Laurentinus Armogaslus Aithalus Abdon Sennas Tiburtius Agrippitus and a thousand others which I could name unto you buried O they were buried as if the Water-courses and the Cataracts of peoples heads had been set open and let loose yea as if they would have made their graves to swimme with tears What then are the Naeniae and Epicedia the sorrowfull Mournings at Funerals unlawful no they were wont to be called Justa true dead-rights The harsh Musick at such meetings should be Lachrymae nothing but Threnodies should then be heard Nihi nihi plange plange as the old Hebrew ditty was Wo and alas ah my Brother all my Sister the strings of that instrument should be heart-strings and the keys should be cries and the quaverings should be quakings and the soundings should be swounings the Firre-tree must not suffer the Cedar to fall without the mone of the Forrest no Fitre-trees dash your tops together raise a Lamentation amongst your selves know the pitiful accident that is befallen Firre-tree the Cedar is fallen Application This serves to reprove them who know not the want nor feel not the loss of illustrious men The cedar is fallen but where is my firre-tree which droops and bends and is ready to bow down to the earth at the sense of such a fall I read that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell they stood still 2 Sam. 2.23 and that when Elias was taken away Elisha cried after him My father my father the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof 2 Kings 2.12 and that David lift up his voice and wept beside the sepulchre of Abner 2 Sam. 3.32 and gave him many an honourable testimony as Dyed Abner as a fool dyeth Know ye not that a Prince and a great man is fallen in Israel But I find no such consternation commemoration or lamentation for the death of many a worthy man amongst us no they let them fall like a scale from the back of a fish like a stone out of a wall like a tooth out of the jaw-bone like an hair from the head like things of no moment or price and so let them go Men are forgotten in the city where they have done good Eccles 8.10 Merciful men are taken away and no man understandeth it Plind 10. c. 43. Es 57.1 I read that the people of Rome for the death of a Crow that was wont to salute Tiberius Germanicus and Drusus for Caesars were so afflicted that they performed exequies for it and that L. Crassus for a Lamprey dying Marcob l. 3. Saturn c. 15. which he was wont to feed with his own hand was so dejected that he mourned for it in black as if his dear daughter had been dead and that Cyparissus vexed himself to death Virg l. because a white Hart which he loved died But I find no such deep grief divers times from many men for the death of persons highly-meriting they have no odours in their lips nor no bassom in their eyes to preserve these mens honours they have scarce a wrinkled face much less a wounded heart yea it were well that instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grievous bewayling at their departure there were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a malicious rejoycing at their departure As the Athenians so soon as they heard that Philip was dead Plut in Demost sacrificed to their gods and gave a crown to Pausanias which murdered him Eutrop l. 8. and Adrian so soon as he heard that Trajan that famous Emperour was departed he triumphed reproched his vertues and pulled down the bridge which he had built over the Danubius and Lewis the Eleventh Aemil l. 10. when tidings was brought him that Charles D. of Burgundy was slain at Nancey he leaped for joy and gave a liberal reward to the messenger which brought the news Such maligners have we amongst us who are infinitely comforted when such glorious Lamps as did outshine them are extinguished and when such lofty Cedars as did over-top them are fallen But is this thy neighbourhood that thou which didst grow so nigh to observe the height of the Cedar is this thy humanity that thou which hast known what fragrancy the Cedar had shouldst be pleased that the Cedar is fallen no rather perplexed thy rind should change colour and thy sap should run down to the root thou shouldst be a Mourner for this is the reason why the Firre-tree is spoken to namely with anguish to consider what is happened to the Cedar Firre-tree the Cedar is fallen 2. But secondly the Firre-tree is to be a Mourner because the state of the Firre-tree is as dangerous as that of the Cedar The Cedar is fallen Quis se exceptum putet à conditione moriendi qui non fuit exceptus à conditione nascendi Ambros Hâ lige intravimus ut exirâ—mus Bern. a Firee-tree doth but grow upon a loose root and hath but a time of standing From hence observe that death is a general lot Cedars and Firre-trees must all down to the ground Who should think himself excepted from the condition of dying which was not excepted from the condition of being born upon this Law we entred into the world that we should go out of it This is the end of all men I go the way of all the earth We must all needs die What man is he that liveth and shall not see death Non miseretur inopiae non reveretur divitias Bern. Vide quis sitservus quis sit dominus discerne si potes victum à rege fortem à debili Aug. The rich and the poor meet together There Kings and Counsellors and the Prisoners rest together and the servant which is free from his Master Death doth not pity the poor nor fear the rich See who shall be the Servant who shall be the Master distinguish if thou canst between the Slave and the King the Pigmee and the Giant Robes and Raggs Palaces and Cottages Golden Chaines and Iron Chaines Bevers and Bonnets Bagges piled up and the beggars pouch are all one to death The rich man is in deaths eye and the poor man cannot hide himself no death hath a nimble eye that doth pierce into all corners Do not think that because thy stature is low thou shalt be over-looked No thou which art poor dost make such a crying in the streets for supply of wants that death cannot but hear thee thou walkest abroad so naked of attendance and followers that death can strike thee at ease thy purse is so empty to procure Physicians to preserve life that death can creep to thy heart without fearing or feeling an antidote Death doth go a generall circuit there is no such Epidemical disease as death it doth level all to the ground Cedars and Firre-trees must fall Firre-tree the Cedar is fallen Application This doth serve to fray all the wood Ye thought here would have been onely a Cedar-Sermon but I have Firre-tree-Doctrine also I know it
greatest glory is subject to the stroke of death the Cedar is fallen The magnificence of this world is but an apparition the sweetest Musick but a semibrief Are not my dayes few what should we talk of the pomp and Minstrilsy which the flesh doth afford for thy pomp shall be brought down to the grave and the noyse of thy Viols Death will strip us out of our pompous robes and case up our Viols though thy windows be close shut and thou hast mured up thy self in hewen stone yet Death will come up into the windows and enter into the palaces Jer. 9.21 Let thy veins eyes and heart-strings be never so quick and lively yet thy eyes will be turned into thy head thy veins will be broken and thy heart rent asunder with sorrow Oculi vertentur in capite venae rumpentur cor scindetur dolore Bern. Sit voluâ—tâ—rium quod est necessarium Chys Prima quae vitam dedit hora carpsit Seneca Thou hadst as good yield up thy self cheerfully to death for maugre all thy resistance death will force thee into her back-room her blind room dark room rotten room carcase-hole therefore let that be voluntary which is necessary Thou tookest thy poyson in the womb and it will never leave working till it hath brought thee to the grave the first hour which gave that life took it away for if thou beest in thy young age thou art beginning to dye if thou art in thy middle age thou art half dead if thou beest in thy old age thou art at the point of death and wilt ere long be quite dead These Chimes will soon leave going this Lottery will be soon drawn forth this Comedy will soon be acted out to the last Scene sleep will enter into our eyes the Voyder will be brought upon the table these shop-doors will be shut these buzzing flies will betake themselves to their Winter-rooms these swelling torrents will be dryed up the fair fruit will drop the loftiest Cedar will fall The Cedar is fallen Application 1. First this doth shew that Nature hath her casualty Non est crede mihi sapientis dicere vivam It is not believe me the part of a wise man to say I will live Fools may thus chatter but wise men will use no such Solecisms yet how many of these Lunaticks have we that talk of nothing but of long life let things happen here tanquam in choro as it were in a fit of Musick yet they think the tune will never alter nor the dance be done Naz. We have many a Deaths-head worn upon our fingers but when shall we find this Deaths-head in our ears eyes tongues or hearts We see many a dead corps but we do not think that this flesh of ours shall ever be carcase-strong we behold many a Grave-spade yet we are confident that it will be a long time ere that shall dig for us But O be not Fanaticks beware of illusions Moriendo obliviscatur sui qui vivens oblitus est Dei Caesarius admonit 6. Quid perdidit homo quid invenit Anselâ—r in med thou which wilt not mind death perhaps at last shalt not mind thy soul If thou must part with life it were good beforehand to think of the separation lest thou dost meet with a general damage and a general curse together such a careless wretch doth know to purpose both what he hath lost and what he hath found Simple men ye that cannot hide your selves from death why do ye not endeavour to kill death by many a dying thought before it doth come to kill you O that this whole Congregation should not be full of dying men O that this whole Congregation hath scarce three dying men in it How many of you do that now living that ye would do at last dying how many of you do kill those corruptions now which being here unmortified will kill you in another world what can ye feel nothing till the Pursivant hath arrested you what do ye put off all your souls work to a deaths pillow it is to be thought so for weak men have not misery enough about them to apprehend this learned men have not wit enough to apply this what is the reason can any of you escape death have any of you a writ of privilege to be freed from death no death hath you in her black roll and every one of you shall be called forth in order O therefore have an expectation of death and a preparation for death or else I shall say that there is a great deal of Knowledge but little Vertue a great deal of Profession but little Conscience Tell not me of your skill in the Metaphysicks get skill in the Physicks this same state of Nature be well versed in generation and corruption I shall conclude that ye are some Conjurers and addicted to familiar Spirits and much given to Necromancy if your knowledge of death do not teach you to dye but onely to tell tales or death and to prophesie of accidents in this world they that study the Black Art do thus and I doubt ye do little better Would to God I could draw you with the Magicians to burn your books of curious Arts and to turn this book of the Expiring art the large Treatise of Corruption as small a book as ye do account it I tell you it is more voluminous than the Pandects or than all the Codes To study this book well it will exercise the best wit to the height ye will find more Aenigma's and Postula's in it than in the Mathematicks yea more difficulties in it than in learning all the Eastern Languages A crafty politician for all his Mercurial brain will be Lard put to it to unfold this State-riddle a Doctor of the chair may be posed in this intricate book I tell you it hath so many branches in it and is so copious in Canons and Axioms and Aphorisms that it may be called the book in Folio or the Library of the world or a general History Annal Ephemerides It doth discourse of all things from the Artique to the Antartique Pole from the Creation to the later day of Judgment it doth contain the state of all Mankind Ye must not go to any Stationer for it for it is sold onely in Tomb-street at the sign of the Deaths-head and thou canst not buy it for any money but onely laying down a mortified heart for it Amongst all thy pamphlets or most classical Authors it were good for thee to get this book and to peruse it seriously and to begin to be skilled in it betimes for I tell thee it is a necessary book an hard book and a large book thou canst not read it over in an hour in a year no the Saints are learning it from the first hour of their conversion to the last gasp If thou wilt not get this book of thy self Death at last will thrust it into thy hand it will force thee to read it If
thou wilt not have it in thy Closet it will be laid open before thee upon thy death-bed and wilt thou neglect the getting of it or the getting exact insight into it till it shall be presented to thee at that last hour when thou shalt have a dark eye and a blind heart canst thou with a dead hove upon thine eye-lids be a quick reader O there are many sentences at such a time will trouble thee especially these O Lord I have waited for thy salvation All the dayes of mine appointed time will I wait till my change come Teach us O Lord to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome By our rejoycing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord I dye dayly Let your loyns be girt up and your lamps burning and be ye like men that wait for their master when he will return from the wedding that when he comes and knocks ye may open to him immediately Walk whilst ye have light for the night cometh when no man can walk Afterwards came the other Virgins also saying Lord Lord open unto us but he answered and said Verily I say unto you I know you not Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor hour when the Son of man will come Afterwards he would have inherited the blessing but he was rejected for he found no place for repentance though he sought the blessing with teares These and a thousand other heart-breaking sayings thou wilt meet with at that time which will be as ill as Hieroglyphicks to thee to understand if thou hast but read a word or two of them in thy life-time it will be confounding to thee to read a whole book of such a perplexing character and such enigmatical precepts at the hour of death O if all families would buy this book and set Conscience to mark the Contents of it what a reformation should we instantly see amongst Lords and Ladies Puffes and Browers giddy heads and crafty souls sherking Merchants and griping Officers young Damne-me blades and old Usurers corrupt Judges and temporizing Clergymen black Libertines and white Hypocrites for ought not all to learn the art of dying yes it had need be their art for it will be their fate whosoever doth stand he must fall The Cedar is fallen 2. Secondly this should serve to take men off from their high dependence that because they are Cedars therefore they shall not fall O how many because they dwell in houses of Ivory cannot find the way to the house of câ—â—y they have so many locks against theeves thaâ— they think death cannot get an entrance to them they have frighted so many inferiours that they think to daunt the King of terrours They full little think that a coffin at last must be their bed-chamber and worms their chamberlains that they shall be so eaten up that no fragments shall be left of them but bones and skulls shew them the dunghill they think that they shall never be swept out to remain in the heap shew them the Sapypot they think they shall never be dissolved into meer gelly hold this glass of mortality to their faces they are confident that this shall never be their grisly complexion they have enjoyed so much liberty that they have no bands in death they have so many conveyances lying by them that they think they have gotten a covenant with death and that they are at an agreement with hell they take make much pleasure in their flatterers and do infinitely depend upon their physicians But O let them put off their false spectacles and stop their ears against Siren-songs and think that Patents and Patrimonies Chimney-pieces and Head-pieces Shields and Spears cannot defend them against the Pursivant of the grave Thunderbolts strike upon the highest mountains There is no difference in death between the bodyes of the rich and the poor God will take away the honourable and the counsellors Feriuatque summâ—s fulmâ—na montes Horat. Nulla dâ—serâ—tio inter cadav ra dâ—vitum pauperum Amb. in hexam 3 Es 3. The Nobles of Judah are slain Job 39.6 The pillars of strength sall to the ground Eze. 36.17 They of high stature shall be cut off Es 10.33 He slew the wealthiest of them Psal 78.31 He will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them with judgment Eze. 34 16. The Nobles shall be called to the Kingdom and there shall be none Es 34.12 Here is a leaf-fall or Nobles or a Charnel-house for Peers noble bloud will congeal in the veins honourable breasts are but the fairer mark for deaths fatal dart God for his own use will beat the sweetest spices in his Mortar put the best herbs into his streyner feed his guests in the dark Ordinary with noble flesh have an handful of noble dust to shew that he is Lord of the Creation What tree shall stand when his axe is lift up no He will consume the glory of the forrest Es 10.18 The Cedars shall fall The Cedar is fallen 3. Thirdly this doth shew that the greatest are but temporary possessors of what they do enjoy for death is an absolute fall the Cedar doth not bow or bend shake or totter onely but the Cedar is fallen and when the Cedar is fallen what doth remain of it but a dead trunk thou enjoyest much whilst thou art living but when thou art in thy grave what of thy revenue doth remain unto thee no thou art fallen and all thy greatness fallen with thee Where are they which were ambitious of the chariot of Authority a Ubi sant qâ—i mb ebant currum potestatis ubi vestes oraamenta peregrina ubi turba servorum Aug. de mt grat Verae devitiae sunt quas porrat conscientia Chrys Where are their gorgeous vestures and outlandish dresses where are their troops of servants is there any thing left to themselves but dust and ashes Where then is the perpetuity of wealth or welfare no a man may say that those are onely a mans true riches which a good conscience do carry away As for these worldly riches we know the date of their continuance all must at last leave their free Deeds behind them give up their Keyes seal away their Estates to new heirs What pleasure hath a man in his house when the number of his moneths are cut off Job 21.21 When his goods are increased he shall take nothing away with him neither shall his pomp descend after him Psal 49.16 17. His substance shall not continue neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon earth Job 15.29 They have slept their sleep and all the men of might have found nothing Psal 76.5 If this night thy sont should be taken from thee whose shall those things be whose name the man thou canst not name thy self no whosoever shall be left rich if thou hast not a secret stock thou shalt dye a very beggar Ye talk much of your riches and your vast means but so soon