grieve excessively at the departure of our Christian friends, when we see by dying both we and they become immortal? No, sure; we will rather sing that triumph now by faith which the prophet foretells we may actually use hereafter, and says, O DEATH! which didst lay so many thousands of all ages prostrate at thy feet, thou hast struck them once, and WHERE IS THY STING? thou hast utterly lost it by using it once, and canst never hurt any more since all have put on immortality. O GRAVE! thou strict keeper of all those whom death sent prisoners to thee, where are all those captives committed to thy custody? WHERE IS that trophy of THY VICTORY, the bodies of the saints that fell into thy power? are all thy prisoners fled? not one left in thy keeping? they have all put on incorruption, and taken their leave of thee for ever. Ver. 56. It is true, death was once armed with a just power, as the executioner of God's wrath on sinful mankind, but now it is as justly disarmed, since Jesus hath satisfied for our sins, so that it hath no power at all to hurt us, for THE STING OF this scorpion', DEATH, and that which enabled it first to smite us, IS SIN, which deserved death temporal and eternal, and THE STRENGTH OF SIN, which enabled it to pull us under the feet of death, and make us captives to it, IS THE LAW of God, by the breach and transgression whereof we became sinners, and obnoxious to the punishment of death which God had annexed thereto. Ver. 57. BUT our blessed Redeemer having fulfilled the law, and submitted to the punishment of death due to us for the breaking thereof, hath now taken away both the sting of death and the strength of sin. Let us therefore with all possible joy and gratitude say, THANKS BE TO GOD, our merciful Father, who appointed his dear Son to fight this great battle, and WHO GIVETH Us" poor mortal creatures THE VICTORY Over this mighty foe, which we could never have obtained but 5 Ἐπινίκιον βοᾶ καὶ ἀλαλάζει οἱονεὶ κειμένῳ τῷ Θανάτῳ ἐπεμβαίνων καὶ καταπατῶν αὐτόν. Theoph. Ex persona justorum loquitur insultantium morti. Hieron. t ι Ωσπερ γὰρ ὁ σκόρπιος αὐτὸς μέν ἐστι ζωόφιόν τι μικρὸν, ἐν δὲ τῷ κέντρῳ ἰσχὺν ἔχει· οὕτω καὶ ὁ θάνατ τος διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἴσχυεν, ἄλλως dvevéрynros. Theophylac. - Τοῦ μὲν κυρίου Ἰησοῦ ὁ ἀγὼν ἡμῖν δὲ τὸ νίκος δέδοται. Theophyl. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, who by his precious death and burial hath so absolutely conquered death and the grave, that they cannot hold us under their power, but we shall certainly be raised up again to live with him in all felicity for ever and ever. Ver. 58. To apply all this to practice, THEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, considering the shortness of this life, the certainty of a resurrection, and the glorious estate all holy persons shall then be in, do not doubt nor dispute any more about this article; but BE YE STEADFAST in the faith and hope thereof; let not the arguings of deceivers shake you, but be ye fixed and UNMOVEABLE in this fundamental truth, and declare your firm belief thereof by your great piety, ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN those duties of charity and all kind of virtue, which is THE WORK required OF THE LORD from you, and that to which he hath promised so great and so sure a rewardy. Both God and man may expect more instances of holiness and obedience, piety and charity from you than others, FORASMUCH AS YE Christians, who have been so fully instructed in and assured of this blessed resurrection, KNOW certainly THAT YOUR LABOUR in these excellent duties IS NOT IN VAIN, but will richly be rewarded IN and by THE LORD Jesus, when he shall raise you from your graves, and glorifying your bodies shall forgive your sins, and receive you into the infinite, endless, and unspeakable joys of his heavenly kingdom, where, for the short pains you have taken in his service, you shall enjoy a never-ceasing happiness with him and all his saints and angels. Amen. * Ρίζα τῆς ἀγαθοεργίας τῆς ἀνασráσews èλnis. Cyril. Catech. 18. y Nullum opus certum est mercedis incertæ, nullus timor justus est periculi dubii. Tertull. de Res. cap. 21. 189 PARTITION III. OF THE DEVOTIONS USED AT THE GRAVE. SECTION I. OF THE PREPARATORY MEDITATION. §. I. HAVING acknowledged our deceased friend to have lived and died in the peace of the church and the communion of saints, by bringing his body into the place where his brethren worship God, we now proceed to the grave, which is by the Jews called domus seculi, "the long habitation," and by the Christians, the bed of rest; and while the corpse is prepared for this place, and put into it, instead of those vain and ridiculous blessings of the grave, sprinkling it with holy water, perfuming it with incense, &c., prescribed by the Roman office, our church hath drawn up a most pious meditation for the blessing and sanctifying our own souls, and the helping to apply this example to our spiritual advantage. When the body is stripped of all but its grave attire, it is wont to make the deepest impression on us, and to strike us with the most seri a Manual. Sarisbur. fol. 115. a. ous apprehensions of our mortality; which happy season the church is unwilling to lose, and therefore, while we are thus affected, presents us with this agreeable piece of devotion, consisting of three parts: first, a meditation of the shortness, misery, and uncertainty of human life; secondly, an acknowledgment, 1. of our dependence upon God; 2. of our disobedience unto him: thirdly, a prayer, 1. for deliverance from eternal death; 2dly, for support under temporal: of which we will now discourse. §. II. Job xiv. 1, 2. MAN THAT IS BORN OF A WOMAN HATH BUT A SHORT TIME TO LIVE, AND IS FULL OF MISERY. HE COMETH UP, AND IS CUT DOWN, LIKE A FLOWER; HE FLEETH AS IT WERE A SHADOW, AND NEVER CONTINUETH IN ONE STAY] These verses were used of old as the fifth lesson in the vigils for the dead, by the order of the Roman church. But we choose rather to use them here, because the spectacle of mortality now before us is a real commentary on them; being dead, he yet seemeth to speak these words to us, Heb. x. 14; the lifeless corpse being a lively monitor to all the by-standers of the frailty and misery, the brevity and uncertainty of human life. And first, let us look back to our original: we were born of a woman, who was liable to death herself, and can produce none but mortal creatures, which is the reason given by Plutarch, why things used at funerals were sold in Venus' temple, viz. to intimate that what had a corruptible 190 beginning, must have an end. And one of the ароcryphal Gospels relates, that when Salome asked Jesus how long death should prevail? he answered, So long as women brought forth children. When we reflect b Manual. Sarisbur. fol. 94. b. • Πάντες γὰρ φθαρτοὶ ἐκ φθαρτῶν ywóμevo. Olympiodor. in loc. ὁ Ὑπόμνησίς ἐστι τοῦ φθαρτον eivaɩ Tò YevŋTóv. Plutar. quæst. 3. e Apud Clemen. Alex. Strom. upon the birth of this person, alas, it is but a little while since he came forth of his mother's womb; and now he is returning into the womb of our common mother, the earth. How short a space is it since all rejoiced at his birth! and perhaps many of those that now stand weeping at his grave look back to his first entrance, and count from the womb to the tomb, and it is all but a little point; if he did live, or had lived to his full term, his life were but short at longest, so that Job passeth from the birth to the death without any pause at all. Our time therefore is short, but if it were comfortable, that would make some amends; whereas now the holy man adds, and full of misery. Few and evil, saith Jacob, have my days beens. This little space hath many and great troubles in ith, miseries of the body, miseries of the mind, miseries when he sleeps, miseries when he awakes, miseries which way soever he turns, saith St. Bernard. And elsewhere he thus paraphraseth this place, "Man that is born of a woman, and therefore with guilt, hath but a short time to live, therefore in fear, and is full of misery, therefore in grief," de Consid. lib. 2. cap. 9. We wept when we first entered into this scene of sorrow, as if we had foreseen the evils we were to meet withi: so that a great divine thought he had reason to write in his calendar against the day of his birth, dies calamitatis. If our life be lengthened, it grows wearisome, and we gain nothing thereby but this, that we see, we suffer, and f In ipso statim introitu de exitu terribiliter admonetur, cum dicitur, brevi vivens, &c. S. Bernar. de Pass. Dom. p.141. g Gen. xlvii. 9. Ac ne spatiolum illud quod inter ingressum et egressum sibi liberum putet, repletur, ait, multis miseriis, &c. Bern. ut supr. Nascitur et statim plorat futuræ calamitatis propheta. Aug. hom. 10. k Melch. Adam vita Geileri, p. 10. |