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.
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
Princes favours for if to them not onely Honours Riches Reputation but even in a sort much of the administrative divinity of Kings is indulged as Theodoric the Gothish King wrote to a Vice-king under him What fidelity ought they express to their benefactor in not neglecting their service disobliging their people misusing their trusts as did Wolsey who fraudulently got a warrant from H. 8. to execute the E. of Kildare though the Lieutenant of the Towers honesty in not executing it made it void by the Kings Countermand a Speed p. 775. p. 849. And Gardiner from Qu. Mary to execute the Lady Elizabeth the after happy Queen of this Land What conscience and reverence to themselves not to do any thing rashly and improvidently by which they may lose their ground and be outed the occasion of so general good For Princes favours being of delicate and casual composure are not to be put to the stress of gross and dull mettalled ones but to be humbly and modestly improved which the wise King Solomon adviseth to He that loveth pureness of heart Prov. 22. 11. Fuit enim illi nobile ingenium furebundi regis Impatiens Senec. Nat. Quest. lib. 6. c. 22. for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend The failer of which in Calisthenes the Favourite of Alexander lost him both his interest in the King and in his own life That being true of Favourites over-confidence and peremptoriness which a friend of the Earl of Essex Sir Henry Wotton work p. Favourite to Queen Elizabeth told him O Sir These courses are are like hot waters which help at a pang but if they be too often used will spoil the stomach as it was wofully made good in him whose impatience to have any companion in favour with him or any grists of greatness go by the Mill of his only influence declined both his lustre and his life Yea above all what caution are they that have these intrusts to express in avoyding envy Sect. 2. Eicon Bâ—silic upon the E. Sraâ—â—ord Who moving in so high a Sphere and with so vigorous lustre raise many envious exhalations which condensed by popular odium are capable to cast a cloud upon the brightest merit and integrity as the divine Kings words are and to chuse such choice servants and friends whose intâ—grity conscience prudence and industry they being responsible for Holinshed p. 324 p. 511. may not be defeated in and then they will be secure if not from the calumâ—y yet from the desert of envy which had the Spensers in E. 2. time p. 555. the Earl of March temps H. 4. Earl of Arundel and Lord Percy temps R. 2. guarded themselves against they could not have fallen as they did For much suspected by me does no hurt when nothing proved can be is true All which in such measures and proportions as God shall permit their prudences to method to themselves being protected and blessed by him makes Favourites not crazy but hayle and happy in their Princes favour then which there is no speedier way to Rise Riches Nobility Prelacy Splendour and Endowments of all kinds possible to be imagined for though Riches Industry and Frugality give many rounds to the ascents of men yet the Master Caper and the Noblest Capreol to advance is the Kings Favour which as it is too full a blessing for any but a Magnanimous and Royall minded person to disgest and well manage so to such as already have or hereafter may have it I beseech God it may be continued and enlarged for it is an opportunity to serve God the King the people and the havers to all beneficially Noble purposes it being under the King the spring that moves all without which nothing runnes currant but has cheques too many to pass by as is evident in the vivid representation of it in Haman who is said to have his seat set by Abashuerus above all the Princes that were with him Ver. 2. Esther 3. and to command that all the Kings servants should bow before him and his word so prevail'd with the King that he gave him his Royal Signet and said The Silver is given to thee the people also to do with them as it seemeth good to thee Ver. 10 11. and what Haman issues forth is dispatched to the Kings Lieutenants to be accordingly executed Ver. 12 13. In that I say these are the bounties of Princes to their Favourits from whom they seem to withhold nothing but the Throne it self there is great cause to conclude That no way to advance Men and Families is more expedite and energical then Service to and Favour from Princes For if the displeasure of a King be as the messenger of death Prov. 16. 14. and the fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lyon who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul Pro. 20. 2. If not only in case of Felony or Treason but upon displeasures penalties are not only inflicted upon persons but upon Lands Cambden in Doaset Britan. p. 214. and that indelibly as Mr. Cambden tells us the Lands of Hinde and others in New Forrest were charged and yet pay white hart Silver for killing a white Hart of H. 3. in that Forrest If these terrours and mulcts are in the disfavour of a King whose frown and word has killed the heart of subjects of courage who durst have out-lived any other hardship what joy and freedom is in the Kings favour No less sure then dew upon the grass Prov. 19 12. Ch. 20. v. 8. v. 26. Eccles. 8. 4. no less then scattèring all evil and bringing the wheel over the wicked no less then power and that visible in the testimonies of his favour and the effects of it the prosperity of which is such as the Princes in soul and government are whose the favour is and the design of the soul is who is a suitor for and obtainer of it For as to be in favour with Terrible Princes whose reigns are butcheries and whose instruments must be rigorous and cruel as was Peirce Exton to H. 4. who to be as that Kings words were The faithfull friend which will deliver me of him whose life will be my death and whose death will be the preservation of my life Holinshed in H. 4. p. 517. undertook and effected the execrable and damnable Parricide of good King Rich. 2. is to be a divel in Flesh and a miscreant more unhappy then almost Hell can make one So to be in favour with a vertuous and serene Prince whose soul is so serious and sincere that he dare appeal to God as his Compurgator and beseech God to try and search him if there be any malicious and premeditated iniquity in him and in his government by his privity To be a Favourite to a Prince whose faith in and relyance upon God comforts him Eicon Basil. Sect. 15. That no black veils of calumny shall
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