them Ubi supra like a Tennis-ball tossed hither and thither from hazard to hazard and anon out of the Court Notable is that of Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let not your power your policy your command or magnanimity puffe you up Insitum est humanis ingeniis imperio insolenter uti De Const lib. 2. c. 25 said Lipsius as great men have been carried about in an Iron cage The blood which now is warm shall freeze anon in your veins the marrow shall drie up in your bones your sinewes shall shrink and eye-strings crack within a short space you shall not bee able to help your selves Let not your beauty or bravery make you ambitious supercilious or haughty Your bodies are vile bodies not God but sin hath made them so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elut ubi supra beauty is a thing desirable but it is not durable it is but skin deep a raise with a pin or a daies sicknesse may spoil you of it Let not your Rings your Ornaments raise your spirits they are but badges of your sin and shame It argues a vain frothy heart to bee so proud of such petty things a naughty heart to bee proud of any thing If thy out-side be thy best side thou art poor miserable wretched Worthy Gentlemen when God lifts up your heads let it be your care to keep down your hearts all the world cannot keep that man up that doth not keep down his spirit Remember the doleful Catastrophe of Herod the great of Agrippa the great of Alexander the great you are all in his hand who touches the mountains they smoak who bindes Kings in chains and Nobles in fetters of Iron you are in his hand who will bring you to death and to the house appointed for all the living I shall close up this with that of Bernard Quid prosunt Divitiae quid Honores Divitiae non liberant a morte nec delitiae a verme nec honores a faetore nam qui modo sedebat dives gloriosus in throno modo jacit pauper in tumulo qui prius delitiis oblectabatur modo a vermiculo consumitur qui paulo ante in aula principium honorandus efferebatur modo in sepulchro ignominiosus jacet Eighthly Labour to get sin pardoned No sooner did iniquity enter into your souls but mortality seized on your bodies The parcels of dust which were bound together in Adam by a bond of Innocency were shaken loose upon the commission of his first sin and are not you of his posterity Death like an Archer sometimes shoots over the mark and takes one away that was above you sometimes short of the mark and takes one away that was below you sometimes on the right hand there falls a friend anon on the left then dies a foe but the game is never done till you fall and therefore it concerns you to importune the sin-forgiving God to wash your souls in the blood of Jesus to free you from the guilt and filth of sin Notable is that of Job c. 7. ult And why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity Observe the importunity of this holy man what 's the matter that Job so expostulates with God for the remission of his sin Bern. Peccare humanum est perseverare in peccato est diabolicum what need of so much speed and expedition hee gives you the ground and reason For now shall I sleep in the dust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall go into the earth I shall die thou shalt seek mee in the morning but I shall not bee It was Chrysostomes complaint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. in Mat. 22. c. it is in that excellent peece of his which Aquinas professed hee had rather have than to bee chief Lord of Paris Every mans care is and labour is about this present life but about pardon of sin Mallem habere opus imperfectum J. Chrys super Matthaeum quam esse dominus Civitatis Parisiensis Carthus de 4 Nov. p. 48 assurance of Gods love and things to come Death and Judgement Not a word is spoken O that the Lord would make his own discoveries unto you of the excellency and necessity of pardoning mercy without pardon of sin you can neither live well nor die well It is a mercy which God ever gives in mercy it is a mercy which makes way for the obtaining of eternal mercies it is a mercy which makes all other mercies to look like mercies taste like mercies and work like mercy it gives liberty to the soul in prison ease in bonds life in death sense of pardon takes away the sense of pain It is bonum comprehensivum in the bossome of it Jer. 33.24 all the riches of Heaven and Earth too are treasured up It is the souls Sanctuary as Augustin speaks The one thing necessary in the day of adversity then there is plus periculi and then it is suavius beneficium How few Princes and great men have you heard upon their knees confessing and praying with that man after Gods own heart For thy Name sake O Lord pardon our iniquities In hoc nomine vincam Luth. for they are great Most miserabley on will bee though now honourable wretched you will bee though now rich if you go out of the world as you come into the world with the guilt of sin upon your consciences Nulla satis magna securitas dum pericliâ—atur aeternitas It is not imaginable that your resurrections shall bee to glory if you die in your iniquity your graves shall bee but the suburbs of Hell You shall bee digged out of those burrows and dragged out of those nasty dens to answer for all your wicked pranks and practises done in your mortal bodies Petitions for pardon speak the Petitioners dependence on another great men will not close with this they would bee thought to have all others to depend on them themselves on none petitions for pardon suppose guilt and guilt the breach of a divine Law Princes and great men would bee reputed guiltlesse lawlesse Petitions for pardon intimate a power in God to punish delinquents penes quem facultas remittendi penes â—um potestas puniendi this is not much regarded The God who multiplies pardons as wee multiply provocations open our eyes to see the sinfulnesse of our sins and the dolefulnesse of our state Anon there will bee no place left for repentance nor remission neither in Christs heart nor ours Anon wee shall have no more comfort from that promise of pardon Prov. 28.13 if now wee neglect it then now the Devils have the gates of mercy shall bee shut eternally and neither Christ in a capacity to give nor your selves in a capacity to receive a pardon Remember O remember this lay not the greatest burden upon the weakest beast leave not the greatest work for your sick-bed It is no beginning to caulk the Ship when in a storm it is
had in his library five hundred thousand books or Xenophon that great scholar how hee conducted ten thousand Greeks over the Fords of fifty Rivers and through the midst of an hundred thousand enemies from Persia into Greece Solon was used to say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Melchior Adams relates of D. Chytraeus that as hee lay upon his death-bed Jucundiorem sibi decessum sore si moribundus etiam aliquid didicisset pag. 694. hearing some disputing by him with a low voice lest they should disturb him lifted up his head and desired them to speak up for hee should die the more chearfully if hee died learning somewhat Sigismund the Emperour at the Counsel of Constance lamented this that neither hee nor any of his great Courtiers and Counsellors were able to answer a forraign Embassador in the Latine Tongue and told his Nobles that had no learning that hee preferred before them some of obscure Parentage meerly for their polite learning saying that hee had good reason to honour scholars above all men as those that wer singularly graced and gifted of God Knights and Lords I can make in a day as many as I please but scholars God only can make Vide Corn. Agr. de vanit Sci. Calvin in 1 Cor. 13.8,9 It is not great estates and places but great parts and graces that makes truly noble Augustin Bishop of little Hippo by his learning became more famous infinitely than Cecilius Bishop of great Carthage Yet I make bold to minde you of a common saying of your grave Father it is better to bee an honest man without learning than learned without honesty As Agrippa the noble Counsellor and Favourite of Octavian told him Vertue makes men equal to the gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us not for the tree of Knowledge lose the tree of Life Surgunâ— indocti rapiunt coelum nos cum doctrina nostra detrudimur in Gehennam I cannot but tremble to read that of Augustin The unlearned arise and take Heaven by force when we with all our learning are turned into Hell Accomplished and accoutred with learning and grace you may serve your own Generation by the will of God before you fall asleep bee laid unto your Fathers and see corruption Non potest esse verus Christianus nec recitare orationem dominicam Ninthly Bee fitting and preparing your selves every day for your dissolution Looking for longing after and hastening to the comming of the day of God Hee cannot said Luther bee a sincere Christian Ioh. Gerard. Vossius de Extr. Jud. nor can hee pray over the Lords Prayer who with all his heart desires not this dayes approach It were very profitable could wee hear each hour what they say Jerome did though learned Vossius say's it is not found in his works Arise yee dead and come to judgement Death is strong it conquers all the grave is cruel it spaâ—…s none Hannibal never slept in the camp without his armour wee dwell in houses of clay our foundation is in the dust thrice happy are wee if wee bee ready for the grave Job 17.8 by that time the grave is ready for us I shall not praedict yet I humbly conceive if some of you live long I shall not My care shall bee as Seneca said his was now being young how to live well and if old age come then how to dye well Once more Psal 31.19 Heb. 11.2 2 Cor. 4.17 2 Tim. 4 8 Meditate frequently of the greatness of those good things and the goodness of those great things reserved for such as fear and love God Our Lord Jesus had them in his eye so had Moses Paul and others This will help you to walk more thankfully work more chearfully suffer more patiently fight more valiantly repulse temptations more strongly lay out your selves more freely live with what providence hath cut out more contentedly An mercedis intuitu Deo servire liceat Vide Estium in Sent. lib. 1. Dist 1. parag 3. lit D. E. F. to leave the world more willingly to imbrace death joyfully it is too large to dispute that question and weigh those school-distinctions Set some part of every day apart to admire the Lords graciousness not only in present protections of us but future provisions for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epict. Enchir. cap. 65. No more That of Isocrates shall bee my Apology for this boldnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Freedome of discovery what bee our thoughts is the greatest signe of true affection Vide Plut. in Cat. Uti I shall not transcribe Cato's grave advice to his son it may bee worth perusal you have it in Plutarch to whom I referre you When God bestowed on Abram a new name hee gave him a new blessing bee it so with you When the time of your Shrevalty is expired and your health perfectly restored if you shall bee reinvested with magisterial power and authority I humbly beseech you and the God of Heaven for you not to bear the sword in vain put on Righteousnesse let it cloath you Let judgement bee your Robe and Diadem bee eyes unto the blind legs unto the lame the blessing of him who is ready to perish shall come upon you The Lord who brought you together blesse you together and fit you for Heaven in life and admit you and your hopeful progeny after you to Heaven at death This shall bee the prayer and breathings of his soul whose all is but to serve you in the Gospel of Christ J. Livesey August 24. 1655. Jehosaphats Charge TO HIS JUDGES Opened in a Sermon preached ON 2 Chronicles 19. part of the 6. verse Take heed what yee do Take up and read verse 5 6. 7. And hee set Judges in the Land thorough the fenced Cities City by City And said to the Judges take heed what yee do for yee judge not for man but for the Lord who is with you in the Judgement Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord bee upon you take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts ZEnophon reports of Socrates Memorab lib. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hee was so pious that hee would do nothing till hee had asked counsel of the gods Zenoph Hist lib. 1. p. 19 20 and so just that hee never did wrong to any person no not in matters of trivial concernment the like hee relates of Cyrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A. Gellius observes Zenoph de Institutione Cyri. that Publius Scipio Africanus was accustomed before hee set himself about any business of great consequence and importance before the dawning of the day to enter the Capitol and there to stay alone a season A. Gel. N. Attic lib. 7. cap. 1. pag. 187. Plin. Paneg. Trajano Augusto in principio consulting as it were with Jupiter there hee submitted his projects to the judgements of
Rev. 14.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from henceforth expect not blessednesse if you rest from your labours Job 3.17 before ye die in the Lord There viz. in the grave the weary are at rest That sentence is entailed on all Mortalls In the sweat of thy brow or brain shalt thou eat thy bread till thou return unto the ground Gen. 3.19 By Mahomets law the Grand Turk himself was to bee of some trade The Athenians hated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By Solons Law idle persons were to suffer death Non solum negotii sed otit redenda est ratio said Tully truly The Lacedaemonians called men to account for their idle hours an idle Magistrate or an idle Minister or an idle Gentleman the Lord abhorres it is not enough for you venerable Gentlemen Vide p. Mart. in 2 Sam. 11. Fusius agit contra otium not to do evil It is required that you as well as others nay that you more than others should bee doing good A Negative Magistrate is no Magistrate Nic Machiaveli disput de Republica lib. 1. cap. 1 Machiavels counsel is good Otium prohibeatur perpetua quaedam honestorum exercitiorum necessitas imperetur vitanda est maxime sterilitas c. Idlenesse exposeth to the Devils malice Idleness disposeth to the Devils service Vide Doctissimi Saunder soni concionem quartam ad populum Res age tutus eâ—is when hee findes you about nothing that is good he will imploy you about something that is evil otium animi mors est vivi hominis sepultura saith Seneca it is the death of the soul the interring of a man alive An idle hour is the hour of temptation a flying Lark who makes his mark Hispani bellum quam otium malunt Justin Hist .. lib. 44. p. 349. The Spaniards had rather bee warring than idleing if the Historian may bee credited and in my judgement it is more eligible Legitima authoritas justa causa intentio recta moderamen debitum requiruntur secundum Bielem lib. 4. Sent. Distinct 15. Qu. 4. Illicit a non sunt Christianis bella sive defensiva sive invasiva modo adsint haec tria justitia causae potestas publica intentio recta Estius in Sent. lib. 3. Distinct 37. Parag. 20. If there bee a good cause a good call a good end and if managed in a right way and manner for Warre though a necessary evil is the solemn instrument of Justice the restraint of vice and publick insolencies the support of a body politick against forraign invasions and Domestick rebellions Up then and bee doing Honourable Lords and worthy Gentlemen account your selves happy in that God accounts you worthy to do any thing for him especially to bee so honourably imployed under him your time is short with us your work is great though the Sun stand still or go backwards yet still time goes forward five or six dayes beyond which you cannot sit will soon expire Reverend Fathers and Brethren Remember you and I that Motto of famous Mr. Perkins Minister verbi es Vide Bezam in vita Calvini 2 Per. 1.12,14 Hoc age And that worthy saying of judicious Calvin Quid si Christus cum venerit me otiosum invenerit what if Christ when hee comes to summon mee to death shall finde mee idle It was holy Augustins wish that Christ might finde him aut precantem Possid de vita moribus Aug p. penult Vel inveniendis rebus â—… de jam inventis c. aut praedicantem praying or preaching Possidonius relates this of him that hee was ever imployed either inventing or dictating transcribing perusing or preaching praying or visiting the Fatherlesse and the Widdows Et hoc agebat in die laborans in nocte lucubrans Minima portio temporis dabatur somno minor cibâ— nulla otio ita Adriâ—om de Hieron And memorable is that which Augustine himself spake to Eudoxius and the brethren with him in his eighty first Epistle As Fire and Water so Pride and Sloathfulnesse are by Ministers to bee shunned It is certain a whet is no let Recreation may bee used but in its due season Amice quisquis huc venis aut Agito paucis aut abi aut me laborantem adjuva haec erat inscriptio musaei Urfmian Vide Melâ—…i Adam Vide P. Mart. in 2 Sam. 12 and with a right intention to fit us for our work but never as our work not to procure wealth but to preserve health which such as live sedentary lives seldome have and also with choice persons The two witnesses of whom you read Rev. 11. end their lives and their labours together Nullus est in Anglica diligentior Episcopus quam Diabolus said Latimer There is not a more busy Bishop in all England than is the Devil shall wee learn some good of him To bestirre our selves the more because our time is short Rev. 12.12 The Levites in the Law were discharged at fifty in part Numbers 8.25 Let not us pretend more weaknesse of body or decay of memory of natural abilities and faculties more than is to gain a dispensation Augustin preached till his last sicknesse aged seventy six And Ambrose dyed commenting on the Psalm Usque ad suam ipsam extremam aegritudinem Possid ubi supra on that 47. Psalm if A Lapide mistake not Oportet Episcopum conscionantem mori soul-work is sweet work though wee sweat Paul did not say I converted more than they yet hee could say I laboured more than they and herein may wee solace our selves if Israel bee not gathered wee have discharged our duty in some measure sincerely though slenderly non curatio sed cura Ovium a pastore requiritur as A Lapide well observed A Lapid in 1 Tim. 4 Christians this is of concernment to you also you must bee doing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Religion consists not in wording Justin Mar. Aq. 1. p. qu. 1. Art 4. Estii praefat in Sent. Tenendum est Lev. 25 but in working not in speaking but in living great things The Jews usually called the seventh year the idle year because then there was no plowing no sowing no reaping or mowing with many Christians every year is the idle year Should wee bee examined what wee have done for God what naked backs wee have cloathed what hunger-starved bellies wee have refreshed what duties wee have discharged should conscience speak and all tongues bee silent shame might cover our faces Seneca jeered the Jews because they lost one day in seven Vide Aug. de C. D. lib. 6. cap. 11 To observe the Sabbath day was with him to lose a day well might hee deride the Christians of this lazy drousy age were hee now alive who lose Lords dayes Exercise dayes and other precious seasons for soul advantages too many dividing their lives one half they are idle and the other they do nothing Pauci hoc agunt said the Heathen Philosopher It
make him busy in the world 1 Pet. 5.8 his design this morning is mainly upon you My Lords as the Panther hates the Effigies and portraicture of a man so the Devil hates the very picture of a good Magistrate and of a good Minister hee will indeavour to dis-swade you from your duty distract and disturb you while you are doing your duty yea and hee will if hee can discourage you when you have done your duty As God standeth in the Congregation of the mighty Job 1.6 judging amongst the Gods So the Devil standeth in the Congregation of the mighty tempting and corrupting those mortal gods As God stands at the right hand of his servants Psal 110.5 so Satan also stands at the right hand of Gods servants Zech. 3.1 if God assist from Heaven the Devil will resist from Hell the left hand is the lazy hand there hee stands where hee can do most mischief Hee is an evil spirit Metaphysically good indeed but Morally and Theologically evil therefore called as Maldonate and our Anotators in the Lords Prayer Evil Deliver us from Evil Cum hostem cernimus aliquid agere quod plane videatur imprudenter actum abhorrere a ratione suspicari dolum aliquem subesse debemus Mach. Disput de Repub. lib. 3. cap. 48. from Satan If ever hee move to any thing that is good observe it and it is either from a bad principle in an evil manner or to a bad end at a wrong time to an improper work c. And therefore as Machiavel counsels in another case suspect him hee intends you no good Take heed then what you do There are special seasons in which Satans Temptations are most seen by discerning Christians a hint or two I shall but give or shoot an arrow or two friendly to admonish you when there is most danger and need to look about you 1 In times of great pressures and afflictions felt or feared when God is afflicting Satan is plotting to put the Saints on indirect waies and means to bee delivered or to repine against God 2 In times of spiritual desertion when the Lord hides his face Satan puts out his head and troubles greatly 3 In times of great discoveries of divine assistance and manifestations of his loving kindnesse which is better and sweeter than life unto a sincere convert after extraordinary inlargement of heart in duty c. 4 At the day of death and dissolution if hee cannot keep the soul from going to Heaven yet hee will indeavour to keep Heaven from comming into his soul I mean the joys and come forts of the Spirit hee is the Prince that hath power in the air the souls that go to Heaven passe through his territories by his very nose how doth hee snarle think you or hath hee done when the Saint is newly dead and his soul taken up to Heaven 5 At such times and upon such occasions as this when some great peece of work is upon the Loom some notable enterprize for Gods glory is upon the Anvile Satan chops in retards the work the instance is pregnant Zech. 3. begin you are now fore-warned take heed therefore what yee do Reason 9 Ninthly The eyes of many are upon you this day and therefore you are obliged to Take heed what you do Notable is that of Seneca Custos te tuus sequitur Senec. Fragm p. 1271. put as tibi contigisse ut oculos omnium effugias Demens quid tibi prodest non habere conscium habenti conscientiam what if thou vain man couldest escape the view of mortal men go further Suppose the holy Angels and the immortal God did not behold thee what if thou hadst no other conscious or privy to thy transactions when as thy conscience which is in stead of a thousand witnesses is guilty but wee have supposed what is not what ought not to be asserted Hear that Heathen again Magnum nescio quid majusque quam cogitati potest numen est cui vivende operam damus Huis nos approhemus nihil prodest inclusam esse conscientiam Deo patemus The eye of God is upon you apposite is that of Elihu in Job 36.7 He withdraweth not his eyes from the Righteous but with Kings are they on the Thrine Hee is totus oculus All eye to see you what ever you do All Ear to hear whatever you say Angels are knowing Creatures De scientia Angelorum plurima notavit Estius lib. 2. Distinct 7. Parag. 11 12 but they know not the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts si signo non prodantur externo as they speak they are not within the ken of men nor within the walk of humane Justice nor subject to the censures of terrene Courts or Consistories But God sets them in the light of his countenance Lips de Const lib. 2. cap. 13 15 Aug. Soliloq cap. 14 Nobis ergo as Lipsius speaks magna est indita necessitas juste agendi recteque vivendi qui cuncta facimus ante oculos Judicis cuncta cernentis The eyes of the glorious Angels are this day upon you as they inform you of Gods Will so they inform God of your wayes Zech. 1.11 and works they tell him what is done here amongst men The eyes of many honourable Gentlemen are upon you Aliquis vir bonus nobis eligendus est ac semper ante oculos habendus ut sic tanquam illo spectante vivamus omnia tanquam illo vidente faciamus c. Sen. Ep. 11. ad finem And it was Seneca's councel to his Lucilius ever to have in his eye either Cato or Laelius or some good man This hee thought would over-awe his Spirit Certainly whoever judgeth and pleadeth as in his eye who is to bee feared will in short time come himself to bee feared to say no more the eye of those trembling Prisoners at the Bar will bee upon you All which considered It will appear of great concernment that you Take heed what you do Once more Tenthly The lives liberties the rights and priviledges the estates and interests of persons are sacred choice and precious things therefore it concerns you My Lords to take heed what you do O let not the line of Justice bee made crooked let not the course of equity bee perverted Life is precious silver and gold are dull and dead commodities to THIS Job 2.4 How did that unparrellel'd Queen beg for her life Esther 7.3 like a Creeple on a bridge Let my life bee given mee at my petition not riches nor honours Stemmata quid prosunt Incomparable was the love which God manifested to the world in giving his Son Jesus Christ So So God loved the World That is such a Sic as never had a Sicut Iohn 3.16 Non unum e multis sed unigenitum Vnigenitum in quo omnem suum amorem collocaverat non quoquo modo dedit sed dedit ut tanquam serpens in deserto exaltaretur i.e.
out of which wound it is said his guts came as Julians did Sine caede vulnere pauci Descendunt Reges Fourthly What was the cause or what might bee the occasion of this Prince or great mans Fall in Israel It was Jobs suspition may it admit so faire a construction that Abner would prove an Ambodexter Abner had revolted from Ishbosheth because hee had questioned him for the familiar usage of one of Sauls Concubines wee may not conceal the truth Abner was deeply guilty if of no more of a treacherous inconstancy If Ishbosheth had no true title to the Crown Abner sinned in maintaining it if hee had Abner sinned in forsaking it Tostatus saith that hee knew the Kingdome did not de jure belong to Ishbosheth but to David Suppose his former undertaking was evil yet to desert him eo modo hoc ex injusto furore as Tostatus to withdraw his professed allegiance upon a private revenge was to take a lewd leave of an evil action In a word Joab thinks it is no trusting a Turn-coat Or it was pretended revenge for the blood of his Brother Asahel verse 27. Joab was Ish dammim a man of bloods Tostatus disputes the question whether Joab sinned in slaying Abner Vide Tostaâ— in loc hee concludes positively Hee killed the man without a just cause hee killed the man without a just call hee had no authority to do it non erat Judex ad infligendum illi mortem hee slew him modo in honesto and hee broke the peace granted him by the King The pride of Joabs heart put him upon this horrid and hellish fact Mallem hic primus esse quam Romae secundus Caesar de oppidulo quodam dum Alpes transiret Hee was afraid least Abner by this important service should grow too great in the Kings favour It was cursed pride that put Zimri on to murther Elah his Lord and Master It was pride that made Athaliah to destroy all the seed Royal of the house of Judah It was pride that put Herod on to seek the blood of Jesus and it was pride in which Joab dipt his dagger wherewith Abner is slain Nebuchadnezzars pride ushered in the destruction of the Assyrian Monarchy Cyrus his pride made way for the overthrow of the Babylonian Monarchy Alexanders pride was the cause of the Annihilation of the Persian Monarchy The Roman Commanders by their pride occasioned the subversion of the Grecian Monarchy as it is by some observed It was pride that put the Pharisees on to persecute Christ and it was pride in Joab that curtaild Abners daies Joab would have none so deep in the Kings books as himself no corrivall with him in honours and preferments Joab suspected his reputation would bee blasted his fame eclipsed his service lesse regarded If Abners design bee now accomplished This Magnum Nihil of Honour hee is so tender and jealous of that hee is resolved Abner shall die Nec quemquam jam ferre potest Caesarve priorem Pompeiusve parem Fifthly What was the fruit or the sequel of this Prince and Great mans Fall I shall hint briefly 1 Davids vindication of his own innocency vers 28. I and my Kingdome are guiltless before the Lord q. d. I am not to bee accused of nor charged with this bloody fact It is lawful for the most humble man to vindicate and plead his own innocency when hee sees others may suspect him It is lawful for a man to do himself open right when others do him open wrong David might say as once Augustin did Mihi sufficit conscientia mea bona vobis vero necessaria est fama mea Sometimes the subjects go mad and Kings are sent to Bedlam Though that bee mostly true Delirant reges c. David will have the fault laid at Joabs door and therefore Apologizeth for himself as well hee might 2 Davids fearful Imprecation verse 28. Let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue or that is a Leper c. All sore and heavy Judgements the Issue makes the body to pine away the Leprosy makes the body loathsome both make it unclean so that it must not come into the Congregation the Gout or Palsey make a living man as if hee were dead To Fall by the sword of an enemy a sad Judgement 2 Sam. 24. and so to bee starved to death for want of bread Tostatus disputes the question An peccavit David maledicendo Joab hee answers negatively and saith licet maledicere quando ille qui maledicit est Judex imponit maledictionem in partem paenae The Rabbines are too rash who say that David was too much carried on with violent passions in this direful dreadful imprecation upon Joab and all his Fathers house and therefore say all these evils fell upon some of his own posterity and race Rehoboam had an issue Uzziah was a Leper Asa was pained in his feet Josiah fell by the sword c. It is granted cursing men are commonly cursed men but David was not here moved by humane passion but by a Prophetick spirit 3 The Declaration of Joabs cowardice and Abners valour Died Abner as a fool died hee died not as a fool nor as a felon nor as a fugitive No hee was suddenly and treacherously surprized Had Joab and Abner tryed it out in open field and fight Abner no doubt had given evident discoveries of his dexterity and activity of the couragiousnesse of his heart and noblenesse of his spirit 4 Abners honourable Interment or Incineration vers 32. They buried Abner in Hebron loco revera honorifico saith P. Martyr R. Solomon thinks Adam and Eve Abraham and Sarah Vide Cartwright electa Targumico Rabbinica in Gen. 23.2 Peâ—er in Gen. 23. p. 663. Isaac and Rebecca Jacob and Lea were buried there Adricomius Pererius Borcardus and others write much of it It was the principal royal City belonging to Judah hereabouts was that great entertainment made the covert of a Tree was the dining room the ground the Table Abraham the Caterer Sarah the Cook Veal and welcome the cheer Angels in the shape of men Christ in the notion of an Angel the guests Adrichom â— Theatrum Terrae Sanctae p. 49. fig. 145 Aug. de Cur. ger pro mortuis A comely burial is an office of humanity a duty of charity a great blessing it is so promised and prized in sacred writ the want thereof as a curse is threatned Jer. 22.19 Tully calls Clodius his body infoelix cadaver because it was cast out unburied Abners was not so Never man was killed more cowardly and interred more honourably 5 King Davids and all Israels bitter lamentation vers 31. They lift up their voices and wept The sweet singer in Israel is now chief mourner in Israel To honour Prince Abner forgetting his royal soveraignty and Kingly dignity David himself doth follow the Beere it is disputed by Interpreters whether Davids tears were real or hypocritical faigned and
forced P. Mart. in loc I referre them to the learned Martyr who would know more of this for satisfaction 6 King Davids commendation of this deceased Prince Abner in my Text in which something is spoken to the living Know yee not c. Something is spoken of the Dead There is a Prince and a Great man fallen 7 Davids ingenuous confession I am this day weak though anointed King Of which now something more by way of explication no more by way of inquiry The Explication To the living King David directs his speech Know yee not i.e. as Carthusian rightly Ignorare non debetis c. you who are Chieftains in Israel cannot ought not to bee such strangers in Israel our breach is great like the Sea who can heal it Know yee not It highly concerns you to know it to bee much affected with it and afflicted for it and with tears of blood to deplore it Verba sensus connotant affectus There is a Prince The Scripture which speaks no Treason gives this title to many There is the eternal Prince our Lord Jesus Christ Isa 9.6 The Father of eternity the Prince of Peace Some of the Rabbines understand that of Hezekiah wee must of Christ hee is our peace Ephes 2.2 John 14 There is the infernal Prince Satan so stiled once and again in holy writ Princes have their Territories so Satan hath his they have their subjects and hee his Their Thrones and hee his they have their homage and peculiar honour done unto them Satan hath his Rev. 13.4 hee is indeed a Prince but a Captive Prince under pains and chains of darknesse hee can neither do what he would nor shall hee ever do what hee can potestas est sed sub potestate as the Father speaks There is some order even amongst the Devils the damned spirits in Hell There are spiritual Princes every childe of God is such a Prince In some Nations all the Kings children are called Princes the first born only in others in the Kingdome of grace and glory every Subject is a Soveraign Every one resembles the child of a King as Zeba and Zalmunna said to Gideon of his Brethren consider their original they are born of the blood royal his Sons who is King of Kings Or their possessions All is theirs Dan. 7.27 Rev. 21.7 all under Heaven and in Heaven 's theirs fidelibus totus mundus est divitiarum Aug Ep. 89 as Augustin speaks They have the power of Princes Are guarded as Princes are adorned as Princes entertained as Princes they feed on Christ cloathed as Princes with a Stole of Immortality and garments of praise There are saecular Princes such are the first masculine branches which spring from the stem of Majesty Abner was none such How then could hee promerit this honourable title of a Prince I answer Persons in great authority and of great quality The worthy the wealthy ones of a Nation in sacred story are stiled Kings and Princes Gen. 14.8 Isa 23.7 Gen 40.1.37 p. 36 It is said of Tyrus her Merchants were Princes and her Traffickers the honourable men of the earth Thus Abner was a Prince a Prince and a Great man A Great man prudentia strenuitate ac virtutibus ad bellatorem spectantibus saith Carthusian in four respects hee deserved the stile of Great man In respect of his great allyance In respect of his great influence In respect of his great attendance and in respect of his high promotion and office We have read and heard of Alexander the Great and Pompey the Great and Charles the Great and of Herod the Great and here of Abner the Great Know yee not that there is a Prince and a Great man fallen Fallen i.e. dead I shall not stand now to discourse of Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plotin Ennâ—ad lib. 7 p. 62 lib. 4. c. 30 as Plotinus speaks To dye is for the soul to put off the body as doth the body put off its cloaths David the Oratour at Abners Funeral calls it a Fall which came by a fall Fallen this day Not without an Emphasis it deserves an hand in the Margent This day The design hee had now on foot the project upon the Anvile was the reduction of all Israel to David to yeeld subjection to his royal Scepter about this work hee was the man imployed but in ipso limine impingere is matter of saddest lamentation a noble work was now on Abners Loom Israel must bee reduced Abner is the instrument if his skill run parallel with his will or the event answer his intent twice happy Israel thrice happy Abner but in this nick of time and juncture of affairs This Prince and project too are fallen in Israel And I am this day weak Tenellus as Tirinus renders it Sicut ramusculus tener de Novo plantatus as Nichol. de Lyra like a tender plant that hath not yet taken root and therefore stand in much need of Abners help to establish mee in the Throne The Seventy read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cognatus so near allyed to Joab I cannot do justice and judgement on him Others read it and the original well bears it weak i.e. of small power to execute justice and Judgement on Joab and Abishai the sons of Zerviah who was the Kings Sister They were principal men had a mighty influence upon the tribe of Judah and the rest of the tribes were not at this time in confederacy It is disputed by Interpreters whether David did well in delaying the execution of Justice upon those wilful murtherers They who condemn this act say that wilful murtherers should bee taken from the very horns of the Altar if they flye to it for shelter and sanctuary and bee put to death and that the guilt of blood lay now upon the King and Kingdome during Joabs reprieve There was from God an absolute preremptory command Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood bee shed For demurs there is no warrant in the Word They who excuse this act and apologize for the King say To have punished Joab immediately might have been extreamly prejudicial to King and Kingdome It is said when Honorius the Emperour had cut off Stillico his General that hee had cut off his own hands hee never did worthy act after Joabs punishment was not remitted but respited The Law of Executing murtherers doth binde to take the fittest time not to all times Not to determine but without further explication of the termes I shall now pass to such instructions or conclusions as flow naturally from the Text and are most seasonable for this occasion they bee in number three Observ 1 Princes are not priviledged from falling nor Great men from dying Observ 2 It is every mans duty to take notice of deeply to bee affected with and bitterly to weep over and lament the falls of Princes and Great men especially if they bee good men Observ 3 It is a lawful
Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Velvet Slip-shooe is sometimes molested with the Gout the Diadem cures not an aching head nor the chain of gold the tooth-ach And are not these Symbola or singultus morientis naturae But I proceed to the Application of this momentous Truth mine eye is most on that but how to apply it to persons of quality I am yet to learn I may say of this subject Epist ad Francisc Sfort. as Bellarmin did of his book de Arte bene moriendi non allicit ad audiendum absterret potius praesertim viros magnos sive principatu politico sive sacro c. but as Augustin called on his so shall I on my godly hearers Enar. in Psal 39.4,5 orate pro nobis fratres ut quod videndum est bene videamus quod dicendum est bene dicamus I shall reduce what is in my thoughts to two heads Some practical Inferences and an use of comfort I begin with practical Inferences Are not Princes priviledged from falling Must they dye Then First Let this bee your greatest care and most earnest prayer that your souls may live Then life nothing is more desired Then the life of the soul nothing is lesse regarded It was Davids humble petition Psal 119 175. Let my soul live and it shall praise thee What if your bodies fall what though you dye If your souls live you shall do well O bee more solicitous about the lives of your souls with what Arguments shall I excite and quicken you Right Worshipful and Beloved hereunto bee pleased solemnly and seriously to consider That you never more indeavour the prolonging of the lives of your bodies than when you are most studious and solicitous about the lives of your souls Vide Photii Epist 133. de nobilitate animae E Coelo terra omnibusque thesauris suis pro ejusdem fabric◠quod molius ac praestantius desumit ex ipsa terra carnem oss◠ab aqua humorem ab aere anhelitum flatum ab igne temperamentum calorem a lunamotum c. d◠contemptu mundi lib. 1. pag. ◠That there is nothing below Heaven so precious and noble as your souls I confesse your bodies in some respects are very precious quid invenire potest majori magisterio erectum fabricatum quam corpus humanum Consumitur quasi natura in fabrica operis tam excellentis as Bartholdus excellently But speaking of the soul saith hee quid est Deus nisi anima increata quid est anima hominis nisi Deus creatus c. The preciousnesse of it will appear if you consider three things 1 Satan is most busy about your souls he hath an envious eye and aching Tooth at them Non nisi magnum bonum a Nerone damnatur 2 God principally requires the soul My Son give mee thy heart 3 Soul-murther is the greatest next to the blood of Christ the blood of souls is most precious 3 There is no life like to the life of the soul The life of grace is the grace of life it is the sweetest life it is the securest life it is the most honourable comfortable and durable life 4 The life or death of the body follows the fate and state of the soul to all eternity and therefore it concerns you much to look after the lives of your souls 5 Till your souls bee enlivened they cannot bee saved 6 Till your souls bee enlivened no duty shall be accepted they are all dumb and dead services 7 Till your souls bee enlivened the Lord cannot bee praised or glorified Psal 119.175 8 Till your souls live indeed you do not live the Father of the Prodigal dated his sons life from his return This my Son was dead and is alive If my words be of any weight with you if your own souls bee of any worth with you Honoured and Beloved then let this bee your care and prayer Your bodies shall fall I dare not undertake to tell you precisely where nor how nor when Utiliter Deus latere voluit illum diem ut semper sit paratum cor ad expectandum quod esse venturum scit quando venturum scit nescit saith Augustin Enar. in Psal 36 but this is certain fall you must Thrice happy are you if your souls bee transported into Heaven before your bodies bee laid in the bowels of the earth Secondly Learn hence the vastnesse of that distance and infinitenesse of that disproportion twixt God and you who can measure the disproportion twixt an ever-living God Isa 40.15 and an ever-dying creature The Nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted when duly estimated as the small dust of the ballance All Nations before him are as nothing lesse than nothing and vanity Hee cannot dye nor lye Alas wee are all lying and dying creatures and cannot live When Moses desired to know what was his name Vide Aug. Enar in Psal 102 hee only receives this answer I am that I am i.e. I am a being of my self and truly wee cannot say so of any creature The Angels cannot say so nor men hee is an eternal being wee are all of yesterday hee is the Alpha and Omega wee are neither Before the world was hee was what now hee is and shall bee to eternity wee all fade as a leaf Isa 64.6 are shaken as a reed Matth. 11.7 wither as a Rush Job 8.11,12 Fade as a Rose which is blasted almost as soon as budded our lives like winds Job 7.7 or fomes Hos 10,7 Hee is an unchangeable being with him there is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no parallax no revolution no declination nor shadow of turning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How variable and changeable is frail man we dwell in houses of clay our foundation is in the dust no food no physick can keep us long from washing and wasting away Thirdly Whatever your hands finde to do do it with all your might Serve your Generation according to the will of God remembring that you must fall and that there is no knowledge nor wisdome nor working in the grave whither you are hastening Reges non creantur ut in otio vitam agant Kings and Princes are not created to live unprofitably It is not for you who are persons of quality to spend your lives your strength and estates in doing what is worse than nothing there are generous ingenuous liberal imployments sutable to your high births and educations Your noble Ancestors and renowned Progenitours rais'd their families to this pitch of Gentility not by tipling carding dicing hawking c. Delay not the doing of that which if once done all is done and if not done you are for ever undone Speedy indeavours are very necessary where delay is full of danger Some live as if this life should never have end the other no beginning I am now going to dye and yet have not begun to live was the doleful lamentation of Carolus King
of wrath from an incensed Majesty fall upon thy soul I may say Tautus paucissimorum jugerum pascuis impletur una sylva Elephantis pluribus sufficit homo terra pascitur mari quid ergo tam insatiabilem nobis natura alvum dedit c. Senec. Ep. 68 it would swallow up all the sweetnesse thou expectest in or from thy creature-comforts Worthy Gentlemen You are the men who have the world in a string swim in rivers of pleasures and rowe in Treasures but know how much soever you have of the world in your hands it is not good to have any of the world in your hearts Know that men of most wealth are not alwaies men of most worth I mean not the most worthy men Have not some said had they never been so happy they had never been so unhappy Beatus qui post illa non abiit quae possessa onerant amata inquinant amissa cruciant Bern. These things below were they the best things Jesus Christ had had more of them and the Devil would not so freely have offered them All these things will I give thee c. These things below they are more deceitful than delightful si aliqua hujus saeculi prosperitas arriserit nonne deceptoria est Enarrat in Psal 40 nonne fluxa caduca est nonne plus habent deceptionis quam delectationis saith holy Augustin If you make the world your God while you are in the world what wil you do for a God when you go out of the world Vide Bellarm. de A. B. morieâ— di cap. 2 O love the world my Brethren as if you were ever about to leave the world Make not your portion your God let God bee your portion The world is like water the more eagerly you grasp at it the lesse you hold of it Riches like witches are most hurtful to them who are most conversant with them or as sands in your hands the faster you gripe Senec. Nat. Qu. lib. 7. c. 31 Aug. Ep. 82 ad Laâ—gum the faster it goes If you have the whole world pusilla res mundus est c. God and all that a man hath is no more than God and nothing that a man hath God is all in all doth all by all and is All without all Remember I beseech you that you are dying men you live in dying times in dying places you have dying relations get dying affections Remember you must die and when you die you shall carry nothing away Psal 49.17 on which words Augustin excellently vides viventem cogita morientem quid hic habeat attendis quid secum tollat attende Quid secum tollit multum auri habet multum argenti multum praediorum multum mancipiorum moritur remanent illa nescio quibus Wee bring nothing with us into this world saith that blessed Apostle 1 Tim. 6.7,8 Nothing of the world comes with us into the world wee are not born with gold rings on our fingers nor with silver-spoons in our mouthes nothing but sorrow and sin and it is certain wee can carry nothing out In that question propounded to the Rich man Luk. 12.19,20 Whose shall these things bee it is implyed that his they shall not bee Hee had the provision of them but can no longer have the possession of them your works may and will your wealth cannot follow you when you flit hence A bundle of staves will hinder a man in his journey one helps him Vide Plotin Ennead lib. 2. cap. 15 A little of the world will serve to bring thee to thy bed Let not the Heathens shame us Elurus could say Da mihi popicentam aquam Aquin. in Phil. 4.13 Dictum illud Epicuri habetur in Senec. Ep. 110. ipsi Jovi de faelicitate controversiam faciamus and Seneca excellently in his eighty and sixty eight Epistles speaks to this purpose but I must pass those passages Chrysostome propounds the question and gives the answer Was Job miserable when hee had lost all that God had given him No hee had still that God who gave him all this is enough I shall conclude this with that of Cardinal Barbarinus Chrys Hom. 4. de patientia Job Vide Barbarini poemata p. 165 Mitte super vacuum cultum curisque solutus Eripe te rerum strepitu sibi vivere dulce est Vive deo tibi sic vives te sola sequentur Post cinerem bene facta rapit reliqua omnia lethum Seventhly Let this Meditation teach you a lesson of Humility Though you bee Elohims yet you shall die like men and fall as this great man this day in Israel Oh what frail mortal sickly sinful bodies do you and I carry about us Our bodies are the Anviles of pains and diseases our mindes the Hives of innumerable cares and sorrows and when wee are extolled highest wee are but those painted spots against which envy and death direct their fatal darts Let not your hearts swell at the thoughts of your honourable pedigree or that you are the progeny of Noble Ancestors Remember that you are all base born till born again Juvenal could say of Moral vertue Prov. 12.26 Lib. de Educandis liberis Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus It is grace alone that makes you noble it is the righteous man that 's the excellent man Psal 16,2,3 Plutarch could tell the great ones of his age 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and give mee leave to tell you that how nobly soever you are descended unlesse you bee virtuous your selves you disparage your Ancestors discredit your selves and shame your posterity Let not your Honours cause you to look high the lofty looks of man shall bee humbled and the haughtinesse of man shall bee bowed down the Lord of Hosts hath purposed to stain the pride of all glory and to bring into contempt all the honourable ones of the earth and shall not his counsel stand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Carthus de 4. Novissim p. 22 Heu qui finis fortunae quam stultum est gaudere de loco sublimi praecipiti Inquit Mago frater Hannibalis saith Plutarch in his book de Educandis liberis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glory and honour is venerable but not stable are you high in worth bee humble in heart the way to bee truly honoured is to bee thoroughly humbled Let not your vast estates or great riches make you proud it was Absoloms saying What are all these to mee except I see the Kings face say you unto your souls what are all these to mee except I have saving grace The whole Turkish Empire is but a crust that God casts to a dogge as Luther said Nugas King of Scythia asked the messenger who brought him those rich presents and Ornaments from the Emperour of Constantinople whether those things could drive away calamities diseases or death if not those were not worth thanking for they are Dei ludibria as a Heathen calls
tost hither and thither with waves and billows It is no time to begin to sue out a pardon when the pains of death arrest you To get sin pardoned and a soul trimmed for glory is too great a work to bee done ex tempore and in an hour of death when the thoughts of dying will and no wonder to unpardoned wretches more affrighr than that clap of thunder did Pyrander King of Egypt Ninthly Learn then not overmuch to love your lives Man is a life-loving creature Enar. in Psal 35.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 David propounds the question what man is hee that desireth life Augustin returns this answer Interroga nonne omnis in vobis respondet Ego an quisquam est in vobis qui non diligit vitam Thou and I and every one but as that Father further Vide August fusius hac de â—e De Tempore Serm. 113 Hee that desireth life bonam rem desiderat sed non in regione illam quaerit c. desires a good thing but seeks it not in the right place This life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is life in name but death in deed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quid est aliud diu vivere nisi diu torqueri saith Augustin Consider this life in its Best and Worst and you 'l say with Job in the Paroxysm of his sufferings I loathe it I would not live alwaies Chap. 7.16 it is as much to bee loathed as to bee loved It is as detestable as desirable Were you called to give your judgement of an horse you would enquire concerning his breed and speed his age in whose hands how used with many things more Quantum amanda est aeterna vita quum sic amatur misera haec finienda vita amasne istam vitam ubi tantum laboras curris satâ—gis anhelas non c. Aug. ubi supra but the case is altered when wee speak of life the vanity uncertainties of it the sins and sorrows the calamities that do attend it are not ballanced Till you bee without sin you cannot be free from sorrow When all sins are washed from your souls then shall all tears bee wiped from your eyes Eternal life is the only true life and eternal death the only true death no other life but that or which is in order to that is much to bee desired nor other death feared non est diu quod habet extremum that is not said Augustin to bee deemed long which shall have an end this shall that life cannot Tenthly And what follows chiefly concerns us of lower sphears and orbs Learn wee hence Not to confide in these Princes and Great men they are not immortal though they bee stiled Gods Miserable is that man whose God is mortal These Great men cannot support themselves nor succour you when death comes like Absoloms Mule they run from us when they should relieve us Herod the great for all his pride and Royalty could not shun the silly worms Two things commonly curtail the lives of our great ones their slighting and contemning their despising and abusing of the Lords Prophets I could make this out would time permit 2 Chron. 16.10,12 2 Chron. 24.21 25. 2 Chron. 26.19.20,21 Our overmuch dependence upon them and trust in them Gustavus A dolphus told his souldiers no lesse a little before his death These both are of malignant influences See Psal 146.3 Excellent is that counsel of a great Prince Trust yee not in Princes why so because they are the Sons of men suppose they bee may we not trust in the Sons of men No because there is no help in them Is it possible how can that bee alas when their breath goeth forth they return again to their earth Suppose all this bee true shall not their counsels stand No in that very day their projects perish with them Si dicendum est aliquid mirabile said one of the Ancients If I might speak a word which all the world may justly wonder at then I would say Trust yee not in Princes because they are Princes Notable is Augustins glosse upon that Text Divina vox est de super nobis sonat nescio qua infirmitate humana anima quando tribulata hic desperat de Domino vult praesumere de hominibus c. and a little after vere misera magna mors est in magnis Rara est in Nobilitate senectus Old age and healthful bodies are seldome made the appendages to great Honours and Houses Study my beloved that soul-humbling Text Psal 39.5 Verily Every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Selah Verily lets that in and Selah shuts that up Verily every man Man Gods master peece Miraculum magnum animal adorandum honorandum spectaculum admirandum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Trismegist and Plato call him Col. Adam Col. Hebel every man is every vanity and wee may not let passe that which is not least considerable in the text Every man at his best estate In the original it is every man standing standing as some improve it upon his Tiptoe in his beauty and bravery in his pomp and Majesty is but vanity is hee a thing then to bee trusted in No No To do so is both irrational and irreligious O say with that man of God My soul wait thou only upon God Psal 62.5 for mine expectation is from him and my trust is in him Give us help from trouble for the help of man is a lye Whom have wee in Heaven but thee to call upon or to relye upon or to trust in but thee Thou art our best friend when it is at best with us and our only friend when it is at worst with us Let our trust bee only in him for in the Lord Jehovah is strength Strength Trust in him at all times yee people God is a refuge for us Surely men of low degree are vanity Vide Aug. in Psal 62.9,10 and men of high degree are a lye to bee laid in the ballance they are alike lighter than vanity Eleventhly Learn hence Not to fix overmuch of your affections upon Princes and Great men There is a vanity upon all the whole Creation upon them especially Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils for whereof is hee to bee accounted Isa 2. ult bee they never so potent so prudent so politick their pomp shall bee brought down unto the grave the worms shall feed on them and the clods of the valley shall cover them Love them but as ever about to leave them or as if they were ever about to leave you Do not make your Lords your Gods Let God bee your Lord Ep. ad Zomobium Cosmum It is good that Machiavel hints Non ex statu fortune metienda virtus hominum sed ex animi dotibus qualitate strip your great ones of all their titles of honour their noble Parentage their rich and royal Vestments their Troops
sunt c. If death bee evil to any man it is mans fault not deaths fault It is a peece of folly to fear what cannot bee avoided Nihil facit mortem malam nisi quod sequitur mortem nor evaded by any Prince or Peasant Good education may free you from absurdities grace may free you from Hell neither can exempt from the arrest of death Certainly there is not so much reason for you who have part in God peace with God and well-grounded hopes of fruition of God to tremble as Lewis the eleventh of France did at the naming of Death Death will do that for you in a moment which all the Ordinances of God the graces of his Spirit yet never did It will set you free from sin sufferings and sorrow At the death of your bodies you shall bee fully delivered from this body of death Why should men disgust their own felicity and cherish an antipathy against that which so much conduceth to their eternal blisse It was more difficult to perswade some of the Heathens to live out their daies than it is to perswade thousands of us Christians to die Were Death so great an evil as is imagined Vide Ambros de bono mortis cap. 2. 8 Ambrose amongst the Fathers had not writ so much de bono mortis nor Plotinus and Seneca amongst the Philosophers Take but the pomps of death away saith one the disguises and solemn bug-bears the Tinsel Plotin Ennead lib. 7. c. 3. per totum and the actings by Torch or Candle-light and then to die is easy and quitted from its troublesome circumstances The troublesomenesse of it is owing to our fears Enchir. cap. 10 as Epictetus speaks truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Methodius mortem piorum definit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death cures us of all our maladies determins all our miseries Good men gain this by it that their calamities are not eternal Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death yea the dust of a Saint Christ hath taken away the death that was in death whatsoever is an evil of punishment though not death from the Saints It is now but a sleeping in Jesus a putting off of the old raggs of frailty and mortality that they may bee decked with garlands and stoles of glory For Consolation Use 1 1 Though Princes and Great men fall and die yet solace your selves in this Their souls are immortal it is the body only that 's laid in the dust The Romans when their Emperours and great ones died and their bodies were burned they caused an Eagle to mount on high thereby to signifie the souls immortality and ascent Socrates told Chiton asking him how hee would bee interred or what should bee done with him when dead Vide Heinsium de contemptu mortis lib. 2 I think saith Socrates I shall escape from you and that you cannot catch mee so much as you feize and lay hold on use it as you see cause I could never yet bee moulded into their opinions who maintained the traduction Est in Sentent lib. 2. Dist 17. Parag. 11. ad 17. the propagation of the soul and consequently the mortality of it Aquinas and Gerson both call them Hereticks who deny the creation of it meethinks it is absolutely impossible for any simple and uncompounded viz. essentially nature to bee subject to death and corruption Non excluditur omnis compositio solius dei proprium est esse perfecte absolute simplex Contarenas argues thus to omit all others Nihil potest perdere esse quod non perdit actum per quem est Istae autem formae simplices non possunt perdere actum per quem sunt quia sibi ipsis sunt actus nihil autem potest seipsum perdere Ergo Cont. de immort animae lib. 1. Et Plotin Ennead lib. 7 per totum The Scripture also is clear in my opinion for its immortality Phil. 1.23 Matth. 10.28 Eccles 12.7 the Heathens had some glympses of its immortality as Plato Tully and most or all of their Philosophers In a word as Cato Major said so I If I do erre in this I erre willingly neither will I ever suffer this errour in which I delight to bee wrested from mee as long as I live 2 Again Solace and comfort your selves in this also Though Princes and great men fall yet they shall rise again If a man die saith Job shall hee live again yea as sure as death hee shall live again There is a double certainty of the resurrection of their bodies 1 Certitudo infallibilitatis ratione divinae praedictionis there is a certainty of infallability in respect of divine prediction Heaven and Earth shall passe away before one of his words fall to the ground 2 Certitudo immutabilitatis ratione divinae praedeterminationis a certainty of immutability in respect of Gods decree and eternal purpose and his counsel shall stand This staid up the drooping spirit of holy Job See his Creed Job 19.25,26 I know my Redeemer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Kinseman liveth and that hee shall stand at the last day upon the Earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another How confident is this holy man of his resurrection in the same individual body It is disputed in the Schools Resurrectionem Philosophis notam ex Hebraeorum doctrina affirmant non-nulli whether the resurrection of the body bee quid cognoscibile lumine natura It is said Theopompus Zoroastres and Plato whom none of the Ancient Gentiles contradicted taught the resurrection of the body and Plato thought that after the revolution of some years hee should live again and teach his scholars in the same chair hee sate then in but resurrectio mortuorum est fides Christianorum as Augustin Tertullian and others more solidly Vide Aug. in Psal 101. Et D. Chytr de fine mundi Res Mort. ubi fufius Propria Ecclesiae dei sapientia est praedictio de fine mundi resurrectione mortuorum c. Those Eagle ey'd Philosophers mocked at the Doctrin of the Resurrection Act. 17.32 divine mysteries are above humane reason's shallow capacitie from that principle of nature and axiome amongst Philosophers A privatione ad habitum non datur regressus they argued against this fundamental truth but know it to your comfort that you and yours too shall rise again this Prince and Great man shall return from his grave again not by the power of nature nor by the help of the Creature but by the power of the Creator As for mee saith David I will behold his face in Righteousnesse I shall bee satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse it is meant of the awakening of his body from the sleep of death in the day of the resurrection Psal 17.15 the Jews call the grave Beth Chaiim the house
of the living as they return from funerals it is said they pluck up the grass and cast it into the air repeating those words of the Psalmist They shall flourish and put forth as the grasse of the Earth Amongst the Romans it is said it was an usual saying of a dead friend abiit reversurus est Hee is gone but will come again Beloved Aug. Ep. 6. Melch. Ad. in Luth. p. 154 This Great man shall rise again comfort your selves in this you shall see him again and know and love him better than ever As Augustin spoke to the Lady Italica and Luther at his last supper Thirdly To conclude this The Lord hath a special care of your dead relations Keeps their very bones Psal 34.20 Hee leaves not his in the dust Rizpah watched over the bodies of the sons of Saul and guarded them against the fowles of the air 2 Sam. 21.10 but the Lord hath greater care of his children living dying and dead Observ 2. It is every mans duty to take notice of and to lay to heart the death of great men especially if they bee good men Know yee not How was Sauls death lamented Saul P. Mart. 2 Sam. 1.19 Sq. for whose salvation wee have nothing to say Nullum uspiam extat vestigium verae paenitentiae yet David and all with him rent their cloaths and wept hearing of his and Jonathans death The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places how are the mighty fallen Jonathan was a chief Patient in this woful tragedy but not the only subject of this doleful elegy Vide Perer. de laude Mosis Moses was a gallant man an excellent Philosopher more ancient than Socrates or Trismegist A notable Poet the Pen-man of eleven Psalms as Hierom thinks from the eighty eight to the hundreth though De Dieu saith some think Adam penned and sang the ninety second the morning after his creation how was Moses his death lamented in the Plains of Moab Vide Lud. de Dieu in Psal 92 Deut. 34,8 was not a book of Lamentation writ upon the occasion of Josiahs Death It is thought that that sad Poem or doleful ditty which Nazianzen could never read without tears lamentation was composed by the Prophet Jeremiah Orat. 12. mihi pag. 202 upon the fall of that most incomparable and unparalleld Prince whereof mention is made in the sacred Annales Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and singing women speak of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day and made them an Ordinance in Israel c. 2 Chron. 35.25 During the Captivity sundry Fasts were observed on set daies and on sad occasions The Fast of the fourth month the Fast of the fifth Zechar. 8.9 the Fast of the seventh and of the tenth Gedaliah the Protectour of the remnant of the Jews after their King was carried away captive was slain on the seventh month therefore they fasted and mourned Wee may write down this day this very day and mourn for the Death and Fall of this Prince and Great man the children yet unborn may also observe it when wee shall bee laid in dust Notable to this in hand is that of King Joash 2 King 13.14 Mark his pathetical exclamation and his plausible acclamation O my Father My Father the Chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof observe what lamentation hee makes though a wicked King And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him the Syriack reads it Act. 8.2 Gibre Mehemene Faithful men carried Stephen to his bed they wept for him bitterly or vehemently The Priests and sometimes Prophets too were not allowed upon special considerations in the Old Testament to mourn Ezek. 24.16 Thou shalt not weep nor mourn nor shall thy tears run down make no mourning for the dead forbear to cry c. but if wee bound our sorrows within the precinct of that Apostolical precept not mourning as men without hope Junius Brutus Valerius Poplicola Augustus c. viri optime de Rep. meriti annuo luctu fuerunt defleti wee may bee afflicted wee ought to weep and mourn our laughter should bee turned into mourning and our joy into heaviness Christ himself wept over dead Lazarus wee may over this Prince and Great man who was so useful an instrument both to Church and State grandis in eum est pietas as Jerom speaks of another Quae ratio Why are wee to take notice of and to lay to heart the Falls of Princes and Great men First Because when such men are taken away by death then Judgements hasten and post on apace Their dissolution is an evident demonstration of the Lords indignation upon the death of Crassus such miseries befel the Roman State saith the Oratour that life was not so much taken from him as a punishment as death bestowed on him as a reward In 2 Chron. 34.24 I will bring evil upon this place saith the Lord who owns all paenal evils and upon the Inhabitants thereof even all the curses that are written in this book why so see verse 25. Because they have forsaken mee and have burned incense unto other Gods Psal 39.11 Jer. 25.6 Lam. 3.39 Sin is the foundation of punishment God doth not punish nor afflict ordinarily but in case of sin Read on But as for Josiah the King of Judah say you unto him because thy heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof and humblest thy self before mee Behold I will gather Thee to thy Fathers thou shalt bee gathered to thy grave in peace neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the Inhabitants thereof The Philosopher speaking of the Stars hath this passage when they shoot it is a sign of high winds following When zealous Magistrates Chytr de morte p. 75 and faithful Ministers shoot and slide into the earth such as survive may sadly conclude They are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57.1 Methusalem that great and godly Patriarch died Eo anno quo caepit diluvium Cartw. Electa Targumico-rabbinica in Gen. 5. 25 7. 4 Vide Philon. â— lib. 2. de Vita Mosis Senec. lib. 3. Qu. Nat cap. 27. Sq. Perer. in Gen. p. 338 the very year the flood came I know some have asserted that hee lived fourteen years after it and others say hee died seven daies before it His very name signified a messenger of death his death presaged that fearful Inundation the causes whereof I shall not now so muâ—h as hint at Augustin that great Ornament and Muniment of Hippo was taken away by death immediately before the barbarous Goths and Vandals sacked that City in which hee lived Ambrose his death was afore-runner of Italies ruine as Chytraeus reports and Luthers death according to his prediction was a fore-runner of
the German wars Vide Luth. in Isa 57.1 I can do nothing saith God till thou bee come thither Gen. 19.22 non posse se dixit quod sine dubio poterat per potentiam non poterat per justitiam saith one of the Ancients Aug. Sence Non posse praetenditur non velle in causa est No sooner was Lot in Zoar but the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodome Such stand in the gap to turn away the Lords wrath but when they are removed what remains to stop the current of divine vengeance when the precious fruits of the earth are gathered into the barn the hedges are broken down the beasts over-run all When the Jewels are taken out of the Trunk the courser things are thrown over-board when Noah is housed in the Ark his Pella the fountains of the deep are broken open Woe is mee saith the Prophet Micah The Good man the Great man is perished out of the Earth Psal 12.1 De contemptu mortis and David cries and praies Help Lord as if the Heavens had been falling on him Heinsius reports that the Sun with-drew its shine and was eclypsed when Joseph Scaliger dyed Darkness seizeth upon us in these parts wee have had many of quality lately taken from us it is well if the Lords wrath bee not comming upon us Secondly Because when they fall the persons with whom they conversed Jer. 48.25 Zech. 10.4 the places in which they lived are exceedingly weakened As in the Text And I am this day weak And are not wee this day weak Behold the Family is it not a weak Family a disconsolate Widdow tender sickly children A weak Town hee was under the most high our strength and munition our defence and protection Should wee unite our hearts and hands our power and policy Alas what can wee do Our strength is weaknesse our wisdome foolishnesse As Jehosaphat said so wee say O Lord wee know not what to do but our eyes are towards thee In uno Caesare multi insunt Marii There are many men in one Great man One Josiah in a Kingdome one Lot in a City one Paul in a Ship is of more value and vertue than many thousands Labans family fared the better for Jacobs sake Pharaohs Court and Kingdome fared better for Josephs sake and hath not this Town these parts of the Country fared much better for this great mans sake Every great man if hee bee a good man is a great blessing and strengthening to the place in which hee lives a blessing by his presence a blessing by his prayers a blessing by his example which is as a Looking-glasse for others to dress themselves by a blessing by his counsels The death of faithful Ministers weakens wonderfully the weapons of their warfare are mighty with God 2 King 2.12 and mighty through God The death of zealous Magistrates weakens infinitely but I must not expatiate See that notable Text Judges 18 7. when there was no Magistrate in Laish â—…n increased and ruine approached Thirdly Because when such fall sin commonly increaseth exceedingly Not only the Laws but the lives of great men it truly godly give a shrewd check to daring impieties and prophanesse many whose hands only were chained but their hearts not changed may break our and fall off returning with the dog to his vomit and the Sow to wallow in the mire again It is not unknown to hundreds of us within these walls that this great mans countenance had special influence upon all the vile wretches that came nigh unto him Hee could do very much with a look I could not in that compare him to any other but Luther De vita Lutheri p. 168 Melchior Adams reports of him that hee had such a Leonine aspect ut oculorum suorum intentionem rectâ aspiciendo non omnes ferre possunt How was the prophanation of the Lords day prevented Travellers according to Law punished drunkennesse subdued c. Tremble godly souls to think how the eye of Gods glory is like to bee provoked let rivers of waters run down your eyes Is there not matter of lamentation when the winds are rising the Sea swelling the Heavens lowring and the enemy approaching to behold the souldiers gasping the Pilots and Steers-men dead upon the deck How shall the little flock bee kept out of the jaws and paws of the wild boar and Beasts of prey O pray Lord remember thy Lilly amongst the Thorns thy Lambs amongst the Wolves thy love amongst the daughters The Saints are as speckled birds Jer. 12.9 Jerem. 12.9 All about them are enemies to them Fourthly Because otherwise they cannot make a right use and improvement of their death and dissolution It is the Lords will that wee should make a right good use of his rod upon others and of the fall of others Quest What use should wee that survive now make of this Princes dissolution Answer A threefold Use An Honourable Use An Charitable Use An Profitable Use An Honourable Vse in relation to God acknowledging his power and supremacy his soveraignty and authority over man to kill or make alive to deliver from death or to death A Charitable Vse in relation to them who are afflicted or taken away by death not concluding them the greatest sinners because they are the greatest sufferers or that it is for some notorious impiety that they are cut off in the midst of their daies Their death may bee in mercy to them in judgement to us A Profitable Vse in reference unto our selves wee should learn thence to walk humbly to put our hearts in order to see what the bitter fruit of sin is c. Though the occasion of our comming together this evening bee very sad yet the opportunity is sweet if wee can learn rightly to improve this great mans fall I remember Plotinus hath this passage Men should so live and so die that others might learn some good from them both living and dying Anatomists and Physitians advantage themselves by dissecting dead bodies and prying into the inward parts wee may spiritually profit our selves by a serious consideration and observation of his dispensations in the Fall of Princes and Great men Fifthly Not to take notice of not to lay to heart the death of such men is a God-provoking sin a fruit of sin and the cause of many horrid iniquities and grievous transgressions This inconsideratenesse is that which the Prophet checked and much lamented Isa 57.1 None considereth that they are taken away from the evil to come none pondered it in their hearts they did not search into it what should bee the minde and end of God in it God laies it to mens charge that they lay not those things unto their hearts as if personal mortality were not sometimes a presage of publick misery This is a direct violation of a divine injunction Eccles 7.3 The living shall lay it upon their hearts Is not the hand of God in this sad
providence It is hee that helps us into the world and it is hee that helps us again out of the world the key of the womb and the key of the grave are in his hand alone The actions of Princes and Great ones in the world every eye almost observes and shall wee slight the operations of his hand the Lord complains of this and severely punisheth it Isa 5.12 Isa 4◠25 Jer. 5.3 c. Once more Sixthly This argues our due Phil. 2.29 and true estimation of them according to the charge Hold such in reputation It is otherwise a clear demonstration wee neither loved them nor prized them if they dye unlamented it is strongly presumed they lived undesired how can wee say wee love them when their lives are not worth our prayers nor their deaths our tears A good man is a common good a common treasure wherein every soul hath a share that man hath a hard heart that can hear of such mens deaths with a drie eye In the eleventh of John you have Christ weeping at Lazarus his funeral it is observed that hee wept thrice but never laught Ter flevisse legimus risisse nunquam legimus why wept hee now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Andreas Cretensis gives this for the reason hee thinks Christ lamented not over Lazarus but over the Jews because of their infidelity that although they should see the miracle Lazarus raised from the dead yet they would not beleeve in him The tears of others as others who were by-standers did draw tears even from Christ himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall passe by the reasons given by Cyril Rupertus and others and only acquaint you with Augustins and Maldonats Christ therefore wept saith the Father that by his example hee might teach us to weep at the funerals of religious and useful persons Christ therefore wept saith the Jesuit as the Jews interpreted it non pessimi in hac re authores because hee loved him you can apply it I passe it The Application of this Observation In two Uses Use 1 For Correction This checks such if there bee any such amongst us as take no notice of and lay not to heart the falls of great ones eminently useful in their Generations I hope there are none such with us in this throng Assembly of whom it any bee said as was of those Widdows of the Priests Psal 78.64 Their Priests fell by the sword and their Widdows made no lamentation Yet if there bee such elsewhere that are glad in their hearts that they can see with their eyes such Great men laid in their graves let such tremble Now they may drink and bee drunk stagger and fall quarrel and braul now they may prophane the Lords day without controule or contradiction they are as good as the best who now survive they may swear and swill and swagger and fill themselves with Wine and strong drink and sin securely O miserable vain man Nullum pejus malum libertate peccandi Thou hast the most reason to lament the death of such if thou didst but apprehend thine own condition It is a fearful character of a gracelesse man to rejoyce on this account in the death of great good useful men Paulinus reports of Ambrose that hee would weep bitterly when hee heard of any godly Ministers death Are not good Magistrates Gods Ministers Heirs of restraint The better they bee to us in their lives Rom. 13. the more bitter to us should bee their deaths as while they live they are much to bee honoured so when they dye they deserve much to bee lamented There is no strong rod to bee a scepter to rule us Ezek. 19. ult This is a lamentation and shall bee for a lamentation Use 2 For Exhortation Weep yea weep bitterly yee persons of quality Yee Noble Collonels yee valiant Captains of his acquaintance and allyance Your number is lessened your hands are weakened There is a Prince and a Great man fallen who adventured himself in the high places of the field a man of an Heroick undaunted spirit Weep yea weep bitterly Reverend Fathers and Brethren in the Ministry Know yee not that there is a Prince and a Great man fal'n this day in Israel whose paternal care was manifested in his provision for you and protection of you O Leigh O Lancashire lament thy losse with trembling hands and bleeding hearts may wee remember the year 1655. Three Suns set Three Stars of the first magnitude shot Three great men in one year two of them in one month Holland Ashurst and Atherton That thrice worthy and deservedly honoured Gentlemen Mr. Edward Holland a man admired by all who knew him the Phaenix of Lancashire of whom I may say having had more special occasions and opportunities to know him intus in cute For depth of learning especially in Philosophy and the Mathematicks for solidity of judgement strength of memory quicknesse and acutenesse of conception and which is the Ornament of all Holinesse of life fervency in prayer for Humilitie and Affability his fellow is not easily if at all found in the North of England Mr. Cases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. to the Reader if any suspect my partiality let him read his praise in print by Reverend Mr. Case if learning make a man as it doth not naturally but morally not essentially but accidentally it is the beauty the lustre the Ornament of a man then I may say hee was one If grace make a good man as it doth without dispute no man can have it but hee shall bee like it then hee was one of him I may say and I shall say no more as Nazianzen did of Athanasius Hollandum laudare est idem ac virtutem ipsam laudare The second I mentioned is Mr. William Ashurst of whom all that knew him and hee was known by the most knowing and worthy men in England Scotland and Ireland may say as Nehemiah did of Hananiah Nehem. 7.2 hee was a faithful man and feared God above many hee was the glory of his Country it is Scripture language they that are truly godly and noble they are the blessings of a Kingdome Eccl. 10.7 the glory of a Kingdome Isa 5.13 Their honourable men or their glory are men of famine an incomparable man did you ever know so good a head so well hearted or so good a heart so well headed I shall say no more of him but as one did of Hercules Quis Ashurstum unquam vituperavit And before our teares were wiped from our eyes another of Jobs Messengers as it were brings us tidings of sorrow and bitter lamentation of this Prince and Great mans fall this day in Israel Wee are the men who have seen affliction and still do see and I am fearful shall see more the dart of death I doubt is not removed from this afflicted shattered family Joseph is not and Simeon is not and must Benjamin go too Holland is not and Ashurst is not and Atherton
dangerous than a bad one and that of Quintilian Nemo eodem tempore asse qui potest magnam famam magnam quietem No mortal wight can inâ—oy a great fame quietly I must say of him that hee was a man subject to like passions as other men and not without his infirmities The present tense in Grammer is accompanied with the imperfect the future with the praeterpluperfect tense such is the condition of our present and future sanctity Our future is more than perfect our present is really imperfect yet real the frailties of others are to bee observed as well as their excellencies but not with a partial envious malicious curious censorious wanton eye I drew his picture as Amelius and Carterus did Plotinuses without his command or consent they did it as hee was disputing in the Schools I did it as hee lay dead and at a distance David drew no line in Abners portraicture with a black coal why should I in HIS Davids service is noted and for that hee is praised his sin is not mentioned Act. 13.38 Jobs patience recorded his murmuring and impatience not remembred James 5.11 Rahabs Faith is mentioned not her lye Heb. 11.31 Thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee saith Christ of his Spouse yet shee had her blots spots infirmities and deformities Too much is said by way of Apology The best answer to words of reproach and petulancy is silence and patience It is thy best course Good Reader to let Bucers and Fagius his bones lie where they are interred if digged up they shall bee more solemnly honoured Cato was and this Worthy shall bee as often cleared as accused No more Ne duplo te oneret minus suavis oratio si longa fuerit In obitum Joannis Athertoni Armigeri illustrissimi Lancanstriae Vicecomitis Elegia PLangite doctiloqui lectores fata Magistri Atherton sacro cujus inerme jacet Pulvere seclusum corpus miserabile visu qui fossus lethi vi violentis obit Intulit heu quantum patriae jactura dolorem Iuctisonis obitum dicere jamque modis Presserat ora dolor stirpem meminisseque vitam invictum pugilem succubuisse neci Aequa falce secas justos humiles venerandos Atropos aut votis tela reversa piis Illustres patriae proceres peperere parentes illum praelustris pignora chara domus Undique praeclarem sobolem proavitaque jura expandunt cunctis crustaque picta viris Stemmate materno patrioque exortus equestri sanguine virtutes inclyta gesta probant Quae a teneris animo fidoque exercuit annis in Parochos primum caetera rura deum Constituunt haec signa fidem reverentia honoris quam fovet alit amor parturit atque fides Belliger arma capit natus bis circiter annos denos dux validus Caesaris instar erat Quod fugat ense suo divini numinis hostes non sontis mores perfida facta ferens Bellerophon ut fortis eques superare malignos Angligeni potuit sternere monstra soli Post quam diffudit scurras velut ense Cimaeras justitiam tribuit pacis amicus erat Et jam Pegeseis vectus petit aethera pennis auxiliis animi monstrae superba domans Dulcius ut moriens modulatur carmina Cygnus sic fuit ad finem casta tenaxque fides Acriter in pravos tantum curverat arcum donec victrices conticuere tubae Fidus erat legum ruris defensor inermis pauperis viduae vota libenter agit Complorant humiles Proceres Respublica casum Herois tanti proluit unda genas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dulciloqui nati O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 patrona jure petat lachrymas mortuus ille preces Dum vivus meruit post fatum fama manebit decus in terris singula gesta patent Quam generosus erat Comitatus posse notavit positis armis munia pacis obit Ergo illi tumulum tanti moâ—umenta doloris astruis querulis vocibus astra feris Languida mors rapuit nulli mage flendus Oresti quam tibi cui puero junctus amore fuit Nec periisse putes rapuerunt Numina mentem sorbet humus carnem caetera mundus habet Aspice quam tenui terrestris gloria filo pendeat vit am fac meditare aliam Adjavet ille deus tandem ut sua chara propago auxilii nostrae spesque salutis adest Per Joannem Battersbie Scholae Leighensis Praefectum compacta Idâ—bus Januarii 1655. Vpon the much lamented Death of John Atherton Esq High Sheriffe of the County Palatine of Lancaster MEn women children you that pass this way Divert your eyes to this sad Hearse and stay The ground is holy that your feet stand on Do not prophane it with oblivion Here lies the famous Atherton my Rhime Doubts not to call him Phaenix of his time Justice and mercy and true courtesie Meeknesse uprightnesse and humility With other noble vertues met in thee As in a Centre all the world may see Soon ripe soon rot the proverb true doth say Else hadst thou been alive not laid in clay If Birth if Name if Place if Children dear If that fair Spouse of thine whose vertues rare Make her to bee admir'd if house or lands Or Skill or Art or Love of dearest friends If Prayers or Tears which sometimes Heaven move If Youth or Strength if good mens Sighs or Love If any or if all these had been able Th'ad'st liv'd as yet but Deaths inexorable It 's said the day whereon thou wast inter'd Heaven did weep as though it had abhor'd So sad a sight and men pour'd out their tears Abundantly as Symptomes of their fears Of some sad fates approach as when doth fall A Comet from above which warneth all When good men so lament ones Death sure then Hee that is dead was not the worst of men By all this mourning this my thoughts have scan'd Hee went by water tho hee went by land Death should not now bee lean me thinks but fat And hide his ugly bones from sight for that Hee feeds on such sweet flesh of late as on Brave Holland Ashurst and our Atherton I am told thy lingring visitation Brought thee to heavenly meditation O blessed soul that thou could'st learn to kisse The Rod that brought thee to celestial blisse Grow fast young Babe and let thy Fathers grace Advance thee to his high renown and place Preserve his Name and when thou' rt dead hee 'l bee An everlasting monument to thee J must now leave thee grisly Death doth call O do not weep my Dear I hope I shall Heavens blisse injoy this sanctifi'd affliction Now brings mee to a state of true perfection Amongst the many joyes that God hath given T hou'st been my greatest comfort under Heaven Heavens bless thee Dear with these our tender Babes Ere long I hope you 'l wear Christs glorious Robes Renounce the world love God make Christ your own T is th' only way to injoy an
heavenly Throne O bee to mine an help a friend a Mother Now Christ takes mee God give to thee another My dissolution I could better bear A lass than tidings of thy Death to hear Remove Deaths stroke O God accept a price Yea rather take mee for a Sacrifice And I had rather die than live to see Thee taken hence then comes my Misery Heavens keep thy soul my head shall bee a grave Ever to hold thee whilst an heart I have Revive my Dear can neither Skill nor Art Take deaths sad symptomes from thy tender heart Of all the Woes that ever mee befel None like to this my Joy my Dear Farewel Erubuit Facultas Extorsit amor Lugens posuit Bradleius Hayhurst AN Elegy upon the never sufficiently deplored Death of my noble Friend John Atherton of Atherton Esq High-Sheriffe of Lancashire ENvious Death what 's thy design t' undo Our Gentry Clergy and our Country too Lancashire's poor in one year there are gone Three Pillars Holland Ashurst Atherton Could Paracelsus men as birds revive Great John within one hour should bee alive Or in his room shouldst thou dispense would I Prepare for my accounts and gladly dye Could tears or prayers thee from the dead regain Who would not sigh and pray and weep amain There were in Caesar many Marii 'T is true in thee more both did live and die I dare avouch it contradict who can Each part of thee could make a perfect man Envious Death summe up thy gains and tell What hast thou got This body in this cell His noble soul was pure etherial fire His heart and thoughts did far above aspire The Crowns and Scepters of most potent Kings Hee held their Diadems inferiour things Thou could'st not such a soul surprize 'T is fled From Earth to Heaven where not one tear is shed There is no pain but pleasure there 's no trouble Life is eternal there here but a bubble No moans no groans now no complaints can come From him There 's joy and triumph in their room Blest soul thou art in peace and well dost know One hour in Heaven's worth thousands here below Another Epitaph on the Right Worshipful JOHN ATHERTON Anagram Ah no other in AH there 's no other in thy place Great Prince who can it so much grace Heaven's fill it and give to thy seed Age Virtue Honour with all speed This will repair our breach and grief In part abate and yeeld relief Ah there 's no other Magistrate With us to serve the Church or State Hee 's fal'n and enshrin'd here lies One noble valiant just and wise Give us an age to tell the rest Which may All cannot bee exprest Posuit Richardus Jolly Schola Athertoniensis praf Ad tumulum Principis illustrissimi viri honoratissimi Domini Joannis Athertoni Armigeri totius Comit. Lancastriensis praefecti Epitaphium ISte Athertoni tumulus tegit ossa Joannis quis qualis fuerit scit scio Magnus erat In vivis talis qualem vix Zoilus unquam dente Theonino carpere possit erat Esset Apellis opus te pingere Clare Joannes languentis patriae fida calumna tuae Pastorum tutela tuae decus Inelyte stirpis gloria Magnatum religionis honos An generis splendor nil non illustria prosint stemmata nec virtus bellica chara phalanx Nil tua te pietas nil te veneranda potest as Juvit heu flecti mors truculenta nequit Occubuit magnus princeps florentibus annis lilia ceu saevo frigore verna cadunt Proh dolor hic jacet exanimis quis talia fando Temperet a lachrymis proh dolor ut cecidit Marte cadit non Morte cadit fatalia Parcae stamina ruperunt non reparanda manu Pulvis umbra sumus quassum vas somnus aura Ros spectrum ventus vita caduca vapor Te vivo suavis vita est moriente peracris Dulce mihi tecum vivere dulce mori Non longum praeclare vale vir fidus Achates Tu mihi pro multis millibus unus eras Tros Anchisiades amissum morte parentem flevit ut occisum Pergama maesta ducem Nos ita te miseros longa O dignissima vita sedulus extinctum flere coeget amor Flere jubet Pietas suadet Spes gaudia Nomen tua ad extremum stent monumenta diem Molliter ossa premat tellus clementia servet alma dei sobolem teque Maria tuam Macte tua virtute puer clarissime tandem Solamen nostrum est surculus arbor erit Vive Deo precor quod patri fata negarunt producant vitae tempora longa tuae Ita precatur lugens J. L. Vpon the much lamented Death of the honoured and truly honourable John Atherton of Atherton Esq High-Sheriff of Lancashire HAd'st thou grave Plutarch or Laertius Or Trajans Pliny or Hesychius Had'st thou Callisthenes to write thine acts As Alexander had his noble facts Had'st thou Achilles fate great Homers Pen To draw thy portraicture or Nazianzen To limne thee to the lire or Melchiors quill Or quaint Protogenes with his pencil Rare Phaenix of our age then might thy glory Remain on record in eternal story The Babes unborn should ask whose is this Herse And wee 'l our tribute pay in moanful verse But thy Renown is such thy Name more graceth The verse then they can it who ere thee praiseth Only Seraphick tongues due laud can give To thee great John too good with us to live If to admire were to commend then wee Thy worth could tell with more facility Thy vertues thee commend to after ages Without the help of Elegiack pages Each tongue could tell and every eye did see An impetus heroical in thee Thy Grave deportment on the Bench was such Though young that Myriads did admire it much Just Aristides like concord and peace Heavens legacy 't was thy design t' increase A parallel Husband Father Friend or Brother Justice or Sheriffe where can you discover Eyes to the blinde legs to the lame an Harbour To the afflicted and the poor mans succour Humble when Highest of Man-hood the Mirrour Noble to Friends to Foes a mighty terrour Each wrinkle in thy brow nay credit mee Earle Nevils-like a Princes Tombe might bee Thine eye like Luthers Leonine and fierce Or as the Basilisks so would it peirce When they beheld thee march they thought another Caesar was there or Alexanders Brother In war thy prowesse policy and skill Scanderbegs like ever appeared still True to thy trust none in our Memory Abhorred turn-coats more or treachery Such was thy temperance and sobriety Thy patience prudence and dexterity Great Atherton the style of Parasite I need not fear while in thy praise I write Thy care to curb prophanenesse and to keep The Wolves from preying on Christ's tender Sheep Thy pains about the Clergy Helicon Wee may exhaust in lamentation Better enough than All such rare perfections Center'd in thee as transcend my expressions As Croesus's son dumb and appal'd I 'd