DEDICATORIE. lelssjahs in the pretence of the Lambe. Pardon me good Madam,if I renew your griefe with the mention & remembrance offogreat a loffe.Give us leave to teflifie our fellow feeling ofyour forrows.Publike loges ma y not pa ffe without publike heavinefs.It is a lois that ycelds us argument both ofgreat griefe and as great feare. Can it be a finali grief to fee our (elves deprived of the ufe & benefit of fo many rare vertues & honorable inclinations,offo great lear- ning,in fo few yeers,offo great grace,holines,and religion in fo yang yeers,as were tweedy met & combinad In him ? His rate endowments,his noble difpofition,his religious conver- fation,his hopefull fervice toGods Church & thiskingdom, . confidered,I may fay of the Church & Common-weaith,as Val lib. (pike ofCornelia,in the Joffe of her loving Huf- ban d : Correliam nef io an fceliciorem dixerim gssod talem vi_ rum ha6sterit , an miferiorem quad amiferit : It is hard to fay whether we were happier in the enjoyinene,oe unhapier in the loffe of fuck a perfonage. And as in his lofle there is great caul ofgrief, fo no kite of fear. We may grive that fo Pral,g,r. great good is taken from us,we may feare, becaufefamegreat evil is con ming upon us :The righteous perifheth, and no man confidereth that he is taken away from the evil that is to come. Surely,when good men,efpecially being great men, &, yon; men too,are taken away,it is a feareful prefage of much an- ger,and evil! to come,The Lord make us all wife to confider the deaths offuch men,that the feares ofeviil to come, may make us leek to avoyd evi,11 prefent, and make us prudent in the fore-fiightoftheplagues ,to hide our felves.Butyet in the midi} ofthis grief&fear,your Lad ifhipis not left altogether comforcles.As it is a comfort that God' honored your family with filch an one,fo is this alto none ofthe let+ ccîforts -to you that you mourn not alone,but have the harts ofallgood men heavy with y ours.It makes our joy thegreater,tohaveothers rejoyce with us when we rejoyce : but it makes our forrew Z `a-'p 3.33 the leffe,whc we haveothcrs to weep withus when we weep. did Abner,faid `David,dieasa fool ? fo ofhim it may be laid; Did he die as an immeriting,as an ignobleperfon ? without tears?
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