a Crowne of righteousnesse To begin with the first faithfull men are military men Thus did the wrestling of Israel prefigure which makes S. Paul oft-times to give it in charge to stand fast like valiant souldiers 1. Cor. 16.13 and quit our selves like men and be strong As the Israelites fought many a dreadfull battaile and encountred with the great Anakims before they could set foot in Canaan So those which are the true Israel of God are still up in armes and in danger of many a dreadfull and dolefull skirmish whiles they are marching forwards towards that Canaan which is above Hence not unfitly that saying of holy Iob may bee applyed in this place The life of man is a warfare upon earth Put the case there were a man that had some great reward proposed unto him but with this condition That first he must subdue some tyrants overthrow some monster or vanquish some huge and hideous Gyant As we read of Theseus and as the Poets doe relate of Hercules could not these otherwise be attained unto then by some conflict or bloody combat Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur Change but the name this is true of every faithfull christian God in heaven hath proposed a reward to him though resident upon earth in attaining whereunto hee hath most puissant and powerfull enemies to encounter with most direfull and dreadfull monsters which are up in armes and daily adde battaile to him So tyrannicall are they that without intermission they labour to captivate him and bring him from blessed freedom to slavish hellish thraldom The champions in which combat we meet with are chiefly these three The flesh the world the devill which have entred into league and joyned their forces together that like a threefold cord they cannot easily be broken The flesh like an inbred and domestickenimy is alwaies swelling and rebellious against the spirit striving and strugling for soveraignty and superiority This great Goliah doth still bid battaile to little David Alwayes fighting against the spirit and never fayling to oppose it as appeares by the words of S. Gal. 5.17 Paul Gal. 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other the truth hereof the Apostle finding dayly by experience in himselfe breakes forth into this patheticall Epiphonema O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death In subdueing whereof there is so much the harder fight by how much the more danger it is to encounter with a familiar then an open enemy The world doth challenge a christian into the open field sometime by violence as by crosses and persecution by open actions and evill speeches and sometimes by deceitfull pollicies Iudas like pretending kisses when she propounds destruction under her alluring pleasures she shrowdes her deadly poyson Like another Eve alwaies egging like another Dalilah alwayes tempting and by her Syrene sweet notes of profits and of pleasures labours to drown the soule in the full sea of perdition The devill is no lesse ready to assay and assault him 1. Pet. 5.8 For he goes about as S. Peter speaks like a roaring Lyon seking whom he may devoure Luke 4.13 Who as he would not suffer our Saviour to bee at rest but did set upon him the 1 2 and 3. time No more will hee permit those who are members of that body whereof Christ is the head who are branches of that vine whereof Christ is the root who are sheep of that sheepfold whereof Christ is the sheapheard in a word who are subjects of that kingdome whereof Christ Iesus is the king to be in quiet but rather then hee shall bee free from encounters Proteus-like he will by changing himselfe into many shapes and turning himselfe into an Angell of light give them cause continually to looke and to lay about them As Christ was so must we be in this world No sooner was he consecrated by his solemne Baptisme to the work of a Mediator but presently was assaulted by the tempter And no sooner doth any one give up his name to Christ and breake forth out of that hellish power under which He was kept but forthwith Pharoah and his hosts Satan and his confederates pursue him with deadly fury and powre forth floods of malice and rage against him Nunquam bella boniâ— nunquam dissidia cessant Et quae cum certet mens pia semper habet Prosper Hell and death are at truce with wicked men there is a covenant and an agreement betwixt them Satan holds his possession in peace but when a stronger then hee commeth and overcommeth from that time there is implacable venome and hostility against such a soule The power and policy of that grand enemy the divell the lusts and vanity the frownes and flattery of this sinfull world in a word the affections inclinations and deceits of our fleshly hearts will ever ply the soule of a christian and force it to perpetuall combats It was not therefore without good cause that S. Eph. 6.10 Paul Ephes 6.10 did classicum canere strike up an Alarm unto his battaile wishing the Ephesians and in them all the faithfull to bee strong in the Lord and in the power of his might to put on the whole armour of God to gird our loynes with verity to have on the brest-plate of righteousnesse to be shodde with the preparation of the Gospell of peace to take up the shield of faith the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God Thereby plainly giving us to understand that a christian is still in danger ready to enter into lists and to descend into the combat Vse 1. The consideration whereof may serve in the 1. place to discountenance that fond conceit of wicked men who think it an easy matter to be a sound and faithfull christian They lye downe in their beds of Ivory they drinke wine in bowles they eat of the lambs of the flock and the calves of the stall as the scripture speaks they suffer themselves to be lull'd in the lap and muzzled in the bosome of all carnall delights without any striving or strugling against these professed enemies of God and goodnesse Nay by rushling into uncleannesse and laying of the reines loose into all manner of prophanesse they give plaine evividence both to God and man that they have entred pay are reckoned amongst the souldiers and fight under the banner of sinne and Satan And yet notwithstanding they are as good christians and as sound professours as the best But alas alas these men put themselves into a fooles paradise they are not as they thinke they are for then they would not be at league with sinne but in armes against it Nay on the contrary they rather shew themselves to become true traytors to God and to themselves who in the midst of such grand-enemies as the flesh the world and the devill
that will direct thee get courage that will embolden thee get love that will constraine thee get power that will enable thee For he that wants any of these shall never bee crowned except with shame and endlesse confusion Arme then thy selfe with these be valiant till thou beest victorious so that in the conclusion of thy dayes thou mayst confesse here with S. Paul I have fought a good fight c. And so I have done with mans Military condition wherein you have seen how hee becomes a fighter I am now to speake of the last act or part which he playes on the stage of this world The finishing of his course Hence I collected that Doct. 2d. As his condition is military so is it mortall God puts an end to all his encounters so that his life is nothing else but a marching to death As soon as wee be borne wee begin to draw to an end as if the whole scope of our desires were to hasten to the grave The clearest day is covered by the clouds of the night the longest sentence must have it's period and there is no life on earth but hath it's death As if death were the marke which the vanity of humane endeavours runs at All men yea all inferiour things are freed by an end And as the Philosopher answered the newes of his sons death Scio me genuisse mortalem I have gotten a man that is mortall So God the Father may say of every man living Scio me creâsse mortalem I have made man that hath made himselfe mortall Per nativitatem vivet in carne per juventutem candescit in flore per mortem aret in pulvere Greg. Hence is that saying of an ancient setting forth mans frayle estate By birth a man is borne greene in his flesh by youth he is white in his blossome by death hee is withered in the dust It is a law enacted by the king of heaven Statutum est omnibus semelmori It is appointed for all once to dye It is appointed and that by him whose decrees are like those of the Medes and Persians which cannot be altered Death like the fisher-man encloses all kinde of fish in his net old and young good and bad small and great All is catch'd by death Which thing the Poets insinuate in the fable of Death and Cupid who lodging at a time both in one Inne enterchanged each others arrowes and so from that time to this it comes to passe that old men dote and yong men dye If they that have brought us into the world are gone out of it before us wee may conclude our own following There is not one in the whole cluster of man-kinde but eodem modo nodo vinctus victus is lyable to the common and equall law of death Mans body so well as Ice expounds that ridle The mother begets the daughter Dust begets the body Gignit filia matrem and the body begets dust Our life is like a game at chesse wherein men supply different places one is a king another a Queene another a Bishop another a Knight another a pawn but when the game is ended and they shuffled into one bagge all is alike So death makes no distinction betwixt Prince and people Soveraign and subjects the robes of the one so well as the ragges of the other shall not escape her ruine When Alcibiades brags of his lands Socrates reaches him a Map bids him demonstrate where they lye Alas he could not find nor scarce discerne Athens it selfe it was so small a point in respect of the world Ecce vix totam Hercules implerit urnam The dust of mighty Hercules can scarce fill a pitcher The Philosopher said of Alexander yesterday the world did not content him now ten cubits can containe him It 's worthy our consideration that had we as much land as ever the devill shewed Christ yet wee can call no more ours but the grave This is the estate of the best that when they have devoured the most delicate creatures the wormes shall devoure them A fat corps is but a fat supper for the wormes It is neither birth nor bravery riches nor royalty that can stop us from finishing of our course or runing of our race untill all be concluded by death Vse 1. Seeing wee are mortall let this then instruct us to reflect upon our selves It is the folly of miserable man to be too much unmindful of the day of death And indeed the fashion of secure wretches when they have been forgetfull of any thing to say they thought no more of it then of the day of their death Intimating hereby however they think of other things yet the thoughts of death are farre from them These are not apprehensive of their common condition hence unawares they are supprized and sent packing to hell in the midst of their wretched security Oh consider this you that are unmindfull of your end putting far from you the evill day the time of your dissolution Remember that as the tree falls so it lyes as death leaves thee so shall judgement finde thee As thou sowest here so thou must reap hereafter If thou hast been a swearer a curser a prophane wretch look for such a crop as this seed will bring forth which without repentance is no lesse then everlasting horrour with devills and damned spirits in a lake that burnes with fire and brimstone Bee then counselled forthwith to bee mindfull of thy end And for thy better proceeding consider these motives 1. The uncertainty of it Nil certius morte horâ mortis nihil incertius we see by dayly experience though strong bodies may perhaps hold out many fits unexpectedly they are forced to yeild to the necessity of nature Our bodies are made of elements weak and fluid principles and therefore sooner resolve to their first materialls Doe we not see that though some bee suffered like ripe fruit to remaine on the tree till the fall to live till they be old yet how many be cudgeld froÌ„ the tree snatcht away by death in the very prime of their dayes Was not Herod wounded deadly in the midst of his pomp and pride by this messenger Surely had hee then been a painting of himselfe as many of our Ladyes doe death would soon have spoyled all his colours How soone did that covetous muck worme in the Gospell Luke 12 10. that thought by his wealth to purchase heaven on earth heare that sad knell ringing in his eares this night shall thy soule be taken from thee His day of pleasure is ended and the night of everlasting sorrow supprizes him Extremum gauâ—ij luctus occupat Vexation treads on the heels of vanity That when pleasure like the sunne hath run her course she sets unawares oft-times in a dismall night of paine Let the uncertainty therefore of our ends cause us to bee prepared for them Wee know not how soon the great Iudge will appeare in the cloudes
have such peace without contending such truce without opposing so quiet and calme a league without all manner of resistance Marvel not then ye monsters of sinne though sometimes ye see poore christians looke with a sad countenance or sorrowfull carriage It is not an easy task to give Satan the foyle his darts are fiery consumeing the spirits How is it possible on a sudden to make havocke of a mans naturall corruption or to destroy that life of sinne which for so long continuance hath had being in our soules Delude not then your selves any longer in crying peace for you see christians are fighters And they that will be warriers in Christs camp shall have dreadfull dreames fearefull visions troubles without terrors within and now and then the Arrowes of the Almighty to stick into and drink up their spirits Acquaint thy selfe with Iob demand of David what wounds they received in this warfare and what it is to be a faithfull souldier such can tell thee Yet if thou wouldst know by experience leave off thy wicked associates change the course of thy lewd life and fight the battailer of thy God and then thou shalt finde thy thoughts to bee many thy heart heavy thy griefe great and thy feare terrible Use 2. This may serve in the second place to comfort the godly who have bickerings with the flesh skirmishes with the world and alwayes warre with the devill yea the very bitternesse of assaults encountering with them let them not be daunted or dismay'd for this is no other thing then that which is incident unto the profession of those that fight under the colours of Christ Doth the flesh entice thee the world allure thee the devill tempt thee yea his instruments molest thee Let this then refresh thee that it is no other evill then which did befall the dearest of Gods children The case is common with them For when the strong man keeps the house all is at peace at home but goe about to dispossesse him then will hee rage and teare If Nehemiah begins to repayre the walls of Ierusalem Sanballet shall oppose him Paul to preach the Gospell his owne countrey-men will persecute him Satan when his kingdom shakes will rouze up himself arm all his Agents to act their parts least Babell be confounded and overturned Let not these things seem strange to thee for no combat no christian When the devill doth assault thee the body of corruption lyes heavy upon thee and death with his many Ghostly forms terrifies thee then conclude thou either art or shalt be a right resolute heavenly warriour For these are foes to all them that fight for the Lord or the land of life Use 3. Seeing that faithfull men are military men let us then in the last place labour to stand upon our guard like traine-souldiers let our armour be alwayes in readines for the place wherein we are which is the Church is militant our calling Military not one minute can pleade a priviledge fom an encounter If the case were thus with our bodies that we were still in danger to be set upon by our enemy and knew not when he would fall upon us we would bee carefull to bee well provided Thus is it with our soules and therefore by how much the more excellent the one is then the other by how much the more puissant and powerfull the spirituall enemy is then the corporal by so much the higher it concerne us to stand upon our guard Now that wee may quit ourselves like heavenly warriours let us have these fowre weapons alwayes in readinesse First knowledge this is like unto Sampsons eyes who for the want of them could not find the pillars of the house no more can we the principles of faith unlesse knowledge guide us For without this wee le oft foyle our friends when wee should wound our foes and range beyond our rankes when we should keep within our files Thus it was with Paul before he did receive Christs presse-mony through ignorance he made havock of the Church of God and Peter on the same ground did promise what he was not able to performe Without knowledge the mind is not good and blind men are not fit to fight except under the Prince of darknesse and therefore we must labour in the first place to bee arm'd with knowledge 2ly Courage what heroicall spirit hath that man need to have who is to wrastle with principalities and powers with an heavy burden of sinne and strong body of corruption he had not need to be a puleing babe affrighted with the power of his adversaries But as litle David was not dismay'd either at the threats of his enemy that great Giant at Gath or the greatnesse of his lookes or the strength of his hands but did with the greatest valour overcome him so must we doe arme our selves against Satans forces not flying back when he seeks to assault us but meet him most stoutly opposing couragiously both his power and policy untill we have wonne the victory who otherwise would have prevayled had we not been armed with courage 3ly Love This weapon will stirre up our spirits and adde life unto all our actions when wee our selves grow feeble and weake the Apostle tells us it is of a lasting nature that when all other weapons fayle yet this will endure Let Satan be enraged never so much against us and raise up his instruments to molest and hurt us yet love will make us stand to our ground resist unto blood And though death it selfe supprise us as the strongest dart yet love to our captaine the Lord Iesus hath taken away her sting so that our enemies cannot mortally wound us they may only bruise us in the heele they shall never breake our heads nor give us a deadly stroke 4ly Power The Prophet David being an old souldier prayes for it Psalm 51.2 S. Paul a worthy warriour often commends it Eph. 6.10 A christian should bee like that Leviathan Iob speakes of Iob. 4â— his heart firme as stone his bones as brasse hee accounts Iron as straw and esteemeth steele as stubble no arrow can make him flee nor speare turne him from the battayle Want of power makes us a prey to our enemies and then wee are most in danger to loose the field when wee are not able to fight Let us be armed therefore with power Hee that hath knowledge without power is like a souldier that hath his eyes but wants his armes He that hath knowledge and power is like a souldier that hath his eyes and armes but without courage wants his heart He that hath knowledge power and courage is like a souldier that hath his eyes his armes his heart yet without love he lacks his lims For power can warre but without courage dares not power courage can and dare but without love will not power courage love can dare and will yet if knowledge direct not there will be no good event in the combat Wherefore get knowledge
her beginning at her birth and pedigree She was cut out of no meane quarry It was a custome amongst the Indians sayes Phylostratus after the death of any worthy person to inscribe his acts upon the dores of his house for the ennobling of his issue So it was ever esteemd no meane blessing to be well descended And surely if I should take upon me here the part of an Herald in imitation of them write upon the doors of her house her descent both by father and mother I could easily derive her as you know better then my felfe descending from Honourable Right Honourable and truly noble blood But what is greatnesse without grace or honour without goodnesse but as the Cabanet which wants the Iewell or the Casket that is empty of gold It is the greatest infamy to bee like unto hills the higher the barrener when wee should be as Diamonds the bigger the better But such was not this vertuous gentlewoman I may say of her truly in the words of the Apostle she was fruitfull in good works These shined in her devout soule like heaps of Diamonds in rings of gold being the Characters of true nobility did declare to the world her descent from the royallest blood the great King of heaven It is Godlines that makes us truly great and though wee bee never so much honoured amongst men on earth yet if we be not Gods favourites we dye in infamy and our very names shall rot But enough of her birth which wee all know was honourable Let us come in the next place to her life shee had as we all now have A course to finish but this is her happinesse her journey is at an end our misery we are still a travailing towards it Shee hath that in fruition which we only yet hope for even this crown of righteousnesse in the text Now if the world enquire how she hath got it or the way she took to obtaine it I answer in the words of S. Paul by fighting a good fight and keeping the faith She was a right constant heavenly warriour that at the conclusion of her dayes not three houres before that last one of her death I found her to have her weapons in readinesse Knowledge Courage Love and Power First Knowledge which by continuall practise from dayly reading of the word she had procured Shee did not like Martha encomber her selfe with wordly businesse but with Mary did chuse the better part And this did her dayly practise declare whose constant course was foure times in the day to set her selfe a part for the service of her God So that I may say of her as it is spoken of devout S. Hierome she lived every day as her last day And thus labouring to encrease in knowledge she did attain to no small measure of it for a litle before her death when I began to tell her of Satans wiles to beat us off from being confident of Gods favour when wee were in the weakest state to resist him with much confidence she returnes me answer in that comfortable expression of S. Pauls Rom. 8. I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angells Rom. 8.38.39 nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall bee able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus word for word as strong as she was able a litle before her dissolution exprest her selfe Neither was this perswasion grounded on a generall knowledge which is a common guift but on a practicall experimentall and saving knowledge which none are enricht with but such for whom God hath layed up a crown of righteousnesse There are indeed a generation of men and women that pretend much knowledge but in her it was reall not in pretence Shee was none of those talking Ladies whose Religion appeares onely in the tongue But shee was more for good works then words Much like unto that worthy woman the mother of S. Greg Nazianzen of whom it is said that had shee an Ocean of wealth shee would have emptyed it all into the bellies of the poore So I may say of this vertuous Gētlewomā there was an Ocean of pitty enclosed within the compasse of her heart and when any poore neighbour stood in need of her bounty she gave most liberally to them And all this did arise from her knowledge who knowing that the smallest releife given to the distressed members of Christ should not passe unrewarded at the last day 2ly As shee did abound in knowledge so with Courage for though death which to nature and sense is said to bee the most terrible of terribles yet the thought of it did not any way daunt her spirits She could with boldnesse looke death in the face which when she was put in mind of the approaching hour thus heavenly exprest her selfe that howsoever God was pleased to dispose of her whether for life or death like a couragious christian she concluded shee should bee the Lords Resolving like Iob to undergoe affliction patiently and with S. Paul to suffer death willingly if the Lord be so pleased or hath appointed it Now would you know the reason of this courage It was that holy practise of her life whereby continuall purging and embracing all gracious opportunities of hearing the word preached shee did so dayly renew her covenant with her God as that hereby the sting of death being taken away it could not any way affright her A rare patterne for the greatest Ladyes to follow whose life if they did but seriously consider would confine themselves more unto their closets to meditate on God and goodnesse then now they loose time in their chambers in contriving of fashions and following the vanities of this sinfull world Oh remember you great ones of the world that you are but dust and you know not how soone you may bee resolv'd to your first principle which is dust Now if in the midst of your worldly pomp and honour you should see death appeare unexpectedly as Belthazar's hand-writing did on the wall before you had made your peace with your God how would it make your joynts to tremble how would it fill you with horror and amazement especially to thinke that you have served no other God but your pleasures you never sought after that which would have made you truly honourable Surely if these serious thoughts could but possesse your soules with this vertuous Gentlewoman you would turn your times of playing into praying and by making the word of God your delight would endeavour with this now glorious Saint to procure the assurance which at the finishing of your course would make you more then Conquerors through the Lord Iesus Christ that loved us 3ly She was armed with Love in respect of which vertue I may say of her as Solomon speaks of the good woman Prov. 31.2 Many daughters have done vertuously but thou surpassest them all Her goodnesse