effect is not As the great God who is the iudge of Life and Death hath disposed of the life of this great Duke by so fatall and mournfull Death to the end al that depend on Princes should know they be the effects of his great Iustice and that they put not their trust in Princes nor in the Psal 146. 3. Sonne of man in whom there is no helpe or else to shew that the World and all her greatnesse are but a shadow dust and a puffe of winde Now seeing we haue beene euery way sufficiently taught by Gods Word Reason and Experience by the Ancient and Prophane Poets and Philosophers that there is no sure rest or residence for vs in this World and that heere we haue no continuing Citie but liue euery day and houre in such vncertaintie that the highest healthiest holiest happiest among men cannot promise to themselues to morrow let vs esteeme of euery present day as the day of our Death and make such a conscience of all our Wayes Words and Workes as if we were presently to giue an account of our life Hee that thinketh alwayes of Dying will bee circumspect in his doing The Meditation of Death is a Christian mans Philosophie and rightly vsed may well bee termed mentis ditatio the enriching of the mind O let vs therefore as carefull Christians be continually exercised in this studie and as cheerefull and faithfull Professors bee alwayes busied in performing those righteous and religious duties which wee would doe if wee were Dying and because that Death in all places wayteth for vs let vs expect it euerie houre suspect it euerie where and be at all times prepared for it Especially at this time let the dreadfull spectacle of Death before our eyes in this my Monument be as a shrill Trumpet sounding aloud that message of Isaiah to Ezechiah in our eares that it may sinke deepe in our hearts Set thy Isa 38 1. house in order for thou must Dye and shall not liue Dispose of thy temporall affaires leaue not thy Lands intangled thy substance intested to be a cause of variance to thy posteritie make thy Will doe it in time whilest thy thoughts are free thine affections stayed and thy Reason not distracted with feare or senses disturbed with paines so shall thy Testament be testatio mentis a witnesse of thy mind Whereas on the contrarie if thou put ouer the disposing of thine estate to that troublesome time of sicknesses when thine head aketh hand shaketh thy tongue faultereth thine heart fainteth and euery part is pained it may iustly bee feared that neither thy words or writing will so expresse thy meaning but that thou shalt be easily drawne to make a Will after anothers minde rather then thine owne Death hath a thousand Diseases to kill vs by which made the Cabalist Rabbins obserue nine hundred and seuen sorts of naturall Deaths vpon this Verse of Dauid Vnto God the Lord Psal 68. 20. belong the issues of Death not counting the infinite number of violent Deaths by which a man may Dye And to speake apparantly to truth there is a greater number of Deadly Diseases and sicknesses in a man then there are Bones Veines Sinewes Muscles Arteries Tennons and all the parts of a Mans bodie Cut vp an Anatomie and consider euery particular part of mans bodie and you shall not seeke nor find one ioynt free from the darts of Death She can kill vs in the Head by an Apoplexie by a Syncope in the Eyes by blindnesse Ophthalmies and Suffusions in the Eares by deafensse and runnings in the Nose by bleeding in the Mouth by Cankers in the Tongue by Swelling and Vlcers in the Throat by Angines and Squinances in the Stomacke by rawnesse and coldnesse in the Liuer with obstructions the Spleene with hardnesse in the Belly or Bowels with the Collicke in the Kidnies with grauell in the heart with beatings or pantings in the Sides with Pleurisies in the Hands in the Feet and Toes with the Gowt Knots and Crampes To conclude our whole Bodie and Members are seized on by these ordinary Diseases and such Besides a sudden Death may seize on you you may Dye in sleeping or in sounding or fainting as we see daily infinite Examples A man may bee murthered in the field as Abell was Gen. 4. 8. a man may fall backward sitting quietly in his 1. Sam. 4. 48. Chaire and breake his necke as Ely did or Isa 37. 37. Die in the Temple as Senacherib or at the Altar as Ioab While Iobs Sonnes were feasting 1. Reg. 2. 34. the house fell vpon them While the scoffing Boyes were mocking of Gods Prophet Beares 2. Reg. 2. came from the Wildernesse and deuoured them Num. 16. 31. When Corah and his company were contending the Earth opened and swallowed them In a word all our Life is but a Consumption vnto Death sorrowes of minde and sick nesses of the bodie are but the Harbengers of the graue Search the Gospell you shall finde one blind another deafe the third lame One Lazar lying at Diues gate another at the Poole Luke 16. 24. of Bethesda a third at the beautifull gate of the Temple you shall find heere a Leper crying there a woman with an Issue of Bloud adoring Here the house vntiled by the sick of the Palsie there the Graues haunted by men possessed of Deuils We cannot saith Saint Augustine tell what to call our life whether a Dying life or a liuing Death when euery day our houses of clay doe cramble to corruption Set therefore thine house in order now that thy soule bee not wearied when thou art at Deaths doore or on thy Death-bed with secular affaires Yea set thine heart in order also and forth-with dispose of thy soule to cast vp her reckonings turne thy selfe as Ezekiah did to the Wall that is from the World to God Consider what thou hast beene examine thy selfe what thou art premeditate what thou shalt be Thinke on thy naked Natiuitie and blush for shame sigh for griefe on Deaths approching tyrannie and tremble for feare or rather that thou mayest bee freed from feare griefe and shame Weepe as Ezekiah did bewayle thy sinnes past keepe a narrow watch 2. Reg. 20 3. Psal 126. ouer thine heart for the time to come Sow in teares that thou mayst reape in ioy Lastly not to leaue so good a patterne in any point vnfollowed which no doubt was practized by this our Prince pray too as Ezekiah did though thou canst not in the same manner Lord remember how I haue walked before thee in synceritie and truth yet to the same effect for mercie as Dauid did Lord remember Psal 25. 7. not the sinnes of my youth And as Saint Ambrose Amb. in Psal 38. did Lord forgiue mee my faults heere where I haue sinned for else-where I cannot be releeued except I haue my pardon heere it is in vaine to expect the restfull comfort of forgiuenesse hereafter Now
is the acceptable time 2. Cor. 6. 2. as Saint Paul speaketh now is the day of saluation This World is for thy Repentance the other for thy recompence Hic locus luctae ille coronae Hoc cunaeorum tempus est illud coronarum as Saint Chrysostome saith This is the Chrys in Heb. c. 2. Hom 4 time and place of combatting that of crowning this of working that of rewarding this for thy patience that for thy comfort Happie and thrice happie are they which are thus religiously exercised and Christianly affected HAPPY then by the judgement of Charitie is My Gracious Lord Duke as the iudgement of certaintie the Lord of all alone knoweth his who in a comfortable Christian manner was thus resolued and in the time of his short sicknesse vnto his Death piously deuoted As King Ezekiah beeing summoned by sicknesse and the Prophets short Sermon to prepare for his Death turned presently to the wall prayed and wept so did this Prince feeling his frailtie immediately turned to the wall prayed and wept for his former sinnes But alas Herein differed that King from this Prince that God added vnto the dayes of Ezekiah fifteene yeeres but he shortned the dayes of Prince Lodouick in that same houre Then hee Dyed in his Bed without any further delay and slept in the Lord with his Fathers O Kings Princes and Great men who all your life long run after the dreames and sleepe of the World whose thoughts are wholy anchored vpon the Earth and your hopes haue no further extent then the Earth in picture of this Death behold that the vanitie of your greatnesse and ambition things so vaine and fraile as when they seeme to glister and twinkle like Diamonds they vanish from our sight and breake themselues in pieces like glasse Your spirits being touched with this Death as with an Adamant should without ceasing turne towards the firme and fixed Pole of that truth That whatsoeuer is vnder Heauen is nothing but vanitie and that the World passeth away with his pride and pompe And O yee Gentlemen and Commons come see this picture of Death knowing of wise King Salomon It is better to goe to the house of Eccles 7. 2. mourning then to go to the house of feasting For that is the end of all men and the liuing will lay it to his heart Lay it to your heart then if you be liuing and not stupid senslesse and dead in your minde Gaze not onely vpon it with your eyes as little children doe vpon their painted Booke not learning their Lesson nor to your cares onely to heare of Death nor to your tongues onely to talke of it but lay it to your hearts ruminate remember and meditate vpon Death day and night For if yee looke vpon Death onely with your eyes heare of it enquire after it and take hold of it onely with your hand and the heart be farre from it then it cannot auayle or profit you The eye without the heart is a deceiuing eye the care without the heart is vnprofitable the tongue without the heart is a flattering tongue the hand without the heart is a false hand and God will confound all the rest of the bodie without the heart Sonne giue me thy heart Consider the great God who is the iudge of life and death hath disposed of the life of this Prince by so sudden a Death to the end Great Britaine should know that this must be the end of all men and as a man Dieth in the fauour of God so without changing or recalling hee remayneth Death being to the wicked the Deuils Seriant to arrest them and carry them without baile vnto a Prison of vtter darknesse which to the godly is the Lords Gentleman Vsher to conduct them to a Palace of euerlasting happinesse yea Death being to the one as Satans Cart to carry them presently to execution in Hell which to the other is as Elias 2. Kings 2. 12. his fierie Chariot to mount them vp to Heauen Againe as Death is certaine so the forme is vncertaine wee see round figures fall otherwise then Cylinders or Triangles life ends not all after one manner the fruits of one tree fall not all at one instant some are gathered before they bee ripe others fall of themselues some are snatcht away some pulled gently and the violence of the winde and haile beateth them downe indifferently My Lord Duke as hee liued so hee Died meekely patiently like a Lambe and so soone as hee felt his paine of the head increase and more then heretofore he turned his eyes towards heauen and carried his thoughts whether his extreme griefe did conduct him Affliction makes men forget the World when they must thinke of Heauen and it is the liuerie of the seruants of God Hee prayed vnto God in his Bed beleeuing assuredly hee who is in all places where hee is called on God in the Crib God on the Crosse God in the Graue and God euery where Who heares Ieremie in the mire Daniel in the Den who makes a Palace of a Stable of a Caluary a Paradice makes of this Bed an Arke of propitition and sent his Angels thither to assist this soule and bring it vnto him Hee receiues this generous gracious gentle courteous and meeke Soule which neuer refused his grace to any one that sought it That great and vnspeakable mercy of God fortifie vs in this beleefe and the same truth which recommends mercy vnto men for that God is all mercy and will rather cease to bee God then to bee mercifull who promiseth mercy to those which shall be mercifull God it's true might haue suffered this Prince to haue Died otherwise then suddenly but his mercy had not beene so apparent in in any other kinde of Death this being the sweetest and easiest Death seeing it takes feare and apprehension from Death which is omnium terribilissimum most troublesome Hee calls these terrible and sudden Death to the absolute power of his bountie whereas man hath scarce the time to contribute a thought or a sigh And this Prince himselfe would not end his life otherwise then suddenly thinking it vnworthie of a great courage to languish betwixt a desire of life and the feare of Death and to quit for the interest of his abode sometimes the vse of a member halfe Eyes sight and all his hearing and to submit himselfe to the discretion of paine and old age It is true a sudden Death is terrible and fearefull to those that are taken vnawares but is not so to those which attend it alwaies constantly and who did watch sleepe walke and eate often with those cogitations made Christian like discourses said so often that it was not sufficient to know the graces of God but they must acknowledge them might well bee taken but he could not be surprized by Death His desire you see was not like vnto ours for wee would haue wisht to haue seene him send vp his soule quietly to
daily his soule hath a bright cleare neate wit and vnderstanding in it so hath it a blinde will and foule affections the one part of his soule is reasonable the other part altogether brutish and full of sensualitie so that Man by Reason of the Philosophers must Die. Againe what saith Nature is there a generatur there must bee a corrumpitur euery oritur must haue a moritur is there an introitus there must bee an interitus euery beginning must haue an ending Wee receiue a life of Nature to render it wee enter into a life to goe out of it There is not an intrat without an exit in this life's Tragedie a very Tragedie I say for the most part because wee are all borne crying wee crie dying wee come in with moane and goe out with a groane let life haue leaue to flaunt and braue it a while on the Stage of the world yet all but a flourish all is but a flash Death still playes Rex strikes all the Actors one after one with a mortall blow there may bee a little mirth in the middest but Death at the last strongly steps vp and grimly comes in with a terrible Epilogue and concludes all and Death makes an end so Death in the end is the end of the Play for wee must all Die God and Nature are agreed vpon the point her dutifull submission to his Imperious Must must needes make all men mortall all men Die All both good and bad are Actors on this stage of Mortalitie euery one acting a part as I haue said some of lesse some of greater dignitie and the Play being ended Exeunt omnes euery one goes off the stage and as Chesse-men without difference they are swept from the table of this World wherein one was a King another a Queene a third a Bishop or Knight into Earths bagge onely this distinction being betwixt good and bad that the good are Actors of a Comedie and howsoeuer they beginne they end merrily but the bad are Actors of a Tragedie and howsoeuer they beginne or proceed yet their end miserable their Catastrophe lamentable And to conclude this point as the tree falleth so it lieth Eccles 11. 3. On euery mans particular Death his particular iudgement attendeth either of the soules eternall blisse in heauen or euerlasting woe in hell which all the praises prayers and preaching of men Saints or Angels cannot reuerse A consideration by the miscreant Atheist much contemned by the temporizing Politician greatly neglected by the carnall Gospeller slightly regarded by the Popes pardon purchasing and pickpurse-Purgatorie beleeuing Papist corruptly entertained and by very few of the best Professors so sincerely and seriously thought on and embraced as it ought to bee For it is the great fault not onely of great men whose greatnesse maketh them too often forgetfull of goodnesse but euen of vs all high and lowe rich and poore great and small that wee neuer thinke on Death or prepare to Die till wee finde and feele wee can no longer liue Yea wee so embrace admire adore and dote vpon this glittering World and are so loath to leaue the ruinous Tabernacle of our corruptible flesh that wee are not content or willing to goe to heauen till wee see there is no remedie wee can stay no longer on earth yet Die must all Experience likewise teacheth vs we must all Die to day our Superiours to morrow our inferiours euen now our equals Die while wee are liuing Looke aboue vs belowe within without and round about vs all tell vs wee must all once Die Consider we the things that are about vs wee shall see the apparell on our backes made of the wooll of beasts that are Dead the silke wee weare wrought by worms which Died in the worke the gloues on our hands the shooes on our feet the skinnes of Sheepe or Neat who lost their liues to couer our nakednesse The meate on our tables the members of creatures that haue died to maintaine our liues But what neede haue wee of these demonstrations and resemblances to conuince vs of our Mortalitie since we haue both a continuall sight of it in others in our parents brethren kinsfolke neighbours and acquaintance which are gone the way of all flesh before vs and also a daily sense of it in our selues by the aches of our bones heauinesse of our bodies dimnesse of our eyes deafnesse of our eares trembling of our hands baldnesse of our heads graynesse of our haires that very shortly wee must follow after them Nay doe wee not consider that our eyes euery night Die to sleepe to shew vs in last wee must sleepe in Death the haire of our heads the nailes of our fingers calling so often for polling and paring tell vs that the whole body must shortly be shaued by Death Our stomacke still digesting our meate and crauing for more sheweth vs the insatiable manner of the graue that hauing eaten and digested our Ancesters gapeth for vs and when it hath deuoured vs will hunger also for our Successours The wormes take possession of vs almost as soone as wee doe of life and haue bespoken vs euen in our cradles for their fellowes that await vs on earth Thus Death is alreadie in vs and on vs wee it on our faces by wrinkles wee beare it in our browes whose furrowes are the emblemes of the Graue wee put it on our backes in our clothes and are clad in Death from top to toe wee cramme it in our mouthes with our meate wee haue it in our bones wee carrie the hansell of it in our bowels shew me where Death is not yet alas the Deuill doth dease vs the World doth so blinde vs and the sensualitie of the Flesh maketh vs so extremely senselesse that we neither heare nor see nor feele what lieth so heauie vpon vs. If wee be young wee feare not Death at our backes if sicke wee feele not Death treading on our heeles if old we looke asquint and see not Death before our eyes such is our dulnesse that neither Gods Word Reason nor Experience can teach vs We must all once die The first proofe of those three testimonies on earth should perswade al those who beleeue in God the second those who follow the light of Nature the third all sort of people Though we had neither Reason nor Experience to tell vs Wee must die yet Gods Word is sufficient to euince it though the Word of God proued it not yet Reason and Experience would force vs to beleeue it though we had neither the one nor the other of Gods Word and Reason Experience alone were enough to open all mens eyes in the World good or bad faithfull or vnfaithful wise or fooles We must all dye How euident then this Statute is you may easily obserue by these three cleere lights of the World whereof euery one of them apart or by it selfe is more then sufficient to proue this sentence We must all once die Whereof the first sheweth
vnto the vnderstanding things that are aboue Nature and begetteth faith in it the second naturall things and aboue the senses and giue vnto them knowledge the third which is Experience the Mistris of Fooles aswell as of wisemen sheweth vnto the senses things that are vnder Reason and imprint in them a feeling A man that cannot nor will not learne by these three Arguments Wee must all once die hee is a Pagan among Christians a beast among men a Dead man among the Liuing Nay the verie Heathen or Infidels themselues Pier. in hierogliph lib. 45. pag. 470. Coel. Rhod. lib. 11. c. 19. Lactant. l. 2. de diuin Instit de tribus Parcis Fusius Euseb lib. 6. de praepar Euang. acknowledge this Lesson by their Poets who painted out vnto them three Destinies or Goddesses Clothe Lachesis Atropos and haue fained tha◠at the birth of men they doe spinne the life of euerie one and limit their daies cutting off their course when they please either in the beginning or in the middest without any hope of returne Those three are called Parcae in Latine by an Antiphrasis or contrarie speech because they spare no person or else according to the opinion of Varro Aul. Gell. lib. in A. Gellius from this Latine word Partus that is to say child-birth For as Fulgentius saith in his Mythologick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth calling forth is she that bringeth the childe out of the Mothers wombe whose sudden Lachesis which is lot or hazard receiueth the child and drawes the threed of its Life as Atropos in an instant cutteth the threed of Life without Order Reason or Law which made Plato call Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inexorable or inflexible So that you see by the verie Pagan Poets our Life is but a bottome of threed which the three Destinies winde in their hands to dispose of our Life freely thus Clotho colum bajulat Lachesis trahit Atropos occat Our daies cannot bee long depending altogether of a little weake vntwisted threed tenui Ouid. pendentia filo and are still in running like a round bottome or a ball So the Heathen Authors imagine to themselues a Phantome of bare bones without skin or flesh hauing a Crowne on its head a Syth in one hand and an Houre-glasse in the other thereby to represent the Empire Power and effects of Death ouer all the Vniuerse vnder the Heauen especially ouer Kings Princes and Potentates of the World To this Crowne of Death appertaines that Hieron ad Eustoch degrading of persons whereof Saint Hierome speakes to Eustochium You know not in what time or age Croesus beganne to obey At what houre Hecuba or Darius his Mother And this Ciuill Death of seruitude is harder and more painfull then Naturall Death and it may bee applied that the Prophet Iohn saw in his Reuelation Apoc. 9. 6. And in those dayes shall men seeke Death and shall not find it and shall desire to Die and Death shall flie from them Or the Crowne is to signifie that Death Crowneth the Dead as Haniball gaue a Crowne to the bodie of Marsellus Cleomenes to Lidias Pericles to Paralas Augustus Crowned Alexanders Monuments the Vrne of Demetrius his Ashes was Crowned and when as the Emperor Adrian demanded the reason from the Philosopher Epictetus he vnderstood that those Crownes did belong to the Dead as Victors ouer Life Iob 7. 1. which is but a perpetuall Warfare Neuer Monument or Tombe deserued better to bee crowned then this of our Great and Gracious Prince Lodouick who hath crowned all the actions of his Life with immortall Crownes of glorie and reputation Though we should giue him as many as they did number in Ptolomies pompe and at Scillas Funerall or as many as Nero dedicated to Iupiter Capitolinus like vnto those which Greece presented vnto Berenice vpon Golden Chariots yet they should not equall his Merits now after his Death Deaths Sythe signifieth All flesh is grasse and Isa 40. 6. the beautie and gracet hereof is as a flowre and so soone as the Sythe moweth or cutteth downe all the grasse in the Medow it spareth none nor makes any difference or inequalitie but cuts downe all alike If any thing bee more seemely more amiable more goodly more gracious more glorious in man it is but as a flowre which though it be more faire in shew and more fragrant in smell then grasse yet as grasse withereth so the flowre fadeth Euen so the greatest power pompe authoritie estimation and most illustrious estate of man is cut downe and decayeth The Houre-glasse in Deaths left hand sheweth how much of our life is spent how that remaineth is in a continuall running and there is no stay of it How long soeuer mans Life be he hath properly but one houre which thrusts forth his last gaspe is his houre all the rest is no more his Whatsoeuer he hath done in his life is considered by this last houre the iudge of all his other houres the most difficult of mans Life He that is Author of the first and disposeth of the last doth onely know it foresees and mockes at man who thinkes hee is farre from it Before the last sand of this last houre be runne he cannot Crowne his felicitie We must praise safely after dangers Nauigation in the Port and Victorie in Triumph Who can commend his Life and hold himselfe so happy whiles that the time past ministers vnto him matter to lament and that which is to come to feare This My Lords houre was feared of all his Friends Seruants and Followers yet not expected of any Euery man did apprehend it as a change of his condition but for that they held it to be a farre off the opinion of the length of time did moderate the apprehension and the lesse it was foreseene the more fearefull hath proued Our Christian Doctrine and pure Religion terme those Fates Destinies Phantomes and Fictions of the Poets A Disposition of Diuine Prouidence concerning mans Life and Death So that neither Comfort nor Blessing Crosse nor Curse can come vnto vs but by Gods Prouidence and fore-sight not a haire of our heads can be diminished nor a cubit cannot be added vnto our stature without the Prouidence of our heauenly Father It is neither Constellation of Starres influence of the Celestiall bodies conjunctions of Planets nor any such notionall fantasie of an Astrologicall braine that can worke our weale or woe our Life or Death but it is God that seeth all and his Prouidence that disposeth Whose disposition being eternall and innumerable as being in the Spirit of God doth not impose any necessitie and in that she carrieth her effects into things that are humane and created she is temporall mutable and contingent So as man being considered as temporall he is vnder Destinie but in his principall part which is immortall he is not subiect vnlesse hee list The action of Destinie vpon the matter is necessarie the