a time of trouble such as neuer was since there was a Nation Ezek. 7.7 euen to that same time Da. 12.1 Man knoweth not his time As the fishes that are taken in an euill net and as the birds that are caught in the snare so are the sonnes of men snared in an euill time when it falleth suddainly vpon them Ecles 9.12 The fish is cheerefull deuouring the bayt not seeing the hooke but the fisher-man drawing him vp torments the bowels and dragges it to destruction August de agone Christi cap. 7. So many runne away with presumptuous sinnes but the time shall come that they shall feele the plagues of it when time shal be no longer One woe shall be past and another woe come quickly from death to iudgement from iudgement to hell Reu. 10.11.14 They may come vp as flouds their waters may moue as the riuers they may saye we will couer the earth they may rage with their Charets but when the day of vengeance commeth in vaine shall they vse many medicines for they shall not be cured their crye shall fill the land they shall be swept away when the Lord driueth them they shall appeare to haue beene but a noyse when they haue passed the time appointed Jer. 46.17 Vse 2 Our Instruction must be not to walke as fooles but circumspectly as wise redeeming the time because the dayes are euill wee are borne of women Ep. 5.16 of few dayes full of trouble Ioh. 14.1 Let vs remember how short our time is what man is hee that liueth and shall not see death Ps 89.47.48 Be not ouermuch wicked neither bee thou foolish why shouldest thou die before thy time Eccles 7.17 Stat sua cuique dies Euery mans dayes are determined Virgil. 10. Aeneid the number of his moneths is with God he hath appointed him his bounds that he cannot passe Ioh. 14.5 this is a measure of his dayes in respect of Gods prescience and prouidence Psal 39.4 but in respect of the course of nature the threed of life which might haue beene lengthned is cut off by Gods command for sinne and men liue not out halfe their dayes Psal 55.23 as that Bishop applyed this texte in his time Bernardinus to 2. in Qua. dragesimali de Euang. oetern Do. 2. quadra serm 17. a. 3. cap. 1. when in Catalonia a citty neare Valentia a strippling of 18. hauing beene disobedient to his parents and so fell to robbing and being executed on the tree and thus remaining for a spectacle to disobedient children on the next morrow a Beard and gray haires appeared on him which the people hearing of and wondring how suddainely these should come to a young dead body and vrging how young he was at his death the Bishop said he should haue liued to be so old as hee appeared then had he not beene disobedient Thus the Lord threatneth the family of Eli all the increase of thine house shall dye in the flower of their age 1. Sam. 3.33 He dyeth before his time who dyeth vnwillingly not prepared not rype in yeares though rype in sinne which hasteneth death and destruction as God threatned to the Amorrhites when their iniquity should be full Gen. 15.16 Happy is he who can triumphe with that flagge of defiance against all enemies as St. Paul Herein doe I excercise my selfe to haue alwayes a conscience voyd of offence toward God and toward men Act. 24.16 Happy is he who euery night thinketh with himselfe a day is gone a part of my time is cut off so much lesse haue I left of a short and miserable life God hath appointed the time of life short in respect of prosperity and aduersity in this world that our appetite may be stirred to future things whereof here we haue but a taste as were the trees in Paradise and Manna If these pleasures belowe delight vs how much more shall those aboue Punishments here are but essayes of those hereafter ordained for the wicked as those vppon the Sodomits Chorah and his complices and if the short plagues of this life are feared how much more those of another A little time we haue that by little consolations we may be inuited to glory and by small troubles feare greater A little time is giuen vs least our troubles being ouer long we should despaire onour ioyes we should neglect God Aduersity sometimes must exercise vs else prosperity will pull vs down There are but foure times a time of deuiation as from Adam to Moses when death reigned Rom. 5.14 a time of Reuocation from Moses to Christ the Lawe being added because of transgressions a time of Reconciliation from the birth of Christ to the sending of the holy Ghost Gal. 3.19 the spirit it selfe bearing witnesse with our spirit that wee are the children of God a time of Peregrination from the sending of the holy Ghost till the day of Iudgement Rom. 8.16 while wee are at home in the body 2 Cor. 5.7 vve being absent from the Lord. 2. Cor. 5.7 In this Pilgrimage we must walk by faith The times are dangerous in regard of troubles which must fail out such as neuer were since the begining of the world Mat. 24.21 Of Sathans libertie Reu. 20.8 who being loosed deceaued the Nations of the foure quarters of the earth of the multitude of many false Prophets rising and deceauing many Math. 24.11 of the rarenesse of good men Math. 24.12 iniquity abounding the loue of many waxing cold Let not the time runne away without obseruation Thinke vppon time past and be thankefull for benefits receaued Creation Redemption Iustification repent for sinne committed imitate the godly Think vppon the time present the opportunity vrging vs to worke while we haue time the breuity compelling vs to be instant the irreuocability stirring vs vp to constancie Thinke vpon the time to come and prouide to giue a faire account Barn de trip custodia 1. Cor. 4.7 Nothing ought to be of so pretious esteeme as time it is Gods gift we haue nothing but what we haue receaued wee are answerable for it and must deliuer backe all things in number and weight we must gaine according to the talentes deliuered vnto vs Ecc. 42.7 wee must growe in grace Math. 25.20 And to this end as in bodily growth there are 4. helpes so in a spirituall There is nourishment in the wombe here is a proficiencie of knoweledge there we are brought into the light of the world here we shewe forth some fruits of the illumination of Baptisme there is milke giuen vnto vs here the word of God deliuered out of both Testaments there wee are carryed to our Parents table here we come to the Supper of the Lord our heart and our flesh reioycing that Nowe is the accepted time 2. Cor. 6.2 now is the day of saluation wherein God the Father begetteth vs the
is as the Thiefe when he is pardoned looketh backe to the string that was like to strangle him and knoweth this childe had beene her death had not God giuen her a safe deliuerance in the great danger of child-birth The childe being borne requireth nourishment and the mother should doe this if her breasts be as able bottles and her strength sufficient and no maine let to hinder the nursing of her owne childe yet often vpon a needlesse wantonnesse the mothers send abroad their Infants to strange Nurses and remote places not enduring to embrace little children in their armes which Christ himselfe did hauing beene once a childe and wrapped in swadling cloathes but rather wil embrace a Whelp or Puppy worse then the Sea monsters they draw out the breast La. 4.3 and giue sucke to their young ones yet if this young Gallant bee nursed by his owne mothers paps and tender and onely beloued in her sight Pro. 4.3 as once borne in her womb and euer borne in her heart tender in her eyes because shee is euer tenderly carefull and fearefull of him what is hee borne to but a succession of miserable times if he outliue the birth for he might haue dyed from the wombe and giuen vp the ghost when hee came out of the belly Iob 3.11.12 the knees might haue preuented him and the breasts from sucking What is Infancie but an Apprentiship of seauen yeares infirmity Jsidore reckous 6. ages Infancie Puerility Mans state youth grauity o 'de age Marcius Aurelius Galen maketh but 5. Childhood to 15. yeares Adolescencie to 25. Lusty youth to 35. Mans age to 49. The last olde age wherein there is no vse of expressing almost a reasonable soule Childhood to 10. but an vntoward phantasticall toying shake the rod it is persecution Mans estate to 28. but headie aduenturous voluptuous passionate prodigall Youth to 50. but a season wherein Nature reareth against him a more furious combat and all the vices of the world there plant their siege Grauitie or vnweldinesse to 70 bring all the diseases that euer Christ came to cure Olde age hauing no stint as the other because the remaines of life are referred to this yet the dregges onely and powder of mans life and a continuall necessary expectation of death Thus man neuer continueth constant and scarce is his life a life in his mutable conditions tossed by time which continually runnes on and is irreuocable THIS is our wisedome to apprehend it and not neglect or abuse it All Gods workes haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a time and season and we should make our time seasonable for it is an high part of wisdome to follow opportunity Natures Secretarie the Phisitian looketh at this and euery man sheweth himselfe wise or foolish in this Temperibus medicina valet Data tempore prosunt Et data non apto tempore vina nocent Ou. 1. de remed amor Pitacus best aduise was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know the season He that is yong in yeares may be old in houres if he loose not time and as fit for iudgement as inuention for counsaile as execution If he remember the times he will not embrace more then he can hold stirre more then he can quiet flie to the end without consideration of the meanes and degrees vse extreame remedies at first be like an vnruly horse that will neither stoppe nor turne Time brings changes and therfore it is good to be wise in time The Antients painted this as an Image on a swift wheele hauing feathers at the foot running swiftly in a round rough at the foretop bald behind when offring it selfe easie to be taken afterward impossible some as a goodly Boy with his haires hanging ouer his eyes Politian in Miscell c. 49. Iohn Tzetzes in historijs Pier. l. 14. pag. 130. Id. l. 56. p. 536 some paint it deafe without eares reaching a sword to him that shall follow it The Egiptians describe it by a Serpent streatching it selfe in length wreaths foulds the long courses of dayes and yeares creeping along without noyse Others by a sithe represent it Id. l. 52. p. 505 Id. l. 44. p. 437 because it moweth reapeth cutteth all things down Others by a Poplar tree hauing leaues of two colours signifying the day and night Others by a Starre for nothing so keepeth the appointed times as the heauenly bodies and so should wee from that globe of examples For our times runne on and slippe away and we cannot hold in the swift post of our dayes Ouid. Tempora labuntur tacitisque senescimus annis Et fugiunt fraeno non remorante dies Time consumeth wit fame youth honour old age strength Nothing liueth here but is subiect to the lawe of time It is the watch of the morning sentinell of the night ruine of proud buildings spoile of antiquities tamer of wilde beasts waster of huge stones with small droppes It maketh an Embrio to become a child a child a man and an old man as it were a child againe The time of birth we see described by the wise man Wosd 7.2.3.4 a fashioning there was of vs to be flesh in the wombes of our mother in the time of tenne moneths and being borne we drew in the common aire and fell vpon the earth which is of like nature the first voice we vttered was crying we then come to be nursed in swadling clothes and that with cares and no King had another beginning of birth Natiuitas mirabilis Ier. 23.5 There is an admirable Natiuity wherein flesh is borne without spot there is his purity as in Christs birth arighteous brāch a child of a Virgin there is the nouelty God of a woman there is humility the highest himselfe shall establish her Is 7.14 Fruit of a Rod there is our commodity vnto vs a child is borne Ps 87.5 borne as an example of humility Is 9.6 testimony of verity figure of loue couenant of reconciliation but our Natiuity is miserable because vile and vncleane what is hee which is borne of a woman that hee should be righteous Miserabilis Iob. 15.14 poenal and inflamed by hell clouded with darkenes and passing as a shadowe Iob. 3.6 In this birth man hath another following making him blind in his birth Ioh. 9.1 vnworthy to teach others weake to doe good Vituperabilis fraile to resist euill we haue had time to be borne and as a man that hath passed ouer a dangerous bridge if hee turne bake quaketh to remember the danger he was in so if we looke backe vpon the danger we escaped till our birth and in it we may say as King Dauid Thou art hee that tooke me out of the wombe but few consider the vse of their birth and so much abuse time Ps 22.9 that better it had bene for them they had neuer bene borne Vse 1 This then iustly reproueth many who mispend
Church our mother conceaueth vs The seede whereby we are borne againe is the word the nurses to feede weane cherish vs are the Ministers of the Gospell and preaching is the food we must require which will make vs new creatures haue new soules affections members a new heart hand eares eye but if there be no appetite in vs after this we are a Golgotha hauing a name to liue but are dead in sinne and dead in desires vnborne and better vnborne then vntaught Was it miraculous for Elias to liue forty dayes without foode of the body Animas portant mortuas in corporibus viuis Aug. and shall we thinke to liue for euer if wee neglect the food of our soules which should nourish vs to life euerlasting hauing a name to liue but are dead and carry about vs dead soules in liuing bodyes Haue wee hereetofore liued an idle prophane vngodlie life O let vs liue the rest of our time in the flesh no longer to the lusts of men but to the will of God for the time past of our life as the Apostle speaketh may suffice vs to haue walked in the will of the Gentiles vvherein the Apostle allovveth not the former life but reproueth it 1. Pet. 4.3 It is like that more ouer this vvas not enough for them that they erred in the knovvledge of God Non approbat sed reprobat vitam praeteritam Lyra. but vvhereas they liued in the great vvarre of ignorance those so great plagues they called peace and like that O ye house of Israel Wisd 14.22 let it suffice you of all your abominations Ez. 44.6 There is no losse to the losse of time it is folly to expect time while we haue it before vs. Hee that hath life hath time and this runns swifter then a Weauers shuttle Remember how greiuous it will be to thinke vpon the neglect of time as Titus Vespasianus meditated Suction Amici diem perdidi A day mispent is lost It was the lamentable Epitaph of Similis Captaine of the Guarde to the Emperour Adrian after hee had retired himselfe and liued priuatly seauen yeares in the country Xiphilinus in vita Adriani that hee had liued onely seauen yeares Hic iacet Similis cuius aetas Multorum annorum fuit ipse Septem duntaxat annos vixit Let vs consider how long it is since wee were borne and number our yeares not from the time of our old birth but New birth Let vs often consider how our time runnes on let vs remember the day of DOOME the end of this time and begining of immortality to come 2. Esd 7.43 Let vs looke vpon our threefold disease the begining middle end our Natiuity life death Our Natiuity vncleane our life peruerse our death dangerous Let the meditation of the birth of Christ purge our birth Bar in transitu malachiae pessima mors peccatoruÌ„ quorum Natiuitas mala vita peior of his death destroy our death of his life instruct our life Our Natiuity hath bene sinfull let not our life be badde least our death be worse Let vs endeauour to dye the death of Saints by liuing as Gods best seruants then pretious shall our death be in the sight of the Lord as the end of out labours consummation of our victories the gate of life an entrance into glory Let vs get to bee borne againe which is our new Regeneration in Body and Spirit Bar. declamat apol ad GulielmuÌ„ Abbatem We fell together in soule and body but first must rise in soule if we would be raised vp at the last day in bodyes to glory Let vs first esteeme our soules and not as those of the schoole of Hipocrates and Epicurus who neglect the soule and prouide only for the body who feare not to commit sin but to endure shame Let vs know that as farre as the spirit is aboue the flesh God aboue men heauen aboue the earth eternity aboue frailty so farre is the new creation aboue the olde the one is mortall and corruptible the other immortall from heauen a worke of God abiding for euer This bringeth to life the other to death as it followeth the Birth here PARS II And a time to dye There are many reasons why Death is come into the world the disobedience of Gods prohibition Of the fruit of the tree in the middst of the Garden God hath said ye shall not eate least ye dye Gen. 3.3 The Malice of the Deuils temptation Wisd 7.24 through enuie of the Deuill came death into the world the folly of the womans condition she saw that the tree was good for food pleasant to the eyes and a Tree to be desired to make one wise and tooke of the fruit thereof and did eate The mans greedy apprehension and hee did eate ibid. Hence some obserue that mors comes of mordeo because our first Parents did eate of that forbidden fruit A memorable punishment drawing a man from pryde Ecc. 10.9 facile coÌ„temnit omnia qui nouit se moriturum Aug. Hier why is earth and ashes proud from couetousnesse Easily despiseth a man the world when he seeth he must dye from earthly pleasures corruption being the father the worme a mother and sister Iob. 17.16 when man goeth downe to the bowels of the pitte and rest must be in the dust It stirreth vp a man to good to almes to repentance to disposing of his house as appeareth in Hezekiah when he had receaued the message of death hee turned his face to the wall If. 38.14 prayed and mourned as a Doue Now he settleth himselfe by a liuely faith the foundation of saluation a search and confession of his former sinnes in a broken and contrite heart Ps 51.17 by remission of iniuries submitting himselfe to Gods good pleasure vnlading himselfe of ill gotten goods running to obtaine Howsoeuer man hath thought of himselfe before he be summoned to dye and haue bragged with proud Phaeton in the Poet that Apollo were his father yet now he must call to minde that Climene was his mother hee seeth that his strength is not of brasse his matter is not of gold siluer pretious stones but earth that life and death are in the hands of God and haue their date and destiny by him that we are caryed away as Merchants in a shippe whither we stand or sit watch or sleepe Sensim sine sensu â—â—nescimus olde age stealeth on that hee that pâ—â—â—â—seth himselfe a long life doth as he that looketh through a perspectiue conceaue those things great which are very small that Death is a commanding Tyrant and will haue nodenyall Hence is it called Dust If I haue rewarded euill to him that was at peace with me let the enemy lay mine honour in the dust A brooke Ps 7.5.110.7 Ps 8 l. 3. Iob. 3.13 1. Thes 5.2 2 Tim. â— 8 Ios 2â— â—4 he shall drinke of the brooke in the way The graue my life
Lord shall call vs by his Bayliefe Death he may find vs prepared that we may keepe a Kalender and Ephemerides of our time how it passeth away that as our bodies stoop downwards by yeares and infirmities so our soules soare vpward that we may haue our Loyns girt our Lamps burning While we are in the world we are in a Sea of troubles we saile as Pilgrimes tossed by the tempests of aduersity oppressed by three Pyrates the Flesh World Deuill Yet by the Barke of a liuely Faith this Marriner Death may transport vs from Aegipt to Canaan For howsoeuer death to the Reprobate be the Curse of God Suburbes of Hell Pyrate of life the Diuels Serieant to arrest and carry them without bayle to a Prison of vtter darknesse his Cart to bring them to execution from which there can be no repriuement Yet to the Godly it is not exitus but transitus a departure but a passage Cyp. sc de mortal Fratres mortui non sunt amissi sed praemissi Our dead Friends are not lost they are but sent before Profectio est quam putas mortem that thou thinkest death Au. ep 6. is but a iourney to them Tert. de Patientia to the Land of the liuing The key to vnlocke from misery and send abroade to liberty A Bridge to passe from a vale of teares to a paradise of joyes Like the Brazen Serpent so farre from hurting true Israelites that it healeth them The beginning of joy first fruites of pleasure Prince of delight and a Massenger of glad tydings A passage from labour to rest Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord Reu. 14.13 that they may rest from their laboures From vilenesse to glory Lazarus was carryed by the Angels into Abrahams bosome From feare to security The wicked is driuen away in their wickednesse Luk. 14.22 but the righteous hath ioy in his death Pr. 14.32 From trouble to peace as olde Tobit prayed cōmaund my spirit to be taken from me Tob. 3.6 that I may be dissolued that I may be deliuered out of this distresse and goe into the euerlasting place From an vncertain commorancie to a setled habitariō an eternall house in the Heauens 2. Co. 5.1 From captiuity to liberty therefore St. Paul wished O wretched man that I am Ro. 7.24 who shall deliuer mee from the body of death From vanitie to glory which made the same Apostle so confident To me to liue is Christ and to dye is gaine Ph. 1.21 To the Godly it is a coast for them banished out of this world a landing at the Hauen a laying downe of a heauy burthen of the body the consumption of all diseases the escaping of all perills breaking of all Bonds returne to our owne home Est vitae virtus maxima posse mori Mat. 24.42 THIS we should often thinke vpon because the greatest worke we haue to doe is to dye well And because Christ commaundeth watch for yee know not what houre your Lord will come what I say vnto you I say vnto you all watch Mar. 13.37 Like vnto men that waite for their Lord when he will returne from the wedding Luk. 12.36 that when he commeth and knocketh yee may open to him immediatly It is too late to recall the Bargaine the Bond being sealed to defend the Walles when the Citty is ouercome to sound a retraite when the Battaile is fought to send for a Physitian when the sicke party is dead When time is past it cannot be recalled Therefore saith the wise man whatsoeuer thy hand findeth to doe doe it with thy might for there is no worke nor deuise nor knowledge Ecl. 9.10 nor wisedome in the Graue whether thou goest Guil. paris p 5. de vitijs tr de accidia Gr. Ho. 13. in Eua. Bonau Sanchez in Ecles Hereafter is no time of working but rewarding Hereafter Aristotles arguments will not serue to excuse or defend but rather to accuse If we feare death before it come we shall conquer it There is no deliberating hereafter There shall be no profit of the knowledge of Diuine or Humane things hereafter vnles wee vse it well in this life God hath giuen a Talent to exercise euery man some worke for euery one against his comming into the world Skill and knowledge is long and difficult life is short and sickly we should as oportunity serueth performe our duty towards our God Ars longa vita breuis Hipocr towards our Neighboures towards our selues The time of Working ceaseth in the graue None can be benifited by our workes wisedome skill counsell when we are dead We cannot praise God nor glorifie him in the graue Now is the time of vsing and bestowing those gifts that God hath giuen for his glory in this life And this time saith Iob is swifter then a Poste passeth away as the swift Ship and as the Eagle hasteth to her pray Nothing so swift in the Land Sea Ayre Iob. 9.26 as a shadow so passeth our time or as when an Arrowe is shot at a Mark it parteth the ayre which immediatly commeth together againe Wis 5.9.12.13 so that a man cannot knowe where it went through Euen so we in like manner as soon as we are born begin to draw to our end Our Bodyes too and froe we shall not bee that to morrow which we are to day Nostra quoque ipsorum semperequieque sine vlla Corpora vertuntur Ou. Metam l. 1. nec quod fuimusque sumusque Cras erimus Let vs not till the day of death delay our conuersion when sicknesse summoneth and bindeth vpon the Alter for the sacrificing of the Soule wicked actions words thoughts will appeare armed with Gods anger and with the Curses of of the Law heaped together agrauated to the vttermost giuing the Conscience many a colde pull and lying vpon the heart as heauie as Lead The Conscience will accuse the Memory giue bitter euidence Reason will sit as Iudge Feare shall stand as executioner Let vs now therefore get a good life that it may be an vsher to a good death Let vs drawe good out of euill and prouide for immortallity in the time of mortallity Let vs dye willingly seeing we must dye necessarily we shall liue eternally Let not the worlds pleasures detaine vs but rather draw our affectiōs to those things which are aboue knowing that if there be such delight in any thing of this mortall life Giselbertus in li. Altere c. 3. Hic vel accipienus vel amittimus vitam eternam Cyp. which consists in the presence of the Soule in a corruptible body what immortall pleasure shall there be when the presence of the Godhead shall fill the reasonable Soule Now is the time to get this assurance here we may win or lose it Gal. 6.7 Let vs not be weary in well doing As we sowe so we shall reape Quod sibiquisque serit praesentis tempore