Mount Pisgah, Title page – Dedication 1
MOƲNT PISGAH: OR, A PROSPECT OF HEAVEN. BEING An Expoſition on the Fourth Chapter of The Firſt Epiſtle of St. Paul to the Theſſalonians, from the 13th. verſe, to the end of the Chapter.
Divided into Three Parts.
By THO. CASE, Somtimes Student in Chriſt-Church Oxon, and Miniſter of the Goſpel.
foreign
foreign,
&c. Naz. Orat.
LONDON, Printed by Thomas Milbourn, for Dorman Newman, at the Chirurgions Arms in Little-Brittain, near the Lame-Hoſpital, 1670.
TO THE Honourable, and his much Honoured Son-in-Law, Sr. ROBERT BOOTH, Knight, Lord Chief Juſtice of the Common-Pleas in Ireland. Grace, Mercy, and Peace.
Dear Sir,
THeſe Meditations preſented to you, were firſt intended for a diverſion to your and my ſorrrow, Conceived by the death of that Excellent Child your Firſt-born, your Benjamin; but his Precious Mother's Ben-oni, for ſhe brought him forth, not with the hazard only, but with the loſs of her own Life; his Birth was her Death: from which very moment of time, You were pleaſed to concredit his Education to his tender Grand-Mother, your Pious Mother, and my Self; a Depoſitum, than which there could nothing have been more Sacred to us in the world: I am ſure we were as tender of it, as of our own Lives; yea verily our Lives were bound up in the Child's Life. …er. 31.20.He was indeed Natus deliciarum, a Delectable Child, in whom Nature and Grace ſeemed to be at a ſtrife, which ſhould excel in her workmanſhip: and as he grew in age, ſo he grew in ſweetneſs of diſpoſition, and in all Natural and Moral Endowments, of which his Age was capable: yea he out-grew his Age, and was alwayes before-hand with his Education; Imbibing inſtruction faſter then we durſt (rationally) infuſe it, for fear of hurting the tender Veſſel: So that he ſeemed to be a Man before his Childhood was expired: As many Loved him as knew him; and were in diſpute with themſelves, whether ſuch Maturity did Propheſie an Eximious Life, or an Immature Death: I muſt confeſs (whether my infirmity or no, I know not) I was often offended at the mention of the latter, as too boldly intrenching upon God's Prerogative: But ſuch (it ſeems) was the Divine Decree, ſo it proved; His work was done betimes, and ours about him afore we thought of it; and while we ſaid of him in our hearts, as once Lamech ſaid of his Son Noah, Gen. 5.29.This Child ſhall Comfort us; he ſhall live with us; God ſaid Nay, he ſhall leave you, and ſhall live with me; for before he was Eleaven years old, God ſnatch't him out of our Tuition, and removed him into an Higher Form; where he ſhould learn no more by the ſight of the eye, and hearing of the ear, which are ſubject to miſtake; but by clear and perfect Viſion; where he knows more than we could teach him; yea able to teach us what we are not capable to underſtand; while we ſee but in a glaſs darkly, he is ſeeing Face to Face. Oh could I but write what he is able to dictate concerning the Facial Viſion which I am now (with fear and trembling) but peeping into; what a rare Expoſition ſhould I publiſh to the world, upon the preſent Context before us? ſuch as Eye never Read, nor Ear ever Heard, nor can ever enter into the heart of man, until we enter into that Light where he is; where his intellectual Eye is married to the Sun of Righteouſneſs, and his naked will is ſwimming and bathing it ſelf in Rivers of pleaſures for ever. This may be indeed (what theſe papers wiſhed to be, and that is all) a perfumed Handkerchief to wipe off tears from your eyes, and fill your Soul with joy; Your loſs is his infinite gain.
It was a ſatisfaction good enough for an Ethnic, who, when one brought him the tidings of his Eldeſt Son's death, was able to reply, Scio me genuiſſe mortalem: Your Comfort may expreſs it ſelf in a higher ſtraine, Scio me genuiſſe Immortalem; for though Nature did not make him Immortal by his Generation, Grace hath made him Immortal by his Regeneration: So that all that you and I have to do, is but to breathe after that Perfection, of which (through Grace) I am humbly confident he is already poſſest: Let us ſo run that we may obtain. As for my ſelf, ſo many deaths have been ruſhing in upon me (deep calling unto deep) as have not only retarded the birth of theſe Conceptions, but threatned their burial in the ſame Womb which Conceived them, which is the juſt cauſe they have ſtuck ſo long in the Birth. But ſince it hath pleaſed the Living God to let me live to ſee the travail of my Soul, though miſerably mangled in the Birth by unskilful hands: Such as they are, Dear Son, I dedicate them to your Name, to be as an Abſolom's-Pillar, until God may raiſe up a Living-Monument in the room of that which he hath removed: And becauſe this may be too weak and obſcure, let me provoke you (Sir) to erect to your ſelf a Monument that may be worthy of you; Let your own Life be a Name to you when you are dead; a Name better than of Sons and Daughters; by filling that Honourable Station, wherein God hath fixed you, and all your other Relations, with ſuch Fruitfulneſs, Wiſdome, and Fidelity, that all that know you, may riſe up and call you bleſſed; yea, that your Name may be as a ſweet Perfume to Poſterity: Live your own Life and your Son's too.
As for me, I cannot long Survive, having ſo often received in my ſelfe the Sentence of Death; 2 Cor. 1.9. Pſal. 90.10.I have lived already one full Age of man, and am nowin the third year of my LABOƲR AND SORROW, and it is little I can do for God; I muſt Decreaſe, but may you Increaſe; yet pray for me, that I may live much in a little time; and that my ſelf and your Aged Mother may like thoſe Trees of God, Pſal. 92.14, 15. bring forth more fruit in old age, then in the beginning, to ſhew that the Lord is upright, &c.
Farewell Honoured Son, and God All-Mighty make you amends for the loane which you have lent to God, if not in the Stream, yet in the Fountain. He Bleſs you, and make you a Bleſſing: So prayeth
Your Faithful, and moſt Affectionate Father-in-Law, THOMAS CASE.