Featly et. Al. - BV4275 T47 1672

A efrion for Burial. 23 7 fcience ofdepraving, andundermining, and fpoyling, and putting Natives out of their poflcilion : they get to themfelves fuch an impudency, as is Orange, and none of the leaf} rcproaches,they neitherapprove themfelves to Godnormen by this'bold intrufion. Let ffrangers be like themfelves, to know that nothing is theirs that they can challenge, they :nun come to it by the good will,and confent of the parties,for fit-anger: are not at home,but to bePent home to their onplace;they muff prefume ofnothing out of their place. If men did confider this, they would not fhoulder out, and injure, andbackbite one another,and all for bale worldly pelfe, little better than a buryingplace, :hen a Rod of ground to make them a Grave : but men are fo let on it, as though all their hope were bere, as though they had no treafure in another place, as though this were their home,and they had no further motion to betterthings. This is the Preface. Now the Petition follows. Give me l prayyou. Giveme,not Çlratie, themeaning is not as after the $ory theweth) he would not take it for nothing, but give me for price, for reafonable bargain, as you naafi deem it fit to give me. See here again the excellent moderation of this great man, this great fervant of God: he confeft it lay in their power toaflign and contracEwith him for any thing : it muf be their gift, orelfe he would venture upon nothing : I have lived among you, and I would fain die among you too ; asy ou have given me leave to live with you, I befeech you call not away my dead : my Wife is gonethe way ofall fielh,and I lhall follow her fhortly,caft us not away : there is no further corporal living for us together ; I befeech yougive meaburying plate, and theta we (hall be one corporation, our bodies will moulder to nothing, and not hurt you ; therefore give me, that which is a common gift, a gift that enemies will give to ene- mics,and therefore agift to ffrangers,andit is natural to do good to,Irangers. I be- feech yougive me. What is this he would have? Forthough thispeople were very liberal,and would have given him a hundred times more than this lac reyuefted, as we fee afterward by their anfwer: it would have been a great matter that Abraham ihould have been denied : yet this holy man asketh fuch a gift, as they might well grant without harm. Hereupon the holy man is to be commended ; as for the great beggars of the world, they cry , Give, give ; as the whole Country is not fufficient to fatisfie their delire , but Ifill when they have had this, and that preferment, they cryOill Give. This blelfed man was ofmore moderation, he had a more circumcifed heart, and delire : he delireth no more than they might well forbear, and part with, and fuller him to have without hindrance. And fo it teacheth men their duty, that they fhould not toomuch grate upon a friend, not too impudently demand things that cannot well be parted with: many men are of fuch good natures, that theywill give away at the firf fight ofa Petition, that that Ihall be a great lofs and damage to them , and after with that they had not given ir, when theycannt recover itagain. There wasno fuch fpirit in Abra- ham, nor fltould be in Gods children, they (hould not be infatiable, and extend themfelves to unreafonable demands : a thing that argueth one altogether glued to this world, and one that bath no furtherexpeaation than of thingsbelow. Give me: What? a.4pojeffion'ofbesriaf. Firfl,.4 PofJeljion. Ha would have it foconveyed,asno manmight make claimof it, but that it (hould be for him, and his for ever. Therefore it was, as itwere., a Church -yard that he begged, fuch a one as was capable, and had fufficient fcope and room for his whole Pofferity in the time to come, in times of trouble and' perfecution : for in this place werethe Fathers and thofe Patriarchs ( though we readnot of their Burialinthis place in the book ofGod many of themiyet notwith- Oanding it is likely that all the Patriarchs had their bodies) conveyed to this place; and that the great ones in Egypt, that fo demeaned themfelves, that they had favour

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=