of death thanked the Gods That he was born a man and not a beast a Greek and not a Barbarian But that insensate man that stops his ears against such heavenly Charmers shuts out the Almighty draws a Curtain betwixt God and his poor soul least the thoughts of Heaven damp his pleasures the reverence due to so great a Majesty strike him into an awful obedience when the untunable summons of death alarum him Plato's joy shall be his sorrow wish that his ashes might never be kneaded into the same lump but go to a Land of forgetfulness Improvident soul the clear sky of thy felicity shall be soon overcast thy short day will have a long night For thy Heaven here thou must have an Hell hereafter Cleombrotus was so far transported with reading a Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul that he presently slew himself 14. And it is recorded by Caesar in his Gallick War that the bare opinion of the Druides who taught that the Soul was out of the reach of Death and that it out-lived the Bodies dissolution made their Followers magnanimous in warlike Atchievements and pull'd that frightful vizard from off the face of death which otherwise would have stopt the carier of their prowess and gallantry But that that made them valiant makes thee cowardly and if made thy case but faintly exprest when the Philosopher calls it Terribilium terribilissimum the terrible of terribles when the Doors shall be shut the Windows darkned and the Curtains drawn about thee the Mourners attending thy departure and nothing but Emblems of sorrow and sadness and thy evil Angel like Brutus spectre facing thee in this thy dismal solitude and thou cry out to him Habe me excusatum and he will answer thee in the Negative Thou must be stript of all thy Glories of all thou accountest dear to thee thou must to the shades below and after that to Judgment 15. Then will the body after that it feels the throws and pangs of Death fly out upon the soul for her inbred contagion and sentiments of impurity and the soul accuse the body for giving fuel to all intemperance for its officiousness in acting the dictates of a corrupt mind and only agree in that they are alike miserable How grievous will it be when thou shalt consider thou hast barter'd away thy God for a trifle sold eternity for a moments pleasure for that which Pindarus calls The dream of a shaddow And now every one of these Phantasma's attend the Exit and sad Catastrophe of thy soul carry a fagot to her funeral pile Now canst thou discern to thy immense sorrow that Ixion like thou hast embrac'd a Cloud for Juno That those Virgin faces have been Harpies ravenous Birds and that they had their Dragon Tayls under their deceitful wings Jael-like they have brought thee butter in a Lordly dish but born a hammer in their deadly hands 16. 'T is the Prophet Esay's call to the regenerate man lodged in the Chambers of the Earth Awake and sing ye that lie in the dust because the dawning of your rejoycing is at hand that you shall wear Crowns on your heads and carry Palms in your hands But to the unregenerate man will the call be Awake and howl ye that lie in the dust because the day-break of your for sorrowing draweth nigh Then will yee cry out to the Mountains and Rocks to fall upon you and hide you from the wrath of the Lamb. Let therefore these expressions which have put on mournful Robes these Scutchions and Ensigns for lost souls broach our eyes and sosten our petrified hearts sting and quicken our remembrance for the works of a devout life That we put not the consideration of our eternal welfare like Joram's Messengers behind us No trusting to an after game when we have but one cast one throw whether we have Heaven or Hell 'T is odds against us we draw a blank when we have but time to pull one chance out of this great Lottery but few hours to redeem thousands of their Predecessours D. 1. It might have been Ornamental to a Christian what dropt from Seneca Ante senectutem curavi ut benè vivcrem ut in senectute bene morerer 'T is no good trusting to that we can make to our selves no certain assurance of It was therefore Saint Augustine's care not to venture his salvation a thing so precious on an Evening Repentance We can promise to our selves no boon voyage putting to Sea when our Vessel is leaky and weather beaten fitter to be careen'd than ventur'd forth upon the tempestuous Main 2. What can we say for our selves or who shall plead our cause when the soul and all her fortunes are properly Gods by title of Creation and we change the property of them and make them instruments for sin and Satan when we prostrate our beauties to our lust and make courtship and caresses to vile affections to rottenness and putrefaction whose deformity lies hid under a lilly'd skin spread over it and serve God when our zeal is as cold as our bodies when we cannot bend the knees to reverence our Maker lest we stumble to the Earth the Tomb which must presently enshrine those few dusts of ours Though we are then free from some sins but thanks to our age for such abstinence Temperantia in senectute non est temperantia sed impotentia temporantiae 'T is not that our affections are surfetted that we nauseate those Cates we have so deliciously fed on Or Saint Hierom's Surgite à . mortuis venite ad Judicium knocks at the doors of our hearts and tells us For all this we must come to Judgment but that our bodies are not able to go an even pace with our desires that they are too much enfeebled to follow the pursuit of their former vanities Why wait we not for the twilight to hunt the quarry of our goatish affections but that our stock of fuel is burnt up by too freely blowing the coals of our lust or that Rheums and Dropsies have drown'd those scintils and sparks that were left 3. Why Epicurize we not so much but that there is a deficiency of heat for its digestion Why rise we not so early to inebriate our selves 'T is because we have so many issues and botches the plague sores of a debauched life that makes our bodies Plena rimarum Sieves like they cannot hold full draughts As the Prophet Elisha said to his servant Gehazi Is this a time to be taking rewards So Is this a time to begin our Heavenly Pilgrimage when all is dark about us To begin to live when a diseased body a distracted mind and unsetled estate call for reparation When like the devout women we might have presented to God in the morning of our Age gums and sweet spices of prayers and supplications Adolescens tibi dico surge Now is the time that salvation is offered to us when every faculty is in its most admirable perfection the senses
must be proportionable Our abode here shorter than a peregrination Tho we pass by those Iliads of Dangers that obviate us and burn out to the bottom of the Wiek dye in our socketts yet deduct so many Years for our declination since those more durable ones and almost one half of that abbreviated time for Sleep the Hand-Maid of death how inconsiderable when cast up will the Summa totalis be that we have to live How short our continuance If they were but Sojourners when the World was in the Meridian of his Age in its greatest Stature what a hasty transition do we make in its setting in its decrepitness As if we came to give the World a visit and in scorn to its miserable shortness bid a farewel to it If Life was but a shadow when God darted on them the rayes of his glorious Countenance and held Dialogues with the Sons of Men how far distant are we that refuse to come into his presence from the substance 4. If our Life in those large striding times was but a Span long how short are we now of that Span And if God doth not alarm us to Judgment that a few Ages more succeed ours their being will be so fleeting so voluble a duration so short so inconsiderable that they will not know how to entile it Even now we attribute too much by calling it a continuance having already in the way to that general dissolution suffer'd so much change but that the precedent Words check the loudness of the phrase T is but short but a few Days Man that is born of a Woman is but of few Days He that lives longest hath but his Term his being here is but as a Thought presently shoulder'd out by another The Flower we know though more gorgeous in attire than Solomon in all his Glory in the morning is by the Suns vigor raised out of the Bed of Earth displays her Colours and in the evening sickens and dyes Yet Man is no other sometimes less considerable rising with the Sun and stays not his setting 5. How great a part of mankind from their Mothers lying in date their laying out deliverd by the Hands of the Midwife from the Mantles and bloody coverings of the Womb to be sealed up in a winding-Sheet post from one Grave to the other How many with the Babes of Bethlehem see the World without continuing so long as to understand what they see or if they know it in the best of content conclude it not to be worth the knowing if but for its short continuance How many before they arrive to that perfection Nature designs us the beauty and strength of Youth are often so debilitâ—â—ed that for want of Strength expire How few make their perambulations till they feel the decrepitness of old Age kicking up their Heels or if the Thread of their Life be drawn out to a more unusual length yet is it but a lassitude a Province of Labour and Sorrow every Minute expecting when Death strikes at the crazy Doors of their Bodys the Damps that they carry about them making their Taper all that time burn Blew ready to extinguish 6. That Death shall unbody our Souls take down these tapestry Hangings of Flesh strip us to the bones what 's more incinerate Calcine those very bones distracts not reason since there is a necessity for all men once to dye Mors necessitatem habet aequam et invictam But that we should untimely dye and which is more admirable Non admittere mortem sed attrahere Make our hands the Bodyes carefull Conservators our own Executioners is a wonder too transcendent When a healthfull composure intends us for a longer time precipitate our ruine dig our own graves as if we conceited a greater misery in living then Job or to lay violent hands on our selves were after the Roman garb to deck our heads with Garlands and Trophies for the conquest over our present sufferings 7. The two main Columns that support mans life are heat and moisture If there be an excess or deficiency in either this stately Colossus becomes irreparably ruinous But if we were such perfect Naturalists as to acquaint our selves with the right constitutions of our bodyes and had an observant will to act according to the dictates of our knowledge by measuring out such a temperament that the heat be not cooled by an exuberancy of moisture or too thrifty allowance for it to feed on our lamp might burn with a greater Nitor a more lasting Clarity But such things are we born of women either to know so little or which is worse make not practical what we do know that either with excessive ating cloy we that heat make it unfit for digestion or throw too much drink upon those glowing embers or else frying up our marrow emptying our veins to fill the exorbitant desires of our lusts we are hurry'd to our last sleep many decad's of dayes sooner then if we measur'd out every thing aequâ lance with the hand of Mediocrity No marvil our day is so soon clouded our tale so soon told our Pilgrimage so soon terminated for not only Nature intends us a quick dispatch but we must needs steal a Thief into our farthing candle mend the swift pac'd sand that measureth our time by shaking the glass of our life into quicker motion Like that exquisite Limner who cut a visible line through that small one coppied out to him by his competitor 8. We have but one passage that leads us into the world and that a strait one For we come like Rebeccha's twins strugling and striving for our admittance but death hath bands of Executioners in a readiness to give us our passport Though there is but one postern that leads us out of the land of the living Death yet many are the wayes trod out to it Mille modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat Some foot it by those lesser paths of Agues and Colds Others ride the beaten and trodden wayes of Surfets and Feavers Others the common rodes and high ways of Pestilence and the Sword At this Centre Death all lines meet all rodes give up their passingers and when we have discharg'd our Bill of fare paid Nature her arrears for we have been dying even from our infancy vestigia nulla retrorsum We make no return The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more 9. Though we have our Magna Charta confirm'd to us by the king of Kings and Lord of Lords of a Sovereignty over the Creatures as is acknowledged by the Psalmist Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet Yet there is no creature so contemptible but may have a time to triumph with the spoyls of his Lord. Praesentemque viris intentant omnia mortem Every thing menaces destruction hath an Invenom'd arrow ready to let fly at us The Fates could string their Bow with one single hair when they sent a death to Fabius a Roman A fly was
love but an Embrio If so many Martyrs hugg'd and kist their stakes laid them down in their flames as in their Marital beds to conserve this love to secure themselves for immortality How bright and glorious will the flame be when it shall have the fervour of a Seraphim the purity of an Angel When we shall see the Object of our love God with whom there is no change or variableness and still desire to see him To meditate on him here is to see him hereafter ESSAY ESSAY III. G. De Passione Christi in Corpore proprio LAMENT 1.12 Have ye no regard all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce Anger HEre 's black tinctured in the deepest die words of such transcendent Prevalency that would make stubborn Rocks relent and exact a fluency of Tears from the sealed up Fontanels of our Eyes Can any Heart though petrified to a wonder not break that brittle Mansion 't is inclosed in when it shall hear one sing his own sad Elegy ring his funeral Peals with such mournful Bells 2. Had that Tyrant Nero who sung the Ruines of Troy when inviron'd with the Flames of his Imperial City bin a spectator of this Tragedy of Tragedies heard these doleful Notes clad in so sad a Livery so attracting Sorrow and Compassion Pity would at an instant have Triumpht over cruelty and made him turn convert to the highest Commiseration For who could stifle a tributary Groan when he heard this dying Swan sluctuating on the bitter Waters of Affliction without being ever after deafe Who could with a supercilious look without suffering an absolute Ecclipse behold such innovated Punishments too grievous to answer the foulest Treason undergone by him who had not the meanest trespass to account for Or yet in this Iron-hearted Age of ours look on this sad Lamentation though superannuated and not set his sorrow to a louder Key then the doleful mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo Quis talia fando Temperet a Lachrimis 3. But if these attendants here these words that wait upon this mournful piece of Scripture move us not or the deplorableness of our condition beget no emotion yet hear his own complaint sounded by that golden Trumpet Jeremiah we know not what an unexpected reformation it may work in us For he that out of Stones could raise up Children unto Abraham and squeeze the hardest Rocks into flowing Rivers can with the Breath of his Nostrills mould our Hearts into the softest temper and raise a right and unfeigned Lamentation for never Words were spoken more emphatically or with a truer accent of Sorrow Have ye no regard all ye that pass by c. 4 As petty Punishments become petty Offenders so an abyss of sinning calls for an abyss of Suffering 'T is no meritorious act in an Homicide to bow down his Head to the stroke of Justice for he shall but sacrifice it to the Blood of another There the Law makes it compulsory fashions the Punishment to the Offence But for the Son of God the second Person in the glorious Trinity one so free from Spot or Blemish that durst say to his critical Enemies which of you can rebuke me of Sin to bow the Heavens and come down from his Imperial Throne where he sate surrounded with Saints and Angels to approach this vile World which was before his Foot-Stool to put on the rags of human Flesh which before was cloathed with light as with a Garment and from a King of Kings to be enrolled a subject and pay Tribute to Caesar that rid on the Wings of Cherubins here in his greatest Triumph to bestride a silly Asse that thought it no robbery to be equal with the Father to make himself of no Reputation and to take upon him the form of a Servant that had so many glorious Mansions in Heaven so wholly to dethrone himself of all Pomp and State as not to have a hole to hide his Head in to be hunted like a Partridge in the Wilderness betray'd by one Servant abjurd by another forsaken by the rest and generally scorn'd and scofft at by the Multitude spat at scourg'd and delivered to a Death the most ignominious Death the most torturing Death the most prolonging Death All which summ'd up could not be endur'd by any but one that participated of the Deity or ransom less than the Sins of the whole World 5. Now our Messias could not have writ our Names in the Book of Life if he had not descended to the susception of our Infirmities So that he was made Man to suffer God that he might be able to suffer Not that the God-Head was Co-partner with the Humanity or any way attenuated his sufferings for that was invulnerable impassible But the All sufficiency of the Deity sustained and strengthened the insufficiency and weakness of the humanity Else could he not have trod the Wine-press of his Fathers Wrath drunk so deep of the Cup of his indignation That which would have torn and shatter'd the best built edifice of Flesh Christ is enabled to undergo that he might not give up the Ghost till he hath gone through what a wrackt invention of exquisite Tyrants could inflict 6. But before we go up to Mount Calvary the Scene of his Tragedy let us walk to the Mount of Olives that from that Ascendant we may take the better prospect of his doleful Passion There shall we find him labouring under such an Agony as should make him so exceedingly sweat sweat Blood drops of Blood and that trickling down Ibat purpureus niveo de pectore sanguis 7. No wonder there was such Distemper in his Body such an Ebullition of that most precious liquor when God had sent fire into all his bones If our astonishment hath not already overset our reason benighted our senses look on him in the Judgment-Hall though but with Peter afar off yet may we be neer enough to see him run the Gantlope his virgin body enduring so many stripes as some affirm wearied a whole band of souldiers Viscera mortiferis tandem contusa flagellis The Scribes and Elders had reason of state to hasten his death But that Mercenary souldiers whose short winged souls seldom soar so high as Court-Politicks and whose Commission we sind not so extensive should contrary to the nobleness of their Profession act the ignominious parts of abominated Hangmen especially when the meekness of his phrase would like softning oyl rather Mollifie their stony hearts than confirm their obduratness illustrates Gods heightned fury to sin and so consequently to Christ then the greatest sinner in the world He should not sip in the cup of his fathers wrath being now to drink a Health to the whole world but quaff off the very lees of his indignation 8 He shall not have the liberty of Job with a pot-sheard to wipe off the
may do himself the more honour shew the excellency of his power by mounting us on a higher Throne drawing the Rays of our Glory to a brighter Lustre Historians every where shew us many brave men as well Heathens as Christians who had no other fault but too much merited of their Country that have been paid with scorn and ingratitude nay with Proscription and afterwards with the consent applause of those very Persecuters have thrown off the Mantles and Coverings of Darkness and Obscurity and like the Sun after an interposition appeared all Glorious 6. God seldom remunerates his Servants here with a temporary felicity Some indeed have been crown'd with Rose-Buds have let no Flower of the Spring pass by them Though Mordecai a Captive was invested with the Royal Robes and rode upon the King's Horse yet others have gone on foot and not a seeming Gourd to refresh them but so as he comforts and keeps vivid the Vitals with his Spirits and Extracts distilled through that glorious Limbeck Paul the Apostle We may be troubled on every side but not distressed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken God hath Balsom for every Wound a Plaister for every Sore and though he dress it not while it is green and fresh yet he will make his applications before it fester What though God suffer an Executioner to lay violent hands upon thee he cannot go a step beyond death he does but antidate the work of a Disease the difference only is a nefarious hand presently storms the body and a malady takes it in by a longer Siege few drop like a wasted Taper in the Socket but some violent wind puts it out some sharp Disease is the extinguisher and the Conflicts and Colluctations that such have with death adequate the throws of a more hasty Transition So that it matters not whether we die Sicca or humida morte whether we are burnt with a quick fire at the stake or a lingring one of a Fever whether we are thrown into the Tiber or drowned at home with a Dropsie whether starved in a Prison or shrivelled in our Chamber with a Consumption 7. Since God hath a Statute upon our Bodies It being appointed for all men once to die and that we cannot be removed from our Troubles of Life but by death then the shortest way must needs be the best 'T is a poor thrift to put a Save-all into our Farthing Candle to be angry because the thred of nature is broken before she has time to wind off the whole bottom Though the eye of Moses was not dim nor his natural force abated yet when God bade him Go up and die he readily quitted his own command went up to the top of Pisgah and died The Primitive Christians set so great an estimate upon the days of their death that they called them Natales Then they only began their Epocha of living the world was but before in labour with them and death was the Midwife to give them a Nativity 8. Certainly could we but hear the Transports of a refined Soul singing an Obiit to the world preparing her Heavenly Viaticum it would have a strange charm awake our Poppy Souls and infuse into them raptures of joy and exultation unexpressive or if fabricated according to the Model of that Philosopher who would have a Window in the Breast of every man we might see a strange Festivity within him not a Cloud in that Hemisphere What more lovely than the wounds of Sebastian though drawn with a rugged Pencil Those feathered Arrowswinged him for an Heavenly Flight Does not a Martyr amidst his Flames shew like the Sun encircled with Rays of Glory And S. Stephen when brought before the Council appeared not with pallor dejection like a Malefactor that looks half executed before the doom be past but so Seraphical that the Judges saw his face as though it had been the face of an Angel When a Saint hath been mounting a Scaffold have we not been big with conceit by those few Stairs he was ascending a Throne that it was his Jacobs Ladder that railed him up to Heaven 9. He must needs make a boon Voyage that in so little a time is set on the shore of eternity with so few steps is carried from earth to Heaven Let not then any thing startle us though vizarded with loathsomness and deformity nor be terrified though we change life for death with that brave Theban Epaminondas so the Victory may be glorious It is God's care and who would not almost love his Disease for such a Physician many times to use Corrosives to the Body that the Soul may have her Lenitives punish the worser part that the better may be preserved To a mortal man there can be no immortality of evil man himself hath but a short period his life compared to things of the least duration And yet they that acted the most tragical parts no doubt had some Interludes and Recesses It was not long that Joseph lay in prison nor Job on the Dunghil nor Jeremy in the Dungeon Others have put on Mourning for a longer term but they also had a time to shift their Sables Dabit Deus bis quoque sinem 10. It is against the Rules of a Tragedy to have every Scene filled with Blood shed and Slaughter A strange distempered Season if the Heavens should continually be hung with black as strange if we always sate in darkness that the Sun did not sometimes peep through our cloud of Adversity Though it enlighten not the whole Body yet it may guild the Fringes and Borders of it gives us though not a glorious light yet sufficient to keep our dying spark alive But against all partiality it must appear strangely short if compared to the never terminating pains of the Fiends below where the Worm never dieth nor the Fire ever goeth out It is observed by Boetius That a punctum of time and ten thousand years hold better proportion than so many years and that endless thing Eternity Aeternum aeternum quanta haec duratio quanta How much horrour and amazement should the consideration of it bring to them that barter for a present felicity a few transient Glimmerings so much horrour and confusion where they shall spend morientem vitam be always dying and yet never die not one drop of Water shall be cast into the Furnace to slack their Flames not one spark of Fire shall warm these refrigerating Waters and to heighten the wonder contraries shall dwell together without any destructive clashing Lamentable is the cry of the Prophet Esay Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting Burnings 11. Is it not then better to be cast down with sorrow for sin than to be sunk so low that we never rise again to be clouded for a while than over-cast for ever Melior est modica amaritudo in faucibus quà m aeternum tormentum in visceribus It is better
most subtle their spirits more agile 4. The eye can best discern without a Perspective the Effigies of God in his own person and all other his mighty works for the service of man The ear quickest hear the sweet sounding musick of his word The hands have a greater dexterity to perfume God's Altars with the Odours of Alms-deeds and charitable actions The feet strongest and best able to support us to the hallowed Temple Thus imploying our vigorous and active abilities is a seeking the Lord while he is near to us The nature of Quick-silver is to tremble and be restless till it find something with which it may commix So these Mercurial parts if not set on work in God's service will be sure though to their own cost take imployment elsewhere Youth knows no Medium its lively Embers will be either blown into a flame of Devotion or Concupiscence Let us therefore tread that path figur'd out to us take that Clue in hand to lead us through the intricate Labyrinths of a perplexed life And for our better direction there are erected in holy Scripture Pyramids and Columns such store of lights as so many Pharo's that we may sail on with a prosperous gale to our haven of felicity 5. If the glorious Mansions of the Heaven with all its splendid Equipage be worth the purchasing Let us Remember our Creatour If at any time we Remember our Creatour let it be Juvenili aetate In our rosie-morn In the days of our Youth If we will bate our selves so much of our present enjoyments as to pay him Primitias the service of our Youth Let it not then be a lame or disjoynted one lest we be put by as those maimed persons in the Old Law from serving at the Sanctuary but such vivid such Heroick services as will not shame the giver nor cause God to withdraw his hands from deigning them a favourable acceptance 6. This will forward our Journey to the New Jerusalem a City that hath all peace all joy Where there is no leading into Captivity nor crying in her streets A City of pure Gold and the Walls of Jasper A City that hath no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth light it Where we shall not forget him for we shall sing Allelujahs to him Where we shall not forget him for we shall have such glorified bodies as to see him face to face without a flaming bush to interpose without meaner Objects than Saints Angels Cherubims and Seraphims ESSAY II. 7. De Humana fragilitate JOB 14.1 Man that is born of a Woman is of few Days and full of Trouble QUod natum est poterit mori Every birth will have a burial And a greater Rhetorician than Seneca tells us There is a time to be born and a time to dye The hand of fate signs no Indulgences reprieves not any seeing all are doom'd and destin'd to the shades of death Nullâ prece mobilis Ordo No intreaties can reverse the Decretals of Heaven The world it self with its resplendent Luminaries Sun Moon and Stars plead no exemption 8. Those weaker fires must be burnt with a more powerful one from Heaven and every thing reduc'd to its primitive condition to a figur'd nothing God only that was without beginning knows no end All things else will have their calcination will to rubbidge That Microcosm man also though but an Epitome of the World yet of greater dignity than the whole Universe for Adam's disparadising himself must have this Dilapidation Though the hands of the Almighty have kneaded us Thy hands have made me and fashion'd me round about and baked these bodies when inorganical in the Oven of the Womb to a purity of ripeness to an animation yet our first sinning hath crackt these Vessels that we moulder to dust again 9. Though thou hast formed us so like unto thy glorious self as made David out of an extasie of admiration cry out I am fearfully and wonderfully made yet since we have blotted out the Inscription of Heaven which was so gloriously figur'd on us defac'd that noble Impress thou was pleas'd to stamp upon common clay 't is no injustice if we return to dirt again for this Lord Paramount to change our free tenure into Lease hold nay into Villenage Since we refus'd to live in the Sun-shine of his favour 't is of our own meriting that we are doom'd to a Land of darkness Though these earthly Tabernacles have the enoblement of being Ancient Demain Crown-lands yet have they no priviledge of immunity shall not be freed from the common Gabels nature imposes upon them but have their devastation too Though our bodies by divine Institution are the Temples of the Holy Ghost yet if we make them receptacles for sin we cannot expect loss than a dissolution of them For The wages of sin is death Every man as Tertullian hath it being Homicida sui a murderer of himself Man forges the weapon and sin is the sword that doth execution on us 10. Dari bonum quod potuit auferri potest The same power that cast these divided Elements into one entire Building can with the breath of his nostrils destruct them again and since we prove not Vessels of Honour will speedily take the matrials asunder and lay them in the dust And yet may we not with Holy Job say unto him What dost thou For 't is the Lord's doing and therefore marvellous in our eyes Seeing then we have pull'd this house upon our own heads which if sin had not undermin'd though but houses of Clay had outbraved times dilapidation Let us therefore be content our own consciences having already proved our Indictment to hear that irreversible sentence pass'd on us which hath long since sent many to the place of execution though reprieved for a few days yet wilt thou bring us also to death and to the house appointed for all living We must all back to the place whence we came the Earth there lie fetter'd in the prison of the Grave to be torn and mangled by her little Furies fierce executioner till our bones are pickt clean till they have their incineration too 11. In the sacred rolls of Heaven we find the same judgment denounced against the heritage of the Lord Thou Worm Jacob. No higher title doth the Lord bestow on the greatest of the Sons of men For they shall all lie down alike in the grave and the worms shall cover them Stoop here and see the polished Tomb-stone that 's laid over us the worm shall cover us And read what Epitaph Job hath writ on it Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble It had been enough to have said We are born of women without reading to us the destiny of a short continuance for by that we might have spell'd our fleeting condition and as in a mirrour viewed the forms and Idaea's of our present suffrings 'T is necessary to
wing'd with Destiny when it choakt Adrian Aristides after he had escaped the furies of men and savager beasts had the thread of his life snagl'd in two by the bite of a Weesel A Gnat or Emmet can as well lay us in the dust as an Elephant 10. An Ear-wig when ransacking the Cells and private chambers of our brain stings us as deadly as a Scorpion A small fish-bone destroyes us as it did once Tarquinius Priscus sooner than a shark or Sword-fish A pin may give Lethale vulnus a fatal wound if sharpn'd with the anger of Heaven as readily as could Ajax speare And this confim'd in the mournful story of Lucia sister to the Emperor Aurelius who innocently sporting with her infant receiv'd a small prick in the breast with her Needle and through that small loop-hole presently death discharg'd it self upon her God out of a little Orifice can give our vitals passage and our souls can as easily sally through Chinks and Crannies of our bodyes as if it had doors and gates to let it forth Add then these casualties from which no one purchases a Patent of exemption to the natural infirmities of our body's which are wounds and bruises and putrified Sores and our foolish propensity of imping those feathers that of themselves are wing'd strong enough to carry us to our long home and we must necessarily conclude our emanation from the prison of the womb to Golgotha the place of execution to be inconsiderable so inconsiderable as to have no continuance 11. Is our time here but of short continuance Then is it high time to trim our lamps Rogus et urna meditanda Set before our dreaming fancies our Pile and Pitcher and every man say to his improvident soul what the Prophet did to King Hezekiah Put thy house in Order for thou shalt surely dye Quamdiù Cras quare non modò finis turpitudinis meae Saith St. August How long will ye resist the holy motions of repentance and cry out to morrow we will purifie our souls with snow-water when before the day cometh they may be drown'd swallow'd up in their own pollutions Let nothing therefore hinder thee to pay thy vowes in due time and not at the vespers of death when thy Malady and busie care to leave a calm and quiet estate to thy hasty successors distract thee in thy accounts to God 12. The womb was our tiring room to put on the habiliments of the flesh The world is our tiring room to deck and apparel our selves with the rich robes of righteousness And we know not how soon the loud Musick of the last Trump will sound us forth to shew to the all discerning eye of Heaven whether we have acted to the life Comoedies of pleasure and sensuality or Tragoedies of sorrow and compunction for sin whether we have chanted wanton layes and amorous ditties or Canticles Hymns and spiritual songs Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Let us with the Poet conceit every day to be our last and with that Heathen Seneca Efficere mortem sibi familiarem Make death our daily companion so to prepare Ut Moriantur ante nos vitia That our sins give up the Ghost before us For in our last scene they will shift their robes and to our great Consternation all appear drest in their true deformities 13. When this Pursuivant Death hath thus attacht the unregenerate man what hath pride profited him Or what good hath his riches with his vaunting brought him Then if he had the whole world at command he would take up the Devils phrase All this will I give thee to reprieve me but a few days that I might file off my rust burnish my self for Heaven cleer my freckl'd soul of those Morphewes and stains that present her uncomly in the sight of her maker Desine fata deûm flecti sperare precando But alass intreaties avail not any thing ho deprecating fate t is not our importunate whining can alter the decrees of Heaven Think not because when God decreed Hezekiah a present death upon his humble petition he reverst that heavy sentence and commanded the Sun for a sign to go so many degrees back in the Diall of Ahaz therefore that he will do so for us Let us not be deceived by expecting an Injunction from the Chancery of Heaven The Egyptians found it experimentally true that the Goddess of Destiny spared none no not the first born in Pharohs Court therefore they built her no Temple offer'd no Sacrifices to her 14. Non Torquate genus non te facundia non te Restituit pietas It matters not whether we are of the Julian or Claudian family no embellishing of perfections no ornaments of Nature no sanctity of life can priviledge us from the grave for every man hath his appointed time and that a short one and as if that were not enough a miserable one too The Prophets have foretold it the Apostles reveal'd it every day every hours experience confirms to us Man that is born of a woman is but of few days and full of trouble 15. What To be of few days and that full of trouble We should rather have thought that the brevity of mans life had been remunerated with all solace and delight the few steps we tread had been on the fragrant Carpets of roses and violets than instead thereof to find a repletion of sorrow such sorrow as will keep pace with our being though an unbidden guest attend us till we are entombed in our mother Earth 15. Job thought it too hard measure though he let it not go unrepented of sitting in sackcloth and ashes when out of the bitterness of his soul he expostulated with the Almighty Are not my days few Cease then and let me alone that I may take a little comfort This was but a fallacious argument If he had chang'd his note it had been more tunable Are not my sins many Why then is the rod of affliction laid so gently on me Why should the avenger of all things cease from punishing me when I stop not my Career in offending How can I with confidence beg any boon at his hands when I vouchsafe him not a retribution of thanks Our afflictions are no compensations for sins past but sometimes given us as a makebate between us and our indeered amours to divorce us from the gayeties and Utopian felicities of this deceivable world which like the Panther pleases at distance with a perfum'd breath but in their embraces murder us 16. The carefull nurse imbitters her nipples with Worm-wood that the Infant may nauseate the teat and feed on stronger nourishment God deals with his children Antidotes the poyson by sowring the pleasures of this world making our honours and lushious delights pall'd and insipid rubbs off the varnish and shews their deformity that we may no longer be Inamorato 's of them Why then should we wrack and torture our inventions to acquire that which beggers us Build steps and stairs
Vinegar mingled with Mirth and Gall was proffered him to drink a favour bestowed on such at their Crucifixion to open the Veins and so accelerate death Christ would not drink lest he should marr the whole Tragedy by failing in the last Scene Good God! if these be the Favours Man deals to Man let me receive my Favours from thine own hands From the first putting on the Swadling Clouts of Flesh he had yielded most acceptable Sacrifices of perfect Obedience to his Father and therefore the horrour of the last three Hours Suffering should not make him sound a cowardly Retreat and so frustrate the Decrees and preordain'd Resolves of the Almighty Perdidit vitam nè perderet obedientiam He would give up his life rather than make forfeiture of his obedience 8. Unless we go beyond nature for a search the fire of the hottest Revenge will expire when it hath the Blood of its Adversary sprinkled on it But their malice rebated not with his death but had a continuation to his Body after his high flying Soul had journied as far as Heaven else would they not have desaced that incomparable piece of Building glorious in it self but more glorious in being the Sphere for this Son of God to move in by thrusting a Spear into his Virgin Side for Blood and Water to stream forth too too precious to be spilt on the Ground of that most accursed Country 9. Timanthes a Grecian Painter when he was to resemble the doleful Sacrifice of Iphigenia drew a sad Ajax a mournful Ulisses but the Face of Agamemnon the Father he veiled with a sable Curtain as not knowing how to decipher so great a sorrow So we may content our selves to have delineated the Bewailings of his Disciples that received the glorious Impress of his Doctrine the inward sighs and bitter Lamentations of his Friends and Kinsfolks But instead of shewing you his wounded soul stabbed with our sins his tortured Body such Throws so unexpressive such pangs so unsufferable something should be interposed betwixt your sight and it lest out of a zeal to draw that to the life we take from the State and Majesty of so true a sorrow 10. As the Fore-runner to the sad Catastrophe of an Heroick Potentate a blazing Comet prodigiously shakes his flaming Beard as if it threatned to fire the lower Region to light him at his Funeral But at so great and terrible a Massacre of him who could bind such Kings in Chains and their Nobles with Links of Iron could the Sun that shone but at his courtesie do less than withdraw his Beams lest it hold the Candle whilst such horrid Assassination was perpetrated on the Son of God Or the Earth his Foot-stool to fall into a Trepidation while it bore such unnatural Inhabitants that Viper like would tear out the Bowels of him who brought Bowels of Mercy and Compassion to their languishing and Bed-ridden Souls Since Christ should be no more preached in the Temple but polluted with Buyers and Sellers rent it self in twain from the top to the bottom the Stones clave asunder and in their inarticulate Oratory bespake their accursed ruine and our insensibility The Allarm so great that the dead who had long slept awaked as if they arose to present him their Tombs Every thing full of prodigy and wonder The great Luminary of Heaven suffers an Eclipse though the Moon not then in conjunction but full to the admiration of Dionysius Aut Deus naturae patitur aut mindi machina dissolvetur All things in that disorder as if nature were distracted and every thing ran back to its first Confusion 11. Thus we see Sun Earth Temple Stones which are the insensible servants of Man by their several unaccustomed Mutations seem to have a quicker resentment of his sufferings than man who alone is concerned without any Corrival By this time devout Joseph hath begged the Body of Jesus and though a rich man ventured to shew his affecion to him living in a decent interment of him dead While his charitable hands are throwing on fragrant Spices and rich scented Odours let us a little look back on that great Attribute of God his Justice that which here occasion'd our attendance on this sad and solemn Obsequy 12. Those Pieces must needs be well limn'd that have the hand and care of the best Artist to figure them Adam is here drawn to the life for he is stiled the Image of his Maker his Soul of no Elementary Substance but the Breath of God And this Epitome of the Creation prelated so high above exacts he but an observance to one single command the Command high and peremptory upon the pains of Death the temptation languid and saint commended by a Serpent 13. That he that is thought to exceed his Successors in wisdom and had the precipitation of the Angels the wrackings of those glorious Vessels as in a mirrour figured to his understanding should by so soon affronting his Maker split that Ark that carried the whole fortune of Mankind and afterwards give the lye to his Omnisciency and essential Ubiquity by shrowding himself in the close Walks of the Garden as it God wanted a Clue to the Maeanders of his own planting or one Tree could repair what the other lost shelter him from the imminent Storms of Heaven or that there were an Opacity in those Glorious Opticks who could see through the dark and disordered Chaos to model and rank things into a beautiful Order and in his Epostulation aggravate this sin by a seeming extenuation The woman whom thou gavest to be with we she gave me of the tree and I did eat As if God had laid the Scene for his Transgression If I had been alone steered my own course I had not thus offended Strengthens this Bill of Indictment drawn up against him and calls for justice to avenge it O Lord how shall we fulfil the whole Law when Adam in his brightest integrity but newly dropt from the hand of his Maker could not observe this poor Particle of it The Spark that flies the Fire that fed it shall be put out If we refuse the allowed Delicacies of Paradise nauseate the Cates of his own planting we shall earn our Bread with the Sweat of our Brows Since we dislike to equal the days of Heaven we shall die like Men die eternal deaths if not expiated by the Crucifixion of the Holy Jesus 14. As our Impieties are transcendent so will his justice be elevated to the same height Our Sacrifices must be adequate to the multiplicity of our Transgressions Could man by exposing his own life to the fatal stroke of death satisfie for his own offences his debt were quickly paid and Heaven with all its Glories purchased at an easie rate But the only wise God well knew that the whole world of flesh though it had as many worlds as this hath Men and all to endure the exquisitest deaths the most ingenious Tormenters could inflict would not take off the
to chew a little Gaul in our mouths than to have Gripings in our Bowels and Excoriations in our Souls and that for ever to drink a Jill of Wormwood than to be perpetually intoxicated with the Cup of his fiery Indignation to endure the heaviness of a night for the joy that cometh in the morning a day that shall never be benighted a day that shall not have so much as a Cloud to veil or curtain the Saints happiness 12. It was answered by that famed Emperour Vespasian when Apollonius desired admission for Dion and Euphrates men eminently qualified My Gates stand always open to Philosophers but my very Breast is open to Apollonius So the Gates of that Palace Royal of Heaven that sure City of Refuge are never shut against such as are beaten on the Anvil of Affliction for righteousness sake But God receives these to a greater endearedness stretches their natures wider to receive a fuller measure of Glory erects their Throne with more refined Gold sets richer Jewels in their Crown that ennoble their suffering with Patience and Glory in their Tribulation Patience it fans the holy fires of Love throws perfumes into the flame snuffs our Lamp and makes it burn with a brighter clarity like the Chymists Elixir it turns all into incorruptible Gold the Touchstone by which God tries his people whether they be Gold or a baser Metal 13. The warlike Inhabitants of Germany plunged their Male Children in the Rhene to discover by their boldness in struggling with the waters their Courage or Cowardise Our Heavenly Father casts us on the Waters of Marah wrinkles the face of them with that tempestuous wind Euroclydon that troubled Paul to see whether we would lighten our Ship of that Baggage Stuff she is freight with whether we have courage to go on or patience to endure though we see neither Sun nor Stars for many days He that goeth to Golgotha and seeth Martyrs and Malefactors sent to the immortality of another world may easily make the difference who suffers for demerit and who for a good conscience The one sings in his flames the other howls the one reproaches the Executioner the other thanks him and with that Proto-Martyr Stephen prays for him the one like a spent Meteor stinks in his Socket the other like Aromatick Torches perfumes the Air with odoriferous Evaporations or a setting Sun that leaves an impression of Glory on the Neighbouring Clouds 14. But to have heard the complaint of Hadrian sung in a sort tone in a sadder Elegy or to have seen the impatience of Herod when wracked with an incurable Disease but more distorted Conscience or Julian the Apostate full of horrour and remediless despair or Nero when he crept into a Thicket of Reeds for fear of dying more majorum This sure like Belshazzar's Hand-writing would have made loose the Joynts of his Loins and his Knees to smite one against another But the Saints of God they smile upon death and torture and good reason have they Mors non est obitus sed abitus Death is their Goal-delivery gives them a Writ of Ease from all their Labours and Endurances 't is their Intrat to their Glories and endless Beatitudes S. Jerom saw but a little timidity in his Soul some show of her unwillingness to leave her old Habitations and presently he gives her the check Egredere quid times anima mea egredere c. 15. We may with less reluctancy traverse this Alpian way because much plained with the footings of those that have gone before If Myriads of Saints marched in the van and dared their Enemies to an Execution shall it startle us to bring up the rear No Victory without fighting no Crown without Victory We may be Spectators at the Olympick Games carry a Crown to adorn anothers Triumph but never wreath our own Brows unless we get the Garland with striving And who will not enter the Lists when he is sure to carry away the prize For God with his Militia of Angels attends the Combat and enhaunceth the price of their Virtue according to the vigorousness of the temptation they grapple with If such had not their exemption from the effects of an angry God whom the Lord hath styled A man after his own hearty the signet of his right hand the friend of God his Husbandry his Building expressions of a strange endearedness can we that are but Shrubs and Brambles think to have merited more of lenity than those Oaks of Bashan those Cedars of Lebanon those Colums of Piety and Godliness that our services are of an higher strain than the Apostles and primitive Saints and therefore he should lay his strokes the gentler on us 16. Believe it we have dipped our Sins in a far deeper Die made them as red as Scarlet rivalled the greatest Offender and therefore our suffering can never make an expiatory Oblation If God did perpetually flash his Lightnings dart his Thunder-bolts and knot his Rods like the Whips of the Furies with Serpents and Scorpions yet the disproportion must be strangely great betwixt a finite suffering and an infinite Majesty offended 'T is of singular advantage and encouragement to us in this War-fare that Christ underwent the fame pressures but ripened to a greater maturition for he can tell to a scruple how much Freight we can take in how many fathom of Water our Vessel draws so that he will be sure to unlade us if the Burthen be too weighty throw into them some sweet Liquors if the Waters taste too brackish L. 1 It was a comfort to dying Lausus that he received his death from the great Aeneas It matters not how many stripes we receive how deep the wound how disconsolate the Soul since it is a Saviour that afflicts who carries healing under his Wings so much Blood and Sweat so many Sighs and Sobs shall not become fruitless but he will see tho Work of our Redemption perfected We are wounded but that good Samaritan will have compassion bind up our Sores and pour Oil and Spikenard on them that can settle and compose a distempered and sadded Soul and sparkle our Countenance as if we were putting on the Royal Habiliments in the morning of our Resurrection Dum dat verbera ostendit ubera God never bruises us but he hath a Plaister ready spread pearled Cordials to fetch back a departing life 'T is said the Stork lets out the corrupt Blood of her young ones and then acts the Chyrurgeon's part closing up the Wound with her Tongue Thy Rod and thy Staff they comfort me both like loving Correlates attend each other 2. It is a very great advance to a Cure when our fancy builds a belief that the means and applications us'd by our Physician will be prevalent to a repelling the Disease then we yield our Bodies wholly to his disposal and never dispute whether he will phlebotomize or use strong Purgations whether he scarrifies the wound or makes an incision God who is omniscient knows
best how to deal with his Patient Emollient Medicines will not remove a Chronical Disease 'T is well if we can save the Body by cutting off one gangreen'd Joynt by letting out a little discolored Blood preserve the rest sanguine sound Sure those Laws of the Romans like Draco's should have been writ in bloody Characters where they invested the Parents with the power of life and death of their Wives and Children Fulvius had not the denomination of cruel in doing execution upon his Son for confederating with Catiline And Titus Manlius was thought rather favourable than a severe Justicer when he went no higher than to make his Son Syllanus a perpetual exile 3. This rigorous piece of Justic and unbiassed affection built Trophies to their name but no way improved the condition of the Patient for it was Physick of a strange nature a sublimate never ripened in Loves Limbeck Our Heavenly Father that fashioned us may impose what Laws his divine wisdom thinketh best but if he wounds his Servants 't is to heal them if he takes away a temporary life 't is to hasten them to an eternal one Magni beneficii est indicium When God seems to disfavour us then are we in highest favour and we make the nearest approaches to him when in the eyes of the world we seem to be at the greatest distance Holy David acknowledged a Cure done upon him by an Heavenly Chastisement It was good for me that I was afflicted The Prison was the best School for Manasses for in that solitude he could have no Divertisement but leisure wholly to contemplate his great Deliverer and figure to himself Ideas of a more Glorious Kingdom Vexatio dabit intellectumi Punishment is Sins Looking-glass there it beholds its ugliness and deformity the Stains and Morphews which make the Soul look squalid 4. When Absolom was under a Cloud and putting his Designment of a Rebellion into the Forge to amass a greater strength he sent an invitation to Joab to embark in the same design but Joab whether in detestation of such unnaturalness or unwilling to hoise Sail till he saw to which point of the Compass the Wind would settle rejected the Summons Absolom sends again and again and still Joab refuses but when he gave command to burn his Corn-Fields and ravage all that Neighbourhood to him he made no dispute but came apace So in our prosperity we draw a partition betwixt God and us will not cloud our thoughts with the contemplation of Judgment and another World let his invitations be never so luscious presented by Prophets Saints and Angels but when he lays waste our Possessions dismantles our Dwellings throws us upon the Dunghil then we look with averseness on out sins the evil Spirits that raised this Tempestâ— then do our visive Beams pierce through Heaven it self and in this foul Weather seek to cast Anchorage in the Arms of our Saviour 5. The Philosopher observes that if we will see the Stars and highest part of the Sphere at Mid-day we must descend to some Cavern or low place in the Earth where we are freest from the light and coruscations of the Horizon we live in So we must be removed from the glaring lustre of the World before we can truly discern Heaven and the radiancy of its Glory The Figure and Global part of the Sun is clearer discerned in a Dish of Water than in his Fiery Chariot The Astronomers best posture is to lie prostrate on the Ground When we are thrown on our Back humbled and brought low then we best behold God's Immensity and our own impotency The Earth that hath endured the Summers Heat and Winters cold cut with the Plow and crumbled with the Harrow is best cultivated to receive her Seed and make a grateful return to her Benefactor Some Fruits are best fermented with nipping Cold and biting Frosts Our stony Hearts are soonest ripened and mellowed by affliction After we have been thrust into the Forge of Persecution we are then malleable easiest to be hammered out God sets his stamp coins us for Glory when melted in the Crusible of Adversity Prosperity like the Sun doth too much harden us Thunder scatters and disparkles ill boding exhalations cleers the Air of all pestilent and malevolent humours God thunders by affliction breaks the racks of sin and scatters those foul Meteors that are engendring in the regions of our Souls Spikenard precious Ointment and sweet Waters savours more that the hand scatters and throws about than when sealed up in their Inclosures of Crystal Spices for pounding and bruising send forth exhalations more redolent How Sun-burnt what Aethiops appear we when blacked with sin But as soon as God hath burnished and like the Diamond cut and pointed us we appear like the King's Daughter all glorious Affliction is the Mercury Water that clears our sallow complexion the best Beauty Spot we can put on 7. Elkanah said to the Mother of Samuel Am not I better to thee than ten sons So it may be said is not affliction better than a thousand pleasures Here every vanity doth way-lay us as Jael did Sisera Turn thou in my Lord till it smite us through the Temples If we saw but this foul Body dissected it would appear like a Mandrake Apple comly to the eye but poisonous in taste or like the glorious Tombs of our Ancestors that enshrine nothing but dirt and putrefaction 'T is not all Comical we act the Scene will presently change like Jonas's Gourd it springs up to day and canopies us from the Sun's intrusions but anon an envious worm withers it Pleasure was never so absolutely enjoyed but that it had some Gall some Worm wood thrown into the Cup. The smoothest face cannot laugh without contracting Wrinkles and the extremity of it bedews our Cheeks with Tears Like a Rainbow it hath half Sun and half Cloud Like a Meteor it gives a glaring light but portends mischief fits us for Plagues and Pestilencies If they were really good and profitable they would improve those that enjoy them but the contrary effect is most apparent 8. When Nebuchadnezzar stalked on the Roof of his stately Palace and there beheld the Majesty of Babylon did he not then begin to wax proud and vaunt the Workmanship of his own Hands Is not this great Babel which I have built But when God had humbled him with Chastisement plumed his Eagle Wings then could he pierce through those Clouds and Vizards that inveloped his understanding see more of his Maker from that lowness of Fortune than when he towered on the Pinnacle of all his Glories When David had his Beams displayed in a Royal Horizon sitting on the House top soon pryed into the Retirements of Uriah's Garden and there fed his eyes with the unlawful love of Bathsheba but when Nathan the Prophet had trumpeted God's Judgments and with a black Pencil drawn a Scheme of his succeeding miseries it soon fetched him down from that height and made him