The way to excel. Meditations, awakened by the death of the Reverend Mr. Joshua…

Reader,

TELL me not, that the Peoples being Taken with Publicola's Funeral Oration in Praise of the Dead Brutus, or the Decree of the Roman Senate, That it should be Lawful to make a Funeral Oration on such as deserved well of the Common wealth, made Polydore Virgil say, Hinc mortuos Laudandi mos fluxit, quem nos hodie Servamus. The Book of Lamentations, on the Death of Josiah, is of an Elder Date; The Roll of Lamentations, on the Death of Jonathan, is of yet an Elder; And certainly, to be Imitated among the faithful People of God. Tell me not, that some Eminent Non-conformists have therefore Scrupled, the Preaching of any Funeral Sermons: that in some Reformed Churches, the Practice of them is wholly omitted; that in the Primitive Churches, they were not practiced until the Apostasy began; and that there have been Decrees of Councils against them. I readily grant, That the Custom of Praising the Dead, ha's been Scandalously Abused; but I cannot grant, That the Abuse is best Corrected, by taking away all Public Meditations, on the Funerals of Those, in whose Deaths God from Heaven speaks Great Things unto the Living. We do but wisely Fulfil our Ministry, by Watching, to suit the Words of ⟨p. 4⟩God, […] Works of His, which occur to our […], when Men of Note are taken away. Behold, According to the Laudable usage in the Churches of New England, the Meditations which have been Awakened, by the falling Asleep of an Eminent Person, who was, A Memorable Servant of those Churches! I am out of measure Astonished, when I read in an Author as old, and as great as Austin, the Wonderful Effects, which the pretended Relics of the Martyr Stephen had upon those who repaired thereunto, for the cure of Maladies. The best sort of Relics, are those which we have here preserved, & proposed; & it will be no Superstition, to hope, that a cure of Spiritual Maladies too generally prevailing, may be promoted, by Repairing unto them. And, I do not more question the Opinion of a very Learned man, concerning the Angels, whom we find mentioned in the Scriptures as doing very Humane Actions, Veros Homines fuisse, qui a Spiritu Messiae, et a Spiritibus Angelicis agebantur; et movebantur ad ea Agenda, quae ipsi non intelligebant, phantasia Eorum obsessa, et a Cogitationibus consuetis abducta: