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
Whitaker FAlling Sick of a Fever a Friend asking him how he did he replyed O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have not taken so sweet a sleep since my disease seized upon me But being in a cold Sweat his Friend told him That Symptoms of Death appeared on him to whom he answered Life or Death is welcome to me which God pleaseth for Death shall be an advantage to me for I desire not to live but only so far as I may do God and his Church Service He dyed Anno 1595. Aged 47. The Death of Robert Rollock HE said I bless God I have all my Senses entire but my Heart is in Heaven and Lord Jesus Why should'st thou not have it It hath been my Care all my life long to dedicate in to thee I pray thee take it that it may live with thee for ever Falling into a Slumber and awaking he desired to be dissolved saying Come Lord Jesus 〈◊〉 an end to this miserable life haste Lord and â—…arry not Then some bewailing their loss of him to them he said I have gone through all the degrees of this Life and now am come to my end why should I go back again O Lord help me that I may go through this last degree with thy assistance lead me to that Glory which I have seen as through a Glass O that I were with thee Some saying the next day was the Sabbath he said Thy Sabbath O Lord shall begin any Eternal Sabbath Then he breathed out Haste Lord and do not tarry I am weary both of nights and daies Come Lord Jesus that I may come to thee Break these Eye-strings and give me others I desire to be dissolved and to be with thee Haste Lord Jesus and defer no â—…nger Go forth my weak Life and let a better succeed One standing by said Sir Let nothing trouble you for now your Lord makes haste to which he said O Welcome Message would to God my Funeral might be to morrow Thus he continued servent in Prayer till he resigned up his Spirit unto God Anno 1598. Aged 43. The Death of Nicholas Hemingius BEfore his Death he grew Blind and much diseased desiring then to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Some time before his Death he Expounded the 103 Psalm to the admiration of all his Auditors He dyed Anno 1600. Aged 87. The Death of Daniel Tossanus DAniel Tossanus falling sick he Comforted himself with these Texts of Scripture I have fought the good fight of Faith c. Be thou faithful unto the Death and I will give unto thee a Crown of Life We have a City rot made with hands Eternal in the Heavens many other places he recited He dyed Anno 160â—… Aged 61. The Death of William Perkins HE was Born at Marston in Warwickshire and was Educated at Christ's College in Cambridge He wrote many rare Treatises which for their Excellency were Translated into most Languages All he wrote was with his Left Hand with which he stabbed the Romish Cause as one well exprest Though Nature thee of thy Right Hand bereft Right well thou Writest with thy Hand that 's Left In his last Fit a Friend standing by prayed for a mitigation of his Pains to whom he said Pray not for an ease of my Torments but for an encrease of my Patience He dyed Anno 1602. Aged 44. He was Buried at the Charge of Christ's-College with great Solemnity Dr. Mountague preached his Funeral Sermon upon this Text Moses my Servant is dead His Works are Printed in Three Volumes in Folio The Death of Francis Junius BUT being at Lions he escaped an Imminent Death which made him acknowledge God's Providence in his Miraculous Deliverance and to confirm his Belief he earnestly desired to read over the New Testament of which he gives this Account when I opened the New Testament I first met with St. John's first Chapter In the beginning was the Word c. I read part of it and was presently convinced that the Divinity and Authority of the Author did excel all Humane Writings My Body trembled my Mind was astonished and I was so affected all that day that I knew not what I was Thou wast mindful of me O my God according to the multitude of thy Mercies and called'st home thy lost Sheep into thy Fold And from that day he wholly bent himself to Pions Practices He dyed Anno 1602. Aged 57. The Death of Thomas Holland BEing Ancient he employed his Time in Prayer and Meditation and often used to sigh forth Come O come Lord Jesus thou Morning Star Come Lord Jesus I desire to be dissolved and to be with thee He dyed Anno 1612. Aged 73. The Death of James Granaeus IN the midst of his Pains he used to say As Death's sweet so to rise is sweet much more Christ as in Life so he in Death is Store On Earth are Troubles sweet Rest in the Grave I' th' last Day we the lasting'st Joys shall have He dyed Anno 1617. Aged 77. The Death of Robert Abbat ABbat drawing near his End he desired to make a Confession of his Faith but being faint and weak he referred his Friends to his Writings saying That Faith which I have published and defended in my Writings is the Truth of God and therein I die and so departed Anno 1618. Aged 58. The Death of John Whitgift THE Queen had a great Esteem for him and was pleased to be so familiar as to call him Her Black Husband at her Death he was present and administred to her what Comfort she desired when King James came to the Crown he much reverenced the Archbishop and when he fell sick King James visited him and laboured to chear him up but he had laid the Death of Queen Elizabeth so much to heart that in a few days he departed in the Lord Atno 1603. Aged 73. The Death of Theodore Beza HE often used the Apostles saying We are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good Works And that of St. Augustine I have lived long I have sinned long blessed be the Name of the Lord. Also Lord perfect that which thou hast begun that I suffer not Shipwrack in the Haven And that of Bernard Lord we follow thee by thee to thee we follow thee because thou art the Truth by thee because thou art the Way to thee because thou art the Life He dyed upon a Sabbath day when rising in the Morning he prayed with his Family and finding himself weak he desired to go to Bed again but sitting down on the Bed-side he departed without the least Sigh or Groan Anno 1605. Aged 86. The Death of William Cowper FAlling Sick he used to say My Soul is alwaies ready in my Hand ready to be offered to my God Where or what kind of death God hath prepared for me I know not but sure I am there can no evil death befall him that lives in Christ nor sudden death to a Christian Pilgrim who with Job waits every Hour for his
sigh p. 36. Man giveth up the Ghost and where is he p. 44. He 's carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom p. 49. The Winding-sheet p. 77. Tears for a Dead Husband p. 99. The Dying Knell p. 111. Put on Mourning Apparel p. 117. But now he is dead wherefore should I fast p. 126. Bury my Dead out of my sight p. 146. The Funeral Procession p. 150. The Worms shall feed sweetly on him p. 172. Prepare to follow p. 174. Look upon every day as your last p. 205. The Swan-like Note of a Dying Christian 216. The Eye that hath seen him shall see him no more p. 231. The Good Mans Epitaph p. 235. Hopes of a Joyful Resurrection p. 244. The Yearly Mourner p. 253. Weep not she is not dead but sleepeth p. 255. Good-night p. 262. Death-Bed Thoughts p. 81. The Fatal Moment p. 281. The Treatment of the Dead in order to their Burial p. 284. The Funeral Solemnity p. 291. An Account of the Death and last Sayings of the most Eminent Persons from the Crucifixion of our Blessed Saviour down to this present time To which will be added in the second part of the Mourning-Ring all the Remarkable Deaths omitted in the First Part. THE CONTENTS OF THE Second Part OF THE Mounrnig-Ring Which said Book is now going to the Press to supply what was wanting in the First Part and to compleat this Funeral Gift ADvice to those that are Diseased either in Body or Mind The solemn Wishes of a Person giving up the Ghost The Death watch The Sick-man's Passing-Bell A Conference between the Mourners The History of those that have died suddenly c. Observations on the weekly Bills of Mortaliâ—…y The Author's Tears or Meditations on his own Sickness Death and Funeral The Danger of a Death-bed Repentance A walk among the Tombs or a Discourse of Funeral Monuments of the several Customs of Burials from Adam to this time of Epitaphs and other Funeral Honours The Pilgrim's Guide from his Cradle to his Grave A Discourse of the Four last Things composed chiefly of the Authors own Experiences during his late Illness This Second Part will be Published in a few Weeks ERRATA IN Page 216. Of the House of Weeping for Dying Christian read The Swan-like Note of a Dying Christian. THE Introduction TO THE HOUSE OF Weeping Upon first hearing of the Death of a Neighbour or of a House-weeping for the loss of a Friend think with thy self and say HOW is my Neighbour Dead Then surely the Bell rings out and tells me in him that I am Dead also The Soul of my Neighbour is gone out and as a Man who had a Lease of 1000 years after the expiration of a short one or an Inheritance after the Life of a Man in a Consumption he is now entred into the possession of his better Estate Time was his Race but newly was begun Whose Glass is run He in the troubled Sea was heretofore Though now on Shore And 't is not long before it will be said Of me as 't is of him alas he 's Dead His Soul is gone whither Who saw it come in or who saw it go oâ—…t No body yet every body is sure he had one and hath none If I will ask not a few Men but almost whole Bodies whole Churches What becomes of the Souls of the Righteous at the departing thereof from the Body I shall be told by some That they attend an expiation a purification in a place of torment by some that they attend the fruition of the sight of God in a place of rest but yet but of expectation by some That they pass to an immediate possession of the presence of God Saint Augustine studied the nature of the Soul as much as any thing but the salvation of the Soul and he sent an express Messenger to Saint Hierome to consult of some things concerning the Soul But he satisfies himself with this Let the departure of my Soul to Salvation be evident to my Faith and I care the less how dark the entrance of my Soul into my Body be to my Reason It is the going out more than the coming in that concerns us The Soul of my Neighbour this Bell tells me is gone out Whither Who shall tell me that I know not who it is much less what he was The condition of the Man and the course of his Life which should tell me whither he is gone I know not I was not there in his sickness nor at his death I saw not his way nor his and nor can ask them who did thereby to conclude or argue whither he is gone But yet I have one nearer me than all these mine own Charity I ask that and that tells me he is gone to everlasting rest I owe him a good opinion it is but thankful Charity in me because I received benefit and instruction from him when his Bell tolled But for his Body How poor a wretched thing is that We cannot express it so fast as it grows worse and worse That Body which scarce three minutes since was such a House as that that Soul which made but one step from thence to Heaven was scarce throughly content to leave that for Heaven That Body which had all the parts built up â—…nd knit by a lovely Soul now is but a Statue of Clay and now these Limbs melted off as if that Clay were but Snow and now the whole House is but a handful of Sand so much Dust and but a peck of Rubbidge so much Bone If he who as this Bell tells me is gone now were some Excellent Artificer who comes to him for a Cloak or for a Garment now or for Counsel if he were a Lawyer if a Magistrate for Justice O my God thou dost certainly allow that we should do Offices of Piety to the dead and that we should draw instructions to Piety from the dead Is not this O my God a holy kind of raising up seed to my dead brother If I by the meditation of his death produce a better life in my self It is the blessing upon Reuben Let Reuben live and not dye and let not his men be few Deut. 33. 6. Let him propagate many And it is a malediction That that dyeth let it dye Zechar. 11. 9. Let it do no good in dying for Trees without fruit thou by thy Apostle callest Twice dead Jud. 12. It is a second death if none live the better by me after my death by the manner of my death Therefore may I justly think that thou madest that a way to convey to the Egyptians a fear of thee and a fear of death that there was not a house where there was not one dead Ex. 12. 30. For thereupon the Egyptians said We are all dead men The death of others should catechise us to death Thy Son Christ Jesus is the first-begotten of the dead Apoc. 1. 5. He rises first the eldest Brother and he is my Master in this science of death
shalt be pleased to command that Breath again out of Mans Body then will he presently become a dead Carkass and so short is the Life of Man that many times he doth but cry and Die yea sometimes his Mothers Womb doth prove his Tomb so that he doth not once cry to tell the World that he did once Live Neither is the Thread of Mans Life at any time spun so strong but at one word of thy Mouth it is soon snapt in two Seeing therefore we do but Live to Die we beseech thee Oh blessed God let us Die to Live let us live well that so we may die well let Death never surprize us unlooked for or unprepared nor let it ever seize upon us in an unconverted unregenerate State Good Lord let us not so live as to be ashamed to live any longer or to be afraid to look grim Death in the Face when it comes to separate our Souls from our Bodies and to summon them to make their appearance before the great Judge of the Quick and Dead Let us with thy Servant Job Wait all our appointed time untill our Change doth come Seeing it will be our greatest Wisdom to wait for Death which always waits for us and to expect that at all times which will come at some time and may come at any time Let us Pray and Preach and Hear and so spend our time as those who know and consider that all they do they do it for Eterninity and we shall never have but one Cast for Eternity Heaven and Glory is here to be won or lost for ever Blessed God thou hast taught us in thy Word that it is better to go to the House of Weeping than to the House of Feasting for that is the end of all men and thou hast said That the Living will lay it to heart Oh Lord we are this day come to the House of Mourning and Weeping and we have seen the end of one yea of many of our Friends and Acquaintance within a short space of time and in the Death of our Friends we may read our own Death and yet shall not we who are leâ—…t behind them in the Land of the Living lay these awakening instances of Mortality to heart shall we hear and see daily our nearest and dearest Relations giving up the Ghost and departing out of this into another World and yet shall we once think that we shall ever live to enjoy the Pleasures of this present evil World But seeing Lord this World is a dying World and all its glory is a dying Glory let our Minds and Hearts therefore be set upon the Glory of Heaven which is a never fading Glory Oh! did we believe and consider how much better a Believers future Estate will be than his present State is then should we think that Time is too long before we do and that Eternity will be too short when we shall enjoy our gracious Redeemer upon his Throne of Glory Let us ever live as those that have one Foot in the Grave already Thousands and Millions yea innumerable Millions of Thousands are gone to their Graves before us and do we think that we that are but enlivened Dust animated Shadows dying Lumps of Clay can keep our Bodies from being a Feast for Worms or our Souls from seeking new Lodgings in another World Oh! let us therefore every day be looking into our Graves and familiarize Death unto our Thoughts before it comes let us consider how many signal Admonitions thou dost daily give us of our approaching end Is not every Distemper and Sickness of Body as it were a little Death and a fair Warning to put us in mind of our last Change The Grey Hairs which are here and there upon our Heads the deep wrinkles which are engraven upon our Foreheads the loss of Teeth the Dimness of Sight our Deafness in Hearing our Palsie-hands our feeble trembling Limbs and the frequent Sight of seeing Friends laid out in their Winding Sheets for Dead and carried to their Houses of Clay the silent Grave are Circumstances and Symptoms serving to remind us that the time draws near wherein we must die and that our departure is at hand Let us therefore live as dying Men and let us die as Living Christians let us set our House and our Heart in order remembring the Text It is appointed for all Men once to Die but after this the Judgment The Mourners being all come first sing the following Psalms and after that Read part of 1 Cor. Chap. 15. to bring your minds into a serious frame Psalm 39. I Said I will look to my ways for fear I should go wrong I will take heed all times that I offend not with my Tongue verse 2 As with a bit I will keep fast my mouth with force and might Not once to whisper all the while the wicked are in sight verse 3 I held my Tongue and spake no word but kept me close and still Yea from good talk I did refrain but sore against my will verse 4 My Heart waxt hot within my breast with musing thought and doubt Which did increase and stir the fire at last these Words burst out verse 5 Lord number out my Life and days which yet I have not past So that I may be certify'd how long my Life shall last verse 6 Lord thou hast pointed out my Life in length much like a Span Mine age is nothing unto thee so vain is every Man verse 7 Man walketh like a shade and doth in vain himself annoy In getting goods and cannot tell who shall the same enjoy verse 8 Now Lord sith things this wise do frame what help do I desire Of truth my help doth hang on thee I nothing else require The Second Part. verse 9 From all the sins that I have done Lord quit me out of hand And make me not a scorn to Fools that nothing understand verse 10 I was as dumb and to complain no trouble might me move Because I knew it was thy work my patience for to prove verse 11 Lord take from me thy scourge and plague I can them not withstand I faint and pine away for fear of thy most heavy hand verse 12 When thou for sin dost Man Rebuke he waxeth wo and wan As doth a Cloth that Moths have fret so vain a thing is Man verse 13 Lord hear my suit and give good heed regard my Tears that fall I sojourn like a stranger here as did my Fathers all verse 14 O spare a little give me space my strength for to restore Before I go away from hence and shall be seen no more Psalm 90. Ver. 3 4 5 6 10 11. THou grindest Man through grief and Pain to dust or clay and then And then thou say'st again Return again ye sons of Men. verse 4 The lasting of a thousand years what is it in thy sight As yesterday it doth appear or as a watch by night verse 5 So soon as thou dost scatter them then
have had a sentence of Death pass'd upon them they are ever sweetest and tend most to Gods Glory Isaac had never been so precious to his Father Abraham had he not been so miraculously restored from dying as he was once But we shall hasten to see what is the cause of Christ his weeping and what the cause was you may see ver 32 33 34 35 36. when Christ saw Mary come weeping towards him having her heart running over with Grief for the departure of her Brother Christ groaned in Spirit and was troubled when they told him where dead Lazarus lay he wept as my Text expresseth Jesus Wept Oh Men and Angels stand and wonder to all Eternity When you read these two words Jesus wept What doth Mary's weeping set Jesus Christ a weeping Doth Mary and Martha shed Tears for the Death of Lazarus and doth Christ his Heart even bleed within him to see them troubled and mourning upon the same account so the word in the Greek seems to import 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he troubled himself his own heart stirred up his Affections to be troubled Doth Christ weep upon the consideration of Lazarus Death Then hence we may learn that a moderate sorrowing for Friends departed is lawful tho excessive Sorrow is very unsuitable to a Gospel Frame of Spirit Solomon tells us There is a time for Weeping and Paul tells us We should weep as though we wept not But to come to the thing I chiefly intend and that is the occasion of Christs weeping which was the death of Lazarus a good man whence I shall observe and prosecute this Doctrine That it is a Christ-like temper of mind to be deeply affected with and to weep over the death of such as are truly pious Here 's Lazarus a good man in his grave and Christ he weeps over him you have a weeping Christ over a dead Lazarus When old Jacob an eminent person was buried it 's said Gen. 50. 10. That they mourned with a great and sore lamentation and that for 7 days together And so when Moses died and was buried by a secret hand it 's said the Children of Israel mourned for him 30 days Deut. 34. 8. My dearly beloved you have lost a Moses one that was valiant for God in former times when the people of God in England were coming out of Egypt and he hath been an eminent leader to the saints in their wilderness state and God did often take him to the top of Pisgah and gave him there glorious visions and that not onely of heavenly Canaan but also of that glorious land of rest and righteousness that the Saints shall injoy in this world Now that such a Moses should be taken off in the Wilderness while the people of God are yet short of this good Land is matter of great humiliation Likewise you find the same spirit in those Christians Acts 20. that Paul the great Apostle of the Gentiles did there take his farewel of saying ver 25. And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the Kingdom of God shall see my face no more It 's said 37 38 verses And they all wept sore and fell on Pauls neck and kissed him Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake that they should see his face no more Now by all this it appears that it is both the duty and property of a Christian such an one as hath been baptized into the spirit of Jesus to be deeply affected with and weep over the death of such as are truly pious especially when they are eminent for use and service to Christ and his people We shall now give you the reasons why it is so and cannot be otherwise but that gracious persons must needs weep over the death of good men First Because every stroke in this kind puts a serious heart in mind of its own mortality tells us that we are dying creatures and that 's a very serious consideration to every awakened soul. The living the living will lay it to heart saith Solomon Eccl. 7. 2. Alas my Brethren 't is a serious thing to dye And the stroke of death upon others tells us that die we must and how soon we know not This Evening sun may see us dead it went out Early this morning to score us out this lodging of a Tomb. And oh happy thrice happy is that person that can die well Now such strokes as these put a serious soul in mind of dying There 's none present knows who may go to the grave next That 's the First but then 2. It Springs from that Sympathy that is both in nature and grace first in nature when God takes away a husband a Father a Child c. this cuts deep and affects much Abraham he mourns over beloved Sarah David over Absolon though a rebellious son To be stupid and not to mind the hand of God when he smites our near and dear relations doth declare that we do not onely want grace but natural affection And then in Grace there is also a great sympathy if God smites one member of the Church the rest are affected with it If a Paul a Minister of Christ a pastor a spiritual Father comes to take his farewell of his people and tell them that they shall never see his face more Oh what weeping and mourning and lamenting is there at his departure 3. The perishing of good men is a just cause of weeping and that because they are a great blessing to the nations cities families c. where they are cast It fares either the better or the worse with such places for their sake When God destroyed the old world the family of Noah was saved for Noahs sake Gen. 7. Profane wretches are ready to wish the people of God all out of the world but alas what would then these wretches do they are beholding to the saints for their very beings and for the continuance of all their mercies When God hath but once gathered in his elect and done his work in Zion he will soon pull the world about these mens ears If the righteous be taken away he is taken away from the evill to come Isa 57. 1. Wo to Sodom if Lot depart and so I may say Wo to England if the righteous should be taken away Wo to Graffham whenever thou ceasest to be a refuge to the saints whenever thy gates shall be shut against the ministers and people of the Lord Jesus The Children of Israel though they slighted and despised the Prophets would in time of distress come to them for Prayer 1 Sam. 7. 8 9. and 12 19. Yea Pharaoh as proud and as high as he was yet when the Plague was upon him Moses he must be sent for and be entreated to pray for him and his people And thus much for the Reasons of the Doctrine shewing why the People of God must needs be affected with and Weep over the Death of Religious Persons We shall
we that now mourn for others know not how soon our Friends may do the same for us and celebrate our Funerals When God took away many others that we knew he might at the same time or before have taken away you or me and why do we survive their Death but that we may set our House in Order The time is coming when Riches and Honour Health and Beauty Credit and Reputation among men will be of no value nor will Gold and Silver the Idols of this be currant in the next World We should not therefore be like those young people that are only serious in the House of Mourning or when they see their Friends carried to the Grave but in the next vain Company suffer the Impressions of their Mortality to wear off again We must be always sober in our Conversation as not knowing when we our selves shall be gone only this we may know that as the Years we have already lived are soon past so will those that are to come with the same swist motion pass away The longest Life here on Earth is but as a moment if compar'd with the future Eternity 'T is as a flash of Lightning to the whole Element of Fire just seen and then vanish'd The Last Sigh MY dearest Children ye whom I love in the tender and yerning Bowels of Affection draw near and attend to the words of your dying Mother who am now sighing out my last breath A weak Woman ye see I am but yet sinful I am which peradventure ye see not O weep not my pretty ones do not pierce and break my troubled heart with your sad laments I must die my little ones and go to a better place whither ye I hope shall one day follow me We came not together into the World nor shall we go together out of it In vain do ye shed those Tears of Sorrow for although Nature teacheth you to bewail my departure yet Grace will teach you to moderate your Mourning My Heart even bleeds to leave you behind me fearing lest ye will forget the Commandments of your God I should be sorry to have just cause to say unto you as Moses did to the Levites yet I will put you in mind of his words Behold said he while I am yet alive with you this day ye have been rebellious against the Lord and how much more after my death Deut. 31. 27. I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt your selves and turn aside from the way which I commanded you and evil will befall you in the latter days because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands vers 29. But I am persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation though I thus speak Heb. 6. 9. O my dear ones hearken unto the words which I shall say They must be my Legacy unto you Hear me with patience and treasure up in your memories the last Speech of your Fainting your dying Mother How dear ye cost me before ye had life and what Pangs and Torments I suffered for you before ye were heard or seen in the World ye cannot imagine nor I express Yet all was forgotten for joy that ye wâ—…re born Joh. 16. 21. and hoping that ye would add unto the Qâ—…ire of Saints To this purpose I have laboured and taken care for the nourishment both of your Souls and Bodies and for your sustentation so much as in me lay from the Breast to this instant O what sad and perplexed thoughts have I had for you in the day times and how many hours have I borrowed from my sleep in the nights to think what would become of you if ye should not be obedient to the Commandments of my God! To the same God they are best known O how often upon my knees have I prayed for your happiness and wept and mourned when ye have done what ye ought not To him is it best known to whom I now am going Sometimes when ye have offended I was enforced to correct you but each stripe which ye received did cut me into the heart In many things ye failed because ye were young and in many things I failed too because I am a weak and a sinful Woman If at any time ye thought that I did not my Duty take heed that hereafter ye remember it not to my dishonour Ponder in your minds that curse which wretched Ham the Father of Canaan received from Noah when he saw his Nakedness and told his Brethren Cursed said Noah be Canaan a servant of servants shall he be to his Brethren Gen. 9. 25. But because Shem and Japhet took a Garment and laid it upon their Shoulders and went backward and covered the nakedness of their Father and their faces were backward and they saw not their Fathers nakedness vers 23. Therefore he said Blessed be the Lord God of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant vers 26. God shall enlarge Japhet and he shall dwell in the Tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his Servant v. 27. Consider with your selves that I am your mother Whatsoever imperfections ye have discovered in me do in some kind reflect even upon your selves for as your Bodies were mine so my Credit and good Name you must account to be yours But I cannot think that ye will need more Advice for this which even Nature it self should teach you to practise My time is but short my Speech beginneth to fail me I will not trouble you with much although something more I must say unto you which I hope ye will remember when I shall sleep in the Dust. Your first and chiefest Duty must always be for the service of your God If ye will daily observe the benefits which he sendeth you ye cannot chuse but thank him daily for his Blessings Let it be your care to ground your actions upon his written Law Undertake nothing which is not warranted by his Word and go forward in nothing by unlawful means or to a bad intent Begin all in him and continue in him and end in him and he himself will be your Reward If ye always preserve Religion in your hearts ye will always have quietness and content in your minds First make him your God and then distrust not his Providence no nor his love and compassion while ye remain his Children In whatsoever vocations ye shall lead your lives be sure that ye be conscionably industrious and laborious in them and then leave the event and the blessing to his good pleasure I would fain have you be his Children much more than ye are mine for ye have nothing from me but your sin and corruption but from him you must expect both grace and glory If therefore ye strive to bless and magnifie your God ye may be sure that your God will both bless and glorifie you his Children Remember that the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he addeth no Sorrow with
from their bodies are in Hell Torments But to conclude all in one word and to apply all that hath been spoken to this present time and place let us all in our vocations and places follow the advice of a late Eminent Pen viz. to learn to have mercy on Lazarus that is on our poor Brethren that we may find mercy and that mercy may rejoyce in Judgment and you that are Magistrates of this City think upon Lazarus that lyeth in your Streets that pineth at your gates that starveth in your Prisons for want of Crumbs Heark how they cry Bread bread a loaf of bread for Jesus sake Who would not hear them who would not pity them who would not comfort them Also see that you chuse good and merciful Officers in your Spittles and Hospitals that may feed Lazarus and not fill their own Purses and Bellies as the rich man did And you that sit in the seat of Judgment and are Gods here on earth let the matter be rightly judged between the rich man and poor Lazarus let equity be in your right hand and justice in your left consider that Lazarus is poor and that he is not able to wage Law against the rich man yet defend him and let him have right Defend the Fatherless and Widdow See that such as be in need and necessity have their right then shall the righteous God of Heaven bless you and bless the Land for your sake then shall we be with Lazarus in the blessed place of rest whilst wretched Dives is tormented in Hell flames even in that burning prison where angry and enraged Devils shall be his Tormentors to Eternity where he will be for ever crying and groaning out in this kind of doleful manner following viz. Oh! cursed cursed most accursed Soul Where am I now what Friends are those that howl They seize upon me they torment me sore I Shreik with anguish they in fury roar In Earths deep center dark and dreadful Cell Where only angry damned Spirits dwell In grossest darkness yet my sight so clear Most hideous Visious to the same appear In Hell indeed where I endure that curse Which shall not cease but be hereafter worse In fire infernal out of measure hot Which ever burns and yet consumeth not I rave I curse and I accuse my fate As if such torments were unjust too great But Conscience nips me with not so I try To kill that worâ—… but oh it will not die Most wretched I besides the Woes I have Methinks I hear my bones within my Gâ—…ave As troubled with some fatal Trumpets sound Begin to shake and shiver in the ground Alas alas what shall of me become When wretched go ye cuâ—…sed is my doom How shall my Soul and Body both 〈◊〉 Then curse the hour they were again united How shall the Devils then with fury driven Sieze me for Hell when entenc'd out of Heaven And on me with much insultation rage As if my torments might their own asswage Then with â—…e bideous howling heard of Hell I shall be thrown down to that dreadful Cell Where we in flames which never fail shall burn From whence we never never shall return The Winding-Sheet NOw where am I If I look behind me I see Death hastning after me nay that Death is at my Back If I look forward I see Heaven and Hell before me my selfstanding on the very brink of Time and my next step for ought I know may be into Eternity of joy or sorrow where I did but now by Faith see others were there I my self must quickly really be there I shall rejoyce with them If I look a little before me I may see my self cast down upon a Bed of sickness my Friends weeping and fearing I shall die the Physicians are puzled and at a loss giving me over for the Grave and my self gasping for Life and breathing out my last If I look but a little before me I can as it were hear my Friends saying He is dead he is dead he is gone he is departed and then as it were I might see them haling me out of my Bed and wrapping me in My Winding Sheet and nailing me up in my Coffin I might see my Grave a digging and men hired to carry me on their shoulders from my house to my Long Home Relations and Neighbours following after to see me lodged in the Dust to lye and rot among the Dead But before all this can be done to my Body my Soul hath taken it's flight into Eternity where it is without change or alteration for ever to be with God or Devils Oh that I could then work it on my heart that I must quickly be either in Heaven or Hell that I have a long Race to run by a short breath if I enter Heaven a great way to go in a few hours The Sun who goes so many miles in a minute the stars of the firmament which go so very many more go not so fast as my body to the Earth In the same instant that I feel the first attempt of the disease I feel the victory In the twinkling of an eye I can scarce see instantly the tast is insipid and fatuous instantly the appetite is dull and desireless instantly the knees are sinking and strengthless and in an instant sleep which is the Picture the copy of Death is taken away that the original Death it self may succeed and that so I might have death to the life To return from the dead is impossible all my life then I will prepare for death They call death Charons boat I am sure it wafts the Soul from a material to an immaterial World I have but one step to Eternity it is from life to death I will be preparing this body of mine to win the garland of a blessed Immortality O the serious thoughts while I live How I must die these do so make me run that I may obtain a Crown of glory The sound of the Passing Bell assures me there is some to day likely to die it is so nigh Night it is high time then to work out my Salvation lest the Night of death put in and none can work I have a task set will take up all my time viz. to die well while I live then I will learn to die lest being found unprepared it be said Thou fool this night thy Soul shall be required of thee Maximilian the Emperor made his Coffin always to be carried along with him to this end that his high Dignity might not make him forget his Mortality What was long since decreed in Heaven God hath sent Warrants to execute on Earth semel mori for us once to die Kings Xerxes standing on a Mountain and having many hundred thousand of his Souldiers standing in the plain fell a weeping to think upon it how in a few years and all those gallant valiant men must die Adam he lived 930 years and he died Enoch he lived 965 years and he died Methusalem
lived 967 years and he died O the longest day hath its night and in the end man must die The Princes of the Nations pass sentence of death upon others Well it is not long but their turn will come Semel mori once to die Many of us live where our parents lived and live of the same lands which they lived of It is not long and our Children shall do as much for us For we must go hence and be seen no more Some ride Post some Hackney pace at serius citius sooner later all arrive at the Common Inn the grave and die Some have the Palsie some the Apoplexy some a Feaver some an Ague some a Consumption some none of them yet the sick the sound they all meet in the end at the same Rendezvouz at the House of Death The Scholar thinks to delude Death with hiâ—…s Fallacies The Lawyer puts in his Demur the Prince his plea is State affairs at â—…quo pulsat pede Death knocks at all doors alike and when he comes they all go hence from their houses to their graves Joseph the Jew in his best health made his Stone Coffin be cut out in his Garden to put him in mind of his Ego abeo I go hence The Persians they buried their dead in their houses to put the whole houshold in mind of the same lot Semel mori once to die Simonides when commanded to give the most wholsom rule to live well willed the Lacedemonian Prince ever to bear in mind Se tempore brevi moriturum ere long and he must die I have read of a sort of people that used dead mens bones for money and the more they have they are counted the more rich Herein consists my richest treasure to bear that about me will make me all my life remember my end Great Sultan Saladan Lord of many Nations and Languages commanded upon his death-bed that one shall carry upon a Spears point through all his Camp the Flag of Death and to proclaim for all his wealth Saladan hath nought left but this winding-sheet An ensured Ensign of Death triumphing over all the Sons of Adam I uncloath my self every night I put off all but what may put me in mind of my winding-sheet Anaxagoras having word brought him his onely son was dead his answer was Scio me genuisse mortalem I know he was born to die Philip of Macedon gave a Boy a pension every morning to say to him Philippe memento te hominem esse Philip remember thou art a man and therefore must die We read of Philostrates how he lived seven years in his Tomb that he might be acquainted with it against the time he came to be put into it Oh an Apprentiship of years is time little enough to make us perfect in the Mystery of Mortality Divine Meditations arising from the Contemplation of these sad and serious Sentences 1. Med. IS it not high time to make fit to die considering thy Winding Sheet lies ready for thee and the Bell tolls thee away Say with thy self My want is great my time is almost run If I make not market to day I am not sure to do it to morrow O the uncertainty of Life shall be the Alarum-Bell to give me now notice to work out my Salvation with fear and trembling O I am never so nigh my God as when I think of my end FRIEND let Death be in thy thoughts and God will be in thy heart 2. Med. Meditate since man must die Lord what danger in dying unprepared this is Maxima miseria A misery of miseries and St. Augustine gives the reason For that look how a man goeth to that prison the Grave so he goeth to the Judgment-hall to be tryed But oh Death thou Common Butcherer of human Nature after thy great stroak be struck I am not dead but asleep Blessed be thou my God who hast made my grave my bed in which after I have taken some silent rest the noise of the Archangel with his Trumpet shall awake and raise me from a Death for sin to a life of glory Death is the way we must all walk to Life Some ancient Fathers and some late Writers says the Lord Manchester have fixed upon the Love of God Some upon the Passion of Christ Some upon the Joys of Heaven Some upon Contempt of the World several others upon divers other subjects All opening that some one is to be chosen For whoso will live to himself must be at leisure for God And a wise man saith Wisdom is to be written in time of leisure Whoever is lessen'd by work he cannot tend it I being in my accustomed retiredness disengaged from publick affairs which was but seldom found it useful fruitful and delightful To bestow my thoughts upon my latter end There be four last things say the Fathers Heaven Hell Death and Judgment All subjects large enough But considering I had passed so much Employment so many Offices so long Practice in several professions I now thought it time to seize on Death before it seiz'd on me Lord teach me to number my days that I may apply my Heart to Wisdom After long meditation this I found that when Meditation had begotten Devotion then it applyed it self to Contemplation which required a settlement upon some Divine Object And what more heavenly than the thought of Immortality What so necessary as the thought of Death Herein therefore I complyed with my own desires and did so as it were weave my own windingsheet by making choice of Death for the Subject of my Contemplation We should not diffuse our thoughts into variety of Considerations but recollect them into one by Contemplation Herewith a man's soul being once affected hardly shall be obtain leave of his thoughts to return again to employments And lest I busied about many things should remain unknown unto my self for the old word is a true one Neither things read or understood profit him at all who does not both read and know himself I there applyed my self Ad meum novissimum to my last thing what man liveth and shall not see death And if after death The Righteous shall scarcely be saved we may well be fearful and had need be careful that we be not taken unprepared When I was a young Man saith Seneca my care was to live well I then practised the art of well living When age came upon me I then studied the art of dying well how to die well It is true The journey of Life appears not to busie men until the end Yet when I was most busie of all I delighted my self with this comfort that a time would come wherein I might live to my self hoping to have sweet leisure to enjoy my self at last And this I am now come to by disposing not by changing my self Lord let me be found in this posture when I come to die In the courses of my Life I have had interchanges The World it self stands upon
vicissitudes God hath interwoven my life with adversity and prosperity When I first took me to a Gown I put on this thought I desire a Fortune like my Gown not long but fit fit for my condition finding by others that a contented kind of obscurity keeps a Man free from Envy Although any kind of Superiority be a mark of envy yet Not to be so high as to provoke an ill eye nor so low as to be trodden on was the height of my Ambition But I must confess I have since had a greater portion of the World's favour than I looked for Nevertheless I never gave trust to fortune although she seemed to be at peace with me To check repining at those above me I always looked at those below me nor did any preferments so delight me or abuse me as to make me neglect preparing for my dying day And now I thank God I can say O Lord my heart is ready This I have considered that Life flows away by Hours and days as it were by drops Careful Martha was full busie about many things but was well advised by Christ There was only one thing necessary One thing have I desired of the Lord that I may dwell in his House for ever This was David's unum his one thing and God willing shall be mine Amidst these thoughts I had these things in contemplation 1. What Death was and the kinds of Death 2. Secondly What fears or joys death brings 3. Thirdly When Death is to be prepared for and How 4. Fourthly Death approaching what our last thoughts should be Of these things I thus believed That Death was but a fall which came by a Fall Our first-framed Father Adam falling in him we all fell It was not the Man but mankind Body and Soul parting BUt Oh how bitter at that time will be the parting of Soul and Body We see old acquaintance cannot part without tears What shall such intimate familiar friends do as the Soul and Body are which have lived together from the Womb with so much delight In that hour every man will make Balaam's suit O that I might die the death of the Righteous We all desire to shut up our last scene of Life with In manus tuas Domine Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit At this Hour What would a man give to secure his Soul Quid dabis pro animâ tuâ tunc qui nunc pro nihiâ—…o das illam What wilt thou give then for thy Soul to save it who dost so prodigally throw it away now for nothing This thou canst not leave behind thee that will tell thee whether thou goest and what thou shalt look for Tunc quasi loquentia tua Opera dicent Tu nos egisti Tua opera sumus Tâ—… non deseremus sed tecum iâ—…imus ad Judicium Then shall thy doings even speaking aloud say unto thee Thou hast done us we are thy works we will not leave thee but will go with thee to judgment In that day shall come into mens minds by the Divine Power in the twinkling of an Eye all their past good or evil Works Memory the Magazine of the Soul will then recount all that thou hast done said or thought all thy life long For there needs no other Art of memory for sin but misery Man is a great flatterer of himself but Conscience is always just and will never chide thee wrongfully it always takes part with God against a man's self It is a domestick Magistrate that will tell what you do at home It is well termed the pulse of the Soul therefore if you would know the true state of vour Body or Soul feel how this beats that will tell you Yet take heed you make not an Idol of your Conscience neither think as some do that it is a crime to make a Conscience of our Actions At point of death if a man will take his aim by the best men that ever lived or died that of David Ezekias yea and of Christ himself as he was man is able to amaze any man when as our Saviour Christ not many hours before he suffered said My soul is troubled and what shall I say and at the very point of Death said Father if it be thy will let this Cup pass from me When David said Save Lord for thy mercies sake For in Death there is no remembrance of thee And Ezekias wept sore when he was bid Put thy house in order for thou must die If the Patriarchs if the Prophets if the Apostles if the Martyrs if Christ himself was thus troubled at the hour of Death Wretched man that I am what shall I do We were all to seek but that Christ bids us Be of good chear for I have overcome Death Caesar Borgias being sick to death said When I lived I provided for every thing but death now I must die and am unprovided to die Previous preparation becomes a wise man But we are all deceived with this Error 〈◊〉 we think none but old men approaâ—…h to death neither experience nor age can work upon us so death that it may more easily sâ—…rprise us shrowds it self under the very name of life He that sâ—…es the Basilisk before he be seen of it avoids the poyson See Death before it comes you shall not feel it when it comes We pray daily Lord Give us this day our daily Bread whilst it is called to day We should remember Life is but a day 't is bâ—…t a day not an age Wherefore saith Solomon Talk not of to morrow for thou knowest not what to morrow will bring forth A man saith Luther lives forty years before he knows himself to be a fool and by that time he sees his folly his Life is finished So men die before they begin to live To die well is too busie a work to be done well on a sudden Deferring as well as presuming makes many men implicite Atheists It was a sweet Speech and might well have become an Elder Body which a young innocent Child of my own used in extremity of sickness Mother what shall I do I shall die before I know what death is I beseech you tell me what is Death and how I should die Now of the way to die well HE that would end his days well must spend them well 'T is no great matter to live all do as much but few die well But Death faâ—…s sad and heavy upon such Are little known at home abroad too much Man is ready to die before he lives but therefore he liveth a time in the world that he may die betime to the world His Years come to an end as a Tale that is â—…old His days deceive him for they pass as a shadow by moon-shine then appearing longest when they draw nearest to an end Job saith My days are swister than a Post they flee away and see no good The art of dying well is better learnt by Practice than by Precept Unto
I musing in these pensive thoughts when I should rather prepare for the burial of the dead Have I taken a course for the place of his Rest where his cold body may be laid to sleep This is a duty which every age hath been careful to perform It was a greater argument of Jehojakim's fury against Uriah the Prophet that he cast his dead body into the graves of the common People than that he slew him with the Sword Jer. 26. 23. It hath also been a testimony of God's revenge when he suffered not the dead to have a decent interment If a Man beget an hundred Children saith the Preacher and live many years so that the days of his years be many and his Soul be not filled with good and also that he have no burial I say that an untimely birth is better than he Eccles. 6. 3. When the Man of God had disobeyed his command the old Prophet told him saying Thy Carcass shall not come into the Sepulcher of thy Fathers 1 King 13. 22. This Curse was accounted as full of dread as any that was sent upon the Sons of Men. But on the contrary Abijah the Prophet telleth the Wife of Jeroboam concerning her sick son Abijah saying Arise get thee to thine house and when thy feet enter into the city the Child shall die But all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the Grave because in him there is found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam 1 Kings 14. 12 13. Again when Huldah the Prophetess did foretell the destruction of Jerusalem but a respite thereof in the time of Josiah she told him saying Behold saith the Lord I will gather thee to thy Fathers and thou shalt be gathered into thy Grave in peace 2 Kings 22. 20. Thus hath it often discovered the wrath of the Almighty when the carkasses of the dead have been denyed their funerals and on the contrary it hath sometimes manifested his love when they have peaceably been brought to their longest home Burial is the last of duties which we owe unto our friends to which both religion and nature and civility do prompt us forward When Isaac being old and full of days did give up the Ghost and died and was gathered unto his people his two sons Esau and Jacob buried him Gen. 35. 29. When John the Baptist was beheaded in the prison his disciples came and took up the body and buried it Mat. 14. 12. The disciple that was willing to follow my Redeemer yet accounted it his duty to attend on the funeral of his deceased Father and therefore desired saying Lord suffer me first to go and bury my Father cap. 8. 21. Even the glutton in the Gospel had so much favour as to be brought to his Grave so saith the text The rich man also died and was buried Lu. 16. 22. It is then the duty of the living to provide even for the dead that they may be buried in peace But is it a matter of any moment in what place we lay the bodies of our deceased friends Is it not all one whether in the fields or whether in our Golgotha's No doubtless for even the laws of our land are so justly severe against Idolaters that we suffer not the convicted to be buried in our ground which is dedicated to this use Neither may they be permitted to mix with our dead who have desperately become the murderers of themselves but they lye in the roads where a stake is set up to give notice to passengers that they unnaturally hastened their own departure Is it a matter of some moment to us who are living that we lay our deceased friends in a place convenient for although it extendeth not to their knowledge yet it redoundeth to their honour But is it not all one in what part of the ground I bury my Husband so I lay his body in a place that is set apart for that purpose Surely no although it is equal to him yet is it not to me Although at the resurrection we shall meet again at what distance soever our Graves shall be made yet there is some reason we should be buried so near as we may that as our bodies were injoyned a mutual society in the time of life so they might also sleep together in the silent dust It is but just that one grave should receive the bodies of us for whom one bed was designed upon earth that as in our lives we were made one flesh so after our deaths we should make one lump When Barzillai was offered a favour from King David and wooed to spend his time at the Court he besought the King saying Let thy servant I pray thee turn back again that I may die in mine own city and be buried by the grave of my Father and of my Mother 2 Sam. 19. 37. Friends have ever desired to lye by friends that those especially who were knit together in blood affection might be joyned together in their earth and ashes In the Cave of Machpelah which Abraham bought of Ephron for four hundred shekels of silver was buried both himself and Sarah his wife Gen. 23. 16. There lay Isaac and Rebekah his wife cap. 49. 31. and there lay Leah and Jacob her husband chap. 50. 13. Though Saphira died by the judgment of God for the lye she had told yet when she fell dead at Peter's feet and yielded up the Ghost the young men came in and carried her forth and buried her by her Husband Act. 5. 10. It is therefore convenient that I choose a place for burial of my Husband where if so it may be I my self may be layed Convenient it is but not absolutely necessary for the souls shall not enjoy the less felicity for the remoter distance and separation of the bodies neither shall the bodies either be sensible of the disjunction or shall it retard their meeting at the general day Although the bones of Jacob were carried into the land of Canaan and buried in the câ—…ve of the field of Machpelah which Abraham bought according as he had made his son Joseph swear to him before his death Gen. 50. 13. 5. yet he had formerly buried his beloved Rachel in the way to Ephrah which is Bethlehem and there Jacob set a pillar upon her Grave which was called the pillar of Rachel's grave cap. 35. 19 20. Thus do I sit and muse about the burial of him whom so dearly I loved Yet methinks I could most readily preserve him from the dust if either it were in my power or might bring me content But go he must and I must follow him This narrow room of his coffin must be put in trust with his mouldring earth and he who in his life time was entertained with variety of spacious chambers must now securely sleep in the chamber of a Grave O how it grieveth me to see this effect of sin Had not
Disciples who had indignation at the Act and therefore said To what purpose is this waste Yea he reproved them and said unto them Why trouble ye the Woman For she hath wrought a good work upon me For in that she hath poured this Ointment on my Body she did it for my Burial Mat. 26. 8 10 12. She hath done what she could she is come aforehand to anoint my Body to the burying Mar. 14. 8. Here I find was Ointment to embalm him and here were also Tears at his Funeral And yet so far was Christ from blaming her for her Tears that he not only decreed the publishing of this Act through the World where the Gospel should be preached and that for a Memorial of her Mat. 26. 13. but he likewise upbraided Simon with the tears of the sinner and said unto him I entred into thine house and thou gavest me no water for my feet but she hath washed my feet with Tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head c. Wherefore her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Luke 7. 44 47. Weep then I may upon this sad occasion yea and weep may my Friends too Tears are as proper at a Funeral as Smiles at a Wedding We have two Marriages the first whereof is to living Dust the last to the cold and silent Earth At the former we rejoyce for it was an institution of God before Man had sinned Gen. 2. 24. At the latter we weep for it is the effect of sin We cloath our selves in delightful Colours when we celebrate the former But our Blacks at the latter are our Wedding Garments The Rosemary is served about at each The Gloves and the Favours attend at each The Wine and the other accustomed Entertainments are given at each We go to the Church for the consummation of each Only here is the difference that at the one we rejoice but at the other we mourn Every Guest that is willing to comply with the present occasion must as well be sad at this as be merry at the other Weep we may and weep we must especially my self who have lost my self But yet let me take heed that I offend not in my Tears lest that which is my Duty be turned into a Crime I must especially take heed that I err not in the cause of these Laments for if I grieve at the happiness of him that is departed I discover an Envy rather than Affection If I grieve for the loss which my self sustaineth I must take heed that I wrong not my confidence in God I may not offend in the number of my Tears for if I weep too much I may forfeit my hope or at least I may occasion those that behold me to think that I doubt of the salvation of the Dead Weep I may and weep I must but for fear lest I offend in these my Tears in my earnest Prayers I will beg that they may be sanctified To my God will I go for his Direction and Assistance And in this storm of my Tears I will shelter my self under his Protection The Dying Knell Or Tears for the Death of a beloved Brother and may likewise serve at the Decease of any other faithful Friend A Friend saith King Solomon loveth at all times and a Brother is born for adversity Prov. 17. 17. Friendship which is begotten by the outward form or any other sinister and by-respect liveth no longer than that ground of affection but nature is stronger than our election can be and Religion obligeth far more than both O how great then is my loss of my dearest Brother in whom both excellency of Feature nearness of blood and a gracious conversation conspired together to render him matchless To me he was a Friend but now to the Grave and what loss can be greater than the loss of a Friend To me he was a Brother but now to the Worms And what loss can be more deplorable than the loss of a Brother But to me he was yet more he was a Friend in his Love and courtesies a Brother by his blood yea and an instructer a teacher of Religion and goodness And yet nor love nor blood nor Religion could preserve him mine O what Sorrows do accompany all things transitory His love could not die but his body could And so I am deprived of the Society of my Brother because my Brother was subject to Corruption But is this the adversity for which he was born according to King Solomon Did the Wise Man intend that a Brother is born to bring Adversity Or rather to comfort us in the time of Adversity Had he been a cause of my least disturbance while he was living he would have eased my grief by grieving himself He would have comforted me in the time of trouble had he lived to see my grievous mourning But now alas I am left to lament alone and so much the more for the want of his comfort I now must grieve for him who was my joy and my laments and my griefs increase the higher because for his sake they arise who cannot allay them Had we lived in hatred his death peradventure might have been my Comfort Had we loved but slightly a tear or two I might have thought enough to pay at his Funeral But our Love was firm it was strong yea strong as death and who then can blame me if my sorrows in some measure keep pace with my love O what tie can be so great as that of affection What love so great as of a Brother and Sister And yet so vain is Man so frail are Mortals that either our affection or our persons must have a divorce Had my deceased Brother forgotten the tie and bond of nature and in his life had he turned his love into hatred yet his fault ought not to have lessened my Love to which both Nature and Religion did strongly oblige me Had he loved me but coldly and faintly as divers do yet I ought to have warmed his affection with the fervency of mine But oh he dearly loved he cordially affected me and yet his love and his affection could not prolong his life Had my Brother and I been Idolaters together I might have believed that that sin had slain my Brother But as our Love was constant so our Religion was undefiled yea the strength of our Love was founded on the purity of our Religion and yet he hath payed his debt to Nature The Lord did threaten to set the Egyptians against the Egyptians and that they should fight every one against his Brother Is. 19. 2. Those Egyptians were heathens and Enemies to the Church but my Brother and I were united both in the Profession and the Love of Christianity and yet through our sins I fear that even we destroy each other My sins are partly punished in his death and his death hath given me so deep a wound that peradventure I shall not long survive him Our love was so
of this World And Secondly he saith the living will lay it to his heart He speaks of such an end of Men as is opposite to the life of Men. In a word By the House of mourning he meaneth a house wherein some one is dead which giveth occasion to the parties that dwell there of sorrow and mourning for their departed friend It is better to go to such a house By the House of feasting he meaneth not only such a house wherein there is feasting but also all manner of abundance As commonly Men shew their wealth in Feasting By the end of all men he meaneth such an end of a man as that he ceaseth to be as he was upon earth and ceaseth to do as he did upon Earth By laying to heart he meaneth such a serious considering and pondering and discussing of every thing as they may bring it to some use may draw some Fruit and benefit out of it to themselves So that the sum and substance of the words is thus much It is a better thing for a Man to be conversant about the thoughts of death and to take hold of all occasions that may bring the serious consideration thereof into his heart than to delight himself in those worldly pleasures and sensual delights wherein for the most part men spend their lives The words consist of a Proposition And a proof or confirmation of that Proposition The Proposition It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to go to the house of Feasting The Confirmation or proof of it is double First Because this is the end of all Men Secondly Because the living will lay it to his heart In the former he calleth the House wherein any one dies the House of Mourning It is better to go to the House of Mourning Where you see That the Death of Men with whom we live is a just occasion of Mourning to some The holy Ghost would not have described the House wherein a man dies in this manner if there were not some equity and justice in mourning upon such an occasion For he speaks not here as I conceive only with reference and respect to the common Custom of natural and worldly Men but with respect to the natural disposition and affection that is in the heart of man and the equity of the thing There should be visible signs of Mourning and there is in it a just occasion when men are taken away by death When Sarah died the text saith that Abraham came to Mourn for Sarah and to weep for her Gen. 23. 2. And Esau when he speaks of the death of his Father Isaac he calleth the time of his death the time of Mourning the days of Mourning for my Father are at hand Gen. 27. 41. So Joseph when his Father was dead it is said that he mourned for his Father seven days Gen. 50. 10. When Samuel was dead all the Israelites were gathered together and lamented him 2 Sam. 25. 1. When Josiah was dead there was such a great lamentation for him that it became a pattern of excessive mourning In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon zach 12. 10. Our Saviour Christ when he looked upon Lazarus he wept because he was dead And those Ephesians this was it that broke their hearts they sorrowed most of all for the words which St. Paul Spake that they should see his face no more Acts 20. 38. We come now to the proof of the point why going to the House of Mourning taking these occasions to affect our hearts is better than to go to the House of Feasting than to take occasions of delighting our selves in outward things What 's the reason It is double First This is the end of all men What is the end of all men The House of Mourning That which he meaneth by the House of Mourning here is thâ—…â—…ch he calleth the end of all men that which putteâ—…h an end to all men and to their actions upon earth and that is Death So that the main point that in this place the wise man intendeth is but thus much I will deliver it in the very words of the Text we need not vary from them at all Death is the end of all Men. But here it will be objected We find some men that did not die It is said of Enoch that he was translated that he should not see death Heb. 11. 5. And of Elijah that he went up by a whirl-wind into heaven in a chariot of fire 2 King 2. 11. These men did not die To this I answer briefly Particular and extraordinary examples do not frustrate general rules God may sometimes dispense with some particular men and yet the rule remain firm I say it may be so But secondly we answer They had that that was in stead of Death to them some change though they did not die after the manner of other men So at the end of the world it is said that those that are alive shall be caught up and changed in the twinkling of an eye there shall be a sudden and almost undiscernable unperceivable change which shall be to them in stead of death But it will be objected further There is a promise made in Joh. 11. That those that believe shall never die To this I answer with that common distinction There is a twofold death which the Scripture calleth the first and the second death The first death is the death of the body that ariseth from a disjunction and separation of the body from the soul And there is a second death that ariseth from the dis-junction and separation of the soul from God The first death is no death properly the second Death is that which is truly Death And so they shall not die A man may have a body separated from the soul and yet not his soul separated from God nor himself from Christ. Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers c. Rom. 8 38. This point also is of use to us in the death of others First to moderate the mourning of Christians for the Death of others Why It is the end of all men it is that that is the common condition of all men it should not be too grievous nor too doleful to any man We would not have our friends to be in another condition in their birth than others we would not have them have more fingers or more members than a man and would we have them have more days Let this serve as a brief touch upon that Secondly it teacheth us to make good use of our fellowship while we are together Not only we may die but those that are useful to us may die also let us make good use of one another while we live therefore It did sinite the heart of those Ephesians that they should see the face of Paul no more specially above the
rest it grieved them that they should see him no more how would it have grieved them think you if they had always hardned themselves against his ministry before Think with your selves seriously here is such a Minister such a Christian friend that husband and wife that parent and child a time of parting will come let us make it easie now by making good use of one another while we live that when friends are took away we may have cause to thank God that we have had communion and comfort of their fellowship and society the benefit of their graces the fruit of their lives and not sorrow for the want of them by death Death separates a Man from his Friends For alas Death doth not only part a mans body and soul a mans self and his wealth but it parteth a man from his friends from all his worldly acquaintance from all those that he took delight in upon earth Death makes a separation between husband and wife see it in Abraham and Sarah though Abraham loved Sarah dearly yet Death parted them Let me have a place to bury my Dead out of my sight Gen. 23. It parteth Father and Child how unwilling soever they be see it in David and Absolom Oh Absolom my son would God I had died for thee and Rachel mourned for her Children and would not be comforted because they were not It parteth the Minister and the people see it in the case of the people of Israels lamenting the death of Samuel in the case of the Ephesians at the parting of S. Paul sorrowing especially when they heard they should see his face no more It parteth those friends who were so united together in love as if they had but one soul in two bodies see it in the separation that was made by death between David and Jonathan that were so knit together in their love that he bewaileth him Woe is me for my brother Jonathan 2 Sam. 1. 9. This is necessary consideration for us that live that we may learn to know how to carry our selves towards our worldly friends and how to moderate our selves in our enjoyment of these worldly comforts Look upon every worldly thing as a mortal as a dying comsort Look upon Children and friends as dying comforts Look upon your estates as that that hath wings and will be gone Look upon your bodies that now you make so much of as a thing that must be parted from the soul by death and that ere long See what advice the Apostle giveth 1 Cor. 7. 19. the time is short saith he therefore let those that marry be as if they married not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away When thou accompaniest another to the grave dost thou conclude thus with thy self the very next time that any death is spoken of it may be mine or as Saint Peter speaks to Saphira after the death of Ananias The feet of those that have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out also Again this Doctrine serves to reprove that sinful laying to heart of the death of others that is too frequent and common in the world That is first when men with too much fondness and with too great excess and distemper of affection look upon their dead friends as if God could never repair the loss nor make amends for that he hath done in taking of them away Rachel mourneth and will not be comforted David mourneth and will scarce be comforted Oh Absolom my son my son would God I had died for thee What is all this but to look on friends rather as Gods than men as if all sufficiency were included in them only Men look on their friends as Micah did upon his Idol when they had bereaved him of it they took away all his comfort and quiet You have taken away my Gods saith he and what have I more Judg. 8. 24. This now is an ill taking to heart the death of friends to mourn as men without lâ—…pe Secondly there is taking to heart and considering of the death of men but it is an unrighteous considering and unrighteous judging of the death of others If men see one die it may be a violent death then they conclude certainly there is some appearent token of Gods judgment on such a one If they see another die with some extremity of torment and vehement pains certainly there is some apparent evidence of Gods wrath upon this man If they see another in some great and violent tentation strugling against many tentations they conclude presently certainly such are in a worser case than others I may say to all these as Christ said once to those that told him of the eighteen men upon whom the Tower in Siloe fell think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Hierusalem Luke 13. 4. Or rather as Solomon saith All things come alike unto all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked Eccles. 9. 2. Learn to judge righteous judgment to judge wisely of the death of others take heed of condemning the generation of the just But rather in the last place Make this use of the death of every one Doth such a man die by an ordinary sickness having his understanding and memory continued to the end Doth such a man die in inward peace and comfort with clear and evident apprehensions of Gods love so that he can with Simeon say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Luke 2. 29. What use shouldest thou that livest make of this now Certainly let the sweetness of their death make thee in love with the goodness of their lives That is the only way to a happy death to a comfortable end indeed the leading of a fruitful and profitable life The main business that a man hath to do is to make sure of himself in this life It was the question that Saint Austin made to those that told him of a violent death that seized upon one But how did he live saith he He made no matter how he went out but how he carried himself in the world And truly this is the great Question that every man should put to his soul. I must out of the world how have I lived when I was in the world had GOD any glory by me had men any good by me have I furthered my account against the day reckoning that I may give it up with joy But now he is Dead wherefore should I Fast Sermon IV. 2 SAM xii 23. But now he is dead wherefore should I fast can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me HEre you have a large Description of that incomparable Love which our princely Prophet David that good King of Israel did bear towards his Son who was no sooner visited with
behind us our Servants on our right hand our Wives and Children on our left hand our Friends and in the midst our selves so that as St. Paul says Heb. 9. 27. No one can escape him So that you may see as Job saith man's time is appointed his months determined and his days which are but few upon Earth numbered yea and as our Saviour Christ says his very last hour is limited He was made of the mould of the Earth and therefore thither shall he return and as all have one entrance into Life the like going out shall they have to death Naked came we into this most miserable World and naked shall we return again If Adam had not eaten of the forbidden Fruit we had never known what Sin had been and so by consequence Death which is a thing that now cannot by any means be avoided before that we knew what sin was we had strong Houses But ever since God let 's us dwell in thatch'd Cottages and clay Walls every Disease like a storm is ready to totter us down In old time men us'd to live long but now many are thrust out of house and harbour at less than an hours warning yea and even in their infancy at their first coming into the world as this poor innocent Child was and not only for their own faults for their own transgressions but for their Parents In the Third of Gen. you may find mans Exodus and that is thou shalt die Ever since Old Adam our great great great Grandfather neglected his Duty towards God Death the lodge of all mens lives comes with insensible degrees upon the sons of men it 's impartial hand is always destroying no Wisdom can appease no Policy can prevent nor any earthly Riches redeem us from the Grave semel aut bis morimur omnes some once some twice we must all die we have an old Statute for it that this earthly Tabernacle must suffer corruption and therefore the Poet sings sweetly Post hominem vermis post vermen foetor horror Sic in non hominem vertitur omnis homo As man came from the Earth so thither shall he return and become a habitation and food for Worms If any had been exempted from the fatal and general sentence of Death then without all question our most blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ had been who for our Sins and for our insufferable Iniquities suffer'd the sharpest death imaginable even to die upon the Cross who was equal to the Father touching his God-head Now seeing that this ever blessed Virgins Son Lion of the Tribe of Judah and harmless Lamb of God did suffer an ignominious Death to redeem us from Eternal Death let not us be unwilling for our own good to lay down our lives and to part without sorrow and grief with our dearest Friend or Relation but rather let us take up a full resolution when any of our Friends although never so near and dear unto us be departed and say with David now he is dead now he ceaseth to breath and now he hath taken a farewell of the Elements wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again Good Christians can with patience embrace this Life yet in their best meditations they do commonly wish for Death they honour all that contemns it but cannot endure or heartily love any that is afraid of it this makes many naturally love a Souldier and honour those tattered and contemptible Regiments that will die at the command of a Sergeant For a Pagan there may be some motives to be in love with Life for a Christian to be amazed at Death I see not how he can escape this dilemma that is too sensible of this Life or careless of the Life to come If a Wife put forth her Child to Nurse and the Nurse having kept it long enough she taketh it home again can the Nurse or any other have any cause to complain so the cause stands between God and our Souls If God having inspired into these mortal Bodies of ours that which is immortal come and take it to himself lest it should come to harm can any one have any reason to Complain As seed unless sown in the Ground cannot bring forth so we until that Death come and we be laid in the Ground cannot expect our consummation and bliss with Gods Saints in his Kingdom of Glory Death freeth the godly from the Tyranny of Satan from Sin from the World from the Flesh and from eternal Damnation placing them with Christ for evermore in Heaven the Center of all good wishes where instead of Earthly Bodies they shall be cloathed with unspeakable Glory and all this holy David was not Ignorant of which made him as soon as his dearly beloved Son had taken his Farewell of this inferior Orb say Wherefore should I fast seeing my Child yea my precious Jewel has changed his Life out of a miserable world into a Kingdom where pleasures ineffable are to be had for evermore but now c. And this brings me now unto the Third thing considered in my Text which is the manner of his mourning and that was how he spun away his time in weeping fasting and praying for his dear child so long as he was alive he did not as Priamus did for his Son Hector Fast Weep and Pray after his Death or as many do now adays only in outward shew altering their Garments No his was far otherwise it was real true and hearty sorrow not countenanced in the least with a heavy look or with a solemn sigh blown from deceitful lungs No his was a Weeping Watching Mourning and Fasting Grief he was sequestered from all Worldly contentment imprisoning his Body from all the pleasures of this mortal Life ever making his bed to swim and watering his couch with tears He mourned as one for his only Son eating ashes like Bread and mingling his Drink with weeping still weeping wailing and crying as one that had parted with his dear Mother Psalm 35. 14. or as a virgin girded with sack-cloath for the husband of her youth Joel 11. 8. Nature being we are Members of one Body thinking the mishap of other men to be our own through the mutual compassion of Christ's Body makes us desirous to live together so long as is possible therefore was it possible for David to refrain from tears when he took his farewel of one Child part of his own Body No he could not forbear crying until he began to consider with himself that he was dead and that the Death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord and the day thereof better to them than the day of their birth being then and not before as Saint John Says Revel 14. 13. they rest from their labour then yea then and not before he could rise change his cloaths wash his hands and break his fast Now such I say if they will mourn ought to be your manner that is so long as your friends
of your base weak and frail Flesh you are a Clod of Earth are so still and in the end shall become nothing else but a Coffin of Earth under ground Thy Grave shall be thy House and thou shalt make thy Bed in the Dark Thou shalt say to Corruption thou art my Father and to the Worm thou art my Mother and Sister Our Flesh dissolveth into Filthiness Filthiness into Worms and Worms into dust so our Flesh which is Dust thar is nothing returns into nothing that is Dust at last And thus I have shewed you at large how we are said to be Dust and likewise how we shall at last return thither again Wherefore now to be brief to put a Period to all Remember what you are and Meditate Daily and Hourly upon what you shall be lest that Death like a Thief steal upon you as it doth upon many now-a-days For Meditation is like Gunpowder which in a Mans hand is Dust and Earth but if you put Fire thereunto it will overthrow Towers Walls and whole Cities A light Remembrance and a short Meditation of what you are is like that Dust which the wind scattereth away but a quick lively Memory and enflamed Considerations of your own wretched Estates will blow up the Towers of your Pride cast down the Walls of your Rebellious Nature and ruine those Cities of Clay wherein you live As the Phoenix Fannowing a Fire with her Wings is renewed again by her own Ashes so shall you become new kind of Creatures by remembring what you have been are and what you shall be that you are but Dust and shall return unto Dust again Moses casting Ashes into the Air made the Iâ—…chanters and their Inchantments to vanish The Ashes scattered by David put the King out of doubt and made it appear unto him that that was no God which he adored Job came forth from his Ashes in better Estate than he was before And as Joseph came out of Prison from his torn and fattered Rags and had richer Robes put upon him so you from out of these your Ashes shall be stript of the Old Man and put on the New The forgetfulness of other things may be good sometimes but of your selves what you are and shall be never This will require a continual Remembrance therefore this cannot be to often inculcated Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt return THE EJACULATION GOod Lord we confess that Man is but a Worm of Yesterday his Production was out of the Dust and must thither return in his ultimate Resolution for as we have heard Dust we are and unto Dust we shall return Let us therefore alwaies be in a readiness for our last Change seeing we know not how soon the silent Grave may involve us under its Wings where we shall lie in Obscurity till the last Trumpet shall sound at the Morning Day of the Resurrection Arise ye Dead c. Good Lord though now we appear 〈◊〉 living Objects of thy Favouâ—… yet we know not how soon the Scene may be altered for this very Day we now breath in may be the last we shall ever count and so many waies may the Thread of our frail Lives be snapt asunder that we cannot promise our selves an Hours time upon Earth a little Stone from the House-top as we pass in the Streets a slip of our Foot or the slumbling of our Horse a sudden mischance among a Million that may befal us which we know not of may reduce us to our first Original and leave us a pale Carkass to be Sacrificed to the gaping Grave Oh let us often therefore consider where will be our Eternal abode when the black Attire of our Funeral is over and all our Weeping Friends gone to their several Houses and Homes Let us often think how meanly-and poorly Clad we shall enter into our Coffins with only one poor Shrowd and othâ—…r Dresses fitted to cover us and whaâ—… will become of our rich Attire our haughty Deckings our over-curious Trimmings in the Grave whither we are all agoing And when we are Arrested by the cold Hands of Death how Pale and Wan to all shall we seem Even ready to nauseate our Spectators Good Lord let such Thoughts as these keep us humble and keep down all proud aspiring Thoughts that shall at any time arise in our corrupted Hearts For 't is true Dust we are and unto Dust we shall return Job xxiv 20. The Worms shall feed sweetly on him THat is the Grave shall be no securer to him than to others there the Worms shall feed upon all men and they shall feed sweetly on him or it shall be a kind of sweetness and pleasure to him to have the Worms feeding on him which is no more then what Job said upon the same Argument Chap. 21. 23. The Clods of the Valley shall be sweet to him In these words you have Job describing the state of a Dead man laid in the Grave he tells you the Worms shall feed sweetly on him After Job had but spoke of Man's Conception in the Womb he next tells you of his Corruption by the Worm so suddainly doth a man step out of the Cradle into the Coffin that sometimes there is no space between them both The Worms shall feed sweetly on him Those that have formerly fed upon their Sweet-meats the time hasteneth when the Worm shall feed sweetly on them As all Wooden Vessels are liable to be Worm-eaten though they be never so euriously wrought so will the neatest Body the finest Face be shortly a Worm-eaten Face The Design of the Expression and of the Context being to convince us of the certainty of our Deaths and the uncertainty of our Lives I shall conclude this Subject with telling you That no person can seem so brave and youthful at the present but for â—…ught any thing he knows he may the next Hour be a Banquet for the Worms to feed upon Prepare to follow SERMON VIII ISAIAH 8. 38. Set thy House in order for thou shalt dye and not live Dearly Beloved IAm now about to speak of that which will shortly render me unable to speak and you are now about to hear of that which will also shortly make you uncapable of hearing any more and that is Death It will be but a little while before Death will cause both the Speaker to be Dumb and the Hearer to be Deaf Oh that I might therefore this day speak with that seriousness unto you as considering the time draws on apace when I shall be Silenced by Death and never more have an opportunity to speak one word unto you And Oh! that you might Hear this day with that diligence and reverence as considering that after you are once Nailed down in your Cossins and Covered with the Dust you will never hear one Sermon more or one Exhortation or one word more till you hear these words pronounced by the great Judge of the Quick and Dead Surgite Mortui venite ad
Judicium Arise ye Dead and come ye unto Judgment What is said in my Text as it is likely you have often heard it with your Ears so now you may see it accomplished It is appointed unto all Men once to die Death hath long since come into our Nation and hath summoned many to make their appearance in another World yea you know that Death hath already entred into our Streets and hath not been afraid to step over our Threshold and to seize upon those that have been standing round about us yea it hath come into our very Bed-chambers and hath suddenly snatched away those that have been lying in our very Bosoms So that we have had warning enough of the near approaches of Death unto our selves and without doubt some of us have had the Sentence of Death within our selves as the Apostle speaketh and therefore it is high time for you and I seriously to consider what is said in my Text Set thy House in order c. Something we shall briefly speak now in order to the explanation of the words that so you may once more hear before you feel the meaning of them It is appointed or enacted by the Court of Heaven Statutum est it is a Statute or Law more firm and certain than the Laws of the Medes and Persians which is never to be repealed or abrogated We are not therefore telling you what may but of what must inevitably come to pass It is appointed unto Men that is as much as to say unto all Men once to die It is an indefinite Expression and so is to be understood of all the same kind without some special exception from this general Rule And indeed such an exception there is to be found in the Scripture for saith the Apostle We shall not all Die but some shall be Changed in a Moment in the twinkling of an Eye there shall be some at the end of the World who shall not pass under Death but yet they must pass under a Change which is thought will be equivalent unto Death But for the present time and according to the common Method and Course of Providence no Man or Woman hath any ground to expect that they shall escape the stroke of Death for it is appointed unto Men that is unto all Men once to Die Death will no more spare him that wears a Crown upon his Head than him that carries a Spade in his Hand as the Poet Elegantly expresses it Pallida Mors aequo pulsat pede Pauperum tabernas Regumque Turres c. And the Scripture speaking of Kings useth this Expression I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like Men. But what is the meaning of the Phrase to Die I can assure you if you know not yet it will not be long e're you will know the meaning of it The Philosopher describes Death thus Est privatio Vitae ob Animae separ ationem a Corpore As Spiritual Death is the Separation of God from the Soul so Temporal Death is the Separation of the Soul from the Body When those two the Soul and Body which have like Twins dweltlovingly together under the same Roof must be parted asunder and enjoy no more sweet and intimate Communion one with another till the time of re-unition at the General Resurrection This is that which must once be done every one must here take their turn And though this happeneth to some at one time and to others at another time yet first or last it will happen to all The Greek word Thanatos which signifies Death is taken from a word which signifies extendere and indeed Death stretcheth out it self so far that no Man can live out of the reach of it As surely as thou wast once Born so surely shalt thou once Die Let me but ask you this one plain Question and your own Conscience shall be the Judge in the Case Couldest thou still remain a Drunkard or a Swearer if thou didst but once seriously consider that thou must once Die Or couldst thou so eagerly set thy Heart upon the empty lying and dying Vanities of this World didst thou buâ—… once seriously consider that thou must once and it may be before to Morrow be taken out of this World Or couldst thou neglect the means of Grace or Delight in Prophaneness didst thou but seriously consider that thou must once die and it may be before ever thou enjoyest another Praying or Preaching opportunity To die is much and as this must be once done so there is more to be done than this for after this cometh Judgment Whether the particular or general Day of Judgment is here to be understood needs no debate seeing both will certainly follow after Death As for the certainty of Death you need not look into your Bibles for a proof of that I shall only desire you to open your Weeping Eyes and let them but a little while be fastened upon the Dead Corps that now is before you and if afterwards you can question this Truth I shall say no more to you at present but that it will not be long e're others may say of thee as the Apostle Peter did to Saphira Acts 5. verse 5 6 7 compared with the 9 and 10. Verses And Ananias fell down and gave up the Ghost and the young Men arose wound him up and carried him out and buried him And his Wife not knowing what was done came in and Peter said unto her How is it that ye have agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord Behold the Feet of them which have buried thy Husband are at the door and shall carry thee out Then fell she down straightway and yielded up the Ghost and the young Men came in and found her dead and carrying her forth buried her by her Husband The same Bier and it may be the same Persons which have carried thy Neighbour thy Husband thy Wife thy Brother or Sister already to the Grave behold they stand ready to do so much for thee And let every one consider with himself that he may be the very next in the Town or Family for whom the Bier may be fetched to carry him unto his long home And then as for the certainty of Judgment though every one hath a sufficient Proof in his own Conscience of the truth of this yet for as much as some have seared Consciences and therefore would put off the Evil Day and say with those 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. And there will come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts saying Where is the Promise of his Coming since all things continue as they were from the beginning c. You may therefore Consult these plain Scripture Proofs Eccles. 11. 9. compared with Rom. 14. 11 12. For we shall all stand before the Judgment-Seat of Christ yet that is not all but as it followeth So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God 2 Cor. 5. 10. For we must all appear before
with all alacrity and chearfulness of Heart you may endure all things for Christs sake Fourthly you must get your selves furnished with Humility Virtue which when the Lord of Heaven beholds it in you which caused him to sink into your Hearts Fifthly you must get your selves furnished with Hope of Everlasting Faith and Salvation And then sixthly and lastly with Faith which is an evidence of things not seen thus you must get your selves set in order c. And thus far of the matter of this Admonition and earnest Exhortation Now I should come to the Reason which is twofold affirmative and negative Affirmative thou shalt die and Negative and not live Set thy House in order for thou shalt die and not live Now of these severally and first of the reason affirmative thou shalt die Now there are three kinds of Death First the Death of the Body which is a natural Death Secondly the Death of the Soul which is a Spiritual Death And then thirdly and lastly the Death both of Body and Soul which is Eternal Death But that which good King Hezekiah was warned of was but only the Death of the Body which according to the Statute Law Decreed in that High Court of Parliament of Heaven all Men shall once taste of no Man can escape it for so saith St. Paul it is appointed unto all Men that they shall once die to all once to many twsce for there is a second Death and that is truly a Death because it is Mors Vitae the Death of Life the other rather a Life because it is Mors Mortis the Death of the Death after which there shall be no more Death Now as Job saith Mans time is appointed his Month determined and his day numbered yea and as Christ Jesus the Worlds Saviour saith his very last hour is limited he was made of the Mould of the Earth he shall return again to the Earth And as all have one Entrance into Life the like going out shall they have to Death Nothing we brought in nothing we shall carry out Naked come I out of my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return A Change then shall come which of the wicked is to be feared of the godly to be desired and of all people to be daily and hourly expected Remember them that have been before you and that shall come after you that this is the Judgment of the Lord over all Flesh to taste of Death All Men shall once die for as much as all have sinned and been disobedient unto the Laws of God This Death of the Body is not a dying but a departing a transmigration and Exodus of our Earthly Pilgrimage unto our Heavenly Home yea a passage from the Valley of Death unto the Land of the Living Although our Souls and Bodies are separated for a while yet shall they meet again in the receptacle of Blessed Saints and Angels with much joy and receive an incorruptible Crown The Body is a Prison to the Soul and Death a Goal-delivery that frees the poor harmless Soul of those Grievances which formerly it did endure Length of days is nothing unto us but much grief and Age the duance of long Imprisonment wherefore if that you would but seriously consider this you might find Death to be rather a Friend than an Enemy and by consequence rather to be desited than shun'd as Simeon did as it is evident Luke 2. 29. saying Now Lord lettest thou thy Servant depart in peace according to thy Word which by some is used thus Now Lord I hope that thou wilt suffer me to depart in peace and keep my poor Immortal Soul no longer within the small circumference of this Mortal Body The Thief upon the Cross laid down his Life most joyfully because he saw Christ and did stedfastly believe that he should pass from a place of pain and misery unto a Paradise of Pleasure and so did St. Stephen Acts 7. 56. The Royal Preacher King Solomon lest that his Son should be deprived of such Happiness doth by an Emphatical Irony disswade his Son from those youthful Lusts and sensual Pleasures whereunto he feared that he should naturally be addicted and that by the consideration of that dreadful account he was to give unto God at the great and terrible day of the Lord desiring him most earnestly not to let his House stand out of order but ever to remember his Creator in the days of his youth for old Age will come saith he and then thou shalt not be so fit by reason of much weakness and infirmities Or else Death may seize upon thee For Dust shall return unto the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return unto God who gave it Eccles. 12. 7. In a moment yea at the twinkling of an Eye when once this Tyrant Death comes it will sweep us all away It is the Custom among us here to let Leases one two or three Lives but God lets none for more than one and this once expired there is no hopes of getting the Lease renewed he suffers Man sometimes to dwell in his Tenement threescore Years and ten Psal. 90. 10. Sometimes to fourscore but secures none far from home and that for several Reasons First to bridle our curiosity left that we should search after things too high for quae supranos nihil ad nos those things that are above us are nothing to us Secondly to try out patience whether that we will put our whole trust and confidence in him although we know not the time of our departure and dissolution and then thirdly to keep us in continual watchfulness for if that we should know when Death would come with a Habeas Corpus to remove us it would make many more careless than they are though indeed the best of us are careless enough Here Men do know the date of their Leases and the expiration of the Years but Man is meerly a Tenant at will is put out of Possession at less than an Hours warning Wherefore now while it is said to day set your Houses in order seeing that you must die and not live It is not sufficient at the last Hour of Death to say Lord have mercy on me or Lord into thy hands I commend my Soul But even in all our life-Life-time yea and especially in our youth we must strive ever to set our Houses in order for we shall die and not live Samson was very strong Solomon very wise and Methusalem lived many years yet at last they with many more were brought to Mother Earth If it seem pleasant unto you at the present to let your rotten and ruinous Houses stand out of order yet with all remember what the Prophet saith The day of Destruction is at hand and the times of perdition make haste to come on Art thou a young Man in the April of thine Age and hast thou thy Breasts full of Milk and doth thy Bones run full of Marrow as Job speaks and thereupon dost
the Devil and so judge your selves that you be not judged of the Lord. In a word that you may escape all those torments which by reason of sin are incident both to Body and Soul seeing the night is far sâ—…ent and the day is at hand while you have time set you Houses in order for you shall die and not live THE EJACULATION GOod Lord let us be always setting our Houses in order that we may be really willing and truly fit to die when Death shall seize us Let us be always a preparing for our last Change for it is the living only who are in a capacity to praise Thee The Grave into which we are all going is a place of silence where there is no praying to Thee nor praising of Thee neither are any that go-down thither capable of securing their eternal well-fare in the Grave there is no Preaching nor hearing there we shall be altogether insensible of the actings of God and be altogether uncapable of acting any thing for God Oh! that we therefore who are within a few steps of our long and last home might seriously consider what a vain thing it is to dream that we shall ever enjoy our worldly Relatives or that we shall ever possess our worldly accommodations What need have we then to be setting our Houses in order for 't is certain we shall once die and how soon we know not Oh then let your Thoughts Words and Actions be such as may best become dying persons seeing all that would dye comfortable must set their Houses in order beâ—…re they depart Look on every day as your last SERMON IX JAM 4. 14. What is your Life It is even a Vapour that appeareth for a little time and ufterward vanisheth away THere is nothing that doth evidently set before Mens Eyes the Deceits of the World and the vanity of things present as doth the due consideration of the uncertainty shortness and frailty of Man's Life for all humane Pride and the whole glory and pomp of the World having Man's Life for a stay and foundation can certainly no longer endure the same Life abideth so that Riches Dignities Honours and such like howbeit a Man may enjoy them for a small space on Earth yet do they never continue longer with him than unto the Grave The consideration whereof together with this present occasion offered have caused me amongst all other places of Holy Scripture to make choice of these words which I have now read unto you in which as in a most bright shining Glass we may behold both the frail Constitution of Man's Nature as also the short continuance of his Life here on Earth it being but a Vapour and What is your Life This whole Chapter containeth four Dehortations the first is from Lust unto the fifth Verse the second from Pride to the Tenth the third from speaking evil of our Neighbour to the Thirteenth the last from Presumption of words to the end of the Chapter to disswade from which sin he useth two arguments especially the first is drawn Ab incertitudine rerum from the uncertainty of things and that 's contained in the words immediately going before my Text the second is drawn á Vanitate Vitae from the vanity of Man's Life and that 's set down in the words of my Text. Which words contain two general parts a Question and an Answer What is your Life There 's the Question the Answer followeth in the next It is even a Vapour c. First of the Question What is your Life Wherein observe that Life is twofold for there is a Created Life and there is an Increated Life the laâ—…ter is only to be found in God the former is a quality in the Creature whereby it liveth and moveth and acteth it self Now Created Life is twofold Spiritual and Natural Again Spiritual Life is twofold sometimes it is taken for the Life of Grace which God's Children only do enjoy in the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ in this World which by way of excellency is called the Life of God not so much for that it is from God as also all other kinds of Life are as because God liveth in them that are his and approveth this Life in them And it is called for the same respect the Life of Christ because Christ liveth in his through a super-natural Faith and Spirit and they live unto God and conform their Life unto his Will And it is called a new Life a Christian Life and a renewing of the Mind Will and Affections This Life is opposed to Death in Sin and to the old Man Sometimes it is taken for the Life of Glory whereby the Soul being jopned again to her Body shall lead a Life which the Apostle calleth Spiritual not in respect of the Substance but of the qualities 1 Cor. 15. 44. whereby the Faithful shall live for ever and it is laid up in Christ and the end of the World shall be disclosed and which is opposed to the second Death and it is called Eternal Life Thus much of the Spiritual Life Now the Natural Life also is twofold for either it may be taken generally for the Life of all Creatures whereby they live move and have their being or more particularly for the Life of Man which natural Life in Man is the act and vigour of the Soul arising from the conjunction of the Body with the Soul this Life is given by God continued by Meats and Drinks and other necessary helps and ended by Death this is the Life properly meant in this place It is even a Vapour c. A Vapour according to the Philisophers is a thin fume extracted out of the Earth by the Sun in the night time but in the morning or afore it is scattered with the Wind or dispelled with the Sun or else if the Sun do not appear in his Brightness it falleth away of it self to the Earth from whence it came or was drawn by the heat of the Sun Such as is the nature of a Vapour even such is the Life of Man for he is extracted out of the Earth by the Sun of Righteousness and he either perisheth before he seeth the Sun or else in the Morning of his Youth or if he escape the mid and noontide of his growth yet at the last he falleth away by Age to the Earth from whence he was taken The Text thus explained we may observe these Points of Doctrine for our Instruction The first is the Frailty of our Constitution in these words It is even a Vapour Secondly the Shortness of our continuance Which appeareth for a little time Thirdly The vanity or nullity of our Life after Death in these words And afterward vanisheth away First Of the Frailty of our Constitution the Apostle doth not compare the Life of Man to Silver or Gold or Iron or Brass which are durable Substances or some Body that is Corpus perfecte mixtum that is perfectly mixed or compounded of the four Elements but to
the Table seest before thee many and sundry sorts of Meats a Friend of thine secretly admonisheth thee that among so many dainty Dishes there is one Poysoned what in this Case wouldst thou do which of them darest thou touch or taste of wouldst thou not suspect them all I think though thou wert extremely hungry thou wouldst refrain from all for fear of that one where the Poyson is It is made manifest unto thee already that in one of thy seventy Years thy Death lieth hidden from thee and thou art utterly Ignorant which year that shall be how then can it be but that thou must suspect them all and fear them all O that we understood the shortness of our Life how great Profit and Commodity should we then receive by the Meditation thereof Thirdly and lastly the vanity and nullity of our Life after Death intimated in these words And afterward vanisheth away The whole Course of Mans Life is but a flying Shadow a little spot of time between two Eternities which will quickly disappear the same Earth which we now so negligently tread upon may suddainly receive us into her cold Imbraces Well may Life then be said to be vanishing away Though now we are in perfect Health yet before to morrow some dear Friend or other may passionately follow our Hearse to the Grave Our time past is like a Bird fled from the Hand of the owner out of sight and our present time is vanishing away and on Earth we have no abiding But here consider if Life be so vanishing and uncertain a thing then 1. This reproveth those that Squander away their precious time as if their abode on Earth would be too long to prepare for Eternity if they did not mispend it half but it is time for us to cry out The time past is more than enough to have wrought the Will of the Flesh 1. Pet. 4. 3. or as it is Rom. 13 14. 'T is high time to awake out of Sleep 2. If Life be thus vanishing then be not over solicitous as to future Events but willingly submit to a Divine Providence be not so much concerned for to Morrow do not cumber your selves with too much Provision for a short Voyage 3. If Life be thus short and vanishing then do much work in a little time shall we loose any of that time which is so fleeting and so uncertain And thus I have briefly shown you the frailty of the Life of Man and the profitable use we might make of this Consideration That our Life is but a Vapour which appeareth for a little time and afterward Vanisheth away 4. If Life be so short and uncertain then look upon every day as your last so did the Apostle Paul who said I die daily as there is nothing more certain than Death so there is nothing more uncertain than the time of Death We are all Tenants at Will and therefore the great Landlord of Heaven and Earth may turn us out of our Clay Houses when he pleaseth It was a worthy Custom of a Roman Emperor that would have his Man come every morning to his Bed-side and pronounce these Words Remember thou art a dying Man certainly such are justly to be reproved who look upon Death as at a great distance from them It is a common saying of some that they thought no more of such a thing than of their dying day surely it argues a very wicked frame of Heart to be so forgetful of Death when 't is that we are to expect every minute and know not but each day that comes may be our last THE EJACULATION GOOD Lord what is the Life of Man is it not like unto a Vapour which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Is it not like unto a Bubble which quickly swelleth to a considerable bigness and as quickly sinketh again Is it not like unto the Grass which groweth up and flourisheth in the Morning but is cut down before the Evening come Oh Lord though Life be sweet yet common experience shews that it is short and as our Life is shoâ—…t in it self though we should live to the very outside of the strength of Naeture so will it seem much shorter if it be compared with Eternity it self And yet as short and as uncertain as our Life is we have a long work to dispatch before we go away from hence and be seen no more we have a great way to go by a setting Sun a great Race to run by a short Breath and if Life be but as a Vapour how little reason have we then to squander away precious time Yea how great reason have we to redeem the time that is past and to improve every â—…nch of the present time Let us remember that we have no continuing City here and therefore it will be necessary for us to seek one that is to come Good Lord therefore do thou make us to know our end and the measure of our days what it is that so we may be throughly convinced how frail we are Dying Christian. SERMON X. Being the last Sermon this Author Preacht at Grafham in Huntingdonshire Beloved Brethren THE Lord hath set it home upon my Heart ever since I came amongst you earnestly to desire and to pray for the Salvation of your Souls it hath been no small Encouragement to me to lay forth my weak endeavours in the Ministry when I consider that he which converteth a Sinner from the Errour of his way shall save a Soul from Death and hide a multitude of Sin James 5. 20. To save a Soul from Death is so glorious an Imployment that herein I cannot chuse but rejoice with the Apostle when I see the word of the Kingdom working effectually in any Soul I bless God every day without ceasing that he hath given me a full proof of my Ministry in the Hearts and Consciences of some even in this place since I came among you so that I may say with Paul 1 Cor. 9. 2. and they indeed are and shall be unto me and I unto them a Crown of rejoicing at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and on their behalf I pray that their Faith may grow exceedingly and that their Love unto Jesus Christ and unto all Saints may every day more and more abound and I commend them unto God who is able to keep them from falling and to present them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding Joy As for others I am jealous over them with a Godly Jealousie as the Apostle speaketh continually praying that they may not be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ but that they may hold fast the mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience Some indeed there are that cause me secretly to groan in my Spirit and my Heart I even bleed over them and I do pity them in the Bowels of Jesus Christ fearing least they should like the five foolish Virgins fall asleep and hereafter endeavour to enter into
my present hope is my only help for indeed such an one hath only help in this Life â—…but a Christians common Expression is this Dum Exspiro Spero Expiration is my Expectation for such an one hath hope in the Life to come when a wicked Man dies he thinks he shall live worse but a Christian when he dies he knows he shall live better he cries with the holy Apostle for one to live is Christ and to die is gain Job 19. 25. I know that my Redeemer liveth and he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth and though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my flesh shall I see God Thirdly Death was never intended to be as a privation of good but as a priviledge for good to the Believer and it is attended with these several Priviledges First Corporal and Temporal Death it serves to set out the Beauty and Excellency of eternal Life It is Gods usual method to set out one contrary by another Contraria juxta se posita magis eluâ—…escunt In War God commends Peace to us In Adversity Prosperity in Sickness Health and in Death he commends eternal Life to us As the Limner lays the Foundation of a curious Picture in a Dark Ground-work so God doth oftentimes lay the foundation of our sweetest Mercies in the greatest miseries and this he doth that his Mercies may appear more lovely in our eyes and thus he sets off the joys of Heaven by the troubles we meet with on the Earth It is said of Zeno that he was wont to eat bitter things that he might the better taste sweet and he would say sweet things were nothing worth if they were not so commended to us And so bitter Death it is but an Engine devised by infinite Wisdom and for to set out the Unspeakable sweetness of Everlasting Joys God could as easily have received all his redeemed ones into the immediate imbraces of Divine Love and Glory without letting them know what it was to be tempted to be afflicted or to die but only for the better sweetning and endearing fulness of Glory to them Secondly Deaths mortal Wound it is but preparatory to an immortal weight of Glory Death it is the midnight of all troubles and sorrows which is in Travel with a morning of everlasting Joy and Comfort Death it is the Saturday or last day of our Weekly labours which ushers in a Sabbath of eternal rest Rev. 14. 13. And I heard a Voice from Heaven saying unto me Write Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord for they rest from their Labours and their VVorks follow after them Here the Believer hath labour without rest but in Heaven he shall have rest without Labour Death tends indeed to a Believers perfect everlasting reign and rest The Believers Afflictions upon Earth they are fore-runners of Deliverances they are as throws to the Birth of future Comforts The Whale which swallowed up Jonah God appointed as the means of bringing himself to the Shore And so the trouble which we often times think may swallow us up it brings us to our harbour Death it lands us safely upon Glory One excellency sets out the state of a dying Christian in these Words Per Augusta ad Augusta per Spinas ad rosas per Procellas ad Portum per Mortem ad Vitam migramus Lastly Death it is as a Bridge that all Saints must walk over to the everlasting Hill of endless Peace to the perfection of Grace to the participation oâ—… Glory to the full possession of Christ. 1. Death it leads us to the perfection of Grace the believer would live that he might be more perfect but when he dies he is perfect indeed a dying life that is a dying to sin it frees us from a living Death well doing fits us for dying Holiness frames us for Happiness 2. Death it leads us to a participation of Glory the consummation of Grace is the inceation of Glory Grace that puts the Soul into a capacity of enjoying glimps of God as in a Glass darkly but glory brings the Soul ad visionem beatificam into an immediate converse with God face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. For now we see through a Glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then I shall know even as I am known 3. Death it leads us into a full possession of Christ Luke 23 43. This day shalt thou be with met in Paradise so saith Paul Then shall we be ever with the Lord comfort comfort ye one another with these words to be always with Christ will be very comfortable indeed Death that deprives us of commerce with men yet it delivers us up into an immediate communion with God and Christ and the blessed Angels Saints in Heaven shall be as the Angels nay saith John now are we the Sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Death speaks the sad disjunction of the Soul from the Body and the sure and sweet Conjunction of the Soul with Christ and therefore saith Paul and every Christian when he is in a right temper I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is best of all And thus I have endeavoured to lay open before you those Soul supporting and Soul encouraging Arguments the consideration of which makes the believing Soul so willingly and so boldly to look Death in the Face to invade Death in its own Quarters which is indeed but as a Passage or Bridg whereby the Soul is carried over unto the Mountains of Mirrh and unto the Hill of Frankincense where it shall lie down with Christ on his Green Bed of Love which is perfumed all over with the fulness of increated Glory And thus having shewed you many Arguments the Consideration of which doth much facilitate a Believers passage through Death into Glory I shall in the next place for a further Illustration of this truth present unto you the admirable carriage and department of some famous Christians since Christ his time as in Relation to their contempt of Death and earnest desiring to be with Christ in Glory and in this Relation I shall begin with Ignatius who lived while Christ was upon the Earth and so proceed to several other remarkable Instances in successive Generations Ignatius when he was sent by Trajan the Emperour to Rome there to be devoured of Lyons for his free reproving of Idolatry instead of fearing Death he thus couragiously expressed himself I wish says he that I could see those wild Beasts that must tear me in piâ—…ces I would speak them fair to dispatch me quickly and if that would not do I would incite them to it Hierom of Prague the renowned Bohemian Martyr he uttered these words with much chearfulness at his very giving up the Ghost Hanc animam in flammis affero Christe tibi freely do
more fit nor more ordinarily Preached on than two And they are both of them Voices from Heaven One was to Isaiah the Prophet He was commanded to cry The Voice said Cry And he said What shall I cry All Flesh is Grass and all the goodliness thereof is as the Flower of the Field You will say That is a fit Text indeed so is this here A Voice from Heaven too But St. John is not commanded to cry it as Isaiah was he is commanded to write it That that is written is for the more assurance It seemeth good to me saith St. Luke in his Preface to his Gospel Most excellent Theophilus To write to thee of those things in order that thou mightest know the certainty Philosophers who saw no further than the Clouds of Humane Reason could say A wise Mans Life should be a continual Meditation of Death Joseph of Arimathea had his Sepulchre in his Garden and Jesus Christ at the Publicans Feast falls into a serious discourse of his Passion and Ascension to teach us that in times and places of greatest Pleasure we should put our selves upon Theams of Mortality Heathens indeed had their Burying-places without their Cities but Christians in and about their Churches as signifie that in our Devotions we should think upon our dissolutions which was one reason why Alphonsus King of Arragon used to confess that dead Men were his best Friends they gave him sound and seasonable Counsel to remember Mortality here and provide for Eternity hereafter To this end St. John in his Book of the Revelation is sometimes advising us to make Preparation for Death And sometimes encouraging us against the approaches of Death by describing the glorious Reward of the Saints departed as in this Text Blessed are the dead c. From whence we may observe that they that die in a state of Grace live in a state of Glory This Observation I take to be the Scope and Quintessence of the Text and therefore shall make it the proper Subject of my present Discourse First by way of Explication to shew what it is to die in the Lord. That implies two things especially 1. To die in the Lord is to die for the Confession of the Faith 2. To die in the Profession of the Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. 3. And lastly To die in the Lord is to die in the peace of a good Conscience A Conscientious Man dies Blessedly howsoever or whensoever or wheresoever he dies therefore when St. Paul had received the Summons of Death he fled to the Castle of his good Conscience there he sat like Noah in his Cabbin in an Ark pitch'd within and without I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand and here is my Comfort I shall go to my Grave with a Conscience as clean as my Winding-sheet it follows I have fought a good Fight finished my Course kept the Faith henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness This Truth is confirmed by a double Reason They Rest from their Labours and their Works follow them Their Blessedness consists in two things 1. In a cessation from all Sin and Misery They Rest c. 2. In a possession of all Glory and Felicity Their Works follow them First They Rest c. The Kingdom of Heaven is often in Scripture termed a Rest a place of Rest. The World indeed is a troubled Sea but Heaven is the Haven of Rest the World is an Egypt a place of Burden and Bondage but Heaven is a Canaan that resembled by the Bosom of Abraham a place of sweet Refreshment and Soul-satisfying Rest. The Saints departed Rest from the Labours of their Corruptions Afflictions Temptations And lastly They Rest from the Labour of their particular Calling and Vocation which is toilsome and troublesome ever since God past this Doom upon Man for his offence in Paradise In the Sweat of thy Brows shalt thou eat Bread Indeed Man in the state of Innocency was not excused from Labour Paradise which was Adams Store-house was his Work-house too God put him into the Garden not to sleep in those sweet Bowers not to spend his time idly in those pleasant Walks but to dress and keep it ut operaretur that he might work and labour in it only here is the difference Labour then was a Recreation to the Mind and now it is an Affliction to the Body The second Reason is laid down in the last words of the Text Their Works follow them therefore they are Blessed Their Happiness is not only privative consisting in a freedom from Sin and Misery but positive also in a possession of all Peace and Glory in a consummation of Grace in a perfect Fruition of God and a Blessed Communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Their Works follow them not their Works in kind but their Works in Issue and Effect the Fruits and Reward of their Works the Blessings of God which lye in the Promises to Works of Piety and Charity These follow them to Heaven Indeed Faith leads the way that must be our Harbinger to take up our Lodging in the New Jerusalem that like the Star in the East leads us to Bethlehem where Christ is but then good Works follow after they are our Attendants to the Court and Kingdom of Glory The Use If the Saints departed rest from their Labours here is then comfort in the general against all Crosses and Calamities in the World and in particular against the fear of our own Death or the Death of Friends Blessed are the Dead they rest c. Death like Lot's Angels plucks us out of the Sodom of Sin and Misery and placeth us in Zâ—…ar a City of Rest and Tranquility Like Peter's Angel it shakes off the Chain of Mortality and opens the Iron-gate the Gate of Pearl into the New Jerusalem like Lazarus his Angel it conducts the Soul from Earth to Abraham's Bosom from this Vail of Tears to the Kingdom of Glory Moreover as Death helps us to our Rest so it is our Rest Why should we fear it The Scripture terms it but a taking away of the Soul to Peace a sweet Sleep of the Body Our friend Lazarus sleepeth and the Patriarchs are fallen asleep St. Stephen fell asleep Our Burying-places are but Dormitories Sleeping-places The Righteous is taken away from the Evil to come and he shall enter into Peace they shall rest in their Beds Such a Blessed Rest have the Righteous in Death as our Saviour wept because his Friend Lazarus was to be deprived of it it is both the Observation of an Ancient Father and the Resolution of an Ancient Council concerning Christs weeping over Lazarus John 11. 35. Doluit Lazarum non dormientem sed resurgentem Christ did not weep because Lazarus was dead and taken out of the World but because he was to return from the Grave into a Troublesome World after he was gone to his Rest. It may be for the same Reason the Thracians
City so to gain Reputation from Man but she persevered in the constant substantials of Religion so to gain Grace and Favour from God To whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be Glory and Honour now and for ever Good Night NOW art thou drawing near thy home Heaven is within sight and its Melody almost within hearing thy Lord hath the Curtain in his hand ready to draw it to shew thee all that glory that hitherto he hath been but telling thee of and give thee a Possession of all that which hitherto thou hast enjoyed only in Hopes and Title What dost thou fear and shrug and tremble at Oh my Soul thou peevish froward Creature Shall his Angels stand waiting to convey thy departed Soul home with Songs of Triumph And shall nothing of all this abate thy Fears silence thy Complaints and bring thee to a Chearful Submission Fear not then my Soul but boldly throw thy self into his Arms who will certainly keep that safe which thou committest to him But what if I was willing to bid adieu to my Fathers House and leave this World and all its Enjoyments behind me as being sufficiently tired with the Frustrations of a pursued Happiness therein Yet methinks the change I shall pass at Death will be so very great and amazing I fear I shall not bear it To go hence from them I know to a Place and Company I never knew or saw in all my Life to leave my Friends Relations Neighbours with whom I have a long time lived and with whom I have familiarly conversed to go into a Country where I may not meet with one face I know how strangely shall we look on one another What little content do I take in any company on Earth where I meet with shiness Will it not be so in Heaven Answ. Art thou truly Godly said the pious Wadsworth in his Answer to the Fear of Death and dost thou say thou knowest none in Heaven that is strange Who is he whom you call Father every time you pray what are you born of God united to God by faith and love and hold communion with him and yet not know him Well sayst thou but if I know him it is but very little I never saw him in all my Life And what if thou hast not seen him with thy bodily eyes yet hast thou not believed in him whom thou hast not seen and rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory Though thou hast not known him after the Flesh yet thou hast after the Spirit But comfort thy self though thou hast known him but little and that through a vail darkly yet he knoweth thee most perfectly He knows thee by name and separated thee to himself from the Womb and effectually called and justified thee he knows thee by thy name and knows thy dwelling and visiteth thee every morning and is with thee living and will not leave thee dying and when he hath taken thee to himself in the Heavens thou shalt know him as he knows thee that is intimately perfectly But sayst thou if I know in some measure God and his Son the Lord of that City I know no more There are ten thousands of Angels there and I know not one of them and as many Spirits of just men some little acquaintance I had with some of the latter on earth but since arrived thither they are so transfigured so wonderfully changed I shall not know one of them when I see them What if thou knowest not one Angel in all the Heavens is it not enough that many of them may know thee But how do I know that How thou hast been their special Charge ever since thou wast born to Jesus Christ. Are they not all ministring Spirits to them that are Heirs of Glory How kindly did an Angel comfort Mary Magdalene and the other Mary when they early came to visit the holy Sepulchre of our Lord How well did he know their Persons and their Business when he said Mat. 28. 5. Fear not I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified he is not here for he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his Disciples that he is risen from the Dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him so as I have told you What Discourse could be more kind friendly and familiar than this But that thou shouldst think thy self an utter stranger to all the Spirits of the Just is more strange when there may be some of thy near Relations there and many of those that thou hast had for many years such sweet Eellowship in the Ordinances of the Gospel If I shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom surely I shall know them to be such Besides their Natures in Heaven are all perfectly gracious and holy and I shall be like them and we shall all know each other to be so and what shiness can there possible be among such who are satisfied in each others sincere love and affection Thou mayst be acquainted with a thousand Saints an Angels in an hours time as if thou hadst known them a thousand years And if this be so be not poor Soul amazed at this great change of Company at Death For it is but as dying Doctor Preston said I shall change my Place but not my Company Return therefore to thy Rest Oh my Soul for God will assuredly deal bountifully with thee So that Death will bring a Good-Night to thee here and a good Morrow hereafter The End of The House of Weeping Death-Bed THOUGHTS The PROEMIUM BUT Oh my Soul What ails thee to be thus suddenly backward and fearful no Friend hath more freely discours'd of Death in speculation no Tongue hath more extolled it in absence And now that it is come to thy Bed-side and hath drawn thy Curtains and takes thee by the hand and offers thee service thou shrinkest inward and by the paleness of thy Face and wildness of thine Eye bewrayest an amazement at the presence of such a Guest That Face which was so familiar to thy Thoughts is now unwelcome to thine Eye I am ashamed of this weak irresolution Whitherto have tended all thy serious Meditations What hath Christianity done to thee if thy fears be still Heathenish Is this thy Imitation of so many worthy Saints of God whom thou hast seen entertain the violentest Death with Smiles and Songs Is this the fruit of thy long and frequent Instruction Didâ—… thou think Death would have been content with words Didst thou hope it would suffer thee to talk while all others suffer Where is thy Fath Shall Hereticks and Pagans give Death a better welcome than thee Hath God with this Serjeant of his sent his Angels to fetch thee and art thou loath to go Rouse up thy self for shame O my Soul and if ever thou hast truly believed shake off this Unchristian diffidence and address thy self joyfully for thy
by what means to rid themselves out of the World Whether to whet their Knives temper their Poyson make use of Ropes or Precipices as if it requir'd so much Ceremony and Labour to dissolve and untye the weak knot that holds the Body and Soul together None of these did Coma the Brother of Diogenes need His Soul shut close up in his own Breast found out the way For a little study serves to retain that good the frail possession whereof is shaken with the least puff of Violence Death is every where and lyes lurking in all places and at all times Where-ever thou goest thou shalt find him prepar'd he is never unprepar'd but meets thee at every turn But when only Death is enough for one Man to desire wherefore before the last Death do so many Deaths assassinate miserable Man so that the Question may not be ask'd in vain If all my Life makes but one little drop Why then so many Death 's my Course to stop Hear St. Bernard Let the continual Meditation of Death be thy chief Philosophy And therefore variety of Death disturbs thee Whatever happens to others saith St. Bernard may happen to thee because thou art a Man A Man of Earth Clay out of Clay Of Earth thou art by the Earth thou livest and out of the Earth shalt thou return when that day comes that often comes and perhaps may come this day Certain it is because thou shalt die though it be uncertain when or how or where Because Death expects thee every where if thou beest wise expect that every where 'T is the saying of Annaeus Uncertain it is saith he in what place Death may expect thee therefore do thou expect Death in every place Sect. 16. Death is at home to every Man VVE trifle and at distance think the ill While in our Bowels Death lyes lurking still For in the Moment of our Birth-day Morn That moment Life and Death conjoin'd were Born And of that Thread with which our Lives we measure Our Thievish hours still make a rapid seizure Insensibly we die so Lamps expire When wanting Oyl to feed the greedy Fire Though living still yet Death is then so nigh That oft-times as we speak we speaking die There is a Fish in the Northern Ocean near Muscovy which is called Mort. This Monster of the Sea has very great Teeth so that as Cardanus relates the Handles of Swords are made of the Teeth Every one of our Bodies is a Pond O Mortals wherein we nourish this Fish called Mort and therefore not to be sought at such a distance from us Every Mans Death is at home Sect. 17. Death Inexorable THough Rocks be deaf and blind be Tygers rage Though furious War'gainst Man the Billows wage Morsels will Tygers tame and the soft Gale Of Western Winds upon the Waves prevail But fiercer than the Waves or Tygers Rage Deaths unt am'd Fury no Prayers can asswage The Parcae to whose Distaffs Spindles Shears the Ancients committed all the power of Life and Death are inexorable not to be mov'd by all the Supplication in the World For when The Parce in their Order come Beyond command there 's no delay No putting off th' Appointed Day There 's no beseeching those cruel Spinstresses So precisely do they observe their day prefixed According to this Conception Painters and other Artificers describe the Triumpher over all Human kind For they Picture him without Ears as not hearing the Prayers of any blind also as not moved with the Tears of any He is Painted without a Tongue or Lips that Men should not think to receive the least word of Comfort from him He is Painted without Flesh to shew that he wants all sense of Humanity Only his Nerve Arteries and Muscles his Bow and Arrows his Darts and Stings remain behind to strike poor miserable Mortals And surely then if ever he shewed his rage and insulted over the World when he assailed Christ himself the Son of God the Author of Life at what time the very Rocks wept the Earth trembled the Stars bewailed the Sun grew pale and Angels mourned acting a dismal Tragedy upon the Life of Life it self Whoever thou art if thou art a Man Death will be inexorable to thee Therefore be mindful of Death the Hour flies from thence my admonition Therefore is every day to be reckoned as thy last and as the first of Eternity Sect. 18. Most certain Death is most uncertain WHat more certain in Human things than Death St. Bernard exclaims What more uncertain than the Hour of Death It sits at the Doors of old Men and lyes in ambush for the young Therefore boast not of to Morrow not knowing what to Morrow will bring forth This the Venunian Lyrick was not ignorant of Who knows whether the Gods to this days sum Will add to Morrow though but just to come Most perspicuously saith St. James the Apostle Go too now ye that say to day or to morrow we will go into such a City and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is your Life It is even a Vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Whereas we ought to say If the Lord will we shall live and do this or that We shall all go all all for we all die and sink into the Earth like Water that never returns Neither canst thou be ignorant that thou art so begotten as to remember that there is a Law set at the same time by the Nature of all things both for receiving and restoring thy breach And as no man dies that has not lived so no man lives that shall not die Though when he shall die is uncertain And therefore Christ stirring us up by a most faithful Exhortation Take ye heed watch and pray for ye know not when the time is And then repeating the same again VVatch ye therefore saith he for ye know not when the Master of the House cometh at evening or at midnighe or at the Cockcrowing or in the Morning lest coming suddenly he find you And what I say unto you I say unto you all VVatch. Sect. 19. Death to many sudden to all unlook't for VVHO will not stand upon his guard against the Efforts of Death that threatens us every Hour who has appointed no time when he intends to meets us He creeps flies leaps upon us with a tacit motion a stealing pace making no signs before hand without any cause without any caution in sickness in health in danger in security so that there is nothing sacred or safe from his clutches Sound and merry was Tarquin when he was choaked with a Fish-bone Healthy also was Fabius when a little Hair that he swallowed with his Milk cut the Thread of his Life A Weezel bit Aristides and in a moment of time he expired The Father of Caesar the Dictator rose well out of his Bed and while he was
putting on his Shoes he breathed his last The Rhodian Ambassador had pleaded his Cause in the Senate even to admiration but expired going over the Threshold of the Court-house A Grape-stone killed Anacreon the Poet and if we may believe Lucian Sophocles also Lucia the Daughter of Marcus Aurelius died with a little prick of a Needle Cn. Brebius Pamphilus being in his Pretorship when he asked the time of the day of a certain youth perceived that to be the last Hour of his Life The Breath of many is in haste and unexpected Joy expels it As we find it happened to Chilo the Lacedemonian and Diageras of Rhodes who embracing their Sons that had been Victors at the Olympick Games at the same time and in the same place presently expir'd Lastly Death has infinite accesses through which he breaks into our Houses Sometimes through the Windows sometimes through the Vaults sometimes through the Copings of the Wall sometimes through the Tyles and if he cannot meet with any Traytors either in the City or in the House I mean the humours of the Body Diseases Catarrhs Pleurisies and the like which he makes use of as Ministers in his Councils He tears up the Gates with Gunpowder Fire Water Pestilence Venom nâ—…y wild Monsters and Men themselves as bad he leaves no Engines untryed to snatch and force away our Lives Mephiboseth the Son of Saul was slain by Domestick Thieves as he was sleeping at Noon upon his Bed Fulco King of Jerusalem as he was Hunting a Hare fell from his Horse and was trampled to death by his Hoofs gave up the Ghost Josias of all the Kings of Judah David excepted for Piety Sanctimony and Liberality the chief was unexpectedly wounded with an Arrow and died in his Camp The Holy Ludovicus in the 57th year of his Age upon the African Shore in the midst of his Army the Pestilence there raging died of the Distemper Egillus King of the Goths a most excellent Prince was killed by a Mad Bull which the madder people not enduring the severity of his Laws had let forth Malcolm the first King of Scotland after mâ—…ny exâ—…mples of 〈◊〉 while he was taking cogniâ—… of the Actions of his Subjects by Night â—…as 〈◊〉 a sudden 〈◊〉 Have not many gone well to Bed that have 〈◊〉 found dead in the Morning Of necessity the 〈◊〉 ought to stand upon its guard Uzza a peâ—…son of no small Note in Davâ—…as Lifeguard whâ—… he attempted to stay the shogging Ark as it was carry'd in Triumph to Jerusalem was presently struck from Heaven so that he died by the Ark. The hand of God arm'd a Lion out of a Wood against the Prophet that had eaten contrary to his command The sudden voice of Peter compelled Ananias and Saphira to expiate their Crime by as sudden a death whose Souls the greatest part of Divines believe to be freed from Eternal Punishment thereby But enough of Ancient Examples In the year 1559. Henry the Second King of France was slain in the midst of his Pastimes and Triumphs and in publick Joy of the people For while he Celebrated the Nuptials of his Daughter at Paris in a Tilting the Splinter of a broken Lance flew with that violence and pierced his Eye that he died immediately In the year 1491. Alphonsus the Son of John the Second King of Portugal being about Sixteen years of Age a Prince of great Hopes and Wit took to Wife Isabella the Daughter of Ferdinand King of Spain whose Dowry was the Ample Inheritance of her Fathers Kingdoms The Nuptials were Celebrated with the preparations of six hundred Triumphs Every Plays Running Racing Tilting Banquets So much Plenty so much Luxury that the Horse-boys and Slaves glistered in Tissue But Oh immense Grief hardly the seventh Month had passed when the young Prince sporting a Horseback upon the Banks of Tagus was thrown from his Horse to the ground so that his Scull was broken and he wounded to death He was carried to a Fishers House scarce big enough to contain him and two of his Followers There he lay down upon a Bed of Straw and expired The King flies thither with the Queen his Mother There they behold the miserable Spectacle their Pomp turn'd into Lamentation the growing Youth of their Son his Vertues Wealth like Flowers on a sudden disrobed by the Northwinds blast and all to be Buried in a miserable Grave O the sudden Whirlwinds of Human Affairs O most precipitate Falls of the most constant things What sha'l I remember any more Basilius the Emperor was gored to death by a Hart while he was entangled in a troublesom Bough The ancient Monument in the Camp of Ambrosius near Aenipontus witnesses That a Noble Youth though under Age set Spurs to his Horse to make him leap a Ditch twenty foot broad The Hâ—…rse took it but the Rider and the Horse fell by a sudden and almost the same kind of death That the Spoils of the Horse and the Garments of the Youth speak to this day But this sudden Fate is common as well to the good as to the bad neither does it argue an unhappy condition of the Soul unless any person in the Act of burning Impiety feel himself struck with the Dart of Divine Vengeance Such was the Exit of Dathan and Abiram whom the gaping Earth miserably swallowed up obstinate in their Rebellion against Mâ—…ses Such was the End of those Souldiers whom for their irreverence to Elijah Heaven consumed with Balls of Fire Such was the End of the Hebrew whom the Revengers Sword pass'd thorough finding him in the Embraces of the Midianitess turning his Genial into his Funeral Bed So many Pores of the Body so many little doors for Death Death does not shew himself always near yet is he always at hand What is more stupid than to wonder that that should fall out at any time which may happen every day Our Limits are determined where the inexorable necessity of Fate has fix'd them But none of us knows how near they are prefixed So therefore let us form our Minds as if we were at the utmost extremity Let us make no delay Notes upon the first Paragraph DEath has infinite accesses So it is indeed and to what I have said I add It is reported that a certain person dreamt that he was torn by the Jaws of a Lion He rises careless of his Dream goes to Church with his Friends in the way he sees a Lion of Stone gaping that upheld a Pillar then declaring his Dream to his Companions not without Laughter Behold said he this is the Lion that tore me in the Night So saying he thrust his hand into the Lions Jaws crying to the Statue Thou hast thy Enemy now shut thy Jaws and if thou canst bite my hand He had no sooner said the word but he received a deadly wound in that place where he thought he could have no harm For at the bottom of the Lions Mouth lay a Scorpion which no
sooner felt his hand but he put forth his sting and stung the young Man to Death Are Stones thus endued with anger Where then is not Death if Lions of Stone can kill In the same manner died the young Hylas who was kill'd by a Viper that lay hid in the Mouth of a Bears resemblance in Stone What shall I mention the Child kill'd by an Isicle dropping upon his Head from the Penthouse Of whom Martial laments in the following Verses Where next the Vipsan Pillars stands the Gate From whence the falling Rain wets Cloak and Hat A Child was passing by when strange to tell Upon his Throat a frozen drop there fell Where while the Boy his cruel Fate bemoan'd The tender point straight melted in the wound Would Chance have us adore her lawless will Or tell where Death is not if drops can kill Thus has Death infinite Accesses then nearest when it is least thought of Sect. 20. An Antidote against sudden Death HEre Reader though out of order I will give thee three Prayers as Examples made against sudden Death It is at thy choice every day to make use of one or all cordially and sincerely They are designed so many it being but reason that we should fall three times at the Feet of Christ when we beg so great a Boon For this we must know that in this respect there can be no Man too cautious or too provident The first Prayer MOst Merciful Lord Jesu by thy Tears by thy Agony and Bloody Sweat by thy Death I beseech thee deliver me from sudden and from unexpected Death The second Prayer O Most Gracious Lord Jesu by thy most sharp and ignominious Stripes and Coronation by most hitter Cross and Passion by all thy Tender Goodness most humbly I beseech thee that thou wouldst be pleased not to permit me to depart out of this Life by a sudden death without receiving my viaticum for Heaven The third Prayer O My most Loving Jesu O my Lord and God by all thy Labours and thy Pains by thy precious Blood by those Sacred Wounds of thine by those thy last Exclamation upon the Cross O my sweetest Jesu my God my God why hast thou forsaken me by that loud cry of thine Father into thy hands I recommend my Spirit most earnestly I beseech thee that thou wilt not take me hence in haste Thy Hands O my Redeemer made me and formed me throughout O do not suddenly cast me headlong Grant me I beseech thee time of Repentance grant me an Exit happy and in thy favour that I may love thee with my whole Mind that I may praise and bless thee to all Eternity Nevertheless O merciful Jesu all things are in thy power nor is there any one who can resist thy will My Life depends upon thy nod that must end when it is thy pleasure Neither do I desire my most gracious God but that my will should be conformable to thine In whatever place at whatever time by whatever Disease thou art pleased to call me home thy will be done All these things I commit to thy Goodness and to thy Divine Providence I except no place or time no sort of Death though never so ignominious This only one thing I beg of thee O Christ my God that I may not die an unexpected and sudden Death Nevertheless not mine but thy will be done If it so pleases thee that I must die a sudden Death I do not repine Let thy will be done in all things O God For I hope and trust through thy great Mercy for the sake of which I make this only Prayer that I shall die in thy favour and grace wherein if I'depart not sudden death can separate me from thee For the Just Man though prevented by Death shall be happy There is no Death can be unexpected to him whose Life has been always provident Wherefore if I have not space and time which is only known to thee O God wherein to commend my self to thee behold I do that now and as submissively and as ardently as I am able I send up my Prayer to Heaven to thee Have mercy on me O God according to thy tender loving kindness thy will be done O Lord in Heaven and in Earth into thy hands I commend my Spirit Thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth Let all Created Beings bless and praise thee O God In thee O Lord have I put my trust let me not be confounded for ever Sect. 21. The Days of Mans Life are few and evil HOW old art thou Threescore And how many art thou Seventy And how many art thou Fourscore Ah! my good friends where are your years Where are thy Sixty Where hast thou left thy Seventy Where wilt thou find thy Fourscore Wherefore dost thou number thy lost years Elegantly answered Laelius that Wise Man to a certain person saying I am Sixty years of Age. Thou callest these Sixty answered he which thou hast not Neither what is past nor what is to come is thine We depend upon a point of flying Time and it is the part of a great Man to have been moderate The Egyptian Pharaoh asking the Patriarch Jacob how many are the years of thy Age the old man answered The days of the years of my Pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty years few and evil Hear ye O Tantalus's that thirst after extent of fading Life and know that ye are but Pilgrims not Inhabitants nor are ye Pilgrims for a long Journey neither Your Life is both short and evil Short because perhaps to be ended before this very Hour that we divide with Death No man but must know it to be evil that enjoys it It affords us Brambles sooner than Roses to be trod upon And yet still will ye loyter and delay in these Bushy and Thorny places So forgetful of your Countrey Famous is the Sentence of St. Gregory This Life is the way to Heaven But most of the Travellers are so taken with the pleasantness of the way that they had rather walk slowly than come quick to their Journeys end Oh most miserable Franticks We are taken with Flowers and pick up little glittering Stones but neglect immense and unbounded Treasures We scrape together the filth of the Earth and the froth of Caverns forgettful what great and real Treasures we lose while we labour after such as are false Miserable and vain Creatures What has a Pilgrim to do with Flowers and Pibbles if he return not to his Countrey What matter is it if he leave those behind if he come to his Countrey To labour in this way to be wearied to swear to endure all inconveniences is to be looked upon as the chiefest point of Gain For thy Countrey will please thee so much the more by how much the more ungrateful thy Exile was Sect. 22. How a Young Man may Die an Old Man AS we may meet with old Men not old Men but Children so we may meet with young Men not
have been used twice every day to contemplate their Coffins the Monument of their Death Genebald 〈◊〉 of Laudanum say in a Bed made like a Coffin for seven years together all which time he lived a most severe Life Ida a Woman of applauded Sanctity long before her Death caused her Coffiâ—… to be made which twice a day she filled full of Bread and Meat which she twice a day gave liberally to the Poor The Study of Vertue is the best preparation for Death No Death can defile Vertue He easily contemns all things who always meditates upon this that he is to die Sect. 29. What is Life IT is a Flower a Smoak a Shadow the Shadow of a Shadow A Bubble Dust Froth Dew a Drop It is Ice the Rainbow a wasted Torch a Bag with holes in it a ruinous House treacherous Ashes a Spring day a most inconstant April one twang of a Harp a broken Bucket the Wheel of a Well a Spiders VVeb a little drop of the Sea a slender Stalk a Solstitial Plant a short Fable a shooting Spark a little Cloud a Bladder full of VVind a Doves Neck glistering in the Sun Life is a thin Glass a tender Leaf a fine Silk Thread a Golden Apple rotten within If a shadow be nothing say whar is the Dream of a shadow A thousand such like things may Humane Life be compared to To me they seem to have spoken most truely who call Life the shortest Dream of a shadow VVe will abbreviate the Business Life is A Dream a Bubble Ice a Flower and Glass A Fable Ashes and the fading Grass A Shadow a small Point a Voice a Sound A blast of VVind at length 't is nothing found Poor miserable Mortals what Riches do we seem to heap what Honours do we invest our selves withal what Pleasures do we seem to enjoy yet all these are but a Dream how short and how vain They have slept out their sleep and all the Men whose hands were mighty have found nothing O Men you dreamt that you were happy and blessed but of all those things which ye had which ye hoped for what do ye retain These were the Dreams of those that waked and the meer Toys of Dreamers Now punishment opens your Eyes that Sin shut before Life therefore what is it I will tell ye in short The time of Humane Life is a Point Nature Inconstancy Sense Obscurity The whole Body a composure easily corrupted The Mind a Rover Honour Smoak Riches Thorns Pleasures Poyson And in a word all things pertaining to the Body a River all things belonging to the Mind a Dream Life is a warfare and the Habitation of a Stranger in a Forreign Land the Shop of innumerable Miseries Fame after Death Oblivion According to Ausonius How wonder Men should die the Hours decay Marble and Fame it self to Death give way Before Death to compleat thy days in Vertue is the Noblest Designs Sect. 30. Life a Mimick ALL Life is a Comedy VVe are the Actors One plays a King another a Beggar One takes upon him the Person of a Prince another of a Physician another of a Husbandman VVhatever part God has imposed upon us that we ought decently to perform Neither does the praise consist in this for thee to act an Emperor or a Duke VVhatever part thou acts thou shalt win applause so thou performedst it well VVhich is the seasonable admonition of Epictetus Remember saith he that the Actor is to be the Actor of such a part as the Composer pleases If he would have thee act a Beggar be sure to represent that person ingeniously So do if thou art to act a Lame person a Prince or a Plebeian This is thy Duty to play thy part well but it is the business of another to chuse it Augustus the Emperor the last day of his Life asked his Friends that were about him whether he seemed to them to have acted the play of Life well Adding this little Clause if so give me your applause Seneca most admirably concerning this Comedy of Life I must often saith he use this Example For this Mimicry of Life is by no Simile better Expressed which has assigned us those parts which through our fault and ignorance we act amiss Laertius in Leno saith that a wise Man is like a good Actor who whether he be to represent the Person of Thersites or Agamemnon doth both well Therefore we must not take notice what we now are but what we are to be when we have put off our Vizards and our Habits Nor matters it whether we take up the part of the first or last Actor so we act well Sect. 31. The Type of Humane Life OLD Balaam propounded to Jehosaphat the King the deceitful Joys of Humane Life A errtain Person saith he flies from a Unicorn which is a fierce Creature in his flight he is ready to tumble into a deep Ditch but as he is tumbling catches hold of a Tree which preserves him from the fall VVhile he clings to the Tree contemning his past danger he sees two Mice the one white the other black gnawing the Root of the Tree and now got as far as the very Pith. Then looking into the Ditch he spies at the bottom a terrible Dragon breathing Fire Lastly casting his Eyes about he spies the Heads of four Asps reaching out of the adjoyning Well At â—…ength neglecting all these sights he perceives a small quantity of Honey distilling out of the Tree Wherefore now forgetful of the Unicorn the Mice the Dragon and the Serpents he falls to licking the sweet Honey And this said Bartaam is the Type of Humane Life The Unicorn â—…epresents Death that every where persecutes Mankind The Ditch is the World full of Calamities The Tree which we hold by is our Life confined within certain bounds The two Mice Night and Day which by little and little consume that Tree The four Asps the four Elements whose Repose being disturb presently follows a disunion of Soul and Body That Fiend and fierce Dragon represents the Jaws of Hell always open to devour us The drops of Honey signifie the filthy Pleasures of this Life and the deadly sweetness of Vice Allur'd with this noxious Sweetness we neither fear Hell nor think of Heaven contented to die voluptuously Thus Barlaam to Jeosaphat O certain O most certain all these Sayings If we are wise we should believe every Hour the last Eternity hangs at every moment of Life Sect. 33. The Prologue of Life the Narration the Epilogue THE Prologue of Humane Life is To be Born The Narration To Grieve The Epilogue To Die The Explanations of this Oration are Mean and Tears or Joy which is worse than Weeping Most learnedly Seneca Behold saith he all Mortals There is ample and daily occasion of weeping one tedious Want calls to daily Labour another restless Ambition sollicites another is in continual fear for the Riches he enjoys and is tir'd with his own Wishes Another Care
our Meals our Recreation our Play our Discourse our Sleep our Idleness takes up How much do litigious Suits and Diseases snatch from us How many Thieves do steal away our Lives while we perceive not what we lose The following Verses though not so terse and neat very lively express our Madness A man lives fourscore years not often more Of which in meat and drink some half a score In play as many twenty years in sleep Till seventeen in our childish years we heap And nothing do for years diseases claim Therefore the time that we experd to frame Our selves to vertue and learning is in brief But the fourth part of all that tedious life What a little is left us of that which is our own many there are whom their Misfortunes will not give leave to take breath many whom their prosperity For we lay not hold upon time to stop the fleetest thing in Nature but let it slip as a superfluous thing and easie to be recovered What keeper of time so sparing that may not find something worthy to exchange with his time We trifile with the most precious of all things and there is no reckoning made of that which cannot be sufficiently valued Like them that sleep in Ships who are driven along by the Winds though they perceive not the motion and when they wake wonder to see themselves ready to be landed Thus the course of our life hastens away while we sleep and neglect the inestimable price of Time When we should wake for a better life we admire to see our selves at our Journeys end Death is to many as the Harbour to the Sailer he sails well that does not Shipwrack in the Port. Sect. 37. Delay is the greatest blemish of Life WE delay and put off every thing unless it be Vice which for the most part takes up our whole time In other things we are always more full of Promises and say to oue selves to Morrow this shall be done the next Week I will not fail to repent next Year I intend to lead a new life Thus Days Months and Years slide away while we procrastinate while we promise and never stand to our Promises Excellently Seneca Thou shalt hear saith he most people saying At Fifty I intend to retire at Sixty I intend to give over Business And whom dost thou take for Surety of thy longer life Who will warrant things to pass as thou disposest them Art thou not ashamed to reserve the Remains and Dregs of Life to God and to appoint that time for Devotion which thou canst no otherwise employ How late is it then to begin to live when thou art iust at the end of it VVhat a foolish Oblivion of Mortality is that to deser wholsom Admonition till the fiftieth or sixtieth Year and to seek to begin thy Life at an Age to which few attnin Sigismund the Second King of Poland because of his perpetual delay and heaviness in weighty Affairs was called the King of to-morrow Such are we certainly Men of to-morrow we delay all things most willing also if we could to put off Death it self but the business of dying admits of no delay suffers no put offs Therefore to use the old Proverb If thou wouldst be long old be old betimes which thou mayst be by suffering no delay VVe by losing the best of things lose all Truly said Chrysologus Then a man desires to do well when death has deprived him of the Opportunity of acting VVe stalk to death most commonly with the same steps as they that walk in their sleep first we begin to delay and procrastinate wholesome things then to act a little more closely then to neglect and omit altogether what things are to be done and so we sweetly sleep and perish O Mortals Over-late is to Morrow's life live to day pay your Salary to day mourn for your Sins to day for who has assured ye of to morrow VVhat may be done to day why defer ye to another day perhaps never to come To defer good Actions was ever noxious and over-late The greatest loss of life delay is still For who delays seems not to have a will Let us make haste therefore and consider how much we should add to Swiftness if the Enemy were at our back if we should perceive the Horseman just at the heels of the Fugitive This is the case Necessity drives let us make haste and escape let us shelter our selves in Security and often consider how amiable a thing it is to finish our lives before death The greatest comfort in death is to have delayd nothing Sect. 38. The Hunting of Death WIlliam the II. D. of Bâ—…varia Father of the Poor the Defender of all Religious men whom after his decease had the Tongues of all men been silent the Tears and Lamentations of so many Mourners at his Funeral had sufficiently â—…old This most Praise-worthy Prince I say when he returned home from the Council of Basil where he preceded in Caesar's place dream'd That he saw a Hart of an extraordinary bigness that upon the one side of his Horns he carried Bells on the other lighted Tapers This flying Animal was pursued by a Huntsman and his Pack all other ways being stopt the affrighted Beast fledâ—… into the Church-yard belonging to St. Marie's Church there the poor Hart falling into a Grave that was open'd for a person that was to be buried was there taken and killed Upon this the Prince awoke and examined with himself what the meaning of the Dream should be The next day also he declared to his Nobles what he had dream'd Several Interpretations were made upon it which when Duke William had heard I said he am that Hart who am shortly to end this mortal life I will be buried in the Temple of the Blessed Virgin The Event verified both the Dream and the Presages For in a short time Sickness and Death layd the Body of Prince William in the Grave while his Soul took her Flight to those Azure Mansions above A good Death is the beginning of a most blessed Eternity Sect. 39. VVherefore upon the daily sight of Funerals we do not consider Death THE Devil a most skilful Painter paints so well according to the Rules of Opticks that which is before us and nearest to us we may think most remote Thus as if we were to live a Thousand years we promise to our selves a long Security from Death Hence we behold Funerals and laugh as if it were never to be our Turn VVe daily die and yet we think our selves eternal Sir Thomas Moore that no Age might delude any Person with the hopes of a longer Life gives this Admonition As he that is carried out of Prison to the Gallows though the way be longer yet fears not the Gallows the less because he comes to it a little the later and though his Limbs are firm his Eyes quick his Lungs sound and that he relish his Meat and Drink yet this is still his
any time why not now Death calls upon all Men alike Thither we must all come sooner or later of that we are certain we doubt not of that thing but of the time VVhat then Does not he seem to be the most fearful and imprudent Creature of all who with so much earnestness desires the delay of Death Would not he be the Laughing-stock of others who being Condemned among many should beg to be the last Executed Yet this is the Folly we are guilty of We think it a great happiness to die last The Capital Punishment is destined to all and by a most just determination Now what matters it whether we go out first or last out of this Life as Men go out of a Theater We must depart it then at any time why not now To day perhaps Death spares us That 's nothing to Morrow he will be with thee The Sword will seize thee a Stone waits for thee a Fever lyes in Ambush Thou art never nor in no place safe There 's a necessity of going If then to Morrow why not to Day If at any time why not now Sect. 44. Why Death is Terrible DEath is the same to all Men but the Wages by which it happens are various One expires while he is feeding another slumbering falls into an Eternal Sleep another in the act of Impiety extinguishes Here one drops by the Sword another Drowns in Water another Fires consumes Some by the sting of Serpents die while others are Buried in the sudden fall of Ruins Others by the Contraction of their Nerves are tortured to Death Others are cut off in their Youth others in their Cradles Sometimes an Infant comes into the World to take its farewel of Life The Exit of some is milder of others harsher But how mild and gentle Death may seem to be however it brings something of Horrour with it and that for this reason because it seems to deprive us of many Happinesses and to take us from that plenty to which we are accustomed This love of our selves and desire of self-preservation is the Chain that clogs us There is also a natural fear of darkness to which Death is thought to be our Conductor which has engaged the Wits of many to augment the Terrours of Death But that which most augments the fear of Death is this that present things we know whither we are to go we know not and therefore are afraid Therefore is the Mind to be enured by much Exercise that it may not be afraid of that Eternity into which we are to enter Eternity is that we are to think upon day and night as they that would bring themselves to endure hunger must enure themselves to fasting by little and little So the Soul that is to be translated from this inconstant World to a stable Kingdom must accustom it self to endure Eternity Let it every day salute the Gate of Eternity every Moment believe that it waits there Whatever it acts let it act for Eternities sake and only observe this one form of action I read I write I paint I meditate I watch I speak and all for the sake of Eternity Whoever aspires to Eternal Triumphs let him learn to Combat Eternity Sect. 45. Death is sudden but beautiful CHaeremon as Palladius Bishop of Helenopolis witnesses while he sits while he works while he acts as a healthy person dies So sitting so working he was found but dead Vertue can beautifie any sort of Death Philemon a Comedian contested with Menander perhaps not his Equal yet his Emulator This Person recited upon the Stage a play that he had newly made But when he was moving the more sprightly Affections in his third Act a sudden shower scattered the Auditory Thereupon he promised the rest the next day The next day a vast multitude met together in so much that the Theater was thronged but no Philemon came Some blam'd the slowness of the Poet others excused him But at last tyred with expectation and sending to seek him the Messengers found him dead in his Bed His Book was in his Hand and his Eyes fix'd upon his Book So that the Messengers stood a while astonished at so sudden an Accident and the Miracle of so lovely a Death Returning to the people they related that they expected Philemon had finished his last act at Home leaving the World to give him their last farewel and plaudite to his Friends a sad occasion of Mourning and Lamentation For that now a Noble Poet having put off the Mask of Life his Bones and not his Verses where to be read If we look at this present Life the most wish'd for death is to die not fearing death But much more desireable is it to die in action and to be busie at our work that death it self may not prove idle It was the wish of Cyprian the Martyr to be slain for the sake of God while he was discoursing of God It is a high Encomium for any Man that not only the Devil but neither Death himself should find him idle Sect. 46. VVe must watch and pray BEcause ye know not at what Hour the Son of Man will come The Romans watched in their Arms yet sometimes without their Shields that they might have nothing to lean upon to invite them to sleep It is thy duty to watch O Man and to watch armed Ardent Prayers to God are the true Arms of Christians The Shield that encourages sleep is the vain hope of a longer Life The frequent Cries of the Roman Souldiers in their Watches were Wake wake Mars wake Thus they encouraged one another to constancy in watching The Heaven it self day and night waking and incessantly toyling admonishes thee to watch Dost thou grow deaf or art thou falling asleep Hear the voice of Christ watch and pray According to the relation of St. Mark Christ made a Sermon in the Conclusion whereof he thrice repeats these words first Take ye heed watch and pray Secondly Watch ye therefore for ye know not when the Master of the House cometh at even or at midnight whether at the Cock-crowing or at the dawning lest if he come suddenly he find ye asleep Lastly And that I say unto you I say unto ye all watch With the same Admonitions and by the Mouth of St. Matthew he cries to us Watch ye therefore for ye know not what hour the Lord doth come And again Watch ye therefore because ye know neither the day nor the hour The same he repeats upon Mount Olivet Watch and pray lest ye enter into Temptation Upon the same Text he preaches in St. Luke Watch ye therefore at all times praying The same watch ye how often doth St. Paul reiterate These claps Thunder upon us to shake off all sleepiness and drowsiness from us We are deaf yea dead indeed if these loud Exhortations will not wake us Whoever thou art that sleepest in Vice awake Thou knowest the Fate of the Egyptians The slaying Angel enter'd Egypt
and made a vast slaughter Remember the Lot of the Ten Virgins There was a Call in the middle of the Night and they that were prepared were admitted to the Nuptials but the drowsie Sleepers were excluded Dost thou remember the Folly of the Gluttonous Servant His Lord came unlookt for and at an Hour when he least thought of him Hast thou considered the good Father of his Family He wakes at all Hours that at no time the House-breaker may get in Dost thou remember thy Saviour He was Born at Midnight And probable it is that he will come at Midnight to the last Judgment of the World Therefore watch and believe every day thy last Sect. 47. VVe are to trust in God HE whom God assists though in the midst of the Waves of the enraged Sea he shall be able to withstand the Storm with a Couragious Heart Let Troubles surround him let Sorrows overwhelm him let the Devil roar and grin a Soul that trusts in God need never be afraid Though Hell be moved and the World tumble fearless he shall behold the Ruins he shall rise a Victor and like the Marpesian Rocks contemn the vain threats of the Ocean Thus Job thus David behaved themselves Job speaking to God with a firm Confidence in him Set me saith he by thy side and let the hand of whomsoever fight against me He provokes and Challenges the Camp of the Enemies of God let come who will he is ready to meet them But saith David though I walk through the midst of the shadow of Death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Behold a strong Faith Though I am in the extremity of danger though wrapt in the horrid darkness of Eternal Night and that Death stood nearer than the shadow to the Body trusting only in the presence of God I will despise all those Terrors Most certain I am that in his presence there is a most safe and impregnable Refuge For because the Lord is my Aid I will not fear what Man can do unto me The Lord is my Light and my Health Whom shalt thou fear If Armies were Encamped against me my Heart shall not be afraid Though I were to withstand the power of a whole Battel my Confidence should be in God VVe are to trust in God so much the more by how much the less we can trust to our selves He ranges his Army under the Enemies VValls who trusts in God To trust in God is to be above all Enemies Sect. 48. VVhen it shall please God TO a Blessed Life a long Series of years contributes nothing neither is Life to be reckoned by years or wrinkles but by just performances But that When disgusts the most part of Mortals They know they are to die and are willing to die but not yet They are willing to pay Nature her Debt but not yet They desire to be loos'd from the Chains of the Body but not yet So ingeniously do we poor Mortals rave We desire an end of our Miseries but not yet we would be Blessed and Happy but not yet We would and we would not die We are unjust to complain at the same time that we are miserable and that our Miseries are at an end There is no reason to grieve or weep when we cease to be what we were unwilling to be Is it because thou wouldst have many steps to thy Death that thou buildest thy self so high a Gibbet and is it because thou wouldst take a slow prospect of thy Funeral that thou desirest so many years Alas thou art to go either to day or to morrow Tobias the worthy Son of a most worthy old Man but old himself attain'd to the Ninety ninth year of his Age. Yet when Ninety nine years were expir'd in the fear of God they Buried him with joy Could Tobias in our judgment Exposlulate with God or complain Why Lord dost thou now break off my Life Why didst not thou permit me to make up the full hundred What other Answer would God return It so pleas'd me Now die and reckon all thy past years as clear gain Therefore we must die when it pleases God not when it pleases Tobias Raguel or Ananias But I know what deceives many When Death knocks we believe the Exactor comes before his time Fools then 't is time when it pleases God Wherefore do ye delay Wherefore do ye pretend immature Age Wherefore do ye expect a Truce Wherefore do ye think upon delay Thou were ripe for Death long before But grant thee thy own time thou wilt be never the more ready or the more prepar'd After all thou wilt desire delay the more thou stay'st perhaps the less prepar'd Delay has made many the worse 'T is a bad preparation for Death to be unwilling to die He has perform'd half of the Act who now is willing The desire of Death is to be shaken off and thou art to learn that it matters not when thou sufferest whatever it behoves thee to suffer How well thou hast lived is the main business not how long and often it happens well when there is no delay Therefore lay all hankering thoughts aside and thus resolve with thy self whatever God pleases let that be done Sect. 49. VVe must have recourse to God in all things ALas poor miserable Creatures alas insipid Fools When we are ill we take our flight over the whole Orb with the wings of our Thoughts We beg petty Comforts from things Created with an ignominious Beggery VVe call Friends and Enemies to our aid we implore the help of all only God we pass by or at least apply our selves to him last of all VVhat madness is this to desire help from those that cannot afford it not to desire it from him who alone can give it us Therefore whenever and as often as thou art ill let thy first Groans thy first Prayers thy first Complaints be put up to God Open thy Cause to God declare to him all thy Sufferings VVhere dost thou fly about the VVorld and beg at the Cottages of Beggars VVherefore dost thou bow in vain to every Coach that whirls by thee Throw thy self at the Door of that only Rich Person who can free thy Soul from its necessities Thus did Moses who in all Cases of Doubt and Extremity had recourse to the Tabernacle where he consulted God himself Thus was Joshua deceived by the Gibeonites because he would not consult God before-hand Apply thy self to God in thy Afflictions and upon all other occasions The Woman that was troubled with an Issue of Blood for twelve years and had suffered many things of many Physicians at length came to the Physician of Physicians from whom alone she obtain'd that Cure which she could not have from many in twelve years It is a main matter to know from whom thou expectest a kindness It is an Argument of extream Poverty to beg from Beggars Sect. 50. VVE have said that recourse must be had to God in every thing
Therefore a happy end is so desired from none but God Of which I will annex a short Example First Prayer Eight Verses chosen out of the Psalms of David by St. Bernard which he is reported to have repeated every Day for a Happy Hour of Death ENlighten my Eyes that I sleep not in death lest my Enemies say I have prevailed against him Psal. 12. v. 3 4. Into thy hands I recommend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of Truth Psal. 31. v. 6. At last I spake with my Tongue Lord let me know my end and the number of my days that I may know how long I have to live Psal. 39. v. 4 5. Shew some good token upon me for good that they which hate me may see it and be ashamed because thou Lord hast holpen me and comforted me Psal. 86. v. 17. Thou hast broken my Bands in sunder I will offer to thee the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving and will call upon the Name of the Lord Psal. 116. v. 14 15. I had no place to fly to and no Man car'd for my Soul I cry'd unto thee O Lord and said Thou art my Hope and my Portion in the Land of the Living Psal. 142. v. 5 6. Omnipotent Sempiternal God who didst prolong the Life of Hezekiah miserably imploring thee grant me thy unworthy Servant before the day of my Death so much time to live that I may be able to deplore all my Sins and may obtain from thy Compassion Pardon and Favour Omnipotent Gracious and Merciful God I most humbly beseech thee by the Death of thy Son grant me a happy and a blessed Hour when my Soul shall depart out of my Body Lord Jesu Crucified Christ by the Bitterness of the Death which thou didst suffer for me upon the Cross chiefly when thy Soul departed from thy Body have Mercy on my Soul at the last Hour who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost for ever and for ever Amen The Second Prayer For a Happy Departure MOST Merciful Lord Jesu if this be the Condition of a Dying Man if in such Dangers and Extremities my Spirit must depart out of this Life whither shall I fly but unto thee Oh my God Do thou take care of my Soul that it may not perish in that dreadful Hour Grant me I beseech thee according to the multitude of thy Mercies and by that servent Love and Grief wherewith thou who art Life it self didst die for me that I may have the Combat of Corporal Death always before my Eyes and that living I may so do as dying I would desire to have done and that I may expend my time and study in nothing more than that I may Spiritually die to my self and may mortifie all the Passions of my Sences that so after this Life I may live with thee Happy and Blessed to all Eternity The Conclusion of the first Chapter To the Reader DO this meditate upon this O Man and while thou art well learn to be sick learn to die To do both is a rare piece of Art which whether thou knowest or no it is not lawful for thee to try but when thou canst not err without the loss of Eternal Felicity We err but once in dying but that Error is never to be amended to all Eternity Therefore to abide as being still to depart But for the most part abide within thyself and search every cranny of thy Conscience Whatever thou enjoyest look upon it as the Lumber of a place where there is no Habitation Thou art not suffered to carry out any more than thou broughâ—…est in with thee Therefore act and bestir thy self Approve thy self right in the sight of God Thou art to go hence Believe that thou standest always at the Gate of Eternity Eternity is that we must look after Pleasure is short Punishment Eternal The labour is Easie the reward Everlasting Therefore we have given wholesom Instruction we have taught that Death is to be contemn'd but the thoughts of it never to be laid aside Now we will give the same Admonitions to the Sick CHAP. II. The Remembrance of Death is Recommended to the Sick Sect. 1. The Introduction and whether Sickness be an Evil CAunus is a Town in Caria in a Pestilent Air and unwholesom for the Inhabitant These People when Stratonicus the Musician and witty Man beheld he recited the Verse in Homer to them Like as the Leaves just so the People are Thereby he taunted their Icterical Yellowish and Wan Complexions But when the Caunians had given him a very rugged Entertainment for defaming their City as sickly and unwholesom Stratonicus return'd upon them again Must I not dare said he to call that a sickly place where the dead walk More wittily and more smartly than before But why do we deny and lift up our Noses We are most like to Leaves Very plainly Job Wilt thou break a Leaf saith he driven to and fro As if he had said When I am but a Leaf liable to all the Inconveniences of Life afraid of every Gust wilt thou hasten me with the wind of thy indignation I shall fall of my self without any constraint of thine Are not Men Leaves whom Sickness like dry Leaves and juiceless Flowers tosâ—…es to and fro and variously sports with Clement of Alexandria being of the same Opinion Go to said he Men of an obscure Life like the Generation of Leaves infirm Creatures Images of Waâ—… things like shadows frail unsledg'd living but the Life of one day Certainly we are Leaves shaken by every puff of wind Sometimes a little Fever what do I say Nay a little Cough a little drop falling upon the little wicket of the Throat mortifies this Leaf and throws it into the Grave But whether or no is Sickness a Benefit and Death an Evil No Mortal no it is not saith Epictetus Health well us'd is a good thing ill us'd a mischief And therefore we may reap Benefit by Sickness What dost thou say of Sickness I wil shew thee its Nature then I shall be quiet I shall think my self well dealt with I shall not flatter the Physician I shall not wish for Death What wouldst thou more Whatever thou shalt give me that will I make happy prosperous honourable to be desir'd But there are some that deny this and say Take heed of being sick 't is an ill thing To them Epictetus again That is as much as to say saith he Take heed that thou dost not feign three to be four 't is an ill thing How evil If we so think of it as we ought What harm will it do me Rather will it not do me good If therefore I so think of Poverty Sick or Troubles of Church or State as I ought is not that enough to me will it not be profitable Truth Love thee O Epictetus How agreeable are all these things to Christian Doctrine This Foundation being laid we shall here teach ye to be mindful
of Death in Sickness and not to be afraid of his coming Sect. 2. The sick Person to his Friends To Sickness To the beginning of a Mortal Disease To Death To Christ our Lord. To his Friends Hence with your unseasonable mourning This is not a place for Wailing but for Prayer But I depart early from you Early take heed ye mistake not I was ripe for death as soon as I was born yea before I was born What I was when born I know a weak frail body liable to all Reproach the Food of Sickness the Victim of Death Behold who e're thou art take Hope or Substance to Morrow not to be or else to be elsewhere To Sickness Must I then now be sick The time is come for me to try my self The couragious Man does not shew himself either in Battel or at Sea There is a Courage also in the Bed of Sickness Shall I leave a Feaver or that me We cannot always continue together Hitherto I enjoyed Health now my business is with Sickness Sickness I know is the first Messenger of Death I believe St. Gregory for that who truly and piously The Lord knocks saith he when by the anguish of Sickness he declares the approach of Death to whom we presently open if we receive him with Affection The very Fables teach me to receive this first Messenger of Death with a contented Mind They relate how that an old Man lay sick and when Death was ready to snatch him away the sick-man desired that he would defer the fatal blow awhile till he made his Will and prepared such other things as were necessary for so long a Journey To whom Death Fond Banquet for the Grave said he couldst thou not prepare in so many Years that hast had so many warnings from me already To whom the old Man I take thy Truth to witness I never had any warning from thee To whom Death reply'd Now I find old men will lye A hundred nay a thousand times I have admonished thee when I took away not only thy equal in years but also young Men Children Infants while thou lookst and wepst But I appeal to this Truth forgetful old man did I not forewarn thee when thy Eyes grew dim thy Hair waxed grey thy Ears grew deaf all thy proud Senses defective and thy whole Body wasted These were my Messengers these knockt at thy Doors but thou wouldst not be spoken with thou wert often and daily warn'd I can stay no longer come and go along with me He ill prepares himself for Death who prepares so late To the beginning of a mortal Distemper When I consider my Life the multitude of my Sins the small number of my Deeds good God I am pinn'd up and in streights on every side But it is better for me to fall into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are manifold than to live and multiply my years and my sins What I should be thou Lord knowest full well Perhaps I should fall from thy Graee should I live longer ' Death thou art at hand take me away so that I may preserve the Favour of my God or rather so that the Favour of God may preserve me which is the only thing O Christ Yesu which I beg of thee and through thee To Death Why with a slow Consumption cruel Death Dost thou deprive me slowly of my Breath Such preparation needs not for my end Strike quickly then for I will ne're contend Why shouldst thou spend thy Quiver on my head When one poor single blast will blow me dead For what is man A batter'd and leaking Ship that will split with one dash without the force of a Tempest the Body of man consisting of infirm and fluid parts comely in the outward Lineaments not able to endure Cold Heat or Labour that consumes and wastes of it self fearing its own nourishment the plenty or want whereof is frequently the ruine of it to himself only a profitable and vitious nourishment nicely to be looked after and preserved A life enjoyed at pleasure liable to a thousand Diseases and without Diseases devour'd by it self Do we admire at this once dying wherein thou mayst find private and concealed Deaths His smell his taste his weariness his watching the humours of his Body his meat and drink to man are deadly To Christ. I would not die but live he seeks to live That in thy love O Christ to die doth strive I do not stand in fear of those things which thou O God dost appoint for me I follow thee O merciful Father I follow thee And wherefore should I refuse when thou callest me nearer to thee 'T is much better for me to be dissolved and be with Christ. This is that which I desire For Christ is life to me and Death is gain Sect. 3. An Antidote against Grief WHerefore art thou troubled wherefore art thou perplexed Thou art in the hand of God and he takes care of thee But thou art afflicted and sick What evil can that be which proceeds from the Fountain of Goodness God would have thee to be his own and therefore shuts thee up and retains thee within the Lattices of Sickness least thou shouldst go astray from Heaven A little Bird weary of the Cage desires liberty but while it is in the Cage is both lov'd and sed by its Master While she is at liberty who can believe her free from the Fowler or from the Snare Thus believe me it is a great thing to be the Captive of the Lord thy God it is to be lookt upon as a great Favour to be bound a little while to be cut and wounded by him that will spare thee to Eternity Sect. 4. Not always Draughts of Sweetness GOD sometimes O sick Man gives the Cups of bitterness thou drankst the sweet Liquor while thou wert in health VVhy dost thou make Faces why dost thou refuse the Cup Think upon that of Job Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Ingrateful Mortals we know not the Benefits we receive but by losing them Thou wilt be a good Valuer of lost Health for the future Thou mayst remember also that when thou wert in health thou didst often recreate thy self beyond the bounds of Sobriety Now therefore let me perswade thee chearfully to take this bitter Cup and bear this punishment imposed upon thee for thy former Ryots Formerly at at the Latin Festivals when the Chariot-Drivers strove for Victory they that overcame drank Wormwood Do thou now drink that thou mayst overcome He undeservedly Metheglin sips That to the bitter will not lay his lips Sect. 5. The contempt of Death is a Christian Generosity NO Man ever govern'd his Life well but he that contemned it VVe are not so silly but that we understand we must one day die yet when Death approaches we hang back we tremble we lament But would not he appear to thee a very Fool that should weep because he had not lived
Death Hast thou not learnt in so many years calmly quietly and undisturbedly to die What art thou afraid oâ—… Commit thy self entirely to the wil of God and thy business is almost done If thou wilt believe those who have had a large prospect into Truth All life is a punishment Here I seasonably cite to thee the words of the wise Roman Being thrown saith he into this deep and unquiet Sea flowing with uncertain Tydes now advancing us with sudden encrease of Riches now again leaving us upon the barren Sands of greater Losses we can never stand fixt in any place We float up and down are washt one against another and sometimes we make an absolute Shipwrack but are always in fear Neither is there any Port but that of Death to them that sail in this stormy and tempestuous Ocean But every Mans Credulity deceives him and a willing forgetfulness of Death for the sake of those things which he loves Daily we behold the Funerals of persons known and unknown yet we mind other business and account that unexpected which was foretold us all our life-life-time before 'T is not the injustice of Nature but the depravedness of humane Reason that takes it ill to forsake that place to which it was admitted but of Courtesie He is unjust who will not leave the disposal of the Gift to him that gave it And an extream piece of Covetousness it is not to look upon what a man has received as gain but what he restores as a loss Ingrateful is he that calls the end of Pleasure an Injury A Fool who thinks there is no good but what is present immediately all pleasure leaves us and is snatcht away almost before it comes Over-narrow and circumscrib'd are his Joys who thinks he possesses only what he has and sees Therefore let us rejoyce for what is given and restore it when 't is requir'd Death seises upon one at one time he will pass by none Therefore let the Soul lie upon the watch and never be afraid of that which will necessarily happen which is uncertain and always to be expected I know not whether it be a greater piece of Folly to be ignorant of that Law of Morality or more impudent to deny it All Men all Creatures look toward their latter end who ever is born is destin'd to die and prepared for an Eternity Sect. 21. Certain Theses which the Sick are to contend against with all their might The first Concerning God T Is an Impiety against God the chief Parent of the World to complain in the least as if he should send a Sickness either too troublesome or too unseasonable Rather let us say with Job As the Lord pleases let it be done the Name of the Lord be praised And with the blessed Quire let us sing He hath justly done all things For whether God wound or heal he shews the Care and Affection of a most compassionate Father towards us The second Concerning the sick Party himself A more violent Disease requires not longer or more constant Prayers but a longer and more constant Patience by which whatever is accounted difficult is more easily performed The seasonings that make Sickness pleasant are frequent Groans to Heaven the remembrance of Afflictions suffered by all the Saints Repeated Ejaculations sometimes to the Holy Trinity sometimes to Christ for constant Patience and a happy passage out of this Life The Third Concerning other Men. We are to submit as well to the Physicians of the Body as the Soul To those that come to visit us in Sickness we are to shew a good Example of Patience and a composed Mind And though the Disease be grievous though many things afflict us though some things displease us other things are not done to our minds never to fret and murmur All our Troubles are to be season'd with the hope of Reward Our Deeds and Sayings to be rendred commendable by Submission and Patience Sect. 22. The Thirst of a Sick-man how to be cur'd MOst sick People are afflicted with Thirst especially they that are in Feavers We will shew them Fountains whence they may take their fill A Thief notorious for the murther of several was taken in the lower Austria and fastned to the Wheel where his Thighs were first broken to prolong the Torment of an extraordinary Criminal for a terrour to others But this Malefactor shew'd himself a man and began to be a most Religious Christian in the midst of his Torments for at every word he breath'd out nothing but Patience and Repentance He called upon God continually implor'd Pardon for his Crimes and like a Preacher began to dehort the Standers by from wicked Courses such as he had taken By this it grew towards Evening when the Multitude flockt some as Comforters of so great a Sufferer though indeed only as Spectators of a generous Patience For he prostrate to his Punishment that he might find a better Life asswag'd his present Pain with the Hope of future Happiness and gave God thanks who in his Wrath had remembered Mercy and had chastiz'd him to spare him But in that slow Torment which it was thought would have lasted three days he only pray'd a quick Death to end the Fury of his Pains or the opportunity of a Shower to asswage his burning Heat and Drought It was observ'd that he had the Assistance of both for towards Sun-set there fell a plentiful Shower and in short while after his Torments and his Life ended both together Behold O Christian thou hast also thy Wheel though a more gentle one thou art ty'd to thy Bed as to that Wheel And perhaps not only Pain but Drought may afflict thee Therefore that a seasonable Shower may fall upon thee cause thy Bed to be made in Golgotha at the foot of that Cross to which the Saviour of the World was nail'd from whose Body fell Showers of Blood There drink there refresh thy self there satisfie thy self being we'lassured that thou shalt be the more perfectly cured the more largely thou drinkest Sect. 23. The Sick-man's Handkerchief CRosildis the Queen of the Franks as Gregory Turonicus reports being cruelly used by Amalanc her Husband sent a white linnen Cloth dipt in her Blood to her Brother Childebert as much as if she should have wrote to her Brother and have sayd Seest thou these Marks Childebert and canst thou brook them Canst thou behold the Sufferings of a Sister and wink at them Wilt thou not revenge and defend me Behold O Sick-man Christ sends thee a Handkerchief nay two the one from Mount Olivet liliberally dyed in his Blood in the other thou feest his Face besmear'd with Sweat Spittle Blood and Tears while he dragg'd his own Cross to Golgotha These linnen Cloaths Christ sends to thee be-purll'd with his Blood wherein he has wrote these words This Sweat O mortals your Sins forced from me Can you see these and not abandon your former wicked life Certainly no person more truly bewails
changed The Nose becomes sharp the Eyes sunk and hollow the Skin of the Forehead hard and wrinkled the Colour of the Face grows pale with several other Mortal Symptoms that make such a strange and dismal alteration in the Countenance that it seems to be quite another thing So that when God changes the Countenance of Man he sends him forth Go now saith he go Man into thy House of Eternity Upon so small a point of Death depend so many Ages not to be numbered by Ages Sect. 11. Of Dying in a standing Posture IT was a saying of Vespasian That an Emperor ought to die standing I also say that it becomes a Christian to die no otherwise than standing In the year 1605 at Vienna the Night before Christmas day a Souldier standing Sentinel in a small wooden House was frozen to death in the Morning he was found standing but not watching for he had finished the VVatch of the Night and of his Life both together In the same manner died another who was frozen to death and had done Living before he had done Riding for the Horse knowing the way carried his Master to Constance into his publick Quarters very faithfully Q. Curtius testifies that some of Alexanders Souldiers were frozen to death against the Trunks of Trees and were found not only as if they had been living but as if they had been talking together being all in the same posture as death seized them VVe read that Leodeganius the Martyr having his Head cut off raised himself upright and stood immoveable for above an Hour Peter also the Martyr being upon his Knees yet kneeled upright after his Head was off In the times of Dioclesian and Maximilian Ursus and Victor the Martyrs after their Heads were cut off walked with them a good way in their Hands And so did not only die standing but stood after they were dead Thus it becomes a Christian to die standing and a dying Christian must stand and fight he stands and fights well who being supported by God fears not to die Sect. 12. Some dead before death ' T VVas a wise saying of Alexandridas That we should die before we are compelled to die St. Paul makes this Asseveration I die daily Gregory the Great describing his own condition Me faith he bitterness of Mind and continual trouble and pains of the Gout so violenly afflict that my Body is as it were like a dried Carkass in the Sepulcher so that I am not able to rise out of my Bed Cosmo de Medici lying at the point of death and being ask'd by his Wife why he shut his Eyes so especially when he was awake made answer I desire so to accustom them that they may not take it ill to be always closed 'T is the best way of dying then to shut the Eyes when any Allurement of pleasure assails them O shut thy Eyes and so die that thou maist not always die whoever thou art that lovest Integrity Most wisely Seneca Councels Lucilicus Endeavour this before the day of thy death that thy Vices may die before thee Sect. 13. Of those that have been Buried by themselves PAcuvius Tiherius Caesar's Procurator in Syria so largely endulged himself every day to Drinking and Gluttony in that manner that he was carried from his Dining-room into his Bed-chamber in the midst of the Applauses and Symptoms of his Domestick Servants that all the way sang to him after the manner of a Funeral Dirge Vixit vixit He hath lived he hath lived what was this but every day to cause himself to be carried forth and buried Of whom most excellently Seneca What saith he this Man did out of an evil Conscience let us perform with a good Conscience and going to sleep let us chearfully sing vixi I have lived if God add to morrow to our Lives let us gladly accept of it he is the most happy and the most secure enjoyer of himself who without any sollicitude expects to Morrow Labienus who furiously Satyriz'd upon all Men and was therefore called Rabienus so far hated that all his Books were burnt this Labienus could not brook nor would survive the Funerals of his Will but caused himself to be carried into the Monument of his Predecessors and there to be shut up Nor did he only put an end to his Life but Buried himself alive But more to be admir'd was he who being buried alive was unburied when dead Storax a Neopolitan a Man some few years since of great Wealth delicate and proud who being Keeper of the publick Stores of Provision when he had been tardy in his Office drew the fury of the samished Multitude upon him he seeking for refuge hid himself in the Sepulcher of St. Austin where being fonnd at length and stoned to Death he was prosecuted with that rage that the people tore his Flesh bit from bit and threw his broken Bones about the Streets which produced this Epitaph ' upon him Storax who living in a Tomb lay hid Yet wanted strange to tell a Tomb when dead Albertus Magnus the wonder of his Age having resigned his Miter of Ratispine returned to Cologne to the Learned Poverty of his Order There he lost the remembrance almost of every thing as had been foretold him Yet was he not so forgetful but that he remembered every day to approach the place of his Burial where he constantly said his Prayers for himself as if he had been Buried S. Severus Governour of Ravenna entered into his Monument alive and placing himself between his Daughter and his Wife which had been dead some years before expir'd upon the place Macarius the Roman stood three years Buried up to the Neck in Earth Philotomus a Presbyter of Galatia lived six years among the Sepulchers of the dead that he might overcome the fear of Death Philemon of Laodicea as Suidas testifies the Disciple of Timocrates the Philosopher and Master of Aristides in the Six and Fiftieth year of his Age threw himself in a Sepulcher having almost starved himself to death to ease the pains of the Gout And when his Friends and Relations bemoan'd him and endeavoured to perswade him to come out of the Sepulcher Give me said he another Body and I will rise But the next is an Example of more Piety Two Anchorites lived in the Pterugian Rock near the River one of which grown old and dying was Buried in the Mountain by his Companion Some few days after the Disciple of the Old Man deceased going to a Countreyman that was at Plough in the bottom Do me but one kindness Brother said he take thy Spade and Mattock and follow me Being come where the old Man lay Buried the Anchorite shewed the Countreyman the Grave And having so done Dig said he here I desire thee while I pray in the mean time When the Grave was digged and that the Anchorite had finished his Prayers embracing the old Man Pray for me said he Brother and throwing himself alive upon his Master
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
grows a Worm which afterwards comes to be a Bird of the same Nature Aâ—… plain Symbolum of the Resurrection Mirmeius the Roman Orator a great Antagonist of the Christians see saith he how for our comfort all nature points out our Resurrection The Sun sets and rises the Stars fall and return Flowers decay and reflourish the withered Trees recover their Vendure Seeds return their several species Thus the Body deceased like Trees in Winter cover their Vigour with a feigned dryness We are also to expect the Spring of the Body I know that my Redeemer Lives and that I shall rise again at the last day Sect. 29. The hope of Heaven WHat wouldst thou What desirest thou Wouldst thou live And wouldst thou not die So live then that thou mayst once live happy For to live and not to live happily is a kind of death or the way to death In Heaven thou shalt live never to die Therefore thou shalt live happily for thou neither shalt nor canst suffer pain because there is none there There thou shalt enjoy thy Wishes nor canst thou 〈◊〉 be put out of possession Eat O ye Cant. 5. 1. Friends drink and be merry O ye beloved This Banquet has no end St. Austin cries out O sempiternal Life and tempiternally blessed where joy without sorrow rest without labour dignity without fear health without sickness life without death happiness without calamity where all good things perfect in charity The Gates of Jerusalem shall be built of Saphyrs and Smarayds and of precious Stones the whole Circuit of her Walls The Streets of the City shall be pure Gold transparent as Glass and through her Villages shall Allelujahs be sung Therefore blessed are they that dwell in thy house they will be alwaies praising thee I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living Sect. 30. Sighs to Heaven Exod. 35. SHew me thy Glory Shew me all thy vers 18. Good Isa. 61. 3. When wilt thou give unto them that mourn beauty in stead of ashes joyful Ointment for sighing pleasant rayment for a heavy mind Job 6. 8 9. 10. O that I might have my desire and that God would grant me the thing that I long for O that God would begin to smite me That he would let his hand go and take me clean away Then should I have some comfort yea I would defie him in my pain that he would not spare for I will not deny the words of the Holy One. Job 7. 2. For as a bond-servant desireth the shadow and as the hireling would fain have the reward of his work Psalm 15. 1. Lord who shall dwell in thy Tabernacle who shall rest in thy holy place Psalm 27. 45. One thing have I desired of the â—…ord which I will perform even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the fair beauty of the Lord and to visit his Temple Psalm 42. 1 2. Like as the Hart desireth the Water-brooks so longeth my Soul after thee O God My Soul is a thirst for God yea even for the living God When shall I come to appear before the presence of God Now when I think thereupon I pour out my heart by my self I went by with the multitude and brought them forth to the house of God Psalm 55. 6. O that I had wings like a Dove for then would I fly away and be at rest Psalm 60. 9. Who will lead me into the strong City Ps. 65. 4. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and receivest unto thee he shall dwell in thy Court. Ps. 73. 1. Truly God is loving unto Israel even to such as are of a clean heart Vers. 24. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of thee Vers. 25. My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psalm 84. 1. O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of Hosts Vers. 2. My Soul hath a desire and longing to erter into the Courts of the Lord V. 10. For one day in thy Courts is better than a thousand years Psalm 116. 9. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living Psalm 120. 5. My Soul hath long dwelt among them that be Enemies to peace Psalm 122. 1. I was glad when they said unto me we will go into the house of the Lord. Psalm 138. 1. By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembred thee O Sion Ver. 4. How shall we sing the Lord's Song in a strange Land If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand finger forget her cunning Ps. 142. 9. Bring my Soul out of prison that I may give thanks unto thy Name Which thing if thou wilt grant me then shall the righteous resort unto my company I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ. Sect. 31. An Abstract of the Comforts against Death FIrst Death kills our familiar Enemy the Body There is no mischief more pestilential than a Bosom-Enemy The Flesh lusteth contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit contrary to the Flesh Gal. 5. 17. These are contrary one to another 2ly Death breaks the Door of the Prison wherein we are lockt up But as old Prisoners many times long acquaintance with the place detains us not unwilling in the midst of our Fetters and Sufffferings But the best of Kings desired to be delivered out of Custody 3ly Death eases us of a vast Burthen for why a corruptible Body is heavy to the Soul and the Earthy Mansion keepeth down that Understanding that museth upon many things No man can swim with this Burthen 4ly Death puts an end to our Pilgrimage What is Mortal Life saith St. Gregory but a way Consider my Friends what it is to be aweary upon the way Our present Life is full of pain a perpetual strugling and yet we cannot forsake it without Tears 5ly Death brings us out of all Danger The most Fortunate Man that lives is subject to many Dangers and Danger is hardly avoided without danger He has only escaped all Dangers who is out of this Life 6ly The necessity of Death Nobly said the wise Roman There is no greater comfort in Death than Death it self He would not live that would not die Death carries with it an impartial and unvanquishable Necessity For the first part of Impartiality is Equality 7ly The Death of Christ. To the Contemplation of this St. Paul exhorts us Let us saith he run with patience unto the Battel that is set before us Looking unto Jesus the Captain and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross. To the Members of this Head this is the greatest Consolation For that the Members should not fear Death the Head endured the utmost violence of Death The Author of Life by dying set open the Gates of Heaven Why do we fear to die
8ly The Hope of Resurrection Wherefore do we expostulate with Death He does not deprive us but introduces us into Life The Day will shine that will recal us from our Graves We shall all rise Which sundry Arguments demonstrate unto us as has been already shewed 9ly Immortality it self Death is the end and passage the end of Calamity the passage to Calamity Hence the death of the Just is called their Birth-day Hence also that other Saying Death is but a Sport to a true Christian. And that no man might fear this Sport Prudentius in his Hymns has these Lines That which you see believe me is no pain And but a minute doth prolong its raign Nor doth it silly man of life deprive But life reforms by keeping life alive Thus the best and all the best of men have the same beginning of Happiness as end of Mortality Sect. 32. Against those that Die unwillingly SO it is we generally fear Death neglect Life and die unwillingly And yet this is Ingratitude not to be content with our time allotted They will always be but a few Days saith Seneca if they be numbred The Prolongation of Life nothing avails to Happiness How much more satisfactory is it to put a good Value upon our own than to value the Years of another Did God think me worthy of this time This is enough He might have added more but this is a Favour Here opportunely Horace But having his compleated time enjoy'd Let him like a full Guest the Room avoid Who would endure a Guest that at the end of a Banquet should cry I have not filled my Belly Who can praise that man who departing out this life shall complain and say I have not lived long enough and bemoan himself as if his life were broken off in the third Act 'T is not only a shameful but a ridiculous Complaint The bounds are set but whether a long Life or a short there is to be an end of it So it pleases the Author of Life Th' hast eat and drank enough enough hast plaid And now Time calls that will not be delaid Most admirably Epictetus Thy Honour is at end be gone depart gratefully modestly give place to others Others must be born as thou wert and being born they must have Habitations and Food But should not the first depart what would be left Why art thou insatiable why art thou not satisfied why dost thou stifle and croud the World But more admirably than Epictetus St. Austin At what time soever God would have thee make thy departure let him find thee ready For thou art a Stranger and not Master of the House The House is only let to thee nor hast thou any certain Lease of it What said the Lord thy God When I please when I say the word be gone depart I will turn thee out of thy Inne but I will give thee a House Thou art a Pilgrim upon Earth thou shalt be a Tenant in Heaven He more earnestly expects more confidently hopes for Heavenly Pleasures who denies himself Earthly Delights Who life doth count severe Less cause hath death to fear Sect. 33. Delay is the Rock of dying People WE have admonished the Healthy the Sick we must also admonish the Dying to beware of this Rock Delay How many thousand People have made an ill end only because they have denied those things which were not to be delaied Why O dying Friend dost thou set apart to Morrow or the next Day for thy Salvation To Morrow is not thine to Day is To Day this very Hour even now do what is to be done Where wilt thou be to Morrow or next Day Emylius and Plutarch that the approach of the Theban Exiles being reported to the Magistrates of the Thebans they being in the midst of their Jollity took no notice of it At the same time Letters being brought to the Chief Magistrate wherein all the Counsels of the Exiles were discover'd and deliver'd to him at the same Banquet he laid them under his Cushion Sealed as they were saying I defer serious Business till to Morrow But this Deferrer of Business with all his Friends was that Night surprized and killed Thus Death uses to surprize those that delay while they deliberate while they muse while they defer he comes and strikes with his unlookt for Dart. Staint Austin a most faithful Monitor thus instructs one that promises I will live to Morrow God has promised thee pardon but neither God nor Man has promised thee to Morrow If thou had lived ill live well to Day Fool this Night thy Soul shall be taken from thee God calls thee now exhorts thee now expects that thou shouldst now repent and dost thou delay He is not so patient in suffering as never to be just in revenging 〈…〉 divided his times Do not say then Tomorrow I will repent to Morrow I will serve God Fâ—…r enough God has promised thee Pardon he has not promised to add to Morrow to thy delay Delay not thy Conversion to God for then God will be angry and destroy the work of thy hands The Day is to be prevented that so often is accustom'd to prevent Sect. 34. A ready Mind I Will receive the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord. This Cup is bitterer yet my Saviour drank it up and from the bloody Cross drank the same to me that I should pledge him This Cup is the fatal Cup of Death which Christ which those most dear to Christ which all Mortals drink through an inevitable necessity Why should I alive refuse it Who ever began to live must ceaâ—…e to be that he may begin that life that never shall decay Both Good and Evil Life and Death Poverty and Riches proceed from God What meanest thou then vain Fear wouldst thou not that I should drink the Cup which the Father provided for me which Christ mingled for me I am Mortal and do I wonder at Death When Alexander the Macedonian lay sick and that some of his Spiritual Flatterers seemed to hint to him as if Philip his Physician had mingled Poyson in his Physick the King receiveâ—… Philip just then coming to him with the Poyson prepared with one hand he gave him his Friends Letter with the other he received the Poyson from him and as he put it to his Mouth he fixed his Eye upon the Physician 's Face to try whether he could discover any Marks of Guilt in his Face but perceiving none and being thereby confirmed in the Fidelity of his Physician he forthwith drank off the Poyson So will I do when my dear Jesus my Physician and Saviour shall reach me that wholesome Cup that is to procure my Eternal Rest while I drink it I will fix my Eyes continually upon this Physician 's Face upon the Countenance of my Crucified Lord wherein I shall read his Love toward me and fearless I will take off the Cup which the more of Love it has the more it has of
my self I justly now dye I receive according to my Deeds but my God and my Lord did nothing that he should dye and dye in so much Torment And therefore may I truely use this Prayer Lord remember me because thou art come into thy Kingdom And because thou art now in thy Kingdom look upon me weeping in this Exile and admit me going hence into thy Kingdom This I beg of thee for the sake of thy Scourgings thy Thorns thy Cross and through thy Torments and thy Death Therefore what remains but for me to throw my Soul into his Bosom who alone considers its Pains and Sufferings He knows what conduces to the Salvation of Souls I wait for thy Salvation O Lord. Sect. 47. A Heliotropian Receit against all Sickness and Death THE Heliotrope is a Flower which as we find by daily Experience turns it self with the Sun from East to West and doing the same even in cloudy VVeather and in the Night for want of the Sun contracts and shuts up the Beauty of its Colours Let the will of Man always wait upon Divine Pleasure continually turning and winding it self to the beck of Sacred Power though the VVeather be cloudy Nor can any day in all the life of Man be more cloudy than the day of our death Then let the dying Person with fix'd and stedfast Eyes like the Heliotrope turn himself to his only Sun This let our Saviours words teach us Even so O Father for so was it thy good pleasure After this manner my dear dying Friend speak altogether In all things to be done to be avoided to be endured and born according to thy Lords Example always say Even so O Father even so always submitting thine to the most holy VVill. Even so O Father even so both now and for evermore Philip the second King of Spain groaning under the pains of a desperate Disease was wont continually to repeat these words of our Saviour Father not mine but thy will be done And one time among the rest as the Passion of Christ was read to him while the Chirurgeons were Lanching open an Aposthume he caused the Reader to stop at these words So highly did that great King value this Heliotropian Receit as well in Health as in Sickness This Heliotrope cures Sickness Death and all sorts of Diseases He is far from Destruction who in his will is so near to God THE Fatal Moment VVHen we dye our Everlasting state is to be determin'd After Death the Judgment The moment of our departure hence will pass us over to the Righteous Tribunal of God It will make us either to shine with the Angels above or to set with the Devils It will either fix us in a joyful Paradise or in an intolerable state of Woe So that we may say with Nieremberg How many things are to pass in that Moment In the same is our Life to finish our Works to be examined and we are then to know how it will go with us for ever and ever In that Moment I shall cease to Live in that Moment I shall behold my Judge in that moment I must answer for all my publick and my secret Actions for all that I have ever thought or spoke or done for all the Talents the Time the Mercies the Health the Strength the Opportunities and the Seasons and Days of Grace that I have ever had for all the Evil that I might have avoided for all the good I might have done and did not and all this before that Judge who has beheld my ways from my Birth to the Grave before that Judge who cannot be deceiv'd and who will not be impos'd upon Little can he that has not been brought near to Death and Judgment know what Thoughts the Diseased have when they are so Little very little does a Soul in Flesh know what it is to appear before the Great God This is so great and so strange a thing that they only know it who have receiv'd their final Sentence but they are not suffer'd to return to tell us how it is or what passes then and God sees it fit it should be concealed from us who are yet on this side the Grave But who does not tremble to think of this mighty Change and of this Moment that is the last of Time and the beginning of Eternity that includes Heaven and Hell and all the Effects of the Mercy and Justice of God Who does not tremble when he considers that Infinite and Holy Majesty before whom the Angels cover their Faces that considers his Omniscience and his Greatness and the mighty Consequences of that Sentence how sudden it is and how irresistible and that it is an irrevocable Decree and by a Word of this mighty Judge we live or dye for ever It is no wonder if the thoughts of it make us shrink and quiver It is a greater wonder that when some or other whom we know are almost every week going to such a place and state as this we who are not yet Cited to the Bar are no more concerned and use no more endeavours to be ready for it Oh my Friends when you come to the Borders of the Grave when you are within an Hour or two's distance from your Final Judgment and your unalterable state what a mighty Change will it cause in your thoughts and your apprehensions You will then know and feel it Then when the Perspective is turn'd and the other World begins to appear very great and this very little This that I have represented to you is a part of that which we call dying It is a great Mercy and greatly to be acknowledg'd that God allows us so much Time wherein to prepare our selves for this final and irrevocable Doom It is an instance of his Patience that is truly Divine that notwithstanding our many repeated Sins he has not cut us off It is his great Mercy that gives us leave to appear in his Courts before we appear at his Tribunal and that he affords us such large notice and warning that so we may be ready for our Last Tryal whereon so very much depends THE TREATMENT OF OUR Departed Friends AFTER THEIR DEATH In Order to Their Burial WHen we have received the last Breath of our Friend and closed his Eyes and composed his Body for the Grave then solemn and appointed Mournings are good Expressions of our dearness to the departed Soul and of his worth and our value of him The Church in her Funerals of the dead used to sing Psalms and to give thanks for the Redemption and Delivery of the Soul from the evils and dangers of Mortality But it is good that the Body be kept veiled and secret and not exposed to curious Eyes neither should the dishonours wrought upon the Face by the changes of death be stared upon by impertinent persons When Cyrus was dying he called his Sons and Friends to take their leave of him to touch his Hand to see him the last time and gave
Book of his Illiads of which this is the Argument Achilles orders justs of Obsequies For his Patroclus and doth Sacrifice Twelve Trojan Princes most lov'd Hounds Horse And other Offering to the honoured corse He institutes besides a Funeral Game Where Diomed for Horse-race wins the same For Foot Ulysses other otherwise Strive and obtain and end the Exequies They used to quench these Funeral Fires with red Wine and gathering the Bones together to include them in Urns which they placed in or upon some sumptuous rich Monument erected for that purpose Many more Ceremonies were observed in the magnificent ordering of both kinds of Funerals as well of such as were Buried in the Earth as of these Burned in these costly Piles of VVood. The Custom of burning the dead Bodies continued among the Romans but unil the time of the Antoâ—…ine Emperors An. Dom. 200. or thereabouts then they began to Bury again in the Earth Maâ—…ius de leg Rom Fol. 125 126. They had at these Burials suborned counterfeit hired Mourners which were VVomen of the loudest Voices who betimes in the Morning did meet at appointed places and then cried out mainly beating of their Breasts tearing their Hair their Faces and Garments joining therewith the Prayers of the defunct from the Hour of his Nativity unto the Hour of his Dissolution still keeping time with the Melancholick Musick This is a Custom observed at this day in some parts of Ireland but above all Nations the Jews are best skilled in these Lamentations being Fruitful in Tears Tears that still ready stand To sally forth and but expect command Amongst these VVomen there was ever an old aged Beldam called Praefica superintendent above all the rest of the Mourners who with a loud Voice did pronounce these words Ire licet as much to say He must needs depart and when the dead Corps were laid in the Grave and all Ceremonies finished she deliver'd the last Adieu in this manner Adieu Adieu Adieu we must follow thee according 〈◊〉 the course of Nature shall permit us The manner of these lamentings saith George Sanâ—…s in his Journal may of old appear by this Ironical personating of a Father following the Exequies of his Son introducted by Lucian in these words O my sweet Son thou art lost thou art dead Dead before â—…hy day and hast left me behind of Men the most miserable To Mourn after the Interment of our Friends is a Manifest Token of true Love by it we express that Natural Affection we had to the departed with a Christian-like Moderation of our Grief whereby our Faith to God-ward is demonstrated For as God has made us living so hath he made us loving Creatures to the end we should not be as Stocks and Stones void of all kind and natural Affection but that living and loving together the love of the one should not end with the life of the other Our all Perfect and Almighty Saviour Christ Jesus wept over the Grave of dead Lazarus whom he revived whereupon the standers by said among themselves Behold how he loved him The Ancient Romans before they were Christians mourned nine Months but being Christians they used mourning a whole year clothed in black for the most part for Women were clothed partly in white and partly in black according to the diversity of Nations These Examples considered I observe that we in these days do not weep and mourn at the departure of the dead so much nor so long as in Christian duty we ought For Husbands can buâ—…y their Wives and Wives their Husbands with a few counterfeit Tears and a soure Visage masked and painted over with dissimulation contracting second Marriages before they have worn out their Mourning Garments and sometimes before their Copemates be cold in their Graves AN ACCOUNT Of the Death and last Sayings Of the most Eminent Persons from the Crucifixion of our Blessed Saviour down to this present time FUneral Orations have been anciently used both within and without the Church without among the Heathens within among both Jews and Christians David 2 Sam. 1. 19. sets forth the Praise of Saul and Jonathan his Son The Beauty of Israel is slain upon his high â—…laces And memorable is that Funeral Oration of Saint Jerom for his Paula and her Daughter Eustoâ—…ium And good reason since not only Life but â—…he Death of Saints is precious in God's sight let â—…t be so in ours if both the one and the other be â—…poken of we ought not nor can without Injury to â—…he Pious Souls deceased bury in silence those Verâ—…es and Graces of God which were Eminently visible in their last Exit not only for God's Glory â—…ho was Author but also for Example and Comfort of the Survivers And how can we doubt that the Sound of the Praises of the Godly will â—…ause the most Dissolute one time or another to â—…ish Oh that I might die the death of the righteous and that my latter end may be like his For these holy Purposes I design here to give you an account of the Death and last Sayings of the most Eminent Persons from the Crucifixion of our Blessed Saviour down to this present time It was a Custom in the Primitive Times to Transmit to Posterity what would be most Remarkabe and Exemplary to present as well as to future Ages And I hope such Precedents will not appear unnecessary since Divine Authority informs our weak Judgment that St. Luke made one Treatise of all that Jesus began to do and to teach Acts 1. 1. Which blessed Pattern was fully delineated by that holy Apostle for our Imitation and whose Holy Example we must endeavour to follow if we expect to be his Disciples It was the Wish and earnest Desire even of Dives when in Flames That Abraham would send Lazarus to his Brethren to warn them of coming to that dismal place of Torment as we find it Luke 16. for he conceived a Message from the Dead would operate more powerfully than the Arguments or Perswasions of the Living And in this following Account we may be said to allow you that which was denied to this Man while we Treat you with a seasonable Banquet Served up by Repentance through the Grace and Mercy of God even upon the Brink of the Grave THE Death of Christ and his Apostles c. The Death of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST NO sooner had our First Parents by eating the Forbidden Fruit forfeited their State of Happiness but the All-wise Creator out of the Abundance of his Mercy and Goodness found a â—…eans to rescue them and their Posterity from the â—…ower and Malice of Satan and gave them a Proâ—…ise That the Seed of the Woman should break the â—…erpent's head Gen. 3. 15 All which was fulfilled â—…y our blessed Lord and Saviour The Son of God and Second Person in the Triâ—…ity was born of the Virgin Mary and made Man â—…hose Birth and Glorious Triumph over Death â—…he Grave and Hell the
Patriarchs and Prophets â—…ll along had foreseen After our Blessed Saviour that Glorious Son of Righteousness had run his Course he undertook 〈◊〉 satisfie his Father's Justice by making a Proâ—…tiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of lost and undone Man and suffered himself to be Tempted Beâ—…ayed Scourged Spit upon Reviled Crowned â—…ith Thorns and lastly submitting even unto the Death of the Cross all which had been exactly foretold by the Prophets Though it happened not after the common manner but was attended with such dismal Darkness and terrible Earthquakes Insomuch that a Heathen Philosopher at that Instant declared That either the God of Nature suffered or the World was at an end But he could not long rest under the power of the Grave but as a Victorious Captain breaking the Bonds of Death he led Captivity Captive in spite of the Malice of his Enemies who set a Guard upon him for as we have it Matth. 28. 1 2 3 4 5 6. In the end of the Sabbath as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre and behold there was a great Earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and came and rolled away the Stone from the door and sat upon it his Countenance was like Lightning and his Raiment white as Snow and for fear of him the Keepers did tremble and became as dead men and the Angel answered and said unto the women fear ye not for I know that ye seek Jesus that was crucified he is not here but is risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay The Death of St. PETER WHen he was at Rome he Prophesied the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation by Vespasian But about that time the Persecution growing hot against the Christians especially upon Nero's return from Achaia in great Pomp he at that time resolving to glut himself with Innocent Blood caused several thousands of the Christians to bâ—… 〈◊〉 up in Prisons and amongst the â—…est St. Peter 〈◊〉 whose Preservation the Prayers of the Chrisâ—… were still put up to Heaven many of the 〈◊〉 of them who could gain Access perswading him earnestly to make his escape alledging that the preservation of his Life would be very useful to the Church The which after many denials he attempted by getting over the Wall which being effected and coming to the City Gate is there said to meet our Lord who was entring the City when knowing him he asked him Lord whither art thou going from whom he received this Answer I am come to Rome to be Crucified a second time By which Answer St. Peter apprehending himself to be reproved for endeavouring to fly that Death which was allotted him and that our Saviour meant he was to be Crucified in his Servant he returned again to Prison and delivered himself to the Keekper and so cotinued till the Day of his Execution with great chearfulness Having Saluted his Brethren and especially St. Paul who was at that time his Fellow-Prisoner he was led to the top of the Vatican Mountain near the River Tiber about three Furlongs without the City and there Crucified with his Head downwards it being his own desire so to die alledging that he was unworthy to suffer after the same manner that his Lord and Master had suffered and so having run the race that was set before him he undoubtedly obtained the reward laied up for him in the Highest Heavens The Death of St. PAUL HOW long St. Paul continued in Prison after he had received Sentence to die is uncertain but the Day of his Execution soon came but what his preparatory Treatment was whether he was Scourged as Malefactors were wont in order to their Death is not known As a Roman Citizen by the Valerian and Porcian Law he was exempted from any such Ignominious and Infamous Punishment though by the Law of the Twelve Tables Notorious Malefactors Condemned by the Centuriate Assemblies were first to be Scourged and then put to Death And as Baronius informs us That in the Church of St. Mary beyond the Bridge in Rome two Pillars are yet to be seen to which St. Peter and St. Paul were Bound and Scourged before their Executions As our Apostle was led to Execution he is said to have Converted three of the Souldiers who Guarded him which the Emperour hearing commanded that they should be put to death St. Paul being come to the place appointed for his Execution which was near the Aquae Salviae three Miles from Rome after he had exhorted such as came to see his Tragedy to Repentance and recommended his Spirit into the hands of his blessed Lord and Master he kneeling down had his Head stricken off with a Sword St. Chrysostom declares That his chearful submitting to Death and his constant Courage till the last was a means not only to Convert his Executioner but several others who afterwards suffered Marryrdom for the Faith of Christ. He was Executed as far as can be gathered in the Sixty eighth Year of his Age. And thus the great Apostle after he had Preached the Gospel to the Gentiles and either in Person or by his Epistles visited most of the known World and as Theodoret tells us in the Isles of the Sea whereby he undoubtedly means Britain he received first the Crown of Martyrdom He was Buried in via Ostiensis about two Miles from Rome Over whose Grave about 318 Years after Constantine the Great at the request of Pope Sylvester built a stately Church and endowed it with many rich Gifts and Priviledges The Death of St. ANDREW VVHen he was Condemned the Pro-Consul ordered him to be Scourged and as he was going to be Crucified the People cried out He was a just and good man yet he was fastned upon the Cross with Ropes that he might be the longer dying the Cross being two Beams set in the fashion of the Letter X. From this Cross after he was fastned to it he Preached to the People for the space of two Days and by his admirable Patience Courage and Perseverance Converted many to the Faith During his hanging there great sute was made to the Pro-Consul for his Life but our Apostle desired them not to Intercede for him For that he was greatly desirous to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Praying earnestly to Heaven that he might at that time finish his Race and be crowned with Martyrdom And so it happened for he there gave up the Ghost After which his Body being taken down was Embalmed at the Command of Maximilia whom he had Converted and afterwards laied in a stately Tomb prepared for that purpose where it continued till the time of Constantine the Great and was at his command brought to Constantinople and buried there in the great Church which he had founded to the Honour of the Apostles The Scots for many Ages past have had such Veneration for him that they Stiled him the
Patron of their Country bearing his Cross in their Standard The Death of St. JAMES A Short time after his Imprisonment Sentence of Death was passed upon him and as he was led to the Place of Execution according to Clemens Alexandrinus the Souldier or Officer who Guarded him to the place of his Martyrdom or as Suidas will have it his Accuser being Convinced by the Courage and Bravery of the Apostle in his chearfully going to his Death came and fell down before him asking Pardon for what he had done upon which the blessed man raised him from the Ground embraced and kissed him saying Peace my Son peace be to thee and a pardon of thy faults Whereupon before all the Assembly he openly confessed his Conversion declaring the Christian Faith to be the only means of Salvation declaring that he was ready to die for the same which accordingly he did they being both Beheaded at the same time As for the Body of our Apostle it being Interred near Jerusalem was from thence brought into Spain and there said to do many Miracles but what Credit is to be given to that I leave to the Reader 's Judgment The Death of St. JOHN HE died said the Arabian as Kirsten has it in the Lives of the Four Evangelists in the expectation of his blessedness from which he infers that he died peaceably and not a violent Death although Theophylact and others do conceive that he died a Martyr Many there are likewise who have cherished a fond Opinion that he never died but rather that sleeps in his Grave alluding to the words of our Saviour upon Peter's enquiry If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee John 21. 23. Others say that having commanded his Grave to be dug he went into it and ordered such as went with him to fasten down a great Stone upon the same and come the next Morning and look into it which they did and found nothing there but the Grave-cloaths from which as Nicephorus relates they concluded he was Ascended he having intimated some such thing before his lying down The Death of St. PHILIP THis Apostle was seized and carried to Prison and being Sentenced he was cruelly Scourged and hanged by the Neck against a Pillar though some would have it that he was Crucified but however during the Execution such a terrible Earthquake happened that the Earth began to open so that the affrighted people cried to Heaven for Mercy upon which it instâ—…ly staied The Apostle being dead his Body was taken down by St. Barnabas his Companion in the Ministery of the Gospel at that time and 〈◊〉 St. Philip's Sister who bore him Company in all his Travels After they had taken him down they decently Interred him and when they had confirmed the people in the Faith of Christ they departed thâ—…rce The Death of St. BARTHOLOMEW HIS Sentence was to be Crucified and when the Day of Execution came he went chearfully to embrace his Death Comforting and Exhorting his Proselytes to keep stedfast in the Faith and Doctrine that they had received which was able to make them wise unto Salvation and so continued to instruct them to the last moment of his Life Several there are that affirm he was Crucified with his Head downwards and that he was fleied alive which cruel usage as Plutarch relateth was common in that Country After his Death his Body was removed to Darus a City in the Borders of Persia from thence to Beuevent in Italy and from thence to Rome The Death of St. MATTHEW the Evangelist WE find in an ancient Author that he suffered Martyrdom at Naddabar a City of Aethiopia but what kind of Death he died is not mentioned and as Dorotheus reports he was Buried at Hierapolis During his life-Lifetime he was a great Assertor of the true Religion a Contemner of Worldly Treasure which is evident by his leaving so gainful a Calling to follow our Saviour As for his Humility he exceeded many of his Fellows which may well be observed in his Writings where he gives them the Pre-eminency His Age at the time of his Death is not certainly known though some are of Opinion he died in the Seventy Year c. The Death of St. THOMAS THE Brachamans or Heathen Priests were so enraged against St. Thomas that they sought always to destroy the Apostle as hoping by that means to extirpate his Doctrine which by being embraced on all hands had near spoiled their Trade So that one Day when he was praying alone in a solitary place they came upon him with Stones Darts and Spears and having grievously wounded him one of them run him through the Body with a Spear His Body being taken up by his Well-willers was Buried with great Solemnity in the Church that he had built which was afterwards greatly enlarged The Death of St. JAMES HE was took up by force and thrown down from the Battlements notwithstanding which Fall He reared himself upon his Knees and prayed for them the which whilst he was doing such Villains as they had appointed for that purpose fell upon him with Clubs and Stones till one among the rest notwithstanding the entreaty of many to save his Life with a Fuller's Club bear out his Brains and by that means gave his Soul a passage to the Eternal habitations of Bliss and Joy that fade not away He died in the Ninty fourth year of his Age and Twenty four after Christ's Ascension to the grief of all good men Gregory Bishop of Tows informs us that he was buried upon Mount Olivet in a Tomb which he had caused to be erected during his Life In which he had buried old Simeon and Zacharias though Hegesippus will have it that he was buried near the Temple in the place where he was Martyr'd and that there being a Monument erected for him it continued there for many years after The Death of SIMEON the Zelot THE Devil that great Enemy of our Salvation stirred up the Multitude to persecute him whose barbarous rage in a short time after Crowned him with Martyrdom as not only Dorotheus and Nicephorus affirm but also expressed in the Menologies where we are informed that St. Simeon went at last into Britain and having enlightned the Minds of many with the Doctrine of the Gospel he at length was Crucified by the Infidels and buried there but as to any particular place of his Burial no mention is made Some there are who tell us that after he had Preached the Gospel in Aegypt he went to Mesopotamia where meeting with St. Jude they journeyed together into Persia where having planted the Gospel they were both Crowned with Martyrdome The Death of St. JUDE NIcephorus tells us that after all he came to Edessa where Abgarus was Governour and where the other Tnaddaeus who was one of the Seventy had been before him and there perfected what was begun and having by his Preaching and Miracles established the Gospel he died a peaceable and
quiet Death But Dorotheus affirms that he was slain at Berytus and buried there in a stately Tomb although by the General Consent of the Latin Church he went Preaching the Gospel in Persia where after he had brought many over to the Faith and established the Christian Religion there for many years he at last was for his reproving and strongly opposing Idolatrous and Diabolick Devices of the Magi by their procurement crueily put to Death The Death of St. MATTHIAS the Apostle HE was treated with all manner of Rudeness and Inhumanity from whom for all his Pains and Labour about saving their Immortal Souls and directing them in the way to everlasting Life he was at last Marty'd by them Anno Christo 59 or as others will have it 64. The mà nner of his Death is uncertain though Dorotheus reports he was Martyr'd at Sebestople near the Temple of the Sun past doubt for reproving their Idolatrous Worship in Adoring the Creature instead of the Creator and was buried there Another account we have that he was seized by the Jews as a Blasphemer and after being stoned was beheaded When as the Greek Offices seconded by several Breviaries relate that he was hanged upon a Cross And farther 't is said that his Body was for a long time kept at Jerusalem and conveyed thence to Rome by Aelen Mother to Constantine the Great where some Bones said to be his are snewed with great Veneration to this day The Death of St. MARK WHilst St. Mark was intent at Divine Worship the barbarous Multitude broke in upon him and fastning Cords about his Feet dragged him through the Streets in a most inhumane manner so that his Flesh was torn off by the Cragginess of the way not being satisfied with this they cast him into a Prison near the Sea where he was comforted in his Agony by a Divine Apparition The next Morning they drew him forth till by the extream effusion of Blood his Spirits failed and he gave up the Ghost after which as Metaprastus adds they kindled a large Fire and burnt his Body the remains of which being preserved by such as he had Converted to the Christian Faith were deposited in the place where he was wont to Preach and such part of him as remained was afterward carried to Venice and there kept in a Church built to the Honour of that Evangelist being one of the stateliest Piles now extant in Europe The Death of St. LUKE SOme there are that say he died a Natural Death but Nasianzen and Polinus Bishop of Nola with some others affirm that he received the Crown of Martyrdom Nicephorus gives us this following account viz That Saint Luke coming into Greece successfully Preached the Gospel Baptizing many Converts into the Christian Faith and working many Miracles till at last a party of Infidels encouraged by their Priests whose Idolatrous Worship the Evangelist sharply reproved fell at unawares upon him and forcibly dragged him to the place of Execution where not having a Cross in readiness they hanged him upon an Olive-Tree in the 80th Year of his Age. But certain it is that he was put to Death some affirm that his Body was at the Command of Constacine the Great or his Son Constantius brought to Gonstantinople and there solemnly Interred in the great Church Founded there to the Honour of the Apostles THE DEATHS OF THE Primitive Fathers The Death of IGNATIUS IGnatius was born Twelve Years before the Crucifixion of our Saviour having with his Eyes beheld him in the Flesh he being as many think one of those little Ones that our Saviour commanded his Disciples to suffer to come unto him Nay some affirm that it was he whom our Blessed Lord set in the midst of his Disciples when they contended about Superiority However he was indued with a more than ordinary Portion of the Divine Spirit and succeeded St. Peter in the Pastorship of the Church of Antioch where he laboured diligently in the Ministry of the Gospel Converting and Confirming many to the Christian Faith being a great opposer of the Heresies or Erroneous Opinions that had sprung up in the Church When the day of his Martyrdom came he chearfully said I am Gods Corn when the wild Beasts have ground me to powder with their Teeth I shall be his white Bread He suffered Martyrdom the 11th year of Trajan being as many of the Ancients affirm Torn to pieces by wild Beasts in the Theatre to make the Tyrant sport And thus ended the Life of this good Man who upon many occasions was wont to say My Love is Crucified meaning either Christ the Object of his Love or that his darling Sins and Affections to the World were Crucified and in another place he declares that he beheld the Lord after his Resurrection before he Ascended He used to say That there is nothing better than the peace of a good Conscience Of Patience Other Graces are but parts of a Christians Armour as the Shield of Faith the Sword of the Spirit c. But Patience is the Panoply or whole Armour of the Man of God The Death of POLYCARP HIS Enemies thirsted after his Blood and thereupon desired the Proconsul that he might be thrown to the Beasts but he alledging the time for the Game of Beasts was past they prayed that he might be exposed to the Flames to which last he consented and thereupon the multitude led him away crying This is the Doctor of Asia the Father of the Christians the Overthrower of our Gods who hath taught many that our Gods are not to be Adored Every one of them fetching Wood from their Shops and Houses When the Pile was reared the Holy Man put off his Apparel being assisted therein by the Faithful Christians that came to take their last Farewel of him striving to touch his Body as accounting it no small Honour VVhen he was naked the Infidels offered to nail him to the Stake but he desired them to forbear saying Suffer me even as I am for he that has given me strength to come to this Fire will give me patience likewise to persevere therein without your fastening me with Nails He died Anno Christi 170. In the midst of the Fire he said this Prayer O God the Father of thy beloved Son Jesus Christ through whom we have received the Knowledge of thee O God the Creator of all things upon thee I call thee I confess to be the true God Thee I glorifie O Lord receive me and make me a Companion of the Resurrection of thy Saints through the Merits of our great High-Priest thy beloved Son Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and God the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory for ever Amen The Death of DIONYSIUS AREOPAGITA HE was Condemned to be Beheaded the which to put him to greater Torment was done with a blunted Sword on the top of the Mount without the City where kneeling he said with an Audible Voice O Lord God almighty thou only begotten
insomuch that notwithâ—…nding the many Rich Presents he received at the â—…nds of the Emperor he died very Poor He used to say of Piety That Godliness always enriches the Possessor The Death of ATHANASIUS AFter all the Storms that were raised up against him he died in peace at Alexandria Anno â—…risti 375 having been Bishop of that See 46 â—…ars during which time he had been in many â—…at Perils and Hazards of his Life for not only â—…shops but Emperors and Nations sought his Deâ—…ustion But God delivered him oat of their â—…nds to the Glory of his Name for his only trust â—…s in God alone which caused him often to say â—…ough Armies should Encamp about me yet I would 〈◊〉 fear The Death of HILARIUS HE Travelled to Italy and France instructing the Bishops in those parts in the Catholick â—…ith He was very Eloquent and wrote many â—…reatises in Latin also Twelve Books of the Triniâ—… Expounding the Canon containing the Clause 〈◊〉 One Substance being of sufficient proof against the Arrians He died under Valentinian and Valence Anno 355. The Death of CYRILLUS IN the midst of all his Afflictions he kept his resolution to die in the Faith He used to say concerning the benefit of Hearing Some come to Church to see Fashions others to meet their Friends yet it 's better to come so than not at all In the mean time the Net is cast out and they which intended nothing less are drawn into Christ who catches them not to destroy them but that being dead he may bring them to Life Eternal He died Anno 365. The Death of EPHREM SYRUS HE died Anno 404. He used to say concerning Perseverance The resolute Traveller knows that his Journey is long and the way dirty yet goes on in hopes to come to his House So let a Christian though the way to Heaven be narrow though it be set with Troubles and Persecutions yet let him go on till he has finished his Course with Joy for Heaven is his Home Concerning the Soul he used to say He that feasts his Body and starves his Soul is like him that feasts his Slave and starves his Wife He died Anno 404. The Death of BASIL BAsil died at Caesarea when he had sat Bishop there eight years departing this Life Anno Christi 370. At his departure he uttered these words Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit He used to say of Self-knowledge To know thy Self is very difficult For as the Eye can see all things but it self so some can discern all faults but their own Of Love Divine Love is a never-failing Treasure he that hath it is Rich and he that wanteth it is Poor Of the Scriptures It 's a Physicians Shop of Preservatives against Poysonous Heresies A pattern of profitable Laws against Rebellious Spirits A Treasury of most costly Jewels against Beggarly Elements And a Fountain of most pure Water springing up to Eternal Life The Last Sayings of GREGORY NAZIENZEN IN his Minority he joined Studies with Basil and accompanied him to Arhens and Antioch where he became an Excellent Orator There is so much Perfection in all his Writings and such a peculiar Grace that he never tires his Reader but he always dismisseth him with a thirst after more Concerning Preaching he used to say That in a great multitude of people of several Ages and Conditions who are like a Harp with many Strings it is hard to give every one such a touch in Preaching as may please all and offend none He lived under Theodosius Anno 370. The Death of EPIPHANIUS VVHen he found himself Sick he said to his Friends God bless you my Children for I shall see you no more in this Life He died Aged 115. He used to say this was his Antidote against Hatred That he never let his Adversary sleep not that he disturbed him in his sleep but because he agreed with him presently and would not let the Sun go down upon his Wrath. The Death of AMBROSE AFter Ambrose had sate Bishop about Sixteen years Death summoned him to lay down this troublesom Life for a Life more lasting Before his Death he resolved to provide a Shepherd for his Flock and for that purpose sent for one Simplicianus and ordained him Bishop in his stead after having given many Godly Exhortations to such as were about him he gave up the Ghost dying in the third Year of Theodorus Anno Christi 397. He used to say of Repentance When Gold is offered to thee thou usest not to say I will come again to morrow and take it but art glad of present possession But Salvation being proffered to our Souls few Men haste to embrace it He used to say of true Charity It is not so much to be enquired how much thou givest as with what Heart It 's not Liberality when thou takest by Oppression from one and givest it to another Of Conscience A clear Conscience should not regard slanderous Speeches nor think that they have more power to Condemn him than his own Conscience hath to clear him The Death of GREGORY NISSEN HE lived under Constantins Julian Jovian Valentinian Valence Gratian and Theodosius the Great He was President in the Council of Constantinople against the Macedonian Hereticks 492. Amongst his Similitudes he compared the Userer to a Man giving Water to one in a Burning Fever which proves prejudicial So the Userer though he seems for the present to relieve his Brother yet afterwards he torments him This Character he also gave the Userer He loves no Labour but a Sedentary Life A Pen is his Plough Parchment his Field Ink his Seed Time is the Rain to Ripen his greedy desires his Sickle is calling in his Forfeitures his Horse the Barn where he Winnows his Clients he follows his Debtors as Eagles and Vultures do Armies to prey upon dead Corps Again Men come to Userers as Birds to a heap of Corn they covet the Corn but are caâ—…cht in the Nets He died under Valentine and Valence The Death of THEODORET HE died in the Reign of Theodosius Junior not with Age but hard Studies He used to say That the Delights of the Soul are to know her Maker to consider his Works and to know her own Estate The Death of HIEROM HE died Anno Christi 422 and of his Age 91. He wrote many large Volumes being a Man of singular Chastity of great Wit slow to Anger and in Learning exceeding most of his Time His usual Prayer was Lord let me know my self that I may the better know thee the Saviour of the World An Excellent Saying he had of Christian Fortitude If my Father was weeping on his Knees before me my Mother leaning on my Neck behind my Brethren Sisters Children and Kinsfolks howling on every side to retain me in a single Life I would fling my Mother to the ground run over my Father despise all my Kindred and tread them under my Feet that I might run to Christ. Of
Chastity That Woman is truly Chaste that hath liberty and opportunity to Sin and will not Of Vertue All Vertues are so linked together that he that hath one hath all and he that wants one wants all In all his Actions he ever fansied this sound in his Ears Arise ye Dead and come to Judgment The Death of CHRYSOSTOM THE exact year of his death I find no where set down but that he flourished in the Bishoprick of Constantinople Anno Christi 400 is most certain He used to say of Lust As a great shower of Rain extinguisheth the force of Fire so Meditation of Gods Word puts out the Fire of Lust in the Soul Of the danger of Riches As a Boat over-laden sinks so much Wealth drowns Men in perdition Of Love A Bulwark of Adamant is not more Impregnable thâ—…n the Love of Brethren Of Temptations The Devils first Assault is violent resist that and his second will be weaker and that being resisted he proves a Coward The Death of AUGUSTIN HE died Anno Christi 430 of his Age 76 and of his Ministry 40. He was a Man of a Charitable Disposition very sparing in Diet and a hearty Lover of all good Men. His Table was more for Disputation than for Revelling and had Engraven upon it He that doth love an absent Friend to jeer May hence depart no room is for him here He Collected together several Precepts of a Christian Life which whoever perused it might see their Duty this he called A Looking-glass His usual Wish was That Christ when he came might find him either Praying or Preaching when the Donatists upbraided him of Levity in his Minority Look said he how much they blame my former faults by so much the more I commend and praise my Physicians He used to say of Marriage Humble Marriage is better than Proud Virginity Of Death There is nothing that more abateth Sin than the frequent Meditation of Death he cannot die ill that lived well and seldom doth he die well who lived ill Of Christian Thoughts A Christian at home in his House must think himself a Stranger and that his Countrey is above Of Riches If Men want Wealth it is not to be unjustly gotten if they have it they ought by good Works to lay it up in Heaven He so admired the Seven Penitential Psalms that he had them hung up in great Letters within his Bed Curtains that so he might depart in the Contemplation of them The Death of CYKIL of Alexandria HE was Famous for Wit Eloquence and Piety Concerning Charity he used to say 'T is the best way for a Rich Man to make the Bellies of the Poor his Barn and thereby to lay up Treasure in Heaven Of Modesty Where the Scripture wants a Tongue of Expression we need not lend an Ear of Attention we may safely knock at the Council-door of Gods Secrets but if we go further we may be more bold than welcome He lived under Theodosius Junior and died Anno 448. The Death of PETER CHRYSOLOGUS HE was a Man of an Excellent Wit and by his Example and Ministry wrought upon many Souls He used to say of Charity Let not thy Care be to have thy hands full whilst the Poors are empty for the only way to have full Barns is to have Charitable Hands And Vertues separated are annihilated Equity without Goodness is Severity and Justice without Piety Cruelty He lived under Martian the Emperor having been Rishop above 60 Years He died Anno 500. The Death of PROSPER PRosper having under Martian continued 20 years in that Episcopal See he fell sick many of his Friends coming to visit him and perceiving them to weep bitterly he comforted them with these words The Life which I have enjoyed said he was but given me upon condition to render it up again not grudgingly but gladly for me to have stayed longer here might seem better for you but for me it is better to be dissolved So falling into servent Prayer he with great Alacrity resigned up his Spirit into the hands of his Creator dying Anno Christi 466. His usual Sayings was of Conscience That it was his utmost endeavour to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and Man Of Vice Thou shalt neither hate the Man for his Vice nor love the Vice for the Mans sake Of Pride Consider what thou art by Sin and shalt be in the Grave and thy Plumes will fall for every proud Man forgets himself Of Gods Secrets Those things which God would have searched into are not to be neglected but those which God would have hidden are not to be searched into by the latter we become unlawfully Curious and by the neglect of the former damnably Ingrateful The Death of FULGENTIUS WHen Fulgentius fell Sick during which sickness he behaved himself with wonderful Patience and Humility and when his Physicians told him a Bath would do well for the recovery of his Health he answered What tell you me of a Bath can any Bath preserve the life of him who has run his natural course that he shall not die and why perswade you me now I am at the point of death to abate of that rigor which I all my life have used When having taken leave of those that came to visit him and distributed what Money he had to pious uses he yielded up the Ghost dying Anno Christi 529 and of his Age 65 having sat Bishop 25 years He used to say If want of Charity be tormented in Hell what will become of the Covetous In his greatest Suffering he would say We must suffer more than this for Christ. The Death of GREGORY the Great HE never could read these words Son remember that thou in thy life-Life-time receivedst thy good things c. without Horror and Amazement lest he by enjoying such Dignities and Honours should lose his Portion in Heaven He dyed Anno 605. The Death of ISIDORE HE so wasted his Body with Labours and enriched his Soul with Divine Contemplations that he seemed to live an Angelical Life upon Earth He used to say of a Guilty Conscience All things may be shunned but a Man 's own Heart a Man cannot run from himself a Guilty Conscience will not forsake him wheresoever he goes Of the danger of Pride He that begins to grow better let him beware lest he grow proud lest Vain-glory give him a greater overthrow than his former Vices He dyed 675. The Death of Venerable BEDE IN his Sickness he was wont to encourage himself with the words of the postle Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth And when he beheld some of his Scholars weeping over him he comforted them with these words The time is come if my Creator pleaseth that being freed from the Flesh I shall go to him who made me when I was not out of nothing I have lived long and the time of my dissolution is approaching and my Soul desireth to see
my Saviour Christ in his Glory And so gave up the Ghost Anno Christi 735 and of his Age 64. Some affirm that whilst he was Preaching to his Congregation a loud Voice was heard but from whence it came none could tell Well done Venerable Bede Upon his Tomb was found this Epitaph Here lyes Entombed in these Stones Of Venerable BEDE the Bones The Death of JOHN DAMASCENE DAmascene having finished his Course he yielded to Death in certain hope of a Glorious Crown of Life and Immortality dying about the Year 750. He wrote many Books but especially his Three Books of Parallels of the Holy Scriptures and his Four Books of the Orthodox Faith The Death of THEOPHILACT HIS Chief Work was to reform the Churches into which many Errors had crept especially in Bulgaria so that continuing a Faithful Pastor for about three years he then yielded up the Ghost and exchanged for a better Life He was a Man of great Patience Mild and Meek in all his Actions exceeding most of his time in Learning He used to say That comes forward in the World goes back in Grace his Estate is miserable that goes Laughing to Destruction as a Fool to the Stocks of Correction The Death of ANSELM HE used to say That if he should see the shame of Sin on the one hand and the pains of Hell on the other and must of necessity chuse one he would rather be thrust into Hell without Sin than go into Heaven with Sin A while after his return to England he dyed in the Ninth Year of King Henry the I. Anno 1109. Aged 76. The Last Sayings of NICEPHORUS HE was one of great Learning and Judgment He wrote an Ecclesiastical History in Greek and Dedicated it to Andronicus He used to say Christ asked Peter three times if he loved him not for his own Information but that by his threefold Profession he might help and heal his threefold denial of him He lived under Andronicus Senior 1110. The Death of BERNARD HE lived with great applause till the 63 year of his Age when retiring to his Monastery he fell sick and calling all his Disciples about him when he perceived them weep he comforted them saying My Fatherly love moves me to pity you my Children so as to desire to remain here but on the other side my desire to be with Christ draws me to long to depart hence therefore be of good comfort for I submit to the will of our Heavenly Father to whose protection I leave you And thereupon he resigned his Spirit into the Hands of his Redeemer dying Anno Christi 1153 and in the Sixty third year of his Age. Upon entring the Church at the Door he usually said Stay here all my Worldly Thoughts and all Vanity that I may entertain Heavenly Meditations The Death of PETER LOMBARD HIS usual Sayings were these There is in us evil concupiscence and vain desires which are the Devils Weapons bent against our Souls whereby when God forsakes us he overthrows us with deadly Wounds Let none glory in the Gifts of Preachers in that they edifie more by them For they are not Authors of Grace but Ministers The Instruction of words is not so powerful as the Exhortation of works for if they that teach well neglect to do well they shall hardly profit their Audience He dyed on the 13th of August 1164. and lyes Buried at Paris and has this Inscription upon his Tomb Here lyeth Peter Lombard B. D. of Paris who composed the Book of Sentences and the Glosses of the Psalms and Epistles The Death of Alexander Hales HE was Born at Hales in Gloucestershire carefully Educated of an Excellent Wit and very Industrious His Sayings were of Patience A Soul patient when wrongs are offered is like a Man with a Sword in one hand and a Salve in the other who could wound but will heal Of Faith What the Eye is to the Body Faith is to the Soul it 's good for Direction if it be kept well And as Flies hurt the Eye so little Sins and ill Thoughts torment the Soul Of Humility An humble Man is like a good Tree the more full of Fruits the Branches are the lower they bend themselves He dyed Anno 1245. The Life of Bonaventure TO keep himself imployed he wrote the Bible over with his own Hand and so well used it that he could readily Cite all the material Texts by heart After this he was made Doctor of Divinity in which he continued for a considerable time doing all the deeds of Charity that lay in his power to perform likewise perswaded others to do the like So that at last spent with tedious Studies Nature decayed in him and he falling sick gave up the Ghost dying Anno Christi 1274 Aged 53 and was Buried in a Stately Sepulchre in the Cathedral The Death of Thomas Aquinas VVHen any one offered him promotion he was wont to say I had rather have Chrysostom 's Commentary upon the Gospel of St. Matthew In all his Sermons he framed his Speech to the Peoples Capacities and hated Vice in any though he loved their Persons never so well He dyed as he was going to the Council Summoned at Lyons Anno Christi 1274. His usual Sayings were these of Spending our Time Make much of time especially in that weighty matter of Salvation O how much would he that now lyes frying in Hell rejoice if he might have but the least moment of time wherein he might get God's favour Of Death The young Man hath Death at his Back the old Man before his Eyes and that 's the most dangerous Enemy that pursues thee than that which marches up towards thy Face Of Repentance Remember that though God promises forgiveness to repentant Sinners yet he doth not promise that they shall have to morrow to repent in The Death of John Wicklif HE was an English Man by Birth descended of godly Parents who sent him to Morton College in Oxford where he profited in Learning and in a short time was Divinity Reader in the University which he so well performed that he obtained a general Applause from all his Auditors he was a Man of great Piety often bewailing the vicious Lives of the Clergy After all the Persecution and Malice of his Enemies he dyed in peace Anno Christi 1384. But after his Death many of his Famous Writings were burned by the Popish Clergy The Death of John Huss IN Degrading him they were so cruel as to cut the Skin from off the Crown of his Head with Shears and to disannul the Emperors Letters of safe Conduct they made a Decree That no Faith should be kept with Hereticks After which they prepared for his Execution and put a Cap upon his Head painted with Devils the which he joyfully put on saying That since his Lord and Master wore for his sake a Crown of Thorns he would not disdain for his sake to wear that Cap when he had put it upon his Head a
Bishop standing by said Now we commit thy Soul to the Devil but Huss lifting up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven said Into thy Hands Lord Jesus I commend my Spirit which thou hast redeemed with thy most precious Blood Then they Burnt his Books at which he with a joyful Countenance said to the People Think not good People that I die for any Heresie or Errour but through the hatred and malice of mine Adversaries As he lifted up his Face in Prayer the Cap fell off whereupon a Souldier put it on again saying He should burn with his Masters the Devils whom he had served Then rising up said Lord Jesus assist and help me that with a constant and patient mind by thy most gracious help I may bear and suffer this Ignominious Death whereunto I am Condemned for the preaching thy most Holy Gospel As they were binding him to the Stake with a Chain he said with a merry Countenance That he would embrace that Chain for Christ's sake who for his sake had been bound with a far worse When the Fire was kindled he began to sing with a loud Voice Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God have mercy upon me The which after he had repeated three times the flame stopped his Breath his Heart being afterwards found they roasted it upon a Stake and gathering up his Ashes they cast them into the Rhine He suffered Martyrdom Anno Christi 1415. The Death of Hierom of Prague HIS Enemies passed Sentence upon him after which they put a Paper about him painted with red Devils to make him odious to the People as likewise a Paper Mitre on his Head which he took very patiently saying Our Lord Jesus Christ when he suffered Death for me did wear a Crown of Thorns upon his Head and for his sake I will wear this Cap. As he went to the place of Execution he sung Psalms and coming to the place where John Huss was Burned he upon his Knees put up his Prayers to Heaven after a while they bound him to the Image of John Huss Carved in Wood which they had set up instead of a Stake and there with admirable patience he sustained the sury of the Flames when at the giving up the Ghost he with an Audible Voice said This Soul of mine in flames of Fire set free O! Christ my Saviour now I offer thee The Death of Martin Luther FAlling Sick he soon grew exceeding weak yet putting his trust in God he supported himself to Comfort his Friends beyond measure Insomuch that the day before his Death he dined and supped with Melancthone and the rest of his Accomplices But after Supper his Pain increasing he retired to pray and then went to Bed and slept till Midnight but being awakened by the Pain and perceiving his Life near at an end he called his Friends about him and said I pray God to preserve the Doctrine of the Gospel amongst us for the Pope and the Council of Trent have grievous things in hand After which he prayed and earnestly desired of God that he would defend his Church against the Pope and all his Adherents When he was about to die Justus Jonas and Caelius bid him be constant and persevere in the Faith he had taught and held to the last To which he answered Yea and soon after gave up the Ghost dying Anno Christi 1546. He was a Man of great Temperance and Abstenence oftentimes had the Papists hired Ruffians to kill him but they had never the power to do it the Devil one time appeared to him as he was walking in his Garden in the shape of a huge Boar but he so flouted him that he soon vanished He was wont to say God would give Peace to Germany during his Life but woe to them that should live after him The Death of Zuinglius ZUinglius being the foutâ—…h time run in with a Spear he fell down upon his Knees and said Well they can kill the Body but cannot kill the Soul When the Soldiers came to strip the slain Zuinglius was found alive lying upon his Back with his Eyes up to Heaven whereupon they asked him if he would have a Priest to Confess him to which he answered No they then bid him call upon the Virgin Mary which he refusing they thrust him in with a Sword and so expired without fetching a Groan as soon as they knew it to be him they cut his Body in four pieces and burnt it the next day his Heart was found unperished by the Fire tho' the rest of his Body was consumed Before this Battel a Comet appeared which he said Prognosticated his Death and declared it openly in his Sermons Fourteen days before he fell in Battel He was slain in the year 153â—… The Death of Oecolampadius AN Ulcer broke cut in his Oâ—… Sacrum that he was forced to keep his Bed and though all means was used for his Cure he told 'em his Disease was Mortal and said I shall be presently with the Lord. Then putting his hand to his heart said Here is abundance of Light Next Morning he repeated the 51 Psalm and presently after said O Christ save me and so fell asleep in the Lord Anno 1531. aged 51. The Death of John Frith HE was condemned to be burnt as an Heretick When he came into Smithfield he with an undaunted Courage went to the Stake no sooner fastened but the fire was kindled He continued till the last with such Constancy and Patience that many were converted and began to pray to God to receive his Soul but Dr. Cook forbidding them saying They ought to pray for him no more than they would for a Dog which uncharitable Expression made many blame him He suffered Martyrdom Aano Christi 1531. He wrote many Treatises some were burnt during the Reigns of King Henry the Eighth and Queen Mary and some were saved by Providence for on Mid-summer Eve Anno 1626. A Cod-Fish being brought into Cambridge Market when it was cut up these Writings of John Frith were found in its Belly wrapt in Canvas which were afterwards Printed to the rejoicing of all good Christians viz. A Preparation for Death A Preparation to the Cross. The Treasure of Knowledge A Mirror to know your self A Brief Instruction to teach one willingly to die and not to fear Death Which Treatises preserved by such a special Providence have no doubt prov'd very useful The Death of Thomas Bilney HE Preached the Gospel till the Bishop of Norwich imprisoned him who would have persuaded him from his stedfastness but upon refusal he received â—…entence of Condemnation The day before his Execution eating heartily he said I imitate those who have a ruinous House to dwell in yet bestow cost as long as they may to hold it up Then discoursing about Fire he put his Finger in the Candle and said I find by Experience that Fire is hot yet I believe though the Stubble of my Body be wasted my Soul will be purged At his
Execution the fire being kindled he lift up his Hands crying Lord I believe so yielded up his Spirit unto God Anno 1531. The Death of William Tyndal THE English Merchants at Antwerp hearing of his Imprisonment became suitors for his Deliverance but Philips with his Money prevailed beyond their Entreaties Being at last brought to his Answer although his Enemies could lay nothing to his Charge yet the Attorney proceeded to condemn him and delivered him to the Magistrates to execute him When brought to the Stake he cried with an audible voice Lord open the Eyes of the King of England then being strangled fire was set to the Wood and he consumed to Ashes Anno Christi 1536. Within a short time after the Judgment of God overtook Phillips who betrayed him insomuch that he was eaten up with Lice The Death of Bertholdus Halerus HE was born in Helvetia 1502. and from his Child-hood much addicted to Learning Several Disputations he held with the Helvetians especially with Eccius the Pope's Champion In his time Popery was extinguished in many places and shortly after he died with an immature Death Anno 1536. aged 44. The Death of Urbanus Regis ON Sunday in the Evening he complained of a pain his Head yet was chearful and went to Bed early in the morning rising out of his Bed he fell upon the Floor and seeing his Wife and Friends mourning he comforted them and commended himself to his Maker and within three hours he died May 23. Anno 1541. He often desired God he might die an easie and sudden Death wherein God answered his Desires He wrote several Treatises which his Son Ernest digested together and Printed at Norenburg The Death of Caralostadius HE underwent great Afflictions by Printing some of his Books concerning the Lord's Supper the Senate of Zurick forbidding their People to read them but Zuinglius exhorted them first to read and then to pass judgment on them saying Caralostadius knew the Truth but had not well expressed it He went to Basil where he taught ten years and there died of the Plague Anno 1541. The Death of Capito HE went to several places as Strâ—…burg where he met with Bucer whose Fame spread so far that the Queen of Navarre sent for 'em so that France oweth the beginning of her Reformation to Capitâ—… and Bacer He was prudent eloquent and studious of Peace the better part of his time he employed in Preaching and giving wholsome Advice to the Churches 〈◊〉 length returning home in a general Infection he dyed of the Plague Anno 1541. aged 63. The Death of Leo Judae HE Translated part of the Old Testament out of the Hebrew but the work being so Laborious and being Aged he dyed before he had finished it Anno. 1542. aged 60. Four days before his Death sending for the Pastors of Zurick he made a Confession of his Faith concerning God the Scriptures the Person and Offices of Christ concluding To this my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ my hope and my salvation I wholly offer up my Soul and Body I cast my self wholly upon his mercy and grace c. And so recommended to God the Senate and People of Zeriâ—…k The Death of George Spaladius HE was born at Noricum and brought up in Learning especially in the knowledge of Humane Aâ—…rs wherein he profited so much that the Elector of Saxony made him one of his Privy Council He continued in his Office till the time of his Death which fell-out Anne 1545. aged 63. He wrote many Treatises but especially a Chronicle from the beginning of the World to his time The Death of Myconius IN several Countries he preached the Gospel sincerely and purely though to the hazard of his Life at last he fell into a Consumption and wrote to Luther That he was sick not to Death but to Life He dyed Anno 1546. aged 55. The Death of John Diazius FInding he could not pervert his Brother Diazius from the Truth he acted the Hypocrite and told him he was in love with his Doctrine then he would have persuaded him to go into Italy Spain Rome and Naples and there privately spread his Doctrine but John Diazius refusing his Brother then took leave of him in order to his Journey but privately he and the Cut-Throat stayed at a Village and purchased a Hatchet of a Carpenter then going disguised the Villain pretended to bring Letters from his Brother which whilst John was reading the Executioner struck the Hatchet into his Temples upon which he died immediately The Murtherers were afterwards apprehended but by the practice of Papists who highly applauded the Fact and to hinder the current of Justice they pretended the Emperor would have the hearing of the Cause himself Six years after Alphonsus hanged himself about the Neck of his own Mule a fair reward for so foul a Fratricide The Death of Gasper Cruciger HE was a Man of great Learning very Religious and delighted much in Luther's Books and Doctrine He often contemplated the Foot-steps of God in Nature saying with St. â—…ul That God was so near unto us that he might almost 〈◊〉 felt with our Hands Considering the Vicissitude or Earthly Things he often repeated this Verse Besides God's love nothing is sure And that forever doth endure In his sickness he caused his young Daughters to repeat their Prayers before him and then himself prayed fervently for the Church and those his Orphans concluding I call upon thee with a weak yet with a true Faith I believe thy Promises which thou hast sealed to me with thy Blood and Resurrection c. He spent the few days which remained in prayer and Repentance and so quietly ended his days November the 16th Anno 1548. aged 45. The Death of Matthias Zellius HE was not only famous for Learning but for other Christian Vertues especially Modesty Temperance and Charity having a special care of the Poor for being invited to Supper by one of his Colleagues and seeing much Plate was offended and went his way without eating but afterwards so far prevailed with him that he sold his Plate and was more open-handed to the poor he dyed 1548. aged 71. The Death of Vitus Theodorus HE often disputed with his Papistical Adversaries and overthrew all their Arguments at length he was called to be a Pastor at Norimberg his own Country where he preached the Gospel with great Zeal and Eloquence to the great Advantage of his Auditors he dyed Anno. 1549. The Death of Paul Fagius FAgius died of a burning Feaver or as some say was poysoned by the Papists so that Anno 1550. he was intombed at Cambridge from whence in the Reign of Q. Mary the Papists having condemned him for a Heretick took his Bones and burnt them The Death of Martin Bucer IN his Sickness Learned Men came to visit him especially Doctor Bradford who one day taking leave of him to go preach told him he would remember him in his Prayers whereupon Bucer with tears in his
eyes said Cast me not off O Lord now in my old Age when strength faileth me A while after he said He hath afflicted me sore but he will never never cast me off Being desired to arm himself with faith and a stedfast hope in God's Mercies against the Temptations of Satan He said I am wholly Christ's and the Devil has nothing to do with me and God forbid that I should not now have experience of the sweet Consolation in Christ. Then with a smiling Countenance gave up the Ghost and was interred nobly by the King's Commandment But in Q. Mary's time his Bowels being taken up they were burnt with Fagius's He died Anno Christi 1550. The Death of Gasper Hedio HE preached vigorously against Masses Indulgences and Auricular Confession and wrote many Books against them What time he could spare from his Ministerial Function he employed in writing Commentaries and Histories until the year of his Death which was Anno 1552. The Death of Oswald Myconius AFter the Death of Oecolampadius he was made chief Pastor in Basil where voluntarily laying down his Divinity Lectures upon some grudges the University had against him he inclining to Luther's Opinion about the real presence in the Sacrament he wholly applied himself to his Pastoral Office He died Anno 1552. aged 64. The Death of George Prince of Anhalt HE was a great Divine Learned in the Law and skilful in Physick he conserred with Camerarius about the mutation of Empires their Period and Causes about Heavenly Motions and the effects of the Stars The last Act of this Prince his Life expressed his Piety using frequent Prayer for himself and all the Princes of that â—…amily he often pondered upon these Texts God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. No Man shall take my Sheep out of my Hands Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest He died Anno 1557. aged 47. The Death of Justus Jonas HE employed himself much in Disputations about Religion in defence of the Truth and in School Divinity Several Churches were reformed by him and committed to his charge He was a Man of an excellent Wit great Industry and Integrity of Life joined with Piety and one whom Luther and most of the famous Men of that Age highly esteemed He died Anno 1555. aged 63. The Death of John Rogers HE was hurried to Newgate On the fourth of Febraary the Keeper told him he must prepare for Execution at which not being at all concerned said Then if it be so I need not tie my points Before he went to the Flames he was carried before Bonner Bishop of London who earnestly persuaded him to recant and live but he utterly refused life upon such conditions exhorting such as stood about him to repent and cleave fast to Christ. As he came out his Wife with Nine small Children about her and one sucking at her Breast waited to see him of which he took his leave bidding them trust in the Lord and he would plentifully provide for them After which he went couragiously to the Stake and with admirable patience embraced the Flames being the first that sealed his Testimony with his Blood during the Reign of that bloody Queen suffering Martyrdom Anno Christi 1555. The Death of Laurence Saunders DUring his Imprisonment he wrote to his Wife and Friends in this manner I am merry and I trust I shall be so maugre the Teeth of all the Devils in Hell Riches I have none to bestow amongst you but that Treasure of tasting how sweet Christ is to hungry Consciences whereof I thank my Saviour I do feel part that I bequeath to you and to the rest of my Beloved in the Lord. They offered to release him if he would Recant to which he replied That he did confess Life and Liberty were things desirable but that he would not murther his Conscience to save his life but by God's Grace said he I will abide the worst Extremity that Man can do against me rather than do any thing against my Conscience And when Gardiner threatned him with Death he said Welcom be it whatsoever the Will of the Lord be either life or death and I tell you truly I have learned to die but I exhort you to be ware of shedding innocent blood for truly it will cry aloud against you After a Year and three Months Imprisonment he was brought to the Stake which he embraced and afterwards kissing said Welcom Cross of Christ welcom everlasting life The Fire by the malice of his Enemies being made of green wood put him to exquisite Torments but he endured them with a Christian patience as being well assured when his fiery Tryal was at an end he should receive a Crown of Life that fadeth not away One thing I shall not think amiss to insert When the Nation was in fear of Queen Mary's bringing in Popery Mr. Saunder's being in company with Doctor Pedleton and seeming to be much dejected Pedleton said What man there is much more cause for me to fear than for you for asmuch as I have a big and fat Body yet will I see the utmost drop of this Grease of mine melted away and this Flesh consumed with Fire before I will forsake Jesus Christ and his Truth which I have professed Yet when Queen Mary came to the Crown he turned Apostate The Death of John Hooper BEing come to the County of Gloucester where he suffered he was received by the Sheriff who with a strong Guard conveyed him to the place of Execution being met by thousands of people who bewailed his Condition and sent up their Prayers to Heaven that he might be enabled to bear his Sufferings patiently many of them weeping to see so Reverend a Person fall into such misery but he comforted them and told them That he was unworthy who refused to suffer reproach or death for the sake of the Lord Jesus who refused not for our sakes to suffer a shameful and ignominious death upon the Cross. And hereupon he began to exhort them to be stedfast in their Faith but the Popish Varlets would not suffer him to proceed Then he addressed himself to the Sheriff saying Sir my request to you is that I may have a quick Fire which may soon dispatch me and I will be as obedient as you would wish I might have had my life with grrat advancement as to temporal things but I am willing to offer my life for the Testimony of the Truth and trust to die a faithful Servant to God and a true Subject to the Queen Then kneeling down he continued in servent Prayer for the space of half an Hour with an exalted and chearful Countenance and then rising up suffered them to fasten him to the Stake where such was the malice of his Enemies that they had prepared green Wood yet beâ—…re the Fire was kindled a Pardon was offered if he would Reâ—…ant but he cried out
conveyed into Smithfield where he no sooner came But he fell on his Knees and with a loud Voice cried I will pay my Vows in thee O Smithfield then rising up he kissed and embraced the Stake saying Shall I disdâ—…n to suffer at this Stake when my Lord and Saviour refused not to suffer a most vile Death for me Having poured out his Soul to God he â—…ered himself to be bound with the Chain and when the Fire was kindled he commended his Spirit into the Hands of the Father of all Spirits and patiently gave up the ghost suffering Martyrdom Anno Christi 1555. and of his Age about Forty Nine The Death of Thomas Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury THE Popish Doctors frequently visited him in Prison and used all the Arguments they could to persuade him to a Recantation but he absolutely resolved for a considerable time but at last through humane Frailty and desire of Life he did subscribe to a Recantation The good Bishop being soon greatly afflicted and troubled in his Conscience for what he had done burst out into a flood of Tears and after his Speech came to him he lifted up his Hands towards Heaven saying O Lord forgive me this great Sin against thy Holy Name which through the weakness of the Flesh I have unadvisedly committed And then addressing himself to the People he desired them for Jesus Christ sake to pray for him that God would pardon his Sins and especially that of his Recantation But said he This right hand that signed so wicked an Instrument shall first perish in the Flames Then they pulled him down and hurried him away to the Fire which was made in the same place where Ridley and Latimer had suffered stopping his Mouth left he should any more speak to the People who were not a little grieved to see the Primate of England cast down from all his Honours and in the end so barbarously mis-used When he came to the Stake he fell on his Knees and Prayed but was interrupted by the Papists who followed him with his Recantation saying Have you not signed it Have you not signed it Then he was tied to the Stake his Cloaths being first put off and the Fire being kindled to him some time before it came at his Body he stretched forth his right Hand and held it in the Flames till it fell off without any more than once drawing it back And after having recommended his Spirit into the hands of our merciful Redeemer the Lord Jesus he died like a Lamb ending his Life with the same Meekness as he had lived suffering Martyrdom for the sake of the everlasting Gospel Anno Christi 1556 and of his Age 72. The Death of Conrade Pellican HE was born in Suevia and educated at Zurick He was a candid sincere and upright Man free from Falshood and Ostentation He departed this Life upon Easter-day Anno 1556. aged 78. The Death of John Bugenhagius HE was born at Julin near Stetin in Pomerania being well educated in Grammar Musick and other liberal Sciences He used great diligence and industry in converting many to the Truth drawing near to his end he often repeated this Portion of Scripture This is life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent He died Anno Christi 1558. aged 73. The Death of Philip Melancthone HE was sent for by the Elector of Saxony to Lipsich to examine those that were maintained by the Elector to study Divinity In which he used great Diligence and after he returned to VVitterberg and fell sick of a Fever of which he died Sickness daily increased yet he so far strove against the power of his Disease that he would often rise to his Study The last Words he spake were to his Son-in-Law Doctor Pucer who when he asked him what he would have he replied Nothing but Heaven therefore trouble me no more with speaking to me After this he lying silent whilst the Ministers prayed by him he gave up the Ghost Anno Christi 1560. and in the sixty third year of his Age having been a constant Preacher of the Gospel for the space of 42 years The Death of John Lascus HE was a man of an excellent Wit and Judgment and took great pains to have composed that difference in the Churches about Christ's presence in the Sacrament though it did not succeed The King of Poland had such an esteem for him that he used his Adâ—…ice in Affairs of great importance He died Anno 1560. The Death of Augustine Marlorat MArlorat was taken and carried before the Constable of France who after several Examinations condemned him of High-Treason which was to be drawn upon a Sledge and to be hanged upon a Gibbet before our Ladies Church in Roan his Head to be stricken from his Body and set upon a Pole on the Bridge of the said City which Sentence was accordingly executed Anno 1562. aged 56. The Death of Peter Martyr BEing worn out with Travel and daily Study he after a while fell sick when calling together the principal Pastors of the Châ—…rch he made to them an excellent Confession of his Faith concluding This is my Faith and they that teach otherwise to the withdrawing Men from God God will destroy them And so taking his Leave of all his Friends after having made his Will he gave up the Ghost Anno Christi 1562. and of his Age Sixty-two The Death of Amsdorsius HE was born in Misnia of noble Parents and educated at Wiâ—…temberg He was recommended by Luther to instruct several Churches at Mâ—…gdeburg Goslaria and Naumberg where he carried on the great Work of Reformation He having attained to 80 years of Age died Anno. 1563. The Death of Wolfangus Musculus MUsculus being destitute at Strasburg some Fortifications were mending where he hired himself a Labourer to work by the Day comforting himself with this Dystich A God there is whose Providence doth take Care for his Saints whom he will not forsake Much Popish Malice he met with but God delivered him from their Revenge At length being seized with a violent Fever he died Anno 1563. and of his Age 66. The Death of Hyperius HE was born at Ipres in Flanders of noble Parents and was well educated His Care was great in reforming the Church and abolishing the Popish Fooleries out of the Service of God and and to establish a holy Scriptural and Ecclesiastical Discipline And in these Employments having worn out himself a Catarrh and Cough seized him complaining also of pains of the head breast and sides which often were so great as made him sweat as if he had been seized wish a Fever He died Anno 1564. aged 53. The Death of John Calvin CAlvin being settled in pastoral Charge of Geneva he continued to Confute Hereticks Papists and stirrers up of Sedition to heal Breaches and Division being Couragious even in the worst of times and as an Undaunted Champion of Christ not to follow his Standard till
am sure to see and to partake with them in Joy why then should not I be willing to dye to enjoy their perpetual Society in Glory And then with Tears told them That he was not unwilling to leave them for his own sake but for the sake of the Church Then having written his Farewel to the Senate and therein admonished them to take Care of the Churches and Schools and by their Permission chose one Ralph Gualter his Successor he patiently resigned up his Spirit into the Hands of his Redeemer dying Anno Christi 1575 and of his Age 71. The Death of Edward Deering DRawing near his end his Friends requested something from him for their Comfort and Edification The Sun shining in his Face he replyed There is but one Sun in the World nor but one Righteousness and one Communion of Saints if I were the most excellent of all Creatures in the World if I were equal in Righteousness to Abraham Isaac and Jacob yet had I reason to confess my self to be a Sinner and that I could expect no Salvation but in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ for we all stand in need of the Grace of God and as for my Death I bless God I feel and find so much inward Joy and Comfort in my Soul that if I were put to my Choice whether to die or live I would a thousand times rather chuse Death than Life if it may stand with the Holy Will of God He dyed Anno 1576. The Death of Peter Boquinus THE Popish Party being incensed against him sought all means to destroy him so that he was forced to fly to Heidelberg where upon a Lord's Day visiting of a Sick Friend he found his Spirits fail and said Lord receive my Soul and so quietly departed Anno 1582. The Death of Abraham Bucholtzer HE was full of Self denial Humble and an Enemy to Contentions He used often to meditate upon Death and used this Expression it hath always formerly been my Care in what Corner soever I have been to be ready when God called to say with Abraham Behold my Lord here I am but now above all other things I should be most willing so to answer if he would please to call me out of this miserable Life into his Glorious Kingdom for truely I desire nothing so much as the happy and blessed Hour of Death He dyed Anno 1584. Aged Fifty Five The Death of Gasper Olevian A Mortal Sickness seized upon him and preparing himself for Death he expressed to a Friend That by that Sickness he had learned to know the greatness of Sin and the greatness of God's Majesty more than ever he did before The next Day he told John Piscator That the day before for four Hours together he was filled with ineffable Joy so that he wondered why his Wife should ask him whether he were not something better whereas indeed he could never be better For said he I thought I was in a most pleasant Meadow in which as I walked up and down methought that I was besprinkled with a Heavenly Dew and that not sparingly but plentifully poured down whereby both my Body and Soul were filled with ineffable Joy To whom Piscator said That good Shepherd Jesus Christ led thee into fresh Pastures Yea said Olevian to the Springs of Living Waters Then repeating some Sentences out of Psalm 42. Isa. 9. Matth. 11. c. he said I would not have my Journey to God long deferred I desire to be dissolved and to be with my Christ. In his Agony of Death Alstedius asked him Whether he was sure of his Salvation in Christ c. He answered Most sure and so gave up the Ghost Anno 1587. Aged 51. The Death of John Wigandus HIS strength decaying he fell sick and preparing for Death he made his own Epitaph In Christ I liv'd and dy'd through him I live again What 's bad to Death I give my Soul with Christ shall reign So praying he resigned up his Spirit to God who gave it Anno 1587. Aged 64. The Death of John Fox MR. Fox together with his Wife and some others went to Antwerp and so to Basil which was then a place of free reception of poor distressed Fugitives who were forced to leave their Countreys for the sake of the Lord Jesus and his Everlasting Gospel And here he undertook to correct the Press and at such leisure times as he could spare he wrote part of the Acts and Monuments of the Church a Work Famous to all Posterity And in this station he continued till the death of Queen MARY whose death he had a little before foretold Upon certain notice of which he with several Pious and Learned Men returned into England and were kindly received by Queen Elizabeth where Mr. Fox prosecuted his Work begun at Basil and so laboured therein that he soon brought it to a period He finishing this great Work in Eleven years space searching all the Records himself He now growing in years and by reason of his former Hardships his great Study Travel and Labour he was reduced to a very weak Condition he laid down the troublesome Cares of the World to prepare himself for Death He resigned up his Spirit into the Hands of the Father of all Spirits dying Anno Christi 1587. in the 70th year of his Age. The Death of George Sohnius HE was full of Humility Piety and Patience falling sick he bore it with much Patience and with servent Prayer often repeated O Christ thou art my Redeemer and I know that thou hast redeemed me I wholly depend upon thy Providence and Mercy from the very bottom of my Heart I commend my Spirit into thy hands and so dyed Anno 1589. Aged 38. The Death of James Andreas THE year before his death he would say He should not live long That he was weary of this Life and much desired to be dissolv'd and to be with Christ which was best of all Falling sick he sent for James Heerbrand saying I expect that after my death many Adversaries will rise up to asperse me and therefore I sent for thee to hear the Confession of my Faith that so thou mayest testifie for me when I am dead and gone that I dyed in the true Faith The night before he dyed he slept partly in his Bed and pâ—…rtly in his Chair The Clock striking Six in the Morning he said My Hour draws near When he was ready to depart he said Lord 〈◊〉 thy hands I commend my Spirit He dyed Anno 1590. Aged 61. The Death of Hierom Zanchius ZAnchy being grown old had a liberal Stipend setled upon him by Prince Câ—…ssimir and going to Heidleberg to visit his Friends he fell sick and quietly departed in the Lord Anno 159â—… aged 75. The Death of Anthony Sadeel HE sell sick of a Pâ—…urisie which he Prophetically said would be Mortal and withdrawing himself from the World he wholly conversed with God He dyed Anno 1591. Aged 57. The Death of William
Change Yea saith he many a Day have I sought it with Tears not out of Impatience Distrust or Perturbation but because I am weary of Sin and fearful to fall into it In his Sickness he used these private Meditations Now my Soul be glad for at all Parts of this Prison the Lord hath set to his Pioneers to loose the Head Feet Milt and Liver are failing yea the middle strength of the whole Body the Stomach is weakned long ago Arise make ready shake off thy Fetters mount up from the Body and go thy way I saw not my Children when they were in the Woâ—…b yet there the Lord fed them without my knowledge I shall not see them when I go out of the Body yet shall they not want a Father Death is somewhat Driery and the Streams of that Jordan between us and our Canaan run furiously but they stand still when the Ark comes Let your Anchor be cast within the Veil and fastned on the Rock Jesus let the End of the Threefold Cord be backled to the Heart so shall you go through He died Anno 1619. The Death of Andrew Willet GOing from London his Horse threw him and by the Fall broke his Leg which was presently set by a Bone-setter and being confined to his Bed he would meditate upon Hezekiah's Sickness and Recovery Isaiah 38. especially on the 9 10 13 and 15 Verses Hearing a Bell Toll he peradventure had apprehensions of Death which occasioned him to discourse with his Wise concerning Death and our blessed Hopes after Death and the mutual Knowledge the Saints have of one another in Glory Then he repeated the first Verse of the 146 Psalm and said it was a most sweet Psalm but stirring to ease himself he fell into a Trance his Wife crying out he looked up and used these last words Let me alone I shall do well Lord Jesus and so departed Anno 162â—… Aged 59. The Death of David Pareus AT Anvilla he wrote his Body of Divinity which having Finished he said Lord now let thy Servant depart in peace because he hath Finished that which he desired He earnestly besought God that he might lay his Bones at Heidleberg which not long after he returned thither safely where he was received with much joy but his former Disease of a Catarrh returning upon him being sensible of approaching Death he frequently opened his Mind to Henâ—…y Alting and others and so quietly departed Anno 1622. Aged 73. His Works are in 3 Volumes The Death of Robert Bolton MR. Bolton falling sick of a Quartane Ague and finding himself weaker and weaker he Contemplated upon the four last things Death Judgment Heaven and Hell and being asked if he could be content to live if God would permit him He said I grant that Life is a great Blessing of God neither will I neglect any means that may preserve it and do heartily desire to submit to God's Will but of the two I infinitely more desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. When the Pangs of Death were upon him he breathed out I am now drawing on apace to my dissolution hold out Faith and Patience your Work wiâ—… quickly be at an end He died Anno 1631. Aged Threescore The Death of William Whately IN his Sickness he comforted himself with that Promise Psalm 41. 1 2. Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in the tâ—… of trouble the Lord will strengthen him upon the Bod of languishing c. A little before his death a Friend praying with him That God wold be pleased if his Time were not expired either to restore him or put an end to his Pains He lifting up his Eyes towards Heaven one of his Hands in the close of that Prayer gave up the ghost shutting his Eyes as if he was fallen into a soft-Slumbeâ—… Anno 1639. Aged 56. The Death of Anthony Wallaeus HE was much troubled with the Stone in the Kidneys and Hypocondraical Wind which still encreasing upon him he called his Family and exhorted them to fear God then taking his leave of them he fell asleep out of which he never awaked only strived a little when his Pains came upon him so on the Sabbath-day at a Eleven of the Clock he resigned up his Spirit to his Maker Anno 1639. Aged 66. The Death of Henry Alting HE sell sick at Groning of a Catarth and Feaver accompanied with great Pains in his Back and Loins which caused often Paintings The day before his death he sang the 130th Psalm with great Fervency In the Evening he blessed his Children and exhorted them to fear God and to persevere in the Truth of the Gospel Being sensible of the time of his Departure by his Prophetick Spirit he accordingly died about Three of the Clock August 25. Anno 1644. Aged 57. The Death of Frederick Spanhemius HIS last Sermon he preached at Easter upon Phil. 3. 24. Who shall change our vile Body that it may be like his glorious Body c. He prayed earnestly to God to continue his Blessings to his Family and never suffer them to be seduced to Popery he prayed likewise that in the Pains of Death he might with all his Soul breath after God and migh before-hand have some taste of the Glory of Hea ven Having ended his Prayers his Voice and Strength failed him and so about Sun-setting he quietly departed and slept in the Lord 1649. Aged 49. The Death of Sir John Oldcastle HE was sent for before the Council when the Bishop proffered to absolve him he replied He had never trespassed against him and therefore had no need of his Absolution When they told him unless he would recant they would condemn him as a Heretick He bid them do as they thought best for said he I am at a Point that which I have written I will stand to it to the death Then kneeling down he lifted up his Hands towards Heaven and said I shrive me here unto thee O Eternal and Ever-living God in my frail Youth I offended thee O Lord by Pride Coverousness Wrath Uncleanness and many Men have I hurt in my 〈◊〉 and committed many other horrible Sins for which good Lord I ask thee forgiveness And so with Tears in his Eyes he stood up and turning to the People he said Lo good People for breaking God's Laws and his holy Commandments they never yet accused me but for their own Laws and Traditions they handle me most cruelly and therefore they and their Laws by God's promise should be utterly destroyed Then they proceeded farther to examine him but he returned such Answers to their Questions as made many wonder at his Wisdom yet they proceeded to read the Bill of Condemnation against him as a Heretick After which he lifting up his Eyes towards Heaven said Lord God Eternal I beseech thee of thy Infinite Mercy to forgive my Persecutors After that he was sent to the Tower The Sentence against him was That like a Traytor
Spirit fainting he yielded up the Ghost in January Anno 1625. Aged 65. The Deaths of the KINGS and QUEENS of England since the Reformation to this present The Death of King Henry the VIII KING Henry being grown Fat fell into a languishing Fever and by Will appointed his Successor and Council did on the 28th of January 1547. in the 56 Year of his Age and 38 of his Reign leaving Issue by Queen Jane Prince Edward by his first Wife Katherine of Spain the Lady Mary and by Ann of Bullen the Lady Elizabeth who all Successively came to the Crown The Death of King Edward VI. ABout three hours before his Death his Eyes being closed thinking that none heard him he made this Godly Prayer Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched Life and take me amongst thy Chosen howbeit not my VVill but thy VVill be done Lord I commit my Soul to thee O Lord thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee yet for thy Chosens sake send me Life and Health that I may truly serve thee O my Lord God bless thy People and save thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy Chosen People of England O my Lord God defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my People may praise thy Holy Name for thy Son Jesus Christ's sake Then turning his Face and seeing some by he said Are you so nigh I thought you had been further off Many servent Prayers he made but his last Words were these I am faint Lord have Mercy upon me and take my Spirit and so committed his Pious Soul into the hands of his Heavenly Father He died July 6. 1553. in the Seventeenth Year of his Age. He Reigned Six Years Five Months and Eight Days he was the one and Fortieth Sole Monarch of England and was Buried at VVestminster The Death of Queen Mary HER Husbands absence and the disappointment of proving with Child brought her into a Sickness whereof she died November 17. 1558. having Reigness 5 Years and 4 Months Cardinal Pool dying the day before but sometime before she declared to him That if when she were dead they would look into her Heart they would find Callis her great Distemper In her Reign there suffered 5 Bishops 21 Divines and in all 277 Persons The Death of Queen Elizabeth 1594. LOpez a Jew Physitian to the Queen was Executed for attempting to Poyson her In 1600. the Earl of Essex having incurr'd the Queens Displeasure in Ireland and more by scandalous Speeches and a kind of open Rebellion at his House in London being condemned by his Peers is Beheaded On the 24th of March 1602. died Queen Elizabeth having Reigned above 44 Years in as Troublesome times as any yet full of Honour and most happy in the Love of her People She was Interred in Henry the Seventh's Chappel at VVestminster The Death of King James the First THis King was Interred at VVestminster with great Solemnity his Queen was Ann Daughter of Frederick the Second King of Denmark by whom he had two Sons Henry and Charles and three Daughters Elizabeth Mary and Sophia the two last dyed young The Death of King Charles the First HE was led through the Park to the Seaffold before VVhite-Hall where having declared that he died a Martyr for the Laws and Liberties of his People he made a Confession of his Faith asserting that he died a true Son of the Church of England then he betook himself to his private Devotions and so patiently submitted his Royal Head to Martyrdom from the hand of a disguised Executioner His Body was put into a Black Velvet Coffin and afterwards wrapt in Lead was on the 7th of Feb. following Interred at St. George's Chappel at VVindsor in the same Vault with King Henry the 8th in presence of the Duke of Richmond Dr. Juxon and others but the manner appointed in the Liturgy could not be obtained to be used nor had he any Epitaph affixed but only on the Sheet of Lead ou a thin Plate fastned on the Breast this plain Inscription King Chaales 1648. The Death of King Charles the Second ON Monday Feb. 2. 1684. the King was seiz'd with a violent Fit of an Apoplexy which deprived him of his Senses but upon speedy Application of Remedies he returned to such a Condition as gave some Symptoms of his Recovery till VVednesday Night and then the Disease was so violent that he lay in a languishing Condition until Friday Feb. 6. and then expired He had Reigned Thirty six Years and Seven Days and was in the 55th Year of his Age. He was Interred in Henry the Seventh's Chappel being the Forty-sixth Sole Monarch of England The Death of Old Mr. Eliot of New-England WHILE he was making his Retreat out of this evil World his Discourses from time to time ran upon The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the Theme which he still had Recourse unto and we were sure to have something of this whatever other Subject he were upon On this he talk'd of this he pray'd for this he long'd and especially when any bad News arriv'd his usual Reflection thereupon would be Behold some of the Clouds in which we must look for the coming of the Son of Man At last his Lord for whom he had been long wishing Lord come I have been a great while ready for thy coming At last I say his Lord came and fetched him away into the Joy of his Lord. He fell into some Languishments attended with a Fever which in a few days brought him into the Pangs may I say or Joys of Death And while he lay in these Mr. Walter coming to him he said unto him Brother Thou art welcome to my very Soul Pray retire to my Study for me and give me leave to be gone meaning that he should not by Petitions to Heaven for his Life detain him here It was in these Languishments that speaking about the work of the Gospel among the Indians he did after this Heavenly manner express himself There is a Cloud said he a dark Cloud upon the Work of the Gospel among the poor Indians The Lord revive and prosper that Work and grant it may live when I am dead It is a work which I have been Doing much and long about But what was the word I spoke last I recal that word My Doings Alas they have been poor and small and lean Doings and I 'll be the Man that shall throw the â—…st Stone at them all It has been observed that they who have spoke many considerable â—…hings in their Lives usually speak few at their Deaths But it was otherwise with our Eliot who after much Speech of and for God in his life-Life-time uâ—…tered some things little short of Oracles on his Death-bed which 't is a thousand pities they were not more exactly regarded and recorded Those Authors that have taken the pains to Collect Apophthegmata Morentium have not therein been unserviceable to
a thousand years before These things are well coupled thou neither wert nor will be thou art ordain'd for that point of time wherein thou liv'st with that thou mayst extend how far wouldst thou prolong Why weepest thou what is it thou wouldst have thou losest thy labour Thou shalt go thither whither all things created go What is there that thou canst call a Novelty Thou wert born under this Law This hapned to thy Father to thy Ancesters to all before thee and will happen to all that come after thee It is established and decreed Death seizes upon all we are born to die Consider in thy Mind the vast throng of those that went before thee of those that are to follow thee and those that are to go along with thee Many thousands of Men and Creatures at this very moment that then fearest to die are now making several and various Exits out of this World Take a view of the whole World the new the unknown Most certain it is that every moment Millions are born and die and many die the same death Now couldst thou think that thou shouldst never come to that end to which thou art always going Death is a safe Road to Rest neither is there any thing of evil in Death but only the fear of Death therefore if we would live quietly the Soul must be always ready Shall I fear my end when I know I must have an end when I know that all things have their end Shall I fear my last gasp that puts an end to all my Sighs Why should I fear to restore that which I received upon that condition But you will say it is a difficult thing to contemn Death 'T is Death but to him that knows how to Live He that his hours on Vertue doth expend Neither doth wish for nor yet fears his end We do not deny but that there is something terrible in Death there we must learn not to be afraid of it No Man learns to be contented upon a Bed of Roses to sit down at a Banquet but this to be exercised not to give way to Grief He chearfully embraces Death who has long composed himself to wait for it And this is the greatest Argument of a generous Mind not to fear thy departure For he knows whither he shall go that remembers from whence he came Such a person was Theodosius the Emperour of whom Saint Ambrojs was wont to say I loved the man whom when he died was more grieved for the state of the Church than for his own Condition Therefore do thou make it thy business not to fear Death Sect. 6. An Example of the Contempt of Death NInachetus the Governour of Malaca in Judea being commanded to resign his Authority could not brook the Indignity ignorant of true Honour and solid Vertue Therefore making a Funeral Pile of Lignum Aloes and other Odoriforous Woods He spread a square Scaffold which he had erected near to the Pile with rich Tapestries and sumptuous Carpets Then he appeared himself upon the Scaffold glittering in a Robe of Tissue set with precious Stones and discoursed to the People of his Actions and the whole Course of his Life And having declared the Kindnesses which he had shewed the Captive Pottugalls at a time of necessity he most sadly and bitterly complain'd of his being undeservedly put by his Command Then reproaching the Ingratitude of the Pâ—…rtugalls such fatal Fury did his Ambition inspire him with he threw himself headlong into the burning Pile a Contemner of Death Aelian relates a Contempt of Death not much unlike this The end of Calamus saith he is worthy to be mentioned if not to be admired It was thus When he had taken his leave of Alexander the Macedonians and a long life he made him a Funeral Pile in the fairest part of the Suburbs of Pabylon composed of Cedar Cypress Myrâ—…le Laurel and oâ—…her sweet Wood and having performed his usual exercise of Running he ascended the Pile and stood Crown'd upon the heap of Wood the Sun whom he Ador'd shining all the while Which done he gave the Macedonians a Sign to kindle the Pile Which being now all of a light Fire Calanus wrapt up in Flames stood still unmov'd till he fell as the heap fell and expir'd in the midst of the Ashes Alexander admiring the Courage of the Man is reported to have said That Calanus had vanquish'd more Potent Enemies than he For Alexander had wag'd War with Prous Taxilus and Darius but Calanus with Labour and Death Shall the vain Heathens shew so much Courage in Death and Christians trusting in God be afraid and tremble Death is not an evil but the fear of Death is an evil Let us I beseech ye examine things themselves and not the Nature of things If we believe Seneca Death is the best Invention of Nature the Remedy of all Evils Why therefore do we fear at last Immortal Peace Eternal Joy will entertain us Let us take Courage from the despair of longer Life Make that a Vertue which would be necessity Certainly a prudent Christian does nothing unwillingly he avoids all necessity because he wills what that would compel him to Let us therefore do willingly what we cannot but do Let us with a contented Mind expect our end or rather our beginning He shall be always serene and calm in his Mind who contemâ—…s Death Sect. 7. A Man ready to dye ZENO the Critick as Swidas relates as he was going out of his Schoole chanc'd to stumble and hurt his Toe But he believing himself call'd to the Grave strook the Ground with his Hand adding these Words I come Wherefore dost thou call me Thus the old Man of Ninety Years of Age died without ever being Sick Hunger was a great Friend to Zeno for he frequently â—…asted till he fainted But willingly Zeno made himself so sick that he might not be sick and that he might enjoy a quiet old Age free from Diseases Both he attained to according to his wish Let us not wonder at the shortness of our Lives nor the incertainty of our Health For we wast our Health and our Lives with Giuttony and Drinking never thinking our selves satisfied till our cramm'd Bellies be as hard as a Drum Ridiculous yea Mad Men we shorten our Lives by those things which ought to lengthen it But that proceeds from this because we will not be perswaded that Abstinence has so great a power to prolong Life But daily experience tells us that the saying is true so much food as you spare so many days you add But to the Business Uâ—…sinus the Priest as St. Gregory witnesses being comforted with a Celestial Vision in his Sleep often cried out I come I come I return thanks and when he had declared to the standers by what he had seen he repeated the same Words I come behold I come and with these Words in his Mouth he expired A Mind prepared for Death thus speaks I come behold I come
Divine Love nor will I any more let thee go Now to the World and all worldly things I bid adieu Now rejoicing I come to thee O God Nothing O sweet Jesu nothing shall separate me from thee For I am united with thee O Christ In thee will I live in thee will I die and in thee if it be thy pleasure will I remain to all Eternity No more do I live now but Christ liveth in me My Soul is weary of this Life I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ and to die a Gainer Now will I fear no evil walking in the shadow of Life because thou O Lord art with me As the Hart panteth after the Rivers of Water so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul hath thirsted after God the Fountain of Life when shall I come and appear before the Face of my God Bless me O Loving Jesu and dismiss me in peace because I am now truely thine and to all Eternity will I not forsake thee What have I now more to do with the World O my sweet Jesu Into thy Hands Lord Jesu I commend my Spirit Receive me O Celetial Love that I may be happy in thy Embraces to all Eternity and may for ever rest in thee A Conclusion of the Second Chapter To the Reader THese things I have therefore said for the comfort of the Healthy and the Sick that they may not be altogether without Comfort partly to stir them up to vigilancy partly to strengthen them that they may overcome prepared against all Assaults of Death An ill death is not only the worst but the most indeliable and inexpiable of all Errours in the Word Now I come to give some Precepts to the Dying not â—…o see them read but to be read in health to profit them in that dreadful Hour CHAP. III. The Remembrance of Death is represented to Dying People Sect. 1. The Art of Dying well is briefly Taught NOT to know how to die is the most miserable piece of Ignorance in the World Therefore that we may learn that which we ought to learn all our Lives there are five things that conduce to good Death First A free and undaunted Mind This is that which is of chiefest moment and upon which the rest depend It is a great satisfaction for our offences so willingly to abandon'd what is most dear to us Therefore saith David an Offering of a Free-heart-will I give unto thee There is nothing so acceptable to God nor so profitable to Man as a free and ready Mind and a generous Trust in God Secondly A Will made and Debts discharged 'T is an Errour never to think of a Will till Death is at the Door Dispose of thy Goods while thou art well in thy Sences Moreover as to the giving away of such things as are at our disposal Sect. 2. Nine causes why we are to Die with a contented Mind BEfore all things consider the death of thy Saviour and thou wilt fear thy own with a most contented Mind Compare I beseech thee thy Bed to his Cross thy Pillows to his Thorny Diadem thy Food with his Gall thy Drink with his Vinegar thy Pains with his Torments Thou didst die in the midst of thy Friends and Comforters he in the midst of his Enemies and Revilers Thou among thy Helpers and Assistants he expir'd deserted by all For thy health so many Medicines are still prepar'd His extream thirst wanted the refreshment of cold Water Yet he the Lord and chief of all Thou a Servant most vile and mean Him all these Miseries befel both Innocent and Undeserving thee for thy Deserts and Impiety And therefore thou hast no reason to complain 2. The chiefest Grace of the Supream King is a Good Death To die well is to avoid the danger of Living ill But he dies well who dies willingly Who does not readily rise from a hard Bed They only desire to lye long who cherish'd by the heat are loth to leave a warm Nest. If it be ill with thee in this Life wherefore shouldst thou not willingly pass to a better If well 't is time for thee to make an end lest Prosperity cast thee as it does many into a late but fatal Ruin 'T is a hard thing for the Fortunate to die How many Men are Condemned to perpetual Torments who had they dy'd Children or young had gone to Heaven 3. The Saints and all our dearest Friends invite us to them But saist thou we must leave our Friends and Companions Unadvisedly spoken thou art going to them Where are thy Parents Dost not thou hope in Heaven And that thou shalt also go thither But these are things uncertain and only hoped for Very right there is no Man hopes for what he sees or is certain of And therefore God affords thee an occasion for that Vertue He commanded thee to hope for Heaven he would never promise it thee certainly And yet thou art carried thither still with a certain hope though to a thing to thee uncertain A Creditor has no reason to mistrust a Faithful Debtor God is become thy Debtor Consider thou to whom thou art a Creditor Doth not St. Paul cry out with joy I know whom I have believed 4. Consider O Man of little Soul the extraordinary alacrity of Mind and the ardent desire to die of many Martyrs who contemn'd all the preparations of Death and suffered the severest Torments with a smiling Countenance Certainly neither Death nor Labour is terrible but the fear of Death or Labour Therefore let us applaud the saying of him who said Death is no evil but to die shamefully Children are frighted with Hobgoblins for want of knowledge What is Death A Hobgoblin Turn the Argument and thou shalt find it so Yet neither Children nor Infants nor Madmen fear Death and therefore 't is a most shameful thing that reason should not afford us that security which reason produces Death is a Tribute and a Duty to be paid by all why then art thou troubled Why dost thou not pay the Debt thou owest for Death allows no priviledges No Man was ever exempted or shall be The World saith St. Basil is Mortal and the Region of them that die 5. What is a long fear of Death but a long Torment Dost thou live long Thou art long in Torment Well said Tertullian That is not to be fear'd that frees us from all fear But thou wilt say 'T is a terrible thing in Sickness to foresee Death creeping on by degrees Worm of a Man what wouldst thou have Did not thy Saviour Christ foresee his Death and that a most sharp one for thirty years and more Art thou better than he But because thou dost not so much fear Death as the previous Inconveniences of Death hear Epictetus And shalt not thou saith he depart with a firm and constant mind but trembling and cowardly because of thy fine Cloaths or thy gaudy Silver Plate Unhappy Man Was it thus that hitherto
thou hast lost all thy time What if I prove Sick Thou shalt be honestly Sick Who shall Cure thee God I shall lye hard But as a Man I shall not have a convenient House 'T is an inconvenience to be Sick What shall be the issue of the Disease Nothing but Death Therefore dost not thou believe that the Fountain of all Evil is the chief mark of a degenerate and dastardly Mind is not so much death it self as the fear of Death Therefore exercise thy self against it make use of whatever thou hearest or readest as weapons to Encounter it So shalt thou know there is no other way for Man to gain his own Liberty 6. From how many Evils art thou freed by Death To die is to shut up the Shop of all Miseries Excellently well said Pliny That is the condition of Life that Death becomes the Heaven for the best of Men and the chief benefit of Nature And therefore let every one provide himself of this as one of the principal Cures for his Mind that of all the Benefits which Nature affords Men there is none better than a seasonable Death Caesar in Salust affirms Death to be a Cessation from Misery to the afflicted and no Torment Therefore the Wise Man always considers what manner of Life he led and not how long For Nature provided us a place to Lodge and Sojourn in but not to inhabit lends us the use of Life like that of Money are not payable at a certain day Why then dost thou complain if she call it in when she pleases since she lent it upon that condition 7. The Prison Doors are set open by Death and dost thou fear to go forth Rather rejoice Hitherto thou wert a Captive now thou shalt be free How foolish a thing it is to depend upon Hope or Happiness and be afraid to go at large to that which always remains and to change for a moment of dying a perpetual Immortality The Prison is open haste thee to a better place 8. Death is the way yea it is the Gate that leads us into our Countrey to Eternal Life to Immortal Joy For Death is not so much the end of Life as the beginning of Life Learnedly said St. Bernard The Just Man dies but securely whose death as it is the Exit out of this present Life is the Entry into a better But thou wilt say To live long how pleasant a thing it is but how uncertain is it whether Divine Grace will not forsake thee before thy Sin And who is there that has not often reason to be afraid for his perseverance which no holiness of Life can merit 'T is a Gift and given gratis Therefore he that desires this Gift let him reconcile himself to the Giver 9. But the Reason of Reasons is the Will of God whose Eternal pleasure it was that thou shouldst yield to Nature at this time in this place and through this Disease What wouldst thou more It was Gods will it so seem pleasing to God This is that will that can will no evil Therefore the Son of Syrack gives this advice Humble thy self afore thou beest sick and while thou maist sin shew thy Conversation But all these Reasons I do shortly sum up thus 1. The Death of Christ. 2. The Grace of God 3. The Invitation of the Saints 4. Examples of those that were before us 5. The Things to be feared 6. The end of all Evils 7. Enlargement out of Prison 8. Entrance into Paradice 9. The will of God Sect. 3. Therefore Death is not to be fear'd THerefore do willingly O Christian which otherwise thou wouldst be forc'd to do unwillingly VVhat is done by a willing Mind becomes light and ceases to be necessity where the will takes place The wise Man is so instructed as to consent to what he cannot withstand Therefore I am secure and fear nothing Nature a most kind Parent never made any thing terrible 'T is only the Error of Men that makes Death formidable VVe are afraid of Death not because it is evil but because it is not known to Men. If thou art revolving any thing sublime in thy Mind if thou art rearing any high or lofty structure despise those low and poor mistakes of the Vulgar and admire those Precepts whose imitation leads thee the true way to Glory VVe have innumerable Examples of those that die happily and cheerfully Rather imitate him among the Ancients that made this Dialogue between himself and the Minister of Death Thou shalt die Since the Fall 't is the Nature not so much the punishment of Man Thou shalt die Upon this condition I came into the VVorld Thou shalt die 'T is the Law of Nations to repay what has been borrow'd Thou shalt die Life is a Pilgrimage when thou hast travell'd as far as thou hast design'd thou must return home again Thou shalt die I thought thou wouldst have told me some News I came for this purpose As soon as I was Born Nature set me my Bounds VVhy should I be offended Thou shalt die 'T is a vain thing to fear what I cannot avoid He that stays the longest cannot fly it Thou shalt die I am not the first nor the last many went before and many shall follow Thou shalt die VVhat wise Man ever took it amiss to be set at Liberty VVhatever begins must end Thou shalt die It is not grievous because but once to be suffered They are Eternal Pains that torment Now is Death less to be fear'd than formerly For then the Gate of Heaven being not so open all Men bewail'd for this Noctes atque Dies c. Both day and night stands ope th' Infernal Gate Of swarthy Dis But now we can Sing Both day and night to Zealous Faith and Hope The splendid Gate of highest Heav'n stands ope So that it matters not how terrible and threatning Death appears 'T is the most inconsiderable what he desires of us He never thought of Death that liv'd well nor loses any thing who gains all things Sect. 4. How the Holy Men do desire yet fear Death LET us behold Paul saith Gregory how he loves what he seeks to avoid How he avoids what he loves He desires to die and yet fears to be spoil'd of his Flesh. Why so because though the Eternal Victory over-joy him yet the present pain disturbs him And though the Love of the Recompence overcome him yet he cannot be unsensible of the twitches and pangs of Torment For as a Couragious Souldier just before the Battel palpitates trembles looks pale yet is still instigated by his Anger So a Holy Man seeing the approach of his Suffering is shaken by the weakness of his Nature fears the approach of Death and yet rejoices to die And because there is no passage but through Death therefore trusting he doubts and doubting trust rejoicing he fears and fearing rejoices Because he knows he shall not attain the Garden of Repose unless he get over the Hill that lyes