Mount Pisgah, Dedication 2
To my Worthy Son-in-Law, WILLIAM HAWES, Dr. in Phyſick; AND To Mris. ELIZABETH HAWES his Vertuous Conſort, Grace, Mercy, and Peace.
Dear Son and Daughter,
IT is not (certainly) without ſome ſpecial deſign of Providence, that theſe Meditations which were conceived upon the death of your hopeful Nephew, the only Son of your Elder Brother, Sir Robert Booth, now in Ireland; ſhould not, by reaſon of thoſe diſtempers which have ever ſince purſued me unceſſantly, as you (to your trouble) know; be able to come to the Birth until this time, when our ſorrows are doubled in the death of your precious Child Martin Hawes, your Firſt-born: Poſſibly, (as we may rationally conjecture) that we ſhould not too ſoon forget the Affliction and the Miſery, the Wormwood and the Gall; but that our Souls having them continually in remembrance, might be humbled in us, Lam. 3.19, 20.
Poſſibly; that the Children being every way alike, both in Perſon and in Diſpoſition, one and the ſame Plaiſter might give eaſe and cure to the wound; and one and the ſame Monument perpetuate their Memorial unto Poſterity.
Truly they were a pair of lovely Babes; Babes in Age, though men in knowledg and underſtanding; of whom we may (in their Capacity) ſing as David once in his Funeral Elegies of Saul and Jonathan,
They were pleaſant in their lives, in their death they were not divided.
Their lives indeed were ſhort; ſo it ſeemed good to the Divine Wiſdome, after He had ſhewed two ſuch excellent pieces in the Light for a while; timely to lay them up amongſt his Jewels, leſt they ſhould receive hurt or ſtain from a preſent evil world. But although their lives were ſhort, yet verily they were precious, ſuch, as allowing them this Abatement, that they were Children; neither Parents nor Standers-by could rationally have wiſhed they had been otherwiſe then they were. And though there were ſome diſtance of years, yet there was the greateſt parity of Perſons obſerved between them, that though they were but the Brother's and Siſter's Sons, you could not (had they been together) have diſtinguiſhed them from natural Brethren, or Tynnes (rather) of the ſame Birth.
For Elegancy of Perſon, Lovelineſs of Countenance, Solidneſs of Judgment, Acuteneſs of Wit, Tenaciouſneſs of Memory, Sweetneſs of Diſpoſition, Ʋ niverſal Innocence, and Modesty in behaviour; Obedience to Parents (Next or Remote) Submiſſion to Governours, Obſervance to Superiours, Love to Equals, Condeſcention to Inferiours, and candor to all.
And (that which deſervedly is of higher value with God) Reverend Attention to his Word Read or Preached, together with ſome ſuitable ability to give a methodical repetition of both; Studious in learning Catechiſms, of which they were able to give ſuch a rational account, as if they had been Candidates for the Ʋniverſity; as many, both of the Nobility and others in the Pariſh of Giles's in the Fields can (at this day) witneſs: Love to the beſt things, and a due reſpect to the beſt men; with a more then a Childiſh diſlike of, and adverſneſs to what they underſtood to be evil, &c.
Theſe Deſirableneſſes according to, yea and above the rate of Children, rendered them ſo like one another, as if one Soul had animated two bodies; or one and the ſame Conception had been formed up into two Patterns, though reſerved to be ſeen ſucceſſively; to the end (as it were) that the Elder might out-live himſelf in the Younger; Aut Utrum que putabis eſſe verum, aut Utrum que putabis eſſe pictum: You would have deemed them to be either the ſame Perſon, or two Pictures; one the Original, the other a Copy.
Sic oculos, ſic ille manus, ſic ora ferebat: He that had ſeen one, might have known them both.
And as they were alike in their Lives, ſo in their Death they were not divided; or if a little, in time, not at all in the manner and Circumſtances.
They both Lived with us, but died with you; they lived with the Divine, but died with the Phyſitian, to ſhew that neither Religion doth kill, nor Phyſick can keep alive.
Nevertheleſs, though they died with you, they came not to dye, any further than the hidden Decree of the Divine will had before determined.
They died alive as it were, Death gave them ſo little warning. Neither Parents or Children underſtood wherefore they came; until within a very few days, Death ſhewed his Commiſſion, and as ſoon Executed it.
They died both of them in the abſence of their Truſtees, who though one ſtep higher in the Parental line, were not (I am ſure) half a ſtep lower in Parental affection, which the Divine eye Saw, and pittied; and therefore out of Compaſſion, hiding from us what he was about to do; As he ſnatched us from the Elder, by ſending us abroad: So He ſnatched the Younger from us by ſending him Home to his Fathers Houſe: So pittying our Infirmity, who otherwiſe (poſſibly) might not have parted with them ſo willingly, nor have born their loſs ſo patiently. The loſs of two ſuch choyce Patterns of Divine workmanſhip, could not but have been an heart-breaking object to us, as it was to you, but that their conſtant abſence from you, was a preparative, whereby the terrour of death was ſomthing abated: their very abſence, ſo long before was a little death.
That which ſweetneth it to us all, is, (that God hath not left us to mourn as men without hope) that in the Context before us, The Children are not dead, but ſleep, they ſleep in Jeſus.
If any Stander-by ſhall judg (poſſibly) that my affection hath tranſported my Charity into their exceſs; my Apology is this, that I had rather be guilty of an Exceſs in Charity, than a Defect in thankfulneſs. I know we cannot expect ſuch rational accounts of Grace in Children, as may be found in Adult Saints, but that that doxologie, out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings, thou haſt ordeined ſtrength, Pſal. 8.2. doth not exclude Children, though not confine the meaning of the words ſo narrow; is the judgment of the old St. Ignatius, who from thoſe Scripture inſtances of Samuel, Joſiah, and others, denieth not but that the Spirit of God working in young ones, doth many times give out early diſcoveries of the Grace of the Covenant, when Elder Perſons foreign (Ignat. Epiſt. ad Magn.) do only carry their Gray-haires as a badg of their Ingratitude to God.
As for your dear Children, God hath not left himſelf without fu…ther witneſs in their death, of an intereſt in them; Thoſe heavenly whiſpers which the tender Aunt, laying her ear to the pale lips of her dying Nephew, as he lay upon his back, with eyes fixed Heaven-ward, when he wanted ſtrength to make his heart audible, God—Chriſt—Grace, &c.
And her own dear Childs delight in that little Book, A Guide to Heaven, a book little in bulk, but great in Excellency; which as it cauſed him to make it his Vade Mecum while he lived; his Golden Cup, out of which he drank his Mornings draught every morning in his Bed: So it cauſed him to take it with him as his Viaticum to Heaven, when he came to dye. For it was found with him when dead: Theſe I ſay are overpluſſes of Divine Grace, and witneſſes of Divine Love, to thoſe dying Babes from their Heavenly Father.
Wherefore Dear Children, let not the Conſolations of God ſeem ſmall unto you, but improve them for your own Comfort, and quickning, in the holy Education of the ſurviving Treaſures of your Blood; that if they live, you may have comfort in their Lives; or if they dye, you may have hope in their Deaths.
Be ſteadfaſt and immoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know, your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
And accept of this imperfect Monument, ſet up for your continual Inſpection, and the bleſſed Childrens Memorial: By
Your Faithful, and moſt Affectionate Father-in-Law, THOMAS CASE.