cannot thy name fly over this Caucasus nor swim over this Ganges Thou seest how small a thing the earth is and that sea pointing to the Atlantick which ye call the great sea and the main ocean which though it have so great a name thou seest how small a thing it is This was but a Philosophers dream yet 'c is pleasant to consider how far those men went Let us that are Christians seriously consider the excellency of heaven and vanity of earthly things let us mount aloft upon the wings of divine contemplation and our mindes being there all things here below will be as nothing to us Seek those things saith the Apostle that are above or on high What where the Orbs and Planets are No higher then so Col. 3.2 where Angels and Arch-angels are No higher yet where Christ sits on the right hand of God Oh if the soul of any here present were with Paul rapt up into the third heavens to be there but one hour to see what he saw how would he be ready to trample these things under his feet as vile and despicable he would count them trash in comparison of Jesus Christ as dung to that pearl It may be said all this is but matter of speculation therefore in the second place Give thy self to the practise of mortification desire to have all things mortified unto thee then thou wilt not care so much for them Offer what yee will to a dead man he regards it not So let us labour to get our affections whether covetous or pleasurable mortified and we shall not care for these things Mortifie therefore your members which are upon earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousnesse Col. 3.5 Indeed this mortification of all evil affections is a hard work for as it is with men that have strong bodies and suffer violent deaths you see what a lamentable conflict there is what strugling between life and death and when you think the man quite dead a good while after he gives a great sigh or groan nature then gathering all her strength to withstand death flying as it were in the very face of death either to vanquish or to be overcome Even thus it is if we go about to take away the life of our dearest lusts they will gather all the forces they can either make of themselves or the devil and the world can supply them withall to stand before them and defend them that we may not come at them but if for all that we break through and smite them so that we give them their deaths-wound yet they will gather strength again and rise up to hurt us and do us a mischief afterwards Oh 't is hard 't is hard and many a Christian is forced even with tears in his eyes to cry out to heaven for help when he is at this work yet this yee see is that we are * Gal. 5.24 Rom. 6.6.8.13 calld to that which every regenerate man and woman sets himself to and he who hath in good earnest set himself to it and endeavoured the mortifying of his sins will not be afraid of death but rather see great cause why he should desire it whatsoever pains it brings he is provided for it and may say thus Oh death I regard not any sting thou canst sting my body withall for sin thy worst sting wherewith thou wouldest sting my soul to death is in some measure mortified and subdued by the power of Gods Spirit that conflict thou art now about to bring upon my body will be but short to that I have endured in my soul these so many years Oh welcome death come do thine office I have been endeavouring a long time the death of my sins and something through the power and mercy of God I have done though not so much as I would come lend me thy hand to finish this work I have oft smote my sins thinking to lay them in the dust yet they have risen again one stroke now of thy hand will cause them to dye that they shall never rise up any more Thirdly let us think oft and consider what our condition is while we are here subject to sin and misery do what we can we cannot so mortifie sin that it shall not be in us Non hîc sumus sine peccato fed exibimus sine peccato Aug. its true the old man hath received his deaths wound in every regenerate man and is bleeding out his life by degrees and at death shall quite expire and bleed his last but not till then Paul saith of himself I find a law in my members warring against the law of my mind who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7.23 24. or oh that I were delivered from it There will be a body of sin and death in us so long as we carry this body of earth and flesh about us this is plain then as long as we live here we shall sin and what Christian desires to live to sin and to offend God! Oh ye that love the Lord hate sin saith the Psalmist hate that which is evil We should therefore desire it for this cause Psal 97.10 Fourthly let us oft look at death Plato said that the life of a Philosopher should be nothing else but a meditation of death much more the life of a Christian It was a custome amongst the Greek Emperours a Stone-cutter came to the Emperour on the day of his Coronation presented divers stones before him and desired to know of him which of those stones he would have for his Sepulchre And I have read of a people who at their feasts were wont to drink to one another out of dead-mens skuls to mind them of death Joseph of Arimathea who brought the Gospel hither into England he had his sepulchre hewn out of a rock Joh. 19.41 standing ready for him in his garden So let us when the world seems to crown us with its chiefest delights then remember death when we eat and drink think we see death on our tables when we are in our private Gardens then also let us take a turn with death and let us act death before it comes As a man that would fain fall asleep shuts his eyes draws the curtains layes his head to the pillow and so composeth himself to sleep so do thou oft think with thy self in what manner death will surprise thee look at it before it comes and it will be the easier when it comes And lastly as we must look at it so we must also look beyond it indeed it is a terrible thing to look at death but cast thine eye now beyond it and there will be no terrour in it Think of Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how it will be far better with us then then now in regard of Place Company our Bodies and our Soules But indeed as I noted to you before that glory is unspeakable As the Queen of Sheba said of Solomons glory She heard a great deal yet not half of it was told her the same may we say of eternall happinesse that we cannot declare half of it unto you meditate we may and ought of that glory yet this we must know that we come exceeding far short This therefore should make us go with as great desire to the grave as they use to go to a marriage because then we shall be married to Christ Jesus And as Travellers when the day is well spent and the Sun grows low come chearfully into their Inns at night so should we to this common Inne of Death FINIS
sin the proper cause of death this poysons our natures and continually cleaves to us as it was with Gehazi this was his sentence That the Leprosie should cleave to him and to his posterity for ever So sin cleaves close to us till the day of our death And as the Ivy sticks so close to the wall that you cannot get it out unlesse you pull the wall it self down so sin will not be had out of us till the earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved Object But what difference then is there between the death of the godly and the wicked Answ Magnum discrimen a great difference For God hath ordained that death to wicked men shall be a passage to misery but it is altered to the godly to them it is a passage to happinesse for to them the sting of it is taken away therefore they need not to fear it it can do them no hurt Even as when you see a snake or serpent its sting being drawn out you may play with it put it in your bosome it cannot hurt you so may we entertain death the sting being taken away Even as through the same gate the condemned person is led out to execution but the honest Citizen walks out for his pleasure and recreation so through the same gate of Death wicked men passe to the torments of hell but the godly to the paradise of heaven As it is with one that goes over a bridge to a fair medow so death is as it were a bridge to bring the saints to heaven As Moses from the top of mount Pisgah had a sight of Canaan before he died Deut 34.1 so when the Saints and servants of God are ready to dye they can see heaven before they depart this world or as the Israelites having travelld fourty years in the wildernesse being now come to Jordan they could look over it and see the land of Canaan they had no more to do but to passe over the foard and they were in the Land which flowed with milk and honey so the people of God when they have lived fourty or three-score years in the wildernesse of this world and are come to die they are onely to passe over the foard of death and then they are in the land of promise Thus you see that howsoever all die yet the death of all is not alike Num. 23.10 Oh let me dye the death of the righteous said that wizard Balaam and let my last end be like his shewing plainly that the death of righteous and wicked men in regard of their future estate do exceedingly differ alike they may be in their death but they shall be unlike to each other after death Vse Now for the use of this Is it so must all dye Let us then assure our selves of this and not onely say we are mortall as all men will say so but seriously think of it think that God may take us away this day this hour this may be the last word I may speak the last word that ye may hear therefore let us think of it seriously that so we may apply our hearts to wisdome let us live every day as if it were our last day The life of man how long soever is but a life of seven dayes which are multiplyed and run in a course Now as a man that hath seven servants to serve him if he be told that one of those seven will kill him narrowly observes every one of them when they come by course to serve him so man whose life runs upon seven dayes in the week which serve him by course since one of them will certainly make an end of him he should therefore watch every day saying to it as John to Christ Art thou he that should come or do I yet look for another sicknesse must come and death must come nothing so sure how are we provided for their coming When sicknesse is upon us we can do nothing for extremity of pain and therefore now when the marrow is in our bones and blood in our veins let us think of it and earnestly prepare our selves for death Now for the main Doctrine I desire saith he to be dissolved c. Doct. A Christian may lawfully desire death It s lawfull nay necessary sometimes to desire death Now when I say that a man may desire it it is a great height this and all attain not thereunto for death saith the Philosopher is the most terrible of terribles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Job 18.14 the King of fears as Job calls it when a man shall seriously take to heart and consider that his soul must be separated from his body those two old friends part and go assunder some doubting and fear will arise through our frailty and the best may have temptations in that kind we know this that when a man is to change his dwelling it puts him to trouble if it be but into the next Shire or the next town every remove is troublesome when therefore the soul shall depart as far from the tabernacle of the body as heaven from earth there may be some trouble at this great remove yet there is something overcomes this trouble whereby the Saints are willing to embrace death and desirous of a dissolution Would you see examples for it Paul here in my Text comes in with his cupio dissolvi and Simeon with his Nunc dimittis the old man had long waited for Jesus Christ and now when he had seen him Lord saith he let thy servant depart in peace Luk. 2.29 he had seen salvation beheld Christ with a spirituall as well as with his corporal eyes held him in the arms of his faith as well as with the arms of his body and now the world would no longer away with him Let me depart saith he let me be gone But before I come to shew what should move us to desire death I will speak a few things by way of caution and to prevent mistakes Cautions The first is this That this desire must alwayes be with submission to the will of God we must say as Christ Let this cup passe or come as thy will and pleasure is not my will but thy will be done If it be the will of Christ that Peter go Mat. 26.39 and John tarry still Joh. 2 1.22 they must both submit to it So must we for the time and manner of our death submit our selves to God our wills are never right but when they are conformable to the will of God That 's the first the rest will follow upon it As in the second place That it is no good desire to desire death merely to be rid of anguish and pain For what if it be the will of God to hold us long under the rod we must learn to kisse his holy hand that smites us he doth it for the tryall of our faith and other graces and therefore we ought to bear it patiently Thus much we may learn from
wipe away all tears from the eyes of his children and then he saith there shall be no more death neither sorrow Revel 21.4 nor crying neither shall there be any more pain Mark God will first take away tears and sin the cause of tears that shall be covered with the garment of Christs righteousnesse and then as with a handkerchief he will dry up their tears he will first do away sin from their souls then t will be easie to wipe away tears from their eyes it is sin makes so many tears stand in the eyes of Gods children therefore when sin is once done away all sorrow and tears all crying and pains will cease Thus for the evils we shall be freed from Now for the good and benefit we shall be partakers of by death and after My text saith We shall be with Christ and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 far better If shall be far better then then now in these four respects 1. Propter elongationem suam à consuetudine nostra a rebus seculi istius non est facile c. Paris 696. The Place of our habitation 2. Our Society and Company 3. Our Bodies and 4. In respect of our souls There is indeed a great elongation or estrangement between us and things of eternity and that shall come to passe hereafter by reason of our earthly mould and temper let faith therefore which is the substance of things hoped for here act and stir up it self carrying us above our selves and above our senses whilest we are speaking of these particulars I begin with the Place This world is a Sea of glasse a Sea for trouble and glasse Place Rev. 15.2 for brittlenesse it is a vale of misery as you have heard but Heaven is a haven of rest a Paradise of pleasures and delights The earth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ill-favoured dark squallid filthy place 2 Pet. 1.19 but in heaven is light inaccessible Now if a man that had lived in a dark cell or dungeon should be taken thence to live in some great and sumptuous palace he would think the world well amended or if a man that had lived thirty or fourtie years in some mud-wall-Cottage in the countrey should change his dwelling and live in the chiefest City of the Kingdome and enjoy the treasure and riches of it he would think himself a happier man then ever he was before Job 4.19 We now dwell in houses of clay whose foundation is in the dust but the City of God is a most glorious City the very gates of it Rev. 21.10 11. Saint John saith are of Pearl and they that do his commandments Rev. 22.14 shall enter in through the gates into the City Oh how glorious shall things appear when we shall come to the gates of that City but when we shall passe through those gates how shall our souls be ravisht with joy to see the things are there to be seen The very streets he tels us are of pure gold But alas What are Pearls What is Gold Indeed we see no better things here and that 's the reason the spirit of God sets forth the glory of heaven by these things otherwise they were not good enough to be compared or worthy to be named the same day with heavens glory And should you imagine such a City as he there describes whose gates were pearl and streets gold the glory of it would not so far exceed the glory of the meanest village or hamlet as the glory of heaven would surmount and go beyond it Think then with your selves how desirous a place heaven is S. Peter you know when he was upon the holy Mount Mat. 17.4 and beheld Christ transfigured was not his own man but fell a talking of building Tabernacles and I know not what but how would he have been ravisht if himself had been transfigured and translated into the place of the Blessed and S. Paul being rapt up thither was not able 2 Cor. 12.2 of fourteen years after to tell us whether he was in the body or out of the body such and so glorious is that place But what shall be our company there not that which is now a vexation to our spirits the company of swearers drunkards c. but of Angels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs c. Company Oh praeclarum diem cum in illud animorum concilium coetúmque proficiscar ex hac turba colluvione discedam That is Oh happy day when I shall depart out of this place of filth and loathsomnesse and go into that Synod of souls an excellent saying to come out of the mouth of a Heathen So let us say with David Oh when shall I come and appear in the presence of God and with Paul When shall I enter into the City of the living God Psal 42.2 the heavenly Jerusalem When shall I be amongst that innumerable company of Angels and that generall Assembly When shall my soul be gathered to the souls of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediatour of the new Covenant Heb. 12.22 Oh when shall I rest in my center Christ Jesus when shall I be wholly his and he be wholly mine Oh this is our happinesse to be with Christ with him who is the desire of all Nations with him who suffered an accursed death on the Crosse for our sins with him Joh. 17.24 whom our soule loveth to be with him and to behold the glory which the father hath given him this is that shall make us happy for ever and ever Object But all this that is place and company seems to be but the happinesse of the object what shall be the happinesse of the subject Answ It shall be in our bodies and in our souls For the body it shall not then be subject to any change passion or wearinesse Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are tour excellent properties of a glorified body Naz. orat funebr Mat. 26.41 Phil. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it shall not be so dull and lumpish as now but most agile and nimble it shall not then stand in need of sleep meat and drink which chain us so fast by the teeth here Now the spirit is sometimes willing but the flesh is weak our souls would fly up to heaven but the flesh clogs them and keeps them down then it shall not be so but the body as a ready and willing instrument shall follow the motions and desires of the soul or spirit The Lord shall change our vile bodie or our body of humiliation that it may be fashioned and made like unto his glorious body it is sown in weaknesse raised again in power it is sown a naturall body it is raised a spirituall body a body still but adorned with spirituall qualities Now will not faith cause us earnestly to desire a dissolution though nature shrink a little at the thought of it when we shall consider that this mutable
the world they shall stay a while to wrastle with their corruptions to preach the Gospel to the world that done I will receive them to my self Vers 24. he saith Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me yet here he saith I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world that is not yet Conformable to this will of Christ is the will and desire of the Saints they desire to be with Christ for where should the servant be but with his Lord the members but with their head the spouse but in the bosome of the bridegroome they desire therefore I say as the top of all their happinesse to be with Christ and know assuredly they shall one day be with him in glory yet they desire to keep themselves from the evil of the world so long as t is his pleasure to continue them in it Christ doth not pray his father to take us presently out of the world but to take the world that is the love of it out of us and that we may be satisfied with the truth vers 17. This should be our desire then that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him 2 Cor. 5 9. That man therefore can have no true desire to dye that hath no desire to live well neither doth he desire to have any communion with Christ after death that doth not desire it in his life he that desires to be with Christ after death desires also that Christ may be with him and dwell in him before death These two desires then are in effect one saving that one is the perfections of the other and in that regard the most desirable These things premised I now come to shew why death may be desired of us 1. It delivers us from manifold evils 2. It brings with it infinite good to those that are prepared for it 1. Bodily evils The evils from which we are freed by death Quis enim sufficit quantovis eloquentiae flumine vitae hujus miserias explicare August Eccles 1.8 Verstegan Antiquit 58. are either bodily evils or soul evils spirituall evils For the first bodily evils even these if I should begin to speak of them they are more then I am able to expresse All things are full of labour man cannot utter it What toile and labour are our bodies subject unto What hardship do they here endure Our old ancestours the Saxons counted the ages of their lives by Winters to shew how many seasons of sharp and cold weather they had overpast besides how many diseases are there incident to the frail bodies of men and women impostemes swellings agues aches apoplexies strangury stone gout c. oh the stinging torment that is in some of these I gave you an item indeed before that none of these temporall bodily evils should cause us to desire death through impatience or any repining disposition however there 's enough in them to wean us from this world and to let us see the misery of it and death when it comes it will free us from all these diseases when given by the hand of our heavenly Physician 't is the first physick that can be to cure us of them all And as our bodies so our estates likewise are subject to a thousand changes what losses and crosses do we meet with there as if a man be a rich man to day he may be a beggar to morrow if his estate lie in plate or money thieves may break through and steal it if in goods or houshold-stuffe they may likewise plunder him of all if in houses the fire may consume all how many Briefs tells us so if in lands the rain may come and slocken all his fruit if in merchandise the sea may swallow up all if in cattell the enemie as the Sabeans did Jobs may carry all away and he may then sit down and say as he naked came I out of my mothers womb and I see I shall return a naked man to the womb of the earth I add here again that a man must take heed of impatience and discontent otherwise I see no harme in it if these changes mind him of his last change and being thus stript and left naked he begin to think of lying down to his rest Besides this many are the afflictions of the righteous Acerrimum par media mors dirimit Seneca many are the wrongs they receive at the hands of wicked men what cart-loads of reproches and disgraces are they ready to cast upon them for there is an antipathy between the one and the other as there is between fire and water but when death comes it ends the quarrell 2. Spirituall evils But now for the second soul-evils or spirituall evils they are of far more force to draw on this desire The devil he is our continuall adversary and so long as we live here so long will he be tempting us he can no sooner look into my heart or thy heart but he will see to what our natures and dispositions are most inclind and thereby he will work upon us Rom. 7.19 Add hereunto that virus maternum that venome and poyson of originall corruption whereby we are disabled from doing the good we would and the evil we would not that we do The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other Gal. 5.17 so that we cannot do the things that we would Paul had a pitcht field as it were between himself and himself Velis noli intra sines tuos erit Jebusaeus prm potest non exterminari Connatam habemus cupiditatem haec pussus est ut motus cordis quem nemo mortalium in hac vita reprimit Cas eth Dan. 3.23 25. As Rebecca had the two twins strugling in her womb so in every regenerate man there 's the flesh and spirit strugling together do what we can this Jebusite will still be in our coasts The seeds of sin may be in some measure supprest by the power of Gods spirit but never rooted out till death It is as the pulse of a mans body alwayes beating till then but then it will cease Death will do no more to us but what Nebuchadnezars fire did to the three children it never toucht nor harmd them onely burnt their coards wherewith they were bound and let them loose So death when it comes will loose us from these coards and chains of our sins and set us at liberty Therefore we ought to long after this full redemption I remember what the Heathen did they placed the Temple of rest without the City to shew that if ever we would have tranquility and quietnesse it must be by going out of this world then there will be no trouble or vexation of spirit no concupiscence no sin to withdraw us from God Death came into the world by sin and sin will not out of the world but by death God shall
THE CHRISTIANS DESIRE SHEWING How and for what Causes a man may desire Death By WILLIAM HOUGHTON Preacher at Bicknor in Kent Vt prima desideria sanctorum antiquae legis in primo Christi terminabantur adventu sic quoque modo desideria sanctorum novae legis in secundo Christi adventu qui perfectam nobis beatitudinem conferet desinent August HINC LVCEM ET POCVLA SACRA ALMA MATER CANTA BRIGIA LONDON Printed by Roger Daniel for Samuel Cartwright at the Signe of the Bible in Duck-lane 1650. TO The Right VVorshipfull Sir EDWARD WORTLEY and his Religious Lady my honoured Friends Right Worshipfull DEsires are the truest effigies of the mind If a man be Heavenly he hath heavenly desires if outward things terminate his desires he hath but an earthly mind and no more then what Paul calls the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2 12◠Such mens desires the Psalmist speaks of when he saith Who will shew us any good that is matter of gain and profit Isa 26.8 But the godly mans desire is thus set forth Psal 73.23 The desire of our soul is towards thy name and to the remembrance of thee There is none that I desire upon earth besides thee The worldlings desire is to live many dayes and years upon earth the godly mans desire that Christ may be in him while he is here Luk. 12.29 and that he may be with Christ when he departs hence and these as Paul himself determines are the best desires Worldly desires at last give no satisfying content to a mans soul but these are satisfying desires those are oft frustrated and come to nothing but of these it is said God will fulfill the desire of them that fear him When a whole Kingdome is in a shaking condition the desires of many must needs fail 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.28 but the Christians desire is upon a Kingdome that cannot be shaken My end and aim in sending abroad this Sermon is to 01 increase these holy desires in as many as shall read it It is but a plain and unpolisht piece such as it is I present it to your hands as a small return of thankfullnesse for those many favours I have received from you hoping it will find the better acceptance because I have known you many years and that your desires are set on the best things Praying for your prosperity and for all that have relation to you I rest Yours in the Lord Jesus William Houghton Philip. 1.23 Desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is best of all PAul as you may see in this Chapter stands at a certain doubt with himself whether he should live or die live he would that he might glorifie God die to be with Christ The words contain in them two things 1. Paul's desire to be with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having a desire c. 2. The reason of it because it is best of all The Greek is most emphaticall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which is farre better or as if one should English it Much more better Luke 2.29 Simeon desired to die because he had seen the Lords Christ Paul here that he might see Christ and be for ever with him Simeon's word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is no materiall difference between them Vid. Sculter Exercit. 156. The former according to the mind of the learned signifies a dimission to be fairly dismist and suffered to depart the latter to be let loose as mariners when they let loose and lanch forth Or it may signifie to return as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 12.36 When he will return from the wedding The first sense may imply thus much that the body is the souls prison wherein it is kept till it be sent forth and suffered to depart The second addes chains or coards wherein it is held till it be let loose The third that this life is a place of exile and the soul herein a pilgrim till it return to God that gave it But not to stand straining of metaphors when he saith He desired to depart or be dissolved it is as much as if he had said That he desired to die Now consider who it was that thus desired death Paul a most zealous man the Spirit of God calls him an elect vessel Chrysostome an heavenly man or if ye will saith he an earthly Angel yet he seeks death he desires to be dissolved We see then Act. 9.15 Doct. That all must die the best that are the greatest and holiest must taste of death young men die as well as old we see short graves as well as long rich men die as well as poore It is said in the Gospel that the beggar died and presently it is added the rich man also dyed Luk. 16.22 And wise men die as well as the foolish nay Psal 49 10. holy men too Adam is called the son of God Abraham the friend of God Luc. 3.38 Moses the man of God the Virgin Mary the mother of God Jam. 2.23 David was a man after Gods own heart John Baptist Psal 93. tit a burning and shining light yet they are all dead and gone Luc. 1.43 and descended into the slimy pit as the Prophet calls it so that howsoever there may be a difference here amongst men yet then Abierunt obierunt all shall be alike Reason 1 For first thus hath God decreed Statutum est saith the Apostle It is a Statute-law a thing decreed in the high Court of Heaven Heb. 9.27 and must needs stand fast what is there determined Reason 2 Secondly God doth fufter this even the best and holyest to taste of death because he will have them conformable to their head even Jesus Christ who died for us Reason 3 Thirdly because of the mortality of men and the nature of their condition here on earth all men are of one matter the godly are not made of one matter and the wicked of another but all of one common matter the dust of the earth according to that Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return though while we live here one be higher then another yet then there is an equality as it is in casting account one counter stands for a thousand another for an hundred but put them together into the bag and one is no better then another or as it is in a play one bears the person of a King another of a Knight another of a Beggar and very busie they are but when the play is done every man goes to his own place Thus it is with men one may stand here in a higher room then another but death makes him equall with the meanest and if yee look into the same grave after twenty or thirty years you shall find no difference between the dust of a King and a beggar Reason 4 Lastly this comes to passe because of