his untimly fall so cancelled the divine character His fall and misery whence all the faculties of our soul are corrupted continually prone to sin This now is the law of our members and the wages thereof is death O the hard condition of a man that before he can offend even from the womb he is necessitated to it Heraclitus therefore still wept in the consideration of our humane misery and Plinie accounted him most happy which should die unborn or being born should die Usually the new born babe that is a Male cryeth A and the Female E. Dicentes E vel A quotquot nascuntur ab Evah And what means Evah but Heu Ha both are interjections of sorrow expressing the greatnesse of their calamity There was some reason then for that custom amongst the Scythians who still wept at the birth of their children and did feast it out at the death of their parents because that then they were delivered out of all their troubles O how full of anxiety are mindes of mortal men cares and crosses still set upon them they are encompassed with afflictions on every side Experto crede Magistro Job 19. Job spake it by experience in his nineteenth Chapter If I am ungodly then woe is me and if just I cannot lift up my head being fill'd with misery And from this no estate condition nor age is free all is vanity and vexation of spirit Our infancie is full of folly youth of disorder and toil elder years of infirmity each time hath its burthen and that which may justly work our weariness Art thou poor O man why then thou shalt be opprest with need hunger nakedness and with cold But art thou rich why hereby then thine abundance will prove to be thine overthrow this gives thee reins to run after thy impious lust and to rush upon all unlawfull Acts. Again art thou a servant why then either thy mind is terrified with threats or thy body afflicted with many stripes Or art thou a Master and hast others at command why then if thou art cruel fear will possess thee of rebellious servants and if kinde and affable they will soon neglect thee and wax insolent Either thy rigour will draw hatred on thy head or familiarity contempt So that there is no estate on earth can make a man compleatly happy Yea who ever lived one day in perfect joy wherein either the guilt of conscience the violence of wrath or the motions of concupiscence did not trouble him wherein neither the spite of envie the love of avarice or swelling pride did not touch him and wherein neither loss offence or passion did not move him Yea that very time the night which is granted us for our rest and quiet is not granted to be quiet for dreams do terrifie and visions do molest us and although those things are not truly terrible and sorrowfull which Dreamers dream yet they are truly terrified and are sorrowful insomuch that sometimes sleeping they do weep and waking are much disturb'd Yet above and besides all this there are divers sicknesses whereunto our nature is continually incident All the industry of Physitians have not hitherto found out so many names for diseases as our humane frailty do dayly suffer Suffer did I say unsufferablenesse of diseases or unsufferable did I say sufferance The sence will be best if we take both for it is unsufferable from the bitternesse of the passions and sufferable for the necessitie of it JESUS therefore when he saw Mary lamenting her late diseased Brother John 11.35 was troubled in the spirit and wept John 11. perhaps not because that Lazarus was dead but rather for that being dead and at rest he was about to recall him into the misery of this present life But the Lord again will deliver both him and us out of all our troubles Job 14.5 for our time is determined and he hath appointed our bounds which we cannot pass therefore we must die Death is the wages of sin therefore we all shall die and for to die is the law of nature therefore we cannot chuse but die which sheweth you my second part The necessity of death The act in mans departing He yieldeth up Homo moritur Man yieldeth up Second part Eccles. 3.2 There is a time to be born and a time to die saith the Preacher but this Preacher could not tell us what year The necessitie of Death or in what time of the year this time of Death should be And that she is most to be feared in March and in Autumn is no more then a popular perswasion Every moneth every day is fitted unto death The Church yard is alwayes open and every hour may be heard the dolefull sound of the passing Bell. sooner or later we must all shake hands with impartial death Gen. 5.24 Thom. Aquin. in Haebr c. 11. It is true that Enoch is not yet dead yet saith Aquinas he must sometime die for it is an irrevocable sentence laid on sin Morte moriemini ye shall surely die or dying you shall die Motthamoth as it is in the original Gen. 2.17 Gen. 2.17 Which kinde of speech we may not call a Pleonasm or a vain Grammatical repetition and doubling of the word moriendi for in the Hebrew Dialect by this is meant Certissimè mori the certainty and necessity of death and not only this but citissimè mori the suddenness of death and not only this but violentèr mori the violence of death For as often as the Scripture makes mention of death and doubleth it there is not meant a natural death but * Philo-Judaus violent and judicial Our first parents died against nature their death being an act only of Gods Justice towards them for their disobedience The Lord made a Covenant with Adam wherein Adam tyed himself his Heirs and Executors but he forfeited his Bond and we that succeed him in his sin are lyable to the debt Death is the debt that we must all pay though never so unwilling as the word moriendum sheweth it would be bootless to resist Do we not receive our life but upon condition why then should we grieve to pay it at the first asking A wise man will make a vertue of necessity and when his soul that was lent him is required he will be thankfull unto God for its use and is very ready to render it to him again he yieldeth it up By death we restore but what was borrowed Homo vitae commodatus * Publius Mimus saith one non donatus est But I may well alter the case and say non homo vitae sed vita homini commodata est non donata Doth God then lend us one another and do we grudge when he calls for his own So have I seen ill Debters that borrow with prayers keep with thanks and repay with enmity We much mistake our Tenure and account that for gift which God intends for loan We are no
more then Tenants at will yet think our selves to be owners If this condition were proper only to our selves and Climate how unhappy should we seem to be But behold no place is secure from death Zacharie shall meet her though it be between the Temple and the Altar Men had a Sanctuary to flie unto of old yet there did Priamus there did Joab die and when is a man more sure then sitting yet Eli fell down backward from his bench and died And do not every Prince and Monarch dance with us in the same ring But what speak I of Earth the God of Nature the Saviour of men have trod the same steps and should we think much to follow him No. Consider but a little the Emblem of impartial death Vt pingitur per Gabrielem Inchinum as * some have pictured it and we need not A Carkass it is of man that only doth consist of bones united by the nerves ears eyes and nose it hath none naked and terrible to behold brandishing a sharp fickle with both her hands Mortis Icon. as if cutting down of corn This is the Icon the image of death wherein look how many parts so many mysteries First Death is pictured without eyes as an indifferent Judg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Sine oculis she is no respecter of persons which have no fear of the mighty nor pitty on the poor no noble dignity nor resplendent shew no riches not the greatest treasure can procure her peace O you Emperours Popes and Kings Princes and the greatest Potentates your Thrones Diadems and purple robes Sceptres Crowns and Miters death casteth to the ground You that are clothed in glorious garments and adorned to pomp shall die like men Thou shalt not be safe O Caesar in the Senate House Death will as well finde an entrance to the stately Palace Horat. as the poorest Cottage Pallida mors aequo pede pulsat pauperum tabernas Regumque turres 2. Sine auribus Secondly without ears that will admit no prayers no supplications to pacifie her rage and fury O you wise and learned Doctors your eloquence your knowledge shall not now prevail she is deaf and heareth not your Reasons and Arguments of Philosophie not the pleading of the wrangling Lawyer or the sweet tongued Orator The Poet with his pleasant Jests the subtil Sophister with his fallacies shall not now deceive her She yieldeth not to the sighs of the afflicted nor their tears Finally the prayers of the humble the vain smooth speeches of Flatterers she doth not she cannot hear * Boet de consolat Philos Heu heu quam surd â miseros avertitur aure Et flentes oculos claudere saeva negat Next Death is said to have no nose 3. Sine naribus as not to be deceived by any delightful smell O you wanton and lascivious Girls your fragrant odours will now be nothing worth the apparel that is all perfumed and your sweetest powders 2 Reg. 9.30 Death will esteem as dust Jezabel no sooner looks through the Window with her painted face but it is torn in pieces by the ravenous Dogs To what purpose then are all these kindes of savours so many strange distilled waters your Musk Perfumes and Ambers Death also is represented naked 4. Nuda to shew the small regard she hath of Coin rewards and Earths abundance O you rich and wealthy men whose hope is placed in your large possessions think not when your Barns are full to be freed from death Thou fool if this night thy soul be required Luke 12.20 then whose are these Again Death is fained to have no flesh no blood nor skin 5. Sine carne no esteem of tender Age of strength nor of complexion Ipsa rapuit Juvenes primâ florente juventa Lastly Death doth shake her Sithe 6. Vibrans falcem to declare how she cuts down men like corn the good together with the chaff all shall down that which is ripe for the coelestial Garner and the green as straw to be burnt in eternal fire Luke 16. When Lazarus is conveighed into Abrahams bosom the rich Glutton shall be cast into the pit of Hell So thus Beloved by this Mortïs imago Deaths image you may well conceive how that all assuredly shall die There is a necessity it cannot be avoided why then are we unwilling for to die Morieris thou shalt die why it were foolishness to fear what I cannot shun I shall not be the first nor last many have gone before all shall follow Morieris thou shalt die Why it is our humane nature not a punishment I had a beginning and must therefore end Morieris thou shalt die Why it is no news I am sworn to it and should I then repent to this purpose I came into the world and every day am walking to the Grave Morieris thou shalt die Good God! what can be better unto mortal man if Heaven be our countrey earth is but a place of Banishment Morieris thou shalt die This is Jus Gentium to pay the Creditor what we have received why then should a man repine he knoweth this Coin not to be his own that his Soul is only lent him and he yieldeth up the Ghost which is the depositum the Act of this Subject and now comes next to be handled Homo moritur Man yieldeth up the Ghost Third part GHOST That divine Essence the Soul of man is in Scripture sometimes called a Spirit and sometimes a Ghost Stephen when he was stoned Acts 7.59 John 19.30 cryed out Lord receive my Spirit Acts 7. JESUS bowed and gave up the Ghost John 19. But there hath been great contention amongst Philosophers what this Soul this Ghost should be Thales Milesius the Athenian who lived in Kings Ahabs dayes was the first that ever would undertake to define it Of the Souls Essence and that was thus The Soul is a nature alwayes moving it self Pythagoras did make it no more then a number and Plato A moving substance that went by Harmony But Aristotle comes neerer to the purpose Aristotle lib. 2. de anim cap. 1. text 6. and calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a continual Act of a natural of an instrumental Body that may have life But indeed we may more truly say what the Soul is not then what it is the greatest perfection we describe by Negatives She cannot proceed from the matter from the figure or qualities of the Body neither from the Harmony Conjunction and Agreement of the same this the soul is not The vital and animal spirits are only the Instruments of the soul and not the soul it self if otherwise she were not immortal but would perish together with the Body Now the soul can be without the body and vital spirits though the bodie and vital spirits cannot be without the soul without her the bodie moveth not all She in a moment by the cogitations
passeth through the whole Heavens encompasseth the Earth and Seas this is invisible and cannot be perceived by sense For the operations of her Essence she hath Spirit Will and Judgement Sense Understanding Reason and for her Beauty Temperance Justice and other Vertues of the Minde in fine she is so divine that she can hardly be comprehended by Reason much less then be perceived by sense God hath given us a soul more to use it then to know it He only knows it perfectly that is above it we now know it only by the effects but shall come to a cleerer revelation in the eternal Heavens Neither do the Philosophers wrangle more concerning the Essence of our souls then they differ about the parts thereof Of the parts of the Soul Most and the latest writers would have them to be four Understanding Reason Anger and Desire but yet the best received opinion will allow no more then two under which they comprize the rest The one is spiritual intellectual and therein you have the discourse of Reason the other sensual brutish which is the Will wandering of it self disordered wherein all evil desires have their dwelling However the soul that is immortal cannot properly be said to be divided because what is divided dissolveth and what is dissolved perisheth yet it may be said to be compounded and made subject during the union with the body to these two principal parts the Will and Understanding The causes of Death The soul indeed may be said to be divided but in another sense to be separated from the body which may happen even in the best complexions Wherein Life consisteth if there be any excesse or defect in the Humors then it causeth Death in the Radical Humor I mean which is the root of Life for as the heat consumeth this Humidity so doth the party languish he dieth just like the flame which lesseneth her light and vigour as the oil wasteth in the Lamp till it be extinguished Again the life of man consisteth in his breath which is no more then winde or Air that refresh the Heart which if retained either in the Mouth or Artery the man is surely dead What then is death but the taking down of these sticks whereof this earthly Tent is built But the separation of two great Friends until they meet again but the Goal-delivery of a long Prisoner that rejoyces to be at liberty The sleep of the Body and the awaking of the Soul which hastneth to be gone flyeth away and where is she my last particular the Quere Man yieldeth up the Ghost and where is he Fourth part Vbi est Where is he Where the Body is Although it hath been a custom amongst some Heathenish people to burn the bodies of their dead and the more Barbarous for to eat them yet still the most civil nations had the humanity to bury the Corps of their deceased Friends for keep them we cannot because they corrupt they putrifie Their Bodies therefore are committed to the ground dust to dust and ashes to ashes as in THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER That the Bodies of the dead do return to the Earth from whence they were taken no man can deny But what is become of the soul Where the Soul there is the question Where is she Doth she vanish into nothing or wander in the Air doth she enter into beasts and so inform them is she idle and falls asleep or else doth she hasten into Purgatory or fly to Heaven There is the question Where is she Doth she vanish into nothing No. The Sadduces dare not die for fear of not being and do merrily sing with the Hogs of the Epicures Stye Ede bibe lude post mortem nulla voluptas But the Christian is assured that the soul is immortal otherwise he denyeth the hope of his resurrection and his faith is also vain he doth well know that his soul survives his body she cannot be annihilated nor vanish like a vapour why then where is she In the Air No. The spirits of the dead do not wander in the Earth nor Aia they frequent not Churchyards Sepulchers nor Tombs and what after death is seen is but the devil to deceive the people in their likeness she shall no more be beheld of men Why then where is she Doth she inform any other creature No. The transmigration of Souls was but a fable that the * Chrys hom 2. of Lazarus Egyptians had taught Pythagoras and Pythagoras the Platonists who * Herodian Lib. 2. Aug. Lib. 12. de civit Dei believed how that that in tract of time there should come a certain year wherein all causes and effects long past should return again and continue constant as for example that at Athens Plato himself who once had many Pupils there after a long appointed season 36000 thousand years the same Plato City and School should return again in which space Ptolomy the great Astronomer did conceive that the course and motion of the Sphere would be finished from West to East And in the mean time it is taught by these brutish men that when the soul doth depart the bodie she doth inform some Beast answerable to her former life that the soul of an hasty and an angry man should degenerate into a Serpent Thieves into Wolves and those that are delighted in swinish pleasure into Hogs Homer into a Peacock and Orpheus into a Swan Yea and Origen writeth * Origen lib. de proverb Solom that this Heresie of the souls departed hapned among some in his dayes that were seeming Christians occasioned by that they did not rightly understand the Scriptures as where it is said by Christ of John the Baptist He is Elias they refer that speech to the soul of John which was only meant to be in the Spirit or power of Elias to convert their souls unto God They did not know how a man doth become a Dog or an Asse Herod is a Fox it is by their resemblance in condition not that the soul doth depart into a Beast Why then where is she is she alwayes idle or asleep No. I saith the Lord am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. And if the soul departed live Matth. 22.32 she cannot be asleep nor idle for to live is to be in action and what action doth better agree unto a departed Soul then the love and contemplation of her God although Irenaeus and some others will not grant thus much before the resurrection day Whose opinion doth seem to be grounded on that in the sixth of the Apocalyps and the ninth verse Apoc. 6.9.10 where S. John saw lying under the Altar the souls of them that were slain but this is answered in the next verse That they cryed unto God and therefore were not asleep But where then doth this Altar stand when the soul is under it