quake and tremble to thinke of them How faine would I snatch thy soule out of this fire Vndoubtedlie know that if this warning doe thee no good it is because thou art of old iustlie ordained to perish in thy impenetency and to bee a fire-brand in these euerlasting flames Now on the contrarie if thou beest a vessell of mercie and honour it will doe thee no hurt but driue thee to Christ in whom there is no condemnation who onelie is perfectlie able to saue and deliuer thee out of this Lake If thou be est alreadie in him it will cause thee to reioyce in thy Lord and Sauiour who hath deliuered thee from the feare of two such enemies that now thou mayst with the Ostrich in Iob despise the horse and his rider and triumph by Faith ouer Hell and Death O Death where is thy sting Oh Hell where is thy victorie Death is to men as he comes attended To Diues he comes followed with Diuells to carrie his soule to Hell To Lazarus with troopes of Angels to conuey him to Abrahams bosome So that we may in earnest say that Death is the Atheists feare and the Christians desire Diogines could iestingly call it The Rich mans enemie and the Poore mans friend This this is that which makes death so easie so familiar and dreadlesse to a belieuer he sees Death indeede but Death is not Death without Hell follow him and Hell he sees not but onely as escaped and vanquished and therefore is said not to see Death Now sayes the belieuer comes death and the Prince of this world with him but he hath no part in mee all the bitternesse and teares of death lye in the feare of Hell which thanks be to Christ hath nothing to do with me nor I with it and therefore I taste not of death now comes Gods Sergeant pale death whom I know I cannot auoyde but this I know he comes not to arrest me to carry me to prison but only to inuite me to a feast attend and conuey me thither Let such feare him as are in debt and danger mine are all discharged and cancelled he comes with his horse to take vp me behind him and to fetch me to my fathers ioyes to a Paradice as full of pleasures as he carries the wicked to a prison full of paines Pharaohs Baker and Butler were sent for out of prison the one to promotion the other to execution hee that had the ill Dreame expected the Messenger with horror the other longed for him with comfort The latter is my case therefore though I be reasonably wel in this world as a child at board yet home is home therefore will I waite till this pale horse comes and bid him heartily welcome and with him the Angels of my Father who haue a charge to lay my body in a bed of rest and to bestow my soule vnder the Altar as it followes in the next seale which is so pleasing a vision that we neede no voice or preface such as we had in the former inuiting vs to Come and see the very excellency of the obiect it self is of force enough to draw and hold the eies of our minds vnto it The second Sermon VERSE 9. And when hee had opened the first Seale I saw vnder the Altar the Soules c. WHen Death hath bin viewed in the palest and Hell in the blackest colors that may be yet if wee haue Faith enough to see Soules in their White roabes vnder the Altar there is comfort enough against the horror of both enough to enable the belieuer to despise and trample ouer them â—ooth In the opening of this fifth Seale I hope to finde more sollid Antidotes more liuely Cordialls against the feare of Death then in all the dead and drie precepts of Bellarmines doting Art of dying For this part of the vision was shewed Iohn of purpose to sweeten the harshnesse of the former that his spirit grieued and amazed with the sight of the calamities and mortalitie vnder the persecuting Butchers rather then Emperours might yet be relieued and refreshed with a sight of the blessed estate of such as died either in or for the Lord. Wherein was proposed to his sight and to our consideration these seuerals First the immortall subsistence of soules after their seperation from the body Secondly their sure and secure condition vnder the Altar Thirdly their dignity and felicitie clothed with white robes Fourthly their compleate happinesse at the last day when the number of their bretheren shall be accomplished Of all these Christ meant Iohn should take notice and al beleeuers by his testimony to their full consolation First Iohn being in the spirit could see spirits men indeed clad in flesh can hardly imagine how a soule can haue existence out of the flesh Eagles can see that which Owles cannot so is that visible and credible to a spirituall man which to a naturall is inuisible incredible And yet euen natures dimme eyes haue beene cleere enough to see this truth Nature I say pure and meere nature not only the Platonists and other learned ones who resolutely concluded it and aptly resembled it to the distinct being of the waggoner after the breaking of the Coach the swimming out of the Mariner in the wreake of the ship the creeping of the snayle out of the shell the worme out of the case not vnto the learned Grecians and ciuilized Romans But euen the rudest Scythians and vnlettered Sauages yea though there bee many Languages and sundrie Dialects in the world yet is and hath this euer been the common voyce of them all That soules die not with the body And howeuer the bodies resurrection hath to them been a Problem and Paradoxe yet is the soules eternitie an inbred instinct sucked from natures breast or rather an indelible principle stamped in the soules of men by the finger of God And indeed to right reason what difficulty or absurditie is there in it What lets mee to conceiue a being of it in the Ayre in the Heauen or in any other place as well as in the compasse of my body is not one substance as capable of it as another Can it liue in the one and not in another Hath it not euen whiles it is in the bodie thoughts motiues passions by it selfe of it owne different from the body many crosse and contrarie to the disposition of the body chearefull ones when that is in paine or melancholie Cholericke ones when that is flegmaticke Doth it waite vpon the body for ioy sorrow anger and the like doth it not more often begin vnto it Not to speake of Martyres innumerable who haue beene exceedingly pleasant in the middest of torments as if they had beene spirits without flesh How many auncient stories and dailie examples haue wee of chereful minds in distempered pained languishing dying bodies Reason will then conclude that the Soule may well be and be sensible after death without the body which euen in the body can bee wel
when that is ill cheerely when that is hurt or sicke grieued and troubled when that is in perfect temper and health And on the contrary small reason haue wee to thinke it sleepes out of the bodie which neuer slumbers in the body or that it is seazed by death out of the body which neuer was ouercome by sleep which is but deaths Image and younger brother in the body but euer was working and discoursing in the deepest and deadest sleepes of the body Besides is it likely God would enrich it with such noble and diuine dowries to bee salt onely to the bodie to exhale with it as Bruits doe The admirable inuention of Arts Letters Engines the strange fore-casts prospects and presages of the vnderstanding part the infinite lodgings the firme reteinings of the memorie doe they not argue an immortalitie Doe men ingraue curiously in Snow Yce or transient stuffe What meanes the great anxietie of men about their suruiuing name if the minde perished with the bodie if Death were the cessation of the man and destruction of the whole substance What should nature care for an ayery accident without a subiect whereof no part of him should be sensible What meanes the very feare of Death if that were the end of all feares and cares and sorrowes if nothing remained sensible and capable of any thing to bee feared Lastly the fresh vigor the vnimpayred abilitie that nimble agilitie of the minde in sicknesse yea manie times the freer vse of the faculties of it in the confines yea in the act and Article of Death then in former health doe they not tell the body the soule meanes not to fall with the carkase which hath the name of falling lyes not a dying with it but errects it selfe meanes onely to leaue it as an Inhabitant doth a ruinous House or as a Musition layes downe a Lute whose strings are broken a Carpenter a worne instrument vnfit any longer for seruice and imploiment and as a Guest makes haste out of his Inne to his long home and place of abode Loath I am to mingle Philosophicall Cordialls with Diuine as water with wine least my Consolations should bee flash and dilute yet euen these and such like arguments haue taught all Phylosophie the brutish schoole of the Epicure excepted to see and acknowledge that the soule is not a vapour but a spirit not an accident but a substance and elder and more excellent sister to the body immixt and seperable a guest that dyes not with it but diuerts out of it intending to reuisite and reunite it againe vnto it selfe But Diuinitie certainely knowes all this to bee most certaine that it is a particle of diuine breath inbreathed into the redde lome at the first not arising out of it but infused from heauen into it and therefore may as wel exist without the clay after it as it did before it and when the dust returnes to the dust heauen goes to heauen both to their originals the soule first because first and principall in euery action the body after as an accessary and second and so the day of death to the body is the birth day of eternity to the soule This vndying and euer-liuing condition of the soule throughly rowled in the minde firmely embraced and vndoubtedly apprehended by Faith workes admirable effects as in life so in the approach of death Seneca that saw it but through Clouds cranies and creuises with yfs and ands yet professeth that when hee thought but a little of it and some pleasant dreames of it he loathed himselfe and all his trifling gratnes But most diuinely and resoluedly Iulius Palmer He that hath his soule linked and tyed to the body as a thiefes feete to a Clogge with guyues and fetters no maruell hee knowes not how to dye is loath to endure a Diuision but he that vseth and can by Faith separate the spirit from the body to him it is to drinke this and with that drinkes off a Cup of Wine in his hand and within a while after as cheerefully drinks of Deaths cup in the sight of the same Witnesses Euen Socrates himselfe sweetened his Cup of poyson with this discourse of the soules immortalitie to the amazement of the beholders Such Soules indeede as place all their felicitie to bee in a full fedde and well complexioned body and to partake of the senses corporeall delights hath not accustomed it selfe to it owne retyred delights of obstracted meditations knowes not how to bee merry without a play-fellow no maruell though it bee as loath to part with the body as a crooked deformed body to part with rich robes and gorgeous apparell which were it onely ornaments But such noble and regenerate spirits as know their owne Dowries haue inured themselues to sublimate contemplations and to haue their conuersation in Heauen whiles they were in the body such I say though they do not Cynically reuile the body as a Clog a prison a lumpe of myre c. but know it to bee the Temple of the Holy Ghost yet are they willing yea and sigh to be vncloathed to sowe it a while in the earth being a dark and thick lanterne hindering the cleare sight of it till they may reassume it clarified a spirituall an Angelified body made apt and obsequious to all diuine seruices to Celestiall Offices without wearinesse intermission and such like vanitie which here it is subiect vnto as willing as Dauid to lay aside Sauls cumbersome Armour and to betake him to such as hee could better weeld and command at pleasure This is the first and lowest helpe Faith hath to comfort the soule withall in the approach of Death when the strong men buckle the Keepers of the house faile they waxe dimme that looke out at the windowes when the whole outward man decayes that the inner man ages not faints not languisheth not but rather lifts vp the head is more fresh then formerly and excepts to bee vnburdened and to bee at libertie freed from Corporeall tedious vnpleasing workes of sleeping eating drinking and other meaner drudgery that it may once come to higher and more spirituall imployments better suiting with it natiue condition euen as the Lyon longeth to bee out of the grate and the Eagle out of the cage that they may haue their free scope and fuller libertie Vnder the Altar Now if this much reuiued Iohn as no doubt it did to see the Soules continuance after Death how much more to see their safety and rest vnder the Altar that is vnder Christs protection custody vnder the shadow of his wings Who makes them gratefull to his Father couers them from his wrath safeguards them from all molestation procures them absolute quiet and security The phrase alluding to the Altar in the Tabernacle which gaue the Offerings grace and acceptation and partly to the safety of such as fled from the Auenger to the Altar Christ is our Altar and all the Soules of such as dye in his Faith are as
THE LIFE OF FAITH IN DEATH Exemplified in the liuing Speeches of Dying Christians By SAMVEL WARD Preacher of Ipswich LONDON Printed by Augustine Mathewes for Iohn Marriot and Iohn Grismand and are to bee sold at their Shops in Saint Dunstons Church yard and in Pauls Alley at the Signe of the Gunne 1622. TO HIS DEARE AND LOVING MOTHER I Honour Augustine much for honouring his Mother so much after her death whose name and example had otherwise lyen in obscuritie But I like better and wish rather to follow the piety of Nazianzene who gaue himselfe to the performance of all Christian Offices to his louing Mother God hath so blessed the former part of your life aboue the lot of most women with two such able guides as haue so stored you with Spirituall and Temporall furniture that you neede not the ayde of any your Children Neuerthelesse Grace and Nature will bee ascending and expressing themselues though in weake seruices REVBEN when hee found but a fewe Flowres must bring them to his Mother LEAH ESAV when hee takes Uenison gratifies his aged Father withall SAMPSON findes home by the way and presents of it to his parents Heere is a Posie gathered out of olde and new Gardens this sauory meate hath God brought to hand heere is sweete out of the strong Let your soule eate and blesse The vse and fruit of them I wish to euery beleeuer especially in age and sickenesse but the handsell and honor of them if any be to your selfe whom the Law of God and Nature binds mee to honour aboue others Long may you liue to blesse your Children with your daily Prayers especially your sonnes in that worke which needes much watering Yet euery good Christian in yeares cannot but desire to bee forewarned against death approching and that is the ayme of these endeuours God prosper and blesse them as the former and send mee my part in the benefit of these as hee hath done of them in the time of vse Your Sonne in all dutie desirous of the birth-right of your loue and blessing SA WARD THE LIFE OF FAITH IN DEATH THat which hath bin already spoken of the Life of Faith is to the naturall man aboue all Faith And yet if that bee all it can doe then is all little better then nothing Say it could fill the minde of man with all content satiate his life with all delight and sweeten the bitternesse of all afflictions yet if for all this there lurke in his breast a secret and slauish feare of Death the least peece of this leauen but in a corner of the pecke is enough to sowre the whole lumpe of his ioyes the least dram of this Coloquintida will marre the relish of all his sweetes and make him crie out There is death in the pot And Oh Death how bitter is thy mention and memory Aske Nature and call to Philosophy and see if they can affoord any ayd must they not confesse themselues heere quite posed and plunged hath not death set foyled their whole army for pouertie shame and sicknesse and other such pettie Crosses some poore cures and lame shifts haue they found out but when death comes all their courage hath fayled and all their rules haue left them in darke and desperate vncertainties It is possible for Pharaoh with much a do to stand out the stormes of Haile the swarme of Flies and Lice but when once the crie of Death is in the houses then is there no way but yeelding his Enchaunters and Mountebancks could abide the crie of Frogs and other such vermine but this Basiliske affrights them Onely Faith takes it by the tayle handles it and turnes it into an harmlesse wand yea into a rod budding with glory and immortalitie Quartane agues are not so much the shame of Phisicke as Death is of all naturall skill and valour Death is Faiths euill Faith onely professeth this Cure vndertaketh and performeth it with the least touch of Christs hand and that as familiarly as the richest Balme doth the least cut of the finger Faith turneth feares into hopes sighings and groanings into wishings and longings shaking and trembling into leaping and clapping of hands Alas all troubles are but as Pigmyes to this Gyant who defies all the hoste of Infidels holds them in bondage all the dayes of their liues and makes their whole life no better then a liuing Death and dying life Only Faith encounters this Gyant singles him out for her chiefe prize and grapples with him not as a match but as with a vanquished vnderling insulting ouer him as much as he doth ouer the sonnes of vnbeliefe sets her foot vpon the necke of this King of feares and so easily becomes Conquerour and Emperour of all pettie feares which are therefore onely fearefull because they rend to Death the last the worst the end and summe of all feared euils Here and here onely is the incomparable crowne of Faith here only doth she euidently and eminently honour her followers and difference them from all others with a noble liuery of true magnanimitie and alacritie It is true if wee had windowes into the breasts of men a difference one might see in the inward bearing of aduersitie but for the face and outside both may seeme alike hardy both may seeme alike resolute But when it comes to the poynt of Death then the speech the behauiour the countenance palpably distinguish the dull patience perforce of the worldling from the cheerfull welcome of the Christian. Let Death put on her mildest vizards come in the habit of the greatest sicknes to the stoutest Champion on his owne Downe bed yet shall his heart tremble and his countenance waxe pale Let her dresse her selfe like the cruellest Fury Come with all her rackes fires strappadoes wilde beasts all her exquisite tortures Faith will set a woman or a childe to make sport with her to dare and to tyre her and her tormentors Alas what doe they tell vs of their Socrates their Cato their Seneca and a few such thinne examples which a breath will rehearse a fewe lines containe their poore ragged handfull to our Legions whose names or number one may as soone reckon as the sand of the Sea shore their 's a fewe choyce men of heroycall spirits trayned vp either in arts or armes Our of the weakest sexes and sorts onely strong in the Faith their 's either out of windy vaine-glory childishly reckoning of a short death and a long fame or out of blockish ignorance venturing vpon Death as Children and mad men vpon dangers without feare or wit Ours out of mature deliberation and firme beliefe in Christ who hath drunke out of Deaths bitter Cup an eternall health to all mankind taken the gall and poyson out of it and made it a wholesome potion of immortalitie Faith heere proclaimes her challenge and bids nature or arte out of all their Souldiers or Schollers produce any one who hauing free option to liue or die and that vpon
Haue after as fast as I can follow wee shall light such a candle by Gods grace in England this day as I trust shall neuer hee put out againe To whom Bishop Ridley Bee of good heart Brother for God will either asswage the fury of the flame or else strengthen vs to abide it Bishop Hooper to one that tendered a Pardon vpon recantation If you loue my Soule away with it if you loue my Soule away with it one of the Commissioners prayed him to consider that life is sweet and death is bitter True saith hee but the death to come is more bitter and the life to come more sweet Oh Lord Christ I am hell thou art Heauen draw me to thee of thy mercy Iohn Rogers to one that told him hee would change his note at the fire If I should trust in my selfe I should so doe but I haue determined to dye and God is able to inable me Being awakened and bidden to make haste to Execution Then saith hee shall I not need to tye my poynts Iohn Philpot I will pay my vowes in thee O Smithfield Thomas Bilney I know by sense and Phylosophie that fire is hote and burning painfull but by faith I know it shall onely waste the stubble of my bodie and purge my spirit of it corruption Glouer to Augustine Brenner He is come He is come meaning the Comforter Gods Spirit Iohn Bradford embracing the Reeds and Fagots sayd Strayte is the way and narrow is the gate and few that finde it And speaking to his fellow Martyr Bee of good comfort Brother for wee shall haue a merrie Supper with the Lord this night if there be any way to heauen on Horsebacke or in fiery Chariots this is it Lawrence Saunders I was in prison till I got into prison and now sayes he kissing the Stake welcome the Crosse of Christ welcome euerlasting life my Sauiour began to mee in a bitter Cup and shall I not pledge him Iohn Lambert None but Christ none but Christ. Baynam Behold you Papists that looke for myracles I feele no more paine in the fire then if I were in a bed of Downe it is as sweet to me as a bed of Roses Hugh Lauerocke comforting Iohn A Pryce his fellow-Martyr said vnto him Bee of good comfort my Brother for my Lord of London is our good Physition he will cure thee of all thy blindnesse and me of my lamenesse this day William Hunter to his Mother For a momentany payne I shall haue a crowne of life may not you be glad of that To whom shee answered I count my selfe happy that bare such a Champion for Christ and thee as well bestowed as any childe that euer I bare Adam Damlip to his fellow-prisoners wondring at his cheerefull Supping and behauiour after the message of his execution Why quoth hee thinke you I haue beene so long in the Marshallsea and haue not learned to dye And when they told him his quarters should bee hanged vp then said he shall I need take no thought for buriall Priests wife to one offering her money I am now going to a Countrey where money beares no Mastery when sentence was read Now haue I gotten that which many a day I haue sought for Kirby to Master Wingfield pittying him Be at my burning and you shall see and say there is a Souldier of Christ I know fire water and sword are in his hands that will not suffer them to seperate me from him Doctor Taylor I shall this day deceiue the wormes in Hadley Church yard and fetching a leape or two when hee came within two miles of Hadley Now saith hee lacke I but two Stiles and I am euen at my Fathers house Walter Mill vrged to recant at the Stake I am no chaffe but corne I will abide Wind and Flayle by Gods grace Bishop Farrar to a Knights Son bemoaning his death If you see me stirre in the fire trust not my doctrine And so hee stood holding vp his stumps till one Grauell strooke him downe with a staffe Rawlings to the Bishops Rawlings you left mee Rawlings you finde mee and so by Gods grace I will dye Iohn Ardley If euery haire of my head were a man it should suffer death in the Faith I now stand in The like Agges Stanley and William Sparrow Thomas Hawkes being desired to giue a signe whether the fire was tollerable to be borne promised it to his friends and after all expectation was past hee lift vp his hands halfe burned and being on a light fire with great reioycing striketh them three times together Lawrence Ghest to his wife meeting him with seauen children on her hand Be not a blocke to me in the way now I am in a good course and neere the marke The Lady Iane Grey requested by the Lieutenant of the Towre to write her Symbole in his book before her beheading wrote this Let the glassie condition of this life neuer deceiue thee There is a time to bee borne a time to die But the day of death is better then the day of Birth Alice Driuer when the chain was about her necke Heere is a goodly Necker chiefe God be blessed for it Iohn Noyes kissing the stake Blessed bee the time that euer I was borne for this day To his fellow Martyrs We shal not lose our liues in this Fire but change them for a better and for coales haue pearles c. Iulius Palmer To them that haue the minde linked to the body as a theeues foot to a payre of stockes it is hard to dye indeed but if one bee able to separate soule and body then by the helpe of Gods spirit it is no more mastery for such a one then for mee to drinke this Cup. Elizabeth Folkes embracing the Stake Farewell all the world Farewell Faith Farewell Hope and welcome Loue. Roger Bernard being threatned whipping stocking burning answered I am no better then my master Christ and the Prophets which your Fathers serued after such sort and I for his names sake am content to suffer the like at your hands so immediatly he was condemned and carried to the fire Thomas Sampal offred a pardon in the midst of the fire Oh now I am thus far on my iourney hinder me not to finish my race Latimer Bishop when they were about to set fire to him and Bishop Ridley with an amiable countenance said these words God is faithfull which doth not suffer vs to be tempted aboue our strength Bishop Ridley to Mistris Irish the Keepers wife and other friends at Supper I pray you be at my Wedding tomorrow at which wordes they weeping I perceiue you are not so much my friends as I tooke you to be Tankerfield when hee had put one Legg into the fire The Flesh shrinkes and sayes Thou foole wilt thou burne and needest not The spirit sayes Hell fire is sharper and wilt thou aduenture that The flesh saies Wilt thou leaue thy Friends The Spirit answers Christ and his Saints society
vntroubled vndismayed insomuch that an auncient witnesse of the Christian Bishops that they did more ambitiously desire the glory of Martyrdome then others did Praelacies and Preferments And a late mortall enemie of theirs bade a vengeance on them for hee thought they tooke delight in burning What then shall wee gaine by them I remember Master Rough a Minister comming from the burning of one Austo in Smithfield being asked by Master Farrar of Halifax where he had beene made answere There where I would not but haue been for one of my eyes and would you knowe where Forsooth I haue beene to learne the way which soone after hee made good by following him in the same place in the same kinde of death Now if one President made him so good a Scholler What dullards and non-proficients are we if such a cloud of examples work not in vs a cheerefull abilitie to expect and encounter the same aduersary so often foyled before our eyes Yet least any should complaine that examples without Rules are but a dumbe and lame helpe I will annexe vnto them a payre of Funerall Sermons opening a couple of Seales reuealed to Iohn in his second vision The first affording vs sundry Meditations of Death and Hell The second of Heauen the happinesse of such as dye in the Lord and rest vnder the Altar The vse of them I chiefly dedicate and commend to old sick persons such especially as die of lingring diseases affoording them leisure to peruse such themes though I forbid none but to all I say Come and see THE LIFE OF FAITH in DEATH REVEL 6. 7. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come and see And behold a pale horse and his name that sate on him was Death and Hell followed after him and power was giuen vnto them c. COme and see Were it some stately some pleasing yea or but some vaine sight such as Mordecay riding on the kings Horse in pompe with the Royall Furniture or but a company of Players riding through a Market A Drum a Trumpet or the least call would serue the turne to draw vs out to the sight But these being serious yea to nature somwhat hideous and odious Voyces like vnto Thunders are giuen to the beasts to call beholders The Cryer in the Wildernesse is willed to cry this Theme aloud in the deafe eares of men A Boanerges with all the vehemency and contention of his voyce and affections will bee too little vnlesse God boare the eares open the eyes and perswade the hearts of men to Come and see Yet is it but our folly to be so shye of this sight for though it bee sad yet is it of all the sights vnder the Sunne the most necessary the most profitable Though we turne away our faces and close our eyes yet see it wee must and see it wee shall neuer the lesse neuer the sooner neuer the later Nay the truth is see it wee neuer shall but with closed eyes Thou tender faint-hearted man or woman that art so loath to meete with a Corps or Beere to see a skull or any thing that minds thee of Death shalt thou by this meanes protract or escape thy Death No let mee tell thee praeuision is the best preuention and praemonition the best praemunition That which is commonly receiued of the Basiliske is here no conceited Story but a serious truth He that sees it before he be seene of it may auoyd the deadly poyson of it Hee that sees it before it comes shall not see it when it comes Hee that mannageth an horse at an armed stake fits him to rush into the maine Battell without feare And wouldest thou with Ioseph of Arimathaea walke euery day a turne or two with Death in thy Garden and well foreacquaint thy selfe therewithall thou shouldest haue if not Enochs yet euery true beleeuers Priuiledge not to see Death not to taste of Death viz. in that ougly forme distastfull manner which other the sonnes of Adam do who because they will not see the face of it must feele the sting of it To dye well and cheerfully is too busie a worke to be well done ex tempore The Foundation of Death must bee layde in life Hee that meanes and desires to dye well must dye daily Hee that would ende his dayes well must spend them well the one will helpe the other The thoughts of thy end as the trayne of the Foule and Rudder of a Shipp will guide thy life and a good Life will leade thee to a peaceable end that thou shalt neither shame or feare to dye In a word Platoes Phylosophy in this is true Diuinitie that the best meane and whole summe of a wise mans life is the Commentation of Death not euery fleet and flitting flash but frequent and fixed contemplations Death is the knownest and vnknownest thing in the world that of which men haue the most thoughts and fewest Meditations Be therefore perswaded to Come and see that is come that thou mayest see Come from other obiects infinite and vaine spectacles with which the eye is neuer glutted Drawe neere and close to this that thou mayest see it throughly Wipe off the Clay Spittle and Scales of thine eyes that thou mayest cleerly behold the nature quality and consequents of Death No mortall wight but hath some blushes of mortality such as go and come but if they would suffer them to lodge in their mindes they must needes stirre some affection and leaue some impression in the memory and produce some effects in their liues Socrates had a gift that hee could fasten his eyes many howers on one obiect without change or wearinesse Halfe so stayed a thought of ones mortalitie might bring a man to immortalitie It is not beautie seene but looked on that wounds I meet with a Story of one that gaue a young Prodigall a Ring with a Deaths head with this condition that he should one houre daily for seauen dayes together looke and thinke vpon it which bred a strange alteration in his life like that of Thesposius in Plutarke or that more remarkable of Waldus the rich Merchant in Lyons who seeing one drop downe dead in the streets before him went home repented changed his life studied the Scripture and became a worthy Preacher Father and Founder of the Christians called Waldenses or poore men of Lyons In Conference and Confessions many one hath acknowledged to my selfe the like some that by dangerous sicknesse of their own others that by feare of infection in times of the Plague and generall Visitation others by the death of friends as by shafts that haue fallen neere them haue beene awakened affrighted and occasioned to thinke deeply on their ends to prouide against their ends to attend the Word which hath proued the meane of their conuersion and saluation And this I thinke should bee enough to perswade young and olde one and other to Come and see But what now are we come out to see Behold First the Seale opened Secondly the