they are the Image and Representation of Good but Dust and Ashes speak no other good Amongst the Elements the Earth is the least noble and the most weak the Fire the Water and the Air have in them Spirit and Actitude but the base Element Earth as it were a Prisoner laden with Weightiness A certain Poet styles the Earth Bruta not only for that it hath an unpleasant Countenance as Deserts Quick-sands Dens and Caves but also for that it is an Inne of Serpents Tygers Panthers and the like so that it is good neither to the Taste to the Smell to the Feeling nor to the Hearing nor yet to the Seeing Thou being therefore Earth why art thou Proud thou Dust and Ashes And thus far of the First Now the Second Thing regardable is If thou art Ashes why â—…uch a deal of Care in Pampering thy Body which the huâ—…gry Worms are to devour to morrow Consider those rotting and stinking Carkasses of your Relations that lye here under the Ground and the very thought thereof will moderate your desire of being over-dainty and curious in cherishing your own Isaac on the Night of his Nuptials placed his Wifes Bed in the Chamber where his Mother died Tobias spent all the Night with his Spouse in Prayer being mindful of the harm which the Devil had done to her former Husbands as being advised from Heaven that he should temper with the remembrance of Death the Delights and Pleasures of this short Life of ours The Camomile the worse you treat it and the more you tread upon it the better it thrives other Plants require Pruning and tending to make them fruitful but this Herb hath a quite contrary condition that with ill usage it grows the better It is the pamper'd Flesh that brings forth Thistles and Thorns but the Flesh that is trodden down and humbled that yields store of Fruit And this is likewise concerning the Second Now the Third thing to be considered is If thou art Dust and to Morrow must become Dust and Ashes why such a deal of coveting of Honours and Riches which on a sudden may take themselves Wings and flye away Esau sold his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage but he excused his so doing for that he saw his Death was so near at hand Behold I am ready to die what will this Birth-right profit me But to be brief as Man in respect of his beginning and proceeding is Earth even so he is Dust and Ashes in râ—…spect of his ending which is the last thing now to be handled for the Lord himself denounced as it is evident in the words of my Text Out of it wast thou taken for dust thou' art and unto dust thou shalt return When that Death mounted upon his pale Horse like a Serieant sent from above upon Action of Debt at the Suit of Nature comes with a Habeas Corpus to pull down these Clay Walls wherein our Immortal Souls are kept close Prisoners within the narrow compass of these mortal Bodies of ours then shall our Dust return unto the Dust as it was then yea even then we shall be Terra à Terrendo because then every one shall tread on us A living Dog is better than a dead Lion every Thersites will Insult over Hector and every Scrub run upon Achilles Every Child is ready to mangle the strong Oak when it is down and he that durst not look Caesar in the Face is now bold to pull him by the Beard Our Bodies are not only Houses of Clay Job 4. 19. but as they be earthly so Tabernacles 2 Cor. 5. 1. Set up this Day and happily taken down the next And therefore the Years of Man are termed Days in holy Scripture as the Daies of Noah the Daies of Lot and the Daies of Elias because they lived but a few Days as the Patriarch Abraham Few and evil have been the Daies of my Pilgrimage Gen 47. 9. Although time may be divided into past prrsent and future yet there is no time belonging essentially to our Life but even the very Now because the time past is certainly gone and the future time uncertainly to come and therefore our blessed Lord and Saviour Christ enjoyned us to pray Give us this day our daily bread Matth. 6. 11. Not this Age Month or Week but only this Day because we may not care for to Moâ—…row and therefore says wise Solomon Boast not thy self of to morrow Prov. 27. 1. For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth All flesh is grass saith Isaiah Grass withered or green Oh Fool this Night thy poor Soul may be fetched from thee and so thou shalt have no need of daily Bread to Morrow Josiah was a vertuous Governour 〈◊〉 Kings â—…3 and yet he had but his time In the the daies of 〈◊〉 the Son of Ammon Jer. 1. 2. Noah was a very upright honest Man in his time Gen. 6. 9. and yet he had but his time In the days of Noah 1 Pet 3. 20. Herod was a most mighty Man and yet he had but his time In the daies of Herod King of Judah Luke 1. 5. If we be as strong as Sampson and as mighty as Alexander this Tyrant Death in time will take us all away Moses upon Mount Abarim Aaron upon Hoâ—… and Methuselam after 99 years were all cut down and brought to dust again as they were Although the good Prophet Daniel Prophesied of one who should have a time and a time and a half time yet as it appeareth in the Revelation of St. John all is but a time and that a short time too For although Antichrist exalt himself above all that is called God yet he shall one day perish as a Man he came from Earth and notwithstanding his double Honour and triple Crown he must being Dust return to the Earth as he was and see Corruption Wherefore I say unto you as the good Prophet Jeremiah did unto them of old O Earth Earth Earth hear the Word of the Lord. Remember what thou was what thou art and what thou shalt be when thou leavest this sad World behind thee Thou wast in thy beginning a most miserable Wretch yea a filthy stinking Worm Conceived and Born in Sin thou art now a Sackful of Dirt and hereafter thou shalt be nothing but a Bait and Banquet for Worms In thy Beginning thou wast nothing and now nothing worth and if thou repent not of thy damnable Sins thou art in danger heâ—…eafter to be worse than nothing conceived in Original Sin now full of Actual Sin and if that thou still continue in thy Wickedness thou mayest one Day feel the Eternal Smart of Sin Begot in Uncleanness Living in Unhappiness and Dying in Anguish and Uncomfortableness Remember I pray you from whence you came and Blush where you are and Lament and whither you must in spite of your Teeth and Tremble Brag not of any thing in you or on you neither what you have been are or may be for in respect
of old used to lament at the Birth of their Children but rejoice at their Funeral The time will come that we must part with our Isaac's our Benjamin's nearest Friends and dearest Comforts Then remember my Text if they die in the Lord take no care for them they are Blessed they are at their Rest. But some will say Shall we meet with our Friends again departed in the Faith Yes without peradventure if we walk in ways of Obedience to the end It was David's Comfort upon the death of his Child While the Child was living he fasted and wept and lay upon the Ground but when it was dead he arose and anointed himself aad eat Bread His Reason is very strong and convincing 1. An impossibility of Recovery He shall not come to me 2. An assured Hope of meeting again in Heaven But I shall go to him He shall not come to me that would be for his loss to part with his Rest in Heaven for a restless condition on Earth but I shall go to him I have not lost him for ever we shall meet again as comfortably as Jacob and Joseph met in Egypt meet again in Heaven and never part Now you know it never troubles us to see the Sun set because we know it will rise again in the Morning it never troubles us to part with a Friend when he goes to Bed because we hope to see him again in the Morning Beloved the Death of a Friend is but like the setting of the Sun or the uncloathing of a Man when he goes to Bed there will be a glorious appearing in the Morning of the Resurrection and therefore St. Paul condemns immoderate sorrow for the dead I would not have you sorrow as those that have no hope Nature will be sorrowful but let Grace moderate the sorrow and keep it within the bounds of hope and the ground of hope is set down If ye believe that Jesus died and is risen again even so also them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him 'T is true the Scripture mention some that shall not die as they that shall be found alive at the Coming of Christ to Judgment St. Paul tells us in plain terms we shall not all sleep but we shall be changed The meaning is they shall not so sleep as to continue in the state of the dead but be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye yet such a change as they shall have a dissolution and in the same moment a redintegration a real Death and a real Resurrection though no sleeping in the Grave of Corruption You see one Generation passing and another Generation coming one Friend and Neighbour drops into the Grave after another and when your turn shall be you know not This you may be assured of Death will come certainly and it may be speedily it may be suddenly What Man is he that liveth and shall not see Death Psal. 89. 48. Now I beseech you embrace and improve these few directions in order to a Pious Life and a Peaceable Death First if you would live to the Lord and die in the Lord labour for exemplary purity of Life Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom but he that doth the Will of the Father Secondly If you would live to the Lord and die in the Lord give the World a Bill of Divorcement otherwise it will clip your Wings and clog your Souls and hinder your pursuit of Heaven there is nothing in all the World that is worthy of your Affections nothing but what is transitory and unsatisfactory and therefore look on it and pass away Gregory Nazianzen speaks of a Land which had abundance of Curious Flowers in it but no Corn for Bread to satisfie the Peoples Hunger the World is very like that Land here are many Flowers which may please our Sences and our Phantasies but here is no Corn for Bread no substantial satisfying Comforts As Death should be the Subject of your Meditatâ—…on so Heaven the Center of your Affections Richarâ—… the First sometimes King of England gave charge that his Bowels should be Buried at Charron but his Heart at Roan the Faithful City the City of his Love Truely the World deserves but our waste parts we may Bury our Bowels in the Earth but our Hearts should be laid up in Heaven the Royal City the New Jerusalem That so after a troublesome Life we may have a peaceable Death and after Death a glorious Reward of Everlasting Rest in Heaven according to this voice from Heaven in the Text. Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their Labâ—…urs and their Works follow them I have now done with the Text and now come to address my self unto that sad occasion which hath given my present Discourse this Mourning Suit The occasion of our present meeting is to Solemnize the Funeral of our deceased Neighbour and Friend to do our last office to her Body by aâ—…ording it the benefit of a Christian and Comely Burial Concerning whom I might upon very good and warrantable Grounds enlarge my Discourse in the description of the blessedness both of her Life and Death but as the Orator said Quid opus est verbis What need is there of words when her deeds are so manifest She died the death of Moses he died leisurely God gave him notice of his Journey before-hand for his better preparation Go up to the Mount and die So departed she from the World not before she expected Death not before she provided for Death God was pleased in Mercy to give her warning before she flitted to ring her Passing-bell in her Soul many days before she died and whereas many are flattered with hopes of Life till the very Hour of Death yet she was upon a meditation of Death from the first beginning of her sickness Death was not sudden to her either in respect of Expectation or Preparation she had her Wedding-garment on and her Lamp trimmed with Faith and a good Conscience she was ready for Death and ripe for Eternity behold she is coming to the Grave and she comes as a shock of Corn from the Field in due Season Hopes of a joyful Resurrection SERMON XIII JOB 19. v. 25 26 27. For I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth And though after my Skin Worms destroy shis Body yet in my flesh shall I see God Then I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold and not another though my Reins be consumed in me AS if he had thus argued He that waites by Faith in the Redeemer of the Resurrection of his Body to eternal Life after Death hath done its worst is not a wicked man or an Hypocrite as you have charged me But such is my Faith I believe in the Redeemer and I look to rise after this body is consumed and eaten of Worms to an eternal happy Life therefore
about her Neck but fourteen days before she died the Marjoram-Tree dried up the Birds the next Night were all found dead and after that the Chain broke in two in the middle Then Barbara calling for the Abbess told her that all those Warnings were for her and in a few days after died in the Seventeenth Year of her Age After her death above twenty other Virgins died out of the same Nunnery Several other Presages there are that foretold the death of Princes and great Men As the unwonted Howlings of Dogs the unseasonable noise of Bells the Roaring of Lions c. Therefore said Pliny The Signs of Death are innumerable and that there are none or very few Signs of Safety or Security What do all these things Admonish us but only this Remember O man that thou art a man think upon Eternity to which thou art hastening Go to prepare thy self thou art called to that Tribunal of God as thou didst live shalt thou be judged Sect. 20. What Answer is to be given to the Messenger of Death SAint Ambrose having received the News of his Death when his Friends bewailed him and begg'd of God to grant him a longer space of Life I have not lived as to be ashamed to lieve among you neither do I fear to die because we have a gracious God Saint Austin nothing troubled at the News of his Death He never shall be great saith he who thinks it strange that Stones and Wood fall and that Mortals die Saint Chrysostom a little before his Death in Exile wrote to Innocentius We have been these three Years in Banishment exposed to Pestilence Famine continual Incursions unspeakable Solitude and continual Death But when he was ready to give up the ghost He cryed out aloud Glory be to thee O God for all things Let a dying Christian imitate these most holy Persons and repeat these Sayings often to himself Thanks be to God Glory be to thee O God for all things I have watcht long enough among thorns labour'd long enough in Storms Now because I see the end of my Watching and my Labour Thanks be to God Glory be to God for all things For Life is tedious Death a certain gain Sect. 21. Death is better than a sorrowful Life IT is better once to Die than to be always Dying We daily Die we have lost our Childhood our Youth is gone All our Time even to Yesterday is slid away These things Gregory Nazianzene comprehending in a few words There is no good among men with which there is not something of evil mixt Riches are a Snare Poverty a Fetter Honour a meer Dream Empire dangerous Subjection troublesom Youth is the Summer of Life Grey-hairs the Sun-set of Life Matrimony a Bond Children the growing Crop of Care Fulness breeds Petulance Want begets Impatience Whatever we behold in this World is like the World in a perpetual motion Whatever seemed stable is now doubtful contending with the perpetual volubility of Day-night Labours Diseases Sorrows Pleasures and Calamities Death is most certain Elegantly St. Austin Death saith he is only certain all things else uncertain A Child once Conceived perhaps is born perhaps not but perishes in Abortion If he be born perhaps he grows up perhaps not perhaps he grows old perhaps not Peradventure he shall be Rich peradventure Poor perhaps he shall attain to Honour peradventure live Contemned perhaps he shall have Children it may be not perhaps he shall die in his Bed it may be slain in the Field But who can say perhaps he shall die perhaps not The first Book of Maccabees thus describes the Death of Alexander Then he fell sick and when he perceived that he should die Alexander had wished for several Worlds in hopes of Victory and thought with himself that he had performed Atchievements that deserved Eternal Annals Nevertheless after so many and such great Victories overcome at length he fell not only into his Bed but into his Tomb contented with a small Coffin Peter Alfonsus reports That several Philosophers flockt together and variously descanted upon the King's Death One there was that said Behold now four Yards of Ground is enough for him whom the spacious Earth could not comprehend before Another added Yesterday could Alexander save whom he pleas'd from Death to Day he cannot free himself Another viewing the Golden Coffin of the Deceased Yesterday said he Alexander heaped up a Treasure of Gold now Gold makes a Treasure of Alexander This was their Learned Contention yet all ended in this Then he fell sick and died Thus forgetful of our selves what Mountains do we raise to our selves in Thought We revolve in our Minds Immortal I wish they were Heavenly Things whilst Death surprizes us in the midst of our vast Undertakings and that which we call Old Age is but the Circuit of a few Years Wherefore do we trust to Death Behold through what slight Occasions we lose our Lives Our Food our Moisture our Watchings our Sleep are unwholesome to us without their due measure A small hurt of a Toe a light pain of the Ear a Worm in the Tooth make way for Death The little Body of Man is weak frail subject to Diseases this Air these Winds those Waters offend him Therefore let us believe the Son of Syras Death is better than a bitter Life and Eternal Rest better than continual Sickness So that it is much better to be an Inhabitant on Earth than a Pilgrim in Heaven Sect. 22. The Happiness of Death BLessed are the dead that die in the Lord even so saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them To die in the Lord is the same thing as to die a Servant of the Lord as the Scripture speaks concerning Moses Moses my Servant is dead As if God had said saith Cajetan Though he were once a Sinner and was not then my Servant nevertheless he died my Servant He so died that whatever he was or whatever he did was mine for a Servant wholly belongs to the Master And let such a Servant of the Lord sing that Song of Simeon at his death Lord now let thy Servant depart in peace according to thy word Altogether in peace and that Eternal in the beginning whereof all the Warfare of good men is at an end never more to be rekindl'd For such Servants of God die in the Lord who dying rest in the Bosom of God and so resting sweetly sleep in death Thus Stephen among so many Showers of Stones in such in the midst of the Tumult and Dinn of the Enraged Multitude slept in the Lord. Thus Moses the Servant of the Lord died by the command of God Thrice happy and blessed are such that never more shall be miserable The death of the Just saith St. Bernard is good because of its Rest better because of its Novelty best of all by reason of its Security Blessed and again thrice blessed are such for their Works follow them They
Son and Holy Spirit O Sacred Trinity which art without beginning and in whom there is no division receive the Soul of thy Servant in peace who is put to death for thy Cause and Gospel After which he submitted his Head to the stroaks of the Executioner Suffering Anno Christi 96 and of his Age 110. The Death of JUSTIN Martyr AFter his having painfully preached the Gospel in many Countreys he came to Rome where he had many Contests with the Philosophers and Sages and was at last by the procurement of one Crescens Condemned and accordingly Beheaded Anno Christi 139. and as Epiphanius has it under the Reign of Adrian some time before he Prognosticated his death So fell this Faithful Labourer in Christ's Vineyard He used to say Thaet which the Soul is in the Body that are Christians in the World For as the Soul is in and not of the Body so Christians are in but no part of the World And also It is best of all not to sin and next to that to amend upon the Punishment Furthermore Tâ—…t it is the greatest slavery in the VVorld to be subject to ones Passions The Death of IRENAEUS THis Holy Man being taken with several of his chief Friends they were led to the top of a Hill on which were placed Crosses on one Hand and Idols on the other and they put to their Choice either to embrace the Idols and Live or be Crucified Upon which they joyfully chose the latter suffering Martyrdom Anno Christi 182. and of Irenaeus his Age 60 or as some will have it 90. He compared the Hereticks and Schismaticks to Aesop's Dog that lost the Substance of Religion whilst they gaped too earnestly after the Shadow Concerning the Vanity of Earthly things he said VVhat profit is there in that Honour which is so short-lived as that perchance it was not Yesterday neither will be to Morrow And such Men as labour so much for it are but like Froth which though it be uppermost yet it is unprofitablest The death of TERTULLIAN HE died Anno Christi 202. and of his Age 63. He used to say of Repentance If thou beest backward in thoughts of Repentance be forwards in thoughts of Hell the burning flames whereof only the tears of a penitent Eye can extinguish Of Satans Power If the Devils without Christs leave had no power over the Gadarens Swine much less have they power over Gods own Sheep Of Faith We should not try Mens Faith by their Persons but their Persons by their Faith Of forgiving Offences It 's in vain to come to the God of peace without peace or to pray for the remission of our Sins without forgiving others We must not come to make an Atonement with God at his Altar before we have made an Atonement with our Brother in our Hearts The Last Sayings of CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS AFter the death of Pontenus Clemens succeeded him in that Office from whence he received the Name of Alexandrinus He was Famous for all manner of Learning and was ordained Presbyter in Alexandria where he propagated the Christian Faith His Sayings were these Such as adorn themselves with Gold and think themselves bettered thereby are worse than Gold and not Lords of it as all that have it ought to be Out of the depth and bowels of the Earth hath God discovered and shewed Gold unto Men and they have made it the occasion of all Mischief and Wickedness Gold to many Men is much dearer than their Faith and Honesty And the love of it makes Man so Covetous as if they were to live here for ever The Death of ORIGEN HE died in the Reigns of Galluâ—… and Volusianus Anno Christi 220. â—…nd of his Age 69. Concerning Gods Providence he used to say That Gods Providence hath ordained all things for some end and purpose He made not Malice and though he can restrain it yet he will not for if Malice were not Vertue would not have a Contrary and so could not shine so clear For the Malice of Joseph's Brethren was the Means whereby God brought about many admirable works of his Providence The death of St. CYPRIAN CYprian said to his Exocutioner Do whatever 〈◊〉 shall be in thy power and thereupon he putting 〈◊〉 his Cloaths delivering them to his Deacons â—…idding them give his Executioner five Twentyâ—…ces of Gold for the kindness he was to do him â—…express he freely forgave him Then pulling a â—…il over his Eyes he kneeled down and had his â—…d sâ—…itten off with a Sword suffering Martyrâ—…m for the Testimony of his Lord and Master â—…o 259. and in the 70 year of his Age as some â—…e it He used to say of Charity Let not that sleep â—…n thy Treasury that may be profitable to the Poor â—…of the Heart and Tongue Two things never wax old in Man The Heart ever imagining new Cogitations the Tongue ever uttering the vain Conceptions of the Heart Of Resignation That which a Man must necessarily part with it 's Wisdom for a Man to distribute it so that God may Everlastingly reward him Of Pride Women that Pride themselves in putting on Silk and Purple cannot lightly put on the Lord Jesus Christ. â—…gain They which Colour their Locks with Yellow and Red begin betimes to Prognosticate of what Colour their Hair shall be in Hell Again They which love to paint themselves in this World otherwise than God Created them may justly fear that at the Resurrection their Creator will know them Of Alms-deeds He that gives an Alms to the Poor offers a sweet-smelling Sacrifice unto God Of Injuries All Injury of Evils present is to be neglected for the hope of good things to come Twelve Attributes he said was in the Life of Man viz. A Wise Man without good works an Old Man without Religion a Young Man without Obedience a Rich Man without Alms a Woman without shamefac'dness a Guide without Vertue a Contentious Christian a Poor Man that is Proud a King that is Unjust a Bishop that is Negligent People without Discipline Subjects without Law The Last Sayings of ARNOBIUS HE was a Famous Professor of Rhetorick in Sicca a City in Africa after his Conversion he applied himself to some Bishops with great earnestness to be Baptized and admitted into the Church When he was Master to Lactantius he used this Expression That Persecution brings Death in one hand and Life in the other for while it Kills the Body it Crowns the Soul He lived under Dioclesian between 300 and 330. The Death of EUSEBIUS HE lived to a good old Age. for the most part in Peace and Tranquility Dying Anno Christi 340. He used to say That Moses wrote the Old Law in dead Tables of Stone But Christ writ the perfect Documents of the New Testament in Living Souls The Death of LACTANTIUS HE was a Man of great Parts both Morally and Divinely Wise he was always Liberal for â—…hatsoever he received he again distributed it to â—…ch as were in want