would drink freely For his Humility and Affability I might say much hee was in honore sine tumore in elatione sine praelatione c. hee knew when to stoop and stand up and did both it is rare to see one so high so lowly so well descended so free from morosity and superciliousnesse and humble-hearted hee knew that pride was the badge of an ignoble spirit a stinking weed that 's wont to grow and thrive most in the worst soils and souls hee knew hee might easily bee too high but could never bee low enough hee would not passe by an excellency in others without observation For his disposition in relation to the poor and needy it was generous and liberal I seldome or never sound his ear or hand shut against charitable motions Hee knew that those that did good to the poor and needy for Christs sake God would do good to them for the poors sake sure for his Sons sake Hee knew that hee who promised they should have that asked had first commanded such to give unto them that asked I might call on you honorable and beloved and plead the causes and spread the cases of the distressed before you in the words of Augustin Tu contemnis egentem tui Deus non contemnit egentem sui c. why dost thou give them childish or churlish answers gives God such unto thee or as Nazianzen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why shouldest thou treasure up for Theeves or Moths or mutability of times Prov. 11.24 Look upon the necessities of others not as strangers but as members as you would have the Lord to look upon yours Bee good to all God is so especially to the houshold of Faith Vnmercifulnesse is a sin which least becomes and worst beseems one that hath tasted of the Lords graciousnesse Date obolum Bellisario may bee the cry of such as are now in pomp and Majesty For his Judgement It was not Episcopal nor Congregational but Presbyterial as conscience-bound hee freely submitted to examination the great Rock of offence His opinions such as might save him rather than raise him and therefore hee truly and duly observed the Lords day His diligent attendance upon divine Ordinances was very exemplary with what reverence and fear so far as man could judge would hee attend unto the word dispensed by the Lords Ministers when by reason of the weaknesse of his body hee could not come to the solemn publick assemblies wee saw the willingnesse of his mind that wee should come to him and therefore had his Invitation to us a command to come often to pray with him and preach to him every Lords day evening at least till the Lord had either restored him to health or removed him out of the Land of the living by death which was done not without testifications of his thankfulnesse And This was further memorable There was not that omission of that family-perfuming and preserving Ordinance of Prayer reading of the Word c. in his house as is I fear in many families of quality It is true His house was not so with God as was desired nor was holy Davids 2 Sam. 23.5 nor any of ours yet it was not without calling upon God nor without the special blessing of God Lib. 4. de Gub. Dei mihi pag. 114 Ubi fusius It was Salvians sad complaint Si honoratior quispiam religioni se applicuerit illico honoratus esse desist it Si fuerit sublimis fit despicabilis si splendissimus fit vilissimus si totus honoris fit totus injuriae c. Blessed bee our God our times are not such O that you would bee more frequent and fervent in your addresses to God! You may bid farewel to all good daies when you bid farewel to all good duties If you send up no prayers to God no desires to God sure you have no desires of God nor after God Are not the least of his blessings if there bee any little worth praying and staying for whence doth this omission arise From a principle of ignorance or negligence of carelesnesse or covetousnesse or from a principle of forgetfulnesse or fearfulnesse sure I am if you and your houses serve not God God will neither save you nor your houses Read and tremble Prov. 3.33 Jer. 10.25 Psal 9.17 In reference to his Relations I may give this character of him in short To his precious Consort hee was a loving Husband they liv'd some and might have many years together many more had the Lord spun out his thread as Rubenius Celer and his wife did without reconciliation they did never need it Erant duo in carne una Aug. duo in voce una they were not one in many things and two in some things but one in all There was no cause of crying Eia Johannes eia Maria. To his children a tender-hearted Father Not many if any more O that you and I could manifest more spiritual love to our little ones The love which wee bear unto their bodies is but the body of our love the soul of love is that love which we bear unto their souls Let us pray more for them Gods goodnesse their Ancestours prayers and their own lives every day growing better Were the three Advocates which Grotius saith the Israelites had Comeliness in children is riches if nothing else bee left them said a learned Knight It is more true of godlinesse Sir W. Rawleigh Si nil orarem nil curarem said Melancthon Should I not pray for my children I should not care for my children Your prayers may do them much more good than all the portions you can leave them Before the flood children died not before their Fathers unlesse by a violent death as some of the learned say they ground it on Gen. 11.28 Hanan say they is the first that 's noted to die before his Father Not much to build on this Pray wee for our children constantly and instantly and when-ever they bee taken from us wee shall resign them up more chearfully Vide Amam Hebr. Gram. pag. 164 A Laolde in Ephes 6.4 and though they die before us as wee see many do yet our consciences shall bee much quieter and our comfort greater To his Tenants hee was very respectful by them highly honoured and reverenced And his death is and will bee much lamented Though tears from such bee no commendation to a living yet they are credit to a dead Lord Such another in his room and of his name is I am confident the desire of their hearts and will bee the delight of their eyes To the Neighbour-hood very useful Causinus reports of one that whatsoever question was propounded to him his answer still was Love whence commest thou from Love and whither goest thou to Love and where wast thou with Love It was the design of this worthy in all matters as I have been informed to preserve Peace and Love To us of the Ministry hee was very dear and deservedly
precious Salvus est Artifex is all wee can solace our selves in Hee had a great room in our hearts a great share in our prayers hee was a man of many prayers and tears How were your hearts inlarged and assistance from Heaven vouchsafed both in publick and private with him and from him as if deliverance from death had been the Lords intendment But his prayers for himself and your prayers for him I hope are not lost though in this they were not answered The prayers of dying persons are living Priusquam egressa est oratio ex ore â—uo ipse soribi jubet in libro suo Bern. lasting prayers Stephens were so God knows how to lay us by and our prayers up Hee spared no pains hee used all means to incourage us in our work and to provide for us riding many a mile writing many a letter Wee never wanted his counsel nor his countenance His heart nor hand Another Hezekiah Josiah or Nehemiah hee was to us you have heard it wee experienced it Si mea cum vestris valuissent vota As Ulysses said of Achilles Could our prayers or tears have prevailed with the most High for the prolonging of his life wee might have had him with us to our comfort whom hee hath taken from us to our smart and sorrow But hee is fallen hee is fallen Shall I tell you how Not as Cornelius Gallus the Praetor not as Tegillinus Nero and others to the stories of whose shameful sinful falls I presume you are not strangers they fell as if their real design had been to dwell with Devils to eternal ages Hee lost not his life for treachery as some within our memory hee dyed not violently not sordidly nor suddenly as this great man in my Text his sicknesse was long his disease lingring his patience great his resolutions religious his tears many It is said of Adam that hee would turn his face towards the garden of Eden and weep often For his disease I cannot say much nor is it very much material The Clocks never smote all at once nor did the learned Physitians agree in their opinions or prescriptions Wee see hee is fallen by it and left all that knew his worth Athenienses Phenoen nominant Hippocrates Phtisin Vide Gal. in Aphor. Hip. lib. 7. p. 555 mourners una dies interest inter magnum virum nullum as Seneca said of the City It was conceived and by most concluded to bee a Phtisis an ulcer of the lungs a consumption of this the first man that ever lived dyed Tirinus saith so If his assertion or testimonie bee with you of any validity Tirin in Gen. 2.17 Aug. Tract super Joan. Perer. in Gen. p. 144 Greg. Hom. 37. in Evangel Caepit mori corporè eodem quo peccavit momento longa illa Phtyseos seu internae corruptionis morte Agustin Pererius Gregory and others are of his Judgement To say no more at present Hee fell in the Meridian in the very Zenith of his Honour Shall I say of his death as Philip did of Hipparcus's It was in a good time for himself but for mee too soon Wish I could and thousands more had the Lord so pleased that like the Sun in Joshua's time hee might have stood still amongst us or if by some degrees hee had gone back as the Sun in Hezekiahs time by this sicknesse yet that hee might have recovered his daies and health again But the will of the Lord is done and ours in his I have but one word more by way of humble Advice and it is to the Town of Atherton Study this black this afflictive providence Non est muta rerum natura sed undique loquax Erasmâ— which gives the occasion of this sad and solemn convention there is much in it Look upon the death of this your worthy Lord and Master as a said prognostick of some approaching Judgement his death it is feared will make way for the Lords wrath Antequam occidere sinat deus solem Justi alicujus oriri facit solem Justi alterius Eccles 1.5 Quando Luminaria patiuntur Eclypsin signum malum est mundo The Jews have a saying The death or fall of one Great man is the rise of another pray that it may bee so in this ancient Family Moses was solicitous about a successour and beggs an immediate choice from Heaven but one under his own roof within his own walls is to bee the man Vide Chrys de orando deum lib. 2. Ab. Seult de precar cap. 29 There is within the walls of this worthy Family a pair of hopeful goodly children to repair this breach and recruit this losse pray that they may bee double comforts to that Family and blessings to this Town O pray pray the power of prayer is wonderful Labour to see your own mortality in his death The Jews in dangerous sicknesses change their names this alters say they the sentence of death given out against him if death bee decreed to N. it is not to M. now hee shall not die as a new man hee shall have length of daies and since you must die do not sin so live while you live that when you die your death may lead you to a better life Desire not long life much the longer you wish to live the longer you wish if godly to bee out of Heaven let your death-bed rather finde you fit than fit you for God measure not your lives by the years which are gone but by the good which you have done Notable is that of Seneca Respice celoritatem rapidissimi temporis Epist 99. cogita brevitatem hujus spacii per quod citatissimi currimus and elsewhere nec ulla res magis proderit quam cogitatio mortalitatis Lib. de Ira. stat super caput fatum pereuntes dies imputat propiusque ac propius accedit I have not time to english them Live more to God and more upon God since this Cisterne is broken Satis praesidii in uno deo Calv. Addresse your selves to him in whom all your fresh springs are In the Summer season viz. the day of prosperity many springs are drained and dried up which in the winter of adversity are fresh and full Take heed how you suffer your affections to wander abroad and about terrene Objects the stars which have least circuit are nearest the pole and men who are least perplexed with worldly matters are commonly nearest God Is not he an unreasonable wretch whom Heaven will not satisfie Notable is that of Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Maâ—th Homil 4â— c. All these sublunary things are full of vanity insufficiency mutability deceit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are but phantasies they have no solidity nor congruity to your spirits Preserve that peace and unity amongst you which is so fresh and fragrant It is your glory your beauty your safety quod in cantu harmonia Aug. in civitate concordia Let there
Casmannus Angelograph p. 2. cap. 10. Aq. p. 1. q. 113. Att. 4. Est lib. 2. dist 11 c. this conduceth very much to your present safety and security It is queried in the Schools whether every man hath his particular Tutelar Angel assigned him for his custody Most of them and many of the Fathers they tell you answer it positively Our Orthodox Divines conceive it a platonick conceit no Scripture Truth Camero sufficiently and solidly refutes it Camero prael in Mat. 18.10 This is a very certain Truth the Angels are appointed for the custody of men they have a special charge to safeguard such men as you And as they are invisible so they are invincible Nay the Lord himself is your pavilion he hath ingaged himself to be a Sanctuary an hiding place a shield and refuge To the Oppressed Psal 9.9 The Lord will bee a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in time of trouble To such as walk uprightly Psal 84.11 To such as are exiled and banished Ezek 11.16 Though I have scattered them among the Countries yet I will bee to them as a little Sanctuary or a Sanctuary for a little time To such as trust in him Prov. 30.5 To the meek ones of the earth Zeph. 2.3 To such as keep the word of his patience Rev. 3.10 To such as hide his people in a storm God will hide such people as Rahab c. To the humble person Job 22.29 To such as say not a confederacy with them that say a confederacy Isa 8 12.14 To such as are much in prayer he will not keep such from him in a storm as will not be kept from him in a calm Heaven ever stands open for such it fears no Devils the highest they can go is the air Psal 32.6,7 Ephes 2.2 To such as do Justice and Judgement Hee that walketh or worketh righteously and speaketh uprightly that despiseth the gain of oppression and shakes his hands from holding of bribes doth not this concern you See Isa 33.15,16 My Lords Now mark what follows Hee shall dwell on high he shall be as safe as castled or immured in some invincible Tower or impregnable City Walls and bulwarks shall not be His Salvation but Salvation shall bee for walls and bulwarks Chap. 50.7 Psal 90.1 In Jeremies Prophesy God himself is stiled the Habitation of Justice Justice dwells with him and just men too Such need not lye down nor rise up in fear If there bee one that executeth Justice and I will spare it Jer. 5.1 Will the Lord spare It and not Him will hee shew such favour to the City for the sake or such a man and will hee not be so favourable to one such man if found in the City Fifthly It is a conscience-quieting and soul-solacing act As there is joy in the presence of the Angels when a sinner repents unfainedly so when one by the sword of Justice dies deservedly And this will bee your rejoycing the testimony of your consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity you have administred Justice exactly amongst us When with Hezekiah you turn your faces to the wall God will in mercy turn his face towards you if you walk before him in truth and with a perfect heart doing that which is Just in his sight Samuel was one of the last and one of the best Judges that ever Israel had hee purged the Church from Idolatry hee restored Religion to its purity hee executed Justice and Judgement impartially and herein hee comforts himself exceedingly I have walked saith hee before you from my child-hood unto this day 1 Sam. 12.2,3,4 In my minority when I was a Levite doing the service of the Sanctuary and since I came to more maturity administring Justice as a Judge Here I am and witnesse against mee who can before the Lord and his anointed your King Saul whose Oxe have I taken or whom have I defrauded or of whose hands have I received any bribe q. d. if any bribery or cruelty any injustice or partiality can be justly charged upon mee let them now speak Beati qui gaudent quando intrant ad cor suum nihil mali ibi inveniunt saith Augustin they are blessed who can come unto their houses Ener in Psal 33 and unto their hearts and finde no guilt there Thus it was with that good man Samuel Augustin pleaseth himself much with the comparison of an evil corroding conscience to a scoulding discontented wife hee hath it often I finde it in his Enarrations upon the 33. Psalm and upon the 35. Psalm c. Qui habent malas uxores quommodo exeunt ad forum gaudent caepit hora esse qua intraturi sunt in domum suam contristantur As they vex men infinitely so doth a guilty conscience but as a good wife so a good conscience is a continual feast Moses solaced himself in the integrity of his heart and Job also Numb 16.15 Job 29.14.15 When other covetous Caitiffs unjust wretches shall have fears falling upon them and anguish of spirit which makes their bones shake and tremble the hairs of their heads stand up their heart strings burst and break when the terrours of Hell shall take hold upon their filthy consciences Then you My Lords who discharge your duties and high trust reposed in you shall have the Honour of it in life and the comfort of it in death Sixthly Not to do Justice and Judgement is a sin most hainous and abominable it is malum complexum it is peccatum complicatum a big-belly'd Evil a land desolating sin that God will bee avenged on It is a sad charge Jer. 5.28 Among my people are found wicked men they over-pass the deeds of the wicked i.e. they are worse than Turks and Pagans they judge not the cause of the Fatherlesse Such as are least able to right themselves should have most help from others but the right of the needy they do not judge Shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this To think any sin little is no little sin yet some are greater than others and this is one of the greatest saith the Lord yea hee will surely visit for these things Amos 5.12 I know saith God your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins peccata vestra valida fortia as Drusius Gravia copiosa saith Vatablus magnopere me irritantia Ribera obstinata enormia scelera vestra vidi saith Lambertus on the Text words are wanting to expresse the sinfulnesse of their sins the Original is more full and emphatical your boney sins but what were they They afflict the just they take a bribe they turn aside the poor in the gate from the right therefore saith the Lord I hate and despise your Feast-daies I will not smell in your solemn assemblies let judgement run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream vers 21. to the 25. There hath been much wrestling with God in prayer and soul-afflicting yet prayers are
lesse swear a lye they fear an oath Ne pro animae quidem salute mentiri licet Eccles 9.2 said P. Martyr It is not lawful for you to tell a lye though by so doing you might save your souls nay saith Augustin though thereby you might save a world In a word then whether you pronounce Judgement as Judges or assist as Justices or debate as Counsellours or depose as Witnesses Take heed what you do or say A lye in Judgement is directly against the being of Government the honour of Tribunals and the Commandement of God It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Arist speaks And let us in the Ministry study this Text more It doth mainly concern us to Take heed what wee do Wee are the men who carry the message of Christ in our Mouthes the marks of Christ in our sides and should have the image of Christ in our hearts It is truly said an ill man is the worst of all Creatures An ill Christian is the worst of all men an ill Professor the worst of all Christians and an ill Minister is the worst of all Professors Let us weep and pray for more inlarged hearts and parts for holy lives and sound Judgements then shall the arm of the Lord bee sooner revealed and our reports of Christ and his way the better beleeved Let us pray much Erasm ad Ponsecam as Luther did and preach much and indeavour with Augustin ever to leave our people non tantum cruditiores verum etiam inflammatiores ad bene vivendum Melch. Ad. in vita Lutheri p. 165. c. Let us take heed of those three things which Luther saith ought not to come with us into the Pulpit Superbia Avaritia Invidia Could I speak to you reverend Fathers and Brethren Vide Vasq Tom. 2. disp 213. Melch. Ad. ubi supra and the rest not here as the Schoolmen say the Angels can I should say more more to you and more to others but I have learned of Luther Cum vides attentissime audire populum Enarrat in Psal 39 conclude eo alacriores redibunt I shall say no more but as Augustine did of that Text Matth. 24.13 Prae caeteris hoc mementote breve Above all that I have said remember this short saying which is indeed an Enchiridion Judicum Take heed what you do Now the God of Heaven whose Throne is a Throne of Grace whose Spirit is the Spirit of Grace whose Word is the Word of Grace and who is himself the Author and Finisher of all our Graces Give us all Grace to know his mind and do his will exactly universally and continually Amen FINIS Catastrophe Magnatum OR King Davids LAMENTATION AT Prince ABNERS Incineration In a Sermon meditated on the Fall and delivered at the Funeral of the Right Worshipful John Atherton of Atherton Esq High Sheriffe of the County Palatine of Lancaster who dyed Janu. 17. and was interred the 24. 1655. By J. Livesey Minister of the Gospel at Atherton For I know that thou wilt bring mee to Death and to the house appointed for all living Job 30.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophoc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Simplic Comment in Epict. Euchir cap. 33. London Printed by R. I. for Tho. Packhurst at the three Crowns over against the great Conduit at the lower end of Cheapside 1657. TO The Right Worshipful and my Noble Friend Mris MARY ATHERTON Right Worshipful THe Book of Job saith Augustin is the afflicted mans Scripture Tirinus thinks it was first writ in Syriack afterwards turned into Hebrew by Moses for the comfort of the distressed Jews at that time in the house of bondage that they might lay before them this holy man blessed Job another Angel as a Father calls him a man of sorrows Christ Hom. de patientia Job as a lively pattern of almost invincible and impregnable patience Amongst the many memorable passages of that precious Saint may it please you to consider how sutable that is to your present state and condition This Text was fully opened at the Funeral of the hopeful and much lamented Heir who was interred about ten daâ—es after his honoured and deceased Father chap. 16.14 and thence learn That God doth sometimes break his choicest and eminentest Saints with breach upon breach Instances are at hand of David on whom troubles came thick and quick as waves rolling and riding one in the neck or on the back of another Heman and Pauls state and fate you have with Bills and Catalogues of their disasters and sufferings but Jobs is in stead of all hee was whipt and stript of all hee lost all his Sheep Oxen c. all his children ten children ten suddenly ten children in the prime and flower of their age ten vertuous gracious children as Chrysostome speaks Vide Chrysost Hom. 5. de pat Job and that by a violent death This is not all you finde him full of pains and blains byles and sores from head to heel Pineda thinks all kinde of diseases were in Jobs maladies Pineda in Job 2.8 p. 48. An uno tantum morbo laboravit Job resp Neg. Ulcus pessimum lepra lues venerea c. Hee was a great man some of the Fathers say hee was an eminent Prophet and therefore numbred with Noah and Daniel Bolducius saith before his long afflictions hee was a Captain Aug. Bold Praelud 7. in lib. sobi Didac Stun in cap. â— v. 2. Non dubito quin Iob fuerit Rex and after his pressures and tryals a King a supream Governour a petty Monarch within his own territories it is probable hee was yet was hee broken with breach upon breach As in some sinners there is a legion of Devils so on some Saints there is a legion of troubles every man hath his burthen The Saints have many and mighty If a reason of these his dispensations bee searched for or inquired after May not wee return and say Rev. 3.18 It is for the tryal of their graces the Graces of the Spirit are tryed Graces and shall not such have their Tryal as natura vexata so gratia tentata prodit seipsam It is to approve and to improve their graces their Faith Satans batteries are placed principally against this grace by it hee is most resisted and by him therefore it is most oppugned Their patience whether they will blesse or curse how they will deport themselves in the furnace Their integrity painted pot-sheards shine till they come to scouring Breach upon breach discovers the sincerity or hypocrisy of the heart whether wee bee right or rot at the core how low the foundation is laid Batteries upon a wall try the stability and strength of it and breaches the basis of it an unsound heart may stand a season while troubles come singlely and slowly renewed troubles are great tryals Their weanednesse from the comforts of this life how
live not in the highest Nobles in the middle poor men in the lowest but all in one region All meet together in the grave this is commune hominum diversorium the common Inne of all mankinde The Scripture and the Sepulchre know no difference It is not the royalty of the Pallace it is not the pomp and Majesty of the Prince nor the piety of the Prophet it is not the noblenesse of your birth it is not the pregnancy of your parts that can exempt you from Death nor priviledge persons of quality from Mortality For all your Princely houses your vast estates your high descent your great authority and command your famous victories Vide Dionys Carthus de 4. Noviss de morte Artic. 13. p. 53. sq The Grave shall bee your bed sheets shall bee your shrines the clods of the vallyes shall bee your cover the Grasse shall bee your carpet death will demand his due from his sentence there is no appeal from his arrest no bale Paracelsus shows the way to revive a dead bird not a dead man lib. 4. de natura rerum It is not Hippocrates or Paracelsus not mortal men nor mortal means that can keep you an hour in life beyond the prefixed time of death What is man the noblest wisest learnedst man hee is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regula ac mensura omnium animantium whatever excellencies bee scattered in the other creatures are summed up in man Sennert Tom. 1. p. 113 Seneca propounds that question and gives the answer quodlibet quassum vas imbecillum corpus fragile nudum suapte natura ad omnem fortunae contumeliam projectum cujuslibet ferae pabulum ex infirmis fluidisque contextum c. what is life Paracels de Natura rerum lib. 4 it is but a vapour a little warm breath as one saith tun'd in and out by the nostrils a very narrow passage and soon stopped Alas wee blow away our lives as often as wee blow away our breathes who can admire that men live no longer rather wee may admire that wee dye no sooner wee were old enough to dye so soon as ever wee began to live In the 6th of the Revelations wee read of four Horses Of a White Horse on him sate Truth verse 2. Of a Red Horse on him sate War vers 4. Of a Black Horse on him sate Famine vers 5. Of a Pale Horse on him rides Death vers 8. As Men so Death rides either for greater pomp or for greater speed or for greater strength Wee are all posting towards Death and Death is mounted riding towards us It is not possible but wee shall meet As there is a Terra quam terimus and a Terra quam quaerimus and a Terra quam gerimus so there is a Terra quae eâ—imus Dust wee are high and low and unto dust wee must return Will you have Authentick Testimonies and clear Instances Consult Josh 23.14 Joshua a worthy Prince a truly valiant and victorious General a mirrour of piety and magnanimity speaking of Death Behold saith hee I am going this day the way of all the Earth Consult that speech of holy Job chap. 30.23 I know thou wilt bring mee to death and death will bring mee to the grave which is the house appointed for all the living and stored with Myriads of the dead and Job 3.13,14 Then had I been at rest with Kings and Counsellors of the earth which built desolate places for themselves Take one for all Psal 82.6 I have said yee are Gods and the children of the most high but yee shall dye like men Ennead lib. 9. cap. 8. contra Gnosticos Plotinus thinks the stars have eyes and see us ears and hear us It cannot bee thought saith hee but that they are Gods certainly the stars are not Gods but those Gods are stars stars of the first magnitude but they may bee numbred amongst the Sporades they are wandring stars they cannot long keep their station Their daies upon earth are but a shadow and there is no long abiding Hormisda observed that in Rome that everlasting City as Am. Marcellinus called it men dyed as in other places Where is that Wisdome which folly hath not tainted that Honour which envy hath not stained that Strength which sicknesse hath not impaired where is the body which bad humours never molested the beauty that age shall not or hath not defaced The Prince or Great man that is not fallen or shall not fall one day in Israel Hoc muta cadavera clamant Arguments to convince I need not sure to urge or inlarge nor do I purpose to produce or press many The decree is sealed the sentence shall never bee reversed Moth Tamuth yee shall die the death or in dying yee shall dye you have tasted the forbidden fruit Is there not with you even with you Yee Princes and Great men Is there not with you sin against the Lord were not you sinners as soon as Creatures It is appointed for all men once to dye Lazarus dyed twice but sure all once Alas you carry death about you every day and every way Death in its causes and in its symptoms Death runs rides and walks hand in hand with you your sins in short will bring you as low as the dust your sins commonly are not common sins and it may bee your falls shall not bee common falls they may bee much sooner and sadder than others Every man living shall have his fit of dying God hath appointed it his counsel shall stand Behold the Rock whence you were digged Consider your original Non exquâ—lilibet humo homo sed exghaphar adamah i.e. Ex pinguissima mollissima Ar. Montan. the matter and mettle of which you are composed Dust yee are ex pulvere limoso lutoso you must bee meat for Worms before you can bee mates for Angels May not you say of your selves as did those poor distressed oppressed ones Neh. 5.5 Our flesh is as the flesh of our Brethren and all flesh is grasse which in the morning though green and flourishing yet in the evening cut down it is withering Our skins and bloods are much alike omnis sanguis est concolor cutem habemus communem si non vestem wherein are you from others differenced only a few chips more are taken off which makes you something neater but more tender and weaker Or is the difference in your empty Names and Titles of honour which are as mortal as your selves Notable is that of Seneca Conditor ille generis humani non natalibus nec nominum claritate nos distinxit nisi cum sumus aequat omnes cinis Senec. Ep. 91 c. Cardinalis Barbarini poemata pag. 209 Jactet nunc stemmata gentis Ignotos extrema dies insignibus aequat Behold the diseases the sicknesses under which you have sometimes laboured who can enumerate the maladies the Aches pains the Leprosy Dropsy Stone strangury to which you are exposed Notable is that of
them Ubi supra like a Tennis-ball tossed hither and thither from hazard to hazard and anon out of the Court Notable is that of Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let not your power your policy your command or magnanimity puffe you up Insitum est humanis ingeniis imperio insolenter uti De Const lib. 2. c. 25 said Lipsius as great men have been carried about in an Iron cage The blood which now is warm shall freeze anon in your veins the marrow shall drie up in your bones your sinewes shall shrink and eye-strings crack within a short space you shall not bee able to help your selves Let not your beauty or bravery make you ambitious supercilious or haughty Your bodies are vile bodies not God but sin hath made them so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elut ubi supra beauty is a thing desirable but it is not durable it is but skin deep a raise with a pin or a daies sicknesse may spoil you of it Let not your Rings your Ornaments raise your spirits they are but badges of your sin and shame It argues a vain frothy heart to bee so proud of such petty things a naughty heart to bee proud of any thing If thy out-side be thy best side thou art poor miserable wretched Worthy Gentlemen when God lifts up your heads let it be your care to keep down your hearts all the world cannot keep that man up that doth not keep down his spirit Remember the doleful Catastrophe of Herod the great of Agrippa the great of Alexander the great you are all in his hand who touches the mountains they smoak who bindes Kings in chains and Nobles in fetters of Iron you are in his hand who will bring you to death and to the house appointed for all the living I shall close up this with that of Bernard Quid prosunt Divitiae quid Honores Divitiae non liberant a morte nec delitiae a verme nec honores a faetore nam qui modo sedebat dives gloriosus in throno modo jacit pauper in tumulo qui prius delitiis oblectabatur modo a vermiculo consumitur qui paulo ante in aula principium honorandus efferebatur modo in sepulchro ignominiosus jacet Eighthly Labour to get sin pardoned No sooner did iniquity enter into your souls but mortality seized on your bodies The parcels of dust which were bound together in Adam by a bond of Innocency were shaken loose upon the commission of his first sin and are not you of his posterity Death like an Archer sometimes shoots over the mark and takes one away that was above you sometimes short of the mark and takes one away that was below you sometimes on the right hand there falls a friend anon on the left then dies a foe but the game is never done till you fall and therefore it concerns you to importune the sin-forgiving God to wash your souls in the blood of Jesus to free you from the guilt and filth of sin Notable is that of Job c. 7. ult And why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity Observe the importunity of this holy man what 's the matter that Job so expostulates with God for the remission of his sin Bern. Peccare humanum est perseverare in peccato est diabolicum what need of so much speed and expedition hee gives you the ground and reason For now shall I sleep in the dust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall go into the earth I shall die thou shalt seek mee in the morning but I shall not bee It was Chrysostomes complaint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. in Mat. 22. c. it is in that excellent peece of his which Aquinas professed hee had rather have than to bee chief Lord of Paris Every mans care is and labour is about this present life but about pardon of sin Mallem habere opus imperfectum J. Chrys super Matthaeum quam esse dominus Civitatis Parisiensis Carthus de 4 Nov. p. 48 assurance of Gods love and things to come Death and Judgement Not a word is spoken O that the Lord would make his own discoveries unto you of the excellency and necessity of pardoning mercy without pardon of sin you can neither live well nor die well It is a mercy which God ever gives in mercy it is a mercy which makes way for the obtaining of eternal mercies it is a mercy which makes all other mercies to look like mercies taste like mercies and work like mercy it gives liberty to the soul in prison ease in bonds life in death sense of pardon takes away the sense of pain It is bonum comprehensivum in the bossome of it Jer. 33.24 all the riches of Heaven and Earth too are treasured up It is the souls Sanctuary as Augustin speaks The one thing necessary in the day of adversity then there is plus periculi and then it is suavius beneficium How few Princes and great men have you heard upon their knees confessing and praying with that man after Gods own heart For thy Name sake O Lord pardon our iniquities In hoc nomine vincam Luth. for they are great Most miserabley on will bee though now honourable wretched you will bee though now rich if you go out of the world as you come into the world with the guilt of sin upon your consciences Nulla satis magna securitas dum pericliâ—atur aeternitas It is not imaginable that your resurrections shall bee to glory if you die in your iniquity your graves shall bee but the suburbs of Hell You shall bee digged out of those burrows and dragged out of those nasty dens to answer for all your wicked pranks and practises done in your mortal bodies Petitions for pardon speak the Petitioners dependence on another great men will not close with this they would bee thought to have all others to depend on them themselves on none petitions for pardon suppose guilt and guilt the breach of a divine Law Princes and great men would bee reputed guiltlesse lawlesse Petitions for pardon intimate a power in God to punish delinquents penes quem facultas remittendi penes â—um potestas puniendi this is not much regarded The God who multiplies pardons as wee multiply provocations open our eyes to see the sinfulnesse of our sins and the dolefulnesse of our state Anon there will bee no place left for repentance nor remission neither in Christs heart nor ours Anon wee shall have no more comfort from that promise of pardon Prov. 28.13 if now wee neglect it then now the Devils have the gates of mercy shall bee shut eternally and neither Christ in a capacity to give nor your selves in a capacity to receive a pardon Remember O remember this lay not the greatest burden upon the weakest beast leave not the greatest work for your sick-bed It is no beginning to caulk the Ship when in a storm it is
tost hither and thither with waves and billows It is no time to begin to sue out a pardon when the pains of death arrest you To get sin pardoned and a soul trimmed for glory is too great a work to bee done ex tempore and in an hour of death when the thoughts of dying will and no wonder to unpardoned wretches more affrighr than that clap of thunder did Pyrander King of Egypt Ninthly Learn then not overmuch to love your lives Man is a life-loving creature Enar. in Psal 35.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 David propounds the question what man is hee that desireth life Augustin returns this answer Interroga nonne omnis in vobis respondet Ego an quisquam est in vobis qui non diligit vitam Thou and I and every one but as that Father further Vide August fusius hac de â—e De Tempore Serm. 113 Hee that desireth life bonam rem desiderat sed non in regione illam quaerit c. desires a good thing but seeks it not in the right place This life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is life in name but death in deed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quid est aliud diu vivere nisi diu torqueri saith Augustin Consider this life in its Best and Worst and you 'l say with Job in the Paroxysm of his sufferings I loathe it I would not live alwaies Chap. 7.16 it is as much to bee loathed as to bee loved It is as detestable as desirable Were you called to give your judgement of an horse you would enquire concerning his breed and speed his age in whose hands how used with many things more Quantum amanda est aeterna vita quum sic amatur misera haec finienda vita amasne istam vitam ubi tantum laboras curris satâ—gis anhelas non c. Aug. ubi supra but the case is altered when wee speak of life the vanity uncertainties of it the sins and sorrows the calamities that do attend it are not ballanced Till you bee without sin you cannot be free from sorrow When all sins are washed from your souls then shall all tears bee wiped from your eyes Eternal life is the only true life and eternal death the only true death no other life but that or which is in order to that is much to bee desired nor other death feared non est diu quod habet extremum that is not said Augustin to bee deemed long which shall have an end this shall that life cannot Tenthly And what follows chiefly concerns us of lower sphears and orbs Learn wee hence Not to confide in these Princes and Great men they are not immortal though they bee stiled Gods Miserable is that man whose God is mortal These Great men cannot support themselves nor succour you when death comes like Absoloms Mule they run from us when they should relieve us Herod the great for all his pride and Royalty could not shun the silly worms Two things commonly curtail the lives of our great ones their slighting and contemning their despising and abusing of the Lords Prophets I could make this out would time permit 2 Chron. 16.10,12 2 Chron. 24.21 25. 2 Chron. 26.19.20,21 Our overmuch dependence upon them and trust in them Gustavus A dolphus told his souldiers no lesse a little before his death These both are of malignant influences See Psal 146.3 Excellent is that counsel of a great Prince Trust yee not in Princes why so because they are the Sons of men suppose they bee may we not trust in the Sons of men No because there is no help in them Is it possible how can that bee alas when their breath goeth forth they return again to their earth Suppose all this bee true shall not their counsels stand No in that very day their projects perish with them Si dicendum est aliquid mirabile said one of the Ancients If I might speak a word which all the world may justly wonder at then I would say Trust yee not in Princes because they are Princes Notable is Augustins glosse upon that Text Divina vox est de super nobis sonat nescio qua infirmitate humana anima quando tribulata hic desperat de Domino vult praesumere de hominibus c. and a little after vere misera magna mors est in magnis Rara est in Nobilitate senectus Old age and healthful bodies are seldome made the appendages to great Honours and Houses Study my beloved that soul-humbling Text Psal 39.5 Verily Every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Selah Verily lets that in and Selah shuts that up Verily every man Man Gods master peece Miraculum magnum animal adorandum honorandum spectaculum admirandum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Trismegist and Plato call him Col. Adam Col. Hebel every man is every vanity and wee may not let passe that which is not least considerable in the text Every man at his best estate In the original it is every man standing standing as some improve it upon his Tiptoe in his beauty and bravery in his pomp and Majesty is but vanity is hee a thing then to bee trusted in No No To do so is both irrational and irreligious O say with that man of God My soul wait thou only upon God Psal 62.5 for mine expectation is from him and my trust is in him Give us help from trouble for the help of man is a lye Whom have wee in Heaven but thee to call upon or to relye upon or to trust in but thee Thou art our best friend when it is at best with us and our only friend when it is at worst with us Let our trust bee only in him for in the Lord Jehovah is strength Strength Trust in him at all times yee people God is a refuge for us Surely men of low degree are vanity Vide Aug. in Psal 62.9,10 and men of high degree are a lye to bee laid in the ballance they are alike lighter than vanity Eleventhly Learn hence Not to fix overmuch of your affections upon Princes and Great men There is a vanity upon all the whole Creation upon them especially Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils for whereof is hee to bee accounted Isa 2. ult bee they never so potent so prudent so politick their pomp shall bee brought down unto the grave the worms shall feed on them and the clods of the valley shall cover them Love them but as ever about to leave them or as if they were ever about to leave you Do not make your Lords your Gods Let God bee your Lord Ep. ad Zomobium Cosmum It is good that Machiavel hints Non ex statu fortune metienda virtus hominum sed ex animi dotibus qualitate strip your great ones of all their titles of honour their noble Parentage their rich and royal Vestments their Troops
sunt c. If death bee evil to any man it is mans fault not deaths fault It is a peece of folly to fear what cannot bee avoided Nihil facit mortem malam nisi quod sequitur mortem nor evaded by any Prince or Peasant Good education may free you from absurdities grace may free you from Hell neither can exempt from the arrest of death Certainly there is not so much reason for you who have part in God peace with God and well-grounded hopes of fruition of God to tremble as Lewis the eleventh of France did at the naming of Death Death will do that for you in a moment which all the Ordinances of God the graces of his Spirit yet never did It will set you free from sin sufferings and sorrow At the death of your bodies you shall bee fully delivered from this body of death Why should men disgust their own felicity and cherish an antipathy against that which so much conduceth to their eternal blisse It was more difficult to perswade some of the Heathens to live out their daies than it is to perswade thousands of us Christians to die Were Death so great an evil as is imagined Vide Ambros de bono mortis cap. 2. 8 Ambrose amongst the Fathers had not writ so much de bono mortis nor Plotinus and Seneca amongst the Philosophers Take but the pomps of death away saith one the disguises and solemn bug-bears the Tinsel Plotin Ennead lib. 7. c. 3. per totum and the actings by Torch or Candle-light and then to die is easy and quitted from its troublesome circumstances The troublesomenesse of it is owing to our fears Enchir. cap. 10 as Epictetus speaks truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Methodius mortem piorum definit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death cures us of all our maladies determins all our miseries Good men gain this by it that their calamities are not eternal Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death yea the dust of a Saint Christ hath taken away the death that was in death whatsoever is an evil of punishment though not death from the Saints It is now but a sleeping in Jesus a putting off of the old raggs of frailty and mortality that they may bee decked with garlands and stoles of glory For Consolation Use 1 1 Though Princes and Great men fall and die yet solace your selves in this Their souls are immortal it is the body only that 's laid in the dust The Romans when their Emperours and great ones died and their bodies were burned they caused an Eagle to mount on high thereby to signifie the souls immortality and ascent Socrates told Chiton asking him how hee would bee interred or what should bee done with him when dead Vide Heinsium de contemptu mortis lib. 2 I think saith Socrates I shall escape from you and that you cannot catch mee so much as you feize and lay hold on use it as you see cause I could never yet bee moulded into their opinions who maintained the traduction Est in Sentent lib. 2. Dist 17. Parag. 11. ad 17. the propagation of the soul and consequently the mortality of it Aquinas and Gerson both call them Hereticks who deny the creation of it meethinks it is absolutely impossible for any simple and uncompounded viz. essentially nature to bee subject to death and corruption Non excluditur omnis compositio solius dei proprium est esse perfecte absolute simplex Contarenas argues thus to omit all others Nihil potest perdere esse quod non perdit actum per quem est Istae autem formae simplices non possunt perdere actum per quem sunt quia sibi ipsis sunt actus nihil autem potest seipsum perdere Ergo Cont. de immort animae lib. 1. Et Plotin Ennead lib. 7 per totum The Scripture also is clear in my opinion for its immortality Phil. 1.23 Matth. 10.28 Eccles 12.7 the Heathens had some glympses of its immortality as Plato Tully and most or all of their Philosophers In a word as Cato Major said so I If I do erre in this I erre willingly neither will I ever suffer this errour in which I delight to bee wrested from mee as long as I live 2 Again Solace and comfort your selves in this also Though Princes and great men fall yet they shall rise again If a man die saith Job shall hee live again yea as sure as death hee shall live again There is a double certainty of the resurrection of their bodies 1 Certitudo infallibilitatis ratione divinae praedictionis there is a certainty of infallability in respect of divine prediction Heaven and Earth shall passe away before one of his words fall to the ground 2 Certitudo immutabilitatis ratione divinae praedeterminationis a certainty of immutability in respect of Gods decree and eternal purpose and his counsel shall stand This staid up the drooping spirit of holy Job See his Creed Job 19.25,26 I know my Redeemer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Kinseman liveth and that hee shall stand at the last day upon the Earth and though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another How confident is this holy man of his resurrection in the same individual body It is disputed in the Schools Resurrectionem Philosophis notam ex Hebraeorum doctrina affirmant non-nulli whether the resurrection of the body bee quid cognoscibile lumine natura It is said Theopompus Zoroastres and Plato whom none of the Ancient Gentiles contradicted taught the resurrection of the body and Plato thought that after the revolution of some years hee should live again and teach his scholars in the same chair hee sate then in but resurrectio mortuorum est fides Christianorum as Augustin Tertullian and others more solidly Vide Aug. in Psal 101. Et D. Chytr de fine mundi Res Mort. ubi fufius Propria Ecclesiae dei sapientia est praedictio de fine mundi resurrectione mortuorum c. Those Eagle ey'd Philosophers mocked at the Doctrin of the Resurrection Act. 17.32 divine mysteries are above humane reason's shallow capacitie from that principle of nature and axiome amongst Philosophers A privatione ad habitum non datur regressus they argued against this fundamental truth but know it to your comfort that you and yours too shall rise again this Prince and Great man shall return from his grave again not by the power of nature nor by the help of the Creature but by the power of the Creator As for mee saith David I will behold his face in Righteousnesse I shall bee satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse it is meant of the awakening of his body from the sleep of death in the day of the resurrection Psal 17.15 the Jews call the grave Beth Chaiim the house
of the living as they return from funerals it is said they pluck up the grass and cast it into the air repeating those words of the Psalmist They shall flourish and put forth as the grasse of the Earth Amongst the Romans it is said it was an usual saying of a dead friend abiit reversurus est Hee is gone but will come again Beloved Aug. Ep. 6. Melch. Ad. in Luth. p. 154 This Great man shall rise again comfort your selves in this you shall see him again and know and love him better than ever As Augustin spoke to the Lady Italica and Luther at his last supper Thirdly To conclude this The Lord hath a special care of your dead relations Keeps their very bones Psal 34.20 Hee leaves not his in the dust Rizpah watched over the bodies of the sons of Saul and guarded them against the fowles of the air 2 Sam. 21.10 but the Lord hath greater care of his children living dying and dead Observ 2. It is every mans duty to take notice of and to lay to heart the death of great men especially if they bee good men Know yee not How was Sauls death lamented Saul P. Mart. 2 Sam. 1.19 Sq. for whose salvation wee have nothing to say Nullum uspiam extat vestigium verae paenitentiae yet David and all with him rent their cloaths and wept hearing of his and Jonathans death The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places how are the mighty fallen Jonathan was a chief Patient in this woful tragedy but not the only subject of this doleful elegy Vide Perer. de laude Mosis Moses was a gallant man an excellent Philosopher more ancient than Socrates or Trismegist A notable Poet the Pen-man of eleven Psalms as Hierom thinks from the eighty eight to the hundreth though De Dieu saith some think Adam penned and sang the ninety second the morning after his creation how was Moses his death lamented in the Plains of Moab Vide Lud. de Dieu in Psal 92 Deut. 34,8 was not a book of Lamentation writ upon the occasion of Josiahs Death It is thought that that sad Poem or doleful ditty which Nazianzen could never read without tears lamentation was composed by the Prophet Jeremiah Orat. 12. mihi pag. 202 upon the fall of that most incomparable and unparalleld Prince whereof mention is made in the sacred Annales Jeremiah lamented for Josiah and all the singing men and singing women speak of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day and made them an Ordinance in Israel c. 2 Chron. 35.25 During the Captivity sundry Fasts were observed on set daies and on sad occasions The Fast of the fourth month the Fast of the fifth Zechar. 8.9 the Fast of the seventh and of the tenth Gedaliah the Protectour of the remnant of the Jews after their King was carried away captive was slain on the seventh month therefore they fasted and mourned Wee may write down this day this very day and mourn for the Death and Fall of this Prince and Great man the children yet unborn may also observe it when wee shall bee laid in dust Notable to this in hand is that of King Joash 2 King 13.14 Mark his pathetical exclamation and his plausible acclamation O my Father My Father the Chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof observe what lamentation hee makes though a wicked King And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him the Syriack reads it Act. 8.2 Gibre Mehemene Faithful men carried Stephen to his bed they wept for him bitterly or vehemently The Priests and sometimes Prophets too were not allowed upon special considerations in the Old Testament to mourn Ezek. 24.16 Thou shalt not weep nor mourn nor shall thy tears run down make no mourning for the dead forbear to cry c. but if wee bound our sorrows within the precinct of that Apostolical precept not mourning as men without hope Junius Brutus Valerius Poplicola Augustus c. viri optime de Rep. meriti annuo luctu fuerunt defleti wee may bee afflicted wee ought to weep and mourn our laughter should bee turned into mourning and our joy into heaviness Christ himself wept over dead Lazarus wee may over this Prince and Great man who was so useful an instrument both to Church and State grandis in eum est pietas as Jerom speaks of another Quae ratio Why are wee to take notice of and to lay to heart the Falls of Princes and Great men First Because when such men are taken away by death then Judgements hasten and post on apace Their dissolution is an evident demonstration of the Lords indignation upon the death of Crassus such miseries befel the Roman State saith the Oratour that life was not so much taken from him as a punishment as death bestowed on him as a reward In 2 Chron. 34.24 I will bring evil upon this place saith the Lord who owns all paenal evils and upon the Inhabitants thereof even all the curses that are written in this book why so see verse 25. Because they have forsaken mee and have burned incense unto other Gods Psal 39.11 Jer. 25.6 Lam. 3.39 Sin is the foundation of punishment God doth not punish nor afflict ordinarily but in case of sin Read on But as for Josiah the King of Judah say you unto him because thy heart was tender and thou didst humble thy self before God when thou heardest his words against this place and against the Inhabitants thereof and humblest thy self before mee Behold I will gather Thee to thy Fathers thou shalt bee gathered to thy grave in peace neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the Inhabitants thereof The Philosopher speaking of the Stars hath this passage when they shoot it is a sign of high winds following When zealous Magistrates Chytr de morte p. 75 and faithful Ministers shoot and slide into the earth such as survive may sadly conclude They are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57.1 Methusalem that great and godly Patriarch died Eo anno quo caepit diluvium Cartw. Electa Targumico-rabbinica in Gen. 5. 25 7. 4 Vide Philon. â— lib. 2. de Vita Mosis Senec. lib. 3. Qu. Nat cap. 27. Sq. Perer. in Gen. p. 338 the very year the flood came I know some have asserted that hee lived fourteen years after it and others say hee died seven daies before it His very name signified a messenger of death his death presaged that fearful Inundation the causes whereof I shall not now so muâ—h as hint at Augustin that great Ornament and Muniment of Hippo was taken away by death immediately before the barbarous Goths and Vandals sacked that City in which hee lived Ambrose his death was afore-runner of Italies ruine as Chytraeus reports and Luthers death according to his prediction was a fore-runner of
the German wars Vide Luth. in Isa 57.1 I can do nothing saith God till thou bee come thither Gen. 19.22 non posse se dixit quod sine dubio poterat per potentiam non poterat per justitiam saith one of the Ancients Aug. Sence Non posse praetenditur non velle in causa est No sooner was Lot in Zoar but the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodome Such stand in the gap to turn away the Lords wrath but when they are removed what remains to stop the current of divine vengeance when the precious fruits of the earth are gathered into the barn the hedges are broken down the beasts over-run all When the Jewels are taken out of the Trunk the courser things are thrown over-board when Noah is housed in the Ark his Pella the fountains of the deep are broken open Woe is mee saith the Prophet Micah The Good man the Great man is perished out of the Earth Psal 12.1 De contemptu mortis and David cries and praies Help Lord as if the Heavens had been falling on him Heinsius reports that the Sun with-drew its shine and was eclypsed when Joseph Scaliger dyed Darkness seizeth upon us in these parts wee have had many of quality lately taken from us it is well if the Lords wrath bee not comming upon us Secondly Because when they fall the persons with whom they conversed Jer. 48.25 Zech. 10.4 the places in which they lived are exceedingly weakened As in the Text And I am this day weak And are not wee this day weak Behold the Family is it not a weak Family a disconsolate Widdow tender sickly children A weak Town hee was under the most high our strength and munition our defence and protection Should wee unite our hearts and hands our power and policy Alas what can wee do Our strength is weaknesse our wisdome foolishnesse As Jehosaphat said so wee say O Lord wee know not what to do but our eyes are towards thee In uno Caesare multi insunt Marii There are many men in one Great man One Josiah in a Kingdome one Lot in a City one Paul in a Ship is of more value and vertue than many thousands Labans family fared the better for Jacobs sake Pharaohs Court and Kingdome fared better for Josephs sake and hath not this Town these parts of the Country fared much better for this great mans sake Every great man if hee bee a good man is a great blessing and strengthening to the place in which hee lives a blessing by his presence a blessing by his prayers a blessing by his example which is as a Looking-glasse for others to dress themselves by a blessing by his counsels The death of faithful Ministers weakens wonderfully the weapons of their warfare are mighty with God 2 King 2.12 and mighty through God The death of zealous Magistrates weakens infinitely but I must not expatiate See that notable Text Judges 18 7. when there was no Magistrate in Laish â—…n increased and ruine approached Thirdly Because when such fall sin commonly increaseth exceedingly Not only the Laws but the lives of great men it truly godly give a shrewd check to daring impieties and prophanesse many whose hands only were chained but their hearts not changed may break our and fall off returning with the dog to his vomit and the Sow to wallow in the mire again It is not unknown to hundreds of us within these walls that this great mans countenance had special influence upon all the vile wretches that came nigh unto him Hee could do very much with a look I could not in that compare him to any other but Luther De vita Lutheri p. 168 Melchior Adams reports of him that hee had such a Leonine aspect ut oculorum suorum intentionem rectâ aspiciendo non omnes ferre possunt How was the prophanation of the Lords day prevented Travellers according to Law punished drunkennesse subdued c. Tremble godly souls to think how the eye of Gods glory is like to bee provoked let rivers of waters run down your eyes Is there not matter of lamentation when the winds are rising the Sea swelling the Heavens lowring and the enemy approaching to behold the souldiers gasping the Pilots and Steers-men dead upon the deck How shall the little flock bee kept out of the jaws and paws of the wild boar and Beasts of prey O pray Lord remember thy Lilly amongst the Thorns thy Lambs amongst the Wolves thy love amongst the daughters The Saints are as speckled birds Jer. 12.9 Jerem. 12.9 All about them are enemies to them Fourthly Because otherwise they cannot make a right use and improvement of their death and dissolution It is the Lords will that wee should make a right good use of his rod upon others and of the fall of others Quest What use should wee that survive now make of this Princes dissolution Answer A threefold Use An Honourable Use An Charitable Use An Profitable Use An Honourable Vse in relation to God acknowledging his power and supremacy his soveraignty and authority over man to kill or make alive to deliver from death or to death A Charitable Vse in relation to them who are afflicted or taken away by death not concluding them the greatest sinners because they are the greatest sufferers or that it is for some notorious impiety that they are cut off in the midst of their daies Their death may bee in mercy to them in judgement to us A Profitable Vse in reference unto our selves wee should learn thence to walk humbly to put our hearts in order to see what the bitter fruit of sin is c. Though the occasion of our comming together this evening bee very sad yet the opportunity is sweet if wee can learn rightly to improve this great mans fall I remember Plotinus hath this passage Men should so live and so die that others might learn some good from them both living and dying Anatomists and Physitians advantage themselves by dissecting dead bodies and prying into the inward parts wee may spiritually profit our selves by a serious consideration and observation of his dispensations in the Fall of Princes and Great men Fifthly Not to take notice of not to lay to heart the death of such men is a God-provoking sin a fruit of sin and the cause of many horrid iniquities and grievous transgressions This inconsideratenesse is that which the Prophet checked and much lamented Isa 57.1 None considereth that they are taken away from the evil to come none pondered it in their hearts they did not search into it what should bee the minde and end of God in it God laies it to mens charge that they lay not those things unto their hearts as if personal mortality were not sometimes a presage of publick misery This is a direct violation of a divine injunction Eccles 7.3 The living shall lay it upon their hearts Is not the hand of God in this sad
of Sicely as hee lay upon his death bed Alas your lives like shuttle-cocks are kept up a while twixt two Battle-doors at last they fall to the earth for all your skill Let not this dis-spirit or dis-animate you but excite and quicken you to fall on with double diligence to dispatch the work cut out for you by your Lord and Master It is a great truth which Seneca writing to Paulinus hints at It is the complaint of all mortals saith hee and that because of natures malignity that gives to man so short a life but the truth is satis longa est vita in maximarum rerum consummationem large data est De brevitate vitae cap. 2 si tota bene collocaretur and vita si scias uti longa est non accepimus brevem vitam sed fecimus O squander not away your Haleyon seasons your golden opportunities as if you were not to bee responsible for time what rich and rare opportunities have you of doing good if the Lord gave you inlarged hearts The Persian King had one about him whose office it was to minde him every morning of his charge Arise O King and have an eye to those affairs for which the great God hath made you King and dispatch them Work O work out your salvation with fear and trembling with much accuratenesse and carefulness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Hom. 8. in cap. 2. ad Phil. Seek yee the Lord while hee may bee found Now you have tenders and offers of Christ and grace If you neglect the day of grace Know it may expire before your lives expire it cannot possibly last longer then you may weep with Esau and not bee pittied and pray with Dives and not bee heard It was Chrysostomes wish Tom 3. de praem Sanctorum mihi p. 830. that while men are supping and dyning eating and drinking washing and playing mention were made of Hell and Death and Judgement this would awaken idle wretches this would rouse and raise them Let no day pass without a line Know God will bring you to death and to the house appointed for all the living thence you cannot return to dispatch undone work to amend or reform your selves nor to advise and councel others Fourthly Learn hence to put your hearts and houses too in order Though Princes and Great men yet you must fall Distraction and confusion follows when persons die and have not put their houses and estates in order but infinite and unspeakable is the Terrour confusion and horrour which seizeth upon the soul at death which was not prepared for Heaven and glory Logicians that regard not their premises infer wild conclusions so Christians too Lord teach mee to know mine end and the measure of my dayes what it is was the Prayer of a Prince and great man exactly calculated for our Meridian The measure of my Daies not the measure of my months or years No No The life of man is not measured by the Yard of years nor by the Ell of Months but by the Inch of dayes This is a main end of your lives to make a good end of your lives which can never bee without preparation for it Unhappy man whose life is like the lake of which Plutarch speaks which runs pure in the morning but muddy in the evening sweet at first bitter at last If we prepare to dye before wee come to dye then when wee come to dye surely wee shall not dye Let not that deceiving and soul-destroying hope of living long make you secure and carelesse of living well I have read of one who deferring repentance till his old age and then going about it heard a voice from Heaven saying Des illi furfurem cui dedisti farinam It is your wisdome now to learn this Art of dying well this saith Bellarmin truly is the Art of Arts Ep. 82. in it all are comprized Mors interea est quae facile negligi non possunt said Seneca I shall close this with that of Augustin Quid in hac terra certum est nisi mors Considerate omnia omnino quid hic certum est nisi mors Speras pecuniam incertum est an proveniat Speras uxorem incertum est an accipias vel qualem accipias Ena◠ration in Psal 39. pauper es incertum est an ditescas imbecilis es incertum est an convalescas Natus es Certum est morieris or that of Bartholdus Omnes res hominis in dubium vocantur Barthold lib. 2. de morte p. 201 concipitur homo an nasciturus oportet ut responde as forte sic Forte non is a child conceived shall it bee born into the world it is answered perhaps it may Now it is born shall it come to manhood or dye in infancy perhaps it may Shall hee be famous in his Country a grave Senatour a great Scholar perhaps hee may But shall hee dye sic sic sic morietur nullum hic forte nullum hic dubium reperitur There is no peradventure to bee used here It is certain hee shall dye O then prepare for it Never did any repent themselves when they came to dye that they began so early to seek God to serve fear or love God or to prepare for death thousands have repented that they began no sooner Augustin did so sero te cognovi lumen verum sero te cognovi Solileq cap. 33 Job never cursed the day of his new birth that proverb was hatched in Hell a young Saint an old Devil if thou beest a young Devil thou wilt in time become an old Beelzebub O remember your Creatour in the dayes of your youth I speak chiefly unto the young gallants In diebus electionum tuarum Pagnin renders it so In the day of your chusings your younger daies are your golden daies your choice and chusing daies Quo semel 〈◊〉 c. You read of a young man Matth. 19.16.20 It is said Christ began to love him why or for what hee was but a young man and a great man Vide Herodian lib. 1. p. 5 hee was now in his youth inquisitive after the salvation of his precious soul and eternal life O it is a lovely thing in young gentlemen in any to minde the one thing necessary in their juvenility The Devil is very hardly cast out of such whom hee hath possessed in their youth Mark 9.20 But I proceed Fifthly Bee much in the praemeditation of your frailty mortality and dissolution It was Seneca's complaint of some in his time tanquam semper victuri vivitis De brev vitae cap. 4 nunquam vobis fragilitas vestra succurrit c. Moses is to ascend then hee should die would you so die that your souls may ascend then meditate much on death It is a strange saying in Lipsius Lips de Constantia lib. 2. cap. 25 the names of all good Princes may easily bee ingraven or written in a small ring A serious meditation of Death
if any thing would work in you an holy fear of offending God in any thing an holy care to please God in every thing Hee is a sinner in grain that will sin and look death in the face It was saith one a wild meditation of one but proved well in the conclusion Suppose said hee I should thus say with my self I le drink and bee drunk I le swear and roar I le cheat and do what I list and what then I le quarrel and kill and care for no man and what then Ah! Could I say I le go to Heaven then and bee saved too Vide Carthus de 4. Nov. I le have bliss and happiness after all this This were something but then I must die I must come to Judgement and hold up my hand at the bar of Gods Tribunal and afterwards pay dear for all my short and momentany pleasures such a meditation by the blessing of God might in the conclusion free you from confusion The Text is Apocryphal but the Truth is Canonical Remember thy latter end and thou shalt never do amiss Let every Tombe bee your Teacher and every Monument your Monitour Let not the thoughts of your latter end bee put off to the latter end of your thoughts Thus Jerusalem sinned for this shee suffered Nauta nec in frontispicio nec in medio sed in fine navim dirigit Barthold Lam. 1.9 They who guide or steer the ship stand in the hinder part of it They who would order their conversation aright should think of the up-shot and heel of it viz. Death I remember Jerome reports of Plato hee left that famous City of Athens and chose to live in a little ancient village almost overturned with Tempests and Earthquakes Hieronym contra Jovinian lib. 2 that by being often minded therein of his approaching dissolution hee might get more power over his strong lusts and learn to live more vertuously When you sit down at your boards think on death let the creatures provided for you which even now were living but now dead put you in minde that you shall dye anon Ante senectutem curavi bene vivere in Senectute bene mori Senec. though now alive This will not hasten but sweeten your dissolution This may procure an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an easier nay it will procure an happier passage and egresse out of this world Augustin dictates and pens his Enarrations on the 39. Psalm at St. Cyprians Table in Carthage and it is an excellent Psalm For Items of our Mortality and Vanity I shall not stay to tell you how Severus the Emperour caused a Marble Urne to bee set at the gates of his Palace Quod saepe fieri non potest fiat diu Senec to remember him of his mortality nor of Philips boy with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on certain daies and at certain times there was one appointed to salute Ferdinandus Caesar a Roman Emperour with a vive memor lethi Ferdinande When Pausanias asked Simonides to deliver some grave Apophthegm by which he might apprehend his great wisdome for which hee was so famed and renowned Simonides smiling at him Esse te hominem ne exciderit tibi delivered this do not forget thy self to bee a man Pausanius puffs at this but suddenly after being almost pined to death with famine begun to think of Simonides his saying and cryes out Haec vita est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schola mortis O Cee hospes magnum quiddam erat oratio tua sed prae amentia esse nihil opinabar Death is like a Dial on which Sun never shines few look on that or this as if it were not best of all to bee with Christ who is all in all I could tell you of Philostrates who lived seven years in his Tombe before hee dyed that his bones might bee the better acquainted with the grave at his dissolution Dye daily and you shall not die eternally Sixthly Bee contented with what the Lord shall bestow on you It is better to bee poor by Gods appointment than to bee rich by the Devils advancement or cut out for you In the grave it is all one who hath had all and who had none you may make a good use of that expression of a vile wretch Behold I dye and what good will my birth-right do mee Were you Masters of all the Indian Mines and the gold of Ophir it could nothing advantage or avail you in the day of Gods wrath nor in the hour of your death What folly is it to lay up goods for many years when wee cannot lay up one day for the injoyment of our goods Christ who never mis-called any calls him fool who talked of enlarging his barns and building more when the building within was crazy and about to bee demolished Worthy Gentlemen Do not minde this earth as if there were no Heaven nor these things below as if they were more durable and profitable than those good things which God hath laid up for them that fear him Miser est emnis animus vinctus amicitia rerum mortalium Wee may seek the things below but in the least place and in the last place not more nor before the things of Jesus Christ Had you as much of the world in your hands as you could desire in your hearts one dram or grain of grace will afford you more comfort when you come to dye Aug Confes lib. 4 cap. 6 It is true wee may not trust in the strength of our graces nor rest on the worth of our graces for acceptance with God yet grace gotten in life will afford comfort at death when riches cannot Had you all the world never was any man so rich as to have all things and where is one so poor as hath nothing yet had you all the world Know this God that gives it to you can with-hold the comfort of it from you hee can suspend the vertue of the creatures and make that to bee a drie breast a barren womb to you which is full to others if hee lay his restraint upon the fire it shall not warm you on your food it shall not refresh you on your treasures they shall not enrich you Creatures beleeve it are better or worser to us according to the nature and vertue of Gods Warrant and Commission to them Had you the whole universe at your dispose if the Lord let one drop of his wrath fall or set the guilt of sin upon the conscience what good will the whole world do you I remember a speech of Augustins up on that speech of Dives desiring Abraham to let Lazarus give him a drop of water Tanta est duâ—cedo coelestis gaudii ut si una gutâ—ula deflueret in infernum Aug. totam amaritudinem inferni absorberet If one drop of Heavens joyes should be let fall into Hell it would swallow up all the bitterness and misery that is in Hell should one drop