Funeral Sermon. from perilhing, and the like: Thus,. all and maintenance here we are driven to take upon trufi, and borrow it where we can find it And call you not this a very great frailty, which neceffarily forceth us upon the help and courtefie of other creatures, muchignòbler and inferiour to our (elves ? Is it not a great frailty in a mafter,. to be forced to bebeholden to his fervants? And yet fay whether this be not jufi ourvery condition of being. See how Nature fends us into the world : not as (he does other creatures is Lome meafure armedand prepared withweapons and infirumenrsof defence and provifion, but poor, naked, helplefs infants ; and a long while it is, that we live upon the meet cortege and charity of Nurfes and Midwives : and after- wards how are we forced tomake our wayunto life, through the death of other creatures? and to keep us alive, howmany harmlefs innocent creatures are fain to be flain and butchered ? and call you not this a great frailty, á thameful infirmity ?, But neither is this all, there isyet a third frailty more, equally fatal and ne- ceflary to our natures; and that is fragilltae ìiortalitatis, a frailty of death and mortality, of corruption and diffolution ; and preparatory hereunto, of innu- merable fickneffes and difeafes, of much noifomnefs and putrefa&tion, which do naturally breed in us, and have their neceffity of being in thofe very principles of nature, which do give us humanebeing and fübfiflence. And this indeed is afrailty which no art can totally prevent, or Phyfick perfe&ly cure; or care and caution, or temperance and abflinence whely fubdue and overcome. For fee we not very good men, languithing many times under painful fickneffes ; and excellent tempers; corrupting and putrifying into noifome difeafes ; and thong and healthful bodies miferablyfcorch't and burnt up withFevers and Inflamma- tions? and the leafl mouth-fulof infested air, how does it prefently poyfon the whole frame of nature, though never fo equally tempeed, or delicately lifted, or firongly built and fortifi'd? And is not this enough to humble every fon of Adam? to confider what a was of corruption we have lodging in as, what a body of fickneffes and difeafes we carry about with us? what abundance of noy- fomnefs and unfavorinefs lies hidunder the purefl and mofl delicateskins? fo that well Might the Apoflle Phil. 3. a, r. call our flefhly bodies Vilc bodies : for where (hall we likely meet with morevilenefs, thenwhat wecarry in us, or(pie out more corruptionthen what is potentiallyand feminally in our own bodies? And should not Inch confiderations greatly deje& and humble our prefent thoughts and opi- nions of our felves? to fee what becomesof us upon every prefent fit of ficknefsl and any little diflemper, what a great change and alterationit begets in us t how our (pities prefently grow dull and heavy upon it, andour thoughts troubled and unquiet, and our Beep departsfrom our eyes, and our bodies becomeunapt and unable for motion, and we mull have fame to turn us in our bed, and every pollute isuneafie and painful to us. This forthe firfl importance of this duty of numbring our days, implying con/iderationens infsrmitatis, a ferious coñfideration of the frailtyand infirmity of our nature. A fecond"importanee is meditatiobrevitatis, an often meditation of the fhort nefs and brevity of our fives. What a little refpite of flay and continuance we have here; how loon we are bid (many times) to depart and remove hence, and (hake hands with life, and takeour leaves of the world. Heark what a little ac- count holy David makes of our lives, Pfaff. ;g. 5'. Thou haft made my days an hand breadth, and what a (mall fcanelingiis that? well, but read on, and mine age is even as nothing in re/pelt of thee : See Ipraya double account of our lives, the one abfolute, the other comparative : abfolutely, and in themfelves they are, dies palmares, but an hand' breadth of days and then comparatively, and in -re- fpe& of God and Eternity, nothing fo much, Inflar nibili, even as nothing : juts as a point to the circumferenceof the wideflcircle, and not fo muchas the fmallefl drop to the main Ocean. Holy jobs refemblanceof our lives to a flower, Chap. 74.2. is elegant and very expreflive ; which in the morning is greenand growethup, but in the evening is Ddddd -cut
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=