LIFES BREVITIE AND DEATHS Debility Evidently Declared in a Sermon Preached at the Funerall of that Hopeful and Uertuous yong Gentleman EDVVARD LEVVKENOR Esquire c. In whose Death is ended the name of that renowned Family of the Lewkenors in Suffolke By Tymothy Oldmayne Minister of the Word of God at Denham in Suffolke Our dayes on Earth are as a shaddow and there is none abiding Also an Elegy and an Epitaph on the death of that worthy Gentleman by I. G. Dr. of D. LONDON Printed by N. and I. Okes dwelling in little S. Bartholmewes neere the Hospitall gate 1636. FLECTAR NON FRANGAR TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL AND Of high Desert the Lady MARY Lewkenor and Mris Elizabeth Lewkenor the Mother and sorrowfull Widdow of this Deceased Gentleman together with the right worshipfull and truly noble Lady the Lady Anne Le-strange Wife to Sir Nicholas Le-strange Baronet As also to her two vertuous and worthy sisters Mistris Katherine and Mistris Mary Lewkenor Eternall Happinesse c. LOth I am right Worshipfull and truely Honorable that this rough unpolished discourse of mine should unfortunately renew Your former griefe or fill those Eyes againe with teares which were never fully dried sithence this heavy Accident befell this Noble Plant so neere so deere unto you For sorrow I know right well is of a quick and apprehensive nature that the least touch maketh the Vessell easily overflow How ever I humbly intreate that mine innocency herein may answer for me my ayme beeing chiefly this to strew onely some few flowers upon the Hearse of this my honourable friend such as in his life time his owne Hand gathered pleasant unto the Eye and of a most odoriferous Sent. Neither is this Treatise of mine otherwise intended but to bee a true Remembrancer to tell succeeding Ages the greatnesse of the losse when your renowned Family was by the Untimely Death of this so Hopefull a Young Gentleman thus fatally smitten if not quite overturned This Towne which now affordeth me my being formerly afforded mee my first breath And foure generations of your honourable Family haue I seene here upon the Stage successiuely acting their several Parts Angels and Men were the lookers on and with great applause highly commended their true Action generous demeanour But now alas the Theater is wholy empted and all the Actors quite gone the Stage hourely expected to be pulled down and if it stand yet little hope there is that ever our eyes shall see such Actors any more upon it to play their parts so commendable as those Antients did The consideration whereof as it carrieth with it not onely trouble but indeed a kind of amazement so is there much wisedom required in censuring and patience in induring what is hapned My humble request therfore unto you right Worshipfull is as those that haue the greatest share in this unvaluable losse that in the middest of so many differing Thoughts in searching out the true cause and end that the Almighty hath in doing this you would be pleased to remember these three Things First that there is in God an unbounded will that his Judgements are Vnsearchable and his Waies past finding out Secondly that You would bee pleased to looke backe upon the happinesse and glory of your Family which formerly You have both seene and tasted Beleeve mee right worshipfull the sight thereof will be a Soveraigne preservatiue against Repining Lastly that seeing it was determined by an eternall and inevitable decree that the Sirnames of your Family should heere fatally end that you would bee pleased to solace and cherish your Hearts that it is done without the least spot and blemish to the same And that this young Gentleman so honourably concluded and closed up all so happily as Hee hath done to his immortall praise But I desire not to tell the Travailer the way hee knoweth so well already or light a Candle when the Sunne is up or leade the hand of the skilfull Artist Here therefore I doe humbly take my leaue desiring You to accept of what is done heerein as the Fruite of that unfeigned Loue and dutiful Respect which was alwayes borne by him to your Honourable and worthy Family who still remaineth Yours in the Lord to be commanded to the uttermost of his power untill Death Tymothy Oldmayne Perlegi concionem hanc cui titulus est Lifes brevity in qua nihil reperio quo minus cum utilitate publica imprimatur Ex aedib Fulham decimo die Septem 1625. SA BAKER LIUES BREVITY AND DEATHES DEBILITY ISAIAH 26. VERS 19. Thy dead men shall live with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing yee that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of Herbes and the earth shall cast out the dead IT would have brought much ease and comfort to our sorrowfull hearts if we had only heard of this sad accident the death I mean of this so noble a Plant this Honourable young Gentleman and not beene Eye-witnesses of the same And that the same Countrie which received his last breath had likewise imbraced his honourable Ashes his living presence how welcome would it have been unto us But comming thus amongst us shrouded under the blacke mantle of death we tremble at it For this is one of the miseries of man when death seizeth on him that he that was neerest unto him in affection then desireth to bee farthest from him in action and that living face that affoorded greatest joy when once dead carrieth with it greatest terrour neither can the conclusion of all this sad Catastrophe but adde vineger to our bleeding wound that whilst we were seriously bethinking with our selves in what sort wee may best expresse the inward griefe and trouble of mindes for this our losse in doing all the honour that possibly wee could unto him in this his Funerall obsequies Lo the tediousnesse of the way and terriblenesse of the disease had so shattered and crushed that tender and delicate body of his comming along to us riding in that dolfull Chariot of death that no sooner had a few teares given him a sad welcome but we were enforced to give his body to the earth and we to him a sorrowfull Adieu But in all this patience must possesse our soules And seeing he is now already entred into the house of his age and sweetly sleepeth upon his bed of honour amongst the rest of his noble Ancestors let us I pray you turne our thoughts awhile from him and looke a little upon the hand of God in doing this to him and with him in cutting off as it were with one stroake the name and glory of so renowned a family amongst us To that end it must be remembred as a thing not wholy past the memory of man how the Grand-father of this young Gentleman of high repute joyning himselfe in marriage with a Right Worshipfull family in this County left that former feate and dwelling of that ancient family of his owne in
he thus speaketh Psalme 89.48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see Death shall he deliver his soule from the power of the grave Secondly and more particularly the reason is three fold Heb. 9.17 First for that it was the eternall decree and counsell of Almighty God appoynted to man upon his fall Heb. 9.17 that hee should once dye and after Death should come to judgement Secondly for that the whole seede of Adam hath Death mixed with it yea the tender infant sucketh and draweth it in with the milke of the mother Thirdly for that man hath a certaine inclination to Death as the flower hath to fade or the tree to fall Secondly in a more particular and speciall manner they are called the inhabitants of the dust First to teach every man that to be an inhabitant of the Dust is an honourable thing when namely the dead corpes of Man or Woman lyeth not as dung upon the earth but obtayneth a comely a decent and Christian buriall A blessing promised to Ezechiah Iosiah and other the like noble Princes and the contrary againe threatned as a sore judgement agaynst wicked and godlesse persons Iezabel Zedechiah Heb. 9.17 Ier. 3.4 and other of the like sowre Leaven and therefore to take it as a speciall favour of God to have not onely ours but the bodies of our Friends to bee layd up decently in their Graves velut preciosa Deo chara 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as choyce gifts deare and precious unto God Where dust may return to dust as the spirit formerly did to God that gave it Secondly to admonish all but principally the great Men and Princes of the earth not to looke too much with proud Haman uppon the glory of their Riches their trayne and followers their honors and high promotions their greatnesse and swelling titles which if they doe will so flash and glister in their eyes that they shall forget themselves as also the liberall hand from whence all these things did come But rather turning their backes uppon those inchanting gleames and lights let them with a serious looke daily view their original and birth being of the basest Element their flesh and blood common with the meanest servant their honourable carkasses wearing away to their first Element where all their pompe must leave them and they inhabite the sad and dusty valley Thirdly to be a caveat to us how wee scorne our poore brethren partakers with us of the same hope and of the same houshold of Faith Gal. 6.10 for that their houses are farre meaner then ours and their cloathing and attire much baser Act. 17.10 For as wee are come all of one blood the poore and the Rich the Lord the slave so are we travailing to the same Land where there is no remedy but we must dwell together and where our houses will not greatly differ the out-side of the Rich mans usually much gayer but the inside of the poore mans perhaps much sweeter There it is no disgrace for the Princes Pallace to be neere the Peasants Cottage or the lodging of the poore beggar to be neere unto the Misers chamber where the order against Cottages and Inmates is of no value sith new Cottages are there hourely erected hundreds dwell on heapes in base and silly Mansions when then thy heart doth begin to swel in pride and with the scornefull thoughts thou hast in regard of thy brothers poore estate then remember that it wil not be long ere thou and he shal be both alike and of the two he it may be acknowledged by Divine sentence the better man Remember Dives and Lazarus Secondly wee are to consider the severall things that they are fore-told to do and these are First Awake Secondly Sing For the first they shall awake but not of themselves or their owne power but by the dreadful voyce and Almighty breath of God willing them and us to Rise up from the dead Rom 14.12 and to give a strict account of what we in all our life time have done of which I intend not to speak this onely we may observe that Death is nothing else but a meere sleepe out of which wee shal bee one day awakened thus are all the blessed Patriarckes and holy Prophets and Confessors 1 Cor. 15.18 dying in eldertimes sayd 1 Cor. 15.18 to sleepe And the same Apostle writing unto the Thessalonians useth this as an argument to disswade them from over much sorowing as persons out of hope for them that were departed 1 Thes 4.13 for that they did but sleepe yea holy Stephen though his death were violent yet saith the Spirit of God Act. 7.60 soule and body were no soner parted but he fel a sleepe The which although it bee a truth yet wee must not fondly imagine First death properly to be asleepe or Secondly when the bodie is dead that the soule sleepeth For first of all death cannot properly bee asleepe seeing they two are so quite contrary the one a friend to man the other a mortall foe the one naturall the other accidentall the one a preserver of life the other a destroyer of the same Death therefore is called usually by the name of sleepe in regard onely of a kinde of similitude and proportion that is betwixt them For instance First when a man is falne asleepe all outward labour and businesse is laid aside hee thinketh not of them neither doth hee at all desire them So is it when a man is dead hee remembreth no more the worke and labour of his hands in all that Pilgrimage of his formerly passed Hee knoweth not what hee hath done and if you tell him hee will not regard Friend or foe are all one to him Iob. 14.21 neither doth he care whether his sonnes be honourable or of low degree Secondly when sleepe possesseth a man paine and passion feare and griefe doth not so molest and trouble him as when he is awake Such is the estate of man when once dead Is he a prisoner He feareth not saith Iob the voyce of the oppressor Iob. 13◠18 or is he a slave hee is instantly freed from his cruell master All the threatnings in the World cannot make him quake neither is he moved at all with the angry looke of the cruell Tyrant Thirdly when a man is once a sleepe then all his sences are retired into their proper places and all the members of his body cease from working not onely resting as formerly I said from those outward labours of his calling but even from working the workes of God Ioh. 6.28 Even so it is with him who is once dead his eye is no more lifted up to Heaven as to the fountaine head of life and goodnesse his knee bendeth it selfe no more at the throne of grace neither doth his tongue any more here below set forth the praises of that glorious God Set the blessed trumpet of the Word to his eare and hee heareth
comfort Mat. 10.40 that at the last he should not loose the reward of a Prophet Mat. 10.40 Againe what was the reward of them of whom we have such honourable mention a Heb. 11.38 whose names deserve golden letters persons of whom the world was not worthy surely after all their fruites of a lively faith their love their zeale their constant confession of the name of Christ was it not to be tryed with cruell mockings and scourgings to be tortured and horribly tormented to be sawne assunder slaine with the Sword Only here was their comfort that in the end they should obtaine a ioyfull resurrection What lastly was that reward of that good Emperour Hen. 7. after hee had with a deale of care and trouble not onely reformed many disorders and abuses in the Church and publicke state but also had mightily daunted and brought under the haughty courage of the Guelph's faction But at last to be poysoned at the receiving of the blessed Sacrament with an invenomed Host which a traiterous detestable monke of the order of St. Dominicke gave unto him the which Fact of this bloody Monster as it ought of every Loyall heart to bee abhorred and detested so ought the Patience and assured confidence of this most Christian Emperour to be highly Magnified and to the Heavens extolled who as the story saith finding the poyson immediately uppon the receite thereof working in his bowels and thereupon death approaching commanded instantly the Villaine to bee brought before him and thus without all passion spake unto him Tu calicem vitae invertisti mihi in mortem quare o Domine fuge celeriter nam si inimici c. O fayth hee thou hast turned to me the cup of Life into the cup of Death Wherefore flye for if our Friends lay hold on you you are sure to dye a most miserable death and repent you Ego enim moriar secundum voluntatem Domini tu vas ira fuisti c. It is the will of God that I should die this kinde of death but thou hast beene the Vessel of his wrath unto me c. By all which examples omitting thousands it appeareth plainely that the principall reward is reserved till afterward and hitherto serve these and the like comfortable promises Rev. 2.10 Be faithfull unto Death and I will give thee a Crowne of Life And againe To him that overcommeth will I grant to fit with mee in my throne even as I overcame and sit with my Father in his throne And Chap. 22.12 Behold I come shortly and my Reward is with me Rom. 2.6 And Who will render to every man according to his workes The trueth of all which apprehended by a lively Faith maketh the blessed Apostle Paul to cry out with that plerophory and full assurance that he doth 2 Tim. 4.7 2 Tim. 4.7.8 8 Certamen illud praeclarū decertavi cursum consūmavi fidem servavi Hactenus c. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Hence forth there is laid up for me a Crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give mee at that day And not to mee onely but to them that love his appearance And to that end our blessed and gratious father dayly giveth to all those that are his chosen sonnes and servants not onely the eye and hand of faith whereby they both see and also apprehend the pretious promises of blisse and happinesse made to them but withall he giveth them the sure Anchor of hope by which it being fastned upon that mighty rocke the Lord Jesus Christ they stay themselves with an assured expectation of the fulfilling and fruition of them either heere or in heaven in this life or that to come And for the further clearing the truth of this I shal not offend I trust if I shew unto you how neare the Heathens come to us in this poynt by relating unto you a story which I have formerly read in one of their writers who though a Heathen Plutarch cōsolat ad Apolonium yet of honourable esteeme to this day amongst us The story then in a word is this Upon a time saith hee a complaint was sent from the Ilands of the Blessed to the judges of the Superiour Courts about certaine persons sent thither who formerly had lived impiously humbly intreating that this abuse thus offered to them might speedily be redressed whereupon these unpertiall judges taking the businesse into their serious considerations found not only the complaint to be true but withall the reason and cause thereof which was that judgment and sentence was passed upon men heere below in their life time Whereupon it oft fell out that many persons cloathed with honourable carkasses riches nobility and other like dignities and advancements brought many witnesses with them who solemnely swore in their behalfe that they deserved to bee sent into the Ilands of the Blessed when the trueth was they deserved the contrary to avoide which inconveniency it was decreed by an eternal doome that for time to come no judgement should bee passed untill after death and that by Spirits only who alone doe see and plainely perceive the spirits and naked soules of such upon whom their Sentence and Uerdict was to passe That so of what estate and condition soever they were they might receive according unto their workes By all which it plainely appeareth how farre the Divine eye of this naturall man led him surely unto the true finding out of a Divine and heavenly truth which is that neither definitive sentence is to bee passed upon any heere below nor that any whatsoever shall receive his full reward of that hee hath done whether it bee good or bad till after this Life And so much in way of answer to the Objection And now a word or two of his Life and Death Neither must it be imagined that intreating of the same I intend any large Discourse of him as of one going to his grave in a full age Iob. 5.26 as a ricke of corne comming in due season into the Barne and the glasse of his life being fully runne but I must measure my selfe by that short life of his a minute a shaddow yea the dreame of a shaddow quite vanished and gone before one can scarce tell twenty For if the holy Prophet David living the age of threescore yeares and ten compareth his life unto a shaddow Psal 108.28 Psalme one hundred and eight verse twenty eight I am gone like a shaddow sayth he that declineth and am tossed up and downe like a Grashopper Then surely the Life of this young Gentleman scarce attayning to one of the three cannot bee so much as a shaddow but must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meere dreame of a shaddow of no long continuance According to which my purpose is to abreviate and shorten my Discourse without multiplying many words or telling you wonders and strange miracles
Lord Aact 3.19 he who is the resurrection and the life shal not onely remove all deformity of nature but worke a blessde conformity betweene himselfe who is the head 1 Cor. 15.49 and all such as are several members of his blessed body that as they have borne the Image of the earthly so shal they then beare the Image of the heavenly Then sin together with the fruits woeful effects thereof shal wholly cease and howsoever the bodily substance shal remain yet the qualities therof shal be wholly changed So that for sicknesse there shal be health for deformity beauty for basenesse glory for lumpishnesse agility yea for weaknesse such aboundance of strength Zach 12 2 that hee that is feeblest amongst them shall be as David and the house of David as Gods and as the Angell of the Lord before them For as by death our naturall infirmities are fully cured Eph. 4.3 so in the resurrection every way so glorious our former losses shall perfectly be restored whilst we all come unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ By meanes thereof Isa 65.4 Psal 103.5 6 1 Cor. 13.9 we shall not onely obtaine a freedome from all misery but a fruition of all good Those things that wee doe now weakly beleeve we shall fully imbrace And those glorious things dayly spoken of thee thou rich inheritance of the Saints of God we shall both see and taste For instance then we shall by joyfull experience finde 1. The greatnesse of the Sonne of God his purchase and infinitenesse of his love that he that knew no sinne should be made sinne for us that wee might be made 2 Cor. 5.21 The righteousnesse of God 2 Cor. 5.21 2. What those robes are of Christs righteousnesse and how pretious those Garments are of our Elder Brother which the blessed Apostle so much desired Phil. 3.5 2 Tim. 4.8 1 Pet. 5.4 Phil. 3.5 together with the misery and most unhappy condition of those that want them 2. Tim. 4.8 1. Pet. 5.4 3. What the Crowne of Immortality and Life meaneth and whether it bee worth the blood of so many Martyrs and holy Confessors as have beene spilt from righteous Abel until now for the obtaining of it 4. Lastly what a glorified body is and the dignity and excellency of the same when our bodies shall be light and nimble passing up and downe as upon the wings of the Winde when our dayly foode shall be the love of God and all our drinke drawne out of the River of Celestiall pleasures when our bodies shall be transparent like the purest Christall and our soules shining through the same like so many sparkling Diamonds when God lastly shall bee all in all the vaile remooved and wee for ever with him The which in themselves are things so excellent that whilst I am speaking of them me thinkes I heare my soule thus secretly complaining Heu mihi peregrinor tandin c. Alas that I soiourne in Mesech Psal 120.5 Rev. 22 and dwell so long in the Tents of Kedar Lord Iesus come quickly Secondly if we take the words as some translate them Cadavera mea resurgent My dead Carcasses shall arise then questionlesse in calling them his dead carkasses the blessed spirit assureth them of his speciall care over them untill the day and time of their resurrection commeth so that although they have left the world yet are they not quite lost but when they are not then are they his dead Carkasses A dead Carkasse though of the dearest friend wee see usually few will owne A memorable example amongst many others wee have in William the second the Conquerors successor who being fatally killed and now falne to the earth all his company Nobles and others instantly forsooke him save only a few of the meanest sort who laying his Princely Corpes uppon a homely beere drew it into a house or lodge neare at hand now if this were the portion of so mighty a Prince whom immediatly before so glorious a troop so royally attended what must others then of meaner ranke expect and and looke for but onely with deaths closing up their eyes to have all their friends excluded and no sooner gone but to be as suddainely forgotten For Oblivion and neglect Psal 87.8 are the two handmaids of death and her Kingdome where shee principally tyrannizeth is Terra oblivionis The land of forgetfulnesse when as David therefore would expresse the worlds ingratitude in the highest degree toward him he fetcheth her comparison from her usuall manner in forgetting of the dead Psal 31.12 Psal 31.12 I am forgotten saith he like a dead man out of minde And from this evill fashion grew that ancient and usuall custome of erecting monument over the dead ut mentâ—m moneant ad defuncti memoria that they might retaine and keepe in memory persons formerly departed the consideration whereof as it cannot questionlesse but much trouble the dying heart even of the dearest servant of Christ who naturally is sociable and desiring the company of man as we see in Ezechias dolefull complaint Isa 38.11 Isa 38.11 I shall see man no more with the inhabitants of the earth So ought the very hearing that all the dead bodies of the Elect are the Sonnes of God his dead carkasses and peculiar charge mightily to cheere up their dejected soules at the last houre and period of their lives If then it happeneth as oft it doth that these or the like Melancholly thoughts uppon the approach of Death enter thy troubled breast and thus thou secretly musest with thy selfe I see mine houre and time is now at hand when I must away and suddainly make my bed in darknesse in the slimey valley whither my friends will not care to come and mine acquaintance tremble to approach where my onely Comrade must bee corruption and the worme my chiefe companion Then remember that being Christs in thy lifetime thou art his when thou art dead then his living Temple and now his dead carkasse Neyther doth his love at all fayle when breath fayleth For however others perhaps will loath thee yet bee sure hee will not leave thee but closing thy dying eyes with his gracious hand will go along with thee unto thy Grave where having sowne thee like precious seed will not forsake thee until hee shall rayse thee in a most glorious manner For even as those infernal spirits are never absent from the Graves and tombes of Reprobates prophaine and wicked persons but there they are tryumphing over them as their spoyle and conquest so is the sonne of God never absent by his Divine presence from the Graves and monuments of all pious and Religious persons perfuming them with the odoriferous savour of his death and passion and so preserving of them that not a bone of them is lost The which being so Psal 34 20. when that time commeth and dye I must egredere anima mea
egredere go forth my soule go forth feare not so are up to that blessed society that is above Heb. 12 22.23.24 that cōpany of angels spirits of iust perfect men to Iesus mediator and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things then the bloud of Abel As for my dead carkase I deliver it wholly over into the hands of my blessed Saviour Tim. 1.12 being well assured that he is of powerable to keep that which is thus committed to him Secondly as the resurrection of the elect as I have shewed you will be very beautifull so againe will it be very joyfull as may appeare by the words following wherein they are willed To awake and sing The which words may be understood either First as a rethoricall passage wherein the blessed Spirit turneth his speech to the dead bodies willing them to Awake and sing Or secondly in way of Prophesie wherein he fore-telleth as an addition to their future happinesse that they shall Awake and sing If then we take the words in the first sense then have we no other then an application or use that the spirit of God maketh of that comfortable Doctrine formerly declared concerning the resurrection of the dead in speaking to them as persons living and willing them to Awake and sing many the like passages we meete withall in the booke of God where we finde the Holy Ghost speaking to things unreasonable as though they were reasonable sencelesse as having understanding Isa 1.21 Deut. 30 Isa 41.1 Hos 4.3 Jer. 2.12 dead as living sometimes calling them forth to bee Judges sometimes to bee witnesses somtimes to rejoyce somtimes to mourne somtimes to looke boldly somtimes to blush and be ashamed All which together with the reason why the blessed Spirit cloatheth his discourses in such Retoricall and rich attire I doe willingly omit fearing lest through teadiousnesse I might bee troublesome And yet before I wholly leave this poynt and come unto the second I thinke it not amisse to touch one necessarie dutie which the methode that the holy Ghost here observeth affoordeth to us in making as I said so excellent an use of those comfortable doctrines formerly delivered For whereas in the words preceding he assureth the bodies of Saints Inhabiting in the dust that they shall not onely a rise but in a most glorious manner and that till then they are under the wings and protection of a most gratious keeper so in these words he turneh himselfe unto them and maketh this blessed use of all willing them To awake and sing The which necessary duty as it rightly concerneth the ministers of the word in delivering divine truth as if time would serve me I might easily prove so likewise doth it the soule of every Christian man or woman whensoever they heare promises or threatnings published or delivered The which that they may the better doe a necessary thing it is for feare of making false constructions to harken what the Conscience that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or treasure of the soule speaketh For beeing the concluding part of the understanding it will easily tell a man how his case standeth either by accusing or excusing absolving or condemning For instance thou art a wicked and ungodly liver and thou hearest these or the like dreadfull judgements threatned thundred out against Adulterers Swearers impious and ungodly livers That a flying booke of Curses shall enter into the houses of such persons Zach. 5.3.4 Iob. 15.12 15. Iob. 20.7 and overthrow them quite That their strength shall bee famine and that Brimstone shall bee scattered upon their Habitations That they shall perish like their owne Dunge And that they that have knowne them before shall say where are they Now art thou desirous to know whether this bee the portion of thy cup or no then harken to thy conscience and marke well her words for questionlesse upon the hearing of the same shee will thus conclude Zach. 10.3 Math. 7.6 But thou art such a one debauched person and one of this rout and brutish crue a stinking Goat a filthy Swine a snarling Dog and therefore Phil. 3.2 all those heavy judgements and woefull plagues are due to thee as thy lot and portion One the other side thou art one upon whose heart the Word of God hath wrought effectually so that now thou wholly seekest after things above Thine Eye thy Tongue thy Hand thy Pilgrimes Weedes namely Mortification and a new Life doe plainly shew it Many promises thou daily meetest withall like delitious Waters dropping out of the Bucket of Iacob Col. 3.12 5.1 Rom. 6.4 Cor. 4.10 the which thou art exceeding desirous to know whether they bee thine or no A thing that thou maist easily doe if thou wilt but listen what thy conscience speaketh which upon the hearing of the same will assuredly after this sort both assume and reply But thou my deare friend my yoake-fellow and companion art one of this blessed company as not onely my selfe but my whole life and conversation doe plainely witnesse therefore these promises doe belong to thee Secondly if wee take the words in the future tense in way of prediction and prophesies as well wee may for that in the Hebrewe language the Imparative mood and future tense are set and placed the one usually for the other then have we a souveraigne preservative against the feare and sadnesse of death in that the spirit of God assureth these inhabitants of the dust that they shall Awake and sing The which that we may the better see we are to consider First who the persons are whom he termeth Inhabitants of the dust Secondly their happy estate and condition at the latter day in that they shal Awake and sing And first the persons that are termed here the Inhabitant of the dust we are to understand no other then those formerly mentioned under the name of his dead variety of expression setting forth the selfe same persons as may appeare not onely by the word Yee as putting a speciall difference betweene them and others but also for that though that all good bad shal awake and rise yet all not awake sing Isa 65.13 but the greatest company shall Isa 65 13 Cry for sorrow of heart and howle for vexation of minde Qu. But why are they called the Inhabitants of the dust why doth not the blessed Spirit give them a more noble denomination not rather Gods Iewels Pros 13.14 Isa 35.10 Gods Redeemed Hos 13.14 Gods chosen Esay 35.10 or as formerly hee did his dead carkasses but inhabitants of the dust I answer First generally to declare and manifest the mutability of all humane flesh and that there is nothing in man or in the sonne of Man whether Riches Honour Beauty strength or wit yea pure Religion farre more precious then them all that can hold him whom death will have or latch the arrow that death shooteth This is that David affirmeth Psal 89.48 when
it not neither is there in him any ability or will to performe the least religious duty For the living they are they that praise the Lord the grave doth not Isa 38.18 19. neither doe they that goe downe into the Pit celebrate his truth Isa 38.18 19. And therefore it being so good it were for us to follow that which our blessed Saviour alwaies practiced namely whilst it is to day to worke the workes of our heavenly Father Iohn 19.4 seeing the night commeth fast upon us when no man can worke 4. Lastly as the rising of the Morning Sunne usually expelleth the naturall sleepe and lumpishnesse of the night so at the appearing of the Sunne of Righteousnesse the brightnesse of his comming shal expell and chase away the sleepe of death and put an end to that drowsie night neyther shall we sleepe any more the sleepe thereof Psal 13.3 In these and many other the like respects is Death usually stiled by the name of sleepe and this beeing so First why should wee tremble at it seeing it is the same to the childe of God that the coole shade is to the weary travailer Job 14.2 and the evening rest to the painefull Labourer Secondly why doe wee so bitterly weepe and mourne as persons without hope for our Friends departed for they doe but sleepe Thes 4 13 and one day assuredly they shal be awaked Thirdly why doe wee not make more account of Church-yards and places of buriall then wee see usually is done seeing that they are the Dormitories and sleeping places of the bodies of the Saints where resting for a time they shall at length bee awaked againe by the comming of their Master and his gracious call Secondly wee must not imagine when the Body is dead that the soule sleepeth an ancient yet erronious opinion it crossing directly the word of God in many places as namely Eccles 12.7 where the Preacher speaking of the death and dissolution of Man hee thus expresseth it Dust sayth hee returneth unto Dust and the spirit unto God that gave it And that of our holy and blessed Saviour Christ Iesus to the Theefe on the Crosse Eccl. 12.7 Luke the twenty third verse forty three Luk 23.43 To day thou shalt bee with me in Paradise This was amongst many other of ancients the beliefe of holy Policarpus who as the story saith when he was to enter the flaming fire in the defence of the Christian Faith openly professed that he was fully resolved Hodie sese representandum in Spiritu coram Domino that he was in his soule that very day to appeare in the presence of God Ob. If it be so may one say why doth then God deale so hardly with the body above the soule Psal 139.15 For are they not both the worke of his hands The one made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth and the other Creando infunditur infundendo Creatur like the most pretious oyle infused and powred out of the tree of Life And besides they are alwaies loving friends sympathizing and taking part in the weale and woe each of other they weepe together and rejoyce together why then upon their parting goeth the one to the earth the other to heaven the one to a dungeon of darknesse the other to a Pallace and place of delight An. The answere whereunto is that this is done by Almighty God in singular wisedome in these three respects First to crosse the fond and childish course of man woman whose delight wholly is as we dayly see in pampring and cherishing of their bodies whilst the care and due respect that they owe unto their soules is wholy neglected their bodies are deliciously stuffed their soules are miserably starved their bodies are clothed in Silke and Tishue their soules in rags and tatters their bodies are presumed with the most odiferous oyntments their soules with stinke of sin and blasted with the breath of Hell Secondly that the body might in time be wrought and framed to be a fit companion for the soule which since the fall of man it is not but rather as I have shewed you before a let and oftimes hindrance unto the same in the cheerefull performance of many necessary and Christian duties And therfore it pleased God our heavenly Father to appoynt the earth to be his furnace and place of refyning to waste and weare away whatsoever sinful contagion the body formerly hath contracted so that the soule afterward with the same may no waies be incombred Thirdly that they being thus parted Rev. 6 the soule might earnestly and hourely desire as the rest of the soules doe under the Altar their re-uniting and joyning together again and so consequently the hastning of the number of the elect and second comming of the Sonne of God to judgement And thus much shall serve to be briefly spoken of the first expression of the joyfulnesse of their resurrection that they shall Awake I come now unto the second where it is said that they shal Sing And questionlesse so they shal and wee all shall sing with them whilst the blessed Angels shall helpe to make up the quire And good reason for First our worke is quite over and all our toyle and labour ended our field ploughed and our vineyard planted the Spring is come and the voyce of the Turtle heard in our land Cant. 2.12 is it not fit then that wee should sing a Requiem to our soules 2. Our warfare is at an end our enemies destroyed and loe our victorious Generall is mounted now on high upon his triumphant Chariot with innumerable troopes of Angels and celestiall souldiers upon his right hand and upon his left setting forth his praise shewing his noble acts and singing his victory what soule is there that ever reaped comfort from the same that instantly will not joyne it selfe with this joyfull assembly and beare a part in this triumphant song Rev. 13.9.10 saying with the rest Blessing honor glory and power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and unto the Lambe for ever and ever For thou hast redeemed us by thy blood and hast made us unto God Kings and Priests and wee shall raigne on the earth 3 It is the marriage day wherein the espousals betwixt Christ and his Church so long deferred shall bee fully perfected when the glorious Bride comming forth in a rich mantle al of white which her beloved spouse long before bestowed on her shall be married to her husband the Lord Jesus Christ who having crowned her with the crowne of Glory wil take her into the Bride-chamber neere unto himselfe Psal 45. and there shee shall abide for ever If the Spheres as some will have the doe dayly moove in a most melodious sort then questionlesse wil they utter their chiefest most delightful tunes and like so many roling Cymbals serve that Heavenly Quire Then will Heaven and Earth bee filled with Epithalamies
same Resurrection wee shal bee likewise raised out of the bed and grave of corruption Hence sayth the holy Apostle Paul 2. Cor. 4. verse 14. Wee know that he that raysed up the Lord Iesus Christ shall raise us up also by Iesus and shall present us with you and blessed and happy are they sayth St. Iohn that have a part in the first Resurrection for over them the second death hath no part And this likewise will appeare plainly unto us if our mindes and affections be not with the blind Mole and bruitish Swine grubling here below but with the nimble and pleasant wings of the Hawke and Eagle soaring daily and mounting up on high with all care and diligence seeking after those celestial things that are above according to which Rule the blessed Apostle leadeth on his exhortation Phil. 3.1 after this manner If you be risen with Christ sayth hee then seeke those things that are above as though hee should say if yee bee risen with Christ then ought you to seeke after the things that are above And agayne if you bee risen with him then you cannot but seeke after them so then by this seeking it may easily appeare whether wee be risen with Christ which if we be then blessed are wee for the second death shall have no power over us But death shal be to us the beginning of Life and a happy passage for us from an inferiour Roome to an higher from base Iericho to that beautifull Ierusalem that is above whether stormes and tempests cannot reach and where the morning sunne alwayes shineth where Rivers of oyle runne gushing up and downe and where is the temple of the living God and of the Lambe where is Paradice in which is no Serpent to tempt or Death with his arrow to kill where are Riches without measure and glory without comparison where the day never endeth nor comfort fadeth where our mourning shall quite cease and wee keepe a perpetuall Sabboth with the blessed Angels and soules of the Righteous solacing our selves in the presence of the blessed Trinity and sitting us downe at the right hand of the Father where are pleasures for emore Amen AN ELEGY UPON THE DEATH OF THE TRVLY NOBLE GENTLEMAN EDWARD LEWKENOR Esquire lamenting especially the finall extirpation of that worthy and in other Countries ancient Family although in Suffolke continued but for three Generations By Sir Edward Lewknor the Elder Sir Edward Lewknor the yonger Edward Lewknor Esquire COuld I but sing such layes great Soule as thou Chant'st amongst Angels and Arch-Angels now I might commend thee but such notes as ours Are like * A Crow saluted Augustus with these words Ave Caesar Mac. Stat. 2. c. 4 Crowes Aves to great Emperors A wonder Reader in one tombe doth lye Lowly interr'd a stately Family A greater yet loe one poore heape of mould Holds three such men as scarse a World can hold Greatest of all but three Decents comprise More Worthies then most long liv'd Families Even as great summes for most part greater grow By adding Cyphers to the Figures so T is oft in antique stemmes wherin wee see Five or sixe nulls for one Poore vnity But 't was not so in yours Nature would not Set downe one Cypher but all decades wrot One old in whom ten Nestors did reside One middle aged in whom there did abide The Worth and Wisedome of as great a ten As Nature breeds amongst the sonnes of men One yong whom now to Fate we would not grutch If out of ten wee could extract one such Or as in counting oft we see no lesse Then twenty Counters layed downe to expresse Some Shillings or Deniers when two or three Doe Hundreds thousands Millions signifie So 't was in you Great Saints Nature had lay'd Her Millions then her numbring hand shee staid Thinking perchance it were but vaine expence Of Time and Art to put downe pounds and pence Had she composed some fulsome potion Some huge Gallenical decoction Putting in substance leaves and stalks and all Boyl'd in some quarts of Liquor Physicall You might have beene perchance a greater dose And match't the Stemme-proud vast Magnificoes But when our Paracelsian would extract Spirit of Spirits Spirit so exact As Quintessence it selfe compared to it Was but Terrene and Feculent as yet Her curious Alymbecke would forth powre Onely three drops then staid and would no more As in Joves Pallace the vast Firmament Shines with a many Starre-bright ornament But such as to the Gazers eye display Scarce any thing but Buls and Rams and gay Strumpets and Concubines and Gorgons heads Scorpions and Centaures and ten thousand dreads When as those Orbes wherein one Starre is fix't Carry some God or Goddesse uncommix't With ugly formes so was your destiny Yee were all God-like men although but Three O sacred number though it had no more But yee to make it sacred Henceforth score Amongst the paternes of Triplicity Holy triplicity this blessed three And next the greatest let it greatest be Nor did the cruell fates their anger shew But favour rather to permit so few Rare things are made for one age to behold Others to wonder at If they grow old And common al our admiration stints So Loadstones are scarce better deem'd then Flints Which were they rare no Gold or Orient * A round Loadstone called Terella stone The great earth scarce would buy the little one 'T is not for every age of man to know An Hector Caesar Cato Scipio No nor a Lewknor neither 't may suffice To see a Phoenix in five Centuries Yet may we see * Sir Robert Lewknor in â—er brother to Sir Edward Lewknor the yonger one in another clime A Golden Branch Transplanted which no time Shall wast untill that faire stemme hath out wore As many yeares as it had dayes before And shall in thee * His onely daughter sweet Babe whom heaven hath lent Vnto the World that having largely spent Such store of Honour in thy Sire by thee Another name may gaine like dignity Amen to this say al the Saints on high Amen to this be Angels Harmony Say thou Amen thou fountaine of al Store Thy saying's doing say 't wee aske no More Till then live still thou Blessed name in * The Lady Lewkenor wife to Sir Ed. Lewkenor the younger Thee Daughter Wife Mother to this heavenly Three Relique of Three great Saints in Heaven Mother To Three on earth unmatch't but by their Brother As Iron plac't betwixt two Loadstones loth To forsake either hangs betwixt them both So live t'wixt Heaven and Earth and be thou hight An Earthly Angell or an Heavenly wight Vntill the Heavenly part made strong by fate Draw thee at last to thine Eternall state AN EPITAPH THe fairest Blossome of as Faire a Tree As Suffolke yeelds Reader lyes vnder mee ' Tint strange that Blossoms fade but cruell Fate Did in this bud the whole Tree ruinate A Tree transplanted hither to display A Wonder in each age and then decay For aged middle yong come Fame and tell To three but three Lewkenors a paralell Ar't mute then let thy Trumpe their worth resound And fame reviue whom Fate hath layed in Ground And when one stemme three Edwards can allot Like unto these let Lewkenor bee forgot JOH GARNONS Dr. D. FINIS