the former clause for there it was bitternesse bitternesse that is as the Apostle calleth it Act. 8. fel amaritudinis the very gall of bitternesse which importeth a disease pessimi generis of the worst sort and in the paroxysme and very height of it but now you haue it amplified by three circumstances more First from the obiect it striketh not at a bough no defluxion in the eye nor mutilation of an hand c. but is securis ad radicem the axe laid to the roote to hew downe life it selfe Eruisti animam Secondly from the tearme or extent for it is not the life infested annoyed disquieted alone but lifted and heaued at to be throwne into the pit Eruisti è fouea Thirdly from the attribute of that pit for it is not fouea refugij or refrigerij a pit of repose or comfort such as Elias went into and Dauid the Prophets that Obadiah hid the Saints that the world was not worthy of Hebr. 11. but fouea corruptionis consumptionis putredinis a pit of corruption consumption and rottennesse Take it altogether in the masse and lumpe and see what it is besides the kind of the sicknesse which is not here mentioned First it is bitter secondly bitternesse it selfe thirdly bitternes put to bitternes fourthly against life fiftly to thrust it downe to the pit sixtly the pit of corruption this being his case and then to be pulled out of the teeth of death as Dauid pulled his lambe and his kid out of the mouth of the Lyon and Beare was the singular mercy of God worthy another Ecce as at the first I declared Is it not mercy I aske to be saued from death Death whensoeuer it shall come vnto vs and howsoeuer qualified the grimnesse of her visage disguised yet will it be fearefull enough It is dissolutio naturae the dissolution of nature and the dissociation of body and soule ancient friends and of long acquaintance Dauid and Ionathan wept and kist when they departed When Vzza was smitten dead for putting his hand to the Arke 2. Sam. 6. Dauid was angrie shall I say troubled grieued at it and called the name of the place rupturam vzzae the breach of Vzzah I am sure when body and soule are sundred there is ruptura and cannot be without commotion passion Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non tanta esset martyrum fortitudo if death were not bitter Martyrs should want of their honour But what may the motiue be that procured this deliuerie I aske not now with the blessed Apostle Vbi conquisitor saeculi 1. Cor. 1. where are the wise of the world Eagles for reason Mowlewarpes for religion but Vbi conquisitor Ecclesiae the most regenerate sanctified illuminate Contemplatiues of the Church Let them say to themselues as the Preacher did Eccle. 7. I haue sought and sought one thing after another to find out the reason and adhuc quaeri anima mea and yet my soule seeketh I haue found a man of a thousand but not a woman amongst them all Giue me leaue to applie it If you looke on the part of man which is as it were the weaker sexe no reason can be giuen of this goodnesse of God towards him but on the part of God there is one for a thousand and in stead of all the rest Quoniam volens misericordiam est Mich. 7. Because mercie pleaseth him So in my text placuit tibi c. God so desired and knit and conioyned and girt and embraced and couered and tooke pleasure and liking to the life of the King that death could not hurt him The very varietie of reading may stand for a rich Cōmentarie but neither tongues nor pennes of men nor Angels can expresse the riches of grace when God is pleased to shew mercy vpon vs. The sweetnesse of nature brought forth beneplacitum in him pleasure brought forth loue Loue desire desire Vnion Vnion embracing embracing girdeth close like a girdle about the reines and couereth and keepeth from hurt that that is beloued In amore haec insunt omnia Before I forsake this part I must note vnto you two things First that in death there is no danger to the Soule no more then was to the soule of Hezekiah for anima in my text is not the substance or essentiall part as principally it signifieth but an act and effect of that soule to weet that life which it brought to the bodie in dowre and portion when she married with it and when she departeth from her bodie she resumeth and carrieth away with her that portion againe So that the Soule it selfe is no way subiect to the pit Occidisti possedisti said Elias to Ahab So saith God vnto death Hast thou slaine and gotten possession too but of what the flesh onely not the soule and that flesh shall lie as a surfet in the stomacke of death and as the drunkard regurgitat bilem suam so shall death cast it vp againe Mors is Morsus death is but biting not a consuming and vtter deuouring as he that biteth taketh some and leaueth some so death getteth a morsell of flesh as the Kite taketh garbidge from the dunghill and the dogge offall from the shambles but the soule it medleth not with I cannot therfore better compare the graue then to the hony combe wherein is both hony and waxe The hony of the soule is taken out the waxe of the flesh remaineth behinde till the resurrection of iust men But as touching the flesh the life whereof is properly aimed at here is her lot her end fouea corruptionis the pit of corruption The Riuers haste to the Seas Stars to the West Man to the pit it is domus constituta omni viuenti the house appointed to euery liuing man domus Conuentionis the house of Parliament for all estates to meet in domus saeculi the house of perpetuitie till Christs second coming Solum mihi superest sepulchrum saith Iob cap. 17. He is sure of nothing but his graue It were a worthy Epitaph to be set vpon the monument of euery man I haue nothing but a graue or if you wil truly reade it Sepulcra mea sunt Graues are mine What need more then one Yes A Graue for his bodie A Graue for his vanities A Graue for his riches A Graue for his hopes all is buried with him He that shall say I haue houses and lands and vineyards and fields and gardens deceiueth himselfe and the truth is not in him he hath nothing certaine but his graue When Lazarus was raised out of his graue againe what brought he out with him sauing fascias sepulchrales sudaria his napkins and Graue-cloathes The Astronomers maid laughed at her master that stood gazing at the starres and saw not the ditch that was before his feet I know not what castles we are euer building in the aire and we will saile vpon
First you haue Peace that leadeth to all the rest but Peace had an ill neighbour that troubled it Sinne in the hindmost part of my Text. Sinne bringeth forth bitternesse and not onely so but bitternesse added to bitternesse Bitternesse thus accumulated must needs haue brought to the pit and the pit in the end would haue turned to corruption or consumption Thus farre goeth the blacke line of my text the shadow of sorrow and death But then cometh the other Hemisphaere of comfort and light wherein you haue first the loue and good pleasure of God secondly Redemption from the pit of corruption as touching the body thirdly Remission of sins as concerning the soule So it is not here as in the 68. Psalme where the singers go before and the minstrels follow after c. here the mourners go first like the captiues in their ancient Triumphs sinne and sicknesse and the pit and corruption then come the minstrels and singers I meane the mercies of God as in a triumphant chariot curing both the body from sicknesse and the soule from sins The three parts and roomes of my text wherein this whole matter is lodged and disposed are as clearely distinguished as the three tabernacles of Peter Matth. 17. The first is In my peace I had great bitternesse The second But thou in loue to my soule hast deliuered it from the pit of corruption The third For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy backe Let these parts be as those three tabernacles Me thinketh I see Moses in the first of a fearefull visage that hath need to be veiled Bitternesse Bitternesse Elias in the second when he is raising the widowes sonne at Zareptha 1. Reg. 17. Thou hast deliuered my soule from the pit CHRIST in the third full of grace and truth casting my sinnes behind his backe Or if you please let my text be as the Arke of testimonie wherein there were kept for store the tables of the Law the pot of Manna Aarons rod Heb. 9. They conceipt it well that the Arke is the Church the Tables the word the Manna the Sacraments and the Rod the discipline I am sure in the Arke of my text there is first a rod of bitternesse bitternesse and secondly the manna of deliuerance from the consuming pit and thirdly the tables not of the Law but of the Gospell not of the Old but the New couenant of the Law not of facts but of faith the tender mercies of God in absoluing from sinne In three words Hezekiah is sicke in the first tabernacle sound in the second sanus or sanabilis onward to his health as touching his body safe and secure in the third as concerning his soule And in euery of these three are two remarkable things In the first 1. sicknesse with the qualitie bitternes extremity and degree bitternesse bitternesse 2. the time and aduantage that the sicknesse tooke In my peace In the second 1. deliuerance Eruisti animam meam 2. the motiue that induced God thou in thy loue c. In the third 1. the cause of the sicknesse Sinnes 2. the remoue of that cause Thou hast cast c. I began at the first tabernacle and therein first with the rod his sicknesse In my peace I had great bitternesse The kind of this sicknesse is not mentioned till the 21 verse there it is called vlcus a botch it is thought to haue bene a plague-sore I dispute it not I am sure it was somewhat neere I will but drinke of the brooke in my way and giue you a short note Wee haue knowne by bitter bitter experience what a plague is but God tooke a plaister of figges of his sweete mercies in Christ well-nigh fifteene yeares sithence and applied to the botch and healed the sores of this land in the vertue and strength whereof we haue walked to this present day and we for the figges of his mercies haue returned him the thistles of our sinnes the clusters of Sodome and the wine of Dragons and yet Ecce in pace we heale our hurts with sweet words crying peace peace all is well and so shall be To morrow shall be as this day and much better and this yeare as the last and freer Deceiue not your selues you haue a great and populous Citie sowne with the seede of man as the Prophet speaketh I may say with the seed rather the weed of building I say not that your Citie may go out at your gates surely it may go out at your Suburbes the hemme of your garment is more then the garment it selfe the lop and burthen of the tree more then the stemme can beare and threatneth the ruine of the whole body To speake plainely the regions are white and drie to the haruest there is matter enough within in respect of your sinne without in respect of your building for a pestilence to worke vpon vnlesse as the antidote of the blessed goodnesse of God then cured so the preseruatiue of his sauing grace now keepe you from it I go on Whatsoeuer were the species manifest it is what the qualitie of the sicknesse was bitternesse what the quantitie bitternesse bitternesse some sharpe and wringing disease as when the Prophet cried out My bellie My bellie the very doubling of the word expressed what his paine was We are alwayes ill when we are in our best health Longum languorem trahimus we liue in a long and languishing sicknesse our wearinesse after labour and trauell is a sicknesse and sitting or lying is physicke to cure it sitting and lying is a sicknesse wee cannot continue therein rising and walking is the cure of it hunger and thirst is sicknesse eating and drinking is the helpe to that Eating and drinking sicknesse fasting and abstinencie physicke to it Quotidianus defectus quid aliud est quà m prolixitas mortis Our daily decay in nature what is it else but a lengthning of death I will say briefly triplici morbo laboramus principio medio fine We are sicke of a threefold sicknesse our beginning midst and ending As Saint Augustine told the Manichees of their idle and impious writings principium truncum medium putridum finis ruinosus their beginning was naught their proceeding naught their ending naught So is it with vs Ingressus flebilis progressus debilis egressus horribilis a mournfull natiuity wofull life dreadfull death Morbi citatio ad mortem sicknesse is a summons to death he that is least sicke may and in the end must die Death hath euer her arrow in her bow though in the prime ages of the world she was sometimes nine hundred yeares before she sped yet now she hitteth quickly and when God saith shoote she shooteth and so long as God saith spare she spareth For what is thy life Breue suspirium a short panting Canst thou measure the blast of winde said the Angell to Esdras canst thou measure say I the blast of thine owne winde the breath within thy nostrels spiras
come againe Did he then thinke of a Iebusite in the Land that should be a thorne in his eyes and a pricke in his side of a bosome enemie a warre within his bones an armie of trouble and temptation in his owne bowels When a forreine enemie is discouered the Beacons are fired and an Ecce is giuen to the Country round about Here is a domesticke intestine enemie without Beacon or any admonition at all but whilest he sitteth in the armes of peace as Sampson in the lap of Delilah a sudden alarme is heard Vp Sampson the Philistines are vpon thee Vp Hezekiah bitternesse bitternes is vpon thee This deserueth the Ecce for bitternesse in the time of war is no newes Knowest thou not that it will be bitternesse in the later end Abner to Ioab 2. Sam. 2. but bitternesse and doubled bitternesse in the midst of peace this is strange An image a glasse a sea of glasse that all the people of the earth may stand vpō the shore of my text and see the face of their fraile vnconstant condition A man and the best of men a King the best of Kings I speake not of Balthazar but as he in the midst of his cups so this in the midst of his comforts seized and surprised at vnawares with a grieuous disease that added bitternesse vnto bitternesse and cut not off the lap of his coate that is pinched him in a finger or ioynt but assaulted the life in the inmost and strongest fort it had and had it in her clutches to bring it to the very pit One maruelled that men were so hardy to aduenture to Seas why Cùm multi pereant in aquis sith many miscarried in the waters He that answered him maruelled as much how he durst goe to bed sith many die in their beds Had he nothing to wonder at but the Sea I maruell he feared not his owne flesh and that he durst trust himselfe with his owne body I am sure it is as fluide as the Sea Liquescimus we melt we thaw daily our life goeth away per stillicidia as it were by droppings Omnes nos velut aquae dilabimur we all glide away like water that is spilt and cannot be gathered vp againe Here he shall find tempests and gusts and surges and waues and rockes and quick-sands and gulfes and sea-monsters no lesse then at Sea I wonder that men dare liue in such flesh tam putri ruinosa domo so rotten and ruinous an house where not onely the gates posternes and windowes but euery little creuis and chinke letteth in death Looke how many members and parcels of the body so many vessels of sicknesses receptacles and harbours of death Euery Apoplexie in the head Swelling in the eare Bleeding at the nose Canker in the mouth Squinancy in the throat Pleurisie in the side Stone in the kidney Cholicke in the belly may be a meanes to death I maruell againe why he commeth to his table to eate and drinke there why Cum multi pereant in mensa sith many die at their Tables Did Tarquinius Priscus thinke that the bone of a fish going crosse his throte should haue choked him or Sophocles and Anacreon that they should haue died of a raysin stone or Fabius a Senatour that an haire in a draught of milke should haue bene his end or Ruffinus the Consull that in kembing his head the tooth of his Combe entring the flesh should haue bene his deaths wound or Lucia the daughter of Aurelius that her Childe which she bare in her armes thrusting a needle into her breast should haue shortned her dayes I could be infinite So long as there shall be a man in the world mortalitie casualtie corruption to accompanie that man there shall be occasion for this ecce behold in my peace when I was most secure to the stupor and terror of all those that trust too much to their peace It is a singular part of the gracious prouidence of God vpon vs to hide the houre of our deaths as Isaack spake to his sonne Gen. 27. Vides quòd senuerim ignorem diem mortis meae Thou seest I am old and yet notwithstanding I know not the day of my death Semper incognitus vt sit semper suspectus that being alwayes vnknowne we might alwayes haue it in suspition and make that vse of our ignorance that Cassian aduiseth Omnis dies velut vltimus ordinandus est to dispose of euery day as if it were our last day Certaine it is Supremus vitae dies supremus mundi dies the last day of my life is the last day of the world to me for qualis hinc quisque egreditur talis in iudicio repraesentabitur such as I am at my death such shall I be at my iudgment And as certaine againe that it is the greatest worke in the world to die to exchange life with death and the best to die well as Anacharsis being asked which was the best ship That said he which is safely arriued Adde vnto these the rule of Saint Angustine Non potest malè mori qui benè vixerit and on the otherside vix benè moritur qui malè vixit He cannot die ill that hath liued well and scarcely dieth well that hath liued ill These things conferred be ye readie prepared for that day Estote parati in diem tertium that it may find you in pace in the peace of God and of a good conscience which passeth all vnderstanding I told you before you had three sicknesses I tell you now you haue but three dayes of your liues the one of your coming into the world the other of your stay the last of your going out Be ready against the third day the day of your going forth which you cannot well be except you begin to prouide on the first and the second lest that should betide you which is bemoned in my text Ecce in pace amaritudo amaritudo Behold when we dreampt of peace we awaked to extremitie of bitternesse and being taken in an euill time you complaine as in that mimesis of Saint Chrysostome Valete amici farewell friends I must go an vnknowne iourney by wayes vnknowne into Countries farre remote Vbi quale diuersorium habiturus sum angelorum an daemonum ignoro where what lodging I shall find amongst Angels or Diuels I know not Et tu complexus amore eruisti c. I am now come to the second Tabernacle of my text wherein you haue Elias the manna I spake of It containeth two things first the redemption Eruisti secondly the reason or motiue Complexus amore The recouery so much the sweeter by how much the danger the greater Transisse de morte ad vitam vitae gratiam duplicat to passe from death to life is double life So is the light more gratefull to him that was in the power of darknesse and assurance to him that despaired of assurance There was danger enough in