of Nahomie who by death was violently rent from her husband which made her as out of a sorrowfull heart to crie out saying Ruth 1.20.21 The Almightie hath giuen me much bitternesse I went full I returne empty the Lord hath humbled me and brought me to aduersitie By which words and by many daily examples it is plaine that the parting of an husband from a wife ministreth many occasions of weeping mourning and calling vpon God If she be old then is she void of hope and the farther from helpe in her greatest neede if she be young then is she the more subiect to vtter vndoing by her choise which standeth so in generall amongst all men in the world In the meane time she is in danger by her singularity to the subtill temptations of the diuell and so to the prouocations of diuelish men together with the breaking vp of her houshold and the dispersing of her fatherlesse children All which dolefull dangers should be sufficient matter to moue her to commemorate her husbands death and by the diuine ordering of her selfe in the same to solemnize her owne If the partie dead be priuate and a wife the husband in like manner is occasioned to commemorate her death with much mourning The more godly and wise the husband is the more is his griefe with the consideration of that danger which is to come in the choise of another and in step-daming and mother-lawing his little young children and when as specially he shall endanger religious exercises in his house amongst his familie and in himselfe the decay of Gods seruice by meanes of a wife who perhaps will crosse and contrarie all The consideration of these and such like disturbances no doubt together with natural affection being powerfull in Abraham although a man highly in the fauour of God it wrought in him exceeding great passions which made him to mourne much with heartie grife Gen 23. vers 3. not able to abide the sight of his corps Here a complaint may well be raised against husbands who most carelesly and most vnconscionably do passe ouer the deceasse of their wiues and in like manner the wiues passing ouer the deceasse of their husbands sauing onely for the present time the matter seeming irkesome they burst out passionatly into some few funerall teares saying with admiratiō what is he dead or is she dead what dead alacke what dead who would haue thought it With clapping of hands and striking of thighes as if death were vnwōted they still for a few dayes speake admirably Such a man is dead the onely honest husband is dead or the onely honest wife that euer man had is dead wel this is the world there is no remedy weeping will not serue we shall all die or else dissemblingly they mourne on their backs but ioy in their hearts making an outward shew of that which is not inward Sam. 14.1 to 13. Like the woman of Tekoha who with her mourning apparell with her heauy countenance and with her lamentable cries made Dauid the King though a great wife man to beleeue that her husband her two sonnes were dead in deede as she said which was nothing so Or else most vnnaturall of whom S. Paul speaketh Rom. 1.23 who are nothing moued to mourne being in sort a people forsaken of God and branded with the marke of vnnaturall affection To yeeld no naturall affection is so much abhorring nature and so contrarie to pitie and so voyd of pietie as it is to denie the buriall of the dead so that before God it is all one kinde of prophanenesse and so much as that husband or that wife can do to condemne them that are graciously dead in the Lord to be in state of damnation and therefore not any way worthy of commemoration whom the Prophet Ezechiel reproueth after this manner Crueltie is risen vp Eze. 7.11 a rod of wickednesse none of them shall remaine nor of their riches nor any of theirs neither shall there be lamentation for them And Esay saith Esai 57.1 The righteous perisheth and no man considereth it in heart and mercifull men are taken away and no man vnderstandeth that the righteous is taken away from the euill to come If the person dead or dying be priuate and a sonne or daughter the inherent qualitie and the vnanswerable affections of parents towards their children whiles they are aliue doth sufficiently discouer their continuall mourning their griefe and their hearty sorrowes whē the children are dead And now I call to minde out of my owne tormented heart and fatherly afflicted soule my sorrow for many sonnes specially forone Parents cannot be included within this account of reproose but rather truly be reckoned amongst those who mourne too much and ouerlong being drawne thereunto as out of their vnanswerable affections deriued no man knowes whence nor how sauing that which is in respect of children begotten in mariage to which the exceeding diuine affection of God the Father in Christ Iesus hath relation and perfect reference If the person dead or dying be priuate and a father or mother What exceeding great cause haue the childrē continually to commemorate and religiously to celebrate his or her death with mourning with fasting and with calling heartily vpon God for these two speciall causes One is for their continuall care of parents tending onely for their welfare in the world the other their Christian conscience for the saluation of their soules in the world to come where parents faile in the one they exceed in the other according to the common prouerbe Happie is the child whose father goes to the diuell As if it were to say more particularly and more plainly The father and the mother are so vnsatiable in their coueting so infidell-like pinching their backes their bellies and so diuellishly oppressing the poore yea many times so atheistlike hazarding their owne liues by vnlawfull getting and so directly opposing themselues against God for to enrich their children as that indeed they make whole shipwrack of their soules The truth whereof is so cleare and the matter it selfe so probable as if there were neither many millions of godly witnesses neither the wicked liues and wastfull behauiour of their children yet their owne conscience to their own condemnation would manifestly declare it And haue not such children great cause to mourne yea alwayes to bewaile the deceasse of such parents specially because of the hellish torments and the ineuitable paines which they do endure Me thinks I heare and see the same or greater torments which God in his vpright instice doth prepare for such children not onely because of their vnnaturall and vndutifull behauior towards their parents being dead and whiles they were aliue but also for that they do so ioy and so reioyce in their goods being so gathered and so left vnto them which is indeed no other then the price of bloud and I may say more plainly the price of their
A DIVINE DISCOVERIE OF DEATH Directing all people to a triumphant resurrection and euerlasting saluation It is ordained that all men shall die HEB. 9.17 Vnum hoc gestit verit as ne ignorata damnetur LONDON Imprinted for WILLIAM IONES and RICHARD BOYLE dwelling in the Blackefriers 1612. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY VERY GOOD LORD HENRY THE EARLE OF HVNTINGTON AS amongst all ordinary accidents incidēt to the prosperity aduersity of mankind there is nothing more momentarie then mariage euen so right honorable there is nothing more answerable to the saluation condemnation of mankind then death For as by the one all men come into the world by the other all men go out of the world euen so by both all men without the merits of Iesus Christ shall go into hell fire Yet for all that there is nothing more out of the minds of men then death nor any thing lesse feared then Gods irefull iudgments which follow after As may appeare in euerie profession which is stained and polluted with heathenish impietie the like was not in the time of blindnesse and ignorance whereby it may be truly said that the last of the three reuolutions signified by seales Reu. 5.1 8.2 17.1 by trumpets by viols related to be the dishonour of God and the disturbance of the Church militant is now more fresh and more ragingly reuiued then in any of the two former reuolutions consisting of 600. yeares Your Lordship perhaps will say What is that to me how can I redresse it I know my Lord I know and in truth I must acknowledge that you are an example vnto others for the diligent hearing of Gods holy word preached and for the sincere receiuing of the Sacrament well may your Honor go on and be strengthned with the zeale of Gods glory and be recommended before the throne of Gods grace by the prayers of such as you did releeue when they were oppressed But the principall cause of this my clamor is to put you in mind of that you know to wit seeing sinne is so generall the same so horribly hainous that there is nothing else to be looked for but death and not that death onely which is the common visitation of all men but also the second death which is the perpetuall reward of the diuell and the damned And also my Lord the speciall end of my writing vnto your Honour is so much as in me lieth and as dutie binds me to make you partaker of the fruit of my poore labor with other my honourable and worshipfull friends Nothing doubting but vnder that truth and plainenesse wherein I haue so faithfully endeuoured and so heartily desired the good also of so many thousands as to whom it may come your Lordship shall sauour so much of some thing as that you will say hereafter for your labor in reading of all you are right glad and haue therby lost nothing Thus briefly and most humbly I end desiring the Maiestie of our eternall God through the mediation of Iesus Christ to beautifie and to adorne you and your honourable Lady with all spirituall graces and that you both may see like your selues according to your hearts desire your childrens children vnto the third and fourth generation From Stretton Lefield the 3. of Iuly 1612. Your Honours most humble in the Lord Edw. Vaughan TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LADY THE COVNTESSE of Leicester Douger RIght Honorable I know none amongst all the women in the world vpon my forty yeares reading neither yet truly reported by any to whō this book doth so properly appertaine to be carefully read as to your self In respect specially of Gods mercy wherin he hath made your honor admirably memorable for your exceeding wisedome and abounding graces which was plainly seene in your patient abiding of one such double deadly dayes newes cōcerning your noble son your worthy honorable husband as made al England France and Ireland more astonished thē that great inuincible Armado of Spaine valorously floting vnder saile vpon our narrow seas And there is also another famous respect of Gods mercie and the kings Maiesties fauor vpon you for that there is yet aliue a noble Earle of Essex euen out of your owne loynes who is like to repaire the ruines of his father to raise his and your honourable house farre more renowmed and lineally to leaue it so to be vpholden for euer Madame when the foundation of the Temple at Ierusalem was newly laide the sound of the people for ioy could not be discerned from the noise of the Priests Ezra 4. Leuites and Ancients for weeping euen so right Honourable your and their most louing friends in that dolefull day could not discerne whether the ioy for the Queenes maiesties safetie or the sorrow for their deceasse was the greatest Although indeed some of both sides most vnconsiderately were partiall in their ioying and other some exceeding in their sorrowing yet the maiestie of God did most diuinely and most duly traduce the one to temper the other in you who had the greatest cause of both Labor you therefore good honorable Lady so to abound in ioy for them whose soules are in heauen so to abound in sorrow for your owne sinnes that whilest you are aliue it may not be discerned in which of both you exceed And labour to abate your sorrow for the father which is dead because his heroicall honour and Christian magnanimitie is yet aliue in his sonne As for the maner of their death it maketh nothing at all to the matter of their saluation nor for the time of their dissolution as you may reade in this booke by many infallible sentences and warrantable examples of Scripture particularly after this maner First that death hath his prerogatiue and priuiledge in generall Secondly that death makes this world no world and men to trade and trauell to buy and sell vpon all vncertainties Thirdly that the decree concerning the time of death is inuiolable and vnrepealable And fourthly how variable and how sundrie wayes death seizeth vpon some with the stroke of an Angel vpon some with the stroke of iustice vpon some with the stroke of a friend and that vnwittingly and vnwillingly vpon some with the stroke of an enemie wittingly and willingly Some godly men do kill and destroy themselues but vnwittingly and vnwillingly and some vngodly men do kill and destroy themselues wittingly and willingly euen by their owne act and deed And now to conclude you know that honourable honor resteth not in the dignitie that men women haue but in the good works whereby they deserue and you know as stigmaticall brands are tokens of former felonies euen so procrastinatiō breadeth dangers Apply your selfe therefore good honourable Lady vnto the conueniency of the time for you know not when death will light on you by many yeares nor the manner of it by many hundred wayes that whensoeuer and howsoeuer it fals you may haue recourse to the
begger why then should any man mourne or murmure at the death of his dearest friends and why should he not be moued to yeld himselfe with al willingnesse contentment to die Why should any one man thinke himselfe worthy of that prerogatiue and priuiledge as not to die yea rather willingly then of constraint Iosua the Lord Generall of Israel at his death tooke this as a strong forcible argumēt to perswade with his people to liue well and that they might die willingly therefore emphatically he said Iosua 23.14 This is the way of all the world to wit Although I be a man as ye know in an extraordinary acceptation with God yet I must die so must you and so must all mankinde that liue and are yet to be borne looke not you to be exempted from this sentence but prouide accordingly A voyce said vnto Esai Crie Esai 40.6 What said he That all flesh is grasse the grace thereof as the flower of the field This holy Prophet being suggested and instigated by the Spirit of God to prepare the way of Christ in the hearts of the people he receiues as from the Lord also the manner how to moue them effectually thereunto euen by telling them that they were all subiect to death and that the most wise and most excellent amongst them was subiect to the same end The second cause mouing willingnesse to die It is drawne from a threefold exchāge that we make with the Almighty the first is the exchange that we make of our bodies 1 Cor. 15.25.54 Phili. 3.21 Esai 49.10.25.8 for this corruptible body which is subiect to manifold miseries and to fall from God we shall haue incorruptible and immortall bodies For these our bodies subiect to hunger to thirst to cold to heate to manifold diseases to sundrie passions and other such like calamities we shall haue celestiall and glorified bodies euerie way freed of all those perturbations The Lambe which is in the middest of the throne Reue. 7.15.16.17 shall gouerne his people and shall leade them vnto the liuely fountaines of waters and God shall wipe away all teares from their eyes 21.3.4 The tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himselfe shall be their God with them There shall be no more death neither sorrow neither crying neither paine Euery Christian is alwaies longing and desiring this exchange yea senselesse creatures do alway straine with a feruent desire to be vnburthened to be discharged of this life how much more euery good man As he that is in prison desires and longs to go abroad or as Hagar in her bondage so miserable is man liuing in the flesh as a liuing soule in a body subiect to death The second exchange that we make is of our goods as when we change earthly riches for heauenly momentanie and transitorie treasures for euerlasting and that which neuer fadeth To which purpose the holy Ghost saith Mat. 6.19.20 Lay not vp treasures where moath or canker corrupteth and where theeues breake through and steale but lay vp treasures for your selues in heauen As if it were to say The best things of this life are subiect to corruptiō to manifold casualties but the treasures which are in heauen are not subiect either to mutability or yet to decay And our sauiour Christ saith by way of a parable Luk. 12.15.10.22 that the abundance of worldly wealth auailes nothing for the time prefent which is but momentanie neither doth it any way minister comfort vnto the distressed soule Thus he saith take heed of couetousnesse for though a man haue abundance yet his life standeth not in his riches Saint Paul seeing and perceiuing the inordinate desire of riches which was in his time and knowing that the like would be continued he speakes by way of comparison verie disdainefully and contemptuously of worldly riches 1 Timo 6.17.18.19 and charges men to prouide for better things and to build vpon a better foundation In heauen is all kinde of plentie maturitie and satietie Iudg. 18.9.10 As the Spies said vnto the children of Dan their brethren concerning Laish Arise and let vs go vp we haue seene the land and surely it is verie good it is a place lacking nothing that is in the world be not slothfull to possesse it for God hath giuen it into your hands euen so do innumerable sentences and examples of holy Scripture say and assure vs as touching the kingdome immortall ioyes of heauē The third exchange that we make by dying willingly and well is of our societie of our companie as when we change the societie fellowship and cōpanie of men for the company and societie of Angels Heb. 12.22.23.24 Reuel 14.1 to 6. the company of whoremongers drunkards liers swearers oppressors and such like for the company of the Saints the company of children on earth for the company of children in heauen the company of husband or wife for the company of Iesus Christ himselfe As a virgine that is affianced to a man thinkes it long before the solemnization thereof so is euery one that is affianced with Christ euermore desiring his full fruition and holy fellowship The third cause mouing willingnesse to die It is the mitigations cōforts helpes that almightie God yeelds against the torments of death to such as do commemorate their mortality with prayers and intercessions vnto almightie God that they may be faithfully prepared Of which gracious qualifications of sicknesses and diminishing of deaths torments the holy Prophet Dauid speakes Psal 41.3 most plainely The Lord will strengthen him vpon his bed of sorrow thou Lord saith the Prophet hast turned all his bed in his sicknesse as if it were to say God wil enable a mercifull religious man to endure all that he will lay on him or else will diminish the qualitie or quantitie of the disease To whom also Christ Iesus saith I am the physition as if it were in effect to say I am a present discharge for the soule that is surcharged with sinne and also a present qualification of bodily griefes and naturall diseases as was manifoldly and plainely experimented by Christ vpon diuers poore people who were miserably and mortally distressed with both The second instruction Concerning the manner sort or kind of death to wit how diuersly and how many wayes death seizeth on all the generation of mankind I will distinguish into foure sorts The which for assignations sake I must call by foure names vnder the which the holy Ghost comprehends as in a close narration dispersed ouer the Bible all maners sorts and kinds of death whatsoeuer howsoeuer and wheresoeuer which are these 1. the Penall death 2. the Naturall death 3. the Vnnaturall death 4. the Politicall death These three are comprehended in that answer of Dauid the selected man of God to Abishai concerning Saul the king whom God deliuered into their