unregarded weather-beaten tattered Noble in nothing but in the Moss of time and the Moulds of Bullets discharged against but repelled by them Though I say this may be the mis-fortune of deserving men Sir H. Wottons letter to the Duke of Buckingham who yet are like those â—ell-fishes which sometimes they say oversleeping themselvs in an ebbing water feel nothing about them but a dry shore when they awake Yet in Heaven whither O Nobles and Gentlemen I hope by the mercy of God many of you will come there will be as no preterition of you nor no separation from your glory so will your glory keep your vertues in constant actuation Omnes virtutes erunt ibi in effectu potenitalitate tarditate ac difficultate operandi omnino sublatis erunt itaque in continuâ— actualitatis suae Gulielâ—us Parisiensis c. 1 de trib Sanctorum And when you have considered this compensation promised and certain your mortal varieties of state ought not so much to fear you to encounter with as your immortal stability and unalterableness encourage you to overcome them And is not God a good Master and the thoughts of him a notable cordial to provoke you to despise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De corpore Christi Stus Athanasius Orat. de Salutari adventâ— Salvatoris advers Apollinar p. 648. Tom. 1. and carry you thorow whatever this life which Athanasius calls a sequestration from glory can inamour you with by its power or discourage you in by its policy which is nothing at all to a good man whose treasure is magazin'd where nothing malicious or injurious can come yea in spight of which God will speak peace by the voyce of conscience whose meâ—â—age is as solacing as that to Leo the ninth was Ego cogito pacis cogitationâ—s non afflictionis Platina in Leone 9. I think the thoughts of peace and not of affliction For God makes this World to Holy men what the Father calls affliction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basil. Selenciae Orat 6. p. 37. The Schole of Vertue the Safe of Nature in which are deposited the Laws Rights of it the admired shadows the victorious Tree of the Cross. SECT XLIV Shews That by thinking of God and the account Nobles and Gentlemen are to make to him better preparation is made for Death THirdly Quantumlibt enim vivat diutius somnium sibi esse videtur quod vixit cum moritur non ergo longaevitatem homo hic habet ubi quandoques moriâ—urus est Anselmus lib. de similitud c. 58 by this ye Nobles and Gentlemen shall the better prepare for the suddenness and inevitability of death which being the wages of sin and the doom of God upon culpable nature is to be expected till and welcommed when it comes for alas what is life which death is the intruder upon and the determiner of but a wind that soon passes a vapour presently dissipated a tale ending while telling a Flower in a moment faded a Flash of Lightning as instantly departed as darted a bubble that with the least touch is prick'd and flatted and when life so tender and mercenary to every trifle is trod upon by death and trampled upon by its insultings then all the Pageantries of mens visible greatnesses gives way to their recess into silence and forgetfulness the meditation of this Epictetus commends to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euchyrid c. 23. as that which renders life not much to be desired or death much to be feared for in that life is rather lent and deposited by God with us then given to us as Retrarchs notion of it is wisdom calls upon men to reckon themselves ever accountable Homo quippe vitae commodatus est non donatus sapiens in hac vitaa sic dies studeâ— agere transitorias ut in futura dieâ— aeternitatis inveniat Petrarch lib. 1. de vera sapientia and to be willing to return it every moment which is confirmed by holy Moses whose desire for Israels useful and practical good was That they were wise to consider their latter end and I suppose upon this ground is that of the Wiseman Better go into the house of mourning then into the house of laughter because the mourning house is disciplinary of mortality and referential to that fatal period which sin and sorrow the two unhappy Twins of life have set to them Indeed sin is so natural to life and so true â—n alliance of sorrow that it is not ordiâ—arily possible to separate their conjunctiâ—n or to disanul their cognation Hence â—t is that because we are all in the shadow of death life being but glittering death Iob 10. 11. Iob 30. 23. and death as it were but ecclipsed life all â—hat man who is born can look for here 〈◊〉 to die that is to ravle off the bottom of his daies and to become what he was when he was not man that is dust and to â—he expectation of this nature and expeâ—ience do every day manifoldly summon â—nd lesson him For in that we see all â—ges all conditions all sexes render themselves prisoners to death how Noble is it to die daily and to cherish life but as a present good not worth delighting in or progging for further then as the season to sow what in eternity we would â—eap Death being thus stated and certain God has mercifully seconded Nature with his premonitions to man how to encounter and overcome the force and fear of it and that by not only meditating upon Gods decree For all men once to dye but also by pawsing upon those written parts of Gods pleasure introducing to the maine conclusion Thus we are told of Sorrows of death compassing us Psal. 18. 4. and of being in the valley of death Psal. 23. 4. of being harassed with the terrours of death Psal. 55. 4. Of being brought neer the gates of death Psal. 107. 18. before we sleep the sleep of death and are not these notable Monitors to vigilance and excitations to watch against deaths approach to us as a thief in the night of our security in the Moment of our unpreparation in the midst of our dreams of dainties dalliance and sensuall sinfulness and ought not the possibility of this dismal approximation of death in this moment before the next put us upon prayer to God to fit us for himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrianus Epictâ—t lib. 2. c. 5. p. 179. by giving us new hearts and forgiving us our old sins that we may be living for him dye in him and after death reign for ever with him Ought not the discovery of the truth that man who is born must dye Perswade us to live and doe and think and dye as those who have Magnaminity and are inspired with thoughts above fearing death or charging God with indurable love or determining goodness For in that he suffers revolutious to be he does not impair his power or kindness but improves
them as by them he makes way for the worlds Circumâ—erence and the succession of the Elementary Vigour in its Specifique appearance and respective usefulnesse Hearken to this O ye who pish at the day of death and live as if ye were born ever to live and never to dye and be judged and Condemned for an evill life and an impenitent death Consider this â—ee Nobles and Gentlemen The mortality of whose ancestors has made way for your being and bravery and since ye being born of corruptible seed must be corruptible in your bodies do not live as if you never meant to dye or come for an evil life to judgement Can you hold out the seige of deaths terrours and repell the force of his assaults can you peep into the Counsells of the Almighty and seize his judgments for your prisoners are your eyes all light your feet all wing your fingers all force your weapons all steele your armour all proof can you make time stand at your big words or diseases keep off for your grim looks Have ye the art to fix the fluency of life wrapping up its motion in a punct of consistence beyond which it shall not stirr are yee Masters of those millions of accidents that your sins have 〈◊〉 against made mischievous to and masterfull over ye Can ye corrupt the last Judge Can ye dwell with everlasting burnings Can ye turn your sins red as scarlet to become white as Wool Are ye stronger then he that made the world and all in it Or wiser then he that rules the world and all the concerns of it Or durabler then he that is from everlasting to everlasting If thus ye be furnished then reproach his Champion Marshall your Forces produce your Artillery beat up the Drums and sound the Trumpets of your defiance and reverse the sentence of death by Force and enact your priviledge from the fate and certainty of death But if ye have less force to encounter lesse prudence to regulate lesse certainty to overbear and vanquish death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd lib. 2. p. 158. then death has to subdue you and your Fancyed greatnesse Then kisse the Son of God while you are in the day and on the way of life to death and so compose your selves in life against your change That your death may not become your torment nor your dissolution your despair O Consider God holds the glass of time in his hand and as he has appointed to â—very thing its season so is it to act and not otherwayes and though in the course of nature Youth has a larger Circuit and greatnesse a probabler trench â—bout it then age or meanness has which â— as it were naked exposed to every hazâ—rd yet so can God errand accidents â—nd so leaven the advantages that most â—rprise and detain you That they shall â— miserable Comforters to you What deâ—ght do Titles and Honours give to â—e torture of the cout Or what ease â—o Treasures or Mannors present to the â—exation and anguish of the stone What â—eliefe does the fame of strong beautiful â—eloved Minister to the torment of a â—roken limb or what comforts come to a â—angreen'd body from Fomentations of â—â—sts and Baths of pleasure Doe the â—â—lls of Couscience own suppling from â—ires of Musick or the Hells of despair â—â—ap cooling from merry company doth â—ot God often reach Pharoah's power â—nd pride with Armies of Insects and â—ortify the First born of Countryes to â—proach the folly of Mortall insolence â—ould Herods Oratory that spake him a â—od free him from dying like a man or â—â—ther like a beast Or Selymus the Firsts â—mbition who vowed conquest of Europe â— of Asia Turkish History p. 561. not meet with a Canker that â—ulled him back to buriall He that can â—ise up death and envigour faintnesse â— Cebelits to be his Executioner upon the p. 209. victorious Amurath and can disselse the subtilty of Duns Scotus by an Apoplexy which shall conclude his Learning with his life he that is the Lord of life and death and does whatsoever he pleases in order to life and death he only is the Fountaine of content and the hope and happinesse of the Soul and to him and to his joyes we are carryed by death and hereupon because death is beneficiall to good men it is desired entertained resigned to Mors timenda non est quia vita adimitur sed quoniam acerba mors nihil aliud est quam vitae sceleratae Carnisex dictâ—m Bruxilli morientis ad Senatuâ—â— Guevara Horolog Princip lib. 1. c. 6. by them with all chearfulnesse The very Heathen said Death was not tâ— be feared because it determined life buâ— because a bitter death was nothing else buâ— the Executioner of a wicked life And Christians inasmuch as Christ has by tasting death sweetned it to and victor'd iâ— for them ought to meet it at Gods time and upon his account with joy and spiriâ—tual Triumph as it is Vehiculary of theâ— to Christ as it is the conclusion of theiâ— sorrowes and the buriall of their sins as it is the expedient that only can unit their hopes and feares their faith witâ— their fruition whereupon St. Bernarâ— writing to his friend uses this Meditatioâ— I would have thee if not escape yet not at aâ— to fear death sor a holy man though he caâ—not sometimes avoid death yet ever ought â— â— beware fear of it Volo te mortem etsi non effugere certe vel non timere justus quippe mortem si non cavet tamen non pavet bona mors si peccato moriarts justitiae vivas Bona mors justi propter requiem melior propter novitatem optima propter securitatem mala mors peccatorâ—m in mundi amissione pejor in carnis separatione pessima in vermis ignis duplicis contritione Stus Bernardus Ep. 104. ad Gualteruns de Calvo monâ—e for if it be a good death â—hich a good man dyes to sin and lives to â—ighteousnesse it is an ill fear that makes a â—an avoid so Good an expression of Gods â—race and mercy the death of a holy man is Good for therest he hath from his labours â—etter for the change he hath of his life his â—bour his Company his reward best for 〈◊〉 security he hath against lapse or â—â—verter of evill to him whereas the â—eath of the wicked man is bad in the â—ss of the world his Paradise worse in the â—peration of his Flesh worst in the worm of â—â—nscience and fire of Hell which after it he â—ust everlastingly be punished in Thus St. â—ernard And is death thus advantageous to â—ood men then is the thought of death the â—ost necessary and healthfull theme the â—ul at its senses can take Comfort from â—ust death come because it is appointed â—y God the wages of sin Must the seâ—ond death follow where in the sting and â—orrour of it the first is not passed Must â—e day of death be
hidden from all men â—at they may alwayes be solicitous about â— preparing for it expecting of it joyâ—ll at it does it come as a thief in the â—ght in the cloud and umbrage of a â—ontemned accident with a potent and not to be refused errand in the moment of thy Jollity in the heigth of thy youth in the glory of thy preferment when all eyes are upon thee all tongues applaud thee and all knees bow to thee and perhaps all backs bear burthens for thee in defiance of thy power in Confront of thy Learning in ruine of thy designs without pitty of thy relations without fear of thy fury without diversion of thy policy Will not thy bags buy off its execution nor thine eloquence soften its stroak nor thy bravery transport it to kindnesse nor thy charms bind its hands but with its rapacious claw it must seise and by its mall burst asunder the fabrique of soul and body Must these things be without baile or Mainprize or saving of the Contenement Then O then what manner of men ought yee O Nobles and Gentlemen to be in all Holy Conversations How ought ye to be tuned Heaven-ward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz in Encomio Athanasii p 22 and as it is said of Athanasius to have your lives words and works unisonous full of harmony and concent not jarring and combatting one with another How ought your vessels to be pure your lights to shine your Lamps to be trim'd your loynes to be Girded How ought ye to anticipate deaths terrour by dying dayly in terrour to your lusts How ought ye to take Heaven by force as it were while you live for whom if penitent the possession is purchased when you dye what is the graves visage to one that is dead unto sin and alive unto God Quid caput strophiolo aut Dracontario damnas diademati destinatum nam Reges deo patri suo fecit Iesus Christus Quid tibi cum flore morituro habes Florem ex virga Iesse super quem tota divini spiritus gratia requievit Tertulliâ—nus lib. de Corona Militis cap. 15. What is the dissolution of Soul and body to him at any time whose resolution is to make Christ his at all times and to live no longer nor other then to please God alwaies and to be pleased with Gods pleasure concerning him How can the expiration of a Mortall life be troublesome to him who lives as one born to exercised in assured of a most glorious and durable life consequent to it And this no man being possible to attain but by Meditating and living in a dayly exercise of Christian severity and fiducial Mortification How important is it to presse upon the Memories and Consciences of Great-men not to be infected with Pride not to be buryed in secular affairs Parvi defectique animâ— est de subditis non profectum quaerere subditoruâ— sed quaestum proprium Stus Bernard de consider lib. 3. not to be glewed to and glutted with varietyes of pleasures Happy that Prince that can say I received my Life and Crown from God and as I managed them for him so I am willing to resign them to him happy that Peer and Gentleman who can appear before God in the Coat armour of humility and dare to appeal to God for his Justification That he has walked before him with an upright heart and desired to do the thing that was right in his sight Isai. 38. 3 Happy that Prelate who has deserved Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In vita Athanasii Fortes fuere in bello non molles in sericis c. Si â—tlius es Apostolorum prophetarum tu fac similiter vendicae tibi nobilâ— genus similibus moribus quod non aliunde nobilâ— quam morum ingenuitate fidei Fortitudine fuit Stus Bernard lib. 2. consider his character to be a living and immovable Pillar of Virtue whose life has bin a continual sermon of Moderation self denyal charity diligence who has followed the Apostles Martyrs and Confessors in their prayers and private agonies in their care and tendernesse to teach and keep together the flock of God commited to them and whose Consciences on their death beds can solace them that they have preach'd and lived and ruled not for their own fame and pomp but for their Masters honour and their fellow labourers encouragement and their flocks edification to life eternall this will be the sweetest and takingst cordial to the departing soul to consider that their labour in the Vineyard shall have the penny of eternity and their denying themselves for Christ shall be recompenced with Christs imparting his glory to them and their taking up Christs Crosse in self contempt self abasement shall return them a partaking in Christs crown and glory with him Happy he and he only that can so live and so dye that living and dying he may be Gods Which the Meditation of death is a great furtherance to because it both keeps from folly of action and keeps in eye eternity of joy or misery for in that lifes determination gives entry to death and that to particular Judgement it is a high part of Christian Prudence to ruminate on death in the summer and brightest day of life and by a quotidian view of it to lessen the terrour and usher in the treatment of it by such diseases and other loosenings of life from its basis as God uses to make the access of death understood by us and this whoever does will not only possesse his Soul in patience and prevent the exorbitances of his passions whose evolations are not easily leured home or whose tumours are not presently asswaged but also settle in the mind ready to leave the world the sedatenesse of a prelibating Saint whose earnest of heaven appears in a sensible senselessenesse of what is tumorous troublesome avulsive and incongruous with his departing sublimity God that has called his heart to heaven in the Divinity of its Love having left the faculties of the soul yet resident in the body to expressions of themselves suitable to their origen Office and other circumstances by which they subsist and serve the conjunction of soul and body Peregrinus nimirum potest facile occasione viatici plus quam oporteat detineri quaerendo praegravari portando mortuns si desit ipsa sepultura non sentit sic vituperantes ut laudantes sic adulantes audit ut detrahentes imo vero nec audit quod mortuus est Stuâ— Bern Serm. 7. in Quadrages by reason of which they being dead to sin and alive to God in their option of dissolution as well as in their ligament of faith and in their assurance of acceptance rather are detained by then living in or to the world For the world being nothing to them but their prison Death which brings their Habeas Corpus must needs be their joy and Gods Writ of Ease their gratulation for Men
visible return of good to them For even worldly perpetuation as sanctified and consistent with Gods eternal intendments without which they are not worth having but curses and to be deprecated are sure to be the just and merciful mans portion So Prov. 12. 7. Ier. 22. 28. Gen. 35. 12. Deut. 4. 37. chap. 11. v. 9. ch 34. v. 24. 2 Sam. 7. v. 12. c. 22. v. 51. 2 Kings 5. v. 17. 2 Chron. 20. v. 7. Psalm 18. v. 50. Psalm 25. 13. Esay 54. 3. c. 66. v. 22. in many other places assertive that the Tabernacle of righteous men shall be in peace that their seed shall be great and their off-spring as the grass of the earth Job 5. v. 24 25. It is not then how much Wealth how great Honours how potent Friends how politique Counsels how hopeful Successors men leave in their Families and are carefully improved after them though these be excellent outward comforts and preliminaries to establishment but how Just and Honest mens acquisitions of them were and how little they were Cruel False and Oppressive to others in them that leaves the blessing of God with them and adds no sorrow to the enjoyers of them one Achans wedge in a Fortune is able to curse both it and them that have it that is only durable riches and honour which is Gods in the aym of the seeker and tends to God in the expression of the finder and enjoyer which because sacrilegious men who rob God of his right and prey upon his patrimony have not well considered they have by this injury to and oppression of God intailed his curse blast upon their Families So God cursed the Sacriledge of Israel Mal. 3. 6. Ye are cursed with a curse Why Ye have robbed me even this whole Nation â—pist Bonisac ad Aethelbaldum Regem Spelman in Conciliis p. 235. and that in Tythes and Offerings V. 5. And so he cursed Ceâ—lred and Osred two of the Saxon Kings and sent miserable death upon them The fret and consumption of which is irreparable by diligence or thrift because till expiation be made the sin is prosecuted in the punishment Temps H. 8. which if I mistake not Chief Justice Fitz Herbert considering on his death-bed called his children together charging them that they should neither buy nor take into their hands any of the Church-land which the King said he is now alienating for if you doe my curse shall be upon you and so will Gods too and it will eate out all the Patrimony I leave you And Sir Henry Spelman was resolute in the observation that nothing had eaten out Noble and Generous Families since H. 8. time more then Church-lands For if Injustice between man and man is a sin of provocation to and punishment from God how much more the injury that man does to God and the prey such covetise and violence makes upon his rights whose mans life breath being is and to whose mercy and power they are everlasting debtors SECT XV. Insinuates Prodigality and Incirumspection a ready way to ruine THirdly Prodigality and ill conduct of life is a great worm to the flourishing Gourd of an Estate I rank them together because much of prodigality arises from ignorance of life and the advantages or disadvantages of it in all the expectations and rencounters of it for to spend vastly and with no eye to the possibility and duration of the supply is as if an insecation should be made of every veyn in the body at once Addiximus auimum voluptati cum indulgere initium omnium malorum est Senec. Ep. 110. and is to the fortune by its plurality of vent a suitable disperiting for Estates are made up of savings as much as gettings and so are they kept together when got parsimony being the penning up of the floats of gain which raises the depth of the estate procuring therefrom not only supplies to necessity but inundations of purchase Nor did or will ever any man grow in his Estate according to the estimation of common wisdom who from what he gets or has given him saves not the matter of his increase therefore to know what frugality is has done or yet can do and to approve and well-mannage it is a great mastership in vitall prudence which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince of all vertues because it so governeth the reines of life that it keeps every deportment and expression of man in its proper activity of regiment and subordination according to the law of respective prudence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Solen apud Stobâ—eum Serm. 25. and the quality of mans station To God To men To a mans self and thence becomes as absolute in the vertues of practice as the eyes are in the account of senses where the precedency is given taem Nor dos any man here well as wise and worthy that vainly and loosly expends his time parts fortune â—ealth in courses of deboshery and disâ—epute which Plato consented to when â—he saw a rude unthrift catching at the â—naps and offalls of a good hous-keepers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato apud Stobaeum Serm. 75. Table O said he if you had oftner dined â—paringly you might have supped now more â—leasingly and plentifully Although then men are fondlily imposed upon when they â—ancy that luxury is liberality and that good husbandry is beneath a great mind which Tacitus condemns Falluntur quibus luxuria sub specie liberalitatis imponit Tacit. 1. Hist. as a fashionable gullery and a fraud of circumvention â—n great favour with ayery youth which â—elights in becoming thereby seduced yet is prodigality the truer argument of a low and mean soul which looks at no end above that of a beast nor uses any more reason in provision for the end of his actions then beasts do for God having given man reason to weigh and consider actions and events according to his apprehension of them to regulate himself to or from them as they are dependent on Providence in the good or evil of them not to use our reason in things of such consequence nor to be secured by its efficacy well expressed by us in the prudent use of time friends fortune pleasures is to cast away the reverence of God so enabling us and to reproach the dignity of the enablement rightly managed and to lose the result of those vertues which by a rectitude of application to emergent providence might have been advantageous to us for that is true liberality which is steered by the rules of reason directive to and associate with it whereby all those assistances to obligement Ambitio jactantia effusio quidvis potius quam liberalitas existimands est Cui ratio non constat Plin. Panegyr being orderly introduced and improved according to the proportion of their use and created designment without any diminution or diversion become praiseworthy for some men to do and comfortable for other men to partake of For as
flourishes of their Oratory which did hallucinate and becalm men into a credulity of transport and veneration Though God I say did at the first Exoriency of the Gospel thus credit his Implantation of Faith and Holiness which was to subvert all antique settlements and to disgorge all wonted imbibings yet the usual and declared way of God to produce brave persons is from Neat and Noble education of their Childhoods Nor is it often seen that men do prove conspicuous and praise-worthy where their Youths have been lax and loose And therefore Plato prescribes breeding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 4. de Repub of Learning and Manliness in Youth to be the only way to make them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grave and well-poysed souls in age For so penetrative is the tincture of youth that it leavens all the subsequent life with its impression if bad and gives it a pleasancy if good which was not only the opinion of the Garamant Sage to Alexanden who told him his active Manhood was a spire from that root of Ambition which his youth had nourished and his age discovered Viro enim turbis ac contentionibus enutrito ipsa pro quiete inquietudo est Guevara lib. 1. c. 35. Ut liberos daret ingeniosos acutos Crebrum infantiae ploratum adversae mero fortunae esse praesagium Guevara l. 1. c. 11. but even is the experience of all mankind who therefrom take the hints of anticipating evill by prudent means inductive of good And as they presented the God Cautius sacrifices that their children might be ingenuous and acute and to their Vagitanus that they might be cheery and not full of tears they concluding children given much to weep destined to misfortune So did they indespensably train those that they would have brave Souldiers brave Senators to Learning as that which must chiefly nourish them in furnish them for and carry them to the reward of great vertues For Learning as it is an improvement of the Candle of God in a man being a kind of natural Divinity which lets a man into all those varieties of apprehension utterance sagacity policy conduct counsel which bespeaks acceptance procures assurance extrieates difficulties prevents surprises discovers secrets improves Sciences so is it that which without diligence to follow and resolution to obtain will not be arrived to in any conspicuity And therefore Oye Nobles and Gentry let my counsel Note this be acceptable to you Study books convers with wise men get understanding in the Laws of God and of the Nation be humble Christians valiant Englishmen Libros plus quam Saphyros smaragdos câ—aros hobuiâ— quibus Chrisolitorum magnam copiam inesse dicebat Platin. de Pio 2do Pontific Roman learned Artists sincere and true-hearted creatures and you shall have more honour in life and comfort in death from these endeavours and acquisitions then from those mistaken recreations and false delights that are entred upon with trouble carried on with sin and ended in sorrow and infamy For most true in this Case is that of St. Bernard of the Cells of Religious men A Cella euim saepe in caelum ascenditur vix autem unquam à cella in infernum descenditur nisi sicut dicit Psalmista descendunt in infernum viven tes ne descendant morientes Stus Bernard lib. de vita sâ—litaria Ad Fratres de morte dei From the Cell men often ascend up into Heaven seldom do men descend into Hell unless they tast of Hell in their lives afflictions who in their deaths are promised and prepared for endless joyes Which is a notable argument for you not to count Learning pedantry and studying of Books an effemination of courage since Books are as the Noblest representation of Antique valour in the enumeration of their examples dijudication of their motives so in the excitations of the spirit to that time and method of action and expression Nâ—m fuit Socrates Patritius non eques Romanus quem tamen Philosophia non accepit sed nohilem reddidit Senec. ad Lucilium which is most opportune and seasonable Especally since this vertuous Learning was that which made Socrates Servius Tullus Tullus Hostilius and others Noble for blood they had none nor came they from Patritian Ancestors or Triumphers adopting them mean obscure were their parentage yet so glorious and esteemed by their wisdom and vertue did they grow that they were held the wonders of their age and the patterns of excellent Endowments to all successions of men For it is not Robes of Purple nor Mantles of Ermin nor Georges of Quis est autem reâ—um humâ—narum adco imperitus qui hos censeat nobiles appellandos quorum vita quo turpior fuit eo citius suorum Nobilitatem extinxit Platina lâ—b de vera Nobilitate Diamonds nor Spurrs of Gold and Swords keen and well Girt nor gilt Coaches many Lacquies great Mannors gainfull Offices Noble Relations that Make men in the account of rational and real Heraldry Noble and Gentlemen but the knowledge of God and themselves the pions and generous disposition they have to be good and by being such patterns to make others good also To serve mankind by such improvements as Gods mercy and their time parts and accomodation enables them to do that declares them Noble and Generous Holinshed p. 709. Which that brave Prince E. 4. of England well knowing councelled the Lords whom he left his children with thus I commend and deliver into your government both this Noble Realm and my Natural children and your Kinsmen My Children by your diligent oversight and politique provision to be taught informed and instructed not only in the Sciences Liberal Vertues Morral and good Literature but also to be practised in Tricks of Martial activity and diligent Exercise of prudent Policy If you set them to Learning your Governours shall be men of knowledge If you teach them Activity you shall have valiant Captains If they practise Policy you shall have politique and prudent Rulers Thus he And the great Attempts and Conquests of Alexander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarchus in Parallellis p. 337. Plutarch refers not so much to his Numerous and Valiant Army or to Perdicca Meleager Seleucus and the other brave Commanders that under him mannaged his Army as to Alexanders Wisdom and Learning of Mind and Councel which understanding Things Men and Times made his Motions and Actions conform to them prosperous and taking For when Alexander was dead then the Army mouldred away and did nothing splendid for it was only notable when it had him its head who had Philosophy for his Rule and Valour for his Recreation whose associate Vertue with his Arms made him successful Which brings to my mind that passage of Erasmus That those onely are Noble who adarn their minds with Vertue and fill their heads with Learning and while others give Lyons Eagles Bulls Leopards in their shields as
visible disgrace he may be outed his part of state and be passive to his resolution into dust how vaine are our unquietnesses to start pursue and overtake those fugitives that neither make us happy when we have them nor miserable when we want them To live so as to have our life hid with Christ in God is to live above and to be Lord over the vanity of life And is this O Nobles and Gentlemen not worthy you most to think upon who are deepest engaged in and probably most responsible for the vanity of life or can you but think civiily kindly of him that is your Monitor to this that is so much your security renown interest And that you may not take my report of the vanity of life and the beseemingness of your considering it such and as such providing against it Be O Gallants consulters which Solomon whose latitude of knowledge was a notable second to his Regal dignity by both which he commands his credit with his readers Truely the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun but if a man live many years and rejoyce in them all yet let him remember the dayes of darkness for they shall be many all this cometh to vanity Eccles. 11. 7 8. verses And our King Solomon the second so experimentally confirms it who after so long knowledge of the light and dark side of the cloud of Greatness Eicin Basilic Meditat. upon Death cap. 28. sets down this conclusion As to the last event I may seem to owe more to my Enemies then my Friends while those will put a period to the sins and sorrowes attending this miserable life wherewith these desire I might still contend I shall be more then Conquerour thorow Christ enabling me for whom I hither to have suffered as he is the author of Truth Order and Peace for all which I have been forced to contend against errors Factions and Confusions Thus he Whereupon I conclude that if as Heliogabalus measured the greatness of Rome by the many Cobwebs found in it which being weighed after gathering came to 10000 pound weight so we calculate the miseries of life by the Impertinent trifling vanitys of it there wil be found such a mass of them that we shall be forced to despise our selves who are so by sin deteriorated and impayred which was the Sentence of the Preacher I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts for that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them c. Eccles. 4. 18. SECT XLIII Shews That to think of God Death and Iudgment prepares to encounter with the varieties of humane state here in the World MY second Motive to you O Nobles and Gentlemen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Maxim Tyrius dissert 25. to think of God Death and Judgment is that thereby you may the better encounter the varieties of this your humane state For though God himself be immutable and hath a permanency of being by reason of which he is compleat and indefectuous neither capable of addition to him or liable to substraction from him yet we men and all things attendant on useful to and created for us being compound and Elementary are not only alterable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mac. Antoninus lib. 2. but are to be made reputatively compleat and according to our capacity happy by those gradations and motions of ascenr and retrorsion which circulate our revolution and cursory circumambiency and therefore Inconsistency being our conditions punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian Epict. lib. 3. c. 10. p. 285. Edit Holstenii and in a very full sence ascribable to it we ought to arm our selves by patience piety and wisdom against the moâ—ion and malevolence of it This Epictetus makes the summe of all Philosophy to be ready and prepared for every mission of Gods good or evil for let us look upon the best condition of us men and we shall find it not only unlike God who is without variableness and shaddow of turning being the same yesterday to day and for ever but even so unlike our selves Lege Doctissi mum Gatakerum Annotat. in lib. 2. Antonini p. 54 â—5 that to morow we are not what to day nor the next day what the anteceding but are turned from one side to another till we are turned topsie turvey and our Proteus repeated change brings us captive to the unchangeable state of death Thus we pass from our first conception in the womb to articulation thence to further mutrition thence to birth thence to childhood thence to youth thence to Adultism thence to Manhood thence to Old age Declension and thence to the dust of death and as our bodies so our minds and manners vary we first are discovered animate by motion then by invigoration then by expression of our inward wants by extern Organs of notice Then we mark what is said and done then we imitate then we enquire the reason then we judge and improve then we design and fabricate then decline in Memory and Counsell and at last again are Children in Understanding Answerable to these are the stations and Agible terms of our lives we are apprentices to Mysteries and Studies before we become Masters when we come to be Freemen we profess what we desire to live by Omnis saeculi faelicitas dum tenetur amittitur imò antequam tenetur elabitur Stus Hieron in c. 38. Isaiae Sr. Hen. Wotton p. 12. when we think our selves setled an accident disjoynts us then we stop our leak by another Engine which we hope more successful but that fails perhaps in the meridian or vespers of our lives when for the most part all Horizons are charged with thick and unpleasant vapors and then we give our selves for lost yet God makes this shipwrack our port this defeat our victory this fall our rise sometimes in youth we are Princes and in age Peasants in the summer of our lives Warâ—â—ours and in the autumn Confessors while â—â—ch scatterers and leud undoing and unâ—one in poverty recalled serious pruâ—ent in sickness peevish moopish nasty 〈◊〉 health good humoured and neat â—hile in counsel severe and short of â—â—ech but in converse affable and open â—â—ow in the presence of Kings beloved â—â—ppy affluent anon discarded out of â—â—vour despised miserable which well â—â—ewed and considered made Seneca cry 〈◊〉 of the instability of worldly things Humanorum rerum circulus hinc inde rotatus Fortunatâ—s esse homines non sinit â—nd resolve to keep vertue fixed what ever 〈◊〉 in or neer man be volatile which would â—e ambitions of our nature circumvolve â—nd by the restraints of them prevent â—he Fate of their consequence men of â—reat emulation would liue more serene â—nd dye more happy then they mostly â—oe Lord what a Pageantry is this subluâ—ary Greatness what Regal and
having set an end to all their desires and seen a period of all their labours by the enfranchisement of their departure become from Earths villaines and lifes vassals Gods freemen yea Kings and Priests to God The just consideration whereof if the dictates of pure nature and the assurances of Gods word had any power with men would lenify the thoughts of deaths trouble in the worlds adiew and the body and Souls dissociation because the incontinuity of them does but resolve them into their respective Principle the Body retiring to the dust from whence it came and the Soul to God that gave it Nor is any man happy in life further then he has provided for a good death or in death if he have not the testimony of a good yet of a penitent life my meaning is if before he dye the errors of his life be not expiated for in the palliations of his guilt and Gods ignoscency of them and in the acceptation of his sorrow and person with Gods agnition of him for a dyer in him That is in the beliefe and assurance of his forgivenesse and filiation which once had the soul cannot but trample upon despondency and bid defiance to despair since Christ justifies it is too late for any to condemn if life makes us debtors to nature the whole Creation being but as one lump of power and mercy masshed together in the common fatt and fate of vicissitude and the providence and wisdom of God brewing us together till we work out the Lees of sin and nature and become defecate or as neer it as the pleasure of our maker design'd us to arrive at and by our respective proportions to auxiliat the productions and gradations of succession towards perfection then to dye when we have lived our time and out-lived our innocence by as many degrees as we have at all lived is but the payment of our debt to nature and the surrender of our forfeiture to God and we are to account that a Good death which not so much takes away as betters life because it does rather advance the Soul then depresse the body Bona mors quae vitam non aufert sed transfert in melius bona qua non corpus cadit sed anima sublevatur rerum enim cupiditatibus vi vendo non teneri humanae virtutis est corporum verò similitudinibus speculando non involvi angelicae puritatis est utrumque tamen divini muneris est utrumque excedere teipsum transcendere est Stus Bernardus Serm. 52. in Cant. Cant. for to be in Soul an Angell while in state a man is to be an arriver at what ever God requires and man can attain to in this under-age of Glory And O Nobles and Gentry If death be thus Emolumental if it be the Ladder to heaven if it be the disarray of those uneasy harnassings that sin and life put upon you such as Iob oft calls shaking of the bones Iob. 4. 14. piercing the bones Ch. 30. ver 17. and David calls vexing the bones Psalm 6. 6. If it brings no rest to the bones Psal. 38. 3. breaks the bones Psal. 51. 8. if it streightens the compass and disedges the Divine soul and its faculties in their raptures and sallies and fill the heart with grief the eye with tears and the countenance with wanness and disspiriting then to be by death enlarged and to have a separation of a troublesome match Vivebas antea O beata anima sed in specioso carcere nunc immensus aether palatium est vidâ—bas sed non nisi per fragiles atque angustas corporeae Massae â—enestras nunc liberè sine transenna sine velamine audiebas sed per sinâ—osos aurium meaus mortalium eos ingâ—atos sape sermones nunc dulcissimam caelorum Harmoniam aeternarum intelligentiarum concentus precipis Ludovicus Fabritius in Orat Inaugurali super moâ—â—em Domini de Saletione and an assignation of body and soul to their proper Spheres is to be released from both the labour and the guilt of sin and to be in the road and upon the march to the Hercules pillar beyond which there is nothing but hope of being more belief of becomming more then you unclarifiedly are and is not this a great motive to be ready to dye and to be advanced by dying well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basilius Mag. p. 229. for as the Sea and the wind and the stars and the compasse and the industry of Seamen and the titeness of the ship well rigg'd well steered are all furtherances to the one attainment of the Port Habitatio ista nec deserviret hominibus ut patria cum in ea nullus nasceretur nec deserviret ut exilium cum in ea nullus exulare mereretur Gulielm Parisiens parte 1. de universo part 3. c. 48. nor do men ordinarily come thither safely and seasonably but by the subserviency of these to the purpose and project of the mind where the designs upon the port are united so neither does any man attaine the Vision of God the Clarification of his nature the Comprehension of happinesse but by the passe of death Which lets us out of toyle and combate into pleasure and quietnesse And that not as pleasure and quietnesse is notioned here which is Planetary and moving as well as tired with vexation and confusion but as it is in Gods presence fullnesse of joy and pleasure for evermore Thus shall a good death befriend the providers for it who only have Confidence in and comfort from it For though God did translate a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basil Mag Orat. p 65. ol 1. Enoch without sight of death as an example by himselfe of a Celestial man who in a sort lived above sin and was taken away without death yet the grave is the usuall Supersedeas to life and death the Port of Mans march off and therefore since nature piety and the interest of both tends to death to set your souls O ye Nobles and Gentry in Order to receive deaths charge is to discharge your selves of being surprised and to receive your charger and enemy with Courage and by victorying his terrours to be victors of the joyes consequent to it which St. Paul intended in that Epinichion which he athletarily chanted out 1 Tim. 4. 7. I have fought the good fight I have finisht my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousnesse SECT XLV Evidences that to meditate of God and the great concerns of the Soul is the way to come unto and come off from Iudgment Honourably MY last and not least Argument to beseech ye O Nobles and Gentry to think of God and of the great concerns of your soules is that thereby ye may come off honourably in the day of judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stus Basil. Mag. Epist. ad virgin laps p. 755. operum 2 Thes. 2. 8.