rise: Xi.] A SPEECH OVER A GRAVE. 513 not wholly suitable to our christian hope, to stand byand see the grave with ,open mouth take in, and swallow down any part of a precious saint, and not bring some testimony against the devourer. And yet that our wit- ness may be in righteousness, we must first own, ac- knowledge, and accept of that good and serviceableness that is in it. " For through the death and resurrection of our dear Redeemer, death and the grave are become sweetened to ,us, and sanctified for us : So that as death is but a sleep, . the grave through his lying down in it and rising again, is become as a bed of repose to them that are in hid], and a safe and quiet hiding-place for his saints till the resur- rection. And in this respect we do for ourselves, and for this our dearly beloved in the Lord, accept of thee, O grave, and readily deliver up her body to thee ; it is a body that lath been weakened and wearied with long affliction and anguish, we freely give it into thee ; receive it, and let it have in thee aquiet restfrom all its labours ; for thus we read it written of thee, " There the wicked cease from troubling, and there. the weary be at rest ;" Job. iii. 17. " Besides, it is, O grave, a body that bath been s<eetly embalmed by a virtuous, pious, peaceable conversation, by several inward openings and out pourings of the hi- nt of life, bymuch patience and meekness in strong trials and afflictions : Receive it, and let it .enjoy in thee, what was once deeply impressed on her own heart, and in a due season written out with her own hand, a sabbath in the grave : For thus also we find it recorded of our Lord and her Lord, that he enjoyed the rest of his last sabbath in the grave. " But we know thee, O grave, to be also a devourer, and yet we can freely deliver up the body into thee. There was in it a contracted corruptibility, dishonour and weakness ; take them as thy proper prey,' they be- long to thee, and we would not withhold them from thee : Freely swallow them up for ever, that they may appear no more. " Yet know, O grave, there is in the body, considered as once united to such a soul, a divine relation to the. . Lord of life; and this thou must not, thou canst not dis- solve or destroy. But know, ,and even before thee, and.
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