Why shouldst not thou then say with old Simeon since thou art so well affected, Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace: or with Paul, I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ? Beata mors quæ ad beatam vitam aditum aperit, ’tis a blessed houre that leads us to a blessed life; and blessed are they that dye in the Lord.

But life is sweet, and death is not so terrible in it self as the concomitants of it, a loathsome disease, pain, horrour, &c. and many times the manner of it, to be hanged, to be broken on the wheel, to be burned alive. Servetus the heretick, that suffered in Geneva, when he was brought to the stake, and saw the executioner come with fire in his hand, homo viso igne tam horrendum exclamavit, ut universum populum perterrefecerit, roared so loud, that he terrified the people. An old Stoick would have scorned this. It troubles some to be unburied, or so:

—— * non te optima mater Condet humi, patriove onerabit membra sepulchro; Alitibus linquere feris, & gurgite mersum Unda feret, piscesque impasti vulnera lambent:

Thy gentle parents shall not bury thee, Amongst thine Ancestors entomb’d to be, But feral fowle thy carcass shall devoure, Or drowned corps hungry fish maws shall scoure.

As Socrates told Crito, it concerns me not what is done with me when I am dead; Facilis jactura sepulchri: I care not so long as I feel it not; let them set mine head on the pike of Tenariffa, and my quarters in the foure parts of the world, —— pascam licet in cruce corvos, let Wolves or Bears devoure me;

—— Cœlo tegitur qui non habet urnam,

The Canopy of heaven covers him that hath no tomb. So likewise for our friends, why should their departure so much trouble us? They are better as we hope, and for what then doest thou lament, as those do whom Paul taxed in his time, 1 Thes. 4. 13. that have no hope? ’Tis fit there should be some solemnity.

Sed sepelire decet defunctum, pectore forti, Constantes, unumque diem fletui indulgentes.

Jobs friends said not a word to him the first seven daies, but let sorrow and discontent take their course, themselves sitting sad and silent by him. When Jupiter himself wept for Sarpedon, what else did the poet insinuate, but that some sorrow is good.

Quis matrem nisi mentis inops in funere nati Flere vetat? ——

who can blame a tender mother if she weep for her children? Beside as Plutarch holds, ’tis not in our power not to lament. Indolentia non cuivis contingit, it takes away mercy and pitty, not to be sad; ’tis a natural passion to weep for our friends, an irresistible passion to lament and grieve. I know not how (saith Seneca) but sometimes ’tis good to be miserable in misery: and for the most part all grief evacuates it self by teares,

—— est quædam flere voluptas, Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor:

yet after a dayes mourning or two, comfort thy self for thy heaviness, Eccles. 38. 17. Non decet defunctum ignavo questu prosequi: ’twas Germanicus advice of old, that we should not dwell too long upon our passions, to be desperately sad, immoderate grievers, to let them tyrannize, there’s indolentiæ ars, a medium to be kept:

we do not (saith Austin) forbid men to grieve, but to grieve overmuch. I forbid not a man to be angry, but I ask for what cause he is so: Not to be sad, but why is he sad? Not to fear, but wherefore is he afraid? I require a moderation as well as a just reason.

The Romans and most civil Commonwealths have set a time to such solemnities, they must not mourn after a set day, or if in a family a child be born, a daughter or son married, some state or honour be conferred, a brother be redeemed from his bands, a friend from his enemies, or the like, they must lament no more. And ’tis fit it should be so; to what end is all their funeral pomp, complaints and tears?

When Socrates was dying, his friends Apollodorus and Crito with some others, were weeping by him, which he perceiving, asked them what they meant: for that very cause he put all the women out of the room, upon which words of his they were abashed, and ceased from their tears.

Lodovicus Cortesius, a rich Lawyer of Padua (as Bernardinus Scardeonius relates) commanded by his last will, & a great mulct if otherwise to his heir, that no funeral should be kept for him, no man should lament: But as at a wedding musick and minstrels to be provided; and instead of black mourners he took order, that twelve virgins clad in green should carry him to the Church. His will and testament was accordingly performed, and he buried in S. Sophies Church.

Tully was much grieved for his daughter Tulliola’s death at first, until such time that he had confirmed his mind with some Philosophical precepts; then he began to triumph over fortune and grief, and for her reception into heaven to be much more joyed then before he was troubled for her loss. If an heathen man could so fortifie himself from Philosophy, what shall a Christian from Divinity? Why doest thou so macerate thy self? ’Tis an inevitable chance, the first statute in Magna Charta, an everlasting Act of Parliament, all must die.

Constat æternâ positumque lege est, Ut constet genitum nihil.