AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST IMMODERATE mourning For the DEAD.  
Being a Funeral SERMON Preached at the Burial of Mr. THOMAS BEWLEY junior, December 17th 1658.  
By SA. Clerk, Pastor in Bennet Fink, LONDON.  
Quid interest utrum Febris, an ferrum de corpore solverit: Non quâ occasione, sed quales ad se exeant, Dominus attendit in servis suis. August.  
Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days like the days of an hireling? Job 7. 1.  
LONDON, Printed by E. M. for George Calvert, at the Half Moon in Paul's churchyard, near the little North-door, 1659.   

TO HIS Honoured and much esteemed Friends Mr. Thomas Bewley, Merchant; AND Mrs. Mary Bewley, his wife.  
Dearly beloved in the Lord:  
IT was at your request that I first preached this Sermon; and it is more to satisfy your desires than mine own, that I now print it. They that know me, cannot but withal know how backward I have ever been (being conscious to my own weakness) to publish any of my labours in this kind; and yourselves can bear me witness, that it was my earnest request, that you would have laid this burden upon abler shoulders, especially having so great choice of godly and learned Ministers whom you invited to the Funeral: But when you persevered in your desires and requests to me to undertake it, my chiefest care was to make choice of such a subject, as (through God's blessing) might come home to your hearts, and direct your behaviour under so great a burden, as is the loss of a dear and and only Son. I knew that your affections were strong, and that you had need of a great deal of heavenly wisdom to enable you to moderate them; and whence is this wisdom to be learned, but from the sacred Scriptures, which are richly stored with precious promises, as with so many cordials to revive and strengthen us in our greatest necessities. unless thy Law (faith David, meaning principally the promises contained in it) had been my delights, I should have perished in mine affliction, Psal. 119. 92. But as those which are fallen into a swoon, may be fetched again with hot waters poured down their throats: so they that are troubled and pressed down under the heavy burden of sorrow and grief, may by patience and comfort of the Scriptures recover hope and joy.  
The Text which God directed me to treat of was both seasonable and suitable to your present condition; as not only teaching you how to behave yourselves under such an affliction, but holding forth to you sound and sufficient arguments to persuade and induce you to the practice of the same: I beseech you therefore to read it over and over again, and remember what the Father said; these are Verba vivenda, & non legenda solùm, words to be lived and practised, and not to be read only: Such a sentence it is as a man would fetch from China upon his bare feet, rather than be without it. Take, I pray you, your correction as from God's hand, and humble yourselves under the smart of it: yet withal look to Christ, and entreat him that your Faith, Hope, and meekness may not be overturned by it, but rather that the affliction may bring forth Patience, and Patience Experience, and Experience Hope. Consider who it is that hath done it: Is he not your heavenly Father? Now if your natural Father had done some shrewd turn at unawares, by breaking a thing wherein you much delighted, when you heard that he did it, you would be quiet, though before you were much moved: Should you not say with Christ? Shall I not drink of that cup, that my Father will have me to drink of? Remember, I pray you, what the Apostle suggesteth, Hebr. 12. 9 We have had Fathers of our flesh that have corrected us, and we gave them reverence: Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of our Spirits, and live? v. 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.  
Consider, I pray you, if God when you were first married should have told you, I will give you two children, and you shall bring them up so many years, and then I will take them away again; would you not have accepted gladly of this offer, and taken it thankfully too? why? the event doth tell you no less than if he had spoken so aforehand, and will you now murmur or repine at his dispensation? Is not God the chief Father of all the Families in Heaven and Earth, and we but Foster-parents to our own children under him? Is it not a mercy that God hath made you instrumental for the enlarging of his Kingdom, though he hath taken both your children from you? Say therefore with Job, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the Name of the Lord. At least say with David, I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou Lord didst it. Oh! labour for good old Eli's temper, It is the Lord, let him do what seems good in his eyes, 1 Sam. 3. 18. Consider that God who hath done it, is Love, and if you look upon it as an effect of his anger towards you, yet be of good comfort, that God that would not have sinful man to let the Sun go down upon his anger, he will not retain his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy, Micha. 7. 18.  
But I presume that one thing adds a great sting to your affliction, which is, that hereby you want an Heir to enjoy your Estate, and to preserve your name: for all men naturally affect immortality, and because they cannot enjoy it in themselves, they desire it in their posterity that survives them: But for a medicine to this malady, remember what the Lord speaketh, Isa. 56. 3, 4, 5 Let not the Eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord to the Eunuchs that keep my Sabbath, & choose the things that please me, and take hold of my Covenant; even unto them will I give in my house, and within my walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters, I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.  
Let me but add one word more, and I have done; Consider what a mercy it is, that God hath given you so many Christian friends that sympathize with you, and help to bear your burden; so many godly and able comforters to speak a word in season to your afflicted souls, so many faithful Ministers and Christians that daily pray for you, and beg of God that he will support you under this heavy loss, and make it up in some better blessing. Remember, I beseech you, what our Lord and Saviour Christ saith, Luke 14. 26. If any one come unto me, and hates not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my Disciple.  
Now the God of comfort be your comforter, and give you a large measure of prudence, patience, self-denial, with a full and free resignation of your▪ self, to the absolute disposal of the All-wise and All-merciful God, that you may as well in heart, as in words say, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven, which is the servant prayer of  
From my Study in thread-needle-street Jan. 14. 1658/ 9 Your affectionate friend to love and serve you, S. Clerk.   

AN ANTIDOTE AGAINST Immoderate Mourning for the DEAD.  1 Thes. 4. 13, 14. But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with Him. 
THe Apostle Paul, by God's blessing upon his Ministry, had gathered a large Church in Thessalonica, the chiefest City of Macedonia: For besides that some of the Jews believed, there were also multitudes of the Greeks, and of the chief women not a few, that readily entertained the Gospel, and comforted with Paul and Silas, Act. 17. 4. whereupon the Devil, moved with envy, raised a great persecution against them by the Jews that dwelled there, and other lewd fellows of the baser sort that they adjoined to them; upon which occasion Paul and Silas were forced to fly to Berea, and from thence Paul went to Athens: And after a while Silas and Timotheus coming to him thither; he, not being unmindful of his flock that he had left at Thessalonica, sent Timothy to confirm them in the faith that he before had preached, and they had received.  
At Timothy's return to him at Corinth, being informed by him of their estate, he thought fit and expedient to write to them this Epistle, as appears, 1 Thess. 3. 1, 2. wherein after the Apostolical salutations, c. 1. v. 1. the Epistle consists of two principal parts.  
In the first, the Apostle endeavours to confirm and strengthen them in the faith received, to the end of the third Chapter.  
From thence to the end of the Epistle, he exhorts them by a Christian conversation to beautify and adorn their profession; and this he doth: First, in general, ch. 4. v. 1, 2. Secondly, in particular, by persuading them to the practice of sundry Christian virtues, and Duties; as,  

1. To chastity, v. 3, 4, 5.  
2. To justice and equity in all their dealings, v. 6.  
3. To brotherly love, v. 9, 10.  
4. To a quiet life, and attending their own businesses, v. 11, 12.  
5. To be moderate in their sorrow for their deceased friends, seeing they shall be raised up again by Christ, v. 13, 14. and thereupon he takes occasion largely to describe the glory of Christ's coming to judgement, and the order of the resurrection of the dead, declaring the certainty of it, though the time was uncertain, and this he doth to the fourth verse of the fifth Chapter.   
In these two verses of my text, the chiefest scope of the Apostle is to persuade them to keep a mean in their mourning for the dead; wherein are considerable,  
First, the friendly compellation that he uses, Brethren.  
Secondly, An information concerning the state of the dead, set down negatively, I would not have you ignorant, as if he should say, I would have you well informed of this Doctrine, the knowledge whereof will conduce much to your comfort.  
Thirdly, the end why he was so careful to inform them of it, that they might not sorrow, as did others which had no hope, viz. as the Heathen did: For although they believed the immortality of the soul, yet they were never able to comprehend or believe the resurrection of the bodies, and reuniting them with the souls, whereof he speaks in the subsequent verse, as appears, Acts 17. 32. and 26. 23, &c.  
Fourthly, a strong argument to enforce his exhortation for their moderate mourning for the dead, ver. 14. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, &c.  
Thus having heard the occasion and scope of these words, and the principal parts of the Text, I will make no other curious division of it, but proceed to show you how many useful observations may be gathered out of these verses: and First, from the friendly compellation used by the Apostle, Brethren. Whence note first, that,  
All God's children are brethren; so saith Abraham to Lot, Gen. 13. 8. Let there be no strife, I prithee, between 
Doct.  me and thee, &c. for we are brethren: so Col. 1. 2. 1 Thes. 5. 26, 27. 1 Tim. 6 2. For  
First, they are the adopted children of the same Father, Ephes. 4. 6.  
Secondly, they are born of the same mother, the Church, 1 Pet. 1. 23.  
Thirdly, They are brought up in the same Family, Ephes. 3. 15.  
Fourthly, They are nourished with the same food, 1 Pet. 2. 2.  
Fifthly, They have all the same inheritance, Rom. 8. 17.  
Secondly, Again, consider who it is that calls them brethren, the Apostle Paul, the great Doctor of the Gentiles, and a man endowed with more than ordinary gifts and graces: and who they were that he calls Brethren; the lately converted Thessalonians: most of them of mean rank, and mean gifts, in comparison of him: whence note,  
They which have the greatest gifts and graces bestowed upon them by God, must not superciliously overlook 
Doct.  those which are meaner and weaker than themselves, but must own them for, and acknowledge them to be Brethren Hence, 1 Cor. 4. 7. who makes thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?  
Thirdly, in that the Apostle was so careful to inform them of this comfortable truth; Observe,  
God's Ministers must be careful to inform their people of all such saving truths as may conduce to their edification 
Doct.  and comfort: that when they come to leave their people, they may be able to say with the Apostle, Act. 20. 27. I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.  
Fourthly, It seems that till now the Thessalonians were ignorant of these things which made them to over-sorrow for their dead. Hence observe:  
Ignorance of the blessed estate of the Saints departed 
Doct.  is the cause of excessive mourning for them.  
Fifthly, Paul speaking of the dead, saith, They were asleep, Hence observe:  
The death of the righteous is but a sweet sleep: so it 
Doct.  is often called in Scripture. Christ speaking of dead Lazarus, saith, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, Joh. 11. 11. with 14. and when Stephen was stoned to death, its said, that he fell asleep, Act. 7. 60. and in these two verses of my Text, Paul twice calls it a sleep: and hence the grave is called a Bed, Isa. 572. and the Greeks called it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a Dormitory, or sleeping place.  
Sixthly. I would not have you sorrow as do others, &c. He doth not say, I would not have sorrow at all: For, it's a duty to mourn for the dead: For as a reverend and learned Doctor saith, sorrow and lamentation is the 
Dr, Tuck  dues of the dead. It is fit that the body, when it's sown in corruption, should be watered with the tears of them that plant it in the earth, and to be without natural affections is an Heathenish sin, Rom. 1. 31. and one of those that make these later times perilous, 2 Tim. 3. 3. From whence we may observe:  
It's lawful to mourn and sorrow upon the death of our 
Doct.  friends and relations. Our Lord Christ himself wept at the death of Lazarus, Joh. 11. 35. And the Church made great lamentation for Stephen, Act. 8. 2. And the widows wept for Dorcas, Act. 9 39 And Paul sorrowed when Epaphroditus was deadly sick, Phil. 2. 27.  
Seventhly, As do others that have no hope, i. e. as the Heathen do, which are ignorant of these things▪ Hence,  
The Heathen use to be immoderate in their mourning for the dead; becave they want a hope of the present 
Doct.  blessedness of their souls, and the future resurrection of their bodies. Forbidden God's people, Lev. 19 27, 28.  
Eightly, But I would not have you do so, saith the Apostle. Hence,  
Christians which know these things must be moderate 
Doct.  in their mourning.  
Ninthly, Vers. 14. For if we believe, that Jesus died and rose again, &c. Hence observe, first;  
The resurrection of Christ's body from the dead is a sure and certain pledge and evidence of the resurrection 
Doct.  of out bodies: So the holy Apostle Paul makes it, 1 Cor. 15. 12, &c. If Christ be preached, that he rose from the dead, how say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead: But if there be no resurrection of the dead, than Christ is not risen: and verse 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept, &c.  
Tenthly, Even so them also which sleep in Jesus. Hence observe.  
That the bodies of the Saints departed sleep in the arms of Jesus: He takes care of all the bones, yea, of 
Doct.  the very dust of his Saints, that none of it shall be wanting when he comes to raise their bodies again at the last day. Our bodies, even whilst they lie in the grave, are members of Christ; and therefore it's no marvel, though he takes such care of them.  
Eleventhly, Will God bring with him. Whence I gather.  
That when Christ shall come to judgement, then shall the resurrection of our bodies be: This is an Article of 
Doct.  our faith. It was typified by the budding and blossoming of Aaron's dry rod: By Ionas deliverance out of the belly of the Fish, where he had been three days and three nights. It was believed by the Patriarchs of old, Heb. 11. 13. And its an infallible truth, that these bodies of ours that are sown in corruption, shall be raised in incorruption, 1 Cor. 15. 42. And for our further security, Enoch before the flood, and Elijah after the flood, were taken into heaven in their bodies.  
Neither indeed is this contrary to reason, though it be above the reach of reason: For why cannot Christ as well raise a body out of the dust, as at first he made it out of the dust? especially considering that the soul is preserved in heaven for this very end, to be joined to the body again. This Job was confident of, Job 19 26, 27. Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God, &c. Nay, it's not contrary to the course of nature: For we yearly see that the resurrection of the Spring succeeds the dead Winter, the day the night: and thou fool, the corn that thou sowest, is not quickened, except it die, saith Paul, 1 Cor. 15. 36. and the same Apostle tells us, Rom. 8. 11. That if the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in us. Besides, Christ is the second Adam, and as we did bear the image of the first Adam in corruption, so we must bear the Image of the second Adam in glory, 1 Cor. 15 22. 45, 49.  
Twelfthly, But that which is the principal thing that I intend to insist on is a Doctrine held forth to us in the latter end of the fourteenth verse, That ye sorrow not as do others that have no hope: Whence,  
A well-grounded hope of the happiness of our friends deceased should moderate our mourning for 
Doct.  them. This (without question) moderated Abraham's mourning for Sarah. Mourn indeed he did, for the text saith, Gen. 23. 2. that Sarah died— and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her; but that he kept a mean in his mourning, appears by the next words, v. 3, 4. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and bespoke a burying place to bury his dead out of his sight; and this he did, that the object being removed, his sorrow might be mitigated. This also moderated Joseph's and the Israelites mourning for Jacob, Gen. 50. 1. where it is said, that Joseph fell upon his father's face, (when he died) and wept upon him, and kissed him: and vers. 10. it's said, that Joseph and the Israelites made a mourning for him seven days: but v. 3. It's said, that the Egyptians (who mourned as men without hope) mourned for him threescore and ten days. This also moderated David's mourning for his child, 2 Sam 12. 23. Now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me: And this was Martha's comfort, when her dear Brother Lazarus was dead, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day, Joh. 11. 24.  
In the prosecution of this Point, I shall show you, First, what is meant by a well-grounded hope. Secondly, Wherein the happiness of our friends departed in the Lord, consists. Thirdly, why the consideration of these things should put a mean to our mourning for them. Fourthly; I will answer some objections that may be made against it. And fifthly, make application of it.  

For the first:  
What do you call a well-grounded hope? 
Quest.   

I use this epithet, to distinguish it from that ill-grounded 
Answ.  hope wherewith so many do delude themselves. as  
First, because their friends were born of Christian Parents, baptised, and brought up in the Church.  
Secondly, Because they had gotten some knowledge, and made an outward profession of Religion.  
Thirdly, because they used to attend upon the public ordinances, and that with some seeming devotion.  
Fourthly, Because they were free from gross sins, and dealt justly with every man.  
Fifthly, Because they enjoyed outward peace and prosperity, the Sun of God shining upon their Tabernacles.  
Sixthly, Because they died quietly like lambs, and it may be, went out of the world with some good words in their mouths, Psal. 73. 4, 5. There are no bands in their death, but their strength is firm; they are not in trouble as other men. From these and such like weak grounds, they presume that their friends after death must needs go to heaven, and therefore they comfort themselves, and one another with these words: whereas the truth is, they may go to Hell after all these things. Our Saviour Christ tells us, Matt. 5. 20. that except our righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven: And these men are so far from exceeding, that they come short of the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, who were frequent in Alms-deeds, in prayer, in fasting, Mat. 6. 2. 5. 16. and yet Christ calls them hypocrites. Yea, they made long prayers, Matth. 23. 14. they compassed Sea and land to make one Proselyte, v. 15. they paid even their smallest tithes, v. 23. They outwardly appeared righteous unto men: v. 28. they blamed their fathers for murdering the Prophets, and by way of compensation to free themselves from the guilt, they built Tombs for those Prophets, and garnished the sepulchers of the righteous, v. 29. 30. notwithstanding all which, Christ pronounceth many woes against them.  
Thus we see what are ill-grounded hopes, which prove but like a spider's web to those that trust in them. I shall therefore in the next place show you what is a well-grounded hope of the happiness of our friends departed, which consists in this:  
When our deceased friends have in their life-time given us some good evidence of the work of grace and sanctification wrought in their hearts, whereby we could discern that, by God's blessing upon the means, their eyes were opened, that they were turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God: For than we may conclude, that they have received forgiveness of their sins and an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified by faith that is in Christ, Act. 26. 18.    

But this work of grace being inward and secret, how shall we be able to judge of it? 
Object.   

Our Saviour Christ gives us a rule for our direction in judging of others, Mat. 7, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Ye shall know 
Ans.  them (saith he) by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit: wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. From whence we may gather, that as wicked men, for the most part, may be known by their wicked lives; so gracious persons may be known by their gracious lives. For it's as easy to carry fire in our bosom, or oil in our hands without discovery, as grace in our hearts without the manifestation of it.  
Now many signs might be given, whereby we may judge of the work of grace in others, but I shall content myself for the present with these three.  
First, if living with them, we observe that they make conscience of, and practise private and secret duties as well as public. Hypocrites when they do duties, do all to be seen of men, that they may have glory of men, Matth. 6. 2. 5. 16. and therefore in their very private prayers they love to make them in the Synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, v. 5. they have Jacob's voice, but Esau's hands: the Lord indeed is much in their mouths, but far from their reins, Jer. 12. 2. they lay claim to Christ, but yet have no share in him: they deeply affirm of him, but have no manner of right to him: their faith is but fancy, their confidence but presumption; they are like the mad man at Athens that laid claim to every ship that came into the Harbour, when he had no part in any; Like Haman, that hearing the King would honour a man, concluded (but falsely) that himself was the man: or like Sisera that dreamed of a kingdom, whereas Jael's nail was nearer his temples then a crown: and thus they deceive themselves with their shows, and think to deceive others; but God's children can usually discern them, and discover them to be like harpies that are said to have Virgins faces, but vultures talons: but on the contrary, a sound-hearted Christian, though he dare not neglect, yea, though he prefer the public, yet he also makes conscience of private duties, and prays to his Father in secret; so that if we observe this in them, its one good ground that they have the work of regeneration wrought in their hearts.  
Secondly, if we observe them, that they labour to keep a conscience void of offence both towards God, and towards men, as Saint Paul professeth that he did, Act. 24. 16. If they have had respect to all God's commandments, as David, Psal. 119. 6. If they have made conscience of the duties of both Tables, serving God in holiness and righteousness all the days of their lives, Luke 1. 75. hiring themselves unto him for term of life, not desiring to change their Master, knowing that they cannot mend themselves neither for fairness of work, nor fullness of wages, whereas an Hypocrite is versutulus & versatilis, he casts about how to deceive God and man with mere shows of devotion, being not afraid to be damned, so he may seem to be saved, and seeking so long to deceive others, that in fine he deceives his own soul. Imposturam faciunt & patiuntur, as that Emperor said of them that sold glass beads for pearl. They deceive, and are deceived.  
Thirdly, when we have heard them groaning and mourning under the remainders of corruption, and the relics of sin, crying out with the holy Apostle, Rom 7. 24. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! When they have manifested their hatred against all sin, and shunned every evil way, saying with the wisest of men, Prov. 8. 13. the fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride, and arrogancy, and every evil way do I hate: whereas a dispensatory conscience is a naughty conscience: Neither doth he God's will, but his own, that doth no more nor no other than himself pleaseth, as hypocrites use; such holiday servants God cares not for. Every one can swim in a warm Bath, and every bird will sing in a Summers-day. Judas will bear the cross, so he may bear the bag: and the carnal Capernaits will follow Christ for the loaves, though not for love, Joh. 6. 26. But Abraham will forsake all to follow God, though he know not whither yea though God seems to go a cross way, as when he promised him a land flowing with milk and honey; and yet so soon as he came there, he met with a famine, Gen. 12. 10.  
If then you have observed these three things in your Christian friends whilst they lived, you may have a well-grounded hope of their blessedness after death, which, sure, cannot but moderate your mourning for them.    

But wherein consists the happiness of our friends who are departed in the Lord? 
Quest.   

I shall show this in two particulars:  
First, in the evils that they are freed from by death 
Answ.   
Secondly, In the good things that they are put into the present possession of: so that their happiness is both privative and positive.    

What are the evils that they are freed from by death? 
Quest.   

They may be reduced to these seven heads.  
First, They are freed from worldly cares, businesses, 
Answ.  and troubles. For its God's institution since the fall, that every one shall live, either by the sweat of his brain, or by the sweat of his brow. And Eliphaz tells us, that man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward, Job 5. 7. and the Apostle tells us, that he that careth not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the Faith, and is worse than an Infidel, 1 Tim. 5. 8. So than whilst we live here, we cannot be free from multiplicity of cares, businesses, and troubles. The world is like a tempestuous Sea, where troubles succeed one another, as one wave follows another.  
— Dolour & voluptas  
Invicem cedunt, brevior voluptas.  
Joy and sorrow (as one wittily saith) make checkered work in our lives: Sorrow bedews our cheeks with 
Dr. S●ought  tears, and joy wipes them off again. Our condition in this life is not unlike to that of the Israelites in the wilderness, where they met with many troubles, dangers, and occasions of sorrow. Are we hurt then, if by a tempest of sickness we are driven out of the Sea of this world into the safe harbour of the grave, the only place where the weary are at rest, Job 3. 17. where they enter into peace, and rest in their beds, Isa. 57 2. For which cause amongst others, they are pronounced blessed by God himself, Rev. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord— for they rest from their labours. Indeed the messenger of death is to most men and women very terrible; but to a dying believer, then acting faith, it's nothing so, but it's entertained by him as a welcome messenger sent from the Father to a child at nurse, to bring it home, where it shall be better provided for, whilst it transmits him from all his cares and sorrows into that place and state of bliss where all tears shall be wiped from his eyes, and he shall never sorrow more, Revel. 21. 4.  
Secondly, they are freed from the company and society of the wicked, which (whilst they lived) was a cause of much sorrow to them, and that  
First, because of their sins, which were a continual grief to their godly hearts. Hence David professeth, that Rivers of waters ran down his eyes, because men kept not God's Law, Psal, 119. 136. and the Apostle Peter tells us that just Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For (saith he) that righteous man dwelling amongst them, in seeing & hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day, with their unlawful deeds, 2 Pet. 2. 7, 8 God's children are so tender of their father's honour, that they cannot see, or hear his Name blasphemed, his truths adulterated, his Sabbaths profaned, his Ministers, and Ordinances despised, &c. but it goes like so many daggers to their hearts, neither can they be free from such occasions of sorrow whilst they continue in this wicked world, death only removes such objects of grief from them.  
Secondly, Because of the wrongs, injuries, and persecutions which they meet with from them These Goats will be pushing at Christ's Sheep: sometimes wounding them in their good names: sometimes wronging them in their estates: and othersometimes raising greater persecutions against them. For the Apostle tells us, that this is the portion of all God's children in this life; All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution, 2 Tim. 3. 12. and our Saviour Christ tells his Disciples, that the time should come, that whosoever killed them should think that he did God service, Joh. 16. 2. Thus Cain persecuted Abel: Ishmael, Isaac: yea, which of the Prophets or Apostles did not the wicked of their times persecute? This made David to cry out, woe is me that I fojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar. My soul hath long dwelled with him that hateth peace, Psal. 120. 5, 6. But now in the grave the wicked cease from troubling. There the prisoners rest together, and hear not the voice of the oppressor, Job 3. 17, 18.  
Thirdly, Death frees them from evils to come, God herein dealing as Parents use, who have children forth at nurse or at school, when troubles or dangerous diseases come into those places where their children are, they send for them home, that they may be in safety. So God many times takes his children out of this world, that he may secure them from imminent dangers: Or as when our houses are in danger of firing, we remove our treasure and jewels in the first place into places of more security: So where God wrath, s like fire, is breaking in upon a place, he removes his children to heaven, as to a place of greater safety. It's the father's love and care (saith one) then hastily to snatch away his child, when the wild Bull is now broken loose, and running 
Dr. Tuckney  upon him. The wise husbandman hastens to get in his corn before the storm cometh, or the swine be turned out into the field to root up all. This is that which the Lord by the Prophet Isaiah long since assured us of, Isa. 57 1. The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. As it was a sign that Samson meant to pull down the house upon the heads of the Philistines when he pulled down the Pillars that bare up the roof: So its a shrewd sign that God intends to ruin a State, when he takes away those that were the Pillars and props of it. When Methusalem died, the flood came upon the old world: when Josias was gathered to his Fathers, the Babylonish captivity hastened. When S. Augustine died, Hippo was taken and sacked by the Vandals, and Heidleburg by the Spaniards, shortly after the death of Pareus.  
Fourthly, Death frees them from all sicknesses, Diseases, pains, and all other bodily distempers. It cures the blind eyes, the deaf ears, the dumb tongue, the lame legs, the maimed hands, &c. It easeth the tormenting stone, the painful gout, the aching head, the intolerable twisting of the guts, the loathsome strangury, &c. Death to the godly is the best Physician, it cures them not of one disease, but of all, and of all at once, and of all for ever; yea it cures them of death itself.  
Fifthly, it frees them from the fiery darts and temptations of Satan, from which they cannot be free whilst they live here: For the whole world is the devil's diocese: He goes to and fro in the earth, and walketh up and down in it, Job. 1. 7. yea, as a roaring lion he walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, 1 Pet. 5. 8. No place can exempt us from his tentations whilst we live in this world. He assaulted Adam in Paradise, Lot in the Cave, David in his Palace: Josuah the high Priest, in the presence of the Angel of the Lord; Christ in the wilderness; Peter in the High priest's hall, &c. But when Death comes, these Egyptians which you have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever, Exod. 14. 13. Satan shall never more molest God's children after this life is ended. Hence, saith Saint Ambrose, Diabolus per quod potestatem habuit, victus est. The Devil, who had the power of death, Heb. 2. 14. hath by death his power abrogated and abolished.  
Sixthly, Death frees them from God's frowns, which sin often exposeth them to here, and which to a child of God is more terrible than death itself: For if in God's favour is life, as David affirms, Psal. 30. 5. then in his frowns is death.: yea, if God's loving kindness is better than life, Psal. 63. 3. then his frowns are worse than death. There are no outward or corporal afflictions, but a resolute and Roman spirit will stand under them: the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, Prov. 18. 14. but the frowns of God and tokens of his displeasure are intolerable: A wounded spirit who can bear? It made David roar, Psal. 32. 3. Hezekiah chatter, Isa. 38. 14. yea Christ himself to sweat drops of congealed blood, and to cry out in the anguish of his soul, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But after death the light of God's countenance shines perpetually upon them, and shall never admit either of a cloud or Eclipse: when Lazarus died, he who lay grovelling at the rich man's gate, was found in Abraham's bosom, in a place of warmest love. For seeing by Death God's children are freed from corruptions, therefore after death they have no need of God's frowns, or corrections.  
Seventhly, Death frees them from the very being and existence of sin. At death, the spirits of just men are made perfect, Heb, 12. 23. The death of their body delivers them from the body of death. Death and sin do not meet in a child of God; but so part, that when the one comes, the other is gone for ever: As when Samson died, the Philistines died with him: so when a child of God dies, all his sins die with him. Hence Ambrose saith, Quid est mors, nisi peccatorum sepultura? what is death but the grave of our sins wherein they are all buried? Thus death doth that at once which grace doth by degrees. Grace indeed when it is once wrought in the heart, under the conduct of the spirit, it resists and fights against sin, and gives it such mortal wounds that it never fully recovers again: It dejects it from its regency, but cannot eject it from its inherency. It frees us from the reigning of sin, but cannot free us from the remaining of sin: After regeneration sin hath not dominion over us: But yet there is a law in our members warring against the law of our minds, and many times leading us captive unto the law of sin that is in our members, so that we cannot do the good that we would; but the evil that we hate, that do we, Rom. 7. 19 23. But when death comes, it wholly extirpates sin, root and branch; and not one, or some few sins, but all sin; and that not for a time only, but for ever: when the souls of God's children are dislodged from their bodies, this troublesome and encroaching inmate shall be dislodged and thrust out of doors for ever. Hence one saith, Peccatum peperit mortem, & filia devoravit matrem. Sin at first begat and brought forth death, and death at last destroys sin, as the worm kills the tree that bred it. And as Bernard saith, Death which before was porta inferni, the trap-door of Hell, is now introitus Regni, the porch that lets us into heaven. And Mr. Brightman saith, what was before the devil's Sergeant to drag us to hell, is now the Lord's Gentleman-Usher to conduct us to heaven.  
Thus I have showed you in these seven particulars what are the evils that God's children are freed from by death: Now in the next place I will endeavour to show you the privileges that at death they are invested in, and the good things that they are put into the present possession of: But yet this must be premised, that if I had the tongue and pen of men and Angels, yet should I come far short of that which I aim at: For whatsoever can be said of heaven, is not one half (as the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon's magnificence) of what we shall find in that City of Pearl. To express it (saith a reverend Divine) is as impossible as to compass heaven with a span, or to contain the Ocean in a nutshell. And Chrysostom speaking of the happiness of the Saints in heaven, saith, Sermo non valet exprimere, experimento opus est: words cannot express it; we must have trial of it before we can know it. But yet that which I shall say of it is contained in these six particulars.  
First, Death invests God's children with perfection of all graces. Here we know but in part, we prophesy but in part: But when that which is perfect, is come, then that which is in part shall be done away, 1 Cor. 13. 9, 10. It's true, when God first regenerates and sanctifies us, we have perfection of parts, there is no grace wanting that is necessary to life and salvation: For God doth none of his works by the halves: But yet we attain not to perfection of degrees till death comes: whilst we live here we are exhorted to add grace to grace, 2 Pet. 1 5, 6, 7. and one degree of grace to another. We are commanded to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of eur Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Pet. 3. 18. To make a daily progress, till we come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, Ephes. 4. 13. But yet when we have done all that we can, our faith is mixed with doubtings, our love to God with love of the world: our tears in repentance need washing in the blood of Christ; our humility is mixed with pride; our patience with murmurings, and all our other graces have defects in them: But in death they are all perfected, and thereby we are put into a far better condition than we were capable of in this life.  
Secondly, Death puts the Saints into the present possession of Heaven, a stately place, into which there never did, or can enter any unclean thing: No dirty dog ever trampled upon this golden pavement. It's called 
Rev. 21. 2●.  Paradise, Luke 23. 43. Indeed Paradise which God made for Adam's palace (though the stateliest place that ever the eye of mortal man beheld, wherein was a confluence of all earthly felicities) was but a type and shadow of it. Heaven is a large place. In my father's house (saith our Saviour) there are many mansions, Joh. 14. 2. It's a golden City, having the glory of God in it, and her light like to a stone most precious, even like a Jasper stone, clear as crystal: and the wall of it is of Jasper: and the City is pure gold, clear as glass, the foundations of the wall are garnished with all manner of precious stones, and the City hath no need of the Sun, neither of the Moon to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, Rev. 21. 11, 19, 23. It's a City whose builder and maker is God, Heb. 1. 10. and therefore having such an Architect, it must needs infinitely transcend the stateliest fabrics that were ever made by man. It hath been near these six thousand years in preparing, Matt. 25. 34. and Christ, ever since his ascension, hath been further preparing of it for us, Joh. 14. 2. I go (saith he) to prepare a place for you. Let us say therefore, as Fulgentius did, when he saw the Roman Nobility mounted in their pride and bravery. Si talis sit Roma terrestris, qualis est Roma coelestis? If Rome be such a glorious and glittering place, what is Heaven? How should these considerations make us to grow weary of the world, and groan and breath after heaven, where are riches without rust, pleasure without pain, joy without sorrow, youth without decay, Ubi totum sit quod velis, & nihil sit quod nolis: where is all that the heart of man can wish, and his mind desire; where is nothing more that can be desired, nothing more than can be desired. If an Heathen could say, Fugiendum est ad clarissimam patriam; ibi pater, ibi omnia: How much more should a Christian say, Let us flee apace to our own country that is above, sith there is our Father; yea, there is all that heart can wish, or need require.  
Thirdly, a third privilege wherewith all the Saints departed are invested, is, that they have immediate fellowship with the blessed Angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. 12. 22, 23. In heaven they enjoy Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Patriarchs, and all the Prophets, and Apostles, and the noble army of Martyrs, their godly friends and relations which went before them, and all other the true members of Jesus Christ, of what Tongue, or Nation, or Kindred soever they have been. One of the greatest happinesses which the godly enjoy in this world, is the Communion of Saints. The Prophet David professeth that all his delight was in the Saints, and in those that were most excellent, Psal. 16. 3 and though he was a King, yet made he himself a companion of all them that feared God, and of them that kept his Precepts, Psal. 119. 63. He would have such, and none but such, by his good will, about him. Mine eyes (saith he) shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me, Psal. 101. 6. And yet, by woeful experience we see how many bones of contention the Devil casts in amongst them to sour their society, and what breaches many times are occasioned by small and trifling matters: But in heaven they are all of one mind, which makes their society the more comfortable. When Grinaeus lay on his death bed, he told some friends that came to visit him, that he was going to that place, Ubi Luthero cum Zuinglio optime convenit: where Luther and Zuinglius (who because they differed in judgement about the manner of Christ's presence in the Sacrament, could never agree on earth) agreed excellent well. In heaven (if there be degreesof glory, as probably there are) yet shall not those who have their choicest graces crowned with the greatest weight of glory, despise or overlook the meanest Saint, but they are perfectly knit together in the bonds of dearest love.  
Fourthly, Another privilege which our Christian friends departed enjoy in heaven, is, that they are neerlier united to their Head Christ than possibly they could be in this world. It's true, that even whilst they live here, they are the members of Christ. For the holy Apostle tells us, that as we have many members in one body— so we being many are one body in Christ, Rom. 12. 4. 5. yet are we now at a great distance from him. Our head is in heaven, and we upon the earth, and therefore Saint Paul tells us, that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, 2 Cor. 5. 6. and this makes us sigh and groan, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life, vers. 4. And this made the Church to pray so pathetically, Cant. 8. 14. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a Roe, or to a young Hart upon the mountains of Spices. And Paul himself considering his distance from his Head, cties out:  
Dis cupio solvi, tecumque O Christe, manere.  
Phil. 1. 23. I desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; by much far the better. And no marvel, though the members do so long to be conjoined with their Head in heaven. For there (as one saith excellently) the Lord Jesus Christ perpetually and without intermission manifesteth the most glorious and visible signs of his presence, and seals of his love: He there pours forth all the plenteous demonstrations of his goodness to his members, and gives them eyes to see it, and minds to conceive it, and so fills them with exceeding fullness of love to him again; so that they even swim in pleasure, and are overwhelmed with joy. A joy too big to enter into them; and therefore they are said to enter into it, Matth. 25. 21. A glory fitter to be believed, than possibly to be discoursed: An exceeding, excessive, eternal weight of glory, 2 Cor. 4. 17. Such a weight, that if the body were not upheld by the mighty power of God, it were impossible but that it should faint under it. Oh therefore let there be continual ascensions in our hearts thitherward. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to our head in heaven. Praying with the Church, Even so come Lord Jesus, come quickly, and then ere long he will send his chariots for us 
Rev. 22. 20.  (as Joseph did for his Father) and will fetch us riding upon the clouds, and convoy us by his Angels through the air, and put us into that general assembly of happy and blessed souls; and though death (like Peter's good Angel) smite thee on thy side, yet it is only that it may 
Dr. Hall.  lead thee out of thy prison, through the Iron gates into the City of God.  
Fifthly, the next privilege which the Saints enjoy in death, is the beatifical Vision. Here indeed they see God in a measure, as they are able: but there they shall see him in all fullness, and perfection. Here as in a glass obscurely, or as an old man through spectacles, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}; But in Heaven they see him face to face: now they know him in part: but there they know, even as they are known, 1 Cor. 13. 12. Happier herein than Solomon's servants, for a greater than Solomon is there. God looks upon them with singula complacency, and they look upon him with infinite comfort. I cannot better express the happiness which the Saints enjoy in this beatifical Vision than in the words of a reverend and learned Doctor. The Saints in heaven, (saith he) that delight in the sight of God's glory, do still desire for ever to be so delighted; their desire is 
Dr. Reynold.  without anxiety and trouble, because they are satiated with the thing that they do desire, and their satiety is without loathing, because they still desire the thing with which they are satiated. They desire without grief, because they are replenished; and they are replenished without weariness, because they desire still: they see God, and still they desire to see him: they enjoy God, and still they desire for ever to enjoy him: they love and praise God, and still they make it their immortal business to love and praise him.  
Et quem semper habent, sempere haber volunt.  
Whom they for ever have, with love yet higher▪  
To have for ever they do still desire.  
Sixthly & lastly, our friends departed in the Lord, enjoy all these and more than can be spoken; yea such things as neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor can enter into the heart of man to conceive of unto all eternity: hence the Prophet David tells us, Psal. 16. 11.— In thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore; where is as much said in a few words as can be spoken of it. For quality, there is in heaven joy and pleasure; for quantity, a fullness, 
Mr. Trapp.  a torrent, whereat the Saints drink without let or loathing: For constancy, it is at God's right hand, who is stronger than all, neither can any take us out of his hand: It's a constant happiness without intermission: and for perpetuity, it is for evermore: Heavens joys are without measure, mixture, or end. And the Apostle Paul tells us, 1 Thess. 4. 17. — we shall ever be with the Lord. It is granted by all, that one of the greatest aggravations of the torments of the damned in hell, is the thought of the eternity of their torment: and therefore it follows by the rule of contraries, that it shall much heighten the felicity and joy of the Saints in heaven, to think that they shall continue to all eternity.    

But why should these considerations moderate our mourning for them? 
Quest.   

First, because if our friends died in the Lord, they have lost nothing by death, but what may well be spared, viz. 
Answ.  sin and sorrow: we use not to mourn for such losses of our friends, which are but small and inconsiderable, especially if it be of such things as are better lost than found: but such are the losses of our Christian friends departed. Is it not better to lose sin and sorrow than to retain them? and upon this account it is, that the wisest of men, Solomon tells us, Eccles. 7. 1.— that the day of death is better than the day of ones birth. The Greeks call the beginning of man's nativity, the begetting of his misery. Man that is born of a woman, is born to trouble, Job 14. 1. If he lives to see the light, he comes crying into the world: A fletu vitam auspicatur, saith Seneca; and Saint Augustine speaking hereof, saith, Nondum loquitur, & tamen prophetat: Ere ever a child speaks, he prophesies by his tears, of his ensuing sorrows: Nec prius natus, quam damnatus; No sooner is he born, but he is condemned to the galleys, as it were of sin and suffering: and therefore in this Text Solomon prefers his Coffin before his Cradle; whereupon one infers, One would wonder (saith he) that our life here being so grievously afflicted, should yet be so inordinately affected; and yet so it is, that God is even forced to smoke us out of our clayie cottages, and to make our life to be unto us no better than a lingering death, that we may grow weary of it, and breath after a better.  
Secondly, Because they are not only not losers, but they are great gainers by death: they are immediately put into a far better condition than they were capable of in this life. The day of death is to them the daybreak of eternal righteousness. It gives them malorum ademptionem, bonorum adeptionem, freedom from all evil, and the fruition of all good. And as it's not a loss but a preferment and honour for a married woman to forsake her own kindred and father's house to go to her husband; so it's not a loss, but a preferment for the souls of our friends for a time to relinquish their bodies, that they may go to Christ, who hath married them to himself for ever. Hence our Saviour Christ comforts the dying thief upon the Cross with this: This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise, Luke 23. 43. why then should we so mourn for them, seeing our loss is their gain? they are indeed absent from us, but it is that they may be present with the Lord: they have put off the old rags of mortality, that they may be clothed with immortality: they have parted with flesh and blood, that so they may be in a capacity of inheriting the kingdom of Heaven, 1 Cor. 15. 50. Justi vivunt (saith Saint Augustine) etiam quando corpore moriuntur. Godly men live even when their bodies die. They are not lost, but laid up: our grief therefore should not exceed, either for measure or continuance. I would not have you sorrow even as others that have no hope.    

We mourn not for them, but for our own loss: for the loss of their sweet society, and of all the 
Object.  comfort that we expected in and by them?  

Truly, for this we may mourn: weep not for me, (saith Christ to those good women that followed him to his 
Answ.  Cross) but weep for yourselves: Yet always remember, that though there be reason for weeping and sorrow, yet there is no reason for excessive and immoderate mourning: For that is a sin, and there is no reason, because God hath taken away our friends and relations, that therefore we should further provoke him by sinning against him. Immoderate mourning is a cha●ging of God foolishly: so did not Job, though he rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, yet it was not through impatience, but to worship God; For the text saith, In all this Job sinned not, nor cha●ged God foolishly, Job 1. 20. with 22. It was Jacob fault, that he refused to be comforted, and said, For I will go down into the grave, unto my son, mourning: Sorrow indeed and lamentation are the dues of the dead; but it ought not 
Gen. 37. 35.  to exceed either for measure or duration: neither should we mourn so much for our friends departed, as for our sins against God.    

But our child that is snatched away by death, was young, and might have lived not only to have been a 
Object.  great comfort to us, and the staff of our old age, but very instrumental to God's glory.  

First, we must not take upon us to be wiser than God, or to teach him, as when to give us children, so how long 
Answ.  to continue them unto us. It's his Royal Prerogative, that He may do with his own what he pleaseth. They are not so much our children as Gods, Ezek. 16. 21. He doth but put them forth to us to nurse, and may send for them home when he pleaseth. We who are parents would not take it well if having set forth a child to nurse, when we send for it home, the nurse should refuse to part with it, and grow into impatiency when we take it away. Neither can God take it well at our hands.  
Secondly, Was your child young when he died? Yet remember that it was God's mercy to spare him so long. For life is not long enough to deserve the title of time, Eccles. 3. 2. There is a time to be born, and a time to die: He doth not say, There is a time to be born, and a time to live. Death borders upon our births, and (as one saith) Our Cradles stand in our graves.  
Multos ostendunt terris bona fata, nec ultra  
Esse sinunt— finisque ab origine pendet.  
God deals with some, as a skilful Limner doth with his masterpiece, brings it, and sets it forth to be gazed at and admired by the multitude; and after a while draws a curtain over it, and carrieth it back into his house again: so God sends some whom he endows with admirable parts to be looked upon, and wondered at by the world, and then draws the sable curtain of Death over them, and takes them into his own habitation in heaven. Indeed the longest liver hath but a short cut from the grave of the womb, to the womb of the grave. Orimur, morimur, we are born, we die. And considering the frailty of our lives, it's no marvel that we die so soon; it's rather a marvel that we escaped so long. For Mors ubique nos expectat: Death waits for us at every turn: In the fields, in the streets, in our houses, in our beds, &c. Mille modis morimur; we come but one way into the world, but we may go out a thoufand ways.  
Thirdly, Did your child die young? yet if he was ripe for heaven, he lived till he was old enough. Hierom saith of a godly young man, that in brevi vitae spatio tempora virtutum multa replevit, He lived long in a little time. And indeed some live more in a month or two, than others do in many years. A good man (saith reverend Doctor Preston) prolongs his days, though he dies young, because he is ripe before he is taken from the tree: He even falls into the hands of God that gathers him. They that die soon in God's fear and favour, though as grapes they be gathered before they be ripe; and as lambs slain before they be grown up, yet (besides the happiness of heaven) they have this advantage, that they be freed from the violence of the winepress that others fall into, and escape many rough storms that others meet with.  
Fourthly, Did God take away your dear relation whilst he was young? What then? Hath God anywhere promised that all shall live till they be old? Is not mortality the stage of mutability? Doth not experience show us, that man is but the dream of a dream: but an empty vanity, but the curious picture of nothing, but a poor feeble dying flash? In Golgotha there are skulls of all sizes. Bernard tells us, Senibus mors in januis, adolescentibus in insidiis: Death stands at old men's doors, and it lies in wait to surprise young men also. It's like lightning, that blasts the green corn as well as the dry: like the thunderbolt that dasheth in pieces new and strong buildings as well as old. Do you not know that, as for our lands, so for our lives, we are but God's tenants at will? Man's life is his day: and we see by experience that days are not all of a length; but some longer, some shorter. Death is the Lady and Empress of all the World; and from her sentence the youngest cannot appeal. As the Rivers haste to the Sea, and the Stars to the West, so man hastens to the grave. its Domus Conventionis, the House of Parliament, where all estates and ages meet together.  
Hence it is that we are exhorted to gather Manna in the morning of our lives: To remember our Creator in the days of our youth, Eccles. 12. 1. To present our first-fruits to God, whose soul desires the first ripe fruits, Micah 7. 1. and who will remember the kindness of our youth, the love of our esponsals, Jer. 2. 2. He would be served with the Primrose of our years, and therefore he made choice of the Almond-tree, Jer. 1. 11. because it blossometh first of all others; and truly we have reason to obey his precepts, and answer his expectation, if we rightly consider the brevity of our lives.  
Must we keep a mean in our mourning for our deceased friends? This then may exhort and persuade 
use.  parents to be careful in training up their children in the faith and fear of God, in bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, Ephes. 6. 4. and to labour to promote and see the work of grace in their souls, that so if they die before them (as ofttimes they do) they may have hope in their death, and so not sorrow as do others that have no hope. Probably this much aggravated David's sorrow for Absalon, that he had cockered, and not corrected him in his childhood, and he now saw him taken away in his sin and rebellion, whereby he could have no hope of the Salvation of his soul.  
So should all other relations do; endeavouring to be heirs together of the grace of life, that so when death 
1 Pet. ●. 7.  makes a divorce betwixt them, they may leave a well-grounded hope to their friends of their blessed estate and condition, which cannot but much moderate their mourning for them.  
It reproves and justly blames such, as upon the loss of their godly friends, give too much way to Satan's 
use.  tentations, and their own corruptions, whereby they become immoderate and excessive in their sorrow, to the dishonour of God, the disgrace of their profession, the disfitting themselves both for the service of God and man, in the duties of their general and particular Callings, to the prejudice of the health of their bodies; (for worldly sorrow causeth sickness, and death, 2 Cor. 7. 10.) and to the opening of the mouths of the wicked, who scorn them and Religion for it, saying, These are your professors, that make Idols of their children and friends, and mourn for the loss of them, as if they had lost their God. They are like Rachel, that wept and lamented for her children, and would not be comforted, because they were not. Such forget the exhortation which speaks to them as unto children; My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when then art rebuked of him, Heb. 12. 5. Prov. 3. 11.  
Indeed we are sometimes in danger of setting light by God's corrections, saying with those sturdy persons, It is my burden, and I must bear it, Jerem. 10. 19 But more frequently we are impatient, either outwardly fretting at the rod, like those plunging horses which will not endure their Rider; or inwardly repining, like those horses which digest their choler, by biting their bridles. And if we neither despise, nor impatiently murmur against the dispensation of God, yet our weakness is such, that we are ready to take the affliction too much to heart, so that our spirits droop and faint: and this is so much the worse, because it's commonly accompanied with a wilful indisposition, which will not suffer us to entertain such things whereby we might be truly comforted: and the hearts of such many times, like Nabals, die within them, that they are not capable of counsel; so that all consolatory exhortations are to them like water spilled upon the ground: whereas we should take our correction, and humble ourselves under the smart of it: but withal we should look to Christ, and beg of him that he would not suffer our Faith, Hope and meekness of mind to be overturned.  
Again, consider that it's not love to them, when we are persuaded, that they are with the Lord, which makes us excessively grieve when they are taken from us: It is indeed self-love and carnal affection. Our Lord Christ told his Disciples, If ye loved me, you would be glad because I go to the Father. And what measure 
Joh 14. 28.  then do we offer to God herein? We can many times send our children far from us, where it may be we shall 
Mr. Baines.  never see them again, if we are but well persuaded that it will be for their good and preferment; and yet we cannot endure to have them taken out of our sight by the Lord, though we are persuaded that their souls are with him in the highest glory. We ought to labour for such tractable and obedient hearts, as may not be content perforce to let him take them, but may willingly resign even our children (if it were by sacrificing them with our own hands, as Abraham) to him, who hath not thought his only begotten Son, too dear for us, but hath delivered Him to death for our sakes.  
Once more remember, that it's a sign that we felt not God's love in them, nor received them at his hand as we ought to have done, if we do not thankfully give them back to him when he calls for them. Hannah having received Samuel as a gift gotten by prayer from God, did readily part with him to God again, and she lost nothing by that loan which she so cheerfully lent to the Lord, as you may see, 1 Sam. 2. 20, 21. and so dealt Abraham with his only son Isaac, whom by faith in the promise he had obtained of the Lord, Hebr. 11. 17.    

This is true indeed; but yet parentlike affections 
Object.  cannot easily part with and yield up children so dearly beloved.  

But take heed, lest whilst you plead love to your 
Answ.  children or friends, you do not bewray and discover unkindness unto God. Dare any of you say, Lord, if I did not so love them, I could be content to give them to thee: Surely if with a calm spirit you think of this, you would blush for shame, that your heart should be so cold towards God, as not to be willing to part with any thing you love when he calls for it: To part with that which you much care not for, is not at all thanks-worthy. It's said of Abraham, that when God commanded him to sacrifice his own and only son, that he arose early in the morning, Gen. 22. 3. to do it: he consulted not with flesh and blood, nor with carnal reason, nor with fond affections, but (as David said) He made haste and delayed 
Psa. 119. 60.  not to keep God's commandments. How should this shame our backwardness and our many reluctancies against the will of God, when he hath declared it in taking away a dear child or relation from us? How much better were it for us to do as David did (that man after God's own heart) who when he heard that his child was dead, arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and went into the house of the Lord, and worshipped, and then came into his own house, and called for bread, and did eat, 2 Sam. 12. 20.  
Again, the consideration hereof may minister singular consolation. 
use.   
First, To every godly person, when he lies upon his sick bed, and sees death approaching, and his friends standing about his bed weeping and wringing their hands, and that upon a twofold ground.  
First, Because himself hath hope in his death, Prov. 14. 32. Death is to him as the valley of Achor: It's a door of hope to give entrance into Paradise, and to translate him into a state of blessedness, whereas to the wicked it's a trap-door, through which they fall into hell. It's an excellent saying, Improbi dum spirant, sperant: Justus etiam cum expirat, sperat: wicked men hope whilst they live; but a godly man, when he breathes forth his last, hath hope. He is like unto that dying Swan, of which Aelian tells us that sang most sweetly and melodiously at her death, though in her life-time she had no such pleasant note. There is some truth in that saying of the Heathen, Optimum est non nasci, proximum quam celerrime mori. For wicked men, it had been best for them never to have been born, or being born to die quickly, seeing that by living long they heap up sin, and thereby treasure up wrath against the day of wrath: but as for good men, the day of death is best to them, because here to live is but to lie a-dying; and eternal life which they are now taking possession of, is the only true life, as saith Saint Austin.  
Secondly, because as they have hope themselves in their death, so they leave a good hope to their friends, to quiet their hearts in their loss. Oh what a cutting grief is it to a godly heart, to see a child, or kinsman, or other dear relation taken away, and cut off in the midst of his sins, so that he can have no hope of his blessed estate in another life! But on the contrary, (if self-love be not too prevalent with us) we cannot but moum moderately for those which die in the Lord, and say with holy Job, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away, Blessed be the Name of the Lord. How much better cause have such than Tully to cry out, O praeclarum diem, cum ad illud animorum concilium, coetumque proficiscar, & cum ex hac turba, & colluvione discedam! O what a brave and bright day is it to our friends when they go to the Congregation-house of blessed spirits, and walk no longer in the way of this world, which is (like the land of Chabul) dirty and dangerous: Like the the vale of Siddim, slimy and slippery, full of lime-pits and pitfalls, snares and stumbling-blocks laid by Satan to maim and mischief them.  
Here is comfort also to the Parents and Relations of this young Gentleman now with the Lord, in that they have and may have a well-grounded hope of his now blessed estate in heaven: could he speak to you, you should hear him saying, Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, for I have made a blessed change, and am gone from night to day, from darkness to light, from sorrow to solace, and from a troublesome world to a Heaven of happiness. And this brings me to the last thing which I intended, which is to speak something of our deceased brother. But before I begin, I thought fit to make this profession: That I shall speak nothing of him, but what I either observed in him myself, or have from the faithful relations of those which were nearer about him, the truth of whose testimony I dare not call into question: And what I shall speak of him, I shall reduce to these two heads:  

First, to show you what were his privileges.  
Secondly, what improvement he made of them.  
His privileges were these:   
First, that he was born of godly parents, Et nasci ex piis parentibus non minima laus est: To be born of godly parents, as it's no small praise, so it's no small privilege. The glory of children are their parents, saith Solomon, Prov. 14. 6. It was a great honour to Jacob, that he could swear by the fear of his Father Isaac: To David, that he could say, I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid, 
Gen. 31. 53.  Psal. 116. 16. To Timothy, that the same faith that was in him dwelled first in his mother and grandmother, 2 Tim. 1. 5. To those children whose mother Saint John styles the elect Lady: To Mark, that he was Barnabas' sisters son: To Alexander and Rufus, that they were children to Simon of Cyrene, Mar. 15. 21. Now the privilege of such children consists in these two things:  
First, that they have the godly example of their parents, as a copy or continual pattern for their imitation; and experience tells us, that children's manners are much moulded by the examples of their parents. It's reported of the hearts of Scythia, that they teach their young ones to leap from bank to bank, from rock to rock, and from one turf to another, by leaping before them, by which means when they are hunted, no beast can overtake them: So godly parents, by giving a good example of piety to their children when they are young, preserve them from Satan (that mighty hunter) that he shall never have them for his prey.  
Secondly, Children of believing parents are by virtue of their parent's copy & God's gracious entail, within the compass of the Covenant, as appears Gen. 17. 7. I will establish my Covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, and Psal. 112. 2. David speaking of the blessedness of that man that feareth the Lord, adds, His seed shall be mighty upon earth; the generation of the upright shall be blessed: and Act. 2. 39 Peter tells us, the promise is made to you, and to your children: and Paul to the same purpose adds, If the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches, Rom. 11. 16.  
Secondly, a second privilege was, that presently after his coming into the world, he was by the care of his godly parents presented before and dedicated unto God, being made a visible member of the Church by baptism, which is called a Laver of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Tit. 3. 5. yea, baptism is said to save us, 1 Pet. 3. 21. To wit, Sacramentally; because it seals up salvation to the believer, Mar. 16. 16. and it is of perpetual and permanent use to him for that purpose throughout his whole life, ut scaturigo semper ebulliens; as a Fountain bubbling up to eternal life. And truly this his privilege was the greater, if we consider how many poor Infants are deprived of it, through the default of their parents in these last and worst of times, who yet pretend much to Religion.  
Thirdly, that with Timothy, from a child he was taught to know the Scriptures, which are able to make one wise to salvation, 2 Tim. 3. 15. and his Christian parents were the more careful to instruct him therein, because themselves had found it fit milk for babes, 1 Pet. 2. 2. dainty and delicious food, sweeter than honey, Psal. 119. 103. wells of salvation, Isa. 12. 3. Breasts of consolation, Isa. 66. 11. the hony-drops of Christ's mouth, Cant. 4. 11. To be preferred before gold and silver, Psal. 19 11. Before pearls and rubies, Prov. 3. 15. Before all other learning, Deut. 4. 6. They knew that the Scriptures are a lamp to our feet, as saith David, Psal. 119. 105. God's Epistle to us, as saith Gregory: The soul's food, as Athanasius: The soul's physic, as Chrysostom: The invariable rule of truth, as Irenaeus, &c. their care therefore was so to acquaint him with them from his childhood, that he might love them as his sister, Prov. 7. 4. that he might be ready in them, and have them always, as Saul had his spear at his bolster: as David had his stones at hand in his scrip. And thus (according to the Apostles rule, Ephes. 6. 4.) he was brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  
Fourthly, It was his privilege, and happiness to be brought forth in such a time, and to be brought up in such a City, wherein he enjoyed more plentiful means of grace and salvation than he could have done in former times, and (I dare boldly say) in any other City or place in the Christian world besides. We read of Plato, that when he drew near unto his death, he rejoiced and gave God thanks for three things: First, for that he had made him a reasonable man, and not a bruit beast. Secondly, a Greek, and not a Barbarian. And thirdly, that he was born in the time of Socrates, from whom be had learned many good instructions. How much more cause had this Gentleman to praise God for making him a man, a Christian, and a Londoner at such a time as this?  
Fifthly, his parents were not only thus careful betimes to bring him up in the knowledge and fear of God, but to have him instructed in human learning also, that thereby (if the Lord should please to lengthen out the third of his life) he might be the more useful and serviceable in his Generation: For which end  
First, they took care to have him taught the first grounds of learning, and that betimes in his childhood, whereby he excelled and out went not only many of his contemporaries, but divers that were older than himself.  
Secondly, when he was thus fitted at home, they placed him forth at a Boarding-school, in the family of a godly Minister, that so, whilst he went forward in human, he might make a further progress in divine learning also.  
Thirdly, when they thought fit to take him back under their own wing (being exceeding tender of him) and not daring to trust him in a public school, by reason of those many evil examples that he might meet with there, they provided a godly and learned Tutor whom they maintained in their own house, to have the oversight 
Mr. Pat. Drummond.  and education of him.  
These were his privileges. Now for his improvement of them.  
But before I mention that, I must tell you with what parts God had endowed him, whereby he was enabled to make a good improvement of these opportunities: and therein especially these three things were remarkable.  

First, that he had a quick Invention.  
Secondly, A strong and active fancy.  
Thirdly, A diligent and industrious spirit.   
And by help of these he quickly learned to read and write, and so proceeded to the grounds of the Latin tongue; and after he had made a good progress therein, the care of his Tutor was to acquaint him also with the sacred Languages of the Greek and Hebrew: and then he applied himself to the study of the Arts: first, of logic, then of Philosophy, Astronomy, Geography; and (being denied the opportunity of travelling abroad) he spent some time in reading History, and the Travels of sundry persons both by Sea & Land. And lastly, being admitted a member of that Honourable Society of Grays-inn, he betook himself to the Study of the Law, and made no inconsiderable progress therein: by all which (if God had lengthened out his days) he might probably have been very serviceable to his country. All which being considered, I may say with a reverend Divine, That it's a blessed institution of younger years, when reason and Religion are together fashioned and moulded in a tender mind.  
But that which gave him the greatest lustre, and was (as it were) the Diamond in the Ring, is yet behind, which I shall reduce to these three Heads.  

First, his Piety to God.  
Secondly, his dutifulness to his Parents.  
Thirdly, his Charity to the poor.  
His Piety to God manifested itself, both  
In his Life; and  
At his Death.  
In his Life. by   
First, his constant and diligent attending upon the public Ordinances, wherein he was not an idle and careless hearer, but could in the evening give a good account of what he had heard in the day.  
Secondly, His careful sanctification of the whole Sabbath, insomuch as if (through inadvertency) any unfitting and unseasonable speeches had proceeded from him on that day, his heart smote him for it, and it made him more cautious for the future.  
Thirdly, Besides his joining in Family-prayers, and with his Tutor, his manner was, to retire daily into his Closet, where he first read a portion of Scripture, and that not cursorily as too many do, but endeavouring to understand what he read; and when he met with any hard place, he used to inquire of his Tutor, therein following the advice of a worthy Divine: The difficulties which we meet with in reading the Word of God (saith he) should not weaken, but waken our more diligent search; not being contented with the first oar that offers itself to our view; but digging deeper and deeper we should search till we become owners of the whole treasure, which will sufficiently pay us for all our pains. After the Scripture read he betook himself to prayer: in which duties, if he was disturbed, he was displeased with it, and what at one time he omitted, he used to regain at another; all which he carried on with such privacy, that scarce any, besides his Tutor, knew of it.  
Fourthly, to these also of late he adjoined Meditation, which is an excellent Character of a godly person: For, as the philosopher's stone (they say) turns all metal into gold: as the Bee sucks honey out of every flower: and as a good stomach sucks some wholesome nourishment out of the food that it receives into itself: So doth an holy heart, so far as its sanctified, convert and digest all into spiritual and useful thoughts and meditations: and we shall find by experience, that when we go to sleep with some holy meditations in our minds, it will be an excellent preservative against foolish dreams and ●●●●cies, and we shall find our hearts in the better frame when we awake: As he that rakes up his fire over night, shall find it again in the morning, Psal. 119. 15, 16. Prov. 6. 22. Now of his dexterity in this kind, I shall anon give you an example, which he hath left in writing behind him.  
Fifthly, he reverenced and loved godly Ministers and Christians, and liked that Ministry best that was most plain, powerful, and searching. I remember that Luther in his me observed two sorts of Divines: one was Theologus Crucis, the poor Divine, that preached plainly, and told men faithfully how things stood with them: The other was Theologus gloriae, the Divine that hunted after praise, glory, and preferment; concerning whom his prayer was, A Theologo gloriae liberet suam Ecclesiam Dominus; that God would deliver his Church from vainglorious Divines. Peter so preached; that his hearers were pricked at the heart, Act. 2. 37, 38. and Steven's hearers were cut at the heart▪ with his words, Act. 7. 54. And truly this was the more commendable in this young Gentleman, seeing there be so many at this time, and in this City, that are like those Greeks, that counted the plain preaching of the Cross foolishness, 1 Cor. 1. 22. 23. so that neither God, nor his Ministers can please them, except they speak tinkling and tickling words. But such should get their ears healed (as Demosthenes advised his countrymen of Greece to do) before they can hear God's Word with profit. They must learn of Bees to pass by Roses and Violets, and to sit upon Thime, though it be bitter; and to prefer sound rebukes before smooth flatteries.  
Sixthly, he was willing to be admonished, and reproved for what was amiss in him, being herein of David's mind, Psal. 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil which shall not break my head. He was one of those that had an obedient ear to reproofs, of whom Solomon speaks, Prov. 25. 12. As an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold; so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear. And this is one good sign of a godly wise man, Prov. 15. 5. He that regards reproof, is prudent, and vers. 31. the ear that heareth the reproof of life, abides amongst the wise. Hesiod tells us of three sorts of men: First, such as live so well that they need no reproof; these are best of all. Secondly, such as do not so well, but can be content to hear of it; and these (saith he) are not bad. Thirdly, such as will neither do as they ought, nor be advised to do better; these are in a very dangerous condition, such may read their doom, and see their destiny, Psal. 50. 21, 22. Truth (saith one) is sharp, but bitter though it be, yet it is better and more savoury to sound senses, than the hony-drops of a flattering tongue.  
Seventhly, He (by God's grace) resisted tentations from some of his familiars, who would have drawn him to Taverns, and mildly reproved them for it. Concerning all these I shall present you with the attestation of his Tutor, given me in writing, and that in his own words.  
He was (saith he) when I came to him (which was about four years ago) a Christian youth, well principled in the grounds of Religion, and I left him a little before he died (which was about the eighteenth year of his age) knowing what was in the Assemblies Confession of faith, in Wollebius, and what Altingius in his Didactica hath written: Of late also he delighted much to read Calvin's Institutions, and B. Hall's Meditations, and of his knowledge of the things of God, yea of the hardest of them, I have found satisfaction after trial: He not only knew God, but loved him, and in his last sickness, wept to think that he had, and did love God no more. He was a lover of the children and Ministers of God; and amongst his acquaintance he valued them most, in whom he saw most of virtue. He heard the Word, and could retain and judge of what he heard, and did not so much affect flaunting and quaint preaching, as that which spoke most home to his heart. In his Closet, before he came out of his chamber, he read a portion of Scripture, from which he hath raised pertinent observations, when put to the trial; and what he knew not, that he asked. He read with judgement, and hath said, that all other books but the Bible did bring weariness: & to his reading he joined prayer: I have seen him displeased, when disturbed, and what at one time he omitted, at another time he would repair; and this he carried on with so little noise, that I only was privy to it.  
Thus you have heard of his piety manifested in his life: & vita qualis, finis talis; as was his life, such was his death. For,  
In his last sickness (which was the small Pox accompanied with a fever) he bore it with great patience. He inquired of his Tutor, how he might know that he loved God? and being answered, he broke forth into tears: and when his Tutor asked him, why he wept? he answered, Because he had loved God no more, nor made a better improvement of his former deliverances. Yet he said, that the word of God was his meditation, the promises whereof did now comfort him. He was sensible of his approaching Death, and the night before, told some about him, that he should not live another night. One of his last words was, I must be gone.  
The next thing that I propounded to speak of was, his dutifulness to his parents, which can be testified by many: Indeed they were very tender of him, and indulgent towards him, yet did not he abuse their love to liberty, nor through familiarity contemn their authority, but was many times content to refrain from things lawful and suitable to his desires, to give them satisfaction.  
Neirher was his charity to the poor less remarkable than the two former. For from his childhood he would often go to the servants to fetch relief for such poor as came to his father's door. And being grown up to more maturity, he frequently distributed money amongst them, & would many times say, that if God ever brought him to the enjoyment of his estate, he would as constantly make provision for such as were in want, as for himself and Family. He knew that, Temporalia Dei servis impensa, non pereunt, sed parturiunt, alms given to the poor, perish not, but multiply: that bounty is the most compendious way to plenty; and that hereby he might lay up a good foundation for himself against the time to come, 1 Tim. 6. 18. He knew that rich men's houses should be God's storehouses; and that sowing oft of this fruitful seed, we shall be sure to reap in our greatest need: and God is not unrighteous to forget our labour of love in this kind, Heb. 6. 10. Oh! how may this shame many rich men that keep no proportion between their increases for God, and increases from God: that though they are rich in this world, yet they are poor in good works: they lay not by for pious and charitable uses, as God hath blessed them, 1 Cor. 16. 2. But indeed are, the richer the harder, as children that have their mouths full, and both hands full, and yet will part with none, but spill it rather. Men when they grow fat, have so much the less blood: So the fatter men are in their estates, the less blood, life, and spirits they have for God: Or if they do give something, yet they do not love mercy, Micha 6. 8. they are not ready to distribute, willing to communicate. 1 Tim. 6. 18. their mercy doth not flow from them like water from the Fountain, or light from the Sun, naturally and freely: but it must be wrung from them, like verjuice from the crab, or as distilled water, that is forced out by the heat of the fire.  
It's no marvel therefore that this charitable frame of heart contributed so much towards the comfortable end of this our deceased brother. I remember what Hierom saith, Non memini me legisse malâ morte mortuum, qui libenter opera charitatis exercuit: habet enim multos intercessores. I do not remember (saith he) that I ever read of any one that died an ill death that was frequent in works of charity; and no marvel, for he hath many intercessors for him; which agrees with that of David, Psal. 112. 9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness endures for ever, his horn shall be exalted with honour, and Psal. 41. 3. the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.  
Having thus dispatched those three things that I proposed to speak to, I might add much more, by telling you of his humility in concealing himself and his own parts, as the sweet violet that grows low, near unto the ground, and withal hides itself under its own leaves. Of his sweet and affable nature, and loving and courteous disposition: Of his indefatigable diligence in his employments, and shunning, yea hating of idleness. I shall only add one word more of his ingeniousness in, and the usefulness of his recreations, which were divers: one while he exercised himself in the Art of Dialling; another while he applied himself to music: But I shall say no more of these, because he attained not to any perfection in them; that which he followed with most diligence and delight was the Art of Drawing, Painting, and Limning, whereof he hath left many very good Pieces for so young a Practitioner; and had he lived longer, probably he would have attained to a great perfection therein. He had also a Poëtical Vein, whereof I shall give you a taste by and by.  His meditation upon the History of Christ's Transfiguration, Matth. 17. 1, &c. 
Jesus Christ is so willing that we should have communion with him in this life, that he takes us up into his most secret retirements.  
Prayer is a divine ascension, and whosoever would pray spiritually, must have an holy elevation of spirit to meet God in that duty.  
High Turrets of faith and mountains of graces are the real helps in prayer.  
In prayer we are sure to enjoy God's presence. It's a sure way to see God face to face; and (if I may so say) in his natural complexion: we may meet with God, as Moses did in the Mount Sinai of Prayer.  
It was in the Mount praying when the fashion of Christ's countenance was altered: It is in the mountain of prayer that Christ's purity appeareth more and more to a believer.  
Never more whiteness do believers see in Christ, then in their prayers to him.  
In this life the Saints have a taste of the glistering and whiteness of his outside: But in the life to come it is that they have immediate fruition of himself: In this life we only see a sudden transfiguration to stay our stomachs (as I may say) till hereafter at what time we shall see him as he is: and if this transfiguration appears white  
He began to write a Book in Verse, which he calls Spuma Musarum, which he purposed to dedicate to his Father and Mother; I shall only give you an account of the first Verses in it, that by them you may judge of the rest.  
Rete venatur ventos. To hunt the winds with a net.  
Thou that dost strive the winds with net to catch,  
Unfruitful labours to thyself dost hatch:  
What! catch the wind? If caught, thou'lt not enjoy  
Thy dear times worth to purchase such a toy:  
And when y' have done, look in your net, you'll find  
All that remains is folly, yea, and wind.  
Many littles make a mickle.  
'Tis Unity brings strength; if then you'd have  
Strong, Noble virtues, Vices to outbrave,  
Unite your weak-limbed forces, and you'll see  
Many a little will a mickle be.  
T. B.  
FINIS.     

Upon the death of that pious young Gentleman Mr. Thomas Bewlije.  


Thomas Beulije. Anagram, O beati humiles.  

If either Fate or Fortune had  
Made such a breach among us,  
I should have called them blind, or mad,  
Or envious, thus to wrong us.  
I should have in my showers of tears expressed  
A weeping eye with furious anger dressed.   

That when in all the garden did  
But one choice flower appear,  
It should be thus nipped in the bud,  
Who can with patience bear?  
But most in that in this one flower alone,  
The sole hope of the Root is overthrown.   

But stay! it was a better hand,  
More sacred and more wise,  
Then Fate or Fortune can command:  
[Those Heathen-Deities.]  
The root's not dead, the flower is but transplanted,  
With added beauty which before it wanted.   

And happy they who humbly can submit  
To Him whose Wisdom hath transplanted it.    

Thomas Beulye. Anagram. Thy Love-beams.  
THY LOVE-BEAMS Lord, so strongly shone on me,  
That I impatient was of more delays;  
But needs must leave the Earth to go, and see  
The sacred Fountain of those glorious rays.   

Thomas Beulie. Anagram. The Smile above.  

* The posy of the Ring given at the Funeral.  Set your affections on things above,  
Not things of sense▪  
It was THE SMILE ABOVE, loadstone of love,  
That drew me hence.    

Ad parents.  

Thomas Beaulie. Anagram. Leave me as I both.  
LEAVE ME AS I BOTH you, 'tis for our gain;  
When you know how I do, you'll not complain.   

Thomas Bewlie. Anagram. I'm well as both.  
I'm well AS BOTH you can be; nay I am  
Better, because triumphing with the Lamb:  
Yet I'm not gone for ever, our parting is,  
Till Death unlock for you this door of bliss.   
J. C. A. M.   

On the Death of that Ingenious, industrious, and pious young Gentleman, Mr. Thomas Bewlie Junior.  
OH death! of terrors King! could nothing move  
Thee to suspend this stroke! no not the love,  
Nor cries of Parents, Tutor, Friends, and all  
That knew his worth, and now bemoan his fall!  
Nor's age! (but eighteen years!) nor that estate,  
To which this only son was destinate!  
Not's active soul! and hand! nor's nimble head!  
Nor's skill in Common-Law could thee out-plead?  
Nor's tongues! nor's logic! nor's Philosophy!  
Nor's drawing! Limning! nor his Poetry!  
Not disposition sweet! nor's gracious heart!  
Not's love to God nor that he did impart  
To Saints! not's pity great to poor, and such  
As age and chance with want afflicted much!  
No! Servant like, thou but to pass didst bring  
The Counsel wise, of God his sovereign King:  
Who at this time, and thus, hath cropped this Rose,  
With's hand of love; and giu'ned a safe repose,  
In heaven above, where he doth clearly see,  
What in his Mountain thoughts he spied to be.  
Then cease you Parents, Tutor, Friends, to wail,  
He is with God, your grief cannot avail.   

Another.  
VIew underneath this stone, a fancy choice;  
Invention good, a Sed'lous hand to poise  
The greatest things, a mind made wise by grace;  
And Tongues with Arts not Scantlingly t' embrace.  
His parent's joy; now grief: his kindred's loss.  
O'th' Bewlies Phoenix here remains the dross.   

On the Death of his dear Friend and x, Mr. Thomas Bewley Junior, Gent.  
ARt fled, dear Soul? and is thy purer breath  
Become a victim? ah! too rich for death.  
Could not the rivulets from thy parent's eyes  
Prevail for once to drown the destinies?  
Or's death so envious? that th' art only shown,  
Cropped, like a bud, before thou were't well blown.  
Envious indeed, in that he doth deny  
Us the enjoyment of thy company.  
Which joined with goodness, and a candid mind,  
Must few Aequators, no Ascendent find.  
But here, methinks, injustice taints my will,  
In that while worth'less I would take my fill  
In traffic sure Divine; (of which each part  
Throughout thy Soul might make a several Mart.)  
I envy thee that perfect happy shore,  
To which on earth 'twas thy desire to soaere.  
Injust (perhaps) it seems, yet let me say  
That though I could have wished a longer stay:  
So great's thy gain in thy friends greatest loss,  
That we'll conjoin the harp unto the cross.  
To thee thy parents greatest love did run,  
A fit Meridian for affections Sun;  
And nature will have vent, perhaps immerse  
Their eyes in tears attending on thy hearse.  
Yet should but an Impartial Judge stand by,  
He'd think your tears from passions contrary  
Proceeded, that that seeming dismal sound  
Did not through sorrow, but through joy abound.  
That's love indeed, if Parents don't complain  
At their own loss, if't be their children's gain.  
'Twixt Joy and Sorrow. T. E.