haue at large obserued in the first diuision Matth. 25.6 The foolish Virgins supposed the Bridegroome would not come like a bat in the night there is time enough said they to repent what needs all this hast But poore fooles they were excluded Many thousands are now no doubt in hell who purposed in time to haue repented but being preuented by death are fallen into the burning lake there to be tormented for euer Therefore let vs esteem it as an imminent danger to liue in that estate wherein we would be loath that death might finde vs. Secondly bad customes are dangerous and greatly to be feared Hee that from his youth hath wickedlie in his old age shall haue sinne in his bones Iob 20.11 his bones saith Iob are full of the sinnes of his youth which shall ly downe with him in the dust Sinnes are not like diseases in the body the older the sorer but saith Saint Augustine the older the sweeter and yet the more toothsome the more troublesome The Disciples of Christ could not cast out a foule spirit that had remained in one from his childehood Mark 9.18.21 hee that hath had long possession will plead prescription a custome long retained is not quickly changed and therefore it is very dangerous not to repent before we can sin no more Thirdly we must remember that the longer we continue in sin without repentance the further wee runne from God And there is no great likelyhood that hee that hath beene running from God forty fiftie or perhaps three or foure score yeares together and with the Prodigall runneth into a farre Countrey can returne againe in the space of six dayes six howers six minutes for it may bee his sicknes vnto which time he deferreth his repentance will not be so long as the shortest of these times how then is it possible to turne in time to our God by repentance Neither is this a worke of one day or two as it is said in the book of Ezra in another case Salomon giueth a young man counsell to remember his Creator in the daies of his youth Ezra 10.13 earely to begin repentance that is in the prime and bud of his life Eccle. 12.1 while hee is fresh and gallant and not to tarry till the dead winter of age cause his buds to fade and leafe to fall or till the brawne of his strong armes fall away or till the keepers of the house the hands which defend the body tremble or til euery thing bee a burthen feeing euen then the grasse-hopper shall bee a burthen or till they wax darke the eyes that looke out at the windowes or till the grinders cease that is his teeth fall out of his head or till the doores of his lippes bee shut and iawes fallen or till the daughters of singing the eares be abased being not able any longer to heare the voice or sound of Instruments or till it bee too late to knocke Eccle. 12.3.4 when the Lords doore is made fast Mat. 25.10.12 and there shall bee no more opening And lest this young man should thinke the terme of his age which Salomon cals the euill day or time to be the most conuenient time and terme of beginning repentance in the verses following he brings the old man deafe blinde lame short-winded full of aches and diseases in his body trembling vpon his staffe his lippes and hands shaking without memorie and almost robbed of his sences as if hee should say looke my sonne is this man fit to learne or repent who cannot heare speake see goe nor remember Thus Salomon schooleth his young man Exod. 2.22.29 Further God requiring the first borne for his offering and the first fruites for his seruice doth no doubt require the prime and maiden-head of euery mans worke Leuit. 23.10 and that we should repent betimes and serue him with our first and best meanes It is for yong men to beleeve And therefore the ordinary Creede which is both for yong old saith I doe beleeue In the Leuiticall temple there was a morning offering as well as an euening sacrifice And when the Angell of the couenant stirreth the poole that is offereth saluation not he that is oldest Iohn 5.2 but he that steppes in first yong or old is healed Eph. 5.16 Colos 4.5 Some say that youth must haue a time but Christians must redeeme the whole both of youth and yeares For here God will not be satisfied with the first fruits as in the legall Priest-hood but must haue the whole crop of time offered to him in his seruice and performance of his commandements Elisha could say to his seruant is this a time to take rewards And amidst the pangs of death is that a time to thinke of amendement of life Againe let vs remember that in time of sicknesse wee thinke most vpon that which wee most feele Death doth besiege vs sinne affrighteth vs our wiues grieue vs our children with-draw vs being many waies distracted how shall we then repent and amend Being then at the weakest how can we resist Sathan who is then at the strongest Our repentance then will be late repentance and late repentance is neuer or very seldome true repentance according to this saying sera poenitentia rarò est vera sed vera poenitentia nunquam est sera late repentance is seldome true but true repentance is neuer too late Also those repentance◠that men frame to themselues at the last houre are but false conceptions that come not to bearing for in such repentance men forsake not their sinnes but their sinnes forsake them It will be too late to come to the kay when the ship is launched too late to transplant trees when they be many yeares growne too late to season flesh when it crawleth with wormes too late to mend a house when it is on fire so stands the case with him that hath liued long in sinne without repentance Such as by their prophannesse doe wilfully refuse the offer of Gods mercy and do prefere their pleasures and profits before it may runne so farre that all the meanes they can vse shall neuer obtaine mercy at the hands of God I say as there is a time in the which the Lord will wooe vs yea he sends his Ministers to intreat vs hee will chide and expostulate the matter with vs why we will not accept of his mercy O Ephraim saith the Lord what shall I doe vnto thee Hos 6.4 O Iuda what shall I doe vnto thee So there is and will be a time that after the refusing of grace and contemning of mercy offered the Lord will shut vp and bolt the gate of mercie so as he will not be entreated at our hands any more This is proued vnto vs by the Prophet Dauid in one of his Psalmes Psal 95.7.8 where he exhorts the people that they will take and accept the time the Lord offers them lest it come to passe by their
answered with thankes thou onely hast looked on me with open and true iudging eyes Saint Ambrose saith How far will ye great men stretch your couetise Will ye dwell alone vpon the earth and haue no poore man with you Why put you out your fellow by kinde and challenge to your selfe the possession common by kinde in common to all for high and lowe rich and poore the earth was made Why will ye rich change proper right herein Kinde knoweth not riches that bringeth forth all men poore for we be not got with rich cloathes and borne with gold ne with siluer naked he bringeth them into the world needy of meat and drinke and cloathing naked the earth taketh vs as she naked brought vs hither She cannot close with vs our possession in sepulcher for kinde maketh no difference betweene poore and rich in comming hither ne in going hence All in one manner he bringeth forth and in one manner he closeth in graue Who so will make difference between poore and rich abide till they haue a little while lyen in graue then open looke among dead bones Lam. 4.5 who was rich and who was poore but if it be thus that more cloathes rot with the rich then with the poore and that doth harme to them that are then liuing not profiting them that be dead And it may be that the wormes shall feede more sweetely on the rich Iob. 24.20 then on the poore But thou wilt say saith Saint August I am not such a one as he is God forbid I should be so he is base and beggerly I am high honorable and rich tell me not saith Saint August The ods of your apparell or other externall things but marke ye the qualitie of nature remember the day of your birth and the day of your death There is no difference in the one or the other both weake both miserable for all of all sorts and conditions are made of one mold and one matter of clay and earth whose foundation is in the dust which shal be destroyed before the moth It is true that as there is difference of starres though all made of the same matter and difference of mettals some gold Iob. 4.19 some siluer some lead some tinne but all made of one earth and differences of vessels some gold some siluer 2 Tim. 2.20 some wood some earth and some to honor and some to dishonor but all made of the same mould so are there differences of bodies some more excllent then other and made of purer earth but yet all subiect to corruption as the matter is whereof they are made It being the body then that dyeth and seeth corruption one must dye as well as an other For as great men haue no priuiledge from error nor protection from reproofe for their faults blameable so haue they no priuiledge from Death For all men haue one entrance into the world a like danger in life the same necessity of death respect cannot change nature nor circumstance alter substance a great man is a man a man hath a body and a soule both haue their diseases which greatnesse can neuer diminish but oftentimes augments And therefore in a bodily infirmitie of some noble personages the Phisition takes them in hand not as noble men but as men Physick they must haue although with better attendance more exquisite and costly medicines and skilfuller Doctors then the poorer sort haue Therefore doe they thinke because they liue better and are in better estate and haue better meanes to preserue life then poore men that therefore they shall liue longer and what difference concerning death betweene a noble man and a begger when both goe to one place All goe to one place saith the Preacher all are of dust Eccl. 3.20 and all turne to dust againe When in these acts and scenes of seeming life as at a game at chesse the highest now vpon board may presently be lowest vnder board And the breath in the nostrels of the rich man may as soone be stopped and they as soone turne to the dust as other men Deaths cold impartiall hands are vsed to strike princes and pesants and make both alike Therefore in this respect the case of the rich and poore great and small high and low may be resembled to the play or game at Chesse Heare this therefore all ye people giue eare all yee Inhabitants of the world both low and high Psal 49.1.2 rich and poore together For while the play indureth there is great difference in the men greater respect had to some then to others but whē the Check-mate is giuen play ended then the men are tumbled together and put vp into the bag frō whence they were taken out and the lesser men vppermost many times there being no difference And so it is in this world There is great differēce in men greater respect had to some then to others as it is meet to be but when death cōmeth as surely it will come to all sorts then there will be no such differēce in the graue neither doth Death know any such difference for hee spareth none the yong as well as the old dyeth the Lambes skinne is brought to the market as well as the olde Crones the rich as well as the poore the Prince as wel as the subiect for there is no difference in the mould from the rich Crowne of Kings to the poore beggers crutch from him that sitteth on a Throne of glory vnto him that is humbled in earth and ashes from him that weareth Purple and a Crowne Eccle. 40.3.4 vnto him that is cloathed with a linnen frocke Reu. 20.12 Saint Iohn in his vision in the booke of the Reuelation saw the dead arraigned at the barre of the great Iudge both great and small Matth. 27.33 olde and young In Golgotha are skulls of all sizes saith the Hebrew prouerbe Death attendeth youth behinde vshereth old age and walketh before it and it is hard at hand to all and to all sorts All must grinde to greete Princes are old cold and chillerie Princes as well as others must decay and weare away Againe in this respect they may be resembled to Actors of a Comedy vpon a stage wherein one acteth the part of a prince an other of a Duke another of an Earle another of a Nobleman another of a Gentleman another of a Magistrate another of a Merchant another of a Countreyman another of a seruant euery one acteth a seuerall part And so long as they are vpon the stage so long there is respect according to their parts had one of another but when the Comedy is ended and the stage pulled downe then there is no such respect had amongst them Yea many times he that plaies the basest part is the best man So likewise so long as men doe act sundry parts vpon the stage of this world that is so long as men doe liue in seuerall vocations and callings so long
latter are a separation of the whole man bodie and soule from the fellowship of God The first is an entrance to death the second and third are the accomplishment of it The first is temporarie the second and third are spirituall and eternall The first is of the body onely the second and third are of both bodie and soule The first is common to all men the second and third are proper only to the Reprobates But touching the naturall and bodily death which is the proper subiect of this Diuision it is as we haue said before the seperation of the soule from the bodie with the dissolution of the bodie vntill the resurrection as a punishment ordained of God and imposed on man for sinne though to the godly the nature of it is chaunged For when God had setled Adam in Paradise a place of pleasure giuing him such libertie as these words import Thou shalt eate freely of euery tree of the garden Gen. 2.16.17 yet left hee should presumptuously equall himselfe with his Creator he gaue him this bridle to champe on But of the tree of knowledge of good and euill thou shalt not eat for in that day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Adam had soone forgotten this saying thou shalt die and harkened vnto that lying speech of the Serpent Yee shall not die Matth. 15.14 The man gaue eare to the woman the woman to the Serpent they eate of the forbidden tree so the blind led the blind and both fell into the ditch But now when Father Adam hath tasted of that forbidden fruite O how was he bewitched He was once in the state of grace but now of disgrace hee was once the childe of God but now in danger for ought he knoweth to be the slaue of the Serpent God did once care altogether for him but now hee must care and shift for himselfe hee was warme without apparell naked without shame satisfied without labour or paine his meat was put into his mouth But now it is come out of his nostrels and is loathsome vnto him Numb 11.20 And now hee must be pinched with cold and scorched with heate Gen. 31.40 he must trauell hard and in the sweat of his browes must eate his bread Gen. 3.19 While hee kept himselfe within his compasse hee was a happie man for which he was to thank God and now being in miserie hee is accursed and vnhappie for which hee may thanke himselfe A lamentable fall a pitifull case the wrath of God ouerrunneth the whole world as a gangrene through all Adams posteritie for his disobedience his treason hath attainted all his children his whole bloud is corrupted his fall redoundeth to all of vs that came of him Alas then how shall we doe Adam is dust hated of God and ashamed of himselfe he is accursed hee is sicke with sinne hee is dead twice dead subiect to mortalitie and subiect to eternall damnation his children bee in the same case Woe therefore bee vnto vs we are so benumbed with our sinnes that wee feele not the sting of death fixed therein the impostume of sinne lieth hidden in our hearts so pleasingly to our carnall sence as that we thinke our selues whole and sound as if we presumed we should neuer die The incredulous and rebellious broode of Adam will not acknowledge their corruption and mortalitie such and so great is their selfe-love and pride of heart Adam the Father of all Nations was once a free-man a blessed man the childe of God the mercie of God imbraced him on euery side In the earth there were blessings for him ingrauen as it were in the herbes flowers and fruits yea in the heauens and in the waters he saw innumerable tokens of Gods loue towards him But alas wretch that he was when he was in honor he forgot himself he denied God his seruice yea he obeyed his Enemie and therefore became accursed and debarred of all his former blessings He became a bondman a cursed creature the seruant of sinne and Satan ashamed of his nakednesse and trembled at Gods voice So that death and the graue haue obtained the victorie for Adam and his wife are become a cursed couple yea not onely they but all their posteritie they be the roote we be the branches If the roote bee bitter the branches must bee so also they bee the Fountaine we be springs if the fountaine be filthie so must the springs be Sinne and corruption bee the riches that wee bequeath to our children Rebellion is the inheritance that we haue purchased for them Death is the wages that we haue procured vnto them such as the father is such bee the children For wee are all of the same nature and haue eaten the same sowre grape Ezec. 18.2 The fathers haue eaten sowre grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge By one man sinne entred into the world Rom. 5.12 and death by sinne and so death went ouer all men in whom all men haue sinned In sinning with Adam wee must all die with Adam and this is the onely difference betwixt him and vs that hee did it before vs and for vs. For if any of vs had beene in Adams stead we had done that which Adam did if not more to procure death And wee receiuing from Adam the infection of our flesh we receiued from him also the corruption of our flesh And this is the cheifest and most principall cause why all must die As the goodnesse of God hath lent vs life so our owne deserts haue wrought our death It is a true and a heauie sentence spoken to euery man Thou must die verified not in one in few in many but in all and vniuersall is this saying in respect of the elementarie creatures All must die A short clause of a long extent containing in it the estate of all mortall creatures whatsoeuer As there are certaine common principles which doe runne through all Arts so this is a generall rule that concernes euery man All must die The truth thereof is daily to be seene and all of vs hereafter shall proue the Lord knoweth how soone by his owne experience Therefore it is said in the second booke of Esdras Esd 2. v. 3.4.5.6.7 O Lord who bearest rule thou spakest at the beginning when thou diddest plant the earth and that thy selfe alone and commandedst the people and gauest a bodie vnto Adam without soule which was the workmanship of thine hands and diddest breath into him the breath of life and he was made liuing before thee and thou leddest him into Paradise which thy right hand had planted before the earth came forward and vnto him thou gauest commandement to loue thy way which he transgressed and immediately thou appointedst death to him and his generation of whom came Nations Tribes and Kindreds out of number And in another place of that book it is said And when Adam transgressed my Statutes Esd 2. v. 7.11.12 then was decreed
to all kinde of sinne and wickednesse but not applyed our selues at all to wisdome godlinesse vertue and true piety Democritus was wont to walke amongst the graues that he might become a right Philosopher for true philosophie saith Plato is the meditation on death and thou which art instructed in the true Christian Philosophie how canst thou behold the bones of the dead but thou must needs fall into this patheticall meditation with thy selfe Behold these legges that haue made so many iourneyes this head which is the receptacle of wisdome remembreth so many things must shortly be as this bare skull and dry bones are I will therefore betimes bid worldly vanities adieu betake my selfe to repentance and newnesse of life and spend the rest of my dayes in the seruice of my God and continuall meditation on my ende As the last day of our life leaueth vs so shall that last day the day of Christs comming finde vs. How good were it therefore before we run into desperate arrerages to cast vp our bils of accompt and the rather because we shall be warned out of our office we know not how soone Luke 16.2 Some Emperors amongst the heathen as bookes say were wont to be crowned ouer the graues and sepulchers of dead men to teach them by the certaine but vnknowne end of their short life to vse their great roomes as men that must one day be as they are whose graues they tread vpon The old Saints who liued in a continuall meditation of their short and vncertaine time were wont alwayes like wise merchants to think of their returne homeward and therfore tooke vp their treasure by bils of payment not where they were but where they would be and meant to make their long aboade that is meant to be for euer And the Philosophers who saw not beyond the clouds of humane reason wheÌ„ they perceiued how much men did decline by course of yeares wast of time were wont to say that the life of a wise man was nothing else but a continuall meditation on death the remembrance whereof made the world which wee for want of this meditation so willingly embrace vile and contemptible vnto them and auayled greatly to guide them in all godlines So a Christian mans life is or should be nothing els but a continuall meditation on death All that is within vs and without vs are so many remembrances of Death all things crye out vnto vs that we must hence Ioh. 8.23 as Christ cryed I am not of this world The apparrell which we weare vpon our backs Ioh. 17.14 the meate disgested and egested and returning to putrefaction the graues shrouding so many corpes vnder our feete time the mother of all things and the changeable state of times euen winter and sommer cold and heat seede time and haruest all doe crie vnto vs that wee shall weare away and dy and corrupt As they who were liuing are now dead and lye in the dust first we wax dry then old then cold then sicke then dead So that euery thing doth serue to put vs in minde that our bodies which wee beare about vs are mortall for even on our table we haue moments of Death for we eate not the creatures till they be dead our garments are either the skinnes or excrements of dead beasts we often follow the dead corps to the graue and often walke ouer their bodies and in Churches Church-yards especially men that doe vse to walke there shall doe well to remember that they treade vpon the dead and others shortly must tread vpon them Moreouer in great Citties wee haue almost euery day Death rung in our eares the deadly bell telleth vs that dust wee are and to dust wee must goe againe To this perhaps the old Oracle hath reference of whom the Philosopher Zeno being desirous to chuse the most honest and best rule for the direction of this life demaunded as the manner then was his opinion therein and receiued this answer That if he would frame the course of his life aright he should vse the commerce society of the dead And the Church-yards which are the howses of Christians and as it were the chambers or beds to sleepe in they are the places to which wee may resort to be put in minde of our mortalitie and future mutability But we Christians haue in stead of commerce and societie with the dead Luk. 16.29 Moses and the Prophets to put vs in minde of our death and if we will not heare them Ezeck 3.7 neither will we be perswaded though one rise from the dead to tell vs of our death Adam knew all the beasts called them by their names but his owne name he forgot Adam of earth What bad memories haue wee that forget our owne names and our selues that we are the sonnes of men corruptible and mortall Proud man I say forgets this sentence that earth is his natiue wombe when he was borne and that being dead the earth is his tombe When we looke to the earth it should put vs in minde that earth we were earth we are and earth we shall be the earth prouides for our necessity and feeds vs with her fruits neither in life nor death doth she forsake vs while we liue she suffers vs to make long furrowes on her back and when we dy her bowels are digged vp and she receiueth vs into her bosome here now a pit is digged seuen or eight foote long and so as it may serue for Alexander the great whom liuing the world could not containe And how loftie soeuer men looke death onely shewes how little their bodies are which so small a peece of earth will containe whom before nothing would content and therein the dead carkasse is content to dwell whom at his comming the wormes doe welcome and the bones of other dead men are constrained to giue place And in this house of obliuion and silence the carcasse being woond in a sheete and bound hand and foote is shut vp though it neede not to haue so great labour bestowed vpon it for it would not run away out of that prison though the hands and feete were loose And now if we doe but consider a little of the tombes of noble men and Princes whose glory and maiestie wee haue seene when they liued here on earth and doe behold the skill and sillie formes and shapes which they now haue shall wee not cry out as men amased Is this that glory that highnesse and excellencie Whether now are the degrees of their waiting seruants gone Wheâ—e are their ornaments and iewels Where is their pompe their delicacy and nicenesse All these things are vanished away like the smoake and nothing is now left but dust horror and rottennesse such is mans body now become yea though it were the body of an Emperor King or Monarch where is now that maiestie that excellencie and authoritie which it had before time when men trembled to behold it