584 TheJulien/fans Funeral. from coming to,them, or rather, from coming to the hour ; making them to fall (boil thereof, and preventing their approach thereunto, by taking them away in a fpeedy death. Thusmothers and Nurfes fufpefting their children would too much play the wantons, difgrace them, andwrong theinfelves ; when midi company is expeeted at their houfes, halle them to bed betimes, even before their ordinary hour. Secondly, From the evil offinwhichother men would commit, and he beheld, 2 Pet, a: s: to thegreat grief and anguila ofhis heart, Lot-like : for thatrighteoasman dwelling among them, in feeing andhearing, vexedhis righteous foalfrom day to day,witb their unlawfuldeeds. 41 Manifold fifes might be made of the Juftmans thus perifhingin hisrigfitcoi isefs. Firft, men ought to beaffeEted with true forrow : yet the Prophet faith, The righ- teous perifheth,andno man layette. it to his heart. Surely his wife or children will (or elfe the more unworthy) haplyhe hath none when dying. His kindred will, èx- Hei,.7. ;. cept (which isimpoliible) withMelchsjedech, he be withoutfather,withoutniother, withoutdefcent. His friends will, though rather the rich than the righteous have friends whilft living, and leave them when dying. But to fatisfie all objeLions at once. By none, are meant very few, inconfiderable inrefpe&of thofe multitudes that pats the righteous mans death unrefpeded. Parallel to that place in the Pro- Nov. z. :9. verbs. Neste thatgo toherreturn again,neither take they hold of the path of life. Not that adultery is the fin againft the holy GhofI, unpardonable ; but veffigia paned retrorfum. Be thou, by an holy Riddle, Oneamong that None ; I mean amourner in Sion for the righteous mans deaths amongft their very few, who lay it to their hearts. Secondly, Men from hence are ferioufly to recoiled and apply to themfefvesthe doctrine of their mortalities, when they feetherighteous noísnper,fhin his righteouf nefs. There is abird peculiar to Ireland, called the Cockofthe wood,remarkable for the fine flefh and folly thereof: All the difficulty to kill them, is to find themout; otherwife amean. marks-man may eafily kill them. They fly in woods in flocks, and ifoneof them be shot, the ref} remove not but to the nextbow or tree at the fartheft,andthere [band ftaringat thefhooter,till the whole covy bedeftroyedi As foolish as the bird is,it is wifeenough to be the embleme of the wifeftmen inpoine ofmortality. Death fweeps away one, andone, and one, and the ref} remain no' whit moved at, or mindingofit, tilfat laft a whole generation is confirmed: It fareth with the molt mens fives,as with the farad intliis hypocritical hour_glals: behold it in outward appearance, and it feemeth far more than it is, bccaufe rifüig uponthe fides, whin} the fand is empty and hollow in theMidi thereof;' fo that when it finks down in an inftant, a quarter ofan hour is gone in a moment. Thus many men are miftaken in their own account, reckoning upon three-fcore and ten years, theage of a man, becaufe their bodies appear outwardly flrong and lofty. Alas ! their health maybe hollow, there maybe Tome inward infirmity and imperfeaion unknown unto them, fo that deathmay furprife them on a' fud- den. Thirdly, Theyareto takenotice of Codsanger, with that place from which the Eceler,7 to righteous man is taken away. Solomon, fpeaking of the death of an ordinary man, faith, 7he livingwill layit to heart : But when a righteous man it taken away, the living ought to lay it to the very Heart of theirhearts, efpecially if he be a Magi_ ftrateorMinifter ofeminentnote. When the eye-ftringsbreak, the heart-firings hold not out long after: and when thefeers are taken away,it is a fad fymptome otoa languilhingChurchor Common-wealth. LafIly,Menought to imitate the vertuousexamples of ruches aredead.Thecloud and pillar of the Red-fea, was bright toward the lfraelites, to guideand dire& them Exod.14, so, with the light thereof; but the reverie or back part thereof, was dark toward the Egyptians. Inthebeft menthere is fuck amixture of light and darknefc, who with their virtues have many faults, failings and infirmities. Welltet the Egyptianwalk by hisdark fide, follow his faults, whilftthe lfrael ofGod, all pious people, endea- vour to imitate his venues,direftedin theirconverfations, by the luftre ofhisgodly examples.
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