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
in Egypt When Moses was intreated to pray for thē those plagues also ceassed Moreouer after the death of King Iosias the citie of Ierusalem was wonne and the people caried captiue vnto Babylon God spared them and did withhold his wrath from thē in all his dayes according to his promise As the person is in his place of preheminence in Church or cōmonweale in his paines performing the worke of the Lord so is the losse of him to the people whēsoeuer he departs And as the greatnesse of the losse is so ought the greatnesse of the considerations to be had amongst those where he is missed continually mourning weeping and calling vpon God for his mercy and that he will be pleased to withhold those plagues which he hath so begun hauing alwaies before them the remembrance of their sinnes and the iudgements of God for the same which they haue many wayes and at sundrie times deserued humbly prostrating thēselues before the throne of his mercies in the name and mediation of Iesus Christ The children of Israel wept much and mourned sore for Moses thirty dayes together Deut. 34.8 The Maiestie of God taking particular knowledge of his death said vnto Iosua Moses my seruant is dead Iosua 1.2.3 As if he had said more plainely I see his want already amongst the people it is so great and so dangerous that there must be a present supply If the person publike being dead were vngodly an oppressor and such like ill disposed being in profession either spirituall or temporall who will not thinke it an happy day a blessed time in which it pleased God to cut him off for euery man where such an one had to do for his owne particular priuate good hath cause to commemorate the mercies of God in that behalfe And by how much the more it may be said that he was generally disposed to euill by so much the more ought all that people amongst whom he liued be generally disposed to commemorate the mercies of God with all alacrity and cheerefulnesse for his depriuation weeping and mourning for their former sins which was the cause why God did raise such a gracelesse man to haue rule ouer them so long and continually praying to haue a more vertuous and a more religious man in his roome This teacheth all true professors of christianity as formerly was said religiously to commemorate the deceasse of publike persons who had their places in Church and commonwealth specially if they were profitable to the people and religious towards God We haue the example of Dauid the King and all his honourable subiects who mourned much after the deceasse of Abner 2 Sam. 3.27 to 39. because he was a necessary man in the common wealth So likewise it is said Act. 8.2 that there was great lamentation amongst all the people which feared God for Saint Steuen who was a necessary man in the Church This religious duty is not so much required because of their deceasses directly as for our selues who were the cause thereof according to the foreknowledge of God sometimes arrogating too much worthinesse vnto them and therby derogating from God or sometimes derogating from them that worthinesse and desert which was their due and thereby do become spirituall spoilers and vnfaithfull vnto God that gaue them And I may presse farther and iustifie out of mine owne lamentable experience that the commemoration of death past vpon others our deare friends will worke in vs a hartie calling vpon God for mercy and a kinde of preparation in our selues to die well besides the good example which we shall giue thereby vnto our posterity to do the like for vs. FINIS