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
the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in the Body according to that he hath doae whether it be good or bad ISAIAH xxxviii Set thy House in Order for thou shalt Die and not Live MANS Body before that dismal Conquest we all deplore as well as the Poor Soul was conditionally Immortal and so to this very day had ever continued if it had not been for the damnable Sin of Disobedience committed by Adam and Eve our First Parents But this was no sooner Gained than Lost and the time of Mans Life ever since hath been as a Point the Substance of it ever flowing the Sense obscure and the Whole Composition of the Body tending to Corruption If that you should live three hundred years or as many thousand of years yet with all remember this that at the last you shall be compelled by Death Gods all-resting Bailiff to lay down these rotten ruinous and clay-decaying Tabernacles of yours for Dust you are and unto Dust you shall return and peradventure you shall not have a good warning before hand as the good King Hezekiah had here but be thrust out of House and Harbour in less than an hours warning For Death which will put a period to every Mans days 2 Tim. 4. 7. is like a Sergeant sent from above upon Action of Debt at the Suit of Nature mounted upon his Pale Horse will come on unawares rap at your Doors Alight Arrest you all and carry you bound Hand and Foot into a Land as dark as Darkness it self from whence you shall be summoned at the last dreadful Audit to the Bar of Justice in the high Court of Heaven when your Bill shall be brought in how that you have ever Rebelled and most notoriously transgressed against the Lord of Hosts both in Thought Word and Deed and have ever spun away our time as tho' that Death which is the end of all flesh would never follow wherefore to the intent that Hezekiah that good King might be made more certain of his fatal Destiny occasioned by our first Parents and have the less account to make at the great and terrible day of Doom when Christ Jesus the Worlds Saviour shall descend from Heaven which is the center of all good wishes with his Heavenly Host of blessed Angels riding in Pomp and great Majesty upon the Wings of the Wind with the loud sounding Trumpet of God and the all tearing Voice of the Arch-Angel to judge both the quick and Dead God sent unto him the good Prophet Isaiah to incounter with him and to put him in mind of his mortal Song The whole verse runs thus In those days was King Hezekiah sick unto Death and Isaiah the Prophet the Son of Amoz came unto him and said unto him thus saith the Lord. Set thy House in order for thou shalt die and not live These words as they distribute themselves do consist of 〈◊〉 Principal and Essential Parts First of an Admonition or earnest Exhortation Set thy House in Order And then secondly of a sound and undeniable Reason which is threefold Affirmative and Negative First Affirmative for thou shalt Die and the Negative and not Live Set thy House c. Now of these in their due order severally and first of the Admonition or earnest Exhortation Set thy House in Order in which you have these three things regardable First the Reason warning which was Almighty â—…od by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah as is made manifest in express termes in the former part of the Verse And Isaiah the Prophet the Son of Amoz came unto him and said unto him thus saith the Lord. Secondly the Person warned or exhorted which was none other but even good King Hezekiah and by him all other And then thirdly and lastly the matter of the Exhortation and that was to Set thy House in Order Now of these which shall have the first place in my Discourse shall be of the Person exhorting and that was God Adam who had attained unto the state of Perfection in his Life and Conversation relying wholly upon Natures first intentions never so much as once dream'd of Death which is a Separation of Soul and Body or any Alteration until Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open no secrets hid seeing his corrupt and base nature came unto him and told him plainly and roundly to his face how that he was but Dust and Ashes and thither should return again Gen. 3. 19. Thus Almighty God by the mouth of Moses the Faithful was ever warning the Israelites being ever a most stiff-necked and rebellious Generation of their Mortality Deut. 32. 21. saving They have moved me to Jealousie with that which is not God they have provoked me to Anger with their Vanities And I will move them to Jealousie with those which are not a People I will provoke them to Anger with a foolish Nation for a fire is kindled in my anger and shall burn unto the lowest Hell and shall consume the Earth with her encrease and set on fire the Foundation of the Mountains I will heap mischief upon them I will spend my Arrows upon them they shall be burnt with hunger and devour'd with burning heat and with bitter Destruction I will also send the Teeth of Beasts upon them with the poyson of Serpents of the Dust and to raise this Blister the higher the Sword without and Terrour within shall destroy both the Young Man and the Virgin the suckling also with the Mâ—…n of Gray Hairs vers 25. Thus Almighty God did threaten them if that they would not set their House in Order and repent that he would bring them to the Dust again wherefore Moses being a true Mirror of pity out of his most tender Love and boundless Affection towards them all in general lest that Almighty God should send forth his sharp piercing Arrows and give them mortal Wounds in his heavy Wrath and cruel Anger cries out most bitterly by way of Exclamation saying O that they were wise then would they understand this and consider their latter end Thus the Father of Spirits and Lives having out of a Chaos or nothing created all and fashioned Man after his own Image seeing his corrupt and base Nature too inclinable unto all sorts of Wickedness by a sudden Metamorphosis transforms him into what he was again just like the Cat in the Fable which when she would not change her manners having all her members made after the form of a Woman according to hearts desire was turned into a Cat again Thus fâ—… concerning the first particular Circumstance the Son warning even Almighty God by the mouth of Isaiah the Prophet wherefore now to breviate my Discourse in fewer Words lest that I should be too prolix in the prosecution I shall proceed unto the second thing subservient to this Explication and that is the person warned or here to set his House in Order which was none other but even Hezekiah that good King
Glory when the Door is shut But now dearly beloved being come to Preach my last Sermon amongst you I request you all both good and bad to attend with double diligence to what shall be spoken unto you from that sweet portion of Scripture which you find recorded PHILIPIANS I. XXIII For I am in a straight between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better IN these Words are these two Parts First a Declaration of St. Pauls desire For I am in a streight between two having a desire to depart Secondly an Inclination of the ground of it which was this because he might be with Christ the word signifies solvere Anchoram to loosen the Anchor or to cut the Cable that the Ship may sail after While St. Pauls Spirit was tied up by the Flesh he desired it should be loosened by Death that it might Sail after into Glory Spiritual Desires they are always quickest and strongest whensoever they are nearest the perfect enjoyment of their desired Object Christ. As the motion of every natural Body is quickest and strongest the nearer it comes to the Center so the nearer fulness of Glory the more fervent the Soul is in its desires after Christ. Sirs my Text is usually the dying Expression of a living Saint for when a believer draws near to his End he sings most sweetly like the Swan and earnestly cries out Make haste my beloved he having a desire to depart to be with Christ evermore upon a dying Bed a Christians Pulse beats strongest Heaven-ward We groan as being in a great straight knowing to depart is far better much more better as if he should have said Oh! there is no comparison between the enjoyment of God in the State of Grace and the enjoyment of God in a State of Glory And here methinks I hear the dying Christian joyfully breathing out his earnest and longing desires for a Dissolution in the very words of a late Grave and Serious Poet who in an Heavenly Rapture and sweet Extasie of Spirit spake in the following manner viz. VVhy lingrest thou bright Lamp of Heaven why Do thy Steeds tread so slowly on must I Be forc'd to live when I desire to die Lash thou those Lazie Jades drive with full speed And end my slow-paced days that I may feed VVith Joy on Him for whom my heart doth bleed Post blessed Jesus come Lord flee away And turn this Night into the brightest Day By thine approach come Lord and do not stay Take thou Doves-Wings or give Doves Wings to me That I may leave this World and come to thee And even in thy glorious presence be I like not this vile VVorld it is meer dross Thou only art pure Gold then sure 't is loss To be without a Throne t' enjoy a Cross. VVhat though I must pass through the Gates of Death It is to come to thee that gav'st me Breath And thou art better Lord than Dung-hill-Earth VVhen shall I come Lord tell me tell me when VVhat must I tarry Threescore years and Ten My Thirsty Soul cannot hold out 'till then Come dearest Saviour come unlock this Cage Of sinful Flesh lovingly stop the Rage Of my Desires end thou my Pilgrimage Give me a Place on High to Sit and Sing Anthems of Praise to thee mine only King Whose ratling Sounds may make the Heavens Ring But here I know the timerous Soul will object against this truth and say Oh how can the Christian so earnestly-desire to be with Christ in the fulness of Glory were it indeed but a short step into Glory or were the way strewed with Roses and Flowers and with all thè Spices of the Merchant it might be so but there is a Lion in the way as Solomon speaks in another case there is Death the King of Fears that stands frowning upon the Soul at the last cast when the Soul is upon its very Entrance into Christ his prepared Mansions of eternal Glory and therefore it were more desirable to dwell safely upon the Earth in a sensible Heaven made up of the greatest worldly profits and the most delightful creature Comfort rather than to venture over the terrible mountain of Death the very Epitomy of all Discouragements into the doubtful possession of those invissible Depths of spiritual Glory which the Scripture tells us is only attainable after this Life I answer that by nature of this Objection you may presently know the name of the Objector It comes from off a carnal heart and fully speaks the temper an Epicurean Will that is against leaving its carnal interest in the Earth for uncertain interest in Heaven But Death though it be an intervening Cloud which seems to darken or cast a mist upon the Lustre and Comfort of a believers spiritual injoyment in God yet it doth but seem to do so and indeed it doth not at all extinguish the earnest desires of a serious lively Christian after Christ in the fulness of Glory and that especially when the believing Soul looks upon Death under these Considerations First that to die is no worse a thing than to tread in the very steps of Jesus Christ we might indeed have been afraid to die if Jesus Christ had not first stept into the cold grave before us but if we will shew our selves true Soldiers unto Christ our Captain we must not fear to venture where he hath broken the way before us Now Christ hath died that he might by his Death procure the Death of Death and that he might free Believers from the fear of Death the sting being taken out of it Secondly Death is only ordained to refine and not to ruine Nature Death ends our sins and miseries and not our life as it may be made out unto you by this following Illustration those Trees which seem dead in the Winter yet they revive in the Spring because the Body and the Arms of the Tree they are joyned to the Root where the Sap lies all the Winter and by means of this conjunction the Root it conveys life unto all the parts of the Tree And the Bodies of Believers they have the Winter to when as they are turned into the Dust but their Life it is hid with Christ at last they are revived and raised up into Glory Now here you may observe the great difference of Tempters according to the various Complexions of Mens Spirits the Atheist he dares not die for fear of being put out of his being and the profane Person he dares not die for fear of exchanging his present bad being for a worse but the Believer he earnestly desires to die that besides this present temporal being he might enjoy a future eternal well-being Indeed to a wicked Man the best had been not to have been and this next best were to live long it was ill with him that ever he was born and wors that he must die A Carnal Mans continual cry is this Dum Spiro Spero I love to live for
is their Life and Trade All as a sleep and like the grass whose beauty soon doth fade verse 6 Which in the Morning shines full bright but fadeth by and by And is cut down ere it be night all withered dead and dry verse 10 Our time is threescore years and ten that we do live on mold If one see fourscore surely then we count him wondrous old verse 11 Yet of this time the strength and chief the which we count upon Is nothing else but painful grief and we as blasts are gone 1 Cor. 15. Ver. 19 20 21 22 26 50 51 52 53 54 55. IF in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death Now this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption Behold I shew you a mystery We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in Victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy Victory THE HOUSE OF Weeping Sermon I. John 11. 35. Jesus Wept WE may learn from the Example of Our blessed Saviour how we are to behave our selves what we are to do in the Sickness and Death of Friends In this World we are all Bennonies the Sons of Sorrow The way to Heaven is by Weeping Cross The Kalender tells us we come not to Ascention Day till the Passion Week be past It is the great work of a Preacher to consider the state of the people to whom he preaches so to prepare his work before hand as that he may hit the mark The Preacher sought out acceptable words now generally those words are most acceptable to and best received by the hearers that are suited to their present condition I considering therefore the secret hand of God upon this Congregation in taking away an eminent Servant of Christ thought it incumbent upon me to speak something at this time that might be suitable to the present dispensation of of God towards you and in meditations this Scripture was cast in Jesus Wept The occasion of this text is known unto you in the beginning of this Chapter you read that Lazarus was sick and the news thereof immediatly sent to Jesus who notwithstanding he dearly loved him yet as the sequel of the story acquaints you he doth not presently go up to Bethany to visit sick Lazarus but maketh a stay for several days the reason wherof is at hand viz. That a sentence of death might pass upon beloved Lazarus and he be laid in the grave and a stone rouled upon him and all this in order to the manifestation of the glory and power of Christ in his resurrection After Lazarus had been in the grave four days Christ he comes up to Bethany and the sisters of Lazarus viz Martha and Mary they come out to meet Jesus first Martha she cometh ver 20. and she saith Lord If thou hadst been here my brother had not died ver 21. After this comes Mary vers 32 and she falls down at Christs feet saying Lord If thou hadst been here my brother had not died When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled and said Where have ye laid him They say unto him Lord come and see Jesus wept There is very much wrapt up in the bowels of this little Text Here we may take notice of the humanity of Christ it appears by Christs weeping that he is perfect man as well as perfect God That Christ wept is to be referred not to his Divinity but to his Humanity and so we shall find that Christ was subject as to this so to all natural infirmities as hunger thirst weariness c. which may comfort the Saints that groan under natural as well as sinful infirmities and that from the reason why Christ was made in all things like unto his brethren namely That he might be a merciful High-priest Hebr. 2. 17 18. And though Christ be now in glory yet he is touched with the feeling of the infirmities of his people here on earth Hebr. 4. 15. so touched as that he cannot but have compassion on them under all their pressures and grievances whatsoever Do'st thou then groan under natural weaknesses and infirmities Go boldly to the Throne of grace and Christ will enable thee to bear up under these weaknesses until mortality shall have put on immortality The Subject Matter of this Chapter is Lazarus redivivus it is a Relation of the miraculous raising up of Lazarus from the Dead From vers 1 3. we may observe thus much that a Believers interest in the distinguishing love of Christ doth not exempt him from outward Troubles or bodily Distempers He whom thou lovest is sick From vers 4. We may observe thus much that the darkest Dispensations of Providence they oftentimes usher in the brightest manifestations of God to the Soul or Gods Glory is most manifested in the Creatures Weakness From Vers. 6. We may take notice it was ever in Christ's intention to manifest his Love and Goodness to Lazarus and yet he comes not near him for the present but rather goes away and leaves him upon his sick Bed and suffers him at last to give up the Ghost From Vers. 14. We may observe that Christ his absence or the suspension of divine Grace and Love they are in infinite Wisdom ordered for the further advancing of Soul Comfort Had not Lazarus been sick had he not been dead and buryed the Wisdom Power and Goodness of Christ had never been so eminently discovered as it was towards him Martha and Mary cry out v. 21 32. Lord if thou hadst been here our Brother had not died It is true Christ might have recovered Lazarus upon his sick-bed but to fetch him out of the Grave after he had lain stinking four days was a higher demonstration of his Love Wisdom and Power There is not the like ground that Christ should shew forth his miraculous Power in raising up our dead Friends from the Grave as was then yet this special and useful conclusion may by way of Analogy be deduced from this instance namely That such Comforts and Mercies as are fetched out of the Grave as
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
dying well three Things are most requisite First To be often meditating upon Death Secondly To be dying daily Thirdly To die by little and little The first step of dying well OFten meditation of Death brings a man to die in ease for it alleviates pains expels fear eases cares cures sins corrects death it self The very Thought of Eternity will make easie and pleasant all things we suffer in a miserable Life How can we be said not to die when we live among the dead We live with so many deaths about us as we cannot but often think of dying Every Humour in us engenders Diseases enough to kill us so that our Bodies are but living Graves and we die not because we are sick but because we live And when we recover from sickness we escape not sickness but the disease All this life is but a death of an hour Familiarity with Death a soveraign Cordial against Death THerefore be acquainted with Death betimes for through acquaintance death will lose his horror like unto an ill Face though it be as formidable as a monster yet often viewing will make it familiar and free it from distaste walk every day with Joseph a turn or two in thy Garden with death and thou shalt be well acquainted with the face of death but shalt never feel the sting of death Death is black but comely Philostrates lived seven years in his Tomb that he might be acquainted with it against his bones came to lye in it Some Philosophers have been so wrapt in this contemplation of Death and Immortality that they discourse so familiarly and pleasingly of it as if a fair death were to be preferred before a pleasant life This is well for Nature's part and Moralists think this enough for their part to conceive so But Christians must go farther and search deeper They must try where the power of death lyes They shall find that the power of every man's death lyes in his own sin That death never hurts a man but with his own weapons It always turns upon us some sin it finds in us The sting of Death is sin Pluck out the sting death cannot hurt us The way to die well is to die often Let a man often and seriously think of dying then let him sin if he can said Picus Mirandula In Sardis there grew an Herb called Appium Sardis that would make a Man lie laughing when he was deadly sick Such is the operation of sin Beware therefore of this Risus Sardonicus laughter of Sardis We count it a fearful thing for a man to be author of his own death but a sinful life slays the soul. and so while we live we kill or lose our better life The Commandment that says Thou shalt not kill especially forbids the murthering of our own Souls And herein is our happiness though we live in sin yet we die without sin Therefore to me Death is welcome not as an end of troubles but of sin Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth The Second Step To be dying daily THE second step to dying-well is to die daily Methinks O my Soul it is but yesterday since we met and now we are upon parting neither shall we I hope be unwilling to take our leaves for what advantage can it be to us to hold out longer together Are we not assured that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Why therefore O my Soul shouldst thou be loth to part upon fair terms Thou O my Soul to the possession of that happy Mansion which thy dear Saviour hath from all Eternity prepared for thee in his Father's house and thou O my body to that quiet repository of the grave till ye both shall happily meet in the blessed Resurrection of the Just. I die that I may not die I die daily saith Saint Paul So many days as thou livest reckon so many lives for he that disposeth all his days as one life can neither wish nor fear to morrow The old saying is a good saying Do that every day which thou wouldst do the same day that thou diest 'T is an excellent thing to make all we can of life before Death To die by little and little the third step THE third step to dying well is to die by little and little Naturally we are every day dying by degrees the faculties of our minds the strength of our bodies our common senses are every day decaying by little and little every sin is more than a disease and a wicked life makes a continual death Impie vivere est diu mori To live wickedly is to be long a dying Therefore saith the good Man We are killed all the day long He that useth this course every day To die by little and little to him let Death come when it will it can neither be terrible nor sudden If we keep a Courser to run a Race we lead him daily over the place to acquaint him by degrees with all things in the way that when he comes upon his speed he do not start or turn aside for any thing he sees So let us inure our souls and then we shall run with boldness the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the Author and finisher of our salvation To die by little and little is first to mortifie our lesser sins and not to say with Lot Is it not a little one There be also a sort of little deaths sickness of body loss of Friends and the like Use these in their kind and you may make them kindly helps to dying well Every change is a certain imitation of Death Let a man go out as he came into the World which was first by a life of Vegetation then of Senâ—…e afterwards of Reason To die daily is this daily to attend upon and exercise that great duty of Mortification according to our solemn Vow and Covenant made to God at our Baptisâ—… which Vow and Covenant we renew at our first coming to the holy and blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Alas how few do consider or understand this great duty of Mortification and fewer practise it And yet this above all others is the Grace which fitteth and prepareth us for Death this Grace putteth us into the possession of Life Spiritâ—…al and by perseverance in it into life Eternal Rom. 8. 13. But if ye live after the flesh that is after the appetites lusts affections of the flesh ye shall die But I bless God I have nothing to do with the World nor the World with me Riches Pleasures honours transport me not affect me not nor am I dejected and afflicted with poverty common pains sicknesses disgrace or scorn Christ liveth in me and I in him therefore I humbly thank the power of his grace I can die as willingly as I can go out of one Room into another For
the manner of dying AMongst Men it is a matter of chief mark the manner of a man's death The chief good of Man is his good departure out of this life Before you die set your house in order He that hath not a house yet hath a soul no soul can want affairs to set in order for this final dissolution The chief grace of the Theatre is the last Scene It is the Evening that Crowns the day and we think it no good sign of a fair Morrow when the Sun sets in a Cloud The end Crowns every Work Most men wish a short Death because death is always accompanied with pain We die groaning To lie but an hour under Death is tedious but to be dying a whole day we think beyond the strength of humane patience He that desires to be dissolved and be with Christ dies not only patiently but delightfully Happy is he that after due preparation dies ere he be aware so likewise is he happy that by long sickness sees death afar off for the one dies like Elias the other like Elisha both blessedly The best posture to be found in when Death comes is in the exercise of our calling Press saith St. Paul towards the mark for the prize of the high calling Phil. 3. A good Man by his good will would die praying and do as the Pilgrim doth go on his way singing and so adds the pains of singing to that of going Who yet by this surplus of pain unwearies himself of pain But some wretches think God rather curious than they faulty if a few sighs with a Lord have mercy upon us be not enough at the last gasp But commonly good Men are best at last even when they are dying It was a Speech worthy the commendation and frequent remembrance of so divine a Bishop as Augustine which is reported of an aged Father in his time who when his Friends comforted him on his sick bed and told him they hoped he should recover answered If I shall not die at all well but if ever why not now Surely it is folly what we must do to do unwillingly I will never think my Soul in a good case so long as I am loth to think of dying There is no Spectacle in the World so profitable or more terrible than to behold a dying man to stand by and see a man dismanned Curiously didst thou make me in the lowest part of the Earth saith David but to see those Elements which compounded made the Body To see them divided and the man dissolved is a ruful sight Every dying man carries Heaven and Earth wrapped up in his bosom and at this time each part returns homeward Certainly death hath great dependency on the course of man's life and life it self is as frail as the Body which it animates Augustus Caesar accounted that to be the best death which is quick and unexpected and which beats not at our doors by any painful sickness So often as he heard of a man that had a quick passage with little sense of pain he wished for himself that Euthanaâ—…ie While he lived he used to set himself between his two friends Groans and Tears When he died he called for his Looking-glass commanded to have his Hair and Beard kembed his reviled cheeks smoothed up Then asking his Friends if he acted his part well when they answered Yes why then says he do you not all clap your hands for me Despair in dying may as well arise from weakness of Nature as from trouble of Mind But by neither of these can he be prejudiced that hath lived well Raving and other strange Passions are many times rather the effect of the Disease than coming from the mind For upon Death's approaches choler â—…uming to the Brain will cause distempers in the most patient Soul In these cases the fairest and truest judgment to be made is that sins of sickness occasioned by violence of Disease in a patient man are but sins of infirmity and not to be taken as ill signs or presages A Son of so many Tears cannot but be saved I will not despair in respect of that man's impatient dying whom the Worm of Conscience had not devoured living Seldom any enter into Glory with ease yet the Jews say of Moses His soul was sucked out of his mouth with a kiss David in this case the better to make his way prayed and cried Lord spare me a little O spare me that I may recover my strength before I go hence and be no more Indeed to Ezekias some Years of Days were lent But we are not worthy of that favour we must not expect that God will bring back the shadow of degrees â—…hen 〈◊〉 it is gone down in the Dial of Aâ—…az we must time it as we may and be content to live and die at uncertainties Therefore as a sick man 〈◊〉 to the Clock so let us waâ—…h Death For sudden coming of Death finding a weak soul unprepared makes it desperate and leaves it miserable Death approaching what our last Thoughts should be SEneca saith the last day judgeth all the precedent The last is the best dying words are weightiest and make deepest imressions Our last thoughts are readiest to spend themselves upon somewhat that we loved best while we lived The soul it self when it is entring into glory breaths Divine things At this time a good man's tongue is in his breast not in his mouth his words are then so pithy and so pectoral that he cries O Lord Jesus take thine own into thy own custody Anatomists say there are strings in a man's tongue which go to his heart when these break Man speaks his heart Oh that they were wise said Moses and would understand and fore-see their latter end When he was dying Christs last words in the Bible are Surely I come quickly Our answer is Amen Even so come Lord Jesus c. I have but small acquaintance with the future State but this I 'm sure there will be no change that will be so surprizing to me as that By Death It is a thing of which I know but little and noâ—…e of the millions of Souls that have past into the invisible World have come again to tell me how it is I. It must be done my Soul but 't is a strange A dismal and Mysterious change Norris When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay And to an unknown somewhere wing away When Time shall be Eternity and thou not how Shalt be thou know'st not what and live thou know'st II. Amazing State no wonder that we dread To think of Death or view the Dead Thou' rt all wrapt up in the Clouds as if to thee Our very knowledge had Antipathy Death could not a more sad retinue find Sickness and pain before and darkness aâ—… behind III. Some courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be You warn us of approaching Death and why May we not know from you what 't is to
The good Propheâ—… 〈◊〉 id represent these unto us in those Tâ—… five young Men which were Besotted and Ravished in beholding the labouring Sun that glorious Creature and vast Eye of all the World whose gentle Heat broodeth upon the Waters and hatched in Six Days all the World which by way of Exposition signifieth the adoring of the Glory of their Birth But leaving these to themselves as silly Fools who glory in the Gold that glisters God Almighty comes here unto old Adam with a Memorandum of Death and teacheth him another Lesson saying Dust thou art aâ—…d unto dust thou shalt return The end ever holâ—…s a correspondence with its beginning Naked came I out of my Mother's Womb and naked shall I return The Rivers come from the Sea and thither again they return and so doth the labouring Sun from the East and thither it retires again That Image of Gold Silver Brass and Iron that had its Feet of Earth must in the end turn to dust Barak having asked Where are the Princes of the Nations makes answer himself and saith The earth hath swallowed them up all Now to comment upon this same place we may make the like question and give the very self-same Answer Nonne omnia Pulvis nonne Fabula nonne in paucis ossibus memoria eorum conservatur The very greatest and famousest of us all have been are and shall be but dust and there is no Memorial to be left of us but a few rotten and stinking Bones But to proceed because in Preaching Plainness is ever counted the best Eloquence In these words as they offer up themselves unto our consideration you may with me as they naturally arise from the express words in mâ—… Text observe these two regardable Circumâ—…tances First How these Morral Bodies of ouâ—…s are said to be Dust. And then secondly How they shall return to Mother-Earth from wheâ—…ce they came Now of these two in their due order severally And first of the First and that is How we are said to be Dust. Now as for the Walls of Flesh wherein the Soul doth seem to be immur'd before the Restauration it is nothing but an Elemental Comâ—…osition and a Fabrick thâ—…t may fall to Ashes All Flesh is Grass is not only Metaphorically but Literally true for all those Creatures we behold are but the Herbs of the Field digested into Flesh in them or more remotely Carnified in our selves Nay further we are what we all abhor Anthropophagi Cannibales Devourers not only of Men but of our selves and that not in Allegory but a positive Truth for all this huge Mass of Flesh which we behold came in at our Mouths yea this Frame which we look upon hath been upon our Trenchers In brief we have devoured our selves Man is such a frail sorry and base Creature that the good Prophet Jeremy calls him to his own Face thrice Earth at one Breath saying O Earth Earth Earth hear the Word of the Lord Jer 22. 29. Man is Earth by Procreation Sustentation and by Corruption First He is Earth by Procreation for the first Man is called Adam that is red Earth Of the dust of the Earth made he Man Gen. 2. 7. The Patriarch Abraham acknowledging the baseness of his beginning said unto the Lord I am but dust and ashes Gen. 18. 27. Now Almighty God the Câ—…eator of all things made this Earth of which he made Man of nothing according to the Text God created the Heaven and the Earth He made not this Heaven and Earth of another Heaven and Earth but he Created both as having nothing but nothing whereby and wherewith to build this goodly Frame and so consequently proud Man in respect of his Maâ—…rials is brought unto nothing And therefore our Princely Pâ—…ophet David says Psalm 144. 4. That Man is like a thing of nought Yea and to confirm this the better St. Paul that ever blessed Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians says If any Man seem to himself that he is something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself in his imagination Gal. 6. 3. Adam begat Cain and Abel Gen. 4. Cain signifieth Possession Abel Mourning or Vanity to teach us that Possessions are but Vanity and vexation of Spirit yea Vanity of Vanities all vanity Eccles. 1. 2. And as Adam begat Sons like to himself so his Sons also Sons like to themselves of a loathsom Excrement carried in those Members of the Body which are least honourable brought forth into the World with intollerable Pain so vile and so soul that I shall spare to speak wanting Epithites whereby to express my self only give me leave to Cry out with our Princely Prophet David saying What is Man O God that thou art mindful of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him or with St. Paul O Man what art thou who pleadest against God As if he should have said as Cyprian said once to Demetrius Consider how base thou art in respect of God even as Clay in the hand of the Potter and then I think thou wilt not enter into dispute with thy Creator That any Man is miserable let it suffice him that he is a Man that is Infelicitatis tabula nec non Calamitatis fabula a Map of Miseries and as it were the Table of Troy whomsoever thou seest to be miserable thou maiest without all doubt conclude he is a Man and therefore the first Voice uttered by the new-born Babe is Crying hereby Prophecying that he is come into a World full of Care and Grief Crying and taking it grievously to heart because he is a Man Blushing because he is Naked Weeping and wailing because he is born into a most wicked and miserable World and murmuring because indued but with a dull Genius and made up of so base matter which every Disease like a Storm is ready to totter down God Almighty Created Adam of the basest matter even of very Dirt but this Dirt being Moulded by God's own Hand and Inspiring it with so much Wisdom Counsel and Prudence it may be called Cura Divini Ingenii the Curiousness of God's Wit But Man growing proud hereupon and hoping to be a God himself God doomed him to Death and wrapped him again in hâ—…s dirty Swadling Clouts with this Inscription Puâ—…vis es in pulverem reverteris Dust thou art and unto Dust thou shalt return Adam did not without some Mystery cloath himself with green Leaves for he gave therein as it were a sign and token of his vain and foolish hopes But as the Mother when the Bee hath stung her Childs Finger runs with all haste to get a little Dirt and claps it to her little One which doth asswage the Swelling and give it ease So those busie Bees of Hell daily stinging us and striking into our Breasts the Poyson of their Pride and Arrogancy Almighty God with a Memorandum of Death with a Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return abates this Pride and tells us of that swelling Arrogancy
promise to thy self length of days yet thou must know also that a man even at the highest pitch of health when he hath that same Fencer-like kind of strength is nearest danger in the Judgment of the best Physicians remember with all that observation of Seneca Young Men saith he have Death behind them Old Men have Death before them and all men have Death not far from them we may in a manner complain already that the great God of Battle threatens an utter ruin to all the World the Earth hath trembled the Lights of Heaven have been often darkned Rebellions have been raised Treasons have not long since been practised Plagues of late have been dispersed Winds have blustered Waters have raged and what wants there now but those two Arrows of God even Sword and Fire from Heaven for us to be consumed Is it now think you a time to buy to sell to eat to drink and to live securely in sin as they did in the days of Noah and think of nothing else is it now a time to say unto Almighty God as the Nigard doth unto his Neighbour come again to me to morrow as that drousie Sluggard doth Prov. 6. 10. Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little foulding of the hands to sleep The foolish Virgins supposed that the Bridegroom would not have come like an Owl or a Batt in the night there is time enough said they what needs all this haste but poor Fools they were excluded Oh! I cannot forbear my very Heart even bleeds within me to think of it yea all the faculties of my Soul and Body are strucken with horrour and amazement while I declare unto you how that many Thousands now are doubtless in Hell who purposed in time to have set their Houses in order but being prevented by Death are for ever condemned O here I could heartily wish with Jeremy that I had in the Wilderness a Cottage Yea I could wish with Job that I were a Brother to the Dragons and a Companion to the Ostriches whilst I think of that wish I am now uttering nay I could willingly desire with the Princely Prophet David that my Heart were full of Water and that mine Eyes were a Fountain of tears that I might weep Day and Night for the too too common Sins of this our Age in every kind Now you are in your preparations for Eternity and therefore had need to be very watchful over your selves to see that you set your Houses in order for you shall die and not live And this brings me now unto the very last thing observable in my Text and that is of the reason Negative and shalt not live set thy House c Chrysostom prying into the base Nature of Man and finding him ever out of order teacheth him a seven-fold consideration of himself First What he is by nature what he is in himself Dust and Ashes Gen. 18. 2. Secondly What is within him much sin Thirdly What is before him a burning Lake which is spoken of Isai. 30. 33. Fourthly What is above him an offended Justice Deut. 32. 16. Fifthly What is against him Satan and Sin two notorious and deadly Enemies Sixthly What is before him transitory trifle and worldly vanities And then seventhly and lastly He desires man seriously to consider what is behind him infallible Death for semel aut bis morimur omnes Some once some twice we must all die and not live You cannot like Enoch Heb. 11. 5. be translated but must suffer Death as well as other Men being common to all Whatsoever thou dost affect whatsoever thou dost project so do and so project all at once who for any thing thou knowest may at this very present depart out of this Life Hypocrates although he could not cure till Death came upon him Heraclitus who writ many natural Tracts concerning the last and general consolation of the World could not find out a Remedy or a Medicine for his Distemper but died out of hand Thus you may see how that God spares none but sends one thing or other to bring us to our long home And thus far concerning the Death of the Body shall suffice which was the Death good King Hezekiah was forewarned of Wherefore now I shall but only speak a word or two of the Soul and likewise of the Death of the Soul and Body and so conclude First as there is a Natural Death viz. the Death of the Body so likewise there is a Spiritual Death viz. of the Soul when it is deprived of those Graces which formerly God did bestow upon it for as the Soul is the light and life of the Body even so Almighty God is the light and life of the Soul When he takes his holy Spirit from us then we walk in the shadow of Death this Death is an ill Fruit of Sin therefore let us set our Houses in order But secondly As there is a natural Death and a spiritual Death so likewise there is an eternal Death called in the Ornament of Grace the second Death This Death as well as the Death of the poor Soul is lamented by God Esay 59. 2. As I live saith the Lord I desire not the Death of a Sinner but rather that he may turn from his Wickedness and live I might now likewise add a fourth Death and that is a civil Death an undoing of our Credit and honest Reputation which many Men die but this I shall leave to your consideration and so conclude O my dearly beloved Friends consider what you are all by nature What is within you What is above you What is below you What is against you What is before you What is behind you and that is infallible Death For here is not one here amongst you be he never so strong never so healthly but that within the Revolution of a few years shall be brought in spight of his teeth unto the Grave Wherefore let your Houses be dâ—…ly perfumed by a Morning and Evening Sacrifice of Prayer Praise unto Almighty God both which were appointed under the Law Exod. 29. 38. 39. And this shadowed what was to be performed under the Gospel God renews his Mercies to you every Morning and protects you from manifold dangers every Night whereunto you are subject and you be so ungrateful as to banish all his benefits out of your Memories who is every Moment so mindful of you As therefore beloved you tender the Salvation of your poor Souls look home and mourn for your Original sin steep your Eyes in Tears write Letters of â—…scomfort upon the Ground as you go let the streams of your fighs and the sweet Incense of your Prayers rise up like Mountains before the Lord of Hosts and bedewing your Cheeks with tears make your humble Confession unto God Almighty not of sin alone but of all your sins of what nature degree or height soever they be and by your unfeigned Confession so accuse your selves that you may not hereafter be accused of
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
glory All motions tend to rest Return then to thy rest O my Soul for God hath dealt bountifully with thee But Lord spare me a little before I go hence and be seen no more that my DEATH-BED THOUGHTS may be all imployed in the Contemplating of that Eternity into which I am now a launching Sect. 1. The Daily Remembrance of Death HAppy is he who always and in every place so lives as to spend his every last moment of Light as if day were never to return Epictetus most wisely teaching this Death saith he and Banishment and all that we look upon as Evils let them be daily set before thy Eyes but of all most chiefly Death So shalt thou think upon nothing that is too low nor too ardently covet anything Miserable diminitive Mortals wherefore d' ye teach long Hopes Wherefore d' ye undertake such a vast heap of Business That shall be perhaps to Morrow a meer Spark and Ashes Walk curiously O Man That dismal Goddess continually hovers over our Heads and waits for the last Sands of our Lives Hour-glass with an unwearied and never-sleeping Eye and wilt not thou watch after her What e're beginning has an end doth fear We all must go Old EAcus within those shades below Whips on the Moments that protract us here Nor can any Age struggle with Death As soon as we are Born we are subject to that Tribute and are the Stipendiaries of Death When first our trembling sight Beholds the dazling Beams of unknown light Then we begin to die The same Death meraces the Queen that threatens the Handmaid Therefore believe every day that shines to be thy last Say every Evening this day I stand at the Gate of Eternity Sect. 2. The remembrance of Death is a powerful Remedy against all Sins THE serious remembrance of Death shakes off all sense of pleasure and turns Honey into Wormwood The Expectation of Death saith Chrysostom suffers us not to be sensible of the Delights and Pleasures we injoy And indeed what is it not able to do when consider'd not only in the Extremities of the Fingers and as it were in the Hair but over the whole Body Death spares no Age nor no Degree of Dignity Here dies a young Man there an Infant there an old Man Another by Poyson or a Fall another by a slow Rhume another by a quick descent of Humour here lyes another oppress'd with a mighty Shower or the Waves there lyes another struck with Thunder Among so many doubtful so many various so many sudden Accidents what security or what mind to sin among so many Incertainties Therefore since we daily die think upon the Hour-glass whether the old fashion'd one running Water or the new one running Sand. Do ye not find that by dropping of the Water and the passage of the Sand the upper Glass empties and the lower Glass fills Consider that it is so with Life every moment something slides away the present Life empties and flows into another Nothing is here safe not the Hour of the Hour nor the Moment of the Moment Happy he to whom every day is the last more happy he to whom every Hour most happy he to whom every Moment is the utmost period of his Thoughts He will abstain from the wickedness of his hands who believes every Hour decreed every Moment his last O vain Hope How many dost thou deceive How many to whom thou promisest old Age dost thou cut off in the midst of their Course Believe therefore that may happen to thee which happ'ns to many How many has Death prevented in the midst of their wickedness and cut off half the Crime How many fall with a revengeful Mind though with an Innocent Hand How many snatch'd away in the attempt have receiv'd the reward of their Impiety Many in the very Moment of a wicked Action begun have been forc'd to leave their ill designs unfinish'd What if thou shouldst be in the number of those What Hour or Moment is more certain to thee than to another Now who can expect a Crime from such a Thought as with the Crime expects Death and with Death Punishment No prudent Man plays or sports in the midst of a Storm No Man at the brink of a Precipice meditates mischief No Man is merry unarmed in the midst of his Armed Enemies More stupid is he whom the perpetual fear of Death when every Hour is doubtful every Moment uncertain dares those things that procure an unhappy Death to Eternity O Fools Whither do we run to be punish'd for ever Wherefore do we not follow the Council of the Son of Syras In all thy work saith he remember thy last and thou shalt not sin Sect. 3. The end of a good Life is all Out of Seneca TELL me my Dear Seneca whom Pliny with an Elogy to be envy'd calls the Prince of Learning tell me what thou thinkst of Death especially immature Heark'n Youth give ear complaining Age like a Comedy so is Life which it matters not how long but how well it is acted It imports not where thou mak'st an end leave off where thou pleasest only put a good period No other is the Opinion of Epicteâ—…us Remember faith he that thou art the Actor of the Fable as the Poet directs If short of a short if long of a long Fable No otherwise said Varro They live not best who live longest but they who live most uprightly Most plainly so it is it matters not where when or how we end When God pleases we must die but let us put a good period to our Lives Sect. 4. All Men no Men. Out of Arbiter Heu heu nos miseros quam totus Homuncio nil est Alas What miserable things are we The frame of Man is only Vanity VErily so it is But alas by much the more miserable by how much the less we acknowledge our selves to be so The whole little Man is nothing as the ancient Satyrist well observes but if I may dare to say so then he begins to be something when he knows himself to be nothing O Man know thy self and be wise For Death equals Lillies with Thorns O miserable and vain Men What are we Learning and Fame are Smoak We Dâ—…st that meer Opinion the other Wind And we that are alive vigorous and flourishing shall shortly be reduced to say We have liv'd This single Exit all Men make Our Life decreases by increasing and the very day we breathe in we divide with Death For every day some part of our Life is diminish'd As the last drop does not empty the Glass but what flow'd out before so the last moment does not alone bring Death but only consummates our Being Sect. 5. Mortals are of one little Day THE day Lilly is a Flower whose Beauty perishes in a day There is also a Bird haunts the River Hypanis called Haemerobios or the Bird of one day ending its Life the same day that it begins dying with the dying Sun and
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
shouldst fear and wish for death and which is more that thou shouldst never know thy condition nor when thou wert safe Besides that every thing of future is uncertain only that we are certain to decay for the worse the Journey to Heaven is more easie when we have dismissed our Thoughts from worldly Conversation For so they become lighter and freer from Dregs Great Genius's never covet a long stay in the Body they long to be gone they hardly brook these narrow they desire to wander through sublimity and take a prospect from above of things below Therefore it is that Plato cries out The Soul of a wise Man always leans towards Death This it desires this it meditates upon covetous of higher Objects And how clear is that of Plato concerning a better Life He saith he that spends his Life in the study of Wisdom seems to be the person who will die with confidence full of good hope that he shall obtain great rewards if he die This the Ancients saw in the dark and thou canst not see it by the light of the Sun What then my sick Friend do the things of the Earth trouble thee Shortly thou shalt inhabit Heaven Thither aspire and whatever miseries thou feelest thou wilt feel them the less Sect. 30. True Hope is a Blessed Life I Do not for this make use of either Poets or Philosophers 'T is a serious thing I will drink to thee out of the Fountain of Divine Eloquence Therefore lay aside thy sadness and with a certain hope say with the Doctor of the World I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day Wherefore art thou afraid O Man of short hope hear the Son of Syras Who feareth the Lord standeth in awe of no Man and is not afraid for the Lord is his hope and strength Blessed is the Soul of him that feareth the Lord in whom putteth he his trust and who is his strength The Eyes of the Lord have respect untâ—… them that love him he is their mighty protection and strong ground a defence for the health a refuge for the hot of noon day a succour for stumbling and a help for falling He setteth up the Soul and lightneth the Eyes he giveth health life and blessing The Kingly Prophet how Câ—…uragious is he how undaunted having a prospect of his own Funeral I will lay me down in peace and take my rest for it is thou Lord only that makest me dwell in safety What that safety is he expresses in another place For thou hast been my hope and a strong Tower for me against the Enemy I will dwell in thy Tabernacle for ever and my trust shall be under the covering of thy wings But thou wile say my Impatience makes me hope ill Here I will help thee again Cry with David Thou art my hope even from my youth Frequently this King cry'd out God is my Salvation God is my Hope and also exhorts others to do the same Trust in him O ye people pour out your hearts before him Wherefore dost thou not follow him that goes crying so loudly before thee Say therefore from thy Soul O think upon thy Servant according to thy word wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust The same is my Comfort in my Trouble And with Jeremy the Prophet I nevertheless obediently followed thee as a Shepherd and have not taken this Office upon me uncalled Thou knowest it well Be not thou terrible unto me O Lord. For thou art he in whom I hope when I am in peril Hear him in another place Leave off from weeping and crying with-hold thine Eyes from Tears for thy labour shall be rewarded c. Job is most confident in this Though he slay me I will trust in him The same he utters upon the brink of Death After darkness I hope for light Was there ever saith the Son of Syrach any one confounded that put his trust in the Lord Whoever continued in his fear and was forsaken Or whoever did he despise that called faithfully upon him For God is Gracious and Merciful He forgiveth sins in the time of Trouble and is a defender of all that seek him in the Truth And Hosea Therefore hope still in thy God for whoever put their trust in God are not overcome Besides That the Lord is good unto them that put their trust in him and to the Soul that seeketh after him The good Man with stilness and patience expecteth the health of the Lord. Truly saith Nahum the Lord is Gracious and a strong hold in the day of Tribulation and knoweth them that trust in him And we also know saith St. John that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And every Man that has this hope in him purgeth himself even as he is also pure Hope therefore most firmly in the Goodness of God and thou shalt walk before the Lord in the Land of the Living Sect. 31. Tranquility proceeds from true Hope TUrn again O my Soul into thy rest for the Lord hath rewarded thee Art thou wearied with so many sorts of Labour behold the Lord is at hand and he will put an end to all thy Labours The beginning of thy rest is Sickness and Death Cease therefore O my Soul to be willing to be miserable and to consume thy self with so much turmoiling Painful Beginnings thou wilt say 'T is very true But thou knowst that no days are less quiet than those that are next to rest No days less Holidays than those that precede Festivals So it is with thee But thy rest shall be Eternal The preparation tires thee shortly the Paschal without end shall follow Go to then and expend a little Labour and Grief By and by thou shalt behold the Gate not that which leads out of this Life but that which leads to Eternity Then hadst thou but begun to labour it would prove sufficient if he for whom thou labourest think it so Therefore O my Soul dismiss vain things to vain people and turn thee to the Lord who hath rewarded thee His Mercies toward thee hath been innumerable thou maist sooner number the Sand of the Sea than them by which he designs to open thee the way to Heaven Bernardus Clarevallensis recommended this particularly to his Friends to cast the Anchor of their hope in the safe Bay of Divine Mercy Therefore let that Verse of the Psalmist In thee O Lord. have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion Sect. 32. Comfort in Pain THen should I have some comfort yea I would desire him in my pain that he would not spare for I will not deny the words of the Holy One. With this Comfort therefore while my pains do burn me I will warm my Zeal and recollect my Courage when the Excess of my
Torments shall bring me certain hope of Death For I know that while the pains as it were of Childbirth Crucifie me the Rest and Tranquility of another Life is preparing for me and that the Mercy of God shines over me either inflicting Death or defending my Life Therefore let not God be delayed through any commiseration of me For if I die I shall escape free and secure from my Sins nor shall I ever any more resist the will of God as one that has left this Life and the Inconstancy of Mortals Yet I am very much afraid of my weakness left I should faint in the right road and in my holy purpose Seeing then that hitherto through the Mercy and Grace of God I have remained stedfast in the truth I would not depart from the Innocency of my Life though I have a firm hope that it will never be that I shall contradict the will of God but rather that I may be always able to attend and wait upon it Which when God shall be pleased to fulfil in me I am so far from praying against it that I shall rather esteem it as a great favour For when I ought to endeavour to be holy there is nothing which I can receive at the hands of the most holy and pure of Spirits God that can be harmful if not rather profitable for me Come then pains and exercise my patience as God has given ye leave To begin to die and not to be in pain scarce happens to any Man Through pains we pass to Death That is the high road A little while we must be in pain that we may not be in pain to Eternity Sect. 33. Patience mitigates all pains PAin is a sharp cruel horrid sad bitter thing contrary to Nature hateful to the Sences yet which by the assistance of our Age may be mitigated or else little or nothing felt He that in this Combat unwillingly turns his Back but makes a resistance cordially and with all his might is always Superior always gets the Victory Why O Clay dost thou murmur against the Potter He designed from Eternity one Vessel for Honour another for Dishonour another for another use yet all Brittle and Mortal Wherefore then dost thou repine Complaints and Repinings are but an addition and increase of the Distemper For nothing so much exasperates the heat of a Wound as the impatience of enduring the pain All repining turns to its own Torment Thus while the wild Beast moves the snare he is taken Thus while the affrighted Birds disorder the Lime-twig they hang by the Feathers There is no Yoke so strait that does not less hurt him that bears it willingly than him that resists There is but one mitigation of terrible pains which is to suffer and submit to necessity Wherefore then dost thou add a Disease of mind to sickness of Body Making thy self more miserable by murmuring and provoking him the more thereby who beholds the Sufferings of Men from above and considers their Patience with a design to reward it But the sick Man objects thou canst not make me not to feel what I feel My tender sick Friend if no where else at least suffer patience to inhabit in thy Ears I do not deny pain to be pain but I say it may be lessened by patience Which if it take not away all sence of pain yet it gives thee the Victory over pain while thou hast strength to endure it manfully Therefore the Mind is to be roused up to be armed and embattelled against its Enemies An unprepared and impatient mind is dejected at the least Misfortunes like a Coward that upon the sight of the Enemy throws away his Arms and flies thus the thought of pain Exanimates a sluggish mind which had it held but out the Buckler of Patience had proved a Victor over pain Patience not only augments the Courage of the Mind but mitigates the sharpness of the pain So that if it be never so violent however begin then to hope Excess of pain promises an end For extremity of Grief is the beginning of Joy This is the Law of Contraries the one arises from the conclusion of the other But are we not ashamed that so many Christian Boys and Girls have joyfully endured what we Men could not bear without weeping and complaints Why tremblest thou Resume thy Courage hope in God the end is at hand The pains are terrible but short And it is a Noble thing for a true Christian neither to give way to pleasure nor to pain Sect. 34. An Example of Patience in a Beggar BEhold I beseech thee lying at the Pool of Bethesda a Beggar a Beggar do I say Yea a diseased Beggar Alas Poverty it self is a disease long and tedious enough If pain of the Body attend it the evil is redoubled which cannot be endured but by a double portion of patience as in this Paralytic He was so indigent that no body would help him into the troubled Waters No body would so much as compassionate his Poverty Ah. What a hard case it is to be at the same time both poor and sick This Mans Disease was not of a Months or a Years standing He had lost the uâ—…e of his Limbs Thirty and Eight years a breathing Carkass a Funeral before Death and buried while he yet lived Sick people think a Day a Month a Month a Year a Year an Age How many Ages could this Man but think so many Years Yet behold his patience he lost not his meekness of Mind Neither in this desperate Sickness had he wasted all his hope and patience He envied no body he repined at no body he reproaches no body He accuses no Man condemns no Man wishes no Man his ill Fate Neither does Curse himself nor the day of his Birth nor blame Fortune nor his Parents much less does he murmur against God complain of Heavens Cruelty or stand upon his own Innocency nor does he chide the slowness of Death Nor does he prepare to make himself away but patiently expects help and still hopes nor is he importunate with Christ contentedly satisfied that he had only not concealed his Miseries from his Saviour Thou who art sick canst thou imitate this poor Man Certainly thou oughtest or else thou canst not hope for Heaven Sect. 35. A Type of Patience in a Great Prince THou maist complain that either still Saints or vulgar and mean people are propounded as Examples of patience Why then O Man canst thou not imitate Christ upon the Cross St. Lawrence upon the Gridiron Imitate Lazarus waiting for the scraps Imitate Alexius in the narrow Dungeon and there ending his Life But there are State Examples Certainly there are not wanting Examples for thee to follow Behold great Princes who but few years ago so took care of their Bodies as not to neglect the health of their Souls Bishop Daniel when complaints were brought him that the wild Beasts spoiled the Corn. 'T is well said he I will soon
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
above all things and resign my self up fully to his holy will Most absolute prepared to be well to be sick to live or die when it shall please the Lord. The will of God be done Unless every Christian so order his Life and his last Actions he is to be thought to have lived ill and to have died worse The last Hour consumates Death but is not the cause of it which was preceded by a good Death For nothing makes Death ill but what follows Death Good Seed brings a good Harvest The Highway to a good Death is a good Life I may not unfitly compare Life and Death to a Syllogisine The end of a Syllogisme is the Conclusion the Conclusion of Life Death But the Conclusion is either true or false according to the Nature of the Antecedents so is Death good or bad as the Life before was good or bad Thus St. Paul severely prononnces saying Whose end shall be according to their VVorks 2 Cor. 11. 15. Memorable is the Death of that Holy Martyr Felix who being led to Execution rejoicing to himself with a loud Voice I have said he preserved my Virginity I have kept the Gospels I have preached the Truth and now I bow my Head a Victim to God There is a Relation of one who died suddenly in his Study and was found with his Finger pointing to that Verse in the Book of VVisdom ch 4. v. 7. which says Though the Righteous be overta ken with Death yet he shall find rest pretions in the sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints whether slow or suddain The Copious St. Bernard being near his end Because saith he I cannot leave you great Examples of Religion yet I commend Three things to your Observation which I remember observed by my self 1. I less believed my own than the Judgment of another 2. Being injured I never sought Revenge 3. I never would offend any Person Gerard the Brother of St. Bernard upon his Death-Bed broke out into that Davidean Rapture Praise the Lord in Heaven Praise him in the Highest Where is thy Victory O Death Where is thy Sâ—…ing O Grave Gerard through the midst of thy very Jaws passes not only securely but joyfully and triumphantly to his Country He cannot die ill who has lived well Sect. 16. As we Live so shall we Die The weary Huntsman in his rest all Night Dreams of new Sports and of his past Delight IN the same manner those things that pleased us in our Health we are delighted with at our Deaths Antiochus miserably afflicted the Jews and Maximinâ—… the Emperour had designed the utter Exterpation of the Christians At length they both fell into a most lamentable Disease and when they saw no other way the one besought the Jews the other the Christians to pray to their God for their Recovery Like Esops Crew which being taken desperately sick cautioned his Mother as she sate by him not to weep for him but rather pray â—…o the Gods for his Recovery To whom she replied O my Son which of the Gods dost thou think will be propitious to thee that has robbed the Altars of every one of them Therefore as we live so we die so are we reprieved and condemed so destined to Heaven or to Hell Sect. 17. A good Death to be desired I Pray God my Soul may die the Death of the Righteous and that my last end may be like his cried the Prophet Balaam How much more rightly had he wished Let my Soul live the Life of the Just that it may also die the Death of the Just. 'T is a Ridiculous thing to desire a good Death and flie a good Life 'T is a Labour to live well but a Happiness to die well he that refuses to pass the Red Sea must not think to â—…at Manna He that loves the Egyptian Servitude shall never reach the Land of Canaan Piously and Elegantly St. Bernard Oh that I may fall saith he frequently by this Death that I may escape the Snares of Death that I may not feel the deadly Allurements of a Luxurious Life that I may not besot my self in sensual Just in Covetousnes Impatience Care and Trouble for worldly Affairs This is that Death which every one ought to wish for who designs a Life that shall never know Death Before Death to die to Sin and Vicâ—… is the best Death of all Sect. 18. Sleep the Brother of Death PAusanias relates that he saw a Statue of Night in the shape of a Woman holding in her right Hand a little white Boy sleeping in her left a little black Boy like one that were a sleep The one was called Somâ—…us Sleep and the other Lethum Death but both the Sons of Night Hence it is that Virgil calls Sleep the Kinsman of Death Gorgias Leontinus being very old was taken ill In his Sickness he was visited by a Friend who finding him fall'n asleep when he waked asked how he did To whom Gorgias made answer Now Sleep is about to deliver me to his Brother Whoever thou art O Christan before thou layst thy self to Sleep examine thy Conscience and wipe away the stains and spots that defile it There are many who have begun to sleep and die both together and ended their Lives before they had slept out of their Sleep The Brother of Death is to be feared and not only cautiously but chastly to be fallen into He that sleeps not chastly shall hardly wake chastly Sect. 19. The fore-runners of Death THE fore-runners of Eternity is Death the fore-runners of Death are Pains and deadly Symptoms One deadly Symptome if we believe Pliny in the height of Madness is Laughter in other Diseases an unequal Pulse But the Eyes and the Ears shew most undoubted Prognosticks of Death Experience teacheth us that when sick People talk of going Journeys and endeavoured to escape out of their Beds when they pull and pick the Blankets they are near Death Augustus the Emperor a little before he expired suddainly terrified complained that he was carried away by Forty young Men. Which saith Suetonius was rather a Presage than a sign of any Delirium for so many Pretorian Souldiers when he was dead carried him to his Funeral Pile When Alexander went by Water to Babylon a sudden Wind rising blew off the Regal Ornament of his Head and the Diadem fixt to it This was lookt upon as a Presage of Alexander's Death which happened soon after In the Year of Christ 1185. the last and most fatal end of Andronicus Commenus being at hand the Statue of St. Paul which the Emperour had caused to be set up in the great Church of Constantinople abundantly wept Nor were these Tears in vain which the Emperour washt off with his own Blood Barbara Princess of Bavaria having shut her self up in a Nunnery among other things allowed her for her peculiar Recreation she had a Marjoram-Tree of an extraordinary bigness a small Aviary and a Gold Chain which she wore
whom I am chief 1 Tim. 1. 15 But he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved Mat. 24. 13. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2. 10. These Fountains refresh and cool the hot Baths of death he shall happily swim therein who plunges himself over Head and Ears in these Rivolets Sect. 39. The Sighs and Prayers to God proper for a Dying Person ENlighten my Eyes O most merciful Jesu that I sleep not in death Left my Enemies say I have prevailed against him Psal. 13. 3 c. Lord Jesu Christ Son of the Living God Lay thy Passion Cross and Death between thy Judgment and my Soul O Lord Jesu Christ remember not our old Sins but have mercy upon us and that soon for we are come to great misery Psal. 79. 8. Sweet Lord Jesu Christ for thy glories sake and for the Effectual Vertues sake of thy Sufferings cause me to be written down among the number of thy Elect. Enter not into judgment with thy Servant O Lord for there is no Man righteous in thy sight I worship thee O Christ I bless thee because thou hast redeemed the World by thy Sufferings Saviour of the World save me who by thy Cross and Blood hast redeemed me O most merciful Jesu I beseech thee that with thy precious Blood which thou didst shed for Sinners that thou wouldst wash away all my iniquities O Blood of Christ purifie me let the Body of Christ save me let the Water from Christs side wash me let the Passion of Christ comfort me O kind Jesu hear me hide me between thy Wounds Permit me not O merciful Jesu to be separated from thee in this my Hour of death call me command me to come to thee that I together with thy Saints may praise thee to all Eternity Cast me not from thy Countenance nor take thy Holy Spirit from me Sect. 40. At the Moment of Death NOW Lord according to thy good pleasure deal mercifully by me and command my Spirit to be received in peace Sound into the Ears of my Mind those sweet words this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Now let thy Servant depart in peace because mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation O Jesu Jesu Jesu permit me to enter into the number of thy Elect. O Jesu Son of David have mercy upon me O Lord Jesu make haste to help me O Lord Jesu receive my Soul Sect. 41. The true Confidence of a Dying Person in God HEre I confidently aver with St. Bernard Let another pretend to Merit let him boast of enduring the heat and burthen of the day my desire is to adhere to God and to put my hope in the Lord. And though I am conscious to my self that such was the naughtiness of my pass'd Life that I deserve to be forsaken of God yet will I not cease to relye upon his Immense Goodness and to hope that as hitherto his most Holy Grace has afforded me strength to endure all things so the same will still uphold me and enable me to finish my course Therefore this one thing I beg of thee O God that thou wilt never suffer me to distrust of thy Goodness though I know my self to be weak and miserable Yea though I should perceive my self in that Terror and Consternation ready to fail like St. Peter upon one blast of Wind let me remember him let me call upon Christ Lord make me whole Then O then shalt thou stretch forâ—…h thy Hand and save me from sinking But if thou sufferest me to go farther yet with Peter to run headlong into denial then such is my hope that thou wâ—…t look upon me with an Eye of Mercy and Compastion as thou lookest upon Peter and grant me a now Confirmation of Eternity This I am certain of that unless the fault be mine the Lord will not forsake me I acknowledge that saying of St. Austin God may save some without good works because he is Good but he condemns none but for their evil works because he is Just. And therefore I commit my self to him with a full hope and confidence in him If he suffer me to perish for my Sins yet his Justice shall be magnified in me Yet I hope and most certainly hope that his most merciful Goodness will most faithfully preserve my Soul so that his Mercy rather than his Justice shall be praised in me Nothing can happen to me against the will of God Whatever he pleases to whom ever it seem ill is still the best to me VVhatever pleases thee that will I that will I O God Sect. 42. The Last Words of Dying Persons AUgustus the Emperor dy'd with these words in his Mouth Live mindful of our Nuptial Knot and so farewel How much more holily would these Christians do that direct their last words to the Beginning and Creator of all things Dyonisius the Areopagite being condemned to lose his Head with a Christian Generosity contemning the Reproaches of the Spectators Let the last words of my Lord upon the Cross said he be mine in this World Father into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Basil the Great lying at the last period of Life after he had piously instructed his own Friends breathed out his Soul with these last words Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit St. Bernard upon his Death-bed Oh Christian said he despair not of this Infirmity Christ has taught thee what thou oughtest to say in all the dangers of death whom to fly to whom to invoke in whom to hope Therefore do thou so behave thy self that at the hour of death thou maist be able to say In thee Lord have I trusted let me not be confounded to Eternity Therefore let the last words of a dying Person be directed to God All his Prayers Wishes Desires and last Hopes must ever tend to him Let the dying Person say from the bottom of his Heart To thee Lord I turn my face to thee I direct my Eyes Sect. 46. Let the dying Person imitate the Penitent Thief in Golgotha LOrd remenber me when thou comest into thy Kingdom Happy Thief who in the School of Christ had learnt more in three Hours than the Unhappy Iscariot in three years Lord God! How great is the Abyss of thy Judgments Thy Friends and Kindred are silent thy Disciples forsake thee the Angels appear not Where are those thousands fed by this Crucified Lord Who of all that multitude speaks one word for so great a Benefactor Yet the Thief against his Companion pleads the Cause of Christ and justifies his Innocency take off all Scandals from him and convicts the Multitude of Murther Nor was the Son of God asham'd of such an Advocate but rather applauded him Nor was the happy Rhetorician wanting in his Cause But we truly said he are righteously punished for we receive according to our deeds but this Man hath done nothing amiss Oh how truely may I say the same 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-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
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
he should be drawn through the Streets of London to the Gallows in St. Giles in the Fields and there hanged and afterwards burnt upon the Gallows as he hung The Death of Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex HIS Enemies durst not bring him to a Tryal but procured an Act of Attainder whereby he was Condemned before he was Heard yet the King after his death repented this Haste and wished he had his Cromwell alive again Being mounted the Scaffold he made an humble Confession and begged the Prayers of all those which were present then in a pious Prayer he recommended himself into the Hands of the Almighty and at one Blow his Head was severed from his Body Anno 1541. The Death of the Lady Jane Grey THE Morning before her Exit from this World her Husband the Lord Guilford Dudley was conveyed to a Scaffold on Tower-Hill where he penitently ended his Life his Head and Body being laid in a Cart all bloody was brought to the Chappel and exposed to the Sight of this sorrowful Lady a Spectacle more dismal than the kneenest Axe of her Death And now her own part is to be acted upon a Scaffold erected upon the Green within the Tower where being mounted with a chearful Countenance she looked upon the People and with great Constancy directed her self after this manner That she was come thither to die for an Offence which was committed by a Device not of her own seeking then wringing her Hands and protesting her Innocency she desired them to take notice that she died a good Christian and requested their Prayers Then kneeling down she repeated in English the 51 Psalm after which her Gentlewoman helped her off with her Gown and the Hangman on his Knees asked her forgiveness which she forgave him freely and prayed him to dispatch her quickly Looking upon the Block and kneeling she said Will you take it off before I lay it down No Madam replied the Executioner then she tied a Handkerchief before her Eyes and feeling for the Block said What shall I do Where is it Where is it Being guided she laid her Head upon the Block and giving the Sign she said Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Then receiving the Fatal Blow she ended this Life Anno 1554. Aged 16. Her Death was much lamented but did not go unpunished for the Judge which passed her Sentence shortly after fell distracted crying out continually Take away the Lady Jane from me The Lady Jane Grey had a curious Vein in Poetry In her Troubles she composed these Lines Think nothing strange which Man cannot decline My Lot's to Day to Morrow it may be thine If God protect me Malice cannot end me If not all I can do will not defend me After dark Night I hope for Light This Epitaph was also made on her My Race was Royal sad was my short Raign Now in a better Kingdom I remain The Death of Sir Philip Sidney SIR Philip lay for the space of 25 Days enduring his Pains with admirable Patience and at length resign'd up his Spirit into the hands of his Redeemer October 16. Anno 1586. Upon him was made this Epitaph Apollo made him wise Mars made him stout Death made him leave the World Before his Youth was out The Death of Galeacius Carracciolus SIckness the Harbinger of Death seizing upon him which proceeded from abundance of Rheum this was produced by his long and wearisome Journeys which he had formerly taken by Land and Sea for his Conscience sake His Physicians despairing of his Cure he wholly sequestred himself from all Worldly Cogitations and taking his Farewell of his Wife and Friends saving He would lead them the way to Heaven Then he desired God to receive him and acknowledge him for his own and so quieâ—…ly departed 1592. Aged 74. The Death of Katherine Bretterg ONce she took the Bible in her hand and joyfully kissing it said O Lord 't is good for me to be afflicted that I may learn thy Statutes The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and sâ—…ver Then she desired her Husband to be ware of Popery and to let her little Girl be brought up in the Fear of God saying So shall I meet her in Heaven whom I must now leave behind me on Earth Once she was very dull in Prayer and when she came to Lead us not into Temptation she said I may not pray I may not pray for Satan interrupts me yet her Friends left her not till she had gained the Conquest She repeated often We have not received the Spirit of Bondage to fear again but the Spirit of Adâ—…tion whereby we cry Abba Father The Verse of Psalm 13. ult she often repeated chearfully Many Pious Meditations she used but the last was this My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the Strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever He that preserveth Jacob and defendeth his Israel he is my God and will guide me unto Death Then she departed this life without any motion of Body May ult Anno 1601. Aged 22. The Death of John Lord Harrington Baron of Exton FRom the First-Day of his last Sickness he apprehended the approach of Death and so readily prepared himself for it he made Confession of his Sins and oft confessed his Faith and undoubted hope of Salvation in Christ and when Death approached he breathed out O my God when shall I be with thee And in the midst of these longing Desires he departed Anno 1613. Aged 22. The Death of Phillip de Mornay Lord of Plessis Marley BEing displaced from his Government of Samur he betook himself to a Private Life and made his Will for the peace and good of his Family being seiz'd upon by a continual Fever and no hopes of Recovery he would often say I fly I fly to Heaven and the Angels are carrying me into the bosome of my Saviour then would he repeat the words of Job I know that my Redeemer liveth I shall see him with mine eyes and I feel I fell what I now speak He dyed in the 74th Year of his Age. The Death of John Bruen of Bruen-Stapleford in the County of Chester Esquire FAlling Sick the morning before his Death divers Friends took their leaves of him and hearing some make motion of Blacks he said I will have no Blacks I love no Proud nor Pompous Funeral neither is there any cause of Mourning but of rejâ—…icing rather in my particular Immediately before his Death lifting up his hands he said The Lord is my portion my help and my trust his blessed Son Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Redeemer Amen Even so saith the Spirit unto my Spirit therefore come Lord Jesus and kiss me with the kisses of thy mouth and embrace me with the Arms of thy Love into thy hands do I commend my Spirit O come now and take me to thy own self O come Lord Jesus come quickly O come O come O come So his
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
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
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