Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Devotion 13
16. Et properare meum clamant, è Turre propinqua, Obstreperae Campanae aliorum in funere, funus. From the bels of the church adioyning, I am daily remembred of my buriall in the funeralls of others.
16. MEDITATION.
Magius.WE hauehave a Conuenient Author, who writ a Discourse of Bells when hee was Prisoner in Turky. How would hee hauehave enlarged himselfe, if he had beene my fellow Prisoner in this sicke bed, so neere to that steeple, which neuer ceases, no more than the harmony of the spheres, but is more heard. When the Turkes tooke Constantinople, they melted the Bells into Ordnance; I hauehave heard both Bells and Ordnance, but neuer been so much affected with those, as with these Bells. I hauehave lien neere a steeple, Antwerpin which there are said to be more than thirty Bels; And neere another, where there is one so bigge,Roan. as that the Clapper is said to weigh more than six hundred pound … yet neuer so affected as here. Here the Bells can scarse solemnise the funerall of any person, but that I knew him, or knew that hee was my Neighbour: we dwelt in houses neere to one another before, but now hee is gone into that house, into which I must follow him. There is a way of correcting the Children of great persons, that other Children are corrected in their behalfe, and in their names, and this workes vponupon them, who indeed had more des…rued it. And when these Bells tell me, that now one, and now another is buried, must not I acknowledge, that they hauehave the correction due to me, and paid the debt that I owe? There is a story of a Bell in a Monastery, Roccha.which, when any of the house was sicke to death, rung alwaies voluntarily, and they knew the ineuitablenesse of the danger by that. It rung once, when no man was sick; but the next day one of the house, fell from the steeple, and died, and the Bell held the reputation of a Prophet still. If these Bells that warne to a Funerall now, were appropriated to none, may not I, by the houre of the funerall, supply? How many men that stand at an execution, if they would aske, for what dies that Man, should heare their owne faults condemned, and see themselues executed, by Atturney? We scarce heare of any man preferred, but wee thinke of our selues, that wee might very well hauehave beene that Man; Why might not I hauehave beene that Man, that is carried to his graue now? Could I …it my selfe, to stand, or sit in any Mans place, & not to lie in any mans graue? I may lacke much of the good parts of the meanest, but I l…cke nothing of the mortality of the weakest; Th…y may hauehave acquired better abilities than I, but I was borne to as many infirmities as they. To be an incumbent by lying down in a graue, to be a Doctor by teaching Morti…ication by Example, by dying, though I may hauehave seniors, others may be elder than I, yet I hauehave proceeded apace in a good Vniuersity, and gone a great way in a little time by the furtherance of a vehement feuer; and whomsoeuer these Bells bring to the ground to day, if hee and I had beene compared yesterday, perchance I should hauehave been thought likelier to come to this preferment, then, than he. God hath kept the power of death in his owne hands, lest any Man should bribe death. If man knew the gaine of death, the ease of death, he would solicite, he would prouoke death to assist him, by any …and, which he might vse. But as when men see many of their owne professions preferd, it ministers a hope that that may light vponupon them; so when these hourely Bells tell me of so many funerals of men like me, it presents, if not a desire that it may, yet a comfort whensoeuer mine shall come.
16. EXPOSTVLATION.
MY God, my God, I doe not expostulate with thee, but with them, who dare doe that: Who dare expostulate with thee, when in the voice of thy Church, thou giuest allowance, to this Ceremony of Bells at funeralls. Is it enough to refuse it, because it was in vse amongst the Gentiles? so were funeralls too. Is it because some abuses may hauehave crept in, amongst Christians? Is that enough, that their ringing hath been said to driue away euill spirits? Truly, that is so farre true, as that the euill spirit is vehemently vexed in their ringing, therefore, because that action brings the Congregation together, and vnites God and his people, to the destruction of that Kingdome, which the euill spirit vsurps. In the first institution of thy Church, in this world, in the foundation of thy Militant Church, amongst the Iewes, thou didst appoint the calling of the assembly in,Num. 10 1. to bee by Trumpet, and when they were in, then thou gauest them the sound of Bells, in the garment of thy Priest … In the Triumphant Church, Exo. 18.thou imploiest both too, but in an inuerted Order, we enter into the Triumphant Church by the sound of Bells, (for we enter when we die;) And then we receiue our further edification, or consummation, by the sound of Trumpets, at the Resurrection. The sound of thy Trumpets thou didst impart to secular a…d ciuill vses too, but the sound of Bells onelyonly to sacred; Lord let not vsus breake the Communion of Saints, in that which was intended for the aduancement of it; let not that pull vsus asunder frō one another, which was intended for the assembling of vsus, in the Militant, and associating of vsus to the Triumphant Church. But he for whose funerall these Bells ring now, was at home, at his iournies end, yesterday; why ring they now? A Man, that is a world, is all the things in the world; Hee is an Army, and when an Army marches, the Vaunt may lodge to night, where the Reare comes not till to morrow. A man extends to his Act and to his example; to that which he does, and that which he teaches; so doe those things that concerne him, so doe these bells; That which rung yesterday, was to conuay him out of the world, in his vaunt, in his soule… that which rung to day, was to bring him in his Reare, in his body, to the Church; And this continuing of ringing after his entring, is to bring him to mee in the application. Where I lie, I could heare the Psalme, and did ioine with the Congregation in it; but I could not heare the Sermon, and these latter bells are a repetition Sermon to mee. But, O my God, my God, doe I, that hauehave this feauer, need other remembrances of my Mortalitie? Is not mine owne hollow voice, voice enough to pronounce that to me? Need I looke vponupon a Deaths-head in a Ring, that hauehave one in my face? or goe for death to my Neighbours house, that hauehave him in my bosome? We cannot, wee cannot, O my God, take in too many helps for religious duties; I know I cannot hauehave any better Image of thee, than thy Sonne, nor any better Image of him, than his Gospell: yet must not I, with thanks confesse to thee, that some historicall pictures of his, hauehave sometimes put mee vponupon better Meditations than otherwise I should hauehave fallen vponupon? I know thy Church needed not to hauehave taken in from Iew or Gentile, any supplies for the exaltation of thy glory, or our deuotion; of absolute necessitie I know …hee needed not; But yet wee owe thee our thanks, that thou hast giuen her leaue to doe so, and that as in making vsus Christians, thou diddest not destroy that which wee were before, naturall men, so in the exalting of our religious deuotions no… we are Christians, thou hast beene pleased to continue to vsus those assistances which did worke vponupon the affections of naturall men before: for thou louest a good man, as thou louest a good Christian: and though Grace bee meerely from thee, yet thou doest not plant Grace but in good natures.
16. PRAYER.
O Eternall and most gracious God, who hauing consecrated our liuing bodies, to thine owne Spirit, and made vsus Temples of the holy Ghost, doest also requir… a respect to bee giuen to these Temples, euen when the Priest is gone out of them, To these bodies, when the soule is departed from them; I blesse, and glorifie thy Name, that as thou takest care in our life, of eueryevery haire of our head, so doest thou also of eueryevery graine of ashes after our death. Neither doest thou only doe good to vsus all, in life and death, but also wouldest hauehave vsus doe good to one another, as in a holy life, so in those things which accompanie our death: In that Contemplation I make account that I heare this dead brother of ours, who is now carried out to his buriall, to speake to mee, and to preach my funerall Sermon, in the voice of these Bells. In him, O God, thou hast accomplished to mee, euen the request of Diues to Abraham; Thou hast sent one from the dead to speake vntounto mee. He speakes to mee aloud from that steeple; hee whispers to mee at these Curtaines, and hee speaks thy words;Apoc. 14 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth. Let this praier therfore, O my God, be as my last gaspe, my expiring, my dying in thee; That if this bee the houre of my transmigration, I may die the death of a sinner, drowned in my sinnes, in the bloud of thy Sonne; And if I liue longer, yet I may now die the death of the righteous, die to sinne; which death is a resurrection to a new life. Thou killest and thou giuest life: which soeuer comes, it comes from thee; which way soeuer it comes, let mee come to thee.