great matter is it if fparks fly upward, or a stone falls into a pit; if that which was combuftible be burned, or that which was liquid be melted, or that which is mortal do die? It is no more than a man does every day; for every night death hath gotten poffeffion of that day, and we fhall never live that day over again; and when the laft day is come, there are no more days. left for us to die. And what is fleeping and waking, but living and dying? What is fpring and autumn, youth and old age, morning and evening, but real images of life and death, and really the fame to many confiderable effects and changes?

Untimely Death.

But it is not mere dying that is pretended by fome as the cause of their impatient mourning, but that the child died young, before he knew good and evil, his right hand from his left, and fo loft all his portion of this World, and they know not of what excellency his portion in the next fhall be. *If he died young,he loft but little, for he understood but little, and had not capacities of great pleasures or great cares: but yet he died innocent, and before the fweetness of his Soul was defloured and ravifhed from him by the flames and follies of a froward age: He went out from the dining-room before he had fallen into errour by the intemperance of his meat, or the deluge of drink: and he hath obtained this favour of God,that his Soul hath fuffered a lefs imprisonment, and her load was fooner taken off, that he might with leffer delays go and converse with immortal fpirits and the babe is taken into Paradife before he knows good and evil. (For that knowledge threw our great Father out, and this ignorance returns the Child thither.) * But (as concerning thy own particular) remove they thoughts back to thofe days in which thy Child was not born, and you are now but as then you were, and there is no difference, but that you had a Son born; and if you reckon that for evil, you are thankful for the bleffing; if it be good, it is better that you had

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the

Itidem fi puer parvulus occidat, æquo animo ferendum putant; fi verò in cunis, nè querendum quidem : atqui hoc acerbius exegit natura quod dederit. At id quidem in cæteris rebus melius putatur, aliquam partem quam nullam attingere.

Seneca.

*

the bleffing for a while than not at all; and yet if he had never been born, this forrow had not been at all. But be no more displeased at God for giving you a bleffing for a while, than you would have been if he had not given it at all; and reckon that intervening bleffing for a gain, but account it not an evil; and if it be a good, turn it not into forrow and fadness. But if we have great reafon to complain of the calamities and evils of our life, then we have the less reason to grieve that those whom we loved have to small a portion of evil affigned to them. And it is no finall advantage that our children dying young receive: For their condition of a bleffed immortality is rendered to them fecure, by being fnatch'd from the dangers of an evil choice, and carried to their little cells of felicity, where they can weep no more. And this the wifeft of the Gentiles understood well, when they forbad any offerings or libations to be made for dead Infants, as was ufual for their other dead; as believing they were entred into a fecure poffeffion, to which they went with no other condition, but that they paffed into it through the way of mortality, and for a few months wore an uneafie garment. And let weeping parents fay, if they do not think, that the evils their little babes have fuffered are fuffi cient: If they be, why are they troubled that they were taken from thofe many and greater, which in fucceeding years are great enough to try all the Rea fon and Religion which Art and Nature and the Grace of God hath produced in us, to enable us for fuch fad contentions? And poffibly we may doubt concerning Men and Women, but we cannot fufpect that Infants dah can be fuch an evil, but that it brings to them much more good than it takes from them in this life.

Death

Death unfeafonable.

Menand

Dii

But others can well bear the death of Infants: but when they have spent fome years of childhood or youth, and are entred into arts and fociety, when they are hopeful and provided for, when the parents are to reap the comfort of all their fears and cares, then it breaks the spirit to lose them. This is true in many; but this is not love to the dead, but to them. felves; for they mifs what they had flattered themfelves into by hope and opinion: and if it were kindness to the dead, they may confider,that fince we hope he is gone to God, and to reft, it is an ill expreffion of our love to them, that we weep for their good fortune.For that life is not beft which is longest and Juvenis rewhen they are defcended into the grave, it fhall not linquit vitam be enquired how long they have lived, but how quem well and yet this fhortening of their days in an evil diligunt. wholly depending upon opinion. For if men did naturally live but twenty years, then we fhould be fatisfied if they died about fixteen or eighteen; and yer eighteen years now are as long as eighteen years would be then and if a man were but of a days life, it is well if he lafts till Even-fong, and then fays his Compline an hour before the time and we are pleafed and call not that death immature if he lives till feventy; and yet this age is as fhort of the old periods before and fince the floud, as this youth's age (for whom you mourn) is of the prefent fulness. Suppofe therefore a decree paffed upon this perfon, (as there have been many upon all mankind) and God hath fet him a fhorter period; and then we may as well bear the immature death of the young man, as the death of the oldest men: for they also are immature and unfeasonable, in respect of the old periods of many generations. * And why are we troubled that he had arts and sciences before he died? or are we trobled that he does not live to make use of them? The firft is caufe of joy, for they are excellent in order to certain ends: And the fecond cannot because of

fore

forrow, because he hath no need to use them as the cafe now ftands, being provided for with the provifions of an Angel, and the manner ofeternity. However, the fons and the parents, friends and relatives are in the world like hours, and minutes to a day. The hour comes and must pass; and some stay but minutes, and they also país, and fhall never return again. But let it be confidered, that from the time in which a man is conceived, from that time forward to Eternity he fhall never ceafe to be: and let him die young or old, ftill he hath an immortal Soul, and hath laid down his body only for a time, as that which was the inftrument of his trouble and forrow, and the scene of ficknesses and disease. But he is in a more noble manner of being after death than he can be here: and the child may with more reafon be allowed to cry for leaving his Mother's womb for this World, than a Man can for changing this World for another.

Sudden death or violent.

Others are yet troubled at the manner of their child's or friend's death. He was drowned, or loft his head, or died of the plague; and this is a new fpring of forrow. But no man can give a fenfible account, how it fhall be worfe for a child to die with drowning in half an hour, than to endure a fever of one and twenty days. And if my friend loft his Head, fo he did not lofe his Conftancy and his Religion, he died with huge advantage.

Being Childlefs.

But by this means I am left without an Heir. Well, fuppofe that thou haft no heir, and I have no Inheritance: and there are many Kings and Emperours that have died childlefs, many Royal Lines are extin guished and Auguftus Cafar was forced to adopt his Wife's Son to inherit all the Roman Greatnefs. And there are many wife perfons that never married: and

we

we read no where that any of the Children of the Apostles did furvive their Fathers and all that inherit any thing of Chrift's kingdom come to it by adoption, not by natural inheritance: and to die without a natural heir is no intolerable evil, fince it was fanctified in the perfon of Jefus, who died a Virgin.

Evil or unfortunate Children.

And by this means we are freed from the greater forrows of having a fool, a fwine or a goat to rule after us in our families: and yet even this condition admits of comfort. For all the wild Americans are fup- Keñσoov pofed to be the Sons of Dodonaim; and the Sons of id vanev Jacob are now the most scattered and defpited people re nain the whole World. The Son of Solomon was but a xodimofilly weak man; and the Son of Hezekiah was wic- va. Epic. ked and all the fools and barbarous people, all the thieves and pirates, all the flaves and miferable men and women of the world are the Sons and Daughters of Noah: and we must not look to be exempted from that portion of forrow which God gave to Noah and Adam, ɛoì ♪'åsto Abraham, to Ifaac and to Jacob: I pray God fenderW TO κείτω us into the lot of Abraham. But if any thing happens usater. worie to us, it is enough for us that we bear it evenly.

Our own Death.

And how if you were to die your felf? you know you must. Only be ready for it, by the preparations Ad fines cùm of a good life; and when it is the greatelt good that perveneris ne revertito. Py ever happened to thee: elfe there is nothing that can tha comfort you. But if you have ferved God in a holy life, fend away the women and the weepers, tell them it is as much intemperance to weep too much as to laugh too much and when thou art alone, or with fitting company, die as thou shouldft, but do not die impatiently, and like a fox catched in a trap. For if you fear death, you fhall never the more avoid it, but you make it miferable. Fannins that killed himfelt

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