Manton - BX8915 M26 1684 v1

F. `o the Right Honourable . :_ .L.tp and ANN, T'HE Lord and Lady WHA R T Ö 11Ì 1 He inferting your Hónours nanies in this Publication, fo ltttlé needs an Apology, that it had much ñzoré needed one not to have done it. Tour deeply inward Affellion to the Excellent Author; your ntoft fingùlar and jolt vàlue for his Perlon, Miniftry, Con - verfe, and Mémory, as they were tad, great lb be frilly exprèft ; fo they are to be wholly conceal' d, and buried irz f fence. note ac7s of your Beneficence towards hint, wherein live is wont, the fin- serer it is, alwaies the more to affell privacy ; it were a rude violence to offer at difclojng. But its paths in that fo lóng- continued Friendly commerce with him , unto which your Honózirs were pleated to condefcend, could not be hid. Any eye might òbfërve`the frequency ofyour kind visits, the familiar freedont you gladly allow'dhint at your .Houle, as ai his own home g and that When the feafon invited you to your pleafant Countrey- recefs, it was alfo the more pleafant to you, if his Affairs could allow him there to divert; and re. pofe hintfelf with you. In the very common and piercing affliElion of his Deatli, which enter'd into the Souls of many ; none that were not of his nearer Relatives,, had a great- er(hare than your Honours, or in the bitter forrows canted' by it. Tour part may be hoped to bé as peculiarly gréat in the advantages and con- folations, which be that bringeth light out ofdarknefs, is leafed to attend and follow it. The deceafe of any fuch perfon (be /ides that tis otherwzfe alto tnftruilive) is a further enforcing repetition and inclucation of a common, but very apt and powerful Argument, both for the increafc of our Faith concerning another World, and the dimintitión of our Love to this. To the former purpofe, the Arguaient fron this Topick, cannot but be very con- viElive unto fuch whom the forelaid Pions dpprehenfion of a Deity bath pre- pared and made capable of it unto others ; to whofe gofer minds, that moti important, and fo eafzly dèmonitrable thing,, is doubful; one may defpair any thingfhould be certain; that they fee not with their eyes. But who that be lieves this World hath a Wife, H61y, Righteous, Merciful Rifler, that difpofes all things in it , can take notice that the bell of men die from Age' to Age, as others do ; and allow himfelf to think, no difference A d!! be made hereafter ? And that God Jhould order the colleUing of fo great a Treafare in one Man; not to fay of general Learning and Knowledge, but of true Goodnefs, Grace, San&icy, Love to himfclf, and to men for his fake (his very image, and the lively refemblances of his own holy and gracious nature) to be for ever buried in the duff? Or who would not rather conclude, (as that bleffed Apoßle) that, when the World is paflirig away, and the lofts of it ; he that doth the Will of God (being thus tranformed into it) abided] for ever ? i Yohn z.. 17. And for that other purpofe, Who that beholds What was of fo great va- lue; fo -faking our World, and caught up irgo Heaven, would nor lets lové an' A Earthly'

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