Instar nihili even as nothing just as a point to the circumference of the widest circle and not so much as the smallest drop to the main Ocean Holy Iobs resemblance of our lives to a flower Chap. 14. 2. is elegant and very expressive which in the morning is green and groweth up but in the evening is cut down dryed up and withered see betwixt green and withered flourishing and fading growing up and cut down what a small space and distance of time there is but the respite of a day at most the space of a few hours at longest just such is the brevity and fadingnesse of our lives here Our growing up in the morning of our childhood our flourishing in the high noon of our mans estate and then soon after it growes to be evening with us and we begin to fall into our declensions and first our senses begin to droop next our memories to fail next our strength to decay and grow weak after that our heat to retire inward and thus we continue dying by little and little untill at length death comes with his Sickle and cuts down the flower and we die for good and all Oh that men would think seriously on these things doubtlesse it must needs make them more frugall of their time and mightily work them off of the world and make them lesse delighted and enamoured with this present life and daily more longing and desirous and thirsting after heaven where they shall be sure to have a longer time of stay and continuance and shall ever be with the Lord and not be thus hastily hurried and posted away as here they are When holy David would fain have obteined favour and respite from God Almighty he useth this very argument to him Psal 89. 47. Oh remember how short my time is In like manner were I to perswade any man unto piety and devotion unto abstinence and mortification unto a contempt of the world and a love and desire of heaven I should repeat over the same words unto him Oh man remember how short thy time is how few dayes thou hast to live in the world how little time to lay in thy provision and to doe thy work and businesse of Eternity oh then sin away none idle away none and if it were possible loose none of this precious time thou seest it is but short at most but a little in all and thou canst full ill spare any of it for sin and vanity which when best emproved is but just enough if indeed enough for thy work Herodotus relates a story of one Mycerinus King of Egypt who being told by the Oracle that he should live but twelve years longer used this device with himself he sits up all night and spends that whole time in feasting and jollity and thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes the story turning as it were his nights into dayes thought by this means he had doubled the number of his years and so cheated the Oracle Now the device of this heathen King I shall not commend unto you at this time especially not in this way and manner of practice but yet why may we not by the way borrow a Iewell of this Egyptian and emprove his policy into an item of seasonable instruction and admonition And howbeit I cannot premptorily tell any of you as the Oracle did him that yet within twelve years and ye shall all die yet this I think I may say how soon God knows but not long hence we our selves by experience and the example of others may probably conclude and know that it will be necessary for us to die and give over living any longer Oh then let us up and to work let us lay out providently and bestir our selves as speedily as may be to double the number of our dayes even by turning our nights into dayes Not in the manner of that heathen King in practises of excesse and intemperance but in exercises altogether of piety and devotion turning our nights of vanity into dayes of sobriety our nights of intemperance into dayes of mortification our nights of slumber and idlenesse into dayes of vigilance and diligence take it in the Apostles words Rom. 13. 11. Knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep let us cast off the works of darknesse and let us put on the armour of light Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkennesse not in chambering and wantonnesse not in strife and envying But putting on the Lord Iesus Christ putting on his justifying righteousnesse by application of faith and putting on his sanctifying righteousnesse by imitation of practise and so doing we shall make a long life of a short As holy Hierom reports of one Nebridius a young man ad Salvinam Epist 9. In brevi aetate tempora multa complevit He continued but a little while here but yet lived a long life meaning as I suppose that the pietie of his life did farre surpasse and exceed the paucitie and tendernesse of his years Let this also suffice for the second importance of this dutie of numbring our daies implying Meditationem brevitatis an often meditation of the shortnesse and brevity of our lives A second importance is recogitatio incertitudinis a frequent recogitation of the inconstancy and uncertainty of our beings here to day and gone to morrow and what a next hour may bring forth or do hang over our heads every moment we cannot tell God knows The utmost that any present comfort or enjoyment can afford us is onely a probability of hope for to be sure certainty it affords none and we see the fairest hopes do many times miscarry in their issues not unlike promising blossomes either the frost nips them or the wind blows them down ere they can come to ripen into fruit and maturity Speras pecuniam sayes holy Augustine Enar. in Psal 3. 8. incertum est an proveniat speras filios incertum est an nascantur nati sunt incertum est an vivant vivunt incertum est an proficiant quocunque te verteris incerta sunt omnia Doest thou hope to be rich it is uncertain whether thou shalt grow to be so doest thou expect children it is uncertain whether they will be born are they born it is uncertain whether they will live do they live it is uncertain whether they will prove dutifull and towardly whether soever thou turnest thy self all things are uncertain Holy David doubtlesse in the midst of his great honour and prosperity thought himself very secure and certain for so if you will believe him he tells us Psal 30. 6. I said in my prosperity I shall never be removed but yet you see at what uncertainties he then stood and how soon the scene was changed with him and presently a new face of things appeared upon the stage vers 7. thou didst hide thy face from me and I was troubled Oh! that this meditation were deeply engraven on all our hearts and
feel the benefit and receive the comfort of them And questionlesse that peremptory promise Ioh. 20. 23. Quorumcunque peccata remiseritis whosoever sins ye remit they are remitted doe signifie much more then the bare complement of an indifferent usage and Ceremony The same day she departed which was Ianuary 26. about three a clock in the afternoon she sent for me four severall times to go to prayers with her thrice in the morning and once in the afternoon at which last time all her children one onely excepted which was not in Town were present and joyned in prayers together with us Soon after that I was called to her again to perform my last Ministeriall Office the recommendation of her soul into the hands of Almighty God and then indeed and not before her senses began to fail her and within few minutes after in much peace and sweetnesse she concluded her last breath I doe here willingly passe over many other most remarkable carriages of hers during the time of her sickness as her most Christian Charity her constant Devotion her stupendious Silence Patience even to a miracle the amazement of beholders Her perfect Weanednesse from the world her continuall thoughts and discourses of the joyes and happinesse of heaven and indeed in this latter God Almighty was exceeding gracious to her for she would often wish that if it might stand with the good will and pleasure of God as he dealt with his servant Moses and gave him a little before his death a sight and view of the land of promise so he would also some time before her departure hence vouchsafe her some sensible tastes and feelings of the joyes and happinesse of heaven And truly in this she had her request granted and God was in most signal manner as good to her as her desires for her soul was full of the glory of God and of the joyes and happinesse of heaven and she was in a manner caught up into Paradise and saw in her spirit strange sights and heard words of joy and peace not to be uttered and did sensibly feel new comforts every day breaking in fresh and more upon her soul and lived to see all her former fears vanished and doubts satisfied and objections answered and scruples resolved and hopes evidenced and in a word her whole mind most sweetly composed and settled into a heavenly posture of pious confidence and assurance so that now she had nothing left to do but to resolve with holy David Psal 4. 8. To lay her down in peace for the Lord had graciously made her to dwell in safety Accordingly a few dayes before her death she was pleased to utter her self to me in these or I am sure such like words Oh Sir what a gracious God have I how rich in his mercees towards me how favourable in his corrections of me The thing which I so greatly feared a painfull torturing death he has turned into ease and comfort And my wordly cares and thoughtfulnesse for the provision of my children he has also in great measure taken off of my hand And now what doe I lingring and tarrying here any longer all my work is done and the world has no further need of me why may I not forthwith goe to my God Is it not much better for me to be dissolved and to be with Christ These and such like heavenly sayings were her frequent and usuall discourses with me so that it was an exceeding joy and comfort to me when at any time she did send for me neither doe I know that I ever went to her and did not learn somewhat remarkable from her And indeed every speech and posture of hers was a most fruitfull Sermon to all those who had the happiness to attend about her to minister unto her did either hear the one or observe the other the one a visible Sermon of patience the other an audible Sermon of devotion But I see I am now entred into a large Field and may say with Elihu in Iob chap. 32. 18. I am full of matter and the spirit within me constraineth me And indeed I can very hardly wind my self out but I must have regard to my promise of brevity Take all therefore which I shall adde further in these few words and believe it they are not the words of vanity or flattery but of truth and soberness uttered in the fear presence of God I have in my time been with severall dying persons have seen their piety observed their patience taken speciall notice of their whole carriage and behaviour yet never in all my life did I see such an uniform Samplar of piety nor a whiter Soul return to its maker One thing was very notable and I beseech God to make us truly thankfull to him for it as being a most signall instance and evidence of his goodnesse to her and which indeed considering the condition of her disease may justly deserve the name of a miraculous mercy It was this Though her sicknesse as I said before was very painfull and grievous yet it pleased God for some dayes before her death to deliver her from any sense of pain at all so that she had her thoughts very free and at liberty and made a most Christian use and advantage of that freedome Yea when we and her self too by reason of the little rest which she took greatly feared that her sicknesse might at last grow into some kind of distemper It pleased Almighty God to secure her from that also so that she enjoyed her understanding and memory and all her senses very quick and perfect to the last even so long as she had any occasion or need to make use of them And thus have I at length given you the whole world in a Map a brief account and history of the holy Life and Death of our most excellent Lady See for all the world as she lived so she died she lived in peace and she died in peace her whole life here was as a man would say one continued act of piety and good works and as for her death that in like manner was a conclusion of most heavenly sweetnesse and comfort The Lord in mercy give us grace who survive so to frame our lives according to the example of her piety that when it shall come to our turns to die we also may share in like feelings of comfort All the farther application which I shall now make hereof is to you that are here present and particularly to those who were her dearest relations Her right Noble and Honourable Children most earnestly beseeching them to consider and call often to mind these pious Parents of theirs to endeavour to tread in their steps and to follow the example of their piety and not give themselves the liberty of committing those sins which they were so carefull to prevent or lightly neglect any of those wholsome customes practises whither in their private Closets or Families which they made
sweet and comfortable death so on the contrary it is very rare and seldome that a wicked life makes a good and happy end And therefore Tully an heathen Oratour could call this the highest pitch and emprovement of the best wisdome To do those things living which we would desire to have done when we are to die holy Bernard seconds it with advice much to the same purpose In every action and enterprise of thy life sayes he be still saying over to thy self Si modo moriturus esses istud faceres if thou wert to die out of hand wouldst thou doe so and so And who of us all can tell that he is not modo moriturus to die soon for life we know is uncertain and death very ordinarily comes suddenly upon people and not alwayes in the preface and solemnity either af a lingring Consumption or a swelling Dropsie or a tedious Ague or a growing Fever or the like but many times in the sudden surprisalls of some secret and unexpected accident which we could not possibly foresee untill it came to light fatally and mortally upon us And does it not concern us then to be continually numbring our dayes and putting our selves in as great a readinesse and preparednesse for death as may be that so we may rather our selves be said to meet it then That to come suddenly and unexpectedly upon us And to this purpose was this Psalm here penned which contains in it if you mark it well a relation and narrative both of the necessity of our mortality and also the brevity and uncertainty of our lives To the end that having these things alwayes in our thoughts before our eyes both the necessity of our mortality that it is necessary for us at some time to die and also the brevity and uncertainty of our lives that it is possible for us to die every hour we might the sooner be awakened out of our present course of sin and incogitancy into studious endeavours and practises of piety and devotion of abstinence and mortification of heavenly mindednesse and spirituall affections in a word of a wise and timely provision of such gracious habits and dispositions which may in some good measure dresse our souls for a fit salute and entertainment of death These words which I have now read unto you do contain in them the form and substance of a devout and pious prayer and whether David was the Authour of it or Moses that should not need to trouble us for to be sure the prayer it self is most Divine and heavenly and the very piety of the prayer does sufficiently declare the Authour whoever he was to be highly pious and religious In it we have particularly considerable these four things First Quis petit who it is that prayes or the party praying and that indeed is not expressed in terms but conceived by some to be holy David whose are most of the other Psalms but presumed by others to be Moses grounding their opinion and that not without good cause upon the Title and Inscription of the Psalm Psalmus Moses viri Dei a Psalm of Moses the man of God Secondly Proquibus petit who they are whom he prayes for not if you mark it for himself alone but for others as well or for himself conjunctly and together with others Doce nos Teach us Thirdly Quid petit what it is which he prayes for and that is negatively no worldly advantage at all no temporal concerment but positively to be taught and instructed in the mysterious art of spiritual Arirhmetick to be put into a right way and method of numbring and counting up our dayes Doce nos numerare dies nostros Teach us to number our dayes Fourthly Propter quid petit the design and end of his prayer or the particular reason principally moving him to make this request and that is adductio cordis ad sapientiam the application of our hearts unto wisdome or our spiritual instruction and edification Sic doce ut adducamus So teach us that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome I shall begin with the first of these The party making the request and he as is generally concluded was holy Moses A man of God So the inscription of the Psalm styles him One that was faithful in all his house so the Authour to the Hebrews reports him chap. 3. 5. See what what an high character what a large commendation here is some are faithfull in this or that in one or two particular instances of piety Thus one man is very temperate another very humble another very patient another very mortified another very charitable but Moses you see he was a through proficient an universal Saint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faithfull in all Whence be pleased to take away with you this observation that the best and most excellent Saints of all have great need and reason to pray to be better taught and instructed in duty And why in many things we do all fall short and offend the brightest Moon hath its spots the richest wine hath its lees and there are dreggs and much corrupt matter lodging in the best and most improved Saint of us all Well but mark what it is which Moses here prayes for onely to be taught to number his dayes But did he not do this already was it not his dayly work this his constant and continual employment Yes doubtlesse it was yea and he did it carefully and conscientiously too But yet he thought he did it not well enough and therefore prayes here in the Text to be taught to do better See a good man how little he pleaseth himself in any action of his life in any performance of duty that he does He can never think that he does well enough whatever he does but still desires to do otherwise and would fain do better There is an affection of modesty and humility which still accompanies real piety and every pious man is an humble modest man never reckons himself a perfect proficient or to be advanced above a teaching but is content and covetous to be a continual learner to know more then he knows and to do better then he does yea and thinks it no disparagement to his graces at all to take advice and to seek instruction where it is to be had A proud man is evermore high lofty in his own conceit and none is so wise as he none fit and worthy enough to teach him What doest thou teach us said the Pharisees you know to the blind man in the Gospel Iohn 9. 35. oh but an humble man is ever meek and lowly in his own eyes and takes it well yea and is glad and desirous to be taught Accordingly O teach me sayes holy David to do the thing that pleaseth thee Psal 143. 10 and here in the Text So teach us to number our dayes S. Paul 2 Tim. 4. 3. reports it of some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who will not endure sound doctrine But such
what a sad condition is this to die in and what think you shall become of us when the rich man in the Gospel was busie in building his Castles in the air and dreaming of nothing but ease and comfort and projecting years of rest and happinesse to his life he little thought I 'le warrant you of a summons the same night and that before morning his life should have an end put to it and his soul required of him And yet so you see it happened to him and who of us all know that possibly it may not be his own case Oh! how should this quicken us to continual warinesse and watchfulnesse to diligent circumspection and observation to lose as little of our time here carelesly and frivolously as may be but to be sure to throw away none of it sinfully at any rate which makes out the second application of our hearts unto wisdome consisting in Cautius vivendo in living more cautiously and warily for the time to come A third and last instance lies in sapientius providendo in providing more wisely against the day of our change when the unjust Steward in the Gospel Luke 16. understood that his Lord had a purpose to displace him and turn him out of his Stewardship see how wisely he consults and projects and casts about with himself vers 3. What shall Idoe for my Lord taketh from me the Stewardship well I am resolved what to doe yea and if you mark it too our Saviour commends this wisdome of his and chides his Disciples for their lack of like timely wisdome and prudence and why yet a little while and our reckonings also will be called for and our selves required to give in our accounts of our Stewardships and Then we must be no longer Stewards and would it not be wisdome in us timely to project and cast about with our selves and not throw all our provision upon our last minutes and have our evidences then to clear and our assurances of another life to make good when we are every moment upon leaving of this The Apostle's counsell is very safe 1 Tim. 6. 19. Laying up for your selves a good foundation against the time to come See here a good foundation that is a foundation of good works the foundation of an holy life of a pious and godly conversation So then good works they are you see in a good sense a foundation though not of faith or presumption though not a foundation either to boast off or to build upon yet a foundation to take hope and comfort in now a foundation you know is that which in great measure supports and bears up the whole building in like manner a conscience of good works it bears up Faith it bears up Hope it bears up Patience it makes joyfull and willing and comfortable in the hour of death This is our rejoycing saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 1. 12. the testimony of our conscience well but mark further laying up in store but when I trow or where why even in this life now presently out of hand it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the present tense and we must not make altogether a future duty of it well but once more Laying up in store for your selves that is to your proper use and service for your own interest and advantage See what ever good works are piously laid out by us are also providently laid up for us we are the chief gainers by them and we receive the benefit and we do reap the comfort of them in a word we lay them up for our selves Well but against when do we lay them up why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes the Apostle against the time to come But what time to come is this there is a two-fold time to come the one futurum mortis the time to come of our death and so good works are fundamentum solatii a foundation of joy and comfort to support and stay us to rejoyce and cheer us in that sad and melancholy hour The other is futurum judicii the time to come of the last Tribunall and Iudgement and so good works are fundamentem fiduciae a foundation of courage and confidence according to that of the Apostle 1 Iohn 2. 28. And now little children abide in him that is in your Faith in his Name in your obedience to his commands in a word in your practice of a holy life that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming But I see I must be forced to break off abruptly and conclude my discourse on this Text here And indeed I have another Text still behind to preach upon and that too given me by God Almighty The former was given by the direction of his Spirit in his holy Scriptures This latter by the wise order and disposition of his providence here exposed and presented before your eyes the former a legible this a visible Text of that I have hitherto discoursed and am coming now to speak somewhat of this also A Text affording much plenty and variety of seasonable matter both for the more vigorous quickning of your affections for the present and also for the future example of your piety Like a well kept Garden here is choice of sweet flowers but no weeds no beggery stuffe at all howbeit I shall be very sparing in comparison of the plentifulnesse of the subject and not take upon me to gather together all the goodly flowers which sometime grew in this pleasant Garden but present you with a small handfull onely not intending to satisfie the curiosity of craving expectations but to beget a good appetite in all and to set you alonging after more And indeed how can it otherwise be imagined that such a whole life of exemplary virtue and piety as this excellent Ladies was can be without sensible losse and injury contracted within that scant and little allowance of time which is now remaining He that covets to take up a number of scattered pieces of Gold in the hollow of his hand will go nigh to loose many some will slip through his fingers let him be never so wary however it be I shall run the adventure and chuse rather to be silently injurious to her exemplary piety which her living modesty I am sure would have pardoned then be openly too imposing upon your patience So that my work you see at present is not so properly the part of an Oratour as the office of a Notary or Remembrancer not intending to discourse over the whole story of her life at large a work for volumes and ages but as it were in characters and short hand to present you some few memorialls of her signall and incomparable piety This most excellent Lady the Lady Elisabeth Capell the solemnization of whose Funerals is the sad occasion of this dayes meeting was as to her naturall pedigree and extraction descended of the right worthy and renowned Family of the Morisins at Cashiobury in Hertfordshire One
That whil'st in Millain Ambrose tarried there The Fiend durst not so much as once appear His very Absence plainly did confess And publish to the world his guiltiness He was afraid of that good man and why Not for his pow'rs sake but his piety Thus these Infernal workers of the Night Shun a Saint's presence as do Owls the Light Mirrour of Christians In whom equally Both Grace and Nature joyned Heads whereby To make one piece most Rare and Eminent Which should surmount what e're was excellent And that was Thee Ev'ry Celestial Grace Cent'ring in Thee as in it's proper place So that who e're would fain come near the best Must strive to equal Thee and that done rest How did thy well digested Family Resemble to the Life th' Oeconomy Of those Celestial spirits so that here A man might see how Angels govern'd were Avant Propanness Lewdness stand aloof Such Vermine must not think under this Roof To find a nesting place here 's Sanctuary For none but Saints and Heavenly Company Her Mornings work was first her Soul to dress Then next her Body with such comeliness As best beseems a Saint no Painting here No Crisping-pins no Curling of the Hair But all that sober dressing which S. Paul Enjoyns his Matrons and commends to all Pictures do shadows need and art but nature Shines most resplendent in her proper feature Next to her Mornings work her Family Took up the following Time 'till by and by Hark the Clock strikes then to Pray'rs we go Business must yield to Duty 'T is not so In all great Families but her blest mind Could else no Joy no Satisfaction find Nor could she think there would a Blessing be Where God hath not his Times as well as we Religion which some make a sport and play And others worse a Preface to make way To base designs a Silken Mask to hide VVhat otherwise dares not the Light abide Was her Delight her Joy her Recreation Her work her business her negotiation An early Saint she was she did not stay Or put off Duty 'till another day But fell to work with th' first knowing how vain It is to wish what can't be lent again And who would spend one minute carelesly Did he but understand that possibly The next may not be his or seriously Think what on each depends Eternity Eternity which grows still as it spends Like th' oil i th' vessel has nor bounds nor ends Blest Soul Heroick Saint who hadst within Besides thy Sex nothing was Feminine Crosses were no new things with thee th' had been Thy constant Lot for years thou hadst doth seen And felt what 't is to suffer Suffer sore Such suff'rings as had scarce been heretofore Thy Dearest Lord untimely hurry'd hence Not for his Crimes but his Allegiance He was too good to live had rather dye Then act ought which look't like Disloyalty Rebellion Rampant could not terrifie His High-born Soul Alas what 's Victory The cause being bad but thriving Villany Base-Coward Souls who know not to rise high But by inglorious acts a Capell-spirit Will learn you better arts true fame to merit Heroick suff'rings will entail a Name 'T is not the Death but Cause which brings the shame Scaffolds are Theaters the cause being good 'T is no disgrace to wade to Heav'n in bloud He might for 's Death-bed chose a Bed of Down 'T would have been softer true but less renown Heav'n was his aim which rather then to miss He chose the Axe to hugge the Block to kiss His shortest cut to Heav'n as things now stood Lay strait along through th'red sea of his bloud See how his Family thrives upon 't how all Do court Relation to that Name which shall Survive in honour when others memory Shall rot i' th' grave of lasting Infamy Could Tears retrive his precious Life we wou'd Threaten another Deluge and weep bloud But they 'r not Tears will weep him out of 's Bliss Spare then your sighs He 's better as he is With Charles the great stout Strafford Canterbury Bold Lucas daring Montross Company Which would an Angel from his seat of Bliss Invite though but t' enjoy such Happiness Rest then Blest Soul be Happy still and still Go on t' enjoy of them and Heaven thy fill And since we can't with teares re-call thy Fate We 'l strive by Acts thy Life to imitate Our Almanacks rather then want a Tombe Shall tell it forth Great Capell 's Martyrdome And was not that a Loss without compare Which with one fatal stroke did such a pair Part from each other Yet hold not parted quite They 'r met togeth'r again Death to requite That spightfull loss dispatch't her to her Bliss And marry'd them both again in Happiness And now great GOD whose Ruling Providence Doth reach to hairs and all thing here dispense Whose are our lives in whose hand are our deaths Who lengthen'st out stop'st at will our breaths Make the great Samplar of her Virtuous Life Of all our cares and thoughts the onely strife Let 's not for she did not our selves content Barely in being good but Excellent That of her Life a pious Imitation May bring us also to her habitation And sharing with her in like Graces here We may with her shine in her Glories There FINIS