of the Historie that man is of the earth witnesse the like qualities of his nutriment his sinking in the water melancholy his compact flesh the drynesse of his bones the constancy of his figure and that which is not of least moment the base worldling that has fixt his eyes on the earth and by his life-preaching Gentilisme does sacrifice at Vesta's Altars and calls her the mother of gods and men it may be Lucretius read his Pedigree where hee tells of men whom the earth after certaine conversions of the heaven growne big brought forth and nursed with her owne milke But let the Poet dreame of prodigious birthes we know that God made man of the earth I doe not say as some did fetcht from the foure extremities of the earth to shew that his Dominion and the world had the same bounds but of earth First that wee might the more joy in our Ascension to heaven and glorifie our Maker for raising our heavie bodies to so high a place above the Ayre above the Fire above the Moon and though Leucippus taught {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that the Orb of the Sunne was the supreame Orb above the Sunne above all the Starres except those that praysed him in the morning Iob. 38. The blessed Angels whose early harmony eccho'd to the harmony of the new borne world Secondly of earth that we might have from whence to raise our soules but not why to raise our Crests that great ones might not look too big on the poore but resemble in this that glorious Planet the bright eye of the World the Sun the higher it is the lesse it looks that they might consider the humble shrub lives in Mount Lebanon as well as the stately Cedar and many times lives longer alway safer that 't is somecimes in States as in nature that gives to lighter bodies the higher place that all faces are drawn in dust though some in illustrious dust that very Cyrus who in his time was writ {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} now begs his memorie as Strabo writes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} O man I am Cyrus he that stiled himselfe great from the Empire of the earth stood but like the Embleme of inconstancie with his foot upon a Globe a slippery Globe earth upon earth he and poor Diogenes lived both but for a time and both in a time though not both in a Tub and Plutarch sayes they dyed both in one day Death you see makes no difference and Christ himselfe seemes to make none 't is noted to this purpose that on the mount there appeared with him Moses and Elias the one in his younger yeares was a mightie man in Aegypt after a leader of Gods people the other alway poore cold and hungrie cloathed with Goats haire Away then with that Knave Lisippus that must needs paint Alexander with a Thunder-bolt in his hand with Caligula that set his head on Jupiters shoulders and with Darius that by all meanes must bee a god though but for thirtie dayes better was that speculation of Philip the Macedonian who on a time falling and viewing in the dust his length cryed out Lord what a little portion of earth is not content with the whole earth he well took notice that as he had falne on the earth so hee came from the earth which is my first part and should returne to the earth which is my second {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Rhet. 2. Arist. who knowes not that he shall dye to consult about an escape were {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} seriously to deliberate what course a man might take that the Sun should nor rise or set I have read of Temples dedicated to Feares but that no people did ever consecrate a Priest or Temple to death as being well knowne to bee inexorable who have not heard of the gates of Death who knowes not that they lye open and that for him yet because Evills that may bee farre off doe not much affect and wee while the bloud runs hot in our veines put farre from us that frozen and benumbed age as if eternall Hebe or Youth fild our Cups as Poets say shee does their Joves it will not be out of place or time in the middle of Summer to admonish of Winter 't was the Devills policy in old time to have the dead buried without the Walls out of sight that the living might not lay it to heart he that steeres well must sit at the end of his Boat and 't is the good Politician {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} when danger is farre off then to suppose it neate in this respect it cannot bee out of season this is my second part our returne to the earth The whole man came not from earth and therefore cannot returne to the earth the soule shall goe to places deputed to her the body to the earth one and the same our Mother our Nurse our House our Tombe that these two should part proceeds from causes Morall and Naturall the Morall cause is sinne that made a separation of God from the soule then followed a separation of the soule from the body for God made not Death neither taketh the Potter pleasure in bruising an earthen Pitcher two things I may safely say cannot God make a God and Sin of these take the word properly he has no Idea The Naturall causes of Death are either externall or internall exrernall O that I could number them I should then learne to number my dayes the internall cause is the mutuall conflict of contrarie qualities the brain being cold the Stomack and the Liver hot the Bones drie and the Reines moyst the soule comes from the Father of Spirits it selfe a Spirit into a body whose principles exercise naturall and irreconcileable enmitie me thinks at her first entrance into an house so divided against it selfe she should looke about her like that fellow in Libanius that comming home and finding painted on his Wall two ready and instructed Armies cries out {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} who has made my house a Military Campe The members of every mans body are at continuall Warre wee may bee at peace with forraine enemies our domestick are alway in armes 'T is false that Solinus writes of a people in Iurie that are so equally mixt their temper so arithmeticall without excesse defect or jarre ut aeternagons sit cessantibus puerperiis that there is alway the same number of people and yet no children borne Who shall make me believe that Iurie or any part or Jurie is exempted from death since life it selfe our Lord and Saviour Jesus did dye in Jurie Death erects her Trophies as well in Iuries as Greece and in Greece as Scythia her victories are here above her Captives lie below God made the face of the earth to bee inhabited sin and death the bowells this is the place of them that live that of them that have lived Thus
is the earth the common receptacle of the living and of the dead other Elements serve us in our life her service continues after death when our funerall fires have turn'd us to ashes when the Aire our Breath hath left us and the water belcht us up shee is to our tossed bodies a shore to our bodies turn'd to ashes an Urne to our bodies out of breath a place of Repose a Seat to rest in Thus much of my second part our returne to the earth I now come to our returne as the end of evills Hercules his Pillars were the terme of his Travailes the terme of his life was the terme of his labours Life and Labour goe hand in hand death and rest hence some did conclude it the prime good not to be borne the next to dye speedily Plinie thought so well of death that he conceived no other end of venemous Herbes than to rid men out of life siquando taedio esset when it grew wearisome But seek not said Solomon death in the errour of your lives Death is not to bee hastened and need not bee feared never did Pinace arrive at the blessed Islands that first passed not through the straights of Death God and Nature have set them between us and home There is a place sayes Iob meaning the grave where there is no order and yet this for our comfort there is no tumultuous confusion for Pompey and Caesar are at peace the Senate and the people nay Rome and Carthage Fortune there rules no Orbe anger and revenge lye chained up and they that divide the Empire of our living world pride ambition injustice fraud covetousnesse oppression have not so much as one little Province 'T was well done of Nature that condemned us not to any long stay here that cuts off our sins with our thred and our paines with our lives for did not men weep oftner before the floud than after and did not old Priamus shed more teares than young Troilus to all that float upon the troubled waves of this world there is one common and universall Haven the haven of death and yet even there in the very haven doe all men suffer ship-wrack which casts me on my fourth and last part the discourse on death as death is an evill Sin and the punishment of sin are members adequally dividing humane evils the former presupposed no evill or privation it presupposed imperfection in him that sinned as mutabilitie of will which is no evill or privation for it is universally actually in all individuals but no privation is actually affirmed of the whole species the later presupposed evill an inordination in free actions or omissions called Malum culpae which in Gods justice is payed with that other called Malum poenae the evill of punishment to which member I reduce the hate of Nature the last enemy the last of evils Death but not the least Can that be the least of evils which is so abhorred of all those appetites which God hath printed in the soule to wit the naturall animall and rationall Does not the nutritive facultie earnestly labour to maintaine us in being {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sayes Aristotle Mor. 1. even when wee are asleep Does not the irascible defend our being and the concupiscible together with the generative propagate it Does not that universall facultie as Suarez cals it the will love and desire the being and well being of all inferiour parts Shew mee but any thing of the most obscure being that desires not to maintaine that being and I shall the sooner with the Egyptians believe two Gods that made the nature of things the one good the other bad Stay then take notice see and be amazed too to see by what strange wayes and windings the derived rivers become tributarie to the sea all things flow from the deep of divine goodnesse see how hee fetches them back againe hee hath made them all at least by some analogie to love him in that they love themselves for they are drops of the bucket and so much as they love themselves which are by participation so much they must needs love him which is of himselfe they cannot love to bee but they must love him who swallowes up in his infinitenesse of being all being whose nature and essence it is to be let me tell you of a paradox if there bee any in afflicted Jobs case that weep that they died not from the womb that blesse the barren mother and the paps that never gave suck even these the damned spirits and unhappie soules out of a meere love to their being desire not to be such is our love to our being and God himselfe glories to say of himselfe I am and yet this our being does death as far as it can destroy Againe can that bee the least of evils which drownes in teares the eyes of widdowes and orphans that leaves the streets as a green field and changes the palaces of Princes into lodges of Bats and Owles that had not God for a father not Nature for a mother till she was adulterate that is ushered in by a thousand evils the sword pestilence and famine excesse in labour excesse in pleasure lingring griefe and sudden mirth with a thousand more Now that death is a passage from these to a more blessed mansion from these cloudy regions to those enlightned by the Lord God it is no thank to death death is still the ruine of Nature the demolisher of Gods Worke this is the goodnesse and power of God who will raise us againe out of the dust and the dark grave and then will blesse us and shew us the light of his countenance and say in the end of the world as hee said in the beginning let there be light and there shall bee light a light that no Cloud from thenceforth shall dim that shall never set to which light hee lighten us who lighteth every man nay who is that very light and for Iesus Christ his sake our onely Lord and Saviour Amen FINIS The second Sermon ECCELES. 12.1 Remember now thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth THE Text naturally falls into these parts First an act Remember Secondly the object of that act and that first in a generall notion as the Creatour Secondly in a speciall with this restraint or appropriation thy Creatour Thirdly the time when set forth three wayes First in thy youth Secondly in the dayes of thy youth Thirdly now in the dayes of thy youth First of the act Remember But because the memorie of any thing does of necessitie suppose the former knowledge of that here comes in another act layd downe by way of supposition that we know God First then of this supposed Supremum in homine sayes S. August de Civit. Dei attingit supremum in mundo The noblest faculty in the little world man reacheth to the noblest thing in the great world God the builder of heaven and earth When God in the creation did
Michaelmas or Easter Terme Aquinas notes that buying or selling was never heard of till Abraham bought a burying place of Ephron the Sonne of Zoar and here by the way you may note that the first thing this good man bought was a burying place as if the end of his life had beene the beginning of his thoughts the River of God sayes the Psalmist is full of Water you have heard how this River keepes not within bancks but rejoyces to break out and runne downe with a mightie streame to make glad the face of the whole earth Thus much of the object in generall as the Creator I now come to the object in a more speciall notion with this restraint or appropriation thy Creator where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth saies God to Iob let the Poet make answer quâ non nata jacent were things that are not yet borne or conceived are that is just no where how much then dost thou owe to God that gave thee life when as yet thou couldst not aske it of him and when hee first gave thee life thou wast as thy dayes are but a span long and yet what a faire place did he make ready for thee even the wide and spacious world that when thou commest to yeares and mans stature thou mightest have elbow roome enough That God is the Creator and therefore Almighty is matter of feare and trembling but that he is thy Creator is matter of love and thankfull remembrance Did he not give thee a being yes but so he did to stocks and stones Did hee not give thee a soule and life thus much hee hath done for beasts and trees But did hee not give thee a reasonable soule to denie it were the best argument that hee did not But in that hee hath given thee a reasonable soule remember this thing that he hath done for thee The soule of Beasts is from the earth earthly the soule of man from the Father of Spirits and is spirituall the soule of Beasts is but for a time and then dyes with the body the soule of man lives after the body and returnes to God that gave it Some of the old Philosophers compare the soule of a man to a Circle for like as a Circle returnes to the first poynt and ends where it began so the soule of man returnes to God from whom it began to which may that bee well applyed which God sayes of himfelfe J am the beginning and I am the end But now though it bee true that the wise men said of old that the soule of man doth resemble a circle yet is there some disparitie and unlikenesse in the one and the other for every Circle returnes to the poynt from whence it begins but every mans soule doth not returne to God that gave it for the souls of the wicked go out from him and are lost in this world and never returne to him againe but the soules of the just are like the Dove which Noah sâ—â—t out of the Arke which finding no rest for the sole of her foot returned back againe and hee put forth his hand and received her In this doe the soules of good and bad agree that they were all created by one and the same God that they are all for a time to be united to the body that they shall all at the end of that time be separated from the body that they shall all put on the very same bodies which sometimes they put off that they shall all come to judgement and here beginnes the woefull and lamentable difference some proving Chaffe some Wheat some Sheep some Goats some being set on the right hand and some on the left some marked out to eternall death and some to eternall life now that thou maist never feele the happinesse of the one and never feele the miserie of the other take with thee this Counsell it is the Counsell of a King of Solomon the King let it bee to thee as the Signet of thy right hand and as Jewells of gold about thy neck write it upon the Nayles of thy fingers upon the palmes of thine hands upon the posts of thine house and in every corner of thy heart Remember thy Creator The fruit that will spring from this remembrance will be much and rare from contemplation of his highnesse and thy low estate will spring humilitie from thought of this that hee gave to thee not onely when thou hadst nothing but wast nothing Charlie to the poore from his mercie hope from his Iustice a true ballance feare of his Name resolution and contempt of injuries from his immensitie and illimited presence in all places watch fulnesse and warinesse in all thy ways words and actions But because there is an appoynted time for all things a time for everie purpose under the Sun my Text does not only set downe whom we must remember but the time when we must remember him and that in three particulars First in our youth Secondly in the dayes of our youth Thirdly now in the dayes of our youth First of the first It was the superstition of the old Romans primam lanuginem Diis Consecrare to consecrate the first haire of their cheeks to their gods what was superstition in them will bee good Religion in us God will have our firstlings what are they the first borne male of thy Cattell and of thy sheep thou shalt sanctifie to the Lord thy God was the old Law But now I will take no Bullock out of thine house nor Goat out of thy fold will I eate the flesh of Bulls or drinke the blood of Goats Offer unto mee praise and pay thy vowes call upon mee but marke what followes in the day of trouble not in the night not after Sunne set wee must not deferre it so long and I say call upon him early betime in the morning and if not in the morning of the day yet surely in the morning of thine age that is in thy youth How many have thought to call in the evening who have beene cald away themselves at noone and beene benighted at mid-day for we are here but for a time and then must bee gone like Travailers or wayfaring men wee must pay our debt and reckoning to Nature and then away after we have eat and drunke here or like Tenants at will who must give up our Title and Land even that small portion of earth which we carry about us when God shall call as hee cald to Abraham exi de terratua goe out of thy Land and whither then to the place that Iob in his tenth Chapter speaks of darke as darknesse it selfe where there is no order where there is no place for repentance for as the tree falleth so it lyeth Sixe dayes shalt thou labour and doe all that thou hast to doe in these thou must gather thy Manna if thou gather on the seventh it shall stinke and bring forth wormes never had man pardon of his sinne to whom