy and immortality, and be restored to glory, I say to more glory than the bounds of imagination can contain, that the Lord shall show them the paths of life, and in his light they shall see light, and shall be filled with the joy of his countenance for evermore; That they shall rise to the resurrection of the just, to the everlasting length of days, 
Aquin.  to the beholding of God's glorious face, in which blessed vision omnis sit a est beatitudo all blessedness consisteth as the schools determine; & all this joy Christ hath purchased with his blood and is gone to possess in his body. 
Heb. 12.1.  Wherefore beloved, to use the exhortation of the Apostle to the Hebrews, lay aside every weight of sin, & the sin which hangeth on, & run with patience, the race which is set before you. The holy patriarchs have run it, & now be with Christ, whom they have longer expected then yet enjoyed; the blessed Prophets, have run this race, though through a sea of blood the Apostles, Martyrs, Saints this race victoriously have run in the suns course with more light than the sun up. Up then and the Lord shall be with you, 
1. Cor. 15.  pray, fast, watch, weep, endeavour, labour, and your labour will not be in vain in the Lord. You shall lay down your bodies in grace, and peace, & resume them again in joy and glory. You must go this journey, the decree of this Tax is come our, it is as the law of the Medes and Persians not to be revoked. Every one of us may say of our Master as David of his son, I shall go to him, he shall never return to me, which leadeth me to my third and last part, the acknowledgement of the inevitable stroke of death; I shall go to him, he shall not return to me.  
In the 3. of Genesis, 
Pars 3. Gen. 3.  you may find man's Exodus, Thou shalt die, it is the first Text of mortality in Scripture, all Comments do concur to the exposition of this. The cause of Adam's death was the breach of diet: God forbade him fruit of one tree, this he hungereth for, and taste it he will though it cost him his life. S. Austin bringeth our first parents thus disputing in a dialogue concerning that fruit; if this fruit be good, 
Aug  why may I not eat of it? if it be not good, why groweth it in Paradise? Domine dedisti hortum & negâsti pomum, Lord haste thou given us the garden, and denied us the apple? therefore saith Austin, God hath given thee the benefit of Paradise, because thou mayst know his favour and mercy, and therefore hath he denied this one fruit to thee, because he may find thy obedience and duty. This duty and obedience neglected by our Grandsire, ever since death the lodge of all men's lives cometh with insensible degrees upon the children of men, no wisdom shall appease, no policy prevent no riches correct it. The impartial hand of death is ever destroying, the insatiable throat of the earth ever devouring; death the usurper of Kingdoms, and the intruder into Countries, breaketh the studies of the learnedst, interrupteth the enterprises of the wisest, croppeth of the hopes of the fairest; in a calm a tempest overtakes them and sinks them, delay may reprieve them, but death will serve the execution of that sentence upon them. It is a statute, statutum est omnibus semel mori, It is appointed that all men must die. David knew this and therefore his words be, I must go to him, he shall not reture to me.  
It is the conceit of some Thalmudists, that if ever any had escaped this fatal general sentence, 
Miscel. Thalm.  Moses and Christ had been freed. Moses saw God, spoke with him, asked him, answered him, beheld him, and a kind of communication of some divine lustre was imparted to him, his face did shine: never face to face did man behold God, as Moses did, yet Moses must die, he must ascend the Mount, and there expire. The oracle of Israel, Terror of Egypt, discoverer of Canaan, Prophet, Priest, Captain, Guider, leader of his people must yield to death, though he lived to behold the God of life. Though Moses died, and yielded to death, yet Christ might have been freed, he was equal to the father touching his Godhead, and concerning his manhood his body was not begot in sin, not conceived in sin; yet the death of this son of God if ever any one was so sealed and ratified, as far as either the justice of the father, or the engines of Tyranny of men could devise, this Virgin son of the Virgin mother, Lion of the Tribe of juda, lamb of God gave up the Ghost.  
Every true Hebrew must celebrate this Passover, every man may say for his Master, Father, neighbour, brother, friend, child, as David here, I must go to him, he shall never return to me. They cannot come from that joy and glory they are in, a Cloud of witnesses give testimony of the blessed state of their abode. No return, no coming back, no passage from them as Abraham told Dives in the Parable, they be in refrigerio, in that sweet refreshing saith Austin, 
Aust. de Sanctis Ambr. Chrys. Hom. Greg.  they be in gaudio, in joyful rest saith Ambrose, they be in atrio Domint saith Chrysostome in the Court of the lords house, they be in manu Dei, in the hand of God saith Gregory, in sinu Abrahae, saith the Gospel, 
Phil. 3.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Paul they be with Christ: Return cannot be, misery shall not be unto them. Use. Whence I settle this observation, Obs. 3 that every man shall have his pass in death, but none his return, till the day of judgement. The Term of death hath no essoins, no returns. All must celebrat this Passover, all must truss up their loins, all must take up their staves in their hands, all must pass to their lower rooms, all must lay forth their shrouds, napkins to bind their heads, anointings for their bodies to the burial, I mean preparation, meditation for their death that their names rot not, but that their memories may remain in the posterities that are to come. None shall return till the earth's great jail delivery, heavens great summons to the sessions. A point that may be of much comfort, to ease and mitigate the gripings of the pangs, and fangs, and jaws of death, when our bodies lie upon the altars of our beds for the sacrifice of our souls, when the Evening of our life is even at the end, and shutting up, this is a sweet smelling savour, to remember that all our holy friends, that we leave behind us, shall follow us, all that are gone before shall meet with us, none fail for following, none want for meeting, 
Villand.  & therefore not to fear death to be so horrid, think thy sickness thy prison, thy pangs of death, thy last fits, thou art upon recovery, thy Pant be but the sem briefs, the notes of division of the harmony that they ever have in heaven, the bells that call for thee be but to toll thee to the triumphant Church, thy friends that weep grieve because they cannot go with thee, Devils that gape upon thee look but for legacies, leave one thy pride, another thy lust, another thy ambition, and so as sin brought in death, let death drive out sin. Death is but a ferrey, a boat, a bridge to waft thee over into another place, or a groom that lights a Taper into another Room; thy soul like a Triton lying in the water, is presently to be mounted upon the wave, Angels carry thee, & thou shalt (having thy Nunc dimittis, 
Chrys. ) pass into Abraham's bosom. Thus the Lord shall let his servants depart in peace according to his word: and it will be their comfort, that they have run their race, and fought their fight, and finished their course, and receive the glory of the better life.  
Conclus. And now beloved, for conclusion, give me leave to repeat the words of my Text, and so end. Our MASTER is dead, wherefore should we now fast? Can we bring him again? we shall go to him, he shall never return to us.  
But do I ask? wherefore should I now fast? wherefore should we now mourn? shall I say there is no cause now of mourning for our Master? I dare not say so; 
Seneca. Hectora flem us  for his death is like an Eclipse, the event whereof appeareth many years after, & the future generations shall lament his loss, and I fear out of the sides of their sorrow shall run both water and blood.  
I confess it is in vain, to add new showers to our late streams of tears: the loss was such, that if after all our sighs and groans, we should herein weep out all the humours of our bodies, and waste out all the marrow of our bones all were but vanity and vexation of spirit.  
Yet there is a cause to draw the Cisterns of our sorrow dry, and to make us vow, not superstitiously but religiously, an everlasting lent of fasting and mourning, and humbling ourselves before God; the reason is, Cananeus non est occisus, nec factus tributarius, 
Greg. in Moral.  and this brought such plagues upon Israel. The Cananite is amongst us, the basphemous Traitorous Papist is neither exiled, nor suppressed, but hath more countenance and maintenance secretly, then good men openly, and more pleasure & content in prisons, than many holy men in their houses. This snake lieth close in the City, this spider creepeth up into the Court, and hath feeding in our Church, & housing in our universities. My thoughts be not bloody, I shall heartily pray for them, though they be our enemies, though they rejoice & triumph at our present miseries, & though they have evil will at our Sion, yet my wishes & devotions shallbe rather for their conversion, than confusion. But for our selves, let our prayers be daily & hourly powered out, that the Lord add not so heavy and grievous a misery unto this present, so great an eclipse of his glory and our good to this present cloud of both, as that this his Church ever become an Egypt, a Sodom, a Rome, a Babylon, a prostituted stews for all comers: but that all good hearts may be encouraged, and all good laws may be executed to bring all the people of this kingdom to the knowledge of the Lord. And for this purpose let us fast, and pray, and weep & watch, and cry between the porch & the Altar, Spare us good Lord, spare thy people and be not angry with thine inheritance; Open their eyes that they may see the wondrous things of thy law; Open thy hid treasures that we may receive from the hidden fountains of thy love, Grace mercy and peace, in our days and the days of our posterities, from thee O God the father and from thy son jesus Christ, To whom both with the eternal spirit of thee holy Father be all honour and glory in both worlds. Amen.  
FINIS.   

sorrow FOR THE SINS OF THE TIME.  
A SERMON PREACHED AT St. JAMES on the third Sunday after the PRINCE his death.  
BY DANIEL PRICE then Chaplain in Attendance.  EZEK. 9.4. 
Go through the midst of the City, through the midst of jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst of her.  
AT OXFORD Printed by joseph Barnes and are to be sold by john Barnes dwelling near Holborn Conduit. 1613.   

TO THE RIGHTLY HONOURABLE, AND TRVELY RELIgious LADY the LADY CAREY, wife to the Noble and worthy SIR ROBERT CAREY.  
ELect Lady, 
2. joh. 1.2.  (for so S. john styleth an Honourable Matron to whom he sent his second Epistle) your holy sorrow for the loss of the former Illustrious, and former service to the excellent gracious Prince CHARLES, deserve much respect of all good hearts. With these, another argument particularly doth incite me to offer this service, a sacrifice of my sorrow to your worthy hands: The grace and Countenance you afford Religion and her followers, which will bring a blessing upon you and your posterity, as is already apparent in those fruitful beautiful Olive branches your sons, of whom our (ollege is much joyful, because they are so truly hopeful adding to Nobility of birth Nobility of virtue. Continue Noble Lady to be a faithful client for truth, your sex in scripture hath had honourable examples, & this age hath a holy example of you. Painted sepulchres shall rot, and Popish Hypocrites shall rise to sorrow, when, after many and happy years in this world, you shall appear with joy before God with Sara, Rebecca, Deborah, david's Abigail, salomon's Sulamite, and the Noble Sunamite in the better world. And so with my devotions for your Noble husband, your virtuous self & all yours, wishing you all the blessing of both Testaments, and both lives, I rest  
In all Christian duty to be commanded, DANIEL PRICE.   
EZEK. 9.4. 
Set a mark upon the foreheads of them that sigh and that cry for all the Abominations.  
Jerusalem the largest Map of misery, that ever eye beheld, having been often threatened, often battered, and her visitation growing nearer and greater than before, Salem being to become a tributary City, 
Lam. 1.4.  jerusalem to become a solitary widow, the ways of Zion to mourn, her streets to be empty, her gates desolate, her feasts unfrequented, her Priests to sigh, & her Virgins to be afflicted, she herself, the object of this sight and subject of this sorrow, to weep day and night, and the tears to run down her cheeks continually; 
Lam. 1.2.  her Plagues growing mighty because her sins were waxed many, Many committing them, few mourning for them: The Lord now sendeth six to destroy this City, commanding them, to spare none, to take no pity, 
Ezek 9.6.  but to destroy young & old, the maids and children, & women, yet to touch none that had the Mark, and what this mark is, my Text telleth you.  
A Public Notary is sent to take the list of the Mourners, their sorrow is their safety, their lamentation the cause of their preservation; 
Exod. 12.  houses marked in Egypt, are delivered because marked, men marked in jerusalem, marked that they may be delivered. Mercy hath her lodgings taken up in all Cities or Countries, be the judgements never so great mercy cannot, 
Gen. 7.1. Gen. 19.22. Exod. 12.  will not be excluded. The Saints are privileged men, they have special immunities, an Ark, a Goshen, a Zoar, a City of refuge, shall be ever prepared: or if the breaches of the City be many, yet some shall be marked to be delivered, the meek, 
Mat. 8.5.  or merciful, or peacemaker, or persecuted, or poor in spirit, or pure in heart, or those that hunger & thirst for righteousness. These only shall not be blessed; Mourning shall have a part. 
judg. 1.15.  Acsaph cannot want a blessing, she shall be endowed with springs above & springs beneath: the godly may sow in tears, but shall reap in joy, thousands shall fall before them, and ten thousands at their right hand, but the plague shall not come nigh them. My Text is the patent of the privilege granted to Mourners, set a mark upon the forehead of them that mourn and cry for all the abomination? But were any in jerusalem to be marked? there was a time there were none to be found; In another Prophecy you shall find jerusalem without a man. The Philosopher through Athens was not more careful to find a wiseman than jeremy in jerusalem to find one good man. 
jer. 5.1.  A wonder it was, Inventus est unus in Sodoma, non justus inventus est unus in Civitate sancta. Sodom yielded one Lot, but jerusalem yielded not one just man then. At this time the state was better, though not many, some there were, these seek and find, they lose not their labour, some children of the bride-chamber mourned, their sight was bestowed intromittendo, extramittendo, they saw and shed tears to see the abominations: Mourning was as the shibboleth be tween an Ephraimite and a Gileadite, mourning is the Marriage garment; 
Eccl. 3.4. Ps 126.6. Ps. 90.11. Mat. 5.4.  Ecclesiastes appointeth a time for mourning, David mentioneth the fruit of mourning, Moses prayeth for comfort in mourning, Christ promiseth blessedness for mourning, but a mark for mourning a seal, a character, an emblem, an ensign is never found before, never after. I know in the life to come, mourning shall not be unrewarded, 
Revel. 1.  all Tears shall be wiped away; but in this life, where the 12 fountains of Elim do continually flow, in this vale of misery, in this valley of Tears, in this way of the wilderness, full of stony ways and bitter waters, that not only Consolation, but preservation is assured to Mourners, may seem strange, yet is true, my Text giveth evidence. Set a mark upon those that mourn and cry for all the abominations. Spices cannot preserve the dead by embalming, as Tears will preserve the living by mourning. who the is not desirous to sow in tears, 
Ps. 126.6.  that he may reap in joy and to go on his way weeping and bring this good seed, that he doubtless may come again with joy, & bring his sheaves with him? That not a sigh is sent out but is heard in heaven, not a Tear but is kept, not a groan, but cometh before God, he that seethe him in secret to reward him openly; These poor souls to be rewarded with joy in their tears, when the wicked that were in joy before their faces wallow in their blood, 
Ps. 101.1.  This is an extraordinary song of judgement & mercy, set a mark upon the foreheads of them that mourn, & cry for all the abominations.  
Divis. Which words in an easy & kindly distribution, thus divide themselves. 1. The Privilege of mourning, set a mark upon the foreheads of them that mourn. 2. The spiritual cause of true mourning, for all the abominations. In the 1 there is a separation & distinction; not as the Prophet distinguisheth them marshalling the inhabitants of jerusalem thus, 
jer.  the strong man and man of war, judge and Prophet, prudent and aged Captain of fifty, Honourable man and Counsellor, Artificer & Eloquent man, but whosoever of any state of life, any age, any sex, that mourned are all preserved. Gedeon divideth, and separateth his company by lapping of waters, 
judge 7.1.  God distinguisheth his Saints here by shedding of watery tears, set a mark upon those that mourn and cry in jerusalem. Secondly, as no man saved but the mourners, so no mourning is approved but that which is for the abominations of the time: though their friends, neighbours, the wives of their bosom, their children, the fruit of their bodies were slain before their face, that no Myrmidon, no savage Barbarian could abstain from weeping at such Ruthful woeful spectacles, 
Aencad. lib. 4.  that standers by would brand then with the cursed character of hard-harts with a Quis temperet à lachrimis? Yet their mourning is not allowed unless it be for the abominations. The desolation is spiritual, because the abomination is spiritual all, the lamentation must be no other, must be no less: Set a mark upon the foreheads of them that mourn and weep for the Abominations. But 1 of the Privilege of mourners.  
Pars. 1 It might well have been the question of these people, when they saw this day of their visitation coming upon them, O who shall bring Salvation unto Israel out of Zion? They had heard the fearful denunciation of God in the last verse of the former Chapter, 
Ezek. 8.18.  I will deal in my fury, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have any pity, though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them: this word was a sword able to divide between the bones and the marrow. They had heard of fettring, scattering, consuming, banishing, & that their Virgins, Nazorites, Priests, Prophets, and Princely Citizens should be divoured by the sword, and other plagues, the bitter blasts of the breath of God's displeasure, they could expect no better: yet he, 
Aust.  who had & nomina & membra, in whose roll were their names, and in whose book were all their members wrtiten, sendeth to comfort them: he had them in his hand, & none could take them from him, his eyes were set upon them, 
Psal.  and with his eyelids he considereth these children of men, no evil shall come near their dwelling, though they were dejected in their own eyes, despised of their neighbours, and their enemies laugh them to scorn to see them go mourning all the day long, yet these mourners shall without any peril go about in the street, every one of them might have said Posui Deum adiutorem meum, In God is my help, in the Lord will I rejoice, he hath regarded the lowly estate of his servants, 
Luk. 1.41.  he hath put down the mighty from their seats, and hath remembered the humble and meek mourners. God could not forget to be gracious, but will visit this his vine, Habet ille vineas semper lachrymantes suas, 
Magis frugifeferae sunt lachry mantes vincae.  he hath vine-trees dropping of Tears in the winter of this world that they may flourish in the summer of a better life. 
Pined. 2 de Salome▪ c. 4 num 4.  Virga tua & baculus tuus ipsa me consolata sunt, Thy rod & staff do comfort me. Pineda hath a strange interpretation hereof, that hereby the kingly Prophet meaneth his Lictors, or the Chelethites and Petethites who were his guard. And as this is forced, so be there many feigned & various others, wresting this holy speech to ridiculous senses. Some interpret this rod to be Moses rod, whereby he did miracles, 
Exod▪ 4.2. Zeno veronens. ser. de jud.  some the Rod of Aaron, which only rod flourished among the Rods of the Tribes. Some this Rod to be the root of jesse as justin Martyr, and Eusebius. 
In Triphon.  But the better opintons do sentence it of afflictions and humiliations, these do comfort, these encourage, 
Ps. 23.  these do strengthen the godly. There by affliction David is strengthened and encouraged, here by afflaction these sorrowful souls are preserved. It was with them, as with Mordecai; one day he walketh through the midst of the City with rend clothes, 
Ester. 4 1.  and put on sackcloth, and cried with a loud, and bitter cry; on another day, the royal apparel that the king useth to wear, he is appareled with, 
Ester. 6.8.  and the horse that the king rideth on, fitted for Mordecai, and the Crown Royal which is set upon the king's head, is put upon Mordecai, and one of the noblest Princes do lead him through the same city where Mordecai mourned. No man imagined such an alteration. Can any man think that God would so remember and provide for these pitiful sorrowful souls, whose tears were their meat day and night, their heads aching, & their eyes streaming, sitting as the Doves in the holes of the Rocks, their souls weeping in secret, 
Cant. 2.  and their eyes dropping down day and night, 
Lam 2.  that in this great destruction, when neither the aged have reverence for their grey hairs, nor the suckling relief for innocency of his tender age, nor the Virgin nor Matron privileged for their Modesty, nor the Priest or Senator respected for their dignity; yet these marked for preservation, and honoured to posterity, brought out of their private cells, out of their dark, & loathsome, fulsome, fuliginous dwellings into the light, ubi non lux sed luctus luceat, where not only their light shall shine before men but even very darkness shall be turned into light, 
Chrys.  and as Esay speaketh, they shall have beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, 
Esay 61.3.  the garment of gladness for the spirit of heaviness. David may fly from Country to Country, from Samuel in Ramah to Abimelech in Nob, then to Achish in Gath, sometimes be in a Cave, sometimes in the fields, sometimes in the Rocks, sometimes in the Wilderness, but an eye shall behold him, whom no eye can perceive, a hand shall lead him, that he dash not his foot. jonas the most admirable pattern of misery that ever human understanding conceived, the most absolute Model of misery, seek (as a Reverend father of ours worthily saith) from the Centre to the Circle, no Parallel (being only man) to jonas, of whom the interpreters deliver miranda ed vix oredenda, were we nor bond to the word by the obligation of faith, jonas I say, cast out of the ship into another vessel, the bowels of a whale, the very belly of hell & being so embarked worse than shipwrecked, 
Ovid. Trist.  that he might truly have said Mors mihi munus erit, 
Epis. Lond. in I on.  he is wafted a long the bottom of the sea, and promonteries of the earth, from sea to sea, through the Syriac sea, thence to the Egean, thence through the Hellespont where Asia and Europe be divided, thence through Propontis, from thence to Thracius Bosphorus betwixt Constantinople and Anatolia, and from thence to the Euxine sea, where he was vomited out of the Guts and Garhadge of the fish. In all this time, the Deep drowned him not, the stomach of the Whale digested him not, all his misery devoured him not, all the surges, all the waves cannot wash away his mark his character, but preservation shall ever follow him, and bring him unto the haven where he would be. There is a root that keepeth life in the winter of misery, there is a good Angel that leadeth the Saints through fire and water, a guide there is that leadeth them through the chambers of death & breaketh the bonds of iron in pieces. 
Psal. 1. Cor.  The foundation of the Lord is sure, saith Paul, and hath this seal, the Lord knoweth who are his, he hath signed and sealed them with a mark, sometimes invisible, always indelible, never to be expunged, never removed. You may ask why this privilege is given to mourners? For if the Righteous only be God's servants, and that of S. Austin be true, ubi justitia ibi laetitia, where there is righteousness there is gladness, than what place hath sorrow in the assembly of the Just; again in Habacuc in the great preservation the Prophet speaking of the deliverance of the Godly saith, the just man shall line by his faith. 
Hab. 2 4. Ps. 118 15. Esay. 61 3.  Now the just man is said to have vocem laetitiae, vestom laetitiae, & oleum letitiae, the voice of gladness, the garment of gladness, and the oil of gladness, here is no mourning taken notice of. But S. Ambrose answereth, Non solùm dolour, said & laetitia habet suas lachrymas, 
Ambros.  Not only sorrow but even the joy of the just hath private tears, and groans and sorrows. The joyfulest feast, that ever the Israelites had, was the Passeover, and yet the Rasseover must not be eaten without bitter herbs: 
Exod. 12.8.  and the most content that ever this life can afford, is but a bitter sweet. Therefore as the Apostle warneth, They that rejoice must be as though they rejoiced not; for all the joy that the godly have in this world is but wa acerba, a sour grape. The counsel of S. Gregory upon the rainbow fitteth us in it at one time there seemeth to be the representation of fire and water, 
Greg●in Mor.  not only thereby symbolum utriusque judicij, a plain manifestation that as the world was drowned by water, so it shall be burnt by fire, but more properly in those colours of fire & water is represented joy and sorrow, so interchangeably appearing as not to be divided, a sorrowful joy, and a joyful sorrow, a shower in a sunshine, a bright star in a dark night. So here these servants of the Lord do mourn, and therefore are marked, and being marked rejoice, because they are preserved: set a mark upon them that mourn and cry. Obs. Whence this observation as out of a clear fountain is derived, It is an unseparable sign of the true children of God, to be sorrowful concerning this world, while they are in this life. The reason is because we ought to conform ourselves, not only to the old Saints under the Law, but to our Saviour, whose actions in this kind be our instructions he was never found resting, or rejoicing, but solitary, and sorrowing, & traveling; you may behold him, at a well solitary sitting, at the grave of Lazarus weeping, 
Luk. 2.3.  in the Temple displeased and grieving, in the garden sweeting and sighing, on the Cross sorrowing and expiring. He was not borne in the year of jubilee, the year of rejoicing, but in the year of Augustus the first year Taxing of the world. His servants before had their marks, and practices of mourning, the ancient Prophets often received their prophecies, in sorrowful solitary places by the waters, as heavenly doves upon the floods of waters: Ezekiel by Cohar, Daniel by the river Tigris, joseph the Prophet and more than a Prophet by the river jordan; and others though they received them not by the rivers, yet they dissolved their messages into waters, 
Ps. 119. 1 Cor.  mine eyes gush out, saith David, I have writ unto you with many tears, saith Paul, Non atramento magis quàm lachrymis Chartas inficiebat Paulus, saith an expositor upon the Acts. Among all the fathers, none more abundant in tears then S. Austin, 
Lor. in Act. 22. v 19 Aust.  he wept in praying and prayed in weeping, Da mihi lachrymarum fontem tum prae●ipuè cum preces & orationes tibi Domine offero, O Lord, saith he, give me then a fountain of tears, especially then O Lord, when I offer up my prayers unto thee. Not to be able to weep is hellish, a Mark of infernal complices, the furies are so descried by the Poets, 
Horat. 2. Carm. 12. Ode.  and Bodinus affirmeth the same of witches, and sorcerers. Certain it is that God's servants are well acquainted with such sacrifices, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.  
I find in Scripture 3 especial times of marking, 
3. Times of marking in Scripture. Exod. 12.22.  the first in Goshen, the houses to be preserved were marked ye shall take a bunch of Isop and dip it in blood, that is in the basin, and strike the Lintel, & the two side posts and the Lord will pass over the door, & will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. And the same Text saith, there was a great cry in Egypt, 
Exod. 12.29.  for there was not a house wherein there was not one dead. 
Rev. 7.3.  The second marking is in the Revelation by an Angel ascending from the East, having the seal of the living God and he cried with a loud voice, to the four Angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth, and the sea. The third marking is this of my Text, set a mark upon them that mourn, & cry for the abominations. When the Israelites were marked in Goshen, the Egyptians had sorrow but no marks, when the servants of God are marked in the Revelation, they have marks, but no sorrow, but in my Text here we find sorrow & marks together. The sorrow in Egypt, where there were no marks, doth describe the estate of the wicked, who drink deep of sorrow, but are estranged from all privilege of preservation. The Saints in the Revelation who had marks but no sorrow, describe the estate of the Godly, whose sorrow is ended here, & in the life to come have Palms, Laurels, white Garments, the seals and signs of the Lords eternal love. These marks do design the glory of Martyrs, Roses of the field red by their death, and the beauty of Saints, Lilies of the valleys, white in the innocency of their life, these shall never hunger, nor thirst, nor sorrow, for the Lamb is their light and Lord for evermore. But the Saints marked in my Text, do design the militant Church, ever as the woman in the Revelation traveling, ever like Rachel weeping, and therefore marked to be preserved.  
In the 1 of Chronicles the 4 and ninth, 
1. Chr. 4 9  jabez the son of Ashur is said to be more honourable than all his brethren, the reason is because his mother bore him in sorrow, and his name is a name of sorrow. In the next verse jabez called upon the God of Israel to be delivered from evil, 
1. Chr. 4.10.  and the Lord, saith the Text, heard him and granted it to him; here is the fruit of sorrow. Of all the Trees in the world, we read of none remaining, but the Olive tree after the flood, from this tree the Dove had the bough. Many ancients do observe much hereupon, 
Gen. 7.  & attribute much to this Olive tree as being most green when it is most watered, most fruitful when it droppeth and distilleth. David compareth himself to an Olive tree, 
Psal.  I am as a green Olive tree in the Temple, in the house of the Lord, & Christ was more conversant in the Mount of Olivet, then on any other place. I infer nothing upon these places but only this, that after the flood of sorrow our Olive branches shall be green, and flourishing. Elisha cast salt into the bitter waters to make them sweet, salsum in amarum, saith one, 
Lud.  did he cast salt into bitter, can salt make sweet? Yes the sorrow which is as salt (cast into the passages of our life which of themselves be bitter) doth sweeten and relish our whole state in this life. We never read that our Saviour took the book out of the Priest's hand in the Temple but once, and then the Text he opened, was that of Esay, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
Esay. 61. 1. Luk. 4.18.  because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, and as it followeth in Esay to comfort thou that mourn in Zion. A great comfort it is, that comfort was the Embassage of Christ, the only Text of Christ, in his first sermon, the second blessing pronounced by Christ, & in the day of iudgemet the assured retribution of Christ. Mourners shall be marked, and by this shall be preserved examples to all posterity, and Saints hereafter in eternal glory.  
Use. A Doctrine fitting us the scattered flock of this family, who mourn for loss of our service. If we be true mourners here is entertainment, mainetenance, Countenance and protection: we are sure to be defended in the perilous times, and to be delivered in the day of adversity, then if we hear of dangers, or fears, or rumours of war, we may lift up our heads on high, as knowing our salvation is near at hand, nay, we shall be dearer to God then ever we were, we shall be as the apple of his eye, or as the signet on his right hand, Tender as his own bowels, he will water us with the dew of heaven, keep us in the quiver of his providence, and cover us with the wings of his protection, we shall then no longer sit by the waters of Babel or drink of the waters of Marah.  
O what an honour will it be, to be God's servants, to be chosen by him, to be set apart by him, to be his privileged men, honoured and remembered by the posterities that come after! His servant Moyse, shall bring Manna from heaven, 
Exod. 16.16. 1. King. 18.41 Numb. 25.11. Gen. 19 22.  his servant Elias bring Rain from heaven, Phinehas stay a plague, Lot shall have such power as that God can do nothing while he is in the city, to these he promiseth that he will destroy none of all jerusalem till they be marked. Who so is wise, saith the Psalmist, will ponder these things and will consider the loving kindness of the lord 
Psal.  But alas, we are given to affect Courtship, and the service of court so much, 
job.  to seek the face of the ruler as job in his time spoke, or as Elisha is there any thing to be spoken to the king or to the Captain of the host? ever we seek great preferments, and desire continuance in the blandishments of Court. 
2. King 4.13.  O, it is a brave thing to be counted a Courtier, and yet a matter no happier than Salamons' spider the worms and moths of greatness do hang upon many here, 
Prov.  it may be some have vipers hanging on their hands, and the beholders do daily expect their downfall. 
Acts. 27.  At the best Courtship is but splendida miseria▪ envy may eat, 
Bern,  or slander bite thee, ambition may break thy heart, or pride break thy neck, 
Pro.  or at best ease slayeth the foolish. I have already remembered you of the king's speech in the Psalm, I will ingeminate it, for it is penned for this purpose, 
Ps. 146.5.  the misery and uncertainty of our Courtly dependences Blessed is he that hath the God of jacob for his refuge & whose help is in the Lord his God. To this refuge we may have recourse he is not as Baal is said by Elias to be, busy, or slumbering, he that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth, nor sleepeth; To this refuge we may fly as the Grecians did to Themistocles, or as travellers in a storm to a shelter. 
Thuc.   
Secondly therefore let us examine ourselves, whether we are marked to be his servants or no: marks we have, yet not his; Cain had a mark set on him, 
Gen.  the mark of murder; Edom had the mark of Horror, Esau the mark of shame, jeroboam the brand and mark of his sin▪ never to be removed. There be marks of damnation, as well as of preservation. God hath divided between jacob and Esau in the same womb, between Pharisie & Publican in the same Temple, between Ephraim & Manasses in the same place, No doubt many men of Note at this time in jerusalem were without this Note of preservation: And so now in the world if such another seale-day came among us, many great men, the magnificoes of this age, would bear part in the Common desolation, having no part in this Patent granted only Christi fidelibus. How many be there whose mouths serve only to breath out the unsavoury speeches of the soul, corrupting not the Company only but the air they are in! whose eyes are the windows, whose ears the doors of their own destruction, whose understanding represents their will, whose will is a common Courtesan of pollution, whose memory a treasury of corruption. Nay among ourselves, how many of us have but laid aside in this mourning time our common sins with our common garments, our ordinary sins in these extraordinary judgements? It was an honest dutiful speech of Vriah when David bid him go home, and eat, 
2. Sam 11.11.  and drink, and sleep; he answered, The Ark, and Israel, & juda abide in tents, and my Lord joah, and the servants of my Lord lie in the fields, shall I then go into my house, to eat, to drink, to lie with my wife? As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not do it. He denieth to take his honest ease, I pray God none of us have presumed to take unhonest courses, since our misery hath been so eminent, and our dangers so imminent. This now should be our meditation; our blessed MASTER lieth now in his sheet and Sindon, Terras reliquit Astroea, our sunshine is darkened, that place of job seemeth to be penned for us, 
job. 21.18.  WHERE IS NOW THE HOUSE OF THE PRINCE? the sun of our glory is gone down, the Philistines rejoice, the Popish uncircumcised triumph, what shall I do? Shall I be unmindful of my Saviour, unfaithful to my present sorrow, ungrateful to the memory of that my deceased Master, continue in Lies, lusts, oaths, aspiring projects, or malicious traps? No I will make and observe this vow, I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep, nor mine eyelids to slumber, I will neither continue my tongue to betray my brother, nor my body to betray my own soul, I will endeavour to live a just and holy, and sober life, this I desire, for this I hunger, and thirst, this I vow, for this I pray, the Lord hear and grant me this petition.  
Use. 3 Lastly, examine whether you have so mourned as ye ought, in this our last loss. Alas, where now be our Tears? It's a Prodigy that fountains be dried up in winter. Heathens in their ritual books, deliver their order of Lamentation for common men to be 30 days: the Hebrews lamented Moses, and Aaron, and jacob 40 days; the Egyptians went beyond both, and mourned for jacob 70 days: 
Gen 50 3.  and I know in this company some will go far beyond these Egyptians, making their whole lives remembrances of their Master's death, and entertaining no guest into their soul but sorrow. Yet herein also others have gone further than any of you intent: Amorits by laming their bodies, Grecians shaving their heads, Tibracians by howling and roaring for the dead, & so many other Countries by horrid and unnatural Geromonies. But in all this causes rather than effects are to be lamented, Ratio docet & trahit affectio, 
Bern.  saith Bernard, Reason doth inform, and affection doth enforce this former manner of lamentation, but grace doth commend and God doth command another mourning, mourning for abominations as it followeth in my Text, for the Abominations. When Rahel wept, 
2. Part  God by his prohibition crieth Noliflere, weep not. Our Saviour in the Gospel beheld none weeping but prohibiteth them. 
Ier 31.16. Luk. 8.15.  Tairus wept for his daughter, and Christ saith, Noliflere weep not. The poor widow following them, that bate her son to the burial is forbidden in the same words, Noliflere, Our Saviour ready to go to his passion. 
Luk. 7.13.  the daughters of jerusalem wept for him, he for biddeth them Nolite flere, weep ye not. 
Luc. 23.28.  Doth God forbidden weeping, and doth the Prophet promise a reward for weeping? yes saith Rabanus non ideo ut nonlugeant temporalia, sed ne negligerent suiritualia. Nature doth teach us, to weep for Natural causes, but grace for spiritual, such is this mourning to be rewarded Mourn for the abominations. Common sins are to be lamented, they be the unfruitful thorns that choke the good seed of virtue and grace, the corrupters of judgement, the seducers of will, the betrayers of virtue, the flatterers of vice, underminers of Courage, slaves to weakness, infection of youth, madness of age, the curse of life, and the reproach of death, the least of our bosom sins is fire in the hand, and a serpent in the heart, a Canker, a spider, an evil spirit, and the fruit hereof is death. But the word wickedness is a degree, that far exceedeth common sins. The Hebrews observe that the word wickedness in the original is transcendent. It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a small fault, nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 iniquity, nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply evil, but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as importing the all sufficient Term for all manner of impetuous impiety, nor restrained to any one branch of the breach of the Commandments, but outstretching all degrees, that whatsoever exceedeth modesty & is contrary to reason, nature, grace, or scripture, settled into dregs, frozen into ice, having forced, captivated, the soul to impious servility, with a whorish forehead, that cannot be ashamed, aspiring, crying, climbing, towering, filling and defiling the earth, poisoning the air, lifting itself above the stars: yet in this exuberancy, & transcendency, Abomination like the whore of Babylon striveth to sit higher, 
Rev. 13.1.  she is the beast that rose out of the sea, having seven heads & 10 horns, and upon her horns ten crowns, and on her heads, the name of Blasphemy. Abomination is the abstract, the Lucifer, 
Rev. 17.5.  the Dragon, the Babylon, the great mother of all whoredoms, all witchcrafts, and to say no more it is Idolatry; survey the former Chapter & you will find it. The great abominations mentioned there be four, first the Idol of indignation, or as others read it the image of jealousy; 
Pint. in loc. quatuor abom. genera.  secondly the Ancients or Nobles committing Idolatry, and one especially named among the rest; Thirdly, women weeping over an Idol, women not of the meanest; Lastly, between the porch and the altar, the place of the Priests, 
Villapand.  and therefore collected hence that these were Priests, they are committing Idolatry. And after the Prophet had seen every one of them, the Lord by a gradation leadeth every degree, every vision to a higher elevation of their abomination: for when he had seen every one of them, he saith, but behold greater abominations. The first is that Idol of indignation, or image of iealonsie, 
Luth. Lamb. Villalpand & Pint. in Ezek.  which what it was is not generally concluded, but as the most, and best, it was the image of Baal which was the first occasion of the heathens and jews Idolatry. Every Idol in scripture is called, vanitas, mendatium for nicatio, abominatio, but this especially, 
Villalp.  this is the abomination of desolation in high places, some refer this Idol, to that which Manasses made, 
2. Chr. 34.4.  but josias took that away, for he broke down the altars of Baalim, that were before him. Others expound this of those made in the time of Zedekias: an Idol it was, and the cause of indignation. The second was greater Ancients committing Idolatry, worshipping, & burning incense to the forms and pictures of creeping things, 
Ezek. 9 v. 16.  & abominable beasts privately in their chambers and to all the Idols of the house of Israel. These seventy, the Sanidrim, the Council of Israel, the elders of Israel, 
Num. 11.  as they be called by God at their first institution, they that should have taken care for God's service, they commit abomination. But the third abomination was greater, at the door of the Lords house there sat women weeping and mourning for Tammuz, Lascivi daemonis simulachrum, saith an interpreter, the Idol of a lascivious Devil, whether of Adonis, or Osiris, or Saturn, or whatsoever it was, devilish it was. 
R. Moses apud pint. in Ezek.  Rabbi Moses the Egyptian saith, this Tammuz was the Idolatrous statue of one so called who was a great worshipper of Idols, and he dying desired to be so adored; it was an horrid abomination. But the fourth is greater than all, between the porch & the altar, some Priests, say all Interpreters, turning their backs to the Temple, and their faces to the sun, worship towards the East; this was the most abhorred of all others. Observe the transcendency, and priority of these in their dagrees, first the Idol of jealousy, this was but at the gate, at the entry, there it might have stood as a byword to those that pass by, a contemptible thing, a Mehushtan, a ruin our Skeleton, time eaten weather beaten Monument; no, it stood there to be adored, worshipped publicly. Behold, saith the Lord, the abomination, that the house of Israel committeth herein; yet behold greater abominations, the Nobles and Ancients, worship not one Idol only, but the forms of creeping things, abominable beasts, all the Idols of the house of Israel, nay more one among the rest, a chief one, Currus Daemonis, 
Pint. in Ezek.  quo multi vehebantur ad infernum, a chariot of the Devil wherein many were carried to hell, this monster hath a Censor in his hand, in the midst of them, & every one of them round about, burn incense to this Idolatrous imagery portrayed on the wall, yet this was only in their chambers, it was privately. But the third abomination is greater, women weeping for that monster that Devil of lust, or that devil of Idolatry, women shameless Idolaters. The devil had no other engine in Paradise but the woman, 
Gen. 3.  she was the wheel to turn about all the world. Ahabs' jezebel is his instrument to slay the Prophets, Herodias daughter to strike of john Baptist his head, Helena shall further Simon Magus stratagem, Philumena her Apelles, Montanus must have his Prisca Donatus his Lucilla, Priscillinus his Galla, Arrius must be favoured and furthered in his heresy by Constantine's sister, and Nicholas the Deacon will have choras foemininas: whether it be that women by their nature, are more flexible, or by law less liable to punishment, (though very many of them have been holt worthy Saints and Martyrs of God,) yet many have been most faithful servants to their infernal Master, they be the loadstones and loadstars in all evil, the jesuit not more serviceable to the Pope then Idolatrous women to the devil. These women were not in the common streets, but in the gate of the house of the Lord, in an eminent place do they commit this Idolatry. Yet the fourth is far beyond all, in all the circumstances. It is much that the Idol should be public, yet better public by the common people, then in private by the Lords & Ancients of Israel: in the second, it is not so much that the Nobles and Ancients, do commit Idolatry in private, in their chambers, as that these women, those idolatrous witches, should openly, even at the door of the house of the Lord, mourn for that monster, whether it were the God of their corporal, or spiritual filthiness, for both be sworn sisters and inseparable associates. In the third it is not so clamorous in the ears of heaven, that women, weak for their sex, though wicked in this service, should weep, and mourn, this being done without t the gate, though in an Idolatrous custom; I say it is not so clamorous as that the Priests of the Lord, the seers of Israel, the strong men of Zion, the foundation of jerusalem, they that should have been the Oracles of God, that these should build Babel in Salem, it is more than that all the Commons, many Nobles, some women be Idolaters. 
Numb.  If the light be darkness how great is that darkness? Nadab and Abihu, if they offend, fire shall strike them; Corah if he offend the earth shall swallow him. The offering of the Priest was greater than the offering required from the Prince, 
Lev. 4.15  not respectu dignitatis, but pietatis, the Prince to offer a Goat, 
Bux.  but the Priest, a bullock. The Priest was not only the sacrificer, 
Sacerdos sal sacrificii.  but the salt, of the sacrifice, if this salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall he be seasoned? if the Priest commit Idolatry, what hope in people or Prince? at his hands all will be required. Here then is the full measure; people, and Prince, women, Priests, all are found faulty, all are ahominable, or at least some of all kinds and qualities among them, this is the cause that this mourning is required, that the Saints may herein be discerned, that they are so far from participating in the wickdenesse of the world, that they in consideration hereof may be found, not only watching but weeping as the Pelican, stork, Dove, Turtle, bemoaning the increase of iniquity; and as my Text speaketh for the abominations that are done. Observe. 6 Whence this observation properly ariseth, that it is the duty of all God's Saints to deplore the sins of the time, by which Gods judgements are hastened upon the world. Moses' left this as a legacy to his people, they did not more lament his loss after his death, than he mourned for them, and their ensuing sorrows for their present sins before his death. 
Deut. 32.  David had the same spirit; 
Ps. 119.  mine eyes gush out with waters because men keep not thy law. To say no more, all the Prophets do bewail the sins of jerusalem the seat of the kings of juda and Samarta the city of the kings of Israel. jeremy wished himself a fountain, & if you read his Prophecy and Lamentations, you may think he shed an Ocean of Tears, for the sins of the daughter of his people. As I name him for all the Prophets, so I only direct you to S. Austin of all the fathers, who besides his practice herein, Confessions, Meditations, 
Aust.  and Soliloquies, doth upon this occasion of my Text exhort all to this general Lamentation. 
Aug. lib 2 cont. Ep. Parmenian.  Cum idem morbus plurimos occupaverit, nihil aliud bonis restat, quàm dolour & gemitus, ut per illud signum quod Ezechieli Sancto revelabatur, illaesipossint evadere ab impiorum vastatione: when the same disease (or general calamity) shall visit many, there remaineth nothing to the Godly but sorrow & weeping, that by that sign, which was manifested to holy Ezechiell, they may escape unhurt, 
Chauc. Gerson. Alvar. Pelag.  in the devastation of the wicked: what Gerson, and Alvarez Pelagius a Papist in his book named Gravamen Ecclesiae have written even against I dolatrous Papists, is worthy for ever to be remembered, though it cannot in this scanrell of time be recited.  
Use. In this dysastrous time of my distracted meditations I have been at a maze to consider whether these prophecies of jeremy & Ezekiel be Oracles for jerusalem only, or the Chronicles of our own lands: sure I am we have the Idol of indignation among us, Popery the mother of two sorry twins Idolatry & Treachery, we have some Idola trous Ancients, noble Idolaters, Idolatrously luxurious women, I dare not say that Noble women mourn for Tammuz. We have Idolatrous Priests of our own Tribe, of our own Temple, who wish more Rome in the Land, who often offer strange fire upon the altar even in Bethel, spurious, Heterogeneous monsters, Hermaphrodites, Ambodexters', rhapsodistical Postillers, false hearted fellows, who edge their sword upon the Philistines forges, and for this and these cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. It is confessed that jeremy and Ezekiel prophesied both at one time; Compare their prophecies, & you will believe that they prophesied purposely for this age, and this place wherein we breath. 
jer. 13.16.  In the 130 of jeremy there is a prophecy, that while men look for light there should be great darkness: Is not this fulfilled? and have not our eyes seen, & sorrowed, have we not wept day & night, to see our present and apparent joy ecclypsed, the expectation of such solemn and solid comfort in the conjunction of that blessed star, with the religious Prince Palsgrave? In the same Chapter in the 18. 
jer. 13.18.  verse the Prophet, as if he cried to the English Court, useth these words, Say unto the King & Queen, humble your seives for your Principality is come down, even the Crown of your heads. And were the sun and moon of the firmament of this land, I mean his Royal Majesty and the Queen ever so distressed with sorrow, as now, that the glory of the British Principality is ecclypsed? In the 20 of the same Chapter, the Prophet asketh where is the beautiful flock that came from the North, the flock that was given him? And may we not ask? where now is the beauty and glory of this flock, of this family? where be those worthy, active, rarely qualified, Religious, Noble, and divinely tempered Gentlemen? whom, if another Queen of Sheba had beheld in the order of their service & manner of their attendance, she had pronounced, 
1. King. 10.8.  Happy are these men, happy are these servants. In the 22. 
jer. 23.10.  of jeremy there is a command to weep bitterly, the reason, because of the death of the Prince, Shallum the son of josiah; for saith jeremy, He shall go away, and shall never return to see his native Country. O that the grave had opened her mouth upon us, and that this had not been fulfilled in our eyes, that a Million of our lives had served as an expiatory sacrifice for our blessed Prince! In. Ezekiel there be many notable places, that he that runneth may read how truly our history is pourtrayted in that Prophecy; but this string will grow harsh, if it be touched longer or louder.  
Ye may ask me wherein be any of these Prophecies fulfilled in our times, in connivance of Idolatry? But ye are wise, ye have hearts & judgements and eyes to behold the increase of this desolation; ye need not ask, or if ye will ask, ask the father in Christ's name for some redress: for did not the wakeful eye of heaven keep Sentinel over us, and the divine hand protect us from the furious battery of tempestuous Popery, we should bleed under the presence of their wished for desolation, as now we ought to weep for that continued abomination. Babylon hath been described by Esay, jeremy, Ezekiel, and almost all the Prophets, especially S. john, have foretold her Papal Tyranny, and feral and final misery. If there were any life, or spirit, or any of our Ancestors jealous, zealous courage in us, we would be avenged of God's enemies. Is it not enough that they have reaped of the best fruits of our land and blasted some of the fairest hopes & crept into houses, & led women captives laden with divers lusts, and have their annual sessions, and customary officers, for their subsidiary collections among the hell borne brood of bastards, enemies to our King, and God, and Church. I know if there were no Popery in our land, yet Abominations might every where be found, Oportet esse harese, Oportet esse abhominationes. But I say it is impossible, that all the world should afford so many high and horrid abominations, as be in these. What greater pride then that a Priest shall so abase the metal of the Crown and lay the golden head of the picture under the earthy foot of the Pope? what sensuality more than to proclaim indulgence with liberty, to all kind of lust, what Covetousness more than to sell souls, the great mark of Rome's market in the Revelation. 
Rev. 18.13. A most notable place to prone the abomination of Rome: No place of the world selling souls but Rome Tully in Catil. coniur. job.  A place so invincible to convince Rome of Antichristianisme, as no quicksilvered Sulphurous Engineer among the jesuits shall ever be able to countermine it. Veniunt, & in senatum veniunt, thy live and come to Church, and I would they came no nearer. But come they as near as they may, he that sitteth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn, the Lord still hath them in derision, the sea is limited, nay hell itself is bounded, their Navies have been shipwrecked, their fire works prevented, their weapons, poisons, Treasons, ever hitherto descried, and God will continue to be our God, their Dagon ever shall fall before our Ark, if we continue his servants.  
Acknowledge this, Honourable, & Beloved, let God's protection, if nothing else seal the certainty of our Religion unto us, you that have any place of government and derive any beams of authority from the sunshine of his Royal Majesty, look to your oaths of allegiance to God and the King, how soon you must give account of your stewardship you know not, be faithful in the cause of the Lord. In some parts of this land by the countenance and furtherance of our late Renowned Prince, authority hath kenneld up some blood thirsty she-seminaries, 
Banbury Castle  and Religion that was sick of a Consumption beginneth daily to recover. There is no open Toleration for Popery, I confess better were it that the Eagles of the valley should pick out their eyes, but in eo quod superstitio non tollitur, toleratur. I never shall remember that remarkable place of S. Paul to the Galathians, but my soul will abhor the thoughts of blending or suffering two religions in one place. The Gospel was planted in that Church, and yet this desired to retain some few of their ancient jewish ceremonies: if ye read the place, 
Gal. 3.4. and 5. Chap.  you will wonder that Paul should be so vehement against the participation of some few relics of their old religion. You will find him more bitter (if I may call his holy zeal, the seal of his Apostleship, bitterness) I say you will find him more earnest and piercing then in all his Epistles. Besides an ingeminated Anathema to those that preached jewish doctrine among them, 
Gal. 2.1.  & foolishness heaped on their heads because they did hereby frustrate the grace of God, he protesteth unto them in the 5. chapter and second verse, Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ profiteth you nothing. Is Circumcision grown so odious? Is the seal of the covenant, Abraham's covenant of grace antiquated? Is there no means, that this and the gospel may stand together? Will not Paul suffer a little leaven in the lump, not agree, that an agreement, or reconcilement be made between Moses and Christ, I say between Moses a type of Christ & Christ, between Moses, who was with God the father in mount Sinai, & Christ with him in mount Tabor. Not this Moses and his law to be endured where Christ is, & his gospel? How then, if leaven be not suffered, is poison mingled? if Law and Gospel not to be together, how shall that be endured, graced, maintained and countenanced among us, which is derogatory to law and gospel? Beloved be ye not deceived God is not mocked, he seethe hearts, as you see faces. Idolatry and the connivance of Idolatry, brought all the plagues upon Israel; favours among us done to our enemies, have almost undone us. Eheu suslulerunt Dominum, I may say with Mary, they have taken away our Lord. Whether it was by any hellish plot of theirs sent from their infernal caves and caverns, or the too much sparing of these Amalekites, whom God (if man neglect) will punish, I may say sustulerunt Dominum. The choicest and greatest plague that these Incendiary, Sanguinary assaciants could have devised, they have performed. I know not whether, it was their damned villainy, when they saw that Solomon would not link with Pharaoh, that they fearing Solomon would pull of the crest of Pharaoh, have prevented it by their infernal stratagems. Speak it I must not, fear it I do, yet not because I fear to speak it: for alas, now that sustulerunt Dominum for us of this distressed family, did they cut our throats presently, they would rather free us then add any thing to our present miseries.  
But Lord look down upon us, we are thy people and the sheep of thy pasture, thou hast broken our bones in sunder yet art able to cause the bones that thou hast broken to rejoice; build up the walls of thy jerusalem, look down upon thine Anointed, cloth his enemies with shame, but upon him & his let his Crown flourish on earth, till thou crown us all in heaven. Amen.   

TEARS SHED OVERDO ABNER.  
THE SERMON PREACHED ON THE Sunday before the PRINCE his funeral in St. JAMES Chapel before the body.  
BY DANIEL PRICE then Chaplain in Attendance.  SENECA. Hectora flemus. 
AT OXFORD Printed by joseph Barnes and are to be sold by john Barnes dwelling near Holborn Conduit. 1613.   

TO THE HONOURABLE AND worthy Sr DAVID MURRAY.  
SIR,  
MY end in publishing this Sermon, is not popular ostentation; that neither becometh this season, nor this subject: being then framed, when having lost the light of my Master his life, I desired to confine my self to the circle of solitariness, yet was I put unto this, and the like burdens above my strength, and beyond my will. This was my last homage to his memory, who hath exchanged highness for happiness in the highest heavens. It is my first service to you, who were one of the first and faithfullest servants to him, till the holy passage of his heavenly soul; your watery eyes having then no other object but him, and heaven, where now he is clothed with the rich wardrobe of his Redeemer. Accept worthy Sir, these mites, grains, drops, tears; they be the best odours and ointments that in that hast I could provide to present to him dead, and you living. Our Tribe oweth much to you, but Religion much more; and therefore I know many join with me to wish your worthiness complement of joy in this life, and full accomplishment of glory in the next: for the which as your favours have bound me I continually pray, while I am  
DANIEL PRICE.   
2. SAM. 3.31. 
Rend your garments, and put on sackcloth, and mourn before ABNER.  
MY Text containeth the furniture for a funeral, an Honourable shadow presented on the stage of mortality, concluding his last act upon the face of the earth. In the 1. of Samuel and 14. ye may find his birth, 
1. Sam. 14.50.  Abner the son of Ne'er, kinsman to Saul, a Prince of the blood. In this Chapter is recorded his death, funeral and last obsequies, 
v. 27.  and these so fully described that neither the manner nor marshalling of it be left out. 
v. 31.  Hearse, Sepulchre, mourning garments, mourning Elegies be not omitted, and as if David gave the Impress, 
v. 38.  his own words be, know ye not that a Prince and a great man is fallen this day in Israel. I will stay my meditations from running as Peter and john did to the sepulchre: 
joh. 20.4.  he that cometh after, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose, he is to anoint the body at the burial, & foelix est cui talis praeco contigerit, and happy is our dead Achilles, as in heaven in his soul, 
Rev. 1  that he singeth praises with those who are made Kings & Priests to God, so in earth, that at the interring of his body his praises shall be sounded by him, 
Aug.  who is as Augustin spoke of Cyprian, Tanti meriti, tanti pectoris, tanti oris, tantae virtutis Episcopus, our most Reverend Prelate, & of such worth, such wisdom, such speech, such spirit.  
My part at this time is to shed some Tears over Abner, and as David in the 31. verse of this Chapter to lament before the hearse: 
V 31.  a duty unexpectedly imposed on me, the weakest of my worthy brethren, yet now to be performed so far as Omnipotency shall enable, as a final end, and funeral of my service to that virtuous, gracious, Princely spirit, which once inhabited this Tabernacle of earth that here lieth before us.  
Abner the Princely Hebrew, was now going to his last Passeover. From the Egypt of this world, to the Canaan of heaven is one Passeover, but this was not it, he was now to pass the other from the world into the earth, to remain in silence, and solitariness in the womb and Tomb of the earth. David asketh the question, died Abner as unregarded, died Abner not lamented? No; for the Text saith, David lift up his voice and wept, all the people wept for Abner, & again David lamented & followeth the beer, & wept beside the sepulchre, & all the people wept again for him, & yet further, David commands them to mourn, & in a solemn observance, wisheth them to lay aside their purple & Princely furniture, their wanton, superfluous, and supercilious sails of Pride, nay not only lay them aside, but to rend and tear them in pieces, and to put on Sables, mourning habiliments, outwardly to testify their sorrowing inwardly, because Abner was fallen in Israel. And what was Abner, that he is so lamented, so honoured by these observances, so mourned for in these obsequies, that King and people, and all Israel lament him? Abner was the grace of the Court, & the hope of the Camp, he was the Candle of his father, as the original signifieth. Abner was the bearer of the sword, and the joy of the soldiers. Abner was the glory of the king, & the supporter of the kingdom, a nobleminded Martialist, that did not after a dishonourable Peace, which is no better than lusts truce, & valour's rust. To say no more, he was Abner, the light of Israel, & now this light extinguished, Abner is dead and departed, therefore Rend your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner, for Abner lieth dead before you.  
Not only change your garments, but rend them, tear them to totters, and put on not only sables, semblances of sorrow, but saccloath hairy, dusky, dusty sackcloth, nor only Scindite vestimenta, rend your garments, but scindite corda, rend your hearts by mourning, & do not this ●làm, but coràm, not privately, but openly. Put your garments on of lamentation, non tanquam illi qui theatro vivunt, not as though you did personate sorrow, but as though grief were as clothes to your backs, and as marrow to your bones. And mourn you, non tamquam illi qui in funere plorant, not as mercenary men among the Heathens, who were hired to mourn in their public funerals, but really let all the senses, all the faculties of the soul be clothed only with sorrow. Weep, and wait, and watch the body while it is here, water his couch with your tears, attend the hearse and bear it to the burial, and perform these last ceremonies of service, and sorrow to Abner David's Chieftain, Israel's Captain, whose presence was a heaven of delights, whose departure seemeth to leave an Eclipse in all things. Rend your clothes and put on sackcloth & mourn, Abner lieth dead before you. The Parts of this injunction of sorrow are three; Divis. Text. 1. the required outward signs of sorrow, rend your garments, & put on sackcloth. 2. The inward signs, mourning and lamentation. Thirdly the cause of both, Abner is the sad spectacle dead before them.  
I forbear descant, plain song best fitteth sorrows. First of the first. 1. The manner of the Eastern people was when they lost friend or child, or in any common calamity, to rend their garments. In the latter, when the Israelites found want of the favour of God, they put of their wont garments, 
job. 2. jon 3. Amos. 8.  as in the Prophets may be found, job sat in ashes, Niniveh in saccloath, the jews rend their clothes. I need not record the frequency of the Phrase in scripture. The holy Patriarch jacob was one of the first I find so passionate, and it was when he lost joseph his joy, 
Gen. 37.  the light of his life. Rachel never mourned for her children as jacob for the son of Rachel, he mourned and rend his clothes, saith the Text. Pardon the good Patriarch that he was in such an ecstasy, well might he rend his clothes from his back, when they had rend his bowels from his belly, and taken his joseph from him. Isaac his father was not more dear to Abraham, than joseph his son to isaack's son jacob. Wherein observe that God tried these three Patriarches in their three children, Abraham by Isaac trying his faith by offering to offer Isaac; Isaac by jacob, jacob flieth from his father's house for fear▪ Jacob by Joseph, joseph is sold by his brethren, and they bring old jacob his bloody party coloured coat, and jacob seeing it accepit unam vestem scindit alteram, he received joseph's garment, but rend his own, 
Lud.  herein manifesting how great his sorrow was for the loss of his son.  
The loss of a son is the greatest loss under the sun. job lost all, last of all his sons: when those fatal Nuntios bring him news of several losses, one waving after another, any of them all ready to shipwreck all jobs senses, 
job 1.20  he answereth none of them till the death of his sons was presented to him, then, saith the Text, job arose and rend his mantle. But I will not rend myself from the Text.  
In holy scripture there is not almost any state or condition of life but yieldeth an example of this Renting the garments. jacob the Patriarch, josuah the Captain, 
Gen. 37.10. Josh. 7.6. jud. 11 15. 2 Sam. 15. 2. King. 2.  joseph the judge, Chusai the Counsellor, Elisha the Prophet, David and Ezekias, Achab and Ahalia the Queen. But of all other I find not many examples of the high Priest, for in the law it was prohibited the high Priest: 
Lev. 10.6.  for Moses thus speaketh, Rend not your clothes, lest ye die, and least wrath come upon all the people. And therefore when the high Priest in the Gospel rend his clothes, he rend his Priesthood, saith Abulensis, 
Abul.  Praesagium scissae pontificae dignitatis, it was a presage and prodigy of his renting officium & vestimentum simul.  
This custom is not only mentioned in Scripture, but in all monuments of history, Poetry, and Oratory, 
juu. satire. 10  that of juvenal of Polyxena  
Scissâque Polyxena Pallâ: 
Herod lib. 9 Lucian. dial. de luctu. Dion. lib. 6.  that also of Augusta in Seneca, scindit vestes— Augusta suas. Herodotus records it of the Lacedæmonians, Lucian of the Grecians, Dionysius Halicarnassaeus of the Romans, though Tully in his Tusculans jest at these Ceremonies calling them Luctus Barbaricos, yet these shows and shadows have much life in them, and be sensible provocations to sorrowfulness and solitariness. For by renting of the rich robes, and appareling themselves in sables & sackcloth, they manifest their mourning in body as in mind. With renting of garments, putting on of sackcloth is ever joined. Moeroris insignia, tristitiae Emblemata. And indeed the use of sackcloth, 
Rab.  hath been very ancient, & frequent; the Ark until the Temple was built was covered with sackcloth, and john Baptist was clothed in sackcloth, 
Mat. 3.4.  and Esay and the other Prophets, were commonly appareled in saccloath, & in the end of the world Enoch, 
Esay. 20.20. Apoc. 11.3.  and Elias shall preach in sackcloth, I can show you a whole Court thus arrayed, in the time of Ahab; a whole City in the days of jonas: 
Niniveh.  But not to stray further: upon this renting of garments, and clothing with sackcloth; Observe. I observe that the sadness and sorrow of the spirit draweth the body and all the habiliments of the body into the participation and manifestation of grief. Every work of ours, in ordine ad Deum, hath many outward necessary ceremonies in the performing of it. Prayer is a holy service and by this tenure we hold our temporal and spiritual blessings, herein bowing of the knees, bedewing of the eyes, smiting of the breast, be not of the substance, but of the circumstance of prayer, 
Domer.  Non tàm opera quàm passiones, neither commanded, nor prohibited by God, nor so properly works as Passions, yet when these attend prayer, not mimically sought or vainly studied for, or Hypocritically affected & personated, but come of themselves; these holy perturbations, proceeding from the spirit and power of prayer, they never return without a blessing. In the repentance of Niniveh, they used beside fasting, the livery of my Text, sackcloth, and that so generally, as that man, and beast put it on, and not only so, but a forbearance of meat, neither man, woman, or suckling, neither rational nor irrational creatures, had their feeding, the infant crying for the dug, and the dumb creatures crying in the Crib, in the great & solemn abstinence, did add much life to the performance of the Ninivites repentance. To let pass the guise of other Actions, our own custom, & the habiliments that now are on us, now we see all things are turned to mourning round about us, it hath a strange operation to stir up the powers and passions of sorrow in us, to set open those cisterns of our souls, that rivers of Tears may flow from in this Hart-breaking, yet well pleasing pensiveness. For the nature of grief doth utterly exile all objects of pleasure, & when true sorrow sits her down in a stupid and stupendious manner, and calleth for heaven above to weep with her, the earth beneath to lament, Rocks to cleave, mountains to echo groans, Rivers to run with Tears of grief: the Israelites did not more loath, than she doth delight to sit down on the banks of Babylon, her music is Lachrymae, or Doloroso, she is as Rahell in hard labour, she no sooner conceiveth but is delivered, 
Gen. 35.16.  and no sooner delivered but conceives again, her throbs and throws almost divide her soul from her self, but that her solace being in division, that which killeth others, keeps her alive, emptiness in the bowels, blackness on the back, round about spectacls of misery, all circumstances to make sorrow greater than her self.  
Use. Is it so? Be outward circumstances required to express inward sorrows? Down then with all the signs, and sails of vanity, and in true sorrow, and humility, humble yourselves before God. It was one of our Saviour's questions to his Disciples after their return from the visitation of john Baptist, 
Luk. 7.24.  whom went ye out to see, one clothed in soft arrayment? he answereth himself, they which are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, live in Princes Courts. Alas, Beloved, that tune is altered, you that have been as Orient stars in this firmament, now the dark and black colour of the night clothes you. It was a true speech of the Emperor, sumptuousness of apparel is vexillum superbiae, Nidus luxuriae, the banner of pride, & nest of lust: & as true is that of another, the worst apparel is nature's garment & the best but folly's garnish. The great sin of the Assyrians was excess in clothing, 
jon.  and therefore their great City Niniveh was therefore appareled in sackcloth. The great sin of our land is excess in the same kind, and therefore God hath clothed this our great City at this time in mourning garments. Ask of the most ancient observer, and Register of times, whether either in man's memory, or in records of antiquity the like example hath appeared, as that which is obvious now in all parts of this City that almost the third man we meet is a mourner. The froth of ostentation that appeared lately, I say not only in this house, and in this City, but in all this Land did prodigiously pretend an alteration. It was not strange to see a man carry a whole house on his back, nay to see some more able to bear then Elephants, carrying more than Castles, lapping themselves in their land, being the living sepulchres of their ancestors, executors to themselves, and thieves to their successors. I acknowledge a free use of all Gods good blessings. Honour to whom Honour belongs, and all the accrument of all honourable ensigns to them whom God hath lifted up above their brethren; but Nature and Nations have ever until now made distinction as in other Circumstances, so in apparel between the Master and servant, the Prince and Subject. It is the generality rather than the bravery of apparel I condemn. Yet even in the bravery, what a poor ambition is this, that a Peacock is more beautifully suited than thou, or a lily of the field more glorious than thy Colours▪ feathers, spangles, pearls, silks, and golden suits can make thee! Be not deceived, my Beloved, in the bravery of the world, in the vanity, or opulency, or voluptuousness of life, he that gave a garment may give a Rent, he that hath clothed with beauty, may  with leprosy. Look into the rifling of a wordrop in Esay; 
Esay. 3.18.  The inventory is taken in the 3. Chapter, the bravery of their Ornaments, and chains, and bracelets, and muflers, and bonnets, and Tablets, and earrings, and rings, and ornaments of the legs, & changeable suits of apparel, and mantles, and wimples, and crisping pings, and glasses, and hoods, etc. But the destruction of all this feminine furniture is in the next verses: It shall come to pass, that instead of a sweet smell, there shall be a stink, instead of a girdle a rent, instead of well set hair baldness, and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth, and burning instead of beauty. The gates shall lament and mourn. That story showeth how our state is, so we sinned, so we are plagued.  
It is observed that among the jews, whosoever were present where blasphemy was committed, 
Thalm.  they presently rend their clothes in detestation of the blasphemer. Were it an injunction among us, we should never be in a whole suit of clothes, there be so many blasphemies daily committed. In all the old Testament I find but four blasphemers, Shelomiths' son in Leviticus, 
Corahs' murmuring was a kind of blaspheming.  Corah in Numbers, Goliath in the 1 of Samuel, and Zenacherib in the 2 of Kings. The first one of the commons, the 2 a Priest, the 3 a soldier, the 4 a King, & none of all these escaped without vengeance, to show, that if in the Communality, or Clergy, or military men, or in the very throne of Majesty, blasphemy be found, without great mercy there will be great judgement executed. In our weakness oaths do fall from the best of God's children: Humanity and infirmity, those two twins both dwell in us, and therefore let us pray, Enter not Lord into judgement with thy servants, for in thy sight no flesh shall be justified, keep us from the cursed custom of oaths, and keep us from being either principals, or accessaries in blasphemy.  
Lastly to close up this first part; In your mourning garments, see that ye cloth mourning minds, and truly sorrowful souls. None of you can condole so much as ye ought, and therefore far be it, that among any of you, there should lurk under the sable habit of a mourner, any falsehearted, Pharisaical, Hypocritical, Popish masker, whose soul is not robed with either the Nuptial, or funeral, wedding, or mourning garment. To such I say not friend, but foe, how camest thou to this mourning garment. Epiphanius mentioneth some Heretics that were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that continually went in sackcloth, and yet were rotten painted sepulchres. 
Epiph. Haer. 80.  I fear me, if due inquisition were made, we might find Heretics in sackcloth, even in these solemnities. The pressing in of Papists into those places, which our Gracious Master honoured with the access of his Person, this last Summer will never out of many good men's minds, who saw and pitied to see the boldness of these blood suckers. No wonder that there is masking in mourning, when there is such common masking in believing, that many a one that cometh to these assemblies may be asked, noster es, an adversariorum? as joshua once questioned. 
Ios. 5.13.  But the day shall come when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, Conscience shall be unmasked, and their own souls say to their own consciences, as Achab to Elias, Hast thou found me o my enemy? But unto those that do truly mourn, the Lord will mark them in Zion: and howsoever the Persians in the history of Ester would not suffer any in sackcloth to come into Ahashuerosh his Court, yet as jacob got the blessing in sackcloth by making himself rough in the sense of Isaac, so he that cometh to God with the inward sackcloth of sorrow, shall surely find a blessing. O then how happy were we if we could for ever continue our mourning till our blessed Master, who is in glory, and we who are here in misery come to meeting.  
For our part we pronounce not renting of clothes only, without the putting on of other robes, nor so much wish you to put on sackcloth as to put on Christ. Induite is the voice of the Church, not scindite: Put on, not rend of. We pray for the King's Majesty, Endue him plenteously with heavenly gifts; for the Royal progeny, we pray, 
In the Collect for the King. In the Collect for the Royal issue. In the Litany.  Endue them with thy holy spirit; for the Honourable the Lords of the Counsel, we pray, Endue the Lords of the Counsel, with grace wisdom and understanding, and in many other places in our Liturgy; the Original of all being from that of S. Paul, Put on the Lord jesus Christ. Which will be the better performed if ye please to be acquainted with the second part of my Text, which is mourning, inward mourning, not only scindite vestimenta, but scindite corda, Rend not only your clothes, but your hearts.  
And mourn. It hath been an ancient and a laudable custom for the Saints of God to deplore their deceased of what estate or condition soever. Honourable be those examples, Abraham lamenting Sara, the Hebrews Moses, joseph jacob, the Israelits joseph, the Apostles Stephen, Nazianzen Basil, Bernard Malachi, and our blessed Saviour Lazarus his friend, and far be it that Christians be blamable for neglect hereof. If it were that but Nature only did teach this, and affection press it, those internal acts, the Passions and operations of our soul would diffuse themselves, not only by a sensible but reasonable motion, to bewail the want, and lament the loss of such as were, by our duty, or propinquity dear to us. But when a greater enforcer hereof, then nature appeareth, when Grace approveth this, we may then open the floodgates of affection, and deplore the death of those, whom the eyes that saw blessed, and the ears that heard, gave witness unto. David in these 5. last Chapters celebrateth many funerals with mourning for Saul and jonathan, for Ishbosath, for Ahasel, and here for Abner. And it is not without much reason that Solomon doth give Counsel to go to the house of mourning, est enim illic benedictio, saith one, 
Pin.  there is performed that blessing which Christ promiseth. A blessing is promised no where to mirth, but to mourning our Saviour hath annexed this reward. The keeping under of the soul is much available to all religious and devout offices, the contemplation of the lamentable estate of the several occurrences of this lower world, is one of the chiefest and first rounds of jacobs' ladder, & hath brought many holy ancients to heaven, and doth teach every man David's lesson; 
Ps. 119.  I see that all things come to an end, therefore they la do I love. The whole world is the house of mourning, whither then may man go but to mourning. The Paracelsian may hold that there is salt in every body; I am sure, there ought to be sorrow in every soul. The second son that Adam had was Abel, 
Gen.  his name the name of vanity and sorrow: of vanity because Adam was exiled Paradise, and the whole creature was subject to vanity; Adam might have taken up salomon's Text, Omnia vanitas: and Abel had his name from sorrow, because all things were so obnoxious to vanity, both these be joined in salomon's universal censure, 
Eccl.  vanity and vexation of spirit. Abel the first name of mourning, Abel the first cause of mourning. S. Austin only collecteth three reasons of praising Abel, virginitas, Sacerdotium, Martyrium; and in all these he was the type of Christ, & indeed his name of mourning did typically prefigure the nature of Christ's life, which was spent in solitary sorrow. It is a conceit of Methodius, that Adam continued his mourning for his son Abel a hundred years, 
Hist. schol. in lib. Gen.  his reason is, because he had no other son, as he collecteth from the Text, in the space of a hundred years after. How long soever he lamented his son, we know not, nor need care: we are sure that all the days of our Pilgrimage, we may lament our father Adam; for as he brought in sin, so sin hath brought in Lamentation and mourning upon us, and not jeremy only but all mankind may write Lamentations. Non finiresed semper reservare lachrymas debemus, 
Hier.  we must never end our sorrows, intermit them we may, but still to keep our acquaintance with them. That of Hierome I confess it is true, Detestandae sunt illae lachrymae quae non habent modum, mourning without measure is a hell upon earth, yet again Detestandi sunt qui carent lacrymis, they are to be detested that have no measure of this heavenly Manna.  
My obsernations upon the word Mourn, is this, 
O●s.  The best servants of God ought to lament the loss of those that have been Pillars either in Church or Commonweal. It is confirmed by S. Hierome, Pietas plorare jubet, desiderandi sunt ut absentes, deplorandi ut amici, 
Hier.  Piety doth command these lamentations, holy men are to be lamented, because being absent to be desired, and as friends to be deplored. Tauri pro tauro mugiunt, saith Bernard, unreasonable creatures do low one for another: how much then should reasonable men, especially Christians deplore those that are departed from them, when reason teacheth, and affection inciteth? It was the practice of many of the Prophets, as S. Hierome noteth. 
Hie. in 17. Isa. Esay. 57.2. Mich 7.2.  justus periit, saith Esay, the just man perisheth, and no man taketh it to heart, sanctus periit, saith Mioheah, the holy man perished out of the way, Pius defecit, saith our Prophet, the godly man ceaseth, and jeremy in most ample sort, in his, 9 Chapter, whither if ye have recourse, ye may see the fountain from whence ran the rivers of all his lamentations. 
jer. 9.1.  O that my head were water, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night, for the stain of the daughter of my people! I acknowledge that these all did deplore rather the general desolation in the want of good men, then in their particular affection the death of such good, holy, just, godly men. But in this kind also, these blessed servants of God are not without example; David shall speak for all in his Elegies for Saul, jonathan, Absalon, Abner, etc. Nay our Saviour, as before I mentioned, wept for his friend, I find that name bestowed only upon his friend Lazarus and I find our Saviour weeping only for Lazaru, for no one particular but his friend Lazarus, and that was so observed by the jews, as that their speech was, behold how he loved him. 
joh. 11.  Our Sautour raised up, as S. Austin noteth, 
Aust.  three especially, and particularly inhiss life, but he wept only at one of them. The circumstances of his raising these differ much, the first was dead but an hour, the second dead a day, the third dead four dates; the 1. dead but not taken out of the bed, the 2. dead and laid in the coffin, but not in the grave, the 3. dead and laid in the grave, dead 4. days, and began to savour: he touched the hand of the first, the coffin of the second, but the third he touched not at all. At the first few persons were present, and Christ charged them not to speak of it: at the second many were present, and it was noised far abroad: at the third a number of jews present, and they observed it. At the first there was no public weeping; 
joh. 11.  at the raising of the second the mother wept: at the raising of Lazarus, the friends, and sisters, and jews wept, & flevit jesus, & fremuit, & turbavit seipsum, jesus wept, and groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and again he groaned and was troubled, and cried with a loud voice; then said the jews, behold how he loved him. Et quare flevit jesus, nisi hominem flere docuit, and why did Christ so weep, but that he hereby taught man to weep? he opened 2. fountains of passion and compassion, and therefore those that carry his name, are to conform themselves in some measure, and though there be no proportion between finite & iufinite, yet in the best manner we may, precept, and example, and promise do enforce this blessed practice. It was a strange law, that the Athenians made an edict to prohibit mourning at funcials, fit for heathen, not Christians to imitate. For they that have been honourable & commendable in their lives, are to be followed with the best testimony of affection, that the just may be had in everlasting remembrance, yet with this warning in mourning, that as we prove not without charity in not lamenting their deaths, so also not without hope to forget the good estate of their souls when we so overmuch lament the death of their bodies.  
In the 9 of Numbers, when the cloud was taken up, 
Num. 9  the children of Israel journeyed, when it abode, the children of Israel pitched, so when sorrow cometh, sit down with sorrow and mourn; when joy cometh, return and rejoice, yet never to bewray a want of faith when we would manifest an abundance of love.  
Use. Hence than we see our warrant for bewailing the irrecoverable loss, that the Church & Commonwealth, and Protestant world hath now sustained by the sad spectacle before us, we may rend garments, and put on sackcloth, and mourn. Mourn then, ye children of the bride-chamber, the bridegroom is taken from you. Mourn ye sons of Eli, Nebility and Gentry, the Ark of God is gone from among you. Mourn ye Priests of the Lord, between the porch and the Altar, josias is dead, and slain among you. howl ye poor fir trees, your shelter is down, the Cedar is fallen, and lieth here before ye. Let the house of David mourn, & lugeat Domus jacobi, let S. james mourn; 
Zach.  let the inhabitanes of jerusalem mourn, and to use the words of Zacharie, let them mourn as for their only son, and lament as for their first borne. In that day shall be a great mourning in jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon, in the valley of Megiddo, and the land shall bewail every family apart, mourning shall be in all the ends of the land, complaining in the streets of every City, crying in the chambers of every house, Alas for the day of the Lord is come, it is come: all the orders and Companies, I say not of this house only, but of all this Realm, from the honourable Counsellor, to him that draweth water, from the man of grey years, to the young child, shall plentifully water their cheeks, and give just occasion to the Chronicles and proverbs of our posterities, to be remembered. And we especially of this Collegiate society, that shall this night end our watching, shall to morrow have a new occasion, not only of increasing but renewing our weeping. Hitherto we have mourned for the departing of his soul out of his body; now we must lament for the departing of his body out of this place: so long as his hearse, his urn remained, we had a Master, though we could not enjoy him alive, yet it was some solace in sorrow, to attend him dead, though we heard not his words so full of grace, nor enjoyed his presence so full of glory, yet his ashes, his effigies, gave a glimpse to us sitting in darkness, and now we must lose this, and this unhappiness will admit no help. 
Gen. 50.10.  When jacob was carried from Goshen to Canaan the Egyptians mourned with a great and very sore lamentation, and that mourning was so wondered at by the Canaanites, that they call the place Abal-Mizraim to this day, Egyptians gave the cause of the name: Canaanites gave the name of the place, mourning the cause of both, both these strangers, nay in themselves infestuous enemies to the Israelites. If Egyptians and Canaanites, strangers, have done this for jacob, what shall the servants do, and attendants in familia jacobi, pro filie jacobi; let us cry mightily unto heaven, that after our bodies lie buried in the dust, our lamentation may be remembered, Ah the Prince, ah our glory, alas for the day of the Lord is come, for Abner lieth dead before us! My last part.  
Mourn before Abner: Coram not Claàm, not privately but openly. 
Math.  Many acts of devotion are to be performed privately: when thou givest alms, saith our Saviour do it privately, when thou prayest enter into thy chamber do it privately, when thou repentest, saith David, common with thine own heart, and in thy chamber, 
Psal. 4  and be private. Privacy is a special circumstance in all these, and sure if many would but undergo the catechizing of their souls in private, 
Laer. tit. 3. de Jra.  they would not be observed so much for their sins in public. Laertius mentioneth Pyrrbus Eliensis, which was wont to consult himself daily in some secret place, and being observed to talk to himself, hereupon being questioned the cause, he answered, Meditor bonus ut sim. And Seneca mentioneth Sextius in this kind, who every night would privately examine himself, Quod bodiê maesum tuum sanâsti? evi vitio obstitisti? quâ part meliores? and what custom saith Seneca, can be more commendable? These beloved, shall arise in judgement with this generation and condemn it: their practice was a kind of veiled Christianity, they did shame to do that privately, which this age doth perpetrate daily and publicly.  
Mourning is to be performed openly, solemnity expects it, and antiquity, that constant, wise, and unpainted Herald, prescribes it, Coram Abner, the last act of his obsequies, the last tribute of duty. Abner yet carrieth his names, the earth yet carrieth his body, it is not Cadaver, nor Inane corpus anima, it is Sacrarium vitae, not a Carcase, 
Athan.  or empty corpse, but as Athanasius well observeth, the dead body is the vestry and Chapel of life, and have their Camiteria, sleeping places till the Resurrection of the dead. They be as King's houses, not to be contemned, when their Masters depart out of them, because they are to return again: life shall visit these desolate rooms, all the offices in this Princely body of Abner shall be supplied, the Court is but removed, Heaven is the standing house, this body again shall be the bed chamber of the soul, yet because life is gone out, lament, for Abner is Abner still, let not your last act fail, though your eyes cannot see him, yet let them send our Tears to sorrow for him, and Mourn before Abner.  
The sorrowful presence of a sad stectacle calls sorrow before it cometh, and often createth sorrow where it is not. It is no marvel that Abruham wept when he saw Sara his wife dead, or that Bethshebe wept for her husband, or Eleazar for Aaron his father, or David for Absalon his son, or Rebecea for Deborah her nurse, or Christ for Lazarus his friend, or David for Abner his Captain. But that Alexander should so lament when he came to behold the Sepulchre of brave Achilles, or those many in histories to deplore, and fall out into tears upon the first sight of spectacles of desolation, may seem strange.  
Yet those spectacles sometimes cause passions of divers effects. When our Saviour beheld jerusalem, he wept over it, but when the army of a worthy Conqueror, above 1000 years after came to behold the ruins and rubbish of the same City, 
Hist. Ture. p. 21  the devout passions of divers are very divers: somewith their eyes and hands cast unto heaven, calling upon the name of their Saviour, some prostrate upon their faces, kissed the ground, as that whereupon the Redeemer of the world had walked, others joyfully saluted those holy places they had heard so much of, & then first beheld. Our Saviour, in a holy as well pitiful, as sorrowful contemplation, beheld the presage of their utter dissolution and desolation by reason of that horrible contemptuous iniquity of theirs Quod nulla posteritas taceat, sed nulla probet, 
Sencea.  & therefore upon a more cause of grief than these soldiers of joy, lamented the City, and yet slept not till he came near to the City, the sight of the City was the seal of his sorrow, Propter jerusalem hath much more in it then this day can give me leave to deliver. S john in his Gospel doth deliver the story of Christ's raising up of Lazarus: and well may john write Lazarus story, they were both almost in one line in Christ's love, johannes dilectus Domini, Lazarus amicus Domini, 
joh. 11.  john the beloved of Christ, Lazarus the friend of Christ. The story is worthy observation? 
V 11.  jesus told his Disciples our friend Lazarus sleepeth, they understood him not, the Text saith, 
V 13.  jesus understood it of his death, than said jesus, Lazarus is dead, yet jesus wept not, in knowing or telling them this. Our Saviour then goeth on his tourney towards Lazarus, he discourseth all the way concerning Lazarus, yet jesus wept not, he meeteth by the way with Martha, and communeth with her about her dear deceased brother, Nondùm flevit jesus, jesus wept not yet. At the length Mary cometh, she falleth down and weary, and crieth out, Master if thou hadst been here my brother had not died, than jesus seeing her weep, and the jews weep, he groaned in spirit, and was troubled, yet he wept not At length he asked where have ye laid him, and in his passing thither, the Text saith, jesus wept, coming near to the grave, he could not contain: Flevit jesus.  
The Doctrinal observation of these words (before Abner) is, that it is the duty of God's servants to lament over their deceased, and carefully to provide for their Christian funerals. Honesta sepultura is much remembered among the fathers, 
Aust.  and one of them hath writ a book de cura pro mortuis. If there were nothing to prove the Lawfulness hereof, that one parcel of ground that Abraham bought to consecrate to burials, may justify the antiquity and reverend use hereof. How honourable were the sepulchres of the Kings of Israel and juda, it is a grace to them that had this Epitaph, he was buried with his fathers, the Piles of Pyramids of Egypt be yet in part to be seen, 
Mat.  they were made of that brick as some record, which the Israelites in the house of their bondage were constrained to make: and so it might be, that God suffered them to be the instruments of making Pharohes sepulchre who were the cause of his death. 
In vita Ambr.  In the New Testament we want not examples of these solemn funerals, that of Stephen may serve for all, holy men carried him to burial and made lamentation for him. S. Ambrose, as appeareth in the description of his life in this kind was very careful, those that were honourable in their places, or profitable to the Church, or Commonwealth, or any way to be esteemed good, holy men, he would bewailed their death, and attend their funerals. But it may be some such sceptical Cynical creatures may question, whether such pomp as is used in funerals, be lawful or no, for why should not I think that judas tribe is not utterly extinct, whose cry is ad quid perditio haec? To answer all such that part of solemn service, the last night, being a portion of the 50 Chapter of Genesis may satisfy all such curious and querulous Inquisitors. 
Gen. 50  joseph commands his Physicians to embaulme old Israel, forty days the Embalming continued, than they provided furniture for his funeral, and all the house of joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house, all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and Chariots and horsemen, and a great company and they made great lamentation. To this may be added many examples, sacred and profane as also the Emperors constitutions: Constantine that appointed 950. officers about funerals, which order Arcadius and Theodosius confirmed, and afterwards Anastasius increased to 1100 and a certain pension allotted unto them; this also established by Leo and justinian, some to visit, some to provide necessaries in sickness, others to lay out the dead, others to embalm them, others to carry them to burial, as Claudian witnesseth  Portatur iuvenum cervicibus aurea sedes. 
Use. Hence than the lawfulness of our Christian celebrities and solemnities in funerals, is approved, and hence we may learn to perform those offices in the last obsequies of our deceased, as knowing that before the Law, under the law, after the law, yea even to heathens that knew not the law, this custom was with reverence and care observed.  
But I draw to the end of this my service & sermon. 
Exod. 12. Numb. 14.  Those two speeches of Moses, Cràs movete castra, Cràs celebrate Pascha, be fitted for us; To morrow we must remove our Tents, to morrow we must celebrate a Passover. There is a fourfold Pascha, Pascha populi, Pascha Christi, Pascha in mundum, Pascha è mundo, I am sure we have a Passeover, and to be performed with bitterness, and as at the Passeover the first borne was slain, so unhappy are we that we see the first borne to lie slain before us. Shall I say, Abner is slain? Abner was a Prince, and a great man in Israel by David's testimony, and David lamenteth him the more, because being a Prince of the blood, he was such a soldier. For certainly the soldier how ever he paceth, the same measure of misery with the scholar, yet in all ages hath been ever in high esteem, till these days. The merchant cannot trade without him, the Law cannot remain unviolated without him, nor the Crown stand steadfast without him. The soldier is the heart, and arm of the state, the upholder of the King, and the glory of the conquest, the Captain of the Navy, and the father of the army, and the most laudable improver of his Country. For always the olive garlands of Peace be not so glorious as the Laurel wreaths of victory, seeing Peace only keepeth and often rusteth good spirits, but victory employeth and edgeth and increaseth them. The loss then of a soldier is much, but especially of an Abner a Princely soldier. Lament then for Abner, the father's Candle is extinguished, Abner the Champion of Israel is deceased. Nay a greater than Abner is departed. Prince Solomon for wisdom, Prince josias so piety, Prince Alexander for chivalry, to say no more, noble, holy, chaste, virtuous, gracious Prince Henry lieth dead before us. He, He is dead, who while he lived, was a perpetual Paradise, every season that he showed himself in a perpetual spring, every exercise wherein he was seen a special felicity: He, He is dead before us, who while he lived was so holy in his morning and evening, public and private devotions, so gracious a Protector of truth, so true an enemy to Popish falsehood, so faithful to God, dutiful to Parents, pious in his life, patiented in his death, respectful of his deserving servants, and so respected of all the world. He, He is dead; that blessed Model of heaven his face is covered till the latter day, those shining lamps his eyes in whose light there was life to the beholders, they be 〈…〉 give over shining, Those 〈…〉 we have kissed, be closed and 〈…〉 shall open. He, He, is dead, and now 〈…〉 conclude with that Apostle. Eamus. 〈…〉 let us go and die with him, 〈…〉 he shall not return to us.  
〈…〉 ●●●ourable Religious, and every way 〈…〉 Far ye well, The 〈…〉 as I have of sorrow 〈…〉 Apostles salutation to those 〈…〉 ye well, be perfect, 〈…〉 one 〈…〉 of good comfort, and 〈…〉 ever with you, and so I commend 〈…〉 of power to establish you, to him that 〈…〉 falling, and sent you blameless 〈…〉 exceeding joy, To the 〈…〉 majesty, dominion 〈…〉 Amen.  
FINIS.