A SERMON PREACHT AT the funerall of the Lady MARY VILLIERS eldest Daughter of the right honble Christopher Earle of Anglesey Who dyed the xxi of Ianuary 1625. at Horningold in Leicester shire and was buried the xxiiij at Goadeby in the Sepulchres of her Ancestors Preacht by GEORGE IAY Master of Arts and Student of Christ-Church in OXFORD Psal 39.6 Behold thou hast made my dayes as it were a span long Imperat cum Superior rogat LONDON Printed for Thomas Harper 1626. TO THE RIGHT Honourable Christopher Earle of Anglesey and his most vertuous Lady Grace and Peace My Lord my Lady HOnour shal it ever be to me to obey your coÌ„mands at my Lords I preacht at my Ladies I printed but the disadvantage of so short an allowance of time as two daies mine inabilities besides will shew this not to be a Sermon fit for though it hath past the Presse This will be spoken when t is read but hee riseth betimes that thinkes worse of it than I doe I made a covenant with mine eyes that they should neither goe out in sleepe nor slumber untill they had lighted mee to performe my Lords pleasure which if I have done I have a protection and no man shall dare to arrest me because I was imploi'd in his service I know in these times of war I shall meet with some tall men of their hands that will put every syllable to the sword but t is an honour to me to die in my Commanders service Some mouthes are Musket-bore and doe so scatter that though I passe the Pikes yet I cannot scape them yet I shall thinke my selfe out of Gunne-shot when your Lordship hath given mee a dispensation for not giving a due honour to the most promising Lady if I flatter I flatter my self that ever mine eyes beheld The Leviticall law gives a large restitution for a dammage God out of his mercy when hee thinkes fit a greater for what hee takes I will therefore make bold with my Reader and change my Epistle into a Prayer May the God of fruitfulnesse give your Honours a numerous and an obedient issue in supplement of her that 's gone now to him that you and yours after a length of happinesse heere may succeed exceed her in glory shall ever be the praier of him who is and professeth still to continue your Honours in all humble duty and observance at command GEORCE IAY. A FVNERALL SERMON I could wish that some better some other occasion rather than this had brought me hither Et Si mea cum vestris valuissent vota Ouid. Met. And if I I will beleeue the same of every one here had been master of mine owne desires some other example should have told me that I must dye and this body of mine must returne to dust But t is mine and I hope your daily prayer Thy will be done O Lord. My prayer was otherwise the same our Saviour used when the sorrowes of death encompassed his soule O my Father Mat. 26.39 if it be possible let this Cup passe from mee And as David did in 2. Sam. 12.16 I besought God that the Childe might live His words shall be the subject of my discourse may his resolution and cheerfulnesse in this or the like case be ever yours and mine example and precedent The words you shall finde in 2. Sam. chap. 12. vers 22 23. While the childe was yet alive I fasted and wept For I said who can tell whether God will have mercie on me that the childe may liue But now being dead wherefore should I now fast Can I bring him againe any more I may goe to him but hee shall not returne to mee HEre is David and his Childe the one lying sicke upon his bed the other lying weeping upon the ground God smites the childe with sicknesse for the Fathers fault David punisheth himselfe with fasting and weeping for the misery of the childe Who can tell whether God will have mercie on mee that the childe may live The praiers of the Faithfull are never without fruit though sometimes they bring it not forth in the same kind that we desire God knowes what is better for us than we our selves The childe was not for Davids keeping and therefore the Lord will have him to himselfe Death is sent and fetches him away what saies David to this now Sure he that was so passionate when the childe was but sicke will now grow outragious when hee heares of his death This is indeed the temper of worldly minds but Davids heart was cast in another mould He that shewed so much devotion and humility whilest the matter was in suspense and before he knew what God meant to doe now he knowes his pleasure can as easily submit his obedience to Gods will with comfort But now that God will so have it and that he is dead Why should I fast any longer I will not fight against Gods pleasure and vexe my selfe to no purpose He cannot returne to me I will rather make use of it for mine owne instruction and take it up for a meditatiof mine owne mortality I must goe to him Thus the words may runne in Paraphrase And if you will have them in parts you shall have these foure First the sicknesse of Davids childe in these words Propter infantem jejun Vatab While the childe yet lived that is whilst the childe was weak sicke and infirme Secondly the remedy he fled to for his recovery fasting and weeping Whilst the childe yet lived I fasted and wept Thirdly his resolution after the childe was dead But now being dead wherefore should I now fast can I bring him again Fourthly a meditation on his owne mortality He cannot come to mee but I shall goe to him First of the sicknesse of Davids childe 'T is a certaine truth which Seneca doth urge out of the Poet De brevit vitae Exigua pars est vitae quam nos vivimus It is a very small part of our life which we live free from sicknesse And as the same Seneca saies Omne spatium non vita sed tempus All the space of our daies is not life but time so with a little alteration may I say with as much truth Omne spatium non vita sed tristitia All our time is not life but sorrow What Tullie said of old age may be as well spoken of the whole life of man Senectus est ipsa morbus Cicâ—de senect Vitaipsa morbus est Life it selfe without the addition of any other paine is a disease That which the Prophet Esay saies of our Saviour the Head that he was Vir dolorum a man of sorrow we may derive in a qualified sense upon all his Members they are Viri tristitiae men of sorrowes compastabout with infirmities Esai 1.6 The whole head is sicke the whole heart is faint from the sole of the foot even to the crowne of the head there is no soundnesse but wounds and
bruises and putrified sores Our wounds have not been cured with the infusion of oyle like the mans that lay betwixt Iericho Ierusalem they have not been closed nor bound up nor mollified with ointment Ibid. as the same Prophet speaks in a spirituall sense and we find it true in a literall I know that in my selfe saith Saint Paul there dwelleth no goodnesse we may alter the words and say we know that in our flesh dwells no soundnesse nor health it may sojourne or lodge there for a time but for any settled habitation or constant abiding it hath none be we at what cost we will for the entertaining of it let us bribe our Physitians to the wasting of our estates they cannot preserue our bodies from ach and rottennesse Sicknesses and death were the curses that God laid upon our first Parents disobedience Gen. 3.16 To the Woman first I will encrease thy sorrowes thy conceptions in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children And then to Adam In sorrow shalt thou eate all dayes of thy life in the sweate of thy face shaltthou eate thy bread till thou returne to the earth Sinne set the foure elements in our bodies and the harmony of our temper at oddes their continuall combate creates daily diseases so as we are still sicke And besides the malignity that sinne infused into the body it selfe there are vitiating and infesting qualities diffused by the same sinne over all the creatures that should nourish it there is a root of intemperance in our appetite that sucks unwholesomenesse out of these nourishments that are in themselves good and conservative Such a body provoked by such an appetite to feede on such nourishment must needs make the Physitian necessary and bring forth a large harvest of diseases Nature is corrupted and therefore tends to corruption the end of corruption is death the way to death is sicknesse So long then as we have such a nature about us we cannot thinke it strange if sicknesse doe often seize on us A corrupt fountaine cannot send forth sweet water nor a corrupt nature maintaine a healthy constitution The seeds of sickness are sowne in our nature by our Parents when they beget vs they lie lurking in our veines bones waiting every occasion to invade our health and to cut off the thread of our life though sometimes we perceiue them not yet in our flesh they are and will neuer remoove their seige untill they have given us an overthrow Colubros in sinu fovemus We carry scorpions in our bosomes And as it was said of Israel perditio tua ex te thy destruction is from thy selfe so are we authors of ours The body of man is nothing but a congeries a heap of infirmities as Martial said of Zoilus Non vitiosus homo es Zoile sed vitium Thou art not vicious but vice it selfe So I say to the body of man thou art not diseased but a disease it selfe goodnesse mercy iustice doe not onely belong to the nature of God but are the very Being and Essence of him he is not only good but goodnesse not perfect but perfection so on the contrary it is not much improper to say that we are not only miserable but misery not sicke but sicknesse it selfe Homo est animal aevi brevissimi Petrarch Iob. 14.2 sollicitudinis infinitae Man that is borne of a woman is of short continuance and full of trouble when we are in our best health we are Valetudinarij weak and sickly and as the Physitians say have only lucida inter valla perhaps one good day betwixt two aguish a calme betwixt two stormes Quid est homo 't is Seneca's interrogation and he answers himselfe a weak fraile thing liable and expos'd to all danger impatient of heate cold and labour they are all diseases vnto him Seneca Imò otio iturus in tabem alimenta metuit sua quibus rumpitur Ease consumes him and the bread which he eates to give him length of dayes doth shorten them Our breath is corrupted Iob 17.1 Iob 14.22 our dayes are cutting off and the grave is ready for vs while our flesh is upon us we shall be sorrowfull while our soules are in vs we shall mourne Seneca Si velis credere altius veritatem intuentibus omnis vita supplicium If you will beleeve the Masters of truth all our life is punishment He that by an experimentall tryall a serious observation and a true contemplation hath runne through all sublunary and inferiour things though of the most transcendent perfection speaks lesse than a truth if he saies he found not sicknesse or to use Salomons word vexation in them all When we come into the world we are throwne into a tempestuous Sea of trouble and there are beaten with incessant stormes Now the floud of discontent beates high whirls our troubled heads into amazement and now the ebbe of despaire sinkes our barque euen to the lowest hell now are we in danger of this rock now of that now this gulfe this shelfe this gust these quicksands doe make vs feare if not suffer shipwrack so let us saile where we will when we can we shall finde no haven of rest but the graue Epict. Homo est calamitatis fabula infaelicitatis tabula Mans life is a story of calamity a mappe of misery Iob. 10.17 Iob 10.1 changes and armies of sorrowes are against us and our soules are cut off though we live All our life is but a continued disease when we begin to live we enter upon a lease of sorrowes entaild on us and our heyres Ingressus flebilis progressus debilis egressus horribilis Our birth is mournfull our growth is sorrowfull our death is fearfull Ecclus 40.1 Great travaile is created for all men and an heavie yoak upon the sonnes of Adam from the day that they goe out of their mothers womb till the day that they returne vnto the mother of all things Such is the weight of griefe that doth depresse our hearts that we may truly say with Iob If our griefe were well weighed Iob 6.2.3 and were well laid together in the ballance it would now be heavier than the sand of the Sea sicknesse and troubles come upon us like Iobs unfortunate messengers one upon the neck of another Finis unius mali gradus est futuri Where one misery ends another begins as one wave followes another there is the same undivided continuation in sorrowes that is in waters no intermixtion nor interposition of any thing else We have Beares and Lyons and Philistims Sauls as David had that successively assaile us and we have no sooner ended the combate with this sicknesse but another with fresh supplies attempts our overthrow Vita quid est hominis nisi vallis plenâ—â— malorum We dwell in Megiddon the vally of teares sighes and lamentations are our companions and which is most miserable our times appointed for rest our
in some grounds they prosper so well that the weede overgrowes the corne and the dayes of sickenesse are more than the dayes of health and the end of them is death Gods sentence cannot bee recall'd a lease for our lives wee may have for a certaine time but not an absolute pardon The difference of the elements within us cannot be compos'd a truce they make with each other not a peace And sinne will not loose the possession of our soules we may curb her power but not take it away wee may sinne lesse but not not at all for the best man sinnes seven times a day Rom. 6.23 and the wages of sinne is death how soone wee shall receive them wee are uncertaine We know not how suddeuly wee are to travell into another countrey let us therefore bee ever readily furnisht for our journey let neither youth delight nor honour so rake up our thoughts that wee forget the maine businesse of our life to dye well We cannot pleade minoritie if we are now unprepar'd wee were of full age long since to sue out the liverie of death and if we live untill we are decrepit our soule is like our bodies if we thinke not every minute may bee our last The Poet will give no man above a day Horace Iob 7.6 Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremū Iob little or no time at all Mans dayes are swifter than a weavers shuttle Iob 14.2 He commeth forth like a flower and is cut downe hee flyeth also like a shadow and continueth not Let us then so live in these houses of clay as if we were tenants at will and might bee thrust out of possession every moment not as if we could not bee remooved untill the expiration of ninety nine yeares or had a lease of three lives in them The edifice of our mortall selves is not erected upon a rocke a foundation of stone but on sand so as when the sea and tide beate and the winde rageth it is in danger continually of an utter overthrow Horace Quid brevi fortes jaculamur aevo Multa Why then in this uncertainty doe wee make a preparation as if wee should live unto the third fourth generation He is wise that can dislodge at an instant and when death knockes at his doore can unaffrightedly let her in and hath then so dispacht all his affaires that hee hath nothing to say but come Lord Iesus come quickly nothing to do but to deliver backe his soule to his Creator Whereas miserable is his condition who is marrying a wife or giving in marriage or banquetting when the inundation of an unresistable floud is ready to over whelme his unfinisht arke of himselfe History tells me of a miserable complaint one made against Death and Destiny that they should cut him off in the midst of his work when 't was halfe finisht worse is their case who are taken away in the midst of their sins nay if it be in the midst of their repentance Si maneant opera imperfecta Virg. minaeque Murorum ingentes If the tabernacle of their hearts be not thorowly finisht and season'd with repentant teares if they are not perfectly and wholely reconciled unto their God May no agency keepe us from negotiating for our soules health against the day of death that with more truth than presumption we may say with David we shall goe to her to that Heaven where shee is to those Saints and blessed soules that are her companions to the Spirit of truth the Sonne of mercy the God of glory who crown'd her with immortality and infinity of happinesse to raigne with them for evermore Thus have you heard of the sickness of Davids Childe Application his behaviour before the death of him his resolution after it and his meditation upon it Of which I must say Rom. 4.23 as the Apostle doth of Abrahams Iustification Now it is not written for him only but for us As Davids Childe was sicke so was this yongue Lady sicke of a long and lingering sicknesse but patient and quiet in her sicknesse as if shee had not been borne to dye but suffer and even at her last gaspe she carryed such cheerfulnesse in her countenance as if she had been sensible of the neerenesse of her glory Death did not appale her but the fresh vermillion of her cheekes had shee been of riper yeares might have seem'd to witnesse a joy for leaving the world so soone She was of no robustious constitution but of a fabrick and making so delicate that as in your neatest watches the Artificer breaks a wheel or two before he can work one out so nature was so curious in the workmanship of this Lady that shee was apt upon the least occasion to bee out of frame She liv'd to spend her flesh as if she had thought it too good for the worms When there was nothing almost left but bones and skin about her shee desir'd to bee in her nurses armes as if she had knowne that neerer heaven than her bed and then to be in the cradle seeming to intimate it best resembled her grave where presently into the hands of her Saviour she deliver'd a spotlesse soule that she was dead they found but when they knew not Her breath unobserved stole away like Noah's Dove out of the Arke it went forth and came in it went forth and never returned againe Now as Davids Childe was dead Optima prim fere manibus rapiuntur avaris Implentur numeris deterior suis Ovid. Hor. so is this sweet Lady and like the minute she died in never to be recal'd againe so have I seene the sweetest flowers cropt in the bud Impube corpus quale possit impia Mollire Thracum pectora Such was her delicacy that the losse of her would even force a teare from a Barbarians eie God thought this jewell of too great a price for mans use he shew'd it to testifie his richnes and presently tooke it againe for our unworthinesse She was the finest thread that ever was spun to make up fraile nature which time and age would but have sullied and made worse I never saw flesh and bloud of a purer complexion Her soule was not blotted nor scribled with blacke and fowle thoughts her hands were not polluted with any action of evill shee was never out yet but like a good Musitian tuning her pipes and organs against shee came to bear her part her tongue she had put almost three yeares to schoole to learne to speake and if I looke into her conditions I can see through lesse then three yeares a most ingenuous and sweete disposition towards so good as if she were too good to live to sin and so God tooke her she had but that one sinne we are made of Originall towards the expiation of which when shee came first into the world shee baptized her selfe with her owne teares and that little remnant of daies shee liu'd shee did perpetuall
imprison'd in the cold earth it might something trouble them but now they know she lives triumphs in heaven shall they not rejoyce Immaturè moritur senex maturè puer Fulg Epist If we love our children we desire their happinesse and can they have greater than to be in heaven and shall wee grieve because they have it sooner Bis dat qui citò dat a quick and hasty giver augments the valew of his benefit whereas tardy blessings are lessened by their stay Is it not written Iob. 1.21 ◠that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh and shall I grieve because he calleth for his owne for to speak properly shee was lent to us not bestowed upon us Vnwillingnesse to pay a debt lent without interest argues an unthankefull disposition God might have sent his messenger Death to receive tribute from us let us be thankfull that hee did not and not grieve that hee demanded it there where it might bee more easily paid The thought of this may something moderate our impatience what we had in her was delicate and sweet what we lost fraile and mortall judge how unreasonable it is extreamly to be mou'd that we enjoi'd her not long and not to rejoyce that once wee had her we should rather be thankefull for the donation of her than be sorrowfull for her losse for the one argues our love to God the other to our selves Let us weigh onewith the other and we disfavour our selves if the state of our joyes doth not equally poise that of our griefe God that meant not to lend us her longer gave her suddainly that perfection which others before a long time doe not owne she had that sweetnesse in the bud in the Aprill of her age which blossom'd and well-growne flowers doe seldome affoord Such and so frequent are the precedents of mortalitie that we could not thinke she should live ever If the care of our safetie had not this last Summer hurried us from the citie of affliction we might have seene neere five thousand such a weeke Tota vita Seneca sayes the Philosopher nihil aliud est quam ad mortem iter T is then a kind of impudence and unjustnes of claime to challenge that unto our selves which is denied to all and in this universall necessitie of death to desire a dispensation for us and ours as if when wee knew a universall floud of destruction should over-streame the whole world we should hope our houses might bee exempted Let the thought of this be our comfort she hath but pledg'd that cup which all our ancestors began unto her and at last we that are here present must taste of the same Chrys in Mat. hom 35. Etsi senex aliquis etsi adolescens sit morti tamen in qualibet aetate vicinus All must die God set this period to her daies else she had liv'd and why should wee bee against the ordinance of the most highest Ecclus. 41.4 Since she is irrevocably gone why should you so violently desire her But such is the nature of us that we love nothing so much as that which is remov'd from us never to be had againe nay wee lesse esteeme those that survive through the inordinate desire of them that are dead It would mitigate if we would but consider Gods mercy in his punishments his Manna in the desert of our affliction Bern. de trans Mal. Pium est defunctum plangere magis pium congaudere viventi Have you not many surviving comforts for one single losse friends of as great eminencie and place as much grac'd and favour'd by their King lov'd by their country as ever subjects were Have you not a large series and catalogue of the Nobilitie your kindred and two daughters yet alive Pereat contristatio ubi est tanta consolatio Aug. de verb. Dom. serm 35. forget your sadnesse in the midst of such joyes But will yet yet grieve cannot these consolations dry up the fountaine of your teares suppose her to bee onely absent that will helpe for we do not grieve for those which are absent and must continue if we know they live with that opinion you may couzen your griefe and be fafe But make the worst of it shee is but sent before you must follow Aug de verb. Dom. serm 34. Scias eam non in aeternum relinquere te mansurum sedpraecedere secuturum But you will say she was my onely joy my only delight This argues you lov'd your selfe not your childe If for her sake you wish her life then wish her there where her life shall be longest and happiest If God should take our children in the midst of their sinnes then it might justly moove us teares would then become our cheeks whereas now they are inexcusable The tearing of our haire the rending of our garments the beating of our hearts the lamentations outcryes of our voices cannot awake her sleep she wil til the Trump at the last day Aug de verb Dom. serm 44. or Christ call her Mortua est quantumlibet pulses quantūlibet vellices quantumlibet lanies non expergiscetur Christo dormit cum dicet surge surget Impatience is a crime when Gods hand occasions the accident Vndutifull murmuring may incense him and for our sins perhaps he wil take away the rest of our children who for his owne pleasure and their good remov'd the first When God is angry and smites thee on the right cheeke with patience submit thy selfe to his pleasure and turne to him the other also If servants by S. Pauls injunction may not expostulate with their Masters shall the clay aske the Potter why hee did thus Take heed of lamentations and waywardnesse lest as mothers doe their children God whip you so much the more for it Iesus the sonne of Syrach pronounceth a woe against them that have lost their patience and by way of interrogation tels them in what a miserable plight they are Ecclus. 2.15 What will yee do when the Lord shal visite you And Iesus the sonne of God pronounceth I may say gives a blessing to the patient an inheritance of joy and comfort Luk. 21.19 By your patience possesse your soules Will you have an example to move you He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheepe before the sheerer is hee dumb so opened he not his mouth Nay I le come home to you and instance in the same kindes When Anaxagoras heard of the death of his owne sonne without fainting or vaine exclamations against the Destinies for their cruelty he said Scio me mortalem genuisse I know the issue of my bodie could not bee immortall Livia lost her sonne Drusus a yongue Prince of admirable worth no mother could exceed her lamentations for the death of a childe Nec plus doluit quam aue honestū erat aut Caesare aut aequo maius Sen. ad Mar. yet in the same grave with him she intombd her sorrowes neither
afterward was shee more troubled than became a Caesarean and discretion and without teares afterwards she could repeate his vertues his excellencies and those did best please her that did most remember him As no man went beyond Sylla in cruelty so not in the love of a son yet the sad story of his fatall end was almost as soone forgotten as related But what neede I goe for a precedent beyond my Text. Now the childe is dead why should I fast saies as tender as loving a father as the Scripture can shew us But some there are more stoically obstinate than wisely couragious Aug. de verb. Dom. serm 35. which barre a discreet man from the least impression of griefe Potest non dolere cor humanum defuncto charissimo melius tamen dolet sanatur cor humanum quùm non dolendo sit inhumanum I will easily beleeve that such men were never owners of a jewell of this prize or if they were so they are still otherwise the losse would have humbled their hauty confidence and have forc'd a confession of what they deny Reason hath done her part if she hath cut off and defalcated the luxuriancy and over-plus of griefe in great detriments 't is stupiditie and dulnesse not to lament at all as the excesse is madnesse the meane is safest and will gaine you the opinion of a discreet and well-tempered mourner Permittantur itaque pia corda charorum de mortibus suorum contristari dolore sanabili et consolabiles lachrymas fundant conditione mortali Aug. de verb. Dom. serm 34. quas citòreprimat fidei gaudium quâ credunt fideles quando moriuntur paululùm à nobis abire ad meliora transire I will allow that the floud-gates of your eyes may be open but not too wide nor too long and I will give you leave to sigh from the bottome of your hearts but not too often nor too much No man shall perswade mee but they are Gods children which silently suffer and with patience endure his correction humbly and contentedly submitting themselves to the wisedome of his proceedings Especially in this case when that which we take to be a punishment is a blessing for they that dye in the Lord as Saint Bernard saies ab omni peccato labore periculo liberantur are freed from all sinne Bern. de trans Mal. labour and danger of either but these that survive are not and at last must dye And so I come to Davids meditation on his owne mortality I shall goe to him Turne over the whole booke of nature Pars quarta and you shall read mortality in every page every character is written in dust and the hand of Time wipes it out sooner in this later decrepit age of the world than heretofore We cannot now say with Iacob The daies of the yeares of our Pilgrimage are 130 yeares Gen. 47.9 but we may conclude with him Few and evill are the yeares of our life we have not attained unto the dayes of the yeares of the life of our Fathers in the dayes of their Pilgrimage When first wee begin to live we begin to dye â—or Nascentes morimur or to use Saint Ambrose his words which excellently expresse our condition Vitae hujus principium mortis exordium Amb. l. 8. de voc Gent. nec augeriâ—â—â—jus quam minui incipimus If death make a thrust at us we have no defence if she assault us we cannot finde a place of security to protect us Ille licet ferro caâ—tus se condat are Mors tamen inclusum protrahet inde caput Whither can we go from the presence of death take wee the wings of the morning and flye whither wee will wheresoever we settle our selves under heaven she will be sure to finde us out And as she is unavoideable so is shee unpartiall 't is not greatnesse nor height of place that can priviledge any man from her attempts The Scripture cals Kings gods of the earth but least they should flatter themselves with the hope of immortality it immediately followes They shall dye like men Could any get a Patent for eternity these are they but a late example fresh still in our memories tells us they have it not Where are the great Commanders of the world where are the Rulers over thousands and 10000 the Princes Potentates of the earth are they not dead Goe search the grave and you shall bee no more able to distinguish betwixt their dust and the meanest beggers than Diogenes was to finde Phillip the King of Macedons bones Intervallis distinguimur exituaequamur Life makes a difference betwixt us death none neyther in the meanes of dissolution nor the ruines after shee can make a weapon of the least of the unlikeliest of things to destroy them a needle a fish-bone a raysin-stone is sufficient nay two great Princes one of India the other of Rome were slaine by a hayre A great Duke of Brittanny was prest to death in a throng Aemilus Lepidus and Aufidius great Romanes died with a stumble the one at his owne threshell the other at the senate house EtiaÌ„ cibus potus sine quibus vivere non possumus mortifera sunt Mors aequo pede c. Hor. no lesse to them than us She doth as wel besiege the palace of the King as the cottage of the Beggar as they have the same sun the same clymate the same seasons with us so have they the same infirmities the same ages and not unequall deaths If there be odds the advantage many times lyes on our sides If travell or gold or watchings or the industry of the best of Physitians could have given life this curious peece of mortality had not been yet defac'd Let this visible argument a stronger I cannot use rectifie the truth of your frailty If you desire a confirmation from Gods Word I can give it All flesh is grasse Esa 40.6 and the glory thereof as the flower of the field Here is set downe the condition as well of the noblest as the common sort their glory fades as a flower the other dyes like grasse all meet in the dust The causes of the necessitie of death which are laid upon all men are three first the decree of God Statutum est omnibus semel mori which as the law of the Medes Persians is unchangeable Secondly the composition of our flesh which is of contrarie qualities their struglings and combustions necessitate diseases they death Thirdly the sin of our soules which is the true Non mors homini accideret nisi ex paena quam praecesserat culpa Aug de verb. Dom. serm 34. Steriles dominantur avenae Virg. reall and radicall cause God in our creation sow'd in our bodies the good corne the wholsome graine of health and soundnesse sinne and disobedience came with an after-cast and sprinkled tares of sickenesse amongst the corne and they grow up together with it and