Secondly, This Son was not carried from the Cradle to the Coffin, nor stripped out of its Swathing, to be wrapped in its Winding clothes: Had he dyed in infancy, before he had engaged affection, or raised expectation, the affliction had not been so pungent and cutting, as now it was. Death smote this Son in the flower and ⟨p. 4⟩Prime of his time. He was a man (saith the Evangelist) ver. 12. a young man, (as Christ calls him) ver. 14. he was now arrived *at that age which made him capable of yielding his Mother all that comfort which had been the expectation and hope of many years, and the reward and fruit of many cares and Labours: Yet then when the endearments were greatest, and her hopes highest, even in the flower of his age, he is cut off. Thus Basil bewailed the death of his Son:
Filius mihi erat adolescens, solus vitaesuccessor, solatium senectae, gloria generis, flos aequalium, fulcrum domu, saetatem gratiosissimam agebat: hic raptus periit, qui paulo ante jucundam vocem edebat, & jucundissimum spectaculum parentis oculis erat.
I once had a Son who was a young man, my only successor, the solace of my age, the glory of his kind, the prop of my family, arrived to the endearing age: then was he snatched from me by death, whose lovely voice but a little before I heard, who lately was a pleasant spectacle to his Parent.
⟨p. 5⟩Reader, if this have been thine own condition, as it hath been his that writes it; I need say no more to convince thee, that it was a sorrowful State indeed Christ met this tender Mother in.
Secondly, This Son was not carried from the Cradle to the Coffin, nor stript out of its Swathing, to be wrapt in its Winding cloaths: Had he dyed in infancy, before he had engaged affection, or raised expectation, the affliction had not been so pungent and cutting, as now it was. Death smote this Son in the flower and ⟨p. 4⟩Prime of his time. He was a man (saith the Evangelist) ver. 12. a young man, (as Christ calls him) ver. 14. he was now arrived *at that age which made him capable of yeilding his Mother all that comfort which had been the expectation and hope of many years, and the reward and fruit of many cares and Labours: Yet then when the endearments were greatest, and her hopes highest, even in the flower of his age, he is cut off. Thus Basil bewayled the death of his Son:
Filius mihi erat adolescens, solus vitaesuccessor, solatium senectae, gloria generis, flos aequalium, fulcrum domu, saetatem gratiosissimam agebat: hic raptus periit, qui paulo ante jucundam vocem edebat, & jucundissimum spectaculum parentis oculis erat.
I once had a Son who was a young man, my only successor, the solace of my age, the glory of his kind, the prop of my family, arrived to the endearing age: then was he snatcht from me by death, whose lovely voice but a little before I heard, who lately was a pleasant spectacle to his Parent.
⟨p. 5⟩Reader, if this have been thine own condition, as it hath been his that writes it; I need say no more to convince thee, that it was a sorrowful State indeed Christ met this tender Mother in.
- *In adolescentia defunctus fuit, ideo plus dolendum fuerat, quia in flore aetatis suae fuit, et cum grandi labore ac solicitudine parentum ad istam aetatem perductus. Dion. Cath. in loc.
