it a small matter to make experiments of their deuised medicines vpon the bodies of their patients wherby the health which they hoped for is either hindered or much decayed Thirdly there be others which minister no physick at any time or vse phlebotomie without the direction of iudiciall Astrologie but if they shall follow this course alwaies they must needs kill many a man Put the case that a man full bodied is taken with a pleurisie the moone being in Lâ—one what must be done The learned in this art say he must presently be let blood but by Astrologie a stay must be made till the moone be remooued from Leo to the house of the sunne but by that time the impostume wil be so much encreased by the gathering togither of the humors that it can neither be dissolued nor ripened and by this meanes the sicke partie wanting helpe in time shall die either by inflammation or by the consumption of the lungs Againe when a man is sicke of the Squinancie or of the feauer called Synaichus the moone then being in malignant aspects with any of the infortunate planets as Astrologers vse to speake if letting of blood be deferred till the moone be freed from the foresaid aspects the partie dies in the meane season Therefore they are farre wide that minister purgations and let blood no otherwise then they are counselled by the constitution of the starres whereas it is a farre better course to consider the matter of the disease with the disposition ripening of it as also the courses and simptomes and crisis thereof This beeing so there is good cause that sicke men should as well be carefull to make choise of meete Phisitians to whom they might commend the care of their health as they are carefull to make choise of Lawyers for their worldly suites and Diuines for cases of conscience Furthermore all men must here be warned to take heede that they vse not such meanes as haue no warrant Of this kinde are all charmes or spels of what words soeuer they consist characters and figures either in paper wood or waxe all amulets and ligatures which serue to hang about the necke or other parts of the bodie except they be grounded vpon some good naturall reason as white peonie hung about the necke is good against the falling sicknes and woolfe dung tied to the bodie is good against the cholicke not by any inchantment but by inward vertue Otherwise they are all vaine and superstitious because neither by creation nor by any ordinaÌ„ce in Gods word haue they any power to cure a bodily disease For words can doe no more but signifie and figures can doe no more but represent And yet neuerthelesse these vnlawfull and absurde meanes are more vsed sought for of common people then good physicke But it stands all men greatly in hand in no wise to seeke forth to inchanters and sorcerers which indeede are but witches and wizzards though they are commonly called cunning or wise men and women It were better for a man to die of his sicknes then to seeke recouery by such wicked persons For if any turne after such as worke with spirits and after soothsayers to goe an whoring after them the Lord will set his face against them and cut them off from among his people When Ahazia was sicke he sent to Baalzebub to the god of Ekron to know whether he should recouer or no as the messengers were going the Prophet Elias met them and saide Goe and returne to the King which sent you and say vnto him Thus saith the Lord Is it not because there is no God in Israel that thou sendest to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron therefore thou shalt not come downe from thy bed on which thog art gone vp but shalt die the death Therefore such kinde of helpe is so farre from curing any paine or sicknes that it rather doubleth them and fasteneth them vpon vs. Thus much of the meanes of health now followes the maner of vsing the meanes concerning which three rules must be followed First of all he that is to take physicke must not onely prepare his body as physitians doe prescribe but he must also prepare his soule by humbling himselfe vnder the hand of god in his sicknesse for his sinnes and make earnest praier to God for the pardon of them before any medicine come in his body Nowe that this order ought to be vsed appeares plainely in this that sicknes springs from our sinnes as from a root which should first of all be stocked vp that the braunches might more easily die And therefore Afa commended for many other things is blamed for this by the holy Ghost that he sought not to the Lord but to the Physitians put his trust in them Oftentimes it comes to passe that diseases curable in themselues are made incurable by the sins and the impeniteÌ„cie of the partie and therefore the best way is for them that would haue ease wheÌ„ god begins to correct them by sicknes then also to begin to humble themselues for all their sinnes and turne vnto God The second rule is that when we haue prepared our selues and are about to vse physicke we must sanctifie it by the word of God and praier as we do our meate and drinke For by the word we must haue our warrant that the medicines prescribed are lawfull and good and by praier wee must intreate the Lord for a blessing vpon them in restoring of health if it be the good will of God The third rule is that wee must carrie in mind the right proper ende of physicke least we deceiue our selues We must not therefore thinke that physicke serues to preuent olde age or death it selfe For that is not possible because God hath set downe that all men shal die and be changed And life consists in a temperature and proportion of natural heat and radical moisture which moisture beeing once consumed by the former heat is by arte vnrepairable and therefore death must needs follow But the true ende of physicke is to continue and lengthen the life of man to his naturall period which is when nature that hath bin long preserued by all possible meanes is now wholly spent Now this period though it can not be lengthened by any skill of man yet may it easily be shortned by intemperance in diet by drunkennes and by violent diseases But care must be had to auoide al such euils that the little lamp of corporall life may burne till it goe out of it selfe For this very space of time is the very day of grace and saluation whereas god in iustice might haue cut vs off and haue vtterly destroyed vs yet in great mercie he giues vs thus much time that we might prepare our selues to his kingdome which time when it is once spent if a man would redeeme it with the price of ten thousand worlds he cannot haue it And to
themselues reckon a fewe yeares and daies that are able by arte to measure the globe of the earth and the spheres of heauen the quantities of the starres with their longitudes latitudes altitudes motions distances from the earth No verily For howesoeuer by a generall speculation we thinke something of our ends yet vnlesse the spirit of God be our schoole-master to teach vs our dutie wee shall neuer bee able soundly to resolue our selues of the presence and speedinesse of death And therfore let vs pray with Dauid and Moses that God would inlighten our minds with knowledge and fil our hearts with his grace that we might rightly consider of death and esteeme of euery day an houre as it were the day and houre of death The second dutie in this generall preparation is that euery man must daily indeauour to take away from his owne death the power and strength thereof And I pray you marke this point The Philistims sawe by experience that Sampson was of great strength therfore they vsed meanes to knowe in what part of his bodie it lay when they found it to be in the haire of his head they ceased not vntil it was cut off In like manner the time wil come whē we must encoūter hand to hand with tyranous and cruel death the best therefore is before-hand now while wee haue time to search where the strēgth of death lies which beeing once knowne we must with speed cut off his Sāpsons lockes and bereaue him of his power disarme him make him altogether vnable to preuaile against vs. Now to find out this matter we neede not to vse the councel of any Dalilah for wee haue the word of God which teacheth vs plaīly where the strength of death consists namly in our sins as Paul saith The sting of death is sinne Well then we knowing certenly that the power and force of euery mans partirular death lies in his owne sinnes must spend our time and studie in vsing good meanes that our sinnes may be remooued and pardoned And therefore we must daily inure our selues in the practise of two duties One is to humble our selues for al our sins past partly cōfessing thē against our selues partly in praier crying to heauē for the pardon of them The other is for time to come to turn vnto God and to carrie a purpose resolution indeauour in all things to reforme both hart life according to gods word These are the very principall proper duties wherby the power of death is much rebated he is made of a mighty bloody enemie so far forth friendly and tractable that we may with comfort incounter with him preuaile too Therefore I commend these duties to your christian considerations carefull practise desiring that ye would spend your daies euer hereafter in doing of them If a man were to deale with a mighty dragon or serpent hand to hand in such wise as he must either kill or be killed the best thing were to bereaue him of his sting or of that part of the body where his poison lies now death it selfe is a serpent dragon or scorpion sinne is the sting and poison whereby he wounds kils vs. Wherefore without any more delay see that ye pull out his sting the practise of the foresaid duties is as it were a fit worthy instrument to do the deed Hast thou beene a person ignorant of Gods will a contemner of his word and worship a blasphemer of his name a breaker of his Sabbaths disobedient to parents and magistrates a murderer a fornicatour a rayler a slanderer a couetous persō c. reforme these thy sinnes and all other like to them pull thē out by the rootes from thy heart cast them off So many sinnes as be in thee so many stings of death be also in thee to wound thy soule to eternal death therfore let no one sin remaine for which thou hast not humbled thy selfe and repented seriously When death hurts any man it takes the weapons whereby he is hurt from his owne hand It cannot do vs the least hurt but by the force of our owne sins Wherefore I say againe and againe lay this point to your hearts spend your strength life and health that ye may before ye die abolish the strength of death A man may put a serpent in his bosome when the sting is out we may let death creepe into our bosomes and gripe vs with his legs and stab vs at the heart so long as he brings not his venime and poison with him And because the former duties are so necessary as none can be more I wil vse some reasons yet furder to inforce thē Whatsoeuer a man would doe when he is dying the same he ought to doe euery day while he is liuing now the most notorious and wicked person that euer was when he is dying will pray and desire others to pray for him promise amendment of life protesting that if he might liue he would become a practitioner in all the good duties of faith repentance reformation of life Oh therfore be careful to do this euery day Again the saying is true he that would liue when he is dead must die while he is aliue namely to his sins Wouldest thou then liue eternally sue to heauen for thy pardon and see that now in thy life-time thou die to thine own sinnes Lastly wicked Balaam would faine die the death of the righteous but alas it was to small purpose for he would by no means liue the life of the righteous For his cōtinual purpose and meaning was to follow his olde waies in sorceries couetousnesse Now the life of a righteous man standes in the humbling of himself for his sinnes past and in a carefull reformatiō of life to come Wouldest thou then die the death of the righteous then looke vnto it that thy life be the life of the righteous if ye will needes liue the life of the vnrighteous yee must looke to die the death of the vnrighteous Remēber this and content not your selues to heare the word but be doers of it for ye learn no more indeed what measure of knowledge soeuer ye haue then ye practice The third dutie in our generall preparation is in this life to enter into the first degree of life eternal For as I haue said there be three degrees of life euerlasting and the first of them is in this present life for hee that would liue in eternall happines for euer must beginne in this world to rise out of the graue of his owne sinnes in which by nature he lies buried and liue in newnesse of life as it is said in the Reuelation He that will escape the second death must be made partaker of the first resurrection And Paul saith to the Colossians that they were in this life deliuered from the power of darkenesse and translated into the kingdom of Christ. And Christ saith to the
him but so much fauour as to see his hinder parts at his request ô then what happines is this to see the glory and maiestie of God face to face and to haue eternall fellowship with God our Father Christ our Redeemer and the holy Ghost our comforter and to liue with the blessed Saints Angels in heauen for euer Thus now the third point is manifest namely in what respects death is more excellent thē life It may be here the mind of mā vnsatisfied wil yet further reply say that howsoeuer in death the soules of men enter into heauen yet their bodies though they haue bin tenderly kept for meat drink apparel and haue slept many a night in beds of doune must lie in dark loathsome graues there be wasted cōsumed with worms Ans. All this is true indeede but all is nothing if so be it we will but cōsider aright of our graues as we ought We must not iudge of our graues as they appeare to the bodily eye but we must looke vpon them by the eye of faith and consider them as they are altered and changed by the death and burial of Christ who hauing vanquished death vpon the crosse pursued him afterward to his owne wen and foyled him there depriued him of his power and by this means Christ in his owne death hath buried our death and by the vertue of his buriall as with sweete incense hath sweetened and perfumed our graues and made thē of stinking loathsome cabbines to become princely pallaces and beddes of most sweete happie rest farre more excellent then beddes of doune And though the body rot in the graue or be eatē of worms or of fishes in the sea or burnt to ashes yet that will not be vnto vs a matter of discomfort if we do well consider the ground of all grace namely our coniunction with Christ. It is indeede a spirituall and yet a most reall coniunction And we must not imagine that our soules alone are ioyned to the body or soule of Christ but the whole person of man both in body and soule is ioyned and vnited to whole Christ. And when we are once ioyned to Christ in this mortall life by the bond of the spirit we shall remaine continue eternally ioyned with him and this vniō once truly made shal neuer be dissolued Hence it followes that although the body bee seuered from the soule in death yet neither body nor soule are seuered from Christ but the very bodie rotting in the graue drowned in the sea burned to ashes abides still vnited to him and is as truely a member of Christ thē as before This point we must remember as the foundation of all our comfort and hold it for euer as a truth For looke what was the condition of Christ in death the same or the like is the conditiō of all his members Now the condition of Christ was this though his bodie and soule were seuered each from other as far as heauen the graue yet neither of them were seuered from the godhead of the sone but both did in death subsist in his persō And therefore though our bodies and soules bee pulled asunder by natural or violent death yet neither of them no not the body it selfe shall be seuered disioyned from Christ. It wil be alleadged that if the body were then vnited to Christ it should liue and bee quickened in the graue Ans. Not so when a mans arme or legge is taken with the dead palsy it receiues litle or no heat life sense or motion from the body and yet notwithstanding it remaines still a member of the bodie because the flesh the bone of it remaine ioyned to the flesh and the bone of the body euen so may the body remaine a member of Christ though for some space of time it receiue neither sense nor motion nor life from the soule or from the spirit of Christ. Furthermore we must remēber that by the vertue of this cōiunction shal the dead body be it rotten burned deuoured or howsoeuer cōsumed at the day of iudgment rise to eternall glory In the winter season trees remaine without fruite or leaues and being beaten with winde weather appeare to the eie as if they were rotten trees yet when the spring-time comes againe they bring forth as before buds and blossomes leaues and fruit the reason is because the bodie graines armes of the tree are al ioyned to the root where lies the sap in the winter season and whence by means of this coniūction it is deriued to al the parts of the tree in the spring-time Euen so the bodies of men haue their winter also in which they are turned to dust so remaine for the space of many thousand yeares yet in the day of iudgement by means of that mistical coniunction with Christ shall diuine and quickening vertue streame thence to al the bodies of the elect to cause thē to liue againe and that to life eternall But some will say that the wicked also rise again Ans. They do so indeede but not by the same cause for they rise by the power of Christ as he is a iudge to cōdemn thē wheras the godly rise againe by the vertue of Christs resurrection whereof they are partakers by meanes of that blessed and indissoluble coniūction which they haue with Christ. And the bodies of the elect though they cōsume neuer so much in the graue yet are they still in Gods fauour and in the couenat of grace to which because they haue right beeing dead they shall not remaine so for euer but shal rise to glory at the last iudgement Therefore the rotting of the bodie is nothing in respect and the death of the body no death And therfore also death in the old new testament is made but a sleep the graue a bed wherof the like was neuer seene wherein a man may rest nothing at al troubled with dreames or fantasies and whence hee shall rise no more subiect to weakenes or sickenes but presently be translated to eternal glory By this thē which hath beene said it appeares that the death of the righteous is a second degree to euerlasting happinesse Now then considering our coniunction with Christ is the foundation of all our ioy cōfort in life and death wee are in the feare of God to learne this one lessō namely that while we haue time in this world we must labour to be vnited vnto Christ that we maybe bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh This very point is as it were a flaggon of wine to reuiue our soules when they be in a swowne at any instant And that we may be assured that we are certainly ioyned to Christ we must shew our selues to be members of his misticall body by the daily fruites of righteousnes and true repentance And being once certainly assured in conscience of our beeing in Christ let death come when it wil
promise because for the most part the persons thus annointed die afterward without recouerie wheras those which were annointed in the primitiue Church alwaies recouered Thirdly the ancient annointing serued onely for the procuring of health but this tēds further to the procuring of remission of sins and strength in tēptation Thus hauing seene the doctrine of the Papists I come now to speake of the true and right manner of making particular preparation before death which containes three sorts of duties one concerning god the other cōcerning a mās own selfe the third concerning our neighbour The first cōcerning God is to seeke to be recōciled vnto him in Christ though we haue bin long assured of his fauour All other duties must come after in the second place they are of no effect without this Now this recōciliatiō must be sought for is obtained by a renuing of our former faith repentance and they must be renued on this māner So soone as a man shal feele any maner of sicknes to seaze vpon his bodie he must consider with himselfe whēnce it ariseth after serious consideration he shall finde that it comes not by chance or fortune but by the prouidence of God This done he must go yet furder cōsider for what cause the Lord should afflict his body with any sicknes or disease And he shal find by gods word that sicknes comes ordinarily and vsually of sinne Wherefore is the liuing man sorrowfull man suffereth for his sinne It is true indeed ther be other causes of the wāts of the body of sicknes beside sinne and though they be not known to vs yet they ar known to the Lord. Hereupon Christ when he saw a certaine blinde man and was demaunded what was the cause of the blindnesse answered neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the workes of God should be shewed on him Yet we for our parts who are to goe not by the secret but by the reuealed will of God must make this vse of our sicknes that it is sent vnto vs for our sinnes When Christ healed the man sicke of the palsy he saith Be of good comfort thy sinnes are forgiuen thee and when he had healed the man by the poole of Bethesda that had bin sicke 38. yers he bids him sin no more least a worse thing happen vnto him giuing them both to vnderstand that their sicknes came by reasō of their sinnes And thus should euery sick man resolue himself Now when we haue proceeded thus farre haue as it were laid our finger vpon the right and proper cause of our sicknesse three things cōcerning our sins must bee performed of vs in sicknes First we must make a new examination of our hearts and liues say as the Israelites said in affliction Let vs search try our waies and turne againe to the Lord. Secondly we must make a new confession to God of our new particular sinnes as God sends new corrections and chastisment When Dauid had the hād of God very heauy vpon him for his sins so as his very bones moisture consumed within him he made confession of them vnto God and therupon obtained his pardon was healed The third thing is to make new praier more earnest then euer before with sighes grones of the spirit that for pardon of the same sins for reconciliation with God in christ In the exercise of these 3. duties standes the renouation of our faith repentance wherby they are increased quickned reuiued And the more sicknes preuailes and takes place in the bodie the more should wee be careful to put thē in vre that spirituall life might increase as temporal life is decaied When king Ezechias lay sicke as he thought vpon his death-bedde he wept as for some other causes so also for his sinnes and withal he praied God to cast them behind his back Dauid made certain Psalmes when he was sick or at the least vpon the occasiō of his sicknes as namely the 6. the 32. the 38. the 39. c. and they are al psalmes of repētāce in which we may see how in distresse of the body and mind he renewed his faith repentāce heartily bewailing his sinnes intreating the Lord for the pardon of them Manasses one that fell from God and gaue himselfe to many horrible sins when he was taken captiue and imprisoned in Babylon Hee prayed to the Lord his God and humbled himselfe greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed vnto him and God was intreated of him and heard his prayer and brought him againe to Ierusalem into his kingdome and then Manasses knew that the Lord was God Now looke what Manasses did in this tribulatiō the same thing must we doe in the time of our bodily sicknesse Here I haue occasion to mention a notorious fault that is very common in this age euen amōg such as haue long liued in the bosome of the Church and that is this Men now adaies are so far from renuing their faith and repentance that when they lie sick and are drawing toward death they must bee catechised in the doctrine of faith and repentance as if they had beene but of late receiued into the Church Whosoeuer wil but as occasion is offered visit the sick shall finde this to be true which I say What a shame is this that whē a man hath spent his life daies in the church for the space of 20. or 30. or 40. yeares hee should at the very ende of all not before begin to enquire what faith what repentance is and how his soule might bee saued This one sin argues the great securitie of this age the great contempt of God and his word Wel let al men hereafter in time to come bee warned to take heede of this exceeding negligence in matters of saluation and to vse all good means before-hand that they may be able in sicknesse and in the time of death to put in practise the spirituall exercises of inuocation and repentance Now if so be it fall out that the sicke partie cannot of himselfe renue his owne faith and repentance he must seeke the help of others When the man that was sicke of the dead palsie could not go to Christ himself he got others to bear him in his bedde when they could not come neere for the multitude they vncouered the roofe of the house and let the bed down before Christ euen so when sicke men cannot alone by thēselues doe the good duties to which they are bound they must borrow helpe from their fellowe members who are partly by their counsell to put to their helping hand partly by their prayers to present them vnto God and to bring them into the presence of Christ. And touching helpe in this case sundry duties are to be performed Saint Iames sets downe foure two whereof concerne the sicke patient and other two
death and directly fixe the eye of his faith vpon eternall life The second practise is to looke vpon death in the glasse of the Gospel and not in the glasse of the Law that is we must consider death not as it is propounded in the Lawe and looke vpon that terrible face which the law giueth vnto it but as it is set forth in the Gospel Death in the law is a curse and the downe-fall to the pit of destruction in the Gospel it is the entrance into heauen the lawsets forth death as death the Gospel sets forth death as no death but as a sleepe onely because it speakes of death as it is altered changed by the death of Christ by the vertue whereof death is properly no death to the seruants of God Whē men shall haue care on this manner to consider of death it will be a notable meanes to strengthen and stablish them against al immoderate feares terrours that vsually rise in sicknesse The meditations which serue for this purpose are innumerable but I wil touch onely those which are the most principall and the grounds of the rest and they are foure in number The first is borrowed from the speciall prouidence of God namely that the death of euery man much more of euery childe of God is not onely foreseene but also foreappointed of God yea the death of euery man deserued and procured by his sins is laid vpon him by God who in that respect may be said to be the cause of euery mans death So saith Anna The Lord killeth and maketh aliue The Church of Hierusalem confessed that nothing came to passe in the death of Christ but that which the foreknowledge and eternal counsel of God had appointed And therfore the death also of euery member of Christ is foreseene and ordained by the speciall decree and prouidence of God I adde further that the very circūstances of death as the time when the place where the manner how the beginning of sickenes the continuance the end euery fitte in the sicknes the pangs of death are particularly set downe in the counsell of God The very haires of our heads are numbred saith our Sauiour Christ and a sparrowe lights not on the groūd without the will of our heauenly father Dauid faith excellētly My bones are not hid from thee though I was made in a secret place and fashioned beneath in the earth thine eyes did see me when I was without forme for in thy booke were al things written which in continuance were fashioned whē there was nine of them before And he praies to God to put his teares into his bottle Now if this be true that God hath bottles for the very teares of his seruants much more hath hee bottles for their blood much more doth he respect and regard their paines and miseries with all the circumstances of sicknesse and death The carefull meditation of this one point is a notable meanes to arme vs against feare and distrust impatience in the time of death as some examples in this case will easily manifest I held my tongue said nothing saith Dauid but what was it that caused this patience in him the cause followes in these words because thou Lord diddest it And Ioseph saith to his brethren Feare not for it was the Lord that sent me before you Marke here how Ioseph is armed against impatience and griefe discontentment by the very consideration of gods prouidence and so in the same māner shall we be cōfirmed against all feares and sorrowes and say with Dauid Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints if this perswasion be once setled in our hearts that all things in sicknes death come to passe vnto vs by the prouidence of god who turnes all things to the good of them that loue him The second meditation is to be borrowed from the excellent promise that God hath made to the death of the righteous which is Blessed are they that die in the Lord for they rest from their labours and their workes follow them The author of truth that cannot lie hath spoken it Now then let a man but throughly consider this that death ioyned with a reformed life hath a promise of blessednes adioined vnto it and it alone will be a sufficient meanes to stay the rage of our affections and al inordinate feare of death and the rather if we marke wherein this blessednesse consists In death we are indeede thrust out of our olde dwelling places namely these houses of clay earthly tabernacles of our bodies wherein we haue made long abode but what is the ende surely that liuing dying in Christ we might haue a building giuen of God that is an house not made with hands but eternall in heauen which is vnspeakeable immortall glory If a poore man should bee commanded by a Prince to put off his torne and beggery garments and in stead thereof to put on royal and costly robes it would bee a great reioycing to his heart oh then what ioyfull newes must this bee vnto all repentant and sorrowfull sinners when the king of heauen and earth comes vnto thē by death and bids them lay downe their bodies as ragged and patched garments and prepare thēselues to put on the princely robe of immortalitie No tongue can be able to expresse the excellency of this most blessed and happy estate The third meditation is borrowed from the estate of all thē that are in Christ whether liuing or dying He that dieth beleeuing in Christ dieth not forth of Christ but in him hauing both his body and soule really coupled to Christ according to the tenour of the couenant of grace and though after death body soule be seuered one from another yet neither of thē are seuered or disioyned from Christ. The coniunction which is once begun in this life remaines eternally And therefore though the soule goe from the body the body it selfe rot in the graue yet both are still in Christ both in the couenant both in the fauour of god as before death both shal again be ioined togither the body by the vertu of the former cōiunctiō being raised to eternall life Indeed if this vniō with Christ were dissolued as the cōiunctiō of body soule is it might be sōe matter of discomfort and feare but the foundation and substance of our mysticall coniunction with Christ both in respect of our bodies and soules enduring for euer must needes be a matter of exceeding ioy and comfort The 4. meditation is that god hath promised his speciall blessed and comfortable presence vnto his seruants when they are sicke or dying or any way distressed When thou passest thorough the waters I will bee with thee saith the Lord and through the flouds that they doe not ouerflowe thee when thou walkest thorough the very fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the
themselues to beleeue bee able in the pang of death to rest vpon the mercie of God Againe he that would die in obedience must first of all leade his life in obedience hee that hath liued in disobedience can not willingly and in obedience appeare before the iudge when hee is cited by death the sergeant of the Lord he dies indeed but that is vpon necessitie because he must yeeld to the order and course of nature as other creatures doe Thirdly hee that would surrender his soule into the hands of God must bee resolued of two things the one is that god can the other is that God will receiue his soule into heauen and there preserue it till the last iudgement And none can be resolued of this except he haue the spirit of God to certifie his conscience that he is redeemed iustified sanctified by Christ and shall bee glorified Hee that is not thus perswaded dare not render vp and present his soule vnto God When Dauid said Lord into thy handes I commend my spirit what was the reason of this boldnesse in him surely nothing else but the perswasion of faith as the next wordes import for thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth And thus it is manifest that no man ordinarily can performe these duties dying that hath not performed them liuing This beeing so I doe againe renew my former exhortation beseeching you that ye would practise the duties of preparation in the course of your liues leading them daily in faith and obedience and from time to time commending your selues into the hand of God and casting all your workes vpon his prouidence They which haue done this haue made most happie and blessed endes Enoch by faith walked with God as one that was alwaies in his presence leading an vpright and godly life and the Lord tooke him away that he should not see death And this which befell Enoch shall after a sort befall them also that liue in faith and obedience because death shal be no death but a sleepe vnto them and no enemie but a friend to bodie and soule On the contrary let vs consider the wretched miserable endes of them that haue spent their daies in their sinnes without keeping faith a good conscience The people of the old world were drowned in the flood the filthy Sodomites and Gomorrheans were destroyed with fire from heauen Dathan and Abiram with the company of Core were swallowed vp of the earth Core himselfe as it seemes by the text being burnt with fire wicked Saul and Achitophel and Iudas destroy themselues Herod is eaten vp of wormes and gaue vp the ghost Iulian the Apostata smitten with a dart in the field died casting vp his blood into the ayre blaspheming the name of Christ. Arius the hereticke died vpon the stoole scouring forth his very entralls And this very age affoards store of like examples Hoffemeister a great Papist as he was going to the councill of Ralisbone to dispute against the defēders of the Gospel was suddenly in his iourney preuented by the hand of God and miserably died with horrible roaring and crying out In the Vniuersitie of Louaine Guarlacus a learned Papist falling sicke when he perceiued no way with him but death he fell into miserable agonie and perturbation of spirit crying out of his sinnes how miserably he had liued and that hee was not able to abide the iudgement of God so casting out words of miserable desperation saide his sins were greater then they could be pardoned and in that desperation ended his daies Iacobus Latromus of the same vniuersitie of Louaine after that he had beene at Bruxels and there thinking to doe a great acte against Luther and his fellowes made an oration before the Emperour so foolishly and ridiculously that he was laughed to scorne almost of the whole court then returning frō thence to Louaine againe in his publike lecture he fell into open madnesse vttering such wordes of desperatiō and blasphemous impietie that other Diuines which were present were faine to carie him away as he was rauing and to shut him into a close chamber From that time to his very last breath he had neuer any thing else in his mouth but that he was damned and reiected of God and that there was no hope of saluation for him because that wittingly and against his knowledge he withstood the manifest truth of Gods word Crescentius the Popes Legat and Vicegerent in the councell of Trent was sitting all the day long vntill darke night in writing of letters to the Pope after his labour when night was come thinking to refresh himselfe he began to rise and at his rising behold there appeared to him a mightie blacke dogge of an huge bignesse his eyes flaming with fire his eares hanging low downe well neare to the grounde which beganne to enter in and straight to come towardes him and so to couch vnder the boord The Cardinall not a little amazed at the sight thereof somewhat recouering himselfe called immediately to his seruants which were in the outward chamber next by to bring in a candle and to seeke for the dogge But when the dogge could not be found there nor in any other chamber about the Cardinall thereupon stricken with a sudden conceit of minde immediately fel into such a sicknesse whereof his Physitians which he had about him could not with all their industrie and cunning cure him and thereupon he died Steuen Gardiner when a certaine Bishop came vnto him and put him in minde of Peter denying his master answered againe that he had denied with Peter but neuer repented with Peter and so to vse M. Foxes words stinkingly and vnrepentantly died More examples might be added but these shall suffice Againe that we may be further induced to the practise of these duties let vs call to minde the vncertentie of our daies though we now liue yet who can say that he shall be aliue the next day or the next houre No man hath a lease of his life Now marke as death leaues a man so shall the last iudgement finde him and therefore if death take him away vnprepared eternall damnation followes without recouerie If a thiefe be brought from prison either to the barre to bee arraigned before the iudge or to the place of execution he will bewaile his misdemeanour past and promise all reformation of life so be it he might be deliuered though he be the most arrant thiefe that euer was In this case we are as fellons or theeues for we are euery day going to the barre of Gods iudgement there is no stay or standing in the way euen as the ship in the sea continues on his course day night whether the marriners be sleeping or waking therefore let vs all prepare our selues and amende our liues betime that in death wee may make a blessed ende Ministers of the Gospel doe daily call for the performance of this dutie but where