dyed in Light she set in Beams And that which greatly contributed to the pleasure of her Life and the calmness of her death was the quietness and stilness of her Soul using frequently upon all occasions this very passage of the Holy Prophet I waited patiently for the Lord From these words I observe First That is not below the greatest and most honourable Persons to wait on God The Grandeur of a King is no barr to his dutiful Attendance on his Maker and the Crowns of those Princes shine with the highest Lustre that are laid at the Feet of God Those that honour him he will Honour The Angels that are the Courtiers and Nobility of Heaven and in constant waiting know their distance and tho' they are of the highest rank of Creatures they remember they are Creatures still and whilst they wonder at the Glory of the Divine Majesty they know they cannot comprehend it They do not sit upon the Throne but are in postures full of Reverence employed round about it They are very humble even in their highest extasies and cover their Faces when they cry to one another Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his Glory Isa 6.3 Secondly When any affliction or trouble is upon us it is our most becoming and most Advantagious Duty to wait upon God with patience and to pray for his relief and help I. What is implied in this patient waiting II. What obligations we are under to it III. The Application First In this patient waiting there is included a most entire and free submission to the Will of God as to the nature and duration of our Trouble That it come and tarry just as long as he pleases a waiting Christian looks upon his Fathers Hand and is not with such a view frighted at the most bitter Cup He is not hurried away with violent Passions with murmuring or uneasie Thoughts The Divine Wisdom that knows when and how to deliver produces the most refreshing acquiescence he is not surious and precipitant no fluctuation of Spirit discovers it self in his Speech or Actions Isa 30.18 When the Storms are high he is still In all varieties of Providence in all the changes of his Health or Life he is peaceable within no Bitterness no Thorns no Canker in his Soul he leaves the time of his Deliverance to his all-wise Creator and waits in quiet till the time come without complaining or finding fault with the pressure of the Cross or the slow advances of his help He knows that uneasiness and displeasure at the Proceedings of the Most High is the mark of a fallen Angel and not the Character of a Saint Secondly This patient waiting upon God is attended with Faith and Hope With Faith concerning the reality of good to come and with Hope concerning the seasonable fulfilling of the Promises that he relies upon What wait I for my hope is in thee Ps 39. Hope is the lively Spring of Action infuses Life and Spirit into the feeble and the most humbled but despair cramps and freezes and enervates all the Powers of the Soul It reflects upon the Goodness and Mercy of God and makes us sink into the lowest depths with its killing weight It swells our Sorrows and turns our Sighs into Roarings and our Tears into Seas of Grief Whereas he that patiently waits knows that after the blackest Night and most Tempestuous the Sun will rise again and chear him with his reviving help he knows that Celestial Comforts are many times Neighbours to the most doleful fears and sometimes the howling Wilderness is the way to Canaan and the Waters may be troubled when the healing moment comes the face of the Pooll was not so smooth when the Charitable Angel descended as it was before but it was more useful and medicinal Never was any Season more gloomy then when our Saviour was upon the Cross never was any bordered with more glorious Events It was a dark Night when he Suffered but 't was a glorious day when he Rose again He that patiently waits remembers that the Church has been most dear to God and most fruitful in good Works when tost with Storms it has flourished most when the Devil and his Angels have endeavoured to depress it he waits for help as they that watch for the Morning they look and hope for the dawning of the Day watch the first streaks of rising light and rejoyces to see it Ps 130.6 Thirdly This patient waiting upon God is attended with earnest desires and prayers for his merciful Appearance I waited and I cryed unto the Lord O for that sweet and pleasant Hour when I shall be Saved that the time to favour me even the set time were come O that I had the Wings of a Dove that I might flee away from the windy Storm and Tempest O Lord behold my distressed Case oh send me some help for thy mercies sake remember my weakness and thy own Promise hear my groans and perform the word on which thou hast caused me to hope do not cast out my Prayer do not suffer me to Perish in my low Estate All this earnestness is submissive full of Resignation and Tranquility The Sick desire many times to dye from weariness and pain but a good Christian shews that he is ready to depart but is willing to stay till God bid him go he waits for Christ with a longing craving Eye as for a dear friend from a far Countrey he bears his absence with Patience but would be very glad to see him come Heaven is welcome to such a panting Soul as the Port to one that has been frighted and endangered by the Storms such an one when confined by trouble longs for a Release but will not break his Prison He waits till the hand that bound him shall break his Bands asunder remembring that God is as Jealous of his word when he promises favours to his Children as when he threatens punishment to his obstinate and hardned Enemies The desires of Persons in distress are most serious and importunate When Peter was like to sink how heartily and with all his force may we imagine that he cryed out Master save me Matth. 14.30 So our Saviour in the days of his Flesh used strong Cries and the Prayers of the Mariners in Jonas were as loud as the Storms these were not more blustering then those were affectionate People that are just like to be Drowned have no time to Compliment their danger swallows up all other thoughts but those that relate to their present Circumstances Fourthly This patient waiting directs the quiet Soul in such a manner to God that he uses no undue reflections upon the Instruments or more immediate occasions of trouble When he is sick he does not rail at the Physician because he does not give him ease but considers that the Wisdom of the most Wise and the Skill of the most Skilful will not avail When he is Plundered he does not inveigh against
THE HAPPINESS OF A Quiet Mind BOTH In Youth and Old Age With the way to Attain It. In a DISCOURSE occasioned by the Death of Mrs. Martha Hasselborn who died March 13th 1695 6. in the 95th year of her Age. By TIMOTHY ROGERS M.A. LONDON Printed for Iohn Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhill MDCXCVI THE Epistle Dedicatory TO Mr. Jacob Hasselborn Merchant THere is nothing Men are more apt to value themselves upon than the being descended from Great and Honourable Persons who have either had Noble Blood running in their Veins or have signalized themselves by a series of Heroical Actions for the good of their Countrey and by this means have delivered their names down to Posterity Crowned with those Garlands which the thirst of Glory made them to desire And yet many thus descended stain the Memory of their Predecessors and as far as in them lies make all their Laurels wither by Lives led according to their own humour and fancy and the contagious Examples of a depraved Age. But you have the Honour to be akin to one who was on earth related to the family of Heaven Your Good Mother after having with continued Patience sustained the troubles of her weary Pilgrimage calmly at length arrived at her dearest home where she longed to be The Remembrance of her I doubt not is a great help to you in your Christian Race such an example of goodness so unaffected and sincere whilst it is always brightly shining before your Eyes gives you both light and strength to follow her in the same happy path wherein she went The frequent thinking on the Holiness of her Life will be a great Motive to quicken you to be like her in every commendable and praise worthy thing To think of her Faith and Meekness and Patience will make you flourish in the same Vertues As young Painters encrease their skill by frequently Copying old and excellent Originals In your pious Mother you have seen living and exemplified Religion a quiet Mind not as represented in the coldness of Precepts but as warmed and animated by the blessed Spirit and Patient holding out to the Conclusion of a great Age such a Patience as is to be admired but not to be described for no Colours can be soft enough to draw this Admirable Grace St. Paul rejoyced in his beloved Timothy and expressed a very lively pleasure upon the thought of one that had very good Parents and was himself ve-very good When says he I call to remembrance the unfeigned Faith that is in thee which dwelt first in thy Grandmother Lois and thy Mother Eunice and I am perswaded in thee also wherefore I put thee in remembrance c. I hope that the pure and constant Faith that was in your Mother is passed into you not by a propagation of Blood but of Spirit not of Nature but of Grace That you and your Relations may meet her and all the blessed Saints with comfort at the Great Day live together in that place where there will be no Sin nor Pain nor Old Age but an Eternal Holiness Spring and Youth and where our present Weakness shall be swallowed up of Strength is the hearty Prayer of Your Real Friend And Servant T. Rogers Psal XL. Verse 1. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry AS of all the Ages of the Life of Man Infancy is the most Innocent and Childhood the most Vain and Youth the most Brisk and Daring so Old Age is the most clog'd with Pains and Miseries In other Stages of our Journey we are annoyed now and then with Trouble and Calamity with Sickness and decayes of Strength but this last part of our Pilgrimage this feeble part of Life is its self a Disease 'T is so weak that generally the Powers of the Soul as well as the Members of the Body have not the Liveliness and Vigor that they had in their greener Years the Evening is much more Cloudy and Tempestuous more Dark and Frightful then the Morning of their Days And yet there are found some Blessed Souls that flourish even in Winter neither the sharpness of the Weather nor the uncomfortableness of the Season hinders their being over Green Such an one was David as he was all his Life Musically given of an Harmonious Heavenly Temper in his pleasant Angelick Airs he had often mounted up to Heaven and at last with praise he took his Flight thither to change his Hymns into sweeter Hallelujahs 1 Chr. 29.10 He blessed the Lord before all the Congregation v. 20. He said to all the Congregation Now bless the Lord. V. 28. He dyed in a good old Age full of Days Riches and Honour So old Jacob when the decays of Strength and the weakness of his Age would not allow him to be long in his Devotions he improved the more easie Intervals of his Illness to breath after God Gen 49.18 I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord His Expression was short but his Faith and Patience were very great So Moses prepared his Soul for the Joyes of Heaven by tuning his Harp below he Sung before he dyed Deut. 32. And before his death he blessed the Children of Israel Ch. 33. And after this he went up to the Mount and put off his Body to be Cloathed upon with Life and Immortality Deut. 34.5 And good old Simeon who had a Promise that he should not depart till he had seen the Lords Christ He did not hide himself from the glorious sight tho' he knew that after that he must quickly dye but he came by the Spirit into the Temple and there he met with the Child Jesus that for many past years he had long'd to see And having seen the Blessed Babe he took him up in his Arms and was full of Transports saying Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation Luke 2.27 28. I might alledge the Example of Paul the Aged who was then in Chains and near his Execution by the Lyon Nero and yet after having served several Years under the Banners of Christ neither the Cruelties of his Imprisonment nor the prospect of death nor all the weight of Age that laid upon him did abate his hope in God nay his hope was ripened to assurance when he says I have fought the good fight He spoke as if he had been in Paradise as if the Crown of Glory had been already on his Head to all these I may joyn that daughter of Abraham for whom I Preach this Funeral Sermon who served God with chearful hope many years and bore all the advances of Death as well as her declining Age with admirable Calmness and Resignation and long continued Faith and Hope and dyed near an Hundred Years old dropping into the Grave like Fruit from the Tree when 't is fully Ripe She had no Clouds and Darkness in her Soul she was all calm and serene she lived in Joy and she
are absolutely pure they Rejoyce while we Mourn tho' thanks be to God we mourn in hope what we pray for they enjoy When we see these calm and patient Christians going to Heaven we say O our fathers our fathers the Horsmen of Israel and the Chariots thereof ye were our Defence and our Glory we can hardly forbear saying Oh that we were with you why have you left us behind but you were in Christ before us and are with him sooner you entered into the Vineyard sooner and so before us are rewarded we will indeavour to tread in your steps then you and we nay Jesus our dearest Jesus and we shall meet together I often think of that place Eccl. 4.1 2. because so many afflictions and miseries and judgments are the portion of the Living Blessed are they that sleep in the quiet Grave no more terrified with Dreams no more complain of restless Nights and of Months of Vanity no more do they hear the Confusions and Disorders of our World And to the quietness of our slumbers there nothing contributes more than patient waiting when we are alive How did Jacob bless his Sons before he dyed and how sweetly did he yield his Breath Gen. 49.3 O happy death to wait for God's Salvation and to see the Salvation that he waited for Salvation carries a very pleasant sound but the Salvation of a God is very great and glorious The hope of this sweetens the lives of the blessed Heirs of Heaven it pulls out the thorns of sickness and the sting of death it relieves their age it makes the Grave to lose its horrour it makes their Bed of dust very soft they live in motion and they rest in peace They exhaust their Spirits in the work of God but they never come to the dregs of Life for theirs is clear and pure to the very bottom Exhortations to those that have patiently watied on God even in Old Age. Reflect 1. How gracious he has been to you in giving you many years wherein to get Oyl and to trim your Lamps and to prepare for another World How many storms have you out-lived that made others sink Many many young People are gone to Judgment a great while ago while that Hand that crusht them has been very gentle and merciful to you You have survived the dangers and the sins and the giddiness of Youth and are now almost at our Journeys end 2. Endeavour to do good to others that have not had such experience of God as you Thus you bring forth fruit in old age and are fat and flourishing Ps 92.14 you do as it were grow young again with a vast accession to your Spiritual stature When you are full of patience and by your Example and your Words declare to others how faithful and how kind God has been to you So by teaching them knowledge you will rekindle and inflame your own Light whilst others younger then you decay you shall thrive and prosper He that planted you makes the green Tree to wither and the dry to grow You 'll not only go to Heaven fully ripe for Glory like a shock of Corn gathered in due season but there will be something for others to glean when you are gone And in the mean time Summer and Winter Youth and Old Age doe as it were meet in you the decays of one and the fruitfulness of the other In your Evening there is Light Zech. 8.4 5. Fortifie your selves with the Experiences of God goodness whenever your patience is like to tire as Polycarp said when he was urged by the Proconsul to deny Christ or to do something like it These fourscore and six Tears have I served Christ and he never did me any harm and how can I then blaspheme my Master and my Saviour Exhort others to fear and love and trust God as you have done by your Holy Awe and Reverence seek upon all occasions to Correct their Lightness and their Vanity You have served a good Master and you have had the Honour to serve him very long be not now weary of his work be not now for going out of his Vineyard when he that employed you is just coming to reward your diligence Be of good Courage The Lord is at hand O ye aged People bless the Lord your Preserver and daily sing his praise let your Winter as well as the Spring of Youth praise the Lord. How few have had that time for Heaven that you have had Oh the blessed Seasons and Days of Grace that you have had It 's a wonderful Honour to those that are old that they have so large a space wherein to do a World of Good to enlarge the Kingdom of Christ and to make their future Crown more weighty And none should grudge to labour for fourscore or an hundred Years when for so short a Duration of painful Diligence he shall have an Everlasting Recompence By living to old Age you have more Wisdom and Experience and Skill than others your Graver Years teach you to beware of several Rocks that they split upon And all these Mercies are heightned to such as arrive to an Healthful old Age not loaded with the usual Pains and Griefs and Languishing Motions of decaying Age for then the longer the Life the more the Misery Joshua 14.10 11. Thus Life does smoothly take its course without meeting with great Obstructions in the way and is not only Long but Happy too This was the peculiar Felicity of the Patriarchs before the Flood their Lives were extended to almost a thousand Years and yet we read of none of those Sad Symptoms attending them that attend us now at fourscore Psal 90.10 It 's a very comfortable thing to have neither a poor nor sickly Age neither to want Necessaries nor to be in Pain 'T is a Blessing to live to see your Posterity and a greater Joy to see them walking in the Truth Psal 128.6 but yet none can expect to be freed from the evil days mentioned Eccles 12.1 full of trembling Palsies grievous Aches lingering Pains and innumerable Evils but if you patiently wait on God and improve well your declining Years you 'll at length be satisfied with living as 't is said of Job Chap. 42.17 He died being old and full of days He rose as from a Feast not Surfeited but well pleased with the Joys and Plenty of his latter Days He was once indeed in another Frame when his Spirits were over-clouded with Melancholy and his Soul was burnt with Anguish when he had restless Pain by day and no sweet Sleep at night Chap. 7.4 then he wish'd for any sort of Death tho' Shameful and Untimely tho' Violent and Uncommon Verse 5 16. But this was more Job's Disease than his Grace 't was a most rash and hasty Wish to die in Terror and Anguish is a forlorn and doleful way of dying He eagerly thirsted for the Grave but at last he looked upon it with another Eye and went to it as a weary
Traveller goes to Bed He looked for the finishing of his Course with submissive regular Desires and Quiet Hopes So refresh'd and satisfied with living are those that are good in Age but a Sinner an hundred year old is accursed Cursed in his neglect of the Business of Life Cursed as condemned by a perpetual Desire of Longer and Longer Time he is pained with Trouble and afraid to die The Sins of his Youth have a Resurrection in his Thoughts and scare him with the sight of Death as knowing they will not only lye down with him in the Grave but rise with him thence And yet amidst such hideous Views and Apprehensions he has an unquenchable and painful Thirst after those Pleasures that are past away His Lust is fresh and lively when his Head is grey every thing about him grows old but his Sin and a long Life to such an one is but a continued Load of Guilt a daily treasuring up of Wrath against the Great Day But nothing is more Decent or more Lovely than to see a remaining Green under the Snow of Age The Beauty of an old Man is his Grace as well as his Years To be full of Days and to be full of Grace full of Faith and Hope and Joy in God is to be as beautiful as ever any was in the most blooming gayest Youth Job 5.26 Thou shalt come to thy Grave in a full Age like as a Shock of Corn cometh in his season It sheds and spoils if it stay too long if it be not gathered when 't is fully Ripe and the Season of it is as well lost as when 't is taken too green Do you that are Old take care of all the Evils proper to your advanced Age of Peevishness and Moroseness and Sourness and Covetousness and let those that are Young be Temperate and Sober and useful to the World that they may either live to be old or get to Heaven betimes Do you that are Aged improve your leisure Hours to prepare for your Change and do you that are Young listen to the Speeches and Directions of those that are near their latter end In your old Age recreate your selves with looking forward to a better State and when you do but very faintly draw your Breath yet be breathing after Heaven and your sincere Sighs and Groans shall be as acceptable as all the Motions of your swifter Youth And when your Tongues begin to faulter let your Actions speak your Patience and Submission to the Will of God And when you are even like to sink with Pains and Miseries Oh remember you are almost at home you have but a little while to run and you shall obtain a little while to fight and you shall be Crowned Watch a little longer the Sun is just setting and in a few Moments you may be allowed to go to sleep there is but a little Sand left in your Glass your Life is like a Candle burnt quite to the bottom And though the Religion of young People is very pleasant in the Eye of God their Graces send forth a sweet Perfume and when he walks in his Garden 't is agreeable to him to see the moist Flowers breath out their Morning Incense yet he loves old Disciples too and he gives them his Word and his Promise for their tottering Age to rely upon Be sure to improve the leisure of your declining Years to the best Purposes and be thankful that you are now retiring from the Noise and Hurry of the disagreeing busie World As Sir Henry Wotton said after a kind of tempestuous Life I have a great Advantage from my God that makes the Out-goings of the Morning to Praise him I daily magnifie him for his particular Mercy of an Exemption from Business a quiet Mind and a liberal Maintenance even in this part of my Life when my Age and Infirmities seem to sound a Retreat from the Pleasures of this World and invite me to Contemplation in which I have ever taken the greatest Felicity You may make use of all the Remembrances of the places where you have lived to help you in the best things As Mr. Walton tells us of the aforesaid Politician that he said upon his being in his old Age in Winchester School My being in this School and seeing the very place where I sate when I was a Boy occasioned me to remember the Thoughts of my Youth that then possessed me Sweet Thoughts indeed that promised my growing Years numerous Pleasures without mixtures of Cares and those to be enjoyed when time which therefore I thought slow paced had changed my Youth into Manhood But Age and Experience have taught me those were but empty Hopes for I have always found it true as my Saviour did foretel Sufficient to the day is the Evil thereof I have says he to Mr. Hales then of Eaton in my passage to my Grave met with most of those Joys of which a discursive Soul is capable and have not wanted those that were inferior Nevertheless I have not in this Voyage always floated on a Calm Sea but have often met with cross Winds and Storms with many Troubles of Mind and Temptations to Evil. And yet though I have been and am a Man compass'd about with Humane Frailties Almighty God has by his Grace kept me from making Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience the thought of which is now the Joy of my Heart and I most humbly praise him for it and I humbly acknowledge that it was not my self but he that hath kept me to this great Age and let him take the Glory of his Mercy And now my dear Friend continues he I now see that I draw near my Harbour of Death that Harbour that will secure me from all the future Storms and Waves of this restless World and I praise God I am willing to leave it and expect a better that World wherein dwelleth Righteousness And to him I add the Example of Mr. George Herbert that blessed Man that other David that tuned his Soul with Heavenly Thoughts and Musically lived and Musically died Mr. Walton in his Life tells us that in the time of his last Decays he did often thus express himself to Mr. Woodnot and his other Friends that attended him in his Languishing Condition I now look back upon the Pleasures of my Life past and see the Content I have taken in Beauty in Wit in Musick and pleasant Conversation are now all past by me like a Dream or as a Shadow that returns not and are all now become dead to me or I to them And I see that as my Father and Generation has done before me so I also shall now suddenly with Job make my Bed in the dark and I praise God I am prepared for it and I praise him that I am not to learn Patience now I stand in such need of it and that I have practised Mortification and endeavoured to die daily that I might not die Eternally And my Hope is
that I shall shortly leave this Valley of Tears and be free from all Fevers and Pain And which will be a more Happy Condition I shall be free from Sin and all the Temptations and Anxieties that attend it and this being past I shall dwell in the New Jerusalem dwell there with Men made perfect dwell where these Eyes shall see my Master and Saviour Jesus and with him see my Relations and my Friends But I must die or not come to that happy Place and this is my Content that I am going daily towards it and that every day that I have lived hath taken a part of my appointed time from me And that I shall live the less time for having lived thus and the day past And to another he said My dear Friend I am sorry that I have nothing to present to my merciful God but Sin and Misery but the first is pardoned and a few hours will now put a period to the latter Thirdly Do not murmur if some that began to wait upon God later than you yet have more Joys He is gracious to you still and he may do with his own what he will Though it is your Privilege to have served him long yet remember you are at the best and when you have done all but unprofitable Servants they that came in later to the Vineyard may have as much Joy as you but you have as much as you deserve He may give to his Returning Prodigals very noble Entertainment but you that are elder are not excluded from the Feast you may come and taste of the Fatted Calf and share in all the Festival Solemnities and Joys of others The Surliness of the elder Brother in the Parable discovered a great deal of Spiritual Pride made him undutiful to his Father and unkind to his Brother whom in Union to his Father's Carriage he should have welcom'd home There was in all the Behaviour towards him nothing of Injustice or Partiality he took nothing from the Elder to give the Younger he did not strip him to cloath his Brother Can you who are Aged murmur who must have Heaven at last In the mean time God is yours all that he hath is yours his Son his Word and Promises and Innumerable Blessings It should rejoyce you to think that these younger Servants of your Master may prove eminent Instruments of his Glory when you are at rest from your Labours Fourthly With humble reliance on the Grace of God endeavour to persevere in his Service to the last moments of your Lives You have done a great deal for Christ which is matter of Joy but you have done it all with his assistance which is matter of Humility 1 Cor. 15.9 10. Alas how little have you done for God of what you might have done It was a great Favour to you that you did not grow old among his Enemies but it is a Favour that obliges you to a particular Acknowledgment Oh take heed least having begun in the Spirit you end in the Flesh and degenerate to Formality and Worldliness and a vain Religion Take heed least your latter end be not worse than your beginning Paul the Aged and a Prisoner was still doing good Philem. 9. Some will say I have laboured so hard and done so much I hope I may now sit still and take mine ease You must labour till your last Sand be run you must labour from your first Morning to the conclusion of your day from your Conversion to your Death and you must strive that your last days may be your best To all such aged Servants of our Lord so Steddy so Religious and so Fruitful there is a great Reverence due from young People We must not despise those that are Old for if we live we shall be so too and then others may with justice treat us as we treated them a good old Man or Woman are never to be spoke of but with terms of Respect and not with such a slight Air and jearing Contemptuous sort of Expression that is usual with many giddy People with all imaginable deference does St. Paul speak of Andronicus and Junia who were in Christ before him Rom. 16.7 And as Solomon observes Prov. 16.31 The heary head is a Crown of Glory if it be found in the way of Righteousness that is Old Age is very honourable if it do not dishonour it self by a Course of wicked Actions The wise King intimates that a great respect is to be paid to one who has long travelled in the best way somewhat resembling that which is to be given to a Crowned Head It 's a most comely thing to see Grace ripening with the Maturity of Age and the number of Services to God and Men bearing proportion with the number of increasing Years Old Age though decrepit is honourable like the Ruins of some noble Palace there remains in the Fragments of the stately Structure some Gracefulness and Beauty something uncommon and Magnificent It may be said of Goodness of a long standing as of old Gold old painting Sculpture Statuary and Architecture the Pieces that have most Antiquity are generally most valuable their Duration does not lessen but increase their Excellence Good old Age is to the true discerners of things full of Wonder and Observation as in a Winter or a Frost Landskip may be expressed a curious deal of Art though such as are young Practitioners in Painting may perhaps be more affected with those Descriptions that represent the blooming Spring 'T is certain that Persons advanced in years and Grace have a more establish'd Love to God than younger People and we may as to this prefer their more grounded Knowledge before that of such as have been but a while tutored and disciplin'd in the School of Christ The more General Vse First IN all your Troubles to further your patient waiting upon God be sure to pray unto him for Support or for Deliverance When St. Paul had a Thorn in the Flesh a painful Disease that created as much trouble to him as a Thorn usually does in the tender Flesh He sought the Lord thrice which denotes his earnestness and his fervent Desire to have the Cross removed as to that he was not heard but he obtained sufficient Grace which was infinitely better than external Ease and Comfort Say when you are deeply distressed O Master save me or else I perish And when Troubles increase we must renew our Cries as the Mariners double their Cable of the Anchor when the Storm grows more furious and it is far from being a Sin to pray against violent and sharp Afflictions because it argues a right Knowledge of our own Weakness and that we are not able to bear a Burden that is very heavy We may lawfully desire to be freed from tedious and lingering and sharp Pain for the length of it is a very great Temptation There are two things which we may pray against 1. Reproach That like some Indian Poisons Murthers us by slow
humble and very patient in her illness she had no fretful disordered Expressions she bore her burden laid upon her by God tho' her earnest desire to see him made her now and then say O why does he tarry On her Sick Bed she kept her Eye fixed above and sent before her arrival at Heaven her longing Prayers thither begging that her Iniquity might be blotted out and wishing to be with Christ. And when her Daughter attending on her Ministred to her support with a language proper for one just in the close of Life and told her God would receive her into the Arms of his Mercy she with the composure of a Soul bordering upon Happiness answered She had laid her self as the feet of Jesus Christ and had submitted to him who was able to save to the uttermost which words she often uttered in her former and latter Years And a Night or two before she was called away she repeated part of 39th Psalm Verse 8 9 10. and such was her Faith and Hope that she was able to apply to her self those Triumphant words of that patient Job I know that my Redeemer lives and that she should see him for her self and this Redeemer she is now gone to see In his Arms we leave her till he and all that sleep in him shall come together at the last day And now my Friends from all that I have said concerning this departed Saint we may without any difficulty observe that Meekness and Patience is the ready way to long Life I do not believe this good Woman had lived so long had she not been of a calm and quiet Spirit Those that are furious and passionate and ill-natured corrode and vex themselves and with hast snap asunder the Thread of Life There are two things to be wondered at with respect to this Person First That she should live so long as being one of the weaker and feebler Sex and Secondly That her Patience should not be tired during so long an abode in this World as 95 Years but be continued to the last moment of her Life How illustrious is that Power that kept so frail a Vessel from being dash't in pieces How glorious is that Grace that enabled her to persevere in the Love of God We may further consider that Death is the Lot of all those that are the most Aged are not immortal they most at length go to their Long Home tho' many Thousands go with quicker and more hasty steps then they The Oak that is the oldest Father of the Forest that has survived many scorching Summers and many cold blasts of Winter must at length feel the decays of Age and perish as surely tho' not as soon as the little Trees the longest day will have a concluding Night Those that are an hundred years old and those that are but Twenty must both in a while lye down in a Bed of Dust Methusalem lived many long Years but he did not live for ever O let us by the thought of this be moved to lay hold on a Life that is Eternal a Life that has no mixture of Corruption and has no fears of decay and such a life the blessed live in Heaven there is no death Again Let none here fancy because they now and then hear of such an one that has attained to almost an Hundred that therefore they shall live as long and having such a prospect may spend their present days in Jollities and Mirth as believing they have an huge deal of time lying on their hands For what a surprize will it be to stumble into the Grave in Youth when they imagined they should not come thither till they were Old If you Examine the weekly Bills you 'll find few dye of Age comparatively to what dye of other Diseases more dye before thirty then live to Fourscore The youngest here have seen younger then themselves snatcht away by Death and many a Flower is withered when it just began to open The Sun with many goes down at Noon As well might every Disciple of Christ expect to live as long as St. John who was to tarry longer on Earth than most of the rest and Died at 93. Simeon the Son of Cleophas Brother of our Lord lived an 120. Length of Life is not of all other Blessings the most desirable and as one observes it was not peculiar to Grace or the Holy Line for there are reckoned of the Fathers to the Flood Eleven Generations but of the sons of Adam by Cain only Eight Generations so as the Posterity of Cain may seem the longer lived The good Men and good Women too sometime lived very long as Abraham to One hundred seventy five Isaac to One hundred and Eighty Jacob to One hundred forty seven Sarah whose years only among Women are Recorded dyed in the One hundred twenty seventh year of her Age an excellent Mother and a good Wife Luke 2.36 37. Anna is said to be of a great Age a very patient Person For when she was about Eighty four she departed not from the Temple As to you that are the Relations of this good old Disciple do not water the Grave of your Friend with useless Tears There is indeed great cause to Lament when an useful serviceable Person is taken away by sudden or untimely death 't is the falling of Fruit before Autumn come But such as have been a Blessing and a long example of Piety to the very last step of Humane Life are not so to be lamented as having most regularly finished their Course and were not cut off in the middle of their Race And yet as one says it is to be observed that the Saints of God tho' never so Old and brought never so low through the Miseries attending them when they changed this Life for a better were still buried with great Lamentation Abel-mizraim Gen. 5. was a place never to be forgot either by the Egyptians or the Canaanites and not Jacob only but Moses and Aaron and Samuel were buried by the People of Israel and great Publick Mournings made made It would be very unreasonable for you to Mourn and needless for me to desire you not to do it She prayed and longed to be with Christ and would you mourn that God has heard her Prayers and that she now is where she longed to be It would be a most unjust thing to be sorry that a Labourer is gone to rest or to bewail the death of one that is Ninety Five who was not gathered till the fullest time of Harvest and when she was duely ripe for Glory Oh be thankful that God has at length comforted this Handmaid of his that waited for his Consolations Be thankful that you so long have had the benefit of her good advice her shining example and her holy prayers Let the remembrance of her Faith and Patience and Hope and her other excellent Qualifications kindle in you the like Graces Consider the end of her Conversation with what peace she lived and with what joy she dyed Do nothing unworthy of the Children of so good a Mother tread in her steps and follow her in the practise of all praise worthy things that so she and you may comfortably meet at the last day and never never part again Amen The End ERRATA's Page 5. line 5. after that Read it is P. 13. l. 16. for Eaden R. Endor P. 1â— l. 13. after it R. is P. 19. l. 9. R. Beasts P. 26. l. 11. R. Pillow P. 36. l. 11. R. dwindling P. 41. l. 25. R. God's P. 52. l. 9. for thus R. this P. 75. l. 21. R. Amiable P. 88. l. 15. after Land R. in Storms P. 90. l. 20. R. Amiableness THE Changeableness of this World with Respect to Nations Families and particular Persons with Practical Applications thereof to the various Conditions of this Mortal Life By Timothy Rogers M.A. Price 1 s. Printed for J. Salusbury at the Rising Sun in Cornhill