The Imitation of the Saints, Title page – Approbation
'ΑΓΙΩ-ΜΙΜΕΣΙΣ. THE IMITATION Of the SAINTS. Opened in ſome Practical Meditations Upon the death of Mrs. ANNE BROWNE, late Wife of Mr. PETER BROWNE of Hammerſmith. By Thomas Caſe, M. A. ſometimes Student of Chriſt-Church, Oxon. Miniſter of the Goſpel.
Heb. 13.7.
foreign.
LONDON, Printed by A. M. 1666.
To his honoured Friend, and Son in-law, Mr. Peter Browne of Hammerſmith.
Grace, Mercy, and Peace.
SIR,
NOt to revive your ſorrow for the loſs of your precious Yoke-Fellow, but to moderate and regulate it, do theſe Meditations offer themſelves to your view: Phyſicians ſay, that if rheum be ſweetned, it cannot hurt the lungs; ſure I am, if grief be ſweetned and ſanctified, it cannot hurt the heart; foreign2 Cor. 7.10Worldly ſorrow indeed may cauſe death, but godly ſorrow tendeth to ſalvation; that your ſorrow may be ſuch, let me commend the reading of theſe Papers to you, and do you, (by holy prayer) commend them to God. Neither grief nor mirth, (ſimply in themſelves) are ſinful and hurtful, but as the Object or degree determines them.
Your Wife (I know) while ſhe lived,Ezek. 24.16. was the deſire of your eyes; ſo pleaſant an Object, that I cannot but preſume her very Picture now ſhe is dead, will be a moſt acceptable Preſent; which though not drawn by a curious Penſil, yet (I dare be bold to ſay) it is ſo like her that whoſoever knew her, will know whoſe Picture it is, at the firſt-ſight; I am ſure the Painter hath not flattered Her. It is a life-Picture (as Artiſts call them) taken from her face, and not by Copy. A life-Picture indeed; deſcribing not the outward Effigies of her face but the inward Pourtraiture of her mind, all fair and beautiful: I commend it to your ſelf, and your Friends; not to hang on your Walls, but to wear in your boſom. If the fight of it ſhould occaſion your tears, I ſhall not repent, becauſe by the ſadneſs of the Countenance the heart is made better, and ſorrow will flow in the right Channel, not the abſence of her perſon, ſo much as the want of her graces. Give me leave, by that intereſt ſhe gave me in you, to enjoyn you, both the ſerious, and the frequent review of this piece; and if you joyn prayer with your contemplation, it will make you inſenſibly to paſs into her likeneſs; for which end you will find this Inſcription engraven round about her Effigies, Whoſe faith follow.
This do, ſincerely, vigorouſly, and perſeveringly, and I dare aſſure you, your loſs will be your gain; which is and ſhall be the prayer of
Your affectionate Friend and Father in-Law, Tho. Caſe.
Reverend Sir,
'TWas extreamly obliging that you honoured me with the peruſal of your Hagiomimeſis, (the occaſion was ſad, the improvement good) where the nature and ground of the Imitation of Saints, is diſtinctly opened, and rarely Illuſtrated by an excellent example; when that digitus ferro-luteus ſaw the fatal houre approaching, he cryed out,Dan. 2.42 Sueton in v. Ner. ut ſe aliquis ad mortem capeſſendam exemplo juvaret, that ſome one would die by him, that he might learn to die by the example; and this was like him, whoſe name was vir ſanguinum, a man of blood: But that brave perſon, that great Saint your treatiſe refers to, hath by the incomparable inſtance of her gracious behaviour, taught us all, how to die, and now to live too, which is the firſt and hardeſt leſſon. Benè vixiſſe, magnum eſt; Jerome.I judge the ſame Anointing which took her up to the Galleries of Love, faſhioning her inſenſibly into ſo curious a Preſident, hath diſcloſed to you this ſecret,2 King. 13 21. of giving life by dead bones, preſerving Religion from mortality, gathering flowers from the Coffin, Embalming Examples, and finding out advantages in the ſevereſt Providences. Good Sir let me once more deſire you to publiſh your Meditations on this ſubject, and the rather, becauſe we have had the fire of the laſt day, lately repreſented to us in a dreadful figure, happily you may now at length provoke the preſent evill world to Aemulation,Surius in vit. and ſave ſome. Jerome eſpouſed the example of Hilarion. Who knows in what methods God will pleaſe to diſcover himſelf to poor ſinners? Will any ſay, (they knew not Hammer-Smith) you dipped your Pen too much in love, when you drew the fair Character of an endeared Child? Regard it not, aequo animo audienda ſunt imperitorum convitia,Sen. ep. 76. & ad honeſta vadenti contemnendus eſt iſte contemptus. The Inhabitants of the Earth are ſo much below the cloud of witneſſes,Heb. 12.1. Mopcyed. that being foreignTender eyed, they cannet ſee the glory wrap't up in it; Let the prophane ſay in ſcorn to Eliſha, go up, go up (meaning as Elias did) 'tis enough for him to inherit his Maſters ſpirit,2 King. 2.23. and to ha… the Aſcendent in Divine Grace. Some years ſince the merciful Providence of God gave me a Summers reſt in the houſe of that admirable Perſon (which I ever after found to be one of the hundred built upon the Land of Promiſe) much was I there alſo in her laſt ſickneſs,Mat. 19.29. and ſtill I obſerved Wiſdom and Holineſs, Gravity and Meekneſs,Iſocr. He. Lau. Num. 14.24. tempered in her to an unparallel'd ſweetneſs. foreign. A bleſt Pandora, a highly favoured Enthumia, In. Solin. Polyhist. c. 4.one that had the Other ſpirit, the Even ſpirit, eodem vultus tenore, etiam adverſis interpellantibus perſtitit, Pomp. Mel. 3. de orbis ſitu.as was ſaid of Socrates. The pure ſpirit came down upon her, rather tanquam Columba, then inſtar ignis; hers was that Dove-like, Agnine ſpirit; pro eloquio nutus erat, with what wonderful regard did ſhe walk? Tota pulcra, all fair, and ever fair, ſhining with holineſs when deſcended from the Mount; her Manna ſeemed to breed no Worm; Chriſt dwelt in her with a conſtant lovelineſs, and was fairer in her, then in ten thouſands! She did excel to a wonder in the eſteem of all that converſed with her. But now ſhe … fallen, ſhe is fallen, and gone down to the Chambers of the Dead. A tutto vi è rimedio. fuor che alla morte. Haſten therfore to us your Hagiomimeſis, that the fall of the righteous may be the Salvation of the world,Rom. 11.11. which is the hearts deſire, and prayer of,
Dear SIR, Your Servant in our Lord, William Woodward. Octob. 10. 1666.