An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the eighth, ninth and tenth chapters of…

¹First, Without order, because it hath no changes, or vicissitudes in it, there is no difference in the grave between night and day, winter and summer, hot and cold, wet and dry, between the rising and setting of the Sun: This is the order which God hath set in nature; and when the flood had put all things into a kind of confusion, God promised, That seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night should not cease, that is, there should be an everlasting order continued in the creature. The dead know none of those changes and vicissitudes; as much of the vanity, so some of the comforts of this life consist in changes; but all is alike in death.

¹First, Without order, because it hath no changes, or vicissitudes in it, there is no difference in the grave between night and day, winter and summer, hot and cold, wet and dry, between the rising and setting of the Sun: This is the order which God hath set in nature; and when the floud had put all things into a kinde of confusion, God promised, That seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night should not cease, that is, there should be an everlasting order continued in the creature. The dead know none of those changes and vicissitudes; as much of the vanity, so some of the comforts of this life consist in changes; but all is alike in death.

1. 1Hebraei ad vices diei & noctis, aestatis & hiemis &c. referunt. Expertem vicissitudinem. Jun.Hebraei ad vices diei & noctis, aestatis & hiemis &c. referūt. Expertem vicissitudinem. Jun.

Secondly, There is no order in going to the grave; men do not keep to a rule in dying, nor observe their ranks. The old go not always first, and then the young; the great before, and the mean following after. Death hath no master of the Ceremonies; but takes promiscuously, here a child, and there a man, here a rich man, and there a beggar. And as there is no order in going thither, so none when we are there: the grave mingleth the dust, and bones of one with another. We cannot distinguish the rich mans dust from the dust of the poor, nor the bones of Kings from those of the lowest subject. Though rich men are buried in more eminent places, and Kings under stately Monuments, though their Tombs differ from their inferiors, yet their bones do not. An old Philosopher was observed searching a cemetery, and prying busily among the Tombs, and being asked, what he looked for, answered, I come to see if I can find the dust of rich men, and the bones of Princes, but I cannot see which is which; the dust of the rich and of the poor, of Princes and peasants, are all alike to my eye.