TO write the lines of our departed Frien [...] (especially if more then ordinarily em [...] ­nent in the Church of God) is a custom no lesse Antient then approved, where [...] the Tyes of Affection are retaliated, and the Bom [...] of Love discharged; it being Gods course to lead [...] in the short passage of our earthly Pilgrimage her [...] sometimes by the ways of Discipline and Mortific [...] ­tion, sometimes by the ways of Mourning a [...] Lamentation; and also by the Examples of good a [...] bad Presidents, whereby to incite to vertue, a [...] disswade from vice; we having more need of Ex­amples, then precepts, to prevent us from the C [...] ­reers of Sin, and to lead us aright under the shado [...] of this worlds vanity.

Grace doth not cut off the affections of Natur [...] but rather Ripen them; and Relations make goo [...] men more passionate, and to speak feelingly of th [...] Death of their Friends, whose perfections shoul [...] press some Tears from our eyes, and to say with th [...] [Page] [...]ophet, Is Jonathan gone? he shall still breath in [...]y soul: Neither doth God lose his Relations [...] the Death of his Saints, Josua 1.2. John [...].11.

And surely it is much of Religion, to take notice [...] Gods choicest vessels, and such as are most dear [...]nto him, by the Egregia virtutis [...]empla veluti lu­ [...]min edito ponenda [...]t, ut omnibus [...]eluceant, &c. Example of an holy, and Re­ligious life; the which (through an impulsive power) not only gives lustre and reputation, but carries with it a most lively Feature of Di­vine Resemblance, and the Cha­racters of Divinity; yea the Pat­ [...]rns of the vertuous, we find (by some) to be cal­ [...]d the seeds of Eternity.

Neither (omitting what we find in other Histo­ [...]es) do we want a plentifull store-house of Scrip­ [...]re Presidents, the spirit of God being very large in [...]eir prayse. The Jews could not forget their good [...]enturion, Luke 7.5. and the Widdows (having [...]st wash'd their Dorcas, and laid her forth with [...]eir Tears) shewed the Coats and Garments she [...]d made them, Act. 9.29. Yea, so vigorous do we [...]de the Examples of great Personages, as that [...]ey are sometimes call'd Angels of God, and Lights [...] the people, 2 Sam. 14.17. and 21.17.

How much then doth it import to enter into [...]ose Lists, in which Gratious souls have run their [...]urse? whose lives instruct, whose Deaths teach, [...]d whose works follow them! there being no better [...]ordiall to comfort the Friends of the departed, or [...] revive their drooping Souls, then by this way [...] making them alive.

[Page 3]The Aegyptians spent much time, and cost i [...] Embalming their Friends, and building their Tombs as sondly conceiving that they were to remaine long­er in them then in their houses; and yet all thi [...] while they did but lay them with their Faces down­wards; the Imitation of their vertues being the bes [...] way to preserve, and maintaine a Familiarity wit [...] them in their Graves: The righteous (saith David) shall be had in everlasting Remembrance: Yea the E­vangelical Prophet thinks it a thing very worthy to be laid to heart, that the Esa. 57.1.Righteous perish, and n [...] man considers it.

If a good life then be the best Monument, and those Memories stand fastest, which are founded o [...] the Rock of vertue and Religion [all others decay­ing which are laid in the foundred Bottom of world­ly vanity] how sad is it to observe, that strange kind of under-valuing the memory of the Dead [so highly recorded by the spirit of God] which float [...] in the Fancies of some who are down-right Satyrist [...] against their deserved Prayse! yea, how soon (alas!) do they leave off chafing the Temples of their Friends no way considering, how good it is to begin, and end, all our Actions with the Meditation of our Dust, whereby Nature [at first] gave us beginning, and Death [at last] will put an end to all our eathly travel and misery!

And so farre are many from desiring here (with Philip of Macedon) to be minded of their Mortali­ty, and departure hence, as that rather (with that Lewes 11. [...] French Prince) they command their servants not so much as to mention Death; as [Page] [...] no care were to be taken before our earthly lodg­ [...]gs grow rotten, the foundation sinks, the Fur­ [...]ture becomes moath-eaten, and the whole struc­ture begins to fall about our Ears. Yea, how often [...]alas!] do we deferre the welfare and happiness of [...]ur Soul, untill Years approach, Physitians grow im­ [...]otent, the Evening starre of our life begins to ap­pear, our Sinews shrink, our blood congeals, the Bells tod, the winders are in our sight, Death strikes [...]t our heart, and a aying hana is only left us to be­ [...]ueath away all we have; this being but a bad [...]me, to provide for the grea [...] Birth day of Eter­ [...]ity.

The greatest work we have to finish in this world, [...] to die well, and to make a happy departure out of [...]t, whereby we leave the world before it leaves us, [...]nd give Death our hand as a wellcome Messenger, not as an affrightfull Serieant; it is good [early] to [...]e familiar with it, and to take notice of all its ap­proaches, by the dissolution of others; there being [...]omething of benefit to be reaped by our Neigh­ [...]orus departure. Not a Passing Bell, but (like Gen. 49.1. Ja­cob calling to his sons) serves to mind us, our turn may be next; nor is there a Corpse carried to be buried, and [...]aid in its last resting place, but being dead yet speaketh, yea preacheth our Funeral Ser­mon.

Besides, though we have lost the sight of our friends, yet not our Affections, (saith St. ^* Ambrose) [Page]we ought not to part with them so soon as natur [...] parts with them; or to throw away all our acquaintance with the Grave-shovell; but still to maintaine that intimacy of Affection which we find warrantable from the word of Truth; our Saviour, being pleas'd to call Lazarus his Friend, though he were in his Grave, John 11.11. And Moses wa [...] still the servant of God [though dead] Joshu [...] 1.1.

Neither can I believe, that those whose pulse o [...] Affections so soon leaves beating [under what colour or pretence so ever] as not to bestow one sigh o [...] Tear, to besprinkle the urne of their departe [...] Friends, have found the right way of committing them to the earth; though not foolishly to discharg [...] the surplusage of our Passions on our selve [...] [which would prove rather Heathenish, then Christian-like] or by an over amorous Devotion to preserve the Reliques of our departed Friends, whereby tha [...] which [at first] was but the Picture of a Friend (in time) grows to a false God.

That tears are a Tribute due to the Gen. 37.3 [...] Dead, w [...] we find in the Father of the Faithfull; and weeping Jacob would not be com­forted, but said, Surely, I will go down into the grave unto my Son mourning. Neither shall we be unfurnished of occasions for grief, from the Cradle to the Grave, while we are here in this valley of Tears.

We are here encompassed with severall sorts o [...] Tears; we have our Repenting Tears, we have our Lacrym [...] poenitentiae [...] fellow-feling Tears, but (a­bove [Page]all) our Lacryma com­ [...]ssionis, Lacry­ [...]ae Doloris. Grief Tears are those which seem most to affect: these are they which (like low grounds) still make us moist, and watery: These are they which make the Prologue of our life [...]eeping, the Act of our life weeping, and whose Epilogue still ends in weeping.

We hear one (with the widdowes sonne) crying [...]y head, my head! Another (with the Children of [...]e Prophets) moaning my belly, my belly! yonder [...]ands one (with David) lamenting my Son, my [...]ou! here another (with Elisha) crying out my [...]ather, my Father! one groaning (with Hezekiah) [...]nder the burthen of his sicknesse; another (with [...]achel) bewayling her Children and will not be [...]omforted. Yea, we finde the height of grief ex­press'd in Scripture, by one that mourneth for his on­ [...]y Son: and the spirit of God making it as it were a [...]ing impossible for a Mother to forget her Child. Esa. [...]9.15.

We read of St. Ambrose, that he lamented the Death of Ʋalentinian and Gratian, as if he had [...]ost both his Eyes; and again (speaking of his dear Brother Velut ocu­ [...]s m [...]hi de­ [...]ssos do lco, [...]t. Amb. de [...]bi. Satyr. Satyrus) he saith, Can I ever forget thee with whom I have spent out my life? any we finde the Prophet set­ting it forth, as a Curse to die unla­mented, Jer. 22.18, 19. and that passage [...]n the Prophet Zachary [that that dieth, let it die] Zach. 11.9. is held by him as a Malediction; being as much as to say, let it do no good in dying, which seems also to agree with that of the Apostle who tels [Page]us that Trees without Fruit are called twice dead; an [...] truly, its a kind of second death, if none living b [...] the better for us.

And do we not finde the Prophet as it were cal­ling back Elias out of the Clouds; so unwilling wa [...] he to let him go but still to have him in his sight [...] not like those who so soon part with their friend (laying them with their Faces downward) as i [...] [being dead] they live no longer to them; the Af­fection of the one expiring with the breath of th [...] other, and both breathing out their last toge­ther.

But what need we more? when [certainly] we have the best of Patterns for our Tears, Joh. 11.35. so as we greive not like those without hope, 1 Thess 4.13. who was known to groan and weep, but never to laugh. He inquired of all those that passed by, whether any sorrow were like his sorrow? Lam. 1 [...] Nay we find his soul exceeding sorrowfull, even to th [...] Death, Mat. 26.30.

He bids us [indeed] sometimes to rejoyce, but in what? except out reproaches. St. Paul had his Joy, but it was in his Afflictions; and the Martyrs had their Joy, but dull flesh was not the object; it was in their sufferings; this kind of joy, must be sown in Tears, and we must waite for it, till the Harvest come; untill Heaven be our dwelling, incorruption our change, the Angells our Partners, and Immortality our Garment.

Those (indeed) which do here make Earth their Heaven, & are not acquainted with the Musick which is in the groans of the Afflicted, nor what Beauty is in the Tears of the Mourners, would wonder [or at [Page 8]least wise think him Frantick, if not mistaken in his way] who should knock at a Grave-stone for a Companion; or should go down into a Vault or Char­ [...]ell house to make Merry; And yet even hence may we draw instruction of Piety, and by the Meditation of the Death of our friends [whereby God [for our correction and instruction] is pleas'd often to chastise us in our nearest Relations, and to open a Vein in the Arme for the curing of the head] pro­duce a better life to our selves.

And certainly, its a Bad Flower, out of which we cannot suck some honey, tending to the benefit and advantage of our soul; and an unskilful Gardner, which will not [this way] allow some Thorns and Thistles to hedge in the Garden of his Soul, from the wasting Creatures of sin and wickednesse; yea surely its a weak Stomack which cannot pati­ently look on a Death's Head in the midst of a Feast; and a worse App [...]tite which cannot some­times be content to feed on a Commons of Dry-Bones, with the Meditation of Mortality.

Mistake me not; I do not say we should so hang down our Heads, as that, because Earth ought not to be our Resting place, we should therefore make [...]it our Hell; Neither do I invite any [more then out of Religious observation] to seek for the living a­mong the Dead; or to go down [with me] into the vault of this departed Child (which would be no other then as the mourning we read of the feined woman, 2 Sam. 14.2.) but only to preserve their Graces, and recount the Passages of their life; that so, though we cannot still behold them, we may [Page 9]stand Remembrancers of their worth.

But not to let my Pen too farre digress, neither make too great a stay in the Porch or en­trance, before we approach the house, by shewing you how Jsaac mourned three years over his Mo­ther; Jacob, 22. years over his Son; nor (as some Rabbines would tell us) that Adam mourned 100 years for his Son Ab [...]; Neither that the Jews were wont to hire men for to lament their Dead (who cut, and pricked themselves that they mi [...] weep in ear­nest) let it be enough that there is a Time of weep­ing appointed by God. Eccles. 3.4. That there is a Bochim and Valley or Tears, where we ought some­times to life up our voices, and weep: yea, a Marah, which occasions bitternesse of Soul, and (as at pre­sent) fills our hearts, and eyes full of weeping, and lamenting: To which, after have we once given their full scope, they will grow the more easy and lighter; And happy are we, if we can so refresh our heavinesse by our Tears, as to cleanse that fountaine of Sin, which is ever and anon offering us the sad occasions of our Greif and sorrow.

But now, to write the life and Death of a Child, in an Age which affords so many Presidents of worth and larger Endowments, may (to some) seem as strange as unusual; to whom I answer that, at as est perfecta, ubi [...]virtus est perfecta; Age is perfect where vertue is perfect; and that God (who despiseth not the day of smal things but whosoever worketh Ri [...]hteousnesse is accepted with him) always judg­eth those things greatest, which are most gra [...]ious; the lesse we seem to our selves, the greater we are [Page 10]with him, and the safest Discendend a c [...]oe lum ascenditur: Cassiodorus. ascent to Heaven is by the acknowledgment of our own Nothingnesse,

Our blessed Saviour (who was the Oracle of Truth it self, and who came not to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoaking flax, Mat. 19.13.) was pleas'd to receive, and blesse those Children which were brought unto him; yea, to tell his Disciples [plain­ly] who were (or should have been) the wisest of men (in regard of the many wonders and Miracles they saw, and the constant familiarity they had with their Lord and Master) that, unlesse they became as [...]ittle Children, they should not enter into the King­dom of Heaven, Mark 10.14, 15. and were fain to to have the Pattern of a little child held forth unto them to abate height of their thoughts, and to teach them humility, and lowlinesse.

Whereby we see, that, should we look for per­fection in the best of Gods Servants [nothing be­ing here absolutely so [we should find the failings of good men, ready to produce a restraint of their their Graces; no Gold being without its dross, nor Corn without its Tares. And how happy were it for many [poor souls!] who stand so much upon the uprightnesse of their hearts and lives [being ra­ther objects of grief and pitty, their Bodies being so near their graves, and their souls no way provi­ded for Heaven] if they had but the acquaintance with Death, which this poor Child had!

Nor let the shortnesse of her Age, any way de­terre from the Imitation of her vertues, she being so richly endow'd with the Innocency of Child-hood [Page 11]and beginning so soon to live to God, to learn th [...] Scriptures of a Child, 2 Tim. 3.15. and to remem­ber her Creatour in the dayes of her Youth, Eccle [...] 12.1. yea, in the dawn and morning of her few dayes did she begin to suck in the milk of Gods wor [...] (as it were) with the milk of her Nurse; and [b [...] her early Fruits] seemed [there] so to settl [...] her Virgin Love, as that (had it pleas'd God to have afforded her longer life) she gave grea [...] hopes of proving herself very instrumental in his Church.

And that she had a love to Gods house, appeared by her often enquiry in the week dayes, when she should go to the Church; and her earnestness to go thither, as if God (who hath milk for Children as well as stronger meat for those that are of a full Age, Heb. 5.13, 14.) had inform'd her Soul, how pleasing a thing it was to him, to come early into his vine­yard; and (however she endured not the heat of the Day) hath now [no doubt] given her, her Re­ward; the vessels appointed for the service of his Temple, being not all of one Bigness, yet none unuseful.

Her fear of taking Gods name in vain, was also very observable; she was not only very cautious her self, but hath been often heard to reprove others; [...]cquainting them with the danger thereof, which was a true sign of that heavenly wisdom, whereof the fear of the Lord is the beginning.

Her desire also of Schooling arboad, of reading [Page 12]praying, and being Chatechized at home, was well [...]own to those which were about her; wherein [...] would often intreat others to help and instruct [...]er; which greatly took her off from mispending [...]at time (whereof she had little to imploy) which otherwise] might have been spent in the vanities of Childhood.

Her dutifulnesse to her Parents, was likewise to [...]e noted; how careful was she to please them? how [...]earful to offend them? how ready to obey them [...] [...]he which [as we find it an honour to the (2 Joh. 4. [...] Elect Lady, that all her Children walked in the Truth] must needs be a comfort to them, to hav [...] [...]uch an Olive-Branch about their Table.

Very watchful and fearful she was to do evil [...] [...]nd which she would not only seem to check in her­self (when through weakness or tenderness of na­ture, she was at any time made sensible of such frail [...]ies as are incident to the oversights of Child-hood) [...]ut even stand wondring at others; and (as much a may be) in her words, and Gestures] reprove tha [...] in them, which she seem'd so much to dislike i [...] [...]her self.

Neither [had God pleas'd to lengthen her life was her peaceable disp [...]sition likely to have prov'd th [...] least Jewel in the Diadem of her vertues; making [...] (as it were) her study in her health [but especiall her sicknesse,) as appear'd by her many expressions [...] those about her, to be quiet, which (wit [...] much earnestness) she often repeated, thereby seem­ing [Page 13]to invite us to that Gospel-rule of living pea [...] ­ably with all men, 1 Thes. 4.11. being a duty necessary, as wanting in the general course of o [...] lives.

When she saw any Poor, it should go hard but she would find something to supply and [...] fresh them. And when she heard of any that we sick in the Family [whether Servants or other how tender, and tending would she be (eve [...] with seariousnesse of advice, and with su [...] sweet specches of comfort, as out-went many wh [...] had spent more years in the world; saying it w [...] Gods will, we should be sick, it was for our good, a [...] that God could send sickness or death to her also, if [...] pleased so to do!

What shall I say? she was a Child [or rather a w [...] man] in whom did appear so much of perfection, an [...] a Divine Soul, as hath been seldom known at h [...] Age; yea, she was as a little world, wherein w [...] contain'd a lively Map of heavenly Graces. Nature [or rather the God of Nature] baving endow'd he (as with the Innocency of Child-hood, so) wit [...] the apparent signs of grace in her old-age, she be­ing of a composed spirit, and heavenly temper; [...] a quick wit, and active Body; modest in her ca [...] riage, solid in her behaviour; of a sweet, win­ing and affable demeanour and disposition; fa [...] miliar, and loving to all; by whom she was a [...] gain as generally beloved, and at her Death as much Lamented.

[Page] Her sicknesse was long and teadious [near twenty [...]eeks] her pain, and lingring fits were many, and [...]t sighs, and groans (at times) not a few. Yet oh! [...]ith what abundanc of patience did she overcome [...]em? Ah! with what mildnesse and chearfullnesse, [...]d she undergo, and poure our, her short and deep [...]tch't breath, which still threatned the approaching [...]f that last Enemy which Nature so much struggles [...]ith; though (to her) seeming no way Dreadful, [...] the many, long and teadious assaults that Death [...]ade upon her!

Or if [through continued wea [...]inesse, and pain] [...] might in the midst of some violent distemper [...]em to be troubled in her Imagination, sure it [...]as no way, in her memory; the which [without [...]e least disturbance in her Soul) lasted even to the [...]st h [...]ur, and wherein the goodnesse of God was ex­ [...]ress'd, since diseases (like merciless Theeves) rob [...]any of their senses on their Deaths-beds, when they [...]ve most need of them, and often fall into [...]eat outragiousnesse and blaspheaming even of God [...]mself!

Neither is long sicknesse to be looked on as a sign [...]f Gods anger (the delays of whose favours are not [...]lways a Refusal] who often differs his cure, where­ [...]y to raise from Death; and suffers his Children [...]oftentimes) to fall into lingering sicknesses, for [...]eir better Repentance, and to teach them that [...]eir Bodies are not free from Infirmities, and to [...]e end that those who are Exemplary in their [Page] lives, [the Saints of God (as we find in Scripture [...] being best at their Ends, and the living speecues [...] dying Christians usually best remembred, and mo [...] regarded] should (through his strength, and thei [...] own patience) shew something Remarkable in thei [...] sicknesse, and Death.

And though she was long going to her journeys end [...] yet seemed she no way tired, with the length thereof [the true Temper of a Christian in dy­ing] but was well contented to waite his lei­sure, whose appointed time [questionlesse] was the best for her, and whose submission to his will made her Bed seem so easy in her sick­nesse.

It was a rare thing to observe in a Child such an heavenly comportment in sicknesse, and even con­tempt of her ensueing Death! to see her, how she lay in the time of her sicknesse! with what undaun­tednesse of spirit, yet humble meeknesse! How she held her peace (I mean in any way of murmuring or impatient repining against him, whose doing it was! no distracted gesture being seen in her counte­nance, nor to be read in her complaining; not so much as letting an eye [as it were] to roll amiss, though (perchance) she had many hard encounters, and did oftentimes wrestle with many strong and violent Conflicts, so that as Death (which embitters all the comforts of this life to the wicked (God se­ [...]retly standing by her, and making her to overcome at last) was to her not only sweet but welcome; [Page 16] [...]d of whole future happinesse (though lying many [...]eeks sick, like a Princess in a ruinous house she que­ [...]onlesse) saw a glimps, through the chincks of a [...]cknesse-broken Body.

Neither could she chuse but smile upon Death [...]aving (as it were) from her very Infancy, by a [...]ontinual exercise in vertue triumphed over Sin, [...]hich only makes Death to be formidable. And [...]hough she saw Death making towards her, and of­ [...]en heard those that came to see her, to question her Recovery, by the incureablenesse of her disease; yet was she not seen to make the least change in [...]er countenance, or ever to expresse the least diffi­ [...]ence in Gods help towards her Recovery; but [...]ather, a holy readinesse by Death [yet very [...]arefull in observing all means tending to pre­ [...]rve a longer life] whereby to enjoy the presence of him she so often call'd on in her sicknesse [...] even her good God] and which (with much [...]arnestnesse of spirit) she often repeated, and ex­ [...]ected health from; as well knowing she was in the Armes of life, and should [at last] finish her [...]ourse with joy.

But before the Candle of her life was put out, the Minister coming to see her, she took him by the hand, and desired him to pray for her; which was twice powerfully done the next Sabbath Day, not without the pouring out of many sighs, and the shedding of many Tears, by those that were then present. And however God was not pleas'd [whose [Page 17]ways are pass't finding out, and often useth to ex­ercise our, patience] to give an answerable Return in regard of her Recovery (intending her for himself yet was she afterwards endow'd with unspeakabl [...] comfort and patience, even to her last Breath. I being impossible [as St. Ambrose told St. Austin [...] Mother] that a Child of so many Prayers should miscarry.

Neither could it be any thing else which made he [...] to shew so meek and quiet a deportment in tha [...] work of Dying, but her being satisfied with the heavenly Manna of her Saviours presence, and that sight of heaven, which in a more then ordinary way strengthned her towards her long Jour­ney; and where she plainly foresaw, all Tears an [...] sighs should be wiped away from her eyes, and every fit of sicknesse should have its peculiar Crown.

When her spirits began to fail, and to lose ground of their usuall quicknesse, and her speech began to fail, her inward strength [no doubt] increas­ed, while her outward decayed. Nor may we con­clude other, but that [so long as Nature was pleas­ed to fanne a little breath into her Nostrills] grea [...] was the comfort between God and her Soul, who is the best Interpreter of the heart; and who at last gently drew out her Breath, and (as it were) led her by the hand into that Mansion he had pre­pared for her; like a Tree loaden with abundance of Fruit, and having a Spirit too full of splendour to be longer obscured in a cloud of Flesh.

[Page]And after her Soul was gone a Sacrifice to Hea­ [...]n, with how chearfull and smiling a counte­ [...]ance, did she look; as if [even then] at her de­ [...]rture hence, she had had some sweet conference [...]ith her Saviour and his blessed Angels [who are [...]id to take care of little Children, Mat. 18.10.] she [...]emed no other [after her panting and long-fetch't reath] then as one that was refreshed with the [...]eep of death, yea all those that behel'd her, said [...]at she never looked fairer then in her mourning Dress and attire, Ah! how pleasingly did she [...]ok, when she lay disroabed of all her sin, and [...]rrows it brought with it? there being then neither [...]gh nor groan, neither grief nor pain to perplex her [...]uiet Soul, which was then newly fled to heaven [...]ith the white wings of her Dovelike Inno­ [...]ency.

Nor need those that came to deck her, bring any [...]lowers [which in her life time she so much delight­ [...]d, and took pleasure in] or to spend any time in [...]dorning that prety piece, in the sweetnesse of [...]hose smiling looks there appear'd such a pleasant [...]ring of Roses, and lillies, which had over-spread [...]er lipps and Cheeks; neither wanted a Garland to [...]race her at her Death, having in her life time been [...]eautified with the Flowers of a more lasting condi­ [...]ion.

Insomuch, as that when she had put off the cloths [...]f her Mortality, how did all think (or at least [...]tive to keep) her alive in their Reports (while [Page 19]others thought Death too cruel) out of that affection, which still made them to kindle new hopes of her life, at every spark of probability!

But as the fairesh, and sweetest The Text at her Funeral, Job. 14.1, 2. Flower is of a fading condition, and sub­ject to be cast down; so how soon (alas!) had this new born light attain'd its full aged Noon? Ah! behold, how soon the shadow-flying-days of her life consum­ed? how quickly the blace of her short Pilgri­mage expired? she budded, she Blossom'd, and was in her Prime (being like a Rose new­ly blown and gatherd) between the saeventh and eighth year of her Age.

But this Diamond must be set in clay, and the rarest Jewels (like earthen Vessels) at last dissolve and turn to dust. The best gold must have its trial, and the purest corn must first die before it spring. That so good a Child should die, hath matter of grief in it; but that she died so good hath some recompence of comfort with it: That she was cut off in the Bud, and First Age of her harmlesse Inno­cence, may some way seem to carry sorrow with it; but that she so much gains by her change, is only taken hence to be freed from further Miseries, hath comfort and solace in it, [Page 20]farre above our sorrow; and though in the one our losse seems to call for Tears, yet in the other her gain alloweth us the breathing of Joy; being (by Death) only taken from the shadowes and falshoods of a wretched world, to enjoy the reall Glories of Heaven; and to be enroll'd in the golden Catalogue of the Chil­dren of her Saviours Kingdom.

In the mean time, her Grave is but a Bed of Roses where her Rest will be sweet, and her Night-Cloaths, at last taken off. Though God please to turn us to ashes, he will not turn us to nothing, our ashes being only more sacred, and God (who is the keeper of our Dust, out of which he first made us) will out of them again restore us: Yea he who takes care of every hair of our head (being living,) doth the same of every grain of our ashes [being dead] we shall again meet with our old Bodies, which are but for a time placed in Gods withdrawing-Room, or laid to sleep in Lazarus Bed.

She died about the approaching of the Spring, when the Birds and Flowers (which she so much affected) seem'd to deck her Hearse, and to sing her Elegie, breathing out her pure and divine soul in that peaceable, calme, and com­fortable manner, as that she taught the standers by, no lesse vertuously how to die, then she had formerly how to live; leaving (as it were) a [Page 21]maked, and disconsolate House behind her (in respect of her affable carriage, and loving dis­position) to all that came afterwards, and found her wanting.

But though the Night of Death have over­taken her, let us not suffer her so to depart from us; but to let her always live in our Memory; she was once (indeed) more pro­perly ours, but is now a Jewel set in Christs Diadem (who hath but taken his own) yet have we her still by commemorating, imita­ting, and very highly (in love esteeming) what we saw remarkable in her life.

God is pleas'd to honour them that honour him, and to continue a good Report to a good life; God looking on her (then) with the eye of his Favour, may she still so remain in our sight; and as she was the Object of our wishes in her life, so let her now be the subject of our practice in her Death, wherein she still speaks, and is a voice to her friends and Re­lations, the Memory of our departed friends being like a Legative Ring, which no­thing but Death should pluck off from our Fingers.

And seeing, that when we droppe into our Graves, a Funeral drowns all our delights [which like Vermin run away, when the house is falling] may these (then) serve as a Ha [...]d-k [...]rcheif to wipe off the Teares, and as a Bracelet to wear [Page 22]about the Armes of all those that knew, and related to this Child; to whom she is still speak­ing, though the night of Death hath turn'd her Mid-day into Darkness.

Neither let any wonder [my soul being more then usually vaild with the Blacks of sorrow] if I strew one Flower more then ordinary on her Hearse, or if I besprinckle her urne with some Tears, and once again discend the vault, to touch the shrine of this so greatly beloved, and lamented Child, whom God (whose Almighty power is still guided by a most wise providence, and tempered with a Fatherly love) was pleas'd so shortly to call after her departed Brother.

Her Brother did I say? Ah! stay gentle Reader! and once more here let fall thy Tears; Ah! let me forbear a little, least my greifs bleed afresh, and I too dearly prize that name, by calling to remembrance that black night which ushered in so sad a day.

And should I again begin, I should but re­peat what I have written, and renew a fresh that Sorrow which may be (in part) forgot­ten, he being also the joy of his Parents, the Delight of his Friends, the hopes of his Country, [Page 23]the life of his name, and (in those afore men­tioned vertues of love, meeknesse, and sweetness of disposition and heavenly Inclination; and who (with his own) did even carry out souls away) her nearest Parallel.

There being no Division which could make them two, in vertue or Amity; being both alike, as well in Person, as carriage: Dying both a­bout the same Age, of the same s [...]cknesse; [...]ying sick the same space of time, and near the same season of the year, having both their The Text at his Funeral, Pro. 14.32. hope in Death.

And may I not say (as it was once) in the words of David, 2 Sam. 1.23. They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their Death they were not divided, now shining (no doubt) like Natures Gemeini, in the clea [...] Horison of Heaven and happinesse. And whose Tear-dew'd Hearses [being sent hence, with abundance of sighs, having pass't the various stormes of this world, and left their earthly Receptacles] lie buried both together in the vault at East-Ogwel [...]n Devon! whence (their Souls being already transmitted to those heavenly comforts they own enjoy) their Bodies expect the re-uniting of [Page 24]those Ashes, which (in the mean time) are carefully preserved by that Omnipotent hand, which first brought them together, and will a [...] last give them a blessed and happy meeting to all Eternity.